sleeping

I'm writing this with one hand, while Olivia snores on my chest.

Thinking back over these past couple of weeks, I'm surprised more than anything by how natural it has felt to have Olivia with us. Not much shock or confusion; stressful at times, but always feeling somehow like this is how it is supposed to be. I don't believe in fate or divine will in these things, but it's a good feeling anyway. This is our child, a brand new person but already closer to us than most; this is our family.

And Olivia, despite having a very limited sense of her environment and means of expressing herself, nonetheless has a profound effect on us. Through our new roles as parents, we discover more of ourselves, and of each other; but even more than that, it is this new role that further molds and shapes who we actually are.

Recently I've been thinking about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. We understand this as a "test" of his faith. Does God really need these experiments to see inside the human heart? Or is it instead that we need these experiences to become the people he is looking for? Strangely, it is the challenges that we find ourselves in that cause us to become people who are able to meet and succeed at them.

Or, to put it another way, the things I do are what determine who I become.

Having gone through many changes in the past couple of years, I think I have become more aware of how I define myself in relation to my world. The question who am I, really? is always floating somewhere in my subconscious. Maybe time will help answer that question; but for now I enjoy the uncertainty, even as I wonder the same about my daughter, who is (thankfully) still snoring soundly.

Goodnight.

2-week Birthday

So, of course we've fallen into the "new parent trap" of taking way too many pictures of Olivia. It will be nice to look back in a few months to see how she's grown. Here are the best ones.

One-week Birthday!

Little Olivia has made it through her first week in this big, scary world. She has a regular schedule of sleeping, eating, crying, and staring in wide-eyed silence. The midwife says she looks very healthy, and we agree. We've been for a couple of nice walks, which puts her right to sleep. And we've been getting sleep too, which is absolutely wonderful. We're looking forward to the next weeks and months of her growth. The biggest question at the moment is, will her eyes stay blue, or will they turn brown??

Enjoy the pictures...

Arrival!

Most everyone reading this will have received our e-mail announcement. This post is just to get some pictures online of our little Olivia Frances :)

Last night was her first night at home. Bringing her inside and welcoming her into her new home was one of the real highlights for me! There has been lots of cuddling from then until now, and thankfully a few hours of sleep as well.

I have this week off for paternity leave, which is good because Melissa is very sore and having trouble getting up and down. Nevertheless we are both very happy, and not too many frayed nerves yet.

Enjoy the pictures!









p.s. Below is the original announcement e-mail.

-----

Hello to everyone,

News travels fast, but I wanted to send out the official announcement
of the arrival of Olivia Frances Bryan into our family!

Melissa began feeling labour pains Saturday afternoon. After reaching
the hospital around 3.30pm on Sunday, she impressed the midwives with
her stoic attitude and speed of labour. She remarked afterwards, 'It
didn't hurt as much as I expected.'

Olivia made her appearance at 8.16pm on Mother's Day, weighing in at
7lbs. 9oz., or 3.43kg. My first reaction? Point and yell 'there's
your baby!!'

She looks very healthy, and has already developed a strong grip on my
finger. She has been alternating between sleeping, feeding and crying
for the past few hours. Melissa is also doing as well as could be
expected, and is as happy and excited as I. Olivia fell asleep with
me for a while when Melissa was in the bath, and I have a feeling
we'll get along just fine :)

I am home now because they wouldn't let me stay the night. I will be
back at the hospital at 9am. You are welcome to ring us then, I don't
know whether Melissa will want to come home tomorrow, or what the
hospital visiting hours are. In short, I don't know much. I am very
tired and very happy. Please give us a ring tomorrow, especially if
you would like to come see us.

-Chris

Hodge podge of stuff

Hi all,

This is Melissa and now that I am on maternity leave I have a bit of time to post. We haven't really done a proper post for some time so this will be a hodge podge of everything that has been going on for the past few months.

First of all I have been at my quilting again and made a quilted table runner/wall hanging as a Christmas present for our friends. Chris actually designed it and did all the drawings and measurements and I just cut the fabric and sewed it. We are really happy with it and it was a fun project to work on together. Here are a few pics:





More recently Chris has switched jobs again. He has quit teaching guitar in the primary schools. His last day is 13 April. He will be teaching a few students privately on a Saturday morning from our house. It is worth the few extra pounds a month and is not too demanding. He has also been hired by our church as the new worship leader for their contemporary 11am service. He is excited about this opportunity and it is part time so it fits his schedule. He has a lot of work to do but he has a few core people in the existing group that are dedicated and on board with him. He also has the back up of the leadership to make changes and make the worship service more meaningful. The job is great because he can work from home except for practices. The church currently runs 4 services a Sunday, which is typical for churches here. The services range from Morning Prayer to Evening Prayer with traditional and contemporary services in the middle.

Chris has also started working on campus as a music archivist. He will be working with a specialist in the field to digitise old recordings. This is something that he is really interested in and it is a great skill to know and master. Again this job is flexible and he can work at anytime day or night.

Next autumn he will change to part-time for his PhD and hopefully we will be able to balance everything. The plan is that I will go back to work full time towards the end of September and Chris will balance all the above and take care of the baby. This will be a challenge but we don’t want to put the baby in daycare. If it becomes a problem then I will have to change to part-time. So please pray for all of that, it will be a struggle no matter what happens.

I am now just a week and a day away from my due date (and my birthday)! I think we pretty much have everything ready for the big day. My hospital bag is packed and ready to go. The nursery is set up, we are just waiting.

I finished work on 1 March and have just been relaxing and reading and sleeping. I haven’t been too bored yet. It is nice to be home and have lunch with Chris when he comes in between schools. We celebrated my birthday early and Chris got me lots of things to do while being home. My favourite thing is a book on quilt stars. It is a great handbook. I found one pattern that I really like and have started another quilt. It is a wall hanging. I am excited about it – I think each one I do is better than the last so it is nice to see improvement.

The British don’t normally have baby showers. When I explained it to them they were mystified. So the girls from my work decided to throw me an ‘American Baby Shower.’ With the help of Chris they threw it in my living room! They all had excuses why they were leaving early from work (which happens occasionally) and then I got home and they were all in my living room! It was a lot of fun and very sweet of them to do. They got us a Moses basket (or bassinet as you may call it) and it is just adorable. Here are a few pictures:




I think the last thing is Chris and I went to London the first weekend in March. One of his compositions was being performed at a weekend ‘Microtonal Festival.’ Microtonal music is a bit hard to explain so all I will say is that it is writing music with notes that are in between the notes on the piano. If you need further clarification then Chris will have to do that. Anyway the festival was good, a little long for me, but his piece went well and he made a lot of contacts.

I will leave you with a picture of me taken a few days ago and some pictures of York over the winter. A few of all the flooding we had in December and the one snowstorm we had (well not really a storm more of a flurry). The next time we post we will be three!!! Thanks for reading.

Melissa