Gabrielle update

Many of you have been following the saga of Gabrielle's fever/illness journey. I have yet to post about it mainly because I have been so busy, feeding, rocking, and tending to baby G. On top of that I have had to maneuver this city with her and our stuff alone, which has been interesting.

I will start with the latest news and back track. Gabrielle has no infection in her blood, no bacterial infection at all that they can find. This is great because she doesn't need antibiotics. She did test positive for the group of viruses in the category of enterovirus and rhino virus. They are 2 different things but it would explain much of what has been going on, and in newborns, these viruses can be REALLY bad. But thankfully for G it wasn't, I think her immunity through my breast milk had something to do with that. She did end up with diarrhea, and her fever back and forth low-grade. Since coming home from the hospital (to the guest house), she has had no fever at all, and her diarrhea seems better. We seem to be at the end of this illness, and I am so thankful we did come here to try to figure it out, give her fluids, and have her under really good care. True blessings. We will see the doc again either this afternoon, or tomorrow. If we see her today, we may return home tomorrow, though the doc did not want me to rush home.

And yes, we got her visa! In hand. Thanks to my amazing husband who had a visa service do this for me. Just thinking about going and waiting in line with G for 2 hours, then dealing with it all then having to go back, about put me in the hospital with G (only so much I can handle right now).

I will be honest, this has been rough. Not only because of her illness, but because of various side affects, like her not nursing well, so not sleeping well. My milk supply is waning, so I tried a little supplement of non-lactose formula (only 1 oz), it too caused her pain. Her stomach is SENSITIVE and gassy. David keeps encouraging me when I despair or have a pity party with myself of not knowing what to do for our baby girl. And he linked me to this: Ten Big Daily reminders, which has been so helpful for perspective and reality of who I am and even better, who my God is!
Thanks everyone for praying for us! We will keep you updated.

One month old!

 Yes, I cannot believe Gabrielle Shalom is one month old. Some times I feel the days are going so slow...and now she is a month old.

 These first pics are actually from a few days ago...

 They love their meimei (little sis).

 Tobin does too. All three older kids came back from Thailand with bad colds, runny noses, and coughs, so it has been 'hands off meimei', but they are slowly getting better.

Here she is at exactly one month old:

 Things are getting better, somewhat. She is not nearly as fussy, but still gassy. She is sleeping better at night, but not really during the day. She is my first child that has not gotten into a good day rhythm by one month old. She is also the first child that I have questioned my milk supply with. But every child is different, and we are very blessed by little Gabrielle. We did not weigh her today, so who knows how she is gaining, I know she is longer as she has grown out of the smallest little onesies, and she seems to be gaining a double chin and meat on her bones.

We are trying to implement Babywise, as with all our other kids, Eat, wake, sleep! Here she has only her diaper on because I was trying to keep her awake a little longer. We are still rocking her quite a bit and have not let her cry it out yet. We stopped the pacifier a few days after our return and she seems to be doing better without it, She has not yet found her thumb, but give her a few weeks and I bet she will.

Red Cross Snake Farm, a Bangkok must-see

The girls' last adventure before returning to China was to visit the Red Cross Snake Farm. I am not sure if that is its real name, this is where they have various snakes and actually milk the snakes to make anti-venom, etc. David took them and they loved it, go figure? 

The people had really good English, though most of the visitors were Thai, they had two 'shows' going on...

the Cobra. King Cobras lock their jaws and release all their venom in one bite which is what makes them so deadly. The list of things that happens to your body after a bite is wretched. It has enough venom in that one bite to kill an elephant, and we actually heard that a worker was bitten during a show and died within ten minutes (not sure when that happened).

This is  a Siamese Cobra, and it hisses a lot.

The famous rhyme 'red and yellow kill the fellow, red on black is a friend to jack' I think only works to distinguish some North American Snakes (coral and the like). I would kill any brightly colored snake found in Asia (sorry snake lovers). This black and yellow snake is indeed poisonous.

 Here is a kind of pit viper. They are small (hence the use of the stick), and deadly. This is the kind that the groundskeeper found in our front yard in our Bangkok apartment.

 Not sure if you can see it clearly.  This is a copperhead, trying to strike/bite this guy, actually an aggressive non-venomous snake. Still couldn't pay me to do his job.

Oh, and the python...The girls were very interested in how each snake's venom worked or how it killed things. Sophia came home and  said: 'I touched the kind that strangles people'...

 All calm and collected...and then...

 and then he brought the head around to her and she jumped back startled.

 and your friendly non-poisonous snakes.

The show was extremely informative. David learned that Cobras can't see that well so you don't necessarily need to run, and another kind of deadly snake has great infrared senses in its nostrils, so if you see it, RUN! We learned that approximately 5 million people are bit by snakes a year, mostly in Asia and Africa. 200,000 are lethal....okay, now that you have received your snake education for the day....

If you haven't gotten enough and want to know more about Thailand's snakes: go here

Oh and did I mention the entrance fee was 150 Baht total for David and the girls, that is about $5.00, what a steal!

We are home, life is hard

We made it back home and we are so thankful....
The past few days have been a whirlwind, and still no rest in sight, but I keep reminding myself that rest is not what I signed up for in this stage of my life...
but that doesn't make it easier.
Whoever said, 'oh after three it is easy' or '3-4 is not hard' doesn't have my colicky baby + my 2.5 year old (ultra rebellion machine at this point) + the other two living life in transition and not knowing which way is up.  (I really don't believe in colic but I can call it that to gain your sympathy, or just to let you know she is not an 'easy' baby so far).
I have not been drinking in the word like I should, but I have been crying out....to see more of Him, to breathe Jesus...this too has been hard...because just catching my breath is hard....
and just now, a moment ago I read this post, not having been on the computer hardly at all, this is what I needed: this quote and the post along with it, Voskamp does have her way with words：My lips may have said yes to God’s grace of the Messiah – but my life has said No to God’s gift of this moment –
Read the whole thing HERE.

Siam Ocean World

David took the girls to 'SE Asia's largest Aquarium', he got discount tickets online and took the older girls only. They had a blast. Sophia's favorite part was the huge crab exhibit. Bella's favorite part of the aquarium was seeing the sting rays.

I have to include this fuzzy pic of the 'poison arrow frog' one of the most poisonous animals on earth. When we looked at this frog in a book for CC study, Bella was enthralled and scared. It actually kept her up at night. I kept assuring her (in China) and in Thailand that Asia didn't have these frogs. Little did I know they were part of this exhibit. She got to see a live one! We will see how she sleeps tonight.

Loving little sis

 first bath...in the sink...she loves it!

 eyes open!

 they love them some Gabrielle...