Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays

& 

All the best for 2013

warm wishes from

Sara  Mats  Alice  Poppy  Nils

My intentions to keep a blog about our life in Sweden were good, but I have not lived up to my goal to post something at least once a week. I will make it my new year's resolution and I'll try to work on better routines next year.

Moving back to Sweden has most of the time been a very good experience for the whole family. The adjustment is still under process, but we feel more and more at home again. Even Nils, who was not particularly looking forward to moving back, likes his life here now. Both Alice and Nils have had a good fall at Tunaskolan. It takes time to understand the differences in teaching and grading here, but they were both happy with the grades they got at the end of the semester. Changes in the Swedish school system made this year the first with a new grading system and also the first year to be graded already in 6th grade.

Mats is happy running Mobile Heights. It is a cluster organization working to promote the region to attract companies with focus on mobile- and telecombusiness. He is working both with the private companies, the universities and the politicians and tries to make more connections between the three areas. A big task, but fun and rewarding when it works.

Finally a few words about life with Poppy. She is now four and a half months old and the little sunshine in our family. She is smiling a lot and loves to be around her older siblings. As long as she is nursed every 4th hour and gets her long naps in the stroller outside the kitchen window she is lovely. Otherwise she lets you know. She is giggling a lot, but Alice and Nils are longing for her to say her first proper words. I really enjoy my days with her and it feels both very natural and very strange (sometimes) to be a mother of a baby again. But mostly it is just wonderful!

We wish you a good ending on 2012 and a happy start on 2013!

Chilly in October

The weather was one of the things I thought we were going to miss leaving Palo Alto. Actually it hasn't been that bad - so far. The summer was kind of chilly with a lot of rain, not many super days at the beach and many Swedes could not "charge their batteries" enough during their summer vacation to feel prepared for the long, dark winter. Being pregnant and coming already tanned from California I didn't really care. It was perfect weather for me.

The fall has mostly been fine. I enjoy long walks with Poppy in the stroller when the sun is shining and the sky is blue. Chillier, of course, than Palo Alto but most days Alice and Nils don't need jackets (but they both wear long pants). The thick hoodies are enough to walk the short distance to school.

This week though was different. Suddenly the chilly air from the north came in over Sweden and it was frost during the nights and frost on the cars in the morning. I wonder how my little California bug will like the temperature here. This morning it was only 23F, -5C. Both cars are now Swedish, after quite some paperwork and extra check-ups at Bilprovningen (Swedish DMV). I don't mind the cold. Just putting on a proper jacket, a scarf, mittens and soon even a hat. What I'm not looking forward to is how the days are getting shorter. During the night we turned our clocks back an hour, so the mornings will be easier but the afternoons will be even shorter. Today the sun will set at 4:30pm.  :-(

The regular soccer season is over and Alice is now practicing indoors. Nils' team has managed to get practice outdoors on a turf field with lights. Many layers, hat and mittens is absolutely necessary to stay warm but he is so happy to be able to practice with his team again now that his arm has healed well.

Poppy is wearing cosy clothes and the stroller is now equipped with a lambskin and double blankets. She is 10 weeks old today and weighs 11 lbs (5 kg) and measures 24 inches (61 cm). A good increase from when she was born - 7,7 lbs and 21-1/4 inches (3510 gram & 54 cm). She smiles more often, babbles and mimics and is most of the time a happy baby. She is a pure joy for the whole family!

My days are mostly occupied with taking care of Poppy and Alice & Nils when they come home from school. When Poppy is sleeping I try to empty a box or two. Yesterday I finished the last one that I've had in the kitchen/dining room. Yay - that felt like a milestone!

Great start for Alice

Alice was looking forward to moving back to Sweden. "I am ready for a new adventure now", was her comment when we made the final decision to move back. When we found out that I was expecting and that the baby would be born in Sweden she even started to long for us to go back (even if I told her that the baby wouldn't be born sooner even if we moved home sooner).

 Of course it was a little nervous to start school in a new class. She had a few friends from her old class, but she had only met them briefly during the last four years, so I would say that she hardly knew them anymore. On top of all this Nils broke his arm the evening before the first day of school, so she had to walk there all by herself. Nothing strange for a regular kid, but for Alice Nils has always been a great support and they always walk together. Oh well, she understood that it was not really her we felt sorry for this day, so she pulled herself together and went by herself. It is just a short walk, very similar the one to Jordan from Seale Avenue last year.

She came home a couple of hours later - so happy! The first day had been great. She was in a fun class with one core teacher that she likes a lot. He is going to have her in math and PE for four years, so it is very good that they get along well. The other core teacher is her (and Nils') Spanish teacher. She is ok, but most likely the regular teacher will come back next fall since she is just on maternity leave this year.

Here is Alice's class, 6C. She is in the front row in her blue and white striped A&F t-shirt. Now, after a couple of weeks, she is even more happy in her class. She has a boyfriend (back row, 5th student from the left, in light blue) and they are a group of girls and boys who hang out together in class, at lunch and during the free time they have in between classes.

She has joined a soccer team, Torns IF, with a bunch of nice girls. There are not as many girls playing soccer here so the team is a mix with girls born her year and a year younger. The whole club is run by volunteering parents and the coaches are parents as well. There is no club around here with professional coaches and I don't want to drive far just to get that. The point is also to be able to play with girls in her school and as it is now she can bike to practice. At least until it gets dark early in the afternoon. The girls on the team are not super competitive, but still they are among the best teams in the region and Alice is very well prepared coming from Savio's practices in PASC. Her new coaches are impressed with her skills and she scored the only goal in her second game, giving her team the lead in the league this fall. Poppy was not happy this evening and I was mostly behind the goal where the grass was bumpy enough to keep her sleeping in the stroller. I took ONE picture though and it happened to be the shot (that was supposed to be a cross), but turned out to be the goal. See below:

And life with Poppy is as good, if not better, than she could ever have wished for. I think she says the words: "she is so cute" every time she sees her. And she is almost always willing to take her when I need to cook dinner, do laundry etc. Changing diapers is not really happening yet, but eventually she'll get to that too. Even being in the car is fun now. And doing homework. 

All in all - life is good for Alice right now!

Tough start for Nils

It is not a secret that Nils is the one in our family who probably misses Palo Alto the most and he was not really looking forward to moving back to Sweden. Ok, reuniting with cousins and other relatives is fun, playing around on the beach is also ok, but when it comes to starting school again he would definitely prefer to start 7th grade at Jordan instead of 6th grade at Tunaskolan. Well, it was going to be Tunaskolan anyway and he was fine with it.

But the evening before school was about to start he was at his 5th soccer practice with his new team, Torns IF. It is a nice group of boys and even if the level of the practice is below PASC standard, the team is competitive and doing well among the other teams in the region. Practically all teams in this age group are trained by parents. They play 8v8 and they don't use the rule Offside. Nils thinks this is very odd, but there is not much he can do about it. This particular evening the coach called me when there was 15 minutes left of the practice. He told me that Nils and one of the other boys had both been running for the ball and Nils had fallen and perhaps broken his wrist. I thought he was exaggerating and asked if he wanted me to come right away to pick him up. The coach said that it was not necessary because the manager and the co-coach were already on their way to the ER with Nils and he wanted one of us to meet them there. Since I had just come home from the hospital myself with diagnosed high blood pressure it was Mats who had to go.

Sure enough it was broken. You didn't even have to be a doctor to realize that. Just look at the picture. With the penny still on he was sitting in the waiting room with the manager and co-coach when Mats arrived. He had been such a sport, said the manager, not complaining a bit after the initial shock and scream right when it happened. After a long wait with only Tylenol to ease the pain they took him in for treatment. 

X-ray to see what was wrong. The largest bone, radius, was completely off (see above). Many injektions around the wrist with anaesthetic and then they pulled the bones back in place. Painful, but necessary. Then they put a blue, plastic cast on and another round of x-rays to see that the bones were in the right place.

At 1am, after 5 hours in the hospital, they were back home. Alice and I were sleeping since many hours not knowing how Nils would feel about going to school in the morning, but we had our guesses. And of course he was not at all in shape to start school the next day. He was in a lot of pain and had not slept well, so he spent the day home with me. Alice was sad to walk by herself, but there was not much to do about it. She came home a couple of hours later though - very happy. She was in a good class and was already looking forward to going back the next day.

Klara Poppy Ekstrand is here!

Our beloved daughter Klara Poppy Ekstrand is finally here. On Sunday, August 19th, 7:38am she was born at the University Hospital in Lund, just a seven minute walk from our house. Her given name will be Klara, but most likely we will continue to call her Poppy most of the time. Time will tell what we and she will feel most comfortable with.

When I was one week past my due date I had a regular check up with my midwife whom I've seen every second week since I came back to Sweden in June. You don't have a doctor checking on you unless the midwife finds something out of the ordinary. This Wednesday she thought my blood pressure was a little too high and with my history of pre-eclampsia with Alice & Nils, she sent me up to the hospital to have a doctor check on me more carefully. He found no other symptoms or warning signals besides the pressure, so he sent me home, but wanted to do another check up two days later. On Friday the pressure was slightly higher and my thrombocytes were a little lower than he felt comfortable with so he kept me for closer observations. Best would be if the delivery would start by itself since I had a caesarian with Alice & Nils. Inducing is not so good under those circumstances.

I stayed over night in the hospital. Mats, Alice & Nils came over after school and stayed with me while I had dinner. They were not comfortable with the situation, but when they understood that I was there because they could take better care of me there than if I was at home, they were ok with it. The following day I rested most of the day in my bed to keep the pressure down, but they also wanted me to walk a little so the labor would start. Late afternoon the pressure went up even more and I started to leak some amniotic fluid so they sent me down the two floors to the delivery ward. There they monitored Poppy's heartbeats and my early contractions constantly. I called Mats, they served me dinner and slowly, slowly my contractions came more regularly. 

In Sweden you don't have a doctor that you have chosen to deliver your baby. You call the hospital when you have about 5 minutes between your contractions, they confirm that they have a spot for you and when you arrive they install you in a room. A team with a delivery midwife and a nurse guide you all the way. If there are complications there are doctors available too, but normally the babies are delivered by the midwife. There was one team when we came in, but their shift ended three hours later and a new team started working with us. She wanted to put me on stimulating drip and did so on the lowest possible dose. I had painful contractions for three hours, but it didn't help me open up. Poppy's heartbeats went down so they took me off the drip. Suddenly there was drama in one of the other rooms, so the team left us to ourselves for a couple of hours (still monitored though and we could call them any time). It all slowed down to a pace that was comfortable for me and for Poppy. Mats helped me out with massage and a TENS-machine that gives impulses on the lower back. Much better and much more effective. When the team came back my contractions were coming closer and closer and getting stronger all the time.

At 7am on Sunday morning our third team of midwife and nurse started. I had just entered the last phase of the delivery and could not open my eyes. I kept them closed to focus, took some nitrous oxide occasionally, but mostly just listened to my midwife's instructions and tried to keep calm. Thirty-eight minutes later our lovely Poppy entered the world. It was the most wonderful and emotional moment I have ever experienced. I was so happy to have Mats there with me and that we could both be part of this together. They immediately put Poppy on my chest and after a short while she found her way to my breast. It was such a reward to be awake and I was grateful that I didn't have to do a c-section again (they talked about it at one point during the night). With Alice and Nils I was so sick that they had to have me totally sedated and not even Mats could be in the room when they were born.

Soon they came in with be best breakfast I've had in my life. The "champagne" is Pommac - a Swedish kind of non-alcoholic cider. Mats walked home and came back with Alice and Nils (who had slept at home by themselves). They were surprisingly calm and so happy to find both me and Poppy in good health. 

They were proud and super sweet with their baby sister. One at a time they held her and were fascinated by her small fingers, face etc. They couldn't stop looking at her and commenting on how cute she is. 

After four hours we walked over to the hospital hotel where they have a special section for newborns. You have your own hotel room and in the corridor there are nurses/midwives to help you out 24/7. You just give them a call and they come to your room right away. They help you with any possible questions, get the breast feeding working etc. They do the first check ups on your baby and when you feel ready to go home, they give you advice about what to do. The dads can stay over night too, but in our case it was better for Mats, Alice and Nils to live at home and just visit me after school and have dinner with me in the restaurant downstairs. Cost: First night free. Then $10/night and that includes three great meals and two snacks in the restaurant. 

After two nights in the hotel I walked home with our three children (but it looks like I still have one in my stomach too in this picture). Mats took the bags in the car and was ready with the camera as we came home. It was a warm, nice summer day. Alice and Nils took turns pushing the stroller and the whole family was happy to finally be united on Tunavägen.

Pregnant update

I am one week past due date today and two days ago my blood pressure went up a little higher than the doctor was comfortable with. They looked for other signs of early pre-eclampsia, but everything else seemed fine. He sent me home with instructions to come back Friday for a new check up. Today it didn't seem as good, so he kept me here at the hospital to be able to do closer check ups and have me rest. Same thing as with Alice & Nils, but let's hope I don't develop pre-eclampsia this time.

The best thing would be if Poppy decided to start the delivery by herself. If she doesn't the doctor thinks they might help out a little after the weekend (if I don't get worse before of course). I don't feel sick, so it is actually ok to be here, but I'd rather be home. The good thing is though, that Mats, Alice & Nils only has a 5 minutes walk here, so it is easy for them to visit. They were just here and kept me company when I had dinner. As a reference to American hospital prices I can tell you that it will cost me $12/day to stay here. That includes 3 meals and 2 snacks/day and all the necessary tests and check ups. 

I'll keep you posted on how I feel and meanwhile I also hope to be able to blog a little from the summer. Now that I don't have the possibility to pack up boxes at home, cook dinner or do something else around the house.

Slow, lazy days in Yngsjö

When we were still in Palo Alto and were getting ready for the big move I just pictured myself on the sofa in the summer house in Yngsjö. Once I was there I would just relax and not do ANYTHING. Now that we were here, it was very relaxing and neither me nor the kids did a lot the first days. Slept in late, took short walks on the beach, watched Swedish TV (the kids) and took long naps on the sofa (me). All good ways to get the jetlag corrected and adapting slowly to life in Sweden.

After a few days we got the energy to do more things. Like walking the 10 minutes to the minigolf course and buy membership for the summer of 2012. I usually play, and beat, the kids, but this summer I was happy to just join them and keeping the score for them. It was enough for them too, so everyone was happy. This summer they played so well I think I would have been in trouble winning. That's what happens when you are 12 years old and play 1-2 rounds every day for a couple of weeks. We'll see if I can match up with them next year.

Fun to catch up with relatives and friends too. Here we have Mats' parents and sister with family over for dinner. Around the table are clockwise, starting with Nils (who wanted me to post both pictures since he looked so goofy on the right one that I had picked first), cousin Erik, uncle Johan, grandpa Sven, grandma Gertrud, aunt Ulrika, cousin Carl and Alice. Cousin Anna was at a friend's house this evening and missed this dinner, but we saw a lot of her during the rest of the summer because Ulrika & Johan has bought a summer house just a 3 minutes walk from ours. Absolutely perfect. The kids run back and forth as they wish and we can help out with different things at different times. Especially this summer it has been great to have them close if I would have had to leave for the hospital. Besides, they are both medical doctors so in worst case we jokingly said they could have helped me deliver in the summer house. Well, thankfully this did not happen, but it was a good fall back plan.

Grandma comes to visit

Arriving to the summer house was so nice. It is small, clean, organized and located in a beautiful spot on earth - Yngsjö. Not much to do so it truly felt ok to just lie down on the sofa, take a slow walk on the beach, play minigolf or just don't do anything. None of our summer friends had arrived yet since their kids were still in school and it was actually kind of nice. We could just land by ourselves and welcome Grandma, who HAD to come down from Stockholm to welcome us back to Sweden. She also wanted to see my stomach for herself to truly believe that their 13th grandchild was on her way. 

Alice, Grandma Margit, Nils

The days were cool, but it was so great just to hang out together without the pressure of doing a lot of things. Playing Risk during the day and watching a movie or European Championship soccer in the evening was about what we did. Very relaxing.

Alice (yellow) finally beat us all!

One day we actually did take a trip to meet up with my father's sister, Birgit, her husband Leo and their large family. Five children, spouses and 17 grandkids and the 18th on the way. They were doing a tour of the southern part of Sweden to celebrate Birgit's birthday and invited us to share an afternoon/evening with them. This day they were visiting Kyrkheddinge, where Leo's father was born and raised. Leo's grandfather was the minister/priest of the church in the background.

Grandma and Alice

Alice, Sara and Poppy

 MyAunt Birgit & Uncle Leo

Wonderful to see them all and extra fun since we will miss the BIG family gathering later this summer with ALL my dad's siblings with families - in total around 80 people. I don't know how many who can/will attend, but at least I know our little family can't go because it is held in the Stockholm archipelago and the dates are August 9-12. Poppy's due date. Typical - but not much to do. There will be more gatherings!

Tunaskolan

Jetlagged and curious of what the day would bring us we woke up early and were ready to leave the house at 8am. We walked to Tunaskolan, the school where Alice and Nils went to Kindergarten and 1st Grade before we moved to Palo Alto. The walk is very similar to the one from Seale Avenue to Walter Hays - walk a block, cross a larger road, walk through a park and there's the school - in less than 10 minutes. Perfect.

Since we don't break up the classes in Sweden their old class was still intact, only with a new teacher. It was their last regular day of school before the summer break, so we walked over to the classroom to see if we would meet any friendly faces. Alice & Nils were a little hesitant, but as I assumed the door was open and kids were running back and forth cleaning out their desks. Anders, the teacher we had never met, suddenly appeared. He looked at me, then the kids and said: "You must be Alice and Nils! Although I've never met you, I have heard so much about you. Please, come in and welcome back to Sweden!" 

We recognized almost all the kids but there were also some new ones who had joined the class. We talked a little to some of them and then Anders invited us to come back for their "end-of-the-school-year-lunch" a couple of hours later. Excellent.

We walked over to the principal's office and she invited us to come in and answer our questions. At Tunaskolan they have decided to break up the classes before you enter 6th Grade, the first year of Junior Highschool. The classes were already made, so she gave us the accurate lists. Good timing to move back this year, because now both Alice and Nils will have some familiar faces in their new classes, but also many new potential friends. The school is smaller than Jordan though, and there are only 3 parallell 6th Grade classes. Nils asked about tardies, but there are no specific rules and punishments for that here. Another question was about cellphones, and those are ok for students to have during the day as well. We will have to get back to this topic when school starts.

When we ran out of questions for the principal we went to Skatteverket - the Swedish Tax Agency - to register us as residents. I was expecting the worst, long lines, bureaucracy etc, but was positively surprised. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes, so we strolled around town a little. It felt somewhat familiar to Alice and Nils, but there is a big difference to be 8 and 12 years old.


Back at Tunaskolan they had set a long table across the classroom and they had ordered pizza, Chinese food and sushi. Yum. Nils is in the middle at the far end, surrounded by all the boys. He said that they treated him like one in the gang right away - not more, not less. That felt good.

Alice sat among the girls and felt the same way. (I'm glad she can still eat with a knife and fork after 4 years in the US, but apparently some do eat pizza with their hands here in Sweden too.)

After lunch we were exhausted with new impressions and contacts. We went home, closed the suitcases and left the mostly empty house in Lund for the summer house in Yngsjö.

Ready for Poppy

I understand that many of you wonder if Poppy has decided to join our family yet. Well, she is still in my stomach and we are both feeling fine. With only five days left to due date I'm getting kind of heavy though and I am ready for her to enter our world. And of course it can still be more than two weeks before that happens.

What is going to become her room is nowhere near to be ready. Instead it has been the spare room where we put Alice's and Nils' furniture when the painter fixed their rooms. She does have everything she needs in the beginning though, only a little spread out in the house:

Stroller in the hallway

Changing table in the kids' bathroom

Crib in our bedroom

The lower changing pad is going to be moved up to our (3rd) floor once she is born. Clothes and diapers will fill the lower shelves instead. Alice and I are going to organize that tomorrow. The kids' rooms are all on the second floor, but naturally she can't sleep there to begin with (even if Alice wants her to be in her room). Once we get to know Poppy and get more organized she will have her own room, right next to Alice's, but I'm sure it will take quite a while before she wants to have her little sister next to her ALL night, EVERY night. Time will tell!

Moving back to Sweden

After four wonderful years in Palo Alto, California, it was time for us to move back to Sweden. Two years became three, three became four and we knew that the time had come when we wanted to go back. Well, most of us wanted to. Nils and Alice were torn and would have stayed if they just could, but the deciding parts of us felt ready to return. Yes, it is tough to leave all you lovely friends, all the fun things we could do together and the gorgeous weather. On the upside we will now be close to our Swedish friends, Mats' and my parents, our four siblings with spouses and Alice's & Nils' 13 cousins. And soon, I hope, there will be another addition to the big family group when Poppy decides to enter this world (5 days to due date today).

On June 12 we took a last goodbye of Alice's soccer team with coach Savio. Two hours later Mats drove me, Alice and Nils to SFO for our return flight. It felt strange and sad to leave Seale Avenue. Luckily it was only the Rock family standing in their garden waving at us as we left. I don't think we could have managed to have a larger crowd waving us off, but once we were at the airport we had to deal with the practical things and that was a good distraction. Alice and Nils were both very helpful and didn't let their pregnant mother carry much at all. It was a long flight, but everything went well and about 20 hours later we entered our half-empty house in Lund and went to bed.

Finally arriving in Copenhagen and celebrating with a red hot dog. 

Wonderful to find this cute "Welcome Home"-card and flowers on our kitchen table when we came to our house in Lund. Two of our lovely neighbors and friends had also put everything we needed for breakfast the next morning in the fridge, including a big bowl of strawberries - so thoughtful!