Vincent Antonio's Grand Entrance!

Our baby boy, Vincent Antonio, was born last Monday, April 20 at 16.49 at "Keruen-Medicus" maternity clinic in Almaty. He weighed 3700 gr and is 55 cm long.

Our delivery story is short -- the whole delivery took less then 2,5 hours.

As I wrote before, I was laid at to the maternity clinic for observation on Monday, the 20Th of April. We arrived to the clinic and I didn't know what to expect and how long I would stay there.

My husband R and I speculated that our baby wanted to be born under the Taurus sign since it was the last day of the Aries. At the mid-day we were sure there were no chance to be born the same day.

The nurse checked me at 14.30 and at the same moment waters had broken .Almost immediately I went into labor with a lot of pain, contractions were strong and came every second minute. R arrived and helped me with massage, I tried to remember the breathe technique and it helped a lot in the beginning. After one hour of unbearable pain, shaking knees and sweating I called for epidural. I was told that labor usually takes between 12 and 18 hours for first-time mom. Just thinking about pain for another 10 or more hours was impossible. I got epidural and had to wait for another 20 minutes until there were no pain. Not long after it was time to push. I couldn't believe it. After another 20 minutes our baby was born. The whole delivery took 2 hours and 20 minutes. Vincent made a fast entrance into this world under the Aries sign. It was amazing and unrealistic to feel his body at my stomach. R helped to cut the birth cord.The clinic staff were surprised that everything went so smooth without even tearing. Who said that a 29-year old women is too old to be a first-time mom?

Too old, too tall

40 weeks and 4 days today. Yesterday I went to the clinic for a check control. Three doctors checked me up and concluded that there are two major reasons for my post-term pregnancy:
1.I'm too tall. So my hormone balance is somewhat out of balance.
2. I'm too old or rather old (29 years) to give birth for the first time

Both arguments are ridiculous since we know how many tall and much "older" women got their babies without any problems.

Anyhow I was told to grab my delivery bags and come to the maternity clinic on Monday for examinations and observations if not delivery itself. Usually women stay in the clinic 4-5 days after the delivery. Probably I won't be able update my blog in a week or so, but I'll be back!

Almaty is in the top of 50 most expensive cities

A bit old news, but i thought it would be interesting for you to know.
Mercer Human Resources Consulting included Almaty in top of 50 most expensive cities worldwide. Even if Almaty has jumped from 30th place in 2007 to 44th in 2008, it's still more expensive than Toronto, Los Angeles or Hamburg.

Stockholm as not far away and occupies 31st place in 2008 (23d in 2007).Moscow is still the most expensive city for expatriates; Asunción in Paraguay is the cheapest.

I wasn't surprised about Almaty. Some things are really costly here, especially when it comes to foreign and luxury products and services.

Here you can see an advertisement for such food items as yogurt, milk, cheese, juices, sausages made in EU. "The best from Europe"-- magic words! All things made in EU are per se better in post-soviet eyes. In addition to all preservatives with triple E-numbers, you pay three times more than for local, to me much tastier food.

One rainy day

Some pics from chilly and rainy Almaty... Spring is beautiful in any weather...

Expected date of birth yesterday and no baby yet...

My delivery date passed yesterday. Now it's the final countdown backwards.I know that a normal pregnancy is 38-42 weeks and only 5 % of babies are born on their exact date of delivery. As a saying goes: "when the apple's ripe, it will fall". But it's hard to pass the date imprinted in your head and calender.

My husband once was kidding that Peruvian babies need more time to get color in the oven )) Let's see when it's ready...

Happy Easter! Glad Påsk!

Happy Easter to everybody! Easter is celebrated in Kazakhstan by many Christians living in the country. Did you know that Kazakhstan is populated by 120 ethnic groups? The largest are Kazakhs (68%) and Russians (21%).

Orthodox Easter falls on the 19th of April, but you can already buy traditional Easter bread called "Paskha" or "Kulich". Actually Paskha is very similar to Panettone, Christmas bread popular in Italy and in Latin America. Each time we come to Peru during Christmas holidays, we eat Panettone with hot chocolate, mums. I like baking, but baking Paskha is too time-consuming ritual. Instead I've picked up a tasty, easy and healthy "Poppy cake" recipe made without flour. Here we go:

Ingredients:

200 g poppy seeds (vallmofrön/зерна мака)

200 g walnuts

200 g sugar

6 eggs

1 tsp vanilla sugar

50 g breadcrumbs (ströbröd/панировач сухари)

1. Blend poppy seeds and walnuts ti fine crumbs in the food processor. Mix with the breadcrumbs.

2. Wisp egg yolks with sugar.

3.Wisp egg whites separately with vanilla sugar.

4. Stir 1-2-3 (crumbs, egg yolks and egg whites)gently until blended . The mixture should be fluffy.

5. Put in the round form 26 sm. Bake for 25-30 minutes in the oven preheated to 200 C.

Enjoy! The cake baked yeasterday is already gone))))

Baby names-2: Top-10 in KZ

Baby names is the topic of the day. In the latest issue of a local magazine"My child" I found top-ten baby names in Kazakhstan.

Kazakh female: Aruzjan, Tomiris, Zere, Aulim, Ajazjan, Aidana, Aiim, Aisulu, Simbat, Amina.

Russian female: Alina, Maria, Arina, Milena, Polina, Evelina, Diana, Anastasia, Kseniya, Darya.

Kazakh male: Meirzjan, Miras, Sanzjar, Il'yas, Tamerlan, Alisher, Alihan, Ramazan, Askar, Abilai

Russian male: Egor, Il'ya, David, Nikita, Daniil, Daniel, Maksim, Yaroslav, Emil, Dmitrii.

Baby names

A man goes to the Birth Registration Office to register his newborn son.
The man behind the counter asks the name he wants to give to the boy, and the father replies, “Euro.”
The man says that such a name is not acceptable, because it’s a currency.
The man says: “What? There weren’t any objections when I called my first two sons Mark and Frank.”

A friend of ours proposed a special name to our baby I have to share with you.

Nursultan Sven-Olof Dormidont Joaquin

It goes really well with our international background ))))

Black & White

Yesterday kazavida blog got a record number of hits 33. Usually it's not more that 10 hits per day. I don't know what can generate more interest, probably some of you want to know if a new member has arrived. I wish I knew too))

I still try to use my spare time effectively before the day D. After reading different books about newborn psychology and perception of colors I was inspired to make a "black&white mobile" (thing you hang over a baby bed). It has been a while I did smth similar but it was worth a try. On the last picture it's a cylinder filled with beans so it can also make some noise.

Why Black & White? The answer is simple, newborns can see only high-contrast black and white patterns. Large black and white colors present the highest possible contrast (100%) to the eye and thus captivate and hold baby's attention, encouraging visual development.

Let's see what our baby will say about it ))))

12 days left... I hope...

Many people are wondering if I'm still pregnant. Yes, I am, as you can see on the picture. Seriously, I don't know if my belly will keep on growing for another 12 days. It's already on the edge of explosion. I can't really complain, all pregnancy period have been pure joy for me.


Some people are wondering how I spend all free days in Kazakhstan. As my friend said, it's great we have nine months to realize and get ready for parenthood. Just reading books how to take care of a newborn is time-consuming. Internet is still the worst time-killer for me so I force myself to go out for long walks. Training yoga is good both for body and soul

and I try to do it every day.

Few weeks ago I got obsessed with the idea to play piano after 15-year break (since I graduated from the music school). What a pregnant women wants... she gets. I've chosen keyboard, sounds and feels almost like piano plus hundreds of other functions, instruments sounds and possibility to create own music.