100!

Ella is 100 days old today, so it seemed fitting to post this as our 100th Korean blog.

 
We have two short weeks left in Korea, and just as our time in Korea goes so quickly, so is Ella’s growth.  (She is now 5.5kg and 59cm long!)

 
She is wonderfully made.  Her contagious beautiful smile and bright blue eyes; her giggles, coos and yawns; her ever-kicking legs and waving arms; and her charming personality keep us joyfully entertained all day long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 1 week…………………………………..to 3 months!

 

 

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of Ella.

So Close, Yet So Far Away, Part 3: Ella’s Birth Story

Weeks 7, 8, and 9 leading up to 10 (Ella’s due date) are long gone…but went a little something like this:

Week 7: Monday morning before work, Michael convinced me that I should be done working after this week, rather than work the next week as well. I agreed that it may be a good idea to end earlier than planned so that I could rest and prepare our apartment for our soon-arriving baby (and mostly because I was convinced my water was going to break in class this week).   After work that evening, we participated in a surprise proposal for one of our co-workers and then headed off to our favorite coffee shop. We ordered our drinks (decaf tea for me!) and settled down on the picnic table outside where we set up our cards to play Hand and Foot. The owner of the coffee shop has become a good friend of ours, and, when he saw us there, he immediately came over for a chat. Our card playing was moved indoors as it started to rain, but we had just as much fun, none-the-less.

Once we were home, my stomach was feeling rather “rock-hard,” as it had been the past few days. As the evening drew to early morning, I began to have strong contractions and other signs of labor. We called my mother to ask her advice and she said, “I predict we will be welcoming a baby within the next 24 hours!” The next 24 hours!! What?!?! Her words seemed unbelievable and true all at the same time. We ended our chat and called the doctor (who, unfortunately, was receiving our call in the wee hours of the night, rather than the pleasant hour late in the morning, as it was for my mother 14 hours behind us). She suggested that I was having false labor and should wait until the next morning to go in and see her. Just to be sure (and since I had felt the urgency earlier that day to do so), Michael and I packed our “hospital bags.” The contractions were getting stronger and more frequent, so we ended our packing work and started working on relaxation. Michael was amazing at coaching me through the relaxation drill. Finally, after three hours of the strong contractions, I fell asleep at 4am…only to wake up just a few short hours later.

That Tuesday morning we had an appointment for a consultation with my sister Sarah’s doctor. We had planned to discuss the possibility of transferring to that hospital if ours still would not allow Michael to be in the delivery room. As we were walking in, we saw Sarah leaving the doctor’s office (remember she had just delivered her baby, and so she was there for her morning check-up during her hospital stay). She decided to go into the consult with us. As we informed the doctor of my contractions, etc., he said, “I think we need to do the C/S immediately today.” Wait, today?!?! Shocked by the brevity of the consult, where only an idea of switching hospitals was suddenly becoming an immediate reality, I asked him to be sure it was necessary before we started prepping. The exam revealed 80% effacement, my water was about to break, and Ella was still breech. A final test showed that my contractions were steady, thus the C/S was necessary. So, prep for surgery began and, suddenly, Michael and I were only minutes, rather than weeks, away from becoming parents!

We made Skype calls to our parents to let them know that they would soon be grandparents, prayed together, and took a deep breath. Suddenly I was sitting on the exam table getting an epidural placed and worrying how I would lay down long enough for the surgery because it hurt so much to lay on my back. All the while, my eyes were falling closed and I didn’t know if it was because I was so tired from the night before, or if the anesthesiologist had given me something seriously strong. And the last thing I remember from that time was the nurse saying, “Bye, bye!” (I do remember some pain and hearing a few random comments, but totally unaware of what was going on.)

Then, at 11:45, a beautiful 3.3kg, blue-eyed Elliana Renae Palmer entered our world! The first thing I opened my eyes to was her loud, strong cry. I could not focus my vision, so I just kept asking Michael and my sister if she was pretty and what she looked like. (I only remember asking once, but they told me I asked several times, ha ha.) I just remember being so sad I could not fully wake up enough to focus and truly see her.

For the next several days, I really had to grieve the “loss” of not having natural childbirth and especially not having memories of the delivery. Michael later told me that the anesthesiologist gave me some extra sedative to relax me in the operating room and assured him that I would be awake for the delivery. As he finished his sentence, they both heard me start to breathe heavily, as in a deep sleep. The anesthesiologist said, “Wow, she must be really sensitive!” So, while that story gave us a few laughs, its effects were disappointing. So, the remainder of “week 7” was not spent working, nor preparing, rather, falling in love with our precious little girl, enjoying the company of our visitors, learning to care for Ella’s needs, and realizing over and over that such a beautiful blessing was indeed ours.

Week 8: Still trying to realize the events of the past week, we were able to take Ella home this week. In our original “plan,” I would have still been working this week, and only next week would I do final preparations for welcoming our baby. Instead, Michael went back to work and Ella and I got better acquainted in our own home. The hospital stay was wonderful and helpful, but in the comfort of our own home and without all of the nurses trying to help, we were able to make much more progress with Ella’s nursing. The first day home was very peaceful, however, without the three extra weeks to prepare, I had a lot of work to do for the remainder of the week. Any time Ella was asleep, I ran around the house trying to get things done so that it was more comfortable to have a third person in the home. Babies sure do come with a lot of stuff! Our tiny apartment has been wonderful for Michael and I, the simplicity was great…but almost doubling our belongings with all of Ella’s things, quickly made the apartment feel a bit cramped. I did lots of organizing and reorganizing to get things just right…and just in time to welcome our parents. On September 2, Mike and Mary Palmer and Carol Messamer came to visit us in Korea. It was a surreal moment to not only welcome our parents into our Korean home, but to introduce them to Ella, as well. It was a blessing to hug our parents and know that they knew just what we were experiencing. I think becoming a parent makes one appreciate their own parents even more. 

Week 9: We thought that, at the earliest, this would be the week our baby would arrive (as the C/S was scheduled for Sept. 7 in case she was still breech). Better yet, this week was filled with continued learning as parents, loving-on Ella, and lots of family time. We even took a trip, over the weekend, to the beach. We had visited Dae Cheon Beach at this time one year ago and had an amazing time with my sister’s family, so we wanted to share the experience again. It was certainly different with babies, yet, just as beautiful and relaxing. Michael and I even got to take a walk along the beach while Grandma Messamer watched Ella. Needless to say, my first time away from Ella, I was thinking of her the whole time!

And here is the final baby bump before the due date!

Week 10: The week of Korea’s Chuseok holiday, the official due date of our baby. Rather than welcoming our baby this week, we were enjoying our third week with her. It was actually a blessing that she was born early and our parents were able to spend all of their visit with her. I feared that my due date would come and go and their visit would be more with a pregnant lady that with a baby. (My mother had all of her babies late, so I had a good chance of following suit.)  So, in this week, we relished the moments we had with our parents, took a trip to Seoul to the American Embassy to register Ella and her cousin for passports and social security cards (necessary for our trip to America over Christmas), and counted our blessings for having made it to the “due date” with a wonderfully beautiful baby girl already in our arms.

There you have it! The 10 weeks that seemed so long and far away, came and went, and in a particularly unexpected way at that!

The following week, my father arrived and our family fun continued. Ella turned one month old and the next day we were able to take a trip to the Korean Folk Village. It was sunny and beautiful and so refreshing to be out walking around in the clean air outside of the city.

Then we had one more week with grandparents, and would be on our own. Ella loved being held by her grandmas and grandpas and we all missed them very much when they left. What a blessing to have them be a part of Ella’s first month!

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Sigh.  Now that that is done (as Ella turns 3 months!) I can move forward with blogging…whenever I have two free hands to type, that is!

Thanks for reading!

-E.

Ella’s First Book

Check out pictures from Ella’s first book time, here.

Things Ella is Teaching Me: Part 1

I’ve started writing some life lessons my little girl has taught me. It will be a continuing post with the first part starting today. Come check it out!

I want to introduce our new baby!

I posted pictures and her stats on the other blog. Click here to read more .

Due Dates, Deadlines and Dilemmas

An update on the remainder of “week 6”:

Michael and I did, in fact, survive the final week of our long month.  Our days of “week 6” were filled with mornings at VBS and afternoon/evenings teaching at the academy.  We managed to squeeze in a few other major things…..

On Wednesday, Michael and I went to see our doctor as scheduled.  I had to do a three-part test before seeing my doctor.  Two hours later, we were with the doctor and checking in on our little girl’s position.  She was, as I could feel, still in the breech position.  Thus, it was necessary to get a C-section scheduled in case she does not move.  The doctor didn’t show much confidence that she would move (because she is already 6.5 pounds), but she assured us that if she does, we, of course, do not need to keep the C-section appointment.

My due date at this appointment was September 11 (according to the measurements), but our doctor will be on vacation from September 10 through September 17 (our likely time to deliver if she comes naturally).  We have been excited all along to have our due date falling within the dates of Chuseok (a sort of Korean Thanksgiving…a 3 day harvest festival) until we realized that would mean our doctor is on vacation.  Anyway, we scheduled the C-section a few days early so that our doctor would be able to perform the surgery.  So, as of now, our baby will arrive on September 7, 2011.

The dilemma….Michael was talking to the administrator about the C-section details and asked if he would be allowed in the room with me.  The administrator proceeded to ask the receptionist, and she said, “No.”  Michael was ready to argue the response, but we left at that.  Being in a foreign country for the delivery of our baby, we understand that things will be different, however, we have some non-negotiables…. and Michael being with me for the entire birth/delivery is number one on that list.

When we left, I assured Michael that we can talk to our doctor next week because she is also the CEO of the hospital.  I feel like the roundabout way we received our information was not certain enough to settle on.  I still have hope that our doctor will make an exception for our request, however, if she does not, we have decided to change hospitals.  IF our little girl decides to turn around before September 7, however, we have no dilemma at all.    So, Dear Little Girl, you have a deadline to meet in less than two and a half weeks!  Please pray with us, for the sake of natural delivery, her safety, and to avoid the drama of the above mentioned, that she will turn around promptly.

On Friday, we received word from Josh Broward that John-David had arrived!!!  We rushed to their hospital after finishing our final VBS events to greet the family.  Sarah (my older sister who was two weeks farther along than I) was recovering, and I was so happy to see her!  Soon, the nurses brought John David into the room, and I was able to hold my sweet little nephew.  I was in shock because he looked SO different from his older sister.  Everything felt so unreal as I held his tiny-little-bundled-up body.  It was amazing to meet the long-expected baby.

While everything felt so unreal, it also brought great reality to the fact that we now have a date for a C-section.  There was a lot to think about as we rushed out, all too soon, to get to work on time.

The rest of the weekend was spent primarily at the hospital loving on our adorable little nephew and helping my sister.  It was a peaceful time to spend with my sister and the baby… and a great way to slow down.

(Sarah’s hospital did allow Josh in the room for her C-section along with other things they requested that are not typical in Korea.  For that reason, we talked to their administrators to set up a possible transfer in the case that our hospital will not allow our requests.  It can feel stressful, especially for Michael as he is very protective and wants to provide for us, but we are trusting God.  Regardless of the when or where or how, we will have a little girl to hold, and it will all be worth it.)

-E

So Close…Yet So Far Away…Part 1

In the midst of some very full weeks since my last post, I determined that I would finally sit down to write a little update.  Beware of the length!

The completion of week 30 (my last post) marked the beginning of a very eventful last 10 weeks of our pregnancy journey (yes I say “our,” Michael is very much a part of it!).  Let the list/10-week count begin….

Week 1 of 10:  Michael and I began our much anticipated two-week summer vacation.  Before getting pregnant, we had hoped to travel outside of Korea; but with pregnancy, long-distance traveling would no longer be a part of our plan.  We did, however, leave the country.  Michael and I took the USO trip to the DMZ, where we actually entered into North Korea via the  United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) Staff Conference Building.   At one point in the tour, we went through a North Korean-built tunnel.  To get to the actual tunnel, we had to take a very long downward-sloped walk.  Once in the tunnel, we had to walk hunched over while wearing hard hats so as not to hit our heads on the ever-changing height of the barred “ceiling.”  After viewing the tunnel, it was a long HIKE back up the slope.  After  many hours of walking, I must say, I was proud of my-very-pregnant-self for making the trek.

Following the tour, we went to dinner with our friends at a Mexican restaurant in Seoul.  Maybe I have not mentioned it, but we miss Mexican food!  I think Michael misses all kinds.  I miss cilantro and guacamole!!  The food was great!

We were exhausted, so we parted from our friends and checked in at a hotel where Michael and I would spend the next few days.   The hotel had a sauna, so our first stop, after admiring our beautiful room, was the SAUNA!  It was a wonderfully relaxing end to a long day.

We had exciting plans for our time in Seoul, but because of the constant rain, we spend most of our time relaxing… and that just may have been as wonderful as any plans we had made.

And this is week 31 belly picture, though it was actually almost week 32.

Week 2 of 10:

During our second week of vacation we spent some time babysitting for our good friends.  We had a lot of fun with pillow fights, bubbles, Frisbee, basketball, the park, and a few animated films.

In the middle of this week, we had another appointment with our doctor.  As soon as she rested the sonogram wand on my belly long enough to view the baby, she gasped.  She was very unhappy to find our little girl propped upright with her head nestled in the top right side of my uterus.  I informed her that I had been doing exercises to help her turn from her breech position.  She increased my exercises by 4 and continued to do her measurements of the baby.  She let me know that our little girl was already 2117 grams and I think she was implying she had better turn soon before she is too big to turn.   So, I felt a little anxious leaving the appointment…feeling like I was doing something wrong.  Our doctor is usually very calm, so it caught me off-guard.  (I proceeded to do the exercises as advised every day until the next appointment two weeks later.)

At the close of this week, Michael and I had a lot of work to do to prepare for our return to work.  We took a trip to the mountains to sit in the cozy Coffee Namu (Coffee Tree) nestled in the trees of the lower elevation of the mountains.  Further up into the mountains are the temples and a hiking area we enjoy visiting to relax, but we were unable to include that in our trip. It is rainy season in Korea and, as with our other plans, we were rained out (or in!),  so we sat inside the coffee shop doing our work while listening to the rain storm.  Michael enjoyed his endless cup of coffee (a variety of international brews) and I enjoyed a pot of my favorite Rooibos tea.

(32 week tummy)

Week 3 of 10 (in part):

The finale to our vacation (and the start of “week 3”) was a baby shower hosted by some lovely ladies at our church.  My sister Sarah and I are only two weeks apart in our pregnancies, so we had a shared shower.  It was a fun afternoon with a lot of love and laughter.  We were blessed with the gifts and advice everyone shared with us.

There have been many baby boys born in our church in the last few years, I think four just in the time we have been in Korea.  This is one of the sweet little boys (trying to get a head start on the competition) swooning our little girl.

(33 week tummy)

Read on for part 2 of this very long blog, divided for your paced-reading convenience.

So Close…Yet So Far Away…Part 2

Weeks 3, 4, and 5 of 10:

Vacation had gracefully come to an end and it was time for us to go back to work..plus some.  Twice a year our language institute holds an intensives program, three weeks in the summer and four weeks in the winter.  The students are on summer vacation from school, so they are invited to work in some extra study time by taking three morning classes – to squeeze a sixteen-week course into three or four weeks.  So “weeks 3, 4, and 5” are clumped together here because they were largely spent at work and not much else.

Two things during “week 4” that were non-intensives related were a baby shower and a visit to the doctor.  On Wednesday, at 34 weeks pregnant, we went in for another check-up and found out that our little girl stubbornly rejected my attempts to inspire her change of position.  She was still breech.  The doctor said that if she does not turn, we will have to do a C-section.  This is not my preference, so onward I go with the exercises, hoping for success.

Unfortunately, we did not get any exciting sonogram pictures, so you must view her in the form of my round belly.  Sorry. 😦

The other exciting thing that happened during “week 4” was a baby shower.  Not only have I been pregnant with my older sister, but also with another one of the teachers at the hakwan.  That Friday, I hosted a baby shower for her.  The ladies at work very generously showered me with gifts as well.   We have been very blessed with the love and support of our friends here.

On to the majority of these three weeks….Intensives:

Michael taught a test-prep class, a phonics class, and a speech contest class.  I taught a drama class for two periods and did preparations for the final performance during the third period every day.  Each time we have intensives, I teach drama and host a performance on the last day of classes so that parents can watch their student in action.  This year was the first that we planned for other classes to join in on the performance day.  Michael’s speech class would recite their speeches, a hip-hop class would dance, two drama classes would perform plays, and a magazine class would present the magazines and newspapers they made.

There was a lot of work to do to make the big extravaganza a success.  Not only was I hand-sewing costumes and making props for my drama class, I was organizing for the entire event.   It is always inevitable that I have to stay up late most nights the week of the performance, and this summer’s final week of intensives was no exception.  On Wednesday, I worked from 10am until midnight, 7 until midnight was spent at home working on costumes.  On Thursday, I worked from 10am until 2am without even taking my 5 minute breaks between classes…it was a LONG day!  Sadly, after finally falling asleep sometime after 2:30 (and waking up for my usual water closet calls), I was wide awake at 5am.

I have never been one to get hot during the night, but pregnancy has made me very sensitive to heat while sleeping.  At 5am I found it hard to sleep because of the humidity in the room.  I got out of bed to find that our air conditioner had gone out.  We have two air units in our apartment, one in the living room area and one in our bedroom.  The living room unit had been out for almost a month and we finally got the maintenance man to fix it (so we thought) the day before.  This night left both of our units flashing red and our apartment very humid and stuffy.  A sad day for a pregnant lady. 😦

Well, with 3 hours of sleep, I started the big day!  My students eagerly greeted me at the performance hall and we worked to get them into their costumes and ready to do a little sound check and final rehearsal.  My class performed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and they did GREAT!  I was very impressed with Michael’s students as well…at a very young age they each wrote, memorized, and recited their own 3 minute speech in a second language and did an amazing job!  All of the students did an excellent job and it was a sigh of relief to have it successfully completed.

*(Insert photos here)  i.e. Michael and I were also emcees for the extravaganza, so we could not take pictures…I will try to get some from others to post.*

The performance was the end of our intensives.  We all wearily went on to teach our regular evening classes and then I celebrated the end by collapsing onto my bed!

The rest of the weekend was spent searching for cool places to spend our time outside of our hot and muggy apartment.  I must say, heat and humidity plus 9 months of pregnancy equals a VERY painfully swollen lady.  Michael truly loves me for bearing the burden with me, putting up with my sighs of despair…I admit, the suffocating feeling makes me a little irrational.  I am blessed with, and love my patient husband.

Getting big?  Just take a look at Part 3  (“week 6”) of these posts!

So Close…Yet So Far Away…Part 3

Week 6 of 10:

Now, I will bring you to the most recent update.  This week is starting with a DAY OFF!  It is Korea’s Liberation Day and we are spending the day work-free.  This is a gift from God, as this week is our final week of a month of very long work days.

(This picture was taken around midnight after spending a great evening with Sarah and Josh Broward. As you can see by the torpedo-shaped belly,  at the end of a long day, our little girl likes to protrude as far as possible, signaling she is ready to be done for the day!  If only she knew how painful that is.)

This week we are participating in a Vacation Bible School (VBS).  Michael will be co-leading in the sports station and I will be co-leading in the craft and mission station.  In addition to our station-specific preparation, there are songs and dances to be learned.  Michael put in many sweaty afternoons of dance practice, but I have opted out of the dancing this year.  A pregnant belly is not the most convenient to dance with. 😉

So, this week, we will start our days around 8am for VBS, and then go on with our regularly scheduled jobs in the afternoons, finishing 11 to 13 hours later, depending on the day.  As I mentioned, this week is the final week of our very full month.

This week, Wednesday, we will take a break in the afternoon to visit our doctor for another check up.  We hope to have some new information and possibly sonogram photos to share next week.

A preview of weeks 7 through 10ish:

Following this, for “weeks 7 and 8” of our 10 week count-down…or.. up?… I will have two more weeks of my regular work schedule.  Then, “week 9” of the 10, we will welcome Mike and Mary Palmer and Carol Messamer to Korea!!!  (Jerry Messamer will arrive about 3 weeks later).  Our parents will be with us in Korea for one month, and we are so excited!  Following that, “week 10” of 10, we pray we will be welcoming our sweet little girl, not only into Korea, but into our family.

Just one month to go.  In some ways it will go very quickly…in other ways (i.e.  sleepless nights, WAITING, swelling, seemingly impossible continued growth of my belly, and… did I mention?… waiting for our little girl to arrive) it feels like the longest time I can fathom (okay, I exaggerate a bit).  Pray she does not delay. 🙂

A final note and request for prayer…

We sincerely want to have a natural childbirth experience for optimal health of our little girl, but in order for that to happen she needs to turn her little body around and out of breech position.  Please pray that she will turn around safely and that I will patiently wait for her to do so.  We have surrendered her life into God’s hands since the moment we found out we could expect her, and we will continue to do so.  He has blessed us with a healthy baby so far, and we will trust in His will and timing.

Thank you for reading, praying, and journeying with us.

-E.

Three Cheers for Week 30!

This week we reached 30 weeks…that is 3/4 of the way through this pregnancy and just a little over 2 months before we meet our sweet little baby!

To celebrate, we got to go to the hospital for a little photo shoot…sonogram photos that is.  We have been waiting all month for this event because we knew we were scheduled for a 4-D sonogram session.  It felt like we were going to meet her, in some ways, because we would get to see her filled-out, 17 inch long, 3.5 pound body live, in-action.

As we have mentioned before, our little girl is in constant motion; but wouldn’t you guess that at the time of the sonogram she was finally sleeping.  It was nice to see that she truly does sleep, yet, in her peaceful state, she enjoys having her hands right next to her face.  Our sonogram technician was determined to wake her in order to get her to move her hands away from her face for a better photo op.  The technician would try to jolt her little body into motion by abruptly and repeatedly thumping the wand on my belly.  While this was neither painful nor pleasant, it was rather humorous.  The greatest amusement was the look on her chubby little face.   The screen to my right pictured our little girl’s face with a sudden furrowing of her brow and curl of her lip…she was NOT happy about her comfortable estate being disturbed.  As this fervent gesture continued several more times before the technician ended in defeat, Michael and I concluded that we must bring some Ella Fitzgerald music with us next time to guarantee a more action-packed date with the camera.

Here is a little preview of what we saw….

A sleepy little girl.

Difficult to decipher, but the elongated white spot by her lower lip is her foot!

A close-up of her hand …holding her foot right next to her face!  (Do you see her eye in the corner of the photo?) Under her pinky finger is her little toe and the length of her foot!  When the technician moved the wand to show us her other foot, she went in the complete opposite direction!  Little Girl is now practicing gymnastics!  (Such an act of graceful flexibility deserves all of my exclamation points.)

Not only is she flexible, she is stubborn.  Here is a little bit of her grimace as she attempts to remain sleeping.

With a little peek out of one eye, she makes a compromise with the demanding, photo-seeking wand.

With these photos to tease us and keep us anticipating her birth day even more, our countdown grows shorter and shorter by the day.  At our last appointment our estimated due date was September 13, our current estimated due date is 3 days earlier on September 10.  According to all of the measurements taken, she is right in the middle (sometimes lower) of the average range for her “age.”   She certainly is growing quickly and my torpedo-shaped belly is here to prove it.

In true Korean fashion, a special pose for a very special baby on a special day.  (30 weeks on the 3rd of July…we even had fireworks!)