Already / Not Yet: The Follow-Up

Per a suggestion from a friend, here's the update on the "Already / Not Yet" post from just over a month ago.  You might think they'd all be done by now... but not quite:

ALREADY
Have Internet
      - This was a huge win and help around the house!
Gotten work visa approved
       - Per the UK Home Office, we can officially stay 3 years now!
Gotten rid of the straggling fleas
       - This was the biggest win for Ginger's sanity.
Unboxed everything
       - Well, essentially at least.  Anything still in a box is supposed to stay there.
Kids started in school
       - And they love it (except the "every day" thing, per Liam)
Gotten heat turned on in office
       - I can work there now and not see my breath!
Played my guitar for Club
      - It's fun to hear the kids sing, and "The Banana Song" is a must.

Ginger delivered the baby
       - See previous post.

Figured out the middle school weekend retreat
      - More on that in a post to come, but it went great, and was beautiful, as seen here:

SORT-OF / PARTIAL
Understand the best way to manage two accounts in the States and two in the UK
      - It's getting easier, but still confusing at times.
Have a washer, dryer, dishwasher
       - Still no dishwasher, unless you include "my hands".
Bought boys’ bunk beds, vacuum, TV, lamps
       - Still no bunk beds.  Nothing wrong with mattresses on the floor when you're a kid!

STILL NOT YET
Gotten clearance to use the military computers (i.e. the computer in my office)
       - It's kinduva inconvenience to always have to email files to Sgt. Wilson
          for her to print for me, but she loves to be helpful and is super efficient!

Registered Chris and the boys for healthcare
       - It's a lot of paperwork.

Ginger gotten her drivers’ license
       - Something about a baby has taken precedence.

Sold our house back home
       - Pray for this one.  It sure would be nice to have this one done.

Visited Highclere Castle
       - We'll do this one day.

Met the Queen
      - We'll do this probably never.

Gotten a speeding ticket on British roads
      - We'll do this hopefully never.

Eaten bangers and mash
     - We're in no rush to do this.

Full House

November 15th is the latest of November birthdays that the Nichols family will be celebrating!

Evangeline Malcolm Nichols showed up at 1:29 am, and clocked in at a substantial 9 lbs 15 oz.  (Already she's trying to keep up with her brothers: Eli was 10 lbs and Liam 9 lbs 5 oz).  She joins her aunt Lissa, brother Eli, aunt Charmaine, late great Grandmom Malcolm, and Papa among our November birthdays!

 

 (Warning: This next section will only be of interest/relevance to parents who have been a part of the "birth in a hospital" thing.  The rest of you, skip on ahead, for your own sake....)

Giving birth in a U.K. hospital is considerably different than in a U.S. hospital.  They generally have a more "hands off" approach.  No hook-up to a monitor.  No cm dilation check.  Epidurals are available but seem rare.  For pain, they offer an "air and gas" breathing mask (i.e. nitrous oxide) for the mum to use at her discretion.  They just kinda let things go their course.  When Ginger asked (or perhaps "yelled" is a better verb) if it was okay to start to push, their answer was "Whenever you're ready... oh, I see the head crowning... you can go ahead, dearie."  After she was born, there maybe was an Apgar test, but we never heard for sure.  Most of the meconium fountain that came out when she was born was cleaned up... most.  Evangeline had a nominal wipe-down, was given to Ginger wrapped loosely in a couple of hospital towels.  No diapers provided, you're on your own for those. The nurse and midwife then rolled out with a lovely "Call us if you need us!"  The baby is never taken from you, you're just expected to parent and ask for help if you need it....  We were SO glad we had done this a couple times before, otherwise we would have been freaking out!

As far as the stay itself, we checked in at midnight, and Evangeline was born by 1:30 am.  They moved Ginger from the labour ward to the maternity ward at 6:30am... and kicked me out!  Spouses can't come back to visit until 9:30am.  Absolutely NO other visitors until 6:30pm.  The pediatrician stopped by in the morning (who was Nigerian and had a lovely accent!), and the nurses briefly popped by a couple times, but that was it.  We then realized: "There's no reason to stay here longer."  After a brief delay for some bloodwork results and paperwork, we checked out same day at 4:30pm... only 16.5 hours after showing up! 

So we now have a British citizen to round out our "full house" of three boys and two girls.  Eli and Liam were super excited to meet and welcome their baby sister.  Soon after her arrival, Eli went and scooped up a bunch of things, sat down in front of her, and began to display one item at a time: "Lego... Lego....   Book.... book....  Daddy, look, I am teaching the baby new words!"  After a couple of weeks, her charm hasn't worn off, but reality has set in; at one dinner Eli said: "Mommy, having a baby is a lot harder work than I was expecting."  Liam has observed: "She's kinda loud sometimes."  My reply was: "You're one to talk."

Several have asked about her name.  You're welcome to pronounce it as you like, but we're going with eh-vange-a-leen (as opposed to LIN or LINE or LINOLEUM... ha!).  We picked it because it means "bearer of good news," which is both what she was to us, as well as what we are striving to do with teenagers.  

People have also asked what we're going to call her... call me crazy, but I'm calling her "Evangeline".  Some of the nicknames being bandied about now by others are "Em" (her initials) or "Evie".  

(For those musically inclined, I think you can call her Al, or call her Maybe.)

    

So far Evangeline is doing great!  At our appointments, the midwife - who makes house calls, another new adjustment for us - has been pleased with both Ginger and baby's progress.  Evangeline has even gained another full pound!  She's also already visited Ely (pictured below), ridden the Tube, and "seen" the Tower of London!  We're excited about the new adventures ahead for the Nichols family... we just need a super hero nickname for the newest Unbelievable!