Day 16:

Photo © English Mamma

On Monday, it snowed and I managed to grab this from the cafe at the top of Fotografiska – a view over Gamla Stan (The Old Town) in the snow.

Day 17:

Photo © English Mamma

Two cheeky monkeys!

Day 18:

Photo © English Mamma

After preschool, Little O and I went to Gamla Stan to collect a TENS machine from the midwife. This is one of the side streets on Gamla Stan, the old centre of Stockholm.

Day 19:

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Thursday was a day of hard-hitting news: “The most and least popular dog breeds in Stockholm”

Day 20:

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At the supermarket Little O got to ride in the special car trolley. He was in his element. Little did we know at this point that the night was to take a very different turn…

Day 21:

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Baby E was born at 00.01 on Saturday morning!

Day 22:

Photo © English Mamma

 

Photo © English Mamma

How far along?: 39 weeks and 1 day

Total weight gain/loss: Probably around 10 kilos – maybe a little more. What I don’t understand is how this is possible. I will be the first to admit that I have not exactly been eating well in the past few weeks (far too much chocolate and too many sweet things) but I don’t seem to be putting that much weight on. I guess it could be that since I’ve stopped working out, all that lovely heavy muscle I have built up is turning back into fat…

Stretch marks?: Yep, still there and still horribly purplish.

Sleep: Well, that would be nice, but not really happening. During the day I am tired and even just taking Little O to preschool is a struggle, but the moment I switch the light off at night, my brain goes into overdrive, the heartburn/acid reflux kicks in and I am wide awake. None of this is helped by Little O waking two or three times a night and crying out in his sleep. Oh well, just preparing me for the sleeplessness to come, I guess.

Best moment this week: Sitting down with Little O and the three new books that we’ve bought him about the arrival of a baby. Since then he’s picked up the books again and again (mostly to point out the pages with “Cars!” on them), but I am still glad I bought them and that we’ve had some time to read through them and for me to ask him if he minds that we’ll soon have a little baby living with us. Not sure how much he really understands, but I guess it’s just good to talk to him about it as much as we can.

Worst moment this week: The nights without proper sleep…

Movement: Some days it all seems a bit quieter in there and I wonder “Is this it? Could today be the day?” (as I seem to remember Little O stopped moving so much in the days immediately before he was born), and other days, like yesterday, the kicking and squirming is very apparent.

Belly button in or out?: Still out, still horrid…

What I miss: Being able to get around without losing my breath and feeling exhausted. (Ha! Well, I guess that exhaustion of a different kind is heading my way, so I’d better just bite the bullet.)

What I am looking forward to: Tomorrow evening when three mamma friends come over here with takeaway for our regular girls’ night out (or in, in this case).

Milestones: Well, I think I was having some contractions yesterday evening, so I guess we’re heading into the final, final stages now. They stopped overnight though, so I think they might have been just caused by me doing too much walking and too much carrying of Little O yesterday afternoon. But still, a sign that we’re getting very close now.

• peanut butter gives me terrible, terrible heartburn…
• …and the following day, that pretty much any food these days gives me terrible heartburn
• trying to exhaust yourself so that I can sleep well at night just doesn’t work this late in pregnancy (you would have thought I’d have learnt that the first time around, but no…)
• being breathless all the time is no fun (hmmm, yet another thing I should have remembered from last time?)
• I can finally get my hospital bag packed!

Day 14:

Photo © English Mamma

This is Mariatorget on Södermalm at dusk. The building on the right with lots of lights shining and with the flags hanging outside is Hotel Rival, owned by Benny Andersson from ABBA. I snapped this while Little O and I were heading to see some friends over here on a brief visit from London. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about an hour as they have a beautiful, minimalist apartment here in Stockholm and the lovely items that they do have are all expensive and particularly attractive to a cheeky, sticky-fingered little 20-month old…

Day 15:

Photo © English Mamma

This morning, we took Little O to his first swim school class. Before, we’ve only done baby swim classes with him (levels 1 and 2) but we were advised to skip over baby swim level 3, owing to his age and as he’s happy in the water and go straight into swim school for 1-3 year olds. He was in his element in the water and the classes suited him a bit more as there were fewer songs and more playing around in the water – jumping from the side of the pool, going down a slide into the water and climbing up onto a floating mat. He’s the youngest in the class and has not yet learned how to jump in from a standing position but I think it will only be a couple of weeks before he is, as he spent much of this first lesson studying what the other littlies were up to.

Day 9:

Photo © English Mamma

When I went to pick Little O up from preschool, he was keen to go on the bus (“Bus! Bus! Bus! Buuuuuussss!”) and as I didn’t have any toys in my handbag this time, I improvised and gave him the next best thing: a bus timetable. We then walked around the city while I ran a few errands and he was still clutching the timetable when we got home. In fact, even four-five days later he still picks it up and studies it.

Day 10:

Photo © English Mamma

Yes, we finally got a (very) little snow! Husband keeps on telling me that this year is a typical winter and that the winters of the past two years were actually the exceptions to the rule. But for me, this is Sweden, it should be cold and snowy and white here in the winter.

Day 11:

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Shhh, don’t tell Husband!

Day 12:

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Where’s Little O? We spent the afternoon cosying up at home, with tickling and bouncing on the sofa and hiding behind the cushions.

Day 13:

Photo © English Mamma

A beautiful bunch of flowers bought for me by my colleagues.