this month

Today is the 8th day of the fridge not working! The ice boxes are great as a sub fridge but not as a freezer. I've been buying ice once or twice a day, and eating through all the food that I was storing in the freezer.
Also the roof is leaking, the electricity to the washing machine hasn't been working, the internet was off,  and we are between landlords atm. So lots of different people in and out of the house.

The baby slept well from mid July to mid Sept but last few weeks has been hard to get to sleep at night, he goes to sleep from around 8pm but only sleeps for a few min then wakes up screaming again, usually until midnight-ish, then sleep for 2-3 hours at a time after that. We're getting tired! And since tuesday am Soeun has had a sore neck/back/head. It gets a git better each day but he has been in pain and not been able to move very much last few days.

So with all that it feels like we haven't done much this week, other than open the door to trades people and rock a screaming baby.

Getting ready to travel words, and travelling photos

Last week was a bit crazy. Our internet was off for about a week, the power upstairs wasn't working, Baby had a few nights of bad sleep... so we were both tired and Soeun was busy making calls and letting trades men in and out. To fix the power they had to smash up some cement to get to the line... they only just built the house, lol! have to smash up cement already.

We put his mat under a mossie net on the verandah at grandma's

So we were starting to think we might have to call our trip off. We have hired a car for a month, and borrrowed a baby car seat. This time of year everyone is visiting their home province. It worked out well for us as I wanted to visit Soeun's family around now, Baby is pretty easy to look after these days. When he was younger he screamed and didn't sleep so we were really tired, and in the future he'll learn to crawl etc.

Bath time lit by a car battery

I was nervous about the trip cos it was my first time going to visit my mother in laws new house. She lives in a more remote place now, with no power, and not near a big market, shops, internet cafe etc.  I've been to the village before, back in 2009, its so different to what i'm used to. Also there's malaria and traffic accidents to think about, which feel more risky being away from the medical care in the city.

So we were busy and tired, and no internet and it was noisy cos they were smashing up the cement...and then I was packing for somewhere I'd never been before... it was a bit stressful!!!

But it worked out ok, the previous posts have some photos as well.

Baby's first province trip, some photo

It got a bit cold, we took our warmest clothes

Too many bananas growing, sometimes they end up on the ground

No kitchen sink, or kitchen bench- I don't understand how their kitchen works! Its hard to offer to help, i can' really work out what is going on. Soeun made this pump so they can get water in the house easily.

on grandma's farm, pineapple photos

on the road

 We hired a car to visit people.. mostly the roads we needed have been smooth, they are new and happened to be free from flooding, occasional water buffalo herds.

Fun-style summary

Just found this scrap book style timeline of recent events- its got tweets, photos etc from the post election protest that happened here recently.

What happened yesterday/ last night

So last night after i posted the previous bit someone I follow on twitter sent a photo and said somebody had been shot and killed. Thomas Cristofolleti was there at the clash on the bridge. As well as that first photo he has these amazing ones here. I wasn't sure if it was true, there have been also sorts of rumours going around on fb etc all year, but it turns out it was true, so sad. (altho different stories on what happened to time.) Hopefully this isn't a taste of whats to come? When I was watching this video on youtube the clips coming up in the side bar were all to do with Eygpt.
This video is a good summary of what happened yesterday, also the blog by fellow expat explains it well too.
I havne't been on twitter as much as yesterday but here are some photos from day 2 of the freedom park protest. Looks festive!
Today also leaders talked for a few hours and came out with 3 points.
https://twitter.com/TCristofoletti

both boys sick today, i spent a lot of time on twitter and watching live feeds from in town, day one of protests- esp followed Kevin Doyle as he followed around the protestors- right now he is where a clash is taking place near a bridge you can see in this traffic camera 

Lots of action on twitter this morning as day 1 of a 3 day protest starts. Lots of barricades and roads blocked off, lots of police around, 1000s and 1000s of protesters- they marched even though were told they weren't allowed to. They are planning to stay out during the night as well but have been told it must finish at 6pm each day.

These days in Phnom Penh

Since the end of July the post election issues have been the main thing in The Phnom Penh Post,
 and since even before the election heaps of stuff on facebook esp from "i love Cambodia Hot News".

I found a blog from an expat that sums up what has been happening etc, I don't know this women but I gather she also lives in PP with Khmer family. New Tomorrows

On twitter people are using #electionskh

On Saturday there was a huge protest, which despite fears turned out to be peaceful, as they had planned. Starting on  the 15th there will be 3 days of protest.

Easier

At the start of the year it felt like we had a lot of hard things to do, and now those things are over. Phew! Feeling more relaxed and happy than I was in March.

Pack up our place in Aust, work out how we were going to get back to Cambodia, visit people in various places, set up house in Cambodia, work out what country to give birth in, go to Thailand, have baby, come back and get settled again.

Now we've done all that and as far as I can tell most of the rest of the year I'm just doing the same thing each day- feed baby, wash nappies, etc. Big sigh of relief!

Also, now we have less heat, less mozzies, less time with the power off AND as of yesterday sounds like the issue with our house is resolved. Another big sigh of relief.

Daddy and Baby at church a few weeks ago

Settling back in...

It was weird coming back after being away for 3 months. Trying to remember where we keep things in the kitchen and which TV channels have which numbers, so many new buildings, roads etc.

The baby is mostly sleeping at night now, and feeding is much easier than those first few weeks. I don't have a sore back anymore, and there are lots of different places I can feed him so feels more relaxed. And i guess once you do something for awhle it just gets easier. I was given a kindle so i've been downloading and reading lots of free books while I feed. I don't think I could have done that in the first weeks.

I've been spending time with neighbours thanks to the the fact that the baby prefers to be outside with people than inside with boring mummy and daddy. Other kids around here the same size as him seem to be 10 months old! He is bigger than a khmer baby.

Back in Cambodia

I've been warned about it.

I've seen it done to other people.
And this morning it happened to me.

Just arrived back in Cambodia with new born, took him outside this morning for a walk in the cool air, as its so hot inside. A grandma who was walking along came to talk to me.

She said something like :Your baby is cold, wait until the afternoon then he wont feel so cold. He will catch a cold if you bring him out now with not enough clothes on.

I wanted to tell her that when we spent the whole day in aircon (on the way back the airports and planes all had aircon) he was happy and slept well. I think he actually finds it too hot here.

Thankful for last few months

My first trimester was hard, Soeun was sick, I was sick, we didn't know what country we were going to have the baby in. Where could we go???- hoping for somewhere we could trust the medical care, where we could both be healthy and have somewhere to stay. It seemed like it was all to hard.

We had wanted to go back to Cambodia with an organisation but that didn't work out with everything else going on (we would have had to stay in Aust longer to go through the application process which involved health checks), and it was scary when I found out they required us to have health insurance but I couldn't be covered for maternity as I was already pregnant. We felt like we needed to get settled back in Cambodia asap as we weren't coping with life in Aust, and really needed to feel better before having a baby. But there would only be a few months for us to be in Cambodia before the baby came, so it wasn't ideal to go back anyway, as we would probably need to leave in a few months if we were to give birth outside Cambodia.

For most of my pregnancy I was travelling , first within Aust to visit church/supporters/family etc, then to Cambodia and finally to Thailand. And most of it we were trying to work out which country to give birth in. (Phnom Penh? Bangkok? KL?if in aust, which state/town? there is no one natural/obvious place)

 Thankfully we were together for the birth and had good experience of labour- painful of course, but happy we could be together for it and it went smoothly. The combo of the expat Birth Team here (who helped us prepare for birth ,and have been helping with breastfeeding etc) and the Christian guesthouse (designed for Christian workers in the region to come for a rest/ medical care etc)  have made it a fantastic place for us to be. Along with the good medical care here in Chiang Mai , Thailand it feels like the perfect place for us to be spending these months as we transition from two to three.

Three other families have also had babies here this month, the others had their 3rd and 4th kids. We've got to know lots of different guests from all over the world in our time here, mostly they only stay for a week or so. The other 3 families have also been here for about the same time as us, so it will be weird when it comes time to say goodbye!

The guesthouse does food and laundry for us, and has lots of nice people and trees, so its the perfect place to be when you are sore/ sleepy/ stressed. Also the rest of life is on hold and we can both just focus on getting to know the baby.

Once we go home we'll be busy with the rest of life, work, housework (its been great not having to go to the market and tryng to plan meals we both like) and obligations to people.

 Although its only the 2 of us in the house we rent we end up having various relatives and fake relatives staying for meals and nights, sometimes planned, sometimes spontaneous. Recently some friends stayed in our house cos their roof blew off in a storm, other times they have got locked out, or its been too stormy to go home (lightening + motorbike!!)

Its great we can be part of community and help people out, but I find this aspect of life stressful, esp as I've only been back in Cambodia a few months, so I'm still getting used to things.

I think I'm going to find it hard going back, I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will want to help, which can have its pros and cons in our situation.

We've applied for the first bit of paper work, when that comes through we can do the second stage, then we'll be able to leave Thailand.

The photo album from Kronicle Extra blog is here, if you go right to the end you'ss see the baby photos- the most recent ones are last, and this photo album has all the photos from our overflow blog.
On our other blog Kronicle Extra see Getting the Baby out 

first four photos of the 3 of us

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More on Baby

If you want more details about adventures in newborn land, and more baby photos have a look at my "overflow" blog Kronicle Extra