Flying for a Four

As far as traveling goes, four continents before four months' old is not bad going. That is exactly where Luka is headed when he touches down in London tomorrow to attend his mommy's graduation from Oxford University. I will admit that the reality or even possibility of this trip was far from our minds when he surprised us with his arrival in March. We are thrilled that he is doing so well, and so far (touch wood of course) has proven to be an excellent traveler (much better than his napping skills!).

Academic Nap

11 July 2011 - Luka practicing his new napping skills

After 10 days in Pretoria with family, and nearly as many large social gatherings (including a family wedding, a 60th, a 30th, and almost a Christening (long story), we are back in Cape Town for only 2 days before departing to the UK on Wednesday. I know Luka's fans are starving for news on his progress.  Well, his weight as of today is now a whopping 4.48kg (nearly 10 lbs!), and he is 58cm long.

Here is a photo I took of him today as he kept us company in the dining room.  While I worked on a lecture I have to give at Oxford university next week, and Chris caught up on his MA studies for SOAS, Luka joined us for a bit of serious napping-in-training.

Grrrrrrrandpa!

On a recent visit to the Pub at the Brass Bell restaurant in Kalk Bay, Luka and his grandpa had all sorts of exciting things to discuss.

"...pst, Grandpa..."

Have you seen my mommy - I mean, what does a
boy have to do to get a drink over here?

"Seriously?  You mean she's not here right now?"

"Ah! that's funny, I know she never goes far from me!"

...20 minutes later...

Good feed - burp cloth = grandpa burping me over the
shucked oyster shells :)

Oh! Such a fabulous Ouma!

28 June - thoroughly enjoying the toy 'worm' my Ouma
uses to amuse me

26 June - Hm...what to do...what to do..

...that's right, I think I'll have a nap in Ouma's arms

We are marching to Pretoria...

Or flying at least.  Night before our first flight since arriving in Cape Town from Darwin with Luka on May 4th.  It is absolutely insane to even begin to think how we managed that trip with more than twice the luggage (including a printer, newly arrived car seat, and clothes for two seasons), and only half the infant...

Luka currently weighs roughly 4.2kg, to think when we came here, it was only just over 2.5kg...amazing.  More amazing is that he packs nearly as much luggage as we do - hm, how does that happen?

In other news, we were sad to see Grandma and Grandpa Serjak depart yesterday.  What a splendid trip we all had together, certainly one for the books.  We'll have to work on the next time they get to see Luka - the way he's going, he might be walking by Christmas ;)

5am Musings from a hospital bed

They say you find out what real fear, worry and pain is when your child is sick or in trouble (yes Pa, I know, I know....after all I put you through), and I am coming to realixe that first-hand. While we anticipated yesterday's surgery (unlike the last adventure) and even came properly prepared (I am donning my pj's afterall), watching your infant being wheeled into surgery is not something you can ever be quite prepared for.

We are close to going home again, and as I lie here in Room 6A with Luka asleep in my arms, I cannot help but reminisce about some of the realities and milestones of this experience.

I put Luka to bed in a infant incubator in the neo-natal intensive care unit at 6PM, by the time we got back from dinner at 8pm, he had been moved outside the brightly-lit, always-buzzing humdrum of this most sacred spot where special people care for our special babies. Feeding him I looked in on all those tiny babies and realized that Luka will likely never be in the NICU again...heaven forbid he comes to hospital again, he will go to the pediatric ward.

By 2am I changed and fed him in the nursery, and by 5am he is lying withme in bed, fast asleep and peaceful. What an experience you have given us, perhaps enough for a while?

Update: Luka out of surgery

Luka is recovering after the procedure, he came out of thater wailing, like Chris said that anaethetist has a 'soft touch'. He was only interested in one thing (okay, two) and is now lying peacefully in my arms. He is in some pain but cannot have any pain killers for another three hours unfortunately.

The doctor explained that all went well, but that this sack was almost as big as the last one, so good thing we fixed it now.

No word yet on whether we get to go home tonight or not, either way, hope this is it for a while.