Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas week

Our holiday pictures are saved on the desktop computer here, which does not want to cooperate at the moment. Don’t panic, the pictures are safe, I just can’t access them right now! I will include some pictures of James' village and Dartmoor throughout this blog. I love all the history!

Pictures of the surrounding countryside (Dartmoor National Park)


Dorian is doing sooooo much better. The past couple mornings he has hacked and hacked, obviously trying to get gunk out of his chest. James and I spent about an hour each morning in the bathroom with the hot shower running to allow the steam to break up some of that gunk. Poor little guy. I know he doesn’t really have feelings yet – he’s mostly a machine with built-in reflexes – but it is horrible to hear him scream while trying to cough the stuff up. Still, his health is improving by the hour and I am so thankful for antibiotics. What happened to newborns who got this sick before antibiotics? I dread to think.

In other news, James and I have been very sick since Friday. Our colds became much worse over the week-end, complete with fever, extremely sore throat, aches and pains and the worst cough in the world. James is feeling better today, but I am still feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck. I am so hoarse, it’s funny I suppose. Jen and Grae are now sick too, though they keep insisting they’re fine! It’s the British way, you know? Stiff upper lip, chin up, soldier on! It’s so unfortunate that we have now spent over a week dealing with illness on our 3 week trip. James had to cancel a night out with his close friends this week-end and we have not seen his sister Han, her husband Phil or our nephews Ro and Josh as much as we had hoped.

We drugged ourselves up (James more than me since I’m breastfeeding) and managed to make it up to Bristol to see James’ close friend James Hanlon and his wife Sarah. Their 7 week old baby girl Erin Rose has already had the cold so they were not worried about her catching it. We also made it over to see Kath and Sean (James’ former Equation bandmates) and their 6 month old twin girls Poppy and Lily. Yesterday was the open house day Jen and Grae planned for Dorian. Dozens and dozens of people from their village came to see us. Dorian was held by at least 15 people and did great! He is a little charmer alright.

Dorian finally got over his jetlag on Friday and, boy did he! The past 2 nights he has slept for 10 hours!!!! He woke up to feed both nights after about 6 hours and then fell asleep again for another 4. SUCCESS! Of course, James and I haven’t been sleeping because we’ve been coughing so much, but at least we haven’t had to deal with the baby at the same time. I hope Dori’s jetlag on the way back doesn’t take as long (2 weeks) to beat. Even if it does, at least we know he can do the long sleeps! He is also feeding much more efficiently – his sessions in the middle of the night take about 10-15 minutes. When I pump my milk now, it literally GUSHES into the bag so I know that something has changed. We still don’t have Dori on the bottle yet, but we continue to persevere. What a challenge this has turned into!

At 1pm today, we are going for a Christmas Eve walk with James’ immediate family (Jen, Grae, Han, Phil and the boys) – it is a family tradition. Tonight we’re off to the village pub – another family tradition.

Bridestowe’s White Hart, built in the 16th century
I will probably pop over to the village church for a midnight service with Jen, just for the full English Christmas experience. James refuses to go – he has never been and is not about to start now. I remember going to the service the first time I visited Devon and it was a barrel of laughs – we sang Christmas carols and laughed at the drunk vicar!

Bridestowe’s Parish Church, the third on the site – the present church was completed in 1450
We will celebrate Christmas day with Jen, Grae, Han, Phil and the boys. On Boxing Day (December 26), we will have Grae’s brother and sister and her family over. Finally, on December 27th, Jen’s 2 sisters and brother and their families will come over (more than 20 people!) On Friday the 28th, we will pack up and then leave at 3am for Heathrow. I will try to post again before we return to the US, but you can expect a couple of long blogs with photos and videos some time upon our return. You’re not going to recognize Dorian – he is so big and his face is incredibly expressive now. His personality is really starting to shine.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and messages while we’ve been ill. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday week. Enjoy every minute! Love to you all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad to hear Dorian is feeling better. Not so glad to hear everyone else is not. :-(

Have a wonderful time this week! The pics of the countryside are gorgeous.

Just in case you don't get to post again before coming back - have a safe trip home.

auntastasia said...

Great pictures of beautiful countryside. I am so glad that you have still been getting out as much as possible even though you are all battling illness. Dorian's growth and changes are showing up the pictures so I can only imagine how much more you see it in person. What a little trooper he is. Merry Christmas! Safe travels home.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I hope you are all feeling much, much better now! Glad to hear Dorian is over the lag. Maybe he'll surprise you and re-acclimate easily when he gets home again.

Safe and easy travels.

cinder said...

The photos are beeea-utiful! Will be good to have you back stateside, glad some are feeling better-bet you could use a nap-lol, looking forward to seeing you and the Little Big Man ;-) !