day 2...bath time

carson slept brilliantly through his first night (although he probably didn't know the difference) and so did mommy and dad.  i slept so hard that ak had to wake me up so i could be part of::

BATH TIME!!

we went to the nursery where mabel (one of the nursery midwives) showed us how we should bathe our son. 

Getting prepped for the big show...it's a nail biting experience :)

non too pleased to be out in the cold open air.  perhaps anticipation of the bath, but he is going to love bath time (unlike his uncle)

we learned some tips from mabel and the other midwives (testing the water with our elbows, how to hold carson, etc).  after getting some good info, we were ready for:

the big dip!

and the big cry!  changing temperatures is tough

 carson was initially shocked, but after getting some warm bath water poured over his back, he was loving it. 

look at those wrinkly little hands...and he was only in the water for a few seconds :)

angry to be finished with bath time (and out in the open air).  this picture has a little feel of lion king...the circle of life!

getting dried off and nice and warm in his little gown

his first bath and he did great

after some big activity, he was back to his usual peaceful self.  looks like someone is just about ready for a nap!

we are looking forward to a first bathtime at home, but it was great to get some good tips from experienced pros...just like we will be in a few months time. 

welcome to the world!

So, if you were to guess what this post is about, or needed some help, i'll spell it out for you:

it is hard to believe that 9 months have passed since we found out ak was pregnant.  over the last couple weeks, as the due date grew closer, she had the prediction that we she would deliver the baby early.  every night beginning 22 june, we would go to sleep, look at each other, and say..."this could be the last night just you and me"
well, the 27th, came..and so did some contractions...but it was not to be our son's birthday, just a good sign that things were progressing naturally.  holla. it also raised the questions of: when would the baby come? should i still go to work? what would labour be like? would i pass out in the delivery room (i do have a history)?

on thursday 28 june, ak, her mom and i met up with camilla (one of ak's good family friends) at jak's in south kensington for dinner.  it was brilliant food and a great time and even some random italians and brits congratulated us (i guess it was evident ak was pregnant :) ).  we decided to cut dinner short because we wanted to get some rest.  on the way back to the tube/bus, ak started feeling some contractions, but quite far apart...nothing new from previous days.

we got home and i decided, we should have date night. we just went to dinner with lots of people, but we should watch a romantic movie (helps get the oxytocin up...i payed attention during labour prep class).  So we popped The Notebook (mega chick flick) into our laptop, hopped in bed and started watching.  about half-way through, ak noticed her contractions started getting closer, so out came the timer!  gotta love the iphone apps...so much easier than a spreadsheet and watch (although i do love my spreadsheets). 

we decided to finish the movie, pausing for contractions, which were coming every 5-6 minutes.  by the end of the movie, around 1am, we had pretty much given up on the possibility of sleeping that night.  we continued to time the contractions and at 2:30 called the hospital when they were 4-5 minutes and a minute each.  they said come on in, but since we wanted to do things as natural as possible for as long as possible we stayed at home. 

ak would either lie on the bed or lie in the tub and as contractions came, i would "coach" her through them.  basically i just kept saying relax a whole bunch and rubbed her back/arms/legs/belly and i'm surprised she didn't knock my block off :).

we called the hospital and gave updates at 3:30, 4:30 and finally, at 5:20 they put their foot down and said get on in.  we woke up ak's mom (who had been sleeping with the light on {obviously knew what was going on}) and told her she had 20 minutes to get ready or we were going without her...spring!!! and she was up!  the addi lee cab arrived at 5:45, we grabbed our bags, and took one final picture of the lovely pregnant lady in our flat. 

we called ak's dad on the way, and i gave an update to my family on touch (love modern technology and the iphone) to tell them that today looked like the big day!  we were going to meet our son for the first time! 

we arrived at the portland hospital at 6am and the reality sunk in.  even though we had worked through so many contractions at home, it felt surreal to walk into the hospital.  ak's emotions momentarily got the better of her, fear of the unknown and not quite as cozy as our bed and flat. 

we met fiona (our scottish midwife) who did the initial scan and let us know ak was 4-5cms.  great news!!! that's halway there.  she predicted roughly 1-2pm for delivery...holla (little did we know that wasn't to be the case).  over the next two hours, ak and continued working through contractions and at 8am, fiona headed off and the day shift arrived.  here is ak with fiona.

teri took over for fiona.  ak was a rockstar, walking around the delivery room, hallway, and joking with the midwives...who does that.  here she is with her mum, who sat right outside of the delivery room, always supporting, praying, and getting food/drinks for us that wasn't eaten til much later.  even though she wasn't physical in the room most of the day, she was always there to offer support. 



around 10:30, dr. chilcott came in to check on ak and see how she was progressing.  the news was a bit disappointing, only being a definite 5cm...so we continued.  ak had her ipod playing all the right things: caleb carruth, caedmon's call, casting crowns; to take her mind off the pain.  around 12 dr. chilcott came back in and ak was only 6 cm...a far cry from the goal of 10 given that over the last 6 hours she had only progressed 1cm. 

dr. chilcott decided it was best to break the waters (we didn't have the hollywood drama of waters breaking in a taxi or in a traffic jam...apparently not everything you see in movies is true.  who knew!!) this was supposed to help give some space to our boy to make his move :)

ak did brilliantly through it all and as contractions "intensified" (doctors speak for "becoming unbearable"), ak decided an epidural would be suitable to continue the remaining part of the way.  i was so extremely proud of her and her strength through the natural stages of labour. big ups to all ladies who go the full way au naturale...

unfortunately, ak's relief was far from being had.  after four attempts at getting the epidural in, the anathesialogist called it, saying it wasn't possible given ak's positioning.  can you say disappointing.  back to au naturale...

the contractions "intensified" and as time passed, another check was in order.  only 7cm, and this time, it seemed there was a bit of disappointment in the doctors tone.  after having been up since 8am the day before, i was now working on about 30hrs of no sleep and that was not what i wanted...seeing your lady in pain and seemingly no forward progress.  i went out to update ak's mom and my emotions got the best of me.  i broke down momentarily, and cried with ak's mom.  she just prayed over me and over ak, and over our son and over the labour.  what a blessing to have her there!! 

i went back in and teri was helping her through another contraction...what another blessing to have such brilliant midwives to help us.  as ak tried to get fully dilated, the contractions started kicking up more and we re-requested an epidural be done, but the other anaesthesiologist was doing an emergency c-section...prayers went up for not having to have one of those.  in the meantime, contractions were coming that were quite unpleasant, so the doc recommended trying nitrous oxide (similar to laughing gas)...we were going to try it.

it helped ak tolerate the pain, but as time progressed, contractions came that made her want to push, which was expressly disallowed by the midwife and doctor as the dilation wasn't far enough.  ak didn't like that news and try as she may, she couldn't stop the urge to push.  ak later said that was probably the worst part of labour.  the doc came back in at 2:30 and checked...8cm.  PROGRESS!!! but much pain.  he guessed it would be another 3-4 hours before the goal of 10cm was met. 

our little guy was a stud through it all.  his heart rate rose slightly at points, but was never really overexerted.

we checked on the status of the anastheasiologist and eventually he came to give the epidural another shot.  he came in and got it first time!  it was amazing...it took effect in a few minutes and ak felt relief (while still contracting!!) after a few minutes of shared relief and instruction from the midwives, ak took a short nap.  i updated her mom on things and both sighed relief, and then i took a nap for 20 minutes.

ak got up and we were ready for the pushing stage...egad.  we were so thankful that we had made it this far with no complications, but we have heard numerous stories about difficulties with pushing, so we said a quick prayer, and got on with it.  ak did brilliantly.  the doctor guessed initially it would take about an hour of pushing.  it did not. 

at one point, after about an hour to 1.5 hours of pushing, the fetal heart rate cause the monitor to flash "high FHR!" and i was nervous that the doctor would call it on the pushing and move to more immediate measures (a c-section).  i prayed for the heart rate to drop and slowly it did, but the doctor was fabulous.  he knew we didn't want a c-section, so rather than call the pushing to a close, he increased the oxytocin to help ak's contractions move the baby closer and to reduce the fhr.  what a good doctor!

2.5 hours later the pushing reached the crescendo.  (i'm beginning to learn that time estimates are just that...estimates).  finally, we were about to meet our son!  the doctor had to use the suction (which we didn't want), but at ak's pain-filled instructions of "can't you just reach in there and grab him", decided that would be a be okay. 

sure enough, at 7:59 on 29 June 2012, we welcomed into london's portland hospital, and thus the world, our son:

Carson David Besancon
weight: 3.31 kg (7.29 lbs)
length: 54 cm (21.3 in)
awesomeness:  off the chart!

it was amazing to watch ak afterwards...focus immediately off the pain and excitement filled her face...she was amazingly brilliant throughout everything (from jaks to home to the hospital to the end of pushing).  as the nurses put it, a "shining star". 

The proud parents and little guy:


i received advice from my brothers that i shouldn't look at the baby immediately after birth, but i wasn't quite sure why...now i am.  i was able to cut the umbilical cord, surprisingly tough and rubbery.  we are so glad to meet our little guy after so many months of waiting for him. 

here he is with his dad:

his first words (or maybe just wailing): 

 carson with ak's mom (name in the works, but she's made good progress ;) )

ak and her mum with carson (i promise he was happy, even though he may look a bit grumpy).

 the star performer and main event:

it was a long day and a tough labour, but ak did fantastically through it all and so did carson.  i am so thankful that the midwives and doctors were patient and kept our key goals (mainly no c-section) in mind through it all.  we are so glad to have met our son and look forward to the joys and challenges he will bring over the years. 

a special thanks to ak's mom for being on the wings, so supportive through it all and encouraging of both ak and me, even when she would have loved to be in the room at all times. 

i am uploading pictures to our smugmug (billandak.smugmug.com), but need to filter out some of them. here are a few to quell your desires. :)

Superstars mama and son

 

Encouraging, even after delivery.  Teri (our midwife) said that of all the babies she's delivered over the last 7 years, i was the most encouraging and supportive husband she had ever seen.  wow! 



He's a boy!

and weighing in at 3.31kg...

and measuring 54 cms

dad giving his first lesson to his son (notice the ricky bobby hands...."i just don't know what to do with my hands")

seconds after delivery...notice the elation on ak's face...the pain is gone

thumb vs. foot...he only slightly wins

dr. chilcott with carson

little feet

and rightfully ending with the two troopers: ak and carson david besancon

Walk to work

Sometimes when I walk to work, stressed out about what lies ahead of me that day, I think to myself...just enjoy this, you walk past this every morning and you won't be able to sometime in the near future.

Not mention that I also pass arguably the oldest pub in London as well....

the Old Cheshire Cheese!

Sometimes it's good to be reminded that I live in an awesome city and work is just work. :D

Also, even though I don't have a picture of it, I also walk right past (da duh da!) DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON'S HOUSE WITH HIS CAT HODGE!!!

(if you don't know who that is...best to look him up in the dictionary ;) )

Why I'm not a Newcastle fan

After a lovely English thanksgiving m at one of our fellow expats' flat ak and I headed back home via tube, leftovers in tow. This is where AK met Gavin. A delightful chap of about 40 who thought AK was oh so cute. So cute in fact that he asked her to go out with him. That's when AK informed him that I was her husband (not just boyfriend as he had suspected). In a moment of embarrassment he began shouting

"Newcastle Newcastle Newcastle"

And that is why I am not a Newcastle fan.

Weekend in Windsor

One weekend, we woke up early and decided that it would be great to take a random day trip to Windsor. Unfortunately, we decided to clean our apartment first, so we didn't end up leaving until around noon, but i digress. We strolled out the apartment and a whole 6 minutes later were at Paddington, hopping on a train to Windsor! I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the city, but it is a charming city (if you can afford shopping on the high street). We now have annual passes to Windsor castle, so visitors beware!

When you arrive at the castle, the first thing you get is an audio guide and map. I must say that I sport them rather well.

We were there at the same time that the queen was so that was kind of cool. It was getting close to dinner time, and I thought it sort of rude of her not to invite us in for some mince meat pie. Alas. It's okay though because my lady's beauty made up for meeting the queen, although, I think she wishes I was royalty so that we could have loads of fine china.As we were strolling the grounds, we walked past this little sign.

I'm guessing this room is to deter kids might from asking their mums or pops why there was no water in the moat, but instead there was just a flower bed. I can appreciate how that might be confusing to a young boy dreaming of knighthood.

Also, what kind of trip to a castle would it be without a canon picture? So...here you go.

One of these days, I'll have to get a picture of AK blasting a canon, but she's just so attached to her camera!! (It's a Canon...dum dum tssh!)

Because we had a late start, we were getting shooed off the premises when it started getting dusky, but that didn't stop me from taking this dynamite shot!

Okay, so you might not have thought it was that cool, but I like it because it shows the Queen's flag and the lighting (in a non-pro-photographer's eyes) was pretty good. It's the best i can do.

As we were leaving, I noticed that there is actually a person that lives in the castle! How cool. You can see his mailbox, Christmas tree, and the outline of his door. I'm guessing it is the guard's quarters or something like that. Pretty awesome though to live in Windsor castle!

Even though it wasn't, I like to pretend that this was the guy leaving from the private house through his massive gated residence.


After exploring a bit of Windsor, we headed back to the Castle for an Evensong. It was pretty cool, although, there was one guy who was hitting way too high of notes for his size. Kind of awkward, but still very enjoyable.

We headed into town and went out to eat at a place recommended by Rick Steves (who else)! You may ask, how do you know it was recommended by the tour guide great? I'm glad you asked. They had a sign out front that said, "#1 recommended restaurant in Rick Steves". Despite the cheesy advertising, the food was quite delicious. We spoiled ourselves because we can, and got the full gammot: appetizers, wine, fish, soup, salad, and dessert.

We hopped on the train, took a short nap, and walked home from Paddington. What a great day!

Long Overdue

Well, I'll be the first to admit that this post is long overdue. Apologies to our faithful reader(s) out there.

A lot has happened since the last post, so we'll cover them off one by one starting with...Snow!!!

The week before we were to leave for Christmas, we got a massive amount of snow! 5 whole inches! Bostonians and Pennsylvanites, please don't scough. Britains aren't exactly great at snow though, so it managed to shut down the whole city, most notably Heathrow.

Here is the view down our street.

Right before it started snowing the hardest (about 3" in an hour), I decided to go for a run through Hyde Park. I saw a swan just standing on the Serpentine water since it was frozen through. I wish I had my camera. True to form, i got a bloody nose running. I don't understand how dumb my nose can be. So i popped into the princess diana cafe, grabbed some napkins and kept on. I was a man on a mission. I had to get to the theater to get tickets to.....

A-K and I got all fancied up and went to see the show. It was a great show, although not one to go to if you are hungry since the first full song goes..."Food, glorious food!" Ergo, i now say that everytime I want dinner. :)

This is me leaving our flat. Notice how just a few hours reduced the snow to minimal amounts:

We walked around Covent Garden before going to the theater, and could resist the "here i am in front of the theatre!" picture: A-K sports the picture well.

Once we got into the theatre, we walked into the atrium to see the Christmas decorations put up in the middle of the theater. Michael would have been pumped to see the massive Christmas Tree Marble run.

After a great show, we went to Regent Street right by Picadilly Circus. During the holidays, it was all lit up with Christmas lights. We strolled down the street to Cafe Concerto for some delicious cappucinos and perfiteroles. (i know that's spelled wrong, but it's my blog!) Here's a view of Regent Street.

Later that night, we met up with some friends to watch Love Actually (since we're in London). All in all, it was a fantastic snow day. I don't know why people don't like snow?!

American Food

I know that our blog has a limited fan base. I accept that. It's a young blog on the rise. However, I am calling out to all my readers out there on this one.

Within my group at work, we have monthly dinners to taste the cuisine of the various members. So far, we have had Cypriot, Japanese, and Portuguese. Scottish is on the plate for January, and I am in charge of dinner in February. I have considered a Sports Bar for the Super Bowl (Feb 7), but the time difference might make that a no go.

So here is my question:

What is American food to you?