Sofia with her Rubber Ducky

DSC_8070, originally uploaded by trayflow.

Rebecca gave Sofia a family of rubber duckies for Christmas... here is the little one's maiden voyage.

December 28th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DADDY THOMAS!!

Christmas Self Portrait

Christmas Self Portrait, originally uploaded by trayflow.

What should I do to my hair? It is time for a change again. I am getting dark brown highlights(?) as I am still growing out years of light highlights

Many faces of Sofia

Many faces of Sofia, originally uploaded by trayflow.

Sofia can be a really smiley baby. This is half a smile. It is really hard to catch her on camera smiling. I love all of the different faces she does...

See our photos on Flickr for more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trayflow/

Daddy and Sofia on Christmas

Daddy and Sofia on Christmas, originally uploaded by trayflow.

Sofia has been on a bit of a schedule change the past couple of days. She hasn't been sleeping well, her pooing has changed from every nappy to only about twice a day but with some tummy trouble and she has been eating a lot. I think this morning she finally got wiped out enough to sleep. We bathed her this morning before going out for a few hours this afternoon. Right after her bath she fell fast asleep in my arms. I transferred her to Tom so I could shower and she slept quite a few hours into the afternoon while we were in the car.

Sofia and Elmo in the bouncer

Sofia and Elmo in the bouncer, originally uploaded by trayflow.

This post is for Auntie Shelley.

I washed Elmo in a mesh bag yesterday and he smells nice now. I need to get all of the lint off of him now. I gave him to Sofia today and for the most part she ignored him, but I did see her rubbing her fingers on his eyes a few times.

Daddy and Sofia.

Daddy and Sofia., originally uploaded by trayflow.

Sunday night we had our neighbours come over for a Christmas drink, some snacks and just to chat. They brought their daughter, Hannah, and his son, Robert, along with them. They stayed for a couple of hours. About a week ago they gave Sofia this pretty dress for Christmas so it was only fitting that she would wear it when they visited. Doesn't she look just adorable?

I am cold, please hurry

I am cold, please hurry, originally uploaded by trayflow.

Test from Flickr to Blogger

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Bathtime with Sofia

I have been spending some time with our neighbours James and Corrina. They have an eight month old daughter. When I visited the other day they offered to let us use their Tummy Tub. Why Not? I used it twice before tonight and she gave it mixed reviews. This time I asked Tom to take a couple of photos while I was bathing her. Here are the results:

Oh No, what am I in for?




Mommy, your hands are cold!

This isn't so bad except for the soap on my nose.

Look at my little feet, aren't they cute? I am holding Mommy's hand so I don't fall in.

This Tummy Tub is pretty cool. I think I will wait to scream my head off this time until I get out of the bath!

Wednesday with Sofia

Tuesday Update

Sofia is still struggling to sleep any great amount of time at night while she can sleep like a champ during the day. Last night was no exception. We actually had to be up and at the doctor's surgery by 9:30 this morning. I set my alarm for 8am and Sofia woke me up to eat at 7:55, how's that for timing?

We spent about half an hour with our doctor, Bridget Wilkinson, and Sofia got a clean bill of health. She had to be stripped down to nothing and she was quite accepting of this only crying a little bit. We are back home and I am hoping to get a nap later today. Since the sun is shining I think we will go out for a walk in a little while and I will do my napping once the sun goes down this afternoon.

I bought Sofia a strand of Christmas lights yesterday at ASDA. We were visiting the neighbour's house the other day and she stared intently at them so I figured she might like some at home. And she does like them. Once strand of 100 cost me 8 Pounds so she better like them. I bought myself a new brown cardigan. I also stopped at Sainsbury's yesterday to do the grocery shopping. Our new grocery store, Tesco, just doesn't have a great selection. Much of the clothing at Sainsbury's was being cleared out and I managed to score a few deals for Sofia. I got three little outfits for 2 Pounds a piece. I got a cute Pooh dress and onesie for 5 Pounds. I got her a new towel set for 4 Pounds since the one I got with Terry in Charlotte this summer is starting to tear already. I picked up a few more miscellaneous things that are for her when she gets bigger. I also got myself two cardigan sweaters, one green and one black, that were on sale. I don't fit into so many of my old clothes plus I need breastfeeding accessible clothes for the winter.

Tom is off to Manchester for two nights so Sofia and I are on our own Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Friday Sofia and I have Christmas lunch to attend with workmates in Beverley. We are going to a nice pub in a little village called Lund. It should be fun.

Random Photos

I like my Mommy:


Smile:


Watching the flashing lights on the bug:

Fairy Princess dress (tights had to go earlier):

Friday with Sofia

Hi Auntie Shelley. Don't I look cute? It almost fits me now. The top makes me look like a football player and the pants have to be pulled way up, but I am cute in it!

Here I am playing in my new play gym mommy bought for me today. I don't quite know what to do when I am in there so I just sort of look around and then cry. Sometimes I accidentally hit something and it sort of scares me. Where does that noise come from?

I am trying really hard to look in the mirror mommy is holding up for me. It takes a lot of concentration.

Who is that baby in the mirror?

Thank You, Grandma. The box you sent came the other day. I like my new bunny blanket and bunny you sent. Elmo smells so he has to go in the wash before I can have him.

6 Weeks Today

The Health Visitor weighed Sofia this morning and she weighed in at a whopping 9lb 13 oz! That is two pounds in 3 weeks.

Sofia went to sleep at 12 last night (typical time) and slept until 3:30. Wow, three and a half hours. We were up from 3:30 to 5:30 because she kept spitting up everything she ate. I think she finally gave up and went to sleep. At 7:10 she was awake and ready to eat again which worked out ok for time since we dropped tom off at the airport this morning. I managed to get her to nap with me for about an hour before I got up to get ready for the health visitor. I think I will be napping this afternoon!

Sofia's First Tears

Last night Tom changed Sofia's nappy which upset her greatly, as per normal. He brought her back to me so she could eat before trying to get her to sleep for the night. I added to her woes when I gave her some Infacol (Simeticone for wind) which makes her yell very strangely because she won't close her mouth or swallow. When trying to calm her yelling I realised that she had actual tears. Poor thing! This was the first time we have ever seen actual tears! I had to make note of this.

I have been successful in the past couple of days in making her smile. If I stick out my tongue and give her a great big raspberry and a big smile and laugh her eyes will get really big and she will give me a great big smile. It would melt your heart! I will have to attempt a video of this.

Tom is off to The Netherlands on Thursday. Sofia and I are taking him to the airport in the morning so we can use his car while he is gone. We will pick him up on Saturday morning.

Sofia's Health Visitor comes for a visit at lunchtime on Thursday to weigh her. They do this at home so the doctor doesn't have to do it next week when we go in for our 6-7 week check at the office. She has to be over 9 pounds!

Yay for Flickr!

I emailed Yahoo to try to sort out my Flickr account since I haven't been able to log in for a few days. They were less than helpful. Yesterday I emailed Flickr and pleaded my case. Today I received an email sorting out the Flickr account. There shouldn't be any more issues. I can get back to labelling and posting again. yay

Tummy Time and Taking a Break

I try to give Sofia some tummy time every day. She is really strong and holds her head up amazingly well for being just over five weeks old. Her head used to slump when in her carrier and in her car seat and that rarely happens anymore. She loves her paci/dummy and I don't know what we would do without them! She is doing so much more exploring with her eyes and hands now. She spends much more time looking around and listening rather than just sleeping. She is growing so fast! Many of her newborn outfits don't fit anymore, but her 0-3 clothes are still too big. I call her Mrs. Long Legs.

Let's Take a Bath!

Passport Photo Time!

This is the day we took Sofia to get her passport photos done. at Jessops in Beverley. Not thinking, I dressed her in a pretty little white sweater which doesn't work so well against a white background. I guess this was the least of our problems getting photos done. After about 20 takes and four of us working on it we got a half-decent set of photos that will hopefully work. Can't wait to see her passport!

I'm Awake, Are You?

The Birth of Sofia

4:30am 24th October.

I leap out of bed from a light sleep to feel a gush of liquid soaking into my pajama bottoms. In a daze I run to the bathroom and start yelling for Tom who is soundly sleeping downstairs in our bedroom. After the gush it is a slow trickle, for hours. How I managed to get out of bed without as much of a spot on the sheets is beyond me. I think I yelled for Tom about ten times before I could calm down enough to really yell his name. As I sit on the toilet and try to comprehend what has just happened, Tom opens the attic door and asks, "what's wrong?"

And so it begins, the labour and delivery of our dear Sofia.

I didn't get to sleep until 1:30 the night before, and that was punctuated by hourly toilet breaks. Maybe, just maybe I knew somehow. I mean, why on earth was I baking pumpkin bread the day before (I haven't done that for years). And sorting out my hospital bag. And cleaning the house.

Once the waters broke the contractions started coming on exactly nine minutes later. How does one know exactly how bad a contraction is meant to hurt in the beginning or later on? Or how often they will happen. More importantly, when to go to the hospital.

Just after 5am I phoned Hull and East Yorkshire Women and Children's Hospital (W&C) for advice. Since contractions were not regular they advised to attend the Antenatal Day Unit when it opened at 8:30am or to ring back should things change. Either way I needed to be checked since my waters broke. Just before 7am I rang back to W&C for advice since contractions were 2-4 minutes apart and feeling quite strong (or, what I thought was strong at the time). Tom and I gathered up the hospital bags and off we went.

Half an hour later we find ourselves in a delivery suite at W&C. Only dilated to 1cm. It is going to be a long day! Midwives encouraged us to go home. I was scared and felt more comfortable in the hospital, or so I thought. And so I was admitted to the Antenatal Day Unit. What a treat that was. I was in a ward room with four beds, the other three already occupied. I am the only one in labour. There are individual curtains to pull around each bed, but it doesn't offer much for privacy. One woman was pregnant with triplets after IVF in the Ukraine. She was awaiting induction which wasn't happening until the next day due to staff shortages. A second woman was leaking waters and would probably be induced. I never did understand why the third woman was there. Anyway, the second woman was on the phone constantly as well as loudly playing her television on some horrible Jerry Springer-type show. It didn't make for peaceful surroundings. I imagine my grunting and breathing must have been getting to them as well.
I spent quite a few hours booked into to the Antenatal Unit. I bathed twice to help with the pains. It didn't seem to do much. I tried the birthing ball. That just hurt even more. I didn't want to lie down because it hurts worse to be lying down. And so we walked. Tom and I spent quite a bit of time walking down to the courtyard garden on the side of the building and just pacing. Contractions were getting more and more painful. One of the midwives attached a TENS machine to my back and showed me how to use it. It didn't seem to do that much, but I was able to divert my attention to the TENS machine rather than focus on the contractions. I managed to eat some lunch. Well, some vanilla ice cream, yogurt, cheese and biscuits as well as some horrible apple juice. Earlier Tom had gone to find some breakfast for himself and brought back a lovely breakfast sandwich for me. Unfortunately nausea kept me from eating it so I just went hungry until lunchtime.

At 12:30 two midwives attended to check on my progress since it had been over four hours since the last check. Surely all of those painful contractions have done something, right. Right. Eight hours and counting and I was still only at 1.5-2cm. Again I was encouraged to go home. The contractions were so painful that I couldn't even imagine walking out to the car and sitting at home feeling like this. But, I was tired of being in that horrible room and if I was only dilated that far I knew it would be a while. So I agreed to go. The midwife told me to just walk out with the TENS machine as long as I promised to return it when I come back.
Tom and I left W&C at 4:30pm to go home.

The midwives told me to make sure to eat at home so I have the energy to get through this process. I didn't feel like eating much. I did eat a couple of slices of the lovely pumpkin bread I made as well as a few bites of the chicken and pasta Tom had made for himself. We were both exhausted but how can one sleep? Those hours are a blur to me. Each and every contraction seemed like pure hell. The midwife kept saying, "You will know when you hit the next level. You aren't there yet." Could they get any worse?

Tom washed some clothes and tidied the kitchen. I checked my email and did what I could to occupy my time. We discussed baby names, talked about what was happening, etc. Just before 8pm we remembered that Michael Palin's New Europe was on at 8. We missed the Sunday show since we were visiting with friends. I forced myself to go down and watch with Tom. I managed to watch most of it, dozing off a minute or two here and there.

When that was over Tom went up to Tesco to get a couple more packages of maternity pads. How much amniotic fluid can possibly be left in there?

We were both exhausted by 10pm and so we decided to go back up to the attic and lie down. I told Tom to try to sleep, but he was so worried about me. He kept waking up and jotting down notes about contractions. The pains seemed to intensify just before midnight. I don't know how I kept myself going. It hurt, really hurt.

At 2am I just couldn't take it anymore. It was coming up on 22 hours of contractions and the pain was worse that I ever thought it would be. Contractions were still irregular coming anywhere from 3-7 minutes apart. I rang W&C and they told me to go ahead and come back in. Tom showered and we got ourselves ready to go once again. Arrived at W&C just after 3am.

Booked into a different Delivery suite. Sue, the midwife, had a long talk with us about everything that was going on. Since my waters broke we had no choice but to be committed to the birth at this point. I could wait for it to happen naturally or we could augment the birth (induce). Tom and I talked about induction and pain relief. We came to a decision that I would be induced as long as I could have an epidural. I was at my wit's end with the pain and just couldn't endure it any longer. Sue suggested we do another exam to see how far along I am at this point before making a final decision. At 3:40 I was examined and at this time I was only dilated to 2cm. It took 23 hours to get to this point.

At 4:15am they started a drip and prep for an epidural. By 4:40 the epidural was in and complete. Most of the pain is gone within ten minutes. Once this is complete they started the oxytocin drip. What a relief. Tom went outside to call our parents to let them know what was going on with us. Tom was relaxing in the recliner sleeping on and off while I dozed on and off in the bed.

At 7:30 it was shift change and another midwife, Tina, took over. Tom was hungry around 8 so he went out for some fresh air and something to eat. I couldn't eat anything in case they needed to perform a C-Section on me. By 8.30 I needed a top-up on the epidural since I was starting to feel quite a bit of pain. Back to snoozing on and off. There were concerns over the heartrate of the baby so I had to change positions a couple of times. Things still weren't better so a doctor was called in to check the printout over the past few hours. The pain was getting quite intense again. I could feel contractions way down in the perineum area but nowhere else. The epidural was topped up again but it didn't seem to take away any of the pain. The doc asked if when they were going to check me again and the midwife said 12, four hours after the last check. The normal rate of dilation with induction is 1cm per hour. We all thought I would be there all day.

At 10.45am the midwife did another exam and found that I was fully dilated. No wonder I was having so much pain down there.

The midwives busied themselves getting things ready for the baby. It was all a whirlwind after that. Before I knew it they had me in position and told me to get ready to push. As each contraction came on I pushed with all of my might. It felt like my head was going to explode.

The pain wasn't nearly what I thought it would be. I'm sure the epidural helped with some of that! It was only something like 4 contractions and baby Sofia was out. It took all of 23 minutes for the second stage of labour. They gave me a shot to help the placenta out and that came out a mere 7 minutes later.

Total time: 30 hours and 45 minutes. No tearing or stitches.

Baby Sofia, Tom and I sat together in the birthing room. We just looked at her. This miracle. It had been years ago that we started trying. Finally I was holding our daughter in my arms. I attempted to breast feed, but she didn't seem all that interested. She was content to lie there and look around.

After 45min to an hour the midwives came back in and got her dressed while I showered. Wow did a shower feel good. It wasn't long after my shower that a wheelchair arrived and we were transferred to the Postnatal unit where I would spend the next two days.

When all of this fertility assistance, etc. started here on the NHS I was unsure of how things were going to go. I didn't know how the medical system worked, what the hospitals were like, the level of care, etc.

Overall I can say that both Tom and I are nothing short of thrilled with the care I received on all levels. It took a year to get me pregnant on Clomid, but the outcome is the most wonderful thing that has happened to us.

And so our lives as parents to Sofia begins...

What's in a Name?

Written by Thomas Henriksen

Sofia Míra Bella Henriksen

Why Sofia?

For months we have talked about using Sofia, it strikes a chord with us and so we remain with it. We always said we wanted the following in a name:

• Meaning - It's well-known that Sofia comes from the Greek σοφία meaning "Wisdom" and as such forms the etymology of such words as philosophy. The least we can do as parents is impart some wisdom upon our child, even if by name only!
  
• Internationality - We consider ourselves citizens of the world, and our children must be as well. Sofia is a name universally recognised throughout western civilisation. Sofia also brings the mind to places such as the Hagia Sophia ( 'Aγία Σοφία, or "Holy Wisdom", in Greek), one of the world's finest examples of perfection in Byzantine architecture, as well as Bulgaria's capital city Sofia ( София), a place renowned for its history, architecture, and location as a crossroads of the Balkans. Sofia is also a name recognised and approved by the Danish Kirkeministeriet, or Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, ergo it MUST work with Henriksen as a surname!
  
• Timelessness - Being a name with its roots in ancient Greek and one that has been established for thousands of years, Sofia is name that will never be irrelevant. Her namesake city has been on the map for thousands of years, and the lingual roots of her name are from a culture that was the cradle of western civilisation.
  
• Popularity - We did not want a name that is too popular, and have obvious concerns that Sophia is enjoying a global resurgance. This is part of our rationale for choosing the variant spelled with "f" instead of "ph". It is also the spelling variant commonly used in Nordic and Germanic countries, from which we are descended.

Why Míra?

We settled on the middle name Míra only recently. We liked this name because it has meaning on so many levels.

• Mira means "sea" or "ocean" in sanskrit. A fitting name for a baby that has been relatively quiet and peaceful. Hope she stays this way!
• Míra is a name that also finds roots in the slavic word for peace. Mir or Мир means "peace" or "world" in Russian--hence the name of the space station. Peace and a view from afar are something that we citizens of the world could certainly use more of.
• Mira is a red giant star in the constellation Cetus originally discovered in 1596. It was found to behave like no other star, changing in brightness by a factor of 1500 on a period of 332 days. As a result of this, Johannes Hevelius named the star Mira, meaning "astonishing" or "wonderful" in Latin. And over 400 years later, the star continues to astonish. Earlier this year, astronomers were shocked to find that Mira has a 13 light-year long tail composed of matter that the star sheds as she speeds through the universe, material that will give birth to new stars and planets continuing the cosmic cycle, just as our baby Sofia continues our cycle of life.

Why Bella?
Months ago, we had picked "Sofia Bella" as a potential name for our baby. We just liked the sound and rhythm of it. However, the more we looked at Míra, the more we liked it. Trouble was, Sofia Mira Henriksen just doesn't flow. So we considered Míra Sofia Henriksen, but we wanted her given name to be Sofia. So we came up with Sofia Mira Bella. Bella, of course, is Italian for beautiful, which our little Sofia certainly is. And through this name we not only pay homage to the beauty of our little miracle but also to a country whose food, landscape, history, and language have so enchanted us.

Of course, a bit of ambiguity and double-entendre never hurts... Mirabella is a perfectly accepted given name in its own right. And there is a story there as well. When we found out Tracey was pregnant, we had a trip to New Zealand already scheduled. We decided at very short notice to cancel this long-haul trip (24+ hrs flying each way) and take a more relaxing trip to the continent. We drove all the way from the UK to Croatia, and along the way spent quite a few days in Austria, visiting Salzburg for the first time. We really enjoyed the city, and spent much of an afternoon just sitting on a bench in the Mirabella Gardens taking pictures of the birds and the cherry blossom trees with the snowcapped Alps as a backdrop. It was sort of a zen moment for us.

But we wanted to retain the meaning of Mira and Bella separately, and so we are giving our baby Sofia two middle names that we know full well will be pronounced as one.

Henriksen Family Blog

Welcome to the Henriksen Family Blog. Please bookmark this page as we will update this page with photos and news about our family. Over the next few days I will add photos and entries about the birth of Sofia.

Looking forward to sharing with you all!