Hello World...

Cal, 10 weeks

ThisAmsterdamDay was cold and grey so we stayed inside. Cal did a lot of this and I decided to write a blog. 


On my first day of maternity leave I began writing a kids book. I had 10 weeks to get a first draft done. This was the break of uninterrupted writing time I had been waiting years for. One month in and I had written a whopping (I think) 37162 words. That's a good 4-6 hours of writing every day. No mean feat when you're heavily pregnant. I figured I still had another 30 thousand words to go. With another 6 weeks left before his due date, I was right on track. I had the story mapped out chapter by chapter, I knew how it ended, and half way through this first draft my characters were starting to feel real to me, their words and actions almost writing themselves.


And then Cal decided to blow the popsicle stand that was my uterus and enter the world at 34 1/2 weeks, 5 1/2 weeks early. Weighing 2.3kgs, he came out via emergency c-section a little stunned but completely healthy. My boyfriend David and I were also stunned, but ecstatic to be parents and to finally meet our little 'Eggy.'


Cal spent the last snowy week of January and first two weeks of February in the neo natal unit before they let us bring him home. Actually those first strange weeks of traveling to and fro from the hospital three times a day, and the weird, emptyish hours between, would have been a good time to start blogging, but as any new mum will tell you, your mind's not right in those first weeks. 


Cal is now 10 weeks old. This week was a big one. He started to bat at things, he's sporting a fierce new pair of dark eyebrows and he's practicing his cry-face quite a bit, which is embarrassing cause David and I have been going round telling people that we spawned the first no-cry baby in the history of humanity, yes, to the withering looks of other parents. Some days after he's been napping for longer than usual and I've had a shower, tidied the house a bit, Facebooked, dried my hair with the hair-dryer, Facebooked more and am sitting at the end of his crib watching him sleep, I think 'What are you doing? You should be writing!' But it seems the very thought of it triggers the wake-up grumbles. And who am I kidding, the kid feeds every 2.5 hours.


It's with quite peaceful resignation that I accept that the book is gonna have to wait. Cal was definitely a planned and longed-for baby, and I feel much lighter thinking of him as my only job at the moment. But writers like to write, so ThisAmsterdamDay will be the place where I can tickle the keys (does this expression for piano playing make anyone else cringe?) of my Mac.


At this early stage I'd like to write about life in Amsterdam; the transition from worker-bee to mama-bear; general things I like but am too embarrassed to post on Facebook (there may be cupcake porn, you've been warned); maybe a Found on Etsy section, with cute things I'd buy if I didn't live in a 70 square meter apartment with no closets; film, book and product reviews, you know.. the usual mommyblogger stuff. 


That's right, I ain't embarrassed to be a mommyblogger. Over the past few weeks when life has been lived between the couch and the change table, mommyblogs have taken me around the world, from New York to Paris, from Brisbane to Houston, into the lives and homes of new mums like me, which I find infinitely more interesting than what's usually on Facebook. I guess it's where I'm at, it's community, it's just..the vibe. 


I hope you enjoy reading...


xEmma