There is no escape!!!

If you have been following along for the past couple of months, you must remember our summer was full of wild fires. Well, it seems even in Africa we cannot escape the flames.
We arrived here right at the end of rainy season. It has not rained here in about a month and a half. When it is in the nineties every day it does not take long for everything to dry up and become flammable. The past week or so has been very dusty and smokey. I guess the farmers burn their fields after harvest and the fires spread to everything else, it's not quite as dry around here as it was at home this summer, but things are still very  flammable.   Here are some pictures.

This is our normal view out our back door. 

It looks cloudy, but it is actually smoke. You can see tan roof there behind the trees. But the mountains behind are all obscured by the smoke. 

At night you can really see the fires light up the countryside.

One day last week the fires came right down to our compound. 

Guess who turned 8 months!

lightning started the fire..and summer ended

As we rolled into August, we were excited to have a few weeks of fun summer time. You know, time to swim in the lake, visit with friends, and relax a bit. Alas, it was not to be. First, the Wolverine fire flared up and started getting uncomfortably close. Despite the fire, we went ahead with a planned trip up the lake with some friends. It was a fun (albeit smoky) time.

Babies 

nope, not a morning mist...just a smoky haze

When we got back home Tuesday, the fire had calmed down and the smoke seemed to be clearing up. We moved to live over at my Grandpa's house. In the midst of moving, we took an internet break on Friday. While I was being distracted by facebook I saw this:

"It's happening in Chelan right now."

I thought it was a joke. I read some more and  figured out that there was a big fire...Luke said in his somewhat pessimistic tone "The power is going to go out."  I rolled my eyes...then the fan stopped turning.  And the internet stopped. And the phone didn't have a dial tone. Cut off from the world. And so it began...two weeks of wildfires, power outages, smoke, and red sun!

keeping the freezers going by driving the generator between houses

firefighters marching through the field

As the fire got closer and closer, it sort of felt like an army was approaching and you didn't know when or how. It could round the bend at any moment, day or night. And finally, after a couple weeks of preparing and worrying the fire arrived.

smoke rolling over the mountain...this is when baby J and I evacuated

the view at night from the front porch as the fire came over the mountain

a tree goes up in flames

There were a couple of tense moments when the fire arrived. The fire was slowly creeping downhill towards the pasture that makes a nice buffer around the house. Our biggest concern was having the fire get on the down hill side of the house. There was a fire line that was supposed to prevent that from happening, however, fire lines do fail from time to time.
At one point the fire flared up, with shooting flames hundreds of feet in the air. There was so much smoke and flame that it looked like the line had failed and we were going to be fighting the fire in all directions. To know for sure, I ran down the road and looked at the fire line myself. By the time I got there, the flames and smoke had died down quite a bit and I could see a few brush trucks keeping the edge of the fire line wet. It looked like it was going to hold. The large flare up so close to the edge of the fire line must have worried the hotshot crews as well because over the next hour there were probably a dozen  water drops right in that area. Then they brought in another bulldozer to cut yet another fire line. After that, it was kind of like watching a giant camp fire.

the cows don't seem to mind

and then the fire died...

My brother, F, one tired firefighter after 15 days straight of fighting fire.

Well, there went August...and there was only five more weeks until we leave for Nigeria. Also, factor in a two week trip to North Carolina and Illinois. And preparing for our return in January. And we're feeling very busy.

birth story- part 2

Around 10 pm, we walked up the block to the Swedish ER. As soon as I walked in the door, the lady behind the desk asked if I was here for OB and how many weeks ...I said 35. Luke went to the bathroom and before he came out we were headed upstairs to the OB triage where after hearing my story they got me right back to a room right away.

At this point I was freaking out a bit. They took my blood pressure and it was still high. I started to feel some abdominal cramping. They put the fetal monitor on and the baby was doing fine. That was a relief. Then they drew some labs and shortly thereafter the OB fellow came by. She was super nice and told me that I had 3+ protein in my urine and with my blood pressure they were just waiting for the rest of my labs to decide whether I was going to go straight to C-section or to induction. Yikes!!

That is when Luke and I realized that we were having this baby within the next 48 hours. What?!?!  They loaded me up with Magnesium (to prevent seizures) and Labetolol (for my blood pressure). She told me that the magnesium would make me feel flushed and women often felt hung over while taking it. She was right. It was terrible...could be used as a form of torture in my opinion!

They wheeled us up to to a birthing suite where we met our two delivery nurses and I started having some severe upper abdominal pain. Like, at least 8/10... and they responded quickly with IV tylenol, protonix, and zofran. The pain miraculously went away and they told us to get some rest if we could because soon I would be in full active labor. They gave me some misoprostol and Luke went to sleep on the windowsill cushion. We slept for four or five hours. They checked my liver enzymes and said that they had gone up, which explained my abdominal pain.

April 2

They started the induction with the oxytocin drip and contractions started for real. Luke remained calm and called our friends to tell them that we weren’t going to be able to meet them that afternoon to hang out. They offered to come down and help out. So, N came down to the delivery room with Baby B (2 weeks old) to lend support. That was awesome...especially since I hadn't really prepared at all for labor!

The doctor came in and talked to me about breaking my water. I asked if I could eat breakfast first. She said sure and I ate some yogurt.. Shortly thereafter, breakfast came back up. And that started the 24 hours of throwing up anything I ate or drank- thank you magnesium. Yuck.

From there things  progressing spontaneously and quickly.

Around noon, the nurse decided to check how far I had progressed. She checked, looked up surprised, and said, “The head is right here, call the doctors." A few minutes before Luke had gone down to the cafeteria to get a sandwich...I thought he was going to miss the delivery.

Just as N was about to text him and tell him to come right back, he showed back up as the nurses were asking, “Who is the pediatrician?" "There are two. Call them both! See who gets here first” They did...and they told me to push. I said to the delivery staff. "You know that I missed all the childbirth preparation, right? How do I push?" And N and the doctor told me how. After less than 20 minutes of pushing, the baby came out crying at 12:24 pm just as the neonatology/pediatric team rushed in. Apgars of 9 and 9. She weighed 4#1oz so they said that she had to go to the NICU for at least 24 hours.

Away she went, and Luke went with her. After a bit of recovery time, they wheeled me out of the birthing suite to a room, I stopped by and saw our baby girl for a minutes on the way. I barely remember seeing her. She was hooked up to IVs and monitors, and apparently was having a little trouble breathing.

I would be continued on the Magnesium drip for 24 hours. It was one of the longest 24 hours of my life. After a few hours, Dr. N came by and checked on me. I said I was doing ok, just had some epigastric pain that was pretty bad. I think I rated it as a 5/10. Maybe heartburn? So, he ordered an IV antacid.

Soon, the pain was getting worse and I was alone in my room. I texted Luke and told him I needed him. It had quickly become the worst pain of my life. One hour later, the IV antacid still hadn’t arrived. I could not get comfortable. It was horrible. They wouldn’t give me ibuprofen because of my platelets, nor could I have the Tylenol because of my elevated liver enzymes.

After an hour and a half of severe pain, I was thinking that I just couldn’t take it much longer. Luke couldn’t take any more either. I finally asked to talk to the doctor. Eventually, Dr. N came in and had me drink a GI cocktail which made my tongue numb but did nothing to numb the pain. It definitely wasn't heartburn.

After two hours of the worst pain of my life (labor didn't even compare), Dr. N asked if I had abdominal pain. I pressed on my abdomen and it made the pain worse. I think it was then he realized for sure that the problem was not heartburn...it was my liver again.

He quickly injected some pain medicine into my IV. It was amazing...miraculous. The instant relief was one of the best things that had ever happened to me. That pain never came back.

J was my nurse that night. She was amazing. She even stayed late the next morning and took Luke and I up to see our baby girl. I was so weak, dizzy, and nauseated on the magnesium that I could barely walk that I had to be taken up on a bed

tiny baby girl B

The next week and a half was a whirlwind of visiting the baby, struggling to pick a name, getting my blood pressure under control, trying to pump breast-milk, getting discharged, finding a place to stay, getting a car seat...but in the end we were able to go home with a beautiful, 4#, 7oz little girl.

going home!

Who has now woken up from her nap and is crying for attention.

our little nicu graduate today...happy girl 

the birth story (nothing like the birth plan) part 1

J is now three months old, and she will finally take more than five minute nap without being held. So, now that I have two hands free for a moment, I'll catch you guys up on how she arrived...it was certainly not how we expected!

On Monday, we drove three hours to Seattle for my dad's heart surgery. He checked in the day before his operation for a heart catheterization and his pre-operative work-up.

Waiting for the heart cath.

 By early afternoon, we knew that his heart vessels were clean and he was good to go for his aortic valve replacement. For the rest of the day, we hung out in his hospital room waiting for some more tests and for the surgeon to come by.

waiting...

It was a pretty low-key...so low-key that, out of curiosity, I strapped on dad's blood pressure cuff and pushed the button. Much to my surprise, my blood pressure was 150/100. Yikes! I took a few deep breaths and re-checked it- 146/98.  I tried to convince myself that it wasn't that high (even though my blood pressure is usually 110/80 or so). I would keep an eye on it. Not much I could do about it then, anyway, other than try to relax as much as possible while my dad went in for major heart surgery the next day. Right. Relax.

The next morning, we were  just in time to say good-bye as he was wheeled off to the operating room. Then we waited. We went out for breakfast and waited some more. 

We got to eat at our favorite Seattle breakfast place- Coastal Kitchen. I couldn't even eat one pancake before feeling stuffed. 

We spent the next few hours in the waiting room reading and listening to music. To start preparing for the baby's arrival (I thought in five or six weeks), I read half of a chapter about childbirth  and found some YouTube childbirth preparation playlists to watch later. The chapter never got finished, the videos were never watched.

After what seemed like days, at one in the afternoon, the surgeon came out and told us that every thing  had gone well. He had replaced Dad's bicuspid valve and also found a unexpectedy dilated aorta which he wrapped in mesh so it wouldn't expand more and rupture. Dad was soon wheeled up to the ICU. 

after surgery- nothing like the ICU in Niger! Look at all those IV medications.

It took most of the afternoon for dad to wake up and have the breathing tube taken out. He is the only patient that I have ever seen tell the surgeon that he wasn't ready to have his breathing tube taken out...I guess he was awake enough to worry about not being able to breath without it! Usually people can't wait to take them out because they are so uncomfortable.

We left the ICU late that evening and stopped by Bartell's to check my blood pressure.  It was still high so we called an OB friend who said I should get checked out. I'm pretty sure she meant we should have gone to the ER right then. But, it was late by then and I just felt kind of silly to go to the ER for a little high blood pressure, right?

Wednesday, April 1st. We slept in a bit, then Luke and I went over to the Bartell's and I rechecked my pressure.

I used the scale to weigh myself and I had gained seven pounds in the last week. Not good. I started freaking out a bit more. I realized I sort of felt terrible. I was tired. My legs were totally swollen and I felt short of breath all the time.  I could still feel the baby moving, but I was starting to get more worried.

I called my OB office and told them I needed to talk to the doctor. They gave me the nurse. I told her my story. She wasn’t too concerned. In fact, she tried to talk me out of being worried. She said that swelling and high blood pressure could be normal in pregnancy...was my face swollen? My family would notice if my face was swelling and if it were really serious, my hands would swell so my wedding ring wouldn’t fit, etc. I looked at my hands...my ring still fit even though my fingers were somewhat swollen. [btw, turns out swelling is not a required feature of pre-eclampsia even though it is common]. She said it all sounded normal for pregnancy and I could just keep my appointment the next Tuesday.

A little reassured, we headed over to the hospital to see Dad and spent the day hanging out in his room. We even played a couple games of pinochle. 

Day one after aortic valve replacement

Late that evening, we headed out to grab some pizza because we were all super hungry. We stopped by Bartell’s on the way to MAD pizza. My BP was high. Super, super high. Even the blood pressure machine said, "CALL YOUR DOCTOR."

Luke said, “We are going to the ER.” So we did.

How was Africa?

What do we say when we're asked, "How was Africa?" After over two years overseas, we have about 6,000 pictures and about that many stories.  I have no idea how to answer. Its like we have been to another world. How does one explain what the least developed country in the world is like to people who live in one of the most developed? Its still hard for me to comprehend that Niger and America exist on the same planet.  So, we show a few pictures and tell a few stories all the while still struggling to process the experience ourselves.

Inevitably, we then come to the next question- "What are you going to do now?" We are still working on the answer to that, too. Mostly we are praying a lot, seeking guidance, and trying to relax a bit and enjoy our time back despite all of the uncertainty.  One thing we do know...we are looking forward to meeting our baby girl in less than three months!

 

arctic freeze

We are now mobile!! After a somewhat painful searching and bargaining process, we have found and purchased a used car. We took advantage of that and drove to the snowy mountains of North Carolina.  We didn't anticipate the "arctic freeze" with -19F weather with wind chill. Brrr....

Snow...so beautiful

Its is freezing cold here!  Fires are wonderful.

Bundled up to the max

We are also successfully crossing other fun stuff off our list (as you may have noticed, most of them having to do with food). :)

Chips!!

a nephew after my own heart...he loves potato chips! (yes, perhaps I am a bit of a bad influence on my niece's and nephew's food choices...but isn't that what aunties are for?)

Take-out Pizza! Check. This will likely happen many more times. :)

Zaxby's!!!  (helped keep us sane during car shopping)

Everything is Awesome

Jet lag has been pretty brutal...but so far, most things about America are as awesome as we remembered. At the very least, we are enjoying a "honeymoon phase" of re-entry. We have checked  eleven things off the list of "Things We Are Looking Forward to in America."  About 30 more to go, then we can get down to the business of figuring out what to do with the rest of our lives. :)

Page One of "The FUN List"

Bacon Hamburger in the D.C. airport

Gingerbread houses!

A good use of the leftover Halloween candy

Pickles! HAM!  Cream Cheese!!! AMAZING

Its so big :)

so much meat!

Blue Cheese! Pears! Lettuce!

Christmas puzzles

VIDEO Skype...the power didn't go out even once

Hats, gloves, and a blue sky

$0.58 cents for a donut. WHAT?!