it's that time again

It's that time again! We're moving. Crossing the ocean once again. But this time around I'll qualify our move as first class, as I don't have to pack all the boxes. The moving company arrived at 7h30 this morning and is still busy packing all our belongings. Why didn't I always move like that?! Probably because I could not afford it, just as we wouldn't now, if it were not paid by M's company.

We'll be flying to Miami on Monday and moving into our new house on Tuesday. As our belongings will take between six to eight weeks to be delivered to us, we'll camp in the meantime. Although I'd qualify that camping as first class as well, since M's company is renting the basic furniture and houseware kits for us in the meantime. Anyway, camping in our beautiful house under the sun and the palm trees in a city like Miami can only be a partie de plaisir me thinks! Oh how I cannot wait to be there!

Birthday baby

Emily is six months today. It's unbelievable how fast the time went by, how much she's grown and changed in such little time. After the very hard first three months with daily colics, we really have the impression now that she was not completely with us yet - which explains why they call that the missing fourth trimester.

Emily is now another baby. She is patient, curious, playful, loves to listen to music and singing (she actually sings with) and laughs a lot. She hates to lie on her stomach, but loves to sit up to watch everything around her. Her new discovery these days is doing v and b sounds all day long.

I actually cannot believe she's only been with us for six months. It's as she'd always been here.

relationships

I don't know why maintaining good relationships is so darn hard. But I find myself having to watch what I say and what not more often than wished these days. Why can't we just be diplomatically honest to each other without hurting each other's feelings? Why are relationships so delicate? Why do we take everything so personal?

Fortunately, I just cleared a misunderstanding that had been going on for the past month with my mother yesterday. Whether I expressed myself wrong or whether she understood me wrong does not matter. The fact is it happened, with my mother, with whom I have an excellent relationship and truly thought such a misunderstanding would never occur. Maybe the fact that I want everyone I love to like each other is the cause to all my problems. After all, I also don't like everyone my loved ones love.

Success!

Our look and see trip to Miami was a success:

Emily was an angel the whole trip; she did not complain once during the 11 hour flight to Miami sitting on our lap as no baby basket was provided to us (5 babies in total on the flight!); she came along when we visited houses the entire day, eating, sleeping and looking curiously at everything with no complaint; she started sleeping nights 7 hours in a row during our trip, which is a very big improvement; she slept in her little baby basket the entire flight on the return.

The house; we found a house close to our dream house. It has everything we wanted, i.e. a bedroom for us, a bedroom for Emily, a bedroom for guests, an office, a pool. Everything is new and done with very good taste by the owner's ex husband who is an architect. We're moving in December 9th. I'm pretty sure I'll feel as if I were acting in a Hollywood movie living in such a house for two years.

We were very busy the entire trip and were unfortunately not able to relax and enjoy the wonderful Biltmore facilities or the beach, but truly, que demande de plus le peuple?

Look and see trip

We're on our look and see trip in Miami. We have one week to find our future home. One week to enjoy the fabulous hotel we're staying at. Too bad I caught a cold cause the pool is simply magnificent...

A concept worth copying

Each neighborhood in Hanover has a bookshelf such as this one somewhere, which is full of books. The concept is the following:

You can use the bookshelf anytime.

You can choose a book.

You can borrow it and bring it back.

You can keep it and replace it by another book.

When you like the book so much that you want to keep it a longer time, you can. But when it is really so good, others should also be able to read it.

When you have many books at home that you would like to bring to the bookshelf, then do so. But please only as many that fit in the bookshelf.

When something is broken, please call the following phone number xxxxxxx.

Now, is that great concept or is that an absofuckinglutely amazing concept many cities should copy?

Tia Tambo

Emily's aunt Tia Tambo came to see us for the long weekend. Although I have to admit I had my fears, as my sister is 24 years old and more importantly still in the middle of an irresponsible party-till-you-drop-with-whatever-is-needed phase, everything went extremely well and I really enjoyed spending these days with my sister. As for Emily, she immediately adopted her. She usually needs some time to be apprivoisée (i.e. tamed), but didn't this time around. She spent 4 days smiling and even laughing for the first time with her aunt. She calmed down when Tia Tambo sang and read to her. My sister is the eldest of her 8 cousins on her mother's side and that taught her to take care and entertain small kids. She proved it to me these past days. I am now looking forward to being in Miami and letting Emily spend more time with her aunt. They both love each other SO much already!

it could happen after all

I've been living in Hanover for two and half years now. Hard to believe it's been so long already. Although on the other hand it does feel like I've been here for an eternity. By all means much longer than planned. I've been pretty much feeling like lingering in a waiting room, as if my life was on hold. Leaving without M was never really an option, although I would have taken that job in Zurich if I had been given the opportunity. But things happen for a reason, and if I left my life in Madrid to live with M back in 2005, it certainly was not to find myself alone in Zurich in 2007. Life decided otherwise anyway. And I'm glad it did, as we now have a beautiful daughter. When we move, we'll move all three together. Which amazingly enough might actually happen now. The board gave the green light to M's transfer to Miami yesterday. No obstacles stand in the way to our new life any longer. Although we'll wait until the contract is signed before we open the champagne. A magnum bottle it will be!

co-sleeping

Emily has been sleeping with me since her very first night. It was not planned but just happened that way thanks to the hospital's midwife advice and my gutt feeling. Although I was completely exhausted after the birth, I just spent that first night staring at my daughter sleeping next to me. A night I will never forget.

She has been sleeping in our bed with M and I ever since then. Nevermind critics and other points of view, I have become a firm believer of all the advantages of co-sleeping. Besides, it feels right. And it will thus continue that way for now. I am however considering buying one of those co-sleeper cribs that you fix to your own bed, allowing her to be next to me, but giving her - and most importantly us as a couple - her/our own space. It certainly sounds ideal at this point, but our american bed is quite high (70cm!) and finding a european co-sleeper crib high enough seems to be a problem. My actual mission.

Life is sweet

We are finally finding some kind of rhythm. Emily has good nights, spending more than 12 hours in our bed until around 10h30 in the morning. I am not saying that she sleeps through the night, as she wakes up quite often to eat, sometimes as often as every one or two hours, but she then falls back asleep immediately. In spite of these frequent awakenings, I am starting to recuperate some sleep at last.

As soon as she's awake, Emily spoils us with wonderful smiles. The whole room lights up when she looks at us smiling. Our hearts fill with joy and they feel as if they were going to explode. I know it sounds corny, but that's how we feel. She sleeps very little during the day; she mostly wants to play, or to cuddle in my arms. She's also loving the daily massages I am learning at the Baby massage classes.

Life is sweet.

one hand and no time

Emily is growing fast. Too fast for my taste. She's already wearing clothes for 3 months old when she's not even 2 months, and is heavier on my poor back by the day. She's more beautiful and awake every single day. Her smiles are becoming more and more frequent. She still has her colics, but they have improved thanks to homeopathy, microtherapy, and osteopathy, meaning they thankfully don't last as long.

We've had many visits since her birth - my father, my brother, my mother twice, my grand-mother Yaya, without even mentioning the frequent visits of the locals. I am still expecting a few people though.

As for I, I only have one hand these days, the other one holding Emily in my arms (as I believe in the missing fourth trimester as they call it), and no spare time which explains why my last post was already one month ago.

Post Scriptum

Emily is also true to her Spanish blood. Her mala leche is definitely worthy of the D family and her Latin temperament is already showing!

Life with Emily

True to her genes - as punctual as a German and precise as a Swiss clock - Emily was born on the due date, i.e. June 3rd 2008. At 19h14 to be exact, after a 16 hour labor. To everyone's surprise, as my doctor had repeated during my entire pregnancy that Our Little One was a small baby, she weighed 3830 gr, measured 50 cm and had a 37 cm big head.

So much has happened since then. We are both back home since the 7th, M took the following week off which we spent all 3 together, my mother came to spend two weeks to help me, and I have been spending and treasuring every single second with Emily for three weeks now. I can't imagine my life without her, remember what it was like before she came. It's like if she'd always been around.

She had a very calm and quiet first week, and has grown nervous and impatient since her second week, having colics every evening for hours. We are trying everything, Sab simplex drops, the swaddling technique, the cherry pillow, reducing certain foods from my diet, but we haven't found THE magical remedy yet. If there even is one. We probably just need to wait the famous 3 months for it to pass. However, if you know of any other cure, I'm all ears.

the question is ...

... what's not on YouTube? What a precious find. A short movie about my father's career.

Let it be

Just two days ago, I was so eager and ready to give birth that I was willing to try to provoke labor. Through old tricks like drinking 120 ml of castor oil. I am glad today that I didn't try that. Don't ask me why, but I suddenly see everything differently. With calm and patience. I feel zen. Let the baby come whenever she's ready. Let life follow its course. Which still means I'd be happy not to have to wait 12 days till the due date, as I can't wait to hold her in my arms.

Any day now

I went to my last doctor's appointment today, and she confirmed once again that everything was absolutely fine with both the baby and I. Our Little One now weighs approximately 3 kg and measures ca.50 cm. Also, her head is now fixed in the pelvis, probably thanks to last week's acupuncture's session, so in summary everything is perfect and ready for an imminent birth. And imminent is what I wish at this point, as waiting for another 2 weeks until the actual planned date seems to me like an eternity... Come on Darling, time to come out! Time to start doing what Mommy tells you!

Today

Our dreamlike wedding took place a year ago today. Happy Anniversary Love.

I do my own laundry

I never thought I'd be so happy about it, but I am actually ecstatic! Our washing machine was delivered today, and after more than two years without one - doing our laundry by either going to M's parents on the weekends, washing by hand, or having M's mother doing it for us - needless to say the first load is already running. You must be thinking I'm mad... how I can be happy about doing laundry, especially when someone else did it for me? The fact is I never especially enjoyed doing laundry before. But being able to wash what I want, when I want, the way I want it and all that at home and not by hand seems to me like a luxury right now rather than a task.

And now for the real luxury, we even got a dryer, which I'll be using as soon as the first load is done and which will be simplifying my life greatly, especially when the Little One's here! Ups, got to go. The first load is done!

Unimaginable

My little calendar shows 39 days to go today. 39 days until the birth of our baby girl. Do you believe me if I tell you that I cannot realize it? I honestly cannot. It's not that I am afraid, it's just that I cannot believe that I am soon going to give birth. I cannot conceive that a little baby - my baby - will be with me every day of my life, for the rest of my life, in about a month. Yes my belly is big and I feel her every move at this point, yes I've had more than 8 months to get used to the idea, yes I want this baby more than anything in the world. Yet, it's still unimaginable to me.

Is that normal? Or at least frequent? Do many future mothers feel that way? Do we women, ever feel ready for the big day? Or is it another of our protective reflexes, like forgetting how painful the contractions were after the birth? Please enlighten me if you can.

What an adventure indeed!

My childhood friend K has two children of her own, but as "it is the first time a good friend (of hers) is pregnant", she is excitedly living my pregnancy through pics, phone calls and emails. The other day, K said to me "what an adventure it is to be pregnant!" I didn't truly agree at the time. Didn't disagree either, but just didn't see things that way. Her words stuck with me though.

As M started complaining that I snore very loud and that he couldn't sleep, I immediately rejected the idea and thought to myself that he was exagerating. I don't snore. I never have. I probably just breathe a bit louder because of the fact that my lungs are slightly squashed by the baby. Wrong. I do snore. I suffer from pregnancy-related snoring as they put it. With 30% of other pregnant women out there. There's nothing I can do except pray that it will go away after the birth, and find my husband sleeping in the guest room some mornings in the meantime.

And now that I think about it all, how I started having nose bleeds in the second trimester, how I've become a snorer in the third, how the mere sight of any kind of cream makes me feel sick, how my blood pressure has gone down and I now need to take things slower, how I am so easily out of breath these days, how I cannot walk as fast as I used to, or when I see how big my belly is, feel startled with each baby's move, realize with a mix of fear and expectation that I only have 7 weeks left till she comes out, then I completely agree with K. What an adventure indeed!

the weekend

It was a lovely weekend.

Baltic weekend

We are leaving to the baltic sea tomorrow for the weekend. It's our last getaway romantic weekend just the two of us before she arrives. And M's present for my upcoming birthday. So we're heading up North to the baltic sea, where we've rented a cute little flat in an old farm house, and where we plan to discover beautiful spots like Wismar, Lübeck, and the coast in general. With a little help from the weather, we might even enjoy walks on the beach. With a big help from our Little One, who's decided to lay upside down already, I might be able to walk more than 10 minutes without pains. At any rate, rain or shine, pains or no pains, I plan to enjoy this weekend!

Happy Easter

It's snowing and 0 degrees. Happy Easter!

Baby corner

It took me a while, but I'm finally done with the first self-made baby projects, which fit very nicely in the little baby corner I set up in our bedroom. Yes, she will sleep in her crib in our room in the beginning, so that I don't have to cross the flat three times per night to feed her and/or change her. Regardless of other people's opinion.

So, as you can see we have the crib (which was leant to us by sus and I simply personalised a bit with some nice Ikea baby stuff,) the changing station, as well as the self-made wallpockets (to organize and store) and the hanging hearts (a ritual I plan to copy from sus: ringing its bell each time the changing of the baby is finished.)

Other than that, we also bought the baby carseat and ordered the stroller, meaning we're doing pretty darn good timewise, I know, but there are still sooooo many things I need to buy/search/make/organize/decide before she comes. And that will happen very soon: only 76 days left, or maybe even less!

Good excuses

I realize I haven't been very good at keeping this blog up to date lately, but I do have excuses!


1. Our router decided to stop working last week, meaning we had no internet for approximately a week.


2. I have been quite busy setting up the crib, buying the changing station, as well as sewing several projects I had for our baby girl. I am almost done and promise to post pics of it soon, as I must admit that I am quite proud of myself =)



3. Last but not least, my body is certainly feeling the dreaded changes of the third trimester, as I am starting to feel uncomfortably heavy, stomach sick, insomniac, etc.

Bare with me please.

back to reality

We are finally back from Miami. We returned with a bit of a suntan, lots of jetlag, a bigger and rounder pregnant belly, a whole bag full of adorable baby clothes we bought and lovely presents we got at the surprise baby shower for our little girl, and many extra kilos in our own suitcases. M caught my sister's flu, meaning we had to postpone our return flight to the 18th. He's never sick, but when he is, he gets the whole nine yards!

The vacation however was great. Spending time with my family felt wonderful. We shopped till we dropped with my mother, dined to our heart's and stomach's contempt with my father and his wife, and did a few excursions all together on the weekends such as renting a boat for a day. The return to reality is being quite hard, with the jetlag, the temperature change, etc. but thankfully M was prescribed sick days till the end of the week, so we can slowly readapt together to our normal german life. Don't know if it's all the vitamins I'm taking to fight M's virus, or if she's also jetlagged, but our little girl is doing aerobics in my stomach these days. Let's see if we can get rid of it - it being the jetlag, although getting rid of the aerobics would please me as well - before Nat comes to visit this weekend...

Miami vacation

The long awaited February 5th is finally almost here. Tomorrow morning we'll be off to Miami for a 10 day family/shopping sprea/relaxing beach vacation. I have to admit I am bit nervous about the long trip and the possible complications it could have on the baby and I, but I also know that everything should work out fine. It is after all the best moment to travel. I'll wear those horribly tight stockings that prevent thrombosis as ordered by my gynecologist, and follow her advice to move/walk often and drink lots of water during the flight.

I am certainly looking forward to being there, and have no doubt I will enjoy every second of this last-vacation-before-the-baby-is-here. See you when we get back!

May the shopping begin!

I had my appointment with the specialist for the organ diagnosis today and M. came with me. The baby is healthy and everything seems to be functioning correctly. It measures 26 cm and weighs 400 gr, which apparently is in the standards. Also, the specialist was able to see that it's a girl, which confirms what everyone seemed to be thinking. I am extremely happy and will celebrate it by getting a much needed haircut today. Instead of a good bottle of wine, as I would have done in the past.

Oh! and of course by buying some adorable little baby things for our daughter. May the shopping begin! So been looking forward to that!

Week 20

We did go to the doctor yesterday, both very eager to find out the sex of the baby. However, it kept its fetal position, legs tight, thus refusing to let us see whether it's a girl or a boy. We'lll hopefully find that out next week, as we'll go see a specialist who'll make sure all the baby's organs are functionning properly with an ultrasound. Hopefully, as I'd love to know if I should buy cute pink little dresses or blue overalls when shopping in Miami in three weeks...

Anyway, the most important thing of course is that the baby is doing good, which it is, as well as the mother, and I am. Other than the 5 kgs gained in the last 5 months that is. My belly is showing more and more each day, which is obviously normal. A bit more bothersome is the fact that it is not clearly recognisable as a pregnant belly, meaning I just look fat to people who don't know me. Got to get get used to that I guess. Could definitely get used to M's proud and happy father face as he stared at our baby on the doctor's screen. That's also why I asked him to come with me again next week.

Over the Christmas holidays

We're back from Switzerland, where I spent 2 1/2 weeks and M joined me for the last 7 days. The skiing conditions were extraordinary this year with lots of snow, cold temperatures and a terrific blue sky. Too bad I couldn't enjoy them, skiing being too risky when pregnant. Instead, I met friends, spent time with my mother and Yaya, did lots of Christmas shopping and preparations, and grew a small belly in the meantime. That's it: can't close my pants any longer, although I still am able to wear them thanks to the discovery of the Belly Belt invention. I must say I can't wait till my gynecologist appointment next week when M will come with me for the first time and we should find out if it's a boy or a girl...