the morning smile

Sometimes I may write these blogs in the third person. At times the writting seems easier when you step out and look at things from a different angle, you become an observer of your life, a narrator of the story.

Some things I would also like to share not just with you our sweet baby girl but also with others, with our families, friends, people who may never thought about having children and parenthood looks to them like a boring full time job, a drastic and dramatic change to your life, all for worse, a burden and a drag. These people, funnily enough, are quite similar to me, as I used to be before you changed my world. Maybe not this extend but I also thought that becoming a mother would be such a change to my free spirited lifestyle, i did not really want to take a risk. i knew at some point there may be something i may miss out on but to make a conscious deccission was to me like leaving a place you know, sunny, friendly, exciting and going some new place where things will be different, they may be even better but if not there won’t be a way back.

I hope you will read it once too, maybe when you are a young woman and think about motherhood yourself and maybe reading this as a story and not a letter to you will make this sound more universal. I don’t know how easy it will be for you to listen when your mum talks, how intimate we will be able to be with each other so perhaps making it a third person story will make t more comfortable. I hope though that we will know each other well like I never knew my grandma, like I still don’t know my mother. There are questions that does not seem easy to ask your parents, but maybe it is just the way I was brought up, the parents were more of an authority, someone who was there to tell you what to do not to share what they did.  maybe it will be different now, I hope we will be your parents and your best friends.  I  love you darling…

~~~~~Morning Smiles~~~~~~~~~

There was not a morning in the last weeks when Haumea would cry at night or wake us up crying in the morning. She is still in our room, mainly because it makes feeding easier.  I also don’t believe this little being so used to my body and human contact, that little being that arrived in this world not long ago and everything is new and different, should be put in the room alone. Of course that little new person has to learn how to be on her own but this can be a gentle, gradual process. let her be on her own during the day, looking around, discovering, when she feels unhappy she will cry and then mama will be there, she will know that mama is never far away, then when things around her become more familiar mama will be there but maybe not always all the time around, she will come and touch, she will say something and then go away again.

In the evenings when i feed her she falls asleep happily on my body, cuddled onto me but the moment i pull her away she starts crying. So she is more happy falling asleep listening to the voice of her dad reading a novel to her mum before they fall asleep, she is more happy waking up and knowing that people she knows who love her are right next to her.

This shows so clearly, when i wake up i often see her big eyes watching me, she is happy playing with her hands, stretching, watching her parents asleep in each other arms, when I lean above her,  touch her face or say hello she smiles.  She smiles that beautiful bright happy baby smile, toothless, open mouthed the most beautiful smile I have seen, the one that warms my heart.  she lets us wake up slowly and spend time together, sometimes she says something and we laugh or make a baby noise back while looking at each other enjoying the morning together.  I may drift off  into a light dreamy sleepy state  on marcus’s arm for few more moments while he strokes my neck and hair and the baby is happy too and waits.  As imptient as she is to get her feed the rest of the day she always waits patiently in the mornings, happy each time we look at her and when we finally pull her to us I often sit her on my tummy leaning her against my legs so she faces us so we can get few more of these happy morning smiles before i put her onto my breast and marcus will go to make some fresh coffee

Despite of that joy of having my babygirl close to me and seeing her happy face first thing in the morning I know i have to soon make her a cosy space in the other room so that she can make her first step to independence and we can have our intimacy without baby affecting our relationship. at the moment the love flows freely between all of us, if anything, my love to marcus became stronger because of how carring he is, because of the knowledge how strong our relationship is. i do not want to replace what i feel for him with my new overwhelming feelings for the baby. now the relationship is deeper and having baby with us and working around her sleeping and feeding time may be fun but won’t wor just as well in the long run and when the baby is bigger and observes things around her with far greater comprehension.

I haven’t just became a mother and stopped being who I was before from one day to the other.  To connect a womanhood and a motherhood, to remain being who you were and becoming something else on top of it not instead is a challenge but this is what i would like to master .  i suddenly realise that being a desirable woman is nothing when you don’t have a child. firstly you did not experience yet the essence of that womanhood secondly you often needed to do nothing to be who you were, the attraction depends in such a great percentage on how you look and a natural behavior you have, once you become a mother you need to make a conscious effort to be a woman, an object of desire, you work against nature almost, you master who you want to be, you have to design it. the nature may tell you that now your life is for the baby and your womanhood is to cater for that new life, you do not need a partner to procreate, you just fulfilled your role and should be now satisfied.  but we do not live in the era when this was exactly the truth. We can still enjoy being a woman whilst being a mum. we can fulfill two different roles at the same time. yes it is a challenge , one is easy, you just drop into it or put yourself in it and stay, once you there you just carry on. Unfoprtunatelly being a mum and a lover at the same time is not possible and  so in one moment you have to change.  luckily I think I know it is stil in me, both the lover and the mum.  as I have discovered on occasions you may be at the same time too, this is a challenge for your partner, he can now enjoy a different type of lover, a strong feminine being whose body is that of a miracle, it carried the baby and fulfilled it’s one of its feminine role, but just one, the other one is still there to be fulfilled over and over again.  .  “So the baby is still sleeping in your bed” asked someone i know’ “She is in the same room close to us so we can pull her to bed when I need to feed her in the middle of night. Some nightes I sleep on her side, sometimes Marcus does and he gives the baby to me, it’s easier when she still needs requires to be breastfeed at night but we will soon start putting her in the other room” ‘our is already 1.5 year old and STILL sleap in our bed” it seems that for his little baby who he loves a lot that man had to give something up.

perhaps in some cultures a woman who just delivered and is now nursing her child may not be sexy for the man but it seems that it is mostly women who seem to change and focus their attention entirely elsewhere.

After our beautiful babygirl was born i never felt more loved and desired by Marcus.  And even though there was now more things o do and someone else to love I never wanted to give him more either, feeling so close to him and united by this miracle of life that happened right in front of our eyes, between us.

The latest books hip books about preganncy, nursing and bringing up babies in France, “bringing up bebe”

 

We woke up and …we were a family

It was a hard labour. There was a lot of pain with first contractions already 3-4 minutes apart, lasted for 16 hours.  We woke up at 2, drove to the hospital at 4.30 when the pain started becoming unbearable.  I went straight into the delivery room and from then onwards, apart from one quick visit to the bathroom, Marcus stayed with me holding my hand kissing my forehead, stroking my back, for 12 or 13 hours non stop, all that time standing not minding pain in his feet, not minding discomfort, all he worried was me and that he cannot take this pain away that there is so little he can do. But he made a world of difference. I can’t even imagine how it would be without him I know at some point he cried and said something so unbelievably beautiful but I couldn’t remember his words later, I just remember his beautiful face full of concern and love and mix of pain and pride.

Some people from his work and Dion came to visit, someone let them into the delivery room and i saw them in between my contractions but this is all a haze, I knew they brought words of encouragement and mountain of gifts.

Then the time came to push. People say you forget the pain…it was not the pain though that I will remember, it was a terror and fear for my baby and  I don’t think I will ever forget this. I was exhausted and though, after last medication, my contractions became shorter and less painful it meant I now had  shorter windows to push.

During the next hour I tried  over and over again, giving everything from myself, making inhuman almost efforts but still it was pointless and i felt so helpless. And there was marcus always there, reapiting quiet words of love, reassuring me, my husband, your dad, waiting for you to come to this world and being there for both of us.

Whatever I was doing, after a short success when the baby’s head appeared at the opening, I could not get the baby out. Something was wrong.  I cried and screamed in pain by then, I was scared, I felt I am failing my little baby. Marcus’s constant reassurance and his hand stroking my face was the only thing I could hang on to not to break. I had no more strengh on my own, the only strength i was now getting from him.

There were two midwifes and two doctors with us. The Burmese doctor looked like a graduate in his katmandu jumper, the other one was wearing a t-shirt with a sign picturing a married couple titled “game over”. Midwives Tai and Tauvaine tried hard to direct me to push more effectively. With my legs prompt on their hips I did push as hard as I could,  I felt a ring of fire down there, there was pressure in every muscle, in felt like the skin is tearing yet there was no more progress.   I had no more strength to scream or cry.

One hour of sweat and pain passed and the head was still in the same place. Now everyone was getting stressed.  ‘you have to push the baby out. We don’t have much time, we have to get her out now, she was too long there, push, try” “Don’t you think I am trying, do you think I want to keep her there?? Like I don’t want her out?” I cried now in frustration and by now also in a panic myself not knowing what is gonna happen to my baby if I don’t succeed right there and then.  Dr Linn decided he will help me with the suction cap. everything inside me felt raw but all that mattered now was to get the baby out.

Then there was a painful injection bursting under the skin of my vagina, doctor saying he will have to cut me and use the forcipes, things bursting and tearing and pain.

Despite the injection an i felt unbelievable pain when the heavy clumps were pushed inside even though I felt almost dead inside, paralised  with fear that those cold hard things are now closing around my baby’s head to pull her out of me.  I pushed with all my power when the doctor said he was ready, determined to save pain to my baby girl. “i can’t see how you could push that hard when the doctor had to pull with all his strength and it was still damn difficult to pull the head through even though you were not cut open” said marcus later.

With me pushing and the doctor pulling the little head  finally popped out just like a cork from a well corked bottle of wine. A limp little body followed a couple of moments later and I just prayed for that baby scream

I don’t remember much after I felt little slippery body being put on my breast, tears of fear and pain and unbelievable joy and release. Someone asked Marcus of he wants to cut the umbilical cprd, someone handed the baby to him, he was next to me hugging me, someone took the baby to weigh and put in a warm place, I asked Marcus to go and see her and tell me everything is ok. I don’t know how I got to bed who attached the drip onto my arm, I just remember being in Marcus’s arms, the nurse bring  the baby and me holding this beautiful little person in my arms, with Marcus’s arms around me, both of us stroking in amazement little head watching that pretty dear little face pressing to my breast  when the baby starts sucking. Suddenly our lives changed and opened up to that completely new kind of love, unknown until then. That very moment I knew I will always, always love her. I saw love in Marcus’s eyes, both to me and the baby, all so overwhelming. I don’t know when I fell asleep, I know the baby was in the cot next to us and Marcus put her on my breast again some time at night and when we woke up sudenly….we  were a family

 

 

 

beach baby

I hope you are one of the most happy babies my little sweety. You have parents who love you and who love each other to bits, your mum has copious amounts of milk for you and it never runs out, there is some one to touch you and talk to you almost every time you are restless or have a bad dream, there is never too cold so when can change your nappies or shower you it is never too unpleasant.

We just had a beautiful weekend, you slept a long time on saturday giving your parents plenty time to enjoy time to enjoy each other and then you woke up in a beautiful mood. you are now becoming really chatty, goo and groo your little words at us and you want to be listened to and talked back to, what’s more you require full attention which you always get. We talk back with a mixture of your made up words to show they are important and weave in some simple words. So now your family can start putting bets on what your first word will be.  i started from teaching you tata and dad tried to teach you mama but now the list has changed slightly.

we listen to you and seems that it would be easy for you to say howareyou as you seem to make all those vowel- ly sounds. then come some simple useful words like oma and with ma you can go for mama maja (which is “your name’ in polish), ja which is yes in german and I in Polish so with just little o and two syllabus ma and ja you can have quite a rich vocabulary

but back to the weekend,  saturday was beautiful and so once you woke up we took you to the beach.  last weekend we dangled you in the sea but now we worried it may be too chilly but we put your little feet in the sand and you “strode” along the beach

here are some memories for you and us and a gift for your family in Germany and Poland my little girl

 

Growing

You are 6 weeks old now, 6 weeks spent in our arms, by my side, changing from a little “animalito” as uncle Claudio calls you, into a little person who smiles when happy, follow us with her eyes, calls us and tries to construct some words to talk to us, not that succesfully at the moment but so so sweet

Your family in Poland and Germany are so in love with you.  You just got a parcel from your Aunty Katrin with a beautiful letter, she never met you yet but it is so obvious she loves you a lot already and can’t wait to see you.  We will keep these letters for you babygirl

here is a couple of photos from the last week, one one with me, our first outing you look so enthusiastic and..grown up:)

beautiful monster

baby, baby, you want to eat all the time, you keeping me really busy, i have learned to do many things with you attached to me, like lighting up the gas by pressing the knob with my knee, while holding you in my arms with one hand and holding the lighter with the other but…typing with one hand takes far too long so you will have to wait a bit.

luckily the keyboard works thanks to your genial dad who fixed it after i spilt a bottle if breast milk trying to multitask – feed you, breast pump some milk for later and emailing all at the same time

well i learned my lesson

just two quick notes, may extrapolate later

1. you now spent first few hours away from home with mama Here and aunty Kirsten who really wanted to babysit you (when they visited they also pleaded with me to let them change your nappy, imagine). I have to say as soon as i was driving away from their home i sort of regretted and felt so empty without you. we did need some time alone though, there was a lot to catch up on, we had very little time together in peace since you were born- one month so we celebrated every moment but then loved having you back in our arms

2. when you will be thinking of having a little rascal like you yourself – just…do it right. just read something on a forum where mum is asking how to make baby stop crying at night because her husband is getting really mad at..HER when the baby wakes them up. How sad.

Think of it sweetheart. choose right- from the start. Is it not better to be with a man who wants to have baby’s cot on his side of the bed so he can put the baby on your breast when wakes up to be fed at night, one who will not let you get up to change a nappy when he is there, when you try to get the baby yourself before starts crying not to wake him up he tells you he likes waking up with you anyway, even if he cannot save you waking up at least half way, he can cuddle you better, tell you he loves you and kiss your back when you are breastfeeding little bubs.

I am so incredibly lucky …and in LOVE!

 

Spiderman is having me for dinner tonight

You are now in the bedroom and we cannot stop you crying. you ate copious amounts, I breastfed you from 5 till 7 with just a little break for a nappy, then daddy gave you some nu (coconut juice) and you would still want more so we are playing you a lullaby by the Cure

On candystripe legs the spiderman comes
Softly through the shadow of the evening sun
Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
Looking for the victim shivering in bed
Searching out fear in the gathering gloom and
Suddenly!
A movement in the corner of the room!
And there is nothing I can do
When I realise with fright
That the spiderman is having me for dinner tonight!

Quietly he laughs and shaking his head
Creeps closer now
Closer to the foot of the bed
And softer than shadow and quicker than flies
His arms are all around me and his tongue in my eyes
“Be still be calm be quiet now my precious boy
Don’t struggle like that or I will only love you more
For it’s much too late to get away or turn on the light
The spiderman is having you for dinner tonight”

And I feel like I’m being eaten
By a thousand million shivering furry holes
And I know that in the morning I will wake up
In the shivering cold

the world in words and pictures

Feeding you takes a lot of time, you aee like a little animal at first, start eating really greedily, gulp your milk taking big sips, sometimes choke and look so surprised. All of this, no surprise, makes you tired, you push yourself away from me only to drop your head again on my breast or burry it in my arms and snuggled you fall asleep.  If I stay next to you you sleep peacefully for some time, if i move you away you often wake up in 15 minutes, remember you did not eat enough yet, it was just the first dish, and so you start your little monolog of food requests, first verbalizing it with your one syllabus n-ehh sound which becomes louder and soon quite desperate. If I am not there for you soon you break into tearful pleads then loud cry .

So I spend a lot of time with you now and since you don’t yet make a very exciting conversationalist we both listen to audiobooks when we repeat those cycles of feeding and sleeping.

ONE DAY …I hope I can share those with you:

1. “The help” by Kathryn Stockett, a novel about black maid working for white families, taking care of the white children. Her love for those children is so beautiful, even when she detest the parents, she cares for their children with affection that is strange to the white mother, she brings up those children and in many cases becomes more of a mother to them than their real mum, high class white woman interested more in parties and dresses than her own baby. she is the one who wipes the tears of and makes the babies smile, teaches them how to use the toilet but all this is hapenning in the times where in the South of the States the seperation between white and blacks was still a reality, there was a lot of hatred and contempt towards the blacks so deeply rooted that even when the rest of the country was slowly awaking to the changes and integration jackson Missisipi was trying to set in stone the old order where the coloured were pushed to the role of liberated slaves, servants who eat in separate places and empty themselves in seperate toilets.

and amongst all of this the black maid wraps identical candies in different papers  letting her discover that the true nature of things is bellow the wrapper, sings her nursery rymes about two girls black and white who think they are different but then touch their noses, lips and eyes, compare their fingers and toes and came to the conclusion that they are actually much the same.

It’s a book about rasism, about the fight and perseverance, about courage and commitment and about feelings. it’s about hypocrisy and ingenuity and childhood innocence and honesty. it is also a book about loving children and so having you in my arms made the whole lot of difference to how this book touched me.

2. “a child in time” by one of our favorite writers Ewan McEwan

It’s an example of brilliant writing. a man, a husband and a father of a three year old girl talks about his life, the …little adjustment, the balance…., he dresses his little girl and takes her shopping so mum tired after waking up few times at night  to cuddle the baby and chase away her nightmares can sleep. before leaving he goes to his wife and lingers there, there is closeness and tenderness between them and desire they channel now to fit married life and carrying for their child. this is where the writting is so brilliant, one moment he lives in an almost perfect world,then he goes out, cross the streets painted in detail with the can coke, the dog by the tree, unimportant details, yet again those very details make the book so perfect because just few minutes later he goes back the same street passing the same spot with the same old can of coke, still there, the dog still hanging around the same tree, but his life changed forever because in the space of minute, between short stroll to and from the shop, as he is going back without his little daughter, she is not there anymore, gone out of his life, suddenly and unexpectedly, snatched away, He observes life with his insulting normality, he walks up the steps to his apartment, goes to his wife who ,still half asleep, grasps his hand and pulls it to her chin to warm it, unaware of the news he is bringing. the little girl is gone from their life.

how it happens what are this thoughts, the kaleidoscope of things happening immediately afte, the trance that follows, the break of his relationship when after initial closeness and common grieve both lovers start grieving in their separate ways, drifting apart, becoming strangers

there is so many details which makes it so realistic, the chaos of the search, the Fluoresent world of the supermarket suddenly becoming quite personal, filled with shopkeepers and customers who become suddenly parents, real or potential, “the lost child belongs to everyone”

for us those emotions are so much more real now that we have you, can’t even think of losing you, you are so precious baby girl, nothing can every happens to you, may you life be safe and happy

the prose is so real, the emotions so strong. You understand

 

WANTED

You had your passport photo taken today, that was an ordeal, what a pain, little babies like you need a passport with a photo where they have to keep their head straight, first we could not make you keep your eyes open, once you woke up you closed it each time when we switched the lights on, then you would rolll your head to the sides or sideways.

 

Finally we got you, we stuck the photo on a template, once we had your nose centrally lined it turned out when your chin is positioned on the appointed horizontal line your eyes did not reach the top shaded strip where the eyes should be so..we had to stretch you a bit

here you are –

WANTED – by everyone who things you are so sweet and cute

WANTED for committing following crimes:                soiling the nappies, sometimes 3 x per hour,                                                                                       waking up your parents 4 times each night                                                                             eating 5 times per hour

being cute sweet and lovely all the time even when doing all the above

 

 

knowing you

Knowing you is a beautiful thing baby girl. we love watching your little face with beautiful alert eyes darting around, we know your cries, when you are hungry you start gently nhe eh e eh  then keep repeating the sound eh eh twisting your little mouth downwards ready to cry but if i speak to you, call your name and say the same thing to you you stop to listen and it is almost like you understand that i already know and wait now to be fed. not long, if the food doesn’t come quick you get frustrated and start all over again but again I can gain some time by talking to you.

When the nappy has to be changed the cry is different.  You are so patient with us and accepted our bizarre methods of teamwork nappy changing letting us strip you from nappy above the bucket when i am holding you and marcus pulls the nappy down to drop in the bin, then i dangle you in the backet of water, he makes sure you are thouroughly clean, we dry you and often give a quick wash again this time in the bowl.For some reason before this ritual is completed you decide it’s the eating time and start your other gentle cries so i kiss your little mouth already searching for milk and you stop and let us dress you up so i can carry you to bed or chair and feed you

You can eat a lot, sometimes you keep me for an hour or two next to you, when i think you are ready and done you start all over again. I think you may just like the attention and closeness so you suck for short time making lots of little breaks in between but won’t let me go, holding strong onto me with your little mouth title shut around my nipple and ready to start sucking as soon as the danger of withdrawal appears. When you are getting hungry, as soon as you start waking up may breasts feels full and hard and once you start asking for food the milk starts flowing.  It is so powerful, the connection between you and me now, the body of the mother catering for her child’s needs.

it is beautiful to be able to make you feel good, to feed you, to make you feel secure to watch you, your own little person sweet and innocent.

This was a strange year for me my baby girl. last year around this time i was traveling last year I was ragazze imagine, paid to look good drink champagne and dance wearing pretty dresses and heels, I travelled to Dominican Republic Turkey and Tahiti  free, full of life, having new experiences and different excitements each day…today I am breastfeeding and changing nappies and I have never been more happy. I might have worked in marketing, wrote articles, promoted places, did trainings, videos, gave interviews designed  educational materials but honestly i never had more important or more fulfilling job than i have right now, being here for you

every moment I spend with you though i also think about one other person, this when i feel really complete. Sometimes it is difficult because I miss your dad more than ever and yet we have so little time together, so many more things to do.  But the experience we are sharing is incredible and i am so glad i am sharing it with him

 

Haumea is a Hawaian Godess of creation, first Hawaian woman. It is also a name of a new dwarf planet but today we have learned it also have a meaning in Maori even though not many people know it.  It is a star known as Aldebaran and symbolises mystery and power

You are certainly a star for us, one more bright light in our lives and you brought a lot of magic to it.