Mats - iameven.com

Monday, September 09, 2024 at 01:14 GMT+2

On the 26th of April this year we got our second son, Mats. The name is a scandinavian version of Matthew.

Cute looking kid, if I get to say so myself. Lots of smiles and an eagerness to get up and look around, though he is not able to just yet. He regurgitates^[1] a lot, which is annoying, but he is also so visibly relieved and happy after, that it is hard to be too annoyed about it.

We have been trying for another baby for several years, one even getting to week 17 before we lost it. Each attempt taking its toll on Ingvild. After several miscarriages Ingvild was finally sent to Haugesund May of last year as the hospital there have a clinic specializing in women's health. They found scar tissue after the first birth^[2], to likely be a reason for complications in the pregnancies. There was not much they could do though, and scheduled an appointment for her at Ullevål hospital in Oslo the following October

Then in September, Ingvild realized she was pregnant again. We kept the appointment and went to Oslo for our fall vacation, but they wouldn't do anything with the growing fetus in there. No operation needed, as you can see up top, this one stuck around to be born.

At the sonogram / ultrasound examination we learned that it was a boy, disappointing a lot of family members^[3] hoping for a girl. We had also landed on a girls name^[4], but spent a lot of time discussing boy names.

In the end of February we went to Oslo again as we inherited a lot of baby gear from my half brother^[5] who happens to turn 5 this year. Easter this year we didn't do much, more or less just waiting for the baby. And by end of April, two days before his due date, at 7:14 he was helped out of the mother. Finally drawing his first breath after turning slightly blue-ish and not breathing while I also held my breath for a small eternity. I was not prepared for that part.

After only two days in the hospital hotel we got to go home and I had 2 weeks leave from work to help out at home. May in Norway also has a lot of public holidays, so we could very much ease into it all.

For summer this year we decided to travel a bit of Norway again. We didn't want to bring a baby on a plane and opted for boat and train. As we've always wanted to go by train between Bergen and Oslo we took a boat from Stavanger to Bergen and spent a couple of nights there. We wanted to visit Flåm by train and added a stop in Myrdal, but that train is all too popular and we were late booking this trip.

We did spend a night up there and got to push the baby stroller around in the mountains in no more than 8° celsius. After a few days in Oslo we took the train back to Stavanger.

We also spent a couple of days in Suldal^[6] and Farsund^[7] visiting family. Sam and I got to spend a day in Dyreparken water park.