Maeve's First Week

 Maeve is 1 week old!

This week can easily be summed up: Maeve slept, Jude realized for better and for worse that he's not the only kiddo in the house, I was spoiled by kraamzorg help, and Pete was a rockstar dad.

On our first day home on Monday, our kraamzorg, Simone, arrived at 11am and sat us down to explain how her job was to take care of us and spoil us. Welcome news. Daily, I had my blood pressure, temperature and uterus size/position checked. If I'd needed stitches, those would have been checked, too. All in all, I had 49 hours of kraamzorg care spread over 7 days. This will cost around $130 total with our insurance.

Simone

As this was our second baby, one would think that a lot of the care and advice that the kraamzorg provides wouldn't be useful to us. On the contrary, we absorbed everything the kraamzorgs told us and were more than happy to have them show us the expert ways to dress a baby, change a diaper, give a bath, ease tummy troubles, give vitamins, etc. Maeve was well attended to and had weigh ins in this adorable scale.

Trying out the Tummy Tub Minette brought- very Zen

Chilled out

My recovery has been really smooth. By day three I wanted to get some fresh air with Maeve and go for a walk. So I casually asked the kraamzorg if that was ok, fully expecting to be told that I was ridiculous for asking. I was told that Maeve was not to leave the house yet and that I couldn't go for a walk on my own unless someone was with me. They really want you to take the time to rest and for the baby's immune system to acclimate to the outside world. Such a welcome change from in the US where on Jude's 3rd day of life, I had to waddle uncomfortably down to the bus stop to take the bus to the pediatrician's office.

Since we were home bound, everyone came to us. And I mean everyone!

On Tuesday, my doula stopped by to check on things. On Wednesday, one of the midwives from the practice came with a student to see how things were going. This was the day my milk came in so I had a good cry with them over my expectations of labor/delivery and how the reality differed. It felt great to get that off my chest as overall, my birth experience was positive and I didn't want to focus anymore on the bad.

Pete went to the government offices on Tuesday and registered Maeve. Once registered, she was put in the child health care system and on Thursday, a health care worker arrived to perform her hearing test and take blood for newborn screening (around 17 diseases are screened for here compared to 50+ in New York State- I wish it were more here!!).

Hearing exam- passed! 

Later on Thursday, our huisart (family physician) came by unannounced to see how the baby and I were doing. My kraamzorg said that in the 10 years she's been working, she'd never seen a huisart come to the house. I was feeling really grateful to be here and to be receiving this amazing care.

On Friday, we got a new kraamzorg, Minette, as our first was leaving on holiday to her home country of Suriname. The second was even better than the first. She arranged for a lactation consultant to come by later that evening to assess the cause of pain that I was having.

Minette

She also did things like this:

Fruit juices

And like this:

Jude and Maeve's foot prints. When did Jude get so big?!

And cooked us dinner Saturday night (not in the job description).

Meanwhile, the entire week, our apartment was cleaned daily, clothes were laundered as soon as they were dirty, dishes were washed, and tea was made. Maeve literally wore the same 3 rompers all week because they were continually being cleaned! We were spoiled very rotten and are sad that today was the kraamzorg's last day!

On Maeve's third day of life she had a few episodes of projectile spit up so we decided to see a chiropractic on Friday to make sure there wasn't any misalignment. It was our one and only outing for the week and maybe only allowed because it for a medical reason. Her reflux is much better and we'll have a followup visit this week to see how things are going.

At the chiropractic. 

On Saturday, a midwife came again to check on me and Maeve. This coming week, a health care worker from the child health clinic will come to the house for an intake and to schedule Maeve's first visit.

I never expected to feel this good, this well rested, this well adjusted after just 1 week with two kids. The maternity care system is hugely responsible for these feelings and I am forever grateful to have given birth in the Netherlands.

I love the "pre-smiles"- here she is drifting into lala land

And then we were 4!

We are thrilled to announce that our daughter, Maeve, arrived Whit Sunday afternoon at 12:48pm weighing in at a whopping 9lb 6oz (4250g). I will share my birth story at a later date as it was an entirely different experience from my NYC hospital birth, but in summary it was a quick labor and I am now recovering at home while my superstar kraamzorg looks after Maeve and cleans our apartment!

I have loved the name Maeve since I was a girl and had always hoped to have a daughter to give the name to. I have to pinch myself that she is here! The name is Irish and is pronounced Mayv. It means "the cause of great joy" or "she who intoxicates," both of which are entirely true thus far! Maeve is doing great apart from some digestive issues related to her precipitous labor. She is an adorable chubba bubba and is just the sweetest thing. My recovery has been really smooth as has nursing, all welcome news around here!

Monday was a holiday here and Pete took one of his 2 paternity days yesterday so we have had a nice period together to adjust to life with two kiddos. When I knew that I needed to go to the hospital on Sunday, we sent Jude across the street to our neighbors where he stayed through bedtime. We arrived home around 10pm and brought him back over while he slept. So he awoke Monday morning to baby sister in the house. We brought Jude into our room where Pete sat with Maeve. He was so excited to see her and their meeting was the most precious thing. He sat with her and rocked her, grinning from ear to ear. He then got to open a few small present from us and baby sister. I'd love to say that he has been a model older brother ever since, but the truth is that it is a major adjustment for him, he's a toddler and it is going to take some time. He has moments of being very sweet with her, then he wants to smoother her and then he wants to act out for attention. All normal behaviors and expected, but exhausting just the same. It makes having a newborn seem easy in comparison!

First meeting

Ice cream outing with daddy

In sticking with Dutch tradition, we announced our daughter's arrival by placing the stork on our balcony. We also bought special, pink frosted little cakes to serve to guests who come and meet the baby. The real traditional thing is to buy special crackers (beschuits) and sprinkles (muisjes- "little mice"- pink for girl and white, blue and white for boy) and top the crackers with butter and apply the sprinkles. Our neighbors brought us the fixings for this on Monday and we gave them a try when my doula stopped by yesterday. Sadly, I'm not a fan. The sprinkles are Anise flavored and the crackers are very dry.

Our treats

Traditional beschuits met muisjes Source

Now, back to bed. Readjusting to sleep deprivation will take time, too!

Bring on the Bevalling

Baby girl is very obliging. As requested, she gave me three wonderful, sunshine filled "me days" this week. I met with friends, got my mani/pedi, went to the Rijks museum and Concertgebouw Orchestra rehearsal, cleaned the apartment, caught up on emails and finally started her baby book (poor 2nd child). 

The to-list is actually done and we are ready for the bevalling (labor and delivery). All of the labor inducing tactics are now being employed! Which is why, when I was asked by my doula if I would be a model for a spinning babies workshop she was attending today, I happily agreed. 

So what is this spinning babies all about? We learned it a few months ago from our doula as a way to get baby into an optimal delivery position. Given that Jude was occipital posterior (sunny side up) and a tough labor, I was very motivated to do the techniques that we learned to prevent a repeat experience. But alas, busy lives and fatigue got in the way and Pete and I only did the techniques one other time. The workshop was held for midwives, doulas, prenatal yoga instructors and other health care professionals to learn the techniques to teach to their clients. After doing the Three Sisters Techniques in front of the class, the instructor showed me belly mapping- a way for you to feel the position of your baby in utero. It will take some practice and charting the kicks and wiggles, but it is very cool to be able to do this on your own as the midwives do without relying on ultra sounds. 

The spinning babies techniques are also supposed to help kick start the bevalling so now we continue to wait patiently to see when baby girl decides to make her appearance! 

You can learn more about spinning babies here: http://spinningbabies.com/

Update: Some photos from the spinning babies workshop- 2 days before Maeve's arrival

Belly Mapping

Meeting our Fans

Remember our adoring fans from our House Hunter's episode :) Well, they arrived in Amsterdam this weekend and contacted us again to meet up for dinner. So last night we said, "what the heck" and met these two strangers for dinner at our local pub/cafe. They were a lovely older couple who have traveled extensively so the conversation was very easy. We didn't get a picture with them, but they wanted a picture of us and sent us this today :) Always nice to make connections with kind, worldly people! 

Final Baby Preparations!

I hit 39 weeks tomorrow and am actually feeling like the pre-baby "to-do" list is mostly complete! This has only been possible thanks to my forced maternity leave, which started the week we went to Paris. I was not allowed to work for at least 4 weeks before the due date or I would forfeit my Dutch paid maternity leave. I understand what a complete and total luxury this has been. Jude has stayed in day care Mon/Wed/ Fri so I have enjoyed a number of "me" days, checking items off the list, sleeping and doing things for me as I know that "me" time with 2 kids will be seriously limited for a while at least.

The assumption is that we want baby to get on with it and make her appearance already. And as excited as we are to meet her and as uncomfortable as late pregnancy is, I am happy for her to take her (relative) sweet time as it gives me more days to prepare and rest. 

Jude helped me plant some flowers to announce baby girl's arrival. Our neighbors brought us a stork yesterday, which we'll fasten to the balcony, letting everyone know when baby girl is here in Dutch style! 

We've set up our bedroom for the little miss. Some DIYs include the mobile (complete with inside light, which I wired and rigged up myself!), baby blankets, changing pad cover and pillow. Pete and I can remember how cramped our Brooklyn apartment was with baby Jude. How his basinet barely fit alongside our bed and how we would bruise and scrap our thighs trying to squeeze through the room. It feels wonderful to be in a more spacious home to welcome this baby.

Notice anything strange about our bed in this photo below?? High on the "to-do" list was to send Pete to the grocery store to get 4 beer crates. He happily obliged :) As we'll have the home health nurse (kraamzorg) and midwives coming to the house during and after labor/delivery, it is regulation to have your bed at least 70cm high. As one midwife put it- "We Dutch are very tall and we don't want to hurt our backs helping you." Very direct and very true. So Dutch :) So now I use a stepping stool to get into bed!

Feeling very high up!

Also included in our Dutch baby prep was a call to our insurance to request our kraampakket. I was so excited when it arrived. A bit too excited as it only really contains medical supplies and paper goods for dealing with the mess that is delivery and post-partum recovery. Everyone is required to have this box on hand in case you have a home birth or to have the supplies needed for the kraamzorg.

On today's "me" day agenda: blog (check!), pick up my post-partum compression stockings :), some grocery shopping, maybe a pedicure and head to the park to sit in the sun and work on baby girl's baby book! If I make it 'til Wednesday, I'll go to a lunchtime concert and the Rijks museum in the city and treat myself to lunch. Take your time baby girl, take your time!

A 4 Day Weekend and A Heatwave!

Can every weekend be a 4 day weekend with sun and temperatures in the 70s?? I'm coming off a serious high, which seems like a good state of mind to enter the final days of pregnancy!

Thursday was Liberation day. Jude and I had a playdate in the sun with friends Melanie, Norah and new baby Ruben. Pete used the time to get his school work done so that he could enjoy his long weekend. In the afternoon, our neighbors offered to take Jude to the goat farm for a trial run of babysitting since they may get called upon when I go into labor. Jude loves them and was excited to spend the afternoon together. And then they cooked us a lovely dinner to top it all off! 

On Friday, Jude's day care was open so we took him to school and had an Erin and Pete day. After my long morning nap, we drove to Haarlem for lunch. We joined the masses and sat in the town square at a cafe soaking up the sun. A little shopping and a stroopwafel McFlurry (no shame) rounded out date day. 

Date day turned into date night. We saw Andrew Bird at Paradiso. I wasn't sure about concert going at 38+ weeks, but heard from friends that there were seats in the balcony so it all worked out!

Saturday morning I went to my last prenatal yoga and in the afternoon we joined Pete's coworker and his kids at Noordpier near Wijk aan Zee. The high reached 80 degrees! I felt a bit like a beached whale, but enjoyed the tranquility just the same! We were easily convinced to stay for dinner and enjoyed the early evening beach scene.

By Sunday, I'd already felt like I'd had 3 Mother's Days, but was happy to sleep in and wake to my chefs delivering breakfast in bed! Then I cycled through the forest to the spa for a prenatal massage.

In the afternoon we skyped with our mommas to wish them a happy day and send our love from afar. Then we drove into the city to frolic in Vondelpark before dinner out at a tapas restaurant followed by some delicious gelato. A very happy day for this happy momma!