This Sunday was a very special day for us! We were able to dedicate Gabriël to the Lord during our church's morning service. He was dedicated together with another little girl, who is now six weeks old. My husband asked a brother in church to make some pictures for us and he took his job very seriously, *lol* Almost like a true paparazzo ;)

On these first two pictures, you see the pastor reading a piece of scripture (from how Samuel was dedicated by Hannah) - and the proud parents standing there with their little ones.

Our "babymoon" is now officially over.. Today is the first day my husband started work again, so that makes everything back to normal.. or sort of ;) I promised to write more about Gabriël and his birth in the last post, so that's what I'll be doing first....

Gabriël was born on November 17th, at 21:05 (We don't do the whole AM and PM thing in Holland, we write time military style) after a good one hour of labour. Seriously.. I was feeling weird from the moment my husband arrived home from work, which was around 17:30. I thought I had what they call 'practice contractions' or braxton hicks. Just a mild, funny cramp in my abdomen, nothing to worry about.. Still, it was my due date, and Chiara was born exactly on that day, so who knows?

We decided to call my parents around 19:30 - after all, if they had to come and pick up Chiara that evening, they'd better know about it timely. It's no fun calling people in the middle of the night and scaring the living daylights out of them, right? It so happened that they had to be 'in the neighbourhood' around eight o'clock, so we agreed on having them pick up Chiara around that time. (It'd save them another trip this way IF this was the real thing, which, at that time, still wasn't sure!)

My parents arrived around eight and left with Chiara at 20:10. I had packed her bag, so she could sleep over. By this time, I was starting to feel sure about being in labour. The funny cramps I'd been having actually started to hurt a little around this time.. ;) When my parents left, I had exactly 5 more minutes before my water broke and all hell broke loose.. Instantly, I got very, very painful contractions which followed eachother within 2 minutes!

Fortunately for me, my husband had already called the midwife (I'm still not sure about calling a male midwife a midwife, is there any other word?) a little earlier, explaining he needed to come timely, since our first child was born within just 5 hours. He arrived around 20:30 and was able to start working instantly..

At that time, he told me that I was 5cm dilated. All the while, I was having very, VERY painful contractions which now seemed to follow up on eachother withour pause. I'm guessing that they maybe were one minute apart. Since I was having so much pain, I asked the midwife to check again five minutes later. He did so and could tell me that in these few minutes, I'd gone from 5 to 8cm - fortunately!

The minute after, I began to feel an irresistable urge to push the baby out and I asked him whether or not that was ok. He told me to wait a little more, and I tried to do that with all my might, but my body didn't listen. This was very strange for me, as I hadn't experienced it when Chiara was born. I tried to stop the action, but my body started pushing the baby out and within another 5 minutes, Gabriël was born in a perfect way. No tears, no cuts, no bruises, no nothing. Yet another 5 minutes before the placenta came and that was all.

The midwife told me 'it was a delivery that didn't even make him tired'.. *lol* Well, it did make ME tired, but after I took a shower and got dressed in my PJ's (all by myself! yey! I don't like it when people have to help me do stuff..) we got our deserved rest. The day after giving birth, I was already feeling SO good.. I still can't believe it myself. It was like someone else had left a baby in our home.. people actually had to remind me it was ME who gave birth to him, because I didn't feel a single bit of pain afterwards.. Pretty weird, but I'll just concider it a special blessing ;)

We had a nurse for 7 days, and she was initially hired for 3 hours a day. When she arrived she asked me whether I was sure I just needed her for 3 hours, instead of the usual 7 hours a day. In the end, she ended up staying only 2 hours each day, because I really didn't need any help - I was feeling SO fine I wanted to do everything myself.. cook, clean, bathe the baby.. I REALLY didn't want to stay in bed! - and I didn't.. *lol*

Now, little Gabriël is already three weeks old and he's doing just great! I'm thinking this one is taking after his daddy, meaning he's got a really quiet and peaceful temper. He cries when he's hungry, and when his tummy is full, he is happy and quiet.. He does want to drink twice during the night, but as long as he will go back to bed quietly afterwards, you won't hear me complaining.. hehe.

Here are some more pictures of our little blessing.... and of course some of his BIG sister, who, by the way, is a natural talent for decorating Christmas trees! ;) The 'cake picture' is the cake Chiara took to school to give to her classmates. In Holland, we have a tradition to eat 'beschuit met muisjes' (or round toast with sugared aniceseed) when a baby is born. Now, this would have given a lot of difficulties, as buttered toast can't be prepared in advance (the toast would get soggy) and both toast and little round sugared aniceseed are disastrous when eaten by 4 year olds! We decided to spare the teacher and put the 'muisjes' on a cake instead. They were securely glued on there with 'sugarglue' (powdered sugar mixed with a little water to create a pretty good and edible glue)

p.s. 'Just me' asked me whether or not a homebirth was mandatory in the Netherlands.. well, I'll say 'sort of'. You ARE able to go to hospital for delivery, even when you're not having complications, but you'll have to pay up about 500 euros (or 700 dollars) to do so. So it IS possible, but you'll have to save up for it.. or at least, we would have had to save up

Then again, in our case it's a good thing that they're so big on homebirths in Holland, because I fear we wouldn't have been able to make it to the hospital on time..! :)

Baby in da house! :D

And like a true Dutchman, who is of course ALWAYS punctual.. our little one arrived exactly on his due date, november 17th on 9:05 pm after a whopping one hour delivery. Yes, I said one hour.. I can hardly believe it myself ;)

We had just enough time to call grandma to come and pick up Chiara.. my water broke at 8:15 and only 50 minutes later our son was born!

For now I'll leave you with just a little picture of Chiara and her brother Gabriël Malcolm (named after the angel and Malcolm X) .. and of course more details will follow soon....! Take care! :)

Well, the title says it all, doesn't it? I'm still here, at 39 1/2 weeks.. still waiting for my little man to show himself to the world. I'm guessing he wants his money's worth.. why pay for nine months 'hotel' and then only use 8 1/2? ;)

Paige asked me for a picture of my huge, immense, gigantic belly, so here goes:

This picture was taken over a week ago, since then I think it's gotten even bigger. When I was pregnant with Chiara, I made my only big-belly-pictures one day before delivery, so I kinda was hoping for the same outcome this time.. but no signs of baby so far. I'll have to have some more patience. In any way, I'll have this little one in my arms within 20 days. If he doesn't want to come out by then, they'll go and get him..

Other than that.. I've just gone to get the shot against the Mexican flu. I was in doubt whether or not to get it for a while.. In Holland, pregnant ladies are concidered 'risc group', so we are entitled to get the shot before other people do.. Supposedly, the little children are up next, they will be called for within a week or two. Chiara is part of that group, so if everything goes well in my case, she'll be the next one to get it.

It's been a hard time deciding, since I've heard you could get feverish and cold within the next couple of days, and the last thing I need is feeling ill during delivery. But then again.. all the news concerning the flu did scare me, so I've chosen this (probable) 'lesser evil'. I hope things work out for the best ;)

Well.. I'll say it again: The next post will probably feature some baby pictures! It must, darnit! I'm sooooooo tired of this belly! :P

Uhmm.. hello.... :)

I'm still here.. and so is the big belly.. *lol* In theory, we're doing just fine.. as far as anybody's able to see, the baby is healthy and I'm having a pregnancy 'just the way it's supposed to be'. Good blood pressure, not too many complaints, etc. It's just getting REALLY heavy now, so I'm sort of maybe perhaps a little tired of it.. But aren't we all towards the end? :P Still 3 weeks to go now (IF baby decides he wants his money worth of staying, of course).. Since this is going to be a boy, my belly is wayyyyy in the front, which has its pro-s and cons:

Pro: it's just in the front, so I actually still have a waistline this time! It looks better than carrying a girl (or at least MY girl) who caused me to be round in all ways

Con: It's alllll in the front, so it's very heavy. If the weight was spread a bit more, like it was when I was pregnant with Chiara, it would have been somewhat easier..

Anyway, I'm still hoping he'll arrive somewhat sooner than expected. I have my hopes up.. oh, and my bed. *lol* In Holland, you are expected to give birth at home unless you have complications (and are forced to go to hospital). We're allowed to give birth at home from week 37 until week 42 (God forbid!) IF you put something under your bed to make it higher. It's got something to do with the midwive and back-pain, hehe. Still, it's convenient for pregnant ladies, as it gets easier to get in and out of bed this way.

Other than that, if the baby isn't here by Saturday, we'll be off to see Michael Jackson's movie 'this is it'. I have very mixed feelings about it.. I'd LOVE to see Michael and what he's been up to.. And of course I'd love to see excerpts of the show, but then I just know in what bad condition he was the last days and how the stress of having to do 50 concerts was what probably killed him, so.. yeah.. sort of a moral dilemma ;) We have tickets for the front row, by the way.. which would have been great for an actual concert, but for a cinema? *lol* I'm thinking about a stiff neck already.. ;)

That's all for now.. I'm thinking the next update will be one with baby pictures? Or that's what I'm hoping anyway! Take care y'all!