First Days Together

Caitlin in Mom's bed
many new expressions

a few hours old

hanging out together

Dad took her on her first walk

Introducing the Newest Maass!

Introducing

Caitlin Elizabeth Maass!

Arrived Thursday, 26.April.2007

At 3:52pm in Dresden, Germany

--Central European Time Zone

( "CET 15:52" is +8hours ahead of Edmonton, AB, Canada so it was 7:52am there; +7hours ahead of Rochester, MN, USA so it was 8:52am there. )

[ *note correction from email that said 4:01pm- I [Grady] was in shock for "first 9 minutes", time stood still! ;) ]

Weighing 6 lb 11 oz ( 3.04 kg )

Measuring 20 & 1/16 inches ( 51 cm )

It was an arduous labor, ~16hours long! But Allison was a super-trooper, having not really eaten or slept since Wednesday. She was strong til the end! Despite a bit of help (oxitocin) to keep the contractions frequent enough & going, she took nothing else--not even pain killers!

It is truly a tearful, wonderful joy from God, to experience live, a baby come to this world! I was there along with our great midwife Doreen Karkola. Wonderful friend Annette Roessel came also to support--thank you so much Annette! The first glimpse of Caitlin, were these big, puffy set of lips looking back at me! She came out, and all agreed whoa--she's got a whale of a voice! And then, when I first held her, I saw these long, elegant finger nails. That's when it came to me what she was doing those 2 extra days past the due date. My colleagues at work were right--she was getting a beauty treatment in there, before making her grand appearance! Well, she forgot the hair (literally), but none-the-less, she's a looker!!!

Overall, mother & baby are healthy, recovering and doing well. They'll be in the hospital until Monday. Thanks for the prayers and all the lovely emails, phone calls, etc. I'm letting Allison and Caitlin know of them all!

-Grady on behalf of Family

And Here We Go...

Well folks, it's official, I'm in labor! My water broke a few hours ago and we're off to the hospital. The next blog will be post-birth!

All Things German

Wouldn't ya know it, life is different here in Germany! Yes, yes, culturally, linguistically, etc, but the things that will really start to tire your familiarity-seeking brain aren't necessarily the obvious ones. It's the lack of door knobs (and instead door handles), the different lightswitches, and no handle to flush the toilet with that'll send your brain through a loop as the months go by. (Or else you might just become easily accustomed to them and just use the above reason as material for another blog entry... :) )

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Time Flying...But Standing Still

Wowie, I can't believe that tomorrow is already the "due date" that we've been talking about for the last nine months! It has always seemed so far off but now it's just a few hours away. Of course, just because it's estimated that the baby will be "fully baked" as of tomorrow doesn't necessarily mean we'll be holding our little one in our arms yet--it could still be another two weeks-! And the thought of that sounds craziest to me, let me tell you! I feel like I've (and Grady too) been calmly patient these past many months, with so many unknowns--but in the last week it's become so incredibly difficult to wait any longer! So many questions are lingering--first off (of course), will we have a son or a daughter? What will he/she look like? How long will labor last? How will it all start? What kind of a temperment has God given him/her? Will he/she have red hair like Grady? (I hope so!) Not that any of these questions are super pressing or direly important, but it's just getting so hard to stay patient to find out!

And I find it a really interesting situation in general, because how many big life events are left so "up in the air"? Can you imagine knowing you would marry someone, planning the wedding, but never knowing what day (or even time of day) it would happen? Or when's the last time you packed your bags for a great vacation and just waited around until the airline called you to tell you they finally had your tickets?

It's such a comfort to know that God holds everything in his hands and that we can trust in his perfect timing. But it doesn't necessarily make it any easier!

Good to the Last Drop

So with parenthood and all its sacrifices and responsibilities looming we've enjoyed the last few days of going out to especially take advantage of this last bit of pre-baby time. Yesterday evening we visited good friends Rick and Kara at their new apartment in a neighbouring town to Dresden. It just so happened to be the day that a crazy type of marathon was going on, and it was taking place along a small stretch of hill and stairs a mere two minute walk from their apartment, so we had to check it out. It turns out that the 250 meter course, when run 100 times, equals the altitude change and distance of climbing Mt. Everest-! Now who decided to figure that out is my biggest question! But then my second biggest question is what would drive these (mostly) men to run this course, comprised of mostly stairs, 100 TIMES! They started yesterday afternoon at 4pm and we heard that the record holder completed it last year in something like 14 hours--which means yes, they run straight through the night! Another thing I was pondering, I mean, why don't they just start at 6 or 7am instead of having to spend so much of the race in the dark? Hmm. The four of us North Americans stood cheering amongst the otherwise silent spectators, which got plenty of smiles from the runners and a few from the quiet bystanders. We later hopped in the car and drove to the top of the course, continuing to cheer and encourage, which got surprised reactions from many of the runners who obviously recognized we were the same loud people from the bottom of the course. After passing the refreshment table, one runner even gave me a small candy as he ran by as if to thank us for our support! The course is pretty short--the race is all about repetitions (I mean 100 times, come on!)--so we started to find our favorite runners who would always smile or joke with us in some way everytime they passed. Anyway, it was truly a random and fun way to spend part of our evening last night and I'm so glad we have this last bit of time to soak in being a "couple" before parenthood and family life is upon us. And when we had first arrived at the top of the course to continue cheering we also had the awesome chance to lookout over the lights of Dresden and even see some fireworks off in the distance--plus, the stars were so brilliant and we even spotted a couple satellites! Thank you God for giving us such wonderful opportunities!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

In an effort to go about with life as "normally" as possible as we wait for our baby to arrive, I thought I'd write the next few posts about our neighborhood here in Dresden. There's really some interesting things about it and I've been wanting to do this for awhile, so let's get to it!

One of the recently added highlights of our area is this inexpensive salon right at the bottom of our apartment building. It's called, "Cutman" and the slogan is "Rescues the world from bad hairstyles." It's so funny! Grady and I have got our last two haircuts there because it only costs 10 Euros for a wash and cut--can't beat it! The front of the salon is also obnoxiously lit up at night which always makes it easy to use as a landmark for new people trying to find our place. Yeah, Cutman!

Next I wanted to add a bit about a particular mannequin in one of the store windows on our street. It's an underwear store (family-style, like for men and children too) and there are four mannequins sporting the newest German underwear trends--one man, one woman, one boy and one girl. They are all fairly normal looking mannequins...except one. I don't know if the storeowner got a major discount on the boy, but seriously, he is WAY too excited about his new undershirt and briefs-! It's actually pretty scary. I keep thinking it's a joke and that one day he'll have a new, relaxed face to match the rest of his scantily-clad family, but alas, he is ever posed in the window, shocking the innocent passers-by...

And one last thing (for this post) that's so great about our neighborhood is how close everything is to us. Within a 10 minutes' walking radius lies two pharmacies, two grocery stores, a drugstore, four bakeries, a public library, Subway (yummm), five cafes (at least), a salon (see above), and numerous other shops and services. I especially love the flower markets at this time of year, when the streets are just packed with colorful blooms. They're often next to wonderful fruit/vegetable shops as well. The one in the picture is just across the street from us!

More about our cool neighborhood to come!

We've Reached Week 39!

One week until the projected due date! And *man* am I feeling pregnant these days-! Let's just say that EVERYTHING has become a bit harder lately. (ie. walking, standing, sitting, laying down, climbing stairs, putting on socks, unloading the dishwasher, breathing, speaking German, remembering stuff, etc.) Thanks everyone for your continued prayers, and stay tuned to this blog for the big news (whenever that will be-!).

Survey Says...

Ok everyone, here's your chance to put those expert guessing skills to the test! I'd love to find out your opinion about when our baby will come, how much he/she will weigh, and if it will be a boy or a girl. So let's have it!

My Third German Birthday

Did you know birthdays are celebrated differently in Germany? As your day nears it is your responsibility to plan some kind of party, invite everyone and foot the bill or make all the preparations on the day. No being "modest" about your birthday--if you want to honor your friends by inviting them to celebrate with you there's no being shy about announcing that it will be your birthday soon! I have been progressively eased into this aspect of German culture, as you can read below. It wasn't until this year that I truly embraced the German spirit of birthday celebrating and planned/prepared/invited/announced everything myself. (ok, ok, with Grady's help too!) So because I have had the privilege of celebrating my last three birthdays in Germany I thought I'd take a minute to recap the highlights of each!
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2005:

The day started out great as my roommate Amy spoiled me with breakfast in bed and a cool H&M bag full of all sorts of goodies. Then Amy, Grady, Marion and I squeezed into Marion's Trabbi and drove to Chemnitz for the monthly regional singing afternoon. We went over to April and Karen's house afterwards, ordering in pizza, having a who-can-eat-their-cake-the-fastest-without-utensils-or-hands contest and playing Twister. It was a fun way to turn 23!

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2006:

Deep amidst wedding planning I decided to keep it simple: I invited whoever wanted to join to eat at one of my favorite Asian restaurants after church. We sat around this huge round table enjoying each other's company and the exotic food and drinks. Yay 24!

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2007:

This year I woke up once again to a wonderful breakfast in bed (thanks honey!). My birthday conveniently fell on Easter Monday (a day off of work for everyone here), so it was the perfect day to host everyone at our apartment for what I called an "Afternoon Brunch." I made a breakfast casserole and some cookies, Grady prepared and cut up tons of fruit and other hor d'oeuvres, and we were set to go. People brought beautiful spring bouquets (my favorite gift!--see first picture) and Kristi spoiled us all by making a strawberry cream cake. Many wonderful hours were spent visiting and just being together, especially as I realized that it was my last birthday before motherhood! A quarter of a century has come and gone, here's to making the next 25 years just as great!

Happy

Birthday

Mom!!!!

Yes Mom, I'm Still Pregnant

See? Almost at 38 weeks.

(please also note the beautiful birthday flower bouquet from my dear sweet husband!)

So who knew the importance of keeping the parents updated practically daily in these last few weeks? I guess my mom thought the only good reason I had for not having called for a few days was that I was probably in labor-! Although it would have been a cool continuation of a family pattern (I was also due April 24th but came two days before my mom's April 11th birthday, and we were all joking of how funny it would be if our baby came two days before my birthday (which would have been yesterday)), the baby is still ever-increasingly tightly packed in my belly and not afraid to pretend there isn't such space confiment by sometimes practicing a side-wrenching stretch. Let me tell you, when the bum presses up in my ribcage and the head/hands simultaneously become pretty snug in my pelvis, there's not much to do except try (albeit vainly) to teach the child some manners and good behaviour in that it's not nice to cause people such discomfort (especially mama!). Well, and squirming sometimes helps, not to mention the occasional counter push from my hand in an effort to discourage the newfound positioning. Anyway, they're all joys in the last month of pregnancy (so I've read and heard) and good practice in being regularily spontaneously inconvenienced, which I can imagine is a necessary thing to learn as a parent. Wow, life is going to change!

And Happy Easter/Frohe Ostern everyone!

My Water Broke!

...or so he thought!

Man, April Fool's comes and goes every year and I can't ever seem to pull a good one on anyone. So this year I decided to not pass up the chance to try something pregnancy/labor related, since when again am I going to be able to use such rich material as April Fool's ammo? And plus people have been a little on edge lately (especially Grady) in taking my pregnancy complaints and pains as evidence that my upcoming labor has begun (I guess I'd rather that then having people go the other way and argue with me about it though!), so I couldn't resist!

So here's the scene: Allison changes into her nightgown while Grady is working on his computer in the loft, then pours a decent amount of water on the floor in the bedroom, making sure the lighting is bright enough for him to notice the puddle. After a minute or so of silently contemplating what kind of sound a labor-beginning woman should make, I let out a kind of half-whimper, astonished yell for Grady to which he quickly responded by coming to see what was wrong...

...and there I was, standing with one foot in the puddle, hunched over with my hands on my knees. "Umm, look at this..." I told him (trying to look convincing and in pain or something) as he entered the room...

"Oh my! Umm...ok...well..." and before he reacted any more I had to end it. (hey I don't want him to not believe me if it happens for real-!)

It did take him a minute or so to fully comprehend the joke--he said his heart rate immediately shot up upon seeing the puddle and he thought it was time to start dealing with the inevitable! We laughed about it after and it was very impressive how calm and cool he was in those few moments--at first I didn't even know if he fell for it at all until I said, "April Fool's!" and it took him the couple seconds to snap out of it and stop the "fight-or-flight" urges of his nervous system. Imagine if he'd have started shouting and panicking! It wasn't a test but he passed it with flying colors--and now I know how he'll really react (at least initially) when the situation really is upon us!

Hope you had fun this April Fool's day too!

Belly Beauty

Yesterday we drove to a beautiful area outside of Dresden to enjoy the sun and warmer spring weather by being outdoors. We hiked around with some friends and had the chance to stop and snap a couple "pregnancy" pics to remember this special time in our lives. Thanks for being our photographers, Rick and Kara!