Not much action

4:22pm Saturday

Seems like contractions come and go every 6 to 8 minutes, but aren't too intense. No baby yet! On Thursday Nicole was dilated 3cm and had her membranes stripped...the doctor said she'd have that baby by 10pm...but its Saturday now. He'll probably be stubborn like his brother Hudson, who waited until 41 weeks, and then waited for 10 hours on pitocin before starting to move.

It's so funny how the second time around we are much more non-chalant. We waited forever to get baby's room ready, and we just packed a bag Thursday. We haven't cleaned any bottles yet, and the crib is set up but still acting as "storage". We haven't read a single page of a book to prepare ourselves...unlike the many books we read before Hudson. I heard the second kid is like a second-class citizen sometimes!

Well, to update you on other tidbits in our lives, Nicole is officially on maternity leave from her job as a liver surgery and liver transplant physician assistant at Piedmont Hospital. She takes care of transplant patients! How cool! I'll be finished with my second year of cardiology fellowship and will start my third and FINAL year of training (all together, 11 years of medical training). I just found out I will be one of 2 chief fellows at Emory cardiology - what an honor! Hudson is doing really well - I think he is excited about being a big brother...when we talk about it he seems to like the idea...although we'll see if he walks the walk. He's getting so big - he'll be 3 in June, and will be starting preschool in the fall. Barbara is doing fantastic...we believe she's cancer free and living life fully and loves being Hudson's "Baba", right down the street!

Aarish is getting married soon...his bachelor party is in Vegas! By the way, for any wives or girlfriends out there, would you let your husband/sig other go to Vegas for a bachelor party??? =)

More updates soon...

2 years later

Well hello again. I can't believe its been over 2 years since my last post. A lot has happened. Why am I writing now? Well, because we're expecting another child. In fact, Nicole is already over 3 cm dilated, 50% effaced, and had her membranes stripped yesterday.

Our next baby boy (name to be announced when he's born) is supposed to be due March 15th. We are scheduled to be induced March 12th, if we make it that far. We are all doing well, and I think Hudson wants to be a good big brother, so we'll see how it goes.

I will use this blog to keep you updated of the pregnancy and delivery! Its funny to read the comments from the last one (06/2009).

Here are some recent pictures of Hudson:

At the "mountain house" for Thanksgiving in Clayton, GA

Centennial Park, Christmas 2011

My new bike from Pop Pop for Christmas

Starting early

I'm a nerd

Love, Nicole and Alan

Happy Holidays!

Thanks to Ben and Jen Yin for taking some pictures of us outside on a cold wintery day, so we can have some holiday pictures to give out!

My friends are talented

I like showcasing my friends!!! They're so talented!

1) Bryan Edwards - country singer/songwriter - wrote a song for country superstar Jason Aldean on his new album! The album is currently #5 on the country music charts in the US!

It's called "If She Could See Me Now"; you can hear it here.

2) Vadin Lum You - film producer - he sent me a clip that his film company made...a music video parody of "I want to be a billionaire" by Bruno Mars. They are pretty funny - check out the "Newark State of Mind" video too! Check it out here.

Alan

What I do

I get a lot of questions about what I do. It's understandable - many people aren't exactly sure what a "cardiology fellow" is, or if there is a difference between a resident or fellow.

First, the training structure:

College (Bachelor's) > Medical School (M.D.) > Residency (to practice medicine in the US you have to complete a residency) > Fellowship (specialized training after residency, in my case, cardiology).

Second, what is "cardiology"?

Cardiology, or "cardiovascular medicine" or the "study of cardiovascular disease" is a subspecialty of Internal Medicine. It is where I learn to diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease. The 3 most common cardiology conditions are 1) Coronary Artery Disease (aka blockages in the heart, which cause heart attacks), 2) Heart Failure (damage or dysfunction of the heart), and 3) Atrial Fibrillation (a common rhythm problem that makes your heart beat fast and irregular. Of course, there are many many more conditions:

- coronary artery disease
- arrhythmias (and the study of them, called "Electrophysiology"; they also place pacemakers and defibrillators)
- valvular heart disease (disease of the valves)
- adult congenital heart disease (heart problems you are born with)
- heart failure
- cardiac imaging (echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, CT, and MRI)
- interventional cardiology (the docs who place stents)
- preventive cardiology (the study of preventing heart attacks and heart failure)

Notice that what is not included is cardiac surgery. Cardiologists do not perform cardiac surgery - instead, "cardiothoracic surgeons" do. The decison to become a surgeon or not actually happens in medical school - when you apply to residency, one of the main distinctions is choosing a surgical or a non surgical residency, and thus, to become a surgeon or not to become one. These surgeons do cool things - bypass surgery, valve repair and replacements, correction of congenital malformations. Their specialty though, is not to diagnose and study...their specialty is to cut. Who decides if the patient needs a cutter? The cardiologist does.

So...my cardiology fellowship is 3 years long, and I've finished about 5 months of it. I do a different rotation every month, learning all the various disciplines and skills within cardiology that I listed above. Here is my schedule this year:

July: Heart Failure
August: Inpatient/Consults
September: Consults
October: Consults
November: Electrophysiology
December: Nuclear cardiology
January through March: Cardiac catheterization (learning to put plastic tubes "catheters" into the heart to look for blockages, or to make measurements, or to take certain xrays of the heart)
April: MRI
May: Echocardiography
June: Electrophysiology

I really enjoy what I do. The key to Internal Medicine, and to a subspecialty like Cardiology, is that I get really good at diagnosing patients, and learning the skills to do various tests to help diagnose them. Then, I decide what treatment they need and how to get them better. And there are many procedures I can do to help them...everything except surgery! It is fascinating and there is always so much to learn. The only drawback is...the extra 3 years it takes to get through this!

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday season! This will be almost 5 years since I started this blog!

Alan

Our new home

I told you he's a country mega superstar

Want to give a quick shoutout to Bryan Edwards

1) He's getting married on New Year's Day!

2) He's been writing and performing country music in Nashville, and just had one of his songs put on Jason Aldean's new album, which came out a couple of weeks ago! "If she could see me now." Buy the album and support Bryan!

We went to Ashevile, NC in the fall for a little vacation

Hudson loves fish and the Georgia Aquarium!

Kelly and Ethan, Nicole and Hudson, and Crystal and Paxton - the three kids all have the same exact birthday - June 17th!!!

Fun at the Dekalb-Peachtree airport with Brady (son of Josh and Amy) and Eli (son of Andy and Joanna). Josh and Andy are cardiology fellows at Emory too.

Hudson loves his Baba! Airpwane!

Hudson's pop-pop!

Hudson's first love, Sydney (daughter of Nate and Amy).

Will (son of Jessica and Mike), Hudson and Nicole, and Nicki and Alice - friends from the neighborhood.

Hudson is obsessed with balls. Quite a soccer player too...

Jackie Chu's wedding at the Atlanta History Center in October, the same exact location where we got married!

Hudson at a pumpkin patch

Visiting Mark and Andi and their son Avery in NC during our fall vacation

Hudson's house party/birthday party in Atlanta!

Natalie (daughter of Dave and Karen), quite advanced for her age...=)

He loved the ferry (coast of NC) - his face says it all.

Yummy burgers in San Francisco!

So much fun visiting SF and Sonoma Valley

Hello everyone,

Well I already knew I was bad at keeping in touch, which is why I created this blog – to offer an outlet to keep in touch. Too bad its been months since my last post…really sorry that I am just terrible at keeping up.

This is our 6th month of being in Atlanta! Things have gone well, and there has been lots of change in our lives. First, Nicole’s mom Barbara is now living with us – moved in just 2 weeks ago It has been really great to have her be a major part of Hudson’s life. She is doing wonderfully – possibly even cancer free, and has recovered from heart failure from her chemotherapy. I don’t know what it is like to have a goal of “making it to my grandson’s first birthday” to now perhaps being “possibly cancer free”, but Barbara is living proof of the strength of the human spirit.

Hudson is growing up so fast! Now 17 months old, he speaks 20-30 words and seems to understand lots more. He’s putting phrases together…”more airplane”…”more bread”…”more shoe”…”that pine-apple”! He’s running around like crazy, and his favorite things are airplanes, cars, and animals! I think he may be a pilot. He can spot an airplane even if its miles away and looks like a dot in the sky. He often has us looking for what he’s already found in the sky…

Nicole and I are doing well also. We both are so busy with work right now, which is another reason why we’re grateful to have Barbara with us. Nicole is a liver surgery and liver transplant PA at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, where she sees patients who are referred for surgery, and also sees post-transplant patients. It’s a new and different world for her, definitely challenging, but she’s great at what she does. I am 5 months in to my cardiology fellowship at Emory and overall, really enjoying the work. We have developed a great network here and we love the neighborhood we live in, called Lake Claire, an intown neighborhood in Atlanta.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Alan

I guess it has been another routine couple of months since my last blog. Sorry! But Hudson just had his 1st birthday (June 17th) so it is time for me to write.

(Oh, by the way, Amy is in Europe travelling this summer before she starts her PhD at Georgia Tech in biomedical engineering. Her blog is http://chengamyy.blogspot.com.

I can't believe its already been a year since Hudson was born! What an adventure! I never knew how much I could love your own child. In fact, I didn't really like kids that much. I think I started turning the corner when Tyler and Kaelyn were born. Totally cute, and really good kids. But still, they made messes and had food on their faces and had smelly diapers and I wasn't really crazy about it all. But there must be some switch that happens when you see your child born and grow. I think the switch didn't even happen at birth...yes I loved Hudson, but I REALLY loved Hudson once he started looking at us, making cooing noises, grabbing things and studing them in his hands, and that sweet sweet smile that just makes you melt. He gives the special "look of love" when you read books to him (Hi Baba!).

Hudson is now cruising along furniture, stands up easily holding on to things. On his birthday, he stood for the first time on his own, for 30 seconds! He says "bababa" and "mamama" and "mmmmm" and "ga-ga" (for da-da) and "gog" (for dog) and "bopbopbop" for everything else, and "shhh" for fish. He has the cutest giggly laugh espcially to "tinky toes!" where you smell his stinky feet, and when you tickle his armpits or swing him upside down. He is analytical - likes to hold things in his hand and study them...I think he'll be an engineer...or an interior designer, as he likes to touch fabrics.

We had Hudson's first first birthday party in Long Island, New York, where the pictures are from. Barbara threw an extra special party with all the good luck charms of a Chinese birthday! A cake with an Ox on it (Hudson is an Ox), everyone wore red (for good luck), he ate long noodles (for long life), and many of Nicole and Barb's and Robert's friends and family came to celebrate. A second first birthday party will take place here in Atlanta in July. More on that later...

I also can't believe that we have made our move back to Atlanta! Our life in NC has come to a close. We have had a wonderful 4 years there and made many friends and really had a home there. We will miss our 2 closest couples there - Dave and Karen, and Andi and Mark - who we have shared lots of time in and out of work, and with our kids. We also have so many other close friends that are like family to us - Chris Barger, Amy Hird and family, the Parkwood softball team, the Residents (and champion resident softball team) and my co-chiefs, Dr. Greganti, Paris (and Zemaya) and Melissa (and Braden), and our nanny Sherri...and others (sorry if I forgot you!)

And now we are moving to Atlanta, where we used to live 4 years ago, and are so fortunate to have wonderful friends and family here. Amy and Nate, Ben and Jen, Stephanie, Andre, Carrie and kids, Jay and Cynthia (our old neighbors in Durham)...and Barb to move in soon! We also have a great nany share set up - we met Kelly and Jon and their son Ethan, who has Hudson's exact same birthday! And a nanny, Guisella, who speaks Spanish and will hopefully teach Hudson to use his right brain well.

There's so much other stuff to talk about, but it will have to wait because I'm running a 5k tomorrow. To remind myself...

- San Fran

- Sold our old house and bought a new house on same day

- New house with pictures

- Finishing chief residency

- Starting cardiology fellowship

- Having a month off

- Father's Day and being a dad

- Post more pictures

Talk more later,

Alan

Hudson's 1st birthday

Avery and Hudson, loving their wagon rides. Auntie Andi blowing bubbles.

On a bench in Long Island.

With daddy.

"The look of love"....for Baba.

He loved the gusty wind blowing in from the Atlantic!

The birthday crowd!

The cake was sooooo good...Hudson picked up the plate and licked it (never did it before!)

What is this delicious morsel you've given me?

Who me? My birthday?!

Happy birthday Hudson (in Chinese) with his zodiac sign, an Ox...designed by Baba.