31 Week Doctor Appointment

Yesterday we headed up to Thousand Oaks to meet Kira for our 31 Week checkup and ultrasound. Everything looks great. Kiki is tracking a little on the bigger side. Her estimate weigt is 3 pounds 9 ounces. Kira says she is starting to get a little more active, especially at night.



We stll have not gotten a great ultrasound photo of Kiki. This was my favorite from yesterday. You can see her chunky cheeks. I can't wait to meet her!

Finally settled on a name!

So we finally decided that we are going to name our new daughter... Kiki!

As some of you may know, we had originally thought that we were going to name her Bunny(i). Victor and I both loved the name, and Coco sounded so cute when she said it. We had lots of bunnies running around our yard in Rye and Coco used to love to scream "Bunny!" whenever she saw them. Nene loved to take off chasing them too...much to our dismay.

Coco got very accustomed to referring to her sister as Bunny(i). Around 25 weeks, Victor brought Coco with him to Kira's doctor appointment and she got to listen to her sister's heartbeat. She clearly understood that her sister was inside of Kira. We would ask her, "Coco, what is your sister's name?" and she would say "Bunny!" Then we would ask her, " Where is Bunny(i)??" She would say, "Kira's Tummy!" One day, we heard her screech from the backseat of the car, "I want Bunny(i)!" She clearly can not wait to meet her new sister.

The reaction to our choice of names was a bit more dramatic than we had expected. At least five people (some extremely close friends and others that we did not know that well) exclaimed when we mentioned our proposed name, "OH PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!" Others thought it was kind of cute and charming. The main concern seemed to be that she would not be taken seriously with a name like Bunny. We do want to make it clear, however, that the decision to change her name was purely our choice and we are not succumbing to social pressure!! :)

Victor and I were having a difficult time agreeing on the spelling of the name. I wanted to spell it Bunny, Victor was really stuck on Bunni. It looked as though we were going to settle on Bunnie.

One morning last week, the three of us were sitting in our den in LA. I was reading a book to Coco that was illustrated by a woman named Kiki. I realized immediately that I loved the name. I said to Victor, "What do you think of the name Kiki??" Victor loved it and clearly Coco did too. We asked Coco if she liked the name Bunny(i) or Kiki for her sister, she said wildly, "Kiki! Kiki! Kiki!" And so it was settled.

Coco, Kiki and Nene...it does have a ring to it....doesn't it??

I am writing this so that one day Kiki will understand the story behind her name, lest we forget. She might get a kick out of understanding that she was almost named Bunny. I guess she can always change it to Bunny if she wants and she can spell it however she would like. My parents told me that if I were a girl, they were going to name me Daisy Marie. Thank goodness for that male chromosome!

Here we go!!

Here we go again!! The countdown to daddyhood is back! Next week we will will be 30 weeks pregnant!! We are due on May 8th. The journey has been great so far.



The embryo transfer took place on Friday, August 19th. We had three healthy embryos from the retrieval and fertilization. Normally, the transfer would take place after six days, but our doctor recommended that we transfer on the third day. Given that we would have been happy with the higher probability of twins, the doctor recommended that we transfer all three.





Here is Kira on transfer day. Kira gave birth to Coco and we are soo fortunate that she and her family agreed to go through the process again. After the transfer, Kira needed to be on two days of bed rest, so we checked into a nice hotel nearby and we tried to pamper her as much as possible. We must have watched 10 episodes of "Living with the Kardashians"!



Yipee!! It worked. Here was the six week ultrasound. At first, the doctor thought that he heard two heartbeats, but on the second check, there was only one. At twelve weeks, at the first trimester checkup, the doctor said, "would you like to know the gender?" We were a little confused because we thought that you could only tell at 16-20 weeks. We said, "of course!" He said, "It's a Girl!" We were thrilled, but a bit suspect because we have had friends that were told it was a girl at 12 weeks, but later told it was a boy. In any event, it was all good news.

Here is our daughter at 20 weeks. She was a little camera shy. Dr. Poliakin kept trying to get her to take a good picture, but she kept rolling over. He did say that she is tracking to be a big girl.

Kira had been very nauseous in the first trimester, but it had subsided by about this point and she started to enjoy some movement. She was kicking and moving a little bit, but was nowhere near as active as Coco.

New Blog

Thank you so much for being a part of our journey to Daddyhood! It has been quite a trip!

Now, it's time for the next phase of our adventure and we've started a new blog! Check out http://cocosdads.blogspot.com/ to follow our exploits in parenthood.

Cheers!

Coco and more Coco

Coco arrived!

Coco was born on Thursday, February 4th at 1:27 PM weighing 8 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches. She is our perfect little angel and we are so in love with her.

Thank you all for all your support throughout our journey. Stay tuned for details on life with Coco!

Note from a friend

A friend of mine (Mac Robinson), who I've known for over 15 years sent me this wonderful note. The note is so touching and honest. It's amazing how many of our friends have shared their stories, thoughts and experiences with us along this journey. Each email, phone call, card, etc. have meant so much to us and really helped us to grasp (as much as we can at this point) the magnitude of what we are on the cusp of experiencing. Thanks for the wonderful note Mac!

Here's the note Mac sent (BTW, not a typo...Mac and many of my friends from Virginia call me Victro!):

Well Victro you are on the cusp of the most amazing event you will ever to be lucky enough to witness and be a part of. I never realized how miniscule the crap in my life was until Zac came into the world, screaming, crying and peeing all over the doctors as Al Green played in the background ("its 3 o' clock in the morning...well...."). They wiped him off and weighed him. He got his shots and he was screaming and I finally stopped jumping around and went close to his ear and said, "it’s ok buddy, we are gonna take care of you." He stopped crying and looked through the goop they put in his eyes and stared at me for a moment and then went back to screaming and peeing. It was in that moment of him staring at me that I realized my life as I knew it was over and I had bigger things to do. It was exhilarating and frightening all at the same time. Then they handed him to me and I just about lost my legs. Such a feeling that this little helpless child was now in my care. I took him to see his Mom, he was crying again but as soon as she spoke he got quiet and looked, then closed his eyes and slept. He was at peace. I sat there with him in my arms and Z stroking his forehead and had a feeling of what idiots we were to think we could do this, but mostly I really truly felt love for the first time. It was such a relief and so free and so unconditional. This was all reinforced when Max came, as he was attempting to literally leap into the world and was screaming as Al Green played in the background (eerie but true). I am very happy that soon you too will get the opportunity to feel it. It is like nothing you have ever had and even if you have another, you will never have it again. I call it "the reason." That is the reason for love, hate, protection, art, science, religion, war, freedom, passion, excellence, whatever...everything. I love ya buddy. Enjoy.
Your friend always, Mac