8 months

Yesterday Charlotte got 8 months old. Therefore we recapped what happened within the last 4 weeks. And it's not a lot. But:
Within the last week she really makes huge progress. On friday I saw her the first time only standing on her hands and feet. It was just for a second but it indicates where this will lead within the next 2 weeks. Today she even put her legs under her belly for the first her.
Next time I will write again it will be because she will be crawling :-)

Summer and vacation

Oh, my god! Where did the time go? It's already september!

Charlotte is already nearly 7 months old! We hardly can remember how she was when she was 4 weeks old. We just remember that she didn't move. And now? Since 5 weeks or so she manages to turn around and lie on her belly. In the beginning it was more or less luck if she managed to. Then, two weeks ago she was able to turn back on her own. This is something she doesn't do any more at the moment. Instead she makes funny noises to tell us that she's unhappy. In addition she spreads her arms really often like flying over the floor which is - at least to us - more exhausting than holding up with her own hands - obviously she doesn't think so or can't understand yet.

As well: After a few weeks of extensively trying new sounds with her mouth (such as "PF") she reduced her efforts around that ability (maybe she got to know they she won't need that when talking deciding to talk english only ;-))

So, it really seems that she takes a breath of a week or two to come back afterwards stronger than before and with more capabilities than we've seen so far.
But there might be two more reasons:
She's now 29 weeks old - exactly the time when most of the babies start learning about distance (mummy can leave the room and is away when doing so). She therefore carefully watches Marlene and myself and she's really upset if we don't play with her.
The second reason for her being a little bit stressful this week might be that we were on vacation twice. So there's a lot of people and things she's seen and that she has to process with her little young brain.

First we've been to Spain for a week. More precisely we've been to a wedding near Marbella. It was unbelievably hot - for me in the same way than for Charlotte. Nevertheless we had a really great time, went to the pool, watched the sea and met a lot of nice people.
Secondly last week we travelled through Germany. It nearly felt like our yearly christmas odyssey: We went to my parents, had a family reunion there and also met my Kindergarden friend, his wife and son. Next we spent a few days in the Lüneburger heath and met with a friend of Marlene and her two small daughthers. Already after this meeting we realized that Charlotte was not so relaxed any more. She slept very bad every night and needed a lot of closeness. So we cancelled a meeting with friends in Hamburg and only spent a night at a friend's house in Bremen. The next day we continued our journey to Oldenburg (the original destination of our travel) where we celebrated the 60th birthday of Marlenes dad. Although there was really loud music playing on that party Charlotte slept really well in the restaurant and we went to the hotel at around 11PM.
The next day we started our way back home and just spent another night in Düsseldorf at Marlenes sister. Otherwise the drive would have been too long for Charlotte.
In total we spent around 1600km on the road with Charlotte sleeping most of the time.
But I can imagine that it has been really stressful for her seeing new people everytime she woke up and got pulled out of the car.

So, although we already arrived back home last monday it's totally ok if Charlotte needs another 2 or 3 days to calm down again. But not more, please ;-)

Tomorrow morning we will try the swimming pool here in Mannheim for the second time. Cross the fingers!!

Good night!

First Jump

I think every parents should read the book "Oje, ich wachse" from van de Rijt, Brams and Plooij (don't know the english title). Otherwise the last week would have been a disaster.
It was a really tough week! Charlotte cried a lot and always wanted to eat. Normally she has a frequency of 2 to 4 hours but this week it was different (and maybe still is): She falls asleep after eating but 10 minutes later she cries again and nothing can stop her than nursing her again.
This can drive you crazy because you don't know what's wrong with your child, with yourself, with the mother's milk,... Besides you read the mentioned book!
According to the book there are 8 "jumps" in the mental development of your child up to the age of 14 months. And the first one appears around the 6th week. So, all I described is totally normal and if you know that, then you feel a lot better. You still can't change anything but you can let your baby crying better at least for a few minutes and you don't fear to nurse it very, very often.

The reason why the babies cry so much is that something changes for them. They see, feel and experience the world in another way than before and that's of course confusing for them in the beginning.
On the other hand it's also the good thing about these "jumps" at the same time. Because your baby begins to do other things than before:
- Charlotte now pedals a lot more than before, she's starting to use her arms and legs.
- She also can see farther, for example she starts to recognize the mobile hanging above the changing table.
- She starts to make sounds in different pitches. It's not just crying but also gurgling when she's happy or just without any reason.
- In addition to the crying there are now also tears appearing sometimes.
- And last but not least Marlene and me, we both believe that Charlotte sometimes already smiles at us :-)

You see, the result of the last week is pretty good but I'm happy if the first jump is over. Nevertheless I am not yet sure. And the next one is already coming in 2 weeks...

Day Nurseries in Mannheim / Krippen in Mannheim

Because Marlene wants to start working again in September (at least one or two days a week), we started looking for day nurseries (in german: Krippen) in Mannheim. After compiling a first list, I put all the addresses in a map to see where the nurseries are. Now we will have to visit all of them, submit applications and wait where we will be chosen.

I also want to write a few things in German, because maybe other young parents might find this helpful as well:

Hier finden Sie eine Karte mit Krippen in Mannheim. Die Liste dieser Krippen erhebt keinen Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit:


Größere Kartenansicht

Vergleichbare Karten finden Sie auch hier im Familiennavigator.

Charlotte's growing

As Charlotte was so lightweight, we decided to track her weight a little bit. As we always have been fans of lists and charts we created a spreadsheet and a graph to visualize it.
This morning our midwife visited us again and weighted Charlotte again and as she made a big jump up to 2800g within the last days, we decided to share this great news with you.
From now on, you will be able to track her growing:

Charlotte Martha, * 02.17.2009

She's there! Our daughter Charlotte was born last Tuesday.
After the amnion sac broke on Monday evening, we went to the hospital. The next night nothing happened. Therefore they induced labor on Tuesday morning and at 3.57PM our small star looked at me for the first time.
We all together spent the whole last week in hospital. It was nearly like in a hotel as you get food the whole day, your bed is made by someone else, and you can just concentrate on holding your child and looking at it :-)
Everybody tells you before but you can't really believe it: It's such a great feeling to see this little human being and to know that it's your daughter and that she will count on you for the rest of her life! And suddenly you can feel something like butterflies in your stomach again!

On Sunday we went home and now everything is different! You need have the day to feed Charlotte. You wake up at 8 AM but finish breakfast not before 11. You only can leave the house together with her and before that you first need to feed her, to swaddle her and to dress her accordingly. Etc. etc. To make it short: Everything is different. But it's wonderful! And I am really happy that I took the next 2 months off to be at home and to see her growing everyday!

6 weeks to go

The last 8 days I spend in bed only because I was really sick with more than 3 days with high fever. Of course that wasn't nice. Nevertheless it's good that this happened now and not six weeks later.
In six weeks we will have a small baby! The children's room is nearly finished. Everything has been bought. We just need to install a few things: A new lamp on the ceiling, the electric heater etc.
Sometimes it seems our girl doesn't even want to stay in Marlenes stomach for another 6 weeks: She's punching and kicking like hell. I think it will be a strange feeling for Marlene if this will stop from one day to the other. But until then, we can now enjoy the last weeks without any crying baby. After that everthing will be different!
The first 2 months we will both stay at home. Last week I requested parental time and it will start immediately after birth. I can't say I am already prepared for this. But at least I read another book about it last week when staying in bed ;-)

The suitcase for the hospital is pack already as well. So, we are prepared and can't wait to see our small girl in real!

It's a girl

Since two weeks we now know that it will be a little girl. So, now we can start buying things because we know the color we have to buy ;-)
Also since 3 or 4 weeks I can also feel her moving in Marlenes stomach. It's really amazing!
Marlene still doesn't have any real "problems" being pregnant. Except that she's getting out of breath more easily. But that's ok. She's just doing things a little bit more slowly and I have to wait for her getting the stairs up and down in the house. Ah, there's one other thing - which is totally normal for pregnant women - but outsiders really have to get used to it (including me): She's forgetting things so quickly. Sometimes she doesn't even remember what she wanted to do 10 seconds ago. So, if you know other pregnant women: Be a little bit considerately and don't let them do important tasks as they might forget about them if they are not as organized as Marlene is (at least in business).
Last weekend we decided to already set up the commode that will become the baby dressing table and it was a good idea not to wait until after christmas. The few things I couldn't lift by myself where already pretty heavy for Marlene as well. So, just in time I'd like to say.
Next weekend we will spend in Amsterdam. I'm already excited!

Bought a stroller on saturday

Everone knows that children are expensive. We had our kick-off for the spend marathon already last saturday: We bought a stroller! Actually we just wanted to look for a new bed for us and a baby changing table. But then we saw the furniture store also had strollers and especially the one stroller we hadn't seen in reality so far: The Joolz. As they also had the Bugaboo, we could test them both just next to each other. And we decided us. Normally we wouldn't have bought one on Saturday just right away but they had this campaign that only lasted until Saturday and we were already sure about the stroller, we bought it: The Bugaboo Cameleon - in dark brown!
Baby, you can come :-)

Change of Title

As we started communicating it officially on our wedding I decided to change the title of this blog for the next months. To explicitely say it again:
We will get a baby in March next year!!!! :-)

We are sooooo happy! After a wonderfull wedding we now have the next event we are looking forward to. Marlene already got a small belly and it grows every day. We have been to the doctor three times already and everything is fine so far (cross the fingers).