Kasblah

Hard to believe its been a month now since we quickly left for the hospital evening of April 29, Sabine’s waters lost, a baby on the way, our lives about to change. I remember sitting in the waiting room, the nurse telling me to come back the next morning, labor surely wouldn’t start anytime soon. But I lingered and one hour later was anytime soon! 3 hours later I am cutting an umbilical cord with tears of joy in my eyes. I sat by Sabine’s side through the whole labor, my water-serving task seeming immensely insignificant compared to her struggle. But finally in the corner of my eye I saw something amazing appear. First cautiously revealing and retracting its tiny head several times before suddenly appearing in full, as if she had decided to jump out! And then life was before us, our little Liv, on her mother’s chest, peering out at a strange new world.

In the days that followed I commuted between home and the hospital, Liv and Sabine stayed 3 days and I visited as much as I could. Liv probably slept best of us all, ignoring the noise of the ward, getting to know us slowly. She came 3 weeks early and was only 2.75kg at birth, but quickly got the hang of sucking milk. At the health station today she weighed in at 3.8kg, gaining almost 40% weight in a month, pretty amazing (and possibly a bit too much.. )

At home she continued to adjust to her new life, sleeping, eating, and pooping mostly. And crying, sometimes a little, other times a lot which is quite exhausting. A few times she would not calm, her stomach rumbling, its hard to be so helpless in face of her agony. Helsesøster tells Sabine to feed her her less, give her a pacifier instead of the breast between meals. She is a little gourmand. And she had her first bath, loved the bath, hated getting out. The warm liquid probably reminded her of the womb, she seemed quite tranquil and her eyes were full of wonder. Our bathroom is very tight so it probably wasn’t the best place to give her a bath.

Initially we wanted to shield Liv and ourselves from visitors, concentrating on resting and getting comfortable at home. But after the first 2 weeks we started feeling a bit alone and decided to travel to Bergen to visit family. We traveled by train, which was quite relaxing, Liv slept most of the 7 hour trip. She likes trains like her papa! Once in Bergen we did some intense family visits, Liv was the star.

We are superlucky with the weather these days, its warm, the sun is out, and we have been out many times with the stroller. In town, at the Spar, in the forest, this girl’s mobile!

Resting on my chest, suckling on her loly, she looks up at me with her beautiful eyes and makes a grin, yeah its tough at times but so worth it.