Clara Janette

Clara is 3 weeks old and she already has her first cold. I guess that is what happens when you are child #4 and your older siblings (with colds) can't stop kissing you. Fortunately, it's not too bad and she seems to be on the mend today.

It's time for me to provide the details of the last 3 weeks- starting with Clara's birth. Since I've been asked so often how giving birth in Switzerland differs from the US, I thought I would compare the two.

The Labor
US: In the US I was always admitted to the hospital at a very early stage in my labor. An epidural was given shortly after my arrival, so I never really experienced any strong contractions. Could it have been more perfect???

SWITZERLAND: Here in Switzerland midwives deliver the babies, and let me just say they prefer things natural. There were all sorts of devices meant to help along the labor in the delivery room- huge bouncy balls, ropes hung from the ceiling to hang onto, a big jet bathtub, a CD player and a stack of Enya CD's...it was my worst nightmare. Early on the midwife suggested that Andrew and I go for a walk, and so we did. After about 45 minutes the pain became unbearable and we headed back. I was sure that I would then be offered an epidural, but boy was I wrong. Instead I was offered tea and a hot sack filled with cherry pits for my back. HERBAL TEA! Are you kidding me??? I kept asking for an epidural, and the midwife kept putting it off by telling me to breath through my nose. After several hours my salvation finally came in the form of a shift change. A new midwife was on duty, and her first order of business was to get me an epidural and some pitocen. Words can't describe my gratitude for those miracle drugs. An hour later I was delivering the baby.

The Delivery
US: My deliveries in the US were all done by a Dr accompanied by several nurses. After each delivery the baby was whisked away by the pediatric nurses who gave the child a good cleaning and checkup. I would then feed the baby, hand him/her back to the nurses, and go to sleep for at least a couple of hours.

SWITZERLAND: Here there were only 3 people in the delivery room during most of the labor- me, Andrew and a midwife (who looked younger than me). At one point I started to panic wondering who would help the midwife if a problem arose- Andrew?? I'm sure whether there was nearby help, but it was a little disconcerting not physically seeing it. Towards the end a nurse did come, and that put me a little more at ease. The delivery went great, but immediately after pushing out the baby the midwife yanked down my gown and placed the baby on my chest- cord still attached and all. She was then confused as to why Andrew and I (who both get weak at the sight of blood) didn't want to look at the placenta or cut the cord. No thank you!!

The Recovery
US: My US hospital stays were 2 days filled with bad hospital food and constant interruptions from some nurse wanting to check me or the baby. It was also like a lock-down with all of the security measures taken to ensure that the baby did not leave the maternity wing of the hospital. The upside to those stays was the nursery- which is where I always kept my babies at night.

SWITZERLAND: Here you stay in the hospital for 5 days (I chose to only stay for 3). Compared to the US, no one comes to bother you and you and the baby can come and go as you please. The maternity wing of the hospital is open to anyone, and they even had a handful of strollers in case you wanted to take your baby for a walk outside in the park. A nurse also told me that most of the mothers keep the baby in their rooms rather than in the nursery. The care for the baby, like everything else, was also a lot more natural than the US. For example, at the end of day two I was a little concerned that my milk hadn't come in yet, so I suggested we supplement with a little formula. Holy cow, you would have thought that I suggested we give her soda in a bottle. The nurses were horrified and instead brought the baby a little bottle of watered down herbal tea. Again with the tea! The food for me, however, was spectacular! Each day I was given a menu to choose from with options like muscles, veal and steak. They even had a cart that would come around with snacks like brie topped with figs and walnuts. That was my favorite part of the deal.

Overall giving birth in Switzerland was a great experience. As I mentioned, the labor and delivery philosophies were a little more natural than my taste, but I can certainly understand and appreciate why many women prefer this approach. We're just all grateful to have a new healthy member of our family!

Andrew brought the kids to meet Clara for the first time right after church. I knew they would be excited, but I wasn't expecting them to be so ecstatic. Their reaction to their new sister was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.

My mom also came out for 3 weeks (there will be a tribute post in her honor later). Can I just say that I could not have done the 3-to-4 kid transition without her? What a life saver!

These past few weeks have gone by so quickly, and yet it is hard to remember life pre-Clara. Words can't express how much we all adore this sweet baby.

Oktober in der Schweiz

Even though I've been desperately hoping this baby would come early, I'm mostly glad that I held out this long (as if I really have any say in the matter). We were able to complete all of the traditional fall activites, which leaves me with some sense of satisfaction.

We kicked off our festivites by frequenting our local pumpkin patch. There the kids were able to mingle with the livestock and pick out our family pumpkins.

We also were able to attend Herbstmesse, which is Basel's annual autumn fair. The kids rode plenty of rides, we ate plenty of junk, and Andrew even convinced me to ride the ferris wheel. Due to my crazy fear of heights I spent the whole time on the verge of tears, but we got some nice shots of Basel.

The icing on the cake, however, was that we were able to go trick or treating this year! It was a huge improvement over last year where Andrew and I passed out candy as the kids knocked on our bedroom doors. Lame. This year we found an ex-pat neighborhood which celebrated Halloween, and were shocked to see so many kids from the International School there. It was wonderful seeing our costumed children run house to house collecting their goods. Halloween is still catching on here, so we found doors with signs saying "Candy" (if they were passing out candy) and doors with signs saying "No Halloween" or "No Candy" for those not celebrating. My favorite was a door with pumpkin pictures crossed out. Very effective for the non-readers.

After trick or treating we ate at the Sports Club for Andrew's work which is conveniently located next to the neighborhood where we went trick or treating. It was the perfect ending to our October.

Random Moments- baby come now edition!

All of our company has left us and I only have 6 more days until my official due date. Of course this date means nothing, but a girl can allow herself a false set of hope, can't she? Who knows, maybe number 4 will be the baby who comes early. I'm to the point where nothing completely covers my still growing belly, I want to eat ALL of the time (I refuse to believe that these first two are connected), and I think my legs have finally given out on me. Basically, I'm a beast. I can, however, still shave my legs in the shower, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Despite sounding like I am giving up on life, we are all very excited. The kids and I have settled on a name, we just have to get Andrew on-board. So now we are onto the waiting game, which gives me some time to blog...lucky you!

Belly and Boots

The picture above shows things from my view these days. You can also see the boots that I recently purchased. I spent a long time trying to find shoes which were comfortable, yet stylish. I came home quite pleased with my selection, only to have Andrew tell me that they "look like something straight out of Star Wars". Talk about knocking the wind out of my sails.

Incidentally, Andrew said that same thing last year when he saw the boots on the man shown in the picture below. Yes, that is a man (remember this is Europe- nothing can be assumed about his sexuality). Yes, I felt compelled to take his picture. And yes, I wish my bum looked that good.

Tokens of Love
Onto more wasteful shopping... I've had it in my head for 8 years now that it would be really romantic if Andrew were to surprise me with some "token" of appreciation for birthing each of his children. And by token, I mean jewelry. My subtle hints have gone unheeded in the past, so this time I decided to take matters into my own hands and just buy something for him to give to me. I know, if only every man were to be so lucky....

I settled on a pandora bracelet and bought the bracelet part for a reasonable price while we were traveling. What I didn't take into account was the cost of filling the dumb bracelet with charms. It is supposed to look like this...

And yet, after stomaching the cost to buy a single charm at the Swiss cost I think my bracelet will remain like this for a long, long, time. So much for my big, materialistic ideas.

WARNING
A couple of weeks ago I set up the bassinet where the baby will be sleeping for the first 3 months. This is the same bassinet that Afton slept in, and I really liked it. However, this time I noticed that the entire contraption is covered with "WARNINGS!" pretty much saying that my child should never sleep in the thing. This is supposed to be a bassinet- I'm so confused!

That's it for now. I should talk about the kids and Andrew, but let's face it, with my "condition" it is all about me and the baby- at least for today.

Fall Holiday

Right now the boys are currently enjoying time off from school for their "fall holiday". This is a week and a half long break, which Luke's teacher informed me was very good "because the children have already been in school for 7 weeks". Really? When I was in school we didn't get a long break until Christmas.

Were I not extremely pregnant we would use this excuse to go on a long trip like everyone else here... BUT with D-Day looming near we chose to stay close for a 3 day getaway. We spent our time down in Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy (all about 2 1/2 hours away). This area of Switzerland is known as Ticino and uses Italian as it's official language. We're still enjoying the company of Aunt Coco (although her time here has been flying by!) and it was a lot of fun to have her join us.

Day 1 was mostly spent in Bellinzona, Switzerland. This is a beautiful village with three medieval castles all within walking distance to each other. We only made it to two, but I was quite proud of myself for hiking up to that second castle.

This was our first time staying at a hotel in Switzerland (well, the first time we paid for a Swiss hotel). What we discovered is that Swiss hotels are extremely pricey- especially for a family of 5. After coming to terms with the prices, I found a place a little less expensive then the rest, but way, way, way off the beaten path.

One of our friends to greet us on our way there...

As you can see, we had stunning views, but to get to this hotel we had to go up the side of the mountain on a single lane road meant for two way traffic. This would have been ok, except for the insane local drivers. Honking is essential when driving up there. I took the picture below literally 5 minutes before we encountered one of these drivers. Andrew had to swerve a bit which resulted in a popped tire and stranded family in the middle of nowhere.

Parked and waiting for assistance- thank you cell phones.
We eventually all made it safely back to our hotel and a new tire was purchased the next day.



Day 2 was spent in Bellagio, Italy. Bellagio is located on Lake Como and is a wonderful little gem packed with charm and character. Colleen and I decided it would be a perfect place to spend a weekend sans kids and husband. A girl could do some serious shopping there. We still managed to do a little shopping even with the kids and husband.

You have to look hard, but Colleen and I couldn't stop laughing at the woman shown in the picture below. My kids were climbing on a wall and this lady looked as if she was going to keel over and die watching them. The wall looked pretty ordinary to me, so I'm not sure what she was so worked up about.

The next stop was to the Swiss Miniature. This is a little park filled with replicas of all the big castles and cathedrals in Switzerland. Andrew was so excited to go there which for some reason cracked me up.

Above- Sam and Luke standing in front of "Basel", Andrew and Colleen in front of the Castle in Thun.

Day 3, our last day, included a stop in Locarno, Switzerland. It was a little chilly that day, and after our stop we were happy to head back home! It was a great trip, and hopefully our last before this little girl decides to grace us with her presence.