Tiny feet

Our first week at home..

..has been great! Shawn has been home from work on paternity leave and Noah has, by own choice stayed at home with us. In fact, he says it's boring at daycare (since when?!) and that he prefers being home with us. He says he does miss his friends but it's better to be at home. I asked if it's not boring to just be inside the house with us but he said "No, it's lagom boring" - oh, is he not just a true Swede.

Vera is so calm and lovely and mainly just eats and sleeps, sleeps for hours and hours. To that extent that we worried a bit but then quickly realizing that our last experience with a baby was a colic experience haha.

We had a home visit from one of the nurses at the medical clinic for the first check up since we got home from the hospital. Vera is doing well and there was nothing to really worry about, always nice to get that confirmed and out of the way.
The day after, at 8 days old, Vera rolled for the very first time! While she was sleeping in the sofa I was on Skype with my parents and we were all looking at the baby while talking. Suddenly she just rolled from back to tummy! When turning onto the tummy she lifted her head, put it on the side and continued sleeping. What the?!

I'm surprised how well Vera copes with all the kisses and cuddles she gets - it can get a bit rough when there is three of us who all want to hold her and have our own time with her. Big brother is so in love, he doesn't know what to do with himself and as soon as he wakes up, he comes running into our bedroom asking if she is awake and if he can get a cuddle. Mummy is now out of the picture - it is only Vera that does get kisses and in fact, he "ooonnnly love Vera".

Cheeky

Lovely day

The snow is finally here and we are enjoying it!

Sibling love

Oh so sweet... Noah cares so much for his little sister. He asks about her all the time, wants to learn about babies and he also want to teach her what he knows and show her his toys and tricks. To my surprise, Vera responds best to Noah. As soon as she hears his voice, she opens her eyes and turns the head towards where the sound is coming from. She stares so intensely at him and doesn't seem to mind having him all over her when she is feeding or trying to sleep.

Back home again

We are now back home from the hospital and the four of us are spending time at home together getting to know the little one and our new family structure. In the morning of the 12th, mormor and morfar came to pick up Noah from Annelie's and they stayed at our house with him until we came home today.

So...how did it all go? Well, since the difficult birth of Noah that entailed complications and a recovery of countless months, both of us were very worried of how it would go this time. Due to the previous trauma labour, we have been looked after really well in the antenatal care here in Sweden. We had a medical journal that was "red flagged" that entailed detailed medical records and a very structured birth plan, produced by us and the hospital staff during during the pregnancy.

In the early morning of Wednesday January 11th, when waking up around 5:30ish I had mild contractions. Shawn was on his way to a early breakfast meeting followed by a few clients in the morning. I told Shawn to head to work but keep his phone on and ensure he wouldn't miss any calls from me (!). I kept Noah home from dagis and we spent the whole day in bed watching movies as the contractions continued regularly about 20 minutes apart. Shawn came home around 2PM which was nice - at least I now knew I would have a pair of hands at home in case of a quick home delivery :-). Around 3PM, I was 100% certain that it was the real deal and called the hospital coordinator to let them know that it was happening and that they could expect me later that day. As we don't have a car and were planning to go by taxi to the hospital, we were getting a bit concerned that the rush hour traffic was soon to get started and normally the roads don't clear up until closer to 7PM. I was hoping that the contractions wouldn't pick up and get any stronger (you never know...) and luckily they didn't. The afternoon went by and so did the contractions that were very steady - around dinner time they were about 15 minutes apart, one minute long and were getting stronger. During the day we had prepared Noah that he would spend the night at Annelie's and Tony's as his baby sister was on her way. He was very excited to go over, his bag was already packed and he was ready to have PJ party with little Elias. I had promised Noah that he could have cinnamon buns and cordial at Annelie's house when his sister was being born (as in one of his story books about getting siblings...) Therefore we had baked a batch and frozen plastic bags full of buns, all ready to quickly be thrown in his sleep over bag when the time had come. At 7:30PM Tony came to pick up Noah - and we didn't forget the buns :-). Noah happily waved good bye and had later that night cooked up a storm with Elias play kitchen items, set the living room table and served buns and cordial just as planned :-).

At 9:15PM we checked in at the hospital and now the contractions were anything from 7 to 11 minutes apart. At 10PM the midwife checked up on us with the devastating news that I was not dilated at all. In normal circumstances they would ask you to go back home and come back in a few hours but as it was stated in the journal not to send me home, we were allowed to stay on. (Lucky for us that we had that stated in the records because less that 4 hours later, Vera was born!) So, we were discussing with the midwife was the next step would be. After 16 hours of contractions I was already very tired and we would not mind to have a Cesarean as we didn't want to risk to have another long birth with complications. However, only acute C-sections are carried out during the night and we would have to wait until morning for it. The midwife suggested for us to go for a walk in the corridors to try to get it started. And oh boy did it.. As soon as she had said that the contractions were down to 3 minutes apart. When she was back checking on us about an hour later the contractions were already 1-1,5 minutes apart and very strong. When it came to the push work, it was not at all as extensive and only about half an hour. Vera came to light at 01:48 in one long push - head, shoulders and body in one go - and she screamed out to us straight away. About half an hour later, laying on her tummy on my chest, she lifted her head and looked straight into my eyes. She seems to be a strong little girl as she also was very keen to eat straight away so we had a long good cuddle in the early morning hours.

A couple of hours after the birth, there was some sudden complications. As Vera had been eating for so long I hadn't been able to get up to to loo and the bladder was so full that it was stopping the blood from the uterus to come out. Suddenly the pressure caused severe pain and when the doctors arrived, I couldn't even move. They emptied the bladder (900 ml!) and when they put pressure on the tummy a large amount of blood and coagulated clots came out. My blood pressure quickly dropped to 90/50 and I almost passed out. Even though they managed to stabilize me with IV and meds and the situation was not at all as serious as last time, this incident brought back all our old memories and both Shawn and I got really scared. Afterwards, when we were left alone in the room to try to sleep a few hours, we both felt very shaken by the whole experience.

Later that day, we moved into the maternity ward. Here in Sweden the partner is allowed to sleep over at the hospital to keep the mummy and the baby company at night. It made the biggest difference to have Shawn there with me. As usual it is hard to move around with the IV and the catheter so it's nice to have a spare set of hands but the emotional support and the company was just invaluable and Shawn really enjoyed the experience too.

On Friday Noah came to visit his little sister at the hospital. As visitors are not allowed on the ward due to infection risks, we met down at the cafeteria. Noah was thrilled to see us and very curious of his little sister. Vera had prepared a gift for him - a red car - which I got really happy about. When we arrived home today, Noah had a gift for her as well, a bouquet of flowers where he had personally picked out a red rose...how cute!

Happy birthday Noah AND Vera!

What a special birthday gift Noah received this year... A little sister!!! Yes, little Vera Grace arrived on January 12th, on Noah's birthday - how unlikely is this to happen?!

Everyone is doing well and the healthy baby girl arrived at 01:40 in the morning weighing 3660 grams at 51 centimeters. More updates to come when back home from the hospital. Until then, here is our latest addition to the family:

"Det här är livet!"

Today is a public holiday in Sweden so Shawn is off from work and home with us. It is beautiful weather so the boys been out playing for a while and I've been prepping for the birthday party tomorrow. This afternoon we are spending in the kitchen making the birthday cake and other goodies. Shawn finished making a batch of scones and we just handed Noah a fresh warm scone with melting butter where upon he said to us: "This is life". What a character :-)!

No baby in sight

Countdown has begun and it is only 9 days to go before our little girl is suppose to arrive. On Saturday we are hosting Noah's 4th birthday party and I'm hoping that the party can go ahead as planned and there will be no early arrival. However, after the party, she is welcome to pop out at any time :-).

This morning Noah asked me how the baby is going to come out. "Is she coming out from the belly button?" he said. I answered a little vague that she will be coming out from "down there" pointing below the tummy. Noah, thank God, wrapped the conversation up by looking at me sceptically and said "Really? No, I think she is going to come out from the belly button". Done deal.

Watch out LeBron and D Wade!

Makes daddy very proud (and mummy of course) :-):

The first day of 2012

Around lunchtime we looked out through the window and Noah asked "is the sun going to come up today?". Gothenburg is certainly not showing off its best side on this very first day of the new year, that is for sure, it actually looks as if the sun never came up at all! Luckily poor weather spells for relaxing indoors, fika time, playing and lazing around :-).