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Aug 29, 2012

Answers to those vital questions

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maternity outfit asos pregnancy

From asos.com

Looking at my stats page, it is interesting to see the different searches that bring people to my site.

Maternity clothes

The most common seems to be about where to buy maternity clothes in Stockholm. I have actually found this quite hard – the don’t think the choice here is so good. Zara used to have maternity wear but they have stopped selling that here and Polarn O Pyret have also stopped selling maternity clothes (but then I never bought from there anyway, as dressing in the same patterns as my newborn baby was top of my priority list). I used to buy most of my pregnancy outfits either at H&M or online (ASOS has a fantastic range as does Isabella Oliver).

I have also posted a few different Polyvore boards with maternity clothes that I’ve found online and loved:

Best hospital for birth in Stockholm

Another popular search query is: the best hospital in which to give birth in Stockholm. I know I only have experience of two, but I would definitely say that the BB Stockholm ward at Danderyd Hospital wins hands down. It might have changed slightly now (as they now don’t have the same admission policy as before: no complications, no caesarians, no twins), but when Little O was born there, it was wonderful to be able to spend three nights in our little cocoon getting to know him. Even though he was born in the middle of a baby boom in Stockholm, we had a private room after the birth, where Husband and I could stay for the three nights with Little O and the staff were on hand with any problems or questions that we had.

Things were a little different when Baby E was born as it was all so quick that we did not have time to make it to Danderyd and went instead to Karolinska. Our experience there was probably not the norm as Baby E was born in an examination room (yes, it was that fast) and the ward was full so we slept in a birthing room, with Husband on the bed with the rubber sheet and me being woken by a gas mask hitting my head each time I turned over. We still received the same great care that you get when you give birth in Sweden, but it just had that more hospital feeling then BB Stockholm.

Pregnancy tests

Another search that brought someone here was for “pregnancy test sweden”. This is something that I found a little odd at first here. When I took a home pregnancy test and found that I was pregnant with Little O, I immediately contacted my doctor and tried to book an appointment for her to do a test and confirm. But that just doesn’t happen here. Instead, you get straight in contact with a midwife and have a booking-in appointment with her. She then does tests for iron levels, various diseases (HIV etc), whether you are in fact pregnant and so on. So, really, all you need to do is get yourself to the apoket (chemist) and buy a home pregnancy test; then, if you are pregnant, contact a midwife. I would highly recommend the midwives at BB Stockholm – I think they are wonderful.

Toddlers in Stockholm

Someone searched for “taking a toddler to Stockholm”. Absolutely no problem! This city is so incredibly child-friendly and there are so many things that you can easily do with a toddler here. I find Barn i Stan a great resource for what to do with children in the city.

Nappies

I love Libero nappies, so I think it’s great that someone found their way here by searching for that (although I cannot ever remember declaring my love for them on here). We tried out lots of different nappies for Little O but always ended up back with Libero, and so Baby E has not really been in any others. I also love the Libero club as on the site you can type in the code from the inside of each nappy pack and earn points. And we all know that points mean prizes! So far, I have redeemed points for a Lamaze toy, a Sweden football bodysuit, Duplo bricks and many 50kr vouchers off nappies. Also, if you’re a member of the club, Libero will send vouchers every few months. I don’t think I have paid full price for a pack of nappies since Baby E was born!

Everyone has babies in Stockholm

Hmmm, yes, that is very true! But there are very good reasons for this: as I said above, the city is wonderfully child-friendly, the state is also child-friendly, offering great maternity packages that encourage parents to take large chunks of time off with their children but also ensuring that they can return to work when they want and providing (very) low-cost nursery schooling that means that parents (mothers predominantly) can go back to work without the risk that most (if not all) of their salary goes on childcare.

Loreen feet

Absolutely no idea on this one… I guess it has something to do with her performing barefoot? I know that I mentioned her once in a post and I guess I have also written about feet at one point. I just hope that the person searching for her feet was not too disappointed to arrive here!

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Mar 7, 2012

Baby E’s birth story

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So, I thought that I should probably be more punctual in writing up Baby E’s birth story than I was with Little O’s (written about 15 months after the event). Although he is now six and a half week old, it feels as if Baby E has been part of our family for so long that my memories of his birth are probably just as they were of Little O’s 15 months on!

Our little gyermek (child in Hungarian) was due on 25 January but as Little O had arrived 9 days after his due date, I was convinced that it would be about the same with our second.

The Thursday before my due date three mamma friends came round for dinner at our place, our excuse for a girls night being that they had all volunteered to help out with looking after Little O when the time came for Husband and I to go to the hospital. Of course they needed to come round for dinner and see the spare room and hear about Little O’s routine. And so what if that part of the plan actually happened at 1am, shortly before they left… We spent the large part of the evening discussing birth stories and perhaps also indulging in a very little bit of gossip. And I clearly remember telling them that I knew that this baby would not come on time, that I was settling down for a long wait and that maybe I would even get to the same stage as with Little O and have to be discussing the option of the dreaded inducing of the little one.

Fast forward to the next evening and Husband and I decided that it really was time to practice some of the Lamaze breathing exercises, seeing as we’d had our refresher course a month before, just before Christmas. Just before going to bed we ran through the three different breathing exercises. We’d been warned that the third one could make you feel a bit light-headed, so when I started feeling a bit funny immediately afterwards, I imagined that was the reason.

But then I started feeling even odder and it started to feel familiar. Off to the bathroom I went, and that was it, my waters broke. And immediately the contractions started. They were probably about 30 seconds long and about 3 minutes apart. I immediately sent a text message to my three mamma friends and let them know that all systems were go. It was around 10.30pm at this point and one of them had just finished having a meal with colleagues in the city and so she was able to be with us within 10 minutes.

While I waited for her to arrive, I wrote up Little O’s breakfast details and anything else that I could think of that she needed to know. Because, of course, this baby was going to arrive late, so I had not done any of this yet… I called our chosen hospital, BB Stockholm, a privately-run ward at Danderyd Hospital, where Little O was born, and let them know that we were heading in. (A privately-run ward sounds so very posh, but it isn’t really – you pay a small fee and it is all just a bit nicer and less hospital-like.)

Husband called a taxi and I ran through the instructions with my friend and put the final bits and pieces into my hospital bag (yeah, yeah, of course, I hadn’t fully packed that either – don’t you know, this baby is going to be late…). By this time the contractions were still about 30 seconds long but were now coming every couple of minutes. A quick discussion with Husband and we changed plans and decided to head for our nearest maternity ward, at Karolinska Hospital, instead, as BB Stockholm was a 25-minute drive away and Karolinska was just 10 minutes down the road. Karolinska were more than happy for me to come in – especially when I said how close the contractions were and that Little O had been born in around five hours (from when my waters broke).

The taxi journey was were things started to get a bit surreal. As I was having a contraction at the time, I’m not sure how it happened but the next thing I knew Husband and the taxi driver were chatting away in Hungarian, while I sat in the back wondering whether I should be doing the first stage of Lamaze breathing or the second…

At the hospital, we were taken into an examination room and the midwife waited while the contractions abated so she could check me. By this time, which was around 11.40pm, they were less than a minute apart and unfortunately she wasn’t quick enough examining me between the end of the last the beginning of the next. Blooooooody hell, that hurt. On the upside though, I was at 9.5cm.

At this point I knew which breathing pattern I should be doing and switched to the third, as I was feeling the urge to push. I let the midwife know this and also that I would really, really like to use gas and air. She obliged and suggested I kneel up on the bed and hold on to the headboard as that was where the mask was.

The next part is a bit of a blur. I remember breathing very deeply in and out when the gas came through and starting to feel its effects. Some more people came into the room and I was feeling the gas fully then, so in my confused state, I became convinced that they were surgeons and that I need to have a C-section. They started to undress me and asked me to hold out my arms and at that point I may or may not have grabbed one of them on the boob – sorry to whichever one it was! It got more surreal from there and I started to think that I had full understanding of everything – you know, life, the universe and everything. I remember thinking “I need to ask Husband for a paper and pencil when this is over, as I need to write all this fantastic insight down”. Oh yes… powerful stuff that nitrous oxide. The only thing that was distracting me from these amazing thoughts was the woman screaming in the next room – I really wanted her to shut up. I took the mask off for a short while to ask for a glass of water and found that the screaming had stopped. As the gas began to clear from my system in that brief period, I had an even clearer realization: that the woman screaming was me…

Two sips of the water, another urge to push, mask back on, two pushes more and Baby E was born at 00.01 on Saturday 21 January.

Baby E - a few minutes old

So, it was a pretty intense experience all said and done – an hour and a half from waters breaking to Baby E’s arrival, beating Little O’s five hour delivery by some margin. I know they say that subsequent births are quicker than the first, but this really was cutting it fine, as he born just 20 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. I am so very glad that we made the decision to take the nearest hospital, rather than risk Baby E having been born at the side of the motorway on a cold January night!

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Feb 12, 2012

Photo 366 challenge – week 6

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Really, week 6 already? That must mean it’s February, right? My days are in such a muddle now but I am sure that I will start to remember what day of the week, week of the month and month of the year it is soon.

Day 37:

Photo © English Mamma

This is the second time in the past week or so that I’ve spotted this taxi in the city centre. How great is this? He seems to charge the same as most other taxis. The only disadvantage that I can see is that it might not be quite as warm as a modern taxi (he is wearing a woolen hat after all). I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the Citroen DS, so I was pretty excited when I saw this.

Day 38:

Photo © English Mamma

After a long day… although I really, really longed for something a lot little stronger at that point.

Day 39:

Photo © English Mamma

Back at Karolinska hospital for the fifth time in 18 days – this time back to Amningsmottagen – the breastfeeding clinic. I feel as if I know the place pretty well by now.

Day 40:

Photo © English Mamma

Every few days, after I collect Little O from preschool, we head to the Central Station and wave goodbye to the 15.17 train to Gothenburg. I found this train by accident but I like the fact that it has only four carriages: 1st class, 2nd class, a restaurant car and the one nearest to me when I took this photo, which, according to the symbols painted on the outside, is a cocktail and piano bar.

Day 41:

Photo © English Mamma

On Friday, we hit the 2-3 week growth spurt. I took this picture of Baby E finally (!) asleep after a feed. However, he had other ideas and woke up about four minutes after this was taken. Sleep was not the theme of the day…

Day 42:

Photo © English Mamma

Husband found a great new cafe not so far from us and so we decided to check it out on Saturday. Although it was small inside, we found that if we uncoupled the carrycot from the stroller and left the stroller outside, we could sit at the bar stools in the window with Little O on Husband’s lap and Baby E safely sleeping in the carrycot under the counter. The brunch was delicious – and I’m sure that Little O would agree!

Day 43:

Photo © English Mamma

Little O sometimes takes a very casual approach to drinking his bedtime drink!

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The Boy And Me has set up a great linky each week, so head on over there and check out some of the others’ pictures too:
TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

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Feb 3, 2012

The C-word

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No, not that one; the one that newborn parents dread: colic.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, as Baby E screamed and I struggled to get him latched on, Husband and I had a row discussion about feeding and it ended up with us giving Baby E a bottle of formula. He gulped it down and promptly fell asleep.

That afternoon, Baby E started screaming and screaming and nothing we did could stop him for more than a minute or so. This went on until after 1am with us holding him and trying to soothe him, until he finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

The following afternoon the same happened and he became upset even when I tried to breast feed him, so we decided we’d try another bottle of formula and see if that helped. It did help, for about five minutes and then he screamed up a storm again and could not be settled down at all.

We called Vårdguiden, the health authority’s helpline for the Stockholm area, and asked their advice. They told us to take Baby E to Astrid Lindgren, the children’s department at Karolinska hospital.

This absolutely terrified me and all the way in the taxi there I was checking his breathing and having images of him plugged into various tubes and equipment. Of course, by the time we bundled him into his little snowsuit, strapped him into the car seat and got him in the taxi, he had again crashed out into an exhausted sleep.

We were seen with a nurse within 10 minutes of arrival at Astrid Lindgren and he believed that colic was the most likely cause of Baby E’s upset. As he was so little, we were told that we’d be given a room as soon as possible to minimise the risk of infection. We then spent the next two and half hours in that room with Baby E soundly and quietly asleep and Husband and I taking it in turns to try and sleep on the child-sized hospital bed provided.

The doctor who examined him in the early hours of the morning was able, thank god, to eliminate anything serious, which pretty much left just colic as the cause. She thought this unlikely as well as colic normally affects babies from about six weeks old and Baby E was only nine days old at this point. After consulting with a colleague though, she said that colic it probably was and that dairy in my diet could be the problem.

So we took our little snow-suited bundle back home and tried to get a few hours of sleep.

On reading up more about colic the next day, I discovered that there are a few different causes that are suspected:

  • An incorrect latch during breastfeeding
  • A developing nervous system
  • Intolerance to cow’s milk
  • Difficult birth

In Baby E’s case, we think the most likely cause is a cow’s milk intolerance and that the two doses of formula were the culprit, and possibly also a bad latch. Since mid-week, he has been getting much better in the evenings and although he requires a lot of burping, we have had little of the endless screaming of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. In addition, I’ve also pretty much eliminated dairy from my diet and we’re also giving him probiotic drops once a day and lactase drops before every feed (to help him burp).

The nurse at the BVC (barnavårdscentralen) – the equivalent of a health visitor – has suggested that after two weeks I gradually reintroduce dairy into my diet. If the problem recurs, then we know it’s my diet that’s to blame and I can cut out dairy again and start taking calcium supplements. If not, then it was either a cow’s milk intolerance to the formula or a bad latch initially during breastfeeding.

So, the end result is that we’re getting there in eliminating the colic but I guess we might never know what the real cause was. But as long as it’s gone, that will keep me happy.

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Jan 31, 2012

Breastfeeding troubles

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So here I am back in the same situation as with Little O and struggling with breastfeeding. I know that he’s only ten days old but it’s already becoming an issue. We just cannot get a good latch and have tried a few different positions and techniques but it just doesn’t seem to work.

After we left the hospital on Saturday afternoon, we came home and I carried on the breastfeeding that I’d started in the hospital. The first couple of days went fine, but I realise now that was mainly because, like most newborns, he really wasn’t feeding so much. Day three my milk came in and he responded by going on a bit of a feeding frenzy and it was then that the pain started each time he fed. Monday afternoon we had an appointment to return to the hospital where he was born for a check-up. A doctor checked him over and gave him the all-clear and a nurse checked his latch and said immediately that it was all wrong and that if he carried on that way, I’d get a permanent sore. When we tried him on the other side, she asked me if I had had similar problems when feeding Little O – yes, I had – and she told me that I did indeed have a permanent sore on that side from feeding him.

She showed me how to feed him in a different position and that worked so well while we were there and I was able to use my hands to hold down Baby E’s and she was able to push his head into the right position to latch on. Aaah, breastfeeding without pain – something I’d not experienced before, sadly. However, this just isn’t feasible at home as I need at least three arms to be able to do this hold and get him to latch on successfully. So, back to square one.

I called Amningsmottagningen – the hospital’s breastfeeding clinic – to try and get some help but unfortunately for the first seven days after a baby is born, they are still dealt with by the maternity unit at the hospital. I searched around a bit on the internet, growing increasingly sore and tearful by this stage, and then I found Amningshjälpen – a breastfeeding help service. You call a central number for the area in Sweden where you live and then are put in touch with someone who can talk to you over the phone and discuss the problems that you’re having. A wonderful lady called Elisabeth called me back within the hour, coincidentally just when I was reaching a really low point and was considering pulling out the formula and bottles. She talked me through a few different things and although she could not help me directly with the latch problems over the phone, she just made me feel so much better.

On Friday, the day that Baby E turned six days old, I called Amningsmottagningen back to get us an appointment for this week, so Wednesday we’re heading over to the hospital after dropping Little O off at preschool, and hopefully we can get some more help and some advice on how to get a proper latch. Now that I have seen the Holy Grail of pain-free breastfeeding, I want that. Please.

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