Fun at a Park and Other News

Last Saturday night we went to a new park on the other side of the city. After a train ride and a long, hot walk we finally found it. Jack rode in the baby carrier and Asher rode in the stroller. When we got to the park I took Jack out of the carrier and had to walk around with a sweaty imprint of him on my shirt. If you look carefully you can see it in the picture.

The reason we went all the way to this park was to rent a bicycle. Roger and Asher got a bike and had a blast riding around. I think in the picture Asher was yelling "Go Daddy go!" in a not so patient voice.

While they were enjoying their bike ride Jack and I strolled around, ate some fruit and sat on a bench by the pond.

In other news, school starts next week. Asher finished up his summer school term and has been enjoying a nice break at home with me and Baby Gack. Asher loves his school, loves his teacher and loves eating.

We now have Asher's uniforms (with his name sewn on the front) and we have his black school shoes, still need to get white shoes for sports day and socks. Next Wednesday Asher will join millions of other Thai school children on the first day of Term 1, Year 2554 (Thailand even has it's own years).

In even more news, Asher is potty trained. He's such a perfectionist. He refused and refused and refused the past few months and then all the sudden he was like, okay, got it. And that was that. It was very typically Asher.

And in Jack news, well, nothing new to report. He's still chunky and sweet and he has really big eyes.

Baby Jack's Hospital Adventure

Jack and I had a crazy 24 hours earlier this week.

It all started after a late afternoon nap. Jack woke up and I put him down to play while I finished up dinner. I heard him start making some sad little moans and when I went to check on him he was super hot. We took his temperature and it had gone from normal to almost 103 in about ten minutes. Little guy looked awful and felt awful, he wouldn't even eat.

After a quick call to the doctor we headed to the hospital to get Jack checked out. Of course, this was rush hour in Bangkok and it was just about to rain. I grabbed Jack and a bag (remembered the Kindle, forgot the diapers) and ran to try and get a taxi before the rain started. I found a taxi, but he didn't want to take me all the way to our hospital because of the traffic. I held up the sick Baby Jack and he quickly changed his mind.

The monsoon came almost as soon as we were in the taxi. I was glad I didn't try to get to the train. During the hour (HOUR!) it took us to get to the hospital Jack just moaned and lay in my arms. We had one of Bangkok's most talkative taxi drivers. He told me all about his family and his village. At one point he even pulled out a Buddhism brochure and gave me a lecture on something about good karma and his new taxi car. I really need to study more Thai. Finally he got us close to the hospital and told me I was better off walking in the rain than waiting for the taxi to make it. So, off across six lanes of stopped traffic I went with a burning hot infant. I splashed through some puddles and made it to the children's clinic.

Our doctor had already left, but the doctor on call checked Jack out (high fever, dehydrated), asked how traffic was (awful) and decided that it would be best if we just spent the night at the hospital to make sure Jack didn't have any of those weird mosquito/tropical illnesses. I absolutely love our hospital. As soon as the doctor said we were staying 4 nurses and a customer service lady popped in the room. They gave Jack a sponge bath, some more tylenol and had him admitted before I had time to dig my phone out of my bag and call Roger. Ten minutes later we were up in our room with an IV started and blood drawn.

Jack perked back up after about an hour of fluids and finally started eating again. The test results came back a little later and showed that Jack had some kind of infection, so they started some antibiotics. After a long night of watching his fever go down I woke up to see my happy Baby Jack looking a little more lively. The doctor came by and said he thought he would be just fine, but he wanted us to stay the rest of the day so Jack could get another dose of his antibiotics. Jack slept almost all day and by the time the doctor came by to discharge us he was pretty much back to normal.

Here are some pictures of my sweet boy that I took while we were hanging out at the hospital.

Awake one minute.

Asleep the next.

Jack's Birth Story

I had said all along I would be ready for Jack to be born as soon as Roger and I did our language evaluations and finished our Thai classes for the year. Well, on Friday the 17th I did my evaluation, on Monday I finished class, on Tuesday Roger finished class, on Wednesday Roger did his language evaluation and by Thursday morning I was having contractions.

The last pregnant picture at 39 weeks and 4 days.
Thursday morning I woke up early and noticed I was having a few contractions but I pretty much just ignored them. I was assuming that Baby Jack would take his time getting here just like Asher did. On Monday I had been to the doctor and she had told me that I hadn't made any progress yet. I had resigned myself to wait until I had to be induced.

Asher and I had a Christmas cookie decorating party to go to on Thursday morning so I started making graham cracker Christmas cookies as soon as I got up. The contractions definitely continued, but I was busy and didn't really have time to see how frequently they were coming.

Asher and I went to our party and the whole time we were there I had contractions and I thought they were pretty regular and a little painful. I didn't feel too great, but I still just thought the contractions would stop after a few hours. I had told Roger I was having contractions and he asked me if I thought that Jack would be born that day. I kept telling him no pretty much up until the time we went to the hospital.

Finally around noon Asher and I left the party and headed home. I could tell the contractions were getting more painful and I was anxious to get home and time them. After Asher went to sleep I sat down and thought they would stop. They didn't. For the next few hours I had contractions every 7-8 minutes. At 4 pm Asher woke up and as soon as I stood up to go get him they started coming more frequently.

Roger and I decided to go ahead and move the crib out of Asher's room and into our room just in case Baby Jack was on his way. We didn't want to have to deal with that after we brought a newborn home from the hospital. By the time that project was finished I was starting to consider that maybe this was the real thing. I sent a text message to our friend that was going to watch Asher just to give her a heads up and tried to get a few things done around the house. I got about half of the dishes done before I needed to sit down. While I was on my feet the contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute.


I sent Roger and Asher up to the park to play for a little bit and we decided that they would pick up dinner and after dinner we would probably go to the hospital. While they were gone I sat down and the contractions got more painful. I called our friend to come over and told Roger to head home from the park so we could get ready to go. After the boys got home they ate dinner and we got Asher settled down watching a movie. Around 7:15 pm we headed out the door to check out the traffic situation and decide how we would go to the hospital.

We got in a taxi and figured we would just see how far we could get. If traffic was really bad we figured we could jump onto the train and be at the hospital in a few minutes. Praise the Lord there was not much traffic. It only took us 25 minutes to get from our house to the hospital. At 7:45 we walked into the emergency room and told them I was in labor.


They called my doctor and sent me up to labor and delivery. For the next hour they monitored my contractions and checked to see that I was 2 cm dilated. I was obviously hoping to be farther along, but I was excited that I went into labor on my own and before my due date! After an hour of being monitored my contractions were getting into the really-hurting-don't-talk-to-me range. They walked me across the hallway to a delivery room and Roger and I finally realized that this was the real thing.

Soon after my doctor came by to check on me and I think I was about 3 or 4 cm, but I don't remember. We talked about what had happened when Asher was born and she kept reassuring me that this one would be much easier. At some point we had to fill out a form with all of our names written in Thai. The nurses of course loved that Roger could speak, read and write Thai and they started talking to both of us in Thai. I was just sort of nodding and not listening and not understanding (I was in labor, not exactly the best time work on language comprehension). I refused to answer them in Thai, I didn't care what language they spoke to me I just answered in English.

Around 9:30 I told Roger that I would wait another hour and then I wanted an epidural. After the hour was up I was more than ready for it. Around 11 pm I had reached 5-6 cm and I got the wonderful epidural. My doctor stopped by again to check on things and let me know she was going to be near by. She told me to rest and she thought that Baby Jack would be there around 3 am. She broke my water and also went ahead and gave me a little pitocin because everything slowed down once I got the epidural.

I did rest for a little while and Roger was able to take a little nap as well. But soon after that I started to feel the contractions on my left side. They were getting stronger and stronger and very close together. I could tell that things were happening quickly. I told the nurse I was starting to feel more pain and she called the anesthesiologist. He did something and I felt relief for a few minutes, but I also started feeling a lot of pressure. I knew that Baby Jack would be there soon.

The nurse checked and I was almost ready to push. They started getting the room ready for delivery (including making Roger go change into some silly looking scrubs). I'm not sure what they did with the epidural but I could feel the contractions to know when to push. It was so much better than when Asher was born and I couldn't feel anything.

They called my doctor and I started to push. A few minutes later they were still waiting for my doctor. They called her again and Roger and I smiled at what they said. Loosely translated they said "he's gonna be born now." My doctor walked in a minute later and said she was surprised it had gone so fast. I pushed a few more times and felt Jack's head start to be born. Wow. It hurt. Another push and he was out. It was so fast. I couldn't believe it was over.


They cleaned Jack up a little and brought him over to me. He was making a lot of gurgling noises so they kept coming over to suction him. The nurses helped me to start feeding him and he actually made an attempt to eat. I was so surprised because Asher had so much trouble learning to eat. I held him and the nurses took some pictures for us while my doctor finished up everything.


My doctor told us that I had a horrible scar from Asher's birth and that Dr. Pujo had done a very poor job sewing me up. We weren't really surprised to hear that and finally two years later we had an answer to why it had taken me so long to recover from Asher's birth.


Soon after that Baby Jack and Roger headed off to the nursery. Turns out Jack was having a little trouble clearing out his lungs and they needed to keep him in the NICU for a few hours. I think they brought him back to me first and he had another chance to nurse. He was still making this weird gurgling noises, but they said he would be fine.


My recovery this time has been amazing and easy. I feel so good and really after a day or so I was moving around almost normally. I attribute it all to having a wonderful doctor this time and lots of good care in the hospital. I can't believe what a difference it made having a great doctor and great nurses. Jack ended up getting booted out of the NICU after about 2 hours (much sooner than they had planned) and spent most of his first day laying in bed with me eating and sleeping. I was really worried about how Jack would nurse, but he has done a great job. It also helped that every single nurse in the newborn nursery knew how to help me feed him. I would call them when it was time to feed him and they would make sure we were doing everything the right way.


We did have to spend Christmas Day in the hospital which meant there was no Christmas morning with Asher opening his presents. The day after Christmas we were back at home adjusting to being a family of four. So far it's been good. We are, of course, a little tired, but Asher has done great and Jack is a pretty easy baby.

Baby Jack

Jack Anthony Hampton was born on December 24, 2010 at 1:15 am Bangkok time.
He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz (3310 grams) and was 20 inches long (52 cm).
We made it to the hospital in a taxi (no train!) in only 20 minutes. That in itself was a great answer to prayer. We arrived at the hospital around 7:45 pm and Jack joined us a few hours later. I'm sure I will write up the whole birth story soon.
We've been back at home for a few days now and everyone is doing great. I feel so much better than I did after Asher's birth. Asher still loves his Baby Jack and Roger is keeping busy taking care of everyone.

38 Weeks

Because a picture of my big belly is always better when accompanied by a picture of Asher's little belly.


We are waiting for Baby Jack, but really not expecting him too soon. Not that I can really complain, compared to most pregnant people I think I have it very easy. I still sleep all night and I sleep good. The heat really has never bothered me, I guess this is a good thing since I have been pregnant only in places that are hot year round. I will admit that I am a bit more tired and those Sky Train stairs are just a little harder to climb up, and the heartburn...oh the heartburn...

I've been going to the doctor every week and she keeps telling me that all is well with me and with Baby Jack. I'm having an ultrasound on Monday. During the last ultrasound we could see that the umbilical cord was loosely around Jack's neck and so we are going to check and see if it's still there.

I feel like we have everything ready around the house. The only things we really have left to do are make our language evaluation tapes and finish up the Thai classes we are currently in. I have had my evaluation scheduled and cancelled for three straight weeks, hopefully I can get it done this week and not have to worry about it anymore. Classes at our school end on December 21 although I wouldn't mind if Jack made us miss our final tests.

Boys at the Park

A few weeks ago Roger, Asher and Num took a little trip out of the city. As is the norm with these kinds of things, we had no idea what they were doing or where they were going. In fact, it wasn't until they returned home and Roger did some research that he found out where they had gone.


Asher was super excited because he got to go somewhere with Num in the Num car car (not to be confused with the Spiderman car Num gave him for his birthday that is also referred to as Num car car). Num has a white Honda and Asher can pick it out in a crowded parking lot.


They drove out of the city and went to a big park with a big Buddha statue. Evidently this is near the area where Num used to live when he was younger. He took Roger and Asher there to show them where he used to hang out.


Since this was more out of the city, Roger and Asher stuck out a bit more than usual. From what I hear Asher used this to his advantage when he saw something he wanted to play with. He would take Num, go up to a stranger, Num would tell him to wai and then the person would give him anything he wanted. I think Asher pretty much has this whole white-boy-in-Asia role figured out.


Asher has also figured out how to show us his belly and be silly.

The boys had a great time at the park and when that adventure was done Num took them to eat some pig. Roger brought home the leftovers and we got some BBQ sauce and had quite the feast the next night. I think they finally made it back home around 9:30 pm. Asher stayed awake the whole ride home so he didn't miss a second of his time in the Num car car.

29 Weeks

Well, since I'm sure the suspense was just killing you I will answer the question of what I was up to last night. I spent last night relaxing at a hotel here in Bangkok...ALL BY MYSELF! I went to dinner with some friends, got a new book, ate some Cinnabon, went swimming and just generally enjoyed relaxing, resting and being alone.

While I was at the hotel I realized that Roger and I stayed at this same hotel when I was just about at this point in my pregnancy with Asher. And then I realized I had brought the same shirt to wear that I was wearing when I took a belly pic at this hotel.


Asher in 2008


Baby Boy in 2010

I also realized this weekend that I feel so much better than I did when I was pregnant with Asher. Roger thinks it probably has something to do with the 150 steps I climb everyday going to and from school on the skytrain and the 2 year old I am constantly chasing.

Monday afternoon we are going to get to see our littlest boy again, so hopefully we will have some more pictures of him soon.

23 Weeks

I had another check up this week and the doctor tells me that everything is going well. It's always so fun to me to go and actually get to talk to my doctor at these appointments, it's so much different than the check ups I had when I was pregnant with Asher.

This is one of my new skirts. I kept all of my maternity clothes from last time, but I really didn't have any dressy clothes. We never wore nice clothes in Indonesia, so I really had no need for them. Bangkok is like a fashion show all the time, so I figured I should try to fit in. I looked at what kind of clothes they were selling at The Gap and then went to China Town (with Asher on a hot day, not a good idea) and bought some fabric that looked the same. Three meters for $3 and that was enough for two skirts! I dropped off the material at the tailors, told her I was pregnant and she worked her magic to make me two lovely skirts. Of course now my problem is that I hate riding motorcycles in skirts. When I wear a skirt I have to ride side saddle and I really don't like doing that.



And just for fun here's a picture from about the same point of my pregnancy with Asher.


Anyway, our second son is doing great. I heard his little heart beating at the doctor's office and I feel him kicking around all day and night. He still doesn't have a name, but we are working on it.

Prayer for our Friends

This past week some of our friends came into Bangkok and two of their kids came to our house to play.

Here's Asher, he's super excited to have another little guy at his house to play.


Meet Nolan, he's a year older than Asher and full of energy. He also thinks I'm a bit of a super hero because I took him on a skytrain ride.


This is Grace, she is a wonderful big sister and was probably bored out of her mind in our house full of cars.


Asher and Nolan had a blast chasing each other around in circles and playing cars.

And since they are little boys they seemed to always want to play with one car. We solved that problem (sort of) by switching the car between them every ten minutes.

I think this was during Asher's turn to play with the car. Nolan was just watching and waiting. Asher decided he better hold on tight and sit next to Daddy.


Unfortunately the reason for all of this play time was that their little brother Micah was visiting a doctor and having some tests done. We found out last night that Micah has a large tumor on his spine. His family will be leaving Bangkok quickly and heading to the States for him to go to the doctor. Please pray for Micah and his family during this time. They have a lot of traveling and a lot of uncertainty in their future.

The Aquarium, The River, The Tuk-Tuk and the Vacation That Wasn't

There is a big aquarium in the basement of one of the big malls in Bangkok. We have been wanting to check it out for a while and decided that we would wait until Mimi and Mel were with us. Asher has a DVD all about fish and the ocean, so he was very excited to see real fish at the aquarium. It was dark throughout most of the aquarium, so we didn't take many (good) pictures.




Oddly enough Asher's favorite part of the entire place was the musical about a horse and a mermaid. The whole thing was in Thai and he sat there like he understood and then wanted to go see the big horse when it was over.


We also enjoyed a boat ride down the river. We were cheap and instead of paying to take a tour we just hopped on one of the free hotel boats, rode down the river to a hotel and did some exploring near the hotel.


Outside of the hotel we found some tuk-tuks sitting around and decided to take Asher on his first tuk-tuk ride. We paid the guy about a dollar to drive us around for ten minutes. The longer we were in the tuk-tuk the more excited Asher became.




Definitely the best dollar I've spent in a while.


On the way back we checked out the super nice hotel lobby and the view of the river.




To end their time here we decided to drive down to the beach for the weekend. Hmm, how to sum up the beach weekend? Well we were back in Bangkok less than 12 hours after we left, we never saw the beach and for a while we thought Asher might have had a concussion.

We went swimming and Asher looked cute as always.


Then he slipped and fell on the super slippery tile that was everywhere by the pool and inside the house. Unfortunately he fell into the corner of a concrete wall and dented his head.

(No Pictures Available)

Because of that and a few other problems we decided to just head back home and enjoy our last few days of Mimi and Mel at home.

The View From The Top

We had to do some touristy things while Mimi and Mel were here, so I took them to the top of the tallest hotel in the Kingdom of Thailand to see the city.


Of course Asher spent most of his time in the tuk-tuk. I should also mention that Asher has learned to say tuk-tuk and can spot one a mile off in heavy traffic.


This time he shared the tuk-tuk and let Mimi drive.


Asher posed for a picture with Mel.


Asher and Mimi posed for some traditional Thai pictures. Asher is a handsome little prince.


We out to the revolving sky deck, but Asher and Mel thought it was hot and bright, so we didn't stay too long.


Asher and Mimi went for a hot air balloon ride.



After that morning of excitement we had a very long ride home and everyone (except for me and Roger) took afternoon naps.

The end.

The Beginnings of a (Diaper) Stash

Today I bought cloth diapers. I wanted to use cloth diapers with Asher, but for a few reasons (um, we moved 5 times last year) it just never happened. Now that we are settled in and back in Asia, the land of no diaper coupons, I decided to take the plunge. And by taking the plunge I mean that I said, "I would love to use cloth diapers, but I'm not doing it unless somebody gives them to me, gives me money to buy them or I find used ones here in Bangkok." Well, so far nobody has read my mind and mysteriously sent me diapers, but I did find some for sale last week.

I did some research and found out that used cloth diapers are a good option. The lady I contacted was from England and so most of the diapers she was selling were British brands. They all had good reviews online, so this morning Asher and I went out to her house to see what she was offering and get a quick lesson on how to use cloth diapers.

Sidenote: She lived really far away. And we went during rush hour.

She didn't have any diapers for a baby Asher's age, she was just selling some of the diapers she used when her children were younger. While I would love to go ahead and start using cloth diapers with Asher I figure that this way I will at least have cloth diapers for Baby #2.

I'm still learning all of this cloth diaper lingo, but I think that today I bought 3 pocket diapers (size small), 5 cloth diapers (the kind that have to have a cover over them) and 4 diaper covers. Of course she was British so I bought nappies and wrappers with poppers.

Here's the stash.



She had a lot more, but they were all for little boys and at this point there's a 50/50 chance that we will be having a girl. I told her I would get back to her once I found out what we were having. I did go ahead and get one blue diaper because it was cute and even if we have a girl this could be the diaper she wears for UK games.

I put one of the diapers on Asher tonight and it just barely fit him. If our next child is the same size as Asher these diapers should easily fit him or her until they are close to 18 months old.



And by the way, I paid about $40 for all of these diapers. I calculated later that if I had bought them new I would have spent about $175. I am not good at being thrifty, but I love it when I am!

And for those of you that are wondering the pocket diapers are Fuzzi Bunz and Happy Heinys and the other ones are Sandys with Motherease Wraps (they are British brands I think).