Unvacation

Tanja finished her last work day on Friday, after a super stressful week. This week she was supposed to relax on the beach with Clara and her parents while I had a supercharged work week in Berlin. Horribly, this was not to be, as Tanja started to have contractions on the train to Stralsund.

When we got to Stralsund Tanja lay down, drank water, and tried to relax as much as possible. This slowed the contractions down, but didn't stop them, so after an hour or two on our midwife's advice we went to the hospital. There they put Tanja on two medications to relax the muscles of the uterus, and those stopped the contractions. They also gave her steroids so that the baby's lungs would develop early (not being able to breath yet is the biggest problem that premature babies can have). It's been a very long five days of changing medications and doses, and the contractions going and coming back, but at least the baby hasn't come yet! At the moment things look positive, and we're hoping that Tanja will be able to come out on Thursday, but there's really no telling whether that will happen, or whether the baby will be born here or in Berin.

After two weeks of being away from us with her grandparents Clara is still missing us, because Tanja's in the hospital and I've been spending lots of time with her there. Today I took Clara on a really long walk to the hospital (2km each way, and she did the whole way there by herself!), and it was really wonderful to have the chance to take her on such a long walk, spending the whole afternoon doing it, and not needing to get there or back at any particular time. Clara was a drausen Katze (outside cat) that bites, and I had to run away from her. She held my hand (to keep me safe when we crossed the road or a bike lane), fed bread to swans, ran down hills, balanced on and hopped off of ledges, and snuggled me on park benches.

On the way back from the hospital Clara was really lovey, and when she held my hand she snuggled it to her face. She picked a flower and told me it was a "Wine flower". After a lot of questions I worked out that to Clara a "Weinblume" is a flower that cries. When I asked why it cries she said something like it was because it wasn't by its mommy. Later, while we were sitting and watching a dog swimming in the sea to fetch a ball, Clara told me it was a sad dog. When I asked why she said it was because its daddy wasn't there.

Tomorrow I will go as fast as possible to Berlin and back to take care of some business and pick up a bunch of things (stuff we'll need if the baby comes, and clothes for me - I thought I'd only be here two days). Then, hopefully Tanja will get out on Thursday and we'll finally all be together under the same roof again!