Lately...

 

 Handmade headband by my mom, overalls by my mother in law who is an 

amazing knitter, blanket made by our lovely friends Katrine and Julie and the shoes by yours truly!

I can't believe Olivia is 10 weeks and a half already.  Amazing!  She pouts and smiles, makes lots of noises, kicks and punches, is growing so much and now fits her clothes so well!!!  Now she is officially sleeping through the night (in her own bed), today I woke up and SURPRISE, it was 7:30 am! So life is good.

I still face some difficulties, like establishing a sleeping routine, or teaching her to fall asleep on her own, but that will come in due time.  I really would like her to sleep earlier so I can have some alone time with Jonas, right now she has a nap at around 7pm, then wakes up all energized and doesn't go to sleep until after her last feed at 10ish pm.  Then she sleeps for six hours or more, which is great.

Anyways, summer has been great, a bit rainy, but we just enjoy the time we have, taking walks, making hand crafts at home, going to the cabin and eating good meals.  I am finally enjoying cooking again and that makes me really happy (and Jonas as well).

The days with my mother here have just been wonderful, not only has she helped me

a lot, but to see them bond and to be three generations of girls together is just so

nice... I learn so much from her and she learns from me too. 

(The blanket was knitted by my stepmom Rocío, Olivia loves it and I do too!)

 Mom made Olivia a painting, she says it's Olivia with eyes like stars.  

It made me cry... hormones... or maybe not... maybe it just made me cry :)

 

Here with her great grandmother!

 And with her great grandfather.  Summer days in the cabin is just that,

being together with the family and enjoying the time together.  Moments 

like these are priceless.

When the sun shines, we go out for long walks.

And finally, this is the latest project, people keep asking if Olivia is a boy, 

of course, it doesn't bother me at all, I do dress her very "gender neutral", 

but sometime it is nice to see my little girl, so here she is, with a pink body 

she got from a friend and with the flower headbands my mom and I made her.

*Shoe pattern found in Ravelry and overall pattern and yarn bought in Nøstebarn.

The headbands are our own design but the patterns for the flowers were found at Tipnut.

9 weeks and a bunny.

 

Feliz día del padre!!!

Este es mi papá, cuando yo era chiquitita dormíamos de la mano y me cantaba "Los Cochinitos".

 

Papi, que espero que haya pasado un muy lindo día, feliz día del padre, lo queremos mucho mucho.

Dani, Jonas, Olivia y Rafa.

2 months

My princess turned 2 months yesterday. She smiles, drools, plays with her hair, makes "talking" noises, and makes us smile every day.

 

We tried to take a family picture, but she wasn't very happy so, 

we'll try again another time.

We love you, love you, love you Olivia.

 

Any advice may be good advice.

I don't know how many people read this blog, according to my followers, 9.  But I know of others that might not be following the blog that tell me they read it, or mention they like it on Facebook.

This post is to encourage all of you who read the blog and might have something to say, either positive or negative, to comment.  It doesn't matter if you comment in Spanish or Norwegian and not in English.  However you feel most comfortable. However, if you comment in English, you will reach more people.

My purpose with this blog is to tell my experience, and with it, maybe help other new moms and dads like other blogs have helped me.

What I write is only my point of view, but what you write and what you have to say is what make me want to keep on going, because everything becomes more interesting.  We start a conversation.  So, please, if you have something you want to say, if you have any advice, or just want to share your experience, please comment and you might just as well be helping others.

Thank you for reading me, for telling me you are there and for all the beautiful things you tell me all the time, without the readers, blogs get lost.

All in the name of love.

This is what has become of my precious Jieldé lamp.  But that will be it's new function as long as I see that smile!

It's summer and she is 8 weeks.

 

It's summer in Norway and our first summer with Olivia.  There are so many things to celebrate: the fact that my mom is here with us and gets to experience this great time of year with us, the sun, the summer house, family dinners, grilling, long walks, strawberries, rhubarb, the terrace, so many things.

This was a family weekend, and our first weekend at the summer house.  It wasn't so warm, but when the sun was shinning it was just delicious.  We had our first glass of white wine outdoors, and just enjoyed doing nothing.  

Olivia is just charming her way around, being just smiles and little sweet sounds.  She is back to sleeping better and we are very happy about that.  After a lot of thought, we came to the conclusion that instinct and first hand advice has been our best tool.  So, the books are put away for now, and we will just follow our hearts and try to do the best we can.  Anyways, it is all about enjoying your child, right?  And that is what we want.  To enjoy her.

As a costarican, I never quite made a difference between the seasons.  We have a long rainy season and a shorter dry season.  Ideal weather, some may say.

When I moved to Norway, I truly started enjoying each season for what it is (I have a limited love for winter and long rainy fall though).  When the spring arrives, I feel new energy, I feel like I have so much ahead.  Olivia was born in the spring, and now we have all summer ahead, and that is just fantastic.

 Yes, these are breastfeeding pics, and I am quite proud of them!

It has taken me a lot of "pelotas" to post them, 

but I think it is basically what I have become: Olivia's life source.

And Rafa, what a happy little dog, this is his favourite place on earth! 

Him, his friends and a frisbee.

*ps. all the pictures on this post except for the first one goes to my mom, Gisele Arias M. *

 

When? How?

I have to admit, this passed 7 weeks have been wonderful regarding sleep (compared to what I hear and read around the internet).  Olivia slept through the night since she was quite tiny.  I mean through the night as in 4.5 to 6 hours at night, starting at 11 pm.  That was heaven.  I used to feel other sleep deprived parents wanted to shoot me right then right there when I told them about my good fortune.  There were other downs during the day, but it was manageable since I was well rested.

Last week, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we had a busy week, with lots of outings and activities.  After that, things haven't been the same.  Olivia started waking up every three hours at night to feed or just because she was fussy.  It has been quite exhausting I have to say (and I know, some others have it worst, but it is not a competition on who has it worst than who, even though some new parents seem to believe everything IS a competition).

Anyway, I guess this post is mostly to get some advice.  Every transition is so difficult!!! How do you get your baby to sleep in their own bed, and to get themselves to sleep? (without nursing, rocking or bouncing???) When is the best time to do it? Any tips would be wonderful!!

As for right now, I nurse her to sleep at night, around 10pm (falls asleep at around 11:30-12), then move her to her bed, and she sleeps there for a while until 3:30-4am,  then, we move her to our bed to nurse and we fall asleep together... I know, it's baaaaaad, but moving her just wakes her up and then it is a nightmare to put her back to sleep, it takes forever and then it is time to nurse again... We are trying to start a night routine now... at least that is a first step. Any advice? How and when did you do it??

7 weeks.

Yesterday Olivia turned 7 weeks, and this passed week was quite a busy one.  Thank God my mom came on Tuesday to help us out (first I have to say, it was amazing to see them meet for the first time, I can't describe the excitement my mom had when she saw her finally in the airport, ever since she arrived all that matters to her is Olivia). We also went to our first party (which was great!), we went to dinner at my in law's TWICE and went out to celebrate Jonas' PhD as well (I am so so proud of him!).  So, it was great to do all those things but today I just needed to be home and tend to Olivia's every need.

I love that I can have some time for myself, especially that I can have some time with Jonas and our friends.  Although it is very hard to leave the apartment and trust that Olivia will be OK, it is important for me to try to maintain a bit of my old life.  I know it will not be the same and I am happy with that, but sometimes, it's nice to get out of the bubble of motherhood and get dressed, put on some lipstick and enjoy a night with your friends.

Maybe, this week was a bit too much though.  After four days with different activities, I felt like I needed to just be home and go back to a structure and just stay quiet, nurse and tend to Olivia.  So, I think from now on I will limit the social outings to those that I can handle.

Anyways, what's new?  

• Olivia now LOVE's to have a bath! Loves it, loves it, loves it!
• She met her great grandmother.  
• She also loves all the attentions she is getting from all the family members. 
• My public breastfeeding is getting better and I am slowly adapting to it (not loving it at all though).
• I'm reading "The Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg hoping I can set a routine that will work for us.  According to the categorization of the different types of babies in the book, Olivia is a "textbook" baby... we'll see.  I will write about it later on.
• Life is good! I think I am starting the get a hang of this motherhood thing.  It sure helps a lot to have my mother around.
• I missed wine!

Rafa and Olivia

There's a title for a children's book!  A while back I posted about our concerns on how Rafa would react when Olivia was finally here... him being the baby of the house up until then.  Well, I've been meaning to write about it for a while but have forgotten about it, so here it goes.

When we were looking to get a dog I was sure I wanted a terrier.  I love the terrier personality, it's vivacity and tenacity.  They are so expressive and cool!  In Costa Rica my dog Ozzie is a Scottish Terrier and I fell in love with him the minute I got him.  I missed him terribly and I knew it was no replacement, but since I couldn't have him in Norway, I would try to find a dog that matched him somehow.  So we started reading about terriers and which one would be the best match for us since we had plans to eventually start a family.  Scottish Terriers were out of the question, apparently they are not so good with small children... so that was a bummer.  After a lot of research we found out that Welsh Terriers were the "perfect baby sitter" and so we started out quest to find one and we did!  In Madrid while we were living there in 2008.  We saw him and we loved him right away, and so, we got him.  Rafa made our stay in Madrid unforgettable.  He made us belong!  We still daydream about our days strolling the streets of our second home (or third?!?! Norway, Costa Rica, Madrid).  

For the past three years our little family has been quite wonderful.  Now we have one more member, Miss Olivia, and Rafa is indeed the perfect babysitter.  He is so curious about her, he checks on her all the time to see that she's there.  He gets very frustrated when she cries and desperately wants to help, he sniffs her and kisses her, he has become all of a sudden, a very mature, patient and easy going pet and we love him for that, because he has made our lives less complicated than we thought.  So here's to people with pets with babies on the way:  our trick was to let him be part of the process, to let him feel like he belongs in our little group, and that a baby doesn't mean less cuddles, but a new best friend.