For your baby’s six week check up a doctors appointment and a child nurse appointment will be scheduled.  It is best to arrive at least ten minutes early as your baby will need to be weighed and measured first.  The baby will need all their clothes off for this.  You can keep the nappy on [...]

It can be very frustrating not knowing what clothes to buy your new born in Norway.  The weather is so extreme especially in the north.  Knowing what will keep your baby warm in Norway is common knowledge passed down from mother to mother, however, being an immigrant on the outside this information is very difficult [...]

When you have your last appointments with your midwife before you give birth she will ask you if you want to join a ‘mother’s group’.  (Although sometimes the language barrier gets in the way and you don’t realise what you’ve signed up to until you arrive at the appointment.)
Mother’s group is just a group of [...]

It is very typical for Norwegians to have blue eyes but it looks like this little fella will have brown just like his big sister and Mamma.  It seems that brown eyes draw more attention in Norway whereas blue eyes are more favoured back home.  It takes an Aussie to stop the ‘recession’ in this [...]

In the first couple of days after birth the baby goes through a series of standard tests and checks.  This is no different in Norway, however, I find that Norwegian Maternity staff rarely tell you what they are up to.
As soon as the baby arrives the midwife will check over the baby – breathing, movements, [...]

Roan Magnus was born August 2009, weighing 4.25 kilograms and measuring 53cm.
Roan (r-r-roo-ahn) means ‘tree with red berries‘ or Rowan Tree.  The Rowan tree provides food for the birds during the long, cold winters.
Magnus, after Farfar, means ‘great‘ in Latin and is a royal name in Norway.  It was a popular name during the [...]

Pre-eclampsia is one of those pregnancy diseases that is good to know about but not good to worry about.  It usually occurs in first time pregnancies after 20 weeks.  The symptoms are vague but include high blood pressure, protein in urine and oedema.  It is not really known what causes it but it affects the [...]

There is not much to do in the last appointments with your doctor and miwife the week before you give birth excpect the same old checks.  You might arrange your stay in hospital – hotel or materniy ward – fill in some more information forms, (which also helps the system collect statistics on how many [...]

The Norwegian version of the classic English nursery rhyme Ba Ba Black Sheep.
Ba, ba little lamb,
Have you any wool?
Yes, yes, dear child,
I have the body full.
Sunday clothes for father,
And Sunday clothes for mother.
And two pairs of socks
For tiny little brother.

Usually the more babies you have the bigger they get.  Unfortunately, we are also up against genes as Moose is your stereotypical Norwegian at 6′7″.  (I find it very odd that the world thinks Norwegians are tall because the higher you go up in Norway the shorter they get.  Must have something to do with [...]