A Waiting Game

Waiting...it's not something i'm very good at, but when it comes to waiting for a baby to be born you simply have no choice but to sit tight until the baby is ready to make it's move into the world. Well that is unless you are pushed to have an induction, usually 14 days after your due date, even though i believe that the due date is not that accurate. Every due date is calculated from the first day of your last period which for me they originally calculated to be 21/01/11, even though the internet due date calculators (depending on which one you use ) come up with the due date of anything from 14th-16th January 2011. However when i had my first dating scan at 18 weeks they moved the due date to 11/01/2011 making me 10 days over due today and by tuesday 14 days over. This means that i have already been booked in for a hospital appointment on tuesday 25th to discuss induction and from that date onwards if i haven't had the baby i will no longer be allowed to give birth at the wonderful Føderiket, the natural birth unit in Oslo where i had planned to give birth. Sooooo i am feeling very frustrated and rather stressed by the situation as i don't want to be induced and would rather let the baby decide it's birth day.  (Have a look at this article about being overdue and reasons for induction.)

 I've actually been sick for the last 2 weeks with flu, a chest infection and sinusitis so i suspect that i have not had enough energy to go into labour, so today i finally went for acupuncture at the Frøya Clinic in Oslo whose practitioners specialise in pregancy, so that i might boost my system and help things along a little. The acupuncturist i saw was amazing and i already feel heaps better as a result. He felt it was wise to wait with naturally inducing things until i felt a bit better so he simply concentrated on getting my system more energised. Nevertheless i am keeping my fingers crossed that things will happen over the weekend as a result.

So i will try to sit back, relax and enjoy the moments before our baby is ready to join us (and hope that if nothing happens before tuesday that the hospital can be persuaded to wait another week at least...i will for sure refuse to be induced unless they give me a VERY good reason) and if in doubt i will book back in for another acupuncture session!!

Mother's Abroad

Theodore in one of the boxes all packed up ready to be shipped from Oxfordshire to Norway

I recently found this article by Dhyan Summers, an American pyschotherapist who currently lives in New Delhi, India with her 18 year old daughter where she has a private practice supporting the expat community. She writes in this article about women bringing up their children abroad, away from their own home country. Support is the key she says and i have to say that is exactly what i've found, if you have support then you feel that you can get through any difficult times.

It just takes one person to reach out...............

We all need some fireworks in our lives

Happy Happy New Year everyone, may 2011 be a year filled with immense happiness, fabulous health, magic, love, light, adventure and fulfilment for you all. May it be one in which you achieve many of your dreams.

When my family were here at Christmas my sister, mum and i wrote down all of the things that we were grateful for and that had been significant for us in 2010 and then we wrote down all of things that we would like to bring forth in 2011. It was an interesting exercise because i had previously felt that i hadn't achieved anything last year, but i was wrong, there were a few very important things and events that had shaped me. For this year there weren't many things on my list, but nevertheless more things keep being added and i realise that i have many more goals than i initially thought. This year, infact in a few days, i hope to hold my new baby. This is infact one of the most significant things for me this year and there are signs that he is on his way, but who knows when he will actually make an appearance. It is a good lesson in trust and patience, but i am never good at waiting for things and i am so excited to see him for the first time and to see how i cope with labour a second time around. Luckily i have a fabulous natural birth unit lined up where i hope to have the baby. I feel completely safe there and i know that it is the right choice for us.

We had a very happy christmas with all of my family here for a week and my husbands family joining us for the 24th december when the main celebrations in Norway occur. It was wonderful to be hosting Christmas, and as it turned out New Year's Eve too, for the first time, trying our hand at the various family traditions and making up some new ones along the way. The most important thing was just being together, but it was an enormous amount of fun too and i would love to do it all again!

My sister sent me Kate Perry's Firework song when she got back to the UK, which i find really inspiring and very appropriate for the new year. It's about showing people what you are worth and that each person is uniquely amazing in their own right. I love the video and the way this is visually portrayed!

The Firework lyrics

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag

Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin

Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?

Do you ever feel already buried deep?

Six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there's still a chance for you

'Cause there's a spark in you?

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby, you're a firework

Come on, show 'em what you're worth

Make 'em go, oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make 'em go, oh

You're gonna leave 'em falling down

You don't have to feel like a waste of space

You're original, cannot be replaced

If you only knew what the future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed

So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow

And when it's time, you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine

Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby you're a firework

Come on, show 'em what you're worth

Make 'em go, oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make 'em go, oh

You're gonna leave 'em falling down

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

It's always been inside of you, you, you

And now it's time to let it through

'Cause baby you're a firework

Come on, show 'em what you're worth

Make 'em go, oh

As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework

Come on, let your colors burst

Make 'em go, oh

You're gonna leave 'em falling down

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

Boom, boom, boom

Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

Sun Soaking

Here is a wonderful piece about Sun Soaking by mind, body and spirit author and educator William Bloom, its something i feel we all need to practice right now in the depths of winter and in the snow chaos all around. (Well the chaos is mainly in the UK right now where everything has ground to a halt, in Norway they are so used to snow that they just carry on as normal, but that means i'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that my family can still fly out from London tonight to join us for Christmas here in Oslo.) But wherever you are have a read, its good stuff:

SUN-SOAKING

As we move deeper into the winter months some of you may begin to miss the sunlight and even go into that form of melancholy and low energy, known as SAD — Seasonal Affective Disorder. There is a natural remedy for this, which might work for you — it works for me — and which also teaches some useful lessons for other areas of our lives, personal and spiritual.

I am sure that many of you will be familiar with these strategies, but this is what I do. It does not matter what else is going on in my life, if the sun is out, I make sure that I go and sit in the sunlight for fifteen minutes every day, my face directly towards it. I wrap up warmly, plonk myself in a garden chair and absorb the rays. I learned this years ago from a young Norwegian friend who told me that this was the way that he survived the long Scandinavian winters. I do it first thing in the morning or during work-breaks.

When I write ‘absorb the rays’, that is exactly what I do. Using my imagination and visualisation, I work with my body’s subtle sensations so that I imagine and feel that my flesh, muscles and bones are absorbing the sunlight. I breathe it in. In particular, I feel it coming into my eyes and travelling down the optic nerve and into my brain. I absorb the sunlight into my brain cells and then visualise it going down my spinal cord and into the rest of my nervous system.

This is not simple sun-bathing. It is sun-soaking.

I also practice a strategy from internal martial arts and qi gong, known as ‘bone marrow breathing’ and I sense the sunlight sinking into my bones and bone marrow. As I inhale, the sunlight comes into my bones. As I exhale, the sunlight is absorbed and distributed.

Whilst, I am focused on the sunlight, I know that I am also absorbing into my body the natural healing energy and vitality that permeates the natural world and the universe. At the same time, this triggers the production of endorphins, the ‘miracle’ hormones of wellbeing. This is very good for my health. It feels great.

Now you may be familiar with these strategies, but here is the point. Do you actually practise them regularly? Every day? Do you do what is good for you? Over the years, over and over again, for example, I keep meeting healers who never use their own strategies on themselves.

‘I have a toothache,’ one of them says.

‘Have you directed healing energy into the roots and pain?’ I ask.

Typically, they reply that they have not. This is interesting, isn’t it, this forgetfulness we may have about looking after ourselves. Sunlight and healing energy are there for the taking. You don’t have to do anything except be open to receiving them.

So here is another crucial question, which may be relevant both to your relationships and your spiritual life. Are you open to receiving good things? Do you allow yourself to receive people’s love, affection and positive comments? Do you also allow yourself to receive the healing energy that permeates the whole universe?

In spirituality, one of its most central practices is to connect regularly with the wonder and energy of life — with God, with spirit — and be able to just relax, be empty and receive its blessing of positive energy and love.
You do not have to do anything special to receive this love except be open to receive it. This basically means that you stop buzzing around for a while, calm down and place yourself in a receptive state. In some spiritual traditions, this is called ‘emptying’ — just being an empty pot and allowing yourself to be filled.

Most of you know about these strategies, but as I wrote above, many of you may not do them. Often, I have noticed, this forgetfulness is accompanied by self-sabotaging.

Perhaps you lack the self-discipline to do what is good for you. Perhaps you take your work too seriously. Perhaps you feel some kind of psychological block to receiving and absorbing good things. Perhaps you feel unworthy or are simply just not in the habit of receiving.

Well, let me give you a brotherly nudge, my friends. Absorb the good energy from the sun. Chill out and absorb the benevolent healing energy of the cosmos. They are abundantly available. Just because you are alive and part of the cosmos, you are able to access and absorb them. All you have to do is open up and let it all in.

And here is another important reminder

Even when it is hidden by cloud or during the night, the sun is always there. This is a bit like a pantomime when the audience shouts, ‘It’s behind you!’ Whether you can see the sun or not, we are always part of the solar system and the great golden disc, the solar deity, is ever present.

Just open your heart, visualise and sense its presence even when you cannot see it.

So, in the long winter nights, especially when your own internal weather is moody and melancholic, lighten up. Cheer up. The sun, the healing energy and the unconditional love that fills the cosmic ocean are always there. Relax and receive.

All my love

William

The Christmas Countdown

"December in my favourite sweater"

One of many wonderful prints from the Sarah Jane Studios

The new traditions and the old.

The month of December and Advent in both Norway and in the UK means the delicious countdown to Christmas and the holidays. It's a time to enjoy running around trying to find the perfect presents for friends and family and to slowly get ready for time spent at home as well as out seeing friends at the end of a busy year.

But there are a few variations in the way things are done.  In my family we had beautiful tradtional paper advent calenders like this one by Matthew Rice ( husband of Emma Bridgewater) which this year my mum has sent Theodore, isn't she amazing!

....and perhaps we would also light an advent candle too.

Here in Norway the traditions are a little different, but i'm really enjoying adopting them.

On the first sunday of advent Norwegians put up an advent/christmas star in the window, like these:

Our Kitchen star

The one in our sittingroom.

The colour of the month is purple and a lovely new friend here gave me an advent flower to celebrate that fact:

In my husband's family they hang up a material advent calender and fill it with small presents, one for each day, from the Julenisse (Father Christmas) for the children. This is Theodore's:

This is my fabulous advent calender from my sister in law which she brought back from a weekend away in Berlin. It's an advent tea calender with a different organic herbal tea for each day:

I love it, what a genius idea, i can now can drink a different delicious tea everyday until December 24th

Christmas markets with real reindeer, what could be better:

and sleigh rides

Christmas markets in the snow:

Many friends have made a pepperkakehus ( gingerbread house) like this one with their children, which i would love to make with Theodore:

So far we have just made gingerbread men, but they have bee such fun to make and delicious even though they came out quite puffy and nothing like these beautiful ones below:

.......and in our house we have put up lots of lights and red decorations:

Now with just under two weeks to go i need to get the presents wrapped, go into the forest to get greenery to make a wreath and decorate the house and make long lists of things that need baking before my family come for the christmas week. Yipeeee!It's the first time that we've hosted Christmas and for both families, i think it's going to be such fun being all together and doing something completely new.

Have a look at the Veronika Robinson's (from The Mother Magazine)- blogpost about the Winter Solstice it is an inspiring read about this time of year.

Enjoy sign from the cox and cox website.

 

You decide

I love this fact, that you can choose your attitude in each and every moment no matter what the circumstances. It's a useful thing to be reminded of as it can be so easy to get bogged down by things and swept away on a negative tide of thought.

aaaah the ease and love of the thing

Although in my opinion, not the prettiest shoes in the world, i would definately not trade my Ugg boots without a serious fight. They were heaven when i was given them the winter before we moved to Norway, when we lived in a very chilly cottage in Oxfordshire. I didn't take them off unless i could help it and even on occasion considered wearing them to bed, and i really don't think i would have survived my first winter in Oslo without them. However that is precisely when i trashed them as i lacked waterproof snowboots at the time and simply wore my Uggs instead. Sadly they were not happy meeting deep snow, but i couldn't bare to take them off. Now they have come into their own again in a big way with the temperatures well below freezing every day (minus 11 degrees C today) and as i am now 8 and a half months pregnant and having problems getting any other shoe on or off, they are a godsend.

Aaah the ease and comfort of my well worn Uggs! I am still in love despite their lacklustre appearance!Just please can they make a waterproof pair...and soon!

P.S Having written that i couldn't find any waterproof Uggs i thought i better do a quick search and found that they do now do some wonderful ones called the  Women's tall UGG Adirondack. What utter bliss and they look good too! A little more tricky to get on for the heavily pregnant than the classic Ugg boot, which is like a wonderful comfy wooly sock, but waterproof and warm! Heaven!!