Two weeks to go

Today it's only two weeks left to due date. In other words it's really time for us to get ready now. That includes finally using those movie gift cards we have (they expire in December and who knows when we can see a movie together next time). So in about 20 minutes we'll bike downtown to take the train to Malmö to see Avatar 3D this afternoon. That will be nice!

On the picture to the left my belly doesn't look that big, does it? But I really cannot see my feet anymore and I sure don't feel very gracious anymore. :-) But so far, it's not too bad being pregnant and even though I look forward to becoming a mum, I can still picture myself being pregnant for a little while longer.

A couple of days with a good friend

The past two days Andrea, one of my best friends, has been here visiting. Since I still have my cold we have taken it very easy, but nonetheless had a great time. We started out on Wednesday with waffles when she arrived from Gothenburg. The we just hang out in the afternoon. In the evening we took a walk to our local supermarket to buy some ingredients for baking... :-)

After breakfast yesterday we made chocolate muffins and a coffee-cardamom cake. Then sporty Andrea went out for a 10 km run, partly in snow, before we headed downtown for a nice, vegetarian dinner and a little bit of shopping. After a couple of lazy hours Andrea left for Malmö, where her cousin lives, and I went to my prayer group meeting.

This morning, I prepared a steady breakfast for my friend as well as for Matts (and myself) and shortly after breakfast they both left - one for the bus to Gothenburg and the other for work. It's been two very nice, relaxed, days. Hopefully I can return the visit sometime in the spring together with our new family member...

Preparations

With less than three weeks to go, it's about time to take care of the last preparations. "The bag" needs to be packed and some other minor things need to be taken care of. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, when it comes to baby clothes we probably have all we need for the first weeks. Or what do you think?

A while ago we also prepared the baby bed and it is now only waiting for our new family member. So are we. The question is if we are mentally prepared for this? Can we ever be, considering this is our first child and that this whole thing will make a huge, but of course positive, difference in our lives? I don't know. It sure is exciting, but it's so hard to imagine what our lives will be like in a couple of weeks. But in the end it is something we have wanted for quite a while now, so more than anything else we look forward to our first encounter with our little kiwi.

Rimbo buns and Chocolate Amaretto muffins

So I did some baking. Rimbo buns and Chocolate Amaretto muffins (well, we didn't have any Amaretto at home so I substituted it with vanilla). It all smells great, but we haven't tried it - yet.

The buns are really nice however, not too sweet, pretty fluffy and quite easy to make:

Rimbo buns, about 30 pieces

20-25 g yeast
2 deciliter cold milk
200 g room tempered butter
1 tbsp sugar
about 6 deciliter flour

Filling:
75 g butter
1½ tbsp sugar
1½ tsp vanilla sugar

1 beaten egg

Dissolve the yeast in some of the milk. Add the rest of the milk as well as the other ingredients. Mix well and work it for a bit to get a nice dough. Carefully roll it out to a square about 40x48 cm. Cut it in 8x8 cm squares. Blend the ingredients to the filling and put some on the middle of each square. Pinch the corners of the squares together and place the buns in paper forms on a baking sheet and let them rise under a tea towel for about 2 hours at room temperature. Brush the buns with a beaten egg and bake for 5-10 minutes at 250 C in the middle of the oven. Enjoy!

Annette: as you can see, the baking grids you gave me come to good use here in Sweden as well. They are just awesome! Thank you so much.

Three weeks to go

Time is flying by now. Only three (or one or five or anything in between) weeks to go now. Yesterday we went to the midwife and she could feel that the head is completely fixated in the pelvis now, meaning that the baby is in his or her start position for birth. Three weeks - that's like nothing!!! It's really exciting but also very weird...

Lazy Saturday

After spending an effective morning at the mall buying jeans for Matts and ordering a big doormat (big enough for the baby carriage) as well as a "quick" tour through the supermarket followed by a fika at home we now have a lazy Saturday afternoon. Matts is working on his computer and I am preparing to do some baking.

Outside the snow we have had for weeks is slowly melting away at the moment. But they say we might get more, already tonight, and that it will be colder again, so is seems the winter is not yet letting the spring come forward despite the fact that this is the south of Sweden where winters like this are extremely unusual.

Four weeks to go

Two pictures in one week - not bad, is it? Today I have exactly four more weeks to go to due date, but that really doesn't mean exactly four weeks before baby. Hopefully the little kiwi will stay in my belly for at least two more weeks but not more than six weeks. I actually kind of hope for exactly four weeks since this will give me three relaxing weeks to prepare myself and our home for the baby arrival after finishing work, but whenever the kiwi decides to pop it will be warmly welcomed by us.

About preparations: we now have more than enough baby clothes in size 50-56 (newborn), so if anyone considers giving us baby clothes, please choose the somewhat larger sizes (62 and up).

Iron lunch

To boost my iron levels I had blodpudding (black/blood pudding) with lingonberry jam, carrots and an orange for lunch yesterday. Not everyone likes blodpudding - in fact it is one of those dishes you either like or really hate. I belong to the former and since it's such a quick meal to prepare it's perfect for a lunch on my own. It's also very cheap - as a student I ate it a lot.

4½ weeks to go

I have no idea why this picture is so blurry (but I blame it all on Matts who took the picture). This is, blurry or not, my big belly at the moment. It is kind of getting in my way when I want to tie my shoes (one disadvantage with winter and snow - I cannot go outside in flippers), when I fight to get my compression stockings on in the morning and off in the evening and when I want to reach that cup of tea (and the cookie that comes along with it) on the living room table while sitting in the sofa. But apart from those minor things it's quite alright at the moment.

Delivery date is coming closer and after this weekend when we went to Oskarshamn for a short visit we are more prepared than ever. In the car we brought back a baby bed with mattress, a baby chair and a backpack for carrying a baby (though these two items we won't be needing in the beginning), all from Matts' sister with family, as well as a bag filled with baby clothes, both home made and bought as well as another, giant bag, filled with bed linens and stuff from my mother-in-law. What we forgot was the baby car seat so we don't know how we'll make it back home from the hospital yet...

Sick leave

Today it should have been my first day off this week, but due to the Winter vomit disease it's my third day at home instead. No fun at all, but what can I do? I am quite sure Matts brought the bug with him when he returned home from the US on Saturday (food poisoning he thought, but I'm convinced that's not what he had). It all started on Sunday night and even if I have been able to keep everything I have drunken and eaten since Monday afternoon, I'm still not feeling that good. I really hope today will do the trick and that I will be up and running like normal tomorrow. We'll see.

The plan for today is to take a small walk outside in the snow storm. Yesterday night I could hardly go to sleep since my body was craving some activity. So finally, I got out of bed and went out with the garbage. It was quite nice, I have to say. Lots of snow, barely anyone else outside and a really nice temperature (just below freezing). So I took a small walk around the block and then fell asleep almost as soon as I was back in bed.

I know that many of you want to see some more pictures of the growing me, and I promise to see to that as soon as I feel like dressing in something else than my pyjamas and well enough to put on some make up...