Ammee's Visit!

Charlotte loved playing with Ammee's jewelry!

Ammee left for the airport this morning.  Though she spent most of the visit sick in bed, it was still nice to have her here.  We have all been sharing a pretty nasty bug that knocked us all out at one point or another during Ammee's visit.  Ammee had a horrible cough on top of the bug and wasn't feeling her best.  Needless to say, much of the sightseeing will have to wait for next time.  We were still able to get a few of the sights in though.  Ammee found a bus tour that would take us to Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge.  It was a perfect way for two sickies to play tourist!  Here are a few pictures from that trip:

Windsor Castle

Seen in a shop window near Windsor Castle (made of jelly beans!)

Ammee at the 2,000 year old Roman baths in Bath

Roman bath turned wishing fountain

Ammee threw a quarter in for good luck

a view of the (15th century) abbey from the hot spring bath

Though everyone was quite sick, Ammee and Charlie were able to get some good time together.  Ammee taught Charlotte to walk (while we hold her hands) and also taught her how to throw things (thanks a lot!).  She is a big fan of both activities.  She also took note of Charlotte's new favourite word, "meh".  She says it all the time now!

And so life returns to normal.  Charlotte is back at nursery school today so I can get some work done, so I guess I should probably do that.  

Bon voyage Ammee!  We'll see you in December!

The British Museum (and a little rant about mummies)

Yesterday mom, Charlie and I took a bus up to the British Museum.  Mom had expressed interest in seeing some museums and I hadn't been to the British Museum for nearly ten years.

First, we went to get some food.  Charlie has been much better about eating her purees, but still loves eating her rice cakes.  

we definitely don't have the same nose

After a lovely lunch, we headed over to the museum.  It is so colossal, that it is impossible to see everything in a day.  We ended up spending most of our time in the Egyptian exhibits.  Mom was impressed with how old everything was.

Anyone who knows my mom knows that it is no surprise that her favourite part was seeing the mummified cats.  

There were also loads of mummified people.  I had the same reaction to them that I had when I saw them ten years ago:  it makes me sad.  These people spent so much time and energy to make sure they and their loved ones were buried in a particular way with particular items; now they have been dug up, transported to a foreign country and put on display in front of strangers.  There are so many restrictions on Native American burial grounds and on cemeteries in general, why is it okay to treat these deceased in this way?  I know this takes the fun out of how cool these mummies are, but we would all feel differently if these were our loved ones exhumed and displayed.

Regardless of my feelings about the mummies, they were still fascinating to see.  Mom really liked them too.  We also wandered through a cool clock exhibit and an exhibit of ancient coins.  We stopped to get some tea and visit the gift shop and before we knew it, the museum was closing!  It would probably take weeks to actually view all of their exhibits.  Charlie isn't (yet) a huge fan of museums, but I'd love to go back again sometime soon. 

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

John M. (currently studying at Cambridge) and I headed back to the UK Sunday evening.  I had a pinched nerve in my neck for the flight home and only managed about 30-45 minutes of sleep on our overnight flight, so I was pretty exhausted when we arrived.  Upon arriving at baggage claim we were both pretty frustrated to see that our luggage wasn't there.  We had to wait in a long line to fill out forms.  As we were standing in line, I realised what a great situation I had found myself in.  I was not looking forward to dragging my luggage through the tube, up and down stairs, etc. (especially with a pinched nerve in my neck) and now I didn't have to!  Winning! 

Once I finally made it to our tube stop, I was thrilled to see Jason waiting to walk me home.  I was so surprised to see him that I ran over to him and he picked me up off the ground and we stood there like that in front of the tube for quite a while.  (The fact that he was able to pick me up after nearly two weeks of inactivity and eating rich foods is a small miracle!)  It was so wonderful to be back in his arms.

When we got home, I couldn't help myself and had to wake up Charlie from her nap.  I just had to hold that sweet baby again!  She was a bit disoriented at first, but was fine once she woke up a bit.  She kept touching my face and I got lots of gorgeous Charlie smiles! 

We haven't gotten any pictures of us together since my return, but this is one we took a few weeks ago.  (Pay no attention to Charlie's awkward pyjama/sleep sack combo.)

Another person I was excited to see upon my arrival home was my mom!  She's been in town helping out with Charlie while I was away.  She and Charlie have such a sepcial bond.  It is so fun to see them together!  

We spent yesterday exploring our neighborhood and are headed into town to see some of the sights today.  When Charlie is in daycare this Thursday, mom booked us for a sight seeing tour of Bath, Stonehenge and Windosor.  I'll be sure to take lots of photos!

Oh, and I also convinced mom to cut her hair.  This was taken before the cut.  She looked cute before but now looks even more adorable and stylin'! 

Ammee's (almost) here...

...and the fridge is well-stocked in anticipation.

Coke is described here on the can as "sparkling soda with vegetable extracts".  If sugar is a vegetable extract, then yes.

In case you're wondering, I paid for these sodas.  Charlotte and I have until now refrained from looting.

Goodbye For Now

How can I leave this face:

or this face:

Not very easily.  That's for sure.  I am leaving for nearly two weeks tomorrow morning for a tour with a fantastic group whose website you can see here.  I am really looking forward to making great music with wonderful people, but this will be the longest I've ever been apart from either Charlie or Jason.  My heart breaks to think about how long I'll be apart from them, but unfortunately, that is often the nature of my job.  And when it comes down to it, I think it is good for Charlie to see her mom using her talents and doing what she loves! 

I am also consoled by the thought of how much time these two will get to spend together:

We are adding one extra day at daycare for Charlie next week and she'll get to spend the other two days with her Papi.  They are planning on hitting the park a lot:

And I'm sure they'll read a lot of books:

After that first week, my mom will fly in to spend a week bonding with Charlie.  The opportunity for Jason and Charlie and my mom and Charlie to spend such quality time together just wouldn't happen if I weren't going away, so I'm grateful for that.  It doesn't make it much easier to leave, but it warms my heart to think of Charlie growing closer to both of them while I'm gone.  My mom hasn't seen Charlie since she was seven weeks old, so they'll have a lot of catching up to do:

Luckily, international calling cards/plans, email and Skype make this a very small world.  We hope to skype at least once a day and will hopefully get to chat by phone a lot as well.  It won't be the same as being there, but it is so much easier to do this now with all this available technology, than it would have been even five or ten years ago! 

So, now I'm off to finish packing.  The harpsichordist, John, is staying with us tonight (he is currently studying at Cambridge) and we fly out tomorrow morning.  I already have a huge lump in my throat thinking about saying goodbye to my Charlie and my Jason, but I have no regrets about my decision to keep working.  While I'm gone, Jason and I will both be posting about what we're doing in our respective locales.  His posts will hopefully have lots of pictures of Charlie and my posts will have lots of pictures of Maine, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and lots of crazy musician types.  :) 

Now where did I leave that manual breast pump for the plane ride . . .
  

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,
As I tended to my sick daughter into the wee small hours of this morning, I couldn't help but think that you must have done the same thing for me. In fact, you must have done it innumerable times between my birth and adulthood. It was such a comfort to me as I sang lullabyes to Charlotte and nursed her over and over again through out the night, to think that at one point, you did this for me. Thank you, mom.
Love,
Boofy

"I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." -Mae West

Goodbye Ammee!

We were so lucky to have my mom come and stay with us for the first two-and-a-half weeks of Charlotte's life. She flew out from Seattle earlier than originally expected, after I called to tell her I was in labor. She arrived to the hospital mere minutes after Charlotte's birth.

It was such a treat to have her here! She helped with the cooking, cleaning and would often take care of Charlotte into the wee small hours of the morning so Jason and I could get some sleep! Best of all, though, she was available for lots of cuddle with Charlotte. She also changed A LOT of diapers!

We were surprised how quickly Ammee's visit passed. We all miss her and are looking forward to seeing her again when we visit Seattle in February.

We love you Ammee!

Charlotte's Birth Story

After getting home late and opening gifts on Christmas Eve, I was glad that my call on Christmas day at The National Cathedral wasn't until 11:00. As I was getting ready to head out, I had my first sign of impending labor: I lost my mucus plug. I told Jason and we both got excited yet tried to remind ourselves that we could still have weeks more to wait. I sang Mass at the Cathedral and came home to take a nap. Then Jason and I headed out to the Kavinskis' house in Alexandria, VA for Christmas dinner.

We arrived home around 9:00pm and began to get ready for bed. That's when I had my second sign of impending labor: the bloody show. I was shocked, excited and scared all at once. Once you have the bloody show, labor is only hours or days away. We cleaned up the house, made sure we had everything we needed in the hospital bag and I called my mom to see if she could possibly get on an earlier flight (she wasn't scheduled to arrive until Dec. 31). Then we went to bed.

I slept for about an hour before waking up with some mild contractions. At about 1:00am I had a very strong contraction and my water broke. We were told to head to the hospital once my water broke, so we packed our bags and pillows into the car and headed to the hospital. Jason made me a piece of peanut butter toast to eat on the way as we knew I wouldn't get another chance to eat until after Charlotte was born. Hospital rules!

Once there, we contacted our friends Allison Navone and Susie Kavinski whom we had asked to be with us during the labor and delivery. It wasn't long before Allison showed up. My contractions were painful by that point but not unbearable. We had a good time chatting between contractions and I think we all got a few short naps in there as well. Susie showed up at some point that morning. With Allison, Susie and Jason, I was very well taken care of.

During the contractions, I found it most helpful for them to just quietly hold my hand and remind me to relax certain body parts that I was tensing up (my face, my shoulders, etc.).

As the day progressed I tried to spend time up out of the bed walking around the room and sitting on the exercise ball. The nurse told me to rotate my hips during contractions to help get Charlotte's head to move further into the birth canal. It felt good to do something more productive than just endure the pain.

After about twelve hours of natural laboring, the contractions went from being the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life, to double that. The pain was so incredibly intense that I began vomiting. I also got an extremely loud ringing in my ears and I felt like I was going to pass out. The contractions were about a minute and a half apart and I was so exhausted in between that I couldn't even keep my eyes open.

The nurse said that my labor was more intensely painful because Charlotte was posterior or "sunny side up" with her head facing up instead of down. This apparently made it more difficult for her to pass under my pelvic bone. The doctor came in to check on me during one of these contractions and said I was only dilated to 5 and that I still had four or five more hours to go. He told me to get an epidural.

I was heartbroken at the thought of not having a natural childbirth. I asked everyone to leave the room so Jason and I could talk about it. He was so sweet and told me he was so proud of me and that I shouldn't feel badly if I wanted to get an epidural after twelve hours of natural labor. I told him that I felt I could probably get through another hour or two but the thought of making it through four or five hours didn't seem humanly possible to me. We decided it would be best if I got the epidural.

Once I got the epidural, labor was a breeze! I took a nap for an hour or two as my contractions painlessly continued. At some point the doctor came in and gave me pitocin to speed up my contractions which had slowed down quite a bit. (Apparently he talked to me about this, but I was so exhausted I hardly remember him being in the room at all!) Once I got the pitocin things sped up a bit and it wasn't long before the doctor said I was ready to start pushing. At that point the nurse took over for a while. She was great. She had me push through three counts of ten during each contraction. I was still pretty exhausted (and absolutely starving!) but was in very little pain. The only actual pain I felt was just below the middle of my rib cage and compared to the pain I was in before, this was nothing!

As I pushed, Jason held my left leg and Allison held my right. Susie helped with counting me through pushes and also had her camera ready for the big moment. I got to rest between each contraction but eventually started getting a bit lightheaded so they gave me some oxygen. They set up the birthing mirror for me so I could see the progress I was making with each push. We were all shocked when we were able to see how much dark hair Charlotte had on her head!

The whole experience of pushing was pretty surreal and really flew by. Before I knew it, the doctor arrived and took over from the nurse. Not ten minutes later Charlotte was born!

Meanwhile, my mom had missed her first flight out of Seattle and had to take a later flight. She arrived in Chicago early afternoon and was placed on standby for her next flight. She was number nineteen on the standby list and there were only six seats available. Unbelievably she made it onto the flight! Once on the ground, she took a cab all the way to the hospital in Silver Spring and arrived about ten minutes after Charlotte was born.

Seeing Charlotte for the first time was an overwhelming moment. No words can describe meeting your daughter for the first time.

Then there was an awkward moment when the doctor asked Jason if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord. Jason politely declined so the doctor offered to Allison who also declined. Then he asked Susie if she would like to do it. We joked that he might as well have yelled into the hallway to see if anyone there would want to cut the cord. Finally the doctor just cut it and they took Charlotte away to check her out. After a few minutes, they brought her back to me and put her on my chest.

Jason and I were so in love with her right from the start. She stared at both of us with bright eyes. It was a moment neither one of us will ever forget.

From there the nurse took her again. She weighed her and gave her a bath.

During all of this, I was lying in the bed still amazed at having met my daughter. I was fighting to keep my eyes open and was anxious to get some food so I could feel more lucid. Eventually things calmed down a bit. The nurses helped me figure out how to breastfeed and I was able to get some food. After about an hour or two they moved us into a recovery room. Luckily all of the recovery rooms at Holy Cross are private, which was nice. Jason, Charlotte and I spent two nights there and got a lot of help from the nurses and I even got a visit from a lactation specialist. While we were there we also got a visit from a Catholic deacon who prayed with us and gave us communion. We both really appreciated that visit as well.

We were home by 1:00 on Tuesday and spent the next week cocooning at home. We are so in love with our little girl and are enjoying every moment we have with her. We are grateful that Jason has a total of four weeks paid paternity leave and I don't have another gig until the end of February. I may end up singing my church gigs beginning in February, but I have subs lined up in case I decide it is too soon. Until then, we are enjoying sweet time at home and have appreciated having lots of help from my mom. It is an amazing and wonderful time in all our lives.

Charlotte and her Ammee

Charlotte at Home

Our time with Charlotte at home has been so sweet. We are starting to get into a good schedule of eating and sleeping. Charlotte seems to prefer eating every four hours or so and not every two hours as the hospital recommended. Letting Charlotte have more say in the schedule has made feedings much more pleasant for all involved!

Jason is doing a lot of cooking (he is currently baking a loaf of bread and mixing up a batch of his famous breakfast muffins!) and enjoying sweet naps with Charlotte. He is also working on getting some projects completed around the house.

My mom is in town until January 12. She arrived at the hospital about 10 or 15 minutes after Charlotte's birth after flying standby to get here almost a week before she had originally planned! She has been a huge help to me and Jason. She runs errands, cooks us dinners and takes excellent care of Charlotte. They are having a good time getting to know each other.

Now for the fun part: pictures!

Jason was changing Charlotte's diaper and it was a doozy. He yelled from her room, "can we give her that bath sooner than later?" so I got the water running! Charlotte didn't like it one bit and cried the entire time.

Charlotte spends most of her time sleeping. When she is awake, she is generally eating so we don't have many pictures of her yet with her eyes open. Here are some good pictures of her different snuggle techniques: