Happy New Year 2016

Jasper's first New Year!

He was in bed at his usual time-7:30pm, but Joseph and I managed to stay up until almost 10:30pm. Ha!

No shenanigans this year.

More Teeth

Jasper will get a mouthful of pearly white teeth but since this is our version of a baby book it will be nice to have it here and noted.

He already has the top 2 middle teeth coming in. Today we noticed his top right tooth coming in next to the middle one-incisor?
So interesting to see him getting teeth. He doesnt seem to be in any pain either which works very well for us.
He will hold one or the other of his ears during the day but other than a usual bout of fussiness he seems fine. Also, sometimes his head will jerk forward and back a couple of times each day but all seems to be well. Perhaps all part of the process.

Reading!

Baby boy loves to read!

First Christmas

Horray!
Jasper's first Christmas!

It was a lovely weekend.

Kate came up Christmas Eve day and we had a nice dinner of bacon wrapped asparagus, pasta/smoked salmon alfredo, steak, and for dessert we had movie snacks while we watched Die Hard and How the Grinch Stole Christmas--the original 30ish minute one.

Xmas Decorations

...I ended up putting up Christmas stuff around the house.
Tree, stockings, garland. I even planned a nice couple of days for when Kate comes. We are tired but will look back fondly and be glad we did it.

School Gifts

Jasper is home for the next week and a half--until the Monday after New Year's.
His school has their vacation at this time.
Today, Jasper came home with all of hos things: pillow, blankets, etc. and he also had a Christmas card and a gift. 

2+2=4

Jasper is in the process of sprouting 2 more teeth. Upper middle.
He is suprisingly not very vocal about any pain he may feel about his teeth. Mom said K and I didn't have much pain either so maybe it runs in the family?

Cannot get a photo yet. He is not into is getting that close with a camera.

10m 2 weeks.

Going Home!

Jasper and I are flying home to visit family!

Joseph and I are so excited for Jasper to meet his family.

So many wonderful things to do and so very little time to fit them all in.

Publix. How we have missed you!  I cannot wait to wander slowly up and down each aisle and see things I forgot about and things I havent thought about in so long. Publix subs! Deli meat! Cereal.....a variety of milk and dairy to choose from!

10 Months

Whew! This month has really gone quickly.
The end of the semester and all that entails, beginning the winter semester the Monday after Fall is over, and the best: Jasper's 10th month on this planet has begun!

We had a meet and greet with Santa: no tears and a big smile with the help of Daddy.

Jasper is only saying dada/daddy/da so far. Jasper's top teeth are slowly coming in. They aren't poking through yet but we can see them working their way down.

Happy Thanksgiving

First snow and first Thanksgiving all in one day. Jasper wasn't quite sure what to make of the snow but he didnt seem too bothered by it. When we took him to the bus stop it was snowing quite a lot. It was getting hard to see.  He wore the hat Aunt Mary lovingly made for him and was so cute. The lady who rides the bus with the kids in the morning thought he was adorable.

Dinner and A Show

Joseph and I took munchkin out for dinner this week. Our first outing after 6pm for the last 8 months.

We went to a Korean BBQ restaurant we frequented fairly often before Jasper was born. The owner is very kind and nice. She enjoyed seeing us again and really enjoyed Jasper.

9 Months

Ah! Where has this time gone?
Munchkin is already 9 months. He is getting so big and he has such a personality.

He is a good eater and has a good personality. He is happy most of the time.
His favorite things to eat are sweet potatoes, applesauce (homemade), and avocado. He is 28 inches tall and 11kg.

Trip to Seoul

Last Saturday I took a trip to Seoul with Lee Ann. We journeyed by bus to Eataly and Magnolia Bakery (NYC SATC).

Both are located in Seognam City east of Seoul in Hyundai Dept. Store: brand new goodness.

Eatily was our first stop.

Trick or Treat: Halloween!

Jasper's first halloween.

It was quite an enjoyable event. Aunt Kate came down, of course, and even made Jasper's costume!! She is definitely the artist between the 2 of us.

Jasper was a minion, Joseph was Gru, and Kate was Gru-ette.  I was just mom.

8 Months

Getting a little behind in posting about his 8th month. *sigh*

Work is getting real and Jasper is still a bit sneezy, runny nosey, etc. Not sick, but the air polution is bad and that isnt helping anyone's sinuses. 

8 months and going strong. 2 teeth coming in, 22 lbs and 28 inches. Whew!! We all knew he would be tall but, wow!

Teacher-Parent Meeting

Jasper's first school conference was today.
4pm Wednesday. Joseph was still working so it was just myself and my friend (to translate).

I met my friend/coworker and she went with me. Both of her children attend the same school, her son is in the same room as Jasper.

Baby Teeth!

Baby teeth have made their first appearance. Last Friday night at bathtime there was 1 bottom poking through. The next morning there were 2 bottom teeth poking through. Woah! Wow!

Ice Cream and Shoulder Rides

Jasper had his first taste of ice cream.
Joseph, Jasper, and I took an impromptu car ride into the country with Lee Ann and her husband, Steven. 

Fever and Words

Jasper has had his first fever and sickness.
Hfmd, fever, and a touch of post, nasal, drip.
His temp got as high as 103.5 and scared us for a hot minute.  Gave Jasper fever reducing meds: ibuprofen.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

Sounds a bit scary.

Jasper now has it.
He has spots all over himself. He didn't go to school yesterday due to a fever and today they sent him home due to the hfmd.
A coworker friend has 2 children at Jasper's school as well and they also have it in addition to other Woosong professors with kids in daycare. Tis the season.
Hand, foot, and mouth generally presents itself during the summer and/or fall.
Joseph and I are curious if we can contract it and it looks as if it is rare because of our immune system. *fingers crossed*

7 Months

Our little man is now 7 months. Time flies.
He can now stand on his own for a few seconds and he can stand leaning on something for about 30 seconds.
No teeth yet but he is drooling more so perhaps that will be soon.

Back to Work

Finally started back to work this past Friday.
I had been working from home doing paperwork and things but physically going into work began this past Friday.
I have really missed it.

Lucky

A few people we know in America have had to return to work so soon after having their baby. Sometimes as little as 2-6 weeks.
I cannot imagine leaving Jasper so soon after giving birth to him. Not only was my body not ready, but my mental and emotional self just would not have been back to 100%.

Daycare

Whew.
Jasper began daycare this week.

It was a mission getting him in this particular place but well worth it so far.

A couple of months ago Joseph and I went to see this place as about 10 Woosong staff take their children there and have had positive things to say about it.

July 2015

Jasper is 5 months and changing quite a bit.

He has begun wearing 6-9 month outfits and if we put a 12-18m outfit on him it isn't too big either.  Just roomy enough to allow him some air.  Scary.  This little boy is going to be tall.

Family Adventures

Joseph went to Osaka for 72 hours and Jasper and I had our adventures here.  Joseph explored Osaka Castle and Osaka Aquarium and I had an adventure in 24 hours single parent baby care.  I have a brand new respect for single parents.

Ikea Outing

This weekend we went to Ikea. It is located on the outskirts south of Seoul. We decided to take the cheep way there and it took 3 hours instead of just taking the fast train straight there-1 hour.  In addition we were standing room only on the way there for an hour and a half train ride.  Not a big issue at all. Just sat in seats until the paying passenger arrived to it. A type of musical chairs.
It was really fun. Our first adventure with Jasper.  We wore him in the baby carrier and took a backpack and the smaller stroller with us. wore him on the train there and just held him on the way back since we had our own seats.

4 Month Sleep Regression

We have begun sleep training a little early and are loosely following the cry it out method.

The swaddle is no longer a safe thing to use so now we only swaddle his middle and both arms are out. He is also wearing a sleep sack.  Tonight we are debating whether or not to use the swaddle at all. Will probably not use it and just stick with the sleep sack.

Binkies!

Jasper grabbed and put his binkie into his mouth today. It was great to see him using his small motor skills in this way.

Father's Day

Joseph's first Father's Day.

Went exactly like Mother's Day: follow Jasper's schedule and nothing bad will happen. Ha!

So Tired

Munchkin is growing well and fast. He is already wearing 6 month clothes and he is already on the highest standing level on his ExerSaucer. Wow.

Mother's Day

My first mother's day. 

With Jasper's schedule we did not do anything.  Just hung out at home and played with Jasper.

He is 14 weeks old.

Ponytails and Carseats

Well...my hair is really long now and Jasper has found it. It is in a ponytail so I can keep my long hair.  When he is asleep I usually remember to take it out of the pony. 

Car seats aren't a requirement here. Everytime we take a taxi, no car seat. Everytime we take a bus, no carseat.  Every train, no car seat. He is strapped to either Joseph or myself every single time he is in a car or on a bus and whoever has him always sits in the backseat buckled in (another law that isnt in Korea) with the buckle nowhere near Jasper.

My Birthday and Last Visit at Samsung Medical

My birthday came and went. I am now 34 and barely feel as if it was my birthday. I love my birthday. I normally give myself an entire week (month) to celebrate. This year? I completly forgot about it. Joseph and Tiffany asking me what I wanted to do is when I realized it was coming up in a few days. Whaaat?

Good Family and Friends

Since Jasper has been born we have been blessed with great family and friends.
When we first came home from the hospital our friend, Mandy, organized a food delivery system for us.  A small group of ladies we work with were so kind to either make or buy food to bring to us for lunch and dinner for the first 2 weeks. It was wonderful.

Month 2

Jasper can now smile and sort of laugh. He is ticklish on the bottom of his feet and he is such a good boy.
He had his first diaper blow out this morning with Joseph. So funny!

Easter 2015

Easter Sunday was raining so we could not participate in Woosong's Easter Egg Hunt. Fast forward to today, April 12th and it is Orthodox Easter Sunday so we did not miss a thing.

We chose an outfit for Jasper to wear the night before and this morning lovingly dressed him in it and took his photo. 

Mom's Visit

Mom was here for 1 month. 1 week with Kate and 3 with us.

Moms help was irreplaceable with Jasper. We wish she and dad could be here to help with his first year. 

While with Kate, mom and she went a few different places such as the bamboo forest and a traditional Korean village.

Leg Surgery

When Jasper was born it caused my left leg veins to produce thrombolitis. Dr. Oh was quite concerned it could be DVT so she set things up for a leg sonogram with the vein specialist.

I was diagnosed with superficial vein thrombolitis and I need surgery.  I was supposed to wait until May but it got worse so the surgery was scheduled for March 27th. 

1 Month

Our handsome baby boy is 1 month old.

He is such a good baby. He eats every 2 or 3 hours depending if he has had breast milk or formula.

He sleeps after eating until his next feeding for the most part.  This week he has begun staying up longer after eating and night time he has been hit and miss for going to sleep after. We keep the house dark at night with lights only when we need them to help him know it is night time.

Mom

My mommy is here! In Korea.  Yippee! 

First time holding Jasper :-)

Them Veins

My pregnancy was uneventful,  the delivery was flawless and my recovery is going well.

With one exception: my veins. I was laid up for 24 hours after the c-section unable to walk or move around. I have a few varicose veins in my left leg that decided to do their own thing and become a new problem: superficial vein thrombosis. 
Two days after surgery I showed Dr. Oh my left knee/leg area where the veins were protruding and painful. She was quite worried so scheduled immediate doplar sonogram for both my legs to check for deep vein thrombosis.  No DVT but it is superficial vein thrombosis. The head vein surgeon came with Dr. Oh to our hospital room to explain the deal. An appointment was made for May to discuss further treatment.

My veins in the same leg began to get reddish and painful and feel warm to the touch so yesterday when we brought Jasper to the hospital in Seoul for his wellness exam we showed Dr. Oh my leg again and she made me an appointment with the vein surgeon for today.  Hopefully no surgery yet. We shall see.
Joseph is on vacation for this week so he stayed home with Jasper while I am headed to Seoul for the 2nd time this week.
Thursday we go to the US Embassy to get Jasper set up with his SS card, passport, and to register his birth. Then Friday finds me coming back again to get my stitches removed from the c-section.
This is such a busy week. I cannot wait to sit at home and hold Jasper all day.

Emergency Rooms in Korea

Jasper had jaundice and was having trouble eating and was acting less active than earlier in the day so Joseph and I took him to the ER.
We have never been to the ER in Korea before this time.

Welcome Jasper!

This past Monday, February 9, 2015 at 2:12pm our son, Jasper Vincent was born.

50cm long and weighing 3.49kg (7.69lbs). 

It was quite an interesting story as well.

I completed my final day of work the Friday before.

Monday at 5am I woke up to go pee and it just kept coming.  Since I had been peeing so little this concerned me. Every time I thought I was done and stood up there was a little more. I called my mom who suggested I call the hospital. I did and they told us to come in. I was also speaking with my best friend and sister in law about what was going on as well.

I woke up Joseph and he got things ready for us to leave. Taking care of Eddie, etc. Thank goodness I had everything all packed ready to go.

Firsts

Our first week with our new son and our first week as new parents. Being parents to a newborn is a decidedly scary time period.
They cannot talk. The just eat, sleep, poop and cry.  Jasper isn't crying too much unless it is a diaper change and the wipes are cold or his first sponge bath at home.

We hold him a lot. ♡

Hospital Diaper Bag

My sister in law recommended we purchase the Skip Hop diaper bag.  She has been through a few of them from really expensive and adorable to meh. She and her husband have discovered that Skip Hop offered them the most bang for their buck and it attaches to the stroller so you can be hands free. Nice.

Since the hospital we will be having the baby at is in Seoul and is about 2 hours away we are packing some things that you may not need if you live much closer. We will not have the option of coming back home to grab something if we need it so we opted to be over prepared without going nuts.

Everything for the baby going home is provided by us and everything while the baby is in hospital is provided by the hospital. 

Baby Names

I am a bit hesitant to write this post however, it is fun to think of baby names and the different thoughts people have when thinking about what to name their kid.

It took a long time for Joseph and I to select a good name for the baby when we thought it was a girl.  This time, we don't have as much time to think of a boy name.


We have decided that it is more enjoyable to think of girl names as it seems there are more options, somehow.

We decided to name the girl Caitlin Evelyn which is such a lovely name.  So if we have another baby and it is a girl, that will most likely, maybe, be her name.

Since Joseph and I began seriously dating and began talking about kids way back then--11 years ago--I promised him if we ever had a boy we could name him Joseph Anthony the 4th (Joseph is the third).

When we learned this baby was most likely a girl, Joseph began saying he may be having second thoughts as to naming it Joseph Anthony the 4th (insert sigh of relief here).  However again, when we were just told last week that this baby was a boy Joseph didn't want to budge on the name.  Agh!

In lieu of me beating him with a pillow, I made a nice dinner and then after he ate asked him if he could perhaps be a little more open minded and see what else he and I may like for the boy.  If he still wanted to keep Joseph Anthony then fine, but I would like for him to explore other names as well. Food worked and we began discussing a few names.  By "a few" I mean a thousand.

We have kicked around a lot of names and Joseph nixed 99.9% of them.  We looked at old British names and one that has jumped out at Joseph was Jasper.  Another was Vincent.  We are still kicking it around and making sure we love it and making sure the boy will be able to get a job and all of those good things on his resume as he gets older.  The name itself, Jasper, doesn't have good nicknames but it is a short name so nicknames may not be necessary.

So the name isn't 100% settled for a boy, but there are 2 options thus far.  That's better than nothing.

In choosing a name we also have to consider alllll of our former students who we may or may not have a fond memory of. We cannot name our kid any of those names. That is yet ome more reason why naming a boy is hard because there are just some names that are great but we just cannot do it. If you are a teacher you know exactly what I mean. Some students' names just stick in your head and conjure up images we would prefer not to remember.  

Baby Shower!

The baby shower was on January 24, 2015.  It was a wonderful time.

Tiffany hosted, decorated, cooked, planned, etc. the entire thing.  She was superwoman.  Everything was lovely and perfect and we had 12 guests total.  We all barely fit into our apartment but we had a great time.

It's A...Boy?

Funny thing happened at the latest doctor's appointment.

This past Friday, January 23rd was my latest appointment.  I had a sonogram and at the end of the thing I asked if they were able to tell if it was a boy or girl yet.  The baby is really wiggly and it has been hard to tell. The latest information we had was it was "90% girl."

34 Weeks and A Cat

Tomorrow marks 34 weeks. I go in for my doctor appointment and hopefully will be told more about when we will be able to meet this new baby.

Excited to go but also wanting it to be ovr with and want to meet this baby aleady.

Today, Joseph cleaned our entire apartment. Vaccum, mopped the floor by hand, cleaned the bathroom floor and everything. He also did some rearraning of the furniture.

Our apartment has 3 rooms. Not 3 bedrooms, but 3 rooms not including the bathroom. We have the kitchen/dining, bedroom, and living room (bedroom 2). 

33 Weeks

Sleep eludes me. It is 5:15am. Been up most of the night. Boo.

Baby kicking all night. I can feel her up under my chin almost and down to my hips. So wriggly. Sitting up with pillows on the couch seems to help me be more comfortable than laying down.

Looked up photos of other woman who are 33 and 34 weeks pregnant and wonder how they sleep. Glad this isn't twins!

32 weeks and doctor appointment

My latest doctors appointment was this past Friday, January 9th.

My doctor is at a conference so met with her coworker, Dr. Sung.  I had a little protein in my pee this time.  Just a smidgen.  The doctor was not concerned because it was just a smidgen and my blood pressure was perfect and my pulse as well as my blood sugar, etc. The protein could be because I was a bit dehydrated or it could be an early symptom of pre-eclampsia. I was asked to look for specific symptoms of pre-e and if I see any I am to come to the hospital straight away. So far so good.

31 weeks

A photo of 31 weeks 4 days.