2 years later

Two years after his first attempt, Wolfram was brave enough to try again today cutting Oskar's nails. 

He took it slow and Oskar was not collaborative (as often) but It's good to know that there is finally someone else in the house who can cut the finger nails of Oskar.

Now let's see if I can convince him to try on Thomas. 

There is watermelon left

Every week we buy one big watermelon and eat it for dessert. Usually by Tuesday, latest Wednesday, it is all gone and that's when we switch to pineapple. I know, we lived the difficult life of people having access to watermelon all year long :)

Today, Agnes pointed out that there was still some watermelon left. Today is Friday. What happened?

Since Sunday night, Thomas has been diligently asking for food every two hours in the evenings. Consequently, at best we ate together, most often we ate one after the other, and never we made it to dessert. 

The leftover watermelon is the painful signal that we did not have an peaceful evening in a week.

Let's hold this will change or we will have to start with dessert. 

So close

After a long day caused by a short night, we decided to treat ourselves with some foie gras.

We opened the foie gras, got the bread and poured ourselves two glasses of Montbazillac.

We were ready to start when Thomas started to cry. 

We put the wine and the foie gras back in the fridge, had a sip of the wine for courage and went back in.

I hope we will get to eat at some point tonight...

Magic

Thomas was restless this morning. A succession of poops kept waking him up. 

After the last one I tried to get him back to sleep as if had been only an hour since he ate but he insisted on getting food.

I passed him to my mum so I could go to the bathroom before feeding. When I came out Thomas was already quiet and eyes half closed. A few minutes later he was asleep. Deeply.

If that's not magic, I don't know what it is. 

Happy birthday Oskar

Today Oskar is two year old. Yes, already two! Time is really flying.

Before the family celebration tonight, this morning we celebrated his birthday at school.

Brother, grandmother and mother walked to the school to surprise him. We brought cake and birthday favors for his classmates. We also had pictures of him since birth for them to go through. It's called the birthday walk for kids to learn the passing of time. While the teacher wanted to start with the pictures, the kids were clearly focused on getting cake. And cake they ate in the nice Cars plates from the grandparents.

There was not much conversation between the kids, but Oskar seemed to enjoy himself and the cake.

Happy birthday Oskar!

Father and son sleeping

As I entered the room tonight I found Thomas, deeply asleep...

And Wolfram, also deeply asleep. 

So sweet.

Finally!

After 9 long months... 

Next, a steak ... Rare of course :)

1 week

1 week old and Thomas has already figured out that there is space out there to stretch arms and feet.

Package

Today there was a delivery. The postman brought a box from Germany. I thought it was a birthday gift for Oskar but it turned out it was for me!

I received a weather station to replace the clock I currently use that also measures temperature. Wolfram hates because Oskar has found a way to make it bip every hour so I suspect he is behind this surprise.

Batteries are already in and the station is working. Tomorrow I'll place the outdoor sensor on the terrace. 

Danke schön Christa und Christian!

Feeling like home

Dinner cooked by my mum tonight making me feel like home.

It feels easier this time

Thomas has been home for two days now and overall it feels easier than the first two days with Oskar. 

He sleeps a lot which might change as the effect of the epidural wears off and he becomes more alert. He is already in a two and a half to three hours feeding rythm which is great for us.

He seems to get enough milk when he is hungry. Unlike with Oskar when we had no idea of what to do, this time I started using the pump at the hospital to stimulate milk production from day 1 as Thomas was still too sleepy after the birth to suck. And that paid off as I'm already producing milk which is a huge improvement compare to Oskar when it took 5 days and left us with a starving baby.

Maybe the simple fact to know what's coming makes things easier. Thomas and Oskar are different but some baby needs are universal so knowing about them makes a huge difference.

Let's keep fingers crossed that it continues like that. 

Goodie bags

We received no less than 4 goodie bags after the birth of Thomas: the hospital one, the second born incentive program one, the SG50 one, the SG50 from the hospital one.

Hopefully there will be something useful in all of this merchandising. If not, we will donate it to the Salvation Army. If not useful to us, I'm sure it will be for someone else. 

Balloons explosion

Megha visited tonight and brought with her half of the balloon shop.

Both boys will enjoy them :)

Milo

A stay at the hospital would not be complete without Milo for tea break.

Thomas Elliot Matteo

Although Pikachu seemed very comfortable inside the belly, due to a slightly elevated blood pressure, we decided to induce the process this morning.

We woke up early and got ready for the hospital leaving Oskar with my mum and Agnes.

I was admitted at 7:30am. While Wolfram was doing the paperwork, my blood was taken - a lot of it as we had decided to collect the cord blood. At least this time we had organized ourselves in advance. 

At 9am the water bag was broken.

At 10am the epidural was put in place. This is one of the greatest inventions on this planet.

At 11am the hormones were started and so did the wait.

Around noon, my mum came over with food and the missing phone charger.

At 1pm, I was only 3cm dilated confirming that Pikachu was nice and cosy inside. At that point, Wolfram left for home with my mum to get my laptop so we could watch something because according to the doctor it would not be before 6-7pm.

Of course only a little while after Wolfram left, the heart beat of Pikachu dropped. They asked me to change positions until we had the heart beat back under control and gave me oxygen. I never felt so scared in my life. I messaged Wolfram to come back as quickly as possible already fearing that we would need a c section and that he might miss it. Luckily things went back into order and around 3pm the hormones were restarted.

At 5pm, dilation was 5cm forecasting a long night ahead. Apparently the rule is 1cm per hour but somehow Pikachu had changed his mind. By 6pm we were at 9cm significantly accelerating the process and around 7:30pm our second boy was borne.

Thomas Elliot Matteo.

51cm.

3.6kg. 

Overall much bigger than Oskar at birth which is probably why it took longer.

It was too late to bring in Oskar who fell asleep much faster than usual at home. He will meet his little brother tomorrow.

After Wolfram took 200 pictures, we left the delivery suite to our room to rest and spend more time with our little one.

I'm exhausted, but happy. 

It's getting closer

In our weekly visit to the doctor, she confirmed what I felt a couple of days ago: Pikachu is down, right behind the exit door. 

Anytime now he could decide to push it and come out.

But apparently not today. 

Maybe tomorrow. Fingers crossed. 

Until then I have to rest to keep my blood pressure under control which is going to be tricky because doing nothing is not my area of expertise. 

Feeling like Christmas

My mum arrived yesterday with a suitcase full of gifts.

Gifts for Oskar with clothes, toys and books.

Gifts for Pikachu with clothes and the additional baby monitor we ordered.

Gifts for us with books, clothes, crepes, Briton cookies, chocolate, cheese (well that's for Wolfram), wine, champagne and even some macaroons from La Duree. 

While she was emptying her suitcase, it felt like Santa distributing gifts. There was huge excitement in the house.

Thank you mum for once again acting as déménageur breton :) 

Still waiting

One week home and still no baby. I'm running out of ideas to occupy myself. 

Everything I could do for the baby is done.

Any errand I could think of is done.

There is so much swimming I can do and even that won't fill in the days.

Yes, I'm bored and glad that my mum arrived so I have some company.

Now, where is the trampoline to jump on and speed things up. 

Waiting

Today is my first day of maternity leave. Apart from a couple of errands and finishing setting up for Pikachu, my main activity will be waiting until it's time.

Days are going to be long...