Strolling through an empty Shanghai

Today I want to share some pictures with you of our first stroll through the French Concession  - the area we are living in.

It was about time to try out our brand new - and ridiculous expensive- stroller.
In case you happen to know the world of push chairs: We bought a bugaboo - and we did not buy it because of the celebrity world is pushing their babies round in them - no we bought it because the choice here in Shanghai is extremly limited and is the only one suitable for quick action when you have to jump into a cab.

Of coarse the shops know of this and ask for a cheeky mark up of - hold on tight - 500 EUR!!compared to the price in Germany.

At which point we want to say THANKS to Nan and Granddad Lincoln!! who gave it to us as very generous present!!

As expected, Hannah beeing already a little traveller before she was born - enjoys the rides.
And Paul and I almost have to toss a coin to decide who is allowed to push it :-)

So here are some impressions of our first walk:

 

In front of our house:

someone is comfortable:

 

 

In our road: Gao an Lu

(see how empty it is!!)

 

 

 

 

round the corner in Xujahui Park on our way to the Grand Gateway shopping mall:

When we hit the mall we freaked out for a moment: It was sooo crowded with people.

But Hannah could not have cared less and found all the noise probably soothing

 

 

In the neighbourhood:

 

I have to explain to you what you can actually see in this picture:

I´m standing in front of one of those typical street shops in Yongjia Road, round the corner.
The red packages on the left are Chinese fire crackers
The laudry over my head was probably worn for Chinese New year. I was told that
red underwear worn on Chinese new year is supposed to bring you luck..

And the shop owner (yes, wearing arm warmers!) is taking a good look at our Baby. This is what happens to all foreigners with children here. Our babies are sensations and the Chinese are really curious to look at them.

Anyway: Our Bugaboo turns out to be a great buy and is nice and easy to manover around the city. And once Paul has installed the coffe cup holder  I look forward to exploring the French Concession in much more detail with Hannah and my camera on board!

Hannah´s first Chinese new year

China is currently celebrating "Chinese" New Year. It is already the thrid time we are here to experience this. Can you believe it? This time it is the the year of the snake. Like every year this means that  about 1,3 Billion people (and us) are enjoying a week of holiday at the same time.

I watched a docmentary a little while ago where I learnt that this holiday leads year by year to the largest "pilgrimage" on earth. Most migrants are leaving the cities in order to return home to their families. Many of them who only each other see once a year.

Our ayi (cleaner) is one of them. She comes from the next province Anhui, works in Shanghai all year long and once a year for this festival she returns home to see her son who is meanwhile living with her parents. Leaving a child for a year sounds for us westerners hard to believe. But for many people here in this is normal. The parents in the country side often have to leave their children in order to earn money. They have  hope that in future they can live a better life and get a good education.

So with so many people leaving Shanghai the city has taken on a almost village like atmosphere. No huge crowds walking around (at least not back here where we live), no traffic jams, no long waiting for taxis. It would almost be tranquil - it´s brilliant... if it would not be for the fireworks!

I wrote about this already a bit last year when we celebrated Chinese new year from a safe distance in the 17th floor at our friends place.

This year it was just going to be  the three of us at home. Home which is located on the 2nd floor right downtown - right in the meltin pot. We were quite interessted to find out how mad it would be around us and I was a little concerned about how little Hannah would take it. We knew it was that it was going to be LOUD!..I mean not just LOUD - I mean LOUD LOUD!!!..- which according to chinese culture necessary to  scare all evil spirits away.

They are actually celebrating with two nights of fireworks. The first one was the "kick off" going off  last sunday. It symbolises the beginning of the Chinese New years week (Chinese Spring festival). 4 days later (last night) there is follow up fireworks to honour the god of wealth. Those bangers are usually even louder and longer... sure can´t honour god of wealth enough by blasting millions of cash into the air..

Long I had mentally prepared myself for the worst case scenario with Hannah. That she would be frightened and scared by the bangs going off around her. I thought for a second using Pauls noise cancelling head phones. But they  were not an option - maybe for hiding behind.. way too large for this tiny head :-)

However it turned out that all my worries were for nothing. I had expected anything but not how the evening turned out to be. 10 minutes before midnight Hannah was laying in her cot, seeming really excited.

See for yourself what happend 10 minutes later:

Fireworks - as seen from our kitchen:

Hannah´s first Chinese New year:

Xin nian kuaile!

Happy New Year!!

The arrival of our "Dragon" Girl

Today the Chinese year of the Dragon is coming to an end. In a few hours Shanghai will turn into a "war zone" like city with fireworks (REAL Chinese crackers!!) going off all over the place in order to welcome the year of the "Snake".

If you are born as a Dragon in China you happen to carry the best of all star signs and are considered blessed with luck and fortune for the rest of your life. I read somewhere that alone in Shanghai it is estimated that an additional 40.000 babies were born this year, just to ensure to get this star sign.

Out of luck our little Hannah turns out to be one  of those 40.000. And before the year ends I thought we share with you briefly how Hannahs arrival was for us.

Well, in a nutshell: It was beautiful!

Everything turned out - almost like - planned. Just a little faster than expected. Hannah was born on a Wednesday night. Only the Saturday before we had been to see the doctors who assured us that if anything our baby would arrive a few days later than the expected due date which was originally 26.01.213.

Based on that information I felt quite relaxed about that our babies arrival and was looking forward to another 2 weeks of relaxing and pampering myself.

On Wednesday, 16th of January I woke up and felt good. I made my shopping list for the day when I noticed some pain which grew a bit stronger..I was pretty sure that these were practise contractions and didn´t pay it much attention.

Over the hours they became a bit stronger so I decided to skip shopping and to watch a DVD instead.
By 3 in the afternoon I found myself watching the film and moving between the sofa with my hot water bottle and my birthing ball, too ease the pain.

Just out of  interesst I thought I could try and see if I could time these "contractions"..It seemed like they were coming every 5 minutes - but I was pretty sure that I meassured it wrong this was a false alarm  But just in case  I gave Paul a call to tell him that I was not feeling too great and that I had asked Lisa, our midwife, to come and have a look later.

5pm and I found myself not beeing able to stand up straight any more. All I could do was walking around the appartment...For the first time the thought occured that MAYBE this could be the real thing??

5:30 Lisa arrived and checked me. The answer:  This is real - Your little girl is on it´s way!
My reaction: WHAT?????? .. Can´t be!!! She is not supposed to come for another 2 weeks!! I still need to practise hypnobirthing!!

6pm Paul arrived home from work, having to cancel his team building event. Having heard the news he managed to stay all calm, packing the hospital bag together.
As it was rushour in Shanghai I decided to take a bath next to relax me..The pain got worse, which is an indication that you are REALLY in labour.

7pm - ok, maybe time now to go to hospital. We got in a cab and on a different level of conciousness I thought: This is hillarious, like a film scene: Me laying half accross the back of a cab in Shanghai, groaning with each surge, leaning onto Paul, holding onto  my belly..
You would have thought that the taxi driver was putting the foot down..no!.. we had the slowest driver on Shanghai in front of us, impossible to overtake.

30 Minutes later we arrived at the hospital, where I was let into the birthing suite and got checked.. All good.. baby definately on the way. My Doctor was not on duty but I heard that MK, the midwife was still around. I asked if MK could come and see me because I knew I could trust her to execute my birthing plan. My birthing plan had foreseen all sorts of stuff: yoga, watching DVD´s, listening to my hypnobirthing CD, mediate with the baby..

Well, no time for any of that left! MK arrived at 9pm and I went into the Jacuzzy to relax. We turned off the light, lit some candles and listened to some musik.I lost the feeling for time eventually but felt all looked after by Paul and MK and knew it would all be ok.

Eventually MK asked me to come out to check the baby and me ..I heard her saying: OK, not long now we are getting very close. My subconcious response was: Oh my god! Already?? I´m going to be a mum in a minute!!..Is this serious??

At 23:45 time seemed to come to a stand still and little Hannah slipped gently into this world. 
It was a celebration of life. No words can describe it.

But what we can share with you are some impressions on what happened after that -
The first 3 days of with "Shanghai Dragon Baby"

Hooray we are family:

 

with MK...

 

So tiny...

 

everything is still too big!

 

afternoon snooze...

 

 Mommy recovering fast:

Best hospital food ever!!.. amazing a´la carte menue.. well if you pay 8.000 EUR for

this kind of "holiday" you can expect decent food :-).

Good that we have insurance!

After 3 days: Ready for the first journey!!

And guess what: She likes Shanghai Taxi´s! -. even the speedy ones!!

 

 

 

 

Family Lincoln is checking out...

 

MK told us that that night they had another 5 deliveries which for a private hospital like this one is a lot! It makes me wonder how many they have today, with the last chance to bring a little dragon into this world.

I can not believe that it has been over 3 weeks that Hannah has joined us. She is developing beautifully and like a little hungry caterpillar she is feeding well, making up for her original low weight.

Let´s hope she sleeps like a baby on today new years night! :-)