In what has become a sort of a Troy-birthday-tradition (here and here, for example) I fixed fajitas, guacomole, and margaritas for dinner, though my "marg" had to be a juice cocktail this year for obvious reasons. For dessert, I made Troy's favorite chocolate-cherry-armagnac cake. It was absolutely delectable -- Belgian chocolate is really superb, plus all that butter. Oh my.
Just over a month later Troy planned a lovely birthday surprise for my 33rd birthday. It started with dinner at a wonderful little Italian place in our "new" neighborhood. Called Dolce (Italian for sweet), this resto lived up to its name in our book -- scoring high on food, ambiance, and service -- this last being rather hard to find here in Bruxelles.
Eating a dolce at Dolce
The next day, on my actual birthday, I went to a friend's baby shower brunch. When I got home, I discovered that in addition to giving me a gorgeous Murano glass necklace and a pretty card, Troy had taken advantage of my absence to put little vases of roses around the house! So sweet and romantic, but especially so for a lady who was 8.5 months preggo!
Troy said these two roses represented me and the baby -- SO SWEET!!!
Speaking of being preggo, that leads me to the most exciting birthday of the summer: Just four days after my birthday, Little Miss aka Little Roo aka Monkey aka Baby Raarup made her surprise entrance!!!! Scarily, I came down with some sort of 48-hour mystery illness -- complete with horrible gastro-intestinal awfulness and a 38.7℃ (102℉) fever -- which brought on labor two weeks early. Suffice it to say, labor and delivery were very difficult. However, the baby was not harmed by it, and Maren Aurelia Raarup arrived safely at 6:39 am on July 21st, weighing in at 3010 g (6 lbs 10 oz) and measuring 49 cm (19.3 inches) long. This was the Fête Nationale of Belgium (Belgian Independence Day), so Maren's birthday is also a national holiday!
The beautiful Maren Aurelia
As I've said before, health care here is top notch and maternity care is particularly good. The typical hospital stay is 5 days and we profited from every minute, receiving much-needed attention and support from the wonderful doctors, nurses, sage-femmes (midwives), and kines (physical therapists) at the Clinique Edith Cavell.
A family shot in our hospital room
Leaving the hospital on July 25th
Maren's first nap at home!
Maren is now almost six weeks old, and my how the time has flown! Between paternity leave and holiday, plus the ability to work from home when needed, Troy was able to take off the better part of five weeks to be home with us! This was a wonderful Daddy-Daughter time for him and Maren, but it was also super nice for me too. He took wonderful care of me during those first weeks of recovery -- cooking, doing the laundry, and changing all the diapers(!) Over the weeks, I've gradually resumed a more "normal" routine, but it's still been great just having this family time. We've also felt so blessed at the shower of visits, food, cards, flowers, and gifts from friends and family, both here and in the States.
Troy with the beautiful bouquet he got me, eating one of the healthy meals he cooked for us
The gorgeous bouquet from my parents, aka Mamie et Papie
As for le petit poussin (the little chicken, as they dubbed her in the hospital), she is just the best baby! We have been extremely lucky in that Maren has pretty much had her days and nights figured out from the beginning, thus we haven't been as sleep-deprived as most new parents. Fingers crossed that this continues!!! She is a super strong little thing, so holds her head up amazingly well for a wee sprout. She smiled her first "social" smile on her one month birthday, and gave a genuine giggle at 5 weeks! Like her mama, she's an "eater" and has already gained 2 lbs (910 g) and grown almost 2.5 inches (6 cm)! She loves being outdoors, eating at cafés, and taking walks in her stroller. We head across the street to the Parc Tenbosch as often as possible, and try to take walks daily, Belgian "summer" weather permitting.
We have a series of visitors coming to town, so look for future posts with pics with the grandparents, uncles, aunts, and friends. For now, here are some shots from Maren's first couple of weeks.
Maren Aurelia 4 Week Photo Album - Click Here
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Maren is adorable, and it looks like parenthood suits both you and Troy. Congrats, and enjoy this wonderful time. They're so sweet and snuggly when they're so little!
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