Skellington

Aly said I needed to add this email I sent her to my blog. I sent it from Shanghai, China about our far too eventful trip...

Okay- Skellington is in time out for the next 5.5 months. I had some brown bleeding on the plane ride to Beijing. I had some pink bleeding after climbing the Great Wall. Yesterday I had increased brown/pink bleeding. Needless to say I have experienced the Chinese medical system first-hand now.

We went to the "expensive" Shanghai hospital at 5 a.m. this morning with our tour guide. It does not have 24 hour full service care. They doppplered me at 5 a.m.& we heard the heartbeat. I had to go back at 8:30 a.m. for an ultrasound. There was Skellington- measuring 14 weeks 6 days. The doctor said everything looked fine and
put me on prescription progesterone for the next few days. My total bill for 2 doctor visits, an ultrasound, and 4 taxi rides was $100 Yuan (or about $14 USD).

This trip has really been quite stressful and I haven't slept basically at all for the past week
(less than 24 hours total). We left the boys alone in the hotel when we went to the hospital for the first time (They were still sleeping). In between appointments, we told them what was going on and that I was pregnant. Both boys were excited- especially Jonathan. Wow! Shocker for me. Anyway, today I am laying low in the hotel. I had to miss today's tour to the "Venice of the Orient". The boys, however, are on the tour. Yes, my boys are 2 hours away from me by bus, unaccompanied by parents (Dan is with me), in a foreign country. The tour group really likes the boys and wanted to watch them for us today. Anyway, wish me a successful last few hours in China and plane ride home. I feel relieved but am still quite stressed out.

That day's excitement didn't end there though... We were in the taxi headed to the restaurant with our tour guide to meet up with the tour (okay, really for us to meet up with the boys) for dinner. Michael the Guide got a text message from the other tour guide asking us if Nolan could have Pepto Bismol. We said yes... but it was too late for Nolan. Nolan puked on the bus several times. He burst into tears as soon as he saw us. "My tummy hurts" is what he had to say. Nolan visited the bathroom 3 more times during dinner... By the next morning, he was fine and ready to see more of Shanghai. No one else got sick and the rest of the trip was uneventful!