Welcome, Leo!

Katja Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Weeks go by, months go by, and I still didn’t manage to finish publishing any new posts over here. I promise there will be more content here on the blog as well, but at least I have a good excuse for the current silence. Just over a month ago, I became a mom for the third time! This has always been a (family) travel blog in the first place and I have never exposed myself, my loved ones and our personal life too much publicly but as I approach the 9th anniversary of blogging, I figured there are so many of you who follow my adventures for a long time now and so here’s a little life update for all of you and everyone who joined recently as well.

2023 is already forgotten for many of you, but somehow I still haven’t fully digested it. This was perhaps the most difficult year for our family, as our dear mom unfortunately said her final goodbye in August after a long illness. Just around the time when we found out Lukas and Mila are getting a little brother. I know, who would have thought, right? When Mila was born in Germany just over two years ago, I never dreamed that I would ever find myself in a delivery room again. But here we are now.

On our last holiday outside of Europe, in boiling hot Qatar in May, I already had a hunch, which made me drink a few less cocktails. Turned out I was not mistaken as we saw the little plus on the test I did upon arrival back home. It was a mix of emotions. Shock, joy, fear, confusion and a thousand questions about how we will now include another family member in our lives. During the renovation of the house, we planned only one children’s room. Good, they will simply share it. We don’t have a seat for one more person in the Defender. Well, we’re just going to install the entire rear bench back. And we can finally get that pop-up roof instead of a roof tent. Besides, at 39, I’m no longer the youngest. Oh, but some don’t get pregnant for the first time until they’re 45, so 39 is still quite ok. Suddenly there seemed to be a solution to every problem and an answer to every question. And suddenly, we slowly started to get excited about what’s coming. Until I hit the 6th week of pregnancy and heard those horrible words over the phone. “The doctors gave her 3 more weeks.” From then on, it was difficult for me to really look forward to anything. And at the same time, I felt guilty for not being happy. That I am not enjoying this pregnancy as I “should” because it is definitely the last time. To make matters worse, at the end of the year, my grandma left us as well. After the first three months of constant nausea and daily vomiting, all the further psychological challenges and changes, thousands of decisions regarding the renovation of the house and Mila starting kindergarten, I finally found some inner peace in the last weeks of my pregnancy. It was as if with the new calendar year I was able to turn over a new page and focus on all the good things that are coming. Finally, everything made sense again. I was finally ready to meet our little boy and I finally had that feeling that everything was going to be ok.

Since both Lukas and Mila arrived 4 days late, I was sure that this time it would be similar. The fact that nothing was happening before January 18 did not throw me off track. Until the last day, I exercised diligently, went for walks, drank raspberry leaf tea and added a teaspoon of linseed oil on top. Baby clothes were washed, my hospital bag was ready. For my first birth in Slovenia (Lukas and Mila were born in Germany, each in a different place), I chose the maternity hospital in Jesenice. Since we are in Kranjska Gora, it is the closest to me anyway, and besides, I have only heard positive things about it. I checked the weather forecast every morning for the last week before my due date. After all it is winter and I was afraid we might get loads of snow and it will be chaos on the roads. The expected delivery date was on a Thursday, and heavy snowfall was predicted for Friday. Guess what happened? Friday’s snowfall literally paralyzed some parts of the country in the early morning hours. And in the worst snow blizzard of this season, my water broke. 15 minutes after my dad arrived to take care of Mila. A lucky coincidence? In that magical dance of snowflakes in the sky we drove slowly towards the hospital, accompanied by my favorite music. Maybe someone would panic a little bit in a similar scenario, but I just thought it was so beautiful at that moment. Our little boy couldn’t have picked a better day to come into this world.

I’ll spare you the details, I gave birth in less than 30 minutes after arriving at the maternity ward, and it was a beautiful experience. Intense and, of course, a little painful, but exactly what I wanted. Little Leo is the perfect baby. It’s as if the universe has repaid me a little for all those more or less difficult months of the past year. Mommy is head over heels in love. And everything is happening for the last time and since I know how time flies I really try to enjoy every minute of it. We’re already going for longer walks, we are sleeping quite alright, the little sister is not too jealous, and the big brother is already looking forward to meeting Leo in less than a month, when he comes to Slovenia on vacation. Soon we will have his passport picture taken, our first trip awaits us in the spring! Because yes, we don’t plan to be stuck at home the next months and years and we can’t wait for new family adventures. It will be even better with the little one on board!

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