8 weeks and counting

Hola,

Just 8 weeks to go now until my due date (well 7 and a half really). We went to the doctors on wednesday for a scan and Olivia weighs 4lbs 13 oz already (2 kilos 200 grams). I've just looked on the internet and the average for this stage is 4 lbs. She is 44 cm long (avergae aabout 41 at this stage). So, she is still coming out bigger than average.

All the baby bedroom furniture has arrived and so we both keep going in there and looking around. Jose keeps opening the wardrobe and looking at the little dresses. He loves them. He can't wait anymore and keeps asking me to just push her out now. He's so excited. So am I ! I've been buying a few more clothes for her this week. I have to search everywhere for babygrows that fasten down the front though. Here in Spain most seem to fasten down the back - which is just annoying, and presumably uncomfortable for the baby.

Next week I have got a shipment arriving from the UK with the last of all my belongings on it. We were sick of carrying random objects everytime we came back (and paying for extra weight). So, the last remaining things have been put on a boat. My wedding dress is even coming over. Its all being delivered to the farm, where I suspet some of it will stay for years as it will just cluter up our flat and although I don't want to throw some of the things, that doesn't mean that I actually want them here in my flat. I've got my old school uniform and all sorts of things coming - I imagine my school uniform will go into Olivia's dressing up box, once she gets one.

At the time of writing its 8pm and its 22 degrees, but everyone here is in autumn mode. The jackets and cardigans are out and everyone is talking about how sad it is that summer is over. I've got my jeans and boots on rather than short skirt and flip flops - which is hilarious really considering the temperature. I am truly a spaniard now.

We are having a DIY day here in Valencia tomorrow (pictures putting up and that sort of thing). Then we are going to the farm for a few days on Sunday. Jose is working out of BCN and Tarragona on Monday and Tuesday and I will visit Jessi and Leire in Tarragona and await my shipment on Wednesday .......oh and obviously collect a million thousand vegetables. I'd better watch it actually on the veggie front as I can not fit one more thing in my freezer - not even a pea. I have cooked and frozen so much stuff that it is ram packed. So, what ever I pick this week will have to be cooked and eaten rather than cooked and frozen. Hmm will I be able to control myself once I get those secatares (spelling??) in my hand?

S xx

Baby Leire

Hola Bloggers,

This is my spanish niece - the daughter of Jose's brother Xabi and his wife Jessi. She is called Leire. She weighed 3 kilos 600 grams (which at my calculations puts her at about 7 pounds 9). Thats quite an average, if not small weight for UK standards, I think, but the child is enormous! She looks about one month old. Don't you think?

I have had quite an education this weekend and I now have more fear of the whole commotion surrounding the birth of my child than I do of the birth! The spaniards really do have a different way of doing things than my family do, and I think my family is quite an average english family. I am of the opinion, as taught by my mum, that new borns should be given a little respect and left in peace as much as possible. They have just been through the trauma of birth and need lots of rest and quiet. Well, no chance of that over here!

Everyone, and I mean everyone comes to the hospital. And they don't come in twos - they come in crowds and all expect to hold the baby. It gets passed round like a toy admidst lots of noise and comotion and general fuss. There's no let up - or so it seems. You have to stay in the hospital for two nights but you don't really get any help you just get gatecrashed wile you are laying there in one small room and can't get away! I'm dreading it and I'm thinking of not letting on that the baby has actually been born for at least 24 hours -to buy time before they can all arrive from Catalunya. They'll think thats awful though. So, the other option is tell them straight that I don't want all that going on and that I'd rather they come in twos and if possible once we are at home.

The other thing is the earrings! have you noticed on the second photo that leire has got earrings already? They pierce all girl's ears just before they leave the hospital. I brought this up at lunch once with my spanish family and they thought I was cruel for leaving it to be done once the child will know about it. This is twisted logic to me! I have spet months watching babies go past in the street and every damn one has earrings. There is no getting round it here it seems. Its a cultural standard. I came round to the ide for a month or two (I must have been spanishises, or whatever the verb is) but I have come to my senses once again after seeing Leire with hers in. Its just plain wrong! I have spent a few hours today on the internet finding articles by spanish doctors advising against it (to back me up). The only advise putting it off till they are 3 or 6 months though! But anyway, my mother in law is just going to have to accept it, medical reasons or not, its not happening because its just awful (in my culture). I mean, how could I bring the poor child to England with earrings in? Its one thing no one thinking anything about here in spain but this child is half english and has to be able to travel to the UK with some dignity!

Don't get me started on the outfit that my mother in law bought for Leire. Talk about trying to look like Franco's daughter. I can't even bring myself to put a picture on the blog of it because poor Leire has no choice in the matter and shouldn't be papped in a Heat magazine "what were you thinking?!" type reportage at such a young age.

As my friend Maren said (who is german and married ot a New Yorker), " bringing the 2 cultures together for the wedding was nothing compared to what awaits with birth of a child".

So, you have been warned, if you see anything untoward on or near my child then please give me some slack because certain things I may be forced to concede.

S xx