Sleep

From being a pretty good sleeper (in the parent definition) Isolde has started waking up several times a night. Since she was two and a half months old (she's now four and a half) she's been sleeping at least five hours straight and on average six-seven hours (sometimes eight-nine hours but that's pretty rare). On a typical night she'd fall asleep at nine or ten o'clock and sleep until four or five in the morning. But for the past week she has gone to bed at nine or ten as usual but then woken up around midnight and then every hour or every other hour for the rest of the night (last night she slept six consecutive hours but that's because she fell asleep at 18:15; she still woke at midnight). A few nights she's been wide awake for two hours in the middle of the night. For the first couple of months of her life it was easy to make her fall asleep again at 6 or 7AM but now she's awake and want to play. That's fine though. We often get up, play for a while, eat breakfast, and then we go back to bed between let's say 8 and 9 or 10 am. Normally that's not a problem (I get enough sleep) but now, with me getting such interrupted sleep (and sometimes being awake for two hours), we have slept even longer in the morning. At the same time or as a result, she's taken longer naps during the day, and now I fear that her daily rhythm is off. I don't know whether to wake her though. Feels like she's still too young for me to try to steer her sleeping except for the evening bedtime but maybe it's time?

I asked our nurse B if the move has upset Isolde but she didn't think so. She said babies are not that sensitive to their environment, not as long as they are still with people (and stuff) they recognise. Isolde did sleep fine for the first three or four days in the new flat though, but maybe it took her a few days to notice new sounds and smells? B thought instead that I'd been stressed (over the move) and had less milk as a result (I have noticed that myself actually but I thought it was my breasts finally being balanced so-to-speak) and that Isolde wakes up at night simply because she's hungry. She ordered me to drink more water (which I have been forgetting lately) and also try to feed her more in the evening. I have followed her advice and my breasts have now re-filled but Isolde is still not sleeping properly... We have started giving her porridge, which I hope will fill her up in the evening... as soon as she gets that she supposed to swallow (so far she's been eating 5 ml/ a table spoon at the most).

My other theory is that she's disturbed by us. We have gone to bed at 11 pm or midnight and soon (up to an hour) after that she wakes up. She's not that sensitive to noise otherwise in the evening (the hoover going or cardboard boxes being dismantled) and we don't turn on lights or make much noise when we go to bed, and it was never a problem at the old flat, but maybe she's disturbed by us turning in bed, snoring (?) or whispering? We still don't have a bed and no blinds in our bedroom so we're sleeping in Isolde's room. Maybe letting her sleep alone would make her sleep better?

All you mothers out there, any advice?! I want this sleeping beauty back!

Fina fisken

On my way home after a nice dinner with Åsa at Pontus' new Seafood bar. It's not that often I'm baby-free - and I've mostly been away during the day so far - so I've been enjoying myself. But we laughed about the fact that we talked quite a lot about our children :)

The food was very good as always. I had a Norwegian fish with a strange-sounding name I can't remember (it starts with u..?).




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Thursday Morning

Isolde is sleeping soundly in the pram after her swimming lesson and I'm relaxing in the sun and writing in Isolde's journal (a bit behind on entries as always).




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To Keep or Not to Keep...

I have a complete set of encyclopaedia (including atlas, three dictionaries and yearbooks from the 1990s) from Bra böcker that I don't know what to do with*. With the Internet and all the sources (reliable as well as as unreliable of course) it holds, I don't really need an encyclopaedia anymore and I would really only keep the set because it "looks good" on the shelf and for the odd-chance it would be worth money in the future (unlikely). The risk of Internet disappearing in the future is virtually non-existent though and even if we for some reason wouldn't live in an information society I could probably buy a set again or go to the library. On the other hand, it could be fun for Isolde to browse through when she's a bit older. I will definitely keep the atlas for that reason.

So what to do?! I need advice, people!



* We did move them to the new flat but they are still in boxes.

Feet & Coffee

An update is in order. The flat is still in a state but we're getting there, albeit slowly. Isolde doesn't let me do much during the day (her four-hours naps are gone; now it's two hours at the most) so most of the unpacking and organising is being done in the evening. The weather has been pretty good so we haven't felt like being inside all day anyway (she sleeps best if we go for a walk at least once a day). At the moment Isolde wants to practice sitting all the time so the babygym and the bouncy chair are not popular right now. I have
bought a bumbo seat so she can sit up while I sit next to her on the floor organising a drawer or similar. She can't (and shouldn't of course) be left alone in the seat though because she stretches her legs and tries to get out of it, clever girl!



The babygym might be back in favour soon though as she has discovered her feet and likes kicking on the danglies when she's not busy trying to take her socks off or holding her toes.






I will post some photos of the flat soon. The balcony is ready and the living room and kitchen are getting there. When I say "get there" I mean it's furnished and most of the clutter is unpacked and put away. We're going to decorate too but we're taking our time choosing wallpaper and paints (and the plan is to completely redo the kitchen later in the year). The bedrooms are a bit empty and we're sleeping on two mattrasses on the floor (need to get to Ikea to buy a new bed!). Our walk-in closets are done too - you can see where my priorities lie! - will take a picture of those too!

Just had some sushi for lunch and now it's time for coffee! Isoldjuls napping so I'd better use the time for something useful (as opposed to blogging :) Speaking of coffee, every day since we moved in I have smelt "kokkaffe", i.e. coffee made on the stove (boil coffee) the way many older people make it, in the stairway. Smells like my grandfather's place somehow even though he doesn't make that way anymore as far as I know. Gives a homely feeling though.

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Grattis mormor!

Trying to get Isolde to pose for her grandmother on her birthday is not an easy task!




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Improvising

I forgot to bring Isolde's sunhat today so her blanket had to step in to do the job. Meet our little nun.







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Moved

We're in, barely. We have so much stuff! Where did it all come from?! Even the walk-in closets are not walkable at the moment. The only functioning room is the balcony but I forgot to take a picture and now it's dark.






















And Isolde has had her first injury. Not move related and not serious, and self-inflicted by her sharp nails. She scratched herself inside the ear so that I had to put some tissue there for a while. She didn't seem to mind though. She didn't even seem to notice when her ear was full of blood earlier. Easy-going that one.




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Mobile

"What did you say, mummy, I'm supposed to stay ON the blanket?"



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Paket!

Package galore! From my secret book friend (still trying to figure who she is but I'm guessing Bea?!) on Sunday and from Västmanländskan today - won her blog draw!

My book friend sent short stories (indeed something appropriate for a new mother) by Jonas Karlsson, delicious raspberry chocolate and matches-with-message (for the fireplace in our new flat!), and her son passed on one of his favourite (and well-read) books to Isolde!





Västmanländskan's secret package contained a book (of course, the sender being an avid reader!), a film, lingonberry chocs, lip gloss and fish taco spices. All of the above is untried/read/seen so lots of new things to try in different ways. Better not lose anything in the move! :)




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Precious Cargo

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It Has Begun...

The packing that is. Thursday is the big day!

We've sold our bedroom wardrobe so my clothes are temporarily homeless (btw, we're selling a double bed and another wardrobe if anyone is interested).











But now a break to bake a pineapple cake - trying to use up some of the cans and jars we've had for a while.

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Under Reconstruction

Even though I liked my previous template a lot, especially the flower, it was getting a bit old. Time for a change. Not sure about this one though. Need to shrink the image above to start with. Work in progress...

Show & Tell: Balconies and Grills

I missed two Show & Tell themes in April: Your garden/balcony and On the grill. Before I tackle Désirée's May themes (which I'm also late with...) I thought I'd tell you about our new balcony and why the grill had to move out.

One of the best things about our current flat - our home for the last 4½ years - is the balcony. It's 8 sqm which is pretty big for balconies.

This photo is a winter one (only have access to the photos from the real estate ad right now) so the balcony looks a bit miserable but I think it shows its size. We have rearranged the furniture from time to time but we've always had a "table corner" and one " cosy corner".

The summer look. I really likes the little buxbom trees we had for a couple of years until last year when they didn't survive the winter (well, we had them during the summer but they never recovered so we had to throw them out) and we have always had some pots with different kinds of plants as well.

Another winter look. And this is where the grill comes in. It can't be seen here because it's hidden in the little space of the balcony just around the corner. You can't fit much there but a Weber grill (the smallest but one) fits.

We've had so many nice moments on the balcony. Afternoon teas, dinners (many prepared on the grill), tanning, sipping a home-made iced latte, New Year toasts, etc., etc. In the summer the sun comes around the building after lunch and then stays until 6 or 6:30 pm before it disappears behind the building in from (the one we're moving into). On warm summer evenings it doesn't matter that there's no evening sun and if it's been a cool evening we have turned on the infra heater.

But now it's goodbye to this balcony and hello to another one. First we thought the new balcony was much smaller but when we saw the flat again two weeks ago (when it became officially ours) we realised that while it's smaller, it's not that much smaller. The grill had to go though (it now lives at the summer house where it's replacing a standard charcoal grill) as the new balcony is more built-in and doesn't provide that much airy space around the grill that we think is required. Gas grills don't let out smoke the way like charcoal ones do but still food smell (how much depends on how clean the grid is). So we figure we'll spare the neighbours of that.

Since it's built-in, the new balcony will provide a bit more shelter. Our old one, and maybe extra so because we lived on the corner of the building, was quite windy. So I'm looking forward to much warmer evenings here than in the old one. And if it gets too hot during the day there's a awning for some shade.


Note that this is the former owner's stuff - we haven't done it up as we haven't moved yet.


Another thing I really like with the new balcony is that it's located by the living room and not the bedroom and that the doors are much wider. It's like the living room extends to the outdoors.

One of my favourite dishes on the grill is tuna with "my" Japanese sauce. But it tasted pretty good tonight too - fried in a regular pan on the cooker! Otherwise we have put many a hamburger on it and also turned out very delicious beef and pork fillets, one in a chocolate and chili coating.

Apologies for the formatting - can't get the spacing to work right now. Argh!

Little Swimmer

Yay, Blogger is back in action! Looks like my last post that looked lost is back, however the comments may be gone (?). I have a few Show & Tell posts on the way (have been slagging lately), but in the meantime, here are some photos and a video from Isolde's first swimming "lesson".

She likes when we bathe her at home and the pool was no different, well, even better of course. At this rate she'll be an Olympic swimmer next year some time! :) Almost all the other babies were crying at some point (and the changing room afterwards was a cacophony...) except Isolde who was just enjoying herself (and watching the screamers with big eyes when we were showering). All three of us are really looking forward to next week (well, Peter can't come along then unfortunately as it's our moving day!).

Yoda

Isolde's Yoda look is back! Last time we saw it she was only a few days or a week old. She's been doing this all day:











Not sure if she has a tooth on the way (don't think so, would be a bit early) or if it means she's ready to try to eat food (lately she's been studying us when we put something into our mouths and chew) or if it's part of her language development (she's been "talking" a lot today).

4 Months!

Our little girl is four months already! Where did the time go?!

Photo taken today

Isolde's new thing as of a few weeks ago is that she tests her voice. That is, she screams, or shrieks. For real! Not because she's crying or upset but because she's happy (well, most of the time). It's very difficult to get this on video though, since every time I or Peter start filming she stops and just looks at the camera/phone. None of these videos are very good - either in quality or because Isolde doesn't want to "cooperate" - but I'd thought I'd post them anyway. It's much louder in reality than it sounds (I need head muffs) and she can go on for a long time (not just on tape).

Fredagsmys*

A bit later...


* Though I cringe at the word...

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Words of Wisdom

Watching Oprah (as you do when you're on maternity leave) who heard a quote I wanted to pass on.

Forgiveness is giving up

the hope that the past

could have been any different

A variation of this is: Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past

For My Secret Book Friend

Lately I haven't read as much as I used to do (I blame it on lots of good TV series and my blog addiction) but I still love reading and want to pick it up again.

Here are three posts listing what I have read over the last few years:
2008
2009
2010
And all my book related posts

I like "spinned" books with subtle or sly humour, for example I really envoyed Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann. I also like non-fiction such as Bill Bryson's books and The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester. I also read chick lit but I prefer books with "more", so-to-speak. I'm not keen on fantasy or science fiction but I like e.g. Jasper Fforde's books about Thursday Next. I like crime novels but I'm tired of historic or classic novels and romance.

I welcome books both in Swedish and English!

In terms of "extras", please don't send any scented candles or similar as certain smells give me a migraine.

Hope this helps but don't worry too much about my preferences! I'm just excited about participating in Pocket & Prassel for the first time and see what someone chooses just for me!

Pottering

Today's excursion (luckily an indoor one as it was a whopping 4 degrees accompanied by snow and rain): the Beatrix Potter exhibition at Millesgården together with lovely Tora and little Ester. The exhibition was a bit disappointing. It was very small; the shop was more exciting. If our children had been older though we'd have appreciated it more, since it was really more of a Beatrix Potter playroom.

Isolde slept through most of it (as usual) but woke up for a feed while mum watched a film about the author (which made the overall rating of the exhibition higher).





Peter Rabbit aka Pelle Kanin didn't come home with us but a pack of baby grip friendly crayons and some licorice fudge did.





After the museum we had a delicious soup with locally produced ingredients including spicy sausage at Millesgården's café. Pretty good despite miserable May weather!

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Bin Laughing

Best Twitter right now: GhostOsama. Some highlights:

- Was just granted my 72 virgins, YES! Did I mention that I have 72 virgins? 70 virgins left. I need a cigarette and a nap.

- I retired as the world champion of hide and seek.

- LMAO @NapoleonBonaparte you are short little dude, but I like your style

- @KimJongil you are my go to guy in real life now

- My life secrets I love @SarahPalin she got huge boobs and likes guns