5 months and growing!

Indeed, time flies way to fast. I can tell you all who can't wait to hold your new babies and those who just got their little bubs: if your pregnancy felt elephant-style long andyou thought it would kind of never end; the moment your baby is born, the clocks speed up and the calendars seem to include less days than before. Do I sound like an old wise mom? HAhahahahaaaa, well, I am a mom and every second I watch my precious kids, I feel very humble and grateful.

What's new?
Erik was 100% on breastmilk until May 20. From April 30 till then I gave him extra breastmilk that I had saved. He made a real growth spurt during these 3 weeks and increased his food intake with 50-100 ml. Since May 21, he has been partly on formula (Hipp Baby Combiotik 1 Eco). We manage totally on breastmilk between 10 PM and noon. In the afternoons and evenings he starts by breastfeeding and then takes ca 100 ml 3-4 times depending on sleep and he's appetite. I guess it's about 50% of he's food intake. I ordered a Medela Calma bottle for him but he truly doesn't think it's for eating purpose. He definitely knows there is food in it since he suckles sometimes but he makes very clear that eating is to be done at the breast. (Just like Jennifer  was in this matter) So, I'm very grateful for the existence of Medela SNS.

May 24th my parents arrived from Estonia. They will stay with us until July 2nd and I'm truly happy each day that they are here with me. Mom has already made more in my garden than I could had done during a whole year. We have new beautiful flowers, no weed inbetween them and new raspberry plants. Not to tell you about how greatly my kids are taken care of now :) Erik absolutely loves them. He is so calm with my mom and always instantly starts to "talk" with my dad. Jennifer took a little longer time to learn to trust them as she had not seen them since she was 7 months old but she now is very fond of them both and asks for both vanaema and  vanaisa as soon as they are out of sight.

This tuesday we decided it was time for some serious potty training. Jennifer showed all signs of being ready for it so I really wanted to give it a try. So, we bought some star stickers and "polished our 2 potties"; on wednesday the 30th of May we were off! After Jenni came home from daycare at 11 AM, we just took off her diaper and told her it is time to start to go on the potty. At the end of day 1 I was pretty sure this is going to be a fiasko as she peed on the floor every time and seemed to think it was kind of fun. But we talked about it and decided to give it a try a couple of more days and if there would be no progress, make a few weeks pause.
Day 2  (May 31st) Jenni was playing and having fun. My mother reminded her about the potty but Jenni run away. Suddenly, she run back, sat on her potty and peed! We also got a nr2 in the potty :)
Day 3 (June 1st) I removed her diaper right after waking up. I wanted her to sit on the potty but again, she run away to the living room. From there she shouted "mommy, I peed" so I brought the floor mop. But when I came to the living room, I saw the prettiest pee in the potty!
Today, she has made more progress. She sometimes tells me when she needs to go on the potty, sometimes she just goes to her red throne and does what's has to be done. I must say I'm very proud. I can see how this is partly hard for her as she felt very safe with the diaper. She has been climbing on me these days and I can see that she is more tender than usual. But my little big girl is doing it! Past 24 hours we have only used 2 diapers and the second one is on her now. And there are many pretty stars on her potties! She is so very happy when she joines me to empty the potty and get her new star sticker :)

Jennifer's new photo smile :D

On May 31st, Erik started to turn around from belly to back. From the back, he obviously sees no reason to turn around more than to his side in order to breastfeed. :D I'm very sure he could turn around from back to belly if he wanted to. His legs are very very strong and he loves to stand up ever since he filled 3 months. He grabs for toys and loves to shake them and looks after them if they fall to the floor. He can look into your eyes and see your soul.

Jennifer loves to join Erik in his baby gym

Erik learning from he's biggest idol

I have wonderful children.

Bless you all for reading and I'm wishing you all the very best. 

Some new pictures :)

Yummy toes, mmm

First time in the outdoor swing

In der Grüne

Sweetheart :)

Happy Bumbo-Boy

Another miracle is born thanks to SI!!

I just received the happiest news! My dear friends, P and M have become proud parents to baby Catarina. From the bottom of my heart, CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'm also very happy to hear about the successful breastfeeding. She is one lucky baby to be able to be nursed :) I wish you the most wonderful time together in India and a safe trip back home. Eat some mangoes for me - I missed mangoes both times…

 I also wish to congratulate Doug and Bill on their little treasure, Cristina's arrival! May you always be happy!

Be aware of my little gangsters!

Yeas, I'm still here! Living and loving. Following your blogs, enjoying your pictures, sharing your excitement, joy and grief. Here areour news, some in pictures :)

Jennifer's scar is healing well, as you see on the gangster picture. We are extremely careful not to expose it for sun as it could damage the scar tissue for evermore, leaving it miscoloured. Jenni still speaks a lot about "going to the doctor and get the foreheat stiched". If she would fall and hit her knee a bit, she would also need to "go to the doctor and get stiches in the forehead". When I told her that her daddy was visiting a dentist today, she also suggested the same treatment for daddy :)

Erik is getting better and better at grabbing and holding a toy. He also has started to  press out air between his lips and uses this as a way of communication :)

Bumbo really starts becoming useful

As I wrote last time, we have done some serious supplemental feeding, using Med.ela SNS and stored breastmilk. Boy, am I happy for all the milk I saved when I was pumping prior to his birth. He started on about 150 ml extra/day but can  now take about 200 or even more.

And now what?

Today was the moment of truth as we had our extra visit at the nurse. And did we get an eloge! Erik weights 7075g and is 63 cm tall. This means +625 g and 2 cm in 2 weeks. A welcome uppswing on his growth curve :)

With grandpa'  yesterday. Ain't he a little more cheeky compared to other pics?

Happy girl in her sandbox

Today, after daycare, Jenni suggested we would go and see some horses. So we did! :)

When Jennifer was 4 months, I used a self-knitted overall for her. She was cheeky and cute as Buddha and I found her to be very similar to the only toy that's left from my childhood, called (in Estonian) Jonnipunn. I just had to take a similar picture of Erik aswell. Unfortunately I didn't had fresh in my memory, exactly where in the sofa she sat nor how close I was with my camera. But here's the result :)

4th of May 1987...

...was the day when one little girl was born. This girl was going to become one of bravest and most giving persons on Earth. HAPPY 25th  BIRTHDAY, OUR DEAR SURROGATE, N!!!! On the same day 2011, one little frozen blastocyte was picked up from the tank and put into your uterus. That little blast now sleeps on my arm...

We think of you with our deepest gratitude every day as we kiss and hug little Erik. You made our family complete and we so hope we helped you aswell. Hope you will like our gifts and cards!

4 months!

Today is Erik's 4 months birthday :) Happy birthday, our little treasure!!

Happy in his new hat

The spring is really, seriously here and yesterday our cherry tree bursted out in bloom (this probably isn't correct English but I really-really wanted to say so:). This is my favourite time of the year, I love it! I go out in our garden (bare feet!) and feel the gentle aroma of cherry flowers.

 The Nordic spring is so delicate and beautiful! Our birches also have small light-green leaves now, narcisses and tulips are blooming and my rhubarb is creating it's third magnificent leaf. Some rhubarb crumble pie coming up soon!

 Me and Jennifer have already planted out three tomato plants and put som red onions into gardening boxes. She loves to learn about nature and how things work. My little gardener goes out and brings me the watering can, saying we need to go and give tomatoes some water. :)

Jennifer goes to daycare 8-11 AM now. This is what kids get to do here if one parent is staying  home with a sibbling. She loves it and fortunately has not even got a cold. Since she is the poor eater she is, we are so happy she keeps up good health and somewhat of this appetite thingie.
As Erik is more and more often laying in his baby gym, Jennifer often wishes to join him and play with him. Hence we have plenty of tandem gym sessions :)

Look how Erik is holding his right foot

Erik is getting interested in grabbing toys. His favourite toys are his own feet though :) Ever since 3 months filled, he tries to sit up by himself when he is offered hands to help. One can really see serious musclework going on there. :D He also LOVES standing up since he filled 3 months. Laying down is good for eating. Sitting is for lazy people. Standing is for the brave and strong ones! I wish he would show interest in turning around but he isn't. Yet.

Erik is still on breastmilk only. He weighted in at 6500g and 61cm. Since he has somewhat leveled out on his growth chart, I have started to offer him extra breastmilk I have stored (from the time when I induced lactation before his birth).
I bought an Avent feeding bottle which turned out as one of my worst spent money ever. He totally refuses the bottle and just doesn't know what to do with it. As the milk drops into his mouth, he gets sad and cries out, probably begging for the "real thing" he's so fond of. Nevertheless, I have got good results using Medela SNS feeding system. This is basically a plastic bottle that can be hanged around the neck. From that bottle comes out a thin silicone tube which is to be fastened on the breast. This way the baby breastfeeds as usually but gets a little extra  from the bottle aswell. Ingenious!  I'm hoping to get some extra growing power into my little viking. As both me and our nurse agreed, we'll probably not take the step into formula world. When those 5 litres in the freezer are finished (we use about 150ml/day), we can rather start giving him some small portions of solid food as he will be almost 5 months by then. Right now we will start giving him little crumbles of bread in order to introduce gluten as gently as possible. Agne is gluten intolerant so this is something we are very careful about.

As Erik is growing, it's really interesting to see how our children differ and what's similar. I think most of you agree that these two are obviously from the same "factory" :D

Long time, no...write?

My computer has been in the workshop for 3 weeks. Hence there have been limited possibilities to write. I have my iPhone but I just hate to tape longer texts on it.
The news are:

At the hospital waiting for the doctor.

* Monday the 26th of March, Jennifer fell on a Duplo/Lego from the back of a sofa. The wound in her forehead was so deep that I immediately saw it needed to be stiched. She was slightly sedated and got 6 stiches. Poor little Jenni was so brave and understood everything so well.  Today it is a pretty pink scar that we treat with Cicatrix gel in order to heal the scar as invisble as possible.

The scar couple of days ago. Good healing!

* Last weekend of March we had wonderful visit from Gothenburg - our dear friends came to see us. Jenifer just loved to play with DJ and Jorell. Thank you, Lars and Joyris, with kids for coming!

Some serious football going on :)

Lars and Joyris who are mr. and mrs Barck since April 13th.
CONGRATULATIONS!!

* We spent our Easter weekend with my wonderful sisters family. They travelled 700 km to come and see us and it was so very nice. Jennifer loves her cousin Olivia :) Erik immediately accepted my sister and brother-in-law, he actually had lots of fun with them. 

We had a Name Giving Dinner (instead of baptism) for Erik along with my sisters family and his (non-religios) godfather's family. The whole party had Indian theme - from food to lovely incence, bindhies and clothing. Everyone was dressed in Indian clothing - long khurta for gents and salawar kamez and dupatta for ladies. The whole evening we listened to Bollywood music. 

Jennifer and Erik's cousin, Olivia got to borrow
one of my salawar kamez aswell

Some indian ladies or, eee... me and my sis

My little darling

;My sister with her husband and Agne's best friend, Simon,
with his youngest son, Caesar

Jenni and Zakarias

Agne looking goooooood!

Egg painting

* Easter we spent all together with my sisters family aswell. Wonderful!

Is this what assisted hatching means?

* I've done my first own paneer. It is very easy, really. We LOVE paneer! Paneer palak and whatever gravy there is. Mmmm, more...

My teddybear

* Erik has grown even cuter

all smiles :)

Wonderful mornings

With grandfather and Mona

With grandaunty Ellen

Cuddles :)

* I am extremely happy to announce that dr. Yash and dr. Sudhir from Surrogacy India will be coming to Sweden, Stockholm  the second weekend of August and would like to meet up with new and old IP's. I'm longing!!!!

Three months! Really?

How can it be 3 (three!!!) months since we were standing nervously behind the operation theathre door, waiting for you, Erik? How I miss Mumbai when I think of it. I really think I left a piece of my heart in Mumbai, mostly with our beloved doctors, our surrogate, N, but also at the Lakeside Chalet. I miss the coconut trees, the pool, eating good indian food etc. I have said it before, I know and I can almost promise to say it again. That's how it is - I miss being in India.

On 3 months birthday

filling out size 62 very well now

Our life here goes well. We have had good friends visiting us this past weekend - Lars, Joyris, DJ and Jorell. It was absolutely wonderful and lovely time spent. I hope to see you again very soon!

Jennifer helps me to clean the porch

Happy playing ball in our backyard

Jorell, Jennifer and DJ playing football

Sandbox fun with Jorell

The Barck-Paquit family <3

Tomorrow it's time for a nurse visit with Erik again. Fingers crossed for a good weight gain and that his first vaccinations goes well.
I also want to congratulate all of my readers who have new miracles born and  to P and M who are 30 weeks with their SM- so exciting!!