Eva Lind then and now

I just started using my Nikon camera again and found some pictures of Eva Lind that I hadn´t seen for a while.  Oh my gosh she was so little not too long ago, but looking at the pictures I feel like it's been ages!  

I just wanted to put some pictures here to show how much she's changed in such a short amount of time!  My little cutie pie ahhh

Just born! Still at the hospital.

One week old with grandma and grandpa

Two weeks old

One month and one week

Almost 2 months

2 months and one week

Almost 3 months 

3 months old

My little Christmas smurf 

4 months old - starting to sit

4 months and 2 weeks - First Carnival

My first Carnival party - with auntie Justina

Almost 5 months - Ouch those teeth hurt!

5 months - I got 2 teeth already :) 

I love standing in my cube! 

Bip bip - biiip biiip - biiiiiiiiiiiip biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip

Anyone living here in Recife knows what I'm talking about as they read the subject of this post!  

The culture of honking one's horn. All. The. Time.

"Bip" is acceptable.  Even a "Bip bip" if the person in front of you is doing something completely wrong or against traffic rules.  

But here in this "everythinghastohappenrightnow" city, there is no "bip" or "bip bip".  The first honk is already a "biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip" 

They even honk their football team´s song like it's the most beautiful sound in the world.  

"Bi bi, bi bi, bi bi bi bi bi bi, bi bi, bi bi, bi bi".  (not exaggerating!)

Tense situation...

Look at this picture.  The light is about to turn green, right?  Would you honk already at the driver in front of you even before it turns green?  If you live in Recife chances are the person behind you would! 

I honestly forgot and/or don't know how honking one's horn is looked upon in Iceland and the USA nowadays?  Is it a normal thing or is it considered rude?

I should be used to this by now after living here for 7 years right?!  But after having a baby that doesn't like to take more than 30 minute naps, things change a bit...  Also, having a neighbor that drives a "VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM" Harley Davidson motorcycle WITH a radio installed (to be able to listen to a radio with all that noise already going on, one must turn the volume WAY up) things can get a bit sour.  Of course he usually comes home about 10 minutes after Eva Lind has fallen asleep at night and yes, poor thing has woken up to this noise many times (it's just THAT loud!).  

I was once venting on Facebook about how loud the world has become after having a baby and someone gave me the advice not to always put her down to in total silence and/or in a dark place.  I can see the benefits of this advice yes, and luckily she can fall asleep with some noise although she doesn´t fall asleep as easily when it's bright in the room.  On the other hand, when I see poor little Eva Lind with bags under her red eyes looking like a Zombie finally sleeping, keeping it loud and bright is NOT the first thing that comes to mind!!

Another "fun" fact:  They started remodeling a house right in front of us in August last year and from Monday - Sunday (starting at 7am often on weekends) it's been constant noise of breaking down walls, mixing cement, hammering, breaking glass etc.. Ohh, all that fun stuff!  Hopefully they'll be done soon because not only does the noise sometimes drive us a little cray cray, we've also had to deal with a lot of dust flying in through the windows - YaY!

((I just finished reading through my post and oh boy do I sound like a nagging cranky old housewife hahahaha  (O-O)

I never knew I could be so sensitive to noise, but I guess it's just the mommy in me that knows how important it is for Eva Lind to sleep!  And it's hard to sleep when there's people constantly honking, construction going on right in front of our building, and a Harley Davidson with a radio super loud passing by! 
Oh and did I mention how much some people love fireworks here?  For no reason at all they'll start lighting up those really annoying small ones that explode on the street and just make noise.  Hrmpf. 

Honestly, it's not fair that I turn into a slow motion ninja after Eva Lind falls asleep and the whole words seems to turn into a super loud heavy metal concert right outside my window!  (hahaha I'm of course exaggerating a little and "perhaps" venting a bit).  

I need this sign!

This picture pretty much summarizes my post!

Well, that´s it for now! I hope you enjoyed this post! 

 L8er G8er

Anxiety #%"#"%

I never had anxiety in my life until about a year and a half ago.  Those who know me can probably understand what caused this anxiety.  
After my first panic attack I decided to see a psychiatrist and he prescribed a magic pill which helped a lot.  It removed those 5 elephants sitting on my chest and the dagger stuck in my back (that's how I felt on my worst days).  
When I got pregnant last year I had to stop taking this magic pill and things were OK for a while.
  

Until Eva Lind was born and holding this little precious life in my hands I started seeing danger in every corner!

  Seriously... every corner \(O.O)/ 

It wasn't a constant feeling, but out of the blue it'd hit me.  I'd be walking around with her in our living room for example and get close to the window (we live on the 8th floor).  All of a sudden I'd get the feeling that we could somehow fall out the window or somehow she'd slip out of my arms and fall.  

Michael did obviously NOT suffer from anxiety!  

Some days are worse than others and I'll admit that after getting robbed around 2 moths after having her did NOT help.  I was THANK GOD alone with our doggie, Penny, who didn't even growl at the punk - that's how quickly this happened.  I was almost coming home from a walk at the beach in the afternoon and I'd seen this suspicious guy on a bike staring at this woman trying to cross the street really close by.  She was wearing a fancy bag and I knew he wanted to snitch it.  He passed by me and I felt relieved but a second later I felt someone tapping me on my shoulder.  As I looked back he had a huge steel kitchen knife in my face and told me to hand him what I was holding, which wasn't even anything as fancy as the bag that woman was carrying!  I was holding a tiny blue plastic bag (that's my strategy btw to NOT get robbed - not carry anything fancy hrmpf).  Inside the bag there was Penny's brush and a little coconut wallet with my credit card, my CPF card (social security - it will be a nightmare getting a new one) and some money (50 reais).  All I could think at the moment was "I hope he doesn't get pissed at me for having so little to give and decides to stab me!"  You see, they do kill people here for having old cell phones and they do tell people to take off their shoes and clothes if they don't have anything else to "offer".  I ran home looking angrily at the empty streets thinking where in the hell the cops were.  
So getting robbed did NOT help my anxiety.  
It took me almost 2 months to feel safe walking with her again even with Penny and Filipe with us.  Sucks :(  

The fear of dropping her still pops up now and again but thankfully it's getting better!  (anyone else had this awful feeling??)

  

I see danger everywhere and I know that this is somewhat "normal" for a first time parent and that, yes, she will fall one day and there will be blood and she will cry and that no, it won´t be the end of the world.  (hopefully!)

But the thought of seeing my little one bleeding is not something I'm looking forward to!  It is of course inevitable, although I'll do my best to make sure she doesn't get into too much of a trouble! The fact that she´s in such a hurry to do things (already sitting and standing) tells me we are in for some action!  

My anxiety comes from my life changing so drastically in a blink of an eye.  Which it did when I lost Davi.  It made me see how unpredictable life is and yes, sometimes extremely cruel, and you never know what tomorrow (or even today) will bring.  You know how people say "Don't worry, nothing bad will happen"?  Well, I just can't say that anymore and really mean it..   Unfortunately.  

So when I finally had Eva Lind in my arms, this beautiful and fragile little baby, I just felt so helpless.  And I´ll admit that I am still a bit overprotective (just ask poor Filipe).

Luckily I'm very much aware of my condition and I am seeing a psychologist to help me deal with this.  I know Eva Lind can pick up on my mood and feelings so I try my best to keep calm and focused and not let her feel this anxiety.  

  

Today I got an email from Parents Daily talking about "Separation Anxiety" and of course I thought they were giving us mothers advice on how to cope with leaving our baby at home with someone else.  Nobb.. The article is about how to calm the baby (the REAL baby haha) down during this separation!  

I hope you don't think I´m a lost case here after reading this post or that I spend my days biting my fingernails and avoiding the outside world.  I promise you that we spend most our days playing and laughing and having fun and we really enjoy going for walks, singing music, listening to pabbi play the guitar and dancing. 

Learning how to play the Ukulele

Going for a walk in the sling

Eva Lind is the BEST that ever happened to me and I WILL conquer this anxiety one day for once and for all!  

Well, that´s it for now! I hope you enjoyed this post! 

L8er G8er

Unconditional love 

Changing my baby has become a wrestling match. What can I do?

Elsku litla Eva mín (My dearest little Eva)

Viltu ekki slaka aðeins á (won´t you relax a bit)

Slaka aðeins á (relax a bit)

Nei elsku mamma (no dear mommy)

Það er svo margt að sjá (there´s so much to see)

Mér liggur svo á (I´m in such a hurry)

I was putting Eva Lind´s diaper on and came up with this little rhyme and I made a little song out of it - of course I forgot now how the song goes but at least I remembered the lyrics! (is an onset of Alzheimer common after childbirth? hihi)

It really has become somewhat of a wrestling match changing diapers now. 

Here´s how the match usually goes: 

Taking the diaper off: Ok

Wiping: Starting to lose patience.. Lets go off the toy I carefully picked to distract her. 

Putting the cream on: "Is that really necessary mommy?? I´d rather be rolling over" (and there she goes - well or tries!) 

Putting a clean diaper on: "ADIOS" 

BEEP BEEP!

Me in a hurry?? Nahhhh

I'm getting pretty good at putting a diaper on my semi rolled over/half sitting up/in a bridge/lifting butt up towards the ceiling/lying on back/standing little energizing bunny - WITH Filipe´s help!!   hahaha 

So what did this first time mommy do? I Googled this of course and I found that yes, this is in fact a common problem (surprised? not really!) and other parents are sharing their advice/tips on how to deal with this.

Some advices were good. Like giving her a toy that she doesn't get to play with often which will surely keep her interested and busy.

In Eva Lind's case holding a diaper worked wonders! For about 1 minute hahaha

When it got to putting  the diaper on (a different one of course) she starting rolling around HOLDING the diaper I gave her  :) She cracks me up so much this little one! 

Other advices were not as good in my opinion like giving her my cell phone to play with or the TV remote control! No way! She'd probably throw my phone on the floor before I could reach for the wipes, or even out the window like she almost did with her toys a couple of times!  I´m not very keen on making her think that electronic devices are ok for her to play with! (boring mommy!)

Has anyone here dealt with this problem? What did you do? 

That was then ;) 

Ahh this picture is such a good memory. She would just lie still and things were so easy :)
Here she´s looking peacefully at a crystal bird her great grandmother Kristín gave to me.  

Notice the window next to the changing table. I don´t open the side closer to the table but the other side, and yes, she nearly threw a toy out that window, twice! 

Well, that´s it for now!  I hope you enjoyed this post!

L8er G8er

Sleep training (O.o)

When it comes to sleeping I'm pretty sure this is what Eva Lind would say if she could talk:

I will admit that we definitely made a mistake which was probably causing my little Eva Lind to feel a bit agitated and restless. When we started giving her solids at 4 months I decided to give her this powder like porridge which helps bulk up babies.

 It tasted really good and she actually really liked it. But it was causing her to poop less and poor thing was just full of energy and sleeping was not really an option! She was even drinking more during this period but even so, for her 5 month doctor's visit she had only gained 300 grams! But again, muscle weighs more than fat and I'm pretty sure all her standing up exercise is turning fat to muscle! Anyways.

I decided to stop giving her this powder porridgy thingy and now she only eats vegetable/fruit mush and breastfeeds and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! Her sleeping has improved a lot!  She goes to sleep at night at around 18/19 (depends on how much she slept during the day = still highly unpredictable!) and she's waking up twice a night to drink (which I'm allowing due to how active she is and weight). Today for example she woke up at 6 am which made mommy really happy because she slept almost 12 hours! Poor thing, when she was sleeping the least she had circles under her eyes and red eyes from rubbing them due to lack of sleep. 

Now as she finally started sleeping more we noticed immediately that she was a lot more content, feeling better about herself and more relaxed. 

Sleeping with "Kúri"

So now what did mommy decide it was time for? 

 Sleep training! (insert highly dramatic music)

WOW.. Nobody could ever have warned me about how difficult this process is!! You need a lot of consistency, time and patience!  What's helping me is staying focused on the goal;  Helping Eva Lind feel more confident and being able to self soothe more easily (which in turn will help her sleep better through the night). 

Tired but won´t sleep!

According to BabyCenter: "Between 4 and 6 months of age, most babies are ready for sleep training and are capable of sleeping for a stretch of eight to 12 hours. You can start setting the stage at around 6 weeks by developing a bedtime routine. But don't worry if you're already past that time. It's never too late to start."

I´ve always had a sleep routine with Eva Lind at night.  After our walk in the afternoon at the beach we played a little and then she would take a bath and the whole process started.. Dim the lights, talking softly, putting on her pajamas and singing to her.  As she got a bit older I started noticing that she'd only get more energetic after her baths so I stopped giving her a bath before sleeping and now I read to her instead (more like, she tries to eat the book hehe).   

I had read a lot about both Sleep Training Methods and Self Soothing and I felt confident to start this process (I'm laughing at myself now).

Oh boy.  

Stay focused.

Remember why you're doing this.

Eva Lind crying is not the end of the world. 

You can do this.

Be strong.

Cortisol flying around my body.

I just want to pick her up.

I can´t do this to my little one.

After feeling like I was failing terribly at this I talked to my cousin in Iceland, Halla (takk aftur elsku Halla!) who is a pediatrician and a mother of two beautiful boys.  Coincidentally she had just sat a lecture the night before on sleep training!  She gave me some really good tips and along with those I also followed this article from Parents.com; "Teach Baby to Sleep in Just 7 Days". 

Halla Hrund and her beautiful boys

7 days?? I doubt it. But today is day #4 (we had some interruptions - she started teething and then she got her 5 month vaccination) and it´s already taking much shorter time than it did in the beginning and I can feel her being less nervous (or maybe it's just me being less anxious!). It´s still hard to get her to nap longer than an hour during the day, but hey she slept 12 hours last night which doesn't happen often and she's napping more than 30 minutes during the day so this must be working! In fact, as we speak she just woke up from nap #2 and she slept 1 hour and 10 minutes!  

I´ll admit that in the beginning just sitting in her room and listening to her cry made me feel like a terrible person and my heart was aching. I have become a bit of an anxious person after a terrible life event I went through and after talking about this with my psychologist I realized that she was probably just picking up on my anxiety and thus having a hard time relaxing. As I realized this I tried doing my best to stay calm in there with her and it´s working! Now it takes her 10-15 minutes to fall asleep instead of 40-60 minutes! Victory!!

I almost gave up on this a couple of times and I know some people think this is really cruel and some have even called this "child abuse" (seriously). But I'm definitely noticing how much calmer she is and she's also being able to play by herself more without having to call for our attention all the time. 

Google Image Search is always right!

Whatever I can do to make my little Eva Lind a happier and healthier person I will do and I won't give up! 

Best place to sleep

I'd love to hear from you about this topic!  How did your sleep training go?  Did your little one sleep better? (in other words.. please tell me this is all worth it hahaha)  Also feel free to leave any sleep training tips/advices you have up your sleeve ;)   

Well, that´s it for now!  I hope you enjoyed this post! 

L8er G8er

Let´s get this blog started!

Hello family & friends!

Being silly with pabbi

                                         

So I keep posting pictures on Facebook of Eva Lind which is nice and everything but now that my little munchkin is getting older, bigger and faster there's so much to tell and so many discussions I'd like to start here for you guys to participate in. 

My first Carnival

The easiest solution I came up with was to start this blog where you can comment on my posts and see what this little family here in Brazil is up to.

<Before going any further I'd like to apologize to my fellow Icelanders for writing in English but this is what having multicultural family and friends does to you ;) Feel free to comment in Icelandic though as I really need the practice!>

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As most of you know Eva Lind Filipsdóttir Cintra was born on September 19th, 2015 at 06:15.

Are we there yet??

She was supposed to be here with us on around the 9th according to the ultrasounds, but oh boy did she make us wait in suspense!! Days passed (although they didn't seem to pass for the last 2 weeks or so) and many days I thought; "Ok now, this is it" but nobb.. False alarm! I was doing all those things a desperate pregnant woman "should" do to help with the onset but nothing seemed to work. Hot sauce, long walks, sitting on a yoga ball, "love is in the air" and all that but my little stubborn one was so cozy and comfortable in there that we had to wait 2 more weeks. 

After around 40 hours in labor I had to undergo Cesarean which was not my first choice at all. (very common here in Brazil) - For those of you who've heard my birth story you'll understand why I'm not going to post it here.

One week old

It was painful and a bit traumatizing and I´d rather just focus on the fact that she's here with us today and she's healthy, happy and super strong - 

Pabbi love

Eva Lind turned 5 months last week and she's already sitting, crawling and standing up by herself. She´s not a big fan of crawling - probably because she'd rather be walking hehe.

She has the cutest smile I´ve ever seen and yesterday I was gone for around 4 hours and as I came back she just lit up the room with her smile and my heart grew a few centimeters in size *melt*

Sitting (4 months)

Standing in her crib (4 months)

Ahh this smile...

Going up in the sun. Peace!

She was 3,5 kg at birth and today she weighs 5.9 kg. She´s not gaining that much weight but muscle weighs more than fat and she has the legs of an athlete already! 

She grew quickly in centimeters though so I´m hoping this isn't some indication that she´s going to become a supermodel when she grows up! I don't think mommy and daddy would like that very much giving the fact that it can be such an ugly industry and bad for one's self-esteem!

Cozy after bath

I can't wait for her to turn 6 months so we can take her to the pool and beach! We have to wait until she gets her final dose of the vaccines necessary and finally the time is almost here. There is a swimming pool on the top of our building and I´ve sat there many times with her in the morning as she gets her vitamin D from the sun and shown her the pool. She gets so excited when I splash the water so there's no doubt in my mind that she'll love going for a dip when the time comes! 

After her 4 month doctor´s appointment we started introducing some solids to her diet. She eats vegetables and some fruit (nothing too sweet though) that we prepare for her in the blender. Since she was around 1 month Filipe has been giving her food to smell, and I'm pretty sure this helped a lot with her appetite and love for food. So far she hasn't said no to anything we've given her and she loves eating! 

Grandma Doralice

My sweet little Eva Lind.. I just can't get enough of my little munchkin. She's everything I ever hoped for and surely the best thing that has ever happened to me! For you that know me well you might remember me raising an eyebrow every time someone would ask me when I was going to have a baby (*.*) Honestly I never knew what I was really missing out on! Now I can't imagine my life without her and she's already taught me so many valuable things that I could never have learned otherwise. 

The ever so loyal Penny Lane

I'm so lucky to have the best dog ever and they get along so well. Of course there´s no interaction happening yet but I have a feeling they'll be best friends as Eva Lind grows older. Penny is very gentle with her and allows her to pat her, well actually, it's more like pulling her fur rather than patting hi hi hi! She often gives out a loud "eeeek" when she sees Penny and has shown us that she really likes her. Penny on the other hand isn't as happy to see her as she knows there will be some "grooming" involved hahaha :) 

It seems like something new happens every day and she's shown us many times that she's a quick learner. She´s in such a hurry to "grow up" and I'm pretty sure her first sentence will be "I can do this myself" hahaha. 

Learning to stand up

One day she was sitting with my help and the next she was trying to stand up! She even puts her hands down for support now when sitting not to fall. She's so blessed to have both parents at home and I'm sure this has given her even more security to advance like she has. 

I need this!

Her famous pout

She can be a bit serious at times but her smile is never far away. She puts on a pout when she's focused on something and oh boy is she quick to grab anything interesting - anything BUT her toys of course! 

It tickles hihi

Her favorite entertainment is when Filipe blows raspberries on her tummy with his beard - now you're in for a laughing feast! 

Well, that´s it for now! I hope you enjoyed this post! 

L8er G8er