Burl wears same outfit for more than 2 hours

Last night Ryan killed 20 mosquitoes in our room. Some of us still suffered bites. If Ivo gets bitten, we all wake up... Sad...

Happy: Burl didn't need new clothes all last night or today until 9pm... It was awesome. Gail wanted to know where the dirties were... Today we went to the flower market and then e-i-o to play.
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Ivo's singing Ring of Fire right now, "a burn a burn a buuuurrn! a fire!" Today Ivo wrote a letter to Papa at cbckids that started "Dear Dad" which he keeps saying. He's very proud of himself. He's running around saying "cockadoodoo!" Ryan just asked Ivo what I'm doing. He said, "Dash Mama typing and feed the Burl." Which is exactly the case. Ryan asked him what "his brother is doing" to which Ivo said "Baby Burl booby." One more thing, when Ivo says "police" - as in car/man etc, it sounds like "pizza." "Pizza- Man!"

Burl and family - 1 week old

Burl was 1 week old yesterday - hooray! We took a few pics to remember by...













































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Ryan took this picture last night - I was rocking Burl with my foot and nursing Ivo. I tried so-called tandem nursing once - it SUCKED! Ha ha! I have only read a little about it - and the little that I know has led me to think tandem is a euphemism for simultaneous - which I cannot accept. Albeit probably well-intentioned it's still just another misleading pull-the-wool-over-yr-eyes euphemism to normalize the bad things that women go through. Like "discomfort of labor," "domestic violence," and such. It's just ridiculous. Tandem, indeed!
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Ryan, Gail and Ivo are "fuk a walk" as Ivo puts it. It has been a huge day. Burl and I both had dr appts - I had 2, he had 1 plus a TB vaccination. We picked up his birth certificates, waited in endless lines, up and down elevators (big hospital)... got medicine - which is making me nauseated on top of the excellent headache I've been working on... And I remembered everything - even got my parking validated. I sort of can't believe it.

I wore Burl in my excellent new sling and carried around his car seat for when I had to put him down. It worked great. The sling gave me decent coverage for nursing and to shield Burl from too much light, germs, eyes... While several people (not including hospital staff whom I sorta know) came over to see him, only one was outta control. An older woman in the dermatology waiting room - yes, with unsightlies all over her face - stood right on top of us - maybe an inch away from me. She peered down at the little sliver of visible Burl and booby until they called her in to see the dr. Initially I acknowledged her and then ignored her when it became clear she didn't take social cues...
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I took these pics of Burl for his Alien Resident Card which Ryan will apply for tomorrow. They're cropped differently for the ARC. I hope we can use the smiling one!

Dash find Dozer

This is from yesterday 6 March.

Ivo can say and sing

Burl and I are up, have been since 6. It was a shivery cold night. When we came downstairs this morning the thermometer read 17C... Definitely the coldest morning since Gail got here (2/2).

Burl is sleeping so well. He nurses several times throughout the night but it's easy for both of us to fall back to sleep. I've been changing him once in the night - but otherwise leaving him wrapped in his blanket and under mine, figuring urine is good for the skin.
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Yesterday after the visitors left, Ivo and I went for a walk with Karin and her 2 doggie charges, Dozer and Shadow. We ended up at the empty playground at lunchtime. Nice cuz the dogs could run and Ivo didn't have to contend with people. He's been a little touchy recently - but only with jerks, the folks who operate under the assumption that if a kid cowers and/or says no, keep trying anyway. Disregard the clear signals - make the kid your friend. Just pester, poke and prod until you get what you want - you're bigger and know better.
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Ivo can say: run away, hide, find (active verb and past participle), fly, help, robot, turn, astronaut, dancing, draw, potato, stay, up/down, in/out, under/on, tall, long, too loud, yellow, red, green, blue, black, brown, all kinds of land and sea animals as well as different kinds of bugs
He's recently converted some of his first and favorite words into more universally recognizable forms: "woo woo che/car" -> fire truck/ambulance/police car, "roar" -> dinosaur, "ai di" (both for elephant and excavator) -> elephant, spinning finger -> helicopter
Ivo makes sentences and questions with S/V/O and prep phrases. If he hears something once, he can repeat it and, incredibly, he remembers it for later. Karin sang him the Kinks "wanna fly like superman" and he repeated the lines. Later, we played him the Kinks version and he recognized it as the same song.
Ivo can sing: Baa baa Blacksheep, You are my Sunshine, Ring of Fire, ABC's... He likes to hear drums (loves Stomp), songs about bugs, ants, spiders...
When Ivo goes places, whether on foot, in the stroller or in his car seat, he positions his arms straight out in front of him with his hands in fists - flying like Superman.

Just a few Ivo pics

Just too cute to resist putting up now. And I know there haven't been any pics of Gail for awhile - and that might cause some concern for Doug... so here's one of Super-Grammie. She's got both boys. Um... Ryan and I seem to have misplaced Gail's passport. I don't think there's anything to be done about it. It is what it is!

A few of Burl's visitors

We've been taking it easy on visitors this first week and big thanks and kisses to everyone who has come by and everyone who has not come by.

We're getting more sleep and excited to see more friends. Burl's growing. Ivo's growing. I'm hoping that I'm shrinking. Burl is a champion pooper, eater, looker-arounder. Ivo's a champion dancer, singer, player-dougher. Tonight Ryan put on some Johnny Cash without any fanfair, no announcement or other narrative. Ivo recognized the music and said, "Johnny Cash singing."

Say Aiyi, Apo and mei mei were here this morning and brought Burl 20 roses, Ivo a teddy bear and both boys hong bao! Ivo said "Ka ching!" - No he didn't - just kidding.

Much much more to say - but too too tired.
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Also too tired to figure out the sidebar problem and I realize all the tags I've made are useless... But I won't let these things get in the way of sleep.

Ivo and Burl with Ryan Video 1 taken 3/3

Ivo sings a funny song. Then he says something that sounds insanely like "fuk a walk." We think this is some kinda contraction for "go for a walk..."

Burl's first day home 3/3

Video coming soon. Gail took these right when we got home from the hospital on Saturday, 3/3, afternoon.

More words soon. Briefly, it's been a poop factory over here. But both boys are sleeping now - so I'm gonna change the littlest pooper and hopefully nap.

Burl at hospital pics 3/2

These are from Friday- Burl's 2 days old!
During our hospital stay Burl slept very quick! 20 minutes at a time - then booby... He was easy to comfort just by singing, talking, patting, swaddling and/or nursing. I was tired though - Until Friday morning, I had slept 4 hours since his birth Wednesday evening.

Burl at hospital pics 3/1

These pics are from Burl's first full day, Thursday - 3/1. Ivo was sweet and gentle. He touched Bur;'s nose, head, ears, mouth and hair saying, "Baby Burl de ____" giggling "yep!"

Then he tried to open Burl's eyes - we told him let's don't do that. Ivo said, "Dash no open de Burl de eye."

Ivo loves holding Burl and asks to often. "want hold de de Baby Burl..." or "Dash hold de de Burl..." I'm not sure why he's using 2-de's - maybe cuz it's so special!

228 Burl's Birthday

I woke up at 7am Wednesday, came downstairs, made coffee and read some news online. After awhile the rest of the gang trickled down. I scooted to Xiang Shang Market for cai bao and do jiang.

Ivo ate about 1-1/2 of the steamed cabbage buns, so when Gail only ate 1 of hers, I snatched up her 2nd one... I tried to act cool, like I wasn't still starving - but I don't think anyone bought it.

Around 9:30/10, I started talking up a walk to Caves, figuring we could play at the park while availing ourselves of all the amenities that Caves Bk store offers. As has been his whimsical way of late, it took Ivo over an hour to stop equivocating and decide to go. So we left close to 11. I remember remarking on how all the energy I had at 10 had mostly dissipated during negotiations. Plus it was an hour hotter, an hour sunnier, an hour more humid.

Gail, Ivo and I got to Caves, checked on the Vanity Fair which I have on order every month, which, however, hasn't arrived the last two months. They told me the US edition has stopped coming to Taiwan. I said, ok, I'll stop pestering you about it...

We read books and played for an hour, then went outside and played. Ivo really wanted to go to the science museum, but since 228 is a holiday, I could see from traffic and foot-traffic that the museum was packed, and I just wasn't up for it. We bribed poor Ivo with K2 gelato so we could go home around 1:30.

While we were gone, Ryan had taken down our Xmas tree. Ivo said "what happened - christmas tree?" But I guess we were all ready. We ate lunch and Ivo played at the bathroom sink with Grammie. Ivo and I went upstairs to take a nap or at least rest. I remember being super hot and uncomfortable. I figured the all-I-could-eat-all-cabbage breakfast was probably the source of my discomfort. I had learned not to make too much of recent burps and other intestinal situations - as eager as I'd been to interpret any such as signs of labor...

Ivo had some booby and didn't like it - he initiated "change sides" - which is usually my call - and then didn't even want to follow through. I was kinda miserable and thought, hey, maybe this is the beginning. It was 2:30pm.

Around 3, I mentioned to Ryan. He went to return DVDs and get a couple (superman and cars for Ivo) in case. While he was out, I washed my hair and missed a call from a # I didn't recognize. Since I thought it might be our landlord calling in some stage of the never-ending back and forth water heater problem, I returned the call. It was Caves - March Vanity Fair had arrived. At that point, I began to believe I was in labor. I texted Ryan to pick up the mag on his way home.

Over the past couple months I've actually worried about having a decent magazine to read at the hospital... Having just returned from the hospital with my beautiful baby, and an uncracked magazine - I realize I'd misjudged some stuff. In fact, the longer the pregnancy went on and I watched my suitcase just sitting there next to the closet, I began to look forward to the hospital stay like some sort of vacation! I said things like, "no matter what labor involves, I'll be so happy not to be pregnant, it'll be a relief..." and "such and such will be easier after Burl is born cuz I won't be so uncomfortable..." such and such presumably included sleeping!

I hung around in the bedroom with Ivo after washing my hair and getting dressed. I did a lot of the hands and knees position to help Burl get in his preferred position. I breathed and noted time b/w what I though were probably contractions but almost just as possibly, gas. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 20... Irregular. At 4:19 I started writing down the times (I will scan this page soon - Ivo drew all over it). Ryan was packing the car and eating soup. I went into Grammie's room - I'm not sure why... Queer Eye was on when I got in there. I wrote the time 5:22 as a contraction began - and then either another one came right away or it was super long... I heard a POP - my water broke. I started saying "uh oh, uh oh" over and over and tried to get to the bathroom without making a huge mess - which I was able to do (not make a mess). I called for Ryan - but he didn't hear me. Gail and Ivo were in our room and I called for Gail who began calling for Ryan.

I thought water breaking before labor's going in earnest only happened on tv - I was surprised for it to have happened at such an early stage and was definitely heading to the hospital. (Until this point we really didn't think we were in such a hurry. We weren't sure the Baby wouldn't come on his great grammie Lawrence's bday, 1 March) I had to change my pants. I wondered how messy I was gonna be and how I was gonna be able to wait for the elevator during a contraction or simply being a swampy mess. I thought maybe we didn't have to park the car - maybe Ryan could take me upstairs, leaving the car by the taxi entrance... move it once I was in a labor room...

I got redressed. Ryan finished packing the car, I went back up to get some pillows. Came down, contraction - didn't want Ivo to see me doubled over... Ivo said "Mama ok?" We told him we were gonna go see Dr Fu (whom Ivo calls Dr. Foot) and the baby was coming! Mama's fine, love you, see you soon. We got to the car and I wanted to be in back - not front - so we had to repack it and take out Ivo's car seat. So we pulled away at 5:45.

30 minutes, door to door, including moving the motorcycles to save our parking space, is how long it takes when I drive to the hospital. Burl was born at 6:14. I'm not sure how we made it. Ryan's an excellent driver and it was a holiday - so regular commuter traffic was elsewhere, I guess. Heather said she was on Chung Gang at 6 - and it was worse than a usual Wednesday.

I had 2 or 3 contractions that I managed really well on all fours in the back of the car. I relaxed every muscle and just let my uterus go, I breathed. I felt like we were golden. Then I had one that seized and convulsed my body, then another. I was screaming. I felt- not golden. I felt like we might be naming Burl "Guo Guang Lu" if not "Chung Ming Nan Lu." Ryan pulled up to the ER, they brought out a stretcher. I barely made it outta the car. The hospital staff wanted me to lie on my back. I was on all fours and I kept yelling "bu yao!" They must have a safety rule about moving fat foreigners with ridiculous centers of gravity... Anyway, I couldn't move and finally an ambulance pulled up and honked - they had to move me. Ryan had to move the car...

They have their own elevator in the ER. They took me right up to the 5th floor and into the regular delivery room - I mentioned wanting my own labor and delivery room but didn't push it - even though I was sad to see the stirrups and icky tables... I moved from gurney to the table. They pulled off my pants, Dr Fu came in, checked dilation and told me to push. None of this, don't push... I was fully dilated. "Epidural?" I asked weakly, half knowing the answer. Dr Fu laughed and said, "No need." I tried to do what they said, but I didn't want to hold my hands the way they wanted me to - and I didn't want to push all the time. Part of me wanted to take a break, wait for Ryan, was scared the baby was coming out the wrong hole... I kept asking for "wo xian sheng" And finally like a superhero in a cartoon, a be-gowned Ryan came flying in, twirling several times before coming over to the table. It was great! I said things like "My baby My baby My baby My baby..." during the pushes and "My baby is hurting my bottom!!!!" But, as Ryan mentioned I didn't swear. This was a considerable point of pride with me when Ivo was born. I don't want to make people uncomfortable - especially the kinda people who are helping me through labor and beyond... They seemed shocked enough that I was screaming so loud... They sort of moved away and said "oh!"















Baby Burl came by the end of the 4th contraction in the hospital.














Best day ever! (on top of the nearly 800 best-days-ever we've had with Ivo!!!)

By the time we left the recovery room and Ryan ran the initial paperwork gauntlet, it was too late to bring Ivo by to meet Burl. We were on cloud 9. I didn't sleep til 7:30am on 3/1 when they took Burl for a bath. We talked to Ivo that night and after we got off the phone, as he and Gail went upstairs he said, "Mama ok."

WOWEEEEEE! BURL 228!!!!

I have so much to record - but not so much energy. And it's much harder to type with 2 nursing kids than 1... Soon soon.

We are all doing great! Ryan and Gail are taking superb care of everybody. Ivo's adjusting like a superstar to being a big brother.

Labor and delivery were even faster than Ryan posted!
Burl waited til the Xmas tree was down and the Vanity Fair magazine was in...all on 228...

Apgar 1 min: 9
Apgar 5 min: 10

At birth Burl weighed 3700g. He was 55cm long. Head circumference 35cm.
He's spending a lot of time with open eyes listening to Dash talk and sing. Video coming.

We came home on Saturday 30307... Slept pretty well last night. 4 poops (Burl - not me). Milk came in yesterday.