A Hoax

OK, its official, it was hoax. I had not fractured my hand. A second x-ray at the hospital in Stockholm could not reveal the suspected fracture in my hand. So the plaster was cut off my arm and it was down graded to a serious sprain! Well I’m pleased anyway… I was already fed up of the plaster and would not have survived the next 10 weeks with it on.

Snow and Elk in Sälen

We finished packing the car and set off for Sälen, only an hour late, but on our way at last for a 1 week break in the Swedish winter. The weather was OK as we drove the 400km to Sälen, stopping a few times on the way to feed and change Liam. He seemed to take the trip pretty well in his stride and slept most of the trip. We arrived in Sälen and headed up the hill to Tandådalen, the resort where we would stay, even the roads became snow covered and it was a few degrees below zero. The wooden cottage we had hired was easy to find and it was still just light when we opened the door. It was a really nice place and after clearing some of the day’s snow from the path, moved in all our stuff and lit the log fire… perfect.
We spent most of the week relaxing and having fun in the snow, which was about half a metre deep around the cottage. Liam quickly adapted to the new environment and seemed to enjoy be pulled in a sledge as we walked. I went on my snowboard for a couple of days, which was good fun. Just a shame we weren’t able to go skiing together as Liam is so small. On the Wednesday we all went for a short ride on a dog sledge ride. Liam was mildly impressed with the dogs, but Caroline was thrilled to find out that the pulling dogs were the same breed as the dog she had previously had in Cologne. They looked just like her dog. On Thursday when I was boarding I fell on my hand badly during a fall. Later that evening it became very painful and we decided to drive into Sälen and have it checked. The diagnosis was a suspected fractured bone in my hand, so on went a plaster cast… boring :(
Caroline’s highlight of the week was Fridays visit to an Elk Park. There we got a personal guided tour by the owner, who showed us at close hand the elks and told us all about them and their habits. There were 3 adults and 2 young elks there. They all fed next to us while we were there and afterwards we grilled sausages and discussed the story behind his elk park project. He had a small shop and Caroline couldn’t resist buying some things for Liam with elk motives on.
The week was fun and relaxing and we had time to play with Liam, read and play some scrabble. We drove back on the Sunday, which was much longer drive due to the snow and volume of traffic. Liam was again very patient and that made the drive much easier.

Pictures from our trip to Sälen

Friday update

Wow… I look at our blog and see its ages since I posted anything. The year has started quite peacefully and only a few bad colds to mark the calendar. Even Liam had one, which he seemed to shrug-off with out any big fuss. Hannah came back from England at Christmas and had decided not return to continue with her University course in Manchester. She’s decided she wants to consider a new University course after the summer, probably somewhere in Sweden. She’s started working part time and plans to fill in the gap to the summer with this.
One of Caroline’s friends from Cologne, Christiane, came to stay for a long weekend at the end of January. Being a painter herself, she was very interested in all the arty things in Stockholm, so we visited some art galleries with her. She also found her way around very competently and visited several of her selected locations on her own. Liam joined us on a trip to Millesgården, which is his third arty outing to date. He’s really into art and managed to stay awake long enough to see at least the first two or three exhibits before falling asleep again in the carrier.

Liam is now 4 months old and is simply the cutest baby ever. He’s almost always happy and quick to smile when he sees you. He’s still very interested in everything going on around him, especially what’s behind him and can twist his head in all directions to get a look at whatever’s captivating his attention. On his changing table he’s always fun and talking and playing with Mrs Cow, who he can now grab him self to chew. It’s fascinating watching him with his dummy, which he now passes from one hand to the other and turns until he gets it the right way round to fit in his mouth. He still doesn’t seem to understand the point in legs and doesn’t appear to be very interested in his feet. He kicks them and wiggles his toes, but he can’t reach them himself yet. I guess there is no rush and plenty of time for him to get the hang of them later on. He’s also sleeping really well at night, which is a relief.

This close-up was taken in the gallery at Millesgården.

Liam Talking

In December Liam started to "talk" in his own individual way. See for yourself :)

Now it's Christmas

Our Christmas tree is up, there is no snow, but it’s cold outside, so now it’s Christmas 2008. We are having an easy relaxing Christmas at home this year. The girls are at their mums and we are celebrating with Liam, who will be 12 week old. As you can see, he’s got the Christmas spirit and has dressed-up as one of Santa’s helpers. One of his presents is a little baby carrot, which he’s able to hold and chew for short periods of time. We’ve eaten Christmas dinner, a turkey with all the trimmings, with our friends Martin and Lotta. We have also been out for walks in the park, as its sunny most days. Will post some more photos soon.

The great escape

Liam is now 10 weeks old and is “talking” more and more. If you sit with him, get his attention and start talking to him, he quite soon starts talking back to you. His talking is mainly varying tones of cooing and gooing, with some bubble blowing and squeaks thrown in, but he takes it very seriously and puts a lot of effort into it. He has also made an interesting discovery over the last week, his hands! He’s started to hold them up in front of his face and study them moving, although in a some what random manner. It’s a bit early to say for sure, but it seems he is doing this with his left hand more than his right. It will be interesting to see if this is any indication that he might become left handed when he’s grown-up.
While Caroline is breastfeeding, we have his cot in our bedroom next to our bed. I had taken away the side of his cot when I put it together, so that it would be easier to lift him over to our bed in the night. The other day I put him into his cot lying on his front, tucked him in and then pushed the cot up to the side of our bed as usual. I tucked our bedding between our mattress and the cot and left him to sleep. A few hours later we could hear him waking up with some small cries. I went into the bedroom to get him and when I got to the cot, he wasn’t there! He had managed to escape! He had never moved before, but for the first time he had managed to move, by rolling over on one side. He had rolled out of his cot and was now on his back on our bedding between the two beds. This new trick was obviously aided by the soft bedding and his heavy head. I immediately replaced the side of his cot and for the time being, our little Houdini is confined to his cot when sleeping.

Now we are 6

In the week that Liam turned 6 weeks old, the weather here in Stockholm also turned, as it did in most of Europe. Temperatures dropped and by Friday night the snow had started and by Saturday morning we had 20cm of snow on the ground. Our morning view from the kitchen was transformed to one of winter. “Yippee snow” said Liam. Well that’s what he would have said if he could talk, and if he actually knew what snow was, which I doubt he does. Caroline’s friend Andrea from Cologne was staying with us for the weekend, so she also had a pleasant surprise when she woke up on Saturday morning. We drove to Djurgården and went to a gallery to see an exhibition of Swedish art from around the 1900’s. Liam is into art too. He spends a lot of time looking at Caroline’s paintings in our flat. By the way he studies them and the look on his face, I’m not sure he fully understands them yet. Anyway, he was quite interested in the paintings in the gallery, at least until the 3rd room, when he fell asleep. Art can be very tiring sometimes. The adults enjoyed all the paintings and stayed awake. We then all went on to a well known café next to the gallery for lunch. The snow picture below is taken in the garden, with Liam in the baby carrier. Now 6 weeks old, Liam started smiling in a big way. He really enjoys looking into your face and then he smiles and makes small cooing noises, which is his way of talking. Sometimes he can tell a whole story!

First snow of the year

Liam Smiles

Hi there!

It's me, Liam :-)
Today, I'm 3 weeks and 3 days old.
Life has been pretty interesting so far, it's so different to where I was before, I can tell you that! Every day, I experience something new.
Everybody says that I'm so small, but when I stretch my arms and legs I'm quite long already.
I have a nice pram where I like to sleep, especially on the balcony. Sometimes, Mummy takes me out with the pram too. I've even been on the bus already into town - exciting, all the sounds and even more to look at!
But I also like to be at home and to take it easy. My favourite pastime is studying things, like the whales on the wall in my room or Mrs Cow who is sitting next to me on the changing table. Sometimes I try to talk to her, but she still seems a bit shy.
Another favourite pastime of mine is having a lie-in in the mornings, especially with Mum and Daddy next to me. Also quite cool is my bath in the evenings that I have in a little bucket called Tummy Tub. In there, I can almost sit on my own!
That's it for now, I'm tired after this entry.
See you soon!

So big!

Lie-in with Daddy

Me and Mrs Cow

Splashing around in Tummy tub

Napping in my pram

Almost 2 weeks old

Liam is soon two weeks old and we are taking every opportunity to catch him with the camera while he is still so small and cute. He’s a very happy and peaceful baby, who’s rarely upset. This makes him quite easy to photograph.

42+0 baby Liam is born

After visiting our midwife, Diane, on Monday morning, there was just one day to go before Caroline would be 2 weeks overdue. Not that this is the end of the world, but it’s the point in time when you need to start having checkups every day and deciding if the birth needs to be induced.
As it turned out, we didn’t have to worry about this. Caroline started to have some contractions on Monday evening at around 8 o’clock. They were about 20min apart from the start and not strong. We were able to go to bed and we both slept until Caroline woke again at 1:30 in the night. By then the contractions were strong enough keep her awake, but still only 15 to 20min apart. We moved into the living room and half slept between contractions for the rest of the night on the mattress on the living room floor. At least I did anyway, I think Caroline was awake for most of the time.
I called the midwife and we agreed she would come to our flat later in the afternoon. By 11 am the contractions were more intense and coming every 10min. I called Diane to update her and she arrived soon after at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. She checked Caroline, who was already 5cm dilated by this time. We then started the serious business of helping Caroline dealing with ever more regular and painful contractions. Caroline was great and managed really well. We moved around the flat and stood, sat and leaned in various positions to help her cope with the contractions. Serious pain relief isn’t an option with a home birth, but Diane helped Caroline with good advice and a little acupuncture. Caroline had also some homeopathic medicine to help her. We were getting quite tired, but she was making good progress and at 10 pm Caroline’s waters broke. By now we were in the bathroom with the mattress and a good selection of towels. The final push started at 10:45 and went quite quickly. Soon the top of the baby’s head could be seen and two more pushes were enough to deliver a baby boy into the hands of Diane. Liam had arrived into the world Partus Normalis at 23:05 on the 7th October and cried out immediately.
Diane and I looked on as Liam suckled up to Caroline and we all sighed with relief that everything had gone well. Liam weighed 3950g and was 51 cm long. After just 22min he was at the breast for his first feed. Diane administered some necessary stitches and Caroline moved to our bed with Liam. Diane then wrote up her notes and completed the birth registration. An hour later she was on her way home, leaving Caroline, Liam and I to settle down for our first nights sleep together.



This was an incredible 24 hours, and all the credit goes to Caroline, who was fantastic throughout. Now the fun begins :) and we are both very happy and looking forward to enjoying Liam grow up.

41+6

No we haven’t forgotten to let you know… were still waiting for this little boy to come out as well. So be patient, we will be posting some news as soon as we have something to report!

40+2

Now the due date has gone by without the baby showing up. Of course, nothing unusual, but anyway it feels strange, that this date, that had been so far away for such a long time, has actually passed by.
I've started painting last week! After more than a year, I'm back on the canvas. Literally a prescription of my midwife, to get more in the tune of "letting go".
The tummy pictures are two weeks old. Some of you might recognise the icebear... doesn't it look very small next to this enormous bump?

Hannah to Manchester

Today Hannah left for her University in Manchester. She’s been planning her trip for months and now she’s on her way. We all went to the airport with her to see her off, along with her big bags. She’s was taking as much as she could and allowed to by the airline. She will be living in University accommodation for her first year, so I hope she will have space for her things.

Week 38

Caro is now in her 38th week and it shows as you can see. These dungarees have been put to good use over the past weeks; however I think Caro will soon be pleased to put them at the back of the wardrobe. The baby is very active and we can feel him moving and kicking most of the time.
Even though the summer hasn’t always been so warm, our balcony has been looking quite colourful this year. The temperature is now dropping during the days, so there aren’t so many chances to be out on the balcony anymore.