Andréa...

...rhyme with diarrhea... Didn't think of that when we gave her her name... Hope it's not a curse...  

Just a bit of whining (as usual)...

OK so I just have to complain a bit. When Christmas is over and New Year is soon to be over H is having his birthday. It has to be the worst day of the year to celebrate a birthday. Everyone is broke and/or hanged over. This year I haven't even thought of his birthday until today really. To much sick kids to worry about. Poor, poor H...

Celebrating H:s birthday 2009 at a Indian restaurant... Lovisa was a little embryo inside me...

Greetings from the infirmary!

Oh, what a wonderful Christmas Eve we had! Reunited with my family, seeing my little, beautiful niece for the first time, watching her and Lovisa play together really made my mother heart warm. Everything was great until Andréa started vomiting around 10:30 pm on Christmas Eve. Since then it's been all about giving her enough fluid to avoid dehydration. And it's been pretty ruff. Now, 4 days later, she finally stopped vomiting but still has the diarrhea. And last night Lovisa vomited in her sleep and has now a bit of diarrhea... Bloody hell, it takes a lot of energy to handle sick kids and the worrying is definitely the worst! So my Christmas wish didn't come true, is it to daring to hope for a healthy New Years Eve?

Christmas Eve before the big outbreak! 

Do you miss Lovisa in this picture? She's actually there, the little blurry thing to the right, refusing to be in the picture...

Merry Christmas!

Oh, it's that time of the year when everyone's fixing the last things before the big day. We rationalized pretty hard and decided not to give Andréa any gifts this year. She's going to appreciate eating the paper and play with the string from the wrapping more than any gifts... She's a little happy baby right now and it's so joyful to see her cruising around in her walking chair with a big smile. Chasing her sister is the favorite game. And Lovisa is a good playmate, screaming, running away and pretending Andréa is the most dangerous little monster ever! My beautiful babies...

On the huge swing in the park

Today I'm going to get the rental car that we found at FlexiDrive, which is a cool alternative to the usual car rental and more importantly cheaper! I hope I remember how to drive, in Montreal I was driving an automatic jeep...

Christmas will be celebrated in Värmland, with my family. I have a warm feeling about it, it's going to be so nice to see them all! And it's so nice to celebrate Christmas without being pregnant or breastfeeding. I'm hopefully going to enjoy eating and drinking without feeling sick or falling asleep before 8 pm! And did you know? From tomorrow it's getting a little bit brighter everyday! Merry Christmas to all of you!

How did they think?

When they made up these rules for recycling?

This basically says that the only time the door to the recycling room is open are Mondays 6-7 pm and Thursdays 7-9 am

It's just that when you have 2 little kids they usually eat, take their baths and go to sleep between 6-7 pm and they usually wake up demanding new diapers and breakfast between 7-9 am. It's not easy to save the planet...

A good weekend...

This weekend gave us a little more sleep than the past weeks. We also enjoyed good food and wine (hey! I'm not breastfeeding anymore!). And Lovisa and I did some Christmas pedicure...

 Simple is often the best; oven baked salmon with potatoes and white wine sauce... The best meal I had for a long time...

Christmas red toenails...

We're totally ready for Christmas!

End of an era

Until now I've insisted on breastfeeding Andréa in the morning. It's the only time she gets milk now. I've had a time rule which I've been very strict about holding on to. No milk before 5 am. My nurse said carefully to me, when I was complaining about the sleepless nights, that maybe Andréa needs something to eat earlier since she keeps waking up around 3-4 am every morning.

Andréa woke up at 3:30 am this morning. I changed her diaper. Cuddled with her a bit. Put her back in her crib. After 45 minutes of listening to her babbling, whining and tumbling around I just about had it. I went up, made a bottle of "välling" (google translate tells me "gruel" in english... well...) and fed her. She drank it all and fell asleep in a few seconds after that. So, she's probably hungry the little mouse. And my boobs are so tiny and the way she's been pulling and biting on them tells me there's not so much to get there anymore. So from now on it's gruel in the early morning, no more brestfeeding. It's with a bittersweet feeling I'm saying goodbye to brestfeeding. But now the time has come. My boobs are mine once again and I think it's really for the best. But I'm pretty proud considering all the problems I had this time. I did it for 8 months. It was 8 long months...

Andréa a couple of days old. Little did I know what a struggle I had ahead, but now it's over...

Making an effort...

To get some Christmas spirit despite the lack of snow we baked gingerbread yesterday. It ended up more dough in the belly than in the oven which could explain why Lovisa pooped 3 times in 3 hours yesterday evening...

Christmas party

Thursday evening I attended the yearly Christmas party at my work. It felt strangely surreal to sit there, surrounded by grown ups, and eat and drink and chat without being disrupted by somebody screaming, throwing up or pooping in the middle of the dinner. Well, it was nice.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

And I just want to cry because I'm so exhausted! Or pack my bags and leave but that's out of the question I guess so it's crying for me... It started with the jet-lag from hell, along came the stomach flu and shortly after Andréas worst cold ever. I'm actually so tired I don't really know what I'm doing from time to time. I walk around the apartment searching for things and then I forget what I'm looking for. I rush to the store just to realize I can't remember what was so important for me to get. The other day I doubled the dose of painkiller ("Alvedon") for Andréa and had to call the poison information center. I felt like the worst mother in the universe... It wasn't anything to worry about they sad, as long as I don't give a higher dose that is recommended over 24 hours. Phu... I'm still hoping for a lovely, calm, wonderful, healthy Christmas with lots of sleep. I guess hope is the last thing that remains when everything else seems hopeless...

To try to cheer us up I got the idea to take some Christmas pictures of the kids. Yeah right! Godness it was a hard task to find one, single picture where both of them looks up and sits relatively still... Here's a few examples...

I probably have about 100 more. Well, the last one is the winner... At least both have their heads up and the stupid Santa hat on!

A new world...

Today I shopped for almost 2000 SEK (about 300 CAD) ON INTERNET! A whole new world opened up when I discovered the advantages of this very easy way to shop from home. But it is a bit dangerous, click, click and you just bought a whole lot of stuff! But very convenient for a stay-at-home-mum with 2 little rascals that doesn't appreciate shopping just yet. You might think 2000 SEK is a lot of money? But I did get a lot of stuff! Or how about:

A new coat for me!

New clothes, 2 tunics and 2 leggings, and a new doll stroller for my new niece!

New clothes for Christmas for my girls!

For Lovisa

For Andréa

And last but not least a cool winter hat for me!

Ahh, shopping is fun! Have a nice weekend!

Wishlist number 2!

After a few days of stomach flu with a lot of vomit, washing sheets, towels and clothes, soothing, sleepless nights and worrying I here give you my updated wishlist for Cristmas:

• A happy, healthy family

And for the book I bought, "sova hela natten" ("a good nights sleep"), well, it's been lying on my bedside table staring at me but who the hell has the energy to read that when you have 2 sleepless, sick kids? Now, I have some sleeping to do!

Our wishlist!

We've been really good this year so I have a lot of faith that Santa is going to bring us some gifts. This is what we want:

Lovisa wants a baking set from IKEA. And a Pingu movie wouldn't hurt either...


Andréa wants a play mat to tumble around on. This is a nice one but way to expensive...



H wants a "floorball" ("innebandy") stick. He wants to get in shape! And I wouldn't mind a nice weekend on a spa. Perhaps yasuragi, which is a very cozy and peaceful place close to my heart.

So dear Santa, bring on Christmas!

Getting desperate?

Yesterday I bought the book every parent talks about: "A good nights sleep". Well, at least every Swedish parent with a baby that doesn't sleep very well. It'a a debated method how to get your baby to sleep good the whole night throw. Parents that did the procedure talks warmly about it while the Swedish health care system shakes their heads when you mention it.


Am I getting desperate? All I can think about is getting some sleep.