Luke's Corner in Lukaland (told by him)

O how fast time flies. I’ve been at this new strange location for a month now. It’s much better than my last place. Not so many people poking at me (though that little girl does like to hold me and kiss my face all the time). Hardly any blinky sounds or alarms going off. Just me and two big people who call themselves Mom and Dad, and this little person who calls herself Carlita. I’ve been spending most of my time with the female, called Mom. She’s cool – she’s always there to give me my food and holds me a lot. I like that very much. I’m not much for sleeping on my back and I have this awful stuffy nose that I just can’t get rid of. Trust me, mom and Dad try their best trying to suck the snorts out of my tiny nose and sending saline up my nose. Not fun at all. For someone who had a hard time breathing from the start, this isn’t helping me. But I ‘ll get over it – you all know me – the fighter. So my schedule is real simple – I like it that way. I sleep, pass gas which wakes me (I hate it), eat Mommy milk, pass out at her breast, wake up if she moves me, eat more, sleep. That’s it. Not too busy – just enough time to get my beauty rest. I do have my bad spells when Mom and Dad have to stay up all night with me (I feed every two hours) but I’m a newborn. What do you expect?


Mom does have me doing these “play” sessions with her and some researcher from campus. I don’t like it every much at first but now I’m starting to see things and notice Mom interacting with me. So much that I even smiled last week for her. It wasn’t that “gassy in my sleep” smile. I truly smiled at her – she was being funny.
Also the family went to visit my Tia Sandra and her family. I met my cousin Sofia. She’s a cutie. We also visited Abuela, who is a bit high strong for me. My sister took care of it though telling her that I was her baby, not Abuela. That girl – already watching out for me.


Lastly, we went for a 2 month check up. I weighed in at 10 pounds (I double my weight from birth), was 21 and half inches long and my head was 14 and ¼ inches round. I’m definitely filling out all over the place. My sister weighed in at 30 pounds and was 37 ½ inches tall. Wow!! That’s’ big! She keeps telling us all that she’s not the baby but a big girl. She’s working on potty training but sometimes wants to be a baby just like me. I do like her but sometimes she’s a bit too much for me. I’ll get used to it I guess. Well that’s it from Luke’s corner in Lukaland. Stay tune for my next adventures.

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008: A week and a month difference

It seems hard to believe that on Sept. 4th Luke was suppose to be born. What a difference a month it has been! When I’m holding Luke I just think that he can just be rolled up and put back into my belly right now because I was suppose to give birth this week. To think back to a month ago and all the drama we’ve gone through to now at home just sitting around holding him, it’ almost seems so long ago. Luke is doing great! We had two doctor’s appointments. Last week he weighed in at 6 lb and 2 oz. and this week at 7 lbs. and has grown one inch. He got his one-month vaccine shots (hepastis B) and was adored by the office staff. We also had a nurse come out to our place (as part of our benefits) to check up on how Luke is doing and he just keeps gaining weight which is very good. He’s right on mark if he was born today, and behind as a 1 monther but that’s okay. He’s eating very well (which keeps Mom up all night) and loves being held. He’s starting to have moments of full alertness, looking around and observing things. His big eyes just widen when he seems something new. Just so cute! Karl and I have been busy doing little errands every day. I really can’t just sit around inside all day but we have gotten to sleep in and we don’t push ourselves THAT much (that’s really Karl holding me back though).


Last weekend (Labor day weekend) Aunt Fran came to visit and we were apple picking. It was so nice to have another pair of hands to handle Luke and Carlita. After she left on Monday, we spent that day at the outdoor pool. I really wanted to be outside and it was a great day. Carlita and Karl kept busy in the big pool and horsing around.


Carlita is loving her brother. She always wants to hold him and feed him. When he cries, she lets us know “Baby is crying”. She does have her moments when she wants all the attention when people come over to visit and see Luke but otherwise the Luka family is adjusting well to the new little addition.

Lukey comes home!

A weekend of fun in the NICU. We spent the weekend changing diapers and doing feedings. Now that Luke is on his own schedule for feeding, Lulu slept over the whole weekend at the NICU in order to breastfeed Luke. He’s doing great with the feedings. He got his feeding tube removed and only has the heart monitor attached to him, the only thing that needs to stay attached until he leaves.

After 48 hours of ab lib feeding (meaning on demand) Luke was discharged today and is now at home. Dad dressed him up in a Cubs outfit and Carlita kept looking over Luke while driving home. Today the new Kaliher clan came together for the first time. Carlita is in love with Luke and parents are excited for this new adventure. We are very blessed that Luke got better so fast. 20 days in the NICU is a short time compared to some of the other babies. We are indeed blessed. Thank you to everyone who prayed for Luke and kept us in your thoughts. Now the fun is about to begin in Lukaland!

Friday, Aug. 22: On the home stretch

Big news. Luke drank all his milk by bottle over the night. Once he hit 4 bottles, they decided to let him ab lib, which means to let him wake up on him own and get feed. No more every 3 hours. It’s all up to him to wake up and tell us “I’m hungry”. Very exciting. Once he does this for 48 hours and doesn’t lose weight, he can get discharged. That means maybe Sunday evening but I think Monday will really be the day. So we worked on breastfeeding for half hour, which he tried his best but didn’t understand how to get more milk out and then got feed by bottle. We tried again later in the afternoon and he did much better latching on the left breast and feed for twenty minutes. I decided to sleep over at the NICU in order to get into the rhythm of breastfeeding all the time. Hopefully this all works out and Luke will be coming home either Sunday or Monday.


On Wednesday, Karl’s work, Delaware Guidance Services threw us a baby shower. It was planned a month ago because they thought my C-section would be next week. Luke had other things in mind. The baby shower was held in Wilmington and there was tons of good food, presents, and great company. It was just so nice that they did this.


In other news, Luke got his hearing screen and passed. He also got fitted into his car seat by the occupational therapist since he’s a preemie. We took cute shots of him in that seat. He’s so tiny in it. Next Luke is on the list to get circumcised. Karl is already feeling the pain for him. I hope this goes well but they haven’t come yet to take him away to do it. So we’re getting to those final steps to getting out of the NICU and getting home. Now its up to him with his feedings when we get home. Come on Luke – you can do it!

Thursday, Aug. 21: The full body experience ~written by Lulu for all those who don’t know what the body handles

There’s a lot of books out there regarding pregnancy and what goes on with a woman’s body. However, there is hardly anything written regarding post-pregnancy. Sure, there’s jokes about the pregnancy brain (aka scrambled eggs) and how exhausting it is to have a baby (i.e. no sleep). But there’s hardly anything out there that tells you EVERYthing from head to toe what’s going on with a woman’s body. So here it is for all of you who ever thought “what is it like to have a post-baby body?”.
WARNING: The following does include crude, and explicit details of the woman body that might disturb most from ever having a baby. You have been warned!

1) The head and feelings
a. Some women get thicker hair during the pregnancy. Some even have their hair fall out. As for me, my hair was pretty much the same. Semi-thick and luscious!
b. As for what’s happening inside the head, that’s another story. Forgetedfulness, irritability, moodiness. All types of emotions (good and bad) come out throughout the pregnancy, but especially afterwards. Extra sensitivity to being touched, irritable with everyone around you. That is what happened to me. Karl gets most of it. There’s many reasons why this happens: no sleep, tired of everything around you, all new things happening and you have no control over it, body chemicals affect your mood, etc. I love company and talking to a lot of people, but by the end of the first week, I was so tired of repeating everything three hundred times that I just wanted to be quiet. Can you believe that? Me Lulu wanting to be quiet and not be bothered. All these feelings do subside, though they stay there for some time.
2) Arms/fingers
a. I had and still have at times gotten “pins and needles” feelings in my arms and legs. This occurs mostly while sleeping when I’m laying down in bed, but also when I’m holding something for some period of time (like a cell phone). This is slowly going away, but still exists.
3) Chest/breasts
a. Oooo the breasties. The boobs. The Lu-lus. Okay, before giving birth they increase like triple in size in preparation for the golden liquid (aka milk). After birth and a few days later, the milk arrives. How do I explain this? Hmmm…. It’s like filling up a balloon with water. Attach it to your chest and there you go. The breasts add 5-7 pounds to your weight (so you lost roughly 20 pounds after the birth, but added on 7 pounds for the food supply). If you are breastfeeding, you ideally start right away feeding your baby. I was unable to do this, since Luke is in the NICU, so I started pumping. After 3 days, your true milk supply comes in. Now here comes the fun times. If you don’t empty out those girls, they get very painful, sometimes sending a sharp pain to your upper back. You get clogged ducts, which may lead to infection if they are not flushed out. I had this for a while. You have to just work it out with your friend, the pump, and rub that duct out and try to get that milk flowing out of the areoli (newsflash to everyone: milk does not come out of the nibble but the areoli). As for me, I rented a hospital grade pump to have at home because my Medela pump wasn’t doing it enough for me. I sleep with a bra on (i.e. no underwires ladies) and pump every three hours. The hospital grade pump has better suction than commercial grade. So just imagine being hooked up to a milk machine, similar to ones used for cows and there you got it. The fun enjoyment of the post-birth breasts. Ooo one more thing.. they start heading south VERY quickly and don’t return north ever. So enjoy them when you can, because they won’t be the same after becoming pregnant.
4) Abs/stomach
a. The type of birth you had (i.e. vaginal or C-section) will influence how your abs/stomach turn out. No matter what for the first week you will look like you are 6 months pregnant. Your uterus starts contracting back to its normal size right away, so you have constant cramps (ladies it’s like your menstrual cycle cramps). If you are breastfeeding (or pumping), this whole process goes faster but is still painful. Every time you pump/feed, your uterus contracts, so you’re getting a double whammie from the top to the bottom. After two weeks, most people wouldn’t know that you gave birth unless they saw you naked, but you do see yourself nake. You see the flab hanging there. You see the scar from the operation (if you had a C-section). You feel the stretches from anything you had happen and you want to scratch them (but you can’t because they are located too low on your body).

(Are you OK so far? If you are getting a little queasy, you might want to skip the next two parts—to number 6, because it’s about to get very explicit).

5) Genital/butt
a. Inside your body, your intestines are trying to work so you can go to the bathroom. This is a crude joke nature put on us women. You have to wear a pad for several weeks, first for the bleeding and next for the pee that escapes. No matter if you had a C-section or a vaginal birth, going to the bathroom is the worst experience. Take stool softener to help you get it on. Not the sexiest thing to know about, but it will help out greatly when you are trying to do number 2. Pissing is hard too, sometimes getting sprayed all over your legs or dripped because your vagina is recovering still. Timeline on this: unknown. After two and a half weeks, I still use stool softener and have to piss every hour. I wear a pad for those loose drips and left over residue. O the fun of being diapered up just likes a baby.
6) Leggs/feet
a. pins and needles still exist. You reserve some water during the pregnancy and afterwards, so you blow up and look like a tree stump. Only solution is to put your feet up and drink plenty of water. But that’s’ the catch -22. You ‘ll have to go to the bathroom more often and if you read my above comments, you know that’s not fun. So you’re daned if you do and damned if you don’t. Luckily this is the one area that does get fast relief and is the least of your worries.

I think I have covered the entire experience of the post-pregnancy body. Really why do we go through this over and over – because no one tells us and our brain plays a funny trick called forgetness. But it is worth it all when you have that baby in your arms and you watch them grow into little and big people. Besides, it makes for a great story for any party you throw your kid just to embarrass them.

Wednesday, Aug. 20: Luke breaks the silence (written by luke)

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven’t written but I’ve been a bit busy these past two weeks. See, my buddy, the placenta, didn’t like being my roommate. I guess he had issues with the use of space. Look, I tried to compromise with him, but I needed more room. I’m a big guy. So placenta decided to move out, which caused a big disruption in our space. Before I knew it, I had to do a room change and was moved into a very strange place with lights, sounds, and air. It was definitely strange. As a result, I retreated into myself for the past two weeks. Finally I decided it was time for me to come out of my hiding hole and join the world. Surprisingly, I really liked it. There’s these two people always at my bedside, and a little girl who told me that I was her sweetheart. That really woke me up from my miserable funk with Placenta. Actually there’s a lot of people always taking care of me, checking in and making sure I’m okay. Sometimes they get me mad when they stick me in the heel, but most of the time they leave me alone to sleep and dream the days away. I have realized that I get hungry and one of these people, I think she’s the one they call Mom, provides a nice supply of milk every day. I‘ve overheard that they’ll have to open a new milk bank the way she is going. I’ve been shy in drinking this stuff. Look, I’m really depressed about placenta leaving me and haven’t been myself in a LONG time. But my stomach does like milk, so I’ve been nibbling here and there and getting used to the white stuff. Mom, as they call her, seems to really want me to get going on this. She wears me out trying to get me to drink the stuff and from the strangest place, a breast. All I’ve ever known has been my hands, so this has been a really strange adventure. Then there’s the other person, Dad. He’s cool. He reads to me and cuddles me. I really like how warm he is. Reminds me of my old space. Ooooo… I’m retreating back to where I was…. Stay in the present, Luke. Okay, I’m fine now. Well, this really tried me out writing so much for the first time. I promise everyone I’ll do better with this milk drinking and get out of this place they call the NICU so everyone can check me out. I haven’t seen myself, but I’ve heard that I’m pretty cute. Well, I gotta show myself off to the world. Catch ya later!

Monday, Aug. 18: Gaining weight

Luke Highlights: belly button stub fell off, spent two hours awake looking around and being cute, got a bath from Mom, and gained two ounces. Mom’s highlight: got to drive again after two weeks being chauffeured around, pumped an unbelievable amount of milk, gave a bath to Luke, and thought of Luke’s D-day (discharge day). Today was a very nice day. Over the night, Luke lost his belly button stub. Luke is nibbling more on the breast and was wide-awake for two hours. He wanted to be cuddled and looked all over the place. He has big blue eyes, similar to Carlita when she was born. This morning Carlita came along and was so sweet with Luke. She said “Ooooo he’s my sweetheart”. She kept kissing him and wanting to hold him. She’s doing so great with Luke and the NICU visits. After the morning, Karl took Carlita to a playground and to the pool and I drove to the hospital all by myself. It was weird to drive after two weeks off. I spent the afternoon holding Luke and trying to help him breastfeed. We got a nice surprise visit from Jen and Sean Eddy and Sean’s sister Alice (Jen was one of my RAs at JMU). They visited Luke, and we all went out for dinner and ice cream. After they left, I returned to the hospital and got a chance to give Luke a bath. Before getting the bath, he gave me a great present in his diaper. Good boy! He was so cute, and didn’t fuss that much during the bath. He got weighed and has gained two ounces, which is good. The nurse explained that babies should gain one or two ounces a day hopefully. Hopefully Luke does this.


Today was two weeks since Luke was born. He is considered 36 weeks old gestational, rather than two weeks old. Karl and I have learned so much throughout this experience. I really am dealing with feelings of not being able to do anything for Luke, other than pump for milk. The nurses are great and give me things to do for him, but still we spend hours just sitting there watching Luke sleep. We’re not at home and in our own zone. We have two homes and it’s hard to balance between the two. I just want to have him home so I can take naps with him, cuddle, and not pump as much. Hopefully this will happen soon.