Accomplishments

We are raising a very accomplished kid. Here is a quick post to photo document some of them.

Drooling. A lot and often. Preferably on his pappa's button shirts.

Thumb sucking. This started regularly on April 6th and does not seem to be a one-time deal like it had in the past.

Rotating. At 3.5 months he is not really mobil unless you count rotational motion. I'm not entirely sure how he does it, but he can achieve the amount of rotation seen above in the time it takes me to eat a bowl of oatmeal.

Regular days

I am typing this at 8 am on a weekday while Chester and Greg sleep through the alarm. Neither of them can be bothered by the beep beep beep beep.

Last night we were looking at some photos of the baby when he was super brand new and tiny. He already seems so big and old!

If you trust clothing sizes, here he is maxing out his 9 month size jammies.

And here are two more photos, exhibiting nonplussed mischievous behaviour and delightful sophistication.

Less good days

Recently Greg had to take a quick trip back to the US for four days, so Chester and I were on our own. And being on our own for the evenings and nights is a totally different ballgame than being on our own during the days. Totally. Especially since Greg changes all the nighttime diapers.

But we survived, and even thrived a bit. We managed to get outside every day. Once just a short trip to take out the trash. Once a very long walk in town with a friend and her baby. And once even in the rain. Chester is newly liking being in the ergo baby, which makes for very nice walks for us both.

And going outside was about the extent of our expectations for each day. Keeping expectations low was good, and it made it easy to feel a bit successful each day. Other than that we spent a lot of time doing Chester's favorite activities, such as eating, sleeping, playing, bouncing, singing, reading, and lots and lots of tummy time.



The baby may have watched some tv while pappa was away…



Going back a couple weeks, I'll briefly write about the one day that was the roughest so far in Chester's life. Immunization day. This consisted of two shots, one in each thigh, simultaneously. The actually shots were not so terrible. Greg held his hands, and they were almost finished by the time the pain registered and he started crying. He was quickly distracted by the nurse's keys, and probably cried for less than 30 seconds.

It was the evening that followed the shots that was the roughest of rough. He didn't end up falling asleep until midnight, and the hours leading up to it were filled with desperate attempts to make the baby happy. I foolishly read that giving babies acetaminophen/paracetamol (Fun fact: why is the same drug called by different names depending on if you are in north america or europe?) made the immunisations less effective, so I didn't get any ahead of time. He never got a fever from his shots, but he was clearly not feeling too happy and seemed to be having pain in his legs. But we all survived, and we are better off for it!



And the day after, he was so tired that he just fell asleep while playing. A sure sign of a very tired baby.

Go big or go home + Chester is ten weeks old!

I can't write a blog post without writing about the baby, but we'll save his updates for last, so skip down to the bottom if you only care about the boy (and I don't blame you if that is the case).

So, apparently there is an option to get your groceries delivered directly to your door. And since I get stressed out trying to take the baby shopping (who always needs to eat right as I get into the checkout line), I started looking into this. For some reason I thought the shipping cost would be outrageous, which is why I never looked into it before. But it is actually comparable to the cost of a bus trip to the store and back. Or, if you order above a certain money value, you get free shipping. As soon as I read that I started adding items to my virtual shopping cart.

I think I had written about grocery shopping recently. In our new apartment we've had to be more deliberate about shopping, since there is not a store we can walk to in just two minutes. And being deliberate about shopping also meant we were saving quite a lot of money. It didn't seem like we should be buying more if we were doing shopping more frequently with less planning, but that was definitely the case. So anyhow. Now that we have a baby I haven't been doing any big shopping trips for a week's worth of food, because I just can't carry it all. I guess I could try to use my wheely bag and also push the pram, but that is just not a challenge I want to give myself right now.

I have so much to say about groceries!

But this is probably getting boring, so I should wrap up this train of thought. So I ordered groceries and they were delivered to my house the following day! I'm excited to have found a way to not need to carry home large packages of things like diapers and paper towels and boxes of cereal. And I'm excited to use outings with the baby for purposes other than shopping, like meeting friends or going to the library. This whole endeavor feels like such a smart decision. I wish I had gotten to this place sooner!

And the baby!



He is two months old already! Over two months, in fact!

He smiles and laughs and makes a lot of noise. He is particularly chatty in the morning when he first wakes up. He pretty much spends his days eating and sleeping, although his stretches of time when he is awake are increasing. So we read books and practice tummy time and make calls to grandparents in the US. We are trying to get accustomed to liking our pram, and/or liking being worn in the wrap, because either of these would make outings much more pleasant.



He gets his socks off all the time, but it was pretty crafty of him to get the sock off and have it end up near his left hand like that…

Large and slow

In response to the question, "How are you feeling?" I'd have to say the most honest and accurate response is large and slow. I mean this in the best of ways. It is strange to be physically limited, and sometimes it is frustrating to not be able to do simple things like carry my groceries home. But it is also crazy and amazing. And my wheely grocery bag is amazing too.

I think I've gotten to the point where I identify so strongly as a person who is pregnant that by the time this baby is born, it will be a big transition to go back to identifying as a non-pregnant person. Now that we are down to the last month, that time feels like it is approaching very quickly.

In general I'd say large and slow also translates to feeling quite calm. I guess I am more curious and interested in how and when this will all happen. It has also been interesting learning about some of the differences between having a baby in Sweden versus the US. Although I should clarify that these are differences between having a baby in Sweden and my perception of having a baby in the US based on what I've heard from others or read on blogs (so, potentially not general truths).

I had already known that epidurals were less common here, although I didn't know by how much. It is about 50% of women in Sweden, compared to a quick google search (again, potentially inaccurate) of 60% in the US, which is actually a lot closer than I originally thought.

Also, if your water breaks, here they want you to go to the hospital to get checked regardless of whether labor has started or not. And if things seem fine, they will send you back home and give you three days to have the baby. My understanding is that in the US once your water breaks, you go to the hospital, you don't get sent back home, and you are to have the baby within 24 hours.

A final, and fun, difference that I'll mention is that the top method of pain management is to use laughing gas. I guess it is a blend of 50% nitrous oxide and 50% oxygen so that it works to relieve anxiety and pain, rather than working as an anaesthetic. The recommendation is to start using the gas at the beginning of a contraction (if you decide you need/want it) and to stop at the peak of the pain. Then you exhale your next three breaths back into the mask to avoid filling the room with the gas and influencing the medical staff. The midwife joked that it could be nice but is best to avoid. So it is an important job of the partner to remember and help with this, because women tend to forget that part while they are in the midst of labor pain.

So you see? How can it be anything but interesting to see how things will go:)

Three quarters through

This is another post about pregnancy. You're welcome.

I can't believe I've already reached week 30 of pregnancy. I've also reached the point where people have started guessing that I'll be having my baby "soon" or "at any time now". That's actually been going on for a couple weeks, and then I have to tell them I've still got around two months to go. But know that I write this out of pure amusement and no hard feelings. I've also had an acquaintance hear me talking about pregnancy and say, "wait, you're expecting!?" Granted, this was while sitting across from him at a long table in a cabin without electricity and only the dim light of candles and lanterns. Later on I walked by him and he noted that the key is to see me in profile.



You can be the judge of that.

In other news, I've been spending the week packing and cleaning in preparation for our move to a new apartment on Saturday. We have a crazy amount of stuff, considering we arrived in this country with two suitcases, a backpack, and a small bag each. I don't really know how or why the stuff grew exponentially. For now I'm focusing on just getting everything packed, but I'm hoping I'll have the energy to do some smart minimising while unpacking.

And now I think my lunch break shall be over. It is time to get back to checking off items on my list!

Knitting and a round belly

Lately I have become completely obsessed with knitting. Baby things are tiny and adorable, and I just can't stop knitting them! Plus I also love browsing through patterns and choosing the perfect thing, and then going to the yarn store and browsing through all the yarns to find the perfect fit for the perfect item I plan to make. I've even been blocking my work, which is something I've never done before. In my mind this is the true sign of dedication.

For the past month or more I've been keenly aware that I look a lot more pregnant than I am. I'd estimate that I look about a month to a month and a half further along than I actually am. I guess photos can be deceiving, but I also have pregnant friends that I see in real life. I've even googled 'would they miss twins at an 18 week ultrasound'… the answer is no, no they would not. I might be growing a giant baby inside of me. Compare these to the ~19 week photo to see just how much growing I've been doing lately.



That is the face of a person who knows you are thinking that maybe my belly is not so large. But I'm prepared to show you that that is a deceptive photo.



Still not convinced?



I'd say that amount of roundness feels pretty true to life.

So that is me. At 24 weeks pregnant. Not 30.

The good news is that my weight gain seems to be on a normal track. I go to see the midwife next week, so hopefully she won't disagree!

Halfway / The Quickening(?)

It feels unreal for me to already be halfway through this pregnancy. How did that happen? So far I've seen the midwife once and had the ultrasound. It will be another month before I start having regular appointments. And the pregnancy just goes along happening.

Overall pregnancy is very weird. I guess I've probably given most people the impression that I've just gone on feeling like my normal human self most of the time. Which has not really been fully honest. I think I've felt like a normal pregnant human, but that is a different thing from the human I used to be. And it just keeps changing. It is like I get a body of a new person every week. By the end of the week when I'm starting to figure out how that person's body works, then I get a new one to start over with. Some of the bodies are similar to what I'm used to, some are quite dissimilar, and there seems to be no pattern for how they occur. All I know is this week's body could happily live on tomato sandwiches.

Oh, and I stumbled across this super image, further proof of the weirdness of pregnancy. Move it or lose it organs.

Moving along with no segue…

At the beginning of this pregnancy I learned about a thing called The Quickening. So I've been waiting for that. Except that maybe it already happened? I assumed it would be one specific event, but I'm starting to be more and more convinced that the movement I feel is actually our baby. Especially now that I know all my organs are clearing out, what else could it be? Perhaps the quickening marks the time at which you are sure about what you are feeling, regardless of any former suspicions? Perhaps there is still time to let the town know a celebration is impending?

And a [week-old] photo [that I surprisingly don't hate] for posterity.

It's a baby!

Sometimes you go for so long not talking widely about a thing that it makes it sort of hard to start talking about that thing. We had been slowly disseminating the news that we are going to be having a baby, but then we went for our ultrasound and suddenly it seems necessary for everyone to know about this great thing. It doesn't even matter that I know ultrasound images are completely uninteresting to most people. My baby's ultrasound image is the best ever, so of course everyone needs to see it(:

This image is from Thursday, when our baby was 18 cm long and weighed 200 grams. Well done, baby. We were really happy to find out that everything looked good. We aren't going to find out the sex of our baby until it is born, and I hope it doesn't confuse anyone when I alternately refer to our baby as he, she, or it. I only do it with love.

We had a great ultrasound technician, but I did not know that if your baby is stubbornly refusing to turn the right direction for measurements, the technician will (somewhat vigorously) shake around your belly with her ultrasound wand. Makes you feel really good about how jiggly you were already feeling…

A more enjoyable part of the experience was hearing about the "ability" cord. This woman's English was way better than my Swedish, so it only makes me wonder if I've been saying anything as ridiculously cute. In general, it seems that pregnancy-related words are much more sensical in Swedish. For example, the amniotic fluid is called "fetus water". So simple. So of course it should be an ability cord. Umbilical is a completely nonsensical word.