Taisei 6 months

Here is an update of pics and videos.

We had some professional photos taken at a lakeside park with the backdrop of the Chicago skyline:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/ProPics6Months#

Here are the rest of our pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/6Months#

And videos:

Soon to crawl?


Naked Taisei in a jolly mood


Taisei likes to dance whenever we take his clothes off:


You will have to take my word for it, but Taisei was loving the beat boxing before the camera went on, as he usually does.


He isn't saying anything yet, but he likes to hear the word "papa" the best.


For now, Taisei seems to like to keep his right leg straight as he practices crawling.


Very first solid foods. He doesn't like the first taste but seems to perk up after he swallows or something.


Taisei often stops laughing when he sees the camera so we tried a little hidden camera action


TICKLE ATTACK

Keiko's translated blog

Keiko has gone through her recent blog posts and translated them into English, just for our American friends and family, so please enjoy them and turn on the fun. (inside joke)

http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/

Taisei 4-5 months

I finally have finished one of the more busy months of my life and preview of next year. It's called sub-i, or sub-internship, a month where you are supposed to act like an intern while you are a 4th year medical student. I worked 95 hours my first week and worked 16 of the first 17 days. My schedule has calmed down a lot since then.

Updates on Taisei:
-He got his first teeth, the 2 on the bottom
-He can move across the room! No, not crawling. He can roll over both ways, but only one way. This means that he continuously goes one direction so he rolls around the room.
(see pics for both of these)

Pics from the last 6-8 weeks: http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/Taisei45Months?authkey=Gv1sRgCNqrtJKC3Lr5fQ#

There are 6 weeks of movies here, and I am too lazy to split them up into different posts. Highlights include:
-learning to roll over from back to front, then front to back
-starting to sit up
-Games and tickling
-Taisei's bathtub wiggle dance
-Japanese style pat-a-cake



This is a very long but hilarious video of Taisei just kicking around and laughing.


He can sit up with some support now. He's beginning to enjoy some of his older toys.


I wonder how long until he crawls.


Reading to Taisei. We do this every night.


I tried out "the claw" from Liar Liar and it worked pretty good.


Taisei likes to do a wiggle dance in the bathtub.


Taisei makes an excellent test subject of a healthy baby exam.


Keiko is excellent at making Taisei laugh:


Keiko playing with Taisei, who was in a good mood.


Taisei loves baby einstein. He'll watch a whole episode no problem.


Taisei has gotten quite ticklish (at times).


Throwing Taisei up in the air.


Blowing on Taisei's belly


Taisei loves to play with sheets. We give him a sheet or blanket in his crib and sleeps great. (we remove it once he is asleep)


This was about the first time he was able to roll over.


This was him learning to roll over from front to back.


Getting much better at rolling over now.


Taisei loves this Japanese game, kind of like pat-a-cake, "The Lost Kitten"


Taisei's first drink of water (for constipation...)

Taisei 3 months

More pics and videos. He is laughing a lot more and becoming more interactive, which is fun for Keiko and I. My postings may become more scarce now that I'm in medical school which means there will be a bit of a pileup, so here is lots of videos.

pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/Taisei3Months

Videos:
Taisei has become quite the talker. Here is 2 minutes of Taisei talking to his mom for about 10 minutes straight.


He also likes to talk when he is playing.


Taisei laughs at different things every day. (although those same things also become very uninteresting to Taisei randomly)


Keiko and I rotate reading to Taisei. One night is a Japanese book, the next is English. This video is Good Night Moon.


I thought it was Dad's job to make the kids laugh, but Keiko is much better at it.



Taisei has discovered his hands.


He loves playing (biting) with is oball.


Not quite 4 months, and already turning over... sometimes.. and he can only do it when he has no clothes on. But still, that's a lot of weight to turn over.


He is just learning peek-a-boo, but he gets so nervous when he can't see his mommy.


This is average Taisei, doing his chillaxin' thing. He is just one good baby.


If you can ignore the skinny pasty man in the background... Taisei appears to not like our apartment's pool.

Moving day has arrived

My time in Atlanta has come to and end. Our apartment is full of boxes. Sigh... we move to Chicago on Tuesday and then will move to Seattle in November. My father is kind enough to fly in and assist with the move.

Here are some pics, mainly of Taisei of the last 2 weeks or so:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/Taisei100Days#

Here are some summaries of Keiko's blog which has a bunch of pictures:

My dad mentioned Taisei's resemblance to the Pillsbury dougboy. So Keiko did a little research to who this doughboy is:

http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/entry-10561735264.html#main

We joined in on a friend's yardsale to sell some dishes, our microwave, and some other items to lighten our load for 2 moves in 5 months.

http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/entry-10569123687.html#main

Keiko's reaction to Taisei being called "round." She defends him as being round and tall :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/Taisei100Days#

We had recent ending party for my graduation. We also had a going away party at work. At both, Taisei was present and became the center of attention.

(pics on the picasa website link above)

Here are some videos. His laughing has gotten bigger.

Keiko playing with Taisei. He is getting a little heavy for her.


This baby loves to jump. He has quite a funny laugh now.


The US team's play in the world cup is inspiring a new generation of soccer players.


A little nose-to-nose contact gets Taisei talking (for the first half of the video):


This is how Taisei tells Keiko he is hungry. Too bad for him it is so cute, Keiko and I have fun just listening and watching him rather than feeding him.


You might have to turn the volume up. Sounds of Taisei sleeping:


This is how Taisei wakes up. He pulls his legs up, gains some power, and throws his legs back on the floor.


A pleasant Taisei in the car.

Happy 3-month bday Taisei

On this weekend, I had my CDC Experience fellowship graduation. My dad came down to Atlanta and joined us. Taisei and Keiko joined me at the CDC for my presentation I have at the ceremony.

Also, Taisei turned 3 months today. He's big enough for 4 or 5 months, but that is his age.

Here are the pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/CDCExperienceGraduationWeekend#

Keiko took some AMAZING videos this week. I'm sure you will enjoy.

Taisei's new laugh. He is in a great mood until he sees the camera. At that point, he seems to lose all interest. It's a common theme:


Probably my favorite video: Taisei smiles so cute whenever he looks at his dad but whenever he sees the camera he looks sooo serious. And this changes instantly depending where he looks. It goes back and forth a few times:


Playing with Taisei. He is a fun baby!


Tickling Taisei


He just started this headbutting thing


Taisei kicks around in preparation and then does his SUPERMAN pose


Starting to enjoy his toys

Taisei's favorite pose

Recently, Taisei loves to stick out one arm straight with a fist, like he is flying off like superman. Keiko took pics from all different angles, very cute.

http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/entry-10550755452.html

Taisei 2 months

The amount of pictures being taken has decreased a bit. Here are some from Taisei being about 9-11 weeks old.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/Taisei2Months#
(also on facebook)

We also have a few videos.

We believe you'll agree he is becoming cuter.

Taisei is telling me his problems. However, whenever he sees the camera he instantly gets mesmerized and becomes silent.


Caught him in a ticklish mood


Keiko LOVES these pajamas, mainly because of the little rhino feet.


Keiko likes this video... Taisei being entertained by staring at me surfing the net.

New Orleans and other recent pics/videos

I have put up our pics of our New Orleans trip. We had a lot of fun. I think New Orleans is one of the most unique cities in the US. There are plenty of family-friendly options, the food is wonderful, and there is tons of antebellum architecture all over the place.

For narrated pics, Keiko's blog is the best:
http://jklfamily.blog28.fc2.com/
Ask me and I'll send you the password if you don't have it.
I'll also add some captions to Facebook pics.

The more complete pics are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/NewOrleansWithTaiseiAndKeiko#

I will post all of our recent videos though.

A good smile:


Almost smiling:



While in New Orleans:

Enjoying the car ride:


Getting tired in the car:


Possibly my favorite. Keiko tickles Taisei and he really likes it until he sees the camera. After that it seems like he is laughing out loud out of duty while staring at the camera.


A rather noisy tummy time (2 months-old):


Just learning to put suck on his fist (getting in on camera was a little hard at first):


He got much better at it:


2-month old Taisei (with Goonies in the background)


Starting to learn to like lights


He is a professional vitamin taker.

CDC Fellow Picnic

It was the birthday of one of the my fellow CDC med students and her husband planned a picnic at Piedmont Park, a big park in downtown Atlanta.

It was Taisei's first picnic.

It's a beautiful park.

Taisei made lots of friends.

This is one of my favorites. Taisei hanging out with Tony.

Keiko saw this swinging bench and said we had to get a picture.

We had hamburgers, cake, played frisbee. Taisei seemed to be interested in dogs. Taisei did great. He managed to be quite friendly for the entire 3 hours.

Thanks Tony. That was a great picnic.

Taisei videos/pics weeks 5-7

I have updates to try and help far away family and friends feel like they know who Taisei is.

A lot of these are just catching him when he is in a good mood. Most of them have descriptions if you click on the screen to go to Youtube.

And I uploaded all my pics to picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson
Facebook has the brief version of the photos.











I hope you enjoyed these!

Videos 2-3 weeks

Here are the videos that have been uploaded to youtube:

Starting with my favorite:









And last of all, thanks for the swing, Lindsey. Works like a charm:

Taisei 2-3 Weeks

Here are a few selected picture from the Taisei 2nd and 3rd weeks of life.

I have uploaded a few videos to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/jonesjefferson

A family photo outside our apartment.

A Furushima 3 generation shot.

Taisei the bear with his Grandma.

Taisei in his swing from Lindsey.

Taisei with his dad.

And with his mom.

We got a nice smile from him. Too bad the focus was off...

But he was happy to hang out with Grandpa.

Here he is in his team Grandpa outfit.

He also loves to study and play with Dad.

Dad liked to give Taisei baths.

And then we play games but Taisei is a little too competitive for me.

I lose every time.

Grandma came to visit as well.

Taisei is all set for the future. He has his stethescope, surgical booties and cap, and is ready to save some lives!

Stresses of Fatherhood part 2

We FINALLY get released from the hospital with the instructions to follow up with our pediatrician the following day since the bilirubin (cause of jaundice) was a little high for Taisei. At the pediatricians, we are told we have to go to the ER because the bilirubin has continued to rise and is nearing a dangerous level.

What I thought would be an ER visit turned into getting admitted overnight. Then I hit the lowest point of my experience with the health care system. After being admitted so that Taisei could receive UV lamp treatment, the nurse said we should use formula during the stay and that if we really wanted to nurse she would allow 15 min every 2hours maximum. Really?! We are already having trouble starting and they want to limit breastfeeding to 15 min/2 hours. They did not even mention the clear alternative of breast feeding while using the lamp. And then we couldn't comfort Taisei as he cried himself horse while on the lamp. Talk about a miserable experience.

We were released the next day and brought a lamp home with us. The bilirubin continued to drop. Breastfeeding eventually started to work out as normal. I can finally say we have reached some level of normalcy.

I just hope I can hear a cough without thinking of pneumonia, asthma, sepsis, congenital defect, inhaled object, etc. etc.

Stresses of Fatherhood part 1

Taisei turned 2 weeks old yesterday. I can assure that fatherhood has its share of stresses, some of which may be more severe as a result of being a medical student. Medical students are known for taking any situation and thinking of all the rare diseases that are possible. It is not the best frame of mind to be in as a new father.

On Thu, March 11th, Keiko thought her water may have broke but did not want to go the clinic. So I spend the next 24 hours thinking of the risks of infection (chorioamnionitis) that can occur.

On Fri, March 12th, I have a presentation at work at the Georgia dept. of health. I have my phone on silent but I hold it in my hand the whole time just in case she calls so I won't miss it. Exactly 15 minutes after my meeting has officially ended, I get a text from Keiko that her water has definitely broke. I had to take a train to get to my car to drive home, so I was in a major rush. The traffic is so bad downtown that the train is definitely quicker than a taxi. Keiko is very calm and collected.

I pick her up and take her to the clinic. They said we had to go the clinic before the hospital since if it was false labor, our insurance will not cover the visit. The clinician confirm that Keiko's water broke. I am in a definite rush to get to the hospital and these are the words from Keiko:
"Do you think we can still go eat ramen and to the baby shower?"
One of our friends in church had planned us a baby shower and we also had plans to meet some friends at a ramen restaurant. While I am nervous as can be, Keiko, who still has no labor pains, is ready to go out to eat.
...
...

With a little coaxing, we head to the hospital. A couple more hours pass and there are still no real contractions. My mind is going "infection infection infection." The contractions finally start and Keiko says "this isn't so bad. I probably don't need an epidural." A couple hours of pass and the offer comes for an epidural again.
"How much longer do you think it will be?" Keiko asks.
"8 hours or so" they respond.
"8 hours?!?!? I'll take the epidural.

Keiko was able to take a few hours nap with the epidural but I couldn't rest at all. The midwife came and said it was time to push. Pushing lasted for about 1 hour with no results.
"We'll have to take the epidural away to help with the pushing."
And 15 minutes later, Keiko goes from no pain to the real deal. It was very painful to watch. The news keeps piling on.
"Oh you've spiked a fever so we'll have to give some antibiotics."
"The pushing has to progress or we'll have to go to a c-section."
"The baby had a stool movement (meconium) in the womb so we will want to hurry."
And Keiko is in the biggest pain in her life and I can only hold her hand.

I HATED the labor experience. I found myself thinking: "C'mon, baby. Just work with Keiko and get born already. Use some force." A little illogical but I couldn't help it.

When he was finally born, he wouldn't cry. He was having a little trouble breathing and the pediatricians were calling him "too limp." I could think of about 5-10 reasons for this, and all of them were bad. Of course he ended up being okay but every time I noticed him having a little trouble breathing by grunting a little, the nostrils flaring, etc. it made my heart jump.

Most things went okay after this but hospitals are so terrible about encouraging breastfeeding. They say they want all women to breastfeed but they are absolutely ridiculous about allowing. 3 days after being born, Keiko hadn't got a full supply of milk and Taisei had lost some weight so they were already talking about supplementing. I figured the lactation counselor would be helpful but she saw us once and heard the word pump and was already selling us on the brand the hospital used for pumps. We were told that we may need to pump for 1 day and she said we could rent a pump from the hospital for like $70/month. I felt so much negativity that Keiko should be producing more milk and that we should consider pumping and supplementing.

The result of all this: every time Taisei was nursing, it was a big adrenaline rush. How is he latching? Is it going okay this time? Is there milk this time? Something as natural as breastfeeding becomes this big drama show every 2 hours or so.

The biggest positive of this whole experience is that it will certainly help me as a doctor, particularly if I become a pediatrician. I know many of the symptoms Taisei had like breathing trouble, stool in the womb are quite common and rarely lead to anything bad. However, because it was my child it that much more stressful. You just want everything to go perfect so badly. I know they should have listened to us more about the desire to breastfeed and not pushed supplementing so much or build the atmosphere that you won't be able to breastfeed.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing only continued...

Taisei Linus Jones

Taisei Linus Jones was born at 8:07 am on March 13th, 2010. He was 7lb 8oz, 20 inches.
Keiko and the baby are doing fine but it was a tough week.

For a more detailed bilingual blog of the happenings of the last week: http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/

For pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jones.jefferson/TaiseiLinusJones02#

For videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/jonesjefferson

Thanks for all the support!

Baby shower

Some of Keiko's friends from church through us a baby shower. We had a great time. Here are some picture from the event.

Baby decorations abound

We had 3 Japanese families (not including Keiko) and 1 Korean that attended. The food was spectacular.

Here is the diaper cake that was prepared by Keiko's friend.

Keiko made this dessert.

This is a Japanese cake. I like them a lot more than American. They are much lighter, less butter.

I'm all ready to go. This little fella is also half Japanese.

Hand made baby blanket.

Thanks everyone!!! We had a great time!

see details at Keiko's blog: http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/

The car seat

Thanks to the kindness of our friends, we are slowly losing any extra space in our studio apartment. So, I decided to put the car seat in the car. After all, the baby could come in day.

When I went to the parking lot after work today, I was looking for my car and couldn't find it. Seeing the car seat through the window of our little red Corolla, it just looked like it couldn't be my car. I'm not old enough to drive that car. It made me laugh a lot as my key unlocked it and I entered the car.

(Keiko's blog has pictures)

Full Term

Our baby is now full-term as of today. Last week, he was estimated to be about 6 1/2 pounds. So it looks like he can come at any time. Bring it on; I am as ready as I'll every be.

The baby and pyelectasis

For those who are curious about how the baby is going, I am going to be lazy. Please read Keiko's blog. She has been great about consistently writing her blog. It has lots of pictures, including recent ones shower her belly:
http://ameblo.jp/jkfamily/

On a related note, a few weeks ago, the midwife casually told us we would need to get another ultrasound because they notices a blip on the ultrasound months before. As a patient, I scrutinize the doctors and nurses quite a bit. They only told us enough to make us worried.

So I spend hours looking up pyelectasis. It's a when part of the kidney gets dilated. There are many causes but most of the time it goes away on it's own. At our next ultrasound, it did go away.

It left me thinking, how would I handle this situation or how should they have handled it. 1) They should have told us about it in the first place. When our 20 week ultrasound was done, they said it was all normal even though it wasn't. That is not okay. 2) They should know enough about it to say that most of the time it goes away on it's own, but it may need to be looked at again after the baby is born (which is still true). I had to look through multiple medical journals to find this stuff.

I know it's kind of common to speak fancy medical terms to patients, but I learned a good lesson of the need to explain any words you use or not use them and about the need to explain the prognosis of any problems given.

On the patient side at the ER

I was a patient in the ER last week. It was a fun, yet unfortunate weekend.

Friday night we had a delayed New Years Party with Keiko's Japanese friends and families. It made for a party with 6 adults and 3.5 kids including Ao (keiko's nickname for our child). It was a mix of American and Japanese games but it is great to see Keiko make good friends in all the cities we have lived in.

Saturday my brother, Chris, and his family came down. We always have a good time together. Chris's wife, Corie, does an excellent job of talking with Keiko; she makes sure Keiko understands everything she says. Chris and I generally play with their baby, Emily, and play video games a lot. Good times all around. for pics see: http://chrisandcorie.blogspot.com/2010/01/last-weekend-we-went-to-visit-uncle.html

Emily was unfortunately a little sick... But we still managed to have a Japanese BBQ which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Unfortunately, starting Sunday mid-morning I started to feel a little sick and nauseated. It got worse and worse until without going unto details, I lost a lot of fluid. I'm not sure if it was something I ate or caught it from my cute niece, but it was bad. I started to get pins and needles throughout most of my body like my whole body was asleep and it was painful. This has never happened before so I called my boss, who is an infectious disease doctor. She instructed me to go the ER.

I have terrible insurance. Med student insurance seems to be pretty bad on the whole. It generally doesn't cover anything until you have paid a ton of money first (a large deductible.) So I avoid going to the doctor like the plague.

However, I was getting worse and worse and had some unusual symptoms and couldn't keep any fluid down for about 5-6 hours. I finally had a glass of some sugar-water but only felt worse. So I had some people from my church come over and give me a priesthood blessing. I was so weak at this point I couldn't walk so they had to carry me to the car to take me to the ER. During the car ride, I started to feel better and better. By the time we reached the ER, I was able to open my eyes and carry a conversation. By the time the nurse saw me, I started to have "buyer's remorse" as I called it about going to the ER. They gave me an IV and I began to feel pretty chipper in about an hour. I ended up being a pretty annoying patient because I knew what I had and REALLY didn't want any tests that I would have to pay for so I rejected about anything they offered except the IV.

I had some fun talking with the physician's assistant who examined me and reviewed some of my medicine skills. Luckily, we were out of the hospital a few hours after we arrived.

I wonder if I'll run into patients who really regret ever coming to the hospital the moment they arrive...