First week home

Grandma came to visit

Great Aunt Phyllis tried to sneak a peak at Ava's eyes, but no luck

Ava's umbillical cord fell off on day 5, so here's her first real bath (a very short bath)

Daddy had to comfort her

Sound asleep with her piggy - thank you to the Dao cousins

(she is year of the pig like her second cousin Jacquilyn)

Visitors!

THANK YOU Thien for being there through it all & hauling butt to bring Jon to his baby!









My Dad arrived at about 4 am










Calvin & Tuoc either practicing or
pretending it's their baby.....











My mother is finally a Grandmother!











Caleigh - aka my Texas babysitter











Cassie - my other Texas babysitter








Another THANK YOU to Thao for always being there to capture our special moments

Jeff looks like a natural...

Jeff & Katrina preparing for their own...

Ava's favorite Great Uncle, Chris

The Birth

Since I went past my due date of January 16th, the doctor scheduled a sonogram for the 18th. I went in thinking; cool, routine check-up and I get a free extra sonogram....but after the doctor read the sono, he sent me to the delivery room immediately. They said my liquids were on the low side, so it would be better to go ahead and induce labor. I arrive at the hospital at 4:00 pm.

It's now 7pm and they are trying to induce me -

As you can see, my body is not reacting well to the induction medications, so I am on oxygen and the contractions are coming so hard and fast that the baby's heart rate is dropping in between each one.

The nurses are so sweet because they are trying to delay delivery as long as possible since Jon is literally in the air on his way from SF.


However, the resident doctor on staff decides it's too risky to let this cycle continue, so they want to do a c-section.



It's 1:00 am and they are preparing me for surgery and calling in the on-call OB. Jon is due in at 2:00 am. They begin the surgery around this time, but the baby is still pretty stubborn about coming out even now so they had to use the forceps to get her out. Ava is born at 2:28 am.

She's been out about 2 minutes, when Tuoc gets a call from Jon (he's in Irving) and he can hear Ava's cries through the phone (that's the same as being there?? No?)








Ava weighs in at 6lbs 10oz
and measures 19" in length

"O-Face"

Jon finally arrives and scrubs in
while I am still in the Operating Room.

A special Thanks to my sister, Tuoc, for being with me the entire time and taking all of the amazing pictures.