It's just a PHASE...

Yesterday evening Lovisa decided to be a bit manic again and it took about an hour to put her to sleep. Which made me manic so around 10:30 pm, when both babies where sleeping, I couldn't go to sleep. I shouldn't have written that stupid blog post yesterday evening. Shorter naps? Bah! What do I know? Maybe it's her molars coming out...

At the breakfast table this morning. As happy and rested as ever! 

Now I'm just going to bang my head against a wall and have my second cup of coffee (only second!) while I'm repeating my mantra "it's just a phase..."

Bloody stubborn kid part 2!

So we decided to reduce Lovisas afternoon nap to 1 hour, from being at least 2 hours. The first night she slept 12 (!) hours, from 9 pm to 9 am, which I think never happened before. Well, this was a bit to good to be true, the following nights she's been sleeping around 10 hours, which still is good for being Lovisa... So we're going to stick to short afternoon naps! The best thing though, is that it's taken about 30 minutes for her to fall asleep instead of nerve wracking 1 hour or more.

Andréa is a bit more cranky during the evenings. I think she has a bit of a stomach pain and she probably feels we're exhausted to with little patience. Or she just wants to be like her big sister... She likes it best if I carry her in my arms.  I remember that Lovisa had a period with the same cranky evening mood. Good thing the girls are mostly shiny happy people during the days!

A happy Andréa, 5 weeks old

The best diet ever?

Having a baby and breastfeeding it have to be one of the best diets ever! Yesterday I was able to eat 3 pieces of apple pie with vanilla sauce (!) and still loose some weight. One month after the delivery I'm basically back to my "ideal" weight. That you actually have to get pregnant, gain weight and give birth might have some disadvantages for the advertisement for this particular diet...

Eat 3 pieces of this and loose weight!

That doesn't mean that my body is in the same shape though... Hips are wider, skin is a bit looser... BUT, my toe nails are fixed, old flaky color gone, new summery pink on!

 
One month after the delivery

Bloody stubborn kid!

I'm going insane. Lovisa drivs me and H CRAZY!!! She refuses to go to sleep at night. This has been going on since we came back from Sweden but has accelerated from being a bit annoying to be totally exhausting. Usually I put her to bed but since Andréa arrived H and me have shared pretty equally, depending on if Andréa needs to be fed or be carried around (sometimes she's only content with me). Maybe it's just that, Lovisa feels that I'm not there 100%?

This is how we ususally do it: around 7:30 pm she takes her bath. We calm her down by watching a movie or reading a book. We give her warm milk in the bottle and then it's bedtime. Usually around 8:30 pm. She normally goes to sleep in 10-20 minutes. Now it takes at least 1 hour. She goes manic. She playes, sings, talk, cuddle with her toto's, runs around all over the second floor etc etc. She's not upset or sad but just totally crazy and insanely energetic. Of course it ends with H and me being pissed and Lovisa being sad, upset and way to tired. We're all tired. It's exhausting having a newborn on top of this.

Any tips?

She's driving us all mad! Good for her she's such a sweetie pie... Here in her sister's bassinet...

Stinking tuesday

Lovisa woke up at 4 am, feverish and refused to go back to sleep. At  6 am I was in the kitchen making breakfast. Andréa had stomach pains most of the day. Vomits everywhere. I've been changing my clothes 2 times, her clothes 3 times and changed numerous of poop diapers. It's these times you ask yourself "Am I breastfeeding her to much?", "Am I feeding her to often?", "Did I eat anything weired, like a can of beans?", "Is she allergic?" an so on... To make the evening more exciting I actually ate some kind of chicken sauce with beans and garlic for lunch so we'll just see how the night turns out...

Andréa about her first month...

I was born in Sweden on a very long Friday, the 22nd of April 2011. It was quite the ordeal  to leave mammas womb and I'm still trying to adjust to this strange life on the outside...

I took my first bath when I was 1 week old. It kind of reminded me of the life in the womb so I really liked it!

We moved back to Canada the 12th of May. It was a long trip but I didn't mind, I slept and ate most of the time. Here is my family when we just arrived to Pierre-Trudeau airport, mamma is carrying me in the "baby-björn".

Sometimes I get stomach pains. It hurts like hell!

But mamma comforts me with the best tasting milk ever. I try to get some every second hour...

My big sister Lovisa really loves me. She can be a bit rough but I will get even as soon as I can grab on to things!

My much bigger sister is very gentle and nice. I don't mind being in her arms.

This is how mamma and papa likes to see Lovisa and me. But it's rare we sleep at the same time... This lasted about 10 minutes and then I got hungry...

But I really like to sleep to! Maybe not when mamma wants to sleep, she has the funniest idea about sleeping for SEVERAL HOURS in a row during the night! I really appreciate a good nap in the pram.

It's hard to adjust to life outside mamma but I have to admit that my first month has been pretty amazing!

Pedicure, poop diapers and breastfeeding...

I've been meaning to do a very simple pedicure, when you have two children under 2 years that basically means to remove the old flaky color and replace it by new. However, it's bloody impossible to find the time between poop diapers, breastfeeding, laundry, crawling around the dirty floor looking for pacifiers (which I have to buy some more of, Andréa only have 2, we would absolutely need at least the double amount) and of course wiping of baby vomits from me, Andréa, the floor, the sheets and so on... But who am I kidding? Who looks at my toenails when the rest of me is covered by milk spots from leaking boobs, baby vomits and spaghetti sauce (from eating and breastfeeding at the same time)? Ahh, maybe next month...

Trying the baby gym. Andréa and the monkey seems to get along so far...

The most wonderful smile...

Andréa and I rested 2 hours after lunch. When we woke up she looked at me with the most penetrating eyes and gave me a big, sincere smile. And no, it wasn't stomach pain, a mother knows! All sleepless nights seems like a very small problem right now, everything is forgiven (but ask me again tomorrow and we'll see...)!

I discovered that I have so many pictures when Andréa sleeps and very few when she's awake. Believe it or not, she actually have very nice eyes... So, from now on I'm going to take more pictures where you can see her beautiful eyes...

 On my birthday she looked this adorable...

Her first birthday party, 1 week old at my aunt's place in Sweden

Back to life, back to reality...

We're back in beautiful, green Montreal and finally in our house with our stuff! And we're so tired! Lovisa is being a real rascal, jet-laged and confused over everything that happened the last few months. Abandoned by her mother, moved to Sweden, got a little sister and now back in Montreal. She's frustrated that I'm not there for her 100% and I have a bad conscience. Tonight I dreamt  a squirrel ate her when I wasn't paying attention. Andréa is eating me up, especially during the nights... She doesn't want to sleep alone so she's almost constantly sleeping in my arms or in the carrier, making it almost impossible for me to do anything with Lovisa. I've been debating for months if I should keep Lovisa in daycare or let her be home with us but for the time being I've decided to let her go to daycare. It would be impossible right now to stimulate her with Andréa eating and sleeping on me... Oh, if I only could split myself in two...

Invation!

Now we invaded dad's place. We live in his bedroom, Lovisa slept the first night on a small bed beside the big double bed where me, H and Andréa sleeps. 5 suitecases and a bunch of smaller bags is spread out over the floor among diapers and clothes that covers the rest of the room.
 The first time we all slept in the same room was an eventuful night. Andréa ate 3 times, pooped 2 times and slept maybe 4 hours totally. H snored as usual. Lovisa fell from her bed, cried for 2 minutes and went back to sleep. Arond 5 am Lovisa came to sleep in our bed and around 6 am Andréa decided to cry her most heartbreaking little babycry and woke everybody up. End of the first night together... This night Lovisa slept in the travel bed which she can't fall out of. Andréa ate every second hour and pooped 3 times. Finally she fell asleep on my stomach. Maybe we got 3 hours sleep totally. Ahhh...

 View from dad's place...

 Summer short haircut...

Sleeping beauty...

We're enjoying the amazing spring during the days, 20 degrees and sunshine. Although the lack of sleep makes me tired life is pretty good...

Bye Karlskoga and Värmland!

Stockholm here we come! Packing, breastfeeding, saying goodbye, making lunch, trying to find the time to go to the toilet. Travelling with 1 newborn and 1 toddler is a challenge!

Andréa is crying, over and out!

Emotional times...

Oh, I'm so tired. And happy. And sad. And relieved. I don't know how it's possible to feel so many different kind of emotions at the same time, but I do and it's really confusing. Yesterday evening I just cried, totally exhausted. Lovisa gets worried when I'm sad. She repeats "mamma" with increasing strength until I answer her. Then she looks at me with her big light blue eyes as if she wants to calm me down. My little big girl.

Andréa is eating every second hour, day as night. If I'm lucky I get to sleep an hour here and there... And it's hard to get any rest during the day, we've been running around fixing all the practical stuff for our departure on Thursday. And when I have the opportunity to rest, when the 2 rascals sleep at the same time, I can't seem to relax.

Oh, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed... In our house... With our things... Soon...

Celebration times!

Turning 33 years feel very uneven and good. Since 3 is my lucky number I think it's going to be a great year! I got lots of gifts, a bracelet from H, from the Swedish brand "Snö" ("Snow") which explains why it snowed on my birthday!

For lunch we had "smörgåstårta" ("sandwich cake", a Swedish specialty) and of course some Opera cake in the afternoon.

"Smörgåstårta" - delicious!

Opera cake - even more delicious!

When I picked up the cake at the bakery they lost my order so I got 2 smaller cakes for the same price, so today we're having another cake! And we're really celebrating today to because FINALLY all the paperworks with Andréas name is done and we've applied for her passport. It looks like we're going back to Montreal the 12th of May as planned!