Cuteness

I was finally able to get back on the VPN after many days off it... Oh China. Anyway that meant no fb or blogger for a while. While looking through my reader just now two close friends both had posts titles 'cuteness' and we sure have a lot of that around here these days too :)

Who Do you Look Like?

When Beia was first born I thought she for sure looked like me. I think it was the dark hair. But as time goes by she looks more and more like Sean to me...and to everyone else too! All the Chinese people that look at her also say how much she looks like Daddy. 

Three generations of women :)

Caed 1 month

Beia 1 week

With mommy 

So alike - especially the sleeping face!

cuteness

Baby Shower

We were so blessed by friends in Thailand who threw us the cutest baby shower for Beatrice! They planned it so that my mom could be there too - which was really special for us both. 

Super cute diaper cake by Amanda :)

Beia was just 4 days old at the shower. Here we are with her buddy to be J :)

Corinne had this beautiful art made for B. I hung it up in her room once we got home. 

Home at Last

It is great to be at home! Even if we did go from super warm Thailand (and swimming daily) to very very cold and rainy weather here :)

My favorite superhero guarding his little sister.

Caed has been very into Beia. He loves to touch her, watch her, and basically just be around her. My favorite is to listen to him do 'baby talk' with her. He is doing better than I thought he would, but still struggling with jealousy and not being gentle. 

Ninja protecting sis. 

Happy to be in this room with my girla

Holidays are Here!!!

The holiday season is here!!! We are so excited to be going back to the States to celebrate Christmas this year. We leave in three and a half weeks now - yeah :)

A friend made this sweater for Caed 4 years ago, so fun to see them wearing the same clothes.

Beia looking cute as ever in the same sweater. 

Thanksgiving with our friends. We were able to order a frozen turkey that was amazing. We were thinking back and since we went to college in 1999 we have only been home for one Thanksgiving (2008) - crazy...

Setting up for Christmas. Even though we won't be here for the holiday, we are planning on having students and friends over before we leave so we wanted to have some holiday decorations up

Here is a picture of Caed on a facetime date with Nana (she is on the iPad) - he is reading her a book. Can't wait to see Nana in real life!

First Christmas tree

And magician Caedmon

First Week

Today Miss Beia is three weeks old, and time has flown by! Amazingly we were able to get all of her paper work done in record time. We had her passport in our hands one week after she was born! This made it possible for all four of us to travel back to China together only ten days after B was born.
Upon returning though it seems as though our VPN is having major issues {and because of Internet censorship here that means we can't get on blogger etc without a VPN} so no blogs... Though for some reason blog and use Facebook on the iPad VPN, it's just the blog app is not great, like I can't put captions under pictures- weird, so I was waiting to no avail. So here we go, blog update via iPad :)
Our first week with Beatrice was amazing. My parents were there to help and boy were we glad! They took Caed on all sorts if outings, like to a snake farm, and he stayed busy with other kids where we were living. Breast feeding proved quite difficult that first week, but has improved much since.
Here are some pictures (I have no idea why they are out of order or how to fix that so...)
- Beia the mermaid :)
- Getting ready to leave the hospital, we went from there to our consular appointment.
- Meeting Micah in the hospital (I put up a picture of his mom and I both pregnant at the start of Oct, they are one month apart in age).
- We went to the Night Safari two days before Beia was born, so this is our last picture as three
- Sweet sleepy face
- Caed made friends with J where we were staying. J knew how much C likes snakes and lizards so whenever he would see one he would catch it and bring it over for C to look at and touch
- Holding a baby tiger at the night safari (seriously weird how I can't move pictures or write under pictures in the blogger app...)

She is HERE!!!

Introducing 

Beatrice Cathlene Arvin

Born October 30th 9:33 am

7.3 lbs. 

PERFECT!!!!

I am sitting here now while she sleeps, Sean is trying to get paper work done so that we may be all able to go back to China together (instead of Caed staying with me and Sean making two trips).  

{finishing this post a few hours later, Sean is back with me and B is fast asleep. He got the paper work in PTL!!!}

Here are some pictures and details. 

Gramma was there for everything!

With Dr. S right after she was born

dark hair!

Meeting GeGe. Sweetest thing Caed said (which I think is on video) was while looking at her sleeping he asked me,"Is she real or a in color statue?" Caed also said, "Hey mommy - she has hair like you!"

Getting swaddled

Meeting GP

no time wasted in taking a passport picture :)

we are in love

amazing.

My heart is full of praise. I can't even begin to explain how I feel and how overwhelming this all is. I don't think it has even hit me yet! Look what the Lord has done! I think back to a year ago this time and he has truly brought beauty from ashes, and songs of joy from tears of sorrow. 

Regarding her name:

Beatrice means "bringer of happiness/joy" and also "she who blesses". And words cant begin to describe how much she already has been that for our family and how that is our wish for her in the future. Cathlene is because we wanted to honor our favorite women Catherine and Allene (our moms) and it means 'pure". Her nickname (well surely one of many to come, as we are huge nn people :) and what we will call her most of the time is Beia (Bay-uh. like princess Leia with a B). Bei (bay) will most likely be her Chinese nickname, though it doesn't really have a meaning (maybe BaoBei - baby?). We haven't picked a Chinese name for her yet. 

So there you have it - baby Beia.

And before my brain gets all cloudy with sleepless nights:

Last night I saw doctor, I was 6 days overdue. She stripped my membranes for the second time (she had the week before as well) but said cervix was okay but not great. We talked about how long she would let me go and decided that if she didn't come naturally we would need to induce on the 4th. I sent a few emails/messages out there asking people to pray she would come soon, as there are lots of details to settle with passport, visa, parents leaving, Sean having to go back and teach etc. 

Went to bed with nothing strange. Caed came in at 4:45 to ask for a drink. I got up and got him one then back to bed. At 5:00 am I felt first contraction. It was super painful right off the bat, like no way I could have talked through it. But there was time in between so since I couldn't sleep I wrote emails etc. I waited until it was light out at about 6:45 to wake up Sean and we went for a quick 10 min walk, but contractions were close together and around a minute. So we went back home, Sean showered and packed up. Caed woke up and I told him I was having contractions. He said the cutest prayer over my belly (though the end of the prayer ended up being all about weapons and how he had no weapons?!). When we told C we were leaving he got all sad and said he wanted to come help me 'pop Beia out' and that he could hold my hand. Good thing GP brought out a whole new bag of prizes and he was fine when we left.

 In the car ride contractions were close and hard. Got out of car with mom, they wheeled me up and they were very close. We got in the room at about 8:35. She checked me and I was at 9 cm.  Sean had to park and then run up 12 flights of stairs {the elevator at this hospital deserves a post of its own}. He got up around 8:50. Sean was amazing, a perfect coach and helper encouraging the whole way. My mom was amazing too. Helping out with everything even though the nurses spoke very little English. I felt I needed to push and doctor wasn't there, but nurse said I was 10 and to o ahead. Doc got there at 9:13 and Beatrice was born at 9:33 am. 

Everything was perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Thank you all for your prayers over this baby and her birth. God has blessed us richly, beyond what we could have imagined. 

We are in the 'rivers of joy' right now and soaking it all up!

Waiting & Playing

Well little miss Arvin has yet to arrive and we are keeping busy here in the mean time. Trying to stay very active and do LOTS of walking to encourage this little girly along. I've been spending the mornings swimming laps in the pool and then each day we have...

Sunday night Sean and I went on a date and Caed had a date with Gramma and GP. 

Tuesday {her due date} we went to the zoo {again I still have that Raffi song in my head days after going to the zoo...}

held birds

fed swans

Wednesday Sean & my parents went golfing

Thursday we walked around the mall and then Dad and I got foot massages

Thursday night we went to the night market and walked around more. Caed is such a shopper! He was in a happy zone the whole time :)

Friday we had a party with our friends 

Saturday {today} we went to Horizon Village - which was this huge beautiful garden grounds. 

Here is Caed's cactus impression.

He got nipped by and ostrich at the petting zoo, this picture was taken at just the right second, while his hand was in the beak but the shock/hurt had yet to register on his face.

Then the crying quickly kicked in! 

We rented bikes and biked around the grounds - it is a huge park with sections like a topiary garden, cactus garden, herb garden. petting zoo, play area, labyrinth maze etc. 

And now Saturday night as I type all this out Caed is painting pine wood derby cars that GP brought here. 

In all the in between time we have been at the pool or napping :)

But no baby yet. 

About 3 weeks ago I had an ultrasound b/c they were worried she was small, and she was in fact smaller than what her due date said. I have never heard of a doctor moving back an IVF due date, since it should be so exact, but my doctor here said she would move it back by 5 days or so (making due date tomorrow). Either way in two more days I will have be 41 weeks pregnant. I suppose on Monday when we go to see the doctor we will need to make some decisions about how long we will go over, and then what. Physically I feel great, but mentally I am getting more and more anxious. I think because Sean will need to head back to China on the 9th and my parents flight is on the 6th and we need to get all the paper work in for her passport then visa etc - so all of that adds up. But overall I know that she will be here in perfect time, and that all of those details are nothing to fret over. But still lets pray that she comes in the next few days so that we can still make the consulate appointments that we have this week on Tuesday or Thursday!