Livi, one month old

After Livi was born (and I had gone to Berlin to meet and greet her) Ulf was able to take several weeks off work to exercise his fatherly duties.  He definitely has a natural talent for baby care, or maybe Livi care, and Jenny was not looking forward to his going back to work.  So at the beginning of December I offered to go and stay for a while until Jenny felt comfortable being entirely on her own during the day. 

The major problem was that Ulf and Jenny both had colds (Ulf much worse than Jenny, but at least he could take cold medicine and Jenny couldn't take anything), and Livi was having a hard time adjusting to a day/night rhythm.  She was very unhappy with the variety of nightlife offered her and communicated it forcefully.   During the day everything was fine and she took long naps, especially when we went for walks with her in her baby carriage.

She was so well behaved in fact that we were able to go out to eat with her, at least to a fairly informal restaurant around the corner and even made a car trip with her to a Home Depot type of store in search of a certain kind of light bulb.   The "sleeping baby transfer from carriage to car seat, folding carriage and storing in trunk without Ulf's help" routine was initiated for the first time and while it wasn't exactly easy Jenny coped.  Of course in the meantime she's a whiz at it. 

One night after Jenny had fed her I took over the task of convincing Livi that nights are for sleeping.  I have to admit I wasn't very successful, but as long as I held her and repeated over and over all the people in the world who loved her she was quiet and her parents were able to get some much needed sleep. 

Luckily Jenny's pediatrician sent Livi to a specialist who worked on her neck and back and after that the nights were no longer such a major problem.  In fact now Livi goes to bed at eight and usually falls asleep without crying.  Looking back, I don't remember my girls ever being such angels at bedtime!