Missing California Weather

Our backyard after a light snow.

Yes, yes, I know I haven't posted in ages. Things have definitely moved to a snail's pace now that Willem is more demanding, Gerard is back at work, and mom has left. It's much harder to get anything done on any given day. I keep planning to continue unpacking boxes, but that has failed to happen each day. I need to just focus on unpacking one or two a day. At least that would be some progress. Right now I feel I'm at a standstill. I don't want Gerard's parents to arrive in January and have us still have boxes all over the house. Not to mention we really need to find the rest of the hardware for the futon so we can finally put it together. It seems that the movers packed the pieces separately (why, I will never know), and we have yet to be able to find all the parts and/or put it together.

Thursday
After some mishaps trying to catch the bus this evening (with two kids and no stroller available it was mighty difficult to make it to the bus stop on time), Gerrit, Willem, and I finally managed to take the bus to Garching and meet Gerard at his work tonight. Francoise had arranged for a get together after work welcoming Gerard and our new son. It was very nice, and we were given some nice gifts.

Friday
Had my doctor's appointment with the Chief Surgeon at the hospital where I delivered. He had wanted to see me before I met with my regular gynecologist for my six week check up (still three weeks away). If you ask me, he just wanted to charge my insurance. Okay, so I get in to his room and I was a little put off by how they examined me. Again, I know they do things differently here but I still found it a bit bizarre. I actually had to ask what to do because I didn't see a changing room or any robes or sheets, and he and his associate never left the room so I wanted to be sure I was actually "supposed to" disrobe. I was told to disrobe (right in front of everyone in the room) and then walk over to his examination chair (not a table, but a big chair with stirrup-like things on the ends). I was not given a robe or sheet or even one of those little cheap plastic/paper type things they give you in the gynecologist's office in the U.S. to put over myself. No, just wandering around this room with everything hanging out while he examined me and then proceeded to have a conversation with me afterward. It was all so very strange.

My big (sleepy) boy at Chinese
restaurant we tried out for dinner.

Saturday
Gerard, Gerrit and I got haircuts today. Gerard's turned out fine, but Gerrit and I literally had our hair hacked off. Gerrit looks like he can join the U.S. Marines and I have a "mom haircut." I asked for a few inches cut off (straight only- no layering). Every time I get my haircut (even in the U.S.) the stylists always want to layer my hair. I think it's because there is a lot of it and it just hangs there heavy and lifeless. I do not care if it's heavy and lifeless. With a toddler and an infant heavy and lifeless is what I can do. I need WAY low maintenance because I don't have time to style my hair and layering requires blow drying and styling to look good. Bleh... she didn't listen and now I have shorter hair with lots of layers. And it looks awful... I have a soccer mom haircut. I'll post pictures when I get around to photographing myself.

MMMM.... egg & tortilla wraps are my favorite breakfast treat!

Sunday
Regina came by to check on Willem's umbilical cord again. Ever since it fell off, it has been bleeding ever so slightly. We were advised not to give him a water bath again until it heals completely. We need to keep the area really dry and try to avoid infection. So far, so good. It's taking a lot longer to heal than I would like, but Regina just says that he has a very deep belly button and it wasn't completely dried out inside there when the cord fell off. She also says that the problem with really deep belly buttons is that they take longer to dry out. She has given me a powder to absorb moisture. I clean his belly button each day and then put the powder on it. Hopefully, it will be completely healed in a week or so and then Willem can go back to enjoying warm water baths. I finally relented today and pumped a bit to take the edge off. Willem has been gagging and gasping, choking, and sometimes even crying when he nurses, particularly if it's been a while between feedings. Whereas with Gerrit I was always concerned that I didn't have enough milk, Willem is a completely different story. It appears I have an adequate milk supply since he's gaining weight well. However, I have a very strong let down and Willem is getting a lot of milk all at once which is quite forceful. It also makes him extremely gassy so I have to nurse him more upright, burp him often, and feed him more often so the milk supply doesn't build up too much between feedings. If he goes too long between nursing sessions and I have the pump available, I've been pumping a bit out at first so that it's not as hard on Willem. Poor kid.

Monday
So in German class today I was nursing Willem and he was a bit fussy and pulled away. I looked down and saw what I thought was a hair from my head attached to my breast blocking his nursing access. I tried to remove it and then realized it wasn't a hair at all. Instead it was a fine stream of breastmilk shooting at Willem's face. He wasn't even drinking and it was spraying at him. Poor guy. No wonder he's always choking. If I had something shooting at the back of my throat, I'd be pretty unhappy too (smart a** comments here can be kept to themselves).

Gerrit reminisces and shows Willem the joys of infant toys.

Tuesday
Had a doctor's appointment this afternoon with a dermatologist. Back in L.A. I had a mole removed right before leaving for Germany. The doctor emailed me out here to let me know the cells were benign but the biopsy showed some atypical cell structure and she advises me to have it completely excised with even more cut off to be sure they got all the surrounding cells. Since I didn't bring any paperwork from this doctor with me out here and I had this procedure done literally days before leaving for Germany, this makes things just a bit more difficult. The doctor here wants a pathology report from the doctor in L.A. so I will have to have medical releases signed and either faxed over or sent as hard copies (I'm hoping faxes will be sufficient). The doctor here doesn't want to cut anything more off until she received records from my previous doctor. Sigh... when I called to make the appointment and explained what I wanted they did not tell me they needed my previous records (I guess I should have known). My appointment was a 4pm today and by the time I finally saw the doctor it was 5:30. I had Gerard leave work early to help me with the kids, then waited an hour and half with two kids just to be told to make another appointment later. Argh.. frustration.

The silver lining in this whole experience is that after the appointment we decided to go have Sushi nearby. It was expensive and not as good as "A Float Sushi" back in Pasadena, but it was good. At least I don't have to take my iodine pill today since I had adequate fish intake. Yeah, so Gerrit, Willem, and I have to take all sorts of pills here that we wouldn't have to take in the U.S. First off, both boys need to take flouride pills because they do not add flouride to the water supply like they do in the U.S. Willem gets the added bonus of taking Vitamin D supplements (no Vitamin D milk here). I'm not exactly sure why the vitamin D is necessary but I speculate it's because of the long dark icky winters. Anyhow, all kids here are supposed to take Vitamin D for the first two years of their life. Then I'm supposed to be taking iodine (no iodized salt here) so that I can pass this along to Willem via my breastmilk. Hmm... this one really puzzles me. When I inquired about this, the pediatrician told me that people in Bavaria don't eat enough fish and they don't get enough iodine. I think that's a bit of a cop out since you can get fish at any store here and we are eating just as much fish here as we did in the U.S., which is typically once a week. At any rate, I figure my sushi gave me more than adequate iodine intake tonight.

Willem crashes out after a meal.