And We're Back...

Yes, we did arrive back in Thailand safely after nearly a two month visit to wonderful U.S. of A. Our trip was pretty great. I think we did an excellent job of making the rounds and seeing our people. I do wish we would have planned more time in Pierre, as that leg did feel incredibly rushed. But all in all it was a good trip. We were pretty awful about taking pictures while we were home, but when I get the pictures we did take downloaded, I will post more thoroughly about our Midwestern loop.


For now, I'll get you caught up on what's been happening since we've been back in Thailand.


Yesterday, we started a two week summer camp at school for all new kindergarten students at Satit. The second day all ready proved better than the first, so that's a good sign. 


There's still a lot of crying happening, but that is to be expected. If there's one thing I've learned during summer camps and really throughout the school year, it's that it is so much easier on everyone if the parents drop their kids off and leave. The longer they hang out, the more the kids cry. I remember how hard it was to drop off a crying child, but trust me, the sooner you are out of sight the sooner they stop crying. So parents, keep that in mind and cut your teachers, daycare providers, etc some slack. 


Neils has been working pretty much full time since we returned, and he's all ready got a second project lined up. Yay! Cross your fingers that the work keeps up at this pace. 


We also have a doctor update. 


I really really really did not like our last doctor. To be fair, he's probably a very good doctor. His waiting room was always full and people seemed generally happy with his care. However, he was not at all confident with his English speaking abilities, which means he mostly just didn't explain things to us... like, at all. This got pretty stressful, and after I failed my 1 hr gestational diabetes test with NO explanation of why it might have happened or what it meant, spent the night awake and totally stressed out about what I was doing to our baby, just to go back the next morning to find that every thing was just fine, well that was just the last straw.


So last week we met with a new doctor, and I LOVED him! I seriously wanted to get up and hug him part way through our appointment. I didn't, because I'm sure that would have been highly inappropriate but I want you to understand that not hugging our new doctor took some restraint.

His name is Dr. Sorat and he came highly recommended by my boss, another lady who works at the school and a British man who's Thai wife recently had a baby. His English isn't perfect but he gave us a lot of explanations despite that little problem. It's the first time I've ever ever been told why they test my pee at every appointment.

In Thailand, when you get pregnant and start to get prenatal care, they give you this little pink book, where they write down all the outcomes of your tests, keep track of your weight, etc. It's basically a medical chart that you carry around with you. I gave the book to Dr. Sorat and he actually went through it with us! He explained, what had been tested so far, what the outcomes were, what needed to be done next. Our old doctor had done testing, but never told us anything about it. Communicating with the patients...what a novel idea! 

When we were trying to get pregnant, my dear sister sent me a bottle of prenatal vitamins because we couldn't find any here. So when I got pregnant, I took that bottle of vitamins in and showed them to our old doctor. He said those didn't contain enough of a few things (didn't say specifically what things though), so he prescribed me extra vitamins to take in addition to the ones from America. I had been taking them as prescribed this whole time. When we met with Dr. Sorat, I took all of the vitamins in and he told me that basically I've been taking twice the amount of vitamins that I actually need. The vitamins the old doctor gave me are exactly the same as the vitamins Amber sent. So...I'm sure my kidneys will appreciate the break from working over time.

Plus, the hospital that Dr. Sorat delivers in does all the "observation" and testing on your baby, in those first two hours, in the room with you. That way you can breast feed and bond with the baby. That makes me feel a lot better. The only bad thing is, he really really doesn't like epidurals. He says they are considered dangerous in Thailand, because they can make your blood pressure drop. Additionally, your baby has a higher chance of needing forceps or vacuum because you can't feel the contractions and basically don't know when to push. They do give petadine, but you have to be careful because that makes your baby really really sleepy. So...we'll see. I'm leaning toward a natural birth, which is not something I'd ever imagine I would say!

All in all though, I'm very happy with this new doctor. I feel so much better about things, it's ridiculous.

Then earlier this week, I got to spend several hours in the hospital for a routine blood test (everything is fine) and to receive my Rh immunoglobulin injection.  I had to get the Rh shot, because I have a negative blood time and Neils has positive blood type. This means that our baby will likely have a positive blood type. Since her blood type is different from mine, if the her blood mixes with mine for any reason, my body could attack her as if she were some sort of infection. This injection prevents that from happening. I'll have to have another one after delivery and with any subsequent pregnancies I have. 

While at the hospital, we got a quick tour of the OB unit. It's nothing super fancy, certainly not like OBs at home. However, it was clean, nice and we are comfortable with it.

In other news, we bought Jelly Bean a bed. I finally feel less like "OMG! What if she comes early?!? We are NOT ready!" Now that we have added a bed to our baby supplies, I feel like we have all the essentials. We still have a few things on our list of things to pick up prior to her arrival, but if we get an early surprise, we'll manage! It's a good feeling!


I'll leave you with an image of what seven months pregnant looks like for me.

Hope you are well!