The bed sharing dilemma

Bed sharing

In my pre-birth course, I posed what I thought was a simple question about how to set up baby for sleeping at night, and instead received the disturbing news that… he should sleep with me. In the bed!

Are you mad?

Well, they said, you’re not going to get out of bed to feed him every two hours, are you?

Actually, that’s exactly what I was planning on doing!

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You know you’re in Austria and not Australia when… you smear cheese all over your body

topfen

When I was struggling with back pain I began using a standing desk, which helped, but then my heels started aching. After complaining to hubby, he stopped by the supermarket and as I was chilling on the couch that evening, he smeared topfen over my heels and wrapped them in plastic film. When I mentioned this remedy, astonished, to a local friend she looked at me like duh.

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A baby away from home

baby feet

I like my life in Austria. I have lots of support. I am happy here. Yet in the months since I had a baby, I have never felt so homesick and alone in my entire life. I have never before questioned my decision so much. The question to move to Austria, you ask, or the question to have a baby? Well… both.

This whole process of having a baby and becoming a mother is an adjustment. It’s much harder when you’re in a different language, a different culture and family is far away. I’m lucky to have great in-laws who are very supportive and respectful. But it doesn’t change the fact that they’re not my parents. My parents haven’t met Sam. They won’t until he’s almost a year old. They’ll have a harder time cultivating a relationship with him. And all the Skype time can’t change that. I’m lucky that hubby is great at taking photos, but sometimes seeing all the pictures of his parents with Sam just makes me sad because it all hits me again.

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(Kind of) Hilarious Australian news articles

Some news stories are serious – and so they should be. However, there’s nothing like injecting a bit of light-heartedness into a world where reporting only seems to get grimmer and grimmer. And since Aussies are known to enjoy taking the piss, both of themselves and others, here’s a few examples of times when they focused on the lighter side of news.

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