The Visa Saga, Part III and General News

John returned to Bangkok last Friday (usual drill, overnight bus late Thursday night, arrived early Friday morning). We have visas! For all three of us! The funny thing is, it only took about 45 minutes - the Immigration office opened at 8:30 am, and he called at 9:15 to let me know he'd been successful. We were especially relieved that he was able to get mine and Trea's, thus saving us another trip. AND he brought home Subway again!

Saturday we got more good news. Two weeks before, when we'd visited my ob/gyn, he was concerned about the baby's size. He sent me for an ultrasound and the baby was measuring quite a bit smaller than expected, about four weeks behind. Apparently some babies just stop growing for various reasons, and when that happens, it's in the baby's best interest to be born sooner rather than later. That often means a C-section, and a small and sometimes premature baby. After giving birth naturally to an 8-pound baby, I was not eager to have a 4-pound baby via C-section - especially since they do them under general anesthesia here. I would, of course, not hesitate to follow the advice of my doctor, who is wonderful, and do whatever is best for the baby, I'm just saying it wouldn't be my first choice. How strange would it be to go to sleep pregnant and wake up having had a baby? Especially since I was totally aware of everything about Trea's birth?

But, the good news is, the baby had a growth spurt, and at Saturday's appointment I was measuring 35 weeks. I'm officially due three weeks from today, but it's entirely possible that the baby's due date is off a little bit. We're having a kid sometime in the next five weeks, that's for sure.

I've cut back to mornings only at work. . .I do most of my teaching then anyway, and it's nice to have the afternoons off to rest and try to get the house organized for the baby. Mostly rest. It's gotten HOT here and it's only going to get hotter. . .

Funny story about John. The night before he got the visas, I was feeling a little panicked, so I started thinking about "what if" scenarios . . .if we needed to return to the U.S., what options did we have for him to continue studying Thai? University of Wisconsin-Madison offers an M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies, and offers many Thai language classes, including a class on the linguistics of Thai. I showed it to John, and he got all excited when he realized they also teach Pali and Sanskrit. I jokingly accused him of being a language geek. He responded by trying to explain to me that many Thai words originated from Pali and Sanskrit, and if he studied those languages he'd know the origins of a lot of Thai words, blah blah blah. . . he ended up sounding MORE like a language geek, instead of less. But it's fun to watch him get so excited. Kind of like watching my dad talk about abstract mathematics. . . .another topic totally over my head.

Trea recently had a note sent home from the nursery (they send occasional progress reports). Apparently she's had some issues with sharing lately, which is typical for a toddler. What was noteworthy is that she has been refusing to speak English. At all. Her teachers told us that whenever they try to speak English to her, she says "no" in Thai and speaks Thai. With John it's the opposite - if he tries to speak Thai to her she insists on speaking English. She's starting to really distinguish between the two languages, I guess.

Not much else going on. . . just counting down the days until the baby's born, or school's over, whichever happens first!

Comments

Erin G. said…
That's great that you got your visas! and I'm so glad to hear that the baby is doing okay. We are heading your way in exactly four weeks so I think the baby needs to come before then. :) And hopefully Trea will speak English to us.
suprbacana said…
Yay! Glad you got your visa stuff done. How does it work with the new baby? Will you have ot get a passport for him/her for whenever you come to the US? As for your baby's growth....maybe it was the Subway that caused the spurt. :-)
Anonymous said…
Great news all around, Kristen! Can't wait for the baby to arrive. Do you have names picked out? I need girl name ideas (wishful thinking!) if you have leftovers you want to send my way =)
Anonymous said…
Keep up the good work.

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