leise rieselt der Schnee - for all those lovely people in Germany and Austria or whoever wants to join us!

[Canella]

a new wintery thread in honour of Hupa's first snow of the season!

It's another cold and snowy morning here too; it's definitely time for spring to arrive now, as I've had enough of this wintry weather.

Hammer's Grammar is the only German grammar book I know, I'm afraid, bananas - it was supposed to be our bible at university, but I didn't use it all that much as I didn't find it very user friendly either.

Wouldn't that have been strange if we'd bumped into each other at the Technisches Museum? Although like you, I'm not sure I would have realised who it was! The DC and DH love going there (after 5 or 6 visits, I must admit I'm beginning to lose interest) so it's a fairly common weekend visit for us - let me know if you have any plans to go there and maybe we could meet for a quick drink in the cafe!

I didn't have a chance to talk to DH about Legoland vs Playmobil land last night, but will do so soon (Legoland is his idea more than the DC's, who have never heard of it, so no persuasion involved here!). It's the usual problem: both of us are too tired to do more than flop in front of the TV and we rarely have the energy to talk to each other properly in the evening. I was particularly exhausted yesterday after taking the DC and a friend of DD1's ice skating - it was a complete nightmare. It was the first time that DD1's friend had ever been skating, and DS - who refused to go on the ice but didn't want to be left alone - spent the entire time complaining that he was cold and wanted to go home. Never again! I'll just take the DDs next time.

Your DD sounds very well prepared for her test admylin; I hope it goes well. I was wondering how your DS's friend's dad was doing; it must be very difficult for him having to take over so much that his wife was probably doing before.

Hi all
No it's not my first. I have one daughter (almost 8) and 2 stepsons who live with us - am a bit daunted by the fact that we are now going to have 4 kids between us!!!
Am having a c-section so will be in the hospital for between 5 and 7 nights, I think I will be climbing the walls by the end of it!
Is it absolutely freezing again for all you lot too? I thought the cold weather had gone - am feeling very fed up of it now. Something is going on with our oil tank though - we put 2500 euros worth in it in october and it is virtually empty!!! Grrrrrr

Did you have a C-section first time round, tallpoppies? I must admit I didn't find the 8 days I spent in hospital after DS was born (EMCS) too bad and couldn't have imagined going home much earlier. I was just glad he wasn't born in the USA (like DD1 was), where I would have been thrown out of hospital after 4 days.

No, I had natural birth the first time - nothing bloody natural about it though if you ask me!!!!
Complications with that have led to c-section this time.
After watching one born every minute for the last few weeks I think I'm quite relieved!

How do you manage to watch One Born Every Minute - can you get British TV where you are? I wanted to have it recorded (my parents record DVDs for us) but DH refused!

Meant to say earlier that I would have been thrown out of hospital 48 hours after a C-section in the USA, not 4 days. I wouldn't have wanted to go home after 4 days, but I could barely walk 48 hours after the birth!

Yes, Linzer you remind me of having ds - I was not expecting to be so weak and unable to walk after giving birth! It's one of the things that wasn't in any of the many books on pregnancy and birth that I read to prepare myself!

I was extremely lucky with dd though, I got up and carried her to the ward after the birth and sat on the edge of the bed, dressed and waiting to be discharged 3 hours after giving birth.

I remember fainting the first time I went to the toilet after DD1 was born! At least I had a nurse with me, who seemed to be expecting it. I also found things much easier second time round and would have been happy to leave hospital much earlier than I actually did (I stayed in two nights after DD2 was born and couldn't wait to come home).

I think, after having had two natural and very straightforward births, that's why having a Caesarean with DS came as such a shock. I just wasn't expecting it and wasn't at all prepared, especially not for how difficult and painful the recovery would be. Or maybe I'm just particularly wimpish!

an over-sized satellite dish pointed in the right direction does the trick

an over-sized satellite dish pointed in the right direction does the trick

Sorry, intermittent internet connection.

I had mixed feelings about coming out of hospital sooner or later. Always keen to get home but once home part of me was wishing I could go back into hospital so I did not have to cook, clean, look after other children while recovering.

Linzer - I shall let you know if we go to the TM again. Though our weekend plans are always very last minute depending on the weather and what we fancy. I have short red hair and glasses. And a frown if on my own with all three children, but that will break into an instant smile at the thought of having a coffee break with another adult. I took my 3 plus 2 of dds friends ice-skating over the Semesterferien and was knackered, so I sympathise. It was not so much physical tiredness as the mental and emotional one of being pulled in different directions and meeting different needs.

ad- good to hear your dd knows all she needs. when is the exam? I am sure the man (ds friend´s dad) is ever so grateful for your help and support. It must be hard for him, particularly as you earlier said he was not accepting help. Maybe he is opening up a bit now. How is the son doing?

Bananasananas - got a perfect picture of you in my head now!! i also do the frown when out! will be needing some botox soon!!

silken - jealous of your british tv but worry it would mean i never watch german tv!

admylin - my heart breaks every time you talk about your ds's friends dad - its just these situations where he needs his wife - i bet he's never had to organise anything like that - so sad

silken Very - I don't think we're far north enough for it to work.

bananas Aha, I know who to look out for now! We stand out mainly due to the fact that the DDs look so different - DD1 has very dark hair and pale skin (like me), whereas DD2 is very blonde (and DS is somewhere in between). Our weekends also tend to be very spur of the moment (we didn't decide until about 30 minutes beforehand that we would go to the Techn. Museum on Sunday morning), but I am always up for a coffee in Vienna. Are you on Facebook btw?

Canella I find myself thinking about botox more often as my runder Geburtstag approaches (also found out that my dermatologist offers it!). I can't imagine ever having it done, though.

I must admit I quite enjoyed staying in hospital for 5 days with ds. I didn´t even have a c-section, but it was a small hospital and I had him on Thursday and then they couldn´t get the Kinderarzt to come in over the weekend to discharge us. I had a double room, but the other bed was empty and I spent my time reading and getting to know ds. I actually felt really rested before I went home, but needless to say it didn´t last long.

Linzer - we´ve only been to Legoland, so can only comment on that, but the dc loved it. They regularly ask when we can go back. They really loved all the rides and there was only 1 rollercoaster that dd could ride and not ds because he was too small. We went in June before the Schulferien in Bayern had started and I found it surprisingly empty. We never had to queue for more than 5 minutes, so they literally had 5 or 6 goes on some of the rides. We stayed in the Legoland hotel because we won the trip in a competition, but it really isn´t worth the money at all.

admylin - your ds´s friend´s dad must be so pleased to have you around. When are they off on the trip?

I went to see the King´s Speech at the cinema yesterday with dh. We both really enjoyed it, but I´ll definitely watch it again when it comes out on dvd because I think it would be even better in English.

Wow Tallpoppies, not long to go now! Thanks for the advice - I had another appointment with the FA yesterday, all well, got my Mutterpass etc so am feeling a lot more confident now. I'm also with the TK but my Dr does at least 4 scans and somehow I don't end up paying extra for them, I'm in week 9 now and have had 2 already, next one is in 3 weeks I think.

Bebe - I hope the sickness starts to clear up soon - I'm guessing the sofa incident didn't exactly quash the nausea! I'm not sure if this would work for you but have you tried listening to German radio? I mean one of the commercial music stations. They tend to drop a lot of English words in with the German and once you start to pick up the odd word here and there it really helps with your confidence. Might be worth a try.

Bananas - we were also told to use Hammer's Grammar as our bible at uni, mainly because it was written by one of our professors. Tbh it's not v user friendly though. I'll have a look through my bookcase and see if I can find something else worth recommending.

It's really cold here today but the sun is shining and it's lovely and warm on my back through the window, woohoo! :)

We brought the sky boxes over with us from the uk. We have a regular sized satellite dish but there is a guy in munich (if anyone wants the details I can let you know!) who came out and set everything up! Sky have my parents address in the uk for the bills! We just can't do pay per view movies or connect the sky dish up to the telephone line as they think we are in the UK. Probably highly illegal but everyone I know here has the same set up!!!
Feeling nervous about the c-section now after reading the above. I went to the hospital today for a general check-up and there were 3 women giving birth at the same time - 2 of whom were screaming very very loudly!!! I guess there's no such thing as an easy option - you either have the pain during birth or afterwards!

Someone remind me why we have babies???

Sorry tallpoppies, I didn't mean to worry you with my talk of C-sections! Like I said above, I don't think it helped that - after a straightforward pregnancy and two natural births previously - a Caesarean was the last thing I was expecting and I just didn't feel prepared for it or for what came afterwards (I had no idea I'd need a catheter after the birth, for example). At least if you're going in for a planned C-section, you won't have to go through the pain of labour and then end up having an EMCS after all too! And although I did find it extremely painful afterwards, it didn't compare with the pain I felt when DD2 was born (I had a short but very intense labour with her). At least you won't be one of the screaming women this time round.

Have just thought of one of the advantages of having a C-section after a natural birth (or vice versa) - as one of the nurses at the hospital told me, "Sie können überall mitreden".

Linzer - I didn't understand the saying "Sie können überall mitreden". Translated literally it means "you can have a say all" so I think I must be missing something!!!
Does it mean that you have experienced all types of birth?

Yes, that's basically it - it just means that you can join in the conversation whether people are talking about C-sections or natural births as you've experienced both.

at "Sie können überall mitreden".

I think people's experiences post-cs can vary wildly. I didn't find the pain bad at all, only took two paracetamol the first night and that was it. After that it didn't hurt if I didn't move, so I tried not too. However, the staff prefer you to take the painkillers and get out of bed, as that's supposed to speed recovery. I got incredibly dizzy when I tried to get up and it took me until the end of the second day to make it as far as the bathroom, but that's typical for me - I nearly fainted when I had my ears pierced (and did when I had my nose and bellybutton done)!

I've read about people getting up 12 hours after the op, though, everyone one's different.

Canella we don't watch German tv any more

Two paracetamol, silkenladder? OK, I am a wimp. (In my defence, I didn't have any pain relief when I was in labour with DD1 and DD2.) The nurses forced me to get up after two days, with one of them helpfully telling me that it would feel like someone was sticking knives into me - and I won't say it wasn't painful. But I didn't feel the need to scream.

DH and I have just been laughing at the self-proclaimed German comedy ambassador to the UK, Henning Wehn. I must admit I'd never come across him before I heard him on the News Quiz on Radio 4, and I didn't find him particularly funny then, but his humorous look at the German language on the BBC website is quite funny.

OK, so Henning Wehn seems to fit with every other German comedien I've seen up to now - not very funny!
Seriously have you ever seen a really good comedien on TV here?

Most German dc love Otto but you must have to be German to 'get it'.

Actually, I didn't think those clips he did for the BBC were too bad - but he really wasn't at all funny on the News Quiz. And he has a very strange accent.

I've never "got" German or Austrian humour (too much slapstick, for one thing) but have managed to convert DH to British comedy - and to British TV as a whole, in fact. He'll occasionally watch the news but otherwise we never watch Austrian TV.

Same here, we watch the news from 3 different points of view - the CNN, BBC and German versions! That's about it. Often find we end up watching 3SAT or Phoenix channel because the rest is rubbish in the evenings. Once we know we can settle somewhere I think Imight try to set up more channels with UK TV too but it's never worth the hassle when we don't know if we're staying in one house or flat long term.