2008!!!!

Man it's been a while since I wrote in here!

Loads of things have changed. We've got an 8 month old little boy who is an amazing blessing, we've moved house and J has a brand new contract.

I'll start with our wonderful little boy.

Heres our little man at Christmas

(Josiah at 3 months)

Today (4th Feb) he had his first swimming lesson. He's a real water baby and seemed to love splashing around in the water. I'm so glad that we got a place for him. He's a very happy little boy. Always smiling at everyone. We're constantly getting comments from people around us about his beautiful blue eyes and beaming smile. The only issue is that most of the time he'd rather be looking around at all the people around than eating.

Our little 3 month old boldy!

He's been having solid food for a while now. This is picture of him having his first carrots puree. He tried tons of things. He's not a big fan of fruit but we keep giving it to him in the hope that suddenly he'll decide he does. He likes eating finger food and getting completely covered in it!!

He's also had his first Christmas. It was a nice time together with our families unfortunately overshadowed with illness. J and I picked up the flu and we were both really ill for ages. Meryl was a wonderful nurse! She cared for Josiah all the time too bringing him to me everytime he needed feeding!!! We then went from London up to Shropshire to my family. It was a really nice time.

Onto other news

We got the keys for our new house at the very end of October - then the work started. God must have known because at the same time J's contract ended. So he spent about 2 months working on the house both day and night sometimes! We have had the electrics done and plastering of 2 rooms. We got to the point where we had to move in so in 2 days before we left for Christmas. We're all sleeping in our attic room and there are boxes everywhere. The middle floor is unusable completely except the bathroom but when its all finished it's going to look amazing! Now that J is working again it's all going to take that little bit longer to finish. We had no idea just how much time would be taken up looking after Josiah. It's meant that I've been able to do very little to help. He started his solids at the same time at the work began.

Heres our lounge!

Finally, J's job............. to cut a long story short ......... he's working back in the UK again!!!!

His contract ended in KPN and although there was more work for him to do he wasn't permitted to do it (long story). After a good time off we dicided that he needed to get back to it. So the next best thing was a contract in Hook in the South of England. He's staying with his mum Monday - Thursday then coming home on Thursday night. It' not ideal but its only for a time and we can work through it.

So til next time

News!

Well I didn't get back on here quite as quickly as I had hoped but I'm here now!

Before I say anything else I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Maryka and Leon (our dear friends here) who have just had a baby boy last night...... Ruben Serfontein! I'm so excited to meet him!

So that all important news! I'm sure you know already but basically we've just bought a house here!! So yes I spose you could say that we love living here and that we plan to stay a while longer! It's a 30's house in the old part of Amersfoort. Actually instead of explaining it I'll just go through some pics. Remember that the photos are deceiving and make the rooms look bigger than they are! This is the front of the house. It doesn't have conventional double glazing but there are 2 layers of glass... hard to explain. It's on a quiet road with a canal out the front. Then on the other side of the canal is a busier road. We're not sure yet how noisy that road is.

This is the canal outside. The bigger piece of water is just along the road a bit, as is a park, forest and playground.

This is the downstairs area. The kitchen needs to be changed and made bigger but it's all a good size The previous owners already knocked down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. There's also a downstairs toilet (which I have plans for) and a lada bit.

This is the 1st floor. There are 2 double rooms and one very small box room (probably Josiah's bedroom). There is also a bathroom (with no bath yet) and another door that leads to the attic (zolder)

This is the study in the attic. There is a door where the photo is being taken from. That goes into another bedroom. There is another door that you can just see on the left of the pic that goes into a little room with the washing machine and drier. In Holland it's normal to have the washing machine in the attic. They NEVER have it in the kitchen like in the UK.

Finally, this is the back garden. There's a cool shed just to the side. Unfortunately if we decided to build an extension to make the kitchen bigger, this would have to go.

It's a really charactered place. There's no work that has to be desperately done, instead things that need to be done in time and personal taste things.

You can see it on Google Earth so if you want to see the area then email me and I'll give you the address.

Other than that, all is well. Josiah is growing well and changing daily. He's absolutely adorable. He's now found his thumb which is so cute! More details soon

Josiah at 7 weeks

Before I say anything else i need to begin with a 'SORRY'!! We've become aware that a few of our announcement emails didn't get through to people. The thing is that we can't tell who it didn't get through to...... so if it was you then I'm sooooooooooo sorry. This is the most awesome news for us and we'd definitely want you to know. If you want me to send you the announcement (bit late I know but still!!) then email and let me know!

It's been a while since I last wrote. It seems that evey time I sit down to do this something else comes up....... usually in the form of a little man waking up!

Josiah is 7 weeks and 2 days old!!!!!! Can you believe it! He's growing (very quickly in every direction) and changing by the day. It's so awesome to see those changes first hand - from pulling himself up and holding his neck up when he's lying on his front, to smiling from ear to ear. Although it seems that every time I get the camera out to get a pick of him doing that he stops!

J and I are learning fast too. Our every conversation seems to start with " well may be it's because he's......" - hungry, tired, needing a nappy change, over tired or all of these!

It has been awesome to have all our parents out here too over the weeks. In the week after Josiah was born we had a lady called Carine here as the Kraamzorg. She arrived at 8 each morning and left at around 2 ish. She did everything from washing to cleaning the bathroom,to changing our bed, making my lunch, looking after Josiah and answering the sea of questions that I threw at here all the time. It was awesome because basically for that first week I stayed in bed and Carine showed us how to look after our new boy. She dealt with him with such confidence that it really helped me to have confidence with him.... he's fragile but not made of china! Here's a pic of her:We had expected Josiah to arrive late (as most first babies are) so we arranged for mum and dad to come out mid to late June. Because he came on the due date (clever boy) it meant that we had another week between the Kraamzorg leaving and them arriving. It was fab in that case for Meryl (J's mum) to make an extra visit. She stayed for 4 days, then mum and dad came then Meryl came back. It was so nice to see all the grandparents with Josiah and be able to show him off. It was fab too to be able to get out the house and have someone stay home with him even for just an hour. During Meryl's second visit Christianne (J's sis) also came to visit for a day.

We've had many firsts. First big bath, first shower, for mummy first breast feeding in public (nothing like a Saturday lunch time in a busy cafe to throw me in the deep end), the first nappy change in public, the first bag of clothes that no longer fit him!, the first trip to church (8th July) the first bottle of expressed milk, the first babysitting session for Inge (thanks!), the first baby massage session (great fun!) Here are some pics (the breast feeding one isn't the first time but there's breast feeding in public and there's taking a pic of it!!!!)

I'm still really glad that I've had Josiah here even though I'm feeling a little unable to show him off to loads of people. I love hearing people in the street commenting on him or going "ahhh how cute" but that doesn't happen often. We've sorted all the legal stuff - he even has his own passport now!! Although we are struggling with our Dutch we're making sure that anyone that is Dutch speaks to Josiah in Dutch not English. He loves hearing it and generally goes very quiet when he hears it. I hope that the more contact he has with it now the easier it'll be for him later.

We have other news to tell you too but I think this has been long enough so far! Here are some more pictures of our adorable little dutch water baby!

More Details!

I decided to wait for a while before I wrote in here. Its taking a while to get into the 3 hourly routine of nappy, eating and sleeping.... and that's just me!!!
We can't believe that we have this little person with us. He's so perfect! I can't believe that he's a little bit of me and little bit of J and that together we've created this new life!!!

So you wanted to know what happened!

As you know from my last blog, my mum and sister came out to visit and were due to go home on the 30th May (the day before the due date). We had thought about what we would do if it all happened while they were here, but I never really thought it was possible. I was expecting the birth to be at least a week late. We all decided (after praying about it!) that if my labour started before they got on the train back to the airport, that they would extend their stay here but that if something happened after they got on the train that they would carry on going home. So at 7pm on the 30th we said good bye to mum and Nic at the train station - nothing had happened!!

It's a 10 minute walk back to our house from the station and as soon as J opened the door to our flat my waters broke!!!! Hows that for timing. The midwife came over and said that everything was fine but that because my contractions hadn't started I shouldn't have a shower or bath.. bummer! Apparently only about 10% of labour actually start with the waters breaking...... take no notice of the movies!!! We had called mum and Nic by this time but all decided that it was meant to be and that they should carry on with their journey home.

J and I tried to sleep for a bit. We knew that things would happen soon so had an early night. At about 11.30pm I was woken up with a definite contraction. J timed them and we decided at about 2.30am to call the midwife because my contractions were about 3 - 4 mins apart. The midwife came out and said that I was 2cm dilated - I remembered from one of the courses that we took that if you call out the midwife and she says 'you're 1 or 2 cm dilated', that you should be sad about it because your body has already had to do a lot of work to get to that point; so I wasn't too fazed by it. She said that it was now ok for me to bath and shower and that J should now set up the bath. She also said that she was off duty at 9am that morning and that I would most probably see the next midwife on call.

My contractions got pretty intense at that point. I took a shower and a bath while J set up the pool. For all those people that one day may consider using a birthing pool here is a little advise.... Set it up before hand - even if it's a few weeks before (except for the plastic lining). As my contractions got more intense poor J was running between setting up the pool and me screaming the place down! I was getting contractions in my back and so couldn't find any relieving position at all. At about 4.00am I got into the bath. dangling my arms over the side with J rubbing my back was the best position for me. A little later I started getting the feeling that I needed to push but that was only after about an hour and a half. I didn't believe that that could be a real feeling so I tried to ignore it!! Until a really intense one came and I 'instructed' J to call the midwife. She got to us at about 5.30am and said that believe it or not, if I needed to push then I should. She got me into the right position and after 3 pushes his head was half way out................ ohh that hurt!! 1 more push and his head and all his body flew out!! MY BABY!!!!

I'd spent 9 months pregnant but something in me can't have expected it to actually be a baby in there - when she put him on me all I could say was "it's a baby!". We didn't even think of asking what sex he was!! It was the midwife that reminded us to look!!!

So In all, from the start of my contractions to his birth it was about 6 and a half hours!!!!!!!!! I have nothing to complain about!! 2 stitches & a beautiful baby boy!!! Apparently only about 2% of babies are born on their due date - our boy is special!!

There are more details but I figure not everyone will want to know them...... I'm happy to talk about them though if you really want to know anything else!!!

More soon i hope!! got to bath a baby!!

Exactly on time!!!

Welcome to the world

Josiah Benjamin Dennis Sweeting

Thursday 31st May 2007

at 6.02 am

7lb 1oz (3220g)

50 cm

Born in a birthing pool at home in The Netherlands
Our very own Dutch waterbaby!

3 months

39 weeks

baby Josiah!!!

I will write in more detail soon!! Bit tired right now!

39 weeks!

Mum and Nic are coming tonight so I can't write too much but I just wanted to add the latest bump picture and a photo of the pool. The pool isn't completely set up - as you can see from thte picture it over lapping and not a full circle, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like. It's waiting for the 'right time'!!