I hate ads. OK, sometimes they are cute or funny, but you can get cute and funny out of lots of things without trying to sell products in such a way that people feel like they want them even though they don't know anything about them. Plus ads take up space and/or airtime that I'd almost certainly rather have for something else, or even nothing at all.

So I'm going to do my part towards a happy world where ads aren't necessary by passing on recommendations via word-of-mouth, or post-of-blog. Here are the products that make my life as a new mother better.

My Brest Friend - OK, I hate this name. I think it's quite possibly one of the worst product names I've ever seen. But I love this nursing pillow anyway. It stays put. It has back support. It's stiff enough yet soft enough. My only complaint is that "sunburst" should not be the name of a primarily blue print. EU mums: If you aren't in the UK, Ireland, Germany, or Cyprus, Express Yourself Mums ships to other countries and won't have silly import duties like North American sites.

LilyPadz - I'm not wild about the z in this name, but enough with the name gripes, eh? They keep you from milking up your clothes, and you can wear them without a bra. Love.

I'm still in love with my Gaia & Ko diaper bag.

But the number one best thing to have around during these early days of my mommyhood is my husband Thomas. How awesome is he for staying home for 6 weeks from work? Very. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Introducing Dagmar Lee Fach-Pedersen

September 10, 2008

9:45am CET

Herlev, Denmark

3430 grams / 7 lb 8 oz

53 cm / 21 in

See more pics!

Remember the "I was in labor for three days" horror stories I mentioned? Now I have one too.But wait! There's more!

Dagmar is here! More to come….

For the past 12 hours or so, I've had contractions every 3-5 minutes. They suck. It's painful. But they last less than a minute and a half so the hospital doesn't want me to come in yet. The midwife said I should get some sleep instead. Um, yeah. How exactly does one sleep through that? Especially when they are way more intense when I lay down. So it's been a great night.

I've read too many "I was in labor for three days" horror stories. Please send me SOON vibes. I'm going crazy.

This is the month I become a mother. I would have been happy with an August baby, but Dagmar decided to stick around a bit longer, which is fine and not exactly unexpected. My "due date" is Wednesday, though most women go past 40 weeks so it seems like a silly day to define it. First-timers like myself usually go longer than others, but I really am hoping to get the birth in while my mother is still here. Speaking of my mother, she'll be arriving any minute now so I'm keeping this short. She's been visiting for several days and she pops by weekday mornings and helps me do whatever needs doing until T gets home. Mom is good.

For examples of what has needed doing, check out some new pics of our preparations around the flat to make room for Dagmar.

That tank top used to cover my belly.

One site I go to regularly will not let me on anymore. Another is bugging every time I log in, such that it sends the same message to one of my friends every few seconds, and I can't make the chat window go away. Another is completely dead. Another has a couple of members that are annoying me to the point that I don't find it worth going. Yet another has ridiculous moderators on power trips and I'm losing my patience with that too. It's probably just as well since I've been ridiculously tired lately.

I haven't experienced any Braxton Hicks ("practice" contractions) during the pregnancy, until a few days ago. Now I'm getting a couple every day, and it's pretty exciting. I feel like things are really gearing up and getting ready to go. Not that I have any indication how long it takes to get ready, but at least something is happening. My track record on being patient is not very strong, and I'm surprised how laid back I feel about the whole birthing thing. I'm ready to go now, but hey, if it's another month that's cool too. I never thought I'd feel that way!But wait! There's more!

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant. That means I have about 5 ± 2 weeks left. It seems as good a time as any to mention a few things.But wait! There's more!

Four hours and a few thousand kroner at IKEA means we now have a crib, dresser with changing table, nursing chair and ottoman, and a storage cabinet that we didn't have before. Much of it was an early birthday present to Dagmar from Thomas' parents, which is very deeply appreciated! We still have some assembling, rearranging, and freecycling to do, but hopefully I'll have pics in the not-too-distant future. Until then, I'm off to go see Kung Fu Panda.

One year and one week ago, Thomas and I had our fake wedding. I say fake because we were already married, but we had a ceremony nonetheless, and I'm pretty sure that most of the guests weren't aware that we were already married. Anyway, I suppose that a week ago was an anniversary of some sort, though we didn't celebrate it at all.

I just reread my post from last year about the fake wedding. It's true; we were able to laugh about the ridiculousness of the wedding at the time. There are certainly worse things than laughing during your ceremony. There's a lot of stuff left out of that account, though.But wait! There's more!

A couple weeks ago, Thomas and I went into a store that sells baby junk. There is a whole lotta baby junk that we don't need, and we had a little bit of fun scoffing at the insane prices on insane items that do insanely stupid things. Then I found their collection of diaper bags. Hmm. I actually do need one of those, I thought. So I looked. Here is where everything went wrong.But wait! There's more!

Some people have complained about the angle and quality of these pics, and I just want to say it's not very easy to do this by yourself, so you'll have to deal with what you get. :P This was taken today, just a few minutes ago. It is clear that Dagmar is more cramped than she has been, but she's still moving a lot, and is still quite forceful about it.

In other news, our Independence Day Grill Out was a success, despite being on the 5th of July. I had a lot of fun and met some Americans I hadn't met before, and ate good food. What more could you ask for? I did a little experiment since we have a ton of frozen cranberries and I didn't know what to do with them. After I made my delicious fresh-squeezed lemonade, I put some cranberries in, just floating in it. I wasn't sure it would change the flavor at all, but I thought at the very least it would keep the lemonade cool a bit longer since the cranberries were frozen. As it happens, the lemonade started to turn pinkish, and did take on a bit of cranberry flavor. It was quite popular, I must say. I'll be doing that again! Mmmm.

Belly pic, taken today, 30 weeks. Feel free to compare to 2.5 weeks ago.

Belly pic, taken June 8th, 27 weeks and 4 days.

Wednesday morning started out like any other day. I got out of bed and prepared for my day. I had some cheese toast for a light breakfast.

Wednesdays are Danish Conversation Group days, which are kind of a mixed bag. Sometimes it is helpful and fun, and sometimes it is painful to go. I took the S-train to Hellerup for the meeting, and was glad to see a couple of women there I hadn't seen before. Sure enough, they had come with ideas for a great meeting. One had a children's book about travelling to Skåne, and we read through it together, learning both about Danish and about Skåne. And about how whoever translated the book from Swedish to Danish was a bit sloppy, as there were still some jags and ochs in there, but we got through it. The verdict this time: Helpful and fun. We meet at a café, and during our time there I had some orange juice and a couple croissants. I do love croissants.But wait! There's more!

A white one. July 11th.

And in other news, I made another purchase for Dagmar. Namely, some awesome used-but-pristine cloth diapers (Fuzzi Buns and Imse Vimse). I feel slightly more prepared for her arrival.

We had our fourth and final ultrasound today, so all the pre-birth pictures you will ever get of Dagmar are up on this site. You may recall the crappy experience we had with ultrasound #2, and I must say #3 and 4 were amazing and wonderful. Anyone in Denmark who is thinking about doing a 3D ultrasound… Scanningsklinniken is amazing.But wait! There's more!

Yesterday morning, we had our 4D ultrasound, and there is no doubt about it now. It's a girl.

Now, it's no surprise, really, that the future grandparents were excited to get in on the fun and buy some stuff for us. Shortly after we told both sets of our parents, my mother sent us some stuff she had bought:But wait! There's more!

So the big ultrasound is tomorrow. Here are the facts.

We were trying for a girl.

Both my mother and my mother-in-law indepedently came to the conclusion, via intuition, that it's a boy.

Thomas and I have been saying "he" when referring to the baby.

I was totally convinced it was a boy until recently when I dreamed it was a girl. Now I don't know.

So what will it be? Boy, girl, or "sorry ma'am, but we just can't get a good look"?

I've been having some problems with RapidWeaver publishing my blog correctly (hey, it is an alpha), but I think I have it fixed now. Additionally, the sidebar is now done dynamically, so pages have a php extension instead of html. It's unlikely that any of you are linking to any of my entries, but if you are, you will need to update the link to have a php extension.

31 March was our first anniversary. I am still madly in love with my husband.
1 April was Tycho's fourth birthday. I don't think he noticed.
7 April will be the "big" ultrasound. Expect a picture and hopefully an announcement of the baby's sex.
11 April begins our weekend in Berlin to belatedly celebrate our anniversary. If you've been to Berlin and have any tips or suggestions, feel free.But wait! There's more!

From a fellow housewife:
I love my husband because

1. he's cute (and has a cute accent )
2. he's funny

But wait! There's more!

I am officially a resident of Denmark, complete with a CPR number and a special sticker in my passport.

Ever New Year's in Denmark, the queen gives a speech at 5:30. So any decent New Year's party has to begin in time for everyone to be seated with a drink in hand before the speech. Martin's party was no different.

I understood slightly more of this year's speech than last year's, but I was still basically lost. I did notice when the queen accidently said 2006 instead of 2007. After the speech, the cameras show you several men in bearskin hats and fancy uniforms as they march around and do things with swords. One guy walked over to a flag (a Danish flag with the queen's monogram on it), tied a cord around it, spent some time making sure the monogram was nice and visible, and then moved it a few yards. After that, all the bearskin guys marched into a building and the doors were shut behind them. At this point, we had a toast.But wait! There's more!

My iBook was in the shop, and I don't have my RapidWeaver site saved on the iMac. Nihal just needed a new AirPort card, but it's one of those models where it's not accessibly under the keyboard. Fortunately, my AppleCare is still good through September 2008, so it didn't cost me anything except the aggrevation of not having a laptop and not being able to blog.

So, I'll try to sum up my December in a single post. Here goes.But wait! There's more!

I invited members of Copenhagen American Expat Meetup Group into my home for a traditional(ish) Thanksgiving dinner. It was the first time I'd met half of the people who showed up, and it was also the first time I'd hosted Thanksgiving, first time I'd roasted turkey, made stuffing, made cranberry sauce, or made any kind of food for eight people, and this was our first time having houseguests in our condo.

Though one turkey leg did not get fully cooked, though I had the oven set to the wrong temperature, though I completely forgot about the rolls until well into the evening, I definitely call it a success. My stuffing and cranberry sauce were, if I do say so myself, excellent. The other four turkey legs were fully cooked, juicy, and more than enough meat for everyone. Diana brought green beans and Brussels sprouts. Ken brought sushi, and his wife brought an Irish dessert (called "trifle" or something?). All wonderful.

More importantly though, was it was fun! I loved cooking all the food, and I loved eating it with such great company. Tycho enjoyed many extra doses of being doted on as well.

Our bedroom is all black and white. I wanted some art for the walls that would be in black and white, complement our duvet cover, without being quite so busy. I was not having any luck finding what I wanted, but I had a flash of brilliance. We bought some RIBBA picture frames at IKEA, and I used my favorite font, Bodoni Ornaments (the very same one I used for many of the graphic on this site) to make my very own art. All I had to do was pick various font sizes and position them so they fit in the right amount of space. It was quite easy, and I'm very happy with the results! Hopefully I will be posting pictures of them on the walls soon.

I've added a page about our Tetris floor, which is now mostly down.

Tetris floor is on hold. We didn't get the tiles yesterday as planned, because one color was out of stock. The tiles should now arrive next Friday. We also learned that it's highly advisable to allow the tiles to sit for a few days in the apartment, and adjust to regular, non-warehouse temperatures before laying them down. So it looks like it could be two weekends away before we get to laying them down.But wait! There's more!

After attending just one meeting, I've become the organizer for The København Expat American Meetup Group. (København, which is pronounced sort of like curb-en-HOWN, is the Danish word for Copenhagen.) I managed to attend a meeting of LINK without becoming organizer, but it was a lot of fun anyway. (Currently, that link takes you to a page saying they are redesigning their site, and I just want to say "hallelujah!" about that. Maybe I won't be forced to volunteer for that after all.)But wait! There's more!

Thomas and Peter got a 10* on their presentation yesterday, and their schoolwork is officially complete forever. (*If you're unfamiliar with the truly bizarre grading scale of Danish education, Århus University has a nice explanation.)

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. The postal service here is amazing! We ordered a pair of shoes online yesterday afternoon and they got here about an hour ago. High praises not just to the post office but to Alun for getting the order shipped out so promptly as well. When T gets home, he'll get to try out his new Vibram FiveFingers and I'll report on the experience. They certainly look neat.

I made another pair of barefoot sandals today. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the beads when I bought them, or actually until a few minutes after starting the first sandal. After I decided what to do, I wasn't sure it would work. Fortunately it did, and I know I'm biased but I think they're really great. I made them really long so I wrap them around my ankle an extra time.

I spent 104 kroner to get these beads, which is about $19. The first pair was about 90 kroner, including the elastic and needles, which I used again for these, and I have enough beads leftover to make a matching bracelet or necklace. This is including the 25% VAT. I've seen barefoot sandals in the US online starting at about $17 (94 kroner) before tax! Granted, I did get a steal on those red glass beads. They were originally 39 kroner for two square, and 49 for two rectangular. They were marked down to 11 and 14.

Tomorrow, Thomas and his project partner, Peter, give their presentation on their final project. Assuming a passing grade, this will be their final act before being conferred their degrees from DTU. Were I a Muslim, I'd be shouting alhamdulillah tomorrow afternoon. I'm not, so instead I think we'll imbibe alcoholic beverages to celebrate.

This project, which was originally intended to be completed last summer, and then last December, and then this April, has contributed to pushing back our wedding date, delaying my expatriation, and most recently, stealing my husband away for evenings and weekends. Today, once again, Thomas is meeting with Peter directly after work.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really excited about it for what it is. Thomas is getting a kandidat degree, which is the Danish equivalent to a master's, and that's a fantastic thing. But, this is my blog, and I'm allowed to be selfish and say I'm really thrilled to get my husband after work and on weekends. And when he and Peter want to hang out, it might not necessarily be where Peter's desktop computer with all the data for the project is.

With T not coming home for dinner, it's harder to motivate myself to do something interesting in the kitchen.

I made a pair of barefoot sandals today. Using this tutorial as a basic guide, it took about an hour to make the set. I really like how it turned out! My long beads are not as long as the ones on the tutorial, so I used some extra beads (basically small round - large round - small round in most of the places where she used just a pony bead). In the pic, you can kinda see how deformed my pinky toe is, as a result of traditionally-shaped girls' shoes I was forced to wear to church growing up.

P.S. Tycho didn't want to be left out of the pictures. He's doing great on raw too!

Hyldeblomst means elderflower. Now you know.

Lidja doesn't like eating out of the bowl anymore, so she drags her food to the floor. I tried putting it on a plate, but you can see how well that worked out. She's now breaking apart large chunks of meat on her own, ungravied and unoiled! I'm really excited.

Last night, I made this delicious couscous dish for me and Thomas.

I am limited in the number of vegetables I can convince Thomas to eat, but he really liked this dish, and I think the next time I make it I can make it even better. What I did is heat up the chicken in a skillet, spicing it with garlic, oregano, and black pepper. Then I added the peas, corn, tomatos, and broth. When the broth was boiling, I stirred in the couscous, removed from heat, and covered. Ten minutes later, plop on a couple plates, add peanuts and paprika to the top. It's really quick and easy. T said he's usually not a fan of peanuts, but he was surprised how well it worked with the meal. To drink, we had hyldeblomst juice. I don't know what hyldeblomst is in English, except it's a flower. Hylde means shelf, and I don't know of anything called a shelf flower. I'll have to look that up later. But the juice is yummy.

Update: The model of washing machine that we have is also sold in the UK, and I was able to download a PDF of the English-language manual. The numbers refer to the RPMs of the spin cycle. Apparently I have the option of reducing the RPMs if I so desire, though there is no indication of why I may desire it. The maximum RPM is reduced when you choose gentle cycle or hand wash (yes, there's a hand wash setting on my washing machine) so it's unclear to me why I'd override that with an even lower setting. But I can, if I figure that out. It's also a dryer, so that explains a few of the controls too.

The thing about living in another country is that you can't take anything for granted anymore. I'll give a simple example. A couple of nights ago, Thomas and I went with Martin and Cille to have dinner with Stig and his family. You probably don't realize how many things you take for granted in a simple activity like dinner until you do it in another country where you don't speak much (or any) of the language. Several plates were passed around which had various vegetables on them. By watching everyone else, I concluded that I should make a salad using some of what was on every plate. I'd never been given a salad split up on so many plates before. Then I looked on the table for salad dressing, and found none.But wait! There's more!

I always thought that laundry was pretty simple. I've done a lot of laundry before, and it was never that complicated. Put clothes in the washer, press a couple buttons, e.g. "large" and "cold/cold." There might even be a dial to select how dirty your clothes are, or specify regular, permanent press, or gentle cycle, if it's a fancy washing machine.

I'm not sure that knowing Danish would help me figure out our washing machine. It has nine buttons, 23 red lights, one green light, a digital display, and a dial with 24 options. I used a dictionary to figure out most of the words I didn't know, but it didn't really help. I still don't know why I need to pick a number between 400 and 1600 and what that has to do with my laundry. I still don't know which of the three compartments to put the detergent in. I tried it anyway. We'll see what happens to my towels.

FYI, all previous entries are timestamped for Central (U.S.) time. Starting with this one, they are timestamped for Central European Time. That's seven hours ahead of most of my current readership. Lest you think I was posting from the future.

We got in at around 7pm and took an expensive taxi ride to Herlev. We had too much luggage to deal with the train, esp. as it would have involved transfers, so I think it was worth it. I wanted to see the condo, check out the neighborhood, etc. and I thought it would be a great idea to drop our bags off, and then take the train to Nivå with just one bag of "overnight" stuff. As the condo has no furniture, food, toiletries, etc. we are staying at T's parents' place in Nivå until we get the essentials up and running in Herlev.But wait! There's more!

My wedding was definitely an experience, and although it ended up being enjoyable, I definitely never want to have another one.But wait! There's more!

Today is an important day, because Thomas is arriving. People have been asking me, "how's married life?" I've been able to reply, "pretty much the same," until recently. After all, we were still living in different countries and our lives hadn't really changed. But now, living in Florida, with my parents, I don't think I've felt less married in a very long time. Long before I was actually married. In addition, Thomas has been working, and I've been drug to all ends of town for wedding prep junk, and we've hardly been able to even talk online.

Tonight it ends. He'll be here and I can feel at least a little married again.

We gave up on finding a place to rent in Denmark, and decided to look for a place to buy. After talking to the bank, it took less than a week to find a place, and the current owner has finally accepted our offer. Now we just have to close and move in is the first! I'm finally joining the adult world.

Look at the chart accompanying this article, and ask yourself, "where is Lorry moving?" Maybe this will help people answer the oft-posed (to me, anyway) question of "what's different in Denmark?"But wait! There's more!

I just made a major update to my sale page. Please check it out and look for things to buy or take for free! I'm leaving in about a month so I need it to go quickly. Thank you!

The hubby got a good job in the greater Copenhagen area. I put in my notice at work.
FAQ

What about that discount you were gonna get me at work?

Anyone who wants to take advantage of my friends and family discount at work has about a month and a half to put their orders in.

What about all your stuff?

Anyone who wants free/cheap furniture, 110-volt appliances, region 1 DVDs, NTSC VHS tapes, and other miscellany that isn't worth moving should let me know ASAP. Whatever's left in about a month will be donated to charity.

What about your cats?

I'm paying a lot of money to have them transported to Denmark by a professional pet transport company.

Do you have a job lined up too?

No. I'll have to get residency first. The man doesn't mind playing sugar daddy for a few months.

Will you have a going away Mill/Friday's?

Yes, both. More to come.

Should I buy you things to congratulate you?

I'd rather you buy the things I already have, so I don't have to move them. If you insist on a present, see our wedding registry. They'll ship us things when it's convenient so it works out a lot better.