It's great to be home again (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Sssh! I'm quietly typing this on my iPhone, while Marli is asleep next to me :)

Yesterday Marli was dismissed from the hospital and we were allowed to go home. Of course I was the stereotypical, wishy-washy father so at first I forgot the parking slip, then I forgot my wallet and then I didn't have any cash for the hostess' bill. All in all it took an hour just to get out of there :D

Around two we were greeted by our temp homecare nurse Anouk, from Partula. Anouk got down to business right away and was a bit of a whirlwind about the house. While I was away doing some much needed shopping with my mom, Anouk helped Marli with the feeding and bathing of our daughter, meanwhile dispensing huge amounts of useful information. It was a bit too much to take in, but since Anouk's a loudish and cheery woman it was fun nonetheless. :)

Tonight went better thAn expected. Where the nights in the hospital were irregular, iratic and filled with crying, tonight had a steady rhytm to it! *glee* This rhytm feels good and allows us three hour periods pfsleep between one hour blocks of baby-maintenance. All in all I reckon I'll be able to get five to six hours of sleep on working days. I guess I'll manage that for a while.

Now... It's time for breakfast! >3

Posted in: awesome , baby , bed , home , sleep

Baby stuff's been delivered (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

About a month ago we went shopping for the first load of baby stuff. The things that we ordered then came in today. Joy oh joy, everything's in order and there are no defects to be found :)

The Mutsy 4-Rider stroller we ordered is as good as I remembered it to be and the cot was easy enough to assemble. We're now stuck with three big boxes of garbage, but those'll luckily be picked up on Friday.

So... We'll need to make a bit of a list to decide what's left...

* A bath, plus the required odds and sods.
* A shelf or two to put on the wall.
* Diapers, both cotton and single-use.
* More clothes.
* ...

Oh my... We're not nearly done yet :D

Posted in: baby , bed , cot , mutsy , stroller

Shopping for baby-stuff (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Our little girl's expected to "arrive" at the end of September, so time is of the essence here. We only have three months left to get everything in order, which at times can become a little panic-inducing.

Yesterday we went on our first shopping trip, to order things that will take a lot of time in arriving. We headed over to Baby Dump (yes, it's a truly odd name if you think about it) who're very close by, in Utrecht. To get our bearings we made our rounds through the store, not focussing on anything in particular. Funnily enough I immediately stumbled upon a cot that would be ideal for us and Marli agreed. So that's one down!

The cot is part of a rather beautiful bedroom set, called Turijn. Matte white, mixed with mahogany accents and silver handles. Were it not for the silver handles, it would fit perfectly in with the rest of our deco :) Anywho, the whole set costs a whopping 1100 euros (down from 1600 on a sale! WTF!) and we refuse to get the whole set. For starters, we'll be getting a comode for free, since it's the old one that Marli and her brother were changed on 28 years ago. Aside from that we also refuse to pay close to 500 euros for a cabinet, which can be had at Ikea for a fifth of the price!

Now, I mentioned "panic-inducing" before didn't I? The sheer amount of prams, pushseats and carseats is exactly what did Marli in. I have to admit that it all looked quite confusing and none of them looked the same. How on earth would we find the right one?! Well, it turns out that each row actually consisted of only one specific model, with different cots on them ^_^ That takes care of the confusion!

Given Marli's height we immediately settled on a pram by Mutsy, since their handlebars are very easily extendable and they reach to the proper height. In the end we went for a 4-Rider, which in my eyes is a marvelous piece of technology. These days a tech-geek won't have to be bored in a baby shop! There's so much cool stuff in there and it's almost unbelievable how much things have changed in the past twenty years! :)

Anywho... We ordered the cot and Mutsy and they'll arrive in a week or four. In a few weeks my mother will be visiting the Netherlands again and we'd love to take her on another shopping trip! I gather that she's looking forward to that very much and I would really appreciate her input ^_^ I also can't wait to show the Mutsy to her, so can tell if our judgement was alright.

Posted in: baby , bed , cot , mutsy , pram

Gave up finding a king sized bed (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

It sucks. I can never find the kind I want, and some of the ones that fit my bill are so expensive, it's silly. So, I have designed my own bed frame. I figured, half my Swedish relatives make their own stuff all the time, it's time I returned to my boat and cabinet making heritage.

I decided to tackle this project from the outside in. I didn't want to design a bed frame that emulated every other frame I found. I thought about my issues with king bed frames and what I thought would be an idea situation with materials that are strong and look nice, yet cheap.

The first issue is that most bed frames have several wekanesses. First, the strain on most bed frames occur at the joint between the bed rails and where they meet the headboard/footboard. If I made a bed frame, I would make sure that either that joint is rock solid or the stress of the bed is reduced at those points. The most common idea is just to make everything bigger and stronger. I went another route: I took out the bed rail altogether. In fact, while I have never personally heard of a bed collapsing down the middle, I have often wondered why you don't because most king bed frames only have a thin support in the middle. The second issue is that when you move, disassembling a bed frame and moving it around is a pain. The bed rails are long and don't turn corners down hallways very well. There's also a lot of assmbling that requires two people or more. gypsy_sylvan knows what I am talking about.

I solved a lot of these problems be rethinking the purpose of the bed frame. It really on exists for two reasons: to support the mattress set and to look nice. So why have a huge grid with long rails. Why not have four mini-frames that connect to make one big frame in a 2 x 2 grid?

- Very sturdy.
- This saves me from finding long rails which are prone to warp anyway. This also separated the frame from the headboard and footboard, so I can build this first, and the hb/fb later. I can also make the hb/fb replaceable without having to buy a whole new frame.
- Assembly of the frame (after building) would require 4 wing nuts, and one person could do it: just bump the boxes together, and bolt it secure with wing nuts. No ratchet set, no screwdriver beyond the first build.
- When I break down and move the bed, it makes it easier to carry smaller frames by hand, through doorways, and stack them in an SUV.

I am going to build a prototype out of Legos sometime in the next few weeks, after I unpack them from my den move. I forgot which one of you suggested that, but it's a good idea whomever you are. Posted in: bed , king

secrets and beds (Never melts (meef)) by jen

I've been backdating my posts and writing them in the future, you know. You think I remember what date half this stuff happened? Who knows what I forgot, too. Last night we were in bed talking about how old our laptops were (yes, we are that dorky) when T said "you bought your powerbook in 99" and I just stared at him.. "how do you remember the YEAR?" and he said "well you were working for cli Posted in: bed , kids

secrets and beds (Never melts (meef)) by jen

I've been backdating my posts and writing them in the future, you know. You think I remember what date half this stuff happened? Who knows what I forgot, too. Last night we were in bed talking about how old our laptops were (yes, we are that dorky) when T said "you bought your powerbook in 99" and I just stared at him.. "how do you remember the YEAR?" and he said "well you were working for cli Posted in: bed , kids