The Strømdal family blogg

A small update

2007-11-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
We haven't blogged anything for ages (in case you didn't allready know from the empty blog) and updating the blog doesn't really seem to get to the top of the list of priorities. So this will not be a major update post, but something happened today that I just had to share.

Saga has started saying "mamma" and "pappa" and it's pretty obvious that she knows who is who. Today when I called home from the office, Emma but the phone to Saga's ear and when she heard my voice she said "pappa" :-D

Daddy's little girl

2007-07-05T15:26:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
At 3 months Saga is:

talking her mom and dad to pieces
turning over from back to front
standing up (with a little help) - and enjoying it
sucking on her own foot
chewing daddy's fingers
being the cutest thing alive

(Thanks for taking the pic, Martin)

Birth announcement

2007-07-05T15:10:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
As is customary, we had our picture taken and published in the local newspaper. Here's the link, and here's the picture:

Personally, I think all three of us look daft, but I guess that's how we're supposed to look on a picture taken by a professional...

Big smile for everyone

2007-06-12T11:03:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Saga is mostly a happy, content and docile child. Most of her wake time is spent talking, smiling and laughing. Imna post an MP3 or a video real soon, but for now, here's a pic of her smiling:

Isn't she a beauty?

The Lady of the Lake

2007-05-08T16:32:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Regarding modern technology: thank God my parents didn't have a digital camera and the Internet when I was a baby!

On a totally unrelated note, here's a pic of Saga taking a bath:

The baby bath support really is a great aid when you don't want to drown your kid, but Saga loves to just float around in the water, so after cleaning her I usually remove the support and let her enjoy the warm water.

Saga's Power Neck

2007-05-08T16:23:00.001+02:00

Tord writes:
Have a look at how strong Saga's neck is, this is taken April 20, when she is only 5 weeks old:

Click the image above to download and
watch a QuickTime movie (20MB).

Saga's communication - the movie

2007-05-08T15:54:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
For a couple of weeks now, Saga's stomach has behaved significantly better, and she can be awake for longer periods of time without having pains. This means more interaction. She loves "talking" and communicating with us;
* "talking" and repeating sounds
* sticking out her tongue as soon as we do (this is a bit tricky, though - the tongue is a weird muscle)
* holding up and opening her hand when we hold up and open our hands
* smiling when we're smiling
* she helps out when we're changing clothes and diapers

Click the image above to download and
watch a QuickTime movie (58MB).

Other peoples kids

2007-04-20T18:20:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
For a change, I won't write about Saga now, but rather other people's kids. Not just any kids, though, only underwater babies!

I am a leopard, hear me roar! GRAAWRRR!

2007-04-20T17:44:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Bäster Mia from Vännäs in Australia sent this outrageous leopard dress with matching hat. Isn't she a complete and utter cutie? Saga, I mean. Mia is cute too, but nothing compared to Saga.

When we left the hospital (se radiology blog posting) Saga told me that she wanted me to pose in an IKEA shopping cart. Who am I to argue?

On this pic she looks almost like a sleeping Poirot, only without the moustache. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Especially if she starts growing a moustache. Here's a comparison/projection:

X-ray my ass

2007-04-20T17:33:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Since Emma wasn't able to deliver Saga normally, the doctors wanted to check if the pelvis is big enough to deliver a child. So: here's a pretty picture of Emma in the beautiful hospital gown at the radiology dept.:

Doesn't she look happy to be have her picture taken?

Disco, baby! Or: disco-baby!

2007-04-13T16:55:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
What goes best with Saga's 80’s style outfit of lime green body and neon pink socks? A 70’s style disco ball, of course!!

Call me bonkers, but Saga loves lights and movement, so why not buy her a disco ball? Why not indeed, I say. So I bought her one and put it up over the bedroom changing table.

Yes, I did. No, seriously. Stop calling me a loonie.

Next: stay tuned for the miniature smoke machine and the “Staying Alive” musical box!

As Good As It Gets ™

2007-04-13T16:34:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
I might have called this blog post "Sleeping beauty 2" or "Kroppskontakt is the shit ©", but for Saga this is as good as it gets: sleeping on mommy’s chest with a teat within sucking-reach. It is physically impossible to be any more relaxed than Saga is when she’s sleeping.

A visit by the in-laws

2007-04-13T16:22:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
For Easter, the in-laws drove down from Västerbotten to visit us. They were of course smitten by Saga’s charms, even though she was tormented by gases and therefore were not in her best behavior.

The tiniest foot ever

2007-04-12T09:48:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
You know you’ve become a parent when you start becoming utterly fascinated with something as trivial as a foot! But look at it; isn’t it the tiniest, most perfect foot ever?

Sleeping beauty

2007-04-12T09:38:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
We've received complaints about too few blog postings in general and too few pictures of Saga in particular, so here's a few pix of the sleeping beauty:

Saga's first solid food

2007-03-24T09:55:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
Saga's started eating solid foods now. Last night she had a band-aid on her favourite sucking-finger. This morning it was gone.

Nutritional value of band-aid

Protein: 0g

Fat: 0g
Carbohydrates: 0g

Fibres: 0.8g

Ah, well. What goes in, must come out.

Home, sweet home

2007-03-21T17:49:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
Wow. I don’t think it ever felt this good coming home. Don’t get me wrong, being at the hospital was nice in some ways: getting fed, cared for and pampered, having someone helping you with every possible problem, from breast feeding to c-section wound care. But coming home was such a relief! And the sleeping... We now sleep 8 hours per night, give or take. Saga is magnificent - she needs a feeding or two per night, with diaper change, but that’s it. She sleeps for hours at a time and lets us sleep in every morning. At the hospital, we slept like crap. Nurses coming into the room in the middle of the night, noise from the other patients, crappy beds, etc.

The birth

2007-03-18T12:06:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
Finally, Saga Elisabeth has arrived!

The water broke on the morning of Thursday the 15:th - 9 days over due - and it turned out Saga had pooped in it. Since this CAN be a sign that some thing is wrong, the hospital wanted us to come in for an exam. We packed our things (we brought three huge bags of stuff, I bet that's a new record) and arrived at the hospital around 13:30. Even though the readings all looked good, the doctor decided to keep us there. Being over due and with the water breaking, they decided that the birth should commence. At this time Emma had mild contractions, like menstruation pains.

After a few hours, at around 18:00 the doctor decided to kick things up a notch and gave Emma intravenous with contraction-starting medication. With the IV, the contractions became heftier. But after a few hours of IV, the opening was still only 2-3 cm wide. Emma was in quite a bit of pain, and the contractions didn't do much good, so she was not too optimistic.

At 23:00 I called Helena, who had agreed to be our doula.

Imna tell you right now: a doula is worth her weight in gold! For those of you who don't know what a doula is, it is (usually) a woman who has given birth herself and has experience with the birthing situation. Our doula, Helena, has three kids of her own (one delivered by c-section) and a fourth on the way. The doula's job is not to take any medical responsibility, but rather to assist the father in his duties as moral, mental and physical support for the mother-to-be.

With the arrival of Helena, my job just became a helluva lot easier. I got to eat, visit the toilet and even catch a few minutes of sleep without feeling guilty. Emma had someone there to support and help her all of the time. We took turns holding her hand, handing her the nitrous, rubbing her feet, stroking her back and talking to her. Helena is a natural-born doula and for her help we are both eternally grateful. She did an absolutely amazing job.

Even with Helena’s help, it was a long night - especially for Emma. By dawn, she was exhausted and only 5-6 cm open. At 08:05 the doctor said: "we're giving it 55 more minutes, but if something big hasn't happened by 9 am, I believe the best course of action is a c-section".

Emma and I both felt a huge relief, seeing that this could go on and on for another 12 hours without anything significant happening and Emma was in a state where she would probably not be able to push the baby out. Come 9 o'clock nothing had happened, the opening was the same as an hour later and the doctor informed us that she recommended a c-section. We both agreed and thanked her for her decision! She scheduled an operation and removed the IV stimulant.

1½ hours later, we were in the operating room where an entire crew of women were waiting for us. The only guys in there were I and the Chief Anaesthetic Surgeon. All the other surgeons, doctors and nurses were female :-) The surgeon staff were incredibly kind and professional. Many thanks to them for their help and support. Special thanks to Malin, the anaesthetic nurse, who came down to post-op to visit what is - in her professional opinion - the cutest baby in the world.

Emma had epidural anaesthetic during the operation, so we were both able see Saga the instant she was delivered. She screamed before she even left the belly. I went with Saga for her clean-up and initial check-up. I even got to cut the umbilical cord. That is - shorten it.

As soon as Saga was checked and cleaned, we took her by Emma for a first look before going downstairs with the nurses while Emma was being stitched up. Back in our delivery room, where Helena was waiting for us, Saga was cleaned some more, checked up some more, weighed (4050g), measured (54cm) and given her first pair of diapers and her first clothes. Helena and I were brought some food and got to rest for an hour or so. We were then taken upstairs to the post-op ward where Emma was resting and waiting for Saga to come. Helena was only allowed in for a few minutes and afterwards headed home to her eagerly waiting husband and kids.

In the post-op, Saga was breastfed for the first time and all three of us fell asleep. After an hour or two we were transferred to “Special-BB”, where mothers and children of c-section, premature (not pre-natal) and other “special cases” are placed.

And that’s where I’m writing this blog post. At the moment, Emma’s sleeping in our bedroom, Saga’s half-asleep in the sling I’m wearing. As they say: a new era has begun...

The water has broken

2007-03-15T10:36:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
So within 48 hours or so I'm gonna be a dad.

One more for the road

2007-03-14T18:18:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
One more pregnancy post before it's too late (now at week 41+1 - that's eight days over due). Take a look at this enormous belly:

Water retention is now also at a dangerous level. The Hoover Dam's got nothing on Emma. I now understand what Anea meant by "memory foam feet".

Quote of the day

2006-12-13T12:04:00.000+01:00

"Teit at barn får sykdommer!"

That pretty much covers it.

"Life is about timing." -- Carl Lewis

2006-11-16T15:53:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
I just realized that all three Strømdal kids are expecting at the same time. How absolutely supercalifrajalisticexpialidocious (I can't believe I just used THAT reference).

Learning to fly breathe

2006-11-16T12:32:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:This weekend we participated a profylax class. I learned what massage techniques I should use on Emma, that I should bring a lot of loose change for parking at the hospital, what Gudrun Schyman looks like when she's peeing and most importantly: how to breathe.

The class was well worth the money, but we both feel that we really should get more than two lectures on the topic. I guess we'll have to do a lot of practice at home. Fortunately, the class came with a book that proved very well written, so at least we have the book to help us.

Visiting Emmas little nephew: Child X

2006-11-14T16:42:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
Last weekend we went to STHLM to visit Emmas brother and girlfriend, who just got their little baby boy, yet to be named.

Initially, they chose the name "Yxor" (or did they?). But when we were there they had apparantly changed their minds. We still haven't got confirmation, but we think that they are keen on naming their kid something containing the letter X; altough not "Yxor" (we think).

Since they cannot simply name him "X", I've taken the liberty of compiling a list of possible (and impossible) names.

Living, not blogging (a.k.a. September Recap)

2006-11-13T17:37:00.000+01:00

Tord writes:
A combination of too much to do and not having the urge to write has resulted in over a month without any blog entries. So here’s an attempt to recap the month of September.

Deciding on rings
We finally decided on what engagement rings to get. We discarded the idea of designing our own rings and decided on our favourite rings we had found "off the shelf":

August 27:th - Emma’s birthday
Emma had an absolutely fabulous birthday. Delicious cake (which she was able to eat!), great company, a relaxed, fun atmosphere and great gifts (including a box of cravings food/stuff). The guests dropped in during the afternoon and evening, and at the end of the night there was even a live music performance by Björnsson, who was kind enough to play his cello (on Emmas demand)! The Busfröet was VERY impressed and thoroughly enjoyed the session! The base tones were in particular to Busfröets (and therefore to Emmas) liking.

September 8:th - Mom & Dad Stromdal visiting
Having vacation time to spare, Mom and Dad Stromdal decided to come visit us in our new home (well, new to one of us, at least). They arrived on the evening of September 8:th and stayed for nine days.

Having mom & dad Stromdal visiting is like having a cleaning/janitor/cooking crew visiting. Coming home to a freshly cleaned house and dinner ready on the table (and no dishes to do) is... nothing short of paradise. We're considering buying a couple of parents to keep with us forever!

The house is getting a fence and a buffed-up door.
Mom and Dad, not feeling that cooking and cleaning was enough to keep them busy during their "vacation" decided to help out with fixing things around the house. Since there’s a million things to do, I didn't object for TOO long. We decided that a new fence was top priority. Dad started making the preparations for setting up a fence (and Emma and I started debating what kind of fence we wanted). In the mean time, dad started fixing the front door.

The front door is a great-looking old solid oak door (well... solid oak on the outside anyway). But it's old and probably hasn't been overhauled for like a thousand years. So dad started mending the cracks and sanding the surface.

We even hired child labour to help get the door done. Really nice kids, by the way.

By Thursday, Emma and I had decided on what the fence should look like and dad had made the necessary preparations for starting building. I took the day off on Friday and we started building. We were all coughing and feeling like crap from colds, but we did a pretty good job anyway.

By Sunday evening (the day of the Swedish 2006 Election, no less), we had to stop building. Mom and Dad were going to Denmark to visit some friends there. Although the fence was not entirely finished, most of it was done, and the remainder of the work could be done by me... sometime...

By the way: Emma and I went to the election office right before closing time on Sunday. We even heard the words "...I hereby declare that the election officially is over." before handing over our votes to the officials.

November update: I've finished the work on the door, including varnishing it. The fence is not entirely finished, but I got all the major parts together before the winter came. Only minor (cosmetic) details remain.

The door is covered by a tarpaulin to protect it from wet.

The idea of the design of the fence was that the shape should reflect the shape of windows and the door. Some details remain to be added.

September - Emma is eating again!
Emma is finally feeling better and has started eating normal food (that is; something other than apples, candy and juice). For several days we've been eating the same things, at the same time. She has even been preparing hot meals a couple of times without bazooka-vomiting. Lo and behold!

During week 15 of the pregnancy, when mom & dad Stromdal were still here, she started joining us for dinner, and it's been getting better and better during the last few weeks. She still can't walk past a pizzeria without becoming nauseous, but "normal", hot food is no problem.

October 5:th - Second ultrasound
Since Emma was food poisoned in the second week of pregnancy and therefore ate quite a few painkillers, we were anxious to get confirmation that the baby weren't hurt by the pain killers (or the food poisoning). Emma went to a doctor's exam a few weeks ago, and the doctor recommended an ultrasound examination. Apparently, the painkillers could potentially cause a heart condition in the baby and this heart condition would show up on an ultrasound.

The doctor who performed the ultrasound examination was very nice, quite funny and is very experienced. He took quite a while, explained everything and presented us with the great news that everything is fine with our baby. The heart is normal and all readings look perfectly average. And we got to see our baby for a second time.

He was also kind enough to – upon request – examine the baby to see what gender it is. So now we know!

Should we tell you or not? Leave a comment if you want to know or not!

October 8:th – Choosing a name (first of many, I’m afraid)
We started looking for possible names for our baby this weekend – after all, we can't call the baby "Busfröet" forever, now can we? We started contemplating names a long time ago, of course, but with the revelation of the baby’s sex, we started looking more seriously.

We were afraid that we would be unable to agree on any name, but so far we’ve created a list of some 5-10 names that we could both accept.

November update: During that very weekend we decided on a suitable name for the baby, and we've stuck with it since. Neither of us have been able to come up with something better :-)

Eating iron is haaard

2006-11-02T13:11:00.000+01:00

After feeling better again after the first encounter with ironpills I tried another kind...woke up in the middle of the night feeling NOT good. Managed to eat some at first but then I puked bigtime and was not myself for quite a while...After a talk with a midwife that said that she had never heard of ANYONE feeling sick från the pills ( I have since read about it in a lot of different places...) I decided to try the first kind again but lower the dose and take a break from it a day or two sometimes...I hope my "hb-värde" agrees with this plan...my stomach does!

This weekend we are going to see my little nephew :-)

New nuasea and I´m an auntie now :-)

2006-10-24T21:39:00.000+02:00

My brother's babyboy has now shown his face to the world!!! Veery weird that my little brother is now a papa and I´m an aunt...suits my name though :-)I cried a bit when our mum told me, but I'm getting good at hiding being moved sometimes so I don´t think she noticed it in the middle of the story of how the delivery did not go as hoped and planned. Things rarely do...especially deliveries!

Auntie Emma will stay pale a bit longer ´cause the ironpills made me feel a bit like wanting to throw up when eating...and we're not gonna do that again!!! I´m gonna try and find some ironproduct that agrees better with me instead...as soon as I have time. My errandsday on Monday turned into something else/more...but I think Tords wants to write that post maybe :-)

Second visit to midwife, normality and babyrace won

2006-10-19T20:09:00.000+02:00

I have been pale as death lately and felt a bit like fainting sometimes, so it felt good that I had an appointment with the midwife where she would check my blood. She said as I suspected that I should start eating ironpills. I am worried how it will affect my stomach…it has been doing sooo well lately. *sigh* But I read that it was important to the mother as well as the baby to have enough iron so…

She also explained that there was a good chance the placenta (you will learn more when our post from the last ultrasound comes online...) would get out of the baby´s way before deliverytime. They will continue to check me up with ultrasound. We have decided on and booked a profylaxcourse and I want it to come to use!!! Instead of a c-section :-(

I got to listen to the baby´s heartbeat and she said it sounded perfectly normal. Me personally, I have NEVER been a fan of that word, but these last months it has come to represent a good thing :-)

We´re still waiting for my brother´s baby to come, it is taking it´s time...so my friend Tina won the babyrace even though her daughter took her time also…congratulations to the Fries family!!! Three´s a holy number! Tord told me yesterday that he had found his brother-in-law´s blog where it says that they are expecting again!!! I was NOT surprised. I was confident that they would want to provide us with a cousin in suitable age on Tord´s side of the family too…and according to themselves when they want a baby the pregnancy is almost immediately a fact…I think the fertility runs at least on Tord´s side…after all he managed to get me pregnant without even trying one bit…hehe.

Feeling the kicks!

2006-10-19T17:02:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Now I too feel the baby kicking. Last night, for the first time, I felt Busfröet kicking :-D Coool.

On a side note: We've sucked at updating this blog lately, and will be making a recap blog posting or five within short, so stay tuned...

Ultrasonic youth...

2006-08-25T18:30:00.000+02:00

Emma writes:
Yippie!!! It´s aliiiive!!! Alive and KICKING. Pfuh. At first peaceful slumber...you could see the heart beating fast and the big head and stomach and skinny arms and legs and five little fingers on the left hand...and...and...whooah. We got a good look. Then she took some measurements to see if I really did ovulate when I was SURE I did (hmppf) and the dates matched. (OF COURSE.) The sixth of March is still our preliminary date of birth. The measuring also showed that the baby, most likely, does not have any chromosome defects or heart/kidney conditions. She told us that with that method they had discovered every baby that there was something the matter with...so it was very reassuring when she told us everything looked FINE.

She poked around quite ruthlessly to wake the baby as she said. She knew what there could be to see, we didn´t...but MAN the awakening worked and the kicking and boxing och twirling and swirling began...I wanted to say: Honey, I´m sorry but you´re staying in there another six months at least...no use you trying to get out now :-)If the baby is gonna keep on doing all that (THAT FAST) later on I will be SPASTIC.

First visit to the midwife

2006-08-23T04:01:00.000+02:00

Emma writes:
She doesn´t check for heartbeat :-( I´ve been misinformed...and none of the parents I´ve talked to has told me so... Apparantly, the sogginess in the brain doesn´t end until after a couple of years for mums and dads :-) And she couldn´t answer many of our questions. What we got out of the visit was some papers. (Thank God for my other papers and books...) What she got out of us was my blood, my urine (although it took some time cause I had puked up all fluid from the morning before we left...) and my participation in some studies for the university :-)

Well, well, she gave us an appointment with a doctor who can hopefully answer our questions and we did luckily enough get an early ultrasound appointment when I called this summer (too early maybe, I don´t know, and I don´t care cause right now I NEED that ultrasound). So - we´re looking forward to Friday...

Oh, one thing, no two things: My blood looked very happy :-) although my blood pressure was a bit low...but that´s better than it being high. AND they had a scale...since my stomach is BIG and my boobs hasn´t shrinked I figured that maybe I had lost tops one or two kilos. So when the scale read 65 kilos (with some clothes on...) "JÄKLAR!". That´s FIVE kilos. In six weeks. But I still have a lot of reserves :-) And now I´m trying to eat other stuff than fruits and buscuits and proviva and soup. Today I actually had a proper lunch, ladies and gentlemen!!! Nachostallrik...but I skipped the olives. Have lost my appetite for them lately...weird world I´m living in now!

A gift from Mamma Mia and silly behaviour at IKEA

2006-08-21T12:47:00.000+02:00

Emma writes:
Yesterday I got a present från Mia, my lovely friend down-under. I quickly decided that it was a pregnancy gift and NOT a birthday gift (that would have meant waiting to open it for another week - and waiting is NOT, I repeat NOT my thing...) And - of course - I was right :-) A book about being pregnant... My favourite thing in the universe right now!!!

Mia told me today that she read it herself when she was pregnant with sötnosen Julia, and really recommended it. (By the way - if I had paid him any attention when he was trying to tell me he really liked Julias christening, instead of discussing the cake with Mia with my back to him :-), I would have met Tord a bit earlier than the case is now: that is when darling Elias was baptized and Tord was his godfather. I couldn´t avoid him then ;-)...)

After opening my present we went to MIO and IKEA to look at furniture, lamps, kitchens and whatnot. What we had not planned to look at was baby stuff but...they´re on the way where you can´t miss them...we looked at crib beds and I started crying uncontrollably...hrm...felt incredibly silly, but still it´s a good sign that some part of me is actually getting that I´m pregnant :-)

Moving day!

2006-08-21T11:36:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Saturday, after two days of intense packing, it was time for moving all of my crap from my apartment in Norrköping to our house in Ljungsbro. Unfortunately, most of my friends were otherwise engaged that day (weddings, mostly), so we ended up being only five people doing the moving. I had hired a 22 m³ moving van (that’s ~ 777 cubic feet for you metrically challenged people, or 92.2505576 hogshead if you will) – which we filled to the rim. Surprisingly, we were done in a couple of hours. Was it because only the best of the best of the best of the best of the best were there? I choose to think so!

Anyway, I am now officially (and otherwise) a resident of Ljungsbro. WHOHOO! Hopefully, all the boxes will be gone within a year or two. ^^

Week 12

2006-08-19T11:07:00.000+02:00

Emma writes:
Halfway into week 12: Still waiting for the distaste for food and vomiting to cease...although the vomiting has changed into nightvomiting and occurs more than once a week. Varatio delectat :-) A friend of mine said my face had gotten thinner in just two weeks time (YES) but that my stomach was BIG. We`ll see if the ultrasound next friday shows triplets, hehe. But seriously, I have been worried these last days and I´m looking forward to seeing that Busfröet is okay. I´m hoping to get a picture of a healthy baby as a birthday gift...

Today is MOVING day. But I´m completely useless in present state so Tord decided that I should stay here in Ljungsbro. I´m trying to get blueberry/raspberrysoup in my stomach so I can get some energy to do a little cleaning up here. I´m happy I was a bit tubby when I got pregnant!!! Nobody has to starve inside me even though the energyinput from outside varies from not-enough to nothing. But PLEASE let this phase be over soon. Or: I don´t care, as long as the baby is okay I can do this for another six months. Ok?

Insurance bonanza

2006-08-15T15:49:00.001+02:00

Tord writes:
New car - new insurance. In order to find the best insurance, I called all the insurance companies to get their quotes. And I’m officially scared. The cheapest insurance is SEK 3.500:-, the most expensive is SEK 10.500:-. Now, that’s a BIG difference. How can one insurance company charge 200% more than another? What am I missing here?

So, what's the best insurance quote? This one:

"There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?"

-- Woody Allen

Hjulsbro, we have a car!

2006-08-10T12:47:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
After a selling the Spexbilen last week I spent the entire weekend searching for used cars, calling people with used cars, reading up on used cars, looking at used cars, test driving used cars and checking used cars for technical flaws. I finally ended up with two possible items: a Volvo V40 T4 (1998) and a Renault Laguna (1999) - both station wagons.

The V40 has a turbo-charged T4 engine of 200BHP and came with some equipment that the Laguna was missing (car alarm and ESP). The Laguna, however, has by far the bigger trunk of the two - in fact the Laguna has one of the biggest trunks in its class. In addition, the Laguna was cheaper, had a lot less rust and came with most of the required equipment (such as air conditioning and cruise control) - so I decided for the Laguna. This is it right here:

Granted, it's not as cool as the 1974 Chevrolet Laguna S-3 nor is it as fearsome as the Creature from the Black Laguna, but it's a nice, comfortable, safe and reliable car. And I kinda like it. And it's ours. And it will take a family of 3 + luggage + dog + 2 metric tonnes^? of diapers. And we paid for it in cash :-)

'Nuff said.

Reading

2006-08-06T15:24:00.000+02:00

Emma writes:
Yesterday when I needed something to read on the bus (I KNOW, I shouldn´t be complaining about feeeling sick when I can read on the bus most of the time...you caught me), I flipped through the paperstand and found nothing I wanted...UNTIL I had an epiphany and realised that NOW I CAN BUY ALL THOSE BEING-PREGNANT AND PARENTPAPERS!!! Halleluja!!! The rest of the evening I had a lovely time. Crying and laughing and crying again...one woman wrote such an hilarious article about her pregnancy...I laughed so hard I couldn´t breathe... MANY TIMES :-). I had to go to bed after that 'cause I was EXHAUSTED from laughing. I even coughed for fifteen minutes before I could try and sleep. (A problem I get when I laugh too hard...). Anyway a great evening.

I was amazed I didn´t realise sooner that I could finally buy those papers...please tell me I´m pregnant on a regular basis so then maybe I'll get it someday. Or when my stomach grows enormous ( I looked at pictures from my babybook yesterday and my mum was thinner than I am now when she was eight month pregnant...maybe my baby is bigger than little me...or maybe it has something to with the fact that she weighed 50 kilos when she got pregant and threw up all the time, and I weighed 70 and does not throw up all the time...but I´m gonna get me a bathroom scale and see how much I´ve lost during my pregnancy so far. Some I think. Luckily I have reserves to use in situations such as these ;-)...like I said Or when my stomach grows HUGE and is kicking me, maybe then I will remember that I´m pregnant...

One ring to bind them all

2006-08-04T10:53:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Well - two rings to bind them both, actually, but who's counting?

Cool facts about engagement and wedding rings. (På svenska)

We've been having difficulty deciding on engagement/wedding rings. Neither of us want to wear two rings, so we have to find a ring that can serve as both engagement and wedding ring. Neither of us want any gemstones in our rings, and we want to have identical rings for both of us.

At first, I was certain that I didn’t want any pattern on the rings at all. I wanted the rings to be as simple and "classic" as possible. Preferably, I wanted a Titanium ring - mainly because I think titanium is a cool material. But the titanium rings available looked and felt cheap, so I quickly discarded those (although I have later found some cool titanium rings, like this titanium/gold ring. hmmm...).

We've been to the jewelry store some 5 times now, I think. The first round, we went to all the jewelry stores at the centre of Norrköping, looking at some 4 million engagement rings. Having discarded my notions of simplicity and titanium, we quickly decided on two-coloured rings (with both red and white gold).

However, finding a ring that:

doesn't look too feminine and fragile on my finger;
doesn't look too bulky and masculine on Emma's finger;
is pretty and;
preferably somewhat unique

turned out to be quite a challenge. By the time we finished for the day, we had found a ring that we both thought was perfect; fulfilling all the requirements above and would work well as both engagement ring and wedding ring. It was wide, yet not "bulky". It worked very well on both Emmas and my hand. It looked something like this (although not exactly like this):

When we went back a few days later, however, we both agreed that the ring was... unremarkable, perhaps even boring. So we kept on looking, and both fell for a red gold ring with a pattern of small, cute flowers in the middle:

Cautious from the first time around, when we LOVED a ring that we later found to be bland, we decided that we should go back for another look at least once, maybe even twice before finally ordering the set. I went back by myself a week later and still found the flowery one to be the prettiest of the lot. Definitely a good omen.

So last Saturday we went downtown to order the rings. Foolishly, we decided to first visit a small, local goldsmith that makes custom rings. After having flipped through the catalogue, we were yet again in a limbo. So now we're at the point where we're considering whether or not to design our own rings...

Choices, choices - too many choices! In the mean time we're walking around engaged but without rings.

When I tell people that we're engaged, a common reaction is: "No you're not - you're not wearing a ring". Since when is being engaged equal to wearing a ring?

Förlovning är ett löfte mellan två personer om att ingå äktenskap med varandra. Förlovningen har ingen juridisk betydelse, utan är snarare en överkommelse i romantikens tecken mellan två personer som älskar varandra. Förlovningen är en tid av förberedelse inför vigseln.

In my opinion, the engagement rings are just a way to display to the world that an engagement have been made. A colleague of mine disagreed, and told me that he and his fiancé have exchanged rings and refer to themselves as "engaged", but they have no plans of (ever?) getting married. Hmm...

I guess the interpretation of engagement is somewhat different from person to person.

My Toyota's made of plastic

2006-08-03T18:49:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Hmm... feels kinda weird to se some strange chick drive away with MY car and know that she's never coming back with it. I got a lot of money on my bank account now, but I'm stuck with public transportation. We need a bigger car now that we're gonna drive around with a baby transport, lots of diapers and some 250kg worth of baby equipment, but it feels like the end of another era, seing the Spexbilen disappear out of my life. It's the first car I owned, and it's served me well on many a tour to Viggeby, Straumen, Ystad, IKEA, Norrköping, U-hamn, etc. etc.

Ah, well...

Thar she blows!

Arrr.

Week 10

2006-08-03T15:40:00.000+02:00

Emma writes:
Week 10 of the pregnancy, busfröet's eighth week: You’re not supposed to feel a thing from the little creature in there, but I do now!!! There are some advantages to being supersensitive... It started last week when we were watching a horror movie. I got really scared at one moment (with muscle cramps och adrenaline flowing…), and I could tell that Busfröet did NOT like that. So I’m gonna have to stay away from horror movies for a while…

But what Busfröet DOES like is Pettersson-Berger's "Intåg i sommarhagen" being performed live!!! Apparently you don’t need to have developed the ability to hear to be able to appreciate that. So I’m playing what little I have of classical composers to Busfröet but haven’t gotten the same reaction yet. Although yesterday I could feel some general moving around. COOL!!!

What’s less cool is feeling sick. I’m throwing up one day a week so far, always a Wednesday or a Thursday…go figure…I know I got pregnant on a Wednesday. (I’m hoping to NOT throw up on a Thursday next week since I have a funeral at eleven.) The rest of the week I feel like most food is my mortal enemy or something. I’m looking forward to being able to eat properly again. So far it’s mostly fruit and biscuits.

The grandma and grandpa to-be have visited us this Sunday to Wednesday. They decided that what we need for an engagement gift was: help. We asked them to help with the garden lawn and the weed…and so they did. It’s looking much better now, and it made us both happier.
By the way: we’re moving back into my house now. A lot of cleaning to do here…sigh. But we’ve done a lot already since Friday night when we got full access to the house. We’re moving Tord´s stuff on saturday the 19th but we have no one to help us so far :-( A bit stressed out over the moving…and the other ministers are on vacation so I´m holding the fortress on my own now. I’m grateful that I’m only throwing up once a week considering the stress…I always thought that if I ever got pregnant I would be constantly throwing up. That runs in my family and I’m also very sensitive to hormones.

A big thank you to all of you sending happy thoughts to us, I definitely think that helps!!!

Änglischk?

2006-07-24T11:48:00.000+02:00

Tord writes:
Skälet till att vi skriver bloggen på engelska är att våra utländska vänner (kanske framförallt min kvasi-syster, Anea) skall kunna läsa den. Det är fullt tillåtet att kommentera på svenska - eller på norsk!

Presenting: The busfrö

2006-07-20T16:16:00.000+02:00

According to various sources, busfröet is now approximately 2 cm and looks something like this:

.

An eventful 48 hours

2006-07-20T13:59:00.000+02:00

July 10
Emma is nauseous. The nausea, in combination with other factors (metaphysical events and physical lack thereof), arouses some suspicion.

July 11
Emma is still nauseous. Suspicions grow and Tord is ordered to purchase some pregnancy tests. Back from work in the evening, Emma wees on a stick and voilá:

Tord, being a control freak and not at all confident in Emmas ability to follow written instructions, demands a recount in Florida. This time, Emma pees in a plastic cup and Tord performs the test:

Feelings are: happiness, shock, confusion, happiness more shock and more confusion; a surreal feeling of tumbling down the rabbit hole. Not much sleep for either of us that night.

July 12
Tord proposes in the morning. "I considered proposing last night, but then we'd NEVER have gotten any sleep!". Prior to the pregnancy test, he had planned to propose on sept 3:rd - the one year anniversary of the day we met :-)

July 14
Emmas nausea is sufficiently under control for us to celebrate the new life and our engagement with a bottle of sparkling wine:

P.S: Emma did not swallow the wine. Tord did. D.S.