An update from The Mom

Little Anneliese (pronounced "On-Ah-Lisa") just after her oxygen tubes were removed.
This is the German spelling and pronunciation.

I checked out of the hospital yesterday. Alexander, the little gentleman, insisted on rolling my luggage up to the house. Anneliese is still in NICU Level Two. She will stay until she can eat all by herself for a whole day. That is the only thing that we are waiting for. She has a feeding tube and has a "bili blanket" which helps with the Jaundice - it is a blanket with blue lights in it that slides up her back inside of her onesie - it's like using a tanning bed without all the bright lights and sunglasses. You can see it glowing under her blanket in the pic below.


Her condition is very common for a 36-week-old baby. She is eating the right amount every 3 hours and is starting to differentiate between being full and hungry. She will nurse, and will sometimes do a very good job, but she doesn't have the energy/stamina to nurse long enough to get full. It is exhausting to her, so I am feeding her every other time to let her conserve her strength. This allows nursing to be a positive experience for both mom and baby. They feed her through the tube at night and the off-times during the day when I am home trying to rest. Overall, she looks really good and we just need to be patient and let her development take place. The doctors and nurses are excellent and I feel so good about the decisions we are making together about her care. Emma and my mom came today with me to feed Anneliese. Because of RSV germs, Emma is not allowed inside the NICU unit. They watched through the window as I showed them all of Anneliese's tubes and gadgets : )


Christian hops on a plane tomorrow! The whole family can't wait!!! Grandma talked with him this morning and told me later "that's one homesick daddy." : ) I'll talk with him the last time tonight and then we'll see him Sunday evening. We're excited for daddy to be here!!!

Introducing Anneliese Rebecca Marchant

Yes, we have a name. Anneliese Rebecca is named after her Auntie Anneliese Wood and Grandma Becky (Jennie's middle name is also Rebecca). Jennie's sister Anneliese passed away a little more than three years ago and blessed all those with whom she came in contact. We hope our own little Anneliese can touch the lives of others in her own way.

These photos are cribbed from my sister Desiree's blog. All those family members out there reading this blog that have pictures of my little girl need to e-mail them to me. Love ya!

New Baby Girl!

Jennie went into labor this morning almost exactly a month early. Our new little girl not only came early but quickly as Jennie was only checked into the hospital for about 45 min before she was born. They didn't even have time to give Jennie her epidural. She is such a Super Star! Our little girl was born at 6:45 am (MST) on February 24 at the American Fork Hospital in Utah. Our new bundle of pink weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz and a petite 17 inches. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.

I am still in Vietnam and will be flying out this Saturday to be with Jennie and the kids for the whole month of March. I called United and begged for them to move up my flight but they wanted me to pay $2,200 (in addition to the $1,500 I already forked out for the ticket I bought several months ago.) For those of you keeping track, yes I missed Xander's birth similarly as well during our time in Prague. I guess I win bad Daddy of the year award - again.

We hope to announce our little girls name soon. Stay tuned...

Obamarama and Krazy Weather

It has been interesting living in Vietnam and listening to people's thoughts on our new President. His name seems to be gold here and now the entrepreneurial Vietnamese seem to be trying to cash in on it. In fact, just around the corner from the U.S. Embassy a new karaoke joint was just built (the Vietnamese LOOOOVVVVVEEEEE karaoke). The name of the new establishment you ask? Obama Karaoke. I truly wish I had a camera right now to post a picture of the sign outside. Alas, our camera is with my cute wife and adorable kids on the other side of the Pacific ocean. But to describe it, the words Obama Karaoke are in a gothic white script on a black sign. Below that sign is just the word Obama in blue neon lights. Talk about classic.

As for the weather, today in Hanoi it reached a high of 94 degrees (tomorrow will be 91 degrees). Yes, you read that right and no Hanoi isn't South of the Equator where it is currently summer. It is still "winter" here in theory. I love seeing people all bundled up on their scooters zooming around town. On the ride to a meeting in the middle of the day today I felt like yelling out the car window "It is 94 degrees! What are you doing in a winter parka???"

This winter has been incredibly warm here as contrasted to last year's cold winter. (I know if it never snows here it can't get too cold right?) Well, we are in Northern Vietnam and it isn't the tropics. In fact, on a recent work trip to the Chinese border I was informed by some government officials that in one province alone 13,000 water buffalos died last year due to the cold. Those poor water buffalos just couldn't adjust to the cold weather and keep themselves warm. Luckily, that was last year and not this year, since we are now celebrating the year of the water buffalo. Talk about a potential for some serious bad karma.


For the record, we love water buffalos! They are so mellow and extraordinary (they aren't as cool as elephants but definitely "splendid" - to use a British-ism). They were also the only thing that kept us from going unhinged on our tragically long bus rides in Laos. Xander loved spotting the "buffwos" as he called them and it helped pass the time.

Snowy Utah

(Posted by Jennie) The kids and I made the long 35-hour journey to Utah this week.  We arrived Tuesday evening with bloodshot and glazed over eyes, but with big smiles on our faces to greet Gma Becky, Gpa Briant and Auntie.  The fact that I am blogging about our journey several days later is an indication of how eventful the trip was : ) Don't get me wrong, we are extremely grateful that we made it safely, but here are some of the highlights...

First flight (depart Hanoi at midnight, arrive Narita, Japan 7:00 a.m.):  The kids didn't sleep a wink until the plane had landed and we were taxying to the gate.  I think the in-flight entertainment options were too good, and the excitement of flying on an airplane.

    

12-hour layover in Narita.  The kids were exhausted and we checked into a day room and got all settled down...and then the giggles start erupting from both kids - aaaaaaaaaaah!  A very tired mom declares "That's it!  We're going on a walk!"  We walked down a very charming street toward a temple known for it's healing attributes. They even had a special pathway up to the temple for the elderly and disabled. Many white-haired people were there inhaling the healing smoke from incense at the main altar.  We got back to the hotel completely exhausted and crashed until it was time to go back to the airport and check in for the next flight.

   

Flight two (transpacific flight to San Fran): Thankfully we travelled at a non-busy time and were upgraded to business class.  We had four wonderful flight attendants who enjoyed checking up on us.  I waited until the right time for the kids to have some real sleep and I gave them some prescription strength Robitussin AC (with Codine).  Let me insert here, that I did some research online before deciding to pack this in our carry on.  I use medicine carefully, especially with our kids.  I settled into my chair to wait for the promised affect to take place.  To my HUGE surprise it backfired and Xander started behaving like he had just downed a box of candy bars.  Emma didn't zonk out either - I think she was too entertained by Xander.

Finally after a couple hours of this a flight attendant recommended some warm milk. She brought it to us in a Japanese Sake bottle and said "don't worry, I rinsed it out before I poured in the milk."  After downing two bottles of milk and listening to mom's soft voice reading stories from a children's magazine, the kids zonked out and we were all able to get a few hours of much-needed rest.  Below is a pic of Xander totally ready to sleep as he watches the action on the tarmac.

Flight 3 (SFO to SLC): A wonderful saint-of-a-woman offered to sit by Emma on the flight.  She said "You might think I'm crazy, but I'm a grandma and I love children."  I heartily thanked her.  Emma chatted away and played with her toys and was soooooo excited to finally be in Utah!  Xander made a speedway and ran his favorite tractor and dirtbike up and down her legs and arms several times.  We finally arrived in SLC to smiling faces : )  The best part of the trip.

Highlights in Utah so far have been: 

- Enjoying Grandpa Briant's special breakfast and talking with him.

- Spending a day with my sister Melissa before she went back to CA.

- Taking Xander to Wal-Mart at 1:30 a.m. because he woke up and decided he didn't want to sleep.  We came home at 4:00, took a walk in the frosty air, ate a bowl of cereal and went to bed at 4:30.  Thank heavens for a store that stays open all night.

- Meeting up with my sister Natalie and her cute daughter Taelin for a playdate.

- At the playdate, Emma climbed on top of a dinosaur head with another little boy.  She asked what his name was, introduced herself and then asked "what country are you from?"  I didn't hear his answer.

- Xander snuggling up to my brother Michael in the armchair (Xander only does this when he's super tired or not feeling well).  We consider his snuggles a rare treat.

- Sledding in the snow : ) with blue skies and white-capped mountains in the distance.

- Talking with my sister Emily and knowing that we're almost in the same time zone : )

- Emma feeding the ducks with Auntie.

- Jennie going to lunch with Bonnie and John Haymore (former humanitarian service missionaries in Hanoi) and Kim and Travis (Vietnamese students at BYU) who are from the Hanoi Branch.  

- Shopping a sale at Old Navy and going to Costco : )

I look forward to seeing many more dear friends and family members while we are here.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới - Happy New Year

Happy Tet or lunar new year! Instead of saying they are "celebrating" Tet the Vietnamese say, ăn Tết which literally means to "eat" Tet. Tet is the biggest holiday on the Vietnamese calendar - kind of like Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve rolled into one. Which I guess makes sense since it is celebrated over a long period of time and people usually get a whole week off of work. It is a time to spend with family, give gifts and reflect on the coming year.

We've enjoyed observing the customs of Tet and contrasting them to what happened during Chinese New Year when we lived in Beijing. Leading up to Tet, the preparations are fast and furious and traffic in Hanoi reaches insane proportions. People are driving on all the sidewalks and traffic is simply unbearable. When I asked someone why the traffic was so bad the response I received, only half jokingly, was that all the low and mid-level provincial officials have to come to Hanoi to pay their respects (and bribes) to higher officials in the capital.

Leading up to Tet, families give lots of gifts to friends and prepare a big meal for the Kitchen Gods. Families are supposed to give a report to the Kitchen Gods of the previous year's happenings and recite prayers and make offerings of boiled chicken, eggs and junk food like potato chips (not sure when the junk food was added or why). At the end of the ceremony the family sets a fish free (usually a catfish) to let the Kitchen Gods ride it up to heaven - I offered to flush one down the toilet but Jennie didn't find that quite so funny. We were able to view the Kitchen God ceremony up close when the owners of our apartment building had their ceremony in our lobby. Jennie was able to take some movies of them chanting and praying. Here is a picture of the alter and the offerings.

Everyone decorates their homes with peach blossoms (the first tree to blossom in these parts - not too difficult when the weather is in the 60's and 70's as it is now). Also very prevalent are mandarin orange trees full of oranges, which are supposed to look like gold coins and represent wealth in the coming year. I found it hilarious to see all these trees ripe with fruit zooming around town on the back of scooters. Amazingly enough, the fruit doesn't fall off.

We spent New Year's Eve downtown next to St. Joseph's Cathedral to watch the fireworks. We woke the kids up at 11:30 pm and drove downtown. Although the fireworks were not as impressive as those in China it was still fun to see all the people out and to watch the sky fill up with lantern balloons. It is pretty cool to watch them lite and then float into the sky. Afterwords, people then burn offerings of paper goods (motorbikes, clothes, fake money) for their ancestors. Xander was excited to see all the fires throughout the city as we drove home. We enjoyed some hot chocolate to mark the new year and then went home and crashed.

The first day of the new year is spent with family and parents and grandparents give their kids red envelopes full of cash. Although it was actually the last day of the lunar year, there were lots of people handing out red envelopes at church, which our kids of course loved.

For more info on Tet customs, wikipedia has some great info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet

For me, the sad part about Tet was that it meant that Jennie and the kids were heading back to the snowy confines of Utah for Jennie to get ready to have kiddo #3. I bid adieu to the them this week but will meet up with them on March 1st when I head back to the States for the birth.

The Bus Ride That Wouldn't End

One last crazy story. We took the "VIP" bus from Luang Prabang back to Vientiane before flying out. Rule of thumb: always add 2-3 hours onto the length of time they “tell” you it will take. Our 8-hour bus ride was 11 hours!!! It was actually a comfortable bus, but of course we had some drama. We showed up 30 minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart and were informed that our reserved seats on the 8:00 bus had been sold and the bus was now full. WHAT!?!?! Not fair! A young kid who is the bus driver’s assistant sold our tickets to a big group tour that needed a few extra seats – ugh!

We had arranged our tickets 4 days prior and believed that we should ride on this bus. Finally after being blown off for 25 minutes, the manager got on board and agreed that this was a problem and at least acknowledged that we had valid reserved seats on this bus. We camped out on the bus: me and the kids in 2 seats, while Christian tried to work things out. It was a mess and so uncomfortable. Since we had paid for 4 seats, we could have opted for taking a later bus, but there was no guarantee that those seats hadn’t been sold either. In hindsight I think we would have handled it differently.

The bus took off as Christian stood in the aisle. They were trying to tell Christian that they would give him a plastic stool to sit on in the aisle – that wasn’t his idea of fun for 7 hours. Then they told him they’d give him a cushion and he could sit on the stairs – he wasn’t going for that either. Christian announced to the young dude who sold our seats that he was taking his seat – shotgun to the driver with his knees up to his chest (Lao people are a bit shorter than Americans). So, Christian rode next to the bus driver and opened his water bottles for him, changed out his CDs for him, etc. It was a 2-level bus with driver and luggage below and passengers up the stairs. Christian felt justified in taking the young guy’s seat, but got a little worried when at the first stop, one bus helper got out of the bus with his AK-47. (In the past, Laos has had problems with bandits along the roadside.)

When we stopped for lunch Christian filled me in on all the gory details of that morning…and this is where I am still laughing my guts out with tears streaming down my face. Apparently the bus driver had a young friend who came along. I don’t think this kid had traveled by car or bus before and was VERY carsick! Christian heard the noises he was making and knew exactly what was happening. The bus driver and others in the front smelled something strange and looked around like: what IS that? Christian pantomimed what had happened and they all got disgusting looks on their faces and started searching for a plastic bag to give him. He continued to wretch and dry heave for the next 4 hours until the road straightened out a bit.

Later the poor kid suffered from a bout of diarrhea in his pants and that explained why suddenly the door opened up for about 5 minutes as we were cruising down the highway – they were trying to air out the front of the bus. This was followed by an overzealous spray of air freshener. A girl sitting on the stairs kept putting a menthol stick in her nose and sniffing it every few minutes. I thought maybe it was to prevent her from becoming motion sick. Later, everything made perfect sense and I’m still laughing at the hilarity of the situation.

Finally in Vang Vieng (3-4 hours from Vientiane) some passengers got out and Christian was able to grab a vacant seat. Crazy, crazy bus ride! At least we can all laugh about it now.