Baby, Oh Baby

We are now officially a family of four!  Ashton Brooke Streit made her appearance into the world on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 11:00 am in London, England. We are absolutely mesmerized by her.  After having one child already, it's hard to imagine how your heart can love another person as much as the first, but amazingly it does.

Ashton arrived a week ahead of her scheduled due date (Feb. 26).  When I went to see my doctor for my 38 weeks check-up, he commented that Ashton was positioned where he would expect her to be at 39 weeks, so he was anticipating that she would come early.  Over the week that followed that visit, I had periodic contractions, but nothing much.

Geoff and I were able to squeeze in one last date the weekend before Baby's arrival at a terrific Cuban restaurant.

At my 39 week check up on Monday, the 18th, I was 3-4 cm dilated.  However, when the doctor did the ultrasound, he noticed Baby's umbilical cord was around her neck.  He said that had probably prevented her from coming thus far given I had been having contractions off and on.  He wasn't concerned about it.  I guess it's pretty common for the cord to be around the neck.  But if I had not delivered by that Thursday, he wanted me to come in so he could break my water and start labor.  Well, we obviously didn't make it to Thursday.  Later Monday afternoon, I started having more regular contractions.  They were pretty consistent and gradually becoming stronger between 7:00-10:00 pm.  Geoff and I packed our bags up that evening for the hospital as I fully expected us to have to go in sometime during the middle of the night.  However, once I laid down to get a little sleep, the contractions stopped.  Around 4:30 am, they started back up and this time I knew it was the real deal.  Around 6:00, I woke Geoff up and told him we needed to start getting ready to head in.  The timing of our departure for the hospital could not have been more ideal.  For one, Geoff was home and not at work where he has about a 50 minute commute.  Geoff was able to get a full night's sleep and I was able to get some spotty sleep.  Our landlord lady who lives above upstairs came down to watch Olivia and thankfully, I didn't have to call her in the middle of the night.  Olivia woke up right before we left for the hospital so we were able to say good-bye to her and she didn't have to wake up to a stranger in the house.  Since we don't have a car, we called a car service to take us to the hospital.  Traffic at 7:00 am wasn't bad yet so we were able to quickly get to the hospital. 

At the hospital, heading to the labor and delivery room...about to have a baby!

My labor went very smoothly.  I got the epidural around 8:30 and it was all downhill from there. I had a wonderful Irish midwife/nurse named Kathryn with me along with my doctor who popped in and out throughout the morning until he came in to deliver Baby.  My doctor was great.  I'm so glad I found him.  He was very laid back and provided humor throughout the delivery.  Fortunately, the umbilical cord was a non issue. They monitored her for any signs of distress but there never were any.  Having now delivered children in two different countries, I definitely prefer my experience in the UK compared to Houston.  In Houston, when I was in labor and during the final stages, it seemed like he whole hospital showed up. There must have been 6-8 people in the room with me at the end with Olivia.  Here, it was just the midwife and the doctor.  That's it.  Also in Houston, post labor it seemed like people were always coming and going from my room - nurses checking on me hourly, nurses checking on Olivia frequently, people trying to sell various services, etc.  Not exactly restful. Once in my post delivery room here, Ashton and I were largely left alone unless we needed something.

The proud parents!

As any good parent would say, she's a beauty!  My first thought when I saw her was how little she was.  Weighing 6 lbs, 6 oz, she was almost full pound smaller than Olivia's weight at birth.  My second thought was how much she looked just like Olivia when Olivia was born.

Ashton

Olivia

That that evening, Geoff brought Olivia to the hospital to meet her little sister, whom she calls "Hash".  She seemed satisfied enough that indeed Baby did not have any teeth nor could she walk as I had told her multiple times beforehand.

I stayed in the hospital just one night.  I was feeling good.  Ashton was doing great.  So there was no point in staying there beyond a day.  So far, there have been ups and downs as we learn how to operate as a bigger family.  Olivia has had her moments of adjustment.  The first one came when we got home from the hospital and I had to feed Ashton.  Olivia was not prepared for Ashton's milk to come from mommy and it freaked her out.  We had talked about how Baby Sister would drink milk, but it never occurred to me to prepare Olivia for the fact that it wasn't going to come out of a bottle.  However, she quickly got over that and now anytime she hears Ashton crying, she automatically says "Baby, milk" and expects me to start feeding her.  There have been other routine adjustments we are working through with Olivia, primarily around nap and bedtime, that frequently end with Olivia upset and her telling me to put Ashton down in her car seat.  I'm hopeful Olivia will quickly adjustment to the new normal after a little bit more time.  She loves to come up and give her sister kisses though and gets excited when Ashton's eyes are open.  It makes my heart so full to see the love she has for her.  Olivia is a great helper, always wanting to be right there when I change Ashton's diapers or to go retrieve a blanket for me.  

Ashton is a dream baby.  Hardly ever cries unless she's hungry.  She has gotten the hang of breastfeeding quickly although so far she is a slow eater which makes the middle of the night feedings extra tiresome.  As normal, she sleeps a lot but we're starting to see longer wakeful periods and it's fun to see her eyes open, taking in the world around her.

After we got home from the hospital, I got an onset of horrible, horrible headaches.  I've never had a migraine, but I have to think that these headaches were on the same level.  Unless I was laying down, I had tremendous tension on my head that spread down into my neck and shoulders.  It made doing anything very difficult.  That coupled with the lack of sleep, Olivia's transition and other physical ailments of just having had a baby made me a bit of a mess for a couple days.  Poor Geoff had to handle three crying girls at the same time!  I self-diagnosed my headaches as being a side effect of the epidural.  Fortunately, they cleared up after about three days. However, it makes me wonder in retrospect if I would have foregone the epidural in the first place and endured the short term pain of labor in order to avoid three days of absolute misery.  I haven't figured out the answer yet.   

More pictures and updates to come soon!

Around the world he goes

Since our arrival in London, Geoff has started to rack up the airline frequent flier miles and become quite the jetsetter.  Three weeks into our move, Geoff went back to Houston for a week for work meetings.  Since then, he has been to Olso, Beijing, Hawaii and Houston again.  Here are a few pictures of some of the highlights of his trips.

China

In December, Geoff took a quick trip to Beijing for some meetings at his company's office there.  He left on Sunday and returning on Thursday, which is a pretty quick turnaround for flying 12 hours away.  Even though the trip was brief, he and his coworkers managed to squeeze in a visit to the Great Wall.

Hawaii
Last month, Geoff flew 16+ hours from London to attend the wedding of a friend from high school on the Big Island of Hawaii.  The wedding happened to coincide around the timing of scheduled meetings he had to be in Houston for so we figured if he was already making the trek from London to Houston, he might as well tag on the extra leg to Hawaii.

I have to admit it.  I was rather jealous that Geoff was lounging by the pool and soaking in the sun while Olivia and I dealt with the coldest weather of the season.  We also got at least three inches of snow that weekend.  One day, it literally snowed all day long.  Our landlady said she's lived in London for 25 years and can't remember it ever snowing all day long.  Lucky us.  London seldom gets significant snowfall and so they don't do much to clear it when it does occur.  The sidewalks were snow packed for days until it melted off.  Pushing a stroller on snow covered streets is very challenging so Olivia and I had to limit our activities outside the house for a few days.

Texas (which is thought of by Texans as its own country, right?)

While in Houston, Geoff went on a hunting excursion in south Texas as part of a work function.  Geoff has never really been into hunting - I can't remember him ever going hunting since we've been married -  so it was hard for me to visualize him in cammo gear, toting around big guns.  The trip was successful though as he shot two deer, a doe and a buck.  In the picture below with him and the doe, you can faintly see a streak of red of his forehead.  I guess it's customary to dip your figure in the wound of the first deer you kill and smear the blood on your forehead.  So it's official now - he's a hunter.

Poor Bambi....

For the buck that he shot, Geoff was given a couples options of what he could to do with the head/antlers of his kill: 

• Option 1: Have the whole head & antlers mounted
• Option 2: Have the head skinned, leaving you to mount the skull and the antlers
• Option 3: Dispose of the whole head and just mount the antlers

Stuff animals on walls that used to be alive creep me out and the idea of a skull hanging on our wall got quickly vetoed too, so we went with option 3.  Someday when we return to Houston and move into our custom built home, Geoff can put the antlers up in his man cave.  Or wine cellar.  Or maybe the attic would be good.  :)