Yannick is three months old today. Time absolutely flew away. Even though June was the month in which he woke up to the world, in July he learned quite a bit too: Some control of his hands: He can now grab things and after a while he manages to let go. How much of the latter action is voluntary I don't know yet, but fact is that at the beginning he had trouble of letting go. If an item was in his hand, it was in his hand until we helped him to release it. It's too funny to watch him when he is concentrating on something that he wants to grab, as his whole face goes rigid and he stares with great concentration at the item that he wants. Sometimes he stretches his arm to my face as if he wants to touch it. If I then kiss his hand he smiles and gurgles with happiness.

Kicking: He enjoys kicking things like items hanging from the play gym or, yes, my belly. I am sure most of this is still based on the kicking reflex, but sometimes it's very controlled and you can see that he wanted to kick something in specific.

Laughing: Often it's just a big smile and some high pitched scream that shows his happiness but sometimes he is really laughing. Too cute.

Showing his impatience when hungry: It was always very clear when the young man is hungry, but somehow he changed how he shows it. At the beginning there was more crying involved, nowadays it's almost always a simple "LA!", repeated vigorously if food doesn't come fast enough. You wouldn't believe how self-rightous he can sound when he finally gets what he is due when he had to wait for a while. And sometimes when he sees me, "LA!" comes out with such a happy tone of voice and sheer anticipation of a great next meal!

Lifting his head when lying on his belly: He is one STRONG little fellow. He started doing this early to mid-July and none of his girl-friends who were all born within a week of each other could do this yet. However, turning onto his belly by himself is still an art he has to learn to master.

Moving himself: Yannick is quite often moving his body upwards/backwards (direction of his head) when lying on his back. He is pressing his feet down, which means his hips go up and therefore the rest of the body simply slides upwards. I don't think he realises yet what he is doing, but it means that I have to pull him back under his playgym every so often so that he can still reach the toys.

Drinking from a bottle: So far Yannick didn't have to bother with bottles, but I decided that it was about time that he got familiar with the concept so that weaning will be easier. So, yesterday, for the first time he gulped down some of my milk from a bottle. He looked a bit suprised and was fighting with the teat at first, but after a little while he got the hang of it. He had some more later on, fed by dad - that must have been even weirder for him.

In terms of vital statistics we have this:

Height: Yannick has grown about 10 cm since birth and measures approximately 62 cm.

Weight: He has put on 2.1 kg, which means he weighs now 5.6 kg. He is comparatively slim but apparently that's normal with breastfed babies.

Yes, yes, yes, all of you are right! I know I've been saying I want to move away from Ireland as there are only two seasons in that country, spring and autumn. Now I got what I wanted, to have a proper summer, and I am not enjoying it at all.

The temperature in the house hasn't been below 24C for the last month it seems, and most of the time it was at least 26C if not 28C - even during the night. And just imagine how this affects a little child! Poor little Yannick is thirsty all the time, his sleeping pattern isn't getting better. The hotter it is the more often he wakes up and needs a drink. If I am lucky he wakes up every 1.5 hours, if I am not, it's every hour…

Then we have the fish pond. This is a story in itself. Because of the hot weather, the water in it got worse and really dirty: algae, decomposing plants, fish poo, you name it. We tried some stuff to make it better but with no experience it seems we made everything worse. After some of the fish died, we contacted the letting agency to see if they could get anybody to look after the fish. Well, according to the letting agency the landlord doesn't feel responsible for them as they pond was set up by a previous tenant. I contacted the RSPCA, in the vague hope that the fish could be re-housed. But they wouldn't take them as there could be legal repercussions (key-word: theft) for them. Great. Eventually we had some good advice from the local pet shop and managed to stabilise the water. No more dead fish since then. But fact is that there are far too many fish in that little pond and it's still a far cry from good living conditions. Moral of the story: never rent a place with a fish pond. It stinks.

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I've been thinking about this ever since Yannick was born, that somehow half of the giving birth story is never told to the mums to be. Yes, we all know that giving birth can be a VERY painful experience (not always apparently, check out this astounding article), but does anybody really point out to an expecting woman that there are quite a few risks for their health after birth as well when going through giving birth and that the weeks afterwards won't be easy as the body has to heal? Somehow it always stops at the point of pelvic exercises and giving birth, and then when baby is there you are supposed to feel only love for the little one and everything else will be hunkydorey, and you'll forget anyways.

Yeah, right.

OK, I knew about a few things that could happen, like the ripping business and post-natal depression. I knew that contractions would be painful, but at the same time I also knew they would be over at some point and they weren't as bad anyways (in my personal experience). Even giving birth was bearable with gas and air. But I didn't really expect some other stuff. I won't go into any details but if you want to know what could happen take a look at this page. I so wished I had read that beforehand.

The first week I felt like shit, everything hurt, the body didn't work as it should, muscles were weak and the bloody carpal tunnel syndrome still persists to this day. At the same time I had to look after Yannick who was constantly hungry and not sleeping well. This combination really knocked me out. It doesn't help the bonding process either. If somebody would have told me that the first weeks are so very tough (beyond the fact that I had to look after the little one), things would have been better. I can cope better with problems when I set my mind up for them beforehand.

What I felt was pure anger. Anger at how everybody downplays this period of healing and disorientation.

Some weeks on, of course, things have become easier. I wouldn't exchange my little boy for anything in the world and the first horrible weeks after birth are starting to fade away. So, yes, the painful days fade away, but they were there.

… but finally the first tattoo is appearing on our little man's leg:
On another note, this is what is depicted on one of his little suits. Am I the only one to think this a bit weird?

Finally, as an update to the last post (International Baby), we also received an item from South Africa, a lovely play blanket!

Many of Yannick's clothes have come from far away; he's been given lovely suits from friends and relatives in quite a number of countries:

• Germany
• UK
• USA
• Ireland
• Austria
• The Netherlands
• France (well, still to arrive)

Isn't this one lucky little young man???

Looking at this blog, you might be thinking that there is nothing in my life but my little baby - but you would be wrong. Of course, there is an awful lot happening related to that, like meeting other mums or going for immunisations at the GP, but that's not all.

Most importantly, Frank and I have been looking for a new house to buy. It looks like we found one in Winchester in a very nice quiet area. It's not as big as I hoped, but it's all nicely done up inside and the garden also only needs normal maintenance. As soon as the deal has gone through I'll post some more details.

Even though neither Frank nor me are big football fans, we had to follow the world cup and I am amazed at how well the German team has been doing so far. Tomorrow they'll play Italy, that's really getting scary now. But then they managed to beat Argentina, so maybe they can beat Italy too! We'll see. One thing is for sure, Jürgen Klinsmann has really done a great job already, even though the Germans beat him up before the championchip for some stupid reasons (trying new training methods, not living in Germany). I've been reading that football crazy Germany is going mad with flags, that is so unusual. In the past any kind of nationalism/patriotism was frowned upon as it reminded people to much of the Nazi times and there is absolutely no reason to be proud of a heritage like that. All of a sudden this doesn't seem to be such a big issue anymore. Are the Germans finally finding some kind of 'normal patriotism'? I would certainly like it, as there is much more that defines Germany than those horror years. Aaah, me having to delve into this topic is so typically German again… *sigh* Anyways, I was sorry to see the English team lose against Portugal, as I would have very much enjoyed a match England v Germany, but it wasn't meant to be. It was also nice seeing people here being so fanatic about their team, but now sadly the championship is over for them.

On top of that I am trying to root through my website, to get the photo gallery ready to be updated to the next version. For that I need to change the location of some photos, tedious work.

OK, this is not loads, but enough for me.

Discovering the world

In early June Yannick started to discover the world around him. This picture shows one of the first days that he really intensely looked at something other than mummy.