Mari.

Well, she's here. My own little girl :) Mari Wangsai born on August 15th 2007 at 5:35 pm. A total surprise popping out at 37 weeks. I was caught completely un-prepared. She's so tiny, 2.5 kilo and 48 cm long with a darling apple dumpling face. She has lots of fine black hair, sharp little nails that she scratches me with and a tiny little bud of a mouth. I'm completely in love. Here's her birth story:

At 6 pm. the day after my 37 week exam I started having irregular contractions, they became pretty regular at about 10 pm. coming once every 5 min. It was so early I actually thought it was false labour and went to bed, tried to sleep through them until at 8 am. I called the hospital and they had me come in immediately. Turns out I was 1 cm. dilated and 75% effaced. Went to the delivery room and laboured there till 5 pm. The doctor came in and checked me, it turns out I hadn't made any progress at all and her head wasn't engaged. They decided that it was probably because my pelvis was too small for her to fit through and advised me to have a C-section. I really didn't want one, but I was worried about her, I don't know how much stress she was under during the long labour, so I agreed. It turns out that the C-section wasn't as bad as I thought. Kinda like watching an episode of ER... Anyway, the epidural blocked out any feeling in my lower body so I had no idea the doctor was actually lifting her out. I thought they were still looking for her when I heard her whimper, then cry and the doctor was saying she's a girl. I just laughed out loud! I was so happy to have her here and it was so unreal that they have actually lifted a real live living human being out of my body. I remember thinking 'Now we are two.' Me and Mari have been occupying the same space for so long having her out of my body felt like a huge step.

After that was the long road to recovery. I'm really glad the hospital here is so pro-breast feeding. It was really hard learning how to feed her, I'm not sure I could have done it with out all the advice I recieved. She's a very good feeder and has a very good appetite, but in the beginning it hurt so much. Like someone pinching your nipple over, and over, and over again. But I'm really glad I'm able to breatfeed her. I look at her poo and feel like, yeah, that's my breast milk right there :D

I'll try to post pictures when I have time again( God knows when that will be, it's been all Mari 24/7 since we got home.) The Mr. has been wonderful, I couldn't have hoped for a better partner through all this. He's been very patient and attentive during my recovery from the C-section, and he's just so in love with Mari. I think he's used up all the memory chips we have taking her pictures! Anyways, pics later. I promise. Right now I have to go get some sleep before the little miss wakes up for her next feed.

Losing my religion.

I went to re-new my ID card the other day. Had to change from Miss to Mrs. since me and the Mr. are now officially married by Thai law, and I decided to change my religious status too. I used to be Buddhist but had stopped believing for more than 6 years now. I never really identified with the Theravadi Buddhism that's pre-dominant in Thailand anyway, so I didn't want it written on my ID that I do. Simple enough, I didn't expect to be turned in to 'the woman with no soul' at the city office.
Here's what happened.

I went in, got in line, had my photo taken, blah blah blah... Then the staff person asked for my blood type and religion. I told her B and to leave my religion as a blank, she said ok. On to the next que.

The woman who checked my info looked at my blank religion and said:
Her: You don't have a religion!?
Me: Yeah, can we leave that as a blank?
Her: But how can you not have a religion? Don't you believe in anything?
Me: I'm still looking around... (Thought:It's none of your business anyway!)
Her: What was your religion before?
Me: Buddhist.
Her: And now?
Me: Nothing. I'm still looking.
Her: Why aren't you Buddhist anymore?! (Voice getting louder and higher)
Me: I stopped believing in Buddhism...
Her: Hey! Hey! She doesn't have a religion! (Shouting to the person in the next stall)
What about your parents!? What do they have to say about this!
Me:....

I can't believe she actually started asking about what my parents thought. To a woman almost 30 years old, Married, heavily pregnant, what would that say about me if I still had to ask my parents for permission about my faith. I opened my mouth to tell her my father had passed away, and my mom didn't mind what I believed, but I just couldn't waste anymore words. I just shook my head. At that moment the person next to her told her 'It's ok for her not to have a religion, it's not important info.' So with no back up she just started going on about how the ID didn't look complete and so on and cranked out my card.

LADY, WOULD IT BE COMPLETE IF I LIED ON IT?! WOULD IT?!

sheesh...

7/8/07

It's my birthday today. I'm 27, officially. 26 was a rollercoaster of extreme ups and downs, so I'm hoping 27 will be a smoother ride.

Plans for the day:
-Doctor's appointment, to check up on lil' red and see how s/he's doing.
-Home, a bit of laundry, maybe some crafting.
-Dinner out with the Mr.? We'll see about that one, I haven't decided on a good place yet.

Well, here's to what I hope will be a calm, mellow, happy year.

*Hmm.. The post goes up as 6 Aug. Must be the time zone difference, for the record, it's already 7 Aug here in BKK.