Back home

After our big adventure we are now back again and all went well. On Wednesday I strapped on our huge rucksack and steered the pram to the train station. I managed to get all of the stuff on the train but of course I managed to pick a coach where there already was a family with children (and prams). I could squeeze in our pram though and Elias actually slept through the whole kerfuffle. In Stockholm I got (much needed) help to get off the train and then Dave came and helped me to get on the next train. This time we were the first ones with a pram to get on the train so there was space for it. phew.. 4 hours and a lot of feeding later we came to Lund where Angelika was waiting to help us off the train. The trip went better than I had thought but it feels like it is needed to have assistance to get on and off the trains..

In Lund we had a great time. We spent the days shopping, going for walks, cooking and more.

Weekend update

Today we have been swimming again and again Elias seemed to like it even though he got a bit grumpy with 5 minutes left.. So we haven't made it through a full session yet, but we are getting closer! ;-)

Yesterday we had a very nice day. Dave was a bit hungover, but I pretended not to notice.. I made us go out on a long walk in the morning. It was a grey autumn day but very pleasant. We met Anna, Patrik and Jacob for a fika in a quiet and babyfriendly cafe. We fed Elias solids for the first time in public. He got carrot for the first time and seemed to love it. Then we went home and spent the rest of the day lazily with the heroes marathon on tv in the background.

On the way home Elias wasn't quite ready for his sleep so instead Dave carried him in our new sling and he seemed to like it. He actually fell asleep after a while!
Here is a picture of Dave with Elias in the baby-ergo:

The coming week Elias and I have a busy schedule to say the least. Tomorrow we go to Stockholm to see my cousins Erika and Therese and my great aunt Lilly. On Tuesday we might meet up with some friends but mainly we will pack. On Wednesday morning we then catch the train to Lund and auntie Angelika. We will stay there until Monday and we are really looking forward to it although I am a bit nervous about the train ride.

Sleeping success

We have just had our best night ever. We put Elias to bed around 7.30 pm last night and after a bit of complaining he fell asleep around 8. Then when we went to bed at 10.30 he woke up, like he does basically every night. This time we decided to try and not to feed him, he probably wakes up from the noise rather than from hunger. Dave was a hero and walked him a bit which calmed him down (so he was not hungry, just like we suspected). When we put him down in his bed again he got a bit upset but after a little while he fell back asleep. Yes! I did think he would wake up pretty soon again, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I woke up at 4.15 am and he was still sleeping. At 4.30 he woke up and I must admit I was quite glad to feed him then, the boobs where quite full.. ;-) After that he slept until 7.30 this mornig. What a star!!

Swimming success

Yesterday we went to our second baby swimming class. Last week wasn't very successful so we were a bit nervous this time. We made sure he had gotten plenty of sleep right before the class and I also fed him a bit just before getting in the pool and it worked! He seemed to really enjoy it this time, even the dives. It felt a bit strange to dunk him under water but he didn't seem to mind it too much. He just looked a bit surprised and coughed up the water and then he was happy again. The idea is to always repeat the same words before a "dive" and eventually the babies will learn to shut their mouths so they don't swallow any water..

We left the babyswim a few minutes early so that we would have a chance to look at a house in Stockholm. The house was ok, but not great and I don't think we will go for it. It was nice but a bit weird. And there were loads of people there so the price will probably go through the roof. We looked at another house too which had "potential". It looks as though the previous owners have done nothing since 1962 when the house was built so there was a lot of interesting wallpapers. Maybe it would go for a pretty ok price but it would mean a lot of work before we could even move in plus we didn't get a good feeling about the area so we will probably not go for that one either.. So at the moment we are a bit depressed about the house business and will probably take a break from house hunting for a few weeks.

On Saturday we went to Jacob's 1 year birthday party. I can't believe that he is one year already and is walking around. Time sure flies! Elias was suited up in an outfit that I (and/or Anki) wore when we were babies. Cool huh!?


I have added a few more pictures to the Month 5 album by the way.

Sleep, food and other stuff...

Opps, haven't been writing for a while. Not because there is nothing to write about, but because it is hard to find the time..

So, what has happened since the last entry.. Well, he is not so keen on the dummy anymore - sorry Granddad! Not sure what we are doing wrong, Stig must have a magic touch.. He did also take the bottle a few times but the last few days he has refused and starts to cry as soon as he sees the bottle. We can usually get him to drink a bit from it but far enough from a whole meal.. Oh well.. I guess we just have to keep trying..

We met up with some of the people from the parent group last Sunday. It was fun to see the other dads and I guess they liked to see all of the babies as well. We met up at Jessica and Eric's flat and there Elias had a go on the "jump swing". He didn't jump around in it but still seemed to like it..

By the way.. The table and chairs in the background used to be mine. I sold them in 2003 and as it turns out, it was Jessica and Eric that bought them. Uppsala is a lot smaller than one thinks! ;-)

Two nights ago we think he had a bit of a fever but it didn't seem to affect him much. We took it quite easy yesterday and now he seems ok again. We hope he will be fine tomorrow as we start babyswimming then. If he is ill we can't go of course but as I said, he seems ok now. Today we need to go and get him some swimmingshorts though. Haven't had any luck finding any in town, but hopefully they will have some where we are going today. I guess it isn't quite season for swim wear..

We have also started to try to get him to fall asleep on his own rather than falling asleep in my arms when feeding. He isn't that happy about it but hopefully it won't be that many evenings before he accepts the new routine. It feels quite cruel because he is so unhappy but it is for the better in the long run. I am so glad that me and Dave are doing it together, I could never keep myself from picking him up if Dave wasn't there to help me. And I think Dave feels the same.

It has gotten quite cold here all of a sudden. The other day when we were out for a walk there were actually a bit of snow flying around in the air. So now we make sure to wrap up the boy before going out. We are actually using the "travel bag" that I used to lie in as a baby.. Cute bow on the hood huh!?


Today we tried feeding him a bit of puree again. I have tried it a bit during the week but with quite poor results, maybe because the food was homemade. Now we tried a jar of potato and parsnip puree and he seemed to really like it. How rude to prefer bought stuff to homemade!! Oh, well.. after trying it I must say I understand him, the bought stuff tasted a lot nicer.. ;-)
I have started a new photo album as well, Month 5 as you can see to the right..

Breaking news!

Elias has for the first time ever fallen asleep with the help of the dummy and kept it in for at least 20 mins!!! Of course it was Granddad Stig, the master of getting babies to sleep who managed it.. Well done!!!
Also thought I should show this picture so you all can see how wonderfully chubby he is ;-)



Yesterday he turned 4 months by the way, but I guess you all know that already!

Head better

When we went to the clinic on Monday she recommended a cream for the cradle cap and that combined with combing off the flakes seem to really help. We have also taken measures to make sure he does not scratch his head at night.


We have simply started to put mittens on at night. I thought he would really hate it but he doesn't seem to mind having them on at all.

Elias has had a bit of an upset stomach lately so the nurse at the clinic thought it might be best to wait a bit with the food tasters. He got the bad tummy before we gave him potato so that didn't cause it, but I guess we should wait before giving him more. He has also had a few nights with bad sleep, but last night it turned for the better again.

Today Grandma Inger & Grandpa Stig are coming, yippiee!

First food

Today Elias tried real food for the first time! At lunchtime we made him some potato puree and fed him a few tiny spoons. He seemed a bit surprised but we think most of what we fed him actually went down. Tomorrow I will feed him a bit more. The recommendation is to start with tasters around the time when they are 4 months so we are a few days early, but I think he is ready. We will take it slow and see how he reacts.. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of this big moment, we were to busy focusing on the actual feeding. We will make sure to take pictures in the future!

Tomorrow we are going to the clinic to have Elias measured and weighed again. It will be interesting to see how much he weighs now. I just checked in my old records and what he weighed at 3 months I weighed at 5 months.. A big guy, definitely! Tomorrow I will make sure to ask how we can prevent him from scratching his head to shreds. I don't know if it is the cradle cap (skorv) that itches and makes him scratch the head or what, but it looks as though he has been in a fight with a cat. We try to cut his nails, but still there is a new cut every morning it feels like.
It aint pretty!

Daddy is back!

On Sunday David came back from Boston.Yippie! David brought some nice gifts back for us. Here is a supercute pair of shoes and a pyjamas for Elias. Hopefully the shoes will fit when it is time for him to start using them.


On Sunday we also had our 1-year anniversary but since Dave was a bit jet-lagged we decided to not do much and save the celebration for next weekend. Looking forward to testing some of the wine we got on our wedding!

Yesterday I went to a step-up class for parents and babies. It was fun but very hard. I am so out of shape! Elias slept through most of the class and then woke up and looked at all the sweaty mums.

Today we have had a great day! Elias woke up a bit early and I was really tired, but while he had his morning nap I managed to get a bit of sleep too and after that and some coffee I was back to normal. After lunch we went to öppna förskolan (open nursery?) for babies 0-6 months. Öppna förskolan is like a nursery but the parents go there with the children. We were there for about two hours and spoke/played with other mothers and babies. It was great. After all new impressions Elias was quite tired and as soon as we left he fell asleep in the pram and slept for about 1 hr. Since coming back home he has been in an excellent and sunny mood.

Elias is starting to be very strong now I think. Just look at how high he can lift himself up when on his belly...

To Stockholm and back

Today we went to Stockholm to see Jenny and Maya. Normally Jenny would be at work and Maya at nursery but someone burnt down the nursery on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday so until they have managed to come up with a temporary solution all children at the nursery has to stay at home. It is really terrible that someone would burn down a nursery, but on the upside is that we got to spend a really nice day with them...

First we had lunch together and then we went for a walk past the nursery. The ruins were still smoking..
Maya was really interested in Elias and I am sure she wish he was a bit older so they could play more.

On Sunday we bought Elias a highchair by the way.. He doesn't love sitting in it yet, but he doesn't hate it anyway.. I'm sure he will soon prefer sitting in the highchair so he can participate more when me and Dave are eating.


Tonight I have finally joined facebook and I am a bit worried I must say. It is very addicting!

All by ourselves

Yesterday Dave left for Boston so now it is just me and the little guy for a few days. It feels a bit scary to be on my own for so long, but I am sure we will be fine. My arms will probably be quite tired by the end of the week but apart from that I think we will be ok.

Yesterday some of the girls from the parent group came around which was really nice. Elias is usually better behaved on days when we meet other people or have something planned. I guess he gets a bit bored when he has to play with me all day long.. It is so much fun to see the others and their babies, they are all so cute. It is fun because the babies are almost exactly the same age so we all go through the same things at roughly the same time. According to the others Elias is very easy to get to smile and they think he 'talks' a lot too. He is so clever! ;-)

Elias and his proud/crazy mum

After our guests had left we played and I put him on his stomach which he normally hates, but this time he was quite content. He was pushing himself up on his arms and looked around and all of a sudden he rolled over again. It seemed really easy for him this time. It will be interesting to see if he manages it again today..

Today we have a beatiful autumn day. It is probably a bit cold, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining so I hope Elias will be up for a walk later. We are having two friends over for dinner so I need to shop some food..

Christened

The christening on Sunday went very well. We were a bit worried that he would scream throughout the whole ceremony because he didn't want to sleep during the day. Finally he slept 45 mins just before it was time to go to church which made us feel a whole lot better. We got him into the dress without too much trouble, the belt was almost too short but luckily we managed to tie it around his big belly. We had tried the dress before but not the belt ;-)


We didn't take any pictures of the actual christening with our own camera, so you will have to wait for those until we get some from my dad or P-A.

After the christening we all went back to the flat for a bit of lunch and fika. Elias got loads of really nice pressies as well. Thank you all for that!

The whole weekend was very nice with Joyce and my parents visiting. It makes quite a difference to have many willing arms to carry Elias, my arms felt very relaxed!

On Tuesday me, Elias and three of the girls from the parent group went to "pram-cinema". The film was "No reservations" and quite a perfect film to watch while also looking after a baby. It was quite a funny sight to see all prams parked at the front, I wish I had had my camera with me!

Tomoeeow the building we live in celebrate it's 70th birthday with a party. I have been involved in planning and organising it and I am quite happy that it is finally happening so I won't have to do any more work for it.

Hip hip hooray

Today Elias is 3 months old today! He is getting stronger and stronger every day it seems. Both stronger body but also stronger minded. It seems like his neck has gotten a lot stronger recently and he can now hold his head very well. We might buy a high chair soon so he can sit with us at the table. He will probably need to be prodded up a bit but I think he will like to participate more.

This morning he managed to roll over from stomach to back again, this time with no help from me.. When he is on his back he quite often rolls over to his side, but he can't roll from back to stomach yet.

Yesterday we tried on the christening dress. I have been a bit worried that he might be to big for it but it fit quite well. Getting it on and off was quite tricky though so by the time we finally got it off he was quite upset. Hope it goes better on Sunday..

On Thursday it was my birthday and some friends of ours were very kind and offered to babysit so we could go out for a meal. It was a bit nervous but it worked out very well in the end. We had a lovely time and managed to relax. Elias behaved well and only got grumpy just in time for our return. It would be a bit easier if he took the bottle, I guess we need to practise more..

For my birthday I had told Dave not to buy anything expensive because I wanted us to get a new camera. I bought it on Friday and here it is:


Quite nice huh!? We have taken quite a few pictures with it, but I haven't had time yet to learn how to get the pictures from the camera to the computer so it might be a little while before we post new pictures..

Roll over!

Breaking news! Elias just rolled over from his stomach to his back for the first time. Mummy is so proud! Maybe I did help a tiny tiny bit, but it wasn't much, I promise. When I put him back on his stomach again he started to try to roll over again, but got tired and angry.. Maybe tomorrow...

Trying, trying....

Hmm, how did I get here??

New skills

Because I/we spend so much time together with Elias it is sometimes hard to realise when he has learnt something new. It all comes gradually and seems so natural. At the moment we are reading a book about then 7 phases (or Big Changes) a baby goes through in its first year and reading that makes me realise that a lot of the things he does are part of his development and not just something a bit funny.

What he does now is for instance:

• Blows bubbles with his mouth
  
• Tests his voice by sometimes shrieking
• Lies with his legs straight up in the air (will try to get a picture of it)
  

Lately we have had lovely weather but now they are saying that tomorrow will be the last day of summer.. Better make the most of it then..

We have quite a lot of plans actually. On Saturday we are going to a 30th birthday party and on Sunday some of my relatives are coming for some Surströmming . Hopefully the weather will be good enough so we can sit outside ;-)

Weekend report

I was planning to write this two days ago but somehow time just seem to disappear and all of a sudden it is Wednesday..

Anyway, we had a nice and quiet weekend. On Saturday we went to the flee market on Vaksala torg. There is a flee market there every Saturday in the summer, but we hardly ever go. This time our friend Helena had a table and sold some stuff so we thought we should go there and say hello. David found a globe from 1978 that he bought and it looks very nice we think!



Later on Saturday Jenny, Tommi and Maya came to visit. Last time we saw them was in April on Maya's birthday party. I couldn't believe it when I saw how much she has grown since then. Or maybe she hasn't grown so much, but the fact that she is now walking, the face is less chubby and the hair longer just made her look so much older. Still super-cute though!


This week we have tried the bottle again, this time with milk we had saved up. Unfortunatelly he really hated the bottle this time. We're not giving up yet though!

First week

The first week on our own is almost coming to an end now and it has gone very well. On Monday the weather was pretty bad and it was a bit hard for me to 'get going' so we ended up not doing much. On Tuesday the weather was better and we took a walk to a shopping centre on the outskirt of Uppsala and did some shopping. Mainly I bought clothes for Elias. He has grown out of quite a lot of his clothes and often we need to change him at least once a day because he has gotten puke (or something else) on his clothes so we need quite a few outfits for him. Luckily H&M is quite inexpensive when it comes to baby clothes!

On Wednesday we went to the clinic for a routine checkup. First he was weighed and measured and then it was time to see the doctor. By now he had gone from very happy to very grumpy and he screamed his lungs out the whole time we saw the doctor. I felt a bit stressed because he was so unhappy so I didn't ask any questions on what she was looking for really, but I will ask next time. She listened to his heart and lungs (between the screams) and checked his testicles ( I think) and moved his legs around. Afterwards I sat in the waiting room feeding him and she came out to ask a few questions about his development, if he smiles and communicates and so on. I guess even she got a bit stressed by his wailing ;-)

After the doctor's appointment we met up with two of the mothers from our parent group; Kristina with Hugo and Camilla with William. It was great to see them and especially Camilla and William since we hadn't seen them before. We had a lovely day together with them and didn't get back home until 4.30.

Today we are seeing the bank just to find out what kind of budget we are looking at in case we find a house we really want. We have been going to a few showings lately but not found anything great. For me it will be more interesting to look at houses when I know what we can actually afford as well. We might go and look at a few on Sunday..

More pictures added..

Just added a few pictures to the Month 2 album. Thought I should tell you so you don't miss them, coz as always they are great! ;-)

One that I especially like is this one from the drive up north:

A parent has got to do what a parent has got to do when the nappy needs changing.

Today is David's last day of holiday so on Monday Elias and I will be on our own. Will be strange not having Dave around but hopefully we'll cope. Anyway, with a boy this cute, what can possibly go wrong??

First bottlefeed

Managed to bottlefeed Elias for the first time a few hours ago! We tried before but then he hated it. Now we bought a new bottle with a different teat and it seems like he preferred this one. Hopefully it will work the next time we try as well..

Up north and back again

So, what has happened since our last update?

Well, on the 26th we started the drive up to Antnäs, Luleå. It took almost exactly 12 hrs. We felt quite sorry for poor Elias having to sit for so long in the car, but on the whole he handled it well.

There wasn't much opportunity for Grandma Inger and Granddad Stig to cuddle Elias when we finally got there since he, quite understandably, was a bit grumpy. But since we were staying a few days hopefully they got to cuddle him enough to last until they see him early September. It seems I didn't take many pictures of Elias with his grandparents but here is one with his granddad anyway, and as you can see Stig is very well equipped for the climate up north!
On Friday my cousin Erika came around and spent almost the whole day in Antnäs. The weather was surprisingly nice and we had a lovely day, playing crouqet and getting a bit of sunburn. For the first 4 hours of Erikas visit Elias slept, but he did finally wake up so she could cuddle him a bit too. I guess he was a bit worn out from the long drive the day before.


On Saturday the parts of the family that lives in Skellefteå came so Elias got to meet two of his great uncles and his great grandma. Of course we took the opportunity to take the classic 4-generations photo.
On Saturday the weather turned for the worse and the rest of the time up north we didn't really do much apart from going for a few walks, played with Elias, played cards (without Elias) and went in to town once. Oh, and I almost forgot, we went to CARBINGO as well. Elias was a big hit amongs all the old biddies!

On Wednesday my aunt, Bert-Ola, and Erika came for a visit. Auntie Anna-Lisa and Bert-Ola had been on holiday in Stockholm the entire time we were in Luleå, but luckily we managed to meet up a few hours after they landed. Dad went to pick them up from the airport and then they came around to mum and dad's. It was so nice to get to see them, being up north a whole week without seeing auntie just wouldn't have felt right. And of course we wanted to show off Elias as well!
The drive back was pretty much like the drive there. Ok for most of the time, but quite hard at the end when Elias was getting real fed up.

After spending the week at mum and dad's we got quite keen on getting a house (again) so on the Sunday after we got back we went to a few house showings but didn't find anything perfect.
We weren't really expecting to though, it was more of a research trip. We have booked an appointment at the bank though to see how much we can afford. It is quite scary to think about getting a house since it is so expensive and we don't really know anything about houses so there is always the risk of getting stung bad by buying a crappy one. Hopefully we will find something nice in the end though.

Monday and Tuesday we went to visit Anna and Patrik on "the Island". Patrik's mum has a summer house on a tiny island about an hour north of Uppsala and we have been talking about going there for years and we finally managed to find a time that suited us all. The weather was amazing when we were there, almost too nice considering the little boys. Unfortunatelly we didn't take many pictures of the lovely place, maybe it was too hot, but here is one at least..
(There are more pictures from Antnäs in the Month 2 album and we have now started the Month 3 album)

Pitstop

On Sunday night we came back after another successful day of travelling. Elias is behaving very well under preassure!

Since we came back we have mainly done washing and cleaning but we have also set up a savings account for Elias and started saving some of his child benifit in funds. Hopefully he will be rich by the time he turns 18! ;-)

Today we have been to the clinic to have him measured again, the results you can see in the little facts-section on the right. Now we have started packing again for our trip up north. Not really looking forward to the long drive, but hopefully Elias will be nice to us again. It will be great to see mum and dad again, and I am sure they will see a lot of change in Elias. Last time they saw him he was only 2 weeks old!

I hope you have noticed the new photo albums we have posted. All pictures from week 1-4 are now in the month 1 album.

In England

We are now in England as you may know. We were a bit nervous about the trip here but Elias was a real star the whole way. We got up really early on Friday morning and showered and had breakfast while he slept. Then I woke him up so I could feed him and get him dressed before putting him in the car seat. On the way to Arlanda he fell asleep and didn't wake up until we stood in the long queue to the "fast bag drop". A bit more food while waiting to board the plane and then he fell asleep again and slept through takeoff and most of the flight. We fed him and changed him and when it was time to land he was sound asleep again.

We collected our rental car and the whole family had a bit to eat before starting the drive to Alfriston. Guess what Elias did on the way there. Yes, that's right, he slept.

When we arrived at Joyce's the weather was great so we spent most of the afternoon in the garden relaxing. Elias was playing in the babygym lent to us by Auntie Juliet. It actually feels like we have more baby stuff here than at home because we have managed to borrow so much. Juliet even managed to sort out a pram for us which has been really great.

On Saturday Elias got to meet his cousins for the first time. I think they look forward to him getting a bit older so he can play more. :-) On Sunday we went for a pub lunch and celebrated Juliet and Oliver's 12th anniversary, and on Monday we went down to John where Elias got to meet even more aunties. He is getting a bit spoiled with presents and cuddles, but I am sure it will do him no harm.

Yesterday we went shopping and took a stroll along the beach, and today we are seeing Rosemary. Tomorrow we are spending the day with Juliet and the boys and on Friday we start heading towards London and on Saturday we are going to Darren and Louise's wedding. It will be great to see all of our friends again, just hope that Elias keep behaving as good as he has been..

I forgot the cable needed for getting pictures from the camera, but we will post pictures as soon as possible. I promise!

Since the last blog entry we have been doing quite a lot. We have met up twice with the other mum's from the parent course. It was so much fun to see all the other babies and nice to be a group of girls all wanting to talk about the same thing. Babies, babies, babies. ;-)

We have also had quite a few people visiting. On Wednesday Thomas came, on Thursday Carl came, on Friday we went to a BBQ, on Sunday Nina and Micke came, on Monday Christian came and on Tuesday we had Luke, Yoko and Vik visiting. Very nice to see all of our friends but I think we all are looking forward to a few quiet evenings before we head off to England.

Thomas and Elias

Carl and Elias

Christian and Elias

Vik and Elias

4 weeks today!

Elias is turning into a big boy, already 4 weeks old! Today we went to the clinic to weigh and measure him. He now weighs 4850 grams and is 55 cm tall. In the last week and a half he has gained one kilo and grown one cm. It is really amazing!

While Dave spent the weekend in Madrid on Darren's stag do, my sister and the dogs came here to keep me company. On Saturday we had a very nice, lazy day spending a lot of time at a café in town where we bumped into our old neighbours and their 4 month daughter. Yesterday a few friends came visiting which was really nice but unfortunately Elias wasn't in a very good mood. He wanted to eat most of the time and seemed to have a bit of tummy-ache. Today it seems to be a bit better, but we will see how the evening goes...

Family invasion II

Long time, no blog entry. We apologise for that!

Since the last entry Dave's mum and sister has been here for a visit. They came on Thursday and left Monday and as always the days went by too fast.

They arrived in the afternoon on Thursday so we didn't have time to do much, but both Joyce and I got a haircut at least. Elias was very kind to his dad and slept the whole time I was at the hairdresser. After that we went to Joyce's and Juliet's hotel where they checked in and Dave and I got to open loads of presents for Elias. Everyone are so kind!!

On Friday Sweden celebrated "Midsummer" so basically everything was shut and Uppsala felt a bit like a ghost town. Most people tend to go out to the countryside for midsummers where they gather a group of friends and eat and drink loads. We walked around in town and looked at all the closed shops before going back to our place for lunch and some Elias-watching. For some reason it never gets boring to look at the boy...



While Joyce and Juliet was here we managed to play quite a few rounds of "Categorically speaking", give Elias his second bath and see some traditional dancing around the midsummer pole. Unfortunatelly the weather was pretty crap so we couldn't go for a nice picknic like we had hoped.

Family invasion

On Thursday night my parents finally arrived after the 800 km drive from Luleå and Elias got to meet his grandparents for the first time. He might not quite understand who they are yet, but grandma Inger and granddad Stig were very happy to see him.



On Friday we took it quite easy, went in town and had fika, played a lot of cards and of course admired Elias! On Saturday Angelika, Per-Anders and the dogs came. Auntie Angelika was very excitd to see her nephew but it took a little while before she dared to hold him.
Bacon was very interested in what Angelika was holding, maybe it was a stuffed animal he could play with??

On Saturday evening we went out to a restaurant to celebrate mum and dad's 40th anniversary. We were a bit nervous how Elias would handle it but be made us very proud. He slept right through the starter and main course, then woke up for a feed and then settled down again.

Eating in restaurant.

And he shall be called Elias

We have finally decided on the name Elias John Webber. We have had the name Elias in mind since day 1, but when we found out that it is one of the most popular boy's names in Sweden at the moment we were a bit put off. In the end we decided to go for it anyway though since we both really like the name and think that it suits him.

Today we have been to "BVC" (Child care ward) where they weighed and measured him. He has grown very well indeed. He now weighs 3490 grams and is 52.6 cm tall. Already a big boy!

On Sunday my cousins Therese and Erika visited us for a few hours which was very nice. Elias wasn't very social though, he slept the whole time. Not that we have much to compare with, but so far he feels like a very easy baby to take care of. He still sleeps for quite a few hours after eating, giving us plenty of time to rest, read email, write blog entrys, and do other stuff.

On Monday we celebrated his 1 week-day by taking him out for his longest outing so far. We walked to Stadsparken and had a picnic there with Anna and Jacob. It was very relaxing and nice. While there we also had our first public feed and public nappy change. There are quite a lot of firsts at the moment ;-)

Relaxing in the park..

Tomorrow night my parents are coming which we are looking forward to of course, and on Friday my sister and her boyfriend are coming as well. Unfortunately the weather forecast doesn't look great for the weekend, but I'm sure we'll have a lovely time anyway!

First week

Almost a week have past now since the birth of E (name not decided yet.. two candidates starting with E at the moment). Since coming back home on Tuesdays the days have just flown by. I guess we aren't doing much really but time still seems to go really fast.

The first two days we basically set up camp in the bedroom and almost didn't go anywhere else. We did go down to the garden a few times to have coffee and get some fresh air and Dave did a few trips to the shop, but apart from that we didn't move around much.

On Friday we had a checkup with the doctor at the hospital. They weighed him, checked eyes, took a blood test and some other things. Everything looked good. A hearing test was also performed and the right ear is ok, but the left one they couldn't get a reading on, probably because it had some amniotic fluid or something else in the way. We are scheduled to do a new test of the left ear on June 19.

On Friday we alse had our first guests around, Anna and little Jacob. It was nice to finally show our little gem off! On Friday night we also went around to Emma and Henke's where they were having a BBQ and E got to meet a few more of our friends. He had actually met Sofia already in the hospital because she started her very first day as a midwife on Monday morning. Had he been a bit later she could have been the one delivering him!

On Saturday Kajsa, Matthias and Vilmer came around and we sat out in the garden (in the shade!) and had a nice fika. We waited patientally for E to wake up but he actually slept for 4 hrs straight.. In the end they had to give up but there will surely be plenty of more opportunities to meet E when he is awake. It got a bit worrying in the end that he slept so much and we decided it was probably best to go in where it was a bit cooler. Ever since E was born we have had amazing weather with temperatures around 30 degrees in the shade. It is a bit hard to handle because we can't do much else than keep him in the shade and not put much clothes on him but it is still pretty hot.

Heavy sleeper

Today my cousins are coming around which we are really looking forward to and in the coming week I am sure we will be venturing out more and more.

E has been really nice so far and slept for quite long periods. Normally he eats and then sleeps for 2-3 hrs so up until now I think we are both happily surprised and had expected to get a lot less sleep and to be more knackered. I guess he doesn't really have a routine yet though so things can change any moment... The only complaint we have at the moment is that he seems to have perfected the art of weeing as soon as we change nappy. He is like a fountain and wee seems to go everywhere.. ;-) He has weed on both us and himself numerous times the little bugger.

By the way, we have also set up a skype account familywebber and we tested it for the first time yesterday and called Dave's mum who got a peek at E through the webcam. Quite exciting!

Dad's reflections

The birth was an incredible experience. When Vickan's waters broke at 1.30 Monday morning she was surprisingly calm and happy about it. She rang förlossningen and they told us to relax and come in for a check at 8; so I soon fell back to sleep. But it was perhaps only 20 minutes before things got far scarier. Vickan was clearly in intense pain, and I was forced to come to terms with the fact that I had to get out of bed. I frantically started packing our bags. I was all over the place. Vickan could hardly move and was understandably brisk in tone. Neither of us knew how far she'd come and we were worried.

Somehow I managed to get our stuff together and as ordered I got the car ready. I helped her in and we drove off. I sensibly resolved to keep my mouth shut during the journey.

We parked up. I was too flustered to operate the parking machine so we just went in. I'd managed to get her there at least, but when I was was asked to produce her papers I panicked. Of course I'd brought the wrong bag in. Vickan was in too much pain to care.

Anyway for the next two hours at least I went into another mode. To be honest, I didn't have to do much, just hold Vickan's hand and wipe her brow. There was no way she was letting go of the gas mask though, so I didn't need to hold that. It was hard to watch the final phase. Vickan was amazing. She was pushing like anything despite the obvious pain it caused. And then I watched from above and saw what Vickan couldn't see herself: the boy coming out. He shot out like a champagne cork along with floods of clear fluids. In a flash the midwife grabbed him and threw him straight to Vickan, and she was old Vickan again, the pain had temporarily gone as she held him for the first time.

Then I tried to take pictures (most came out blurred - I couldn't do anything right). A few minutes later the placenta came out. The midwife held up the entire foetal sack and placenta for us to see (unfortunately I missed that photo opportunity) and then she just left it lying on a trolley for some time afterwards.

He's here!

As most of you all probably know by now, we had a beatiful baby boy on Monday morning. When writing the blog entry on Sunday night, little did we know how fast things were about to change.

We went to bed quite late on Sunday. Dave was feeling a bit off colour and was considering staying home on Monday to recover. I hadn't felt anything out of the ordinary during the evening, a bit of ache in my lower back and quite a bit of pressure "downwards". Nothing strange though, had had that before and nothing happened. At 1.30 I woke up because my waters broke. Luckily I managed to run to the bathroom before the big flood came ;-). I called the hospital and since I didn't have any contractions she booked me in for an examination at 8.00 in the morning. About 15 minutes later I had my first contraction and they immediately started to come quite close to each other and they hurt. At 2.30 I told Dave he had to call the hospital again and ask if we could come in. The woman said that we were of course welcome but that we shouldn't expect this to be the real thing.

About 3 am we got in to the hospital and when the nurse saw me she just stated that I seemed to be struggling quite a bit. Yup! She took my blood preassure which was sky high, she wanted to take my temperature but I didn't manage to keep the thermometer in place long enough for her to get a reading and I didn't manage to get up on the scale either. When they examined me they realised to all of our surprise that I was fully dilated and from then on things happened fast. I was wheeled in to a delivery room where the laughing gas became my best friend. I was pretty much in my own world by now and maybe Dave felt quite left out. I was really happy to have him by my side though. At 4.45 the "push contractions" started and by 5.10 he was out. It was truly amazing!
I never could have imagined that the delivery could take 3,5 hrs from start to finish! It sure was lucky that it started during the night, if Dave had been at work in Stockholm he might not have made it back in time - a horrible thought!

Well, I could of course go on for hours about how amazing the last few days have been, but I think I will call it a day for now. Maybe I can convince daddy Dave to write about how he experienced it all, but don't get your hopes up too much ;-)

More pictures can be found here

football shame

Still no baby! On Friday Vickan suspected that the waters had started seeping(!). To be safe she called Förlossningsavdelningen and they pulled us in but it turned out to be wishful thinking on our part. Vickan got rigged up to a machine for half an hour that tracked the heartbeat and contraction intensity. It showed all was well, which was reassuring at least.

Yesterday we bore witness to the biggest scandal in Swedish/Danish footballing history. Sweden were 3-0 up after 25 minutes in Copenhagen. The Danes had amazingly pulled it back to 3-3 when in the 89th minute Poulsen (Dane) needlessly elbowed Rosenberg (Swede) in the stomach (ref and ball were miles away). The ref pointed to the penalty spot and was about to give the Dane the red card when a fat drunken Danish supporter ran onto the pitch and slapped the ref around the face. The shaken ref then stopped the game and awarded the match to the Swedes 3-0. The crazy Danish fan will be lynched as he has ruined his country's chances of qualifying for Euro 2008.

Today was another beautiful day. We got up late and took a picnic (consisting mainly of naughty snacks) to Mälaren (the big lake stretching from Stockholm to Uppsala). We found a quiet spot by the water on a rock and enjoyed the calm for a few hours. Now we're back home lapping up the sun on our balcony. It was sweet of the piglet to give us some extra relaxation time...