Look Into My Eyes

 Exhibit A  Kyler pretending to sleep.  Note, I would not give Cambria to a truly sleeping Kyler, and he is now missing his two front teeth.  He is our most eager baby holder, which is a great help when Mom is trying to fix dinner, or help Tristan, or answer the phone, or extract respectable behavior from the boys . . .  Turns out that having four is more work than, say,  three, or two, or one.  She is a wonderful baby, though, and if she is well fed, usually just needs to be swaddled and given a pacifier to be happy.  And of course she loves to be held.  Apparently girl babies need to be looked at a lot in order to feel loved.  I have certainly noticed that she will gaze into my eyes for a long time when I'm holding her or nursing her.  I love it! 

 Exhibit B  Tristan loves all things Cambria, including hair ornaments.  Frankly, his hair is more spectacular than hers at this point, and probably for a long time to come.  He modeled head gear Thursday morning, before banging the bridge of his nose while playing on the couch at home.  The juicy hematoma is now draining between his eyes. It looks like a rainbow-y horn. 

 Exhibit C.1  A horn is not enough.  Here his chipped tooth is visible.  His play is getting more H&K like.  He has been in training for two years, after all.  It happened soon after the horn.  I must again sing the praises of Oxiclean.  It got all the dark chocolate and pink Crystal Light out of this white shirt.  It comes in a spray bottle, a gel tube, or a jug.  I have the jug and use a toothbrush to apply it to such indiscretions.

 Exhibit C.2  All dressed up for church.  Trist-man was not cooperative and wouldn't be coaxed into this picture.  Our camera has decided to become crappy of late.  Sometimes it takes decent pictures, and more often it does this.  I have the urge to spend a lot to get a decent one, since Cambria is growing so fast.  She doesn't look like a newborn anymore - no longer red and wrinkly, and I fear I've missed too much already.  Of course it would take time to research and figure out what camera to buy, and I just don't seem to have enough of that lately.  For all I know maybe it is just on some weird setting; I need to look in the manual under "crappy".

 Exhibit C.3  She and I are wearing the same outfits as the last time we took a Sunday picture.  I haggled a bit off my side-swept bangs and am trying out this look.  I kinda like it, but need to have them trimmed by a pro. 

 Exhibit C.4  Proud Papa.  He said today that he is surprised at just how excited I am about having a girl.  Really?  I've been wanting girl babies for 10 YEARS.  I took a walk up to Itaewon yesterday to the antique district and drooled over many lovely things, and pondered many ideas for a girlie bedroom.  Of course I'll have to wait until she's out of her baby-hood.  I did find the most adorable (new) round, velvet, button-tufted purple pillow, that will go beautifully in her bedroom some day.   

 Exhibit C.5  The uncooperative one.  He needed a nap, but looked so cute in his three-piece suit that I got Daddy-o to wrangle him into a crappy-camera picture, horn and all.

Potty Miracle!

Tristan is holding a knife behind his back trying to open this box of diapers that he was desperate for, just last week!

We've been dabbling more with potty training the Trist-man, but not doing it consistently makes it hit and mess.  Swim lessons have gotten in the way of training, since we all have to leave every morning for them.  This is the eighth and final week - whew!  So today must have been the day.  He was all about the potty, going to the bathroom himself, undressing himself (often closing the door, which is more than Hunter does - even with company over), climbing up on the big 'un (with the padded seat insert) doing the deed, then redressing himself!  I've been giddy all day over it!  He is 25 months.  I knew he could do it!  He only had one accident at the end of the day.  I never have re-done the one-day method since the first attempt before Cambria was born. 

Kyler is dressed in his swim attire.

As for swimming lessons, Kyler apparently doesn't like diving - says it hurts his nose, and didn't want to go this week since his class has been working on it.  He lost his second front tooth today.  It looked awful dangling there by itself, and I was going to get a picture but he yanked it before I could.  The boys have been learning to keep track of their swim goggles this summer, as they desperately want them every day for swim lessons, which is remarkable for them to keep track of anything!  Hunter is getting quite tan from being in the sun every day.  Kyler's fair skin doesn't tan much, and fortunately hasn't been burning much either. 

We blessed Cabria Rose a week ago Sunday in church.  As always I only seem to do projects when I have a deadline, so I was hand sewing the crushed fabric roses on the bodice as we drove to church.  She was an angel and slept through the whole meeting, including her blessing.  She did manage to poo at the end of the meeting, which of course blasted right through her new size 2 Huggies diapers and sullied the dress.  I put a onesie on her just for that purpose, which did contain most of it, along with her tights.  Huggies fail!  I got it all out by brushing liquid Oxyclean on it and washing on gentle.  My mom made most of the dress while she was here, so I finished it (hemming, buttons/holes, closing the lining, roses, etc.)  We'll get more pictures soon.

We got the game Settlers of Catan in March of this year, and have been playing it like crazy since, with anyone we can.  Hunter and Kyler can even play, and Hunter has won a time or two.  We highly recommend it, and would love to play with anyone who is inclined! 

the Saga ends?

I bought a membership to John Rosemond's website a while back and decided to submit a question recently, which he answered.  My question was what to do about Hunter who has been sneaking downstairs at night to play on his game cube, and I mentioned his other behavior issues.  He will sometimes fall asleep at lunch or dinner because he is so sleepy, and sleep 6 or more hours in the day time.  Here is his answer:

A: the obvious solution is to remove the video game from the home. they have no place in a healthy family environment anyway. you need to put a permanent end to this problem so that you can concentrate on the more pressing behavior issues. by the way, video games, says the research, are associated with low motivation, misbehavior, aggressiveness, underachievement, and short attention span. you are describing an addict, and the research clearly says they are addictive. get the heroin out of the house! today! now! do what i say! john

We did it, only we decided to be kinda sneaky like ol' Hunter.  We showed him this answer and told him it would have to go.  He was a little weepy, but said he at least wanted to sell it since he and Kyler had purchased it with their own funds.  I explained that it really wasn't worth much of anything after their treatment of it, not to mention how old it is...  Being busy with a newborn and all the other normal craziness around here, it took me a couple of days to get to it, and to ultimately decide exactly what to do.  I got out a hammer and had Dean go at it, containing it all in a box.  I put the box back where the game cube had been and left it there for Hunter to find.  

The next day he didn't say anything about it until later in the day, as he and Kyler marveled about it and accused me of being the culprit.  I denied it.  We actually had a spare unit, that I think I picked up for $7, and they got it out and hid it under the spare bed in Tristan's room.  I had them retrieve it and they begged me not to destroy it.  Once Dean was home Hunter really got excited, accusing us of doing it and carrying on, trying to choke back the tears.  We continued to deny it, just as he denies every misdeed of his life, even as we catch him with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.  He admitted that he had come downstairs in the night to play and found it destroyed.  It warmed my soul to picture him slinking back to bed unsatisfied.  I had removed the cord from the TV as well, and locked the computer so he couldn't do either of those things during the night.  

There hasn't been a word about it today.  I forgot to take a picture of the destroyed unit before it went out with the trash.  I've hidden the spare one; maybe it will make an appearance in a year or two.  He's password protected out of the Wii, so he can exercise or whatever when he's supervised, but that's it.  I hope the saga is over.  

I Never Imagined

We went to a children's museum with lots of fun stuff recently.

... that we would upgrade our video gaming system.  I let the boys buy an old school Nintendo Game Cube a couple of years ago (with their money).  Recently someone we know was selling a nearly-new Wii.  I mentioned it to Dean, and without hesitation he said "let's get it!"  He had been wanting to try the Wii Fit for exercise.  He has been using it, even doing yoga, which apparently he's been wanting to try  for a while.  If all the posture exercises convince him to hold his head high instead of slouching (one of my pet peeves!), then I'll be happy.  I won't let the boys use it without Dean around.  They've treated their Game Cube like a red-headed step child, so I'm not about to let them trash this.  Hunter wailed and then hid for hours when his friend came over the other day and I denied them of it.  He has stopped asking.

She has the longest, prettiest fingers, and often uses the pacifier.

Now I know what it is like to take all four kids shopping.  Somehow I've managed to avoid it thus far.  I told the boys I'd get them something at Taco Bell if they would be exceptionally good.  I wore Cambria in a pouch, and had Hunter push Tristan in the umbrella stroller.  Kyler's been stealing at stores once again, we discovered recently, so he got to sit in the basket of the shopping cart that I pushed.  At one point Hunter managed to separate himself (and Tristan) from me, and ran right to the front to have me paged.  Oh, joy.  Kyler tipped the cart completely over while he was in it (I was looking at something); he jumped out before it hit the floor at least.  He spent the rest of the time whining about wanting to get his quarter from the van to buy a gumball.  Hunter pointed out a magazine in the checkout stand that had a headline about how to get rid of a fat belly, and thought I should buy it for myself.  I got Hunter a burrito at Taco Bell, since he was actually helpful, and Kyler got to eat leftovers for lunch at home.  We all got to listen to him carry on about it the whole way home, and I doubt that it cured him of any of his misbehaviors, but I felt a little vindication, and that's what matters.       

Tristan loves all things baby.  He can't get out of the swing by himself.

Tristan woke from a nap with nasty goop coming out of one ear the other day.  His ear drum must have ruptured, and it turns out both ears are infected.  He never made a peep about it or showed any sign of illness.  The lady who uses him to model occasionally called late this afternoon to see if he was available to finish a shoot, since the other kid who was modeling was having a melt down.  Dean was able to come home from work and stay with the boys while I went with him and Cambria in a taxi.  Between Tristan and Kyler they've made about $1000 now (all going to college funds).

I was trying to remove the redeye, but managed to do this instead, and it's saved, grrrr.

Hunter and Kyler have had four weeks of swim lessons now, and have four more to go.  They have loved playing in the water forever, but it wasn't what anyone would call swimming.  Now they are learning for real.  I never did learn to dive, just belly flop.

Not sure what it means, but finally got a picture.

Yawn!

They were both very sleepy after church.  Kyler loves holding Cambria most of all.

 

We went to a Korean water park recently and were required to wear swim caps.  The black ones looked like doo rags, and the caps made it hard to spot the kids amongst all the Korean kids.  Normally it's easy with their hair that isn't black.  I was afraid of a repeat of our last trip to a water park two years ago when Tristan was one month old (like Cambria is now) and I got stuck holding him the whole time while the rest of our party had a grand time.  I made sure that didn't happen this time. She was a hit with the Koreans, of course.  Water parks and cameras don't much go together, so I didn't get any pictures.

the 4th

 Here is our 4th child - it's still hard to believe that we have four now.  Same goes for the Koreans.  They can't believe it either, and count them all when we come around.  She is a doll, and has been sleeping 'round the clock lately, including through the night.  That sounds great, except that by morning those who feed her are overflowing...

We started to celebrate this guy's golden birthday on July 2nd, and had his favorite for dinner - pizza.  Then we decided to wait and continue the rest of the (simple) festivities on Sunday the 3rd.  Spence and Rachel came over and had cheesecake with us, and with a little direction from Mommy, he blew out his own candle.  The toy Cars camera was the favorite of the presents - just ask Hunter and Kyler.

He is a fantastic big brother, always wanting to keep her pacifier handy, and shove his fingers in her ears to be sure they are OK, or test the seat belts to be sure that they are working - by unbuckling hers...  He was rocking her so vigorously the other day in her car seat at home that I thought the whole thing would launch.

He did help put the chairs up after church yesterday.

Today we decided to put on our party hats and say "goodbye"

We kept Cambria covered with a light blanket to keep the sun and the Koreans off her.  They don't take their own babies out of the house for a number of months after birth, but have no problem fingering others' babies.

to Seoul for just a bit.  We went to Namhan Mountain and hiked around.  It was great exercise for the out-of-shape post-partum one, except that my shoes were killing my feet and I went barefoot the last downhill stretch.  Apparently these particular shoes really are too small, as my feet aren't swollen any more.

Here's part of the wall, which is essentially the fortress (one long wall).  The map above was handy.

I've realized that once you've seen one Buddhist Temple, you've pretty much seen them all.  I like to look anyway.

I really liked the giant orchids growing in the pots on the right.  At home, every time I sit down to nurse the baby I notice that my orchid looks dry, and remember that I haven't watered it in ages.  But since I'm sitting down nursing I can't do anything about it, and once I get up I forget.  I finally remembered today, and one leaf is pretty much a goner.  Poor orchid.

We have a similar picture of Proud Papa with baby Hunter way back when he was in vet school.  I think he was actually studying then, rather than playing games.  I don't miss those days.

So that's what we did in Korea on July 4th.  We did go to the base to see the awesome fireworks show on July 2nd (Saturday).  We told the boys that the fireworks were for Tristan's birthday.  They were impressed.

I am at a complete loss for a new name for the blog.  Ideas???

Debut

 Here she is!  I never even knew about getting these kind of newborn pictures - until it was too late to do it with Tristan, so I was uber excited to have Cambria molded and posed to get shots like these.  There will be many more to come, but this is what the fabulous photographer has edited so far.

 She was awake for a little while, then once her tummy was finally topped off, she slept through hours of this, and then a few more hours afterward.  We are certainly enjoying her around here!

In other news, Tristan had another modeling gig today.  I had to take all four children - ugh of ughs, but we survived, and it's that much more money to fatten his college account.  Kyler had his first modeling session while I was still in the hospital.  My mom went with him and found it all to be very interesting.  Speaking of my mom, we were sure sad to see her go, and we all wished we had planned for her to be here another week, but alas changing the return flight would have cost as much as the original round-trip ticket.  People here in the church have been very generous with meals, which we sure appreciate.  Dean is back to work as well after his ten days of baby leave (which included weekends).  

We will miss such perks when he's a civilian again.  Yes, he finally told his command that he intends to be finished with the army after we leave Korea next June.  He had just been accepted to do a residency in internal medicine, compliments of the army, but ultimately decided that's not what he wants to do.   Now we have a year to figure out what in the world we'll do, and where in the U.S. we'll do it.

Imagine My Surprise

 A few weeks ago at church Dean walked into the primary room after meetings were over with my Uncle Louis - imagine that in Korea!  They've been serving a mission in Russia and have to leave every 90 days in order to maintain a visa there.  They knew that they were supposed to meet up with someone in Seoul when they came, but couldn't remember for the life of them who it was.  It was us, and Dean recognized Uncle Louis in Priesthood meeting and we were delighted to have visitors.  They came home with us and had lunch and played games.  We always love company.  I was about 39 weeks pregnant at that point, so the next time they come we'll have a three-month young baby to show them!

 Hunter worked on a project for some time in his gifted class at school, and we were able to attend his presentation of it.  He studied and reported on the cultures of the U.S., Cuba and the Dominican Republic.  He did very well, except for covering his face when he saw me pull out the camera : )

 I need to cut Kyler's shaggy hair before he does this style again!

 We worked out the timing very well with my mom's visit.  It's been a great help to have her around with Miss Cambria and the boys!

The boys are all enthralled with our sweet baby and constantly ask to hold her.

She is still one hungry girl, and I'm still not making enough to satisfy her, though I finally "let down" my milk today, which she gulped.  She gets too cozy and falls asleep when nursing, so 'round and 'round we go.

We are all so excited to finally have a girl around here.

She is definitely a keeper!  Even though she is a big newborn, she still seems tiny.  She's not chubby; she was 21.5 inches long at birth, and was down to 8lb14oz four days after she was born.  She is now one week old. 

Well It Was Bound to Happen

and it Finally Did...

My mom came as scheduled on Friday night.  Dean and the big boys took the subway to the airport in Seoul to pick her up.  She came when I was 40 weeks this time so we didn't have another near miss like with Tristan (she came at 39 weeks and flew out two days after he was born at nearly 41 weeks).  Dean was stressed out as usual wondering when Cambria would show.  A fabulous doula here suggested I start taking evening primrose oil orally and vaginally to potentially speed things along, as my cervix was "high and closed" on Friday at the 40 week appointment.  I started with two orally and two elsewhere.  I put three in on Monday night at bedtime, and woke to painful contractions at about 2:00am, with the contractions coming from right there..  It took me a while to realize that they were the real deal, as I would drift off to sleep, then be woken again.  I had been having braxton hicks contractions for months, but they were nothing like these.  I filled the bathtub with water to try to relieve the pain, but it didn't much help.

Cambria Rose Lavallee was quite purple for a while.

That's when I realized it was time to wake my darling husband, whom I had woken the night before at about the same time, for a different reason.  He had been talking in his sleep the previous night, and I was afraid he was having a nightmare.  He wasn't, but was never able to go back to sleep so he was really exhausted Monday night and had taken some Benadryl to help him sleep through the night - ha ha, right on cue for having a baby.  I told him what was up and he jumped right out of bed.  We finished packing and got to the hospital quickly, with me vomiting some.  We went through the emergency entrance and I sat right down in a wheel chair.  I think the tires must have been flat - or maybe just my huge-ness weighed it down; it didn't move very well.  The triage guy walked us all the way up to the WICU.  He motioned a big belly to the staff in the ER - sometimes makeshift sign language is the easiest with the language barrier around here in Korea.

I was so sleepy I dozed off a lot between contractions, even though they were only 1-2 minutes apart.  I was too exhausted to hold her much at first, though she did try nursing right away.

Of course the contractions were monstrously painful by then, and the nurse in the WICU "checked" me right away.  I was still "high and closed," she reported - as my water broke on her hand.  She said that they would probably admit me since that happened.  There was certainly no question in our minds about whether or not it was time, even if she was skeptical  Within an hour I was dilated to a 10!  I begged and begged for an epidural as soon as we had gotten to the WICU, but they had to call the anesthesia person in, and she took her sweet time.  I was very grateful for epidurals with the first three.

June 14, 2011, 5:41am; Cambria weighed 9lb 5oz

The OB was super nice, and asked if I wanted to push then.  She also had to be called in, but got there quickly.  I said "no way", not until I could get some kind of pain relief.  There wasn't really time for an epidural, so when the anesthetist finally got there she did a spinal.  It helped a little bit - not much.  I had never made so much noise, for sure, as it hurt like the devil as always.  Once the spinal had been in long enough to take effect (about 10 minutes), Dean started prodding me to push, because it would wear off in 90 minutes.  I didn't want to - pushing is the worst part, and I've always been a lousy pusher.  But it hurt so bad that pushing like crazy was what my body wanted to do.

She is a happy baby

I had always had an epidural, which does take away the pain and some of the urge to push, so this was a new experience, and I was afraid of the pain of actually feeling Baby come out.  I only pushed a couple of times and out she came.  I screamed my head off because it hurt so bad - burning like I was on fire.  I learned later that that was the ring of fire that I had missed out on before.  I was awfully disappointed to have torn for the first time on baby #4.  My doula friend said later that if Baby doesn't crown first, then tearing happens, which is exactly what happened.  Dean said #3's head would come out a bit, then go back in, over and over.  He said the OB pulled on this one's head and neck once they were out, and I know I pushed some more to get her going because I wanted her out and the pain to stop.  Then it was all over.  It's always amazing to me how the body knows to stop hurting. Tragically, the batteries in our camera were dead, so Hubby took these pictures with his iPhone, and I wasn't able to get one of him shedding tears of joy after the birth, as he has with each of the children.  It always melts my heart.

The only other request we made was that the placenta be left alone until it stopped pulsing.  I have only recently learned about that (from Mamabirth).  So it was only a few minutes, then they had Dean cut the cord as usual.  I had never seen the placenta, so Dr. Cundiff showed it and the sac to me.  Interesting!  Dean said the placenta was by far the smallest he has ever seen - because the blood was allowed to drain into Cambria.  She weighed 9lb 5oz, and I'm sure a little of that is due to that extra blood.

Her little face had a bit of bruising, and her right eye has a bit of blood on the sclera (white of the eye), from "birth trauma", which will probably take a few weeks to clear up.  She is a delightful baby so far and we are ever so blessed and happy to welcome her to the family.  Her breathing was a little too fast for their taste, so they ended up keeping her an extra day and a half to see if she had early pneumonia or something along those lines.  There was no such thing, so they attributed it her just still adjusting to life...

It was actually peaceful to stay there a bit longer rather than face the loud crowd at home.  When the boys came to visit right after dinner one evening, Hunter got right in the nurse's face and told her he was hungry.  Kyler kept trying to get the TV to work - it didn't.  They both complained about being bored and galloped around the room like bulls in a china closet.  Tristan was bewildered without me being at home in the mornings, and spent the whole time trying to climb into my lap when I was holding Cambria, or running out of the room, or getting into everything in the room...  They quickly wore out their welcome.

She didn't think much of her first bath.

We are all home now.  The doctor had me bring her back in this afternoon to check her breathing again.  She has done great latching on, but as usual my milk supply is slow, so we've had to give her formula so she isn't so sad and hungry.  My milk seems to be slowly making an appearance.  One thing that kind of weirded me out is that they have young male soldiers as the nursing assistants, in the delivery room or immediately after - attending to the baby's and new mother's every need.  Oh, dear.  This guy above is super duper nice and loves the babies and is very complimentary and congratulatory, but it still weirds me out to have to ask them for personal items or when they check the fundus or ask very personal questions as part of their job.  Ah, well, whaddya do?

Shoe Dummy

I love this adorable little swim suit on the Trist-man.  The pool has opened here and the boys are loving it!  Kyler has been asking ever since it closed after Labor Day last year when it would open again.  He has no concept of yesterday/today/tomorrow, much less "in eight months".

Tristan loves to play what I call "shoe dummy".  When he wants to go somewhere, he spends the day bringing me whatever shoes he can find.  If I'm dumb enough to put them on him, he soon has them off and wants me to put them back on...  He sometimes likes to help dress himself when he finds random baby clothes around.

 I've had the pottery piece on the right since Emily, my college freshman roommate, gave it to me for Christmas way back then.  I finally decided to take a picture of it and lay it to rest.  Note all the breaks and repairs.  I replaced it with the piece on the left, but will miss this one and the thoughtfulness behind it.

Tristan continues to enjoy experimenting with makeup.  His favorites are still mascara and lipstick.  I decided to take the bull by the horns on Monday (Memorial Day) and try the one-day potty-training method since Dean took the big boys fishing with Dr. Yun (a Korean civilian vet at work).  Alas, as the book details, the trainee must be cooperative, and this guy isn't exactly.  So it didn't go well.  We are doing what the book says to help him become cooperative, and are seeing some improvement, and are still dabbling with the potty.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can get at it again.

I'm due in a week!  We shall see what happens.  

We put Hunter and Kyler into the same bedroom again, as we decided that there's no reason for them to be-foul two rooms in the house.  So Tristan is in his own room, which means he doesn't get woken up early every morning by BoyWhoGoesToSchool, so it's working out great already.  

And, a tip for the interested:  I dabbed a bit of castor oil on Tristan's chest and forehead bruises, but not the one on his back.  All the bruises had a little hard nodule in the center (except the one on his forehead).  Dean said it was probably calcification as the blood is (slowly) resorbed.  All those bruises (minus the forehead one) came from him finally tumbling a few steps down our hardwood spiral stairs some time ago (love this army housing).  Well, the ones on his chest began healing finally and are now gone (along with the forehead one, which has been replaced by a new one - it never ends with hemophilia boy), but not the one on his back.  Amazing.  I love non-drug treatments! If castor oil isn't on the shelf at the drug store, it's sometimes behind the counter, and is not costly.