Sleep - a luxury that is much appreciated

Since the day Björn was born, I have a whole new appreciation for sleep, I know both Laura and I do. It is not that Björn does not sleep, but like most breastfed babies, he eats what he needs to fill up his belly tank and then goes to sleep, hence the reason he wakes up every 2-3 hrs to eat. Last night was the first night he slept longer than 3 hrs, and I think both Laura and I slept uneasy because we are so used to him waking up after 2 hours, and when he finally awoke after 4 hrs of sleep, we were both sooo sleepy.

The odd thing is, when he does wake up at night within minutes we are both awake to take care of his needs (diaper, feeding, etc), this is not always the case, but last night after he had slept 4 hours and I woke up to change his diaper, I felt wide awake, of course it was 01:00 and not even close to a reasonable time to stay up and do something productive, hehehe, so after going back to sleep again, it became more and more difficult waking up every 2 hours after that...

Like I said, sleep becomes a luxury which we are both cherishing tremendously when it does come :- )

Bjorn's first Swedish visitor

Yesterday was Bjorn's first official Swedish visitor, Uncle Per's dad, Arne, who came to visit Per and Becky for a week in Portland, came up to see Bjorn last night. He had brought some gifts for Pappa (See my other blog) and a cute outfit for Bjorn from H&M, a Mickey Mouse outfit in blue. It was a fun visit with Arne and I am glad he had a chance to come visit with Bjorn and us and see the house : - ) , next time hopefully we will see Arne and Kristina in Sweden.

Pappas Day with Bjorn

Yesterday Laura was not feeling very well so I spent the day with Bjorn alone while she was resting, I am not sure he was used to me being with him alone at first, but eventually he got used to it, I even got a chance to feed him a bottle and play with him :- ) . We ended our evening together with a quick trip to the hardware store for a toilet seat (I had bought one earlier, but it was the wrong size) and all the ladies at the store wanted to see him and asked about him, and said he was so cute, but we already know that : - ) .

Bjorn Rullar pa ryggen

Today I am writing my first blog entry in Swedish - I dag ringde Mamma Laura till mig pa jobbet och berattade om en spannande nyhet, Laura och Bjorn lekte pa golvet pa hans lekmatta, och han stodde sig sjalv med armarna och sen tryckte han och rullade sig sjalv fran magen till ryggen! Han gjorde det har 4 ggr innan han blev for trott. Laura fick mojlighet att filma sa jag fick se nar jag kom hem fran jobbet :- )

Jag fragade andra foraldrar pa jobbet nar bebisar normalt gor sant har, men ingen kunde riktigt svara mig, men en mamma sa att hennes barn var nog 3 manader gammal....

Jag forstar nu varfor vi namngav Bjorn hans namn, stark som en Bjorn....hehehehe.

Swedish and Bjorn

I keep talking Swedish to Bjorn every chance I have, but it is hard sometimes switching back and forth between English with Laura and Swedish to Bjorn, and I notice myself mixing the words sometimes (Swenglish anyone?), but most researchers state that children growing up in a bi-lingual home will mix the words until they are 5-6 years old, so I would not be surprised once he starts speaking he will mix the languages, if he does speak Swedish. Most language researchers state that some children will not want to learn a 2nd language, and it also depends on genetics, some people have a very strong skill for languages and others not....so only time will tell if our little Bear will speak Swedish or not, it won't be for a lack of trying on our end :- )

Here's a good link discussing bilingual babies, there is a myth that bilingual babies language development is slower, but in fact it shows that they learn just as many words as monolinguals, it is just that they learn some words in their native language and some in their 2nd language.

http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,1106,00.html

Svenska Bocker

Last night we received a package from Farmor and Farfar Ricky : - ) , there were some clothes and a few books for Bjorn, one of my favorites, Alfons Aberg : - ) . I remember reading those books and watching the shows growing up, it is fun to see a lot of those "classics" are still around for today's children. As he gets older I have a couple of movies for him, Pelle Svanslos, Tjorven, Batsman och Skrallan, and I would like to collect some of the other Astrid Lindgren movies, like Emil, Madicken, Karlsson pa Taket, etc.

People ask me what it feels like to have become a parent, and it is the most amazing feeling I have ever felt in my life, there are no words to describe it, when I come home after a long day and sit down with him in my lap, it feels like all the bad things of the day goes away. I am so happy Laura has a chance to be home with him, she is such a wonderful Mamma to Bjorn and so patient with him, even now as he is waking up more frequently and Laura is fighting a cold of her own (which she caught from Bjorn). I talked to him on the phone today, Laura will call me up at work and then put the phone by his ear and she says when I start talking he looks really serious and is very quiet, he's probably wondering where the voice is coming from : - )