Birth Story of Mariah Rose

So, first of all, I haven't posted to this blog in years, which is really sad. But I am not going to let that stop me from using it to share and record this very special moment in our family. Secondly, I am going to admit right now that I have been very hesitant to actually write or share this birth story, but the reason may seem funny to you. The truth is, I actually feel like this experience is kind of sacred to me. It's not that I don't want to share it and rejoice with my loved ones, that is actually one of my favorite ways to process and internalize my birth experiences. So it's not that it's too sacred to share, it's that I am scared to let it away from myself, because I do not want it tainted or brought down in any way. I am scared that if this story makes anyone feel or say anything negative, even if it's not directed at me (like being jealous, etc.), that I cannot handle subjecting my experience to those feelings. Because I really needed the healing and the positivity that came with this birth experience. So just be super sensitive of that, please!!! And then, I would love nothing more than to celebrate this experience with you!

ALSO -- There is a lot of backstory here, before the actual labor starts. I want it all recorded, and I also think it makes the actual birth story way more powerful in context. However, if you really just want the story starting from when I went into labor, scroll down, and I will put an asterisk in front of the paragraph where that starts. Sound good?

OK, so here it goes! ... This pregnancy started out with us being very happy about this baby coming, but it was pretty rough out of the shoot, because I was extremely sick. Much more sick than with my others. (The next worst was probably Linnea's, so apparently it's the girls that do it to me.) Anyway, I had lost 10 pounds by my 8 week appointment, which is when they put me on Zofran anti-nausea medication. Which made me only feel crummy and yucky, but allowed me to force myself to eat, and keep things down. Anyway, sometime between 17 and 20 weeks I stopped needing the Zofran to survive, and I enjoyed just being pregnant for some of the summer. After a while, things got harder physically again, like pelvic ligament pain, lower back pain, etc. And carrying Nathanael (who I think weighs around 32 pounds) upstairs to his bed for naps, and hefting him (and myself) into the 15-passenger van we are driving right now (fun story ...) got to be pretty burdensome. But overall, things were going great. We were excited to be having a girl! Linnea was especially thrilled to be getting a sister, and kept saying things in her prayers like, "Thank you that I have a sister who is in Mommy's tummy." She also once corrected me when I asked if she was excited that she was going to get a sister, and she said, "Mommy, I already have a sister. She's in your tummy." I loved that! She was so right.

Anyway, even though we had loved having Nathanael born at home, and in the water, (my hardest birth by far, but I'm so glad we were at home for it) finances had shifted since the last time, including insurance, and it was looking like having another home birth was going to be a luxury we couldn't afford. So I had put some effort into trying to make my upcoming back-to-the-hospital birth experience as good as I could. I even found a hospital about 45 minutes away that was beginning to launch a water birth program, so I started going to those midwives. Now just so we are clear, I had birth experiences with my first two in the hospital with midwives that I was, for the most part, extremely satisfied with. Wanting a home birth had nothing to do with having an unusually awful hospital situation, or some kind of irrational sense of giving birth in the hospital. I had two natural (no epidural, no pain meds) births in the hospital. One was a pitocin induced birth. I loved my midwives, had great nurses, etc. So it is hard to explain why I had become so attached to home birth. Unless you've done it. Than you are probably totally feeling me! ;) It's hard to explain, but let's just say that having a natural birth in the hospital is like a Salmon swimming upstream through the rapids. You can do it, if you're prepared. But after doing it that way twice, I had felt during Nathanael's pregnancy that if I was going to keep succeeding at having natural births (which I wanted to be able to do) it was going to get harder and harder every time for me to work in spite of the system.

So now, having had my first home birth, I found this time around that the closer I got to full term with Mariah, the more uneasiness I had about being back in a hospital. Especially, because Nathanael's birth had been my hardest yet, so I had some fear about labor, so taking that fear and baggage, and going back into the harder setting once again, just seemed like a little too much. Than, add to that that the midwives I had begun to see (the ones doing waterbirths in a hospital in Murray) began to express more and more how unlikely, or at least not guaranteed, my chances were of actually being able to birth in the water. I could labor in the water, but because of my history of shoulder dystocia (shoulders getting stuck after the head is out), they could not officially have me on the study, and would most likely ask me to get out for the pushing phase.

What you have to understand here, is that in every single one of my previous births, if there was any trauma to speak of, it has always been based on something in the pushing phase. So I felt pretty desperate to have SOMETHING (preferably water, and not so much an epidural) to help me be ok during the actual pushing phase. Not to mention, my way worse of the two shoulder dystocias, that I felt after the fact could have been handled much better than it was, was the one I had on the bed in the hospital. The dystocia with Nathanael had happened in the birth tub (supposedly the scarier version) and it was handled very smoothly, and was not even scary at all. ANYWAY, you can see why I was pretty upset that my shoulder dystocia history was the reason I was ineligible for the hospital water birth.

SO ... this was a pretty tricky situation for me and Jonathan to figure out, because finances are a really big deal right now. He is not working, and we are going into debt for school. And he aslo experienced my home birth as pretty stressful and scary, because it was a really hard birth, and he felt pretty helpless with me struggling so bad. So having a homebirth was emotionally charged for him, and going to the hospital was emotionally charged for me. In my efforts to make peace with the possibility of ending up still going to the hospital, I purchased a home study Hypnobabies curriculum (at week 36! too late to take a class ...), and found a Hypnobabies trained doula we could hire if we were going to the hospital. I also talked to Jonathan and worked through some of his concerns and some of the barriers to considering a homebirth. Then I met with my previous homebirth midwife, Lisa Pugh, and talked to her about what options there were for delayed payment, etc. and just to see if she was available when I was due, etc. She was so great when I talked to her, offering us a discount, and helping me brainstorm how to not feel overwhelmed with preparations if we did end up deciding to have our baby at home after all.

When we finally decided to go for it, and switch our care over to Lisa, I was SO relieved ... and overwhelmed! Our house was a DISASTER, and I no longer had the physical stamina to clean and nest like crazy, even with my instincts wanting me to pretty badly. Anyway, I began timidly reaching out and asking for help from various support networks (family, friends in the ward, MBA Spouse Association friends, etc.) and so many wonderful angels just kept showing up and busting out list after list of To-Do items that I felt were important, but pretty much impossible to accomplish. It was really incredible. I am so indebted to so many people who not only prepared my house to welcome this sweet baby, but also cleared my mind and spirit from so much weight and uneasiness about the cleanliness and preparations.

* I always have tons and tons of contractions long before I ever go into labor. Sometimes when I tell people that, they assume I mean braxton-hicks, but they aren't really braxton-hicks. Well, some are. And some are like really strong. That's how this pregancy was. They were just really inconsistent, both the strength and the frequency. Sometimes they were like 4 or 5 minutes apart. Sometimes 30-40 minutes. Sometimes more regular for a couple hours. Sometimes hard to cope with, sometimes no big deal. So every time I was hanging out with someone and would have a contraction, there tended to be reactions like, "Oh man, this might be it!" and I was just working so hard to guard my expectations and not get my hopes up that it was going to be anytime soon. Because I was SO uncomfortable being pregnant by this point. And especially having so many contractions, I just wanted to get labor over with. But day after day, and night after night, it was never labor. So I was still in the same mindset on Friday, November 14th (the day after my due date).

I woke up that morning and casually observed to Jonathan that my contractions were in a pretty consistent pattern and were also pretty consistently strong. Huh. Anyway, not that that EVER means anything. Jonathan didn't have class that day, but he did have a lot of school work to do. He went and took care of a few things on campus, then came back and spent a little time keeping me company and helping me de-stress while the kids were napping. Because I was just not feeling good, and my contractions were about 25 minutes apart, but still consistently strong, So I was just worn out from all of it, and kind of frustrated. I was at least taking the opportunity (that day, and all the weeks of contractions before) to practice my birth hypnosis during contractions, so that was good, because I had had so little time to learn the techniques. Anyway, at some point (this was early afternoon) our awesome Fiona texted to ask me if I wanted her to come babysit for us to get a date night. So I said that would be awesome! And she said to come get her anytime. Plus, my way good friend Tammy was at Brooke's house (near Fiona's house), so I would be able to swing by on my way to get Fiona and see her too. So those were some really fun distractions.

I took the kids, while Jonathan started getting more schoolwork done. It was really fun, hanging out with Tammy and Brooke, and then Sheri's family before heading back home with Fiona in tow. And all the while having these nice strong contractions, and using my hypnosis to get through them, and everyone watching me thinking "she looks like she's in labor" and I'm like, yeah right. This is nothing. Trust me. Then on my way home, Brooke reminded me that I had scheduled a girls' night with the girls in the family to hang out and get some help with prepping my house. So me and Jonathan just went for our date on the early side, and then got back in time for my girls' night to start at 7. So at the tail end of our date, after getting frustrated at each other over whether or not to get Little Caesar's for the girls' night (don't worry, most of the date we were being pleasant to each other! haha) we were standing at the redbox waiting to rent a movie, when I had a contraction that was much much stronger than the ones I'd been having all day. I couldn't have walked or talked through it even if I wanted to. Then the redbox malfuntioned, so we couldn't get the movie anyway, and we just headed home with me feeling really exhausted and kind of bugged.

Everyone was late showing up for the girls' night (which was fine because we'd been running late too), but eventually Brooke, Wendi, and Carissa came. And they helped me a lot! I asked Jonathan what he thought we should work on, and he mentioned getting the bed made up for the birth. And I was like, "Are you sure? Cause it might not be quite as comfortable, and I think we still have a few days before this baby comes." But he said we should do it that night. So that was the last thing Wendi and Carissa did before they headed out. And yes, this whole time my contractions were consistently as strong as the one at the redbox around 7 o'clock had been. As the girls who had been here were leaving, Jennifer showed up, and Fiona became freed up with the kids having gone to bed. So they were like round 2. :) They helped me fold some laundry, and made some muffins and hard boiled and deviled eggs that I wanted on hand for during labor. And I sat on my birth ball and worked on a quilt for Mariah. and just kept trying to handle my contractions. I think they were coming like every 7 minutes at that point. Anyway, before Jennifer left she came and stroked my hair and shoulders for a little while, because she just wanted to help make me comfortable because I was so intensely involved with coping with the contractions.

The funny thing is, by the time she left, I still didn't know if I was going to "go into labor" or not that night. I was simply using my techniques to get through these contractions that I was sure were helping prep me for eventually going into labor. I decided to go to bed and get some rest, and that I should probably at least warn my mom, and the midwife, and my friend Allyson (who was coming to help, mostly because my mom had broken her arm just a week or two before) that I might end up in full blown labor that night, so they might be getting called to come in the middle of the night. And then I went to bed. It was around 11 pm at that point, I think. Anyway, Jonathan came to bed a little later. Then, sometime close to 11:30 (I should check these times with Jonathan) I woke him up with like 3 or 4 back-to-back (like pretty much no time between) very intense contractions. And he was pretty much like, so let's call the midwife, right? And I thought about it for a second, and then I said yeah, let's call her. Then while I was waiting for her to come, I sat in the glider and listened to one of my Hypnobabies CDs. So around midnight, everyone started showing up. The midwife did a cervix check as soon as she had brought her things in and set up, and she says, "So, you're an 8." And I was basically in shock/denial. I had just barely accepted that I was really going into labor about half an hour before with those back-to-back ones, and now she was telling me I was an 8??!!! So then I think somebody asked if I needed or would like anything, and I was like, "Can we can the tub ready please?" So they jumped all over that, and I just laid on my side in the bed getting through wave after wave (Hypnobabies word for contraction). At some point while I was on the bed, Allyson jumped in and started applying counter pressure to my back, which helped so much. It was like I was having to try so much harder before, and I was succeeding, but then it was suddenly easy when she was doing that.

I finally was able to get into the tub after a little while. I don't know what time it was ... probably 12:45ish? I wasn't really watching the clock. It was still helping me a lot to get counter pressure while I was in the water. And Allyson was a total champ! I had an otter pop, and a muffin, and kept drinking water. And at some point I even told everyone that I didn't mind if they kept chatting (cause it had gotten way too quiet!) I think they all got a kick out of that! Some of my birthing waves started having multiple peaks, and I just said something to Jonathan (I think I was laying my head on his shoulder at the time) like, "I'm pretty sure this is transformation!" (which is the Hypnobabies word for transition. Except instead of a negative connotation, it implies that it is the most exciting moment during the birthing time, right before you greet your baby into the world.) Yeah, talk about contrast from the transition stages of my other births!! Then it happened, I felt pushy at the end of a contraction, so I told the midwife. She checked my cervix (only the second check the whole time) and told me I was fully dilated and fine to push if I wanted to. We put my "pushing baby out" Hypnobabies track on out loud in the room, so everyone knew how I was doing my mother directed pushing and "Aah"ing and breathing the baby out, if I wanted to. I did the Aahs during contractions for a while, and then a mix of breathing, Aahing, and pushing. During one push I felt her move into the birth canal. Then a few contractions later I felt her crowning. I pushed to deliver her head, but it ended up taking several pushes, which caught me off guard, especially cause I had the crowning sensation the whole time, which was pretty intense. Then I pushed again, and it there was no more crowning sensation, but still like something big and bulky I needed to push out. And again, it took several really strong pushes to get that out, including a couple I held pretty long. And then that came loose, and it still took one more push to get her all the way out! In retrospect, I'm pretty sure all of that happened in just a few moments and in one contraction, but I must have had adrenaline slowing time down, because it felt like it took so long to push her out once she crowned! But really, I just got an adrenaline rush, and pushed her out like crazy hard and fast at that point! I ended up tearing a little bit, but not bad at all. If I hadn't psyched myself out at the end, I probably could have avoided the tear. But oh well.

What I find fascinating, is that in all of my other births, the traumatic not-so-normal things have happened with pushing stage, but I have always experienced transition as the hardest part of natural labor. Because by the time you get to push, it is not as hard to stay in control and you feel like you get to have a part in it, and it really is almost over, etc. So what's interesting, is that this time around, the only part of my entire labor where I struggled to maintain my composure and control was during pushing. And even then, I was able to mostly breathe her down, which is amazing. And the only reason it was harder than say, transition, is because of the fear I had about pushing. So I am super grateful that despite my baggage from previous births, I was able to have the most amazing, healing birth experience. And that is especially huge for me, because when we were praying about our decision whether or not to have a fourth child, our answer was that we should have 5. So I knew going into this, that I am being called to go through pregnancy and birth again in the future. I am so grateful that my preparation with Hypnobabies helped things to go smoother, and then in turn, things going smoothly helped me to handle it well, and it was such a wonderful, posititive spiral!! And my physical and emotional recovery have been phenomenal! (Day 11 today.)

Anyway, that's my story. I am still in awe of this experience, and in awe of my sweet baby girl. She's amazing!! When they first set her on my chest while I was still in the water, she just looked right at me and blinked a few times, and kept looking! It was so amazing! And when Jonathan went to take her from me so I could get out of the water (after delivering the placenta), she was holding tight to my swim top strap. It was so cute! Anyway, I feel really blessed. Thanks to all of you for your various ways of supporting me, and if you have read this entire thing, I think you deserve some kind of a prize!! Thanks for allowing me to share this special experience with you!

Love,
Aubrey

Jonathan's Journal Entry #21: Firenze-Palazzo Pitti
ITALIANO
Siamo andati a Firenze con Guilio e Niccoletta. Firenze e una cita bellissima!!! E molto diverso da Sienna perche Siena e una cita piu tranquila ma in Firenze c'e un'energia diversa. Siamo andati a Palazzo Pitti per vedere il giardino. Palazzo Pitti e un palazzo che fu costruito della famigli Pitti per dire che sono meglio della famiglia Medici. Ma e buffo perche la famiglia Pitti dopo ebbe fatto fallimento e la famiglia Medici compro il palazzo. Non ci sono parole per descrivere la bellezza del giardino. Mi e piaciuto molto. Pur troppo non c'era molto spazio sul nostro memory card e abbiamo fatto solo alcune foto. Dopo il Palazzo Pitti abbiamo visto altre cose nella cita di cui possiamo spiegare in un alro blog post perche in questo momento devo andare via- non ho piu tempo per scrivere oggi!

ENGLISH
Went went to Florence with Guilio and Niccoletta. Florence is a beautiful city!!! It is very different than Siena. Siena is more calm and Florence has a different kind of energy. We went to Palazzo Pitti to see the gardens. Palazzo Pitti is a HUGE palace built by the Pitti family to boast of their greatness- and mostly to say that they were better and greater than the Medici family. The funny thing is that the Pitti family couldn't maintain it and went bankrupt, afterwhich the Medici family bought the palace. There are not words to describe the beauty of the gardens. I loved them! Unfornutately we were running out of space on our memory card and could not take as many pictures as we would have liked. After Palazzo Pitti we went and saw other parts of the city that we will have to share in other blog posts because right now I have to run.

Taken at Piazza Michelangelo. Florence in the Background.

Ponte Vecchio

Some Pictures taken at Palazzo Pitti:

Giulio and Niccoletta

The back of the Palace

Giulio, Niccoletta and Aubrey

Jonathan's Journal Entry #20- Castagne
ITALIAN
Una persona a Assicurazioni Generali ha portato un sacco di castagne. Mi hanno detto che castagne e un cibo tipico di autunno. Tutti stavano emozionati quando lui ci ha portato le castagne. Si arrostiscono su un fuoco e dopo si mangiano. Ma mi hanno detto che se mangia troppo fa male di stomaco! Ho mangiato 3 e mi sono piaciuti molto. A Aubrey non le piaciono. Ora capisco meglio la canzone che dice "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." Suppongo che erano anche una volta parte della nostra cultura.

ENGLISH
Someone a Assicurazion Generali (one of my internships) brought in a bunch chestnuts. They told me that chestnuts are common in Italy in the Fall time. Everyone was very excited when he brought us chestnuts. They roast the chestnuts over a fire and then eat them. In the streets you will see people roasting and selling them. They warned me that if you eat too many you get a stomach ache (one of them would only eat one because she ate too many once and regretted it!). I ate three and liked them a lot. They are kind of sweet. Aubrey didn't like them. Now I understand better the song that says "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." I guess they were more part of our culture too once upon a time.

Jonathan's Journal Entry #19
ITALIAN
Noi siamo andati alla casa dove abita una studentessa study abroad di BYU fuori della cita. La famigla con cui vive la studentessa fa miele sulla proprieta. Era interessante vedere un po di come si fa. Loro anche hanno un giardino di cui hanno fatto una cena per noi. Anche Aubrey ed io speriamo avere un giardino qualche giorno della cui possiamo cucinare. Della proprieta c'e una vista bellissima e per fortuna c'era anche un tremonto del sole bellissimo. Mi piace com'e la vita italiana fuori della cita.

Abbiamo fatto alcune foto.

ENGLISH
We went to the house where one of the BYU study abroad students is living outside of the city. The family that she is staying with make honey on their property. Is was interesting to see a little bit of how it is made. They also have a garden that they used to make us dinner. Aubrey and I also hope to have a garden someday with which we could make good, fresh food. Their property also has a great view and luckily we were able to see a beautiful sunset as well. I like Italian life outside of the city.

We took some pictures. I wish our camera was better at capturing sunsets.

Aubrey's Journal Entry #16--Mercato mediovale

ITALIANO

Sabato scorso c'e stato un grand evento nella piazza del campo--un mercato mediovale! Era veramente divertente. Non si vede nelle foto qui, pero c'era una parte della piazza con una mostrazione per bambini. C'era musica e persone in costume. Mi faceva ricordare il film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" quando nella piazza fuori la catedrale c'e una festivale. Il mercato ha consistato per la maggior parte di opere artigionale o di varie cibi (tante avevano mieli in diversi tipi). E stato un'esperienza molto bella, e sono contenta di aver'avuto l'opportunita di vedere questo spettacolo prima di partire questa grande citta.

ENGLISH

Last Saturday there was a grand event in the piazza del campo--a medieval market! It was very enjoyable. You can't see it in these photos, but there was one part of the piazza that had a show going on for children. There were people dressed up and acting, and fun music. It reminded me a lot of the scene on the movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" when there is a festival in the piazza outside the cathedral. The booths in the market were mostly artisan products or various foods (many had fun varieties of home proccessed honey). It was a wonderful experience, and I am glad to have had the opportunity to see this spectacular sight before leaving this great city.

Jonathan's Journal Entry #18: Su la cita di Siena

ITALIAN
Alcune settimane fa abbiamo fatto una passegiata con un colega mio, Giulio, e la sua fidanzata, Niccoletta. Siamo andati al museo dell' opera del duomo di Siena. E un museo buonissimo! Si pou vedere dipinti, sculture, libri vecchi, tesori, etc. Mi ha piacuto molto. Alla fine si puo salire su un muro altissimo. E una delle tre punte piu alte di Siena. Si puo vedere TUTTO. Siena e veramente una cita propia bella. Il muro fu fatto perche stavano facendo un duomo nuovo (piu grande) fa 800 anni ma per causa del "black death" e la mancanza del denaro non e stato finito.
Dopo il museo siamo tornati a casa nostra e Guilio ci ha fatto un pranzo buonissimo.

ENGLISH
A few weeks ago we hungout with a colleague of mine, Giulio, and his finance, Niccoletta. We went to the museum of the works of the Duomo of Siena. It is an awesome museum! Within it are paintings, sculptures, old books (they are AWESOME), treasures, etc. I loved it! At the end of the museum you can get on top of a huge wall. It is one of the three hightest points in Siena. You can see EVERYTHING. Siena is truely a very beautiful city. The wall was built because they were building a "New Duomo" (bigger and better) around 800 years ago, but because of the black death and lack of financing it was never finished.
After the museum, we returned back to our apartment and Guilio made us a wonderful lunch!

Our apartment is in this one. I wont bother trying to point it out. Okay, I will give it a shot. I TINY bit right of the center of the picture there is a window. It is open and there is actually someone standing in it (the person is basically a white spec in the window). Find that window. The roof top of our apartment is the roof top directly under that window. To put things into perspective- even though our roof top is lower than most of those around us- our building is three stories high.

I thought Babo Knutson would especially appreciate this one. This sign was up at the top of this wall we climbed. There is always work for translators in the world.

Left to Right. Aubrey, Linnea, Guilio (long hair and glasses), Niccoletta, Stranger.


This tree sticks out of the city like a sore thumb.

Jonathan's Journal Entry#17: Cucinando cibo italiano

ITALIAN

A Aubrey e a me piace molto il cibo italiano. Aubrey sta imparando molto con lo stage che ha e ogni giorno cuciniamo e mangiamo cibo italiano. Ci piaciono molto pasta fatto a casa, torta salata, bruschetti, pizza, etc etc etc! Mmmmmmm... Anche abbiamo imparato come cucinare con ingredienti elementari come farina, zucchero, olio, uovo, latte, etc. Ora possiamo mangiare cibo buonissimo in una maniera molto economica. Yum. Yum. Yum.

ENGLISH

Aubrey and I love Italian food. Aubrey is learning a ton at her internship and everyday we cook and eat italian food. We love home-made pasta, torta salata, bruschetti, pizza, etc etc etc! Mmmmmmmm... And now we know how to cook with basic ingredients like flour, sugar, oil, egg, milk, etc. We know now how to eat GREAT food at VERY economical prices. And the great thing is that these foods are easy to make. Yum. Yum! Yum!!! Just the lifetime improvement in our kitchen makes all the money spent on this trip worth it!!!

The following pictures are examples of some common sights in our kitchen - all made from scratch. (Try not to drool too much):

Making pasta. It is very hard to describe how much better home made pasta is than store bought pasta.

I figured that this delicuos plate of pasta with mushroom sauce (You have to ask Aubrey to know what it is really called) cost less than 70 cents in US dollars- and that is after a horrible currency conversion rate! And though it looks like a small plate in the picture- it really filled me up! SO GOOD!!!

Jonathan's Journal Entry 16:Dolcetto o Scherzetto
ITALIANO
Siamo andati il 31 di Ottobre a la chiesa per una festa di Halloween. Noi non abbiamo portato niente per costume per Halloween, insomma avevamo bisogno di usare creativita. Aubrey e stata una vampira, Linnea e stata una scimmia, ed io sono stato un pirata. Ci siamo divertiti molti. Qui in Italia Halloween si sta diventando piu popolare ogni anno. Anche alcuni bambini vanno casa a casa dicendo "dolcetto o scherzetto" come negli stati uniti.


ENGLISH
For Halloween this year we went to the a Halloween Party at the church here in Siena. We didn't bring any halloween costume stuff so we had to be creative. Aubrey was a vampire, Linnea a monkey, and I was a pirate. We had a lot of fun. Here in Italy, Halloween is becoming more and more widespread. Even the kids dress up now and go house to house saying "little sweet or little trick" (Trick or Treat) like we do in the states.

Turns out I married a vampire.

The medieval Siena streets are perfect for Vampire pictures:

Got to love those long white vampire fingers.

Family Halloween Picture. I love this picture.

La Festa (The party)

Every Pirate has a treasure map.

Best Picture for last

Aubrey's Journal 15--Nota culturale

ITALIANO
Una breve nota culturale. All inizio di questo viaggio, ho scritto qualcosa riguardo alla tendenza degli italiani di inserire le nostre opinioni quando non sono necessariamente benvenuti. Ma ora voglio dire a voi che a causa della mia presente difficolta' con salute, inizio ad essere molto grata per la buona parte della stessa tendenza--cioe' il desiderio di sapere cosa c'e', e come potete aiutare, e cosa hai gia fatto per combattere il problema, e di dare consiglio per cose di provare, ecc, ecc. Sento l'amore vero di tutti che conosco qui a causa di questa la mia difficolta, e finalmente posso dire che anche quest aspetto della cultura italiana con cui ho avuto un po di difficolta ora mi trova bene, e che lo manchero molto quando lascio questo paese.

ENGLISH
A brief cultural note. At the beginning of this trip, I wrote something regarding the tendency of Italians to insert their opinions when they are not necessarily welcome. But now, I want to say that because of my current difficulties with health, I am beginning to feel very grateful for the good side of this cultural tendency--which is the desire to know what is going on with you, and to know how they can help, and to know what you've already done about it, and to tell you what else to try, etc, etc. I truly feel the love of all of my friends here because of this hard time I'm going through, and I can finally say that even this aspect of Italian culture that I had a hard time with at first is now very dear to me, and that I will miss it very much when I leave this place.

Aubrey's Journal 14--Halloween

ITALIANO
Il mio scoperto nuovo e che gli italiani hanno cominciato a celebrare la festa di Halloween. Il ramo ha una festa programmata, ma io pensavo che fosse perche e una scusa per una festa. Ma in fatti, secondo qualcuno con cui Jonathan ha parlato, alcuni italiani vanno per trick-or-treating. Interessante, secondo me, perche mostra l'influenza della cultura americana sulla cultura italiana. E preferito che si masca per la festa del ramo, ma non ho portato niente. Al meno cerciamo qualche "costume" per Linnea. Vorrei chiedere per idee, ma non c'e tempo. Nella settimana prossima, attendete delle foto della festa! Buon Halloween a tutti!!

ENGLISH
So, my recent cultural discovery is that Italians have begun in some numbers to celebrate Halloween! The branch has a party planned, but I assumed that was because it made a fun excuse for a party. But it turns out, according to an Italian Jonathan was talking to, that some Italians actually go trick-or-treating. Very interesting, if you ask me, because it demonstrates the influence of American culture on Italian culture. We are encouraged to dress up for the branch party, but I didn't bring anything. We will at least try to do something cute for Linnea. I would love to get ideas, but there's no longer time for that. But you can all look forward to pictures next week! Happy Halloween to you all!

Aubrey's Journal 13--The cost of computer time

ITALIANO
All'inizio della settimana ho dovuto spedire un email (abbastanza lungo) ai miei genitori riguardo l'orario e programma di alcune cose per il semestre prossimo. Nel passato, abbiamo avuto tempo nel pomeriggio quando stavamo liberi, ma Jonathan ha comminciato un secondo stage e io ho dovuto fare tutto senza lui. Per qualche minuti Linnea stava contenta, ma velocemente si e stata noiosa. C'erano alcune ragazze dal gruppo study abroad di BYU e ho chiesto una di loro di fare la babysitting. Era d'accordo, e per forse 5 minuti piu potevo scrivere, al meno che Linnea non mi vedeva. Ma dopo 5 minuti ha cominciato a piangere. La ragazza non poteva calmarla, e io l'ho preso. Ho lasciato il computer per dare latte a Linnea, cambiare il panolino, e provare di addormentarla. Dopo qualche tempo, e senza aver riuscito, la stessa ragazza di prima ha offerto di provare a giocare ancora. Mi sono scapata per usare il computer, e nella sala vicina ho sentito un gruppo di almeno 4 ragazze di BYU imitando quando piangeva Linnea. Poi hanno cominciato a cantare a lei, e finalmente hanno riuscito ad addormentarla. L'hanno messo in passegino, e l'hanno portato a me. Per qualche minuti cosi potevo scrivere senza problema. Entra un uomo che aiuta nella cucina e che conosco e ad alta voce (in italiano, che e in generale piu forte del'inglese) comincia a parlare con me. Linnea si sveglia, e per quello che rimanava del email, ho fato in periodi brevi e intermitenti quando altre persone sono fermati a parlare con Linnea che serviva per distrattarla. Probabilmente le persone che l'hanno sentito piangendo hanno pensato che io sono una mamma orribile. Alla fine, Linnea non aveva pazienza, e io ero stanca. Che avventura! Scrivo tutto questo percio quando siete tentati a pensare che io non vi amo o che non mi importa rimanere in contatto con voi, potete ricordare il prezzo del tempo che io spendo al computer e come mi piacerebbe avere piu opportunita di parlare con ognuno di voi! Ma in verita, vi voglio un sacco di bene, e vi manco moltissimo!

ENGLISH
At the beginning of this week, I had to send a fairly long email to my parents about some plans and scheduling for this upcoming semester. In the past, we have had at least some time in the afternoons when both Jonathan and I were free, but Jonathan has started a second internship and I had to take care of this email without his help. For the first few minutes Linnea was pretty happy, but she quickly became bored. There were some girls from the study abroad group from BYU here and I asked one of them if she could watch Linnea for me. She agreed, and for maybe 5 minutes I was able to write, as long as I kept Linnea from seeing me. But after 5 minutes, she started to cry. The girl couldn't calm her down, so I took her back. I left the computer to feed Linnea, change her diaper, and try to get her to sleep. After a while, and not having succeeded, the same girl as before offered to try to entertain her again. I escaped back to the computer, and in the next room where the girls had Linnea I heard a group of at least 4 of them imitating when Linnea would cry. Then they started singing to her, and finally they succeeded in getting her to sleep. They put her into the stoller and brought her to me. For a little while, I was able to write with her like this without any problems. Then a man here at the school that works sometimes in the kitchen with me came in and stopped to talk with me in a loud voice (in Italian, which is generally more strong than english). Linnea woke up, and for the rest of the email, I typed in short, intermittent spurts when other people would stop and talk to Linnea which would distract and entertain her. The people who had heard her crying and saw me ignoring her while on the computer (not ignoring her safety, obviously, but not playing with her) probably thought I was a horrible mother! At the end Linnea was out of patience, and I was exhausted. What an adventure! I am writing about this so that when any of you are tempted to this that I don't care about you or that I have no interest in staying in contact, you can remember the price for the time that I spend at the computer and how much I would love to be able to write to everyone of you if I could! But I do love and miss you all!

Jonathan's Journal Entry #15: Gli Stage
ITALIAN
Questo post sara semplice. Oggi nel lavoro ho mostrato a Guilio alcune cose che posso fare e che ho fatto con Microsoft Excel e lui si e diventato emozionato. Non so se vi ho detto primo o no, ma Microcredito e parte della Banca Monte dei Paschi, la banca piu vecchia del mondo e penso che sia la banca piu grande d'Italia. Dunque, dopo che ho mostrato a Guilio un po' di excel, lui e anche un'altra collega, la cui ha anni con Banca Monte dei Paschi, hanno cominciato di dirmi che devo tornare per cominciare un career con Banca Monte dei Paschi.

Per ottimizare il tempo cui in Italia, lunedi comincero un altro stage. Questo stage e con Gruppo Banca Generali, una compania grande di assicurazione. Ho gia parlato con loro e sono molto emozionato. Nella mattina lavorero con Microcredito e nel pomeriggio con Generali. Piu o meno otto ore in totale. Sara buono per me e sono molto emozionato per l'opportunita di ottenere piu esperienza.

ENGLISH
This blog will be simple. Today at work I showed Giulio some of the things I could do/have done on Microsoft Excel and he got really excited. I dont know if I mentioned this earlier or not, but Microcredito is a part of Banca Monte dei Paschi, the oldest bank in the world and I think the biggest in Italy. So Guilio and another employee, who has been working for Banca Monte dei Paschi for a long time, started talking about how I should come back to Italy for a career working for Banca Monte dei Paschi.

To be able to optimize my the use of my time here I got another internship that I start on Monday with Gruppo Banca Generali, a very large insurance company. I have already gone and met them once and am really excited to start with them. So I will cut back a little bit at Microcredito and do both internships at the same time, about four hours at each. It will be really good for me! I am excited!

Aubrey's Journal 12--La cucina

ITALIANO

Finalmente ho una foto di una delle classe di cucina che frequento per il mio stage. Intendo di fare piu foto prima di partire, ma e un po' difficile perche c'e sempre tanto da fare dal inizio alla fine. Ma almeno questa vi puo dare un senso dell'ambiente della cucina. Io amo questo stage! Sto imparando moltissimo, e i miei rapporti con i cuochi, altri aiutanti, e anche i clienti, sono un fonte di molto gioia. Sono emozionata che quando torno, posso condividere la mia nuova conoscenza della cucina italiana con tanti di voi! Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

ENGLISH

I finally have a photo of one of the cooking classes I've been going to for my internship. I intendo to take more pictures before I leave, but it is a little hard because there is so much for me to do the entire time I'm there. At least this picture can give you a sense of the atmosphere of the class and the kitchen. I am loving this internship! I am learning so much, and my relationships with the cooks, the other helpers, and even the students, are a real source of joy for me. I am excited when I return to be able to share my new knowledge of italian cooking with many of you! I love you all a lot! Ciao!

Nella foto, stiamo facendo tortelloni (un piatto italiano molto importante nella mia famiglia!)

In this photo, we are making fresh tortelloni (a very important italian dish in my family!)

Aubrey's Journal 11-- Linnea is super mobile!

ITALIANO
Come sempre, devo mettere un post per il "Linnea fan club"! Queste foto sono alcuni esempi della sua crescita recente. Puo' scalare scale, alzarsi, camminare come un gatto velocemente, camminare se si tiene per mano, e piu recentemente, ha comminciato di ballare quando sente musica!! Abbiamo alcuni video, ma l'internet e' troppo lento per mettergli sul blog. :( Mi dispiace! Ma e' veramente carina! A volte, lei canta da sola a balla (senza altra musica!). Ed oggi, per la prima volta, ha comminciata di fare il segno del "touchdown" in football americano. Stiamo preparandola per la partita in novembre di BYU verso Utah, l'unica partita di quest autunno che possiamo guardare.


ENGLISH
Like always, I have to do a post for the "Linnea fan club"! These photos are some examples of her recent growth and development. She can now climb stairs, bring herself up to standing, crawl very fast, walk if you hold her hands, and, more recently, she has started dancing when she hears music!! We have some videos of her doing it, but the internet is too slow to post them on the blog. :( sorry! But it's really cute! Sometimes, she sings on her own and dances to her singing (without any other music happening!). And today, for the first time, we got her to make the sign for touchdown in football. We're getting her ready for the BYU v. Utah game, the only football game we get to watch this fall (except bowl games of course).

Climbing from our bed into this little alcove has now become a morning ritual for Linnea! We constantly have to move the lamp and flowers, and whatever else so she can't terrorize any of it. It's very cute, though, how much she loves to climb around!

This picture shows Linnea wrestling with Davide Rotelli at their home. Pick on someone your own size, Linnea!

Yes. She did get into this drawer by herself, after opening it and emptying it herself! And yes, she did get out by herself, without getting hurt at all! She like flopped out and the drawer shut as she landed on her tummy on the floor! Hillarious!