Then: Father Kees and son Adrie
Now: Grandfather Kees and father Adrie
The old shoebox: 36 years later
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Category Archives: Family and friends
The first two weeks
The first two weeks have flown by. The first four days we were guests in the hospital. This was by far the worst time for both parents and child. We needed to get used to Alex and Alex needed to get used to living and to his parents. There were a lot of insecurities and Ana was still very much affected by her operation. The vast number of family visiting (even though it was meant so well) did not help us to relax.
But after a few days things went a lot better! Ana’s milk supply began to take off and Ana’s drip was removed. When we left for home (Alcorcon) we were all very happy. After this we have to learn fast, coping with a lack of sleep and coping with a responsibility we have never known.
At his birth Alex weighed 2500 grams. When we left the hospital he weighed only 2300 grams. A week later Alex had reached 2640 grams and today he weighed a very good 3000 grams!
My two weeks of holidays have passed. A part of my time of was spend arranging the mountain of paperwork that needed to be processed. The other part was spend with my new family. Very little sleep, lots of worries and uncertainty, but without doubt the most impressive and beautiful thing that ever happened to me.
The coming month I’ll be in Las Palmas, doing my job. But it feels different that it used to… my mind and thoughts are still in Madrid.
Birth of Alex
On the 15th of August at 23:07 our son Alex was born in the hospital of Alcala de Henares. He is a beautiful small baby with dark blond hair and dark blue eyes. His weight is 2500 grams.
The first night Alex spent in a special section called ‘Neonatos’ because he had become a little hypothermic at birth and made a weird sound during breathing. All night I was with him holding him skin-to-skin. The strange sound was gone after half an hour and the hypothermia was quickly under control. Alex had to remain under supervision until the next day just to be sure all went well.
The 15th was a chaotic day. Alex was scheduled for the 24th, but during an audit they found that the birth was already in progress. Ana had not noticed a thing. I was called and I quickly booked a ticket to Madrid. I arrived here around midnight. Half an hour later I was in the hospital where Alex had just been just born.
Of course I first went to see my little son. As the father I was the only one allowed to see and touch the child. I quickly made a picture and went to see Ana. Seeing Ana was a shock. She was white as a ghost. Luckily seeing the picture of Alex lifter her spirits.
The next day Ana had to get to work directly. She needed to stand up, just hours after having her Caesarean and this was not an easy task, but she had to do it. Her first glance gave her the strength she needed and there appeared a little smile on her face. After a few days we could leave the hospital and go home. Right now we home trying to find a daily routine (and in Ana’s case recovering from the operation).
Some pictures of our son:
Accelerated countdown!
There were still nine days on the counter, but everything suddenly changed. The birth takes place today or just maybe tomorrow morning. I leave with the first flight to Madrid. Probably I will have to miss the birth … but maybe I’m lucky.
Bilingual
It is a faith that cannot be avoided. Our little one well be raised in both Dutch and Spanish. Luckily it seems that raising a child bilingually can have positive results. For us it was easy to reach this decision.
- My Spanish, be it fluent is still far from perfect. Even though a Spaniard will be able to understand me without problems my speech is full of mistakes. It would be horrible if the little one copies my personal adaptation of the Spanish language.
- Half of our family (grandpa, grandma, uncle, aunt, niece and nephew) are Dutch (and Australian) and the little one needs to communicate with this family in Dutch.
The division of responsibilities is simple. I will speak my mother tongue Dutch and Ana will speak Spanish, but only when we are addressing our child. I will remain talking in Spanish when talking to Ana. I am curious if this bilingual education of our child will also have an effect on the mother. Hopefully she will put in some extra effort to at least understand the topic when I am speaking in Dutch.
Of course English is also a very important language, but to not confuse the little one we’ll keep this language for later. I have a wealth of English books and movies so I don’t foresee any problems here.
I never paused to think about it, but using various languages offers additional advantages. I can talk to my son in Dutch without his mother understanding. I can even talk to his mother in English without the child understanding. Clearly knowledge is power.
Countdown, only 2 weeks left!
Time is passing by very fast. Ana is still in Madrid, taking things slow, avoiding stress and trying to relax although the heat in Madrid makes it difficult at times to be comfortable.
Her pregnancy is proceeding very well. The only thing that is a bit strange is that the doctor mentioned that Pek looks like a small baby. He should weigh more that his current weight. To correct this little underweight Ana had to loose weight and at the same time eat more. Sound a bit strange to me, but that must be because I lack a medical background.
I am still very distant and that is a pity. I wonder if Ana’s belly has grown even more. Two more weeks and than it will happen.
Diary of a little menace
We received a very nice book, the ‘dagboek van een ettertje‘ (diary of a little menace), in which a little menace keeps a record of his daily ordeals in his first year of life.
The book is easy to read and it explains what you can expect as a new parent. I loved the part where the father went out with his friends for the first time after the birth. The little menace noticed as a result the milk had turned a little sour.
Countdown, only 3 more weeks!
I have started the countdown. This is Ana’s last month being pregnant and it is going to be the first month in our lives as parents. Still only 21 more days. If everything goes to plan I will leave in a little less then three weeks to Madrid to join with Ana just one day before giving birth. The next day we plan to go to the hospital together.
Ana is already in Madrid, taking it easy and trying to relax. I could not join her because I want to save my holidays (I don’t have so many) for when Pek is born.
What I am doing in Las Palmas, without my wife? Well, she left me a big list with chores, but still I find time to read, go our running, watch some movies, listen to music and relax a little. Might as well enjoy myself now, because my life is about to change.
My Dutch tax return has been finalized. This week I planned to figure out how to validate my Dutch diploma for use here in Spain. Still I need to make an album with the photos of our wedding and I want to make a little album with photos of Pek because by now we have gathered a huge number of echo-photos. Enough to make an album.
Finally, if I can find the time, I would like to finalize the project for the red cross and maybe publish our own ‘project‘.
Visit by the Ammers
Some nice chatting, swimming, remembering, playing villain and police, got semi lost, ate apple syrup, pissed against a Canarian tree and much more highlights. We enjoyed it a lot! See you in October.
Pek’s last echo
Once again we were offered a look into our future. In one month Pek will be born and he will stop being called Pek, because at that time he deserves his new final name.
Ana will leave for Madrid next week where in a month, the 24th of August, the birth of Pek will take place. He will be born during a vasectomy in the Alcala hospital. The same city as where we got married.
Pek is kicking quite a lot every now and then. Also he gets very happy and excited after Ana has something to eat. This time we had a test where they made a graph of Pek’s movements and his heartbeat. Everything started out really relaxed, but when Ana was given a lollypop the action started.
The top line in the graph are the heartbeat or the movement of Pek. The vertical stripes are an indication of movement. Ana had a little button which she needed to press when she noted movement. Every press on the button resulted in a little vertical stripe. The bottom line is movement by Ana. This bottom line indicated that Ana had two mini contractions during the test.
The little one weighs 2046 grams and it is a small baby, but that was to be expected with such a small mother.