Many people have written to ask how baby Gabrielle and I are doing. Today is the first day I have turned on my computer in a while. Here is a list encompassing the title of the post...
-Gabrielle is the gassiest Coker baby. The first few nights out of the hospital, we literally rocked her and rubbed her belly all. night. long. It hasn't gotten too much better since.
-I average about 2-3 hours total sleep a night, even after two weeks. I often make up for it during the day. Sometimes.
-Tobin spiked a fever for a few days. I thought it was Dengue fever, but while he was acting miserable, he wasn't acting that miserable (Dengue fever is miserable), day 4 we took him to the doc, who said his throat was red, and didn't do the blood test for Dengue, but he was negative for strep and flu...
-I have been frustrated with my sweet precious newborn. She is beautiful, but she is not quite living up to her middle name: Peace. I pray this over her every night.
-I waver between despair/tears and utter thankfulness, and truthfully sometimes the despair wins, until I get a little more sleep
-after getting 1-3 hours of sleep at night, I feel awful in the morning. When I get another 1-2 hours in the day, the world looks so much brighter.
-Gabrielle was gaining weight like a champ and normal Coker baby. The first week. Week two she dropped below average for weight gain per day. This has me questioning and second guessing every thing.
-I had already cut out all dairy, and usually gas is a stomach maturity issue, not a food issue, but dairy protein is often a culprit. The stress and anxiety may be limiting my milk supply...and the less fattier foods???? All my babies have fattened up quick and then started sleeping well, there seems no end in sight here...
-We introduced a pacifier, for sanity. It calms her and helps her relax to get her gas out (sorry this post is all about gas, it is affecting our life a lot).
-The first few days out of the hospital, when in certain positions I experienced jaw-dropping pain. One instance even took me to the floor. As David picked me up he reminded me that six inches had just been cut through all my lower abdominal muscles. Oh yeah. The doctor confirmed this was probably the culprit. It has since gotten a lot better.
-All the kids are doing okay, with zero routine to speak of. Guilt creeps at me in the area of school and serving David....and it keeps creeping
-we are ALL Bangkoked out. We are ready to go home. Sophia: 'I want to go home, I want to go back to my friends, I want to go back to my home country.'
-It has been almost two weeks since our embassy appointment, this is the longest it has ever taken, previously 5-8 days!
-we had multiple rounds of discussion about immunizations and how to bring them back in since the package lasts about 5 hours. And we won't be back out until next July! this means quite a few shots, and hoping they remain effective through 12 hours of travel.
-as of now our flights home are for Oct 15th. We thought for sure we would be packing up now and heading out early. Now, we have no idea.
-David is still my champion and super hero, often taking all three kids over half a mile down the street to swim in the afternoons. Today he took the older girls to the aquarium, which is awesome. This is their educational activity for the week/month/year.
-We have been getting out as a family, usually late afternoon we head up to a very close mall and get dinner, last night was coconut chicken satay (15 Baht a stick, that is about 50 cents), delicious. Our kids would eat sticky rice all day if we let them too. And I watch in envy as the kiddos and David eat Dairy Queen (though rumor has it that there is actually no dairy in Dairy Queen products, hmm..)
I was going to upload pics, to brighten up the post, but I think David took the camera. Next time. So, to answer the question: we are doing okay. Life is messy, life is hard these days, but as I sing to Gabrielle at night and I am convinced: 'Lord you are good, yes you are good, you are good to me...'
