Our Growing Family

At Three Days Old

Guess Who?!!!

So guess who has a new baby? We do!

Baby DB was born Monday at 9:28 p.m. He weighed 8.2 lb. and was 20.75 inches long. If you are interested the whole story read on. Also, if you want to know his whole name, email us at eastasiabrowns@pobox.com.

Monday morning I had an appointment to see my doctor. He checked me out and told me he was suprised I had not gone into labor over the weekend. Me being the ever positive thinker sarcastically thought, "I'm not"...I was a bit disappointed. I asked him about the possibility of being induced, but when he checked Labor and Delivery to see if there was room at the hospital to induce, they said the next available spot is next Monday. They were full. Talk about a let-down. We went ahead and scheduled it and hoped he would make an appearance before then.

In our hopes that my doctor would give me something to encourage my body into labor, we had stayed up the night before cleaning and preparing to hopefully have a baby on Monday. We even packed our van with the hospital suitcase, infant carrier and other things just in case. Afterwards they just served as a reminder to me that I should not get my hopes up to deliver this week and I even got onto myself for thinking we would actually deliver on Monday. I think I was being a little too hard on myself, but who can talk sense into a pregnant woman wanting to deliver her baby?

At 11am AB had an appointment to receive the first round of the dreaded travel injections. That is a whole story in itself, but essentially afterwards we took her to Chick-fil-a, with the playground, to try to cheer her up and let the injections work through her leg muscles. That is when my back first started to hurt. As I have said in other posts I have annoyingly strong Braxton Hicks contractions, and they usually also radiate through my back. Therefore, at that time I just dismissed it as another case of the same old stuff. Also they were not bad enough to keep me from walking back up to the counter and ordering a chocolate peppermint shake. I love those things.

When we got home AB was feeling pretty crummy and running a fever from the injections, so we gave her some medicine and put her down for her nap. KB put himself down for a nap, and I tried to take a nap...however, I was in a bit of pain and had a hard time falling asleep. Although I thought it was futile, I began timing my contractions. They were somewhat regular, but so were all those other cruely convincing contractions. I do not think I realized they were growing in intensity until I noticed the pain in my back was so strong that I could not feel the contractions in my abdomen. That was when I thought, "this is more like when I was in labor with AB." I talked with my mom and sister on the phone. They both encouraged me to get it checked out but I had a fear of going to the hospital and getting all embarassed when they tell me I am not in labor. I decided to wait.

However, by 4:45 p.m. I decided that I needed to go to the hospital. Either I was in labor or they were going to have to give me something to help my back because it hurt really really bad. I called my mom, and she made it to our house in record time. We asked her to tell no one we were going to the hospital. I did not want people to get all excited thinking I was in labor just to be told I was not in labor. We were in the van on the way to the hospital by 5 p.m.

I walked into Labor and Delivery at 5:30 p.m. I filled out some paperwork and sat down expecting to be seen quickly - after all I told them I was in labor. This is my one complaint about my delivery experience. At this particular hospital, they only see people in the order they arrive. So the 2 woman who arrived before me, and who were not in labor were seen before me. Guess how long I waited just for someone to confirm I was in labor, just guess. I waited an hour and a half. I sat in the waiting room, in one of those hard waiting room chairs with all the family members of all the other people waiting for babies to be born having contractions for an hour and a half...does anyone else see anything wrong with that? Does anyone else think that is cruel? I think "in labor" should put someone at the front of the line. By the time I was called back to triage, there were about 8 pregnant ladies behind me waiting to be seen. They probably waited a long time, and I really hope none of their babies were in a life or death situation because L&D was not going to be hurried that day.

At 7:10 p.m. they took me into triage, and at 7:20 p.m. they confirmed I was in labor and dilated to 5. By 7:30 p.m. I was settling in a L&D room and all of our family was notified I was in labor.

I had back labor with AB, and it was apparent I was also having it with this baby because my back hurt so badly I could not even feel my uterus contracting. Therefore from the moment I walked into triage I told every medical professional I saw that I wanted an epidural. I probably told 8 people. It worked because I had a wonderful epidural in my back by 8:10 p.m., which is also the time my doctor walked into my room. By 8:30 p.m. my water was broken and I was dilated to 7.

After my water was broken KB and I began to settle in for however long it was going to take to dilate the last 3 centimeters. I freshened up my makeup. We made sure the camera was ready, and KB found the TV remote. At about 9 p.m., before we could even select a TV show to watch, I began to feel pain in my lower abdomen. I thought this was odd since I had an epidural, but I thought maybe they needed to (I am going to sound so technical when I say this) turn it up. I called my nurse and in the 2-3 minutes it took for her to make it to my room, the pain had gone from annoying to very sharp. She said she needed my doctor take a look at me to make sure everything was okay. Much to everyone's surprise, apparently in those 30 minutes I had become fully dilated and effaced.

In the next few minutes the room was prepared and then I began pushing. After about 3 or 4 minutes our baby was born at 9:28 p.m. He was healthy and absolutely beautiful. Hanging above the bed I delivered on are some shiny lights, and I was able to see the whole event in their reflection. Although a little gross, it was amazing. Also, since my epidural was not all that "turned up," I was able to feel him coming out of me. It was a unique feeling, and I am really glad I was able to experience it.

The whole thing went so fast. Just 2 hours after being admitted, our precious baby boy was in our arms. Even 2 days later that still amazes me.

We are home now. AB met DB for the first time today, and as far as we can tell she is cool with him. She likes to give him kisses on his head and to bring him his Curious George stuffed doll. I think DB looks like a boy version of AB. The only difference is his dark hair, and we think he has KB's nose. Most of our good pictures are on my dad's camera. We will post them once I get a chance to download them.

We are exhausted and happy. It is perfect.

Playing in the Park

How Do You Know?

So, other than the really obvious signs, i.e. the water breaking, how do you really know when you are in labor? I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions since I was about 20 weeks along. My Braxton Hicks contractions feel a lot like the real ones. They start in the back, radiate to the front, I get all tight and menstural like, and they last for a minute at a time. Also, they hurt so bad sometimes I cannot talk. At times I have had them consistently 6 minutes apart for 4-5 hours at a time. I absolutely do not trust myself to know when I am truly in labor. I will have to be in serrious pain before I ever conceed to actually being in labor. I keep praying that my water will break because I could be in true labor and think it is just another instance of consistent, hard Braxton Hicks contractions. I am going to end up being one of those women who give birth at home.

With AB, I had this same problem. However, because my iron was so low (I was at a 7) they did not want to risk me going into labor from the Braxton Hicks contractions and had me on medication to stop them. Then I took a monster amount of iron for 2 weeks in order to get it up to 11. Also, to monitor my iron, I visited my doctor everyday the week of my due date. Then, at one of my visits she told me I was in labor. This was great. I certainly would not have thought I was in labor, just more decietful contractions.

What makes this even more interesting is that my body is as close to being in labor that anyone can be, without actually being in labor. I know, my doctor told me so today. I am right there, just hanging on but not quite in labor. As he was walking out he told me that his wife was dialated to a 4 for 2 weeks. All I could say was "oh my." He saw my face and tried to reassure me he did not think I would hang on that long.

AB's Party

Here are a few pictures from AB's birthday party. She had a good time. I still do not think she knew it was for her, but she had to be suspicious when she was the only person opening presents.

I made AB a red velvet cake. After my disastrous last attempt, this was my chance to redeem myself. Two things made a big difference. First, I used red cake coloring instead of whatever I had available...last time I used a combination of blue and green and it looked, um, bad. Second, and this was the biggie, I used real cream cheese for the icing - not the imitation stuff I substituted with last time. In case you ever move overseas, "creamed cheese" is not the same thing as "cream cheese," and "breakfast cheese" is even more dissimilar.

She liked it, but she was a slow eater and we had to let her finish her cake after the presents.

I just cannot believe she is using a fork.

Happy Birthday AB!

The best part about this video is seeing AB's surprise and excitement when she heard her name sung during the happy birthday song.

Birthday Balloons

On Sunday AB turned 2, and on Saturday we had a small birthday party for her at my parent's house. AB loves balloons, so the day before I blew up 24 balloons. She got a kick out of them, but the adults quickly learned how to get a good laugh out of them as well.

No Baby Yet and a Passport Story

As of today I am 38 weeks along. It would thrill me if he came at any time, but it seems my body is content to keep him snug inside me for a while longer. AB was born exactly on her due date. I read babies being born on their actual due date is uncommon, but if my experience with her is any indication of what to expect this time, my body is not going to give him up for 2 more weeks. Our hospital has a policy about inducing before 39 weeks, so even if I go that route I will not see him for a while. That is not to say I am sitting around just waiting for my water to break. I have the list of things to do that can send a woman into labor, and I am doing them. However, in the interest of our bank account, I decided walking for exercise in Target and the mall was no longer an option. A penny saved is not a penny earned because even the best bargains add up...as I can unfortunately attest to. Oops.

One of the reasons I am so anxious to have him born is because after he is born we only have 6 weeks to get his passport, all of our visas, and all of our plane tickets - it stresses me out just thinking about it. We have to get back to our little city to file a document that expires on March 18th, and it took us 6 months and a lot of work to get this document. We do not want it to expire! However, since it will take a miracle to get us back by then, I am just going to rely on the Father because he knows exactly what we need and I have every reason to trust Him. He has been doing some amazing things in our lives lately concerning documents and logistics. Here is the story. It is about the US Government Passport Service, and if you have had the unfortunate experience of ever making a mistake and not following their procedures correctly, you have my sympathies.

KB and I needed more pages added to our passports. In the month after we return overseas, 3 pages will be used for visas and stamps, and that would leave us with only 2 more pages. Two weeks ago I put our passports in a FedEx envelope along with two $82.00 checks and sent them to the passport service in Philadelphia. Soon after returning home from my errand I had one of those moments where it felt like my heart was going to fall out of my chest. I realized, in my crazy pregnancy forgetfulness (a woman's brain cells literally shrink during pregnancy thus sometimes exacerbating an already existing dispostion to making mistakes), I forgot to include the necessary form to get pages added to our passports. This was huge. It was already past 5pm in Philadelphia, so I could not call anyone to figure out what to do at that point.

The next morning I called them, and after confirming who I was, I told them what I had done. I asked if I could just send in the forms for them to match them with our passports. They said no. They told me they would probably send me a letter with a case ID # telling me I needed to send in the form. Then I should send in the forms with the special letter and the problem would be solved. Here was the problem. They said they could only send it to my address on record. My address on their record is our old address in Fort Worth. I said, okay I need to change the address. They said, "oh, we cannot do that without the form." I said, "Let me get this straight. You cannot process our passport without the form, so you are going to send me a special letter with a special number on it telling me I need to send in the form, and this special letter with the special number must be sent back to you accompanying the forms. However you are going to send it to an address I have not lived at in 3.5 years because you cannot change the address without the form I forgot to send in? Do you realize I will never receive this letter?" I cannot be the first person who forgot to send in the form and has happened to move in the past 10 years (adult passports are good for 10 years). Basically her response confirmed that they could only send it to the address where I do no live because they cannot change it without the form that they will not let me send in without their super special letter with super special case #ID number. Extra big ARRGGG of fustration.

Also, she said since we did send in the checks, there is a possibility they will go ahead and add the pages to the passports and send them to our address on record. She said we would know this was the case if our checks get cashed. This is outrageous. They could be sending our passports to a crazy person who could use them for bad things. Have they ever considered that?

I asked, "can you not put a note on our passport number saying to hold for forms?" She said "No." I said, "Immigration puts notes on people's passport numbers all the time when we enter the country, but you cannot do that." She said, "No."

Who runs the passport offices? Surly they have to have some sort of contingency plans for when people make mistakes. This is crazy

I feel horrible I made such a ridiculous mistake and KB has never once given me a hard time about it. I guess he figures it will all work out. Since the US Government was content to be absolutely inflexible, we started thinking up our own contingencies. Some of my friends recommended contacting my congressman or state senator. I decided to make that plan B, because fortunately our Fort Worth home just happened to be a school owned townhouse, thus making it easier to find out who lived there. KB was friends with the head of housing, so he called him, explained the situation, and the housing guy contacted the current residents to see if they would help.

The next day we got a phone call from a young man who speaks English as a second language, and unfortunately we do not speak his first language. It took 3 phone calls and 2 emails for him grasp what our problem was, but he was absolutely willing to help. Finally a break! He had never used his mailbox before, so he went to the post office and got the key for his mailbox, and has checked it everyday for the last week for either a letter or priority mail envelope addressed to us.

Six days ago our two $82.00 checks were cashed, meaning they were adding pages to our passports. Two days ago I checked the online system to see if they happened enter our passport status, and it said our passports should arrive on Monday or thereabout. So, I emailed our foreign friend to tell him our passports were coming! We asked him to FedEx them to us, and we would reimburse him for the fee. I am not going to get excited until they are safely in our hands, but I cannot believe the series of events that might actually lead to a positive resolution. Many friends have been lifting this up for us, and I cannot attribute those passports making it to us, with the pages added, to the work of anyone but the Father.

Plan D was to report our passports as lost and apply for new ones. I thought it would very ironic considering they would be lost at the Philadelphia Passport Service Center.

Big Church

The day after Christmas our church combined the services and childcare was not provided, so all the little kids were in the service with us. We were scared and expected to spend the majority of the time in the foyer. However, we came prepared with a backpack full of dolls, colors, coloring books, water to drink and of course stickers. As you can see, AB decided the best place for the stickers was her face, and a little later on...she decided my face was the next best place for them. Somehow I managed to not get a picture of the stickers on my face, but several people around us thought it was funny.

A Brown Family Christmas

We spent most of Christmas day at my parent's house, but after AB's afternoon nap we headed home for a Brown Family Christmas. AB's birthday and Christmas last year both fell when she was too little to understand the fun in tearing apart paper. However, in the last year she has been fine-tuning her paper tearing skills by destroying many a tissue, paper towels, magazines, books and important documents in preparation for Christmas. She was ready.

Her first tear of wrapping paper was made with much trepidation since in the past, most paper tearing was sternly discouraged.

So, mommy had to show her it was in fact okay, and she liked it. Also, mommy must really love this picture of AB in order to allow it and all her pregnant glory to be posted on this blog.

One of AB's favorite activities is throwing things away, and here she realized this paper might be trash. This is the "I need confirmation" face as she is saying to me "trash?"

I said "yes," so she promptly took that little pice of paper to the trash in the kitchen. Afterwards we persuaded her to wait till all the presents were opened to resume her beloved pastime of throwing things away.

Eventually AB got into the swing of unwrapping the gifts, so mommy and daddy let her unwrap everyone's gifts. What is she going to think when baby brother wants to help in a few years?

She is our little Santa helper.

Finally, AB unwrapped her "big" gift. We consider it "big" because it is bulky and we had to ponder long and hard if it was worth it to take back overseas. However, every little girl needs a pretend house, and AB is no different. This thing will get stuffed with more socks and underwear than you can imagine and will hopefully make it back to Asia in one piece.

Cookie Makers

My sister's kids (she has four of them) and AB got to spend several days together over the Christmas break. AB has become quite attached to them, and asks for them at least once everyday. I am not looking forward to separating them in a couple of months.

On Christmas Eve they made cookies with Gigi. Clearly their goal was not for the cookies to make it into the oven, but they tried to be helpful.

That is flour around her mouth...something seems fishy.

Are you licking your lips?

That's a good girl. Way to help.

Backsliding.

Well, at least I know Gigi gave her the cookie dough this time. Enjoy sweetie.

Little Cowgirl

A couple of my parent's best friends own a ranch. They have horses, donkeys, bison, and other animals. As sort of a family day, my sister's family, my brother, my parents and our family got together to ride horses, feed the animals, roast food over the fire, and eat smores. It was a great day. The weather was perfect and although AB is scared to death of Santa Claus, she loves riding on a horse. Her least favorite part of the day was when she was not riding on a horse.

KB knew how to ride a horse from his days as a camp counselor. Apparently he helped the campers ride a bunch of old horses around the camp ground. He said the horse he rode on this day was far better than any horse he as ridden before. I did not get to ride a horse. No one thought it was a good idea, and as stubborn as I can be, ultimately I had to agree.

AB with Ed.

Reaching for her daddy who is also on a horse. She would not be reaching for him if he was not on a horse. The horse wins. Ed was a good sport.

Breakfast With Santa, Part 2

After AB's traumatic second meeting with Santa, she got to do something that made the whole ordeal worth it for it (at least that is how I rationalized it), the Bouncy House. AB loves bouncy houses. She usually is not very good at it and prefers to be bounced rather than to be a bouncer.

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When the small kid's time in the bouncy house ended, and the big kids were let back in, we went inside to play games. AB was uninterested in everything, except for the streamers. She dominated them, and whipped them around so much we felt the need to protect the people around her from getting slapped with them. Where can I get some of these to take back with us?

The next morning our old Sunday School class threw us a baby shower. It was really sweet, and we were touched. It was a refreshing weekend, and it reminded us how much we miss our friends. They are the best.

Lastly, a couple people have asked if I have delivered our baby yet. It is a big fat no. I am due on the 29th, so I have a little over 3 weeks to go. I am anxious to see him though. Also I have really enjoyed shopping for the little guy. I was so uninvolved in preparing for AB, in fact the only thing I bought her before she was born was a pink bonnet and her stroller. Although the baby boy selection is a bit less cute than the baby girl section, it has been fun getting to choose things for him. We still have not decided on a name - we need to do that soon.