Strolling

While trying to enjoy one of Texas' beautiful days, our family decided to go for a little walk around our neighborhood. Since it was sunny DB needed a hat to protect him from the glare and his mommy just really wanted to put this awesomely cute hat on him. Awesomely cute - for sure.

Big sis has got wearing hats down.

Monthly Pictures - Birth

I am going to try to take pictures of DB at each of his month birthdays with his Curious George to see how much he grows. I took this a few days after he was born, but it has got to be close enough to be considered "birth". You can see in the second picture that his eyes were still yellow. I am glad we are past that.

DB is growing and gaining weight well. However, I noticed he seemed to be less content than AB as a newborn, and he cries more as well. This weekend my sister noticed a combination of many things and asked me if I ever thought he might have acid reflux. I looked up the symptoms online and he seems to have all of them. I never considered it because he does not actually spit up, but he (and this sounds so gross) swallows it. I always thought of reflux babies as only those who spit up. Anyways, today we went to the doctor, and he has given DB some medicine to maybe help. He said it is a trial and error type of thing. I hope we get it right quickly since we are hoping to leave in 2 weeks.

I feel awful for the little guy. It makes sense why his cries always sounded like he was in pain and why he always wants to be propped up right. Fortunately we were able to borrow a bouncer (thanks Christina) and it has been super helpful. Once we realized he had reflux, I stopped putting him in his crib and he now sleeps exclusively in the bouncer. It is wonderful!

Isn't he a handsome boy?

Carb Crash?

DB loves to take a nap partially halfway through his meal and then he likes to follow-up his meal with another nap. His life must be so rough! It makes me wonder, what is in that milk of mine?

Playtime with Loli

My Observations on Delivering in the US

Now that all is said and done with delivering our beautiful second baby, here are some of my observations on delivering in the United States as compared with delivering in Thailand...in case any of my pregnant friends were considering making the trip for themselves : )

1. They give better pain medication in the United States. I have delivered 2 babies with normal sized heads from my body. My body was not the same as before with either of them. In Thailand they gave me Tylenol and in the United States they gave me Vicodin and Ibuprofen at the same time. Although none of the meds took away the pain, the Vicodin/Ibuprofen combo did much better than Tylenol. Apparently in Thailand they have very stringent drug laws and they are afraid of us druggie mommas, seriously.

Also, my friends who had c-sections in Thailand were only given Tylenol post c-section. Brutal. Absolutely brutal.

2. The anesthesiologist was better in the US. In Thailand the anesthesiologist tried 4 times before he finally got it right on the 5th attempt. My doctor in the US got it right on the first attempt, which is always better.

3. In Thailand they admitted me in 10 minutes. In the US they admitted me in an hour and a half. Thailand definitely wins that one.

4. In the US the lactation consultant visited me in my room twice and I have seen her twice since then. In Thailand I tried to call the lactation consultant but she was never in and did not call me back.

5. My delivery cost me nothing in Thailand. In the US we maxed out our Out of Pocket. Cheaper wins.

6. Living in a hotel in Thailand had its perks. I did not have to clean, wash/change the sheets, or even wash my dishes. It had a pool and the foot massage place charged $3 an hour. Cannot beat that. However, living in a hotel for 2 1/2 months does get old, and you get to the point where you just want to be settled in. Also, there is no place to go to get away from a crying baby. It is a tie.

7. Hello, I did not know how great it was to have my meals taken care of by so many wonderful people! Who knew how helpful it would be? My goodness I have not had to cook a dinner since DB was born, and can I tell you how much stress that takes off of me? Good grief, if I could just go back to before I had children, knowing what I know now I would have made multiple meals for my new mama friends. What a blessing! In a way I did get this benefit while in was in Thailand since my mom cooked for us every evening after AB was born, but delivering in the US wins this one.

8. Documentation. Arrg...Documentation. When you deliver overseas it is actually easier to get documentation in a timely manner. They are accustomed to rushing documents since it is quite obvious everyone living abroad needs a passport and all the other stuff necessary. We had AB's passport just 2 weeks after she was born. It took one day to get our visas, and our flights were booked the day before we flew. We just got DB's SS number, and are waiting for our appointment to apply for his passport. So, getting the documentation is easier in Thailand.

However, AB does not have a United States birth certificate. She has a Thai birth certificate that was officially translated in to English and certified by the US Embassy. Do you know what we would have to go through if we lost it? I do not want to even think about it. Whew, it gives me a headache! Instead of having a United States birth certificate, she has something called a Consular Report of a Birth Abroad. In the US it is supposed to be used as a birth certificate, but not many people know what it is and to get duplicates or a replacement is a huge deal since they must come from Washington rather than locally. So, in this aspect, delivering in the US wins. It was for this issue that we primarily wanted to deliver DB in the United States.

9. When it comes to my doctors, it is a tie. I think the two most wonderful doctors in the world delivered my children. It would be hard for me to choose between them.

Just a note though. In Thailand I was not told how I was progressing at all. I never knew if I was dilating prior to my delivery or even how I was progressing during my delivery. That is just not information they share with the patient. In the US my doctor told me each week how my body was becoming prepared to deliver my baby. For someone who likes information, the US is the way to go. If you prefer to not have those updates, go to Thailand.

10. Buying baby stuff in Thailand is very frustrating. They have many of the most popular baby items at a couple department stores, however the goods are imported so they automatically cost more, then on top of that government imposes something like a 50% tax on all imported goods. So, it is more of a "look and see what you cannot afford to buy" type of situation. For example, the stroller we own overseas is great. We bought it online and my mom brought it to us. It was a stroller recommended for use overseas, so it was a bit of an investment. At the department store in Thailand, it was about $730 - that is several times what we paid online in the US. It is just painful for a girl who likes to find sales. So in the US things are a lot cheaper, and you can get more for the same amount of money. On the downside, it can be addictive buying stuff for a bargain. (I think Target is in competition with Disney World for the title "the happiest place on earth" - sigh)

11. The biggest perk of delivering in the US (other than all that wonderful food brought to us) is having our family near. I tried not to dwell on it, but it was a little difficult that the only person there to celebrate the birth of our daughter in Thailand was my mom. I am practical enough to know not everyone can come or should come so far, but still who does not want the birth of their child to be celebrated? I know they were rejoicing for us but their presence was missed.

It is late and 11 comparisions is all I can come up with right now, but to all my girl friends out there who have delivered in Thailand and in the US let me know if you can think of pros and cons as well. I am open to adding to the list.

Our Passport Saga Conclusion

If you were interested in our passport story before, then maybe you will be interested to know it has reached its conclusion. We have our passports!

Apparently the postman who delivers the mail to the house we formerly lived in knew the Korean man living there now was not us. So instead of giving them to the current resident, he sent them back to the passport service center.

Two weeks ago we called the service center, and they told us they had them! We gave them our current address and one week later they arrived in the mail. It was incredible. I am not sure why they accepted our address change now, and not a month ago, but at this point it does not matter to me. What matters is that we have our passports with a thick stack of new pages sewn into it. Thank you Jesus. You are the only one who could make this convoluted story have a wonderful ending.

Now we are waiting on DB's social security number. Because it is one of the few government services we do not have to pay (directly) for, it is the one service we cannot pay to expedite. We can expedite our passports and visas, but we are at the mercy of the Social Security Administration to get us DB's social security number as soon as possible. They told us it would take 2-6 weeks. We are hoping it falls on the shorter timeframe rather than the 6 weeks because that is when we are hoping to leave.

Waiting for Her Injections

For the past two weeks we have taken AB to the special pediatric unit at Scott and White to receive her travel injections. I am not sure why we had to go to the special area, but it is where we went. She has to get injections for things like Japanese B Encephalitis, Rabies, and Typhoid - super fun things. As it is with a lot of hospital appointments, we ended up waiting a long time for the big event. Eventually we resorted to taking pictures on our phone for entertainment.

A Few More Pics

AB's hair is now long enough to pull up into a half side pony tail and pigtails. I now understand why they are called pig tails. Her hair is so fine and curls at the end, so when we put them into pig tails, they literally look like a pig's tail. Super cute. It also validates my persistence in not cutting off her mullet. Although her hair is long in the back and short on the top, it enables me to pull almost all of her hair up for an adorable hairstyle.

Laying Around

These pictures are from a couple days after we came home from the hospital. All that DB really wants to do is lay around, and since I did not want to sit on anything that was not soft as a cloud I also did a lot of laying around. Since we were laying around everyone else decided to join in the fun. Family Time!!!

AB is giving DB sweet big sister kisses. Mommy fell a sleep, and...
so did daddy. DB is always a sleep.

Little Crusader

When I was a little girl my father started the basketball program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, also known as UMHB. Their mascot is the Crusader. My mom dressed my sister and I up in matching UMHB cheereleader uniforms and went to my dad's basketball games as little cheerleaders - apparently there are pictures somewhere of it. Some years later I attended UMHB for my bachelor's degree, and so did my brother. After becoming married KB decided he needed a university football team to support. Although UMHB is D3, they are good and it is fun to watch them beat almost everyone they play. KB now really likes UMHB and fully supports our kids going there. Also they give scholarships to kids like ours and we are hopping they still do that in 16 years. This is us attempting to indoctrinate our child.

Also this was just a couple days after we came home from the hospital, and we were all wearing our most comfortalbe clothes.

Little Mommy

AB is trying to get her practicing in before she is given the task of putting her baby brother in the highchair in a year. Actually she was putting one of her dolls in each one of the chairs at our dining table. I guess they were going to have a dinner together.

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.