I didn't think much about my reaction to things back in the US during this trip home. We've been home once and there were a few things that struck me, but it wasn't very drastic, so I thought this time would be the same. So far, it is with one exception... I was totally thrown off my the driver being on the left side of the car. Can you believe it? When we got into the car that picked us up to take us home last night I got in and did a double take. Then I got totally freaked out that it threw me off. It was a weird experience, and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was tired, probably dehydrated and very busy trying to get both of my exhausted girls into a huge SUV. We don't have a car in London and drive maybe once a month to go to Costco or maybe on a trip out of the city. I am just really surprised that I've grown so used to that in particular.
Our flight was pretty good. Neither of us expected to get to sleep which was a good expectation to have because it was impossible. We left the house at 11 a.m. in London and arrived at Mark's parents house at 1:30 a.m. London time. That is a 13 hour trip which is not bad at all considering that we did what used to take people a year or so to do! It is, however, a long trip for a 3 year old that had no nap and only slept for one hour on the plane on my lap. Thank goodness for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the iPad.
We did have a couple of mishaps on the plane. First, Vivian dumped a cup of water on herself and we had to strip her down and change her clothes (luckily I brought extra clothes for her). Second, Vivian knocked her ENTIRE tray of dinner on the floor upside down. It was an accident and I decided to not use it as a teaching moment, so I got down on the ground with Violet in the Baby Bjorn and scraped chicken, green beans and their sauce out of the carpet. Fun. Third, while trying to help adjust Vivian's new "kid-sized" headphones I poked her right in the eye. She was a bit of a (loud) mess for a little while and I felt really bad.
Now we're at Mark's parents house. Everything is wonderful and comfortable and set up so nicely for us and I can't sleep. Vivian went to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow around 8 and we haven't heard a peep from her since. She's sleeping in a big bed too, so I thought it might be a problem... NOPE! She's so wiped out. Violet has been great... just sleeping like a baby, which is a bit less restful than it sounds. Mark is generally a good sleeper, but both of us were wide awake and got the giggles around 4 a.m. It's amazing what kinds of things are absolutely hilarious when you're exhausted and have a tiny baby staring at you with huge owl eyes in the middle of the night.
I can't wait to see beloved family and friends... I have been so excited to come home and refill my reserves!
22 August 2013
13 August 2013
Violet's Birth
Violet Elizabeth Wurgler Adams was born on the 7th of June at 4:29 a.m. She was 8 days late. Before her birth I was getting really antsy about having the baby and wanted to get on with things. My mom gave me some great advice. She said that my life would be a lot more complicated once the baby came, so I should take advantage of the time while I had it and make a list of things that would be nice to get done if I could. I did! I got my hair cut, made some banana bread and generally relaxed. I felt much better once I just chilled out.
I will tell the nitty gritty NHS details in another post because otherwise this one would get way too long and I don't have chunks of time long enough to write posts like that anymore.
So, when I went into labour on Wednesday night around 11:30 p.m. I didn't wake up Mark because I wanted him to at least be well rested. I barely slept because I thought that things might happen really quickly this time around... they did not. My contractions were fairly regular all night and Thursday morning until Vivian woke up. That day I had Mark stay home thinking we would be having the baby any time. We went out to breakfast as a family of three and then sent Vivian to our neighbour and friend down the street. Nothing happened.
We picked Vivian up from our friend's house because she couldn't stay overnight there and put her to bed at home. As soon as she was in bed I started having more intense contractions and they were fairly regular. Our friend Rosie came over around 9 and we went to the hospital around 9:30. (Refer to the post about Violet's Birth and the NHS for the rest of this story... if you want to.) Violet was born at 4:29 a.m. and we were home by 4:30 p.m. to pick up Vivian. Rosie was amazing.
Rosie is an English woman who I met through the playgroup that I help with at church. When I told her I was pregnant in September I mentioned that I was nervous because I didn't know what to do with Vivian. She was so excited. She really wanted to be the one to come over and watch Vivian when I went into labour. She said that she didn't have anyone to watch her oldest daughter when her youngest was born and she wanted to be able to do that for someone. I have since learned that she is just an extremely helpful, loving and generous person. She is always doing nice things for people.
When we arrived home, Rosie was sitting on the front porch with Vivian and her two girls, Beatrice and Isabel. Vivian was super happy and had been having a blast. What a blessing! It was so wonderful to not need to worry about Viv while we were at the hospital.
Right after we introduced Vivian to the baby (she wasn't named until she was 8 days old) we presented her with the gift that the baby had bought for Vivian. It was a brand new pink scooter. It was wrapped up in sparkly silver paper that Viv had a great time ripping open. She was SOOO excited! She started scooting around the house (of course we had to set up some rules right away. No scooting in the house.) We talked her into presenting her gifts to the baby before she went out scooting with her dad. Mark took her out scooting for quite a while and I sat on the couch gazing at my sweet newborn baby girl. I was so happy.
I will tell the nitty gritty NHS details in another post because otherwise this one would get way too long and I don't have chunks of time long enough to write posts like that anymore.
So, when I went into labour on Wednesday night around 11:30 p.m. I didn't wake up Mark because I wanted him to at least be well rested. I barely slept because I thought that things might happen really quickly this time around... they did not. My contractions were fairly regular all night and Thursday morning until Vivian woke up. That day I had Mark stay home thinking we would be having the baby any time. We went out to breakfast as a family of three and then sent Vivian to our neighbour and friend down the street. Nothing happened.
We picked Vivian up from our friend's house because she couldn't stay overnight there and put her to bed at home. As soon as she was in bed I started having more intense contractions and they were fairly regular. Our friend Rosie came over around 9 and we went to the hospital around 9:30. (Refer to the post about Violet's Birth and the NHS for the rest of this story... if you want to.) Violet was born at 4:29 a.m. and we were home by 4:30 p.m. to pick up Vivian. Rosie was amazing.
Rosie is an English woman who I met through the playgroup that I help with at church. When I told her I was pregnant in September I mentioned that I was nervous because I didn't know what to do with Vivian. She was so excited. She really wanted to be the one to come over and watch Vivian when I went into labour. She said that she didn't have anyone to watch her oldest daughter when her youngest was born and she wanted to be able to do that for someone. I have since learned that she is just an extremely helpful, loving and generous person. She is always doing nice things for people.
When we arrived home, Rosie was sitting on the front porch with Vivian and her two girls, Beatrice and Isabel. Vivian was super happy and had been having a blast. What a blessing! It was so wonderful to not need to worry about Viv while we were at the hospital.
Right after we introduced Vivian to the baby (she wasn't named until she was 8 days old) we presented her with the gift that the baby had bought for Vivian. It was a brand new pink scooter. It was wrapped up in sparkly silver paper that Viv had a great time ripping open. She was SOOO excited! She started scooting around the house (of course we had to set up some rules right away. No scooting in the house.) We talked her into presenting her gifts to the baby before she went out scooting with her dad. Mark took her out scooting for quite a while and I sat on the couch gazing at my sweet newborn baby girl. I was so happy.
11 August 2013
Status Update
At the end of my last blog post I said, "I will keep you posted." Well... it's been almost 3 months since that post and I have obviously not kept you posted. Sorry!
Violet Elizabeth was born on the 7th of June at St. George's Hospital. I will write a separate post about the birth experience with the NHS. It will be revisionist history, but I'll do my best.
Right now I want to record what's going on currently.
First off, Mark got his UK drivers license on Friday! It was a lot of work and he was really nervous that he wouldn't pass, but he did on his first try! Prior to taking the practical driving test, he had to pass the theory test and do 5 hours of driving practice with an instructor. They don't mess around here.
We booked a Zipcar for Saturday so that we could celebrate by driving around... and we did. The first place I wanted to go was Costco. I realize how ridiculous this is! I guess you can take the girl out of America, but you can't take away her love of huge warehouses filled with consumer goods in bulk. Perhaps I should do some self-examination.
Speaking of self-examination, since Violet's birth I have become quite homesick again. It makes me sad to be raising my kids far away from our family and friends. Even in Chicago I missed being close to my family, but at least we could get there relatively easily and without exorbitant cost. Now in order to come home we have to pay £3,000 minimum and plan for 2-3 weeks for it to make sense. It's just harder. I'm really trying to suck the marrow out of life while we're here. I want to live in the moment and enjoy where we are and all of the things we can access from our home base. But... it's is really stinking hard to suck the marrow out of life abroad with two small children. Every time we have a chance to travel, I want to come home to see my family. When we have free weekends, we enjoy driving to nearby attractions within England, but the thought of packing up all four of us for a few days in a foreign country doesn't really appeal to me all that much. Don't worry... we're going to do it anyway. We're making a list of the places we want to see before we move and we're going to do our best to get there... it's just quite challenging.
At this point, we're probably here for about 1-2 more years. It could definitely be longer if we wanted it to be, but like I've mentioned above, we miss our family and friends!
Violet Elizabeth was born on the 7th of June at St. George's Hospital. I will write a separate post about the birth experience with the NHS. It will be revisionist history, but I'll do my best.
Right now I want to record what's going on currently.
First off, Mark got his UK drivers license on Friday! It was a lot of work and he was really nervous that he wouldn't pass, but he did on his first try! Prior to taking the practical driving test, he had to pass the theory test and do 5 hours of driving practice with an instructor. They don't mess around here.
We booked a Zipcar for Saturday so that we could celebrate by driving around... and we did. The first place I wanted to go was Costco. I realize how ridiculous this is! I guess you can take the girl out of America, but you can't take away her love of huge warehouses filled with consumer goods in bulk. Perhaps I should do some self-examination.
Speaking of self-examination, since Violet's birth I have become quite homesick again. It makes me sad to be raising my kids far away from our family and friends. Even in Chicago I missed being close to my family, but at least we could get there relatively easily and without exorbitant cost. Now in order to come home we have to pay £3,000 minimum and plan for 2-3 weeks for it to make sense. It's just harder. I'm really trying to suck the marrow out of life while we're here. I want to live in the moment and enjoy where we are and all of the things we can access from our home base. But... it's is really stinking hard to suck the marrow out of life abroad with two small children. Every time we have a chance to travel, I want to come home to see my family. When we have free weekends, we enjoy driving to nearby attractions within England, but the thought of packing up all four of us for a few days in a foreign country doesn't really appeal to me all that much. Don't worry... we're going to do it anyway. We're making a list of the places we want to see before we move and we're going to do our best to get there... it's just quite challenging.
At this point, we're probably here for about 1-2 more years. It could definitely be longer if we wanted it to be, but like I've mentioned above, we miss our family and friends!
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