Week 1

Once upon a time, 7 days ago...
I can't believe it's been a week. It seems simultaneously to have taken 10 years and 10 seconds - 10 years worth of learning about diaper changes, goopy eyes, baby baths...you name it, I've talked to someone about it. In-depth discussions about embarrassing crevices, breastfeeding, and meconium (if you don't know, you don't want to know) -- all these topics were relatively taboo a week ago, now we're shouting about them on Skype at a volume that is guaranteed to keep our neighbors abreast (ahem) of the new developments. It seems like only last week that Kris looked like this on her way to the hospital, and something emerged that changed things dramatically.

A quick look at the past week (the 10 second version, not the 10 year version):

Friday the 25th - still smiling! They doll Kris up in paper and me in very important person scrubs, and we're off to the surgery. The obsterician, who has kept us in stitches (ha!) with random comments and questionable jokes for several months, introduces his colleague as the person who, "is there to make sure I do this right, for a change." Nevertheless, we let him do the surgery, and he delivers a swaddled replica of Mr. Magoo into our lives......and, lo! we are transformed.

Saturday and Sunday passed blissfully, as we smugly congratulated ourselves on our well-behaved child which didn't wake up and scream during the night, had reasonably easy-to-clean anatomy, and was coaxed to feed with a minimum of agony for all involved. This is now referred to as the Golden Age.

Luckily, they keep Kris in the hospital for 5 nights, allowing me to board during this time, so that we all get to see how Noah developed, matured, and evolved into the full-throated 2am howler. I understand that this is inevitable, but it would have been nice to immediately fly out to California, where the time change would have resulted in a more civilized 11am hour (or two) of inconsolability. Inconsolableness? Whatever the noun, there are a million adjectives to describe this time, few of them charitable. Kris soldiered on, and we relied on the help of the professional staff at the hospital for helpful tips, like, "Just see what works," and "Oh, they all do that."

By Tuesday night, we were facing a trip home the next morning, and viewing with more than a little trepidation the first night on our own. Well. We needn't have worried. Yes, he cried, yes we sang ourselves hoarse and exhausted our meager supply of lullabies, and yes we discovered new ways to calm him and make him cry, but we made it out the other end. And, as Nietzsche promised, we're stronger for it. It didn't kill us, anyway. Yet.

Noah

Nathan & Kristin Mannix
are pleased to announce
the birth of their son

(FINALLY) after 5 days at the hospital without internet......

NOAH WILLIAM MANNIX

was born on

25 March 2011 at 2:06 pm
(Perth Standard Time, Australia)
at St John of God Hospital, Murdoch, WA 6150.

At birth he weighed (4.82 kg; 10 lb 10 oz),
was 53 cm long (21 in) and had a head circumference of 38.5 cm (15 in).

We have now returned to our home in Meadow Springs,
with Grandma Gretchen & Grandma Bonnie helping us settle in.
We'd love to introduce you to Noah via skype,
and are planning to back in the US this summer to introduce you all in person.

So it's not so much the birthing (that's mostly Kris in the starring role with me in the cameo) as the parenting that's worrying. Now that I'm looking around me, I've started to see hazards in everyday life. It's not just the things that we eat and drink (although the maker of this product was obviously asleep through 2002-2003 to think this was a good name) that are worrying, but also the little things in your environment. Barely perceptible things, like tiny spiders...at least, tiny by Australian standards. And then there's the psychological impact of dad's hair in the morning!

Maybe all of these worries will be assuaged when we go to parenting classes. Until then, I will likely continue to worry. Especially with this subtle reminder that I pass every morning as I walk the dogs...

Happy 2011--

Welcome to the new year! 2010 had some amazing highlights but 2011 promises to be a year of incredible firsts and new things.

Memories from 2010 included:

* enjoying the Fremantle lifestyle with a cat-sit at Edmund St, just a short walk from the beach and our new church home at St Pauls.
* Hiking the Overland Track in Tasmania--wow, what an experience!
* Celebrating my dad's birthday in January--still missing him terribly.
* Mike's visit to Australia in March--complete with Aussie BBQ, big game fishing, a trip to the outback and some prospecting and LOTS of photos.

*Loren & LoRae's visit in April--with a visit to Margaret River, a dive on the wreck HMAS Swan (much deeper than Nathan was supposed to dive!), and a glimpse of our ideal retirement.
* Singing the Hallelujah Chorus with the St Paul's choir for Easter, and Nathan's "surprise" trumpet solo for Joshua Fit the Battle at the St Paul's Consecration.
*saying goodbye to Nathan's grandma, Ethel Mannix online while Kristin recovered from surgery in May.
* moving to the 'burbs (Secret Harbour) to take care of a house and 2 red setters, giving up Foxtel, and being pregnant in 3 weeks!

* Catching up with friends at Kristin's 20 year HS reunion
*Kristin's long visit back to the US to spend time with family & Nathan's rushed visit just in time to see his mom break her shoulder!
* Discovering we were were 10 weeks pregnant just in time for our 14th wedding anniversary.
*Kristin acting as guest musical director for Band of Angel's Gospel Choir for 6 weeks, culminating in 2 performances (one for the Fremantle City Council at Christmas).
* Co-Hosting an orphan's thanksgiving for the North American students with Emily & Justin
* Finding Advent and Christmas sermons take on new meaning and relevance when you are waiting for a baby, too.
* Singing for Christmas at St Pauls, enjoying Christmas dinner with the Gwynnes & Michael & Jen.

We are looking forward to 2011 with the many new experiences that it will bring:
* A baby boy on April 1, 2011 (no foolin'!)
* 15 years of marriage (and 20 years together)
* visits to Australia from Deb, Tim & Caitlyn, Bonnie (Kris' mum) and Gretchen (Nathan's mum)
* a visit home in June/July for a christening/Nathan's 20 year reunion (?)
* Kristin's year-long maternity leave (thank you, Murdoch!)
* moving to a new home & buying a new "baby-friendly" car
* getting Australian citizenship (we aren't giving up our US citizenship, just want to have a passport that matches our son's!)
* first everythings--cries, laughs, poos, words, haircuts, teeth and more!

We'd love you to be a part of it--come for a visit, keep in touch! We promise to talk about something other than baby stuff.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Nathan & Kristin

My new theme song--KT Tunstall

From here to maternity

Well, after having been together for 19 years, Nathan and I are finally starting a family. When we first started dating Nathan was committed to never having kids (for a range of reasons such as overpopulation to genetic selection to being overwhelmed by the responsibilities of parenthood depending on the time and place of the discussion). I had always presumed kids would be a part of my future, but was convinced he would change his mind.

In our classic non-decisive way, we agreed to wait until i was 30 and discuss it then. For some people this would be a recipe for disaster. What happens if we disagreed fundamentally about this after having invested 10 whole years in each other. But filled with the certainty that love would conquer all (and that one of us would convince the other to change his/her mind), procrastination was a way of life.

Somewhere in the next 10 years of happy couplehood, I came to realise that Nathan and I were very happy just the two of us....I enjoyed the travel, the time for theatre, music, sports and occasional bouts of total irresponsibility and spontaneity. When Crystal came to live with us, we really understood the total commitment that being a good parent demanded (and how much our lives would have to change to accommodate that). No more dinners at 10 pm or last minute nights out with the girls/guys. So 30 came and went, and I stopped asking the question.

So it was a bit of a surprise when after my 35th birthday, Nathan started asking the question, "Do you want to have kids?" I suppose, as a biologist, he could hear the clock ticking before I could. Each of us was more ready to accept the other's position, confident that we could be happy as long as we were together.

Then my body raised the question again, this time asking us to make a definite choice. A trip to the Dr revealed that I would need surgery--if we weren't going to have kids, the healthier, long-term option was a hysterectomy. If we wanted kids, well, there was a higher risk option. Surprisingly, we both quickly agreed, we would take the higher risk to keep our chance for a child.

While we were both confident that we would be happy together just us two, we began to become more proactive about starting a family. Our plans seemed thwarted when some follow-up Drs visits revealed the need for more surgery. This time, the surgery provided a much clearer prognosis....the chances of us having a child without medical intervention were small.

But just as we dealt with the question of EXACTLY how proactive we wanted to be, we were facing 2 months of traveling (separately) back to the US. In typical fashion, we agreed to procrastinate just a few months more. Luckily, divine intervention.

Nathan and I "fell" pregnant (that doesn't seem like the right language as it suggests it was some sort of accident--when miracle is more like it) in July. Before we knew of our luck, I was back in the US visiting my family. With no morning sickness and success a medical long-shot, it didn't occur to me that we might have succeeded until I met with Nathan in California. We kept our suspicions a secret until we could confirm it for sure.

When I returned to Australia, I made an appointment with the Dr for the bloodtest. It was positive--and we were already 9 weeks along. The Dr rushed us in for appointments, the next week we would need to get other tests done in preparation for our 12 week ultrasound scan.

It was incredible--seeing the baby move, hearing the heartbeat, watching it drink (Nathan thinks it was singing), seeing 5 tiny fingers wave at us. That moment with Nathan, who was drunk with happiness, was one of the closest we had ever shared as a couple.

I'm confident that the moments Nathan and I will share as parents will be some of the happiest and closest of our lives together.

As we are now out of the first trimester (baby is due 1 April, 2011), we wanted to let you know about our latest adventure--and hope you'll share in our excitement to be a part of it.

Kristin, Nathan, and the Bub (Australian slang for baby), here pictured in the classic "Thinker" pose.

Australian satire or Australian politics

Okay, we've been here a few years now. I should be able to figure this out. But Australian politics baffles me.


Last week Premier Kevin Rudd delayed the launch of Australians Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) , which was meant to have big companies either pay for polluting or trade their carbon credits with more environmentally friendly companies. This was part of a huge initiative--which put Australia among the first to pledge a serious reduction in carbon emissions.

After more than a year to get the policy together, the government had to delay it because they couldn't get enough support to pass it. This was due largely to leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, a global warming skeptic.

As every good minority party leader, he has to demonstrate that this delay is a failure of leadership.But today I was listening to what sounded like a "real interview" with the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott. It was so funny I couldn't be sure it wasn't an example of subtle Australian humour. (this is a bit of a paraphrase...but you get the idea)

Mr Abbott: "So now the ETS is delayed until 2013. This stuff was so important we had to do something despite the economic crisis, I ask Mr Rudd, Isn't this stuff just going to keep piling up?"
Interviewer: I thought you didn't believe in global warning, so what's the problem?
Mr Abbot: I think global warming is a load of crap...but if its so important now imagine what it will be like in 2013?
Interviewer: (pause) but you don't believe in global warming....Its a load of crap.
Mr Abbot: I do think its a load of crap but it doesn't take Einstein to figure out if let this crap build up in 3 years time its going to be a lot of crap."

I think it was a real politics, but with the Austrlian sense of humour you can never be sure.