ETA + 6

Sorry to say that there is still nothing happening on the piglet front. It seems like the midwife's guess was too optimistic. Mum has always said she thought it wouldn't happen until June and it looks like she is right..

I wonder if it is the crappy weather we have that makes the piglet want to stay where it is. This weekend we are supposed to get some real summery weather though, maybe then (s)he wants to come out..

Although it is nice to have the time off I must say that it is getting harder and harder to fill the days. There is only so much cleaning and baking one can do before getting bored.. Hopefully it won't be long now until I will spend my days with the little piglet instead!

No sign of the piglet

Still no action on the piglet front I'm afraid.. It seems to like it a bit too much where it is. Well, at least I have had time to finish the blanket I have been working on for a while. Here is the result:


The weekend was nice. Yesterday the weather was great and we finally went to look at a few houses in the Stockholm area. Mostly to get a feel for where we might want to live. It will probably still be a while until we move, but who knows..

ETA +1

No piglet yet... We thought it might be on its way last night since I had quite a lot of contractions and an aching back. It was probably just gas though ;-) The evening was quite bad but I decided to go to bed and this morning I feel a lot more relaxed. Dave started packing The Bag and I think it is quite lucky that we have made a list of what needs to go in it because he was acting quite nervous (understandably!).

We actually went out for a meal yesterday but I think both of us were quite tense and even though the food was excellent it was hard to relax and we were probably the quickest guests of the evening.


Tonight we're (maybe) going over to Anna and Patrik's for dinner and games. Will be nice!

Flower Power

Yesterday we had yet another check up with our midwife Ulla-Karin. Everything looked fine. The bump is still on the average curve, the heart sounded strong and the piglet is in the starting position. Dave asked when Ulla-Karin thinks it will be born and her guess is on the 31st. We'll see if she is right, she is after all a professional ;-)

After the checkup we went for our traditional coffee and then Dave took the train to work. Yesterday the weather was actually quite nice so I decided to take a walk to "Stadsparken" (the city park) where Ulla-Karin had told us about a huge tulip exhibition. If you didn't know it already the whole of Sweden and Uppsala especially is a bit Carl von Linné crazy this year since it is 300 years since he was born. I didn't know this but yesterday was the actual birthday so there was loads going on in town.

It must be a good year to be a gardener this year because Uppsala (and other towns as well) are spending more than ever on decorating with flowers and I must say that what they had done in Stadsparken was really nice. Here are a few samples:
After my stroll in the park I went in to town where they had rolled out a lawn on the shopping street. Quite weird but nice. When I got to the center square there was a lot of police and a few people standing around so I asked a policeman what was going on and he said that the Japanese Emperor's car was about to drive past so of course I had to stick around. And sure enough, after a few minutes a procession of posh cars drove past. Most of them had dark windows so it was hard to see who was inside, but the emperor's car actually had it's windows down and he and his wife was waving as they drove past. Me and a cute old lady next to me had quite a giggle about it. "The emperor waved to us!!" It must have been a big moment for him!

Back to maybe more interesting stuff. No piglet delivery yet and no signs of it starting either. Not that there seems to be much of an advance warning though. Our friends Linda and Eric who had the same date as us had a baby boy yesterday morning and just the day before yesterday I got an email from her complaining about how nothing was happening, so...

Current bump

This is what the bump looks like now. Is it getting any bigger you think?

It certainly feels quite big to me ;-)

Another day with quite miserable weather but tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny.. Hope they are right!

We have a checkup at the midwife tomorrow. Hope everything is ok, it feels like it is. Just wish the piglet wants to come out soon...

Feeling better

After a quite miserable weekend where both me and Dave felt pretty rotten we are now slowly getting better. Most of the 4-day weekend was spent coughing and wiping our snotty noses but yesterday we both had a bit more energy which was lucky since we had "garden-duty" last week and needed to put in a few hours of work. Luckily yesterday was a really nice day so it was quite pleasant to do a bit of gardening. I felt very brave when I dared to use the fancy new lawnmower.

As I said we felt pretty rotten most of the weekend and didn't do much interesting stuff. On Friday we went in to town though and picked up Dave's new glasses. Doesn't he look cool?
As you probably have guessed already, there has been no piglet-delivery yet... Now I feel like my strength is coming back though so I hope it will happen pretty soon. We are very eager to meet the little bugger wriggling around now! ;-) Two of the couples from our parent group has had their babies now. One boy and one girl..

Poor me

Now on my third day of maternity leave and of course I have gotten ill. On Monday I had a quite nice day. The weather was awful but it suited me quite well since what I wanted to do was to get some housework done and relax in front of the TV. Managed to clean half the flat and do some laundry so I didn't just watch telly! In the evening I went to a chocolate tasting with Anna wich was very nice. There is definitely difference between chocolate and chocolate...

Before going to bed my throat felt really sore though and I slept quite bad during the night coz it was aching so much. Yesterday I met up with a few girls from the parent course which was really nice but I could feel my throat getting worse and my nose getting bunged up. Today I feel pretty crappy but hopefully it means I will get better soon. Dave has also felt like he is coming down with something so we'll see if he gets ill too.. Would be a shame if we are both ill though because tomorrow is a (yet another) bank holiday and Dave also gets the Friday off (a so-called "squeeze day"). Would have been nice to go for picnics and do nice stuff together, but now it doesn't look promising. The weather forecast is pretty bad as well (May has been very disappointing so far!).

There, done complaining now.. Hopefully I will get better soon and have all my strenght back for the big challenge ahead!


Maybe you've already seen this picture in the bump photo album, but anyway. This is the latest bump picture..

first entry by dave!

Vickan made me an offer I couldn't refuse. My 8 1/2 month pregnant wife is cooking me dinner and all I have to do is make a little blog entry, something which I haven't been too forthcoming with in the past.

We have had a nice weekend. The bwin party was quite fun. They decided to invite partners and children, and the children came in droves. There was a balloon man, a "fiskdamm" (for english readers, this is a cross between "pin the tail on the donkey" and a lucky dip that involves fishing rods), karaoke, "guitar hero", pingis (table tennis), and plenty of beer too.

Saturday was very busy as we had to prepare for our Eurovision party. We only had ten people coming but you always forget how much work is involved in entertaining! Of course we bought way too much of everything, except for the main ingredient of our main course which we had too little of. It was not a wild party and people left quite early. There was no guitar playing and drunken singing-at-the-top-of-ones-lungs like last time... The eurovision itself was a bit of an anti-climax (surprise surprise). I think the swedes were a little ashamed of their performance and quality of their entry. They were not happy with our (UK) entry either. They think we don't take it seriously enough and resent the fact that we are always guaranteed a place in the final because we are one of the "big four".

Some reflections about Eurovision:

• as one of our guests said it seems that the balance of power in Eurovision is decidedly moving east. Take Ukraine's entry: they've only been in the competition a few years and already they're being pretty cocky with their entries. It was one of the better songs though, and the transvestite singer (who looked like sue pollard reborn as a teletubby) was very funny.
• You watch some of the countries and you want to say something cutting about the entry or whatever, but you can't. You are watching something so utterly foreign that it may as well be alien. I think that is why the English "joke" entry fell so flat. No one got the joke, which really says a lot about how out-of-touch with the rest of europe we are.
• Finally, what happened to Italy? Why are they not in the competition any more? and why is so hard to find out why? Why does no one mention it? And why am I the only one who cares?

We received some lovely pressies from mum (joyce) on friday. We got some pram blankets and a hooded towel (pictured here modelled by Vickan):


and here is an image of our brand spanking new pram:

Last day at work!

Doing my last day at work today and it feels GREAT (that it is the last one I mean). I honestly don't think I will miss it much, not to start with anyway.. Maybe I'll feel different in the winter when it is dark and miserable but now I am just looking forward to having the whole summer off with our little piglet..

Yesterday we picked up the pram and it is now standing in the flat all shiny and new (and green!).. Pictures will come!

Tonight there is a party at bwin that we are going to and tomorrow we have invited some frieds for a Eurovision Song Contest party.. Might be the last party we throw in a while ;-)
It will be a great weekend I think!

Checkup

Had another checkup this morning. Everything looked fine. The baby's head is "fixed" now which I have been suspecting a bit from how it feels when it is moving.

Had a helth-check at work about a week ago and a blood test showed the sedimentation rate (in Swedish: sänkan) was a bit higher than normal (40) and there was a bit of protein in my urine. I talked to the midwife about it today and she suggested I do another urine test tomorrow and they will see if they find anything. I feel absolutely fine though, so I don't think there is anything to worry about and the midwife didn't seem worried either.

The piglet is still wriggling around loads and sometimes it feels like it is about to come out "alien-style". Hope not.. Not that the other way is especially appealing either but still..

It has gotten really cold here again and I feel a bit bunged up. I sure hope I won't get a cold now.. Want to be healthy and strong in the weeks to come so I can cope on the Big Day!

Fetal Development (week 38):

The baby may be gaining an ounce a day now. His/her intestines are accumulating lots of meconium (baby's first bowel movement). The circumference of the head and the baby's abdomen are about the same size.

Money, money, money

Went to an information session about the "parent insurance" at "Försäkringskassan" yesterday. It was actually quite good but I am still a bit confused. Once we are in " the system" I think it will be fine though.

It is just fascinating how many govermental institutions just love bureaucracy and especially (close to) Catch 22 situations. Maybe it isn't quite that bad but it certainly feels like that way.

One funny/strange thing is that all their step-by-step guides on how to claim the parent insurance start at step 2 (that's how it seems to me anyway). It gives you very good instructions on how to claim the money, but to claim the money you first have to "sign up" for the parent insurance and there is no instruction on how to do that. Especially not if the baby isn't born yet. If the baby is born it is a bit easier but since there is a rule saying you can claim money in advance but not retroactively it is quite smart to do it in advance since I don't think administration stuff is what we are going to feel most like doing once the little piglet is born..

They also seem to assume that everyone have been in touch with the Försäkringskassa before. But unless you have been ill for a long time or unemployed there is no reason to have been in touch before and surely most people are healthy and employed and thus haven't been in contact with them before. So then there is the whole business of informing them about your employment and salary. Any information on that - of course not! Gah!

Oh well.. In the end it will probably work out fine, once we are "in the system"...

It was quite cute as well. They showed a little film about dads taking parent leave as well and saying how happy they were about doing it. As if seing that film would change peoples minds about it. "Oh, I didn't realise that spending 6 months at home with my child will actually improve our relationship. NOW I understand... Now I wan't to be in an equal relationship and take an active part in bringing up our child." Mamma mia..

Another weekend has come and gone. This was also a pretty quiet one but we did go to a house warming party in Stockholm on Saturday.

On Wednesday last week I got to see a physio-therapist who massaged my bum quite violently and lo and behold, the pain is almost completely gone now. Need to make sure to stretch and massage it in the future though because otherwise it is likely to come back.. Dave has a job as a bum-masseuse ahead ;-)

Today we have been to fika with Kajsa, Matthias and Vilmer in the summery weather. Unfortunately it will go cold again this week.. Tonight we have seen Spiderman 3, we give it a solid 3 out of 5. On the way to the cinema we also made a testdrive past the hospital so now we know rougly where to go on The Big Day...

The bump now looks like this:








And this is the corner in the bedroom where the little piglet will sleep (hopefully):

Long weekend

After a nice 4-day weekend it is time to go back to work tomorrow. My back is still hurting but tomorrow I am seeing a physio therapist so hopefully it will get better. We have taken it very easy this weekend. On Sunday we went to Stockholm to celebrate young Maya turning 1.


On the way home we drove around a bit in some Stockholm suburbs just to see if we found anywhere we want to live. There are a few very nice areas, the problem is just the price...

Every April last Uppsala basically turns into a big party but this year we decided to stay away from it all and made a trip to IKEA instead (are we getting old or what!?). Hopefully we now have most of the stuff we need for when the little piglet finally arrives. We have even bought some nappies!

Today we have mostly been lazy watching snooker and Champions League, but we have also managed to assemble some new furniture and done a small rearrangement in the bedroom. Pictures of that will come soon!

The piglet is still wriggling around quite a lot and yesterday I had quite a lot of "pre-contractions". Hopefully it means that the piglet wants to come out pretty soon. The date is only about 3 weeks away now and hopefully that schedule will hold. I hope it won't come too soon though, I need to have time to relax a bit first as well ;-)