Signs from around town...

This sign was outside a newly constructed building. 

The Thai Royal Palace

LB's mom arrived two days ago.  Jet lag is a terrible thing, so we are trying to keep her moving.  Today we went to the Royal Palace.

LB and RL

We have been asked to provide proof of Ronda's arrival in Bangkok. She arrived safely on the 26th. We appreciate her flying on Christmas day just to be here with us. 

 

Our Christmas card

A Thai Christmas

During our first visit with our doctor here in Bangkok, our doctor noticed the cross on LB's necklace and asked if we are Christians. We said yes and she invited us to a Christmas Eve dinner at her church. There were about 1,200 people there and 1,194 of them were Thai.  Her church is associated with an all girls Christian school, and the school was hosting the dinner.  We ate Thai chicken, pork leg, fish stomach, cashews, tofu, rice chips, lotus soup, Sprite, Coke, and water. The entire service was in Thai but some of the Christmas songs were in English (Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and one other).  

We are very thankful that our doctor invited us to spend Christmas Eve with her. There are not many Christians in Thailand, most Thai are Buddhists. Also, the Thai are very personal people, and they do not often invite outsiders to spend personal time with them. 

Our doctor lived in Germany for 20 years so she's had a lot Western influence and also she is just a wonderful Christian lady. 

This was our second Christmas away from family, and although being away from family is never fun, for the most part we enjoyed it.

From around town...

One of the signs at the park. I think it means stay off the grass. 

Around town...

Interesting sign we found while hiking through the mountains back in June. 

Hospital Photos

Here is LB while on the fetal heart monitor.  If you look closely you can see the incredibly close contractions on the printout.  It is the line closest to LB.

They almost got it right.  That extra "R" sure does make a difference though.

We are finally back at the hotel after 2 days at the hospital.  KB picked out this outfit for LB and brought it to the hospital.  He did pretty good.

Fun Times at the Hospital

We are so glad to be in Bangkok.  Lots has happened, and it has been mostly at the hospital.  LB was put on standby for an appointment on Thursday.  It was a last minute appointment, so they had to squeeze her in.  The doctor check her out and said everything looked good, and scheduled her for an appointment the next day with a cardiologist.  Then LB told her that she felt like she was having consistent contractions.  The doctor decided to put her on a fetal heart monitor for an hour to see if they were consistent.  LB's contractions were coming every 2-4 minutes.  LB is just now 36 weeks; they want the baby to wait at least another week before she makes an appearance.  So, they gave her some pills, and they did not work.  They gave her a shot and it also did not work.  Therefore they admitted her.  This was completely unexpected.  KB had to rush back to the hotel to get things for the evening.  The next day LB had a bunch of tests done, lots of medication and the first of 2 steroid shots to get the baby's lungs ready in case she comes a bit early.  By about 9pm the next day LB's contractions were back to about 2-3 an hour.  After 2 nights in the hospital we are now back at the hotel.  LB is taking medication to continue to slow the contractions and will do this at least for another week.  The doctor is wonderful.  She is a Thai doctor who was trained in Germany and speaks English with a German accent.  She sounds like Mrs. Doubtfire.  

Also we received the wonderful news that LB will not be scheduled for a C-Section.  She will be at least be given the opportunity to try for a normal delivery.  

LB's mom will be arriving here in less than 7 days.  We are really excited about this.  She will be the first family member we have seen in more than a year and 2 months.  

We will keep you all posted and will give you all some photos to look at soon.

L & KB

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KB went panda on this bamboo

On the road...In the sky again

On Sunday we received a phone call telling us that the powers at be are not satisfied with LB having a C-Section due to her heart condition.  Therefore we were told to pack up and fly to Bangkok.  KB received the call, and LB sat beside him laughing at the fact that we are traveling again (our 9th change in travel plans).  We had settled into Chiang Mai and had begun to really enjoy being there.   However, we were there for the purpose of delivering our baby, so we should go to wherever we will be the best taken care of.  So this morning we boarded Thai Airways from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.  It was an easy uneventful flight, and we were just grateful they let LB on the plane and that we did not get charged any overweight luggage fees.

LB is at 36 weeks and she is regularly feeling contractions.  We are on standby for a doctor's appointment on Thursday, and we are hoping to get in to see a doctor soon.  We are hoping that by being at one of the best hospitals in all of Asia she will be able to avoid having a C-Section or at least feel that that decision was made by the best possible doctor. 

We will keep you all updated on everything.  There is really no chance of us leaving Bangkok sine LB cannot fly more than an hour at a time.  So, this is our final destination for the birth of our little girl.

From around town...

Is there anything wrong with this picture? 

We are in Thailand!!!

We are finally in Thailand! After changing the plans many times and over a week of traveling, we've finally arrived. Its nice to be here. 

Back in October we made a special trip to another city to see some Western trained doctors. The doctor said LB has Supra Ventricular Tachycardia. On Wednesday our Thai doctor took a sonogram of LB's heart and discovered she has Mytral Valve Prolapse. The Thai doctor wanted LB to wear a 24 hour heart monitor. The monitor showed she has Pre Atrial Contractions. So right now we don't know if she does or does not have SVT, but we do know for sure she has MVP and PAC. As a result the doctor has suggested she have a C-Section because he is concerned about the strain on her heart during delivery. At this time we have scheduled the C-Section for Dec. 30th. 

The 24 hour heart monitor.

The same day LB had to wear the heart monitor the electricity in our apartment was shut off so we spent some time in Starbucks waiting. 

LB caught up on her favorite book-turned-movie Sense and Sensibility. 

KB read about month 9 of a woman's pregnancy. 

Christmas decorations

In our city we do not often see nice Christmas decorations. This hotel was in one of our transit cities as we were en route to Thailand. 

Asking Santa for directions. 

Our last Sunday in our city.

We enjoyed one more time of fellowship at a coffee shop before we began our traveling. 

KB and the pup

Around town...

Bumper stickers just aren’t enough around here. People tend to go to the extreme and paint their cars according to their favorite fictional characters.

I was riding in the back of a taxi and I saw a MAN driving this pink Hello Kitty car. I got my camera out as fast as I could but this was the best photo I could get. 

We also often see cars with Transformers painted on them. 

Travel Changes

Since our last blog post our tickets have been changed two more times, the last time changing just 10 minutes before we left our home.  It was a bit stressful.  However essentially we are back on schedule to spend an evening in Kuala Lumpur.  We are hoping our visas will be ready Monday morning so that we can pick them up and be at the airport by lunchtime.  The King of Thailand's birthday messed up our visa application schedule since it is a national holiday and we could not pick up our visas yesterday.  We are cutting it a bit close, but I think that is the just way things are going to work on this trip.  I cannot figure out how long our flight to Kuala Lumpur is, but it is somewhere in the area of 4-6 hours.  The flight Kuala Lumpur to Chiang Mai is around 2-3 hours.  Hopefully we will be in Chiang Mai by lunchtime on Tuesday - hopefully.  We will post photos soon!

Around town...

Apparently there was something wrong with the drinking-water fountain. 

Traveling Plans

For those of you who were wanting to know, we think our travel plans are almost settled upon. Tuesday we will fly to the big city to apply for our Thai visas.  We will hopefully pick-up the visas on Thursday or Friday.  On Saturday morning we will fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  We will stay one night there, and in the morning we will fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  We will give birth there.  Chiang Mai does not offer as much as Bangkok, but we know a lot of people who live there so that is a plus.  

Obviously we are not going directly to Thailand.  All flights to Thailand from where we live go through Bangkok, which is not an option at this point.  Neither of us have been to Kuala Lumpur before, so although I doubt we will venture far from our hotel, it will be exciting to catch a glimpse of the city.

We miss you all, and thank you for thinking of us as we have been dealing with our traveling issues.

The Browns

Baby's Room

The baby's room is just about finished! Special thanks to Ronda for all of the work you did. 

Pregnancy and Traveling

We have received some e-mails from concerned friends that knew about our travel plans.  This coming Sunday we were supposed to fly to a big city to apply for a 60 day visa to Thailand, then on Thursday we were supposed to fly to Thailand.  If you have been keeping up with the international news then you know that protesters have swarmed the 2 airports in Bangkok, forcing officials to close the airports.  

Here is what we know so far.  The American Embassy in Bangkok has advised against trying to enter Thailand until at least December 1st, but it is likely they will issue another warning like this, everyday until the protesters leave the airport or allow planes to begin landing.  

Therefore we have to change our plans.  I cannot fly after December 11th, and although it is 13 days from now, we have to apply for and get our visas and obtain international airline tickets in only 13 days.  We have been told if things do not get cleared up in the next few days, then we will have to give birth in Hong Kong.  This is not good news for many many reasons, nevertheless Hong Kong is the most Western place in this part of the world, and we would be very comfortable there.

If you all could please be thinking about us in this regard.  We would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving! We celebrated the holiday with one other American. This was our Thanksgiving meal, complete with green bean casserole dressing, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, and the always delicious baked chicken. For dessert we ate pumpkin pie. We forgot to take pictures of ourselves. LB did a good job preparing everything. She can really cook some good food. I am so THANKful to be married to her. 

We started eating at 1:30. At 3:00 we watched a movie. At 4:00 a national friend came over so we turned off the movie. At 5:00 the apartment people came to look at a water leak. At 6:00 our national friend left. At 6:30 we finished the movie. At 7:00 our American friend left. At 9:00 LB was asleep. 

It was a good day. 

Field trip

Last Wednesday the university took all the foreign students and foreign teachers on a field trip. KB went but LB didn’t go. We drove about 1.5 hours out into the middle of nowhere to visit the students at another university. At the school we were told to entertain the students for about 20 minutes. For many of them it was their first time to see a foreigner. My friend said it was like going to the zoo, only they were bringing the animals to the people.

Field trip

Then we drove another 30 or 45 minutes to see a natural cave. Before we went into the cave they took us to eat lunch at the restaurant just outside. I ate fried scorpions and fried silk worms. The scorpions tasted like french fries and the worms were salty. During the meal I had to take some Pepto.

Field trip

I drank green tea, but some of the other drinking options were:  

Seahorse tea. 

Scorpion and red bean tea

Starfish tea

Ant tea

Flying dragon tea

Field trip

Then we walked through the cave. It was about 2 miles long. They lined the walking path with neon lights.