I was shocked. After Alex’ birth they gave me a little book. The book contained all the steps I needed to follow to report the baby and register his as a Spaniard. Following all the steps should eventually result in a Spanish identity card.

Well, I really found out. The two weeks I got off from work right after Alex’ birth were completely spend in traveling between various agencies. In Alcala, the birthplace of Alex. In Alcorcon where we were staying. In Las Palmas we we needed to register Alex on our address.

Today the little one is exactly one month old. He is registered in the town hall and is entitled to medical care. Ana got a few months off and I was able to justify my two weeks off. The only thing that still needs to be done is a few trips to the city halls in Las Palmas and in Alcorcon to get his identity card. This should be the last step and then we finally have the possibility to fly. First we’ll fly to Holland and then towards our home in Las Palmas.

In Holland we’ll try and get the Dutch citizenship for Alex. The procedure is explained on the website of the Dutch embassy in Spain, but it did not really clarify things for me. In October I’ll be in Madrid and I will pay a visit to the embassy to find out more, and if that does not do the trick I’ll try again when we are in Holland.

Alex is growing a lot and I’m happy that Ana send me some pictures every now and then so I can keep up to date of recent developments while being separated from my son this month. Here is a picture of Alex’ version of Blue Steel.

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.

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:

Update: Even more pictures of the little Alex.