L&D

Labor and Delivery are both so aptly named. There is no better word for what you must do to get that baby here, nor is there a better word for what happens to both Mom and baby when baby is born. In a previous conversation with Dr.E. Nathan had told him about how with Kohen and Aly our Dr. would deliver the head and then let Nathan do the rest and how cool it had been. He wasn't asking to the same here and hadn't expected anything so he was pretty surprised when Dr. E. showed up to deliver and pointed to a gown and told Nathan, "That's for you, you're gonna do this." Nathan was surprised and thrilled. Um, I was trying not to die at the moment so I wasn't paying that much attention. Very glad at this point to have Anna there, lol.

When the time came to deliver Ander, Dr. E. totally went into teaching mode and let Nathan do the entire delivery. I think it is incredibly cool now but in the moment I remember hearing the teaching going on and saying, "Please hurry!" thinking- two of us are extremely uncomfortable right now! But before I knew it Ander made his grand entrance into his father's arms. The cord was wrapped tightly around his neck twice so Dr. E. stepped in and undid the cord but otherwise it was a safe and completely natural delivery.

Dr. E. told us several times how Natural Births simply do not happen here, all the nurses had been really excited to see one, some nurses even peeked in the door to watch. Even Dr. E. had never delivered one completely natural until Ander. Everyone was giving me props and making me feel amazing. I did feel amazing.
Poor little guy, swollen face and nose make him look like he's been in the boxing ring

Proud, Proud Daddy

Dr. E, Nathan and the little man of the hour

Anna = The Best!

Little Ander chose a really great day to be born, he will share his birthday with his Auntie Natalie- if only I'd known that was what he was waiting for it would've been much easier to wait! It's really neat to think that both my mom and I went through the same huge life experience on the exact same day about 30 years apart (cue Circle of Life music). A special Happy Birth Day to both Natalie and Ander!!!!

Meet The Baby

For some reason Taiwan seems to think that the color pink shouts "BABY!" best. It was a little weird when they bought our strapping boy back to us that first night swaddled from head to toe in pink. I think Ander's workin it but still, the pink blankets had to go.
Life Test #1: Survived meeting 3 siblings

Kennedy is in heaven to finally have her new brother here and I can tell she's going to be a big help.
Kohen is equally excited though I fear he may experience some mild disappointment as he realizes what newborn babies are all about. Not quite up to everything Kohen has planned for the two of them I'm afraid. Yes, that's a mask of his own hanging from his ear, came in quite handy to try and keep the baby safe.
Please notice the pink piping on the little shirt they put on the babies. So becoming. This is a pic of Ander sucking his thumb. He really wants to be a thumb sucker but for me it is a question of convenience vs. control and so far I'm leaning towards control by using a pacifier what can I say.
I was having a 'mommy moment' as only a mother can have when her whole crew shows up in a small hospital room to meet their new sibling. It's always a little overwhelming because they are so excited to explore the baby but they are pulling toes apart, lifting eyelids and crawling all over the baby and I. I'm always super excited for them to come and about as equally excited for them to go, lol.

Introducing...

Ander Michael Jensen

Born September 21

8 lbs 2 oz

19 1/2 inches

*Details and more pics to come*

Super Sized Grasshopper

Can you believe the size of this hopper we found in our yard? They are huge! They are even bigger than the 'Mormon Crickets' you occasionally find in Idaho which is saying something is it not?
I was trying to help Kohen secure the big guy in the net while the girls looked on ready to bolt at a seconds notice. Through the net this guy kicked my hand and I was so shocked at how strong he was I kinda freaked out and almost peed my pants. Nathan was enjoying the whole show thoroughly.
The finale happened as Kohen was trying to tap the guy into his box and the hopper flew and landed on innocent bystander Kennedy's legs. Kennedy and Aly started screaming bloody murder and and Nathan and I scrambled to get the hopper off of her before someone called the cops on us. Kennedy actually cried she was so scared and so I took the girls away to comfort them and left Nathan to help Kohen with the critter.

Kennedy settled down and said, "I wish Caleb was here, he'd know what to do with that big thing!" Caleb is her cousin, you may remember the giant slug from a summer post??? She is right though, he is just the kid for the super sized critters around these parts.

Direct Quote

Nathan to Kohen after school:

Nathan: How was recess?

Kohen: Good, but the girls wouldn't stop chasing me.

Nathan: Did they catch ya?

Kohen: No, cuz I ran SO fast.

Nathan: Were the girls giggling while they chased you?

Kohen: No. They were merciless.

Pixar Exhibit

Tonight after a short FHE lesson on Talents we took the children to the Taipei Art Museum where they are celebrating Pixar's 20 Years of Animation. It was pretty neat and maybe Nathan and I will have to go back so we can read more, the kids moved through the exhibits fairly quickly.
There were really neat original sketches, models and storyboards all over. I got a few pics before the security guard told me "no pictures"- woops, that sign must've been in Chinese -and apparently doesn't apply if you're a local taking pictures of my 3 little ones.
They had videos playing that would show you how something was developed and also a giant screen with their digital shorts playing. The sketches were fun though because you could see how characters started out and evolved. Jessie from Toy Story 2 for instance, they had sketches of her with a skirt on and then eventually pants. Probably our favorite thing was something called a Zoetrope which is a bunch of figurines that they spin really fast in a circle and then a strobe light comes on and it tricks your mind into thinking the figurines are in motion. The kids laughed and laughed at this, it was pretty fascinating.
And last but not least we had our first beautiful sunset last night- this was taken from our front yard. It should be even better for you as you can enjoy it sans mosquito!

Coping

Most of the time I feel like I am coping pretty well over here. Then Nathan points out the insane amount of reading I've been doing in the month and a half we've been here. 9+ books, well over 4,000 pages read... gee, could it be possible I've been using books as an escape and coping mechanism? Better than some of the alternatives I guess. Of these books I'd say East of the Sun and Taking Liberties were my favorite. I found them both at Target before I left.....Target *whistful sigh*
While I'm on the subject- I thought I'd share my favorite bookmark, one I feel I am quite ingenious for thinking of if I do say so myself. Just a simple bobby pin. It works SO well. Always have one, doesn't damage the pages and never falls out. Love it. You are welcome.

So I think I am mostly doing a post so that everyone knows that the baby is still in my side rather than by my side. My due date is just a few days away and though most of the time I am fine tonight I am feeling rather uncomfortable and grumpy. Even ice cream didn't help. No woman has ever stayed pregnant forever but at the moment I feel certain I'll be the first one........I know, sounds like it's time for someone to stop counting days and start counting blessings...

Getting Settled

Slowly but surely we are getting settled. For several days there was no where to sit as we only brought our beds (Asian mattresses are typically very hard) and so it was such a treat on Saturday to get a couch and chairs for our kitchen table. I'll tell you what, draw a process out long enough and I'll be grateful for just about anything! It seems like we've had a steady stream of people in and out, internet, dishwasher, washer/dryer, Ikea, and on and on. What has impressed me the most is Nathan's Chinese. One of these workers will start speaking to me in Chinese and I will of course have zero idea what they are saying. Nathan will come in and there will be a bunch of rapid fire Chinese and pretty soon they are all in understanding...I'm still in the dark, lol. He is picking up more and more Chinese every day and I am grateful one of us can figure out what the heck is being said!
A few other things: Aly seems to be getting the hang of everyone's accents and is feeling much happier at school and nursery. Kennedy claims to dislike Mandarin class because it is "so hard"- but then proceeds to rip through numbers 1-10 after only 2 classes, Nathan couldn't have been more proud. And Kohen is also loving school as he is allowed to do projects to his hearts content. He comes home with all sorts of creations, having used gobs of supplies and his teachers are pleased as punch. Endless supplies, a bonus of private school? I'll take it. Anyway they all seem to be adjusting to the new house fairly well.

Kennedy started a round of colds last week, bless her heart. It has gone through everyone but Nathan and I seem to have had it the worst. Not totally surprising considering how much we've been working and how we've been getting less sleep than usual. I am hoping to feel better tomorrow, and also hoping Nathan doesn't get sick.

Random Observation: It is quite acceptable to belch here, no excuse me required. However, it is considered ghastly to pick your teeth without first covering your mouth with one hand and picking discreetly behind it with your other. Curious.

Last but not least, we got the De-humidifier's going, one for each of 3 levels. They fill up usually 2/3rds through the day. Check out how much water is getting pulled out of the air from just one de-humidifier:

The Big Move & Our Families Newest Addition

Oh how I wish my short blogging hiatus had more to do with our families newest members but alas no such luck- and I have not had the baby yet. I'll get to our mini additions in a moment. But first, we are moved in! Certainly not settled but our belongings are all here, somewhere. The night before the movers came we came over to the house and went for our first swim. I have been longing to get in a nice cool pool since we've been here but I waited until we got access to our pool so I wouldn't have to worry about everyone staring at my swollen westerner body. It was worth the wait, SO wonderful! Love how you can't feel a pound of baby when you're submerged in water. Everyone enjoyed the swim.

We live up this extremely steep and narrow hill and the movers had to fill a bunch of smaller trucks from the bigger truck with our things. A whole crew of Phillipino men did the hard labor and then helped us to unpack many of the boxes. I swear two of them were assigned to follow me around and make sure I didn't lift anything which was actually very sweet. But then I felt kind of dumb as they were trying to help me unpack boxes and I'd have to stop in the middle of a box and say, "I have no idea where this should go, we'll have to come back to it." There are very few closets or garages to be found in Taiwan and although this house isn't as old as some it still is lacking heavily in the storage department. It's going to take some time and creativity to find a place for everything.

Last night was our first night in the house and we discovered a problem we had already suspected. The house is big. There aren't many choices, especially at the time we came house hunting, you either have an apartment or a large house. We tried to rent one that was a bit smaller but would have fit our needs just fine but the owners were insane and wanted us to pay their taxes which is absurd and an agreement couldn't be made (though they called our realtor 2 months later and said they thought they'd made a mistake, DUH!). In the end this house was the only other option and we are very pleased with how great the landlord is and the proximity to school etc.

This house is 3 stories and a lot of wide open space. As is standard each room has it's own AC unit . I hesitate to put details of where everyone sleeps on the blog so I will just say that it is a weird configuration of rooms and we are not on the same level as the children. Due to the AC blowing in each room we can hear next to nothing. I'm thinking I'm going to have to have a baby monitor in each of the kid's rooms just for peace of mind, unless anyone has any other suggestions.
Also customary in Taiwan is to work with 2-4 realtors at once, which really was odd to me when we were house hunting. We trusted and loved our first realtor Fiona and are friends with her still but the lady who insisted we just see this house only she had access to, named Jane, seemed to sneak in at the last second and now we are left working through her on house issues. She is fine and a hard worker but the bottom line is that Nathan and I don't really trust her. In example, we've become friends with the tenants previously living in our house. Angelica was going to surprise our children with a turtle for the little Koi pond we now have. Jane gets wind of this and shows up yesterday with two adorable little pet turtles. She didn't even ask Nathan or I first and she definitely stole Angelica's thunder. Jane rubs me the wrong way. Now let's look at how ADORABLE these little turtles are :)
There is a bigger one cleverly named "Master Uguay" by Kennedy -after the turtle on Kung Fu Panda, and then the littler one named "Speedy" because I think I'm funny. Kohen and Kennedy were ecstatic and truth be told I pretty much love the little cuties- I actually had two little turtles just like this for a while growing up. I wonder if we can keep them alive for any length of time...
Though there no signs of imminent labor for me as of yet- I am satisfied at how our family has expanded with Master Uguay and Speedy. You all should really come over and meet them :)

Until then wish us luck getting this place settled and send our little guy encouragement to not procrastinate the day of his arrival- there is nothing wrong with being a little early. With all that needs to still be done I suppose I could really use this last week and a half- though take just a moment to visualize what a 10 month pregnant woman moving into and unpacking a house looks like. It ain't pretty but I'm getting the job done!

The D.L. on the Grime and Q's Answered

Nathan and I were trying to find good examples of how everything here is so grimey and dirty. This picture of the car wash is a pretty good example. It's how everything looks. I think the reason is because it rains here so much and there is smog and when it rains it brings the smog down with it. After there is a fine layer of black soot on everything. Plus when it isn't raining it's so humid and it amazes me how the constant wetness just rots everything. It never fails, we'll be walking somewhere and I'll turn to find Kohen or Aly's face covered in black smudges like a full-on chimney sweep, since they unknowingly touched something and then touched their face. I did not bring NEAR enough antibacterial Wet Ones Wipes and when Nathan's boss came last month he brought me about 10 more travel packs. We are going through them like crazy.

I guess my point is that it isn't just the hospitals that are dirty. Though inside the hospital you have to wonder what the excuse is. There isn't literal chunks of dirt on the floor or anything, just an overall unclean feel. Everything is old and grimey. I saw (and then quickly tried to delete from my memory) small stains on the sheets at both hospitals we looked at. And to answer a few other questions from the last post, the new Dr. is a younger Chinese guy who speaks great English. The bag next to our broken out window by our car? I wondered about that too but apparently it was just trash. And Trevi, did they deliver in two separate places in Provo or Iowa or both? I guess I am just a little naive about how birthing is in places other then good 'ol Boise.
Okay some more randoms. There are these Koi fish as you walk in or out of our apartment building and every time we go past it attracts our children like magnets. And yes, I fully expect one of them to fall through that space before we are all said and done here.
One annoying thing that happens here a lot is misinformation. In example. Today we needed to go to Ikea. There is a smaller one near our apartment and a big one an hour away. Nathan got online and double checked that the smaller, nearer one had child watch, cuz hello that's key. We get there and low and behold, no child watch. It's only at the bigger one. And as we walked through the packed eating area I swear a hush fell over the crowd as they all rubbernecked at our family as we went by. No lie, I got pointed at with chopsticks several times and a flash to a camera even went off in Aly's direction. I feel really self-conscious being so 'heavy with child'. I wanted to disappear. But look what we found in the bathroom! How fun is that cute toilet? Just like at the kid's school. I liked how they had this one family size ginormous stall for us girls. We could potty and wash without the stares.
We went out to dinner with some friends and after we went to get this traditional dessert called Bing. It is shaved ice milk with fruit, in this case Mangos, and cream over the top. It is really a cool treat and the kids loved it. Out in the heat it is a race to eat it before it melts but don't worry, Kohen was on top of it.
Tonight in the car Kohen asked if "Space Alients" were real. I said No. Kennedy says, "Well, how do you know?" and I said something like, 'Because Heavenly Father created us in his image, so we all look like him." Kennedy says, "No we weren't. He has a beard."

Kenna's been a little argumentative lately but I had to admit she had a point in her own way.
Last but not least, shall we all take a guess what else could possibly be added to my plate right now, as if the whole world can't see me teetering on the brink of insanity? Nathan and I got callings*** last week. Nathan was called to Young Mens Presidency per usual, and then I was called to be Young Womens President. After the contraction passed and I could breathe again (I may or may not have said, "please be joking right now") the Bishop pointed out that there are only a small handful of girls (4-6) but still.... I am overwhelmed. I am not near cool enough or inspired enough for this call. You don't need to say I am in either, I am not fishing for compliments, just saying how I feel...followed by, heaven help us.

***(In our church all positions, Bishop, teachers, nursery leaders, chorister, etc. are all performed by the members without pay. So you get asked to serve in different callings say as a Sunday school teacher, and you do it as a service and as a way to contribute.)

What A Weird Day

This morning at 7:15am the whole fam headed down from our temporary 10th floor apartment to load up to take the children to school (30min away) and then make an early appointment. This is what we found when we got to the van...... That's never good. Luckily we have a lease and this is our temporary van while we wait for an Odyssey and apparently one of the reasons you pay out the nose for a lease is the service. Nathan called our contact guy and he and the police showed up bringing another substitute van while this one is being fixed.

I jumped in a cab with the 3 children and we headed to school. The entire ride was understandably, filled with a bazillion questions about bad guys and how "the" bad guy did what he did and how many bad guys are there and where are they...

Come to find out, the navigation system in all Toyotas is the same and so right now it is a hot item to have stolen- recently made considerably worse by the typhoon, so we were told. It was a very professional job, power drill to the window, pull it out drop it to the ground. Reach in pop out the console with a screwdriver, cut one wire, unplug 3 things and walk away. I would be surprised if the whole thing took more than one minute. And I was very grateful that it was taken care of fairly easily.

So, okay. We've had baby doctor drama. A little bit. Last week when I went to my appointment with the OB (my 3rd with her, I'd seen her 2 weeks previously) it really didn't go well. She is SUPER nice and easy to talk to. However, she didn't really remember me and went 2/3's of the appointment thinking I was 30 weeks. I thought something was weird and it was confirmed when she tried to make my next appointment for 4 weeks. I said, "I'm due in less than 4 weeks." She was confused and shocked but eventually switched gears to the "time to pack your bags!" speech. I asked her my questions about her policy's and I didn't love the answers. Especially regarding episiotomy's. She admitted to cutting 50% of Westerners having their 1st child- what?! and had stats for subsequent births telling me I'd 'probably' be fine. I said, "but you'd ask me before you would do that right?" She said, "I wouldn't ask you, I would tell you but yes." *frown/glare*

Then she took me on a tour of the hospital. Things went from bad to worse. Usually they only have one labor and delivery room the rest of the time you labor in one room and then are moved to the delivery room (old school like our mothers did it). The dr. explained how it get's intense at the end of labor (cuz it's my 4th and I am unaware of this) and if I'm waiting for a delivery room I "might have to hold the head in" for a bit- like that is even possible! And these are sparse rooms with no soaker tubs or showers even, a bed and tv and that is about it. Post partum rooms were shared 90% of the time. And they keep your baby as much as possible though my friends who delivered here said they were able to get their babies back after a several hours. Overall, I wouldn't be supported in a natural birth by this doctor and I was less than enthused about the hospital.

We checked out a birthing center but it is at least an hour from our home, with traffic could be much more. I was advised to not risk having the baby in the car. The birthing center was better but really far away. Then, in an answer to prayers, a new kid joins Kohen's class and Nathan is chatting with the mom who is a Doula (birthing coach). What are the odds?! She suggested the Veteran's hospital right in Tianmu that is 10-15 min away from our house. This morning she took me over there to check it out.

If you saw it you'd die. Hospitals and health care in general are SO different here. It is not clean and Dr..'s lack the bedside manner we are used to. But I am getting used to how they all look creepy scary now and am coming to realize there is no way around it. Anna has been here 12 years and has the system down. There is absolutely NO WAY someone like me could just walk in and figure out what I'm supposed to do. She got me registered got me an unscheduled appointment with the Dr. who is open to however I want to have this baby and he answered all my questions favorably, then showed me L&D which I took in through half closed eyes. Anna kept telling me, you just have to ignore the dirt! It is very true. Everything is old and grimey. But postpartum here is much more to my liking, I can have things more my way and I liked the Dr. as well.

I am excited to have a Doula this time around, having an advocate especially in this situation seems priceless. Before we left we went to get my blood taken and Nathan had to take a picture because no lie, the place is swarming with people and it is just like the DMV...crazy. But I can see there are definitely pros to socialized medicine. Where else could I switch OB's with just over two weeks left? And pay $40 bucks for the Dr. visit, blood work and ultrasound?!

The Capes of Taipei

We have one week left before our house is ours, I know I can do it- I think I can, I think I can... My talented and crafty cousin Shelly sent a package that I've been saving for the right time to surprise the kids. This Sunday was it. The children have thus far been very creative and have done well but they don't have much to play with or any of their usual dress ups. I knew they would love what Shelly had made, a Super Hero Cape for each of them- they were a loud and boisterous hit.
Each cape is reversible and after not very long the girls capes turned into capes for Royalty while Kohen still ran around being a super hero and kind of terrorizing them with his exuberance about it. He has been missing his old crummy cape and is thrilled at his shiny new one. As are the girls, I had to convince Aly it wasn't proper school attire just this morning. Thank you Shelly for your thoughtfulness!

Of all the children the one I least suspected would have any issues with an overseas transition is the one who is having it. Poor Aly. She has been an early and well spoken communicator for quite some time. There are many Philipino women who come here to work as maids and in our church ward there are many Philipino women and some native Chinese people as well. Aly's teachers in Nursery happen to be Philipino and one Chinese. English is each of their 2nd languages. After the first week we of class she has since been coming completely unhinged when we drop her off and throughout. At first we didn't know what was wrong- and she was just crying so hard we couldn't figure it out. Eventually she started asking us things that clued us in, mainly, "Does my teacher speak English?" *light bulb* She can't understand them because they speak with accents. Her teacher at preschool is from India- same problem, same reaction. It's been rough going.

What's worse is everyone seems to pronounce her name putting emphasis on the wrong syllable and it sounds more like "El-ee" and apparently this really bothers Aly. Her nursery teacher told me how she kind of...how shall I say, corrected her strongly, about how to say her name correctly. I don't really blame her about that. Things were a little bit better this Sunday but I honestly feel sorry for her that she feels she can't understand what they are saying around her half the time. Who would've guessed it'd be Aly freaking out in Asia? Thought that target had been blown up and pinned on my back.
Lastly, part of Kennedy's homework every night is to read a book she brings home and it has become this cute little ritual among the children where they crowd around and she reads a book to her brother and sister. Nathan and I are insanely grateful for the short reprieve and can be found using silent hand gestures to communicate over the tops of their heads if we need to so as not to interrupt and cut short our coveted moment of peace. They are short enough as they are!

Our First Night Market Experience

Tonight Nathan took us to a Night Market for the first time. Lot's to see, lot's being sold, lot's of weird foods- much of which you wish you hadn't seen! As our family went along we were quite the spectacle, understandably. My OB told me yesterday that the birth rate here has dropped significantly over the last few years and the average family has 1.1 children. So being Western and then having more than our fair share of children, we get some looks.
We tried some of this juice, we chose the green lemon one (not lime after all) and it is the coldest drink I have been served in Taiwan so far and it was delicious. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU! We also had these little dough balls and like all baked goodies here they aren't usually very sweet anyway but these were just fried dough that had a hint of sweet to it and they were surprisingly addictive.
The best find of the night were these little bug catching nets. We went swimming with playgroup a week ago and the children all spent most of time with nets catching bugs (mostly grasshoppers thankfully) out in the grass. At $1 each I felt great about the purchase.
There are beautiful fresh fruit stands everywhere throughout the market. They cut it up for you right there. We made it about 5 paces away from the stand we bought some fruit from before our wagon train was halted so Nathan could share with the kids who were acting like starving baby birds. Fruit here is so good it is definitely like dessert.

Nathan thought we should go to this area that is all kinds of different Chinese foods and have dinner there. Let's just say I was less than willing. Well, we walked through this giant tented area for about 3 minutes before Nathan said over his shoulder, "We've got to get out of here!" I was so completely thankful and relieved. The horrors that I witnessed both sight and smell were so offensive I was too paralyzed to even use my camera, where would I start? And it was so crowded and gross, GROSS, GROSS! There is a food here called "Stinky Tofu" which is rotten tofu I believe, I never actually saw it, but I smelled it and it burned the nose hairs clean outta my nose, not even kidding. The kids wanted out too. It was bad. Poor Nathan was apologizing to all of us, kinda funny. We will have to find a better place to try some food next time- and I will take pictures. I'm sorry, I really was just focused on getting out of there.
Instead we went to our favorite Dumpling restaurant. Ahhh, safety. You can double click the pic, it's pretty cool how they make the dumplings. Thankfully they smell just fine. After we spent all week getting our children to bed early we kind of blew it tonight cuz we didn't even have dinner until an hour past their bedtime and they were all pooped but had enjoyed the outing... except for when Kenna about put Nathan and I over the edge when leaving the market with net and treats in hand she had the gal to say, "I thought you said we were gonna do something fun!" We tried to remember how truly tired they were but I really hate it when they do that. Especially when they have "fun" in hand. Other than the nightmare that was the food tent, I'm gonna give the Night Market a thumbs up.