Aashini Update

Here's a pic of Aashini that I took just a couple of hours ago :)

 This morning didn't go according to my plans... We were planning on going canoeing this morning.  Aashini normally gets up at around 6:45 AM (no matter what!!)... this morning my alarm went off at about 7:30... we realized she wasn't up and we needed to wake them... Adam went into see them, and Aashini was laying in bed with her eyes wide open.  She wasn't moving, but she looked awake.  We talked to her but she didn't and couldn't respond.  She just stared off into space... We sat her up and she was limp (almost like she was asleep)... The whole time she was just staring.  She couldn't talk either.   So... we rushed her to the emergency room (which thankfully wasn't very far away).  

In the car on the way there, we would ask her to move her foot and she could slightly move it.  I would ask her to squeeze my hand but she couldn't do that.  She couldn't talk either (but she did try to).... 

She also had a normal temperature which is a little worrying...

We got into a room immediately and they worked on getting her IV in.  That took a while (those tiny kid veins!).  She was able to scream during this time, so that made me feel good,  but she still couldn't talk or make eye contact....  After they got the IV in, she finally fell asleep for a few minutes until they took her to get a CT scan. She slept through her CT scan for the most part and then went back to her room.   She slept for about 5-10 minutes and then had to go to the bathroom.  After that we got her back in her bed and she looked at us and said:  "What are you doing?"....  We were so thankful to hear her talk!!!

The nurse in the pic above that is right across from Adam was our nurse.  She was awesome!

 She started to talk after that.  She had tons of meds, so she was very loopy and her speech was slurred.  She was also VERY confused about what was going on.  She had the memory of a goldfish too and asked us about every 10 minutes what was going on or what the IV in her hand was all about... 

The docs and nurses were surprised that she never really slept (the meds were supposed to make her sleepy).  She then watched TV and talked some (some in English and some in Hindi :)).  

All of her tests came back completely normal.  The CT Scan, urine tests and even the blood tests (which usually show something when they have seizures) were all normal.  After that, they let us check out.  We were really surprised at how fast it was to be discharged!  (In South Asia it takes HOURS!).  

We went home, and after Aashini vomited everywhere, put on a movie for the girls (thinking that Aashini would fall asleep... but she didn't).  They watched a movie and then went down for nap.  Aashini only took about a 30 minute nap!!! (she still normally takes a 1+ hour nap!)... The rest of the day we just hung out inside and played.  She is still out of it and not acting like her normal self.  Her speech was almost normal but her behavior was a little crazy.  She doesn't remember anything from this  morning and is very confused about what happened.     

Please pray that this was a One-Time thing and that it won't happen again!  Please pray that there's nothing wrong and that  she wakes up feeling completely normal.  Please join us in thanking God that she's doing good now!!  Praise God that he again took care of our little girl and gave us complete peace through the whole thing :)   Thank you guys so much for praying with us!!

Aashini has Glasses!

 Aashini has complained a couple of times recently that it's hard to see the board at school, so we took her to get her eyes checked the other day.  She was slightly nearsighted, so he recommended getting glasses and wearing them at school and when watching TV.  

Here is Aashini getting her eye test (she was too small for the other test).  What's great is that the exam AND the glasses cost a total of $20! Awesome ;)

 We picked out her glasses and then came back a couple of days later to get them.  I love Aashini's face in this picture :)

 Diya wanted to be supportive (or just be cool)... so she wore her play glasses when we came to pick up Aashini's glasses :)  Diya always puts them on upside down :) haha!

 Adjusting her glasses :) haha!

Here she was this morning right before school.  Her first day with glasses :)

A Very Scary Day...

I'm going to tell you a story about one of the scariest days of my life.  I get knots in my stomach just thinking about it, but the story just has to be told!  

This past week we went on a vacation to a beach city to south of us.  Our awesome friends Keith and Carie met up with us there and we had a really great time!  One of the days though, we had the scare of our life!  

Before I begin this story, let me tell you a little about our hotel room... we were on what we call in America the THIRD floor (In South Asia we would call it the 2nd floor because the ground floor is either called 0 or ground).... 

Anyway....

We were about to take the kids to the swimming pool.  They had just gotten up from their naps, and we put their swimsuits on.  The swimsuits were still a little wet from that morning and Aashini kept complaining that she was cold.  We told them to go outside and stand on the balcony and we would grab the sun screen and bring it out there and put it on them.  As I was getting the sunscreen, I hear a "THUD" and then hear Aashini scream: "Diya!"...  We run outside and look over the balcony... I see Diya laying face down on the ground - not moving.  

A lady that was in the hotel room on the ground floor ran out.  She heard the sound (and it woke her husband up from his nap) and wanted to see what it was (she though it was some coconuts or something).   At this point Adam is sprinting down the stairs to her and I'm yelling down to the lady (Fiona) that my husband is on his way down.  Diya starts to try to get up, so Fiona picks her up.  I grab Aashini and run downstairs as well.  

The area our balcony looks over was really hard to get to unless you have a ground floor.  Adam ran around to the side and jumped over a wall to get over there, while Fiona went through her room into the middle lobby area of the building we were in to find us.  Adam got to the outside area and Diya wasn't there, so he ran through Fiona's room into the lobby area.  There he was able to get to Diya about the same time Aashini and I reached them.  

At that point we ran with Diya & Aashini to the doctor's office at the resort.  There were some American doctors there for the week, so we ran to them.  They did a quick look-over of Diya.   Her right arm was covered in red mud/dirt and her right side (rear-end & leg) was red.  She seemed to be able to move her arms just fine, but wouldn't stand up and was crying a lot, so we weren't sure if something was wrong with her hip or leg area.   

So we rushed her to the hospital.   Aashini was super freaked out at this point, so Adam took Diya to the hospital and I kept Aashini at the hotel.  Right as we were leaving the doctor's office and Adam was headed to the hotel car that was going to take him to the hospital, our friend Karen was at the pool.  Aashini had been wanting to swim with her, so it was perfect timing.  Karen was a life-saver and watched Aashini while I grabbed some things in the room to bring to Adam in the car (and for about an hour after that while I sat by the pool talking with Adam on the phone).  

He rushed Diya off to the hospital.   I then went to Keith and Carie's room and told them what had just happened.  We prayed and Keith left and went to the hospital to be with Adam and Diya.   It was really hard not to be with them at the hospital, but Aashini didn't need to be at the hospital and she really needed me.  She was dealing with it in her own kid way.  It came in waves.  She kept saying: "Diya fell.  Why did Diya fall?  I couldn't catch her.  I couldn't catch her".   We talked about it a lot and talked it though and told her it wasn't her fault, but it was still really hard on her.  She was worried about Diya.  

Adam went to the first hospital which was super small and they sent him on to the larger hospital in the capital city (just about 20-30 minutes away).  They looked Diya over and then gave her a sedative so that they could do x-rays and a CT Scan on her head.  The sedative made her hyper!  She was running all around the emergency room and singing (this made me so happy!!!  Her bones seemed fine, so now we just had to make sure there wasn't anything wrong in her head).  Eventually they gave her more sedative and she fell asleep.  

They did the X-rays of her spine and the CT Scan.  We got the results back and there was NOTHING WRONG!  Diya was perfectly fine!!!!!!!!!!!   She fell from the 3rd floor balcony and nothing was wrong!!!!!!!  She didn't have a cut, scrape, bruise or bump!!!!!  NOTHING!!!!

Praise God!  He totally protected Diya!!!!!  I will share this story over and over again about how God protected our little girl.  She fell from the 3rd floor balcony and didn't get a scratch or a bruise!  God protected her!!!!  Thank you God!!!

Here is the balcony.   The balcony (except the one side) is fully covered with glass.  For most of the time we were staying there, we had a towel over the far end (with the X) so we didn't realize what a hazard it was!  In the few seconds that she was out there by herself, she fell through those holes!   Do you see how high up it is??? We are at the tops of the trees??? WOW!   I kept looking down and thinking that if I fell I KNOW I would have broken something!

The is the ground where Diya fell.   Right where those two holes are is where she landed.  She was just a few inches from both concrete walls!!!

Here is Diya at the hospital trying to fall asleep.   She had her swimsuit on when we did her exam at the resort with the American doctors, but Adam took her with just the beach towel... so that's all she had!  Poor thing!  When Keith left to go to Adam, my brain was not working well, so I didn't send him with anything!  Keith was a super hero though!  He got Diya some diapers, milk, cup, straws & biscuits (crackers)) all in a country he doesn't know in a language he doesn't know!

Here is Diya asleep getting her CT Scan.  

This isn't our balcony, but it's the same balcony on the other side of the building.  It was over 20 feet off the ground!!  We took this picture so you could get an idea... The arrow is pointing to the balcony and on the ground you can see little Diya... just to see the perspective.

Diya got home that night around 10:00 pm!  Wow!   Here's a picture of her the next day :)  We've always called her "Bam-Bam" and she is REALLY living up to that name!!!!  She keeps talking about what happened and says:  "Fell down and 'BONK'" She still talks about it some.  When she saw this blog post, she recognized the balcony and started talking about it.

Here is Aashini the next day too :)   She was so worried about Diya and had a really hard time going to sleep that night without her there.  She was soooooo happy when Diya was there when she woke up!

I am soooo thankful for this miracle that happened in our life this past week!  Thank you Jesus!! :)  Whoo hoo!!!!

Check out this awesome Bible Story about a boy that fell from a 3rd floor window! - Click here to read

I Don't Like Mosquitoes...

The past couple of weeks we've been battling Dengue in our house... Dengue is not cool! If you want to read about dengue then click HERE. Aashini's school called us last Monday and told us she was feeling bad and we should come get her. We went to school and one of the classroom helpers was standing in the lobby holding her - she looked pitiful!!! We took her home and held her while she watched some cartoons. Her fever got REALLY high. At one point it jumped up to 106 and we quickly took her to the shower and showered her off and gave her a Popsicle. She got down to 104. (The next couple of days she stayed at 103 and 104 - WITH Tylenol - it was quite scary.)

We took her to the doctor that night and he said he thought she had Dengue, so we got some bloodwork done to check for Dengue and to check for some other things. I was pretty sure it was Dengue because her face was bright red! Having a red face is a sign of dengue. Her face and eyes were so red! I couldn't capture it in pictures very well (and she wasn't really in the mood to have her picture taken), but I got a couple. The bloodwork confirmed Dengue. Since Dengue is a virus, there isn't much you can do as far as medicine and things like that. We just kept her fever down (as best we could) and gave her Tylenol and some Papaya Leaf Juice (see the other blog HERE to read about that).

Look at her poor little red face! She would feel good for about 30 minutes to an hour after the new dose of Tylenol kicked in, so I got a few smiles :)

Thankfully she is doing much better now - PTL!! Thanks for praying for her!!!

All about Aashini! :)

Here's a post all about Aashini :) This first picture is from Thailand (one I forgot to post). When we rode the SkyTrain, she LOVED to put the coins in the "ticket machine".

Here is Wild-Hair-Aashini with Dr. Gujral (the doctor that delivered both girls) :)

In Thailand just about everything is cute :) haha! They sell erasers everywhere that are shaped like food. They're cheap and REALLY cute ;) We bought a few packs for Aashini to play with. She made lots of meals for her dinosaurs :)

The girl loves dinosaurs :) haha! This dinosaur is eating sushi :) Awesome!

Here is Aashini running around the house :)

Aashini is talking up a storm now! It's so fun :) She is quite the wild child :)

All About Diya! :)

I haven't posted many pics of Diya, so I thought I'd take this time to post some more Diya pics ;) Here is a pic of Diya with Dr. Gujral (my doctor that delivered her). She Rocks! :)

Diya was really grumpy the other night and Adam was rocking her in the rocking chair. This picture makes me laugh. She looks so different and is on the verge of tears :)

In this pic you can see that she has blue eyes. They look a lot like Aashini's did at this age, so we're thinking they're going to stay blue. We'll see :)

Caught this picture in the middle of a "coo" :)

So, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering why we didn't pick an "A" name for Diya. I've been meaning to write about this because a of people have been wondering. Well, we would have loved another "A" name, but we really couldn't find one that we liked, was easy to pronounce, and had a meaning we liked... so... that's how she got a "D" name :) This picture makes me smile :)

35 Weeks!

I am now officially more pregnant than I've ever been (I had Aashini at 34 weeks)! I definitely feel pregnant! I know I'm supposed to keep getting bigger but I just don't see how that's possible! Here's a few belly pics... I look pretty rough :) haha! And yes, my belly is "pointy" looking. I always end up with a torpedo-looking belly!

So I really have no idea what is going to happen as far as WHEN we're going to have the baby and HOW. We originally thought we were just going to plan a c-section because we didn't think we could do a VBAC (natural birth) here in our city. If you want to know more, I'll explain more, but basically we didn't think the hospital was equipped for it. A couple of weeks ago we found out that the hospital is equipped for it and my doc does them all the time and actually prefers to do them.

With all of that said, that means that we could possibly have a natural birth. There are a TON of factors involved with that though... first of all, for her to even consider it, everything has to be going perfect (my Blood Pressure has to be perfect and I can't have any big signs of preeccampsia, along with a few other things), AND I have to go into labor on my own (she won't induce me for a VBAC). So, along with all of that, we weren't planning on having a VBAC, so we didn't do an extra visa run, which means that we have to leave the country by January 7.... SO, that means that I can't have the baby past the due date because we need about a month to get the paperwork in AND a baby can't fly unless they're at least a month old.... SO I have no idea what is going to happen :) (I sure said "so" a lot!).

We went to the doc yesterday (thank goodness my doc is back in town!!). My BP is a little higher than normal, and my weight registered much higher than it should (I gained 4 kg ~ 8.8 lbs in 2 weeks) - which is a sign of preecclampsia. It was a different scale than normal at the doc's office, so I think that's why (at my home scale I had only gained about 2 kg). I'm also swelling in my hands, face (yes, my lips, eyes & nose... so nice) and some leg swelling. It's normal to have swelling in pregnancy, but the way I have swelling is usually related to preecclampsia, so my doc was a little concerned. She wanted to CHECK ME INTO THE HOSPITAL! I am NOT ready to go into the hospital, so we talked it through and she decided to have me run some tests and come back on Tuesday.

In the picture below you can see how I feel about all of this - haha! I look scary in that pic!

Sooooo.... all of that said.... I have NO idea what is going to happen :) Hopefully I won't have to be checked into the hospital on Tuesday but we're going to be prepared for it anyway (my bags are packed!)... I'll keep ya posted!!!

You guys ROCK!!!

Update Fun :)

I just realized that it's been over a week since I've updated this blog! Here are some pics from the last 2 weeks :)

Aashini is finally recovered from being sick. It ends up that she had a bad case of Roseola AND she had 2 cannaine teeth come in. When we were in Bangkok we took her to the doctor because she had had a very high fever for quite a few days and it wasn't going down. We took her to Bumrungrad hospital - one of the fanciest coolest hospitals ever! They took her blood and did a flu test while we were there. We thought we were going to have to wait a couple of days before getting the results, but they got our cell phone numbers and told us they would call us in an hour when the results were ready. We shopped and ate at the McDonald's & Au Bon Pain restrauants IN the hospital (there's a Starbucks and other awesome places too!!). They called in 30 min with our results!!! It was awesome :)

Here's a pic of Aashini (still sad) with her band-aid on her finger after giving some blood :(

Our friends the Gainors gave us a really fun care package when Gray came though the Capital a couple of weeks ago :) In that care package was a cool picture that their daughter Sarala drew for Aashini. We hung it on the fridge and Aashini loves it and points to it all the time! (The dress she's wearing is from them too!!)

We went to the market the other day - Adam needed a new pair of jeans. Aashini had fun in the shop with the measuring tape :) (this cute outfit is from the Gainors too!)After some marketing, we stopped by McDonald's. This has become one of Aashini's favorite places. She'll see it and say: "Donald's!!!" It's cute :) For some reason, Aashini is really scared of the grandma that lives upstairs from us. I always feel so bad because she always wants to see Aashini but Aashini is so scared of her. Hopefully that will change soon :)

This is a terrible picture (b/c it was dark in her room and I didn't want to use the flash and wake her) but I thought it was so funny the way she was sleeping. She sleeps in the funniest positions!

Aashini has really been enjoying playing with Play-Doh. She played with it for the first time in Thailand and loved it, so we've been having fun with it lately. She always wants me to make "snakes" for her out of the play-doh. What a funny kid - she really likes snakes ;)

We had our 20 week ultrasound the other day, so I'll be posting pictures of that soon :) Poor Pop Rock is getting neglected already :) Don't worry - he'll get some attention soon :) (or she :) I don't like to write he/she or it, so I just trade off he and she :))

Doctor Fun!

Between both me and Aashini having doctor's appointments, we've been at the doctor's office a lot lately. The other day we were the only ones there, so the nurses were taking Aashini back into the nurses' station and letting her play with all sorts of stuff.

Today we had to wait a while for Aashini's appointment - her doc is the 2nd in command for the NICU, so he was upstairs taking care of an emergency situation (our doctor appointments are at the hospital). Anyway, Aashini made a buddy, and they played together for about 30+ minutes. He was so cute :) In this picture, he's trying to show her how to write on the chalk board. They had so much fun running all around and playing :) It was cute! They really played well together.

Aashini had to get a little shot (which she didn't like at ALL!!!), and was still pretty upset about it when we got home - she would point to her little brown circle band-aid and say "boo-boo!"... Elmo band-aids help everything though! :)
We don't' have to go back to the doctor (either of us) for a month, so we have a break :) yay!

Random Aashini Pics :)

We are currently out of town (I did the pre-posting thing). Well, we're sorta out of town... we are in the Capital, but an hour away from our house, so we're staying in this part of the city... Anyway, here are some Aash pics ;)

Aashini pulled out Adam's shoes the other day and put them on - she was so proud :)

Aashini loves playing in the little mall play areas :) This is an older picture from Mother's Day, but I thought it was cute. Aashini loves to be dressed up, wear dresses, wear jewelry... she's quite the accessorizer! When we leave the house she always asks for a hat :) Anyway, the other day she didn't have clothes on (she had just eaten and we usually at least take off her shirt when she eats at home b/c she makes a mess :)) - she doesn't like not to have clothes. If she doesn't have clothes on she'll come up to me and say "dress" and ask for something to wear. Well, the other day she wanted some clothes, and found a pile of clean laundry. She started putting the underwear over her head to wear... it was pretty funny :) Again... she loves to dress up! The other day she put all these things on (we helped with the pink coin belt thing) :) She had so much fun looking at herself in the mirror!When I got my ultrasound at the hospital the other day, there were a bunch of people waiting for ultrasounds too (for various reasons). Well, we all had to have full bladders for our ultrasounds, but then some emergency patients came in, so we all had to wait (with full bladders). We were all pretty miserable. Aashini decided to entertain everyone in the waiting room - it helped us take our minds off things :) She was dancing and jumping and running up to people - it was funny!!

Introducing...

We'd like to introduce you to Baby #2....

Also known to us as...

POP ROCK! We had our first Ultrasound this week, and yes, there's only one baby in there (that's why it's "pop rock" and not "pop rocks" haha!). So... here's the baby!!!
It's a bad picture :) It's a photo of an x-ray (that's the kind of paper it was on... which makes it kinda hard to take a picture) :) It was a quick ultrasound, but everything is right on schedule and the heartbeat was great! :)

Here's a video if you're interested. It's not that interesting, but it's fun to hear Aashini say "baby" the whole time - haha! Anyway, if you're interested, here it is :)

Oh, and thanks everyone for the great baby name suggestions :) There were some great ones! You guys ROCK!