Penny's First Christmas

Penny got to enjoy quite a Christmas. Several family members stopped by for intimate introductions. While in New York, Uncle Thomas and his family (including the expectant Sharon) stopped by to see us. Penny spent much of the time napping on the coffee table -- apparently, the table reminded her of beds in England. Sharon is looking forward to greeting her little one (and getting rid of the weird body functions that seem intrinsic to pregnancy). Not too long after we arrived in Dayton, my godfather, Uncle Bill, stopped by to see Penny and pick up a Christmas outfit for his newly arrived grandson. Aunt Rose also stopped by on the Saturday before Christmas to check out my arm and our little cutie. She's looking pretty good as she nears her delivery date.

The days leading up to Christmas saw the introduction of two new members of the family. Indio was expected to arrive just after Christmas, but he decided he couldn't miss such a fun holiday so Jessica went into labor the week before Christmas. This is a photo my Aunt Marian took in the delivery room.

Dan's cousin Shaila delivered a healthy little Noah right on schedule in the same week (induction helps with being "on time"). Two days after Christmas, Penny and I went to Aunt Rose's baby shower. As seems customary, delivery stories were shared at the event. The more of them I hear, the more thankful I am for how straightforward Penny's delivery was.

And now, for a quick health update: Penny is doing great. Putting on weight and length -- grew out of her premie and newborn clothes, so now we're into the extensive part of her wardrobe (0-3 months). My mom was wearing her stylish catheter/purse when we arrived. Her doctor appears to have done a splendid job fixing up her bladder and she's feeling awesome now that she has shed that pesky little purse. We just have to keep her from getting carried away with being able to get out and about again. I managed to do some entertaining damage to my shoulder. My arm just doesn't do what I ask it to -- no movement of shoulder forward or straight out from my body, though the forearm and hand seem to be working fine. Urgent care doctor thought strained rotator cuff, but once the orthopedist started examining me (instead of asking questions for which he didn't listen to the answer), he said it might be a nerve problem. I went for an electro myelo gram (EMG for short and only fun for those who enjoy being tased repeatedly while undergoing acupuncture). The physiatrist who did the test didn't interpret it, but he did mention that he was getting weird results, so it may have at least been the right kind of test to figure things out. I'm going back to the orthopedist on Friday to get the test results interpreted and hopefully come up with a plan of action.

There's a certain amount of relief in being told it's a nerve problem. Advice up to that point had been to exercise to the point where it hurt, but it hurt in every position with little or lots of weight equally. I was afraid to exercise because I wouldn't know when to stop -- the pain was equally bad no matter what I did. Now I feel better about obeying the advice of Aunt Rose and my father-in-law to exercise the arm as much as possible -- the pain is because the nerves aren't working right, not because I'm doing more damage. Plus, the pain has decreased a bit. It is really weird, though, trying to reach for a sheep card and inexplicably finding my hand settling into the pizza instead. Now my biggest challenge is finding the time to exercise in between feedings, burpings, changes and general entertainment of Penny. A major plus to the injury is that while I was afraid to do anything, Dan was really picking up the slack with Penny's care. In Newcastle I did everything for her, so he didn't get to bond much. Now he has had the opportunity to really enjoy hanging out with her. He is really cute with her, even when he's changing a diaper and she decides that's the perfect time to do her impression of the Fountain of Youth.

I have to say, it's a little sad to be back in the States and trying to figure out the health insurance scene again. It seems none of my doctor visits so far are covered by the school health insurance -- definitely not fun to think about after having free health care in England for the past year. I'm also going to have to select a pediatrician for Penny while we're here just in case she gets sick or something. Penny's first shots will be with my Aunt Ann, who's a pediatrician, but we should probably have someone closer to home for emergencies. Keep me and Penny in your prayers as we face the doctors in the coming weeks.

Stateside at Last!

Due to the lack of standby seats in the coming weeks, Penny and I had to make a dash for the States a bit earlier than expected. So Penny and I had to travel alone before Dan finished his exams. Maria escorted us to the airport (carrying my ridiculously heavy suitcases with Penny's extensive wardrobe), since there was no time for John to come and help us with the move. We really only had time to pack and snap a few family photos with Dan before dashing out.

We have been in NYC for the past week, generally relaxing and enjoying my mother-in-law's cooking. Penny has enchanted everyone with her winning smile and cute gurgly noises. I've gotten a little free time to catch up on re-packing for Grenada and other fun stuff. I also had my first opportunity to sample baby formula at airport security (a classic parent experience these days, I'm sure). Luckily, they didn't feel it necessary to have me sample the breast milk I'd packed.

We were a little sad to leave England. It was a lot of fun and our abrupt departure meant we didn't get much chance to say goodbye to our friends. We're looking forward to seeing everyone over the holidays and then getting set for Grenada. Who knows, one day we may get the chance to go back. There's always room for a sequel...

Getting Ready to Go

We're gearing up to move out of Newcastle. Penny, Dan and I spent much of last week packing 16 boxes and a table to ship them directly to Grenada. One of Dan's classmates has family in the shipping business, so was able to arrange a container for all the students to ship their things directly to Grenada. It was tough squeezing packing into our busy feeding/burping schedule, but most of our belongings are now on a slow boat to Grenada and shoudl arrive sometime in late December or early January. Then we just have to figure out how to get them from the truck to our apartment.

We did finally get an apartment. Dan will arrive first, and have a fun time finding it since there are no street addresses as far as we've been told. The landlord told us the various closest landmarks, so hopefully it will be fairly straightforward. All the other tenants are St. George's students and several have young children, so we should have plenty of fun people to hang out with. Now it's just a matter of packing up our few remaining belongings and getting them home with us on the plane (my brother John is going to help us with that).

We also have to figure out how to survive our last few weeks in Newcastle with just the bare necessities we have left. It has gotten colder lately and now that we know how our heaters work, we are trying to use them properly. Sadly, they arent' quite as effective as I'd like. We also suffer from a difference of opinion with the British as to what constitutes comfortable home temperature. As you can see from the handy thermometer I picked up at the library, "Comfortable" in British begins at 16 degrees celsius (64 farenheit). I start to feel comfy when the sun streams into the bedroom, heating it up to 27C (about 80F). Perhaps this derives from having our utilities included in our rent in Silver Spring, MD.

The thing that has surprised me most has been Penny. According to our British baby book, at 16C, we should have four cellular blankets and a sheet on her. I have found her getting sweaty with one blanket folded in half, though. Because Dan needs his sleep and Penny tends to be kinda noisy upon waking and upon going back to sleep (see video), we usually don't spend the night in the bedroom with Dan. I huddle in a sleeping bag on the couch with Penny uncovered on my chest. More often than not, I wake up shivering and she's all sweaty! I hope she adjusts to Grenada as easily as she seems to have adjusted to the temperature here.