Randomness in Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures - 

This is the view from my hospital room and I was on the 6th floor.  The kind folks at Bumrungrad built this rooftop/balcony garden.  It sure was peaceful to look at.

My little helper helped Gigi keep up with the dishes.

They also horsed around a bit too.

I see how it went.  He washed dishes and Gigi rewarded him with water.  It seems he has gotten over his aversion to drinking water.

Okay, somehow KB has avoided getting either pee or poo on him with our first two kids - I mean EVER.  It is not because he avoided holding or changing them.  I really think he just got lucky.  I am happy to tell you his luck has run out!  Brown 3.0 has leaked his diaper on KB twice now - just 30 more times and we might be even.  We can do it!

He is about 5 days old in this picture.  His face is still a bit swollen

I am going to attempt to continue my tradition of taking a monthly photo of our babies with a certain toy to show how much he has grown.  Here he is about a week and a half old. 

Found these at a local mall.

Family photo attempt.  This fine green area is just outside our backdoor in Bangkok.  Although Bangkok is not quite an oasis of relaxation, our guesthouse has a quiet little corner of the city, and they have done a nice job of making it peaceful. 

The kids are running on a bridge over a canal.  This is probably about 20 feet from our back door.  There is even a monitor lizard living in this canal.  It is about 3-4 feet long.  I am glad I knew it was there because the day we saw it I might have screamed loud enough for everyone living here to hear.  

Funny Faces

I need to poop face.

Pooping face.

Relief from finish pooping face.

Sitting in my poop and don't care face.  

...I have digressed to talking about poop.  Time to sign off!

Pictures

I have some pictures, and since I am typing with one hand while breastfeeding (multitasking), my text will be brief.  Also since I have not transferred pictures from my camera in more than a week, most of them are during LRB's first couple days.

Obviously (I hope) I am still pregnant in these pictures.  This is just before we left for my appointment at which I was quickly thrown into labor.

Soon after this picture AB pitched a massive fit when she saw KB and I get in a taxi for the hospital.  It was a nice send-off.

Here LRB (I have got to find something different to call him on our blog.  I think we all need pseudonyms) is meeting his big sister and brother for the first time.  

Bringing him "home" after a day of feeling trapped at the hospital.  Seriously we were supposed to check out at 11am, and at 7pm we finally were able to leave.  I think there was a disconnect between the medical staff and their clock because apparently our mandatory check-out time was relative.  I just wish someone would have told us.  In the US sometimes it seemed they could not wait to get rid of us, here they wanted to keep us, even though we had already signed the bill and they were not getting any more money from us.  

I think they are both quite smitten with him, but it is slowly starting to settle in that their mommy time has dramatically been reduced but on the plus side movie time has increased.  Let's see how long the love lasts.

One-on-one time with Bambi and Brown Bear.

He's Here!

Our little LRB (email me at eastasiabrowns@pobox.com if you would like to know his full name) was born June 4th.  He weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and he is perfect! If you want to know the whole story,  please read on. (KB has not proof read this yet, so please just ignore my typos)

My mom arrived in Bangkok late Sunday evening.  We spent Monday helping her stay awake, visiting and eating.  Tuesday afternoon KB and I kissed the kids goodbye, put our hospital bag in a taxi and headed to the hospital hoping that I would have the baby that night.  I am not sure why, but my doctor only has night clinic hours.  Upon seeing her she said that over the last 5 days I had dilated to a 3 (yea!) and said she was willing to give me a Cervidil.  She said since last time I was so responsive to it, she did not want to give me the full dose.  All I could think was, "I hope this works" and I was really thinking that as they stuck the epidural needle in my back - they never checked to see if I was really was responding to the medication.  However, fortunately it did.  Although I continued to have steady 5 minute apart Braxton Hicks contractions for about 15-20 minutes after she gave me the pill, at about 21 minutes I felt a contraction at a level of pain that let me know I had made the transition into labor.  

Soon after they wheeled me up to my room (I really wanted to walk so I could intensify/speed things along, but they said no), and within minutes I was in my hospital gown.  Not too much later I was greeted by an anesthesiologist who to my delight was willing to give me a walking epidural. Although the feel of a needle being inserted into my spine is not something I hope to ever feel again, I was pretty pleased with the results.  I could feel my legs and feet.  Initially I could feel my uterus contract but it was without pain...later there was significant pain but that is what I wanted when I asked for that kind of epidural.  

Soon after the epidural I was dilated to about 5 and they broke my water.  About when I dilated to a 7 my doctor arrived.  After looking at my fetal heart monitor printout she told me she thought the cord was around his neck, so for the next little bit they had me rolling around on the bed to relieve pressure from the cord and they made me breath a certain way to get more oxygen to him.  At that time they gave me some Pitocin to help me pound out those last 3 centimeters to get our little boy out faster.  It worked very well.  

Within minutes of the Pitocin I felt a lot of pain and I told them I thought was time to push.  To their surprise it was.  He came out in 1 and 1/2 pushes - No, that is not a typo.  All in all, from the moment she put the Cervidil in me to the moment LRB was born, 4 hours had passed - although drug assisted, it was the fastest labor I have ever had.  Also, I am really glad I only had a walking epidural or rolling around on the bed would have been a bit tricky with not being able to feel my body and all.  It turns out the cord was not around his neck, but the cord was a bit short and he was laying on it.  Once the water broke all of his weight on it was preventing good flow of oxygen. 

Two days later we went home and are beginning to learn what it means to have three kids...but I think the weight of responsibility will really hit once Gigi leaves.  I am scared.  Anyways, we are enjoying our days of getting to know the newest member of our family.  We all think he is a keeper.