Where to start???

I was planning on putting up a post a long time ago to give a shout out to Daniel's grandma, who turned 99 on March 27. 99!!! You have to admit that is impressive. I guess they had a birthday party for her at the nursing home where she lives and Daniel's brother along with his family were able to go celebrate with her. So, here is a picture of them. I think she looks great for being 99.


The reason I hadn't gotten to that yet was because I was going to include taking JoAnn to a PBA game the next day on Sunday, but at the game I started to feel pretty sick. I'll get to the whole being sick thing in a minute, first let's talk about the game.

Daniel has a couple friends who play for a professional basketball team here called Santa Lucia. I guess whenever Daniel talks to them they like to give him a hard time because after being here as long as we have he has never gone to see a PBA game. He and I have both been to quite a few college games, but never a professional game. Anyway he ran into his friend he found out there was a game on Sunday and it was only a few minutes from where we lived. So Daniel and I decided it would be fun for us to find a babysitter for Isaiah and give us a special outing with just JoAnn.

Not long after getting there I started to feel really sick. I knew I had a fever because I was in a gym without air conditioning during hot season and I was shaking I was so cold. In an effort to try to make it a special night with JoAnn, I just decided to power through it and stick out the rest of the game. I will admit that when they were behind by almost 20 at half, that seemed like a nearly impossible task, but I'm glad I did because they came back and cut the lead to just a few points by the end of the game. It was really fun to watch JoAnn and Daniel cheer together.


JoAnn also loved taking pictures with the camera.


Alright, now to the whole sickness thing. Like I said it started Sunday at the game, but I went home and took some Tylenol, got the fever down and as good of a night's rest as you can with a 5 week old. The next day on Monday, I had a follow up with my OB and we needed to take Isaiah in for his check up/shots. (By the way Isaiah came in weighing 4.9 kgs./10 lbs 13 oz and measuring 63 cm/24.8 inches. I haven't double checked his height yet.) So we went to the doctors, I mentioned that I had been feeling sick and my doctor looked me over, told me to get a CBC and then talk to her again. Well, as we were leaving the hospital the fire alarm went off and I wasn't about to stop to get a blood test done with the alarm going off. The next day I had planned on going somewhere in the morning with a friend and was just going to get the test done after I got home. However, once I got home I wasn't even sure I could make it from the car to our place I felt so sick. I knew the fever and chills had come back and when I got home I realized I had a giant red rash on my stomach.

I really wasn't sure I could make it anywhere and thought maybe the red spot was just from the pressure of the seat belt and the way I had been sitting in the car, so I took some more Tylenol and took a nap. When I woke up I was going to head in to get the blood test done when I noticed the red spot hadn't gone away and went all the way down to the scar from the c section. That made me a little nervous, so I decided it was time to be seen by a doctor and headed in to the emergency room. They saw me at the ER, referred me to the OB and sent me to be seen by my OB's resident. She looked at it, wasn't sure it was from the c section and referred me to an infectious disease doctor to make sure, but the ID doctor would only see me if I was admitted to the hospital. So, between that and the fact my fever wasn't going down they decided to admit me. For the first time in my life I was admitted to the hospital for something other than having a baby. Well, to make a long story short it took a couple days, but they finally diagnosed me with erysipelas. It is an infection of one of the layers of skin. I know my eczema puts me at a higher risk for getting it and I'm guessing that the fact I was still recovering from surgery made me that much more prone to getting it. Anyway, after three nights in the hospital and some IV antibiotics they finally sent me home. They were able to get rid of the fever the first night and other than the spot on my stomach being painful to the touch I instantly felt better. So, by the time I got to go home, I actually felt just fine. The only lasting effect is the giant red patch I have on my stomach and the antibiotic pills they sent me home with. Oh, and the fact that I was told not to nurse while taking the antibiotics, which I think is the worst part of this whole thing. So, between trying to keep up my milk supply and still having to feed Isaiah a bottle, my day has quickly gotten very busy.

Tomorrow I'm going to take Isaiah in for a check up to talk to the doctor about the formula I have him on. I knew he had a hard time with milk and when we tried soy formula, he threw most of it up. So he is on a hypo allergenic formula right now, which really is only partially hypo allergenic and he gets a rash from it and tends to throw up quite a bit more than usual. Unfortunately, they don't have anything that is any more hypo allergenic here, so I wanted to see what the doctor thinks I should do. This is about the time where I really get annoyed by allergies. At least it is only temporary though.

***Quick update...I hadn't had a chance to add the pictures when I wrote this the other day, so I've already been to see the pediatrician and she gave me wonderful news. I can nurse while on the antibiotic. I don't know who was more excited me or Daniel. If I nurse it gets him out of having to take a turn feeding Isaiah in the middle of the night. Which he actually is sleeping around 6 hours right now, so I don't think its too bad to get up. Anyway, this was a new doctor that I had used once while she was filling in for someone and loved her but her office is much farther away than the one that I had been using. I was a little hesitant to commit myself to driving that far every time I needed to take one of the kids to the doctor. Well, with something more than just a check up and shots to talk about I decided I really wanted one that I liked and trusted. Anyway, all that to say she measured Isaiah again and he was only 60 cm and 4.9 kg. I think her measurements are much more accurate. I actually really like this doctor and think I'm finally sold on the idea of having to drive an extra 20-30 minutes to see a doctor that I like so much.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today (well US time today) is my dad's birthday. So we wanted to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA! We love you and wish we could celebrate with you.

One month old (well, actually 32 days)

I had been wanting to take more pictures of Isaiah for a few days now since I hadn't taken any in a long time. I actually feel kind of guilty that I haven't taken more. Anyway, I decided to take a few last night in order to celebrate the fact that he was one month old as of this past Saturday. So, here are a few of the better ones...

Happy Birthday Ella!!!

Let's start off by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!
I can't believe you are already 5. Have a wonderful birthday.

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I've been meaning to put these pictures up for a few days but haven't been able to find the time. On Thursday mornings one of the ladies here babysits for me and another lady so that we can go to coffee. It is one of the highlights of my week. For a few hours the two of us and another mom sit and talk without any interruptions from the kids. This week Faith was on spring break so Rhonda (the babysitter) was with her family on vacation. So, Val, Michele and I decided the next best thing was to take the kids to a play place at a mall. The kids can play while the three of us sit on the side and talk. We get interrupted a few times, but for the most part the kids are able to entertain themselves. We started going to this place a while ago, not long after JoAnn was born and at that time there were 5 kids. Now we are up to 8. These are 7 of the 8 (one of the boys is with his dad in the States). Walking through the mall with that many white kids we sure get a lot of stares and a lot of people usually stop to watch the kids play through the windows, but it is always a fun outing.

While we were taking pictures we told the kids to make a silly face. I don't think JoAnn understood...About 5 minutes later she was making all the different faces she saw the other girls making and I couldn't get her to stop for a while.

Happy Birthday Joel

I know I'm really late on this, but happy birthday Joel! I'm sorry I'm late, but I'm going to blame that on Isaiah. I hope you had a great birthday. We miss you.

I finally found time to write

I've been meaning to update this for a few days now, but I'm starting to realize that life with two kids is much busier than life with one. Well, truthfully I'm not really sure it's life with two as much as it is life with a newborn.

Last Friday, March 5, we took Isaiah in for his first doctor's appointment. It was definitely interesting. With JoAnn we had used a wonderful pediatrician who had done her undergraduate schooling here, but the rest of her studying was done in the US. I don't necessarily think that means she had much better training, but I do think it meant she was much more used to the way Americans think and she definitely was much more used to American products than most doctors here. I was extremely sad last fall when she announced she was going to take some time off from practicing medicine to explore some of her other interests. Anyway, I think she spoiled us. This time we ended up using the doctor that my OB recommended and although she seems like a good doctor, she is much more Filipino than what I am used to. All of this to say when we took Isaiah in at 13 days old, she told us that he had gained 300 grams (11 oz.) and grew 9 cm (3.5 inches). I can almost believe the weight, except that they weighed him fully clothed and with a wet diaper. However, the length seemed really crazy to me. I made a few comments about that seeming like a lot to me and she just kept agreeing that it was a lot. Looking back I should have asked her to measure him again, but instead I just did it when we got home and sure enough, he was no where near as tall as she had said he was. When I measured him, he had only grew 2 cm (just under an inch). Daniel's favorite comment of the day was when he was sucking on his pacifier and put his hand up to his mouth and she goes, "Oh, he already knows how to put his pacifier in his mouth." Um, sure. I don't really think these things reflect on her capabilities as a doctor, rather they just seem more like the Filipino culture to me. Anyway, that combined with how she sometimes struggled with her English made me double think whether or not I will use her for the next few months before we leave. I still haven't made my final decision on that one.

Oh, that story reminded me of a comment that I got from the resident helping my OB when I went in for my 1 week post-op. He saw Isaiah and told me he didn't think it was a good idea to pick him up much because "he's as big as a 6 month old." What! Not quite. I realize he is bigger than most Asian babies, but seriously not that big. Not to mention I'm not really sure how you take care of a baby without picking them up much.

Anyway, those are the little goofy things that happened since my last post and now I'll actually get to the picture I put up. One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to head out to the pool. It has hit hot season, which can get really hot and it is sunny pretty much all day every day. So, really almost ever since I had Isaiah, I've been itching to go swimming, but wasn't really sure how I would be able to watch JoAnn and take care of Isaiah at the same time. JoAnn is getting much better at swimming with her wings, but she still isn't at the point where I would be alright with her swimming without someone in the water with her and I knew Isaiah would want to eat at some point while I was outside. So, when our neighbor texted me and said she was going to be out at the pool if we wanted to join her, I jumped at the chance. It was great to sit outside in the sun by the water. I loved every minute I was out there. JoAnn did the best I've seen her do with her wings. It took her a while but she was able to get pretty much anywhere she wanted to go without anyone helping her. So here the kids are ready to go swimming. JoAnn and her wings and Isaiah under his special UV proof/bug proof cover for his car seat.

JoAnn with Isaiah

One of the most frequent questions I get from people is, "What does JoAnn think of Isaiah?" Well, she absolutely loves him and loves to do anything that has to do with taking care of him. Her greatest reward for doing anything right now is to hold Isaiah. She loves to help me burp him, put him to sleep, give him a bath and give him his pacificer when it falls outs. Here she is holding him.

The other day Isaiah was sleeping and she asked if she could go see him, so I told her as long as she was quiet she could go in and look at him in his crib. After about 5 minutes of complete silence I decided it was time for me to check out the situation and make sure she wasn't doing anything crazy. When I walked in I found her with her forehead pressed between the bars just staring at him sleep. I am kicking myself for not grabbing the camera, but I did manage to snap this picture earlier today when he started to cry, she tried to reach between the bars to touch him so he would stop crying. (Alright, he isn't actually crying at the exact moment I took this picture since I had given him back his pacifier before I stopped to take a picture.)
Here she got a little side tracked while she was helping me give him a bath. She was supposed to get his clean outfit for me and somehow she ended up running around with one of his onesies on her head.
This is the face she gives us a lot lately. Anytime we tell her she can't do something or when I ask her to leave Isaiah alone this is the look she gives me. She is getting very good at sticking out her bottom lip.
Truthfully she is wonderful with him. We still have a lot of learning what it means to be gentle or not scream while he is sleeping, but really she does great with him and already loves him so much.