And then there was Quinn!

Emily: He has arrived! The little creature has finally landed on earth. How completely amazing.
He was born on Tuesday the 27th of January. He's already 11 days old. I'm sorry I haven't posted anything before but everything seems to take 10 times longer all of a sudden... I got out of the clinic 6 days ago and now that we're home we spend such a huge portion of our day just staring at this beautiful little boy, not to mention feeding, changing, cooing, etc.
The birth itself was wonderful and intense. I did it completely naturally which worked out well because I had done a lot of preparation classes and because Jos was such a wonderful help and support. The birthing center we were at was also completely fantastic. It was started in the 60s by Dr. Lebroyer who wanted to look at birth as a life event and less as a medical event. The midwives were really there for me and I was allowed to do things exactly as I wanted to... so I walked around, rolled around on a yoga ball, put on some nice music, took a hot bath, had Jos massage my back... it was long and hard but it was such a beautiful experience to have gone through together. I ended giving birth on my side after an hour long pushing session where Quinn kept coming down and yo-yoing back up. And then he was out and all of a sudden there was absolutely no more pain, only awe and joy. Apparently my first words (though I don't really remember because I was in some sort of alternate universe) once Quinn finally made it out were, "wooh, that was intense." The midwives put him directly on my belly as soon as he was born and Jos cut the umbilical chord. We sat and stared at him for an hour or two before they cleaned, weighed, tested and dressed him and then they brought me down to my room and Jos went home to share the event with my family. Uncle James just managed meet Quinn before he had to fly back to San Francisco. It couldn't have worked out better. I started my contractions in the middle of the night the day before James was supposed to leave, so when I got up at 6 a.m. he was able to quickly change his flight and stay two days longer. Hoorah hoorah!!
On Friday we came back from the clinic. We all walked home together, Quinn happily riding in his fleece sling. The birth center is just 20 minutes from us by foot and it was a wonderfully crisp, blue-skyed winter's day.
Now we're home. Quinn is doing all his baby things... feeding voraciously, pooing, sleeping in two hour spells... and we're soaking it all in.
Jos: Quinn William Houben-Wilson came into the light just 30cm away from my nose. I was holding E's leg to help her push while the midwife grabbed him. He landed on his mummy's belly, coughed a bit and started breathing and that was it. Short little breaths, about 4 for every single one I make, I counted the other night after he fell asleep on top of me. The closeness of us three in our home, the unconditional love, the light of the winter sun: Quinn floats around in it all with his little eyes wide open in quiet surprise.

an hour old

all dressed up and ready to leave the hospital

walking home from the hospital with Q in his sling

relaxing in his bedroom


sleeping with daddy

House Beautiful!

Our house has gone through such a transformation this year... new kitchen, new parquet downstairs and now a new bathroom upstairs. It's all part of some serious nesting instinct I suppose. We have been spending all our free time lately trying to sort and organize everything we own. We're both pretty bad at keeping organized so that might have something to do with it. We're trying to learn a bit of discipline to get our lives ready for this new person that is on his way. But of course now we're starting to feel SO ready that we can't wait for him to arrive. We're getting antsy now. An Italian friend recently told me that they have a saying that goes, "pregnancy lasts 8 months and an eternity." Sounds about right. Luckily I'm not feeling too uncomfortable or exhausted or anything. Just excited and anxious to meet this little boy. Jos can't wait to be a daddy. He's completely hyperactive with anticipation... always looking for a new daddy task. We're becoming very boring company... all we can talk about or think about is babies. Luckily two of my good friends here are also pregnant. Anna is due a week before me and Alex two weeks after me. It's so fun to have bump buddies! Jos has also been calling up all his friends who have kids to get their advice. So now all that's left to do is to huddle up in our beautiful home and wait, wait, wait...

Cold!

It's been positively frizzling here this week. It snowed on Monday and the temperatures have stayed well below zero degrees celsius (around 20 or 25 degrees fahrenheit) so nothing has melted. In fact it's all gotten even more frozen. Our courtyard is an ice rink. Jos got the salt out today and made a little path so there's no risk of slipping.
It's kind of exciting to have such extreme weather here. It's rarely this cold and snowy for so long in Paris. The snow even poured down in the South of France in Marseille.
I made my first foray into the cold world on Thursday to have lunch with our friend Gisele and then tea with my friend Anna who is also pregnant and due a week before me! It's great to be able to get out of the house again. Now that I'm at 37 weeks I'm considered to be full term so the boy can come when he wants. In fact my midwife is hoping he'll decide to show his face sooner rather than later since he's so big. They'd prefer to get him out before he grows too much more in there... they're afraid I won't be able to push him out otherwise... we'll see.
We've been pressing ahead with all our homey duties as we wait for the exciting arrival. My parents were here this week and they finished up the bathroom for us. It looks so gorgeous! (pictures to come tomorrow) We also finally put together the crib and got the changing table all set up too. We've ordered a rocking chair and a mobile to finish off the room. It's looking cuter and cuter. We'd still like to get a big rug in there but other than that everything is ready. In any case he'll be sleeping with us in our room for the first few months in a little cradle.
Here's how his room is looking now...

All packed up and ready to go

So my suitcase is officially packed and ready. After coming back from the clinic and realizing that the little man could decide to appear on the scene at any moment I decided it might by wise to get everything ready for him. Now we're officially ready to leave for the clinic at the drop of a hat. The suitcase is full of clothes for him and me, blankets, hats, thermometers, massage oil, ipod and speakers for labor, etc. etc. etc. Each day I think of something more that I should add in order to make everything as comfortable and pleasant as possible. I better stop before it gets too full. In France, or at least at our particular clinic the average hospital stay after birth is 5 days. In that time they take care of you and the baby and help you learn how to bathe him and breastfeed and even offer you post-natal physical therapy classes. And everything is completely free and paid for by the national health care system (unless you want a private room... that's a bit extra). Crazy! When I had to stay in for two nights two weeks ago and have all the sorts of tests done on me I owed the clinic exactly 0€. As an American I'm completely in awe of the healthcare system here. The French state even gives you a cash bonus just for having a child... something like 800€! Vive le socialisme!


This kid has already got so many cute clothes. They'll probably only last him a few weeks but these two pairs of pyjamas were just too adorable to resist. The second one has an elephant on the front though you can't tell too well from the photo.

Coddled!

Day 5 in my new life as a couch potato and I must admit that it's not all that bad! Jos has been taking care of me like a true mother hen. He's been cooking up a storm and cleaning like crazy and of course bringing me water, books, tea and the phone as I lay cuddled up on the couch. He says he's in daddy training and he actually seems to be loving it (except maybe the endless amount of dishes he keeps washing... time to get a dishwasher!).
Meanwhile we have a builder in working on our bathroom. Jonathan. He's an English guy who worked with my parents on their place. So there's lots of hammering and sawing and no shower upstairs. I thought it would drive me totally out of my mind to have him living and working here for a week but it's turning out just fine (he's good fun) and we're so looking forward to having a new bathroom! Also, it gives Jos a few more tasks in his "daddy training"... going to the hardware store, helping to rip up tiles, consulting on design choices. It wasn't exactly how we'd planned to spend our Christmas vacation, but it's actually turning out to be rather relaxing to just be home and concentrating on home stuff.
I've been doing endless loads of laundry myself. Getting all the baby stuff washed and ready. Hopefully the little guy will wait at least another two weeks... but we're ready for him now! I've even got my suitcase more or less packed up and ready for the hospital. We're moving into the home stretch.


This was once our bathroom...

A scare...

Happy holidays one and all! I am sitting at home on the couch next to our wee Parisian style Christmas tree. We were supposed to be at my parents' place celebrating, but there's been a bit of an uncontrollable change of plans ... Some of you already know, but for those who don't... I ended up spending a fascinating 60 hours in the hospital at the beginning of this week. I woke up Monday morning bleeding and so we immediately rushed off to the clinic where they hooked me up to all sorts of machines to see what was going on. It turned out that I was having contractions that I wasn't feeling. But everything was fine elsewhere... my cervix wasn't opening yet or anything so they just had to attach me to a drip and feed me medication and monitor me in order to stop the contractions and make sure that baby didn't arrive 6 weeks early. So they kept me in there for two nights and most of the third day. I was home on Christmas Eve at 7:30 p.m. By then my contractions had stopped and all was well. But they said that I have to stay more or less lying/sitting down at least for the next two weeks. And no traveling. So we couldn't go to my parents' place and we can't go to Belgium to visit Jos' family. James and my parents came to our place for Christmas. We had a very sweet time. They all rushed around with Jos and cooked and cleaned and finished preparing the baby room and I tried to stay put. Not such an easy task. So now they've gone and we're home alone. We were very sad not to be able to go to Belgium. We were so looking forward to being with Jos' family and showing off my big belly. This whole thing came as such a complete surprise after such an easy and uneventful pregnancy. You can't plan for everything though I suppose. So now that I shall be lying on the couch for the next two weeks I'll be able to blog all the time. I better take full advantage of all the rest and relaxation while I can get it!

Here I am on Monday on the monitor and the drip.

Home improvement... finally!

Well, I'm finally back! So sorry it's been so long. I thought that this last month would be relaxed and that I was done with all the traveling but in fact, since I last wrote, I've been back and forth to Spain twice and last week I was in Athens (I left just before all the craziness started there). I can't believe how much traveling I've done this year, but it was hard to turn down such good gigs and it has actually been quite fun being so active. And my giant belly definitely added a little spice to the cabaret. This little boy certainly has been on stage a lot! But now it is all officially over. Phew. No lying this time I promise! I am finally home and concentrating on home stuff. Things have been busy on the home front too. Our new parquet is in! It's been pretty intense getting that prepared and cleaning up after it. We had to clear everything out downstairs including the kitchen tiles (thank you Rick!!) before it went in of course. And now we've just spent the last two weeks putting everything back together... attaching all the shelves to the walls, cleaning each and every dust covered book... It's definitely worth it though. It sure does change things to have a nice floor. Before, it was a painted cement floor and we couldn't quite imagine the little bean crawling around on it. Especially since it wasn't the most even of surfaces. So it's a wonderful relief to have that done. We feel like we're living in a new house! Now the next job is his room. The crib arrived a couple weeks ago but we still haven't managed to put it together. By the end of the week the house should be more or less ready. Wow. Time sure does fly. It's hard to believe that in about a month and a half we'll be a family of three. Incredible!