Packing

Now everything important has been packed and tomorrow morning we will head to the Frankfurt airport.

Finland, here we come!

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Huomenna lentokentälle ja sieltä Suomeen. Jee!

The City of Moominhouses

The Moomins is Fräulein's favorite TV show at the moment. She especially likes Little My and the Groke (she actually thinks that the Groke is funny, not scary...).

As Wiesbaden was spared from bombing during the World War II, the buildings here are relatively old.

Nerotal in autumn

From Fräulein's perspective, these old houses look like the Moominhouse. Whenever we are driving through the city, there is a constant talk on the back seat: "that's Moominhouse, that's Moominhouse, that's Moominhouse". And if we happen to pass one modern building: "that's not Moominhouse".

I think these old buildings create a special atmosphere for the city. Even though they are old, they are well maintained.

Neroberg in autumn

But sometimes I curse the old structure of the city. As there are many narrow one-way streets, you get very often stuck. Many mornings there are the garbage trucks rolling on slowly. And from time to time someone is unloading their truck.

The latter happened yesterday. The truck was parked in the middle of the road and the driver was unloading trollies and pushing them to a nearby hotel. There is nothing you can do. You cannot pass the truck, you cannot turn back, and you cannot reverse either, as there are quickly many cars behind you. So, that's about 15 minutes of waiting, before the driver returns to his truck and drives around the block letting others to move on.

Driver unloading his truck on a narrow street

For a five minute drive, you should book 20 minutes. Just in case.

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Fräulein on ihan hulluna muumeihin, erityisesti Pikku Myyhyn ja Mörköön, joka on tytön mielestä hauska, ei pelottava...

Fräuleinin mielestä Wiesbadenin vanhat rakennukset ovat kuin muumitaloja. Ajellessamme kaupungin halki, kuuluu takapenkiltä tasainen mumina: "tuo muumitalo, tuo muumitalo, tuo muumitalo...". Ja modernimpien talojen kohdalla "tuo ei muumitalo". :)

Vaikka rakennukset ovat vanhoja, ne on pidetty tosi hyvässä kunnossa. Siksi kaupunki on mielestäni tosi viihtyisä. 

Valitettavasti vanhan kaupungin huonona puolena ovat kapeat, yksisuuntaiset kadut. Tosi usein saamme madella roska-auton perässä tai pysähtyä odottamaan, kun kuorma-auton lastia puretaan. Tällainen kun osuu kohdalle, ei nimittäin pääse eteen eikä taakse. Vartinkin odotus tuntuu uskomattoman pitkältä kun on kiire jonnekin!

Silent Sunday

The Protester

I participated my very first demonstration yesterday.

In the state of Hesse, some changes to the kindergarten laws are about to happen. I'm not sure how far the process is at the moment, but I know that it would bring a lot of negative changes to the everyday matters.

For example, in the groups of small children (under 3 years old) there are two teachers and they can currently take care of 10 children. After the change, there could be 16 kids in every group!

Not good, not good at all.

So, yesterday there was a demonstration against this new law held at the Kochbrunnenplatz in Wiesbaden.

There were quite many participants - mostly kindergarten teachers and parents with their children.

Unfortunately the weather was not the best possible ( -1°C and windy), so we didn't stay there for very long time.

But on our way home, we saw the first signs of spring!

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Hessenin osavaltiossa suunnitellaan lakimuutosta, joka toisi selviä heikennyksiä päiväkotien toimintaan. Esimerkiksi nykyään alle 3-vuotiaiden ryhmissä voi olla kymmenen lasta kahta "tätiä" kohden. Uudistuksen jälkeen lapsimäärä voitaisiin nostaa kuuteentoista! Eilen täällä Wiesbadenissa järjestettiin mielenosoitus lakia vastaan ja mekin osallistuimme. Ensimmäinen mielenosoitukseni! 

Vaikka keli oli jäätävän kylmä, löysimme jo ensimmäisen lupauksen tulevasta keväästä: kukkivan puun.

Baby with Strawberries

Baby had her U3* checkup with her doctor a couple of weeks ago. Everything was fine - she is one perfectly healthy baby.

When baby was a couple of weeks old, she got a couple of hemangiomas. Those are like big, red moles - in Finnish they are often called 'strawberry moles'. They usually appear soon after birth. During the first year of a baby's life they might grow, but after that they will get smaller and eventually disappear.

These strawberries appear most often in the face area, but Baby has one on her chest and another below her armpit.

Although hemangiomas are not dangerous, there is a small risk that they are formed inside the baby, too. And if those grew bigger, they could cause some problems.

Therefore Baby's doctor wanted to make an ultrasound scan for babies hearth and other inner organs. He could not find any other hemangiomas and at the same time we got to know that everything was perfectly normal with her hearts, kidneys and liver. Great!

One relaxed Baby

As I told you yesterday, Baby likes to sleep, so she didn't really mind being examined. Overall, I think it is nice to have all these non-invasive examinations done just to be on the safe side. There is no harm done to the baby, but in case something is wrong, it is good to be prepared.

Fräulein having a picnic while little sister is being examined.

*) Here in Germany, all children should have planned checkups (Untersuchung) with their doctors. These checkups are called U+number, so that U1 is done directly after birth and U10, when the child is 8 years old. 
You can read more about the healthcare of babies in Germany from my older post 'About Baby's Healthcare in Germany'

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Babyllä on pari mansikkaluomea ja U3-lääkärintarkastuksessa lääkäri halusi varmistaa, ettei niitä löydy sisäelimistä. Jos sisäiset hemangioomat kasvaisivat, ne voisivat aiheuttaa ongelmia. Ultraäänitutkimuksessa ei löytynyt mitään ja muutenkin varmistui, että sydän, munuaiset ja maksa ovat kunnossa. Hieno juttu!

Mielestäni on hyvä, että tällaiset asiat tutkitaan perusteellisesti. Itse tutkimus ei vahingoita lasta mitenkään (itse asiassa Baby nukkui koko tutkimuksen ajan...), mutta mikäli jotain on vialla, on hyvä, että siihen voidaan puuttua ajoissa.

Sleeping Beauty

When Fräulein was baby, she cried a lot because of colics. As I tried to talk to people (including her doctor) about this, I heard the comment "all babies cry, it is perfectly normal" ever so often. Even though the crying felt overwhelming, I thought that I was overreacting.

During her first weeks, Fräulein cried for a few hours every night between 5pm and 1am. The record was the night when she cried six hours straight. And it wasn't just some whining, but she was crying so hard that her face turned purple and at times there wasn't even a sound, as she was short of breath.

She was also a bit restless during the day time. It was very difficult to get her take her nap. And whenever we went out for shopping, I was constantly fearing for the moment she would start to cry, because it was not easy to calm her down.

Two weeks old Fräulein

All text books about babies tell you that the colics end by the time the baby is three months old. When you fear for the clock to turn 5pm every day, three months feels like ages! Fortunately, one mother of three children heard Fräulein crying in the baby room of Galerie Kaufhof and told me that it will get better, when the baby is nine weeks old. Nine weeks! It is significantly shorter time than three months.

And that was what happened. After turning nine weeks old, Fräulein did not have those evening cries anymore!

Baby is now nine weeks old and I can tell you: the crying of Fräulein was not normal. Baby does cry, of course, but she will also calm down when she is fed, burped or her nappy is changed. And then she will fall asleep, just like that.

Amazing!

As soon as Baby is placed in her pushchair or baby carrier,
she will fall asleep and sleep easily four hours straight.

Baby has now spent most of her life in the corner of our sofa. Mostly she has been sleeping, but now she is starting to observe the world more and more. She has her own throne built with a Doomoo feeding pillow. The pillow forms a cozy and safe nest for Baby. And she is in a slightly upright position, which makes it easier for her to burp and to look around, when she is awake.

Baby's Doomoo throne

Now that I have first hand knowledge about calm babies, I would like to travel back in time and tell to the two years younger Frau Welle that yes, that is definitely a lot of crying. I know it would not make Fräulein cry any less, but at least I wouldn't have to question my feelings.

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Fräulein kärsi koliikista ensimmäisinä elinviikkoinaan. Joka ilta ohjelmassa oli muutaman tunnin itku- (tai oikeastaan huuto-) kohtaus. Onneksi yhdeksän viikon iässä koliikki helpotti.

Baby on nyt yhdeksänviikkoinen. Vaikka Fräuleinin ollessa vauva kuulin paljon kommentteja "kaikki vauvat itkee", voin nyt kokemuksesta sanoa, että rajansa kaikella. Totta kai Babykin itkee, mutta rauhottuu myös helposti. Ja uni maistuu!

Too Good To Be True

***Warning! This post might exceed the too-much-knowledge limit of the most sensitive readers***

I should have known.

Everything went so well with the pregnancy. The only thing bothering me was the extreme exhaustion. The first three months I just wanted to sleep. And then again at the end of the pregnancy, I was very tired. I didn't even have the energy take my friend out for jumbo drinks, when she visited us in November! But otherwise everything was fine.

Then there was the child birth. Well, I didn't get the epidural this time either. But on the other hand, I had to spend less than twenty minutes at the maternity ward before Baby was born, so I guess I cannot complain.

But then there was my post-natal check up. The doctor found out that there was a piece of the placenta still attached. There was no specific reason for this, I just had 'extremely bad luck', as two different doctors put it.

So, on Thursday I had to go through an operation which included general anesthesia.

The setting for my Valentine's Day

I must admit that the eight days before the operation, when I had time to imagine it all in my head, were actually worse than the operation itself.

But now everything is fine. And most importantly, the baby is fine.

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Olisihan se pitänyt arvata, että jotain vastoinkäymisiä tulee. Raskausaika meni mukavasti, vaikka olinkin sekä alku- että loppuaikana todella väsynyt. Ja synnytys meni nopeasti, tosin en taaskaan ehtinyt saada toivomaani epiduraalipuudutusta. 

Mutta sitten jälkitarkastuksessa todettiin, että istukasta olikin jäänyt palanen jäljelle. Ja se piti poistaa nukutuksessa. Mukava ystävänpäivä! Mutta nyt kaikki on hyvin.

Hi, My Name Is Frau Welle And I'm an Engineer

Comparison of the weights of Fräulein and Baby

Candies, Toys And Freezing Fingers

Wilhelmstraße getting ready for the parade

It is the carnival season here in Germany. And as you might have guessed from the latest Silent Sunday picture, we went to see the carnival parade here in Wiesbaden.

At first I was so excited that I photographed all horses...

... and bands...

... and clowns...

... and wagons....

But after the first twenty or so groups, my fingers were freezing and it got a bit boring.

However, running around and picking up all the candies, popcorns, toys and tissue packets they threw at us, kept us warm despite the -2°C temperature.

I have no idea why we had to pick up every single candy that landed to our feet. I'm certain that those can be found in our kitchen cabinets still one year from now. It was just impossible to leave them laying there...

But for Fräulein this was a great Sunday!

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Saksassa vietetään karnevaalikautta ja sunnuntaina olimme seuraamassa Wiesbadenin karnevaaliparaatia. Paraati oli kuin penkkareiden ja vapun sekoitus. Ja saaliimme (karkkeja, leluja ja nenäliinapaketteja) oli mahtava!

Silent Sunday

Hello World!

Oh, it has been so long since my last blog post!

And it seems that the longer the time passes, the harder it is to start blogging again. Somehow I feel that after such a long time I should write something very important.

But instead of anything extremely meaningful, I'll just send out this short come-back post. Hopefully it will be a bit easier to get back to the normal blogging routines afterwards...

I'll just leave you with two pictures. The first one is Fräulein, the latter is Baby, both at age of seven weeks. Even though Fräulein was two centimeters shorter and 500 grams heavier that Baby is at the same age, don't they look similar?

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Lyhyt paluupostaus tässä kohtaa, jos vaikka kirjoittaminen alkaisi taas tämän jälkeen sujumaan.
Oheisista kuvista ylemmässä on Fräulein, alemmassa Baby, molemmat seitsemän viikon iässä. Näyttävätkö siskoksilta?