Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone in Europe! 

Here we still have Saturday afternoon. We just got back from a walk down Newport Beach, followed by lunch at one of the restaurants down there. Unfortunately it was a little misty and not so warm, but it felt great with some fresh air. And of course we had to show thew in-laws the lovely beach.

Now it is time to put that beef into the oven and get that dinner ready. And to start planning tomorrow's adventures. Hopefully it will be nice and sunny and we can get out of the house again.

Back to Normal

Christmas disappeared just as fast as it arrived. I never got into the Christmas mood this year, and most of the goodies I bought, such as glögg, never made it out of the cupboard. Simply forgot. Or couldn't be bothered.

I love the nice warm weather here, but next Christmas needs to be spent somewhere a little colder. Those who know me well, know how much I hate being cold. Though my love for Christmas may just be a little stronger than my dislike of being cold.

However, I cannot just blame this year's lame Christmas just on the climate. We have been so tired that we have had some really early nights, and small things like putting out the right Christmas table cloth (LOL) simply didn't matter. It has all been about sleep, sleep, sleep and Emily. This lack of sleep has taken me by such surprise, normally I am such an energy bundle, even with little sleep and being jet lagged in the past, I had no problem to work work work and still get tons done once I got home from work.

Oh well. Now we have the "days in between". The days after Christmas, but before New year. Family is still here, in-laws are soon on their way. Gavin is still off work. Best husband and dad in the world. Wouldn't have survived the past week without him! Next week I will try to schedule an appointment at the hairdresser's. And make it to the Brow boutique. And get a pedicure. Things which need to be done before hubby goes back to work!

-14 kg!! WITHOUT exercise! Another 14 need to go. Phew. Unfortunately they are currently stuck on my hips! Now that can turn out to be difficult. Took my first PW (power walk) this morning, and that is the new routine. Every morning. The challenge is on. I want to be back in my old clothes in March. I am more than ready to dump my maternity clothes. More than ready!! At least feet are back to normal size. And that was celebrated by ordering a pair of Burberry shoes yesterday. Oh yes!! I am sooooo ready to go shopping again!

Tomorrow we are diving into the world of paper work again. Time to apply for Emily's passport. American passport!

Thoughts

Ho Ho Ho - Only one more day to go and then it is Christmas!

• Happy Holidays I have noticed no one says Merry Christmas here, only happy holidays. Wonder why that is.

• Online shopping saved us this year Oh my, we have kept UPS busy. 

• Windy Some strong winds out there at the moment.

• Scar is looking great Had my 2 week postpartum check yesterday. Apparently I am a good healer. Scar is barely visible now.
• Busy Times A thought goes out to all single parents out there. Don't know how you survive. I am knackered. Constantly tired.

• Food Shopping Virtually need to do all the food shopping still. All we have is a Christmas ham in the fridge. And I don't know how to prepare it yet. Do I boil it first? Bake it? I am lost. 

• 6 cm! Emily has already grown 6 cm. And she keeps gaining weight. Great news!!

Busy Days

Not sure where the time goes these days but it it seems to fly past.

The trip to San Diego went well. The Swedish Consulate was a little bit hard to find, tucked away in a semi shady area in a dark building with its only entrance through the car park. Gavin expected something more like the British one, where you have queues outside and guards and high security. Nope, this was a small office hidden in a corner on the third floor. It took about ten minutes to hand in the paper work and then we headed back home again. All that driving, one hour in each direction, for that. Why do they make it so complicated....Thankfully, there is less work for the British registration, all paper work can be sent via post. This also regards the British passport. For the Swedish one they offer two appointments a year in San Diego (the next one in April is already fully booked), or we have to fly to DC. No Thanks. We will apply for it in Sweden.

Saturday it was time to pick up the much awaited ham!! We drove up to LA somewhat late, it was past noon once we got ourselves sorted, and arrived to Ohlson's about an hour later. We have the biggest ham I have ever owned, 6-7 kilos perhaps? Luckily we have a big oven - American size! Stocked up on a lot of goodies, all in all we spent $200 dollar on all kind of Swedish food, guess I am feeling all nostalgic now when it is getting close to Christmas. Some of their stuff are 5 times more expensive than in Sweden.

Headed to the Grove for some Christmas shopping and dinner afterwards, 

 

Manage to do the last of the Christmas shopping. The rest was taken care of online. Never loved online  shopping as much as this year. Would have been lost without it!

First Walk Outside

Took my first walk with Emily tonight. Had to post some Christmas cards (I KNOW, we are sooo late this year) and check the mail. Since it was a really nice afternoon we walked around the complex a little and spotted some of the neighbours' Christmas decorations,

Beautiful evening huh

Baby Emily in her pram for the first time, she looks so tiny!

Tomorrow we are off to the Swedish consulate in San Diego to get her registered in Sweden and to apply for the coodination number. Our first little mini trip. In the afternoon we have a follow up appointment with the paediatrician. We decided to go with another one after all since the Swedish doctor will take a sabbatical for one year. We opted for Newport Coastal kids, they are open 7 days a week and are a little closer. The good and the bad thing about US in general really applies to this office - anything is possible if you have the money. They charge $ 40 for walk-ins, $ 50 for weekend appointments and appointments after 5 pm. It took me close to an hour to fill out all their paper work. And I had to give them my credit card details. It's a first for everything I guess.

Emily

Well here she is: our latest family member, 50 cm long and 3.96 kg in weight! Born on 4 December, 2011.

Blog has been quiet since she took us a little by surprise - first she didn't want to come out and once we had scheduled the c-section she decided it was time and we had to head to the hospital one day ahead of schedule. Turned out to be a c-section anyway since she hadn't dropped. She was born at the Hoag hospital in Newport Beach.  Everything went very smoothly, between us arriving and the delivery there were only about 3,5 hours, mainly because of our choice of dinner the evening before: Korean BBQ. Once 8 hours had passed since the meal, the anaesthetist showed up and did his job (and gosh, was he GOOD at it, didn't notice the injection for the epidural at all!), OB did a good job too, not only did she do a great job getting little Emily out all healthy but the scar looks great (if a scar ever can look great, that is).

Hoag's is a really, really nice hospital, offering everything you can wish for at the mother baby unit. They have large family rooms where we all could stay together for the 4 nights we were there. The service was impeccable, there was a large menu to choose breakfast, lunch and dinner from, room had wireless and cable (not that we ever had the time to watch TV) and the staff was very very friendly. Nurses were very hands on, LOL, whenever we had problems with the breast feeding there were there straight away twisting the boob and positioning the baby. Actually, Gavin would make a great lactation specialist. Not sure I would like him to squeeze boobs all day long though.

The view from our room

We got discharged after 4 nights and have since then trying to get accustomed to changing nappies and lack of sleep. And dreaming of boobs and babies. It's proven difficult but I am sure we will get the hang of it sooner or later. Luckily, we are blessed with a super sweet baby girl who hardly ever cries.