Purple People Eater take Two!!

Yesterday Gabby was 2 weeks old.  Those two weeks sure seemed to fly by.  Rick returned to work and I was not glad to see him go. We really had a good time the past two weeks, and I was suddenly lonely without him home.  He worked unitil Midnight, so that might have something to do with it.

Gabby had her two week check-up yesterday and she is thriving.  She weighed in at 6lbs 14 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  She grew a half inch in two weeks, and from a week ago gained 11 oz.  The doctor was impressed with the growth and asked if I was feeding her cream.  Way to go little piggy.  For a little girl who takes an hour to eat, she definitely is getting more than enough nutrition.

On a second note, she still had a little bit of thrush so we got a prescription for the Genetian Violet and as of late night the purple people eater returned to our house.  Hopefully this will do the trick, because Thrush is not fun and we keep passing it back and forth to each other!!

This picture is a week old, because I haven't taken a two week one yet, but she is much much pinker!

Jisan Forest Ski Resort

Rick wanted to go snow boarding and we loaded the entire family up and went to Jisan Ski Resort. It is about an hour and a half from where we live. Rick snow boarded and Natalie, Gabby and I hung out in the lodge.  After he got done skiing, Rick and Natty went and played in the snow.  Next time Rick gets to sit with the girls while I go skiing! :)

Natalie looking very model like

Rick and Natalie Posing

Natalie posing

Part of the ski slopes

Gabby's First Bath

Gabby's cord fell off when she was 11 daysold, therefore we decided it was time for her first bath.  She loved her bath, but hated it when we took her out.

Oh this is warm

She is relaxing in her spa

She looks remarkably like Natalie in this picture

Eating her hands

Purple People Eater

Having a baby definitely keeps you on your toes.  Friday night I started noticing that Gabby's tongue was looking slightly white, I thought it might have been milk tongue, but wanted to keep watching it for the evening.  Well come early Saturday morning her tongue was still white and she had some white patches on her cheeks.  I knew instantly that she had Thrush.  Considering the fact that there is only a small clinic on post, I had to take Gabby to the After Hours Clinic.  At the AHC we get luck of the draw on the providers.  Several of the Docs that work the AHC openly admit to not liking Pediatrics and usually send you home empty handed; however, today, the Pediatrician was on call which was a huge blessing.  After looking at Gabby she confirmed my suspicions and informed me that Gabby did have Thrush.  The treatment for thrush was Genetin Violet, a purple medicine that coats Gabbys mouth.  As a result her mouth gets stained and she turned into a Purple People Eater!

On another note, she has regained her birthweight at 10 days now weighing 6 lbs 11 oz. again.  She is quite the little Piggy!

Her cute little purple lips

Trying to wake her up, she was sleeping for over four hours 

Rick loving on Gabby

Still sleeping regardless of stripping off her outfit

Me after changing her pants.

Natalie's 5th Birthday Party!

Today we had Natalie's 5th Birthday Party.  We held the party at the Camp Humphreys Bowling Alley.  They have a great party room and the children got to bowl as well.  Natalie had several boys and girls attend her party and she enjoyed every minute of it.  This was the first big party Natalie has had.  Since we just had Gabby, we wanted to make sure she had an extra special birthday.  I know that she really enjoyed herself and that we have made some wonderful friends here in Korea.

Natalie and her Daddy

The Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake

The Start of the Decorations

Natalie and little Robert

Nat and some of the girls posing

Gabby thought it was her party and wanted to cry

The pinata

Daisy, Natalie, Adriana

Gabby's Check Up

On January 20, 2010, we took Gabby for a one week Billi check.  She had been a little yellow, so the doctor wanted to recheck her levels to make sure that they didn't increase tremendously.  At her appointment she weighed  6lbs 3 oz.  She is gaining back her birthweight, but still seems so tiny.

We are off to the doctor today because Miss Priss seems to have a case of Thrush.  We hope it clears up rather quickly.

Natalie loving on her sister.

Sophia and Gabrielle's Feet.  They were born 4 days apart!

Winter Fun

We took Natalie snow tubing yesterday near Asan.  The snow tubing was at the same location that we went hiking several months back. They have this hill where they make snow and you can tube down it.  It is only a couple of dollars and you can tube as long as you would like. Rick and Natalie enjoyed themselves tremendously while I stayed indoors with Gabby.

Gearing up and ready to go.

Natalie in her red hat, purple jacket and pink pants. I think the colors work wonderfully

Rick and Natalie posing before going down the hill.

Today, we gave Gabby her first sponge bath. This was Rick's first time bathing an infant, so I let him bathe her with assistance from Natty. Natty was a great help and wanted to bathe Gabby herself.

The Princess sleeps in a crib of luxury with silky blankets and custom made bedding.

Watching the Cowboys with her Daddy at 3 a.m.

Wearing the outfit Natalie came home from the hospital in.  *Memories*

Rick giving Gabby a bath with help from Natalie

She cried the whole time. Apparently baths are not her favorite thing. That along with diaper changes and clothing changes.  She screams anytime you have to subject her to air.

GABRIELLE ELIZABETH "GABBY" updated

Gabrielle "Gabby" Elizabeth Frank was born at 8:50 p.m. January 13, 2010 in Seoul, South Korea.  She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long.  She has a head of brown hair in the back and blonde hair in the front.  She looks exactly like Rick and even makes the same facial expressions.

After walking around for almost 2 months at 3 cm dilated, I went for a check up that Wednesday morning.  I was still 3 but her head was extremely low. After the appointment, I was having some contractions, but was determined to take the bus back to Camp Humphreys to get Natalie from her dad.  However, my friend Amy, a L&D nurse, told me to go to the hospital to get checked before leaving since I was having contractions. She threatened to call my husband so I listened.  After arriving at the hospital they checked me and I was almost 4 cm so they were going to monitor me. Right after that occurred my water broke on its own, so I was instantly admitted at 4:30 p.m.  I called Rick and he left work immediately and started his trek to Seoul.  On a good day it can take 1.5 hours on a bad day it can take several hours.  Rick was able to make it in a little over 2 hours, after speeding in the bus lane and getting pulled over twice for speeding in the bus lane.

At 5:00 p.m. I was given Pitocin to help along the delivery.  I was GBS positive and they wanted to lower the risk of infection to Gabby so the doc decided to speed labor along.  Since I was already 5 cm I was worried Rick might not make it in time because when I was given Pitocin with Natalie labor went extremely fast.

I was handling the contractions on Pitocin really well for a period of time, but considering it could have been several hours before her birth I started breaking down. Rick was talking me through contractions on the cell phone, but being alone in a labor room with only a cell phone to your ear was not enough comfort.

6:45 Rick walks into the labor room in his army uniform ready for action.  I told him I caved and asked the doctors for an epidural because I didn't know how much longer it might be. Had they not given me the pitocin I would have been fine because the contractions were not bad at all.  That medicine is horrible!!

7:20 ish..The anesthesiologist walks into the room. I had been so dead set against the epidural I didn't know what to expect and was terrified.  It didn't take him long to get the epidural going however, I had the three worst contractions during that period and sitting still was really hard.

7:40 the anesthesiologist is done and I still haven't gone numb yet, but its getting there. I lay back down and suddenly have to push.  I was still feeling the contractions.  I had gone from 7-10 in the 20 mins the epidural was being administered.  I never even got to reap the benefits from the epidural.  I made it through all the hard contractions without the pain medicine.

7:50 start pushing. Gabbys head was bigger than Natalie, so it took a little longer. They turned the epidural off since I was finally numb, so once again no real benefit.

8:49 With one gigantic push the baby decided to come flying out unexpected. The bed wasn't torn down, the doctor walked in grabbed gloves and caught her.  There was no time for gowning up and getting prepped.  The doctor caught her let Rick cut the cord and we were done.  Delivering on the bed was extremely easy and much nicer than having to use the stirrups and having the bed torn down.

Gabby then went through a plethora of blood tests to check for infection. Around 1 am we were moved to our own room to get some sleep.

We were discharged on the 15th of January because I kept having low blood pressure and my iron was low so they were monitoring me and waiting the results of the Gabby's blood tests which took 48 hours. After she was giving the all clear we left.  It was a great experience.

I feel so blessed to have such a short labor and delivery was extremely easy.....

Natalie is doing amazing as a big sister and loves hugging and kissing Gabby.  Now we are working on Natalie's 5th birthday coming up on January 25.

Minutes Old.  Curly brown hair in back