1 month party

Wow, we've been so busy lately that we didn't have time to update our blog... okay, here is what you missed!




When Katie turned 1 month old, we had a party for her and invited some friends to a restaurant.




Mommy looks hungry! It was the first time we took Katie outside (except to go to the doctor), and Thao kept worrying about her. Katie started to cry a little bit, so Thao got up and took her down to the first floor. After a while some friends went to check on her, and they came back and said that Thao wanted to go home already! But luckily daddy went downstairs and everything was fine. Thao was just worried that Katie was crying a bit, but it was a noisy restaurant already so nobody cared... Thao just fed her a bit and she settled down.




Mommy needs to eat too! Good thing that Ha was there to help out!

1 month and 13 Ghosts

Last night was horrible, Katie did not sleep all night and we eventually went to bed at 6am. Then today at 13:00, Thao's two younger sisters came to prepare for the 13 Ghosts... 13 shrimp, 13 little crabs, 13 snails, 13 bird eggs, 13 potatoes, 13 sticky rice balls, 13 normal rice balls, 13 green oranges and 13 green fruit..... Oh my! And with the 13 candles and 13 incense sticks, surrounded by lots of paper and fake money bundles, the whole thing was a huge fire hazard! heheh

Eventually they told me that when the baby is 1 month old, the custom is to make an offering for 13 spirits to protect her throughout her life.




Since we did not do things right at new year, finally we have a proper full chicken with entrails wrapped around its neck and a rose in its mouth!




Doesn't exactly look too healthy to keep a baby in a room filled with smoke like that, right? Well actually it was soooo windy that morning that we had to close the windows for a few minutes for pray time.





Many friends came to visit throughout the day. I'll have to keep Hà in mind when we need a babysitter, because she was holding Katie all day and fed her a bottle too. She is a very good friend who often comes and brings food for us, or goes shopping at the market for us. Last week she cooked us Japanese curry rice!




Ling is another good friend who was very busy all day helping us prepare everything. (she is the girl that wrote the newspaper article about me)




Thao's sister brought a very yummy cake to celebrate 1 month




Some nice new clothes for the summer from Hà!




Here is another girl Chi from the "foreigner boyfriend club".




She came with her boyfriend and they brought very nice flowers and Baileys. Hopefully the Baileys is for the parents, not for the baby...




Too much excitement for one day! Katie is fast asleep, holding her lucky money...

We also went to the doctor for the 1 month checkup a few days ago. Everything is fine, although Thao is worried that Katie is not gaining weight fast enough. But of course the baby growth charts show that she is right in the middle of average weight.

Katie Gia An Poole
1 month old
4.23 kg (9.3 lbs)

3 weeks old

Wow, Katie is 3 weeks old already! I don't know where the time went... it is probably because she keeps mommy and daddy very busy...

I tried to do that Trixie Tracker thing for a day, where you record every little detail what your baby does. Sleeping, nursing, diaper changes... But it just got to be too much of a hassle. It was hard enough to take care of a newborn, I didn't want to have to record everything too. Plus I found it very depressing when you review the night before and realize how little sleep you got...

Thao's mom stayed with us for a week after Katie was born, and she was a great help. Actually she wanted to stay longer, like one or two months! But we thought we should follow the Western way and try to do everything ourselves. And the house is really too small for too many people. She was planning to come again this week with Thao's sister, and prepared a lot of food to bring, like whole chicken and fish. But suddenly the weather changed and got cold again, and she got sick, so she couldn't come. Thao's sister said that one night at midnight, her mom was was walking around the playground and crying, saying that she misses Katie and worrying if we could take care of Katie by ourselves. :( She still wanted to come, but we had to say that she should stay home and take care of her health...

So now we are doing daily baths by ourselves. Well, Thao is doing it, I basically just fill the bath tub with water... But Thao is really good and Katie loves to be in the water. I read some Western books that say you should only do a sponge bath and maybe only once a week until the baby gets older. But Thao says that's because it is very clean there, here in Vietnam the air is dirty...

Katie's umbilical cord stump finally fell off after about 2 1/2 weeks. Thao saved it and put it in a plastic bag with some cotton, and tied it to the lamp in the bedroom. I'm sure she had a good reason....... heheh




Here is Katie just hanging out... During the day she usually sleeps a lot, and not matter what we try to do to wake her up, she sleeps like crazy. Of course, during the night she wakes up if we make the slightest noise. She likes to stay awake from 12 to 4 am :(




Here is the basinet I bought for Katie. It is hand-made from bamboo but only cost $12... You have to imagine me riding home on the motorbike with this tied to the back heheh





Here is the cute outfit I bought her for Woman's Day (mommy got 30 long stem roses!)

And now for some more of Katie's modeling...

5 days old

Thao and Katie had to stay in the hospital for 3 nights. It was really hard for me because I had to go home each night and sleep alone. Oh... yeah it was hard for Thao too! She was so hurt after the operation but still had to take care of Katie all night and get very little sleep. The nurse said that most people just give their babies to the nurses to take care of at night, but even though Thao was so hurt and crying, she still wanted to breastfeed Katie. I am so proud of Thao, she is really a great mom!




The French hospital was really good. All the nurses were friendly, someone with a big white chef hat comes to give you the food that you ordered for your meal, and everything is really clean. You can see how happy Thao is to eat her shrimp dinner with rice and soup!




For the first few days Katie slept a lot, but now she is starting to be more active...




A cute smile and wave to the camera heheh




Actually Thao was scheduled to stay in the hospital for 4 nights, but we went home earlier because everything is much easier when we are all back home...

There are a few Vietnamese customs about new babies that are strange to me... One is that when you come home from the hospital, you need to place a dot of lipstick on the baby's head, and in the bag (that the person carrying the baby must carry) you have two chopsticks and a knife... A knife?? Yeah, I found out the hard way. "Oh Kyle, get the lipstick from the bag's front pocket..." So I put my hand in and searched around. OMG!!! A knife! Ouch!! Lucky I was in the hospital already...

Another thing is that when you bring the baby home, you have to cover her face and quickly go inside so no neighbours see. Then you have to be very careful who visits, because if someone with a "bad soul" visits the baby, she will cry a lot for one month... So better not to let any friends or neighbours come over. One of Thao's best friends messaged her that she wanted to come to visit and see Katie, but she wasn't sure if she had been good enough so she didn't want to come...

Thao's mom is staying with us now to help out. It was interesting to see how good she is with babies, after raising 5 daughters and more recently taking care of grandchildren every day. Thao said her mom wrapped up the baby tight like she was making a Banh Tet (rice cake wrapped in banana tree leaves), and Katie slept for so many hours.




Now we are getting a nurse to come to our house every day to give Katie a bath. At first I thought that was kind of silly, shouldn't the parents just learn how to do it themselves? But again it was amazing to watch someone with a lot of experience do everything. We were surprised at how hot the bath water was, but Katie loved it. Maybe she will be an Olympic swimmer some day... The nurse does everything so fast, not just a bath, but clean eyes, clean out nose, clean mouth, disinfect the belly button, change into new clothes and get a massage. And after that Katie is very clean and happy!

Well, everything is going fine now, and it really helps a lot that we are both home all day and Thao's mom is here too. Katie is a real joy, and no matter how tired you are, you just look at her cute little face and know that it is all worth it.

Hello everyone, my name is Katie!

Hello everyone, my name is Katie! I am having a very strange day today, I don't know what to make of it yet...

I knew something was wrong starting last night... I was getting hungry, so I started kicking mommy's tummy so she would give me some food. But no matter how much I moved, she didn't listen! I could feel her wake up very early in the morning, but still she did not eat anything...




I can feel mommy and daddy go somewhere by taxi. I know it's not daddy driving the motorbike, because it's not so bumpy. I can hear them talking about what a nice room this is.... Maybe they are staying in a hotel? Are we on vacation? Yay!!




Now they are talking about some free stuff that they got. I don't really care, all I want is some FOOD! Hey, did you forget about me in here??





This is a picture of me and my mommy. It is getting a bit small inside here, I think I should ask for a bigger place... But wait, I can feel that mommy is scared about something. I try to be very still so I can hear what is going on...
She is laying down on the bed, but now the bed is moving! We travel for a while, and then I hear daddy say goodbye and that he will see us soon... Now many people are around and talking. And then... I really don't know what happened, but suddenly I was taken out of mommy's tummy and I was left in the cold! Did I forget to pay the rent this month?? PUT ME BACK INSIDE!! WHHHAAAAAA!
Oh wait, now I am inside a very hot box... and something else is very strange! I can move my arms and legs! It feels so free, I just keep moving my arms and stretching my legs like I'm exercising. Now the hot box is moving, and then I can hear daddy calling my name! I try to open my eyes, but everything is so bright! They put me in a room with other crying small people. But I have this nice hot box, so I think I'll just exercise for a few hours while I can, maybe I have to go back inside mommy's tummy soon?


 Oh, I am so tired now! When do I get to go back home?Finally I can hear mommy and daddy calling me, and they put me on the bed next to mommy. Hey, I know food when I see it! Mommy and daddy are surprised that it is so easy for me to eat... Ummm, did you forget that you didn't feed me all day???


 Everyone is surprised that I have such long eyelashes, because Vietnamese have very short eyelashes. I try to close my eyes or hide my face when daddy wants to take my picture. You haven't signed my modeling contract yet!! But daddy says my eyes are very nice and greyish green like my Grandma Poole. Maybe tomorrow I will let them take a promo shot to boost my modeling career....


 This is my daddy. I love it when he sings songs to me! My favorite songs are "Old McDonald had a farm" (but mommy has to do the baby ox sound!) and "How much is that doggy in the window?"



Here is my mommy watching me. I think her belly got hurt because I was too big inside. I hope you get better soon! Thank you so much mommy, I know you will be the best mommy ever!

Katie Gia An ("zaaa ann") Poole
Born February 18, 2010 at 9:20am in Hanoi, Viet Nam
3.48 kg / 7 lbs 11 oz