Prvi rodjendan :-)

Cinjenica je da zena (buduca majka) tokom trudnoce “poblesavi” pod uticajem hormona. Dozivela sam trudnocu kao jedan izuzetno lep period svog zivota u kome sam se zaista osecala drugacije i posebno i srecno na neki drugi, do tada nepoznat, nacin.

Takodje je manje-vise pravilo da je onaj prvi period neposredno nakon porodjaja “blesav” na drugi nacin, a na njega se navodno nastavlja baby blues. U mom slucaju mogu da kazem da je ovo od samog porodjaja pa nadalje bila jedna izuzetno srecna i nasmejana godina. Naucili smo toliko puno o njoj i o nama a osecamo da smo tek na pocetku. Ponekad se upitamo kako ce se neke stvari odvijati za godinu ili dve ili deset, a onda se setimo da sada (i uvek) treba ziveti u datom momentu i ne misliti puno unapred.

Sreca i zivot su tu sa nama i u nama. Radujemo se svakom sledecem danu i trenutku sa nasim malim zlatom a svima vama hvala puno na cestitkama. Budite nam dobro, zdravo i veselo.

Bebin polazak u jaslice

Nakon nekoliko poseta jaslicama u našem naselju i dugog procesa odlučivanja i čekanja na slobodno mesto kao i skoro godinu dana provedenog kod kuće došlo je vreme da beba krene u jaslice.

Prošle nedelje smo počeli sa periodom prilagođavanja kada se odlazi po pola sat, sat, dva sata sa roditeljem a onda ostaje sama. Trenutno (8 dan prilagođavanja) je sama bez nas u jaslicama od 8:45 do 15:00.

Malena se za sada super prilagodila, čak nam se čini da bi volela i duze da ostane tj. kada dolazimo po nju
ona je toliko skoncentrisana na igru i decu oko nje da nas maltene ne vidi. Naravno ovo je tek početak.

Deca u grupi i vaspitačice su ostavile prilično dobar utisak na nas za razliku od jedne od šefica koja je prošle godine na predstavljanju vrtića odavala utisak nefleksibilne osobe. Naravno, vaspitačice koje rade sa decom se ipak razlikuju od menadžera. Takođe za sada nemamo problem što se tiče vremena dolaska i odlaska iz vrtića jer se ispostavilo da o tome ne odlučuje menadžment jaslica nego vaspitačice iz odredjenih grupa.

U jaslicama postoji prilično fiksan dnevni raspored. Nastaviće se …

Čuvanje dece drugi deo

Dok sam tražila nekog ko će mi ponekad pričuvati dete javila mi se jedna drugarica čija kćerka ima 2 meseca i zamolila da joj pričuvam bebu tokom jednog posle podneva. Po prvi put sam čuvala dvoje dece, moje i njeno, i zaista nije bilo jednostavno.

Kao što sam i pretpostavljala glavni problem je kada mala beba koju majka isključivo doji neće da pije iz flašice a pogotovo neće da pije formulu. To po mom mišljenju nije neobično, ja sam se doduše ispumpavala kada bih išla negde a osoba koja bi je čuvala joj je davala mleko kašičicom ili špricem. Nije lako ali moguće je. Takodje mi nismo želeli da se beba navikne prerano na flašicu jer u tom slučaju postoji rizik da više neće da siki.

Drugi problem su grčevi u stomaku koji muče većinu beba u prva 3 meseca. Malena koju sam čuvala zaista ima grčeve i zbog toga dosta plače tako da sam je uglavnom sve vreme nosila u nosiljci dok sam istovremeno pokušavala da zabavim svoje dete koje sve više želi da stoji. Grčevi su za mene bili novo iskustvo jer moja malena ih srećom uopšte nije imala. Ipak uspela sam da se prošetam sa obe po naselju, sa mojom u kolicima a malenom u nosiljci dok su obe spavale. To je bilo zaista opuštajuće i priznajem da sam bila ponosna zbog pogleda prolaznika.

Treći problem je razlika od 8.5 meseci u starosti izmedju 2 deteta. Ne mogu da se “igraju” zajedno a oboje hoće da jedu, budu presvučena i traže pažnju. Čini mi se da se to upravo dešavalo istovremeno tako da sam se u nekoliko momenata osećala prilično stresno. Ipak, uspela sam da hranim starije u stolici dok sam drugom rukom ljuljuškala mladje u ležaljci. To se zove multitasking. Taman sam se skroz uhodala kada se drugarica vratila. Sada imam dovoljno iskustva i vežbe za neki drugi put.

Some products you could find really useful

1. We are very satisfied with the Ergo Baby Carrier. There are though a lot of other products, as well as slings or Baby Björn. A friend pf mine is very satisfied with the Beco carrier.

2. Baby Bay where your baby can sleep in the first months. I already wrote about it here (in Serbian).

3. Baby Bottle Sterilizer

Opasne igračke za decu

Na sajtu Bebac.com redovno izlazi spisak opasnih igračaka. Ktipp piše o gumenim patkicama koje imaju prevelik procenat ftalata (phthalate) koji izmedju ostalog izaziva rak.

Nastaviće se …

Čuvanje dece

Dok bi se u Srbiji svi poznanici, prijatelji, komšije i rodjaci utrkivali u čuvanju deteta (da ne pričam o baki i ostalim bliskim članovima porodice) ovde u Švajcarskoj je to veoma teško. Čini mi se da su osnovni razlozi njihova generalna uzdržanost u odnosima prema drugima (rado se sastaju u kafićima i restoranima ali retko posećuju po kućama) kao i neki sulud strah i nepoverenje koje vlada prema “nepoznatima” koji bi čuvali dete, a u nepoznate se ubrajaju svi osim majke i oca. Ovde je uostalom normalno da majka ostane godinama kod kuće i napusti posao da bi se starala o detetu i postoji veliki animozitet prema jaslicama, obdaništu i sl. No, svakom svoje, ne želim da ulazim u tudje razloge i odluke, daleko od toga. Sve to poštujem i trudim se da razumem.

Recimo da sam u proteklih godinu dqnq upoznala puno žena sa decom na različite načine: na kursevima za bebe, na yogi, u savetovalištu za decu, pa čak i na forumima na Internetu. Recimo da su mnoge od njih veoma simpatične a sa nekima bih zaista volela da mogu češće da se družim. Naravno da imam i svoje “stare” prijatelje od kojih mnogi takodje imaju decu, vidjamo se povremeno ali mnogi žive na drugom kraju Ciriha ili u drugim gradovima još dalje od nas.

Za sutra sam bila prijavljena da slušam jedno predavanje vezano za moj posao (iako počinjem da radim 1. oktobra ponekad pročitam nešto za posao) i trebao mi je neko da pričuva malenu od 1 do 5 posle podne. Dragi radi, njegova sestra nije tu, a nemamo nikoga više. Prijatelji koje imam ili rade ili imaju baš malu decu i sigurno im je to dovoljno za sada pa neću da ih gnjavim ili žive dosta daleko od nas. Naravno da sam onda pitala nekoliko mama-poznanica u koje bih imala poverenje – sve te koje se svakog dana švrćkaju po igralištima, bazenima, šumama i jezerima – i mislile li da se neka od njih javila? Nije. Naravno, nekako se nisam ni nadala da ce neko pristati ali ipak, optimizam je moje drugo ime. Malopre sam otkazala učešće na predavanju, a tako sam se tome radovala.

Zatim sam postavila oglas. Tražim mamicu koja će 1-2 puta mesečno pripaziti na moje dete tokom 2-3 sata i obrnuto. Moje dete je rodjeno u oktobru 2007, veoma je milo, veselo i lako za negu/druženje, ja imam 33 godine i prilično sam strpljiva i istrajna osoba. Govorim nemački, engleski, pomalo francuski a maternji jezik mi je srpski.

Već sam ga okačila na dva sajta na Internetu (jedan od njih je kidSharing) a sutra ću ga okačiti i u mesnoj zajednici. Nikad se ne zna, možda mi se čak javi neka “naša” mamica, to bi tek bilo sjajno. Kao što rekoh, optimizam je moje drugo ime.

Inače malena kreće 1. oktobra u jaslice dva dana nedeljno, ja ću raditi 3 a dragi 4 dana nedeljno. Sve smo odlično smislili i organizovali ali eto, treba mi neko koga ću moći da pozovem u pomoć ako mi iskrsne nešto u danima kada nemamo jaslice.

Ako sve ovo ne uspe počećemo da tražimo klasičnu babysitterku.

update: na oglas mi se javila a u medjuvremenu smo se i upoznale jedna izuzetno simpatična devojka sa kojom sam otkrila puno zajedničkih interesovanja i stavova. Imamo i sličnu priču o boravku u Švajcarskoj, jednostavno smo se prepoznale. Jupi!

Eating and sleeping – 10 months baby

Wow, it’s been 7 months and I didn’t write anything so I’ll try to give you some news and informations.

Eating:

when she was almost 6 months we started introducing solid food at noon. First it was carrots, and then carrots with potatoes, and then carrots-potatoes-zucchini. With 8 months we introduced meat and afterwards egg yolk.

Basically, you are allowed to add new ingredients every 3-7 days. I stuck on 7 days.

With 7 months we started with fruits in the afternoon, mixed with cereals, mainly millet (Hirse in german). With 8 months we introduced another solid meal in the evening (7 pm), mainly semolina powder (Griess). We are cooking her meals by ourselves or by only organic baby food, like Holle, Bimbosan, Bebivita etc.

Her schedule looks like this:

- 7h waking up

- 7:30 breakfast 150ml milk (I stopped breastfeeding when she was about 9 months old -> I didn’t have enough milk any more so we introduced the additional milk and afterward she got so used to it that she didn’t want to be breastfed any more).

- 11:30 lunch 150-200g mashed vegetables

- 15:00 “Zvieri” snack 150g fruits with vegetables

- 16:00 150 ml milk (obviosly she’s still hungry after her snack )

- 19:00 100g Grieß or some other cereals with a bit of fruits

- 19:45 180-200ml milk with 3 table spoons of Grieß. We use Avent milk bottle with a 3-hole teat.

What’s up (continued) …

Walks

Our third walk (now you would think that it is silly to count the walks but maybe you can understand it when you know that she was only 2.5 weeks old at the time) was on November the 3rd when we went shopping for a groceries in our local supermarket. I started noticing how almost everyone is paying attention to parents with a baby/child in the trolley. I also started noticing other mothers or fathers with their children, it was similar to my pregnancy time when I would notice every pregnant woman .

Our forth walk was two days afterwards when I went for a coffee with a girl I met on SwissmomForum so I made my first experience with a baby in a café bar. Since it was a non-smoking bar on a Monday morning you can imagine us sitting with a bunch of elderly women who are trying to peek in the trolley and see the baby.

The next day we went for our next, fifth walk with a girl who was my roommate in the hospital after delivery. Now, this was a real walk! We followed the Panorama Weg from Triemli to the Albisgütli in Zurich. The weather was nice and sunny, a real pleasure. One of the next walks was again the same one but this time with a friend who has a 2.5 months older baby girl (so at the moment she is 5.5 months old).

What are we doing so far:

* Trying to get the place in the PEKIP course which is organized by “Elternbildungszentrum der Stadt Zürich“.

* From January the 30th we will attend a baby massage course (4 times x 90 minutes) in our local hospital. I am very excited about that!

* We were in Coop Nuggikino: movies organized once a month (Sunday matinée) by Coop for all parents and their babies up to 1 year old. BTW, Nuggi means pacifier (soother) in Swiss German. You can bring your baby together with you to the cinema and no one will say anything if it cries. Cool, isn’t it? There is also a lot of space to change the diapers during the break and you also get some products from the Coop partner companies. We watched Enchanted which is actually a real fairytale comedy-of-situations movie and the baby was mostly calm and sleepy. Also if you need to breastfeed the baby noone will see cause it’s dark so you don’t have to hide and if you are going to Arena Sihlcity you can make a reservation for a nice 2-persons-chair (they call if sofa but it’s just a small “sofa”) and make yourself cozy together with your baby.

PS: You can search for all events in Kanton Zurich here.

3 months old baby and what happened so far …

Time flies and Catherine is already 3 months old. During this time we experienced, learned and felt so much. We are extremely happy and the whole happiness can’t be described in words.

I would say that writing about your pregnancy is “a piece of cake” cause you are writing only about yourself, but when you have a baby you probably don’t want to write about him/her in the terms you wrote about yourself. That is why there was a short pause on this blog. I thought for a long time if I should continue writing about baby and us and at the end I decided that it would be nice to post informations and experiences which could be valuable to other parents in Switzerland and especially Zurich, but also to the parents in Serbia or wherever. ) Actually I will try to continue my “spreading informations” mission.

Basically there are so many things you can do with/for your child in Switzerland and mostly the informations are right in front of you: everyone starting with your child’s doctor, hospital, advisory service, regional office, the city government and of course the companies like e.g. Nestle and Pampers will inform you about (or send you) all possible stuff you need or don’t need, but it is nice to have some informations sorted out, right?

First I would like to say something about where do we take walks with our baby. After our first walk, the second one was on 1. November when we went to the Mütter- und Väterberatung for the first time. Actually that first time Catherine’s dad was also with us (since he had 4 weeks off after my delivery) which drew the glances of other mothers to us. I guess it is “normal” that only mothers go to the consultant. Whatever.

The advisory/consulting centers in Zurich are organized in every city district and in some of them work advisory VIPs like Anna Urben who is writing for the “Wir Eltern” magazine and such. First I wanted to visit her but since a) she is not in my city district and also not reachable by foot from our home (in that case we couldn’t only walk ) and b) we don’t really have problems with our baby meaning that our questions for the consultant are more or less typical and expected to be answered by “every” consultant, we decided that we will visit the consultant in our district and see what happens. I can tell you that she is very nice lady who gave me some valuable tips, though the most interesting thing is surely her experience and the ability to notice every possible baby’s move and to find the explanation for it. Anyway, it is advisable to go to the consultant in your district who would be your “basic” consultant and have a chance to get to know your baby although you can always go to someone else if you’re not satisfied with the first one. To size your baby (weight and size) you should visit the Mütterberatung every week with a newborn (until 3 months old) and afterwards old once a month with a 3-12 months old baby.

Also you can ask a question on the telephone or make an appointment at your home if you can’t make it to the advisory center. In that case I’m not sure if you have to pay something for the visit.

to be continued …

PS: Die Parktante takes care of children who are 2-5 years old on a hourly basis.

Nedelja i prva setnja – Der Sonntagsspaziergang

Nasa prva i to nedeljna setnja se desila u cast Kacine druge nedelje. Bilo je zaista lepo i suncano vreme a malena je spavala sve vreme (prethodno smo je dobro nahranili i uspavali ) sto je nama roditeljima olaksalo uzivanje i opustanje na svezem vazduhu.

Obukli smo je u debelo odelce “polarnog medveda” u kome je jednostavno preslatka. Kolica su za sada potvrdila svoje najvise ocene a imamo i puno slika koje ce uskoro biti na Flickr-u.

Bili smo u komsiluku i to u centru za okupljanje dece i roditelja (snimili smo i veliko igraliste koje jedva cekamo da isprobamo u buducnosti) i na buvljaku za decje igracke i garderobu. Ovde je buvljak mnogo bolji od recimo onog na Novom BG ) tako da ne morate da se brinete za kvalitet robe koja se moze kupili bukvalno za dzabe.

Puno pozdrava od Catherine sa mamom i tatom

***

… heute ist etwas spannendes passiert, wovon ich Euch berichten muss. Mama und Papa sind mit mir zum ersten Mal spazieren gefahren. Da ich noch so klein sei, müssten sie mich in als Eisbär verkleiden, haben sie gesagt. Dann ging’s los mit meinem blauen Sportmobil zum Gemeinschaftszentrum in der Nachbarschaft, wo ein Flohmarkt war. Dort war es nett, für nur wenig Geld haben wir Mützchen, Wollpulli, Schuhe und Hemdchen gekauft. Als Dankeschön dafür war ich während der ganzen Fahrt ruhig und habe geschlafen.

Ganz liebe Grüsse, auch von Mama und Papa

Eure Catherine