Less Than Me

Tonight is our last night in our Maroubra flat. We have to pack up and be out by tomorrow night, and then the following morning we fly out of Sydney for our two week tour of Australia. We have only barely started packing, so tomorrow should be an insanely busy day.

My last final was yesterday, so now I'm officially done with school. I should get my results in the next few weeks, and then (assuming I did ok on my finals) I'll have a Masters degree!

Jessica is 8.5 weeks old now and is doing very well. She's been a bit grumpy the last few days, but it's easy to overlook because she is so dang cute! I absolutely love the whole daddy experience, far more than I expected to.

This month marks Less Than Me's 5th birthday. These last 5 years have been a fun/crazy ride that wildly outstripped my expectations. Hawaii, Europe, Australia, a Masters degree, and a wonderful little baby girl. Wow!

I suspect the next 5 years won't be as wild and exciting, but I'm fine with that. The goals/dreams I have now don't really fall into the adventuresome category: find a job that I love, be a great dad for Jessica (and her sibling, if one arrives), continue my programming studies (this time on my own), get involved in volunteer work, try my hand at home brewing beer. (Ok, that last one sounds adventuresome!)

In the short term, these next few months should be interesting. It feels a bit like we just hit the reset button on our lives. No jobs, no money, no home, no car, no solid plans... We get to build it all back up from scratch in whichever way we'd like. I suppose that should sound like a lot of work to me, but it doesn't... it just sounds fun.

So, here's to the next five years, may they be as fulfilling as the last five...

Well it's that time again... Spur of the moment vacation time!!!!

My last final is on Nov 14th, but we don't fly to Hawaii until Dec. 4th, so... that gives us about two weeks to go see something new!

We gave notice to our landlord that we're moving out on the 16th, and two days ago we started planning a 'see as much of Australia as we can in two weeks' adventure.

Planning has gone well, and I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised at how quick we whipped up these plans. Two days ago we had nothing, today we have 4 one-way plane tickets (involving 6 cities) booked, rental cars reserved in two different cities, and five of our nine hotels booked!

So... Our plan? I made up a map that pretty much sums it up. Green lines represent flights, blue lines represent driving, the plan is described on the left. If you click on the light blue regions (on the map, or on the left hand side) the pop up bubble will give a link to a more detailed map of our driving plans for that region.

We leave on the 17th, so that gives us a short eleven days to study for my finals, sell our stuff, and pack up and move out. I guess I missed the hectic days of a few weeks ago, so I decided to recreate them!

Today is October 30th, I just finished our Australian taxes... they are due on October 31st! The form is an eight page booklet, but it was mostly blank for us uncomplicated tax filers. No married filing jointly option here, Kara and I had to each fill out a full tax form. Once we had it all filed out, I saw something in the booklet about e-filing, so we went online and found out how. I downloaded the free program and basically transcribed the data from paper to computer. It was all pretty easy, and it turns out we get almost all of our taxes back!

Kara and my combined income for this past year was... wait for it... $18,000 AUD. They withheld $3400 throughout the year, but we are getting all but about $700 back! Not only that, but when we move away we get to cash out our superannuation (basically a social security account paid by our companies) which has a couple of thousand dollars in it. We're loaded! Especially at the current exchange rate...

Tuesday was quite an adventure for our happy little family. We had an appointment at 9am at the US Consulate to get Jessica all registered with America! We had to get tons of paperwork together to prove that we are who we say we are. We found out the day before that we actually have to get Jessica a passport so we can bring her home! So we had to get passport photos taken of her... that was not easy!

Security was pretty tight at the consulate, but once we were in, it was basically like DMV. They had a special short line for US Citizens, so we were in and out in less than an hour! In three weeks we get to go back to pick up her Consular Report of Birth Abroad, Social Security Card, and Passport.

We were out on Martin Place before 10am, so we hit the MLC food court for a late brekky. Then we figured we'd make the most of being in the CBD. So we walked over to the Botanic Gardens and up to the Sydney Opera House. We hadn't yet actually visited the Opera House, but we obviously wanted to see it before we leave! We went on a tour of the place, and fortunately Jessica kept quiet for the whole hour. The tour was pretty interesting, lots of unique architecture, and some video clips of the history of the building. The ticket price was pretty steep ($30/person) but I'd say it was worth it.

After the tour we walked down to Circular Quay and caught a bus back to Martin Place. We had yummy Chinese food for lunch, then we went shopping for some electronic toys (I got a new 5 button laser mouse, Kara got a new mic headset for Skyping). Then we decided to call it a day, and caught a bus back home.

It was a pretty great day for being completely unplanned!

Things are mighty busy at the moment! Jessica is 5 weeks old now, and she isn't too fond of sleeping at night. A lot of my waking time at home is spent holding her, because she usually cries when not being held.

This is also my last week of class! I just had my final robotics assignment marked (100% !) and I have three assignments due on Friday! It's impossible to code while holding Jessica, so my assignments have been getting ignored as I hold her (and play on the computer). After Friday, things get relaxed again for a little while. My first final is on Nov. 3rd. Then I have two finals on the 13th and one on the 14th...

We also need to start the process of liquidating our stuff and find someone to take over our lease. Kara's been hounding the registration office to get Jessica's birth certificate so we can register her with the U.S. Consulate Office. Plus, our Australian taxes are due on Oct 31st, and we haven't even looked at the book yet to see how to do it! Oh, and I have to fill out and mail my absentee ballot before it's too late. And I suppose it's about time to update my resume and start looking around for a job. So, yeah, it's as crazy as can be right now!

Sunday 09-21-08

Today is Sunday, so it's been a week since you started getting ready to come out of mommy! Last week, on Saturday night, mommy's back started hurting really bad. Then all night she kept getting up to throw up!! In the morning, she called the doctors, and they said she should come in.

When we got to the hospital, they looked at mommy, and told her that she had started contractions. You weren't supposed to come out for another month, so the doctors worked at stopping the contractions. First they gave mommy some medicine to stop her from throwing up. Then they gave her an IV to replenish her fluids so she wouldn't be dehydrated.

Mommy spent the night in the hospital, and the contractions stopped. So on Monday evening, they let her come home! But then at 6pm on Tuesday evening mommy's water broke when she sat down on the toilet! She called the doctors again and they told her to come in right away!

We took a taxi to the hospital because we don't have a car right now. The cab driver asked "Are you going to visit a new baby?" Mommy said "I'm going to go HAVE a new baby!" When we got to the hospital, they put us in a delivery room and did some tests. Hours went by and mommy started having contractions that really hurt! She asked for some medicine to make her hurt less, called an epidural, but it didn't work for some reason. So mommy had to push you out without any pain medicine!

At 2:30am or so, mommy first started pushing you out. It took a long time, I guess you didn't want to come out! After a while I could see the top of your head and some of your hair! Then at 3:59 in the morning, you finally came all the way out!! They put you on mommy for a quick cuddle, then they baby doctor looked at you to make sure you were ok. They said you were small because you came early, but you were healthy and good.

You were all slimy but I still thought you were really cute! I noticed that you looked a lot like aunt Julie and cousin Chloe when they were babies! I was so hungry after being up all night, so while mommy held you, I ate an apple that I brought with me! After some rest, the midwives moved us to a new room where you and mommy could sleep. There was no room for me to sleep, but I was REALLY tired! So in the afternoon I went home and slept for a few hours.

After my nap, I came back to the hospital to visit you some more. The next few days were uneventful, you and mommy worked on your breastfeeding teamwork and you and me worked on our cuddling. We thought we were going to be able to go home yesterday, but the doctor told us we have to stay because of your jaundice. They just came in to test your blood to see if things are looking good. We should know in a few hours!

...

The doctors came back later and told us that you need to stay another night in the hospital. Mommy was very sad because she REALLY wanted to go home! She also was very tired and was worried about the night time since you would have to stay under the lights. She told a midwife that she couldn't handle another night like last night, and the midwife said she'd see what she could do.

A little while later she came back with a new machine that shined the light out of a blanket! Now you could be all wrapped up and snug, and also get the light that you need! We wrapped you up and turned it on, and you were already asleep after 5 minutes. Finally you were a happy baby and that made us happy parents! You slept almost the whole day, and mommy and me took a nap too!

At dinner time, mommy didn't want to eat any more icky hospital food. So I walked to an Indian restaurant and got mommy's favourite dish, Aloo Gobi. When I got back to the room with the food, you were crying! We made sure you had eaten enough, then we put you back to bed and you went to sleep. Then we ate our yummy Indian food!

It's 10:16pm right now, and you are awake now and having a late night snack. Then we'll put you back to sleep for three hours when you'll be hungry again! I hope you sleep good!

We FINALLY got to come home today! Shortly after we arrived, I decided to start her education. She hadn't heard any music yet, so I picked some good Beatles songs to kick her off. I think she's a fan!

Jessica's first tunes:

• All You Need Is Love
• Here Comes The Sun
• Let It Be
• Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
• Blackbird

Early Sunday morning 9-21-08

Last night was pretty tough for mommy and you! It was your third full night but you didn't sleep very well. The doctors told us you have jaundice which makes you all yellow! To fix it, they needed to put a special kind of light over your bed. The light needs to be on your skin, so they took off all your clothes except your diaper (or your nappy, as they call it in Australia). You didn't like that at all!!! You really like to be wrapped up tight in a sheet and cuddled, but we couldn't do that to fix your jaundice! So every time we'd lay you down into your bed, you'd start crying!

Oh, I forgot to tell you something! The light the doctors are using can hurt your eyes (just like the sun) so they have to put this little mask on you. It's supposed to just cover your eyes, but sometimes it slides down to cover your nose and mouth. I'm sure the mask is uncomfortable, because you cry almost every time we put it on you!

You did not finally start sleeping last night until 4 in the morning! All of your crying must have made you super hungry, because you fed a whole lot on mommy's milk last night! You would drink and drink, then get really sleepy. So we'd try to lay you in your bed, under the light. But then you'd just start crying again! The midwife and mommy finally got you to sleep for a while; you've been sleeping for almost three hours. I'm not sure what they did differently, because I was sleeping! One thing they did was bring in a heater to keep you warm. Now it is SO HOT in here, but that's ok, as long as you keep sleeping.

Jessica Danielle Foster

Born at 3:59am on September 17th, 2008

length: 47 cm (18.5 inches)
weight: 2625 g (5 lb 12 oz)

More photos!

We bought our tickets home today... I'll leave it to you to determine where exactly home IS. Here's our itinerary:

December 4th: Sydney -> Honolulu
December 8th: Honolulu -> Maui
December 15th: Maui -> Portland

We don't know how much actual beach time we'll be able to get with the newborn in tow, but the cheapest flight we could find was through Hawaii, so we figured we'd make a thing of it! We've got friends on Maui and Oahu now, so we'll be making the rounds showing off the little one.

Oh yeah, and for those who only read my blog and not Kara's... Kara is pregnant and the due date is October 13th!