Children's Garden

Ben got some oranges from a friend in class on Wednesday and decided to try them out when he got home. Pairs of oranges are supposed to be good luck for the lunar new year.


Thursday and Friday were holidays here so we took advantages of Matt's time off and went to the children's garden at the botanic garden. Ben loved the big slide out of the treehouse and made Daddy take him several times.


He had a great time playing in the water area and pumping water.


The fountains are always a lot of fun. They stop every 5 minutes for about 30 seconds and each time Ben would look over at us and sign "more" because he wanted to keep playing.


After we dragged Ben out of the water we dried him off and sat down for ice cream...those little hands kept signing "more" nonstop! His poor eyes were bloodshot from putting his face in the fountains.


Ben's fine motor skills continue to impress me. This kid that sometimes trips over a grain of sand can feed toothpicks back into a small hole....go figure...


Here's a belly update at 15 weeks. The baby's growing! We've been getting lots of ultrasounds and I just love seeing the little one develop in there.

Layin Low

Ben and I haven't exactly been adventurous lately but we have managed to get outside a little bit. We've really enjoyed our neighbor's orchids. A lot of the doors in our complex are decorated right now for Chinese New Year because it's said to be good luck for the next year. We never quite got around to buying the traditional mandarin orange trees so hopefully we won't have bad luck in the year of the rat :)


Ben had a lot of fun stacking rocks one by one in the hole of this log...it was probably the most exciting thing he got to do all day. Like I said, we haven't gotten out much! I'm spending as much time as I can laying down just to be safe.


Ben wore these goggles for a couple of hours this morning but obviously didn't want his picture taken in them! I still thought it was cute.


He's not exactly saying the right numbers, but Ben is "counting" the animals in his book.

Successful Surgery

I'm back home! The surgery went well and the doctor was very pleased with the results. She sees a 50-60% success rate in cases like this so we really hope to be part of that fortunate group. Since I spent 3 1/2 days in the hospital on full bed rest with no complications, the doctor sent me home on limited activity instead of bed rest here. Hopefully I will be able to work up to one outing a day and maintain that level of activity for the duration of the pregnancy with no problems. I can swim and lift Ben only when I absolutely have to, but other than that I can't do anything strenuous like exercise or carry groceries. For anyone that knows me, you won't be surprised that I'm not too upset about the no exercise rule!

When we checked into the hospital on Tuesday morning I started getting really nervous about the procedure and the fact that I was in a hospital on the other side of the world. The guy that wheeled me into the OR didn't speak a word of English and I was beginning to freak out, but the anesthesiologist was there when we arrived and he spoke excellent English and immediately put me at ease. I was impressed because he placed the IV himself, which I've never had a doctor do before, and spent some time talking to me before my doctor arrived. As soon as she was ready they knocked me out and when I woke up in recovery I really thought I was dying...not from pain but because I had been intubated and I had no idea how uncomfortable it is when the the tube is removed! It took several minutes for me to calm down and breathe normally while I was still coming out of the anesthesia and trying to open my eyes. It really made me wonder what poor little Ben went through every time he was taken off the ventilator! His throat must have hurt for weeks.

Afterward, I just stayed in bed for 3 days watching TV (the two English channels...no cable) and reading while the nurses monitored me closely for any pain, contractions, infection, or bleeding. Thankfully I haven't had any yet but I'll stay on antibiotics and anti-contraction medication for a few weeks just to be safe. I do have to say that the hospital here was really nice. The facilities were a lot like a US hospital, but they have a concierge that checks you into your room, tea time at 3, and hot chocolate and cookies before bed. The food wasn't bad - I got to choose from Chinese, Western, or Indonesian dishes at each meal. The best part of staying in the hospital was that a nurse came twice a day to check the fetal heartbeat so I got to listen to the baby a lot. The worst part was that I only got to see Ben once during my stay so I really missed my little guy! He was so happy to have me home this afternoon and I was thrilled to hug and kiss him. Matt did a great job of balancing time with me and with Ben, and he still managed to get some work done at the office. Now we have the whole weekend to relax and next week is Chinese New Year so Matt will have several days off to be home with us.

So now all we can do is wait and pray. I will try to take it easy and make sure I'm getting enough rest and some time off my feet every day and hope the weeks fly by! We are praying that the Lord will keep this baby in long enough for it to grow healthy and strong and that we'd have no other complications this time around. And if that's not the plan, then we're praying that the Lord will prepare us for whatever we have to do to bring a healthy baby home.

We'll take some pictures this weekend and get them posted soon. I've had a few requests for belly shots so as soon as I start showing we'll share some of those, too. Right now it still looks like I just had a huge Freebirds burrito and that's why I can't button my pants. Enough of my rambling...can you tell I haven't had many people to talk to this week?? Several of my thoughtful friends dropped by but it is sure good to be home and have some company.

Go Go Bambini

This is how I excuse all my typos...I get some help whether I need it or not!


I took Ben to an indoor playground called Go Go Bambini that is usually a madhouse of children. We lucked out and found it empty yesterday so Ben got to play in the big 3-story playground instead of the toddler area. This place is great because it has a cafe for lunch and even a nail salon so the moms of bigger kids can get their nails done while the kids play. Why didn't I think of a place like this?

Ben got to climb up....


and in...


and over all kinds of things. He was exhausted when we left! (Just a note - I forgot his socks so I had to buy a pair there...I don't typically torture Ben with retina-burning blue)


I finally did one of those things that's hilarious on your own kid and pretty irritating on other people's kids...I bought some of those squeeky shoes for Ben to cruise around in. He had no idea where the sound was coming from at first then he had a great time running around and listening to all the noise he could make.


We had to stop at the playground so Ben could enjoy the playhouse for a while.


His Swedish friend Ella joined him in there. They share the same due date although Ben was 15 weeks early and Ella was 2 weeks late.


As for baby #2, I'm checking into the hospital later this morning for a cerclage this afternoon. I don't expect to be released until Thursday or Friday so I'll try to have Matt post an update later to let everyone know how things are going. It's not quite as easy to make phone calls from over here! Please keep us in your prayers. There is really no risk to me, other than going under general anesthesia, but the risks to the baby include infection, premature rupture of the membranes, and early labor. They are slight risks and the possible benefit a full-term delivery far outweigh them, but they are still potential problems. We hope for a few very uneventful days in the hospital and a safe and healthy return home at the end of the week!

Smiles!

Finally, a few smiles! Ben is a big fan of the bobby car at the playground.


He's also loving his little chair and he sits and "reads" several books a day.


Ben will drop everything to run and get a book for Mommy to read. He's always in a hurry these days.


After careful consideration, he'll bring me the book he's chosen to read and we'll sit down and read it once or twenty times.


Silly boy in the bathtub...


Ben is also enjoying another Christmas present, and I'm loving not having to carry him back and forth to the pool!


With his arm floaties on, Ben can play really well in the baby pool. He's learned to blow bubbles and hold his breath pretty well when he's underwater.


A big smile from my happy guy!


At play class today Ben played with the kitchen for a long time, considering the length of his attention span. I was laughing because they had a plastic taco in the microwave and most of the kids here probably have no idea what that is! All the toys are imported and my guess is that this set came from the US.


Another new word in the vocabulary...he's picking up new words every day. Ben also said "taxi" today.

No Smiles.

Ben absolutely will not smile for the camera these days, so don't expect to see any grins in these pictures! As soon as he sees the camera he gets very serious...


He does enjoy riding his "pony" around the house!


I've only recently started letting Ben watch videos (just Baby Einstein signing and Elmo) and we've run into a big problem. As if the TV wasn't big enough to see from across the house, he wants to be close enough to touch Elmo. We've had to get creative about blocking the path to the TV.


We spent the afternoon at Sentosa Island, the closest we can get to a real beach in Singapore. It's actually not all that bad, if you don't mind waves from the passing tankers or seaweed, but nothing like the beautiful beaches in neighboring countries. Ben enjoyed (although he doesn't look like it) playing on the extra large lounge chairs at the beach club we found.


Once he got down in the sand and started digging he was having a ball. After spending several weeks in cold weather, our fair little guy is going to have to get acclimated to the heat here again. That's just heat rash on his face and arms, not sunburn. We had to take a swim to cool him off from the intense sun.


Sand does NOT taste good. Apparently Ben forgets and has to check again from time to time.


Ben is crazy about this wagon and legos he got for Christmas. He's getting really good at stacking them, although I'm not quite sure what he's building!


Watch out - crazy driver coming through!


Check out Ben's new moves...

He will dance anywhere and loves to have an audience, like all the adults that were laughing at the crazy kid dancing at the beach club today. Ben is an endless source of entertainment.

4 Generations

A few late arrivals from Matt's camera:
Four generations of Kirkham men together!


Christmas afternoon at the Kirkham's house.


One of Ben's favorite things lately is to put things around his neck...really safe, I know...only I don't think he'll hurt himself too much with one of my sports bras! And yes, that's a big scrape on his forehead. That would be the result of jetlag, clumsiness, and a concrete step outside, and it's taking forever to heal.


We've been trying to teach Ben baby sign language since he was about 10 months old and he picked up a few things along the way like "milk" and "more", but now it's really taking off. He knows "eat", "all done" (which I pretend not to notice if it's the first bite of a meal he doesn't like), "airplane", "book", and several others. He's also learning things like eyes, ears, and mouth, though he won't always identify them correctly. In this video he does airplane (the finger flying around) and half of book (both palms opening like a book, easier to do without a computer cable in your hand).


The jetlag was definitely easier to recover from on this end of the trip, probably due in part to the fact that we're in our own home this time. Ben adjusted pretty quickly but he's still not sleeping particularly well at night or in the morning so I'm hoping he'll get well-rested and back to his normal schedule so I can sleep past 6 or 6:30am!

Update on baby #2 - I'm 12 weeks already! I had my first visit with my OB here in Singapore since becoming pregnant and I really like her. Unfortunately, so do a lot of other women so her office is always really busy but she did not seem rushed at all once I was in the office talking to her. My visit lasted 3 hours, but mostly because the baby was uncooperative and we had to try 3 separate times to get it to sit still for measurements during an ultrasound. I was completely blown away that a baby this size (about 5cm) would already be so active, but he/she was waving and kicking like crazy in there. I really look forward to being able to feel those little kicks in the coming months.

We scheduled the cerclage procedure two weeks from now and the doctor is hoping I'll stay in the hospital 3-4 days to fully recover and go home stable. I was surprised because I thought it would only be an overnight thing but she wants to monitor me for contractions or any complications for several days and then send me home on strict bedrest for 2 weeks. I'm not exactly looking forward to this but if it will help me carry this baby full-term then I'll do whatever it takes.

(Be warned - I might tell you a little more than you want to know here) My doctor did answer the burning question "Why was Ben born so early" in less than a minute. With a quick look at my cervical length through ultrasound, she immediately found that mine is about 30-50% shorter than average. That means that it's structurally not as sound to support the weight of a growing baby and when enough pressure is applied (usually in the second trimester) it will give, typically without pain or contractions so the mother has no idea. Sound familiar? It's very reassuring to know that there was a physical problem that hastened Ben's birth and not something I did wrong, and now to know what we have to work with for this pregnancy. Please, please keeps us in your prayers. Specifically, for me to relax and leave this baby in God's hands, and for this baby to grow healthy and strong and enjoy a full 9 months in the protection of the womb. Or maybe even go a week overdue - then it would get that great 08/08/08 birthday!