Trial runs

(I had scheduled this post to publish on Monday morning, but it never did. It's old news now!)

Sunday morning I woke up thinking that maybe my water had broken and that labor would be starting soon. We spent the morning waiting for something (namely, contractions) to happen. By noontime, nothing seemed to be going on, so we went to the hospital/birthing center to make sure everything was okay. They monitored the baby (heartbeat fine) and did a brief exam on me (nothing doing), and sent us home. The midwife thinks that it's likely things will get going in the next few days, that my body's just starting to get warmed up. So still we wait.

It was good to have a trial run for all of us though, as we've chosen to give birth somewhere we'd never been prior to this afternoon. It's a swanky place, as far as hospitals/birthing centers are concerned, and the staff was great. And Augie woke up from his nap to find Mama and Baba gone, and Ah Mah here to take care of him. The two of them did well together, and they'll be fine when the real thing happens.

I made James take a few pictures of me (it's always so hard to get him to take pictures of me!), in what we hope are the last days/hours of my pregnancy. I really think I'm getting bigger by the day.

I think this is my widest view:

This is kinda how I'm feeling these days:

Responding to some "direction" from James:

And here's Augie's trial run on the potty:

Augie and Anna

Augie has a doll named Anna. We got her for him before we left the US, as a way to help him begin to understand that he's about to have a little baby sibling. He was mildly interested in her until recently, and now he's really taken to her. He feeds her (tries to put raisins and forks into her mouth), changes her diaper (I've been wrapping little newborn-sized diapers around her), has her suck her thumb (which is weird because he doesn't do that) and puts her to sleep (usually with a blanket over her, sometimes by jamming his fingers into her eyes so she'll close them). Every now and then we'll be in the middle of something and he'll realize she isn't there; he'll shout "Anna!" and go get her. Yesterday we went walking and he took her with us.

He carried her from bench to bench:

Then, when we got to the workout area, he had her do some exercises:

Baking and painting

Yesterday afternoon, after our outing to Gamla Stan and Augie's nap, Augie got to bake with Ah Mah and paint with Baba.

Seeing the sights with Ah Mah

We went on a little excursion this morning to Gamla Stan, the old town. Augie had so much fun running around the main square and darting down the narrow alleys. It reminded us that kids don't really need fancy parks and playgrounds (though those things are very nice!) - they just need space to roam and explore. We spent most of the morning chasing him down this way and that, all while he laughed maniacally. And we finally got Ah Mah out of the kitchen for a while!

Augie in action in the main square:

Mama posing:

Constant running:

At the windy royal palace:

Augie telling Ah Mah where to go (seriously, he wanted her down):

I wish I had news to share with you, but everything here seems to be on stand-by. Augie's doing well at dagis, Ah Mah is doing well filling our freezer, refrigerator and bellies, and James and I are just waiting.

Not my most flattering angle:

This is our building's courtyard. We have a little area for Augie to run around, and he likes to play on all the bikes.

So happy!

Playing in the kitchen sink

I started to do some washing up this morning after breakfast, but Augie interrupted me to take over the task. He did an exceedingly good job at rinsing out the teapot - again and again and again.

My boys

Another day here of running errands, laying low, waiting for things to happen. It's probably a bit silly to be waiting around already - baby's not due for another week, and just because Augie was early doesn't mean this one will be.

James reading with Augie. Such beautiful boys have I:

It's funny, Augie tends not to focus on one thing for very long, including books. Board books are perfect for us because they're short. But I picked up Go Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman at a garage sale some months back, and even though it's 60+ pages long, Augie loves it! He almost always sits through the whole thing, absorbed. Makes me think we should get some more books like it, including some Dr. Suess titles. Can you believe that of all the children's books we have (probably around 100!), we don't have a single Dr. Seuss book?!?!

I love these pictures especially because Augie rarely lets James read to him - I'm usually the only one allowed to read books out loud. But sometimes Baba gets to, and I love it when they sit together and read.

Writing emails?

Not much to report here. I saw my midwife today and all's well. So many things about prenatal care and delivery are different here in Sweden than they are in the US; for one thing, the midwife who has taken care of me thus far won't deliver the baby - that's how it's done here. From what I can tell, there are prenatal midwives and then midwives who deliver babies. So when we show up at the hospital, we won't know any of the staff or the woman who will deliver Queequeg! I know this would terrify some women in the US, but honestly, I don't mind. As long as it's someone who will take care of me, I'm happy.

Another difference is that we don't know where we will deliver! Because you aren't tied to a particular midwife and hospital, you can choose to deliver at any hospital/birthing clinic. We will probably go to the one closest to us, Södersjukhuset, if they have beds available in their special birthing clinic. If not, we'll likely head across town to a recently-opened birthing clinic with all the bells and whistles, assuming they have openings. Strange, huh?

There are some other differences which I hope to get to in a future post. 

If the timing is right, it looks like we'll have a doula again. A friend-of-a-friend is a doula here in Stockholm, and we met her over the weekend to learn more about the whole childbirth process here in Sweden. If she's available when I go into labor, she's going to assist us. 

Two great pieces of news around here are that our freezer is full (thanks Ah Mah!) and that Augie likes the bath again. We'd had three weeks of him throwing fits about getting in the bath or shower, and then two nights ago I climbed into the tub and brought him in with me. He cried at first, but then we got to playing and he started laughing and splashing around. We've been back on track since then. Phew.

Hanging out and waiting

We've had a lovely weekend, mostly hanging out at home and relaxing. Ah Mah took Augie to the park both Saturday and Sunday mornings, so we were able to stay home and relax - and by relax, I mean organize, rearrange, and do other baby preparations without having to chase (or be chased by) the toddler. We've had some delicious meals and nice, calm together time. It's weird to feel a comfortable sense of stasis while knowing that everything is about to be sent into chaos (but who knows when?!).

Augie really has been such a joy lately (well, he always has been). It's wondrous watching him learn and interact with others. He's repeating words all the time and putting together sentences (short sentences, like "I carry" (which means "carry me!") or "I sleep" or "Mama sleep!"), and he's picked up a couple basic Swedish words. He's learning to care for his friends - primarily his inanimate friends, like baby doll Anna, whom he feeds, brushes her teeth, puts her on my lap, and puts her to bed. Sometimes he feeds other dolls/stuffed animals that we have, or even drawings of animals in books. When he sees another child crying, he seems genuinely concerned and wants to help. We had new friends come over this afternoon, and when the little boy (19 months) came into the apartment, Augie immediately rushed to put a raisin in his mouth.

He's stopped coming into our bed in the middle of the night (well, probably until I post at this, at which point he'll start again), and has been sleeping in his bed until morning wake-up, which comes way too early (these days usually around 5:15-5:45am). Though this morning, I awoke at 5:15am to realize he was calling my name from his room, which he's never done; I went to his room and he was sitting up, waiting for me. I asked if he wanted to come to our bed, and he laid down and said, "Mama sleep." So I laid down next to him and we both went to sleep until 7 o'clock.

As always, though, I'm sure you're here for the pictures, so here they are.

Kitchen action shots:

 Augie loves red tea (rooibos) and demands to have some whenever he sees the kettle on.

And some fruit: