Half way through maternity leave and time is flying

I remember thinking the day would never arrive when we would be leaving New Zealand. I would have relaxed and enjoyed my time more there had I known everything in Stockholm was okay and my apartment was free for us to move back into, but since we didn't know that for sure then it was stressful at the end. 

Here we are back in Sweden 8 months and I don't regret our decision one bit. Yes there are a lot of things we miss, Mike, Stephen, cake day, Katie Perry, St. Anne's (I loved my job, colleagues and boss!), a lovely family with Marianne in my class (we still keep in contact though) and John really really misses studying there.  We are however, very spoiled in Sweden with the excellent maternity leave, which is allowing me to be home with my little boy until January, stable job, warm apartment (which New Zealand just couldn't beat), internet (though I can't complain about our internet at all in New Zealand).  I go back to work in January and John will stay home with our little boy until August 2014, at which point he will go to daycare.

John is back studying at Stockholm University and isn't enjoying it, partly due to language as he loves studying in English and partly due to his time off he's getting in January that he's soooo looking forward to.

During our days I take N out to Öppet Förskola as they call it here, where you meet other parents and they have a singing session.  We go to the library as they also have song get togethers and book talks, though we haven't been for a book talk yet.  We definitely are not stuck for a lack of things to do, quite the opposite actually, where I tend to do too much.  So far N has gotten two teeth, no hair, rolling (så där - he can do it, but chooses not to).  He is such a happy little boy and we can't be any luckier.

I suppose since this blog was meant for New Zealand I actually haven't kept up with it, but I realised I probably could keep it going and update it with the baby instead.  I'm just not so sure I want pictures quite yet as I'm putting tons on facebook, which I am a very active member of.

Home again.....

Well we arrived home safely and soundly.  Our big news, which is no longer secret, is we are having our first baby in just under 2 weeks (presuming it decides to come out on time).  I was unlucky and just a few weeks ago ended up having to get a catheder put into my back due to the strong possibility of having a kidney stone.  It cannot be confirmed with the correct xray until after I give birth due to being pregnant, but the symptoms and pain match that.  I did my last growth ultrasound today, which shows the baby is growing even if it is small, but that is because I myself am only 4 foot 7 (139cm).  I've only gained 4.5kg this pregnancy, but that's ok since I am eating healthy.

I have to say I love being back in our warm apartment.  We had key issues to solve when we got home, but we got our locks change and can't believe our luck, but our landlord changed the locks on the entire building (which hasn't happened in the entire 7 years I have lived here) and our building got a new code so I feel happy that we have no more missing keys and no entry for anyone else into our building.  We just need to solve our laundry key since those got lost, but that's not the end of the world to me and won't cost a ton to replace.

When we got back to Sweden I got a message from the lady I was carpooling with that her husband passed away, which is very sad news and I felt so sad for her. 

John has been starting courses and then getting them cross credited so it's been hectic a bit for him to have to go to school, go to a class only to drop out a few weeks later.  However, there is a course he should be beginning soon and I think it begins on my due date!  That's ok though.  School isn't far from where we live and if we're lucky the baby plans its arrival where he won't need to miss too much of the only course he has to do.  The courses here seem to last a few weeks and then they are over.


I can't say honestly there is anything I miss from New Zealand.  Ok, yes I miss Katy Perry and Mike our former flatmate and that part, but I couldn't trade what I have now for them because there are too many benefits to being home again.  I believe John feels the same.  Even looking in hindsight, I also can't say there is anything I regret not seeing.  Well considering I was always working and when I had holidays, John didn't have as much as me we still weren't getting the chance to be able to see anything that didn't cost a fortune to do.

This is our 20 week sonogram picture, which I still find amazing to look at!