Picture update

Well, it's been a while so what's new?

Emma was mysteriously ill with intermittent fever but no other symptoms for 8 days until we got her on antibiotics due to
a) the pediatrician not finding anything wrong with her on the 3rd day and figuring it was a virus he recommended that we let it pass
b) Emma and I failing miserably at getting a urine sample (with one of those charming stick on baggies since she is not potty/toilet trained and me not wanting her to stop peeing forever -she would not pee with this on-)

After resolving to Emma's first blood test during which the whole of Vienna heard her yell, we were informed that there was in fact a bacterial infection of some sort (not strep) probably urinary (or ear infection) according to the aforementioned pediatrician. The only reassuring thing is that during the whole time Emma always said it did not hurt anywhere.

Pheew! Well, she is now much better and finishes the antibiotics tomorrow. Her mood has improved as has her appetite although she is still a tad pale.

In the meantime, she has learned all the basic colors in all three languages thanks to lots of colorful balloons, questions & answers, different colored cars and books and some rhymes. She'll even ask you "Mummy what's your favorite color?" and then hand you a felt shape in the color of your choice.


Spring seems to be on its way and although temperatures have dropped again today (6°) at least the grey ceiling has lifted! Hurray!!!
Below, fresh cabbage soup and bread; this year's first terrace lunch at our favorite market.


At just over 16kg, Emma has graduated to a big girl car seat (until she reaches 36kg or 150cm or 12 years old whatever happens first).

Emma reading in her up-to-15kg car seat in the entrance hall.

Emma in her new big girl car seat

An apple a day keeps the doctor away!

Emma at kindergarden pretending to call Daddy at work.

Emma now seems to notice my belly. Perhaps it's because recently I have had to tell her that Mummy cannot jump or roll on to her tummy because of the belly with the baby inside.

Here's Emma with a ball under her top.

The still-to-be-named baby is kicking away as if he were on football practice 24/7. Surely he is now so big that moving around should be difficult?
Emma now recognizes when I yelp due to a kick in the ribs or ovaries and asks me if it is the "garçon" (boy).
I definitely think he has hiccups after dinner like Emma used to.
I think he is still head down but more to the right now.
More info next Monday at our week 34 ultra-sound.

I'm really starting to look forward to his arrival now that his bedroom is ready and I have passed the 70kg mark! (that means I have now put on 9kg!!!)

Less than 50 days to go! (it sounds shorter in days than in weeks...)

Selective receptivity

Most toddlers have phases where they filter out requests (did somebody ask me to go brush my teeth?) but we've noticed Emma is especially good at tuning out requests that aren't put to her in English - both in Kindergarden and at home. And it's not about her not understanding.

Although English is in fact the language she's been in contact with the least, she really has taken to it like a fish to water.

Perhaps it's because English was introduced to her at the right time (in terms of brain development etc.) or because it sounds softer than the German and French languages and because its structure is easier or perhaps because she associates it to Peppa Pig...

Maybe her selective receptivity is precisely due to it not being the "official" language at school or at home (like the fact that she will go get ready for school when the timer rings rather than when I ask her). Sort of like a neutral party.

I remember, as a much older expat child, taking quickly and passionately to a language that was neither my father's nor my mother's; French. It's perhaps another way of breaking free and affirming one's individuality.

Whatever the reason, it seems natural that her seemingly "favorite" language is the one she reacts to most positively. Luckily, both Steph and I understand and speak English sufficiently well to call upon it when a swift reaction on Emma's part is required.

Unfortunately, we have broken the (very difficult to stick to) rule of one language / one person since I have taken to responding to Emma in the language she is using at that particular moment (bar German of course!) occasionally filling in the missing word if she is mixing languages in the same sentence or giving her the equivalent in the language we have been speaking so that she can learn it.

I'm certainly not going to complain about her eagerness to learn but I hope we are not causing too much confusion.

N.B. I actually wrote this post on February 19th but somehow never got 'round to posting it.

A little sunshine changes everything

Vienna is a much nicer place in the sun!
Dare I say it? I think Spring may be on it's way! How wonderful is
that?!

Emma in the bath

Baby and Emma update

At today's ultrasound the baby was head down - yippee! Although he can still swing around and change position I figure if he has done it once, he can do it again.

So those are his feet kicking my liver and my ribs! And I do believe this also confirms that the rhythmical movements I've been feeling down by my pelvis are indeed hiccups.

I was also told his heartbeat was strong, that he weighs 1869gr (great news especially if he were to come early) and measures 38cm.

As for Emma, she's already asleep after a copious dinner of chicken, peas and carrots (she had three drum sticks to herself!) and our weekly gym class. Today was our second time and boy did she have fun! Check out those red cheeks!

(Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera so the pics were taken with my Iphone hence some blurriness)



The class lasts until June and I don't know for how long I'll be able to continue doing this with Emma, but hopefully at least until the baby is born - after that I might have to ask the babysitter to come with us and just cheer them on from the bench with the babe in tow.

Lady parts dilemma

To get straight to the point: Do you have a girl? a daughter I mean? And if so, what do you call her lady parts?

Emma was 2 and 4 months old when I finally attributed a name to her lady parts. Not because it's a taboo for me, but because I had no idea what to call them!

This in itself is telling.

In French (the language we mostly speak to her in) there are loads of sweet names for male genitals (zizi, zigounette, kikette...) but I still have to hear for an equivalent for girls which does not sound vulgar or too anatomical.

So I asked around.

Some people call it a "pipi" as per it's function. But we already call pee-pee, pipi. Except in kindergarden where they call it "looloo" , which I personally find a bit confusing with "lola" (what Emma calls her dummy/pacifier).
Another French speaking Mum calls her daughter's lady parts "zaza" because it seemed like a reasonable female equivalent to "zizi" (she also has a boy). Zaza sounds like an exotic pole dancer from the Cotton Club to me, but at least it's something. And it's easy to pronounce for kids.
In French, some call it a "minou" which is equivalent to "kitty" but we already call the cats that visit our garden that.

In English I haven't the faintest idea what I would use. I have heard of "nelly" which sounds like the complementary name to the very British "willy" for boys and reminds me of the Little House in the Prairie.
I read about a mother calling her lady parts "kiki" when talking to her daughter and I kind of liked that 'cause it a) rhymes with "zizi" b) is easy to say for a child c) works in all languages.

I've also heard of "la patatina" (small potato) which I think is cute - if you speak Italian to your kids - and of "JJ" or "Gina" from "vagina" but I found those too American and God forbid my daughter have a friend called Gina one day! Then there is "Hooha" which sounds like Al Pacino in "Scent of a woman" (not in this particular scene) - much too adult for my 2 year old.

What about the correct anatomical names? Vagina (vagin in French) and penis? What's wrong with them? After all, we do use "les fesses" when washing her bum in the bath... But somehow they sound very adult like in a child's mouth as well as probably too difficult to pronounce for children. Somehow vagina and penis sound more like the sexual organs and I think they will come into the picture soon enough.

So, back to my initial question: if you have a daughter, what do you use? I'd really be curious to know!

For extra reading on the subject:

Annalisa Barbieri's Family problems solved and Acceptable words for female genitals or
Keir Royale's Front bottoms and wee-wees

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Yesterday our cleaning lady was due in at 9am like every Monday. I wanted to mention a few things to her so Steph dropped Emma off at kindergarden and I waited and waited and waited. No call. At 9h35 I had to leave for an appointment in town so I left her some post-its around the house hoping that would help us surpass the language barrier.

I got home around 1pm and while I was waiting for my soup to warm up, I checked the little piece of paper where the cleaning lady notes down her hours so we can total them up at the end of the month.

It read 9h00-12h30 = 3h30
Mmmm... Not pleased at all.

I decide to give her a call immediately to sort things out. Speaking slowly and distinctly in my best German I tell her there seems to be a problem. I start saying "you wrote down..." and she finishes my sentence by saying 9am to 12h30. I cough a little and say I was here until 9h30 and she was not.

Immediately she replies that today one of her kids was unwell and that she in fact arrived at 9h30 before asking me to wait while she puts her German speaking friend on. Our cleaning might be fluent in Romanian by I am not.

Her friend explains to me that it was a mistake due to her being so used to arriving at 9am, that she automatically wrote down her usual arrival time.
I must admit I am a bit sceptical since she not only stated having arrived at 9h30 but also totaled up the hours to 3h30. It's kind of like lying twice.

I can hear our cleaning lady G. whispering to her friend in Romanian and her friend repeating that it was a mistake. I tell her that I will correct the times on the paper and explain that G. cannot continue working here if I do not trust her. Her friend says she understands and actually provides me with the German word for "trust" finishing my sentence. We say goodbye.

Uhmmm.

I hate that. The loss of trust. Now I can't help asking myself... G. knows I drop off Emma in the mornings shortly before 9 and often get some groceries and run errands before coming home. She knows what my car looks like. Has she been doing this long?
I don't want to have to be here the whole time she cleans. I don't want to have to ask her to call me from our land-line when she arrives and before she leaves. But don't want to have doubts and feel we are being ripped off either.

UPDATE: I've decided to give G. the benefit of the doubt - she has apologized in what seemed a sincere manner to me and I don't think it will happen again.
Moving on...

Can I whine just a little?

Is it the weather? It's February 5th and I can hardly believe Christmas was only 6 or so weeks ago. Time is craaaawling and I feel, well, not depressed exactly, just a little fed up with the winter and in need of some soft sunshine and coffee on a warm terrace -no gloves, boots or hats to be seen. Ahhh, that would be nice.

It's grey and cold and Spring as well as the baby's arrival seem to be forever away.

Meantime my winter coat no longer zips up (I've found an alternative in a shorter jacket with poppers that will have to do until the temperatures deign to improve), it takes me forever to pull my boots on, Emma's 16kg are playing games with my balance (and my attempts at keeping a stable core and aligned pelvis), and we still don't have a name for our baby boy. Oh and I still have a blocked nose ...

And I feel overwhelmed by the amount of laundry and organizing - yes, I'm nesting! - after going through ALL of Emma's clothes, separating the too girly from more neutral clothes and setting up little baby boys' bedroom; bed, cupboard, sheets, clothes, curtains, carpet, toy trunk, changing station, lighting, chair to breast feed in...
As far as I remember, setting Emma's room up was fun - this is much more work. Maybe because there is Emma to play and take care of too. Maybe because I need to put my feet up for an hour a day if I want to be even mildly efficient and present at dinner time. Maybe it's just trying to get all this done when the weather's only talent is to inspire me to sink into the sofa with a book or a DVD.

Ugh.

And, in all honesty, I have to admit, there are days when I have spent so much energy trying to be patient with Emma's dawdling and testing of our limits that I wonder how we will ever manage when I will have slept less and have another little one to care for.

Emma update: two and a half

Emma is 2 1/2 today. Here are some facts and figures about Emma:

Physically:

• measures about 94cm but wears clothes for 3-4 year olds as she is wide around the shoulders and hips
  
• shoes size 26
• still not a vast amount of hair but we have it trimmed every 2 months or so - it looks neater and it might just help it thicken
  
• cute as a button - but hey, I'm her Mum, what do you expect?!
  

Speech:

We're not in the "Why?" stage yet but Emma is asking LOTS of questions quite relentlessly such as:

• Qu'est-ce c'est?/c'est quoi? or What's this? when she sees something she cannot identify or wants to know what the word for it is in another language
  
• Qu'est-ce que tu fais? (what are you doing?) when she enters a room and finds you actually doing something or wants to know the word to whatever action you are carrying out
  
• Je peux voir?/Emma voir (can I see?) most often when we tell her she has had enough of something (three servings of soup/pasta/apfel mus is surely enough!) she wants to see if there is any left. I actually now stress using "ça suffit" (that's enough) or "c'est le dernier/la dernière" (it's the last one) as opposed to "il n'y a plus de..." (there is/are no more ...) because Emma almost always asks to see the pot or pan or packet of biscuits.
• Tu veux lequel? (which one do you want?) when presenting us with a choice of toys or colors or books (mimic us).
• T'as fini? (are you finished?) at the dinner table
  

It's great for vocabulary building and quite cute actually, except when you are driving around looking for a parking spot and she is relentlessly repeating "what is that?" without giving you any indication of what the "that" might be!
It seems that mainly sticking to one language over the holidays helped things organize themselves in Emma's brain as far as languages are concerned and she seems to have made a leap forward with her French. However now she is actually mixing languages within words - not just sentences - a recent example "Liren, bitte?" (lire = read in French & lesen = read in German)

• Currently, her favorite question in German is "ist es lustig?" (is it funny?) which she asks after jumping, falling down on purpose or whenever she thinks she's done something funny.
  
• She still mainly speaks of herself and others using the third person singular (as in Emma tired) except in specifically learned expressions like "t'as fini?" (are you/have you finished?) or "on y va" (let's go!)
• Emma doesn't currently distinguish "who" from "what" (or "qui" from "quoi") but I figure that's in line with talking to inanimate objects such as teddies and toys...
• She is starting to make more complex sentences and state things like "this is little Emma" (ça c'est petite Emma) when pointing a pic of herself as a baby, or "ça c'est a Maman/Papa" (this is Mummy's/Daddy's) or "ça c'est pour Emma" (this is for Emma) c'est pas pour toi (it's not for you).

Expressing feelings:

• Emma is also very good at telling us when she is tired "Emma dodo maintenant" (Emma sleep now) or hungry ("Emma faim" - Emma hungry) and becoming increasingly eloquent at naming basic emotions such as "grumpy" or "angry" (fachée), "triste" (sad) or "contente" (happy) and will sometimes tell us we are being "böse" (bad, mean) when we insist on her doing something she does not want to do.
• She'll also enquire: "maman fatiguée?" when she sees me yawn.

Eating and sleeping:

• Now days, Emma eats practically everything (although she has totally gone of eggs and doesn't really like mushrooms nor pumpkin and will occasionally be choosy about things in her plate) making the little list in the sidebar quite irrelevant...
  

• She sleeps through nights 99,9% of the time except if she is ill or has not had enough to drink during the day. Emma slept in her "big girl bed" for the first time on January 17th but we are still using a grow bag rather than a proper duvet because she is rather restless in her sleep (as anyone who has shared a bed with her knows!) She loves her bed so much she now climbs into it to read her books during the day time and we often find her peacefully "reading" in the morning with her bedside light on.
  

I still have to move the wall stickers which were placed to be
around the top of her cot and look a bit funny now in the middle of the wall.

Toilet training & dummy:

• No visible progress on the toilet/potty training front - we just occasionally ask her if she wishes to use the toilet like Maman and Papa but haven't really gone further with that one and watching kindergarden friends hasn't inspired her immensely.
• Emma still sleeps with her "lola" (dummy/pacifier) at home but no longer uses it at naps in kindergarden. Unfortunately, our attempt at giving it to Santa Claus was pretty disastrous (not least of all as she was coming down with a cold) as she cried for her "lola" every time her cough woke her up. Maybe the Easter bunny could take it?

Chores, agility and mobility:

• Taking her shopping without a buggy can be hit or miss; sometimes easy as pie, sometimes her running off and playing "catch me" (and running with a belly is hard!).
• She still dawdles and this means a 5 minute walk from the kindergarden to the car can actually take 30 minutes - Patience, patience....
  
• She is generally very careful when taking things to and from the table and loves throwing things away in the garbage.
• Now days, Emma loves jumping (now with both feet) from the sidewalk and runs anywhere she can
  
• She'll gladly help with cleaning the snow off the car, setting the table and the laundry, pushing the laundry basket from the bathroom to the laundry room then pulling out the laundry and placing it in the machine and most of all closing the door and pressing the START button.
  

Playing:

• She definitely plays a lot more independently sometimes telling us she is going to her room with teddy or to play lego and loves reading and being read to (you can read the same book to her a zillion times - it's no problem at all for her!).
• She often mimics us with her teddy and "nounours" (there are two!) telling them she will be back when we leave them in the car or wishing them "goodnight" when putting them to sleep.
• LOVES reading! enjoys playing with Lego and doing the occasional puzzle and is still totally smitten by Peppa Pig and her family and friends. In the car she loves listening to her music and sometimes dancing at home but her favorite things of all are BOOKS!
  
• She's not so much a "rough and tumble" girl - although she loves it when we tickle her in our bed or on the couch - and tends to need to be close to someone to accept physical exchange such as playful chasing/pulling/pushing/catching etc. (at kindergarden it took her a long time to cuddle up to a teacher)
• She hated our attempt at skating but like sleighing and making snowmen
  

Terrific twos and threes....

• She's definitely testing us; banging her feet against her chair at dinner time although we have told her not to a zillion times, deciding she wants to eat with her fingers instead of using a fork, saying "no" to whatever needs doing (getting out of bed, dressing/undressing, brushing teeth, dinner-time, clearing up toys, etc.), refusing to put her boots on alone although she is perfectly capable of doing so, grunting at us, putting herself in the corner in a joking fashion (a place we ask her to go for 2 minutes to calm down when she is getting a out of hand), walking in the opposite direction to the place we are going to, running away...
• "No" is unfortunately still a favorite word...
  

Other than all the above, she's just a little bundle of joy despite the occasional "revolver eyes" (as they say in French) when she disagrees or is "grumpy".

Emma's new love

Emma's new love is her turquoise pouf which is in fact one of my breastfeeding/maternity cushions hidden under a Sit Fix cover. Pretty neat "recycling" huh? Check it out here

Pheew! We have an appointment to get her hair trimmed tomorrow after kindergarden!

Oh and on a more serious note of "love", last week Emma told me she was going to kiss W. a boy in her kindergarden group she seems to like. Here he is on Emma's right as they wait for the other children to get ready for the snow.

I definitely agree with her, he is the cutest boy in the kindergarden!

Baby/preggie update week 28

So on Thursday I had my routine checkup at my gynae's and got my glucose test results and blood test results.

In a nutshell:

• I don't have gestational diabetes
  
• I am anemic
• everything else is fine; in fact even my low lying placenta seems to have moved up but we'll still go for the final confirmation on that one during week 34
• unfortunately, no cool baby pics this time.

As for the baby, he now measures 35cm (!!) and weighs 1284gr. (Seems big to me!) According to the measurements, the calculated EDD (estimated delivery date) reads out to be April 14th-16th confirming my feeling (or hope!) that he's coming slightly before April 20th. Although, according to the gynae, these measurements vary each time and don't really change the EDD calculated at the beginning of the pregnancy.

I think Emma's EDD was also somewhere between July 27th-August 4th according to the various body measurements (see Emma's data on week 30 and of week 32)...

I'm still not entirely sure at which location to give birth (hesitating in between two) so I've decided to go visit the delivery rooms in each hospital again next week and hope my gut will have strong feelings about one place rather than another.

Also, I am hugely reassured after discussing post-term delivery with my gynae; one of the girls who does preggie pilates with me is over 10 days overdue and they are still waiting... I don't know how she does it. I would be really worried. Even with the checks every three days. In Switzerland that's a no-no. And in my book that's definitely a no-no. Very happily, my gynae is also against leaving the baby in more than 3 days post-term - Pheew!!!

Mind you, a couple of second time Mums have told me their second delivery was so quick they barely had time to get to the maternity or settle into the delivery room! I could live with that - as long as Steph is around and Emma is safely at kindergarden and it's not all happening at 4am.

Big girl bed

Emma slept in her big girl bed for the first time last night. It took her ages to fall asleep but I think that had more to do with a long afternoon nap than the bed - at least I hope so.

This is excellent news mainly because it was becoming really hard for me to lift her into her cot with my belly and her weight. She seemed quite pleased and kept saying "Emma a grand lit" (Emma has big bed). It also means that I can now sit on her bed next to her for our bedtime stories which she quite liked. (Hopefully there won't be too much climbing out!)

Another piece of good news; we're nearly done with all the vaccinating!
Emma had her "Hepatitis A" booster shot today and will have her third and last tick-borne encephalitis booster shot in April (before the baby arrives please) - after that Emma is all done with vaccines and boosters until she is at least 4 (unless we move God knows where in the meantime...). Yay!

Of course, then we can start all over again with baby boy...

what size is my bump at 92 days to go?

Preggie update - 100 or so days left

Today is the first day of the third (and last!) trimester of my pregnancy! Yiippeee!!!

What's up with the me and the babe?

• I've put on 5 - 5,5kg so far (currently at 65,5) and am hoping to stay below 70kg if at all possible, my feet will be ever so grateful!
  
• energy levels are pretty high now that I am getting rid of my sinusitis
• I'm sleeping well although finding it increasingly difficult to turn around in bed (my osteopath suggests tightening & relaxing the buttocks a few times and then tightening them to turn around so as to create a "belt" of support around your hips since by now abs are totally useless)
• my belly is looking pretty big and my belly button has flattened out completely (with Emma it never popped outwards which was fine by me, thank-you very much!)
• I can still zip up my winter coat, which is great as it's about -3° here in Vienna and windy
• baby is kicking strongly but no hiccups so far (Emma had them all the time and still has them occasionally)
• next check-up with ultra-sound due next-week

Update: Saw my endocrinologist today and it turns out my thyroid meds need adjusting again - up to 150µg/day (instead of the current 125µg) - I'm glad we're keeping an eye on this!

Back in Vienna, mini update

So we're back in Vienna after our longest holiday stay at the Poirier in France and I have to say it's not bad to be back. Hopefully, I'll finally begin to feel human again after a major bout of sinusitis (Emma and Steph were ill too) so back to health is a good start to the year.

But there has been other minor but still empowering happy bits of good news to welcome us back to Vienna:

• against all likelihood, my wallet was returned to me -Yippee!- with all my -now useless- papers and cards inside. Apparently somebody dropped it off in the lost and found mailbox. Kind of restores your faith in people... especially in a big city like Vienna. Too bad I had already ordered new driving license, ID cards, bank cards, credit cards, insurance cards... I wonder if it was the thief herself who returned it. I can imagine her loading off a bag full of wallets rid of their cash. Funnily enough, the letter from the Fundservicestelle was sent out on December 18, the very day we headed off to Geneva. Oh well. (for the theft story go here)
  
• January has brought lots of calls about our Polo (we're selling) and today we sold it to a family with two boys (3 yrs and 5 weeks). My new car arrives mid-Jan. and my ever-extending belly is very happy and grateful!
• Although my "mummy revenues" for taking care of Emma come to an end this month, I received some surprise extra cash from the state of Vienna who had forgotten to pay me three months of my "mummy salary" - always appreciated after Christmas!
• It's been snowing so we can finally test Emma's sleigh!
  
• I found some more preggie leggings (on sale at Jacadi) Yay!!!! I am really beginning to feel tight in my jeans and tunics and leggings are so much softer on my lower belly.
• 100 more days to go before D-day! Although we still have not found a name for our little man in the making...
  

Santa's home was robbed

On the same day we visited Santa's beautiful home in Haute Savoie, he was robbed!!!

Luckily, all the gifts are wrapped and ready to go -the nasty robbers "only" took the money.

This article, in French, tells more.

For pics of our visit to his house click here.


If you are ever in the area, it's definitely worth a visit!

Emma's favorite things

At the moment Emma's favorite things are:

Her musical Christmas calendar - thankfully it has pretty music!




and her crowns


She loves the crowns so much, it's now become difficult to convince her to wear her bonnet when going out in the cold!!!

and her English tidy up rhymes from kindergarden (click on pics to enlarge)

Children make Christmas more magical

This year I am getting so excited about Christmas. I think it's because Emma is starting to understand a little about it and so it makes the gift shopping, wrapping, decorating and baking all the more fun and exciting. (I am soooo relieved that I was super organized this year and had practically all my gifts ordered or bought before my wallet got stolen end of November!!!! Phew!)

Also, I am really pleased with the gifts I have got for Emma. (and mostly everybody else too!) Gosh, just thinking about the smile on her face and imagining her yelp with joy makes Christmas a whole lot better!

As always, we have decorated our Christmas tree - albeit a bit early this year due to lack of activity on a rainy Sunday afternoon. But beautiful as I think it is, it somehow does not seem complete without gifts underneath. (We'll be celebrating Christmas in Geneva again so I sent all our gifts there with Steph who was flying out for a workshop and agreed to play father Christmas with a full suitcase of wrapped presents).

Anyway, I was thinking about all this and the Christmas tree we will be decorating in Geneva when I suddenly realized that the presents would be under the tree for a very short time this year if we wanted Emma to believe in Santa Claus. Mmmm.

I think I would like Emma to believe in the magic of Christmas. And that includes the Santa-Claus-brings-us-presents-while-we-are-asleep-thanks-to-his-helper-elves-and-reindeer-who-magically-pull-the-sleigh-across-the-sky story. Which involves us parents putting the presents under the tree only once Emma is asleep on the 24th so she can wake up to them on the 25th.

How are we going to organize this since we are also due to have a Christmas celebration at Tata Yéyé's new apartment on Christmas Eve during which I am sure everyone will want to give Emma their presents?

I guess we're going to have to have the "family and friends give each other presents" story as well as the "Santa Claus brings presents on his sleigh on Christmas Eve" one.

What do you do with your kids?

Drawing in the sand by Kseniya Simonova

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

Her interpretation is mesmeric to watch.

Too much medicine robbed the magic

Here's a slightly more "medical" update on my previous post It's a boy!!!

At week 21, our little boy is estimated to measure about 23cm and weigh about 375gr. The EDD (estimated delivery date) remains the same and all that was measured was within the normal ranges.

The heart activity and rhythm, veins, lungs, stomach, cord, fetal movements and amniotic liquid are all "normal". My placenta is a little low (actually my report says "There is placenta previa, we advise to check the placental position at 34 weeks" ) but hopefully this will correct itself by the third trimester and I will not have to have a C-section. (I really, really do not want a C-section! Enough ops and scars thank-you! ) On the up side, they also typed "IUGR and preeclampsia are very unlikely to occur in this pregnancy." Well that's a relief!

All ok, right? But you know what? The fact is that I read all of this -except the placenta previa bit which I asked about while we were there- on our report once we got home. Although we had been looking forward to the organ screening, we walked out of the examination feeling really let down and actually worried. Nothing at all like the elation we felt each time we went to "the movies" as we used to call the monthly ultra-sound checks we had in Izmir when we "visited" Emma.

I have heard women say they wanted to give birth at home because they felt the medical environment and/or medical professionals overshadowed the natural and or human aspect of giving birth. While I am NOT considering having the baby at home (as far as I am concerned, it would be an unnecessary risk) I have to say that I do feel a little robbed of the magic by the medical and administrative requirements and modus operandi this time around. And this is despite the fact that there are no medical grounds for specific medical treatment or scrutiny.

In Turkey while pregnant with Emma we were a lot more relaxed and although examinations were thorough we somehow had more fun and looked at the "human" aspect of the pregnancy and baby more (like whose nose she might have inherited and how tall she would be). Our Obgyn would totally participate in this and indeed lead the way. Never were we asked to sign papers such as the ones we have had to sign here telling us about limited accuracy of medical tests or the risks of malformation. And this is despite the fact that in Turkey I was considered to be an old woman pregnant for the first time at the age of 33!

Here, prior to examinations we are asked to sign forms attesting our understanding that the examination/ultra-sound cannot guarantee 100% accuracy and telling us that approximately 5% of all pregnancies result in babies with undetected issues. Well, that really puts you in an optimistic and relaxed mood before seeing your baby doesn't it?

On one occasion, I have felt like we were present during the ultra-sound merely because we had to be, with the baby being inside me and all... On Monday, while carrying out the organ screening the doctor didn't systematically address us with explanations about what he was measuring or checking but rather was focused on dictating the data to his assistant who was typing it all up. I really felt nervous when he scrolled over the heart in total silence... breaking it only to dictate abbreviations followed by numbers until I asked: Is everything ok? and we were finally told "everything appears to be normal".

Then after we had paid and received our report he shook our hands and said "Enjoy your pregnancy" - yeah...I really felt like he had helped contribute to that!

Today I had an appointment with my Obgyn and thankfully she was reassuring telling my more about placenta previa (apparently present in about 5% of pregnancies at the time of delivery) and encouraging me not to worry about it saying it would probably move up as the baby and uterus grow upwards. We actually had a proper conversation. Well, that's more like it.

It's a Boy!!!

It is a boy.

Lately, quite a few mothers have told me that they too thought their second was going to be a boy but ended up being wrong. In fact my father was certain my sister was going to be a boy... Must ask my mother what she felt. Although I was right about Emma being a girl (despite all of my Turkish entourage telling me that the size and shape of my belly and the fact that "my beauty was intact" * meant it was going to be boy for sure), this got me thinking; I think I would have felt quite shaken had the doctor's told me it was a girl all along. Not disappointed, no, just shaken. I think I would not have felt able to trust my instincts about this pregnancy anymore.

Anyway, girl or boy all the same to me, as long as it is healthy and happy and the pregnancy and delivery go well.

* Gender myths:
There is a saying in some cultures, whereby a baby girl "borrows" the mother's beauty during pregnancy. So basically, if your hair is greasy, you come out in acne and look your absolute worst in pregnancy you are thought to have a girl. If, on the contrary, you are glowing and beautiful then you are said to be pregnant with a boy. In my experience this is not true but a couple of Mums who have daughters have told me it worked for them.
Also, I have been told that Mothers of "sturdy" girls always had a boy afterwards, whereas those who had dainty little girls then went on to have another girl. This seems to prove true in my case and in quite a few I know of. But what about the other way around? If you have a boy first?

And here he is, our little boy of 21 weeks in utero for whom we still need to find a name:



Any suggestions for a name?

Does he look like Emma did at 30 weeks ? or like Emma looked at 23 weeks?

Natural herbs, teas and vitamins used in pregnancy

As every week I read my Pregnancy E-zines and this week I found a particularly interesting topic was touched upon in the American Pregnancy one; Natural herbs, teas and vitamins used in pregnancy.

Some of these tie in with a previous post of mine on Morning sickness relief recipes but the article is informative to anyone who drinks herbal teas, suffers from nausea, flatulence or heartburn or wants to avoid (or if you're past 40 weeks indulge in!) herbs that may cause contractions.

Below is an excerpt.

Herbs used in Pregnancy

The following herbs have been rated Likely Safe or Possibly Safe for use during pregnancy:⁴

• Red Raspberry Leaf - Rich in iron, this herb has helped tone the uterus, increase milk production, decrease nausea, and ease labor pains. Some studies have even reported that using red raspberry leaf during pregnancy can reduce complications and the use of interventions during birth.⁵ You may see pregnancy teas that are made from red raspberry leaf to help promote uterine health during pregnancy. (Read about herbal teas for more information)
There is some controversy about whether this should be used throughout pregnancy or just in the second and third trimester, so many health care providers remain cautious and only recommend using it after the first trimester.
• Peppermint Leaf - Helpful in relieving nausea/morning sickness and flatulence
• Ginger root - Helps relieve nausea and vomiting
• Slippery Elm Bark - (when the inner bark is used orally in amounts used in foods) Used to help relieve nausea, heartburn, and vaginal irritations
• Oats & Oat Straw - Rich in calcium and magnesium; helps relieve anxiety, restlessness, and irritated skin

To read the whole article: click here

Photo courtesy of: Mahealions

20 weeks preggie: Half way there!

20/40 weeks!! YAY!!!

So what's new with the bump?

• My tummy definitely feels bigger and I'm finding staying bent in the middle for a while (like to help Emma get her shoes on/off, pull my own boots on or get the laundry in the machine) a lot tougher.
  
• I've put on 3,5kg in 20 weeks
• I am already fed up with wearing preggie jeans all the time! Dresses are much more comfy but my legs get cold when I spend time outside in tights.
• I can still zip up my winter coat but not for long. I hope February won't be too cold!!!
  
• I've been feeling the baby's butterfly-like flutters for the past 3 or so weeks and his movements are getting stronger.
  
• Sometimes he just stays still but pushes hard against the wall of my belly.
  
• For a couple of days now, I have also been able to feel him (or her) from the outside (my hand on my tum) but it's still quite infrequent.
• He seems to be like swimming in the middle and on my left side whereas Emma used to push out on my right side which was a bit of a fight at bedtime (I used to sleep on my right side a lot).
• We still don't have a name.

On Monday we are due to have our organ screening test (see ultrasounds scans explained here) and so we should also finally find out if it really is a he.

That's about it!