Cyber Glühwein und Lebkuchen - the German and Austrian advent thread

[admylin]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Happy first Advent to everyone!

Previous thread: here

Nutella at that programme - I might ask DH to find it and watch it (with me so he can get annoyed having to explain things I haven't understood ) he is German but will be at least as unimpressed as me if the church is so involved. I had assumed the way Catholicism is so all pervasive in both DS1's Kindergarten and DD's school even though she is in the Ethik group, was more an unthinking thing - I kind of assumed the (mostly lovely) teachers are just so deeply immersed in Catholicism as part of life, that it seeps out of their pores unintentionally, like a virus didn't even cross their mind not to pass it on, the same way they would unthinkingly but correctly pass on other less controversial (to me) every day information.

DD's Ethik class is always a combined Klasse 1 & 2 group outnumbered but is still smaller than either of the religious groups, and even though DD is NT and in fact ridiculously outgoing and sociable, and thrives on business and people generally (she loved central London when she and I went in summer, I wasn't sure she would as we live in such a very small, quiet backwater) but even she enjoys the change of pace and the small group time, which is so different to the rest of the school day. Ethik does have the feeling of a bit of an exclusive misfits club from the way DD talks about it, which sounds quite fun, and once when Ethik was cancelled due to ill teacher and we were phoned to pick the kids up and all the mums turned up there was a bit of a feel of being the "rebels" as people acknowledged each other with grins and said Ah, you're Ethik too! :o

Good luck to your DH for the next interviews, and hope you hear sooner about this one rather than later!

We are in Bavaria btw but the kids are at Geminde Kindergarten and state school, no official religious involvement, but they do (all, including the Ethik children, with it not occurring to anybody to give the Ethik children an opt out as far as I can see) go to church at random times in the day from time to time, not only easily avoided first and last day of term services. I don't mind them going to church tbh, it's the lack of balance and the all pervasiveness the rest of the time - especially at Kindergarten - that bothers me. I'd love it if as well as going to church they also went to a Mosque and a Synagogue... but even if that were on the agenda (which it is a million miles away from being) it would be a huge undertaking as I don't think there are any anywhere near here, and they would need to travel into Munich!

Sorry outnumbered, forgot to wish your DH good luck for the interview yesterday. Hope you don't have too long a wait before you hear back and that the next ones go well!

Grinch When we went to London last year, DD2 spent most of the time walking round with her hands over her ears as she found it so noisy. Will be interesting to see if it's the same when we go later this month...
I also think it would be good if the children learned about other religions, but can't see it happening in Catholic RE lessons. A mosque opened in the next town a few years ago, which was highly controversial at the time (petitions against it, etc.) but it all seems to have calmed down now - I still can't imagine a school trip there happening, though.

I've finally (I think) sent off the last of my Christmas cards, so can start packing now. We don't normally have a huge amount of things to pack as we have most of what we need at my parents', but as we'll be staying overnight at the airport we'll need to pack overnight stuff. Must also make sure I take the right passport for DD1, as I discovered both her British (just expired) and her Austrian passports in my travel wallet.

I have just been looking through DD's Ethik-Heft, and actually, although they have stuck in pictures of the nativity, and an advent ring, before Christmas they did that fable about the 5 mice, 5 of whom collect food for winter and one of whom collects colours and stories (I saw that on cbeebies recently so it must be good :) ) they have been learning about bulbs (as in tulip and daffodil bulbs) that wait all winter under the earth and bloom in spring (as an allegory I assume - I now recall they did also plant bulbs in the school garden a month or two ago) and tons of rather twee, but all very nice and life affirming "Ich bin ein Wünder" and Ich bi Ich stuff :) They have also, it seems, learnt about the pagan roots of Halloween :D

So it it probably is quite different to Evangelic RE lessons :)

I have told DD in the past that she is allowed to switch to either of the other religion classes if she wants, but she has never wanted to. I wouldn't want to make an outsider of her, but at the moment it doesn't appear to have any impact outside the actual lesson.

Some of the neighbor children DD's age have started joining the Catholic youth league and stuff, which takes up a lot of their time (and led to a Trick or Treating v Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend party split), and I imagine will become more divisive as time goes on - but that's nothing to do with school.

Good luck with the packing Linzer, hope it goes smoothly! I hope you're staying overnight at an airport hotel not in departures :o

Grinch We've booked an airport hotel (same one where we stayed in the summer, so I should actually be able to find the entrance this time, rather than wandering round the outside of all three hotels at midnight). I've slept at the actual airport once, around 15 years ago, and wouldn't subject myself, let alone the DC, to that again (it didn't even occur to me to book a hotel at the time)!

I slept in airports rather frequently 20 years ago - its all part of the fun when you're 18 on a shoe-string gap year backpacking around Asia, not so much when your in your 30s with 3 kids :o Glad you have a hotel :o

Morning! I'm going to apologise in advance as I think this might be a mahoosive post as I catch up with everyone .

linzer - good luck with the packing. Are you going to be in the UK over Christmas and New Year? Very jealous of all the goodies you can bring back. I'm already starting to drop hints into the conversation about going to the UK again soon and dh just presumed I'd be going on my own again - now that would be a treat .

grinch - Glad you're all back to being fit and healthy. I'm not sure thats what my dd does in her Ethik class but she's obviously a bit older. I think they discuss the ethical dilemmas of certain situations as well as discussing other religions. Seems much more interesting than indoctrinating the children into the church without any discussion. In fact I'm sure discussion is probably banned in the catholic lessons . All of my older dc's friends in the village are involved in the catholic church in some way. One of them broke her foot the other day and the mother's first worry was that we she wouldnt be able to do her Ministeriums (?sp) in the church .

whatwould - I really admire you're determination to Home School - its definitely not something that I could ever do - I'm really not patient enough. I disagree with linzer - and maybe this is just because we're in Bayern but its really difficult to seperate school and religion. They even took the Muslim dc to church with them in the first week of school - the only concession being they didnt have to go for communion (is that the term? where the priest puts his hand on your head and says something??). They just struggle here to have any provision for non-religious people here since it is such a Catholic state. But I also need to say that dd went to a non-denominational school in the UK and they still had to do prayers every day and go to church so its not that much different.

jenny - I'm surprised about that in the US. I always imagined that religion played a huge role in all aspects of life so would be involve in schools too?

outnumbered & nutella - there are only catholic kigas round here and they are definitely run by the catholic church and catholicism is taught as a fact. That programme sounds really interesting - will have a look for it. outnumbered - glad your boys enjoyed the Christmas market and good luck to your dh on those interviews. nutella - oh not long now!! Hope you enjoy the acupuncture - I've had it a few times and its not painful - the needles are so fine. Its just very relaxing.

antique - have a fab time in Canada . Will it be very Christmassy there with knee deep snow? All our snow has melted and as much as I moaned about it, it doesnt feel Christmassy without it .

Hupa & Grinch - very weirdly your posts appear really strangely when I read them on the MN ipod/iphone app. Whenever you put a symbol in it adds other words or numbers . I reported them to MNHQ yesterday because it doesnt happen on the computer but they tried to say it was a problem with your computers . Have given up with using the app - this was just one of many faults that were driving me mad.

Think I'm all caught up with housework and the mountain of washing I had made by not keeping on top of it. Does everyone have this problem? I make my dc where their clothes for 2 days unless they are visibly dirty but we still have too much washing. Am also having to have a bit of a big clean as my IL's are coming on Christmas day and staying for 2 nights and my MIL is a bit similar to grinch's MIL - there will be mention of anything she finds that isnt absolutely spick and span .

Off to the GP ion a bit for my 6th dose of Ultrasound but sadly its not helped at all . He also does acupuncture so maybe that might be the next plan in the New Year.

Interesting discussion about religion and schools that I'm coming late to.

I think the situation here must be very different. There was an article in the Guardian recently titled "East Germany - the most godless place on earth" - can't remember if I linked to it on here, but the author had failed to find a single person under age 28 who said they believed in God. I don't know what the school curriculum looks like wrt RE/Ethik, but as dnephew was one of only three dc in his year to be confirmed as opposed to doing Jugendweihe (an East German secular sort-of coming-of-age ceremony), I don't suppose there's much indoctrination going on.

WhatWould what approach are you planning to take to homeschooling? Dsis and I had a bit of a discussion about it - she thinks it's irresponsible not to give dc the life experience of having to go to school, whereas my main reservation would be the worry that I wouldn't be able to give my child a comprehensive education.

Thank you to ploom, english, outnumbered and anyone else who commented on dd's writing accomplishment. It's good to hear that other dc have been at the same stage at about the same age and a bit scary to think that UK pre-schools would be actively practising writing at 3. I haven't been accused of hot-housing by the kiga yet, but they seem to have twigged that she can read the names of most of the dc in her group, so it's probably only a matter of time .

This has got rather long now, so big hello to everyone I haven't namechecked. (outnumbered I'm keeping my fingers crossed/thumbs pressed for your dh's job interviews.)

grinch I had the same thought about linzer sleeping in departures :) although I think it isn't allowed in some airports but glad to hear you have a hotel Linzer

Antique have a great time in Canada! Our plan at the start of the year was to be on holiday not in Germany now well that's changed a little bit...

ploom I have the same problem using the iPhone app. On DP's iPad I just access MN via safari so get the full site - much better! And yes in Bayern I believe it is much harder to separate Catholicism in schools but on the flip side don't they have one of Germany's best school systems?

whatwould like ploom I don't think I'd have the patience for home schooling (or the discipline) but I'd feel like my kids were missing the social skills side of school - I didn't get to many after school clubs but I really hope my kids do get the chance to do whatever they please.

The PIL came over on Monday too (they wanted to be nosey see the baby-ecke; which moved them almost to tears not at all worrying ) and MIL went on and on about needing a "kissen" to put over the baby in the buggy to keep it warm. I'd just assumed appropriately dressed (layers & snowsuit etc) and some blankets would be enough.... I can't figure out what she means and looking through various German online shops hasn't helped me find anything out. Where does someone buy this cushion, what is it and is it even necessary?
So please ladies, can I bother you for your personal experiences, advice and tips for dressing a newborn in arctic German winter and pushing it around in buggy? DP and I have very limited baby experience/ knowledge at the moment.

nutella - a snowsuit & blankets & a muff seems good enough to me but it is the done thing here for babies to lie on a fur thing then have all their clothes on at the one time, then a snowsuit, then a pillow over their body & then blankets over the top of that. I had all my babies in the UK so dont know whether its just a normal pillow or a special baby covering one. All my babies survived without one even during trips to Germany in the winter .

Nutella The main thing to remember is that you won't be dressing your newborn to keep him warm, you're dressing him to minimise comments about him being under-dressed. Seriously though, I've never heard of a Kissen although I have seen little duvet-like covers for pushchairs. We also had a small lambswool rug that lined the pushchair, which we would sometimes warm up on the radiator, and otherwise just dressed the baby in layers (snowsuit in winter) like you said, with a couple of blankets on top, depending on the weather. I remember our paed in the USA saying there was absolutely no need to worry about taking DD1 out for walks in the cold weather as women in Russia would regularly take their babies out in sub-Arctic temperatures and they never came to any harm (or something similar). (The Americans did seem slightly less obsessed with wrapping-the-baby-in-a-million-layers-otherwise-it-will-catch-a-cold-if-not-pneumonia than the Austrians are, however. )

cheas You'll probably need to be prepared for comments about how your DD will be bored when she starts school and for people to treat her as some kind of child genius if she's already reading and writing at what would be considered a normal age in Britain. Ignore them all.

Ploom Oh yes, I'm sure it's not the same everywhere - I don't even know whether it's the same throughout Austria - but I do find that religion is kept out of school here (provided you opt out of RE lessons) more than it was when I was at school. We had Nativity plays, hymns in assembly, were told about Christmas and Easter by our class teacher - we don't really have any of that here (I'm sure the form teacher does talk about Christmas, etc. but they only "learn" about it from their RE teacher).
at the Muslim children being taken to church. Communion is where you receive the communion wafer and wine, but if children haven't yet had their first communion (in the 2. Klasse here) they would be blessed by the priest, so that could well be what you mean.

Yes, we'll be back in Wales over Christmas and New Year and will also be spending a couple of days in London at the end of December, which the DC are very excited about as am I.

Waves to cheas & her gorgeous clever dd! Is your dsis still here? Have you had a good time together? Did she get much writing done?

Had double booked myself with the GP & the oil delivery but thankfully the oil man has just been so I've still got 30 mins before my GP appt. dh watches the oil prices obsessively & only orders it if the price goes down a bit. I "only" paid 136 for diesel on saturday whereas it was back up to 146 yesterday - no idea why the prices fluctuate so much.

Nutella I would go for a personalised Kinderwagenkissen if I were you. Why did I never even realise these things existed when the DC were babies? I feel like I've deprived them.

Nutella in all seriousness these are a good idea if you are going to be outdoors with baby in buggy for longer walks etc. in winter, rather than just nipping to and from the car or 3 min dash to shops

www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_4?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85Z%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Dbaby&field-keywords=fu%C3%9Fsack&sprefix=fu%C3%9Fs%2Caps%2C352&rh=n%3A355007011%2Ck%3Afu%C3%9Fsack

or just google fußsack - they are outdoor buggy sleeping bags, I have one (they last the full size range the buggy lasts, and mine still fits my tall 19 month old, who is in size 92 clothes).

Ploom what you describe is what I thought Ethink would be, but in 1st and 2nd Klasse it seems more warm and fuzzy - I think DD could do debate but maybe not all 7 year olds can (she was telling me her teacher told the class off for using "baby language" in their writing the other day, and the teacher said only 5 or 6 of the children don't have to worry about this - DD quoted me some examples but my German wasn't good enough to grasp why those examples were horrifying, but DD clearly understood so its all good I guess!) How old is your DD, I have forgotten, though I think she is definitely a few years older as I think your youngest is a year older than my middle one (5 and 1/4)?

Our oil delivery is due this afternoon too - oil is so alarmingly expensive!

On the home schooling topic, I am pretty confident I could home school for most of primary, but then primary school is generally rather a lovely time, and stresses related to school start at secondary for most children, so I wouldn't see a reason to unless the child was having particular problems which seemed best solved by home schooling. Obviously the huge benefit of sending children to school here is that it supports their full bilingualism, so that they can become bi-lingual and bi-literate, which would not happen for my kids if we lived in the UK and home schooled even though DH is German, I am sure their German would never be native speaker standard, especially their German literacy.

I think home schooling at secondary level to the same standard as a school could provide must involve working with other home schoolers, and forming what is in effect something like a loose Eltern-initiative, as very few parents have a thorough enough grounding in all academic areas to teach through to an able 16 or 18 year old level across the board.

When I was an English teacher one of the books we did with able 11 year olds was 'Skellig' which features a home educated child (although home ed is not the main focus of the story) and we always set home education as a debate topic for the children, and every year the majority initially thought they wished they could be home educated, then after a 30 minute group brain storm to prepare points and put together their initial presentations to kick off the debate well over 3/4 of the class would change their minds and change sides!

In all honesty I can see why home ed is lovely for parents who have the temperament for it, but I question whether it is always the best option for the children - depends how its done I guess, and whether it results in a child who is isolated or spends all their time with adults - I do only know one adult who was 100% home educated, and he is a very strange and quite angry man, but then probably he would have been anyway!

ploom dsis left yesterday, but she got close to finishing her draft which is due in on Jan 2nd. She seemed very positive about the amount she'd got done while here - said she thought she could concentrate much better away from home and that it was worth losing the two days to travelling. She was clearly not looking forward to going back to work and trying to fit finishing off the dissertation into evenings and the odd weekend day, though.

linzer MIL is already talking about dd starting school in the 2. klasse . I really don't get this "being bored at school" idea. Anyway if the school day finishes at 11.20 then we can learn Sanskrit do non-boring things after school...

nutella Dh bought dd a pram Kissen which we never used - think he went to the local baby shop just after she was born and they told him he would need it (she was born in May ). We had a Fußsack with detachable furry lining for winter - that and a snowsuit and an woollen blanket were fine. I think the official advice is that newborns are fine outside down to about -10, any colder and they can't keep themselves warm regardless of how well-wrapped up they are. The problem with a Kissen anyway is that it only keeps the upper side of the baby warm - you still need something under the baby, whereas a Fußsack does everything.

grinch I agree with you that successful home-schooling must involve doing it in a group to some extent. I wonder, though, whether even at secondary level being able to focus on one subject for half a day, or a week, or whatever, might not be a better way to learn than jumping from subject to subject throughout the day like you have to at school.

Good morning and STOP I cant keep up with you today!

I really enjoy the discussions on here. every one manages to get their points across without anyone really taking offense, and everyone can widen their horizons a little!

I think if we had NT children I would probably not think about the whole 'Ethik or RE' thing too much but would go along with dh and send him to Ethik. However, there are only a few kids taking Ethik, meaning they stand out...and Ds1 stands out enough as it is iykwim.

santa I honestly believe that RE or indoctrination would no need to be a reason for home schooling in GErmany. Some parts of the country are more religious than others obviously. I know it's been 2 or 3 years since I went to school but I was def not indoctrinated but raised to be an individual open to all kinds of faith, backgrounds etc.

Home schooling is a bit of sensitive area I find, and please do not take offense to anything I say, santa. I CAN see why some people choose to do so, in Germany I honestly dont see the need - schools arent perfect by any means but better than in a lot of places. for us it wouldnt be right. ds1 and ds2 struggle socially. although home schooling would take away the stress of going to school, mixing with otherts, being in a group etc...but it wouldnt benefit them long term. The need to learn to function in society, they need to build on those social skills they are lacking, in oder to eventually - hopefully - be able to lead a normal-ish, independent life. you have to bear in mind though that I am a teacher, and if I didnt believe in sending children to school to learn I would be in the wrong profession.

linzer and grinch I used to sleep at departures too when I was still at uni, after they had stopped the Harwich-Hamburg ferry crossing, I used to catch the cheap flights from Stansted. and the cheapest connections would always leave at 6am - but there was no public transport to get me there early enough. I'd take the last train or bus to the airport and then spend the night there. no, I dont miss that! I also spent a night at Singapore airport when in transit from Australia to Germany. Have a lovely time back home linzer.

nutella yes, those Kissen seem very common here. you'll know what it is when you see it. I alwas thought it looks really odd - they are so big you cant see the baby at all. we never had one. what we did have was a lambskin liners, and we dressed the boys in one of those, plus a woolen blanket on top. ds2 is a winter baby too, and he was never cold.

ploom about your foot not really improving.

right, I know I havent replied to everything, but dont have more time now. and looking at the amount of posts coming in this moring, I doubt I'll be able to catch up tonight either

have a good day everyone!

Cheas DD could read when she started school, though not fluently (she still sounded everything out, and also we'd only read together in English) but two of her friends could read absolutely fluently, and I am sure that if they tested reading age here they would have had reading ages of 10 or 11 on starting school. Their mums have never suggested they were bored though, and one of them regularly calls DD to discuss homework - I think they need the first year of school to adjust to the new structure, even if the work is easy. As you say the advantage of the short days is that there is a huge amount of day left to do more stimulating things (or just to play) as suits the child. Also if they are doing the work quickly they are allowed to take other things in with them - DD is not "top of the class" academically but she has a school library book ("Die Kleine Hexe" atm) which she keeps on her desk and reads if she has finished a task ignoring the fact this unfortunately encourages her natural tenancy to rush tasks, as she wants to get back to her book, ho hum

just popping back to link to the documentary I believe nutella mentioned.

havent had a chance to watch it yet but will do later.

outnumbered my ideas on this are by no means fixed, but I'm wondering whether this idea that being at school teaches social skills is a bit misleading. I can see that it teaches kids to cope in a particular kind of (fairly odd) situation, but possibly those ways of coping are not necessarily the best ways of coping once out in the world of adults. What I think schools can offer, which parents can't, is proper expertise in all subjects and the necessary equipment (thinking mostly of science, but also art, music, drama, D&T, etc.) to gain practical experience.

I also hate that it took me years and years after leaving school to stop thinking in age bands. I guess that's one advantage of going to church, that you mix with a lot of people of different ages, although I suspect it's not enough to counteract the effect of school.

grinch I could read fluently when I started school and don't remember being bored. DD will only be 6 and 3 months when she starts school anyway and I can't imagine her coping emotionally that easily.

I'm quite intrigued by the 'baby words' your dd's friends are using. Is it stuff like "wau-wau" instead of dog - dd still talks like that in German, but not in English apart from saying "ladillybird?

cheas I agree, simply putting an autistic child into a school for the sake of them being in a 'normal' social environment would probably do more harm than good in the long term. but ds1 and ds2 will have full time Integrationshelfer by their sides, and if things to get too much for them or they are having difficulty in a particular setting at school, then the I-helfer can always choose to go to a different room e.g. with them for a bit. I also agree with grinch that I would be quite confident to teach all subjects at primary level, and some other classes up to year 10 or so. but certainly not all subjects, and certainly not up to Abitur level. I also think that in order to learn, understand and then apply gained knowledge, one has to be be involved in discussions about it with others.

back to the subject of RE though, I just watched the documentary and also found it shocking! one can only hope that not many places are run like that. our local catholic kindergarten certainly seems a bit more relaxed about it. since summer two Erzieherinnen got pregnant and are not married. at least until now I havent heard anything about them not being able to return. the end was very odd...apart from now the protestant church being in charge instead of the catholic church, and personal relationships not being of anyone's business, there are still restrictions on who may work there and who cant. otoh the pastor was asked that question on national TV, and I dont think he had a choice in what to say. whether that is how the kindergarten will actually be run is a different matter.

Thanks for that link outnumbered. Will try to watch it this evening. We're not always in the mood for watching German TV in the eves which is why we missed it the first time.

It sounds like a good set up that your boys will have at school.

cheas - I was a bit amused at your dMIL's comment that your 3 yr old dd could go into the 2nd class when she starts school in a few years time! She's a very proud Oma! I have a friend here with a bright dd who also said this to me once despite the dd having problems in social situations. I am not a fan of dc being moved up a class - I feel really strongly that school isnt just about the grades but learning how to get on with other dc and to learn how to learn. Thankfully it doesnt seem to happen very often here.

Ds2 manages all the work in the 1st class fairly easily but there's no sign of him being bored - he just gets given extra work to do.

Dh very randomly sent me a text just before that said "do you want a job? Think I might have something for you!" I replied asking what kind of job but he hasnt got back to me. Very random! I think I've written on here before that maybe I need a job but then talked myself out of it but my first thought on getting that text was yes I do want a job. I think I could end up depressed being a SAHM forever - any friends I have here work so quite often I can go the whole morning without any adult contact. But is my German good enough for a job in a hospital?? Too much to think about with not enough info to go on.

It's busy on here today! I have just got half of my jobs done so having a break! Went shopping yesterday and wa sabit at the amount of stuff I got compared to the amount I spent! Oh well, it's all wrapped now.

ploom your heel/foot problem sounds abit like what I had in Berlin. It hurt most when I was sitting down. The doctor told me to take ibuprofen and told me off for wearing silly sandals (they were Birkenstock Madrid sandals)! It took a few months to get better. Hope you can find something to ease it.

cheaspicks that's exactly how I feel about school claiming to teach kids to cope in such a big group when I think it's an odd situation that will probably never be relevant once out in the world of adults. Similar with the reason for those Klassenfahrt trips for 4 or 5 days - after leaving school who would freiwillig go on holiday with 30 people, atleast half of which you aren't even really friends with?

outnumbered congratulations to your dh on getting as far as the interview (that's more than dh has got so far) - hope it went well.

Nutella never heard of a pram kissen. I guess, if you don't get one, your PIL will by the sound of it! Enjoy the acupuncture, I had it before dd was born and it was lovely and relaxing. It made me feel warm from inside, great feeling!

Better go and hang my washing up and get another load going. Where does it all come from?

outnumbered that is definitely the right programme, thanks for providing a link; but it felt much longer than 14 minutes when we watched it... perhaps later I'll watch it and see if it's a short version

Thanks Linzer and Ploom for the expected answers about children in Germany needing to be able to wear their entire wardrobe at once I tease DP about his being cold makes you ill belief - I know I'm a terrible girlfriend.

cheas and grinch I was thinking about a fußsack thingy, one with removable fur sounds like a good idea, thank you! We need more blankets but I'm reluctant to shop for too much because I don't want to have a pile of unused stuff. Also I'm sure blankets could also be gift items (one friend likes the idea of a personalised blanket and she has dropped many hints that she will order one as soon as the bean arrives and is named) and of course if we aren't given any blankets then we will buy some.

But, newsflash worrier of the week award goes to MIL!! While I was out this morning DP rang the PIL to talk to FIL about something. He also spoke to MIL who apparently couldn't sleep at all Monday night because she is so worried about our baby freezing to death because we haven't heard of this bloody effing cushion.
Obviously despite having a cupboard full of clothes, sleep sacks, jumpers, snowsuit etc etc I'm going to take the baby out in just a baby grow.... jeeez

Anyway, DP only told me this story when MW was here just now (she came again to do a CTG and asked us to go to the Frauenartz on Friday for another, although we aren't sure why ) and she said that either is fine but she recommends an "onion look" so layers basically Hopefully DP will pass MIL the news she can buy what she pleases and then go back to worrying about cycling and dogs and cream and stuff ... sorry I've got a little bit ranty there haven't I?

And I really enjoyed the Acupuncture although it was odd; not uncomfortable but a couple of the needles I could really feel. They didn't hurt, just sort of tingled.
The best thing was I had two options, the MW said that normally they start at 36 weeks with points that relax you and then after 2 sessions of that (1 per week I suppose) you can swap to points that might encourage labour. So I opted for the ones that bring on labour and she was really funny "kein Bock mehr? Ich verstehe" it was nice as always, relaxed and friendly.
While lying back and relaxing I tried to positively mentally encourage Nutellachen to engage and arrive :)