Reflection on 2022

 

2022 is at it's close. I feel like every year I say what a year it has been and it was for many reasons. Ben was born and Ben brought back mx sense of perspective. The last 2 years have been filled with work and more work. Working fulltime for 40+ hrs each week, commuting at least 1 hour each day, had me exhausted, irritated and stressed. I didn't get to do all the fun stuff I wanted to do with my kids, other people got to do that. Ben's birth and resulting parental leave, helped me to slow down and reconnect with why I love being a mom. 

I love being a mama to my three little guys. I love being there when they come home from school and tell me about their day, I love being there to have dace offs and being silly, I love their eyes lighting up when we do experiments, I love being there for the little things in day to day life. The last 6 month have slowed me down and I was able to focus on being the mama I want to be. 

In 2023 I will focus on that, I will slowly (over month) build habbits with the kids to help me be present (these will include weekly no tech days for all of us, once a month fun day, game nights, movie nights etc). I will also not go back to a full time working position. Plans are in motion to change but not able to talk about them yet.

Here is to a happy NewYear 2023

Christmas Impressions 2022

 

24.06.2022 Ben Ezra

Ben Ezra
24. June 2022
51cm
3500g

 At 10am on Friday 24th of June Ben Ezra was born and has completed our SMC Family. 

Contractions started the Thursday morning at 1am but were far enough apart and more like bad period cramps. I had a midwife appointment at 8am and while there my water broke, so I was going to hospital via ambulance straight from the midwifes. I arrived there at 9am. There isn't much to say about the day. Contractions were 10 minutes apart and nothing was moving. I was told I would get anibiotics by 7pm and if nothing happened until 7am on Friday they would start to induce me. Contraction intensity picked up by 10pm and I was given a suppository to help with pain and relax pelvis. By midnight insensity got worse and at 1am I went over to the midwife and was allowed to stay in the delivery room. Contractions were painful but kind of manageable but still 7 minutes apart.At 2:30 the midwife checked an I was 4cm dilated. I was getting very tired and exhausted pushing through the contrations and having been up for 24+ hours. I spoke to the amazing midwife who supported me through the contractions and was given an epidural at 4am, so that hopefully I can sleep a little and let my body do the last bits it needed to get to 10cm. I did fall asleep very quickly, and slept for 2 hrs. By 7am I was at 9cm but contractions were still 7-10 mintues apart. At 8:30/8:45 I was given something to help increase contractions and boy let me tell you they came quick and painful with 2-3 minutes apart.Problem was Ben wasn't moving at all. Midwife checked an noticed he is not down in the borthing channel. The doctor came and checked and noticed the same. They did an ultrasound (30 seconds) and his head was not in the righ position (head moved backwards, not chin on chest) and there was no way he could move out naturally.

Then things went quickly. I was given something to stop contractions, explained c-section process, prepared for c-section and then we were off to the operating theater.I was exhausted and could not stop shacking due to the adrenalin. It all went very quick but I felt very much supported by the whole team and at 10am Ben was born. He was given to me immediatly and stayed with me for 30-40 minutes bevore I feld very drowsy and tired and my head felt very heavy. It took another 10 minutes or so before I was done and wheeled back to the delivery room. Ben came back to me and we started nursing straight away.

He is now 3,5 weeks old and a little superstar. He is very chilled not sure if that is because I am chiilled or´if I am chilled because he is chilled. His big brothers totally adore him and we are so happy he is finally here.

And then the twins turned 7

I am not sure how but this past Friday my twins turned 7 years old. Due to Cancer, followed by Corona this was the first birthday that they celebrated with their friends. Niklas wanted to invite Johan and Camilo (our former Au pairs) and this mama was glad that she had the help of 3 lads to keep 10 boisterous kids entertained. We celebrated at home with cake (an later Pizza and Hot Dogs), we went on a treasure hunt and the kids had a lot of fun all afternoon. 

Happy Mothers Day

 

Dance into May

A few weeks ago I jokingly said we need a 'Dance into May'. It's an old tradition in Germany, to finally end winter and get rid of the evil winter ghosts. How it is celebrated is different from region to region. The last Dance into May we had when I was a kid, so quite some time ago.

Usually our village celebrates during Mai a but our usual place to celebrate got caught in a bad storm and was heavliy damaged and we need to build parts of it back up. So I jokingly said we could do a dance into May instead and it spiralled from there...

We had enough people to plan and help and did it. We celebrated in the afternoon with coffee and cake for the old people and a shooting competition. In the evening we moved things inside and had our Dance. We had many people come, a good time and after 2 years of Corona with celebrations being limited it was exactly what was needed.

Easter Impressions

We had a fantastic time at Easter, according to the boy (and I agree). Above are some Impressions from our Easter Holiday. We colored Eggs and enjoyed good food. The kids went out on Sunday morning to hunt Easter presents and we spend the evening at the Bonfire. It was the first time in 2 years thanks to Covid that we had a public bonfire. It was great to mingle with everyone and see the kids have fun all evening playing around and hunting East Eggs. To watch the fire burn was great as well. All in all we had gret couple days