Cute Boys

Korean wives Tales

There is no shortage fo advice, especially when you dont need it. We got a lot and I'm sure it was just the tip of the old wives tale 'iceberg'.

Korean ladies must stay inside for 21 days in warm space. Otherwise if you go outside into the cold you will feel cold and sore for the rest of your life.

Must eat seaweed soup for helping the breast milk. No salty, spicy or greasy food.

No shower for at least seven days, including shampoo and tooth paste. This could damage your bones by having water onto the skin too soon.

Cant eat cold food like ice cream because it will damage your teeth.

Too much use of the milk expressing machine will make your nipples black and reduce your milk capacity.

The first weeks milk should be stored and fed to baby later because it makes the babies skin irritated.

The outside milk makes the baby wake up early because it does not have the proper fat. The inside milk takes twenty minutes to reach and the baby can often fall asleep before then.

Cannot swap milk bottles between twins, and you should clean your breast between babies.

Royal Mom and Baby care centre

Want to kick up your heels and put all that delivery suite hassle behind you, then this is the place for you. Imagine having everything on hand where the nursing is done for you twenty four hours a day, your meals are cooked for you, washing done, massages, yoga, morning and afternoon tea, oriental medicine, sauna etc etc. There is a place in Seoul, Korea and it called the Royal Mum and Baby care centre . You can stay for one to three weeks.

As you get out of the elevator on the fourth floor of the Boramae Academy Tower , you are greeted by the green grass and blue sky scenery (albeit fake).

The front entrance is also an air lock with an external door and internal door, once inside the external door a high pressure air stream is blown into the chamber and passed through a HEPA air filter for cleaning.

After the internal door there is an ante chamber set up for visitors and for the office with view of the nursery. Then through another door to the inner care centre where there is a hand wash and gargle station. see left. In the same photo is the bottle store and pump store.

Next to the bottles and handwash is the nursery, always in full view and can be visited anytime by the parents when you want to take the babies away for a feed or return them for a rest, its completely up to the parents.

Of course the nursery has midwives working on 3 shifts and will look after everything for you if you need. Had enough mustard filled nappies for one day, no worries just hand the babies back to the nurse!

The centre also has a beauty clinic, a hair dresser and an oriental medicine clinic. There are lots of events for the mothers each day including how to massage your baby, breast feeding tips, yoga etc. Lots of advice, I will cover the old wives tales in another blog.

Week of Change

Here is Samuel and Andrew on Sunday 17th February, now almost six days old. Both regaining a little of the lost weight earlier in the week. Mum is doing much better and is up and about walking. We had Andrew with us in the hospital room overnight on Thursday night. At 45 to 60 minute intervals he was either being fed or changed. Then at 3.30 we must have fallen asleep because at 5am we were both woken by the sound of Andrew sucking his thumb. Somehow he had wriggled out of his wrap and clothes to get his hand into his mouth.



So for a bit of light relief here is Andrew in what I call the Dartagnon shot.
Sunny reckons he=s more of a captian hook. He is an active little lad who likes looking around at everything else and can recognise Sunny voice.

Samuel and Andrew - Welcome to the world

Samuel 2.24 kg 46 cm Andrew 2.5 kg 46 cm

At 6.23 and 6.24 pm respectively, on the 12th February two little boys came into the world with a cute cry and a quick wink for their mother. Both kids and mother are doing well at the Dongwon Hospital in Ilsan, Korea.

The doctor, nurses and Dongwon hospital team were great and broke their traditional rule of no partners in the operating theatre to let me witness the birth of the boys by c section.

Sunny and I are so happy to see these little lads and know they are ok.

Will get a proper camera tomorrow and try to improve the pictures.

Sean

Countdown in Korea

Its 11 pm Monday the 11th February and its the quiet before the baby tornado hits tomorrow at six pm. Last night Sunny was in so much pain we went to the doctor to request a C section for Tuesday at 6pm. We had always discussed having a c section given the timing and coordination required to be in the same place for the birth at the same time.

During the consultation with the doctor he reminded us of the risks. It was their normal policy to go for natural delivery and in the case of c section they would use general anaesthetic and father would not be able to attend the operation. However Sunny requested epidural and for me to attend, when the doctor questioned her, her auntie added that my father was a doctor and he wished that I should see the operation to appreciate how hard the doctor is working.

Now it's booked and were waiting... so we went to Seoul today to fill Sunnys visa application for Switzerland. It was not a simple task, first I had to apply for her in Switzerland and then she has to apply in Korea in Person and then wait for the authorities decision. I can tell you if the decision is anything but positive then forget any ideas about working and living in Switzerland. We had to go to the local registry office and get copies of family registers, marriage, divorce, birth and photos plus no criminal record certificate.

I had most of it prepared except for the three copies of photos. When I applied for my visa in HK I dutifully filled in everything in triplicate, only to find the consulate staff telling me that only one copy was required. The Korean Swiss embassy was not so lenient and wanted the whole kit of info in triplicate including photos. Oh bugger, we had to run around and organise photographers to send copies of photos by email and download them at the photo shop and print. Thank god for email. I could not believe that Sunny had the photographers contact after 3 years and that the photographer had actually kept the photo of mingyu.

We are staying at Sunny's aunties house in Ilsan about 30 km from Seoul. They are so kind and her Auntie is cooking lots of excellent Korean food, we are all putting on weight. The babies were scanned today and expected to weigh in at around 2.3 to 2.5 kg tomorrow.

Sunny's Auntie and Uncle own a korean restaurant and specialise in the marinated pork barbeque, it is really great too. However a bitter ex employee has blown the whistle on a restaurant collegue from China who may not have quite made fullfilled all the necessary registration requirements. So the owners are called to Seoul tomorrow to discuss with the authorities. There have been phone calls from local supporters including the local police chief !

We have packed sunnys bag and doing a few checks for stuff we need to buy online and putting and end to my last day before kids. Sweet dreams Sunny, you have been an absolute champion bearing those boys.

Perfectly Pregnant

Here she is in full bloom, over eight months pregnant and looking great !