Evan Update

Where to begin about my little Evan....or should I say my big boy! He is the absolute most fun right now, saying or doing something new everyday. I'm going to have to start capturing his new little sayings daily. He has been the best big brother, loving and kissing on his little brother all the time. Don't get me wrong, Cooper gets the occasional bonk upside the head every now and then when E gets a little too excited, but for the most part is very gentle and always trying to be a big helper. He automatically goes to get "Cooper diapers" when I lay Cooper on the changing pad, without even having to be asked! Wonder how long he'll keep up the big helper act?!?! He did go through the transition phase in the very beginning where he wanted to do everything and be everywhere Cooper was...like the pictures below where he wanted to be swaddled and lay in Coop's moses basket to sleep. He also tried to sit in his bouncer and lay on his playgym...he even made the occasional attempt to stick Coop's bink in his own mouth. But after a few days, he adjusted and realized there was a new baby in the house and he was now the big boy of the house.
I think part of the reason he adjusted so well to having Cooper with us is that his BeBe and Boss spoiled him from the moment the arrived (giving him everything he wanted and doing everything he wanted to do....just like grandparents do!!), so he never felt like the attention was ever diverted elsewhere. They had the best time together. Evan spent more time outside in the 3+ weeks they were here than he had in the whole time we've been here. They would take a walk each day...sometimes even 2 or 3 a day. By nap time, he was always completely worn out. They even chased each other around the driveway in the rain. They played with his new water toys. They chased butterflies and watched the monkeys, squirrels, and birds. Actually, my dad nearly killed himself when he fell off a ladder while trying to get up to a bird's nest to show Evan the bird eggs! They cleaned the back patio one day, went to the bird park once and then to one of the museums by the mall. They also went to the pool a few days. Needless to say he got quite the tan while they were here...guess his Boss wanted him to look even more like him!! He also managed to get a few nasty mosquito bites (which he is totally allergic to, just like his mother!)...one to his eye that swelled up so bad it looked like he had been in a boxing match! I tried telling Boss he was a "bubble boy" and couldn't play outside without managing to get bitten at least once every other outing. Even though they kept him lathered in mosquito replenant he stilled managed to get bitten about 4 other times. He also got one of his first "real ouchies" by falling in the road while running....skinning up his knee and taking a small chunk out of his thumb. But my little E is a real macho...he only cried for a bit and then it never phased him again. He even seemed enjoy putting on the antibiotic ointment and the Thomas and Friends bandages. I don't think he'd ever had as much fun as he had while his BeBe and Boss were here and we were very sad to see them go. Here are a few pictures from their adventures....and I'm sure my mom would like everyone to know she did all these things with the boys too, but she was the one always taking the pictures!!!

Saying Bye to BeBe and Boss before the leave to Singapore to catch their flight the next morning!

So after the grandparents left, it was life back to "normal"....or as normal as we are going to get for now with a newborn in the house. I started taking Evan to my artist friend's craft day she holds weekly for the expat children. There were 4 other children there plus Evan. He was the youngest in the group, but had a great time with the other kiddos, which ranged from 3 to 4 years old. They would run around chasing each other while yelling and E just stood there and took it all in...as to say "what are these crazy kids doing!!" The craft of the week was to make a mask to wear. E had a good time and enjoyed coloring his. It kept his attention for a good 20 minutes...I was really surprised. He usually can't sit still on one project for longer than 5 or 10 minutes when we are at home. It must have been because all the other kids were sitting there with him. We plan on trying to make it as often as possible from now on since he seemed to really enjoy himself. It looks like we could potentially have a "lefty" on our hands!! He uses it way more often than his right hand to color with and eat with.

Taking a break from coloring to pose with Mom for a picture!

He enjoyed making the mask, but not so fond of actually wearing it!

I managed to get it on him long enough to take a picture at home....note: the coloring near the mouth was his actual work, the rest Mom had to help with!!

We'd been considering enrolling E in a Montessori school and even went and scoped it out back in January to see if it was a place we'd feel safe sending him to. After checking it out and talking with one of the teachers, we decided we would send him, but would wait until he was a bit older (they start accepting children at 18 months, but most usually start at age 2). Since he seems to be enjoying spending more time around other kids lately, I thought it might be time to get him started. He will be the youngest at the school, but I only plan on sending him 1-2 days a week for now...and only for half a day. I just really want him to go for the social aspect. Anyhow, we went back last week to see about getting him officially enrolled, but they now said we had to wait until the new school session starts in September. He seemed totally stoked about going when we asked him if he wanted to go to school and play with the kids. He kept saying "kool...kids". So needless to say, he was a bit disappointed when he couldn't stay and play with the kids. I told him they said we had to wait a bit longer before he started going, so it then turned to "wait...kool...kids!" It was too cute. As you can see in the picture below, he was all ready to go and check it out with his back pack, sunglasses and sippy cup. He'll be off to pre-K before we know it....and this picture will be in front of his elementary school door instead...oh no, my baby is growing up way too fast!

Cooper Update

Wow, I can't believe my little Cooper is 7 weeks old today and I haven't posted a single picture since his birth...sorry about that! I do have a bit of an excuse though - for nearly 3 weeks afterwards we were computerless due to getting some sort of virus. What a pain, but I hardly missed it since I've definitely been keeping busy with two little ones. It was nice to have BeBe and Boss in for a visit shortly after Cooper was born. They definitely kept Evan entertained so I didn't feel too bad about neglecting him a bit while trying to tend to a newborn. Cooper was an absolute angel the first 2-3 weeks, sleeping alot during the day and being a fairly good night sleeper. And then somewhere around 3 weeks he decided the only person that he was going to let comfort and soothe him was his mother and not only that, his mother had to have him in her arms all the time!! So, while that has made it almost impossible to do anything else, we seem to be managing and I'm trying to enjoy this time as much as possible. I do have to admit I love cuddling with him in the glider and watching him sleep. I just keep thinking that I'll never get this time with him again and I want to take it all in right now. Evan just seemed to grow up so quickly and that time with him seems so long ago now. I can't believe how much he has been growing lately either. My little baby is definitely not a little baby any longer. He is learning new words and phrases everyday....but that is a whole other story. I'll have to write a separate post about my E later....he is such fun right now and is being such an awesome big brother!

So even though Cooper seems to be a bit more needy than I ever remember Evan being, he is an angel. He is growing much faster than I'd like. While I'm looking forward to him getting to an age where he starts to get around and be more fun, I do enjoy the baby phase and how much he needs me right now. At his 6 week appointment, the little guy weighed in at 9lbs 11 ounces and was 22 1/2" long. It was also determined that he was able to have his circumcision performed and we wouldn't have to wait until 8 months (like the pediatric surgeon originally told us) when he would have to go under general anesthesia. So on Friday, we checked into the hospital in KL for Cooper's day surgery. She wanted to do it in the hospital just in case there was any excess bleeding - which she said was more likely given him being over a month old. Everything went smoothly and we were able to go home a couple of hours after the surgery. He seemed to be in quite a bit of pain shortly after the local anesthetic wore off, but we kept him on baby Tylenol (or the equivalent prescribed here) for a couple of days and it doesn't seem to even bother him any longer. It's still quite painful for me to look at, but she said it should be fully healed in 7 to 10, so only a few more days now. And oh yeah, they actually gave us the foreskin they cut off for us to bring home....why, you ask....I have no idea.....GROSS!! I didn't realize he had that much extra skin for her to cut off!!!

As for how Cooper is sleeping...he is actually a great sleeper. His longest stretch of sleep has been about 5 hours thus far, which was really nice, but that was only a couple of nights. He typically sleeps from about 9pm to 1am, up for a feeding until 2, and then back asleep until about 6am. He'll then sleep from about 7 to 9am. During the day, he normally takes a long afternoon nap (rather than short ones throughout the day) about the same time Evan does, which makes it nice to be able to get things done while both of them are sleeping...like showering! No seriously, while it does take a lot out of me with 2 little ones, I'm not sure what I would do without having Marte around. She has really been an amazing help with Evan. She is the one who gets him up in the morning and feeds him breakfast so that I can catch another hour or so of sleep with Cooper after his early morning feeding. She also feeds him lunch and dinner and baths him at night. While I'd love to be able to keep doing those things with him, it's almost impossible when the only way I can keep Cooper pleased is to be holding him or keeping him entertained somehow. That is why I can't wait for the age when he gets a little less needy, so that I can shift my focus back onto Evan a bit. So when Cooper is in a good mood, I try to let Marte tend to him so I can have my "Evan bonding time", so I don't feel like I'm not paying enough attention to him. I definitely respect those mothers who are able to juggle more than one child. I guess you eventually find a way, but it's a learning and growing process that is for sure. Even with help (and my mom and dad being here for over 3 weeks), it still seemed like a circus around here sometimes. Like bath time, that was an event when we tried bathing both of them at the same time. Cooper would cry...or scream rather...the entire time and then Evan would start his whining for whatever reason. So we originally thought Coop was going to always loathe bath time (and not be a total water baby like his big brother), but we figured out it wasn't baths at all that he didn't like...it was the time of day we gave it to him. We decided to try to bath him in the mornings and found out that he actually loves to be bathed...not one whimper! Problem solved. So guess he is going to be a morning bather until we can start getting him to like night baths as part of his bedtime routine. One thing I have definitely already determined it that about the only thing that is similar between my 2 boys is their looks because other than that, they have been complete opposites. I'm really going to have to work on not constantly trying to compare them. Both Andrew and I find ourselves always saying "but Evan didn't do that" or "Evan did this" or "Evan never cried this much...or this loud"....so hopefully we can work on that early on.
So I guess that is about it for now on Cooper. We go back for his 2 month vaccinations on the 21st, so we'll see how that goes! He does seem to be growing like a weed, so I'll be curious to see how much he has grown at that time. His Nana & Pop are coming in for a 2 week visit on July 19th, so we can hardly wait for them to get here. Hopefully, Cooper will be more into a routine by then and out of this "needy" phase and let his Nana hold him a bit. He sure wasn't in to having his BeBe or Boss comfort him. But I know they were more than happy to spend those few weeks with him regardless. We sure did enjoy having them around and miss them tremendously!

I'll try to be better about posting more current information now that I'm caught up so that I don't post such a lengthy update next time (of course I say that every time!!). I sure do miss everyone and wish you could meet this new little man of ours...he is something else! Be sure and check back for an Evan update in the next few days....


So here are a few pictures of my two precious boys:

Evan and Cooper the day we arrived home from the hospital

E loving on his new little brother

Cooper meets his BeBe

Coop at one week old

Taking a siesta while we watch Evan play outside

Both my precious boys

Cooper hanging with his Boss

Cooper turns 1 month old!

Hanging out on the couch

A little (or actually big) case of baby acne...my poor little guy's face

He's definitely a bink baby...just like his older brother was!

We see this face a little more often than we'd like sometimes!

On the hospital bed before going in for his surgery

What a wonderful Mother's Day!!

As you all now know, I was blessed with one of the most special Mother's Day gifts this year (even though I wasn't able to spend it with my little E), a new addition to our family...little Cooper Price!! As I posted in my last entry, I did end up making that trip to the hospital Saturday night, or rather very early Sunday morning. After I wrote on the blog, I headed to bed to try and get some sleep and from about 10:30 until 12:30, I was having fairly intense, consistent 10 min. contractions. While I thought it was still too early to head to the hospital, Andrew insisted we at least go in and get checked out (we'd been hearing too many stories about people arriving at the hospital too late to receive an epidural and having to go all natural....there was no way I wanted that to happen!!). So, we headed out about 1:15am and when we arrived at the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors to observe the contractions and noticed they were down to about 5-7 minutes apart (we were so glad we had made the decision to go to the hospital at this point!). But then, when the nurse checked me, I still hadn't even begun to dilate!! She made a call to the Dr. who told them to go ahead and admit me. They should observe me overnight and that he would be in to check on me in the morning. The rest of the morning, the contractions seemed to lessen (but mind you, still painful enough!!!) and space themselves out....great, I thought....now I feel really silly! So when the Dr. arrived around 10am, I still hadn't made any progress, so he told me to go back home and that we would just keep our appointment for Thursday and we'd see where we were then. I told Andrew there was no way I was going to make it until then with the contractions I was having. Nevertheless, we headed back to our temporary home and thought we'd just see how it went! Now, I was thrilled that Andrew had been here with me....I would have hated to get him up here and then have to send him back to Melaka had it been on a weekday!! Anyhow, we went and had lunch and then headed back "home". I decided to take a shower as I was still having these fairly consistent contractions and feeling really crappy and drained from being up all night. While we were home from about 1:00 until about 3:30 (as I tried to nap.....while Marte was being an absolute savior and taking great care of Evan!!), the contractions only seemed to intensify and get closer together. By about 3:45, they started coming every 5-6 minutes....so, yes we headed back to the hospital! I told Andrew they were going to have to do something to make the baby come this time if he wasn't on his way because there was ABSOLUTELY no way I was going to make it another day with the pain I was having. When we arrived at the hospital this time, the nurse didn't even have to monitor me to make the decision to admit me because she saw how intense and frequent the contractions were coming (and how painful I must have made them look!!) and told me to go ahead and get into that "oh-so-nice" hospital gown. By the time she did get me connected, she was already getting all the "stuff" ready and I was telling her that I would like an epidural...STAT! She checked me and said I was at about 3cm, but that I was progressing quite quickly. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived and got the epidural in me at about 5:30(which by the way, was almost as painful as the now 1-2 min spaced contractions!), I was already about 6-7cm dilated! He told me I should have asked for it sooner...ha!...if I'd the strength he might have gotten a real earful from me!! After the epidural....ahhhh....now I was ready to have little Coop! Prior to that, I had told Andrew to remind me how I was feeling right then and there (as I was digging all my nails into him every couple of minutes....you forget, I didn't practice those breathing techniques that the natural childbirth mothers learn, as I always knew I was going the painless route!) if I ever told him I wanted a 3rd child!! You ladies who go natural are my heroes!! I have absolutely no idea HOW YOU DO IT!! Had I had to endure that sort of pain any longer, I might have passed out...ouch!! Anyhow, by 7pm I was about 9cm along and just waiting for the Dr to arrive....yet again!! By 7:30, I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. After about 10 minutes of pushing, Cooper was in my arms and it was all over.....WHEW...what a day!!! Everything went beautifully from that point on. Cooper Price Thompson arrived on May 11th at 7:40pm (Malaysia time). He weighed 6lbs, 10 oz and was 19.5 in long. It was amazing how much he looked like Evan. And believe it or not, I think he had even more jet black hair on his head than Evan did! I wouldn't have thought that was possible! He is an absolute doll and has been a wonderful baby thus far. He and Mom pulled through everything with no problems at all. We are so thankful to God that everything went so smoothly and that there were no complications! We did find out today though, that the only pediatric surgeon in the hospital would not perform Cooper's circumcision because she was concerned about how it was bent down a bit. She said she would like to wait and observe him again when he is about 8-10 months old and look at doing the circumcision then. Given that we would really rather not have to have him go under local anesthesia at that age, we are looking into getting a 2nd opinion. So we'll have to see what happens with that. With the circumcision not being performed today, they went ahead and discharged us earlier this afternoon. We are now back in our temporary home in KL, and ready to make the trip back home to Melaka tomorrow. I have no idea how we are going to get all our stuff, the 2 kiddos and Marte, Andrew and myself into one car!! I'll let you all know how that goes! Anyhow, I thought you might like to see a few pics of the new guy. I have to go and feed the little man right now, so I'll have to post Evan's reaction to his new baby brother in my next post. It was so cute and sweet, as you can tell from a couple of the pictures below.

Cooper Price Thompson

No..... he hasn't arrived yet, but yes...he finally has a name!! We've been back and forth between Cooper and Maxwell (Max) for awhile now, but finally decided today that he feels like a Cooper! And just in time because since about 4:30 this afternoon I've been having some pretty consistent contractions. They haven't been terribly painful yet, but are causing alot of back pain and cramping, so I'm fairly certain these could be the beginning stages of labor. Since I never really experienced any early labor pains with Evan, I've been a bit unsure what I've been feeling for the last few hours. I'd hate to show up at the hospital and them tell me, "listen lady, you are having normal "practice" contractions and nothing else....just go home and come back when something real is happening!!" So, we'll continue to time them a bit longer and see what happens. I may just be making that trip to the hospital tonight though. So glad Andrew is here and I don't have to go alone and wait for him to get to KL! Wouldn't it be so appropriate if little Coop showed up for Mother's Day! What a fantastic Mother's Day gift! We've even had E practicing his new little brother's name...it sounds more like "coo coo" than Cooper, but he's been working on getting it right.

We'll be sure and keep everyone posted. And in case tonight is the night...Happy Mother's Day out to all the mothers!! Have a fantastic day!! To Mom and Nita...hopefully Andrew and I can make your day a little more special by sharing the news of your new grandson! Please keep us in your prayers. While I'm confident that the Drs. are knowledgable and the hospital is well-equipped to handle any problems...we are still in a foreign country and that makes us a little less as ease.

And the wait continues.....

As suspected, the little guy is quite comfortable in the womb and not making much of a move to make his way out. The Dr. did say my cervix was starting to thin, so our little man is at least thinking about making his appearance, but no dilation at this point. It was another 2 hour wait for my appt. again this week....the last 3 weeks I've gone the Dr. has had to attend to deliveries, therefore backing up the waiting room...ugh! I go back again next Thursday to continue monitoring my progress, but the Doc says everything is looking great and I should enjoy this time with Evan before the new one arrives. He did mention that his practice is to only let his patients go 1 week passed their due dates, assuming all is looking okay and fluid levels are normal. The little guy is still weighing under 7lbs so it doesn't seem as though he'll be too much bigger than E, but he sure does look to have some chubby cheeks in the ultrasound. I do think this one has my nose again though....we originally thought he may have a straighter nose like Andrew's, but looks like this one may look more like me too!! I can hardly wait to see what he looks like!!

In other news, my darn camera that was supposed to be fixed 2 weeks ago has still yet to be repaired. You can probably tell by my lack of pictures. I have taken some pics on my old camera, but it is just so dated and slow that I hate to even use it. I sure do hope they get it back to me in time for the birth. Don't worry, I'll still have one to take pictures with, but I sure would like my new one. It sometimes just seems impossible to get anything done in a timely manner in this country.

I go for my scrapbooking lesson tomorrow, so at least I'll get a few more pages done of Evan before the new one arrives. I swore I was going to use this time to catch up on the last year and half of photos I wanted to get scrapbooked (I at least have them all printed and filed nicely in photo albums!!), but I just never got to it. You know, so much to do and all!!

Anyhow, that's the latest. We'll keep you posted!! Maybe I'll be getting an extra special Mother's Day gift...you never know!! I so wish we were closer so that we could share this special time with everyone. We miss you all dearly and think of everyone often!!

14 days and counting....

So another weekend with Andrew here and nothing. I think the little one is going to make him make a special trip up here in the middle of the night one of these nights. We did have a nice time with him here - I know Evan was especially happy to see him...he managed to go to sleep on his own and sleep through the night all 3 nights he was here! Maybe he felt safer with his Daddy nearby. It is pretty precious to hear Evan say "Melaka" when you ask him where his Daddy is now during the week...no longer only in the "golf cart"!!

And no, we still haven't finalized a name like I thought we would. We are now down to 2. We did take the Evan challenge and thought about just going with the name Evan picked up, but we are now starting to think that maybe we'll have to see him before we can actually give him a name. At this rate, he probably will be here before we land on one anyhow. I have another appointment tomorrow morning, but I'm expecting a bit of the same....nothing happening and waiting for another week to pass. I've been feeling pretty good lately...sleeping through the night without too many aches and pains. I guess my daily naps when Evan naps keep me from getting too worn out. Oh, the rough life I lead!! I'm looking forward to having my parents here in a couple of weeks....they may actually be here for the birth at this rate. Problem is they are flying into Singapore and we are here in KL, so we might be having a driver go collect them and bring them up here if "no-name", in fact, doesn't show up by his due date. I was just sure he was going to be an early baby like his big brother! Guess I'll find out tomorrow the Dr's thoughts on how far past my due date he'll actually let me go in case that happens. I've had mixed feelings lately. I'm sometimes so ready to have this little one, especially when I'm aching all over and little Mr. Soccer Player won't stop with the non-stop kicking!! Then, during the times I'm feeling pretty good, I think I could stay pregnant for much longer. Since this will probably be the last time I will ever be pregnant again (I'm sure Andrew will say I could leave out the "probably"!!), I'd like to enjoy every last minute of it....maybe that's why he's in no hurry to get here.

I'll let everyone know how the appointment goes tomorrow.

So this is how big I've become at 38 weeks. I'm officially the fattest I've ever been! This really isn't a picture I'd like to remember, but I thought I should capture a few since I haven't taken nearly as many pregnancy pictures with #2 as I did with Evan!

Playing the waiting game...

While we seem to be able to keep busy each day, it seems like we are just playing a waiting game now. I'm sure the time would go by much quicker if we were back at home in Melaka with all our everyday things around us, but here it seems like we are just sitting around, finding ways to pass the time and waiting to have this baby. Technically, I guess that is the case!! We do manage to get out of the apartment at least once a day to do something, like go to Gymboree, go across to the KLCC playground, go swimming at the apartment's pool, and today we made a visit to the KL Zoo. When Andrew was here this weekend, we drove out to this area that had tons of monkeys along the road and fed the monkeys....which E thoroughly enjoyed and can't quit talking about! I've also managed to use this time to get some other things done, like getting waxed, a mani/pedi, I need to get a haircut and I took another cooking class on Tuesday. Yes, you read correctly....I'm trying to become a better homemaker since I've lost the title of full-time career woman. Not like it was the class I needed to be taking - we made our own doughnuts and cinammon rolls!!! So, yes, I've indulged in every last bite that I brought home with me!!! We also made our own pita bread for some delicious spiced chicken pitas. Also, a friend from Melaka and I have a scrapbooking lesson setup for next Thursday....so hopefully, I can make it that long since I've already paid for the course.

We are still deciding on a name...which I think we've narrowed down to about 3. So hopefully, when Andrew is here this weekend we can finally agree on something. One of his ideas to finalize a name (tell me if this doesn't sound just like Andrew) was to put the names down a small pieces of paper, throw them on the floor and let Evan pick one up - the first one he picked would be what we'd name him!! That way, if he hates his name later in life, he could just blame it on his older brother!! Needless to say, we won't be taking that approach!

As for how I'm feeling....just fine!! Like I'm several weeks away from giving birth actually. I had those few contractions on Monday evening, but since then not much of anything. I thought maybe all the walking we did at the zoo today might set some more off, but nothing. I actually felt pretty good today! I guess I'm not really in any hurry, I am still 19 days from my due date, so I probably shouldn't be expecting anything right now anyhow. But as of tomorrow, I will be more pregnant than I ever was with Evan. I guess that's why I think something should be happening soon. I'm starting to feel like I might go full term. Oh well, maybe it will give me time to get over this stuffy nose and sore throat I have. Evan had it for a couple of days last week and then it went away, so I thought it might have been just allergies or something and then on Monday, I started feeling a little crappy myself. Nothing serious, no fever or anything, but enough make my head feel nice and congested. It already feels like it's starting to pass...thank goodness!

Alright, off to bed after I watch the latest Grey's Anatomy episode I downloaded off of Itunes. Keep you posted!

Proof of me actually in a kitchen!

One of E's favorite things to do when we are at the mall!