Category: Parenting

Dealing with the ups and downs of raising toddlers

A Holiday of Firsts

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One of our goals this holiday season was to expose Logan and Katelyn to as many “firsts” as possible. It was busy, but it was awesome! We present to you the first . . .

A Healthy Mom is a Happy Mom

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Let me just start by saying that if you are a mom in Bangkok looking to get back into shape via running, here are some critical links for you:  Go Adventure Asia and Jog and Joy.  The first site provides a list of some of the bigger and more well-known races in Thailand and the region; the second lists the more local races in Thailand.

Just last weekend I challenged myself by jogging the Vertical Marathon at the Banyan Tree.  That means climbing 61 floors (1,093 stairs) as quickly as possible.  It was awesome.

On a high after fourteen minutes of stair-climbing to the top of the Banyan Tree

Now on to my weekly blog post story:  When I was pregnant with Logan three years ago, I joined a prenatal yoga class on Capitol Hill.  My ultra-hippy yoga teacher would start each class by having everyone introduce themselves and use one word to describe how they felt.  I remember using the word “frustrated” one week and when it came to why, I explained that I just wanted to go out for a run.  Logan was born in late July in Washington, DC and as the beautiful spring and summer months came out to play, I was aching to go on a nice, long jog.  Prenatal yoga certainly helped me with delivery, and for that I am grateful, but blah blah blah blah, it was boring (my apologies to all of you yogis out there)!  Four weeks after delivering Logan, I went out for my first jog.  I was pathetically out of shape, but it felt great to be jogging again.  And as the weeks ensued, I got back into running, lifting and some tennis, started some short-distance races, and a year later I was pregnant again.

Pregnancies don’t treat me kindly, so I counted chasing my one year old around as my daily exercise while I was pregnant with my second (and those of you that have had a 1-2 year old boy know that chasing him around is exercise indeed).  I was extremely ready to get back into jogging after Kate was born in May.  I started slow and built up.  I feel about a thousand times better now that I can challenge myself physically again.  The endorphin high is an extra plus.  This fall weather in Bangkok is another bonus.  What a beautiful time of year to jog outside.  There were actually leaves falling on my jog in Lumpini today.

Bottom line, for me, a healthy mom is a happy mom.  Every day I can get a quick jog in or some lifting, I feel like I’m a better mom.  I’m less stressed, more fit, get in some valuable alone time, and build up energy for the day with my children.

Find what it is that makes you healthy – a good read, a good swim, some time with friends – and find the time to do it.  You will be a better mom for it.

Push-ups in Lumpini

Fave New Children’s Author

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A typical night of reading in the Braunohler household

I’ve been on a hiatus from my blog-writing lately as I try to figure out how to juggle a two-year old and four-month old with a little bit of sleep and time for friends somewhere in between.  However, I’ve been eager to share my new favorite author with you.  Undoubtedly, many of you may have heard of The Gruffalo, a fantastically creative story about a little mouse who takes a stroll through the woods.  We only recently (six months ago) discovered  The Gruffalo and after falling in love with the story, purchased many more books by the same author, Julia Donaldson.  We have also come to love the following by Donaldson:  The Gruffalo’s Child (might even be better than The Gruffalo itself), Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale, What the Ladybird Heard, Tiddler, and The Spiffiest Giant in Town.  The beautiful and vibrant illustrations and creative story-telling in Donaldson’s books will captivate your little one(s), taking them on a wonderful journey. When you do something for your child this week, let it be to pick up one of Donaldson’s books.  You won’t regret it.  For those of you who can’t make it out to the bookstore or a public library, I’ve linked to Amazon above.  A child can never have enough books.  Enjoy!

Our awesome collection of Julia Donaldson books

Life with a Toddler and a Baby Made Simple (and Yummy)

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Weekly milk delivery, check.  Weekly gourmet bread delivery, check.  Almost weekly organic lunch and dinner delivery, check.  This is what life with a newborn and a toddler in the house will do to you – motivate you to find ways to make your everyday life easier.  Along the way, we have not only found some gems for simplifying our daily chores, but some excellent food as well.

Here is what we’ve found and how we’ve simplified:

1. LOVE ME SOME MILK

Logan is a man who is serious about his milk.  Before Katelyn’s arrival, I found myself at the store almost every other day buying a fresh quart of milk.  I used to buy Meiji milk, until a Dutch friend of ours (who knows his milk well) derided me for not buying fresh milk.  I hadn’t realized that Meiji milk was made from powder.  After all, the packaging looked so nice, and I had always assumed it was fresh.  Turns out that Chokchai and Dairy Home are your best bets for fresh milk in Bangkok.  We now opt for Chokchai.  Why?  Because they offer free delivery!  Yes folks, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have one quart of milk delivered to our home (well, on Fridays, we have two delivered) at approximately 11am.  86 baht/quart and the delivery man is pleasant to boot. No more late night milk runs, no more fussy toddler when his full cup turns into a half cup because we are low on supply.  This has assured we always have fresh milk on hand.

Interested in doing the same?  Decide how much milk you need per week and when you would like it delivered, find a native Thai speaker, simply dial up the delivery number found on the front of the milk carton (02-532-3572), and have your Thai speaker communicate your preferences and address to Chokchai over the phone.  The milk man begins delivering the same week.  It worked like a charm for us.

2. IT MAY PREVENT ME FROM LOSING THOSE LAST FEW POUNDS OF BABY WEIGHT, BUT MAN THIS BREAD IS GOOD!

So, we actually learned about the bread man before Katelyn’s arrival, but now that our little girl is here, we have it delivered on almost a weekly basis.  Urban Pantry makes some seriously fantastic home made bread.  The founder has a really cool back story and I’d encourage you to read this article on CNN Go for more on him and his bread.  If you get on Urban Pantry’s email list, they’ll send you a weekly menu of their bread and condiment offerings (see below for a sample menu we just received).  Our personal favorites are the sun-dried tomato and garlic sourdough, the cinnamon raisin bread, and the rustic whole wheat.  We also recently tried Urban Pantry’s key lime cream cheese . . . if you are a fan of key lime, it is sublime!  Urban Pantry delivers to your door at no cost . . . you can’t beat that!  Email Urban Pantry at urbanpantrybangkok@gmail.com to receive their weekly menus.  You can also catch them on Twitter (@urbanpantrybkk).

Sample Urban Pantry Menu (June 18, 2012)

3.  ORGANICS MAKE YOU FEEL OH SO GOOD

Tired of all the same old sandwich or Thai street food lunches?  Indulge by ordering “mediterranean-influenced wholefood cuisine” from Birds in a Row.  This was a new experiment for us after we arrived home with Katelyn.  I was skeptical at first . . . now I wish I had tried this months ago!

Birds in a Row offers seasonal menus and all you have to do is visit their website (http://birdsinarow.wordpress.com/) to see what’s available and to order.  Some of our current seasonal favorites are:  Salad of lentils, chickpeas, butternut squash and paneer with masala dressing, Summery watermelon, tomato and feta salad with mint and vinaigrette dressing, and paneer cauliflower fritters with curried yogurt sauce and cilantro.  The meals are reasonably priced and are delivered direct to your home (a delivery charge applies).  Make sure to get your lunch or dinner order in by 10am.

I hope these ideas inspire you to try new some yummy new foods, all the while simplifying your life with a toddler(s) and/or baby(ies) at home.  Sometimes when your hands are so full with your little ones, it’s really just about finding ways to make your everyday chores less of a hassle, and Bangkok certainly delivers in that category if you let it.

Katelyn’s Birth Story

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Katelyn at 10 days old

Katelyn waits for no one.  Not doctors, not nurses, not mom or dad.  Determined to make her debut at 6:59pm on May 10th, she delivered herself.  Here’s how the story goes:

Bangkok was hot in early May – and by hot, I mean routinely 100 degrees F or above.  Katelyn’s due date was May 15th, and by May 1st, I just wasn’t sure if I could make it until the 15th.  I was so hot that I would walk around my house in my bathing suit.  As I went in for my regularly scheduled appointment on May 10th, I wasn’t thrilled to hear what was likely to be “bad” news – that I hadn’t dilated, that she might be hang around past her due date, etc. etc.  After all, Logan was born one day past his due date in late July — in Washington, D.C. (fate has dealt me deliveries in the hottest, most humid months no matter where I am located).  Walter was with me at the appointment because, well, I just wasn’t so comfortable driving myself anymore with a steering wheel lodged two centimeters from my belly in Bangkok traffic.

“Would you like me to check your dilation?”   The doc’s first question was a pretty routine one for 39 weeks.  Usually I wouldn’t hesitate, but again, I really didn’t want disappointing news.  I was ready to start talking about how soon after her due date we could induce, hoping to goad him into something sooner than the usual one week waiting period.   Then he followed up with, “If I check and you are dilated, are you prepared to have the baby today?”  What (impatient) woman would not jump at that opportunity at 39 weeks in 100 degree heat?  “Absolutely!”  Walter was caught by complete surprise.  This was definitely not a question he expected, nor a scenario he had envisioned.  “Wait, wait, wait, ” he started.  Wait?  I had been waiting 39 long a** uncomfortable weeks!  As he sorted through things in his head, the doctor informed us I was 3cm dilated.  As soon as he asserted that it would be absolutely no risk to the baby or to me to induce labor, I was all in.  Walter was still recovering from the shock of becoming a dad to baby number two at least five days earlier than he had expected.  “Do you have some place to be?” the doctor asked him.  “You can go back to work.  All she needs is me, not you” (and to this moment we’re not really sure whether our doctor was kidding or not; his undecipherable sense of humor will become a theme of Katelyn’s birth story).  After much coaxing, I finally won Walter over to my ready-to-have-the-baby-this-minute decision because our doctor was going to be out of town for the weekend and we didn’t want to chance delivering with a doctor we had never met (Full disclosure:  my doctor was headed up to Khao Yai to ride horses for the weekend.  Having the baby on May 10th was not only a convenience for me, but also for him).

Upon learning our decision to go forward with the induction, the doctor asked us if we would like a standard room, a deluxe room, or a suite post-delivery.  I was beginning to feel as though we were checking into a fancy hotel, not having a baby.  Although he wanted us to go straight on up to Labor and Delivery to get the process rolling, we made an argument to return home for an hour or so to grab a camera, touch base with our friends who would watch over Logan in our absence, and for me to, yes, put on make up and blow dry my hair.  And it was at this moment that I was so happy to be in Bangkok, happy to be 3 cm dilated but not yet feeling contractions, and happy to live in an urban city center.  When we arrived home, I marched across the street to my regular salon and asked for a wash and a blow-out.  Twenty minutes, six dollars, and perfect salon-dried hair later, I was ready to give Logan a great big hug and head back to the hospital.  Who wants to look bad for their first post-delivery photo?  Not me (sure, I admit to some vanity; but if you had the opportunity, wouldn’t you have done that, too?)

As we valeted our car and strolled into the hospital, we passed three young Thai monks dressed in orange robes sitting outside of Labor and Delivery.  That’s something you don’t see everyday.  As I checked in and got settled, I saw two big bags of what I assumed were IV fluids hanging above me.  It was strange to be in the hospital, expecting our little girl that day, but not feeling any contractions yet.  After an hour and a half, I started to feel contractions.  Excellent, I (naively) thought .  .  . my labor had started on its own.  As the contractions grew stronger – and much closer together – I had another thought . . . pitocin.  For those women out there who have experienced pitocin, you know the pain it can bring.  Ouch.  No wonder my contractions had started.  I had a whole bag of pitocin being pumped into me.  A couple of hours later, the doctor came up and broke my water.  I was still 3 cm and he said to expect that I’d dilate about 1 cm/hour . . . which means I would deliver around 9pm.  Meanwhile, he said, he was going to go for a run and grab dinner at the Polo Club (that humor again; was he joking?  After all, I was his only patient in labor at the time).

Thirty minutes later, I was in some real pain.  It was manageable, but definitely not pleasant.  Time for an epidural (yes, on top of being vain, I’m now admitting to being a wimp).  The doctor was back at 6pm.  Turns out he didn’t go to the Polo Club, but went out to get a hair cut instead.  This time I was 7-8 cm.  I had dilated far faster than he imagined I would.  In fact, he told us that the baby could come within the hour.  At 6:45, I was 10cm and ready to push.  Except, I didn’t have to push . . . not even for 30 seconds, not even for 1 second.  As the nurses gathered around the table and started to get things ready, I felt the urge to vomit.  Being the truly wonderful husband that he is, Walter was catching my vomit in the vomit tray.  After vomiting once, I really felt as if Katelyn’s head was coming out.  Walter thought I was crazy.  When I insisted I thought she was coming out, he rifled through the papers toward the end of the table, but in his words, “was too worried to mess things up” in order to get a glimpse of what might be happening.  Plus, he admits to thinking that I was under the influence of crazy and that since I had had an epidural, I really couldn’t feel anything.  Wrong.  As the nurses were still getting ready and my doctor was suiting up, I vomited again.  This time I felt as if Katelyn’s body slid right out.  And guess what?  It did.  We heard the nurses yelling for the doctor and as he fumbled to get his gloves on, he picked her up, cut the cord, and gave her to the nurses.  She delivered herself before the nurses were fully prepared, before the doctor had his gloves on, and before Walter or I knew what was happening.  Easiest . . . delivery . . . ever.  There she was, not even a minute old, and I was already in her debt for making my delivery so much easier than it should be.  Was she healthy?  That is all we wanted to know.  “Completely,” said the doctor.

I may have delivered five days early, but I think Katelyn was just as ready to meet us as we were to meet her.  Nothing says independence or precociousness like delivering yourself.  Sweet Katelyn has already made it clear that she will run the Braunohler household.  She is such a wonderful blessing to our family and we love her more than I could ever put into words.  She has such a unique birth story and one that I can’t wait to tell her years from now.  We are so thankful she is a part of our lives.