Baby Shipment and a little on being pregnant in Bangkok

Most of my allotted computer time over the past few weeks has been spent trying to organize a baby shipment. If you are involved in an ex-pat assignment whilst having a baby, Jonathan's company will pay for you to have a shipment of baby gear sent to your location. My parents organized this from their home and I was an online researching and shopping fool. 

I was told that Bangkok would have everything I need, but I haven't found this to be the case. My hunt for Maternity clothes has resulted in hours of wasted time and energy with nothing to show for it. The baby stuff that I've found is either lower quality or about quadruple the price. 

So yea, I'm trying to plan ahead as much as humanly possible and anticipate the things our family might need over the next year or so. Because, in a similar fashion, I was told I really didn't need to stock up on anything in our original shipment- Bangkok had all my heart could desire. I haven't exactly found this to be the case, so we're using the baby shipment as a way to get a few essentials like non-scratchy toilet paper, dishwasher and laundry pods, stain removers and effective mosquito repellent (Finding DEET or preferably Picaridin here is no easy task! Which is ironic considering how many mosquito borne illnesses are here, Zika obviously being the one I'm most concerned about for the time being.). 

It could be that it's just taking me awhile to find my way in such a big city, but Amazon is certainly an easier shopping method. I am just not a shopper and miss the convenience of Amazon and Target for sure. So I'll amend that Bangkok probably does have everything I want (for a price) but tracking it down has not been easy, on top of the learning curve that already comes with navigating a new country with a big language barrier. 

One funny thing I saw on April 1 was that a woman had saved up a bunch of old Amazon boxes and put them in front of her house to play an April Fool's joke on her husband when he got home from work. 

Source

In our case, this is no joke, but pretty much what my parents' house looked like every time they got home in March and April. It's little dizzying but since we got rid of 95% of our baby stuff from Forest (#apparentlyNOToneanddone), we were starting from scratch.  

The things I remembered really relying on with Forest were: 1) Brest friend nursing pillow 

2) MAM pacifiers 3)Breast pump 4) Swaddle and sleep sacks (Forest loved to be swaddled, but was also a Houdini so not just any swaddle would work. So therefore, this baby has 6 different newborn swaddles to work with. Which means she'll probably be one of those freaks that hates it.) 5)Tommee Tippee Anti-Colic bottles 6)Fisher Price Rock n Play (yes, I know about the recall. Jon and I both had the same response: "Good to know and thank goodness we bought one before they took them off the shelves!" But we did also buy a bassinet and will totally use it if this baby will sleep that way!) 7)Fisher Price swing 8) Jumperoo 9)Sit to Stand Learning Table 10) Infant car seat adapter for our BOB stroller 11) Baby carrier 12) Boudreaux's Butt Paste. 

The only things we still had from Forest were our crib, rocking chair, pack n play (but somewhere along the way lost the basinet attachment), a space saver high chair, our BOB stroller, and our ERGO carrier.  

The landscape of baby products has changed completely in the 5 short years since we had Forest, so I canvased my facebook friends for their recommendations. Many echoed the rock N play and swaddle sacks for essential newborn products, but also clued me in to things like the K'tan baby wrap and Dock a Tot and various white noise machines, hygene-made-simple products (did you know they make baby nail clippers with a light on the end of them???), etc.  

Some people say that all newborns really need are boobs, but I'm guessing none of these parents has lived through a baby with reflux and colic or had low breast milk supply. We're praying that all is well with baby girl, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared with 1,000 various soothing products just in case... 

When they actually showed up to pack our baby shipment, it was noon in Lafayette and midnight in Bangkok. They told my dad that everything had to fit in a tiny box (like an air shipment) and basically 2/3 of the stuff was just not going to fit. So my parents called me, I had a major panic attack, Jonathan spent about 2 hours on the phone from 12-2 am and we were able to clear up the mistake. They still said one of our rugs wouldn't fit into their boxes, which is ridiculous since we were only given weight guidelines, but no size limits. But still, small potatoes compared to only getting supplies that would fit into a bathtub sized box!

But basically, having a baby overseas comes with additional stress. I'm not sure why I insist on doing everything the hard way. I had 5 years to pop a baby out stateside! I loved Aberdeen so much, but missing out on the convenience of America during pregnancy and childbirth made me super homesick. The fact that I moved here in the throws of morning sickness and specific cravings definitely caused me to start off on the wrong foot. It's all fine, but yea, if anyone asks, I'm a little homesick. 

The climate is the hardest part of being pregnant here. I've never experienced heat and humidity like this and the fact that pregnancy makes your core body temp rise already, plus the extra 20+ lbs I'm packing makes me feel like a walking heating pad. 

The hospital here is INCREDIBLE. World class all the way. I get ultrasounds (including 3d/4d) every appointment and the prenatal care is extremely thorough. 

22 weeks

31 weeks...she's a snuggle bug always tucked into the placenta, so we rarely get a good face shot of her. Still pretty cool! Looks like she has the Doublin nose like her brother. 

The biggest drawback is how far the hospital is from us. While it's only about 14 miles, with traffic (which is pretty constant and yet unpredictable) it usually takes an hour and 20 minutes to get there. This makes me nervous as I get closer to my due date, and I'll probably push for an induction as it gets closer just to avoid any 'I just went into labor, my driver is at Jonathan's office and therefore it'll take 3 hours to get to the hospital' sort of situations. (I had Forest in 5 hours so I worry about a quick progression). 

I will say that I fretted and worried about childbirth with Forest (especially not getting an epidural), and the delivery part went totally fine. Still, with the hospital being pretty far and having so many other moving parts (Jon's travel schedule, another child, one car/driver) it'll probably be best to plan ahead if possible. So my tentative birth plan is: induce around my due date (July 26) and get an epidural. Pretty specific; Mainly just having this baby in the hospital versus in the car stuck in traffic is goal #1.) 

30 week bump

I'm not even gonna go into the whole Zika issue because it makes me a nervous wreck so it's best just not to think about it. There is Zika in SE Asia. Cases of effected pregnancy are very rare, especially in Bangkok and there isn't a current outbreak anywhere on Earth other than Northern India. I apply mosquito repellent religiously but after that, its out of my control.   Forest had a teeny head at birth. This baby is looking to follow a similar trend. Just trying to remind myself that small heads run in our family! My doctor is 0% concerned and I'm trying to follow her lead...

In general, this pregnancy is progressing pretty seamlessly. Despite being 35 my doctor has downgraded me to 'low risk' pregnancy and I won't do bi-weekly appointments until around the 34 week mark. I have lots of breathlessness and fatigue and general digestive issues that occur with pregnancy but nothing too out of the ordinary. I'm on 'the upper limit' of weight gain (according to asian standards- right on track for US estimations), but I remember how hard it was to keep gaining weight in the final weeks with Forest so I'm trying to put that out of my mind. I have gained as much at this point (31 weeks) as I gained TOTAL with Forest, in addition to starting out 5 lbs heavier at the beginning of the pregnancy- so after the delivery I'm hoping to crack down on diet and exercise and just let it go until then. 

It was so easy to stay active when pregnant in Scotland. The cool fresh air and beautiful scenery were invigorating whereas the stifling heat and humidity of Bangkok seems to have to opposite effect. I'm still trying to walk and swim a few times a week but certainly not jogging or going for 5 mile hikes or anything!