Welcome, Baby Sam!

Yea! After 40 weeks and 2 days (just like big brother!), Samuel Mølgaard decided to make his entrance! He was born 11 minutes after midnight on the 29th of November, so now I have 3 boys with birthdays in November!

It's true what they say about a quicker labor the second time around: I had relatively mild, irregular contractions all day from around 6am until around 7pm when they all of a sudden went to 5 minutes apart. Anni and Jens came to watch over our already sleeping Maximus, and we went up to the hospital, where they told me I was already about half way open.

I had contractions another hour and a half when the midwife suggested that she rupture the amniotic sack and get the water works going. THAT set things in motion, and 45 minutes later, he was out! Not to say it didn't hurt (good grief!!!) but it was over so much quicker, it just didn't seem so bad. Even though it was around 2 am when we all fell into bed, I felt good and have been up and about cooking and cleaning (slowly...) since we came home later the day of the 29th.

Samuel is, so far, easy greasy. He weighed in at 3700 grams and is BLONDE! Anni joked and aksed "What little Norwegian baby we drug home?". We weren't born blonde in this family, to our knowledge.... but Morten did get reddish-blonde curls until he was around 2. And of course, my mom was a blondie.

My mom had a dream, about 4 years ago that we'd have 2 boys - one dark, one blonde. All of a sudden, all the family here in Denmark is commenting about how right my mom was!

Here the star of the show: poppin'-fresh from the oven!

Birthday Boy!

Yes, 3 years ago on the 22nd of November, at 9:07 pm, our little superMax entered the scene! We celebrated in style that great day last Saturday, starting in the morning with cinnamon rolls and a few presents from Mom and Dad: Max got a new race track and 2 of the Cars characters he was missing - Chick Hicks and The King.

Later in the day, after some good quality playtime with all his cool, new stuff, Grandma and Granpa and Max's friend Fillippa and her parents, Daniel and Mirjiam came over for cake and supper. The kids helped decorate the cake (Max wanted Dipsey, from Teletubbies) and ate most of the candy before it ever came on. They played, both inside and out, watched videos and just had a great time together.

Here's a bit of footage from an early morning present opening event:

Buns in the Oven

Yes, it's November, and it's been a super busy month: Morten had his birthday, Max's is coming up and baby Sam is on the way. Morten is in a period of internship, switching from one unit to the other every 2 weeks or so, I had my exam for 4th semester nursing (it went well!), Max started in børnehave (Danish - kindergarten for 3 to 6 year olds), and we all got some sort of weird flu/stomach virus in the midst of everything. It never rains, but then it pours...

But as is usually the case, the business was also seasoned with lots of fun and good friends. I got a chance to go and see our friends Thomas and Amy (check out their blog) who have just recently moved to a town on the west coast for Thomas' residency. They moved from about 60 square meters to over 100, with a yard and rooms for both kids and an office for Thomas. Pure luxury! Stayed a couple of days and the kids just played their socks off. Here's a bit of footage from them in the bathtub.

The title of this little post is "Buns in the Oven" - of course referring to the appx. 4 kilo bun in mine; as you can see from the picture. But here is also a picture of Max "baking buns". He likes to be helpful in the kitchen, chopping, baking, setting the table and vacuuming. And especially now, when mommy doesn't bend over, a little helper is an extremely BIG help for picking stuff up.

The group shot is of my studymates from nursing school. My friends Amy and Allison threw me a baby shower last weekend, (thank you ladies!!) and my (incredibly thin compared to me) group came to help me celebrate. Right next to me is Stine, who is also married to an American and is pregnant at about 3 months now. Beside her is Anette who spends every summer in South Carolina with her sister who is married to an American. Next to her is Sidsel, who just recently left us to try her chances at being a doctor and beside her is Hanne, who left us last year to be a mommy to the little dumpling sitting on Anettes lap. We were only missing one, Karina, who lived in England for a year. They have been an absolutely great group and I have felt truly blessed and lucky to get to work with them. Just hope that being a nurse is as fun as being in the study group with these girls!