Elise made her appearance at 3:28 a.m. on November 12 (11-12-13 for Americans) weighing 3700g (8lbs 2oz) and 53cm (21in) long. It's the same day her great-grandpa Pressley was born! I finished work and then had to wait 2.5 more weeks for her- definitely not what I had envisioned. She was 9 days late and that was stressing me out since we want to get to the states so soon and I really wanted to use the birth house. Up until her birth I was doing last minute things and trying everything to get her to come. The day before she was born the midwife gave me a tea concoction and we got all the ingredients and I drank a huge batch. So at 9 p.m. I started timing what I thought were fake contractions and they were pretty regular and not painful so we went to bed. At midnight I was startled awake by a little pop and painful contraction. My water had started leaking and the contractions picked up. We got ready, Paul called our friend to come spend the night for Jakob, and then we called the birth house (even though I always tell Paul I think we're calling too early). We got a taxi and were there by 12:45. One midwife was there and for awhile I felt like we were just sitting there staring at each other because my contractions were about 5 minutes apart but she saw I was 5cm already- a big change from 0 a few days before! Obviously things picked up fast and Elise arrived about 2.5 hours later- so fast a second midwife didn't arrive in time. It was very intense but so perfect. I even got acupuncture when the placenta was taking awhile to come.
It was such a great experience. No doctors and no hospital and I was even the only person there for most of my 4 day stay in a private room. The house is a 3 bedroom flat and someone comes to cook all the meals (including a 3 course meal at lunch) from scratch every day. The same midwife that delivered Elise came to our place a few times afterwards for Elise's checkups, to help us give her her first bath, give me belly massages, help with my wrap, and anything else we could think of. So perfect and we've been doing good! She definitely is a little fussier than Jakob but she still sleeps at night with the middle feed at 3. Can't ask for much more at this point. :)
That day Jakob was surprised when he woke up to someone in the living room without mommy and daddy but he did fine. Paul picked him up from the krippe and brought him by that evening and he knew she was 'baby sister'. He was so sweet and still is. He asks to hold her, runs to her aid when she cries (sometimes trying to pick her up) and gives her kisses and hugs randomly. She has even trumped us when it comes to goodnight kisses!
We've already been by my work where she made her presence very well known and my mom came to visit for a week. It was so nice having someone else here to help. We've never really had that luxury and I can definitely see how much it helps! We shopped as much as Elise would let us and Jakob loved his grandma time and is still talking about it. We even cooked a huge Thanksgiving meal just for us and it was delicious. And then for my mom's birthday we took her to Sprüngli cafe and it was amazing. I will go back! Ever since my mom left, we have just been trying to keep up with life. I feel so busy but really it's only because cuddling this new precious girl takes so much time that I have little time left. And I'm truly enjoying it so much that Christmas will probably be very small this year. Oh, well. :) My little bro comes soon and he can help us decorate!
We'll go to Chamonix, France right before Christmas for skiing and sightseeing. We'll spend Christmas at home and have fun in Switzerland before we all leave for the states on Jan 1! We booked our tickets and things might be a little complicated since we're always stuck renewing our permits at this time but as long as Elise's passport comes (which it should) we will be fine. Unfortunately, we're not on my brother's flight and we fly into Jacksonville but that saved us about 1300 bucks. Ridiculous. Paul will come back mid-Jan to work hard finishing his PhD and the rest of us will come back beginning-Feb. It's looking like I'll fly alone with Jakob and Elise but I'll just try not to give that much thought right now. ;) We're just so excited to come visit and see everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment