About the baby (and the pregnancy):
It's a girl and her name's initial is L. She's very active in the tummy; her high time is between 5-6 am, 10-11 am, 5-6 pm and some time after 9 - whenever I lie down in bed she starts partying. How wonderful she's got a routine. I pray to God she'll stick to this when she's born.
L.'s got a lot of hiccups, just like E. in my tummy. But her reaction to them is totally different. While E. bore it without any resistance, L. is really annoyed by her hiccups and starts kicking and moving around until it goes away.
The most important of all is that she is healthy and everything has been going well with my pregnancy. Perhaps as I'm older or just because every pregnancy is different from the other, I don't feel so good in my skin as with E. (I know, I know I shouldn't compare them).
- I had the morning sickness with L. but not with E. I've been more tired with L., though I had lots of time on my hand to relax with E. With an almost 4 year old it's unimaginable.
- Around the 7th month of pregnancy with L. insomnia kicked in for a few weeks. I slept like a log until the last moments with E.
- Braxton hicks started about a month ago, which are rather frightening and I've been living in continuous uncertainty not knowing when the real birth-giving starts.
- I've been ill every other week since I got pregnant. Either E. brings something home from the nursery or I seem to catch illnesses more easily. (I've had 2 stomach bugs, 3 colds, 2 coughs, and 3 or 4 viral infections. I'm ill at the very moment too and I can only hope it'll go away by the time we get to the hospital)
- I've got gestational diabetes. Not so serious (I do not need to count CH), still I have to keep a diet. It's been 3 months now I've got used to it, however at the beginning I though it was the end of the world. I try not to eat anything with white flour or sugar in it.
About E.:
We told E. the big news quite early at the beginning (I think the baby was about 12-14 weeks old). As she is a very clever girl and interested in the human body to a great extent there was no point talking about flowers and bees, or the stork bringing the baby.
We showed her picture books and videos about the pregnancy, how the sperm meets the egg and become one, how they are joining/growing and so on. She seemed to understand the whole process (whenever we asked her about the baby later on, or how it was created she could exactly tell us every detail we'd explained to her.), which surprised us a lot. There were a few weeks when she always wanted to talk about the baby, to watch videos about the growing baby in the womb, to know how big the baby is and how she was developing. She was quite excited. Then after a while she lost interest in the topic, which was kindled again when my bump was getting bigger.
We selected her old baby clothes together and she was more than happy to give them to her baby sister. The same happened with her toys. She helped me separate the baby toys she's not playing with any more and she called the box L.'s box. Once I told her that we need to put away a few pairs of sock as she'd grown out of them, she highlighted that L. can use them soon. So sweet! What's more, she wanted her sister to sleep in her room. (E. got a new 'big girl' bed and she offered her old one to L.)
Of course, we've been reading some books about new babies born in a family. We tried to focus her attention on how much babies might cry, and not being able to play with a newborn at the beginning. But she enjoyed the idea that she'll never be alone in the future as she'll have a baby sister. She also cherished the fact that she knows everything a baby doesn't and she'll be the one who'll teach her. She doesn't really want to talk to L., she prefers if Daddy reports to L. what "her big sister is doing or saying" ( - Daddy, tell L. what her big sister is playing with." etc.)
About us:
Once I'm scared to death how I will survive with two small kids, with a 4-year-old energy bomb and a newborn who needs all Mommy's attention. At other moments, of course, I feel confident and strong and I feel experienced enough to cope with the situation. But honestly I have no idea what we are facing...
One thing is sure: our language journey must go on. Though it is also rather uncertain how I'll be able to write the blog, prepare activities for E., start everything from the beginning with L., find a native nanny and so on and so forth.
And there's Daddy, who doesn't like talking about his feelings, but I know he's burdened with responsibility, financial issues, paternal fears or how he could be present more in our lives to help and support in as many ways as he can.
For sure, challenging times are coming for all of us; magical, blessed, still difficult and troublesome. But the challenge has been accepted.
28 Dec. 2015, 5.54 am
It might happen that our sweet daughter is born this year. 8 minute contractions have been on for more than 2 hours now.
07. Jan. 2016. - see an update on L's arrival in our family
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