5th anniversary

Warning: Whinge follows
At the start of April I had my 5th anniversary of when I moved to Germany. In some ways it's hard to believe I've been here this long. I've lived longer in Germany than in any other country other than South Africa (I've also lived in Australia and England).

When I arrived in Germany I didn't speak any german (I hated languages in school-always my worst marks) but I found there is nothing like living in a country to help learn a language. It helped that my boyfriend, now husband helped me by not laughing at my attempts to speak german and encouraged me as soon as possible to get a job where I was forced to speak/practice (highly recommend the "deep end" method of learning a language). I feel sorry for the first few patients I had as I really battled to communicate but after the first 3 weeks my german came on in leaps and bounds.

Now 5 years later I still don't like talking too much but don't (often) hesitate if I need to phone /speak to strangers. My german is by no means perfect (can one learn a second language as an adult so thoroughly, that one could be mistaken for a native speaker?) but I can usually can communicate my thoughts. Why then do some people not take the time to listen?

Case in point I needed to order new SaO2 sensors for Enya's monitor, the old ones only go to 3 kg and she weighs 5kg now (Yup we cracked 5kg on Monday ;-)). First phone call, they listened and sent a sensor that goes from 5kg, unfortunately it didn't have the correct connection to fit our monitor. Second phone call the guy wouldn't listen- I tried repeatedly to explain that we wanted sensors that fit a child who weighs over 5 kg but he kept interrupting and talking over me. I thought he had however understood as he did repeat back to me "for over 5kg" but when the sensors arrived they were the old type ie under 3kg. Now we can still use them, as they still read overnight when she is still, but really is it such an effort to listen to what was being said and not immediately jump to the conclusion you know what I wanted to say?

Okay whinge over.

PS

PS
Sleeping.....


... not happening again. Ciara woke us up shrieking at 4am. Not shrieking due to being upset or hunger or pain. No, she was awake and wanted some company, so she screamed, laughed and shrieked (repeat this was not crying/upset she was just being loud) until we came to get her out of bed. This is the 2nd morning in a row. I hope this is not the new trick of the month!!

meal plans for the week

So the Thickener* has been bought (and by golly was it expensive!!) and this week we are going to get serious about trying to get the girls to drink something (anything!) other than milk. Up to now it has been more important to get calories as opposed to fluid in to them, especially Enya. However they are now drinking over 600ml of formula/day as well as eating over 150g of solids/day so we can now try get them onto drinks.
My grand plan is to introduce an extra milk feed midmorning and drop the milk part of the midday and evening meals, instead offering them water/baby tea. Got that? Sounds really complicated but hopefully will work. I can't believe that I'm voluntary introducing another meal-I was so glad when they dropped the 6th meal themselves;-).

* Cathy-we are using Nestagel (from Nestle) but I believe in the US they use Simply Thick as a thickener. I don't know how it will work out, will get back to you how good it is.

Avocado wars

Enya above and Ciara below

One guess what we had for lunch!

I think the avocado won

Better than expected

Yesterday did, as the title says, turn out better than expected. Ciara was very well behaved by my friend, Jana. In fact she was so good we have made another date for the end of the month. Anna (Jana's 15 months old daughter) was fantastic with Ciara,in the past she has been a bit jealous but this time she was trying to help take care of Ciara-trying to put her dummy back, gently stroking her head etc. And yes, she was closely supervised the whole time ;-)

Enya's appointment with the SLT was a vast improvement on the last, due in no small part to the fact we could concentrate on her. I've got a couple new exercises to try with her and he has shown me a new technique to calm her down. My little pixie who always lay so still in her incubator is now continuosly kicking and trampling her legs, it's no wonder she can't put on weight! He also told me about another product I can use to thicken Enya's milk/drinks, so we can start trying to get her to drink something other than just milk after her solid meals (we will still be pushing for min 500ml formula a day). Our next appointment is in 4 weeks (hence the play date for Ciara).

I had my yoga night last night, as I've mentioned before Z has encouraged me to get out the house once a week to maintain my sanity. I found a local yoga group which does not concentrate too much on the philosophy behind the exercises, but more on the stretches, which suits me down to the ground. I was really sore from my run at the beginning of the week but after yoga I feel back to normal.

So enough blabbering I need to get started on my next major cook up- Debs has convinced me the sooner we get the girls onto meat the sooner we can get rid of the iron supplement and the recurring constipation (Jackie- I know TMI ;-))

Tomorrow will be a first. I will be leaving Ciara in the care of someone who is not family and not a nurse. Enya has a SLT appointment and after the last appointment I want no distractions tomorrow. Which means Ciara will be spending the morning with a very good friend. This is the same friend that when I was feeling overwhelmed right at being alone with the 2 girls, she came over to visit and sent me to bed for a nap while she got on and cared for the girls. Thank God for friends. I don't know whether I'm overanxious but I have packed a huge bag for Ciara's morning out, as well as about the same for Enya (that's our usual nappy bag though). I used to laugh at another friend's bag that she used to pack when going out with her son, I now find I'm even worse! Just as well I never told her what I thought or I'd never live it down.
On another note Enya is beating Ciara on the eating and drinking front today for the first time ever. I'm wondering if they are teething, they both are very irritable, off their food (well not Enya today obviously), drooling a lot and have intermittent low grade temperatures. I can't feel anything along the gums but the Hebamme kept mentioning "Zaehne einschiessen" which translated means "teeth coming in". She said the teeth can be the source for problems even before they start coming through the gums. Oh JOY!

April Fools

After a hellish day with the girls yesterday April Fools has been wonderful. That is despite the fact we had an 8am physio appointment. I love our new physio- new exercises and she explains everything. She also looks at what the girls are doing and so the exercises goals are dynamic.

Yesterday was so bad because they just would not stop crying. I've never had this before- Enya had a total meltdown before lunch, 45min solid screaming and wouldn't be soothed. Eventually I calmed her down by rocking her to sleep (to the soothing accompanying tones of Ciara's crying). Thank goodness for my rocking chair- it is also the favourite aid for getting Enya to drink ;-). I kind of wonder if it is the reaction to there only being one person at home during the day again. They are both very demanding and wanting my attention the whole time where previously they were content to wait their turn.

Funny they don't seem to appreciate it when I tell them I've only got one pair of arms.