Adventures By Design

Yup… that’s right. her umbilical cord stump fell off this evening. I was changing her when I noticed her cord was really lose, and was only hanging by a little flap of skin. Gin and I investigated, and made the prudent decision to leave it be, and let it come off when it was ready to. I carefully cleaned the area, using the special medicine our midwife Anne had given us. Aria lay there wiggling and kicking her legs, waiting until the swab was just in the right position before pow! she kicked my hand, which severed that last remaining bit of skin. Her belly button has arrived!

On Sunday October 25, 2009 at 9:46pm Aria Marie LaMonte-Bird was born (pronounced AH-ria, not AIR-ria). She came into the world weighing 3.3 kg (7 lb 4 oz) and measuring 52 cm (20.5 inches). She’s healthy, hungry, and seems have inherited her father’s curly hair (although hers is black), and her mother’s Cupid’s bow lips. Gin’s exhausted, contemplative, and tranquil. So far we’ve just been resting, learning more about each other, and getting used to the idea that our family has grown.

Dr. Jia and the staff at the hospital here in Shanghai have been very kind and supportive. We feel especially grateful to our midwife Anne for her knowledge, compassion, and caring support. Thank you also to Ryan and Maggie, Zhou ayi, and Anne’s husband for their help getting our clothes and baby supplies from Suzhou to Shanghai, as well as to Mark and Lyndal, and Eileen and Andrew for taking care of our dog Inca while we’re away.

We’ll add more details to our blog, including photos, as soon as we can.

Ric, Gin, and Aria
http://lamonte-bird.com/tag/aria/

Late Saturday evening I started fasting.  On Sunday morning we took the train to Shanghai and arrived at the hospital where we immediately checked into our room.  At first I wasn’t sure if this was really our room, or just a holding area.  The room was rather nice: leather couch, coffee table, private bathroom with towels, toothbrushes, and soap.  It’s nicer than a lot of hotels we’ve stayed in.

As some of you know I have been entertaining an unexpected and unwanted guest in my left nostril. Nicknamed Norm, short for Abnorm, I noticed a small lump in my nose several weeks ago. At first I thought it was just a scratch and would go away on its own. But after a few days, it continued to grow and worse yet, it would spontaneously bleed. This was right at the start of our trip to Egypt, which was not an ideal location to hunt for a reputable international clinic (to be fair, we never actually looked, since in our experience the Egyptian approach to honesty and integrity do not inspire any confidence).