Computer problems :-(

Our laptop screen is broken so we can't use the computer. It happened a few days ago so I haven't been on the internet since then. It is actually quite nice to not have it at home, but I still don't want to live without it... My cousin is going to have a look at it to see if it can be fixed, hopefully it won't take too long before we are online at home again.
At the moment I am at mum and dad's place using their computer. These photos are from when I was in Sweden with Jakob when he was about 4 months old.


The latest news from our family is that we have had another busy weekend. Friday afternoon/night we had dinner at Anders and Helena's place. Jakob was really excited to see Moa again and kept saying that he loves Moa. They played really well together.
Yesterday we had a quiet morning and around lunch time I took Isak with me and went to the riding club. There was a club dressage competition on so lots of people there.
Later in the afternoon we had some Australian dinner guests. Or the guy is from Australia and his girlfriend is Swedish. They also have two kids, one that was born in Australia and one born in Sweden. The kids met each other for the first time and after an hour or so they played really well.
Not much to say about Isak, the days are still going really well, the nights are a bit up and down. Friday night was probably his best night so far, and last night was a bad one. I tried to put him down when we had visitors but he kept waking up crying, but going back to sleep as soon as in my arms. Around 10pm I gave up and let him sleep on his belly on my chest for a few hours.

Nearly time to go home and have some dinner and get ready for a good night I hope!

Isak update

Isak is now nearly 3 weeks old and everything is going very well. We went to the midwife on Monday and he weighed 3.7 kg. Because he has had a runny nose and has been coughing a bit she asked a doctor to come and listen to his lungs. Better to get it checked since he is so little, but the doctor said that there is nothing to worry about as long as he doesn't have a temperature.

Isak is a very awake baby and looks at everything around him with his big eyes. He can be awake for about 3 hours during the day sometimes, but he can also sleep for 3 hours during the day. He goes to sleep as soon as we put him in the car seat and he has also slept really well in the pram in a sleeping bag.

His night sleep is ok. He now goes to bed at 7 every night which is nice since Jakob also goes to bed at 7. Normally he wakes for a feed at 11pm but sometimes he sleeps a bit longer than that. After his first feed he sleeps for 2-3 hours before the next feeds. He doesn't cry at all at night, just wakes up and quietly goes back to sleep after his feed. It can still take a bit of time before he goes to sleep and I can't put him down before he is asleep, but that doesn't really matter.

Today Adam has been in Kalix all day and Isak and I have had a day at home just the two of us. It was nice to get some quiet time at home after having visitors and after being out and about the last few days. I caught up on some house work and paper work, had a sleep, watched some tv and just enjoyed spending time with Isak.

Jakob and Isak

Jakob is now feeling good again but has had quite a tough start of the week. After being home sick all last week he has been pretty tired every day after dagis. We have struggled to keep him awake and he has been very grumpy and not wanting to eat much. He has also been waking up very early every morning. Today he was looking much better so hopefully he will sleep very well tonight. He has been good at dagis every day but I guess at the end of the day he has just been so low on energy. So far he is still being great to Isak and kisses him and hugs him all the time.

Monday afternoon I picked up Annette, Brad and 3 months old Lukas from the airport. It was great to see them again and of course to see little Lukas. They stayed for 2 nights and left yesterday in the evening. On Tuseday we had lunch in the city and after that Annette and I and the babies went to see mum and dad. Annette has met the a few times in Adelaide.

Brad had never tried cross country skiing before so Adam took him out for a try. It was -24 degrees so not the best weather conditions but at least they had a go. Adam looked a lot more confident this time than when he tried last year.

Brad also did very well apart from a couple of falls...

I took them for a tour around Luleå and also crossed the river on the ice road. We stopped for some photos.

Sunday

The temperature is still around -20 s0 we actually stayed home and in the house all day today. Jakob, who has been waking up very early every morning this week finally slept in to 7.30! not that it really effects me since Adam gets up with him every morning so that Isak and I can sleep in. I do the night shifts and Adam the mornings, it works really well.

Tomorrow Annette, Brad and Lucas are coming to stay with us for 2 nights. Annette is a Swedish girl that I met in Adelaide, she lived just around the corner from us. They are visiting family in Stockholm but are coming up to see us and the north of Sweden for a couple of days. I am really looking forward to seeing them all. Adam has been sleeping upstairs since Isak was born but today we cleaned out the guest room and Adam is moving back to the bedroom again. Hope it works well. Isak has been sleeping better the last few nights so I hope it will be ok and that we won't keep Adam awake at night.

Today Isak has slept pretty much all day. I don't know if it is because he is sick or if it is just normal for a 2 weeks old baby.

The library

The last week we have had really cold weather and since Jakob has been a bit sick he has been in the house pretty much the whole time. Yesterday we decided to go to the library in the city just to get out of the house. Maria came with Alice and Melvin and the kids had a great time (Isak slept through it all). After a while Jakob and Alice started going crazy in there so we decided to leave. Had hamburgers at Max for lunch before heading home again. It was a beautiful sunny day but -25 degrees cold so the rest of the day was spent inside.

Jakob and Isak

Jakob and Isak are still getting on really well and Jakob often sits next to Isak on the couch and pat his head and talk to him about his cars, about his friends or something else.

Yesterday Jakob wanted to try to breastfeed Isak. He copied everything that I do and tried to exactly the same thing. He was really cute.

Friday night

After having spent the afternoon at mormor and morfars place (I had a nice bath while Isak was asleep) we had dinner at home and then went to visit Carina. Isak did well and ate and slept and chilled on the table while Carina and I were talking and drinking tea.

Nearly two weeks

Isak is now nearly two weeks and is having his first cold. Since Jakob has been home sick all week and loves hugging and kissing Isak I am not surprised that Isak got sick too. I don't want to have to tell Jakob off all the time when he wants to be near Isak especially now in the beginning. So far Isak is coping well, he is coughing a bit and has a runny nose but he slept really well last night. Not sure if it was because of his cold? he went to bed at 7,30 and woke up at 3.15, I couln't believe it! After that he was awake for a while, throwing up after a massive feed and coughing abit, but went back to sleep on my chest until about 8.30. Not bad!

This morning he was awake for nearly 3 hours and spent a lot of time with Jakob on the couch, just taking in what was happening around him (not much...) and relaxing.

Jakob is looking a bit average at the moment (mainly because his face is red from all the snot) even though he is feeling much better today. He is hardly coughing at all, has no temperature and is playing like normal.

"Mother's group"

Yesterday I attended my first Mother's group with a baby. It is an unofficial group of friends that have been catching up almost every week since they had their babies. Sigrid's Vina is the oldest one, she is 9 months. Isak is the only boy in the group and he seemed to love being surronded by lots of little girls :-) It is really nice that all of us have had our second child in the last year. Our husbands/partners are good friends too and we hang out as couples as well as separate from our partners.

Isak who was the youngest in the group slept most of the time but he had some awake time checking out everything going on around him.

Visiting mormor and morfar

Today we took Isak to mormor and morfar for the first time! Dad is now finished with his radiation treatment in Umeå and won't have to go there again apart from an appointment in 4 weeks time. He is also off chemo for the next 4 weeks before starting on them again.
Jakob was looking quite good this morning but started getting a high temperature in the afternoon and was much more calm and quiet than normally. Happy and in a good mood though.

After dinner Isak fell asleep and morfar got to hold Isak for a while.

At the same time mormor was playing games with Jakob, she always comes up with games that Jakob really likes. This time they used morfars feet as a garage I think.

Isak

Isak and I having a nice moment on the couch. So far he is a pretty relaxed and calm baby, but we all know that that could change any day. I am enjoying spending time with him a lot. Didn't think I would. I thought I would find it a bit boring with a little newborn baby when I have Jakob who is so much fun to be with and to talk with. But it is not like that. I love the time I have with Jakob but Isak is also great fun to be with. Just different.

We still think Isak is very "awake" when he is awake and he follows us with his eyes and really looks at us. Had his first appointment with the midwife on Monday and it went very well. He has put on a lot of weight which seems to be the main thing they look at at this stage. She also saw one of those "smiles" that Isak has been giving us the last few days. I didn't say anything about it but she got so surprised. I said something like that I guess it is not a smile, just wind or something, but she insisted and said, no that's a smile, he is so awake and doing it when I talk to him, I can't believe that, 9 days old and smiling! I have to write that down in his journal. Quite funny... and like I said, it didn't come from me...

Last nights visitors Åsa and Micke!

11 days old

Isak is now 11 days old and everything is going very smoothly. Some nights are great and some nights are not so great but last night was the best so far. He went to sleep at 8pm and I fed him at 1am, 4.30am and 6.45 and we both stayed in bed until nearly 8. I feel great today after such a good night!
Jakob is home from dagis because of his cold. He has been coughing a lot and also has a runny nose but today he is looking much better. Adam is having this week off so we have been taking turns with the kids even though he does most things with Jakob and I look after Isak the most. Yesterday I went to visit Sigrid and her 9 months old Vina for a while and after that Isak and I went to a cafe in the city for a "fika" with Stina, Lova and Martin. It all went well!
Last night my cousin Åsa and Mikael came over to see Isak and brought some nice colthes for him and a little present for Jakob.

Sunday afternoon

This afternoon Zara, Micke and the kids came over to visit. Jakob and Finn haven't seen each other for a couple of weeks and seemed to enjoy hanging out again, apart form a few arguments (mainly due to Jakob always wanted the toy Finn was playing with).







Micke and Adam took the boys outside for a while to play in the snow and they had a great time.








Finn and Jakob watching Pororo after playing outside and eating some pizza.

Saturday night

Last night went much better than the night before. He slept for 4 hours at first, then for just over 2 hours and then for another two hours. Feeding and getting him to sleep again took about 50 minutes which is quicker than previous nights.

Jakob and Isak

So far Jakob's relationship with Isak is very good and he is so soft and gentle with his little brother.

Saturday

Yesterday morning I was really tired and Adam was really sick, but we got through it somehow. I had a sleep with Isak when Adam took Jakob shopping for a while, and after lunch I took Jakob out playing in the snow when Isak was asleep. Really nice to be outside in the sun and snow!
In the afternoon mormor and morfar came over to meet Isak for the first time. They were very excited! they brought some really nice presents as well.

Jakob was very tired in the afternoon and fell asleep on the couch like this...

Isak getting bigger

Isak is growing every day and is alreadly more and more awake. The nights are still a bit difficult. The night before last night was pretty though with Isak waking up lots of times, and on top of that Jakob got up around 3am when I was trying to get Isak back to sleep after a feed. Jakob was really good though and I just sat on his bed holding Isak for a while and then said I had to go to the bedroom. Jakob was ok with that and went back to sleep by himself.

Friday

Today Isak is 6 days old, time goes really fast! last night went much better than the night before. Adam slept upstairs since he has a cold and is coughing a lot, and it is nice for me to have the bedroom to myself when trying to work out the best way of getting him to sleep. Last night I wrapped him a bit harder when putting him to bed the first time. He fought it for about 10 seconds but seemed happy after that. He slept from 8.30 until midnight which was great! When he woke up I got up unwrapped him, fed him, wrapped him again and held him for quite some time until he looked like he was in a quite deep sleep. He started waking up when I put him down but after me stroking his forhead for a while he went back to sleep. That took about an hour all together. Woke up again at about 3.30, much better than previous night when it was every hour. Same procedure as before but this time it took a bit longer and was harder to get him to go back to sleep. Next time he woke up was 6.30 and then I fed him in bed and we both went to sleep while I was feeding. My plan is to not let him fall asleep on the breast too often. I rather cuddle him to sleep. We want to try to avoid giving him a dummy and I think and hope it will be easier to help in to learn to sleep if he doesn't fall asleep on the breast every time. I know it is still very early and the most important thing is that he feels secure and happy and never gets left alone if he is upset.
After we woke up this morning Adam had Isak for nearly an hour while I had a shower and had breakfast. Isak was so calm and awake the whole time and Adam got a really nice hour of bonding with his son.

Last nights visitors

Last night Maria and her family came over to visit. Jakob and Alice played really well together while the rest of us were having cakes and talking. They brought some very nice presents and even Adam and I got one, a bag of lollies!!!

First day at home just me and Isak.

Yesterday Adam had to go to work all day so Isak and I had the day to ourselves. After a pretty bad night we slept in a bit. He had one 3 hour sleep during night and the rest of the night was all about feeding, getting him back to sleep and starting all over again every hour or so. He did have a second 3 hours sleep in the late morning so I had a rest to.

In the afternoon we went to visit Stina and Lova. That was our first trip away apart from going to the hospital the day before. It all went well. He llikes the car seat and as long as he gets milk when he wants and can sleep when he wants he is quite happy.