My Tiny Baby

While we were in Hong Kong last week we visited a pediatrician. AB has 3 (or 4) pediatricians, one in Thailand, one in this country, one it Hong Kong, and she will have another one when we visit the US. He confirmed what we had long been suspecting. AB is underweight and measuring very small. In fact, she is about the size of a 6 month old baby when she was actually 8.5 months old at the time he weighed and measured her. She is below the 5th percentile in weight and height. We were like, "what's going on?" Before June she was in the 75th percentile for height and 25-50th percentile for weight. She has always had a small head, but now it seems her body has slowed down to match her head. Basically she did not gain any weight for the month of June, then gained .5 lbs for July and .5 lbs for August.

The doctor said that her lack of growth coincides with the beginning of my infection, and that my infection probably slowed down my milk production, but I did not know it. He asked if she cried much at that time, and I only remember her crying from teething. He said that she was apparently starving, but was such a good baby that she did not make a big deal about it. Wow, break my heart!

He suggested adding a scoop of formula to each of her solid meals to help her gain a little bit of weight and give her the calcium she was deprived of at that time. I am trying to pump a little each day to stimulate my milk supply, but thank goodness for solid foods! That is the only reason she gained .5 lbs for the two months that she did.

Although this is not a reason to starve your baby, her 6-9 month clothes are still big on her. We are getting a lot of wear out of this size.

Other than the weight, I have a healthy and very happy baby who has slept through the night since she was 2 months old. While I was pregnant with her, everyday we prayed that she would be a healthy, content baby and she is. She loves to tear through the bottom drawers in her bedroom, and screams with delight all the time, even when it is best to be quiet. All the locals who see her instantly want to hold her (but with there being 12 million locals, we have to draw the line at people at total strangers), and our house helper thinks she is the most well behaved baby she has ever seen. I am in love with our beautiful baby girl...especially her slow-growing hinie (I am not sure how to spell that, but you can substitute tush if you prefer.).

Below are her 8 month photos. It is getting more and more difficult each month to get her to sit still. She is such an unwilling subject. When she was younger it was a struggle to get her to look at me and smile, now I am just hoping that I can catch a photo before she knocks over her pink elephant or takes off across the bed. She is such a ham! It was a cloudy day when I took these, so the lighting is not the best, but she still is cute.

Her little hair bow is hanging on for dear life! I had to re-clip it about every minute.

She is looking at her daddy for this one.

Her patience ran out. It was a little too near nap time.

My Tiny Baby_Part 2

Fun with Mommy

Because AB's room is small, has the best air conditioner, air purifier and all of AB's toys, we spend a lot of time in there. After dinner one night we started playing, and KB took photos.

In this first one I look like I am about to eat her! Seriously, my mouth looks huge! No wonder she thinks it is the perfect place to put her hands. She likes to grab onto my teeth and then scratch my gums with her razor sharp little fingernails. Of course I don't actually let her do this, but she is a quick little one and I can't just rip her hand out if my mouth when she is in the process of injuring me.

Here we are playing a little game. I put her up on my calves. Then I...

point my feet to the ceiling so that she comes sliding all the way down...

to my tummy!

Toby has gotten very good at getting as close as he can get without touching her. AB loves it. I think if she could bottle the Toby smell she would.

Catching-Up

Here are a few recent photos that I have neglected to post. What in the world would we have ever taken pictures of before we had a kid? We have soooooo become one of those couples, but I guess once you have a kid you finally understand what all the fuss is about. We love our AB.

Pink Pringles?

Shrimp Flavor

Trains

If you have not figured it out by now, we do not have a car. To get around town we either walk, take the bus (which we really don't like), or take a taxi. Since it usually costs around $1 USD to get anywhere by taxi, we take a taxi. I do not need the stress of being on the bus while everyone tries to touch AB, tells me that she is cold in the middle of the summer, or tries to sneak a photo with their cell phone camera. No thank you.

To travel to other cities we would love to just fly or hire a private car, but that is often out of our price range. So if we are traveling less than 1 hour by plane, we try to take the train. This country has some extremely nice trains. Some of them go up to 200 miles per hour, and have seats that you can spread out in and recline. However, these trains do not come through our city. Instead we take the slow train with all of the local people. If we are lucky we can get a "sleeper train." These trains have stacks of beds throughout the car, and if we are really lucky we can get a "soft sleeper" room that is private...well that we only have to share with a few other people. However, if traveling during the day, they assume that the bed is more like a bench that you have to share with everyone else in the cabin. This is considered first class for the slow trains.

I will spare the details of the bathroom, but just let your imagination run wild. It is a sqatty potty and it is very very bad.

We are very grateful for the train though. The train is the one form of transportation in this country that is always on time. It has a bathroom. We can get "first class" seats that somewhat shelter us from the masses of people, and it is not too expensive. We will always choose to take the train over the bus.

Below are a few photos from a recent train trip to and from visiting our friends.

Play Date

A couple weeks ago we took a train to go visit some friends in another city. They have 3 little girls, and one just happens to be a month and a half younger than AB. Her initials are AC. We had fun hanging out the the adults, but AB's reaction to meeting AC made the entire trip worth it. We put AB down next to AC; they looked at each other and just started giggling. This went on for several minutes. It was priceless! They played together, grabbed each other's faces, and AC even let AB sleep in her crib (AB refused to sleep anywhere else apparently). I cannot wait to get them together again.

More Hong Kong

While at the airport I could not resist going into the Disney store. Thank goodness AB does not know to want this stuff yet, but it is so cute. KB had to constantly tell me that we cannot get everything we see, and that it is ridiculous to buy pink mouse ears with a bow that cost more than AB's Infant airline ticket. Someone at the Hong Kong Airport Disney Store is going to find some ears with dried saliva and teeth marks on the tag. Oops.

By the way, my kid looks nothing like me! When KB is not with me, I always think people believe I kidnapped or adopted her. The "people" I am talking about are not the natives of this country. The nationals here would think I was sisters with Madonna if we were standing side by side; they think all white people look the same. So far the only resemblance we have is our strange hair growth pattern (both of us have hair that swirls around the crown of our head...it is a constant struggle to hide mine), same eye shape (they are KB's eyeballs though), eye lashes, and skin color. People comment on our matching skin color often. I think that is the only thing they can find similar between us, so they go for it.

Starbucks. Yum. Sigh....

This is at the Mid Levels in Hong Kong on Hong Kong Island. It is an area of Hong Kong that goes up the base of a mountain. To help people on foot with making it to the business and homes in that area, Hong Kong put in the longest system of escalators in the world. It really is handy. Unfortunately we did not know about it on our first day here, and walked up the street parallel to the escalators. Boy did we feel silly when we came across them after sweating so much.

Hong Kong

We returned home from Hong Kong today. I knew we were home when I watched and listened to a man hawk a lugie into a vomit bag not once but four times during the flight. I also knew when I saw a man clean his ears out with his long fingernail and then wipe the "stuff" on the airplane blanket...I then made a mental note to not cover my daughter in airplane blankets that I do not physically remove from plastic wrapping, and lastly I knew when I caught the janitor smoking in the baby changing room of the airport. It took all my willpower to not walk back over to the ticketing counter and book a flight back to Hong Kong.

We would like to issue a very very very special thanks to our friends at Lake Arlington who are covering the cost of KB's flights to and from Hong Kong. I know people alone travel internationally with their kids all the time, but my stress level dropped 100% when I knew he was coming with me.

Once I began seeing the doctors I was told to see, I realized just why I was sent to Hong Kong. Many of the symptoms I have been experiencing are the same that women with breast cancer experience. I spent the day having tests done, and fortunately because I am currently breastfeeding some of them were a lot more clear than otherwise, like testing my milk and clear visibility of my milk ducts. Because of my young 28 years, I did not have to have a mammogram, thank goodness! Although none of us really ever thought I had breast cancer, it was nice to hear them say that I did not.

We ended up staying in Hong Kong a bit longer than planned, but it was very good that we did. On Monday we bumped into some of our old friends from Fort Worth. They are expecting a baby in November. It was a complete surprise to all of us. We hung out all day, and since we could not get a flight for the next day, we also hung out on Tuesday. They have been our friends for years, but I don't think I have ever had so much fun with them.

On Tuesday morning we accompanied them to their doctor's appointment, which happened to be at the same office that my doctor practices in. While there I realized that I did not get an additional prescription for Augmentin (for when I get my next case of Mastitis), so I asked if my doctor was in the office that day. He was, and he was glad to see me. He told me that he found some surprising things on my tests, and all the medication he had given me would not work at all. I was so relieved to hear this since the medication required me to "pump and dump" for a week. He then gave me the appropriate medication to kill some things off. Apparently what I have is not common, so he never would have thought to give it to me. We are really hoping that it will do the job.

We are home and hoping to not have to travel again for the next month. We have had to fly somewhere every month for the last 3 months, and KB has flown every month since May.

Below are some photos from our trip. I will post some more later. There are lots of things to see and do in Hong Kong. Unfortunately we cannot afford to do most of them, so Disney Land, Discovery Island, and their version of Sea World will have to wait until AB can get a part-time job.

This is a photo of us on the ferry from Hong Kong Island to another island.

Hong Kong Island during the day time.

We could not resist taking this picture.

Hong Kong Island at night.

Toilet Sign

Squatty-potties are the norm here, but thanks to this sign I knew just where to find a Western toilet.

Update from Hong Kong

We do not really have much to share yet. We have been in Hong Kong since Thursday afternoon. Thanks to our friends at Lake Arlington, KB was able to accompany us to Hong Kong. There have been at least 20 moments in the past few days that I have thought, "I am so glad that KB is here." I am so glad he is here.

Some test were done, and I was given some medications. I will have to pump and dump for a week while taking the meds, but that is better than having to stop all together. The test results are not back yet, but they do not expect to see anything major. That's good. We are hoping to stay until we know for sure the medication works, so we are not yet certain of our return date.

We have been running all over the place the past few days and are really exhausted. AB has been taking all of her naps in the Moby wrap, but as long as she gets a good night sleep then she is okay. I did not realize that Hong Kong is so hot and humid! Before coming here I looked online at the weather and saw the temperature, but I did not look at the humidity level. The humidity definitely makes it feel hotter. One of my favorite moments of the day is when I step into an air conditioned building, and one of my least favorite moments is when I step out of the air conditioned building.

We have enjoyed a lot of Tex-Mex, riding the ferry from Hong Kong Island, going to the Peak (the mountain on Hong Kong Island), watching the buildings light up at night, and visiting Babies R' Us. Also, like I said in previous posts, I LOVE going to the western hospitals. One of the hospitals we went to was on the top of the Peak, so that was an added bonus. We were tempted to go to Hong Kong Disney Land, but AB is too young to appreciate it now. Also, it would be a bummer for me since they probably would not let me ride the rides with her strapped to me.

Please keep us in your prayers. We are really hoping the medications work and clear everything up.

Little Update

Here is another chapter to the previous blog entry "Little Bit of a Problem." This one does not contain information that you men would consider T.M.I., but you might be lost if you read this entry and not the previous one. Just a warning.

The medication is not working, and things have gotten worse. It has really been a bit unnerving. Therefore, AB and I are going to Hong Kong to see a doctor. In this area of the world Hong Kong is one of the best places to go for medical problems. Although traveling to another country with a baby and without my husband seems a bit stressful, I am hopeful that our problem will be resolved.

The decision was made yesterday around 4pm for us to go to Hong Kong. I knew that I could not make any travel plans last night since everything hinged upon getting a doctor appointment with the specific recommended doctor and their office was closed for the evening. So, this morning I got up with my feet running.

I first had to put money on our Skype account because my cell phone was not wanting to make international phone calls this morning - stressful. I got the appointment, then I booked the flight to Hong Kong (I usually book international flights with the help of a travel agent), then booked my Hong Kong hotel, then booked my hotel that I will be staying in tonight, and then booked my flight out of our city. Whew. I did it all in about an hour, and have been washing, packing, and taking care of AB the rest of the time.

Guess what? KB went to pick-up our tickets for tonight, the first leg of our trip, and they told him that the flight has been canceled. What? Our tiny little airport only has like 3 flights out if it everyday. I wanted to insult it's creed as an airport for now only having 2 flights today, but putdowns like that don't make it across cultures very well. I wonder if we had booked the tickets online if we would have found out the bad news when we went to the airport instead of about an hour ago.

So I first called KB, who was actually on his way up the steps of the travel agency, to tell him about the change of plans. At first I did not know what the new plans would be so, he started walking home. Then about 15 minutes later I decided what I would do. Then I called Kevin, so he had to turn around and walk back to the travel agency. As you know, we are U.S. citizens. Therefore our passports are in English but this country does not use an alphabet, so they had a difficult time putting our names in their database. On the tickets they have to write out our full names, but AB's middle name is too long for the allotted space. After about a 20 minute phone call with her supervisor, the travel agent decided to just use AB's middle initial. This happens EVERY TIME we purchase tickets from them. I am astonished why they are so surprised when we hand them her passport each time. It is not like her name ever changes.

Anyways, so then I had to change my hotel for tonight, which is not a small feat since nothing here is simple, change my flight to Hong Kong, change my hotel in Hong Kong and change my doctor appointment in Hong Kong. Somehow changing it was easier than making it, but I felt like such a jerk for changing them just hours after I made them. I am just glad that the people I worked with understand that these things happen, especially here.

Now as long as our cracker jack airport does not cancel a regularly scheduled flight again, I should be well on my way to Hong Kong tomorrow evening.

Kiwi Flavored Lay's...Yummm

Revitalizing Kiwi Flavor

Little Bit of a Problem

All you males who read our blog will want to just go ahead and stop reading here. This is not going to interest you at all, and you might even regret reading it.

I have avoided writing anything about this for a long time. I have hinted at having problems, but never explicitly stated it. This is a bit personal, and it talks about an area of my body that I would rather not talk about, and I am especially hesitant to commit it to writing. However, I know I cannot be the first person to deal with this, and I need support. I am out here a flight away from a doctor and a 4 hour train ride away from fellow mommies. When I tried to talk to the national ladies about it, they wanted to send over some old women to do something to me that sounded so painful that I would rather keep the infection that follow their advise. Plus it was not going to be done by a doctor and it sounded a bit superstitious. No thank you. Now I will tell you about it because I am at my wits end and I am asking for prayer.

Before AB was born I decided that I would nurse her for 1 year. I read nursing one year is best for the baby, and I figured why wouldn't I do it? Within a few days of AB being born I had a crack in one side that just got bigger and bigger. My position and AB's latch were both evaluated, and they were both fine. I went topless; I used my milk, tea bags, lanolin, and anything else that books and websites recommended. Ultimately my doctor said I just had very thin and weak skin. After a week of tears from extremely painful nursing I started pumping from the side with the crack, feeding it to her with a bottle.

About a week later I developed a crack in the other side. I was afraid to pump that side as well since AB might develop a preference for bottles. However a few days after my mom left, when AB was 2 weeks old, I started feeling awful. I thought it was hormones since I was uncontrollably crying and did not want to get out of bed, but when I undressed one evening to take my shower I saw something awful in the mirror. I went to my computer and looked up photos of Mastitis, and they looked like what I saw in the mirror. I went to see a doctor and was given medication for Mastitis. I was so glad that my craziness was mostly due to the Mastitis. I probably acquired the bacteria that caused the Mastitis through the crack from AB's mouth, so I decided to also pump from that side until it was also healed. At 2 weeks and 4 days AB was exclusively fed breastmilk from a bottle. I constantly prayed that she would not reject me once I was better.

Fortunately I eventually healed, and AB hated the bottle a little more each day we gave it to her. So, when I was ready to nurse her again, she did not hesitate nursing from me. What a relief!

Now AB is 8 months and a few days old. I have had Mastitis 4 times, and I have to very painfully work a clog out of my breasts at least once a week. AB has been treated for Thrush, and now we are being treated for an inter-ductal yeast infection. We have been battling this yeast infection since mid-June.

It all started when AB had Thrush (mid-June), and while she was being treated for it I developed Mastitis. Apparently me taking the antibiotics just made things crazy, creating the perfect environment for a yeast infection and now we can't get rid of it. I have spent probably several days worth of time reading about this on the internet. I changed my diet, washed everything everyday in either bleach, vinegar or boiling water, I used creams, and once again went topless (which is amazingly what is recommended for most problems having to do with breastfeeding - maybe the ladies in Africa are really the smart ones).

I mentioned that last week we had to go see a doctor for medication. I am taking a ton of Diflucan, probotics and am using a topical Nystatin. AB is taking Nystatin. Although I have been taking them for almost 2 weeks and have not seen any improvement, I am still hopeful...but, this past Thursday morning I had a bump in our road to being yeast free. As soon as I woke and sat up in bed I knew something was wrong, and I immediately went to the mirror. Yep, there they were, not one but two red blotches, one for each breast- apparently that's not supposed to happen, but it did. I did not want to take the antibiotics again! I wanted the yeast infection gone for good. I cannot verbally express to you how painful the yeast infection is, but I will say there is a lot of burning in the boobies going on. Unfortunately we had to board a quite uncomfortable 4 hour train Thursday morning, and as the day went on it became more and more clear to me that I had to take the antibiotics again. Whenever I see a western doctor they give me extra antibiotics because they know my tendency to get Mastitis and that I live in the middle of nowhere. I dug into my stash and started taking them. The next morning the red spot stopped spreading, and my body started hurting a bit less.

I am going to nurse AB for a little less than 4 more months. I must get rid of this yeast infection. AB also needs to get rid of her yeast infection. My yeast infection caused some open wounds on my breast, which is probably what gave entrance to the nasty things that caused the Mastitis. I also need to stop getting Mastitis so that I will not have to take so many antibiotics (that I am so grateful for).

Please pray for us. I am doing all that can be done with the medication. Now I need the Ultimate Healer to do what man cannot do and take this infection from our bodies.

Cucumber Lay's

Green Cucumber Flavor

Teeny Tiniest Little Baby

A few days ago a friend of mine gave birth to a little baby girl. I knew she was born a couple weeks early, but I was not expecting to see such a small baby. I think she was about a third the size that AB was at birth. I could not get over how small she was!

Also in following with the traditions here, the mother has begun her month of confinement. After giving birth women are not allowed to "touch water" for a month. That includes washing their hands, hair, or any other part of their body. For all you ladies out there who have given birth before, you understand when I say, yuck. In addition, she is not allowed to feel a draft of any sort, not from an air conditioner, window, fan or open door. It was in the mid 90's when visited her yesterday. That poor woman was in long sleeves, under a quilt in a room that was receiving no ventilation in 90+ degree heat.

They see all humans needing balance between hot and cold. According to them giving birth is a cold action, so she needs to restore the heat. So that is why they avoid the chill of water and cool air. They also don't drink or eat any cool foods or beverages. They are afraid that the cool wind will "enter their bones" and will cause illnesses the rest of their lives.

Lastly, my poor friend had a c-section. Although I did not have a c-section I know that doctors tend to prefer women to move around within a day or so of the c-section. My friend was 4 days postpartum and had not even sat up in her bed once. To use the restroom they catheterized her, and she has not eaten solid food since before giving birth to avoid going #2. They also have not let her nurse her baby since her milk has not yet come in, so they are bottle feeding the baby and are throwing away her colostrum since they see it as bad.

Now to the tiny little baby girl. She is so little that a newborn diaper would go up to her chin if someone tried to put it on her. Her head is like the size of my fist. This baby also has to go through a period of confinement too. Most notably she has to sweat through the hot room with her mother. You can see in the photos that she is under a thick quilt. I would like to state again, AB and I were sweating in that room. I can't imagine how uncomfortable the little baby could be.

I do not know how the women do it here. They thought I was crazy for showering after AB was born, for eating fruit, for going outside, and the biggie was when I told them we went swimming. They concluded that Asian bodies and everyone else's bodies were different. I asked them about the Asians that lived in the West, and apparently they think somehow they physically change when they leave Asia. Then they made a comment about the food we probably eat.

I am so glad that I gave birth in a Western hospital.

This was AB's first time to see a baby smaller than herself. She is really into touching everything, so we had to hold her hands back. The young woman who is holding her is the younger sister of the new mommy.

AB's Friend

This is so sad, AB has never gotten to play with another baby before. She got to hang out with her friend Ava just after they were both born (they were born one day apart), but when you are under a month old not much socialization is going on.

When we take AB outside all the other kids just stare at her. They do not want to play. We blame this primarily on their parents since the second we step out of our apartment they point at us and say "foreigner." I think this teaches their children that we are more like objects than people, and unfortunately AB suffers because of it. Sometimes city buses will pull over and honk at us just so that they can get us to look at them. It is especially hard because I am noticing that she is now taking an interest in other kids, but like I said, no one wants to play with her.

However just after arriving here almost two years ago, we made friends with a newlywed couple. Soon after meeting them they became pregnant, and about a month after them we became pregnant. Because of traditions here, we could not see him until he was about 3 months old. Then he got sick, and then they went to her mother's house for a couple of months. Thursday was the first day AB and Evan were able to get together. I think we, the parents, were more excited than they were. Nevertheless it was precious. I would like to insert a dialogue that the kids could possibly have had.

By the way, this little boy (if you can't already tell by his split bottom pants) is huge! He weighs at least twice that of AB.

Evan: Mommy who is this white, skinny, blue eyed, red headed baby? I have never seen one like her before.

AB: Oh my, oh my. This kid is huge!

Evan: Mom what exactly are you wanting me to do?

AB: Mom what exactly are you wanting me to do, and why can I see his thingy?

Evan: She is touching me!

AB: I love your outfit. Where can I get one of those?

Evan: I am coming to get you!

AB: I think he is coming to get me.

Evan: We look nothing alike.

AB: We look nothing alike.