Memories of Good Night Gorilla from the Womb

While I was pregnant with my son, I read a lot of books to my daughter. Like any child, she had favorite books that she would want read over and over again.  During my pregnancy, she became fixated with one book: Good Night Gorilla.

The book is captivating and inviting as a little gorilla helps all the animals in the zoo quietly escape from their cages and they all follow the zookeeper home. One part of the book that she loved was when the zookeeper’s wife realizes all the animals are in the room – she wakes up with eyes wide open.

I’ve always wondered if babies are aware of what’s going on in the outside world while they are in utero. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was so excited about having a baby. I read books to my stomach, played music and pointed out paintings at the Louvre while I was pregnant. We bought a music box that played Champs-Élysées

But when I was pregnant with my son, I was too tired, busy and overwhelmed to pay attention to him. I basically ignored him as a person, and focused on just getting through the day.

I’m convinced that babies are aware of what’s going and are influenced by what they hear in the womb.

My son, who is 11 months old, started walking last month. Like most infants, he loves to explore everything, gets excited and has become very expressive. I recently pulled out the book Good Night Gorilla to read to him and something clicked. I’ve never seen him so excited before. He pointed to the gorilla, shouted when he saw the giraffe and wanted the book read over and over. I picked out several other books and put the Good Night Gorilla book underneath the other books – he threw the other books aside and picked up Good Night Gorilla. Now, if I want his attention, I show him the book and he emerges from a corner of toys. It’s fascinating to see him so excite by a book. I wondered what would have happened if I had been reading War and Peace every night?

— Eunice Park 

I Dream of Donuts

During my first pregnancy, my taste buds went through an epiphany. Certain flavors and foods were heightened and if I ate something that resonated with me (or maybe it was the baby?) I would lay awake at night wondering if I should get into the car and get it. One day it was honey mustard pretzels, the next it was Jif’s crunchy peanut butter with New Zealand honey. One night it was grilled ham and cheese sandwiches in a Kaiser bun with a kosher pickle. But there was one thing I became really fixated on: donuts.

I never was one to eat donuts because I felt deep guilt – they were deep fried, extremely caloric and just plain bad for you. My mother used to tell me a friend’s daughter worked at a donut shop and ballooned out to the size of an elephant. At an old job, a coworker who also taught aerobics said she couldn’t imagine ever eating a donut when a big pink box of them were brought in. So I just tried to stay away. But there was a little donut place in my neighborhood that I often walked by and would stand outside and stare at the array of donuts neatly lined in the window. One day during my first trimester, I bought one. It was amazing. The next day, I bought a dozen.

I ate cookies, cake and ice cream, but there was something about the donut that tasted so good. My mommy friends who had babies told me to beware of gestational diabetes, high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. Advanced age women and if you are Asian or African American were prone to it. I didn’t think I would get it – I drank tons of water and didn’t eat candy or cookies all day long, like some pregnant women I knew.  But when I took the blood test, my blood sugars were very high. So high, that my doctor told me to forgo the rest of the gestational diabetes testing and go directly to the nutrition program where you learn how to prick yourself with a needle, test blood and change your eating which was focused mainly on protein.

I was mad that no more donuts would be part of my diet during the rest of my pregnancy, but I didn’t want to harm the baby or have the baby end up having sugar issues. So I ended up eating lots of cheese and eggs — and being grumpy.

After I had my baby, I thought the donut craving would be over but all I could think about were donuts. My mother, who came to help take care of the baby, attends church every Sunday. I went to church with her the first time she visited, and joined her for coffee and donuts afterward Mass. As we waited in line, I didn’t think that much of the donuts – this was a church after all – but dropped some change into an old coffee can and bit into a French cruller. It was light, fluffy and the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. I didn’t attend church with my mother, but always requested a donut afterward. And several months after she had left, I couldn’t stop thinking about the donuts so waited for church to finish and slinked up to the donut area, bought one and left.

I’m still on the hunt for good donuts, especially gourmet ones with purple sprinkles and hot pink frosting.  However, I need to curb my addiction because now my daughter always asks what I’m eating and wants to eat it too. We limit her sugar intake and give her animal crackers, which we call cookies.

The other day I was eating a donut and she asked, “Is that a cookie?”

“No,”  I said. “It’s a donut.”

“Ohhh,” she replied, like it must be something amazing. “Donut.”

— Eunice Park

Pregnant With Pain in My Hands

Treatment for Carpal Tunnel & De Quervain’s Syndrome in pregnant and new moms

I had a relatively easy pregnancy. I ate happily, only had minor nausea in the first few weeks and didn’t start waddling until the very end. I stayed active doing prenatal yoga, walking and swimming regularly. At around 7 months, I started to feel a little pain in both of my thumbs and wrists. Within a couple of days, the pain was debilitating. I couldn’t use my hands for anything: holding the steering wheel while driving, brushing my teeth, washing my hair and don’t talk to me about going to the bathroom. I felt crippled. The only thing I could do was sit on the sofa resting my hands on top of a pillow on my lap.

Sporting wristguards at my baby shower

I attended my own baby shower wearing bulky wristguards and I couldn’t even open the presents myself because it was too painful to rip the wrapping paper. My husband is a pain specialist and I never sympathized with his patients who were in chronic pain. I thought that pain is for the weak and it was all in their minds. But then I felt pain, and it was real.  I can totally relate to his patients now. My husband diagnosed the pain in my hands as de Quervain’s tenosynovitis, which is similar to carpal tunnel syndrome. I read that some pregnant women developed carpal tunnel syndrome in their hands as swelling occurs during pregnancy. Carpal tunnel syndrome is usually associated with numbness in the middle fingers. I had a sharp pain in the area where the thumb meets the wrist, along the tendon. After suffering for a week, I couldn’t take it anymore. My husband suggested that he give me cortisone shots in my wrists. I was reluctant and afraid that any kind of medication would harm the baby. My husband explained, “Would I do anything to harm you or my baby?” True. His reasoning made sense. I still consulted with my OB to double-check that it was safe during pregnancy and I got the okay from my doc. Turns out that cortisone shots are sometimes given during pregnancy to encourage lung development in babies.

As my husband got the needles ready to give me the injection, I became very nervous. I normally don’t flinch when I get shots but since it was my husband sticking me with a needle, I panicked like a wuss. I had to turn away, close my eyes, and bury my face into a pillow to muffle my screams. It really didn’t hurt that much. But since it was my husband, I could let all my defenses down and wail like a baby. After he gave me the shots, he said I was his worst patient ever. I was just giving him some practice in dealing with a really difficult patient 😉

Five days after the cortisone shots, the pain in my wrists completely disappeared. Some women can develop this pain in the first couple of months after the baby is born. It can be caused by swelling again, or from constantly putting our hands in awkward positions to nurse and hold the baby, or even from repeatedly lifting the car seat. I felt the pain creep back into my wrists about a month after my son was born and I immediately told my husband to give me another round of cortisone shots before the pain got so bad that I wouldn’t be able to carry my son. I was nursing, so I was concerned that cortisone would be bad for my breastmilk, but again, my husband said he wouldn’t do anything to harm his own baby. He gave me the shots again and the pain immediately went away and never came back. I have a new appreciation for people suffering from chronic pain. Pain is real, but relief is available.

-Catherine Lo

Baby shower idea: Fiesta time!

I was so excited when I found out my sister-in-law was pregnant. I was going to be an aunt for the first time! I wanted to throw her a baby shower, and since it was co-ed, I didn’t want it to the usual frou-frou tea & crumpets sort of event. Instead, I made it an evening cocktail & hors d’oeuvres party with a Mexican fiesta theme. To make my life easier, I had my favorite local Mexican restaurant, Picante, do the food. The menu consisted of Latin-inspired finger foods: Mexico City sliders, empanadas, tamales, ceviche on jicama slices, mini sopes, and fruit skewers dusted with chili powder. For liquid libations I had a jar of sangria, Coronas, and horchata for mommy-to-be. At the sweets table, I set out a platter of Mexican wedding cookies, guava pastelitos (daddy-to-be’s favorite), and cupcakes – a shower staple, in flavors such as dulce de leche, coconut key lime, vanilla and oreo cookie.

No fiesta would be complete without a piñata so I custom-ordered a baby shaped piñata and stuffed it full of candy and baby essentials: pacifiers, bath squirters and ear plugs. At the end of the night, adults & kids alike took a baseball bat and we “spanked” the baby. At the end of the party, guests took home a shot glass that I had printed with a picture of a baby’s butt saying, “Bottoms Up!” All that was left was a beat up baby (piñata) with one arm and no legs. Please don’t call CPS on me.

-Catherine Lo

For other party ideas, read about baby’s 1st birthday party here