It's Christmas time, people!

Just want to take a few minutes to wish you all a VEEEEERY MEEEEERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We will be celebrating Christmas in a climate where "...dreaming of a White Christmas" is probably all we'll be able to do.....dreaming of one I mean! I've heard that the temperature is supposed to be more than +12 degrees Celsius tomorrow... Not so white in other words, but certainly the most special one we will have had so far as for the first time, we will spend it being a family of our own.....and talking about first times, I couldn't think of a single thing to wish for this year! I really mean that...... Who really needs more than this..?I've never been happier!!

Below, an Instagram round-up and some additional photos from the last few days to give you a flavor of what our Christmas is looking like so far.

OK, so maybe I had one wish.... I was hoping Christmas would look a bit like this...as it did a week ago.... 

Instead, it looks a bit more like this....not too shabby, but not really "Christmasy".

A small reward after our walk this afternoon - a "Christmas style Cappuccino"
accompanied by Chris's homemade "Zimtsterne"

The tree has been decorated since a little over a week and now there's just a feeeew gifts still missing underneath it ;)

Deco details ;)

For me, as a Swede, there simply wouldn't be Christmas without Glögg, but it needs to be the one from "Blossa" (and not the IKEA food shop version!)..... =p

Wrapping the last few gifts.....

Uhhmmm.....this bowl was really overflowing yesterday when we came home from the Lindt Chocolate shop... Oooops! 

That's all for now and all that's left to say to you, before the festivities begin is: Enjoy, love, laugh, sing, eat, hug, kiss, dance, take some moments to remember the loved ones that for whatever reason can not be there with you and allow yourself during these precious days to be as lazy as it gets!! You deserve it and hopefully, Santa know that ;)

With love,

xox

14 down......6 to go.....

On the left side, +20kg's ;)

The weather has been a bit of an enemy lately.... An enemy of me getting back in shape post-pregnancy that is. I gained about 20kg's during the pregnancy and I still have 6kg's left to loose before I'm back to the old me. The first 14kg's more or less fell off me a few weeks after Allison was born, but now it's as if it all stopped. As if, (most likely), what I have left now was not really needed during my pregnancy, but rather weight I gained by not being able to exercise properly and letting myself go a bit towards the end ;))

Well, the old me could enjoy going for a run without any problems with the back and if I was able to go running now, which momentarily I can't, I wouldn't mind this weather...not at all! In fact I would enjoy running in the rain and cold as it keeps me fresher and more energized longer.....but to get the same exercise feeling as running for 30-45 minutes gives me, I would have to walk for 1.5-2 hours at least and that, in this cold, humid and grey weather? I just can't bare the thought of! Solution? I'm right now sitting in the sofa, eagerly and excitedly waiting for this to arrive so I can get back on track again! Completely weather independent!

Yaaaaaaaaay! Best "investment" ever and it will make training when having a baby at home so much easier ;)

xox

December and all of that....

December and only some rare spots of snow here and there remain up here on the hills of Essertines. Winter Wonderland has again turned into a few hundred shades of grey and green and unfortunately, the weather forecasts, if accurate, reveal that this will NOT be a white Christmas. 

For (hopefully) explainable reasons, I am behind with absolutely everything! Lately, I have managed to miss no less than 4 important birthdays (I'm so sorry!) and practically forgot that Christmas is just around the corner and am just realizing exactly how close it is now that presents keep arriving at our place and the few presents we have managed to buy are not even wrapped yet and still have to be sent off! Oh well....at least the Christmas tree is in place and decorated since a week. Hope you guys are more on schedule for Christmas than I am?

Today was such a great day! It started with the postman bringing up two packages filled with christmas gifts from Sweden and so many beautiful Christmas cards from our friends and family.... Afterwards, a "baby-date" with lovely "Piretta" and her adorable baby girl, Charlotte, who is just a few days younger than Allison. After they left, Allison and I spent the afternoon playing, singing and reading stories together and she was in her best sunshiny-kind-of-mood the whooooole day, smiling, "talking" (No really! Like whole sentences in baby language, not just gurgling!! ;)) and being very cuddly. She has started to really listen to what I'm reading to her and, in a big-eyed way, watching the illustrations as the stories unravel. I can't wait for her to start understanding what all these words really mean, as for now, I'm sure my reading sounds to her just like her baby language sounds to me. She also started to play around with trying to put the pacifier back in her mouth without my help when she looses it. This cracks me up as of course, being only 2 months, this works maybe 2 times out of 10, so I end up assisting her lots more than normally as she also now spits it out on purpose just so she can practice her new moves and she gets VERY frustrated when she can't manage ;))

"Piretta", during our country side walk.....

At least there is still snow a bit higher up ;))

On top of this, she fell asleep effortlessly, a little after 8pm (Yep! In her own bed....) and since then, I managed to enhance and speed up the Christmas feeling with a cup of Swedish Glögg, in bed, in my cosy flannel pajama while blogging.....and if I'm lucky, she'll sleep through the night, like she's done most nights since about three weeks now. A happy HAPPY day.

Since my previous post, I have decided to keep blogging, but to re-launch the blog once we move to Sweden under a different name (still to be decided), as obviously by then, I'll be neither lost nor in Switzerland anymore.... I hope you'll follow me there.  
I'd like to thank everyone who sent me amazingly kind feedbacks regarding the blogging! I will try to reply as soon as I find some spare time (yep...I'm behind on this as well ;)).

....and one more thing before I close this laptop down to join Allison in the land of dreams. Who's watching Homeland?? OMG what an amazing season finale!! Best series since Dexter =p

xox

The end of an era....

In the middle of the happiness and emotionally overwhelming time of having our first baby, after careful consideration, many sleepless nights, lots of stress, pro's and con's lists, days of both worrying and daydreaming, it's now decided and official... As of spring 2013, I will no longer be "Lost in Switzerland" but rather home in Sweden. 

Yep! We are moving.....and now that it's decided, I can finally exhale and allow myself to feel ridiculously excited about finally being closer to my friends and family again after what will be nearly five years in Switzerland (!). No words can describe how much I have missed them over the years while going through so many changes in my life and no words can really begin to describe the joy I feel inside at this moment, knowing that all those hugs I have missed so desperately, all those heart to heart conversations I could never have, at least not face to face, will soon be within my reach again....

Besides all the massive amounts of planning required now for the move....there is one other obvious question: What shall happen with this blog now??  It has brought me so much joy over the years....a relief and an outlet for so much I needed to get out of my system. I have found so much inspiration from the people reading and commenting and it has also enabled me to meet some amazing people.

Shall I continue to write from Sweden about our life and new adventures there? Would anyone be interested in reading it then? Please please let me know what you think by commenting here below, on the Facebook page or by sending me an e-mail (linda-lostinswitzerland@hotmail.com) ... Potential lack of comments/responses will be taken as a sign of a non-interest. Thanks a lot for your feedback =)

xox

To go or not to go......

...that is the question I've been asking myself now for the past three days! To go or not to go for a walk that is....defying this HORRENDOUS weather! It was so beautifully snowy here a few days ago, but then it started to rain and the result is an ugly, wet and windy 500 shades of grey. For the past three days, I have been on my way out but then changed my mind at the last minute as the weather got increasingly worse......but today I did it!! ...and well, I am happy now that I went - but trust me, I did not enjoy it! In fact, after about 500 meters of walking, the sky opened up and the wet snow came down on us as if to tell me "You idiot! Turn around!". Some sample photos below ;))

Doesn't it look appealing?! Not!

....and then the wet snow came down and it was freeeezing!!

Please note that these pants are supposed to have a very light grey color (some centimeters of the pants are still dry here in this photo ;))....and btw, not so clever of me to go for a walk in this weather in sweat pants 8o) The only clever choice in my outfit were my "Canada snow" boots (which I LOVE!) - so at least my feet stayed dry!

Luckily, our buggy came with rain protection ;))

My unglamorous, un-made and rosy-cheeked faced after having been out in the cold!

One of the best ways to defrost ;)))

Mommies/daddies! Do you take your babies out for strolls in this weather or not?! I feel so incredibly lazy the days when I don't =o/

Now we are back in the warmth of our home and I will use this opportunity of Allison sleeping after the walk to start watching season 2 of "New girl" (loved season 1!) with a very hot cup of coffee. Enjoy your afternoons.......

xox

Happy baby!

We got this "number plate" for her buggy. Love it!

Allison started to smile a few weeks ago, but she hasn't been consistently smiling ever since...just a few smiles here and there. Well, that was until yesterday ;)) Now, she just can't seem to get enough! 

She woke me up at 7am this morning and ever since, every time I look at her - she smiles at me. Maybe it's because I recently learned that being fussy and saying "Goooaahh" doesn't mean "Mommy, I'm done eating!" but rather "Mommy, please give me the other booby!". Maybe that's why she's so happy now? ;)) Regardless of the reasons, I can tell you it's the best feeling ever!!!

xox

From white to yellow....

....and with this I am referring to belts! I do believe I have earned an upgrade from the "Motherhood beginners white belt" to the "Motherhood less of a beginner yellow belt" ;))

Recently Allison and I have managed the first pediatricians visit, a 3 hour visit to the office (that, by the way,  included both nappy change and a feeding session), a trip to a fellow blogger mom in Lausanne, the visit of a friend in Geneva including a short walk to/in the city and a trip to the emergency room (no worries - false alarm ;))! Incredible how these easy things now seem like such adventures that require confidence and courage! Simple questions like "Oh my! Should I take the buggy or the baby carrier for this trip"!? or "Am I allowed to bring the buggy into this cafe" arise and feel too silly to even ask someone about without feeling a bit embarrassed about the level I'm at....but what can I say? Everyone was a beginner once.

Anyhow, things are progressing and now we are going for the orange belt..... Question is what that will entail? Grocery shopping maybe? Or traveling somewhere by public transport (brrrrr!!!)?! Yep! Babies change your life for sure....not all for the better, c'mon! That would be a lie (for instance, whoever says that sleeping works better now is either a lier or a VERY lucky mom ;)) ....but it adds soooo much to life that make all those things seem so trivial and unimportant and I'm loving our "new life" more than I could possible describe in words! 

xox

Putting things in perspective.....

I want to share this clip with you that I saw last week...... Chances are if you're seeing this that you are living in the first world, just like me.....and that you, just like me, will feel that this puts things in perspective.... Sad, powerful and certainly food for thought!


xox

Baby shopping

I have always been a huge fan of online shopping.....it's convenient, open 24/7, no queues and nooooo stress.....but since becoming a mom, I'm even a bigger fan! It's just not a pleasant experience, (for me OR for the baby), to walk around in shops with the buggy, feeling like you're always in someones way or feeling that someone else is always in your way and hence, I recently tried placing my first Zalando order and bought this little cute outfit for Allison.

Baby love by anderssonlinda on Polyvore

What do you think?
For sure now we should avoid the question "Is it a boy or a girl?" ;))

xox

Monday.....recovery day

It's Monday and both baby and mommy are exhausted after spending a family weekend in Zurich and Schaffhausen where we have introduced her to most of her Swiss relatives.  An absolutely lovely weekend, in so many ways, but all those new impressions (faces, places, voices and smells) was a bit too much for our little one to handle and on the way home yesterday, (as correctly predicted by Chris's youngest sister ;), she was inconsolable......beyond recognition actually....and it was an absolutely heartbreaking experience. Especially since it happened in the car and we couldn't find any place to stop on the highway, so she had to stay in her car seat and there was no way for me to take her out and hold her. When we finally came home, after we gave her a nice, warm bath, an oil baby massage and a feeding session, she fell asleep in my arms and we could finally exhale and close our eyelids. Oh my....how do you ever get used to your baby crying like that?!

Now it's Monday, our recovery day, and Allison is sleeping quietly next to me in her little baby basket and I'm sitting here in the sofa, with a cup of coffee that is way too weak to even begin to wake me up, listening to Lucy Rose's "new" album "Like I used to" and trying to shake off yesterdays unfortunate bad ending by dreaming about having a house....preferably one in New England style....with a lawn, big enough for her to play on when she starts walking and a little garden where she can plant and take care of her own vegetables when she is old enough to carry her own little watering can. Places and interiors like these:

Right.......that's enough dreaming.....time to get some sunshine ;))
Enjoy your week(s)!

xox

Parenthood, week 4

Wow....what an amazingly special and emotional 3 weeks it's been! Having a baby is by far the most rewarding experience of my life, but it should also be said that it's not an easy job ;) I have always admired parents who seem to be on top of everything, but that admiration is nothing compared to the one I feel now, knowing what they are dealing with and, (oh my!), some even have twins or triplets instead of that one, first baby! 

The first week was a bit of a mess.....both practically and emotionally speaking. 
Biggest challenge: How do you get to know someone when you're not able to talk to each other? Especially for someone like me with zero baby experience. 
Well believe it or not, but you do get to know each other... Slowly but surely, you get to know the different expressions and little noises and you learn to tell the difference between the "Mommy, give me food", the "Mommy, pick me up and cuddle me", the "Mommy, nappy change!!" or "Mommy I think I ate too fast and I have to let some back up soon...." -noises. Thankfully, I also had my mom and stepdad here, helping us out while we were getting our heads around all of this.

Now in week 4, we are finally having some routines and things start to feel very natural! I am however far away from the advanced mommying-techniques I've heard about, such as "breastfeeding while cooking" (wow!). I have however progressed from "holding my baby firmly with both hands AND using my legs + the breastfeeding pillow to stabilize her in my arms while breastfeeding" to "having a cup of coffee and watching some TV while breast feeding". I have also managed to (now many advanced mommies will have forgotten what the first few weeks were like and will likely think I'm from another planet) shower while my baby is sleeping AND painted my own toe nails for the first time since pregnancy month 7. Whooooooooo!

All pregnancies, babies and mommies are different, no doubt.......and I'm also faaaaar away from advanced parenting skills, so if you are a new mom or just becoming one, I'm not sure if you will recognize this or will find it useful.....but here are some things I wish I would have known before becoming a mommy:

- Do not take your baby home from the hospital in the evening. 
Oh my, how naive it was to think that she'd feel right at home just because I did. She was so nervous and refused to even consider to sleep. Too many new impressions. Take your baby home in the morning to give her time to adjust to the new environment....that would probably have been a useful hint to receive ;))

- Some babies cry for a few seconds right before falling asleep
Ooops! I didn't know this....and as a new mom, her crying breaks my heart so when she starts to cry after I have put her down to sleep, I rushed there to check on her, not realizing that what I was actually doing was not soothing her, but rather waking her up ;)) Now I can hear the difference from this "I'm just about to fall asleep" cry compared to the real cry, when she actually needs something from me.

- Babies love to be warm
In Sweden, we are taught to be careful not to overheat babies! What I didn't know though is that this is about room temperatures (it should be between 18-20 degrees C) and not clothes.... Our baby was not comfy the first two days at home as I was trying to avoid overheating her by not overdressing her. She was very cranky and we had no idea why. Then the midwife came and put one extra layer of clothes on her + swaddled her in the baby blanket and the difference was enormous! Like a new baby - all happy and cosy ;)) The swaddling technique has worked wonders for us. Looking back, this makes me feel really stupid and it all seems very natural now....after all, she was in my belly for such a long time and in there, it's definitely very warm!

- Sometimes, babies just like to suck on something.
Hmmm....not sure from where, but I had heard that pacifiers should be avoided for all kinds of reasons! Dental health, not to spoil the baby, not to confuse the baby, etc. etc.
Well, this is true until the breast feeding starts to work, but after that, they actually recommend using pacifiers for naps and sleep time as it helps to prevent SID's. Our baby was sometimes very cranky from what I thought was hunger. So some days I spent more or less constantly trying to feed her until the best invention ever came into play - The pacifier!! Wow...again....mind blowing difference! Now she can even sleep in her own bed, which was not possible before the introduction of the pacifier.

- Babies sometimes sleep with their eyes open!
Oh my lord......our baby scared the....let's say hoot....out of me when she was looking at me, rolling and twitching her eyes while weirdly smiling!! Little did I know in that moment, that she was asleep and dreaming ;)) She looked like a psych patient and I got so nervous that I had to film it and show it to the midwife, convinced she probably had some neurological disorder. Well guess what? Like so many other things I worried about, this is completely normal.

- Babies need routines (and so do you, mommy ;))
The advise from our midwife (we have a fantastic one, from the UK) was: "Before putting your baby to bed for the night, do not overstimulate her". Oh gosh.....sooo much harder than it sounds! When you're a new parent all you want to do is cuddle with her, smile at her and give her aaaaaall of that love you feel inside, right? Well of course, but since we don't excessively do this anymore during night time, she sleeps so much faster and better. At night, I just feed her and kiss her on the forehead before putting her back down to sleep, while before I was talking to her, cuddling her, kissing her, smiling and laughing at her, so for sure she didn't know the difference between night and day. It took her 30 minutes to 1 hour before she fell back asleep after a feeding. Now she falls asleep right after and stays asleep until the next feeding at least 8 times out of 10.
We also learned that babies should feed every 3-4 hours and that during the day, it's better to wake them up to keep this routine while at night, we should let her sleep and feed her "on demand". Having done this for a while, we have a very good rhythm (she wakes up for food every 3-4 hours) now and hope it will last for a while. I am finally feeling that I get enough sleep and can manage the days really well. 

...and as for the pregnancy itself, I'm not going to say that this cream will prevent stretch marks for sure. All I can say is that I used it from the moment I found out I was pregnant, once per day after showering and I came out of this pregnancy with zero stretch marks. So if you're pregnant and you care about these things, it could be worth trying ;))

.....and then this thing about going into labor. I was wondering so much about this! "How will I know?!" Hey, if you are having contractions, wondering "Is this the real thing?", then it's probably not! I had weeks and weeks of false labor, wondering if that was it but when the time really came - I KNEW INSTANTLY that that was it ;)))

...and then for the actual giving birth: If you are scared of the pain or just don't want to feel it, the Epidural is a slice of heaven! I had to use it because of my back problem and I might have been very lucky, but I barely felt a thing after it was injected and this doesn't make me feel cheated out the giving birth experience and it doesn't make me love my baby less, I assure you. It did slow the process of the delivery down however! How you want to give birth is very individual, but for me, feeling the pain of the actual birth was never something I was desiring. I did however feel lots of pain after the Epidural wore off ;))

That's it for now.....but maybe in a couple of weeks, I will be back here begging you for advise ;p

xox

Finally, we are parents!

I am incredibly happy to finally announce the birth of our baby girl, Allison.

She was born at Nyon hospital on Saturday, October 20th. That makes her 6 days old today.... Everything went incredibly well and we are all doing great. She is the most amazing little person and she is filling our lives and hearts with so much love and joy already! 

I am completely overwhelmed with love! I literally can not stop staring at her....listening to her breathing.....smelling her.....holding her...... She is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on and when she looks right at me, everything else fades away in a heartbeat. 

I am now going to completely focus on spending this precious time with our family, so I won't be updating this blog as frequently as before.....at least not until we have established some routines. Please bare with me and I hope to see you here again when I'm back ;))

Oh and btw.....all the parents out there were absolutely right: There is no feeling in the world more powerful and genuine as the love you feel for your child. We are so blessed.....

xox

Ps. I will still be uploading to/updating my Instagram: http://web.stagram.com/n/anderssonlinda/

Home, sweet (but far from finished) home.... Part 5

There are still some spaces left of the apartment that I haven't showed you yet and it will have to stay like this a while longer as these rooms are "under construction" (read: in baby preparation ;)).

In the meantime, we made some changes to the living room. We wanted to somehow make the canvas print fit in better and free up some much needed space. Here's before and after. What do you think (apologies for using iPhone shots)?

Before.....

After...
So what changed? We bought 2 new, small coffee tables (one oval and one round, both from Interio), a new light green carpet, new pillows, a new blanket and the magazine basket on the floor for easy accessible reading ;))

xox

Recipe - Berry Topped "Sun buns"

With all this waiting on my hands, I decided to bake.....again....now this baby has to arrive soon or I will continue to look this pregnant for a long time, even with the baby out ;)) These large yeast buns are an absolute killer on the scale of deliciousness, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. Try them.....that's my advise!

Recipe - Berry Topped Sun buns (2 large buns)

Ingredients
Buns
50g yeast
2 teaspoons of Bicarbonate
150g Butter
5 dl Milk 
1 ½ cups of Sugar
1 teaspoon of Salt
2 teaspoons of Vanilla Sugar
2 teaspoons of Cardamom 
13-14 cups of White Flour

Vanilla Cream
1 egg
2 tablespoons of Sugar
2 tablespoons of of Maizena (corn starch)
2 cups of Milk
1 cup of Cream 
3 teaspoons of Vanilla Powder
2 tablespoons of Butter

Icing/Decoration
The icing is made from mixing water and powder sugar (be careful and test with a very small amount of water. I didn't write down the proportions I used), 3 cups of fresh Blueberries and Raspberries + 1 whisked egg.

Before baking in the oven

Directions
Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add milk and heat to max 37°C. Pour into the bowl with the yeast and stir until it has completely dissolved. 
Add sugar, salt, cardamom, vanilla sugar, bicarbonate and the flour. Knead the dough until smooth. Let rise under a towel for roughly 40 minutes. 

Mix all ingredients for the Vanilla Cream, except the butter, in a saucepan with a thick bottom. Heat while constantly whisking on medium heat. Take the pan away from the heat as soon as the first bubble appears, then take it off the stove and add the butter and whisk until it has melted. Let the cream cool down. 

Preheat oven to 200°C. 
Now split the dough in half and then form and flatten into two round buns,  about 1-2 cm's thick, on baking trays with baking paper. Whisk an egg and lightly brush onto the edges of the buns. Spread the Vanilla Cream on the roundels, but leave a border around the edges which is about 2 cm's wide (basically where you brushed the egg). Let rise for another 30 minutes then sprinkle the berries on top.
Bake in middle of oven for 15-20 minutes. Let cool on a rack. 
Stir together powder sugar and water and drizzle over the buns......and Voilaaaaa, your buns are ready to serve!

Enjoy ;p

xox