Catch-up: Visit to Madison & Chicago

Katie spent February resting up and healing from the ordeal of Theo’s birth thanks to a ton of help from many family and friends. (Couldn’t have done it with out you all!) By the first of March, it was time to begin the long trip back to Africa. First stop: the Midwest, to visit friends and family in Chicago and Madison

We were delighted to be able to see so many friends and family during our way-too-brief stay (and our apologies to those whom we weren’t able to see!). Rich’s entire clan came to town (but for brother-in-law Parker – we missed you!) and we enjoyed the Brookfield Zoo and seemingly endless food.

In Madison, we spent time in our old neighborhood and visited our house, which is being well cared for by the couple renting it. We missed the snowiest winter in recent Madison history – more than 100 inches this year!

Ian wasn’t sure he’d remember his old Madison buddies, but all fears of that were quickly dashed when he instantly took off to play with Olivia, Martin, Maria, and other friends.

Catch-up: 1 February 2008: Theo arrives!

Our family was delighted to welcome Theodore Amos Green Beilfuss into our fold on the first day of February.
The waiting period leading up to Theo’s arrival seemed endless: I had received three due dates from three separate medical providers during the course of my pregnancy, and we had chosen to believe the earliest of these, January 19th. Actually, truth be told, I believed Theo would arrive earlier than that, and hence when January 15th passed, and then the 19th, and still no sign of baby’s arrival, we began to go a little stir crazy. The latest due date we had been given, January 24th, even proved to be a bit early. All babies come in their own time!
Theo also had been breech. He was in the “right” head-down position when we arrived in the States, but then flipped head-up in early December. With some effort we got him turned back around (playing Afro Cuban All-Stars at the bottom of my womb seemed the most successful technique for getting him moving in my belly), but all of this movement had its price, which we learned when he was born!
Theo’s birth was very dramatic, and not just a little scary. After the peaceful and uncomplicated natural birth of Ian in a hospital 5 years earlier, we were good candidates for a home birth. Seattle has one of the best-developed “alternative” birthing communities in the nation, with many experienced midwifes. There was some irony in our trying a homebirth, considering we didn’t have a “home” in Seattle! Several friends offered us their homes, however, and we ended up staying in the home of family friends I have known nearly since birth (the couple was staying at their other home in the mountains, so we had the house to ourselves). The home was on the crest of a hill overlooking Seattle neighborhoods and the Olympic mountains in the distance. It was also at the end of a steep, narrow, one-way road.
After a week or more of occasional contractions, I went into labor sometime on Thursday January 31. By 11pm things were getting more serious, and we called in the support team: my mom and best friend Christy. By 2am we called in the midwives, Beth and Bev. At about 5:30 Theo’s heart rate began to concern the midwife who, after experimenting with putting my body in different positions to see if this would resolve the baby’s stress (none did, entirely), wasted no time in ordering a hospital transfer.
First the fire truck arrived to “triage” the situation to see if we were a true emergency. The fire truck had difficulty coming down the steep, narrow street, and so parked in the middle of the street. This of course blocked the way for the ambulance, which showed up soon after. The gurney wouldn’t fit around the corner of the hallway into the bedroom where I was waiting and the firemen couldn’t figure out how to lift a naked laboring woman on her hands and knees to move me to the gurney. Finally, I walked to the gurney myself. I traveled on the gurney – on my hands and knees (the position in which Theo’s heart rate was most stable) – in the ambulance all the way to the hospital, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Rich and Beth accompanied me in the ambulance, thankfully, or I don’t think I would have stayed on that gurney.
We arrived at the hospital in 6 minutes flat. Theo was delivered by c-section 18 minutes later thanks to the speed and skill of the surgical team. The cause of his distress had been that his umbilical cord – short to begin with –was tightly wrapped around his neck, preventing him from descending to the birth canal and tightening around his neck each time I pushed – the result of too much in-utero flipping and moving around?
Theo spent about three hours in the neonatal ICU to monitor him for problems (none materialized, mercifully – he is perfect) while I slept off the general anesthesia. The whole family was reunited within about 4 hours of the delivery, mom delirious from the drugs but happy and safe with her new babe in her arms.
I had feared lectures from the hospital doctors and staff about trying to birth at home. I got none, but instead heard praise for our midwife who “called” the situation just right and in time to save Theo. It was lovely to be delivering in Seattle where the “alternative” birthing community is well-established and (generally) well-regarded by the medical community.
Ian is a loving and doting big brother, holding Theo gently and sharing kisses and cuddles, helping mom and dad, and paying attention to the ways he can help Theo be happy and comfortable. We are super proud of him.

Catch-up: November 07 – January 08

I am so far behind posting to this blog I don’t know where to start! Will briefly cover the past 6 months for a little continuity, but then move on to the more interesting current…
Ian and I returned to America in late November to await the arrival of his new sibling. Our return was the single worst international travel nightmare we’d ever heard of! 52 hours delay in Johannesburg which included spending one night (a 7-month pregnant lady and a 4 year old) on the floor of the airport. Finally we arrived Chicago and enjoyed a few days of papering with Rich’s mom Sandy before heading further west to Seattle.
My sister Rebecca and her family were extremely gracious in offering us a space in their home during our time in Seattle while we awaited the arrival of Ian’s sibling, due in (we thought) mid January. Rich arrived from Africa in time for Ian’s birthday December 15th.We had a great stay in Seattle, visiting all manner of museums and other venues for kids as well as some of my old stomping grounds from my own childhood in Seattle. We also got a great chance to spend meaningful amounts of time with friends and family whom we previously had mostly only seen in short visits once or twice per year. Highlights for Ian included the soccer class he attended once a week with his friend Maya; his 5th birthday party with a homemade whale piñata; and the Montessori preschool he attended during our stay.

Ian the Snarkler Video

We are in Maputo where we finally have a fast enough internet connection to upload this video! Enjoy.

Tofo Beach, Part Two

Our days in Tofo were gloriously lazy. The mornings were cool but the afternoons warm and sunny, although on one or two days the wind was strong enough to nearly blow Ian down the beach.






The shore in front of our lodge had a great rocky bit that made for some great tide-pooling when the tide was low. The rocks (old coral?) also protected a shallow little lagoon, complete with little fish, that provided a great place for Ian to venture into the wonderful world of snorkeling. (Ian calls snorkeling “snarkeling,” a pronunciation Rich and I have adopted as well because it is just so cute!) The combination of the buoyant water and his concentration on breathing through the tube made him forget entirely about floating and his swimming improved markedly over the course of the week.

But the high point of our time in Tofo was our experience swimming with whale sharks. As Ian can tell you (he knows all the factoids about whale sharks, and recited them all to our guide during the trip), whale sharks are the largest fish in the world, but only eat plankton so won’t go munching you if you swim with them. Tofo boasts one of the largest and most accessible whale shark populations in the world. The large grey giants swim lazily in the shallow waters just off shore.

We spent about 3 hours on our expedition, which involved a motorized inflatable raft piloted by experienced local guys who managed to find at least five of the big sharks for us. They’d carefully position the boat and then we’d all jump into the water with our masks and snorkels and go swimming after the shark. It was an amazing experience, one Rich calls among the most spiritual of his life. Even Ian got brave enough, after watching us visit two or three sharks, to jump into the (for him) very deep water (with his life jacket) for long enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the great grey beast himself! Our guide and the folks back at the dive shop said he was the youngest kid they’d ever had hop in the water to swim with whale sharks. Very impressive! Ian was quite proud of himself, as were we of him.

Tofo Beach, Part One

We had a magnificent week away on the beaches of southern Mozambique at the end of August. It was our first real time off (including weekends) since early July, so we were all much in need of a break!

We spent the first part of our week at Tofo beach, on the Inhambane peninsula. Inhambane is one of the oldest cities in Mozambique, having been home to Indian Ocean trade routes centuries ago. Tofo was about a 20 minute drive from the town of Inhambane, right along the Indian Ocean, with gorgeous sand dunes and plenty of surf.

Although Tofo has a bit of a reputation as a party town for young travelers, we found an isolated lodge, Mango Beach, away from the ruckus and just perfect for a family getaway.

We stayed in a rustic 4-person reed chalet with a communal kitchen area and bathroom, although we shared these with maybe only one or two other couples whom we rarely saw. We only bothered “self-catering” our breakfast, taking our lunch where we could and enjoying sumptuous seafood – prawns, crab, clams, or whatever was freshest that day – prepared by our lodge hosts in the evenings for dinner.

We loved going to sleep to the roar of the ocean and rustle of the wind through the palms.

Post from Rich: Rare antelopes at Gorongosa!

Last month we were thrilled to spot 5 wildebeest at Gorongosa – these are the lone survivers of a population of more than 5,500 that was here in the 1970s before large scale hunting during and after the war nearly eliminated them. The last time we observed wildebeest was in September 2005.

We observed a herd of more than 100 sable antelope in the same area. Our sable population is one of the great success stories at Gorongosa -- the population is growing steadily and we have several times more sable here than at Kruger National Park.

We also observed a small herd of 12 Lichtenstein's hartebeests, a beautiful and amazingly fast antelope that is very localized to this region.

Another success story is our waterbuck population, which has grown to more than 5000 animals. We will be providing some of our waterbuck to Limpopo National Park in southern Mozambique later this year to help them establish a viable founder population.

Gorongosa is also probably the best place in Africa to see oribi, a smallish antelope of the grassy plains that is also recovering rapidly in recent years. Oribi are one of several species that will benefit from the reestablishment of large herbivores that graze down the rank grasses on the plains.