Uniquely Dutch

This past week we have definitely learned about some unique Dutch customs and ways of doing things. Shortly after Audrey was born the nurse brought in beschuit met muisjes for us to eat. They were basically hard biscuits with butter and sprinkles on top. The sprinkles tasted like black licorice. Our biscuits were decorated with pink and white sprinkles since we had a girl! I also received a box of chocolates from a lady at church. On the outside there was a mini beschuit met muisjes. The proud new Dutch parents usually treat their friends to the biscuits when they come to visit the baby. Also, another thing that was quite different was during labor they brought me food. It was basic food, bread and cheese, but food nonetheless. They also allowed me to drink water. I could have had tea if I wanted. In the U.S. all they allowed were ice chips. So, a bit different. Even though I was sent home from the hospital 4 hours after Audrey arrived help was not far away. As a matter of fact, we phoned the midwife at 3 am that first night we were home. Audrey was spitting up some pretty dark stuff and we were concerned. After a quick call to the midwife our worries were taken care of as she explained it was just some blood that the baby had swallowed. In the past week I have been visited by the midwife in our home 4 times - Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Sunday and Tuesday they weighed Audrey. I found the weighing device they had very interesting. Yes, that little bundle is sleeping Audrey. Both times they came to weigh her she was sound asleep and she slept through the whole thing. What a good baby! :) On Sunday Audrey was below her birth weight, which is how things usually are. By Tuesday Audrey was well over her birth weight at 8 1/2 pounds. She's eating well and growing lots. We also had a home visit from the consultatiebureau on Wednesday. The consultatiebureau is basically a baby clinic that is used for the first 4 years of your child's life. I'll take Audrey there for her immunizations and routine check-ups. On Wednesday they took some of her blood and performed the hearing test. They are coming to our home again on Tuesday for another check-up. I have to take Audrey to the clinic for her first round of immunizations when she is 6 weeks old. Our kraamzorg experience turned out great! Once I got home on Thursday night I called the kraamzorg service and told them I was home with my baby. Friday morning at 9:30 Monique showed up to take care of us. She came to house for 7 days, 6 hours a day. I didn't have to lift a finger! She took care of everything from Rachel to me to Audrey to cooking to shopping to cleaning. It was wonderful. Rachel really became quite attached to her and was upset when she would get up from her nap and Monique was gone. Even though Rachel was being a stinker and wouldn't smile in the above picture - she really did enjoy Monique. I am glad things turned out as well as they did. I was a little concerned about how I would like having someone in our home, but it turned out just fine.

Andy has already registered Audrey's birth. We currently have a Dutch birth certificate and an International birth certificate for her. Many have asked if Audrey will have dual citizenship and she won't. In order to have Dutch citizenship one of the parents has to be Dutch. Next week some time we are planning on going U.S. Consulate to apply for Audrey's birth certificate, social security card, and passport. It should be interesting how they take a passport picture of a newborn!

So, overall we have enjoyed our Dutch experience of having a baby. Everything has gone well. Andy has been home for the majority of the past week. He would go to work while the kraamzorg was here and then come home in the afternoon. Andy will be home all this next week to help out as well. It has definitely been nice since Rachel has needed some extra attention. So, we are doing well and adjusting to having two little ones.

Audrey's Arrival

As many people know, we were somewhat nervous about the birthing experience we would experience here in Holland. Luckily it turned out to be a very positive one and we are grateful that all went as well as it did.

Wednesday night I didn't get much sleep. I believe I finally fell asleep around 2 am and slept until about 5 am. Finally around 6 am I just got up because the contractions were coming more frequently. They still weren't 5 minutes apart, so I figured we'd just keep on waiting. Well, by 8:30 am I decided to call the midwife. Within 20 minutes she arrived at our home. It was determined that we needed to head to the hospital. The midwife got on her cell phone to call the hospital. I called my friend Merry Ann to come pick Rachel up. We were a bit nervous because the midwife stated that I might be too far dilated for an epidural. So, we wanted to get to the hospital as soon as possible!

The Amstelveen hospital didn't have any room, so she called the Amsterdam hospital. Luckily they had room and it's only a 15 minute drive away. The midwife informed them we were on our way. Merry Ann was at our house within 10 minutes and Rachel was more than happy to go with her. So, off we drove to the hospital. By 9:30, we were checked into the hospital room. Around 10 am the midwife broke my water and then a doctor came in to determine whether or not I could have an epidural. All looked well and he gave us the go ahead. They gave me an IV and hooked up tons of other stuff to me and the baby. They paged the anesthesiologist.

By 10:30 am my contractions were really uncomfortable. After each one I just kept on thinking, this is the last one and then I'll have the epidural. Well, that whole process didn't occur until around noon. I guess there's only one anesthesiologist for the whole hospital. Needless to say once he walked in the room I was relieved. After being poked 4 times it was a success. They kept on asking me if it was like this with Rachel. And I kept on telling them that it had only taken one poke with her. So, he'd poke me, it wouldn't work, I'd have a contraction and think this is the last one, and then he'd get ready for another one, and then another contraction would come, etc... But by 12:30 I was feeling great! The magic of epidurals! :)

Once the epidural took effect the midwife left. I was officially in the care of the doctor now. It was kind of weird having somebody I just barely met be the one to help with the delivery. But I guess that is just how they do things here.

Two hours later I started actually feeling some contractions. We paged the nurse and I informed her that it felt like it was time for Audrey to arrive. She paged the doctor and he showed up about 15 minutes later. I was getting a bit anxious, but it worked out. He then informed me that in fact it was time to start pushing. Thanks captain obvious! :) I will have to say that I am grateful I had an epidural. I definitely felt a lot more this time around than with Rachel, so it would have been quite interesting without one. I don't think the epidurals are as strong over here in Holland. :)

After about 30 minutes of pushing Audrey arrived. She came out screaming and that was a great sound to hear! They weighed Audrey, but they didn't measure her. They don't measure babies here because they don't want to hurt their hips. She didn't get a bath after she was born, but they wiped her off pretty good.

Now here's the amazing part to me. Thirty minutes after giving birth the doctor informed me that I was free and clear to go home that night. What??? Go home already? Well, we were still planning on me staying the night. However, by 5 pm the nurse sent me to the shower. While I was in the shower she informed Andy that there was no room for me in the hospital and there was no medical reason for me to stay. So, by 7:30 pm I was wheeled out to our car and sent home. We officially spent 10 hours in the hospital. Crazy I know, but luckily everything worked out.

Andy took us home and then he went to pick up Rachel. By 8:30 pm we were spending time together for the first time as a family of 4. Rachel was pretty curious about her new little sister. She had enjoyed the day with her friend Sophia and we hadn't worried about her a bit.

We feel so blessed to have Audrey a part of our family!

Quite the Compliment

This cute big sister gave me quite the compliment on Saturday. She informed me, matter-of-factly, that my "tummy was small". What a good girl! :)

Introducing...

Not something you see every day...

You may be wondering what Rachel is doing in a swimsuit when we are lucky for the temperature to reach 40 degrees? Well, this morning (like every morning) I asked Rachel to go pick out what she was going to wear today and this is what she came up with. I tried to convince her to only wear her swimsuit for a few minutes but it didn't work. I was able to get her to put some clothes on over her swimsuit while we went to the store, but once we got back home she was ready to just be in her swimsuit again. I found it quite hilarious to see her playing with the Christmas ornaments in a swimsuit. Rachel even insisted on taking a nap in her swimsuit. I was a bit concerned about how well she would nap, but after a 3-hour nap we can call it a success! Maybe I'll let her nap in her swimsuit every day! :) I wonder what her dad is going to think when he gets home from work...

O Christmas Tree

We had a busy day on Saturday! :) We went out to the local garden center to get a tree and then we spent the evening decorating it. Rachel was really cute at the garden center marching around behind her daddy to help find the perfect tree. Christmas is always fun with little ones as you get to see their excitement. Here are some pictures as we were decorating: This is a glimpse at what the final product looks like. After decorating Saturday night I told Andy we could rearrange the ornaments after Rachel went to bed. Well, we've decided that's pointless. She enjoys taking them off and putting them back on a million times a day. Most of the ornaments are in little clusters 2-3 feet above the ground. At least they are just cheap little ornaments that we don't really care about. :)

Christmas decorating here is a bit sparse. We basically have a tree and Rachel's Little People Nativity Set. We didn't bother shipping over Christmas stuff because of the lack of storage space. So, we definitely enjoy our tree. Rachel loves to come downstairs every morning and turn the Christmas tree lights on.

Saturday morning we also went to a little cheese farm/clog factory that is close by. It's a great place for souvenirs. We picked up some Dutch-looking ornaments that we will be able to enjoy in years to come. My favorites are the ones that we had especially made for Rachel and our baby girl:

Andy and I were talking about how Rachel hasn't even had the experience of a U.S. Christmas. Her first Christmas was in New Zealand and the last two have been here. So far Rachel's collection of ornaments include one from New Zealand, one from the German Christmas Markets, and one from Holland. I guess once we are back home her ornaments won't be nearly as exciting! :)

Sinterklaas

We are still learning how to do Sinterklaas here in Holland. To me it just seems like the Dutch double-dip. :) They make just as big of a deal over Santa Claus as they do Sinterklaas. We did a very scaled down version of Sinterklaas this year. We basically all received chocolate letters: And then Rachel received a few more gifts. She got some princess gloves, some stickers, and a notebook. I have discovered that we did it incorrectly. We were supposed to receive our gifts on the evening of December 5th. But since we are ignorant Americans, we received our gifts in the morning just like Christmas.
Here's a little bit of history about Sinterklaas taken from http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=92:

In mid-November Dutch television broadcasts the official arrival of St. Nicholas and his helper Zwarte Piet live to the nation. Coming by steamer from Spain, each year they dock in the harbor of a different city or village. Wearing traditional bishop's robes, Sinterklaas rides into town on a white horse to be greeted by the mayor. A motorcade and a brass band begin a great parade which leads Sinterklaas and his Piets through the town. Nearly every city and village has its own Sinterklaas parade.

In the following weeks before St. Nicholas Day, December 6, Sinterklaas goes about the country to determine if the children have been well-behaved. He and his Zwarte Piet helpers visit children in schools, hospitals, department stores, and even at home. The bakeries are busy making speculaas molded spice cookies of the saint. During this time children put out their shoes with wish-lists and a carrot or hay, or maybe a saucer of water, for the horse. When St. Nicholas happens by, the next morning children may find chocolate coins or initial letter, candy treats, pepernoten, and little gifts in their shoes. Everyone hopes for sweets, not coal or a little bag of salt.

The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th, St. Nicholas Eve, with festive family parties when gifts and surprises are exchanged. In the Netherlands, unlike other places, adults as well as children join in the fun. As the Dutch like an element of surprise, a small gift may be wrapped in a huge box, or it may be hidden and require following clues to discover where it is.

Gifts are prettily wrapped in special Sinterklaas paper or they may be hidden, for example, in a potato or an old sock. Each gift, anonymously signed "from Sinterklaas," comes with a clever rhyme that may point out a person's shortcomings in a humorous way. (For the less creative, there are books with suggestions for making rhymes and packaging disguises.) Originality, not value of the gift, is what counts.

Children sing traditional Sinterklaas songs while waiting for the saint to appear. A knock comes on the door and a black gloved hand appears to toss candies and pepernoten inside. Children scramble to gather up the treats. A large burlap bag, "de zak van Sinterklaas," also appears filled with gifts. At the table, decorated with speculaas and other sweets, guests may find their initial in a chocolate letter at their places. Food is apt to include hot chocolate, Bishop's wine, and letter banket.

The Dutch feast of Saint Nicholas is about giving, for "it is in giving that we receive." The fun is in trying to surprise people, to tease in a well-meaning way, to make a good joke, to produce a rollicking rhyme. The gift itself is just a bonus, as the fun is in the doing.

Ready to go...

In an effort to encourage this baby girl to come, Rachel and I have been taking walks every morning to some place or another. This morning we were planning on going to the shopping center. I was upstairs getting ready and Rachel was downstairs playing, just like usual. I called for Rachel to come upstairs to brush her teeth and this is what appeared at the bottom of the stairs:She was all ready to go and looked so cute! :) Even though it was 36 degrees this morning and felt like 26 degrees (according to weather.com), we braved the cold and walked 10 minutes to the shopping center. Thank heavens we have an indoor shopping center!

40 weeks

Here I am at 40 weeks. Our baby girl is quite comfortable and taking her time arriving. You really can't blame her. It's nice and warm in there and all her needs are being met. We are just playing the waiting game. I had an appointment yesterday and there's nothing too exciting to report. My blood pressure and the baby's heartbeat are great. They don't really induce here until 42 weeks. So some time in the next 12 days you can expect an announcement! :)

'Tis the Season

So, it's December 1st and what does that mean? It's time to start eating the yummy chocolates from the advent calendars. This is one tradition that I definitely remember growing up. Who knows if we got them every year, but it seems like we did. I remember how hard it was to only take one a day, but I think I did okay... So, a few months ago (yes, it was literally a few months ago) I was so excited when I saw an advent calendar in a store. It was only 1 euro, so I splurged and got one for Rachel. Well, several weeks after that I saw the Dora one and couldn't pass it up. So, I ended up getting 2 more so we could all have one. Andy doesn't really care, but I figured it wasn't fair if he didn't get one. Plus, if he doesn't want his chocolate I'm sure something can be arranged. :) We'll see how Rachel does once she discovers there's chocolate. It may be difficult to limit her to one a day. We shall see...