...What are you Doing?

You'd think that's what I'd be saying to these Chinese people living all around me, but no.
Most of the time
it's the exact opposite.

The first time I actually heard these words from a Chinese person (in English, I might add) was while I was in active labor with Brother--in the middle of a contraction!

There was a shift change for the nurses. They walked in to introduce themselves and there was Mister kneeling on the hospital bed so I could lean against him and a nurse asked us "What are you doing?" Seriously. She said that. Later a cleaning lady got on to me for not wearing socks and sitting by the window.

Since then I've realized that people think I'm pretty strange.

-I buy TWO whole loaves of bread at the grocery store.
-Mister doesn't know how to open a bottle of wine (he learned while celebrating our anniversary, thanks to our neighbor).
-Miss A wears funny footie pajamas
-I travel with one arm holding a baby and the other pushing a toddler in a stroller.

These are "special" pajamas according to our neighbors.

We have two children. What? 

I know I'm strange to some people, but the Chinese are still a little strange to me too. :)

This is the really cute split bottom outfit Brother was put in at the hospital.

In the hospital there was a room with windows where the babies are given their first bath. The English name of the room is "Baby Swimming Room". I thought it was just bad translation, but no.
This newborn is floating by it's head in a tub that is a little deeper than the baby is long. A nurse would come over and push him around in the water every once in a while, but other than that he was left floating alone.

(Sorry for the poor pictures...I was trying to be sneaky because the grandparents were standing by us.) Don't worry, I did not allow them to do this to Brother.

I've been out of commission lately--for some reason I need six hands to take care of two babies and I haven't had enough to type, too.

Our China Boy

You know how sometimes in movies they show a hospital scene from the perspective of an ER patient? The patient is on a gurney and all he can see is faces and things whizzing by?

That happened to me. Seriously.

The only thing is, I wasn't dying or anything. Mister and I walked in to the hospital around noon on Christmas day. We checked in at the ER. They took my blood pressure. We went to get in line to pay. Then a nurse came and told me to follow her. They had me lay on a bed while Mister got everything taken care of. When he was done they pushed me around on the thing! (for "safety")

I should have realized it was a sign for my stay in a hospital in China.

After being monitored for a while, getting an ultrasound, and getting an EKG (very interesting experience) they finally took us to our room.

The next two days were spent something like this:

-Being put on petocin
-being taken off at 6pm because there weren't any doctors working
-getting woken up at 6am by a lady cleaning
-being put on petocin
-getting taken off at 6pm because there weren't any doctors working
-staying in bed the whole time because they wanted to monitor the nothing that was going on

These two days also included some hospital Chinese food (mmm), oxygen, impatience, gesturing, Mister translating, and lots of time missing my little girl!

This was our room. Not bad, huh?

On Thursday morning they finally decided to get a little more serious about things. They gave me a different type of medicine and I told them I didn't want to be monitored as much so I could walk around. By 3, I was having pretty intense contractions.

I was planning on not getting an epidural, but was still open to it. When, at 5, the nurses told me I was only at a 2 I told Mister to get me the medicine! The nurses all tried to talk me out of it, but I was having none of that. Thanks to the fact that not many Chinese women get an epidural, the anesthesiologist was in my room within minutes.

I don't know what "2" the nurses were talking about...but I was definitely further along than that. Less that a minute after getting the epidural, my water broke. The epidural was heaven.

A little less than an hour later a nurse came in to check on us. She made a funny noise and ran out of the room. All of the sudden people were running around the room getting things ready. The doctor came in and told me I should push through my contractions. I didn't want to, though so I tried to wait. I finally decided to appease her and push.

5 minutes later, we had our China-born baby boy!

This baby weighed 4.18kg (9 lbs 3 oz)!

Oh what a crazy wonderful thing it is to hold a precious new child straight from Heaven.

This man is The. Best. He translated everything for me and was better than any doula.

and from Heaven he is.

Brother was born on December 27th at 6:05 pm--weighing 9lb 3oz and measuring 21 inches!

Bright and Shining: Christmas in Nanjing

Christmas came to China. We even had some snow!

When December started this year I was surprised to see so many Christmas decorations in Nanjing. Almost every store gave some recognition of the holiday.

Workers wore santa hats (or even more festive outfits)

Shopping centers went ALL out.

 I found it a little ironic that Christmas was being celebrated in a place were so few know anything about Christ. (There are many good Chinese Christians and many good Chinese people in general--Christianity is just not widespread.)

Of course, just like in the US, Christmas is often the means for suppliers to get people to buy more. That is probably the main reason for all of the decorations.

But still,
real Christmas was in China this year.

We had santa hats and big bellies. 

Our ward held a Christmas dinner--including a beautiful nativity program. 

Mister (the one with the really full beard) was Santa. He taught a Chinese Christian group about how Christmas is about love and giving.

Then he was attacked for his candy canes.

Black Friday?

We spent Christmas Eve eating and singing with friends.

This was such a wonderful way to remember and feel the true meaning of Christmas.

As you know, our Christmas was cut a little short this year. We got up early so Miss A could open presents. We ate breakfast with friends, Skyped with family, and left for the hospital a little before noon.

Our simple Christmas was quite lovely--with computer paper wrapped gifts and Miss A's $4 stroller, it couldn't have been better.

This lovely picture is thanks to my family. 40+ weeks and ready to go!

Our Christmas festivities were cut short, but the celebration and spirit definitely weren't.

This babe made it oh so sweet.