Thankful for 2010

What a year 2010 was in the Wallace household!

It started in January at Maria's wedding. It was such a great wedding and I was so glad to be a part of my cousin's special day. As Dave and I were driving the rental car back to the airport, we had a discussion about where Dave was in his career. We talked about several different opportunities that *may* present themselves in the next year. 

Little did we know that over the next month Dave would begin talks with World Vision about moving to England. 

And then at the end of March we would find out that we were pregnant. 

The rest of the year was very full with me working as a substitute teacher and also part time in retail. Dave would continue in his job, slowly changing his role in preparation for moving. We had lots of discussions about moving, how to do it, and what we were doing.

But God put all the pieces into place. 

Our renters fell into our laps when Dave's uncle recommended our place to some APU students. We didn't even have to advertise. 

Some wonderful people from our church back home lived in Wimbledon and were a wealth of information about the area we were moving to. They suggested places to live and the church we began attending once we arrived. They were able to help us meet people in this country before we even arrived. 

Our finances worked out despite our worries and concerns. 

We moved when I was 33 weeks pregnant, and we had no place to live once we got here. We didn't have a doctor or a hospital.

The people at our new church helped us find a place to live. They gave us rides. They gave us a kitchen table and chairs. They answered questions and had us over for dinner. They made us feel welcome even though we asked funny questions and complained about England. 

Our house was only available because the other people who made an offer the day before us had requested a dishwasher. Our house is perfect for us (minus the dishwasher ;-)

Our next door neighbors (who we are slowly getting to know) have a little girl that is 6 weeks older than Georgia. 

Once we found our house, things with the doctors lined up. The whole NHS system was very strange to us, but the doctors office took us without complaining and we got into the hospital that is the *best in the area. 

Georgia decided to come a few days late, and she was teeny-tiny, but otherwise healthy when she arrived. 

Its amazing looking back how everything lined up in God's timing. If I had been more pregnant, we wouldn't have been able to move because I wouldn't have been able to fly. Although Dave was concerned about having a baby, it has made the move over here complete. We have met so many people that we wouldn't have otherwise spoken to. I really believe that our ministry over here will center around families - and it is all because of God's gift of Georgia.

Pray for us as we try to figure out what that ministry is. I am trying to get out of the house and find opportunities to meet people and get involved in the community. It is easier said than done, but I am excited to see what God will be doing over the next year.

Here's to what God has planned for 2011!

catch-up

So, I think I can say that December has probably been the busiest month of our lives. We've had my mom come and stay with us, my brother come and stay with us (and he's still here!) and Dave's family come for Christmas. And there's the fact that we have a one-month old baby and its Christmas time. Yeah.

about 2 weeks old

So, I have a lot to blog about, but will do that at another time. I'm still alive and functioning - although some days better than others. Georgia has been such a dream child. She cries when she is hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper. Other than those times, she is a happy baby, very smiley and easy to take care of. On good nights she'll go 5 hours between feeds, meaning that I can sleep about 4 hours straight.

Hanging with Uncle Tim

Here's a few pictures for those of you who aren't on facebook very much....

I do put pictures up on facebook more often than I do here, so check it out!

Georgia's first weeks

I was thinking the other day how its amazing that God chose Georgia to be in our family. He chose the right combination of personality and strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes that would be exactly perfect.

We have been blessed with an amazing child (so far!). I am probably a little biased, but I know that our little girl is as close to perfect as I could hope for. She is an extremely quite child. She rarely cries, and when she does, its more out of frustration, "mom, don't you know I'm hungry?" She is slowly working on her set of lungs - she's begun groaning, talking, and whining more and more each day. I think she's going to be an early talker. She's also becoming more active, moving her legs and arms a lot. Dave said today, "She's going to be an active toddler!" So, its possible that we have a great infant, and will have a more challenging toddler.

Pretty much all she does is fill up diapers, eat, sleep and look around. When awake, she enjoys sitting in her swing, and the last two days has really seemed to enjoy laying on the floor. Dave's boss and wife stopped by on Saturday one of the things they gave us was a little stuffed animal duck. Georgia has really enjoyed staring at it. (Sorry mom, she seems to like the duck better than Lambie).

She sleeps really well at night (with only one exception in the past two weeks). We have our last feed usually around 9-11pm, and then we have feeds every four hours or whenever she decides she's hungry. So last night, she ate at 10, 2, 6 and 9. On the down side, she's a slow eater, so we do get to spend lots of awake time together in the middle of the night. She is a little noisy (grunting and moaning) when falling back asleep, but does not seem to have a problem otherwise.

Today was the first day I started putting her in her crib for nap time. Up until now we've been letting her sleep on the couch or in her swing or in our arms. But, I don't want to start any bad habits, so I decided that it was time to start using her crib. This last hour I went and set her in the crib and she didn't make a peep!

I'm sure there's more I could say. I could talk about how she's gaining weight so quickly... how she's so easy to take out in public, or probably many other things. I could talk about how both Dave and I just love her so much, or how Dave is surprised that he cares so much for this little baby. I could also talk about the number of dirty diapers she has a day, or how the diapers are too big for her, so occasionally when she pees it sneaks its way out. I'm sure there's much more I can tell... I'll just save it for another day!

Our November 'Holiday'

The last week in November, Dave's dad came to visit us. He was hoping to meet Georgia, but she had other plans! So instead, while he was here, we were able to show him around our new hometown. We went to a German Christmas Market one of the nights he was with us. It was a fun evening, we took the train into Waterloo and met some friends from APU that also live out here. 

There was a fun Merry-Go-Round for the kiddies

We found the Chipotle in London! Walked all around the city, and we found it! From left to right: Dave, Jon (Dave's dad), Jared and Amanda. 

The view walking across the Thames River. 

We also got to show Jon around our part of the city. We spent time exploring Wimbledon and Kingston. 

I think that we were really trying to induce labor by walking. We did a lot of that, including Wimbledon Common. It was a really cold day, and we got some nice hot coffee so we could enjoy the scenery.

It was also Thanksgiving, and Jon and I were able to do some cooking. Well, he did the cooking and I tried to do some baking. I made some molasses cookies (yummy!) and ruined a pecan pie (ingredients are different here... oh well!). We had Jared and Amanda over for dinner. They like to make fun of the way I stand, with my hands resting on top of the bump, so we took this fun picture, too.

We had such a good time having Jon spend the week with us. Unfortunately he didn't get to meet Georgia, but he was able to get a sense of our town so that when he comes back at Christmas time, he can be the tour guide for the rest of the family. 

Georgia's Birth

I woke up on Wednesday night, with some contractions. These were the first ones that I had ever had, but I knew instantly what they were. I had a few throughout the night, but when I awoke in the morning, they were gone. This trend continued for the next three days, getting progressively worse, especially in the afternoon and in the middle of the night. I would get my hopes up that, "this was it!" but then they would stop completely.

Saturday afternoon and evening I thought for sure that labor had started. The contractions were every 5 minutes apart and pretty painful. I took a shower and the contractions even got stronger and more frequent! So we packed up the bags to go to the hospital and called. The midwife told me to take some Tylenol (paracetamol) and call back in a couple of hours. At this point, it was 11pm, so I thought I'd try to sleep. To my surprise, the contractions slowed down and I fell asleep. Although I was disappointed, I now realize that God blessed both Dave and I with a last good nights sleep.

Sunday morning I awoke feeling rested, and had a few slight contractions, so we went to church. Around noon, I realized that they were coming every 5 minutes or so, but were rather mild. Around 2pm, I called the hospital to let them know that my contractions were getting worse and we would soon be coming in. The midwife again said to call back in a few hours. I tried taking a shower but couldn't relax so I knew we were getting close. We called someone from the church to take us to the hospital, and finished packing our bags. I called the hospital again, and the midwife again urged me to wait a bit, but I told her that we were on our way.

Arriving at the hospital around 3pm, we were put into a room at the maternity ward. We were assigned a midwife, Sue, who was a wonderful motherly-type woman who was a relatively new midwife. She was with us, in the room the whole time, helping through the contractions and offering pain relief. I tried the gas and air (laughing gas), but didn't like that too much, so labored for a few hours without any medicine. I was at 3 centimeters dilated when we arrived at the hospital, and the contractions were fairly quick and strong. I asked Sue about average labors, and she said the first one usually lasts from 12-16 hours, starting in "active labor" (which they say begins around 4 cm).

The contractions kept getting worse and worse. I was on the monitors the whole labor because Georgia's heart rate was a little fast. They had a doctor come in and give me an ultrasound (because of my uterus shape) just to check that she was still head-down. They also ordered an IV for me to keep me hydrated and help Georgia's heart rate slow down. I labored mostly in bed because of this, but was allowed to also sit on the birthing ball for part of the time. Around 6 pm, I was checked again, and was now at 5 cm (yay!)

After lots of thought, I was getting tired and the contractions were very strong, I thought it might be nice to have a little relief. So, I asked for the epidural. It was the right decision. It took close to an hour to actually get the epidural, and the pain was so immense during that hour. Dave was a little queasy during the procedure and actually had to leave the room to clear his head. I probably would have been too, if I had seen the needle they put into my back :-)

The epidural provided just a small bit of relief. I think I only got the test dose, although I was offered a top-up, the midwife discouraged it because I was progressing so quickly. I could still feel (very strongly, too!) every contraction, but it wasn't quite as bad as it had been. After receiving the epidural, they were no longer able to find Georgia's heartbeat on the monitor, so they called the doctor in to break my water and apply a monitor to the top of her head. The doctor came to do that, and almost immediately I progressed to 8 cm. I was beginning to feel the urge to push, and it was very difficult to hold back.

I kept asking to be checked, and finally about half an hour later I was checked, fully dilated and was allowed to push. It was so relieving and also very hard. I pushed for about half an hour, and Georgia was born at 8:20pm. She was a tiny thing, weighing in at 2.71kg (6 pounds) and 19 inches. We had been in the hospital for just over 5 hours, and I had the epidural for a little over an hour. Because of the meconium in my waters, we were put on 24 hour observation.

Dave cut the umbilical cord and also put on her first diaper and change of clothes. He was so in love with her, it was really sweet to see! 

The recovery went fairly well. We spent two nights in the hospital (and Dave got to sleep at home - thats how they do it here!) and were discharged Tuesday afternoon in the middle of the first snowstorm of the season. 

I really appreciated spending two nights in the hospital. We had some issues with breast feeding - both Georgia and I were slow learners, and it was very helpful to have the midwives come in for every feeding to give suggestions and help. 

Introducing....

Georgia Ruth

Weighing in at 6 lbs and 19 inches, she was born on Sunday, November 28th at 8:20 pm after a quick and furious labor. 

We are so in love with her - she already has daddy wrapped around her fingers. 
More to come...

Around the house

Many of you are probably wondering what our house is like! I'd love for you to stop by for some tea (its much better than the instant coffee that's so popular here, believe me!) so that I could show you our little neck of the woods. I know this isn't really possible, (unless you live in the UK and then you are more than welcome to come by!), so here are some pictures of our house as its coming together.

This is our bedroom (well, a bit of it!). The end of our bed (with clothes that I hadn't put away yet), the chair that I will most likely be spending a lot of time in, the crib and dresser.

This is our eating area/clothes drier looking out to the backyard. I didn't put the table in the picture because it was a mess, but we do have a table and chairs, thanks to a wonderful family at our church!

 And here is our kitchen with our huge fridge (really, it is big for the UK!), and brand new appliances (amazing!) and kitchen. We really have a nice kitchen. There's not a whole lot of cabinet space, but I don't even use it all because I haven't purchased all the kitchen items (i.e. baking pans, slow cooker, etc.) that I will be using in the future.

This is another view of the kitchen. You can see our washer/dryer in the corner. You in America (or those of you with wonderful machines - no complaining!) It would take me 5 hours to do a load of laundry - washing and drying for it to be completed. Most of the time, I just use it for washing, and then I hang our clothes up to dry (like in one of the pictures above). Also, you can see our state-of-the-art dishwasher. Known as the kitchen sink and dish drainer.

This is a picture from our living room. This is the final couch that we got this week - a half-price purchase second hand. It is really in great condition, and although its not the most comfortable thing, it has lots of space (probably 3 people easily) and looks pretty cute in our room.

This last picture is Dave's office/guest room. The couch folds out to make a bed, so we will be putting our guests in here.

The good news is that all of our major purchases are done! On the downside, we do not have any decorations up yet. I did bring a few pictures with us to remind us of our home in the States, but we don't have nails or screws, so they aren't hanging up. We have lots of empty walls still around the house, but I'm working to slowly make our place feel more like home - and its working!