Christmas and packing

It sure looks Christmasy here, and without the hassle of having to shovel our driveway either. The temperature has been staying around 20 F (-6 C) for the past few days and there is a light dusting of snow making everything white. We are going up to the mountains on Saturday and staying there until the 28th with Viggo's family. Viggo was done with his work as of yesterday, so now we can both focus on all the things we've got to get done before we leave.




I did a bit of a pre-pack yesterday to see if everything we're taking is going to fit in our luggage, and it looks like we'll have to ship some stuff. Packing is kind of intense since there are a number of things that are hard to get in Tanzania and we're going to be there for a long time. I ended up deciding to bring clothes for Daniel up to size 24months. I know we can get clothes for him there if we need to, but finding what you need is way more complicated there, and I think we're going to be busy enough in our first year.

We're also going to need to go through the stuff we're leaving here pretty carefully to decide what is worth keeping. We've tried pretty hard not to accumulate too much stuff since we knew we wouldn't be able to take too much to Africa, but there is still plenty to sort through. I'm working on putting together a decent filing system so it will be possible to find any papers that we might need later on without too much trouble. Yeah. So that's pretty much where my head is. Not so much focused on Christmas, to tell the truth. We've got almost a month until we leave, but I know it's going to go really fast.

37 Days

37 Days until we leave for Tanzania now. Assuming I counted correctly.... Our funding is in place (thanks to all of you who have given or have committed to giving regularly), our work permits have arrived, and I'm busy ordering summer clothes and cloth diapers for Daniel. It will probably be in the mid-90s when we get there, with 100% humidity. That's on the coast, where we will be staying for our first three weeks (fortunately in air-conditioned rooms). The town we will be living in for the long-term is inland, and doesn't get nearly as humid, and probably not as hot either. It will be quite a transition from our cold Norwegian winter here, especially for Daniel I expect.

We are doing very well. Viggo has been working up until now, but expects to be finished with his last translation assignment (not the Bible, just a boring lighting catalog) by sometime tomorrow. Daniel just got his yellow fever vaccination today. Once Viggo is done with his work, I'm hoping to be able to use a couple of days to start on some packing and organizing that really needs to get done.

Daniel is also very busy. We finally decided we needed a playpen recently and borrowed one from some friends, and it has saved my life. I can't leave him for two seconds now without him finding something forbidden to get into or chew on, or else falling and hitting his head. He is really good at standing up now, but doesn't seem to understand the danger of just leaning backwards and letting go of the thing he's holding on to. So he would be constantly falling and hitting his head on our wood floors if I didn't watch him like hawk. I don't really watch him quite 'like a hawk' as it is, so he tends to fall on his head at least once a day. But the playpen helps somewhat at least.

We'll be going up to the mountains with Viggo's family for Christmas, and that should be fun, though cold. They are all excited about the cross country skiing possibilities, while I'm less than excited about that based on past experiences. Norwegains like to do their cross-country skiing in pretty hilly terrain, and that can be tough and at times embarrassing for out-of-shape and inexperienced skiiers like me. Oh, and they take their babies with them. In little covered sleds that they attach by a harness around their waists and drag behind them as they ski. Seriously. I'm not letting them take Daniel.

I'm glad we're going away for Christmas so that we will get to have a real break from the stress of all the things that need to get done before we leave. My parents will be coming to Norway on January 7th. They will get to see Daniel before we go that way, and we will get some help with him while we're in the midst of packing and moving out of our house.

Daniel eating bread

Here is Daniel showing how Norwegian he really is. He loves bread! The traditional Norwegian diet involves three meals of bread per day, for breakfast, lunch, and an evening meal. The bread can be topped with various cheeses, lunch meats (only one slice please!), jam, or liver paste (a favorite. comes in many varieties). Viggo's mom gives me strange looks if she hears tales of us eating more than one "warm meal" per day. Extravagant Americans! Ha. I bet Viggo will edit this post later so that no Norwegians reading our blog will feel insulted.

Update

You may have noticed that we've rather given up on the blogging for now, but I figured there may still be a few people checking here now and then. As of now, I am definitely planning to write more regular entries once we are in Africa and there are lots of exciting new things to write about. I suppose that may be rather ambitious though; I'm sure we'll both be busy and have limited internet access. We do update our photo album a bit more often. There's a video of Daniel "commando crawling" on there now.

Until January, we are here in Norway. We've been having a beautiful fall and enjoying plenty of walks outside in the sunshine. We are very much in "preparation mode" at this point, but are still trying to stay connected here as well. I've started thinking about some of the luxuries I have here that I probably won't have in Africa. It makes me appreciate them more in the meantime. Like hot showers, good chocolate (I have been to Tanzania, and you really just can't get that there), wireless internet while sitting on the couch, and neatly packaged fresh meat. Another luxury we won't have is disposable diapers. We're trying to prepare ourselves for that by practicing with cloth diapers now, and so far I don't think it's that big a deal. But then, so far I still use disposables for nighttime and when we go out. And here we have a washing machine.

We have been to six different places in the last few weeks to speak about the work we will be doing in Tanzania with Wycliffe. It's great just to spread awareness about the need for Bible translation and get people interested, but at the same time we are still in the process of developing a support network and getting our funding in place. So we are waiting in some suspense to see this month's financial statement from Wycliffe, to see if there is any response from all these speaking engagements. We've also been getting lots of vaccinations, and right now we are doing a test run of a medicine that is used to prevent malaria. Possible side effects include hallucinations and depression, so it's important to see how we react to it before we get to Africa. I have been having a lot of weird dreams, which is a common side effect, but so far no daytime hallucinations! ( :

Photos and US Trip

Cute new baby photos in the album (link to your right). We're coming to the US on August 2 and staying until September 2. We're doing very well, having a nice summer, and Daniel hasn't been sick anymore. If anyone at all would like to get together with us while we're there, either just as friends or to learn about the Mbugwe Bible translation project we'll be working on starting in January, let us know! We'd love to talk. You can either post a comment here, or send me an email at rosebud15_13@hotmail.com, or call my parents' house while we're there if you know the number.

"My faith being small and my obedience slight, of what meaning are these words, 'I believe, I obey,' ? Deep is the abyss. The core of our being is put into question the moment we believe and obey as well as we can. In this situation, (which is the same for every Christian) prayer means going toward God, asking him to give us what we lack - strength, courage, serenity, prudence - asking him to teach us how to obey the law and accomplish the commandments, and then that God may instruct us how to continue in believing and believing yet more, and that he may renew our faith. Such a request can be made solely to God - it is an honor due to hom who has revealed himself to us by his Word...For it is the word of God that maintains us in this situation wherein prayer becomes a necessity." Karl Barth

Daniel gets a funny hat

A couple of weeks ago Daniel had his second urinary tract infection. Which is really not that big a deal, although quite uncommon for boys, but it ended up being kind of dramatic because we were at the hospital so much.

After he had his regular three-month immunizations, he had the normal fever in the evening, but then the fever persisted for several days. We called the doctor to make sure it was still ok and normal, and they insisted that up to a week of fever was normal. But after five days we started to wonder if it could actually be an infection (his pee smelled strongly, like the last time he had a UTI). In the evening his fever was higher than ever, so we decided to take him in to the emergency room/immediate care.

Even after three urine tests which tested positive for bacteria, and two blood tests showing infection, they were still quite hesitant to treat him. But in the end they decided to give him IV antibiotics for a week, plus oral antibiotics for a week after that, plus preventative antibiotics for the whole summer. His IV was in his head, so he had a funny "hood" of netting on all week to keep it in place, and the IV stuck out like a little antenna. They also did an ultrasound to check for abnormalities in his renal system which could be causing the infections. I had to stay in the hospital with him for three nights, and then keep coming in every day for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Wycliffe conference, which I had really been looking forward to. We had a lot of friends from all over Norway there. Viggo got to go though. Wycliffe's "project manager" for Tanzania was there as a guest speaker, and she mentioned to Viggo that it looks like there may already be a house lined up for us in Babati in Tanzania.

Daniel had quite a fever for the first couple of days we were in the hospital, and I had to keep giving him tylenol to keep it down, and he got IV fluids overnight the first night. The medicine did it's job, though, and he's perfectly healthy now. We're finished with the last dose of oral antibiotics today, and will be going in to the hospital for a follow up appointment on Friday. In the fall, he is scheduled for and x-ray check, using contrast fluid in his bladder, to check for any problems the ultrasound didn't pick up on.

Daniel had a physical therapy appointment last week - starting a little early I'd say. He has developed a significant flat spot on one side of his head because he always sleeps on that side. We've been trying to reposition his head, but it doesn't seem to help much. The physical therapist said he has a tight muscle on one side of his neck, and gave me stretches to do with him, and strengthening exercises for the other side. He is not a big fan of his stretches. We have another appointment with the physical therapist tommorow to see if we're making any progress. Apparently it's not the lopsided head that they worry about so much as the crooked neck, which can continue to be a problem as he grows older if it isn't taken care of now.

I would still say he's a healthy boy, though, and he's growing and developing well. He sleeps though the night consistently, smiles and laughs at us, holds up his head and chest well, and grabs onto his toys and looks at them and puts them in his mouth now. We're practicing rolling over, but so far it is just onto his side.

Long weekend

Viggo and I have been enjoying a nice long weekend with no plans, except hanging out with his family. Daniel is still amazing - and now he is smiling and talking and even laughing. I think he will be sleeping through the night soon. He usually makes it at least 5 1/2 hours before eating. I don't feel like I have much to post about these days - besides Daniel, and sweet as he is, he doesn't really do much yet. I'll try to keep up with occasional updates though - there should be some more excitement next January as we post about our move to Tanzania and life there. We're looking forward to the Wycliffe Norway conference in two weeks, where we'll get to see our Norwegian Wycliffe friends (who otherwise live in very different parts of the country from us) and will meet some leaders from the Uganda-Tanzania branch.

By the way, I've just sent out an English newsletter (a Norwegian one is coming soon from Viggo, for the rest of you). Let us know if you didn't get it, but would like us to email it to you. (Send us an email or post a comment on this entry to let us know. (if you don't have a blog, you can always post as "anonymous" and just sign your name on your comment).

At Home

I had to post my favorite new picture of Daniel below. He loves to lie under his play gym and look at his toys. Yesterday he had an online video conversation with his Grandma and he seemed to think that was pretty cool too. I should perhaps mention that the sleeping through the night mentioned in the last post was a one-time thing. We seem to be rather going downhill as far as that is concerned. He's still the perfect baby though.

We are happy to be in Norway for now, but are very much looking forward to going to Tanzania! When Viggo and I were getting married, I had a period of feeling very overwhelmed by the idea of truly leaving home, first for Norway, then for Africa. God gave me a verse from Psalm 23 that was a huge reassurance: "Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever". Viggo and I will probably live quite a few different places over the years, but wherever we go we will always be at home in the Lord.

Seven Hours

That's how many hours Daniel slept last night without waking up to nurse - from 10:00PM to 5:00 AM. We were very pleasantly suprised. We're back home in Norway and doing wonderfully. Daniel went to his first Norwegian church service on Easter and was much admired. It also snowed two inches that day. Now, though, it is sunny and beautiful and about 60 degrees. I think I will take Daniel out for a walk in his baby carriage soon. It is very nice to be in our own little home again.

Here is Daniel doing his "superbaby" pose, wearing an outfit knitted by his great-great grandmother, which once belonged to Viggo. Daniel weighs a whole 11 pounds (5 kilos) as of today. More pictures will be coming soon, Mom and Dad, but Viggo is busy translating today.

Going home

We finally received Daniel's passport yesterday, and we should be leaving for Norway tomorrow. It will be good to go home, although it has been good to be "home" with my family here in Oregon as well. Daniel's American grandparents are definitely going to miss him.

Daniel had a bit of a fever much of last week, which it turned out was caused by a urinary tract infection. It took three trips to the doctor to figure that out, but ultimately he got the antibiotics he needed and he's much better now. He wasn't eating very well while he was sick, but he's making up for lost time now, eating voraciously every 1-2 hours and getting chubbier every day.

Viggo was invited to speak in church last Sunday and shared about our experience of God's faithfulness over the past year and since we'ver been married. It is awesome to see how he has provided for us and taken care of us and enabled us to trust him even in some difficult situations. We were also glad to see our church here getting excited about being involved in our future work.

I haven't quite figured out how to post pictures yet, or I'd put up one of Daniel. However, there's a new video (narrated in Norwegian..) and possibly some new pictures in our photo album under "Daniel's first month". He's pretty cute!

Viggo got a Visa!

So, you may or may not have understood before about the situation we were in with Viggo's visa. He came into the states on a 90-day visa waiver, which ran out March 7th. There is basically no way to extend your stay on a visa waiver, and it is not allowed to apply for any other kind of visa from within the US. As far as we could tell, and we had called every number we could find to call, Viggo was going to have to return to Norway without me and Daniel before the 7th.

As a last attempt, though, we contacted Senator Gordon Smith's office to ask if they could help us in any way. They were able to set up an appointment for Viggo right away at the US Consulate in Vancouver, Canada. Viggo drove up to Canada on Tuesday, spent some nice time with friends up there, and came back on Friday with a Visitors and Business visa that is valid for six months at a time for the next ten years. So contrary to all expectation, he is going to be able to stay here with Daniel and I until Daniel receives his passport and can come home to Norway.

Also, Daniel's social security number was processed very quickly. We should be able to apply for a passport for him on Monday and receive it within two weeks, so we expect to return to Norway by the end of March.

Wonder Baby

Daniel is amazing. He is, of course, the most beautiful little boy ever. He hardly ever cries; he lets me know he's hungry by grunting and opening his mouth instead. He sleeps well at night most nights, just waking up a few times to be nursed. When he was four days old he rolled over from his back to his tummy, two different times, and he manages to find his thumb and suck on it on a fairly regular basis. So clearly he is a genius. He hasn't been weighed for over a week, but we can already see on his cheeks and his little fingers that he is getting chubbier. He is a good nurser, and I seem to have more than enough milk to keep him satisfied.

The first few days after we came back from the hospital, I found myself worrying quite a bit. I had a hard time sleeping because I kept wanting to make sure he was still breathing. I'm finally beginning to believe that his lungs will probably keep functioning without my constant supervision. He had jaundice for a few days, but it's all cleared up now.

Although anxiety was a prominent feeling for me during his first week, I am getting more comfortable with my role as a mom, and have been able to really enjoy him for the past few days. We get just a couple of hours a day where he is really alert with open eyes, and that is really precious time. Otherwise he mostly sleeps peacefully, either in someone's arms or in his cradle or carseat; he doesn't seem to care where. Of course he also wakes up on a regular basis to eat. We do usually get a few cries out of him when we change his diaper, if he isn't to sleepy to care. His one bad habit is that his favorite time to pee seems to be during diaper changes; aunt Pamela got well-sprayed the other day.

I am spoiled here at my parents' house, not having to really do any laundry or cleaning or cooking, with several willing pairs of arms to pass Daniel on to if I get tired. In so many ways it is a blessing to be here for these first weeks, where I am so much at home and have so much support.

Welcome Daniel

Finally, after a long time of waiting, we got to meet Daniel face to face yesterday. It was a day of great joy and relief. When Julia went to see the doctor at 11:30 AM yesterday, she was having a lot of discomfort. It turned out she had dilated to 7 cm, so when the doctor asked Julia if she wanted to have her water broken, it was a fairly simple decision to make. After the water was broken around 1 PM, Julia's contractions slowly started to pick up, and after a few hours she was experiencing some intense labor pain. Julia asked for an epidural, and the rest of the labor was a whole different story. During the "pushing" stage of the delivery Julia experienced far less pain, but it took three and a half hours and a lot of energy before we got to meet our little baby boy.
After all this time waiting and hoping that Daniel would delay to enter into the world, it was so unreal to finally be able to rejoice over the birth of our son. I have uploaded some photos to our photo album and will upload more in days to come.

In about a week I will have to leave the US and go home to Norway. Most probably I'll return after a week, so that I can be with Julia and Daniel. It'll take some time before they will be able to travel. Daniel will need to get both his birth certificate and a social security number before we can apply for a passport, so probably he'll be ready towards the end of March, beginning of April.

Daniel Ex Utero

Grandpa Schnake here, pinch hitting for Julia and Viggo:

Daniel was born at 10:15 pm on Monday Feb. 26.
He weighs 7 lb 2 oz and is 19 inches long.
All systems are functional, as demonstrated when he peed on Grandma's arm. All digits present and accounted for.

Julia began labor this afternoon if you don't count the previous three times she was admitted to labor and delivery in the past 9 or 10 weeks. Labor was intense. It took three and one half hours in the "pushing" phase.

We had four or five digital implements flashing and whirring making images, so I am sure you will soon see pictures, video, and probably a TV miniseries before long.

It is after midnight here. So I think I will rest and write more later.

There is a Season

Here's a post by Dad since Julia and Viggo are busy just now:

There is a time for all things. It apppears that this day (March 26) is the day that Daniel Jakob Larsen has been destined to leave Julia's uterus.

Recap: Julia and Viggo flew to Corvallis from Norway to Corvallis on Dec. 7, 2006. They intended to stay for three weeks.

On Dec. 21, Julia began having serious contractions. Her due date was not until March. 20, 2007.

She spent more than eight weeks on bedrest at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene.

She came home to Philomath with Viggo a little over a week ago.

Julia visited her ob/gyn doctor this morning. She was more than 7 cm dilated and the baby's head is quite low.

The doctor decided to break Julia's water this afternoon. That has been done. Now she is in major labor. The baby should be born soon! This time things have gone too far for stopping!

I will add more details when I have them.

And the neverending suspense continues...

Well...we're still here. But not for much longer, at least. We should finally get to go "home" to my parents' house in Corvallis on Monday, assuming I don't give birth before then. On Tuesday Feb. 6th I went into labor for the third time. I have had many episodes where I'll have regular contractions for a couple of hours, but only three times that I've been properly in labor and moved to a delivery room and everything. The doctors, again, were quite sure I would deliver this time, and, again, I didn't after all. Despite several hours of intense pain and frequent contractions, everything slowed down and stopped in the end. Which was very good, of course, because Daniel's lungs needed the extra time to develop some more. On the other hand, though, i really think it must be a bit nicer to just get this whole labor thing over in one shot. And I did feel bad about the fact that my Mom drove down from her prayer retreat 4 hours away only to get here when everything had calmed down again....

I had several episodes with pain and contractions throughout the week, but since last Saturday everything has been pretty calm. We have no idea how much longer we will have to wait, or whether Daniel will come before Viggo has to return to Norway or not. Actually, that's not quite true; we can definitely expect that Daniel will come sometime in the next 5 weeks or so, we just can't pinpoint it any more than that.

I've been shopping for cradles and changing tables online today, and now I find myself sitting in my bed mentally rearranging furniture. It's strange to not be able to get the house ready for the baby at all before he comes. We assumed that we would have plenty of time for that after coming back from our Christmas visit to the states. We really didn't have any big plans in any case; we will just need to make sure that Daniel at least has a place to sleep when we come home.

I'm a bit bored today, and wishing I could go for a walk. But I have visits from both my mom and my friend Kari to look forward to tomorrow, and Viggo and I had a nice Valentines day yesterday. I got a big box of gourmet chocolates from my Dad, and 14 lovely red roses from Viggo, and Viggo took me out to eat at a Chinese restaurant around the corner (I was in a wheelchair).

More Patience Required...

This morning Julia had an amnoicentesis, and we were mentally prepared to leave the hospital to stay with Julia's parents. Daniel has reached 34 weeks, and it was expected that his lungs would be mature by now, so that he would not depend on care from the neonatal ICU when he was born. The results were therefore quite surprising. His lungs are really imature still. The doctor said that on a scale where 1.0 is imature and 2.0 is mature, Daniel scored 1.0. Apparently late maturity of the lungs is a more comon problem in Northern Europe than anywhere else in the world, so I guess my genes are to blame.

When Julia was first admitted to the hospital, she was given two shots of steriods to help the baby's lungs mature. It is quite rare that this procedure is repeated, but Julia got another shot of steriods today and will get another one tomorrow. In two weeks time the doctors will do another amniocentesis to check if the lungs have matured, and if so, we'll get to leave the hospital then. So far our miracle baby has defied all the predictions of the doctors and the nurses, so maybe he will go to full term. The doctor did say, however, that he thought the baby would be born soon, and that it would not be a problem for all three of us to travel home to Norway before March 7th, when my visa waiver expires. We don't know what to expect or believe, but we KNOW that God is faithful and that we are in his care. So despite everything we are experiencing we're not worried. Our faith is in Him who has filled our hearts with peace and who is in control of our future.

Daniel's most recent attempts to escape...

I think I'll just summarize a bit what has been happening since Viggo's last post, for those of you who don't always see Viggo's daily "updates" on the sidebar. Not that that much really "happens" on a daily basis here. However, there was major excitement last Friday, because I went into labor. I have had several episodes of contractions over the last few weeks, but this time it looked like the doctors weren't going to be able to stop it, and I was really going to give birth. I had much more painful contractions than I'd ever had before, and although the estimates seem to vary a bit, it seems likely that I dilated at least to 6cm or so. (I was 5cm before this episode of labor started). However, after a few hours of labor, things started to slow down, so the doctors decided to try one last time to stop them, and then the labor really did stop. It was actually a bit strange and almost sad for me, because I had adjusted to the idea that we were going to have the baby that night, and then there was no baby after all; things just went back to the same as before. Both the doctors and I thought I would probably go back into labor within the next couple of days, but nothing happened. Which is wonderful, of course, because my tummy is still by far the best and safest place for baby Daniel to be right now.

I did have some quite regular contractions for a couple of hours again on Tuesday evening, but it didn't get so far.

I wrote the above part yesterday evening. I had some contractions again after that, which eventually calmed down again, and I have been having some more painful ones this morning. Viggo still got to play soccer today, though! He just has to take along the cell phone and have someone on the sidelines hold onto it while he plays in case I call to say I'm having the baby. Really, things are still the same as they have been all along. It could happen any time now, or not. I guess that's all I'll be writing for now. I'm in a bit of pain and it's kind of hard to focus, so I'll let Viggo finish.

So far our focus has been on the baby, but a few days ago we became aware of the fact that it will be very difficult for me to stay in the US after March 8th, when my 90-day visa waiver expires. We're hoping to find a way for me to stay, but I might have to go home, or at least go to Europe, before I can return to the States. We've made a few phone calls to different government agencies, but have not been able to find a solution yet. We might try to get help from an imigration lawyer sometime next week. We really hope things will work out, so that I can stay here and that all three of us can travel home to Norway together.

Visitors from far and near

Up until now I haven’t done any posting to this blog, since I do all the posting to our Norwegian blog, but here's my first entry. Tomorrow we will have been here for four weeks. Not much has changed since Julia was admitted to the hospital. I like to say that this little hospital room is our bedroom, our living room, and my office. It’s kind of crazy to be living like this for such a long time, but we’re coping well. It started to make me a bit nuts last week, but it really helped that I got to go visit Julia's parents for a couple of days during the weekend. The challenge for Julia is greater of course, but she seems to handle the situation quite well.

The great and all-important thing is that our little baby has gotten four more weeks to grow and mature. In fact, according to the last two ultrasound check-ups, Daniel has grown a whole pound over the last three weeks, which means that he is now approximately 3lb 12oz (1700 grams) and about two weeks ahead of schedule when it comes to size. We're very pleased about this, though Julia is starting to worry a bit that he might actually be too big if he goes to full term (March 23rd). This isn’t very likely though. The doctors still believe that Julia could deliver any day now.

On Monday Julia had a check-up, and the results showed that she was still 4-5 cm dilated, and 80% effaced, with the baby’s head sitting very low, so the doctors told her that she'd still have to stay in the hospital. We had been hoping that she might be able to go home to her parents, but this is what we were really expecting, so we're not too disappointed. Julia will have to stay at the hospital in Eugene for at least 4 more weeks, unless Daniel is born sooner than that. After that she will probably get to go home until she gives birth.


We’ve been really blessed to have several friends and family come visit us while we’ve been here. On Saturday we had visitors all the way from BC, Canada. My old roommate and two of our friends from school made the 9 hour trip to spend the day with us, before they returned back home. On Friday we were surprised to have Julia’s grandparents come visit together with Julia’s mom and aunt. Julia’s grandmother has been very sick since mid-November, and this was her first real trip since then. Whenever Julia’s mom visits she talks with baby Daniel putting her mouth to Julia’s tummy and doing both parts of the conversation. This is always very entertaining for everybody else in the room. Click here, if you want to see a video clip of Barbara talking with Daniel.

Home sweet home

So, Viggo has started referring to our hospital room as our temporary "home". He said we should put up a sign that says "welcome to our humble abode" outside the door. I realized today that I am definitely starting to miss just being at home, at our little house in Norway. It seems almost surreal that we are going to be here three or four months, instead of the planned 3 weeks. But under the circumstances, we've decided that we're probably actually better off here in the US, for various reasons. For one thing, in Norway, I would probably have to stay in the hospital alone, with Viggo working and sleeping at home instead of by my side. We'd rather be together, even if the room is kind of small.
We've had quite a few visitors this week, and I've gotten to go across the street (in a wheelchair, for half an hour) for coffee a couple of times. I'm touched that friends from high school who I haven't really kept in touch with very well over the past six years would take the trouble to come and visit me. I really enjoy visits from my family, too. It's always a party with my Mom here. She has developed a hilarious habit of talking to my belly, actually leaning over with her lips touching the belly and having a conversation with the baby. She speaks for the baby too. Daniel says things like "leave me alone, I'm trying to sleep" in a cute baby voice. If you know my mother very well, this will be easy to picture...
Otherwise, I am just trying not to think about the fact that I have been lying here for almost a whole three weeks now. On the other hand, we are grateful that I am still here, rather than out of the hospital with the baby in the NICU.

Still waiting...

Happy New Year!

We're still here in the hospital, which of course is a good thing, because it means that baby Daniel is still in my tummy. The nurses put a monitor on my belly for an hour twice a day to watch for contractions and to look at the baby's heart rate and movement. He is usually very active, and they always tell me he seems very healthy. Yesterday I did have a couple of contractions show up on the monitor, but they say a couple in an hour is nothing to worry about. Still, the doctor tells me that it is most likely that I will give birth fairly soon, perhaps within the next couple of weeks. It is still possible that I could carry the baby to full term, though. If my cervix remains as dilated as it is (4cm), they will want to keep me here in the hospital until I'm at least 34 weeks (today I am 28 weeks and 2 days).

I am starting to get a bit bored lying here in my room all day, but it's still quite bearable. I often have someone come to visit in the evening, which makes a bit of a change. If it's my Mom visiting, then we often get takeout for a change from hospital food (which is not bad, but is starting to get pretty repetitive). I started knitting a scarf today, I have some books to read, and we're borrowing a DVD player at the moment. One of the nurses lent me her copy of a national geographic film called "in the womb", and we watched it this evening. It was pretty interesting, with lots of 3D ultrasound footage of real babies in the womb. Viggo is still staying here with me, but he went up to my parents' house for the weekend to get a bit of a break from the hospital. Viggo has also found a good running trail in a park nearby, where he's gone running twice this week.

I was able to get out of the hospital for the first time today. My doctor has said that I can go on a short wheelchair trip once a day, so today Viggo and my mom and sister took me across the street to Starbucks. We didn't stay long, but it was nice to get some fresh air (and a decaf eggnog latte). I have been having a lot of headaches the past few days, which is a side effect of one of the medicines I'm taking, but thankfully I feel a bit better this evening. We're continuing to just take things day by day.