Does three hours count as sleeping through the night?

"Physically she should now be able to sleep 5 hours in a row" the peadiatrician informed us. That was almost two months ago. Instead our little girl chooses to still feed roughly every three to four hours. Day and night. Which is most likely against all 'expert advice' and the routine she is undoubtedly supposed to have by now. I don't really care, since she is gaining weight steadily, seems content after every feed and is a very happy baby in general. And I believe my sister meant it when she said that the bags under my eyes were really not that bad considering.

It might have been the video quality on Skype or maybe I have my new best friend Touche Eclat from Yves Saint Laurent to thank for that. Anyhow, although I am secretly a little bit jealous of babies that sleep 13 hours in a row, I have actually no idea how often she feeds at night. The first thing I re-packed was the alarm clock. After staring at it during one night (with my thoughts going something like this: "Oh no, only 1:30, I have only slept for two hours. What? Four o'clock, that's not even three hours she has slept! Six o'clock? I hope I can sleep some more before Jonny needs to get up"- you get the idea), I decided that I didn't want to know. I realise I still have the luxury to be able to have a nap during the afternoon most days and I also know that it will get better. Until then I relish the night time moments Beatrice and I have together.

We are well on our way with establishing a night time routine: bath time with Jonny (I hear lots of singing, giggling and water splashing whilst I am busy doing something in the kitchen), then a book, a feed and then bed. Our perseverence paid off and by night three she was okay to fall sleep in her own cot. As opposed to our arms. Or the sofa. Somehow she still ends up in our bed somewhere during the night. Which is probably also against the 'rules'. Each morning we are met with the biggest grin ever. She looks at me, then looks at Jonny, then at me again, to make sure we are both there. And then she wees. In her potty.




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It is now getting colder here. Not European cold, but with sub-ten in the morning and 18 degrees in the afternoon it is colder than 35 degrees. Cold enough to put the heating on and cold enough for me not to want to go outside unless I have activities that take me outside. Today I had no things planned and decided to do some baking for the pot luck for the Christmas party from the international baby group tomorrow. But we did not have enough eggs left for both the brownies ánd the white chocolate fruit cake I wanted to make. And I couldn't choose between the one or the other. So with Beatrice in the sling I ventured outside to the little corner shop down the road to see if they sold eggs. They did, so I asked for six eggs and got them in a bag. Chicken poo and feathers still on them, so I knew they were real eggs.

Meanwhile Beatrice was undecided between giving the telly her attention or the Syrian shopkeeper who was cooing at her. In the end she decided on the shopkeeper and grinned back at him. As a thank you he added a slice of chocolate cake to our order. For the baby. "Is good, yeah?" Don't worry grandparents, I have not given it to her. Yet. It has so many additives, that it will still be okay by the time she is weaned and ready for it. In fact, I don't know what to give her first. The chocolate cake or the Rolo she was given by the Bahraini couple in the Beirut hotel. ;-)

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Having children in the Middle East is great. Apart from the unsuitable sweets Beatrice is given that is. People here love little children and she is constantly talked to, smiled at and carried around. I can't think of many places in Europe where other customers in a top-end Japanese restaurant wouldn't bat an eye-lid when a group of people with a baby and a toddler in tow arrived. Beatrice gets her mouth wiped by the shop owner of the Kodak store, is told by the maid from the neighbours that she loves her and carried around by the driver from the club. And she thrives with all the attention. We have been told that she is the smiliest baby ever, which is really nice to hear!

Last week was the first time I dressed her in a pair of jeans. And proudly mentioned the fact to a woman I met that day. She looked us both up and down and told me how a friend of hers warned her of the danger of having daughters and how you dress them identical to yourself. Only then I realised that we were both wearing a stripey top and blue jeans..

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Jeans and a basic top seems to be my uniform these days. I can't find much time to dress up and heels are slightly uncomfortable when carrying a baby around. Friend A. will be glad to hear I am wearing normal underwear again though. On the more embarrassing side was Jonny's question last night how long I had been wearing my top inside out. That is twice in two months. With the first time being worse, since I was in Jonny's office when one of his female co-workers inquired whether inside out tops were the new fashion. Argh.

How do other new mothers find time? I can't even find time to sit down and reply to all my email (sorry L., R. and M. that I have not replied yet, I will, promise!), unpack the last boxes, let alone write a post every day (like J.) or even twice a week (like V.). Maybe I should finally learn how to speed type. If only I had time!

Trip to Beirut

Apologies for the delay, but I'm finally getting around to writing a quick summary of our trip to Beirut a couple of weeks ago...

We went just for one night, since it's only a short distance from Damascus. However, this was our first border crossing experience by car and despite leaving home relatively early and travelling on a relatively quiet day, it still took us about one and a half hours and $US 100 to cross. Not only do we have to buy our exit visa and purchase our entry visa for Lebanon, but we also have to export our car out of Syria and temporarily import it into Lebanon. This process is not helped by the fact that our car has tax free license plates and the associated paper work is different to the majority of local cars, which only serves to confuse the boarder guards (although it does give them the opportunity to ask for a higher "facilitation" fee).

Once across the boarder, it is apparent that Syrian driving is actually pretty good in comparison to Lebanese. The route from the boarder to Beirut crosses the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, a twisty road made even more dangerous the day we travelled by a thick fog reducing visibility to 20 meters, is mostly single carriageway with a continuous game of chicken being played out by the overtaking cars. Contrary to Europe, the Lebanese prefer to use their hazard warning lights in poor visibility conditions rather than "fog" lights.

Still, we made it safely across the mountain range and the view down to Beirut is a stark contrast to the countryside in Syria... much more green vegetation with a wonderful blue backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea. Driving in down-town Beirut is a nightmare though, particularly without the assistance of a good street map. The traffic is terrible and the plentiful one way streets make it even more difficult to get to your destination. As much by fortune than anything (and after taking a detour with the wrong co-ordinates in the car's sat-nav system) we stumbled across our hotel for the night... Le Bristol.

The stressful journey was made worthwhile that evening as we met up with some friends and colleagues who had also made the trip over from Damascus that day. It turned out that the restaurant we intended to eat at was closed that evening due to a wedding function, so we ended up taking taxis to the pedestrianised downtown area to see what was on offer. This part of Beirut is almost too good to be true... it's akin to the nicest streets of Paris (complete with Buddha Bar) and we'll definitely return here in the summer to sit out and sip some coffee and absorb the atmosphere. We stumbled across the Japanese restaurant Shogun and decided to give it go (since we were all missing our fish quotient living in Damascus). We weren't disappointed... the sushi in this restaurant ranks amongst the top I've ever tasted and I subsequently discovered that the owners fly fresh products across from Japan twice a week to ensure that their reputation as the best Japanese restaurant in Lebanon remains unopposed.


The following morning we went along to the hotel's buffet breakfast and Beatrice ended up being entertained by a couple from Bahrain sat at the table next to us. Although we're still getting used to this sort of behaviour, it seems that it's quite common in this part of the world and Beatrice certainly seems to enjoy the attention!

After breakfast we stopped off at a shopping mall to get our retail therapy. Shops in Lebanon are pretty good and the shopping malls certainly as good as European ones, which helps explain how the Lebanese manage to look so well dressed and manicured. However, the prices in the shops are very expensive, noticeable more so than back in the Netherlands. For a country that does not have a great deal in the way of natural resources, it makes you wonder where the inhabitants get their money from? It was at the mall where we indulged in a couple of great coffees.

Before departing back to Syria, we popped into a supermarket to stock up on items that are difficult or expensive to find in Damascus (mainly pork products and alcohol... Lebanese beer and wine are both pretty good). The journey back was uneventful and the return boarder crossing went smooth, taking less than half an hour. I'm certainly glad that we visited Beirut, but given the stress of the boarder crossing and the drive (and the cost) I'll want to stay for a few nights next time. It will be nice to return early summer and sit on the beach and there are plenty of nice places to visit outside of Beirut, with great walking and cycling opportunities.

Beatrice meets Sinterklaas!

Yesterday we took Beatrice along to the Dutch Ambassador's Residence close to Damascus, since we heard that Sinterklaas may be paying a visit there. Fortunately, the rumours were true and on her first ever Sinterklaas, Beatrice got to sit on the lap of the great man.

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

Beatrice has obviously been a very good girl since she was born, as she also received a present.

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

She really liked her present (especially the wrapping it came in), but not as much as Flo enjoyed the pepernoten (although she's now in bed after spending the night vomiting... it's not certain if this is the result of eating too many pepernoten however).

A slight change of plan

Instead of going to Jordan, we ended up going to Beirut last weekend. And instead of telling you about that, some old pictures I forgot to post before. Beirut update to follow...

Last month we went for Friday lunch on Mount Kassioun. This is where Cain slew Abel and also where the prophet Mohammed took his first look of the city of Damascus before turning away from "earthly paradise".


Nowadays the paradisical view is slightly spoiled by all the litter on the mountain, but you get a good view over the city from one of the many restaurants. We went to the restaurant Best View where I had the lamp with vegetables...

Sea freight arrives

Apologies for not writing for a while, but our sea freight arrived last week so all our spare time has been spent unpacking the 300 plus boxes! We're well over half way now, but our progress is markedly slower with little B to entertain as Flo and I effectively have to work in shifts so that one of us is attending to Beatrice while the other can concentrate on the unpacking. Remarkably, Flo still manages to get some unpacking done during the week when I'm at work, so I'm trying to put together the larger items like shelves and cupboards so that Flo can fill them up when I'm not around.


I've been finding the move a little stressful this time round. Things aren't helped with me being busy at work and not feeling 100% (my stomach is still struggling with the local bugs), plus we have acquired many more things since we last moved, so it's all taking much longer. Inevitably, there are a few damaged items and a few things that appear to have gone missing (although we haven't unpacked all the boxes yet so they may still turn up... we're hoping). But we have a good incentive to get things finished this week, since we're planning a trip to Jordan next weekend!

The weather here has turned colder and wetter, with temperatures currently ranging from between 11 to 18 degrees Centigrade (and it's raining outside as I write this). So we've had the heating on this week! In fact, there was a storm, complete with thunder and lightening on the evening that our sea freight was delivered, so the poor guys transferring the boxes from the shipping container got soaked through to the skin, but still managed to carry three boxes at a time or an extremely heavy washing machine on their back up the two flights of stairs to our apartment!

Beatrice had her second batch of vaccinations this week, which she didn't at all enjoy... I've not heard her scream so loud since the day she was born, which started before the doctor had even pulled out the needle. So I don't know if she remembered back from last month or that a particular sound or smell triggered the reaction, but it was very upsetting seeing her screaming so loud! I've updated her photo album, which includes a vaccination picture.

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

She's grown loads since last month... 10% increase in length to 66 cm and a similar increase in weight to 6.7 kg, so she's well on track to doubling her birth weight within the normal five month period. Her grandparents will barely recognise her when they come to visit next month!

One year ago

Today is a special day. Not only because this is the day that both my maternal grandmother and my second cousin (her great granddaughter) were born, but because today one year ago we had two embryos put back. The result is sleeping soundly next to me at the moment.

Our gorgeous little girl
- who prefers sleeping in her parents bed, snugly between the two of us
- who is always in a good mood in the morning
- who loves getting undressed and having a bath
- who doesn't like getting dressed so much, despite all the pretty clothes she has
- whose hair at the back of her head looks like she had a hair cut already
- with amazingly long Bambi legs
- whose tiny little fingers like fiddling with my t-shirt or my bra when she is nursing
- whose face lights up when she sees her daddy
- who giggles so much that we sometimes think life is one big joke we are not getting

She brings so much joy to our lives, it is amazing to see her grow and become more aware. Of herself (hey, I have feet!), us and her surroundings. We are extremely lucky to have her with us and I am forever grateful for the extraordinary act of kindness of one woman that helped us make our dream come true.

Back to Seidnaya

Today we decided to return to Seidnaya and visit the Convent of Our Lady of Seidnaya. This time, Flo was still fit and healthy when we arrived, so we popped Beatrice into the sling and had a wonder around the convent. You can view the pictures by clicking on the album below.

Trip to Seidnaya

It's a pretty convent and supposed to house a portrait of Mary painted by Saint Luke. I was surprised that almost the entire convent is open to visitors, including walking up onto the roof to admire the view.


We decided to take an alternative route back to Damascus, by driving up into the mountains. The detour was certainly worthwhile as we were treated to fantastic views and a great, narrow, twisty road snaking its way up the valley. We're starting to discover Syria's little gems...

Beatrice aka James Brown

Beatrice has started to shriek like James Brown! And like James Brown, I'm sure that, at least in the mornings when she is in her bouncer, her shriek would be followed by... "I feel good!"

Trip to Quneitra

Today we went day tripping, this time to a place called Quneitra and our first trip in the new car! I won't bore you with the history and politics regarding this place as it's all documented elsewhere, suffice to say it never fails to surprise me just how horrible people can be to one another.

Trip to Quneitra

I've posted some pictures in the album linked above, and you can even see where the pictures were taken on the Google map. It's a bit bizarre driving around, since there's a check-point a couple of kilometres before Quneitra where they check your paperwork (you need to get a letter from the Ministry of Interior Affairs to visit the area) and where a member of the secret police steps into your car to escort you as you drive. He was a pleasant enough chap and I was very impressed that Flo managed to convince him to wear the seat belt in the front seat... which just managed to fit around his impressively large belly. What I found really incredible though was that he didn't ask for any money when we dropped him off at the check-point!

The UN have a military base within the remains of Quneitra. It was a little odd seeing them there... it's a really sombre place, so hearing loud music blasting from the barracks and seeing the soldiers participating in a "fun-run" through the bombed out remains of the town was really peculiar.

On the way back we decided to explore and drove back towards the Golan Heights... it's kind of weird driving around this area as it's something that we heard a lot about on the news when we were growing up. It's actually a really nice place... much greener than the area around Damascus, full of olive trees, valleys and little streams. Unfortunately, we headed up a road that led to a dead end up the valley. It was also being resurfaced, so our new car is now covered in sticky tar! So that will give me something to do when our sea-freight has arrived... I'll be spending a weekend de-tarring the car!


We'll definitely revisit the Golan Heights area, but next time we'll be better prepared and figure out a round trip back to Damascus.

It is growing on me

No, I am not talking about the pounds on my hips and belly. *Grins*

Although I could be, since I am ravenous all the time. Breast-feeding makes so hungry. It is not like the first month anymore though, when I went to bed with a stash of health bars or biscuits for midnight snacks. I used to eat those whilst nursing Beatrice, careful not to crumble in the bed. Or on her.

Somehow it seems much harder to keep up the healthy eating now than during my pregnancy. Chocolate, cookies or bread are the fast option for some quick pick-me-up energy. I also seem to have less time to cook and prepare healthy snacks... *Makes mental note to drink more water and snack on fruit again because need to loose those stubborn last two kilos of baby weight*

I digress. I actually mean that Damascus is growing on me.

I came here with no real expectations. I had no idea that Syria has in fact more inhabitants than the Netherlands (roughly 18 million) and that Damascus has over four million inhabitants or that it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Nor that 85% of the population is Muslim and 15% Christian. Or that it twins with Rio de Janeiro. No, I was way too busy being pregnant, giving birth and looking after a new-born. In that order.

We live in East-Mezzeh. Or Mazzeh. Or Mezze. It's a transcription thing. Kafersosa is where the super market is. I call it Kaiser Sose. *Jonny rolls with his eyes*

The Autostrada intersects East and West Mezzeh. It has officially five lanes. During rush hour people turn it into seven. Or eight. I took this picture when it was quiet.

You never need to wonder how long it takes for the light to go green again. There is a little countdown display next to the light. When the display is down to five seconds people start beeping their horns impatiently. At three seconds they go.

This is our street. A street with a name. Which is really not that common here. There are lots of streets with no name *thinks of inserting pun referring to the U2 song* or even street numbers. People are used to using landmarks for reference. We live close to the LG shop.

The door you can actually see in this picture is the door to the basement apartment. The door entering the building is on the right hand side under the canopy. Jonny had a look at the downstairs apartment too, although it has a big garden, it is quite dark. Apparently lots of downstairs apartments are.

And they don't get the nice view over the cactus plantation. This picture was taken from the living room. Our next door neighbour told me that the fields are gorgeous when in bloom. And they are in bloom for a good five months of the year. We just missed it this year.

Our kitchen. I am really glad that my kitchen utensils arrived in the air freight. It is not easy cooking with only a knife and three frying pans. I also happy to have my herbs and spices back. I was lost without cumin. As you are. ;-)

Grand mart. The super market opened a couple of years ago and was one of the first of Syria. There are now at least two. The selection is really quite good, better I dare say than most Dutch super markets. The imported things are quite expensive though, but food and food shopping really deserves a post of its own.

They do some clever recycling there. I have no idea what was actually in the waffles packaging. Or how it got there. It looks like potpourri, but it was next to the herb counter. Weird.

And yet, despite getting used to the city, slowly settling into our new life, I have heaps of moments where I find it difficult too. I miss my family and friends (and phone calls abroad are so expensive that I think twice about calling somebody). I miss knowing my way around, it being easy to quickly pop Beatrice in the sling and walk to the shops. I miss my life being easy.

But mostly I consider myself really fortunate. Had we still been in the Netherlands, then I would be back at work by now and Beatrice in day care. And she is still so very tiny. I am really enjoying spending time with her and getting to know her. Slowly I am learning what the different cries mean, what makes her sad and what makes her happy. That makes me happy!

Trip to Seidnaya

Appologies for not updating the blog for a while... been having problems with our internet connection. Here's the post I actually wrote at the weekend...

The weekend turned out to be a quiet one. Last weekend my botty was not well and this week it was the turn of Flo's titty, since she came down with mastitis. And a throat infection. Double whammy. [edited by Flo]

We still managed to get a short trip in today (Saturday), to visit the Convent of Our Lady of Seidnaya. Unfortunately, we didn't get chance to stop and walk around and take some photos, since even before arriving Flo started to feel sick and so we drove straight past the convent and returned back to Damascus the way we came (minus the unnecessary detours).

I'm trying to at least upload a map of our route, but our 3.5G internet connection (DSL connections are still extremely difficult to get installed here) has been offline most of the day and even now it's struggling a bit. I suspect that at the weekends the network is overloaded. Or maybe the thunderstorm I can hear brewing outside is effecting it? So I'll have to try and upload some pictures during the week instead.


Beatrice is continuing to grow. She's slowly settling into more of a routine now following the upheaval of the move and is managing to get some sleep in during the day, which is making her and hence Flo and ultimately me much happier bunnies. She's also getting stronger and wanting to sit up more and more (still with some help from Mum and Dad) and she's starting to spend more time on her belly trying to learn how to crawl. She's certainly got the leg actions down, but just needs to learn to move her arms.

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

I've added a couple more pictures to the ever expanding Beatrice album above. I've got a movie to upload too but I'll try and do that at work to save some monthly data allowance for Flo on our internet connection...

Our air freight arrived!

Our first outing

Despite me being bed ridden yesterday (thanks for sharing that with everyone Flo), we did manage to get out and about on Friday on our first outing from Damascus.

We're starting off with some shorter trips to get our bearings a little and for little Beatrice to get used to the car, but plan to use our weekends to explore the area. So the first trip was only a 20 minute drive out of Damascus and since Friday mornings are very quiet on the roads I thought it was also a good opportunity for Flo to drive and get used to the roads.

As Flo alluded to in her previous post, sign posts on the roads here are not the best, so you have to really pay attention and not drive too fast otherwise you'll miss the small English text that's written on some of the signs. So, it took us a little longer to get to our destination than planned as we completely missed the turn off. But we go there in the end!


View Larger Map
We visited the Greek orthodox church's Abbey of St. Paul the messenger, reputedly built on the location that St. Paul (Saul) fell on the road to Damascus. So the location is very historic, although not the abbey itself which was built in 1965. Still, it serves to highlight the religious tolerance of Syria, where Muslims, Christians and Jews all peacefully cohabit.

Abbey of St. Paul the messenger

It's nice to get out of Damascus and breath some fresh air and the natural scenery is quite dramatic looking, but unfortunately spoilt by the litter that is strewn everywhere; the abbey is a beautiful oasis in this respect. Take a look for yourself by clicking on the album above.

On how...

.... I was waiting to have spent some time in the Old City of Damascus to give my first impression. I did not want to be negative about our new home town, but so far, I don't find Damascus a very pretty city, with lots of high rise, houses and appartments that seem stuccoed with brown mud. I have been told though that the Old City, full of history, is very charming and that also the neighbourhood of Abu Romanouh is very interesting (in a none British sense of the word).

... the plan was to go and visit the Old City today, but that worked out differently. Jonny woke up not feeling to great and came down with some sort of bug. Which involved diarrhoea. After having warned me when we got here that I would probably get ill within a week, due to the different water and the poorer sanitisation. Since I was fine, I offered to drive to a pharmacy and get him some Immodium.

... traffic in Damascus is complete anarchy. There are rules, but most people seem not to take them very seriously. This involves overtaking, undertaking, not indicating, cutting off, seriously going over the speed limit and doing something (like crossing the street) and then looking if there is traffic. With Jonny's warning still ringing in my ears, the stories of serious accidents in the back of my head, I was reluctant to drive at first. Since Beatrice was born, I have become very sensitive to the fact how vulnerable you are in a car. Add the unfamiliarity of a strange city and a big car I had not driven before. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so off I went.

... I drove to a bakery knowing there was a pharmacy next door. That turned out to be closed. The other five pharmacies I drove past were closed too. It seems Saturday is not a pharmacy-open-day. There is something confusing about opening hours here anyway. On Friday (the official day off) all Moslim shops are closed. On Saturday all Jewish shops are closed. On Sunday the Christian shops are closed. On the days that all shops are open, opening times seem to be pot luck. Apparently at ten thirthy in the morning you have the best chance to find most shops open.

... although I did not get any Immodium, bought two loafs of bread. Which is quite an achievement by itself. Before coming here, I was hoping that the few years of French occupation left some sort of a bread legacy. Although there is a shop called Sucré and Sallé in the center of town, the main bread eaten here is Arabic flat bread. There are government run bakeries that stock piles and piles of the bread. Loafs of bread on the other hand are not so easy to come by. So I was quite pleased with my purchase.

... whilst trying to find a pharmacy, I was beeped at almost continiously. Beeping your horn is not a sign of aggression here. Well, not necessarily. It can mean, 'careful I am behind, besides or in front of you' (maybe the latter not really) or 'you are in the wrong lane' or 'drive faster' or 'drive slower' or 'hurry up' or 'the light is green, go. Now.' I was beeped at for all of those reasons. Which was not all that strange considering I was going at a low speed to try and read the signs and trying not to get hit by a manic driver. Or get lost.

... I got lost anyway. Whilst completely aware I was getting further away from our neighbourhood, I could not see a place to turn around on the motorway. When I finally did, it was admittedly not the safest place to make a u-turn. But with the traffic anarchy in mind I thought I might as well have a go. Three police men thought otherwise. Three! I don't even know where they came from but within seconds they were knocking my windows telling me to drive on. Driving further and further away and with only the mountains to give me some sense of direction, I was afraid I'd end up in Aleppo before being able to turn around.

... meanwhile I was getting bit worried about Beatrice. She is exclusively breastfed, so there was not a lot Jonny could do in case she got hungry. I was also very aware that he was probably not in the mood to do anything that involved getting out of bed. Other than going to the toilet. Thankfully I did manage to find my way home again and although having woken up five minutes after I had gone, Beatrice was fine. Jonny had to content himself with the old fashioned solution of Coca Cola and banana. And maybe some bread when he is feeling better.

Beatrice is learning to talk

Beatrice has been making noises for a while now, but over the past couple of weeks she's been having "conversations" with me and Flo, usually while changing her nappy.

What happens is she'll make a sound and smile a bit. If you then talk back to her or make some noises and then stop, she'll take this as a cue to make some more noises herself. Recently, she's been learning to make new sounds. The latest is a kind of gurgling noise in the back of her throat.

The really exciting development though is that she's now stringing together different sounds in the same "sentence". It's really fastinating seeing her develop her language skills! It's great being able to see her every day now too... when I wake up in the morning and when I come home from work, I'm invariably treated to something new. I swear she's different every day; one day she seems to have filled out a bit, then the next she slimmed out and grown a bit in length. It's phenominal how quick she's growing and developing.

Anyway, the movie above was an attempt to catch one of her conversations last night before going to bed, but she's easily distracted by the camera. What's incredible is that she's already learning volume control and can make the noises either loud or quiet. It's almost as though she's a bit nervous about making new sounds so tries them out quietly first.

An update in pictures

Before I give you my first impressions of our new home town of Damascus, our last week in pictures.


Beatrice found the whole move quite boring frankly. Or tiring, depending on how you want to interpret her yawn. In fact, she slept through most of it. In her sling, in her father's or mother's arms or in our bed. No, she did not want to sleep in the camping bed provided by the hotel. Fair enough, since she did not even fill a quarter of it!


All our stuff was packed in a matter of hours. And boy, do we have a lot of stuff. Almost 300 boxes/items (since a table is not boxed, but does count as an item). That is roughly four times as much as what we had when we moved to Dubai six years ago. One does accumulate a lot of stuff over the years. And we can't blame the baby on even a tenth of it.


All that is not going by either air or sea freight, we took with us. Nine pieces of luggage and two cats equal 149 kilos. A Bugaboo, a car seat, a laptop bag and two pieces of hand luggage. One very good baby, who only cried a little bit during the two flights. Two very tired parents by the time we arrived in Damascus. More on that later.


Yesterday it was 34 degrees here, so a good opportunity for Beatrice to wear her one and only dress she was given.

A new adventure begins...

We arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam nice and early this morning, with six bags, our Bugaboo and two cats to check in along with our hand luggage and of course little baby Beatrice!

From Syria

Since we arrived nice and early we had a bit of time to sit in the lounge and feed Beatrice, which gave me time to make this quick post!

Educating Beatrice

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

Beatrice decided that she'd teach me how to read the other day, starting with "The Foot Book". I have to admit that she's a very good teacher; we got to the end of the book together in only ten minutes!

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

Next, she's been taking acting lessons. Here she is practising the part of Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers series of films. Admittedly, she might have been practising Mini-Me?

From Beatrice Dorothy Corcutt

Following on from the other week when Beatrice discovered that she has hands, she has now discovered that if she hits things they move! This is great news for us, since she now spends at least fifteen minutes entertaining herself with the mobile when we attach it to her cot.

Quick couple of pics

Sorry for not being very active recently, but I've been over in Syria (which seems to randomly block some Blogger web pages) and Flo's been busy preparing for the move while trying to entertain Beatrice at the same time.

We'll write some more detailed posts soon, but in the meantime, here's a couple of new pictures of Beatrice!


The first one is a picture of Beatrice practising looking pretty and the second one below is a picture of her practising her happy face!

Humour Development

Last week I returned back home after being away from the family for two and a half weeks. I'm not new to being away from home, since I spent half of the first four years with Flo on one drilling rig or another, stuck out in the middle of some sea or ocean. I found this pretty tough, but leaving our two week old daughter behind was particularly stressful, especially since I'm aware of how quick babies grow and develop in these first few weeks... I was leaving knowing that I'd miss observing many of our daughter's first experiences.

So, it was a strange experience being re-united with Beatrice last week. Of course, many things were familiar, but so much had changed. She was bigger and chubbier most notably, which is a good sign. In fact, she's growing exceptionally well putting on 250 grams per week and she's grown 3 cm since her birth five weeks ago. In many ways she was the same little girl I left two weeks ago, but there was also many unfamiliar things about her that it took me a bit of time to re-bond with her... after about an hour I was completely in love with her again.


Although Beatrice had started smiling before I left, it was more of an impulse, practice smile and not really triggered from her environment. This has certainly changed now though... once she's fed and feeling content, it's possible to sit her in your lap and spend about half an hour talking to her and making faces and being rewarded by not only big smiles, but full on laughs and giggles; you can see in the picture above that sometimes she laughs so hard it's tricky to get a photo of her! And sometimes you can leave her in her cot or basket and she'll lie there amusing herself, making pleasant little gurgles and giggles and laughing sounds... it's so sweet! In the photo below she's content staring at her mobile hanging above her cot.


It's not all rosy though, since it's almost alarming how quickly laughs and giggles can turn into cries! Beatrice is currently demanding a lot of attention, choosing to fight off sleep until she's exhausted herself (and her parents in the process) and she certainly prefers to sleep in her parent's arms than in her cot or basket. But the laughs and giggles and the increasing interaction more than compensates and I have to admit that her flatulence keeps me entertained... it certainly fills me with pride when she releases a real ripper of a fart, made even more amusing by the rolling of Flo's eyes.

Our world in pictures: a happy baby!

Beautiful baby Beatrice is exactly four weeks old today and how time has flown by. It is so true what people say about babies growing very fast the first few weeks. Before we know it she'll be wearing the next size clothes already. She definitely won't fit in the moses basket for very much longer.

After a generally fussy day, I took this picture of her. A very content little baby, gurgling away, making sweet noises and smiling after a feed and a nappy change. She then went on to fall asleep with a big grin on her face. Ah, baby bliss!

Three weeks and many firsts

Today Baby Beatrice has been with us for three weeks and already I can't imagine our lives without her! It has been enjoyable, hard work, fun, tiring, sweet and even better than I imagined before. We have had many first over the last weeks. To name a few:

The realisation that I am a mother
After years of waiting. Finally. It fills me with immense gratitude. The night we spent in hospital I wore a wrist band. It said Beatrice's mother. Me. Wow. The first couple of weeks, every card mentioning how long we had to wait for her, every comment how welcome she was or simply the thought that she is finally here, made me cry. So many happy tears!

Laughing so much
It is great seeing Jonny with our daughter. They are so sweet together. And they make me laugh. I can't remember laughing so much for a long time. I hear Jonny talking to her, starting his sentences with "don't tell mummy" and then whispering the rest to her. They are my two favourite people in the whole wide world. I love our unit of three.

Going out for a walk- Daddy, daddy cool
Despite my good intentions of carrying Beatrice around in a sling until she could walk, we purchased a pram two weeks ago. The main reason I gave in is because we need something for her to sleep in when we move to Syria. Until her bed arrives in the air freight, she can sleep in the Bugaboo. That is one very expensive travel bed, I know. :-) So to make good use of it, we took her out for a walk when the weather was still nice. Owning a Bugaboo is a bit like having a motor bike. Or a dog. You acknowledge other owners and greet each other. It is funny.

Being asked about the state of my nipples
I have never had so many questions about my nipples. They are fine, thanks. Breast feeding is well established by now and I thoroughly enjoy it. I love the intimacy of feeling Beatrice's little body against mine. I love the fact that my body is feeding her, making her grow. And she is in a rush to grow, she's hungry all the time. As for me, I hope she does not grow up too fast!

Watching a film at night
One night the first week, we watched In Bruges. We only had to pause it about twenty times. :-) We subsequently realised that going to bed earlier was a better idea. It seems that all the hours sleep you get in before midnight count double. It is the only film we watched so far.

The first night without Jonny
Jonny left for Syria last Sunday. Beatrice probably felt I was upset, since she wouldn't settle all day. We knew before hand that the day would come and yet, when it really happens, it is tough. We miss him loads. We are so lucky to have granddad and grandma around, so the Corcutt girls are not alone. Lots of arms for Beatrice to sleep in. In fact, I doubt that she will sleep in her bed once grandma is gone too (granddad left today).

Going out for a drink
Yesterday Jonny's parents and I went to our local bar for a pre-dinner drink (it is alcohol free beer in case you wonder!). The bar is called Wicked Wines. Jonny's dad suggested they rename the place and give it a more baby friendly name: Wicked Whines. :-) This was not inspired by Baby Beatrice, who just slept whilst we were enjoying our drinks, jazz music and all.

Baby massage course
Yesterday Baby Beatrice and I went to our first baby massage lesson. She was on her best behaviour and looked at the other babies in a state of shock, clearly not understanding why they were crying so much. She did not seem to mind the massage. Probably because Jonny told her that big people pay good money for getting a massage!

And also: projectile vomiting (impressive!), sleepless nights, smiling (okay, I know people say it is just twitching, but I like to believe that she is practising her proper social smile. And boy, is it going to be pretty!), tummy cramps, meeting all her big cousins, me eating eggs and soldiers again, fitting into pre-pregnancy clothes (but still feeling a lot more comfortable in track suit bottoms) and eating my dinner over our daughter. Weird. I have not started sniffing her bottoms yet though, I always found that kind of weird too, watching other parents do that. Do you reckon you have to do that as a parent?