Weihnachten in Deutschland (Christmas in Germany)

Christmas in Germany is quite different from that in Sydney. For a start, there's the obvious difference - it's Winter here, so we are much more likely to have a white Christmas (although it's looking only 50/50 at the moment). In addition, there are a large number of Christmas traditions here that are quite novel to us. Despite the fact that many of the traditions are more Christian than secular (santa has a much lower profile over here), this reflects a deep history of Christianity rather than a broad commitment to Christ, and many of the traditions are carried out with no reference to Jesus - much like in Sydney. We've decided to follow as many of the traditions as possible so we can enhance our German experience.

Advent

This is the first difference. Although Advent is often written in our Australian diaries, we've never taken much notice of it, and only recently found out what it meant. We think some churches in Australia observe it, but it is definitely not built into the traditions and calendar of the country as a whole. For those who don't know, Advent means "coming". The four Sundays before Christmas are called 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Advent. These names are sometimes used to refer to these days without giving the normal date. For example, a movie can be advertised as "8:15pm on 1st Advent".

The idea of Advent is that we wait for the coming of Jesus - both looking backwards to his coming as a baby, and looking forward to his return in the future. All Christians should in this sense be Advent people - always looking forward to his coming and being prepared.

One tradition of Advent is the Adventkranz (Advent wreath). This is a wreath made of some evergreen plant with four candles in it. Each advent Sunday, another candle is lit. ie one is lit on 1st Advent, two are lit on 2nd Advent etc. The candle flames that grow brighter each week signify the coming of Jesus (in 1 John 8:12 Jesus says "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"), and are brightest just before Christmas, when he finally arrives. Here is a photo of us on 3rd Advent with our first ever Adventskranz.

Another Advent tradition here is the Adventskalendar (Advent Calendar). Each day from the 1st to 24th of December, you open a door in the calendar to reveal a little surprise (eg chocolate). We're not exactly sure how it fits with the Advent idea, but probably it is building expectation for receiving God's gift of Jesus. You may have seen or had these in Sydney, but they are not so common. In the picture you can see a HUGE adventskalendar with Christmas displays that look over the Christmas markets. Half the fun is trying to find today's number which is harder than it seems.

Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)

One really fun aspect of Christmas here is the Weihnachtsmarkt. Little wooden stalls are set up in the city centre, and sell christmas food, drink and craft. Here is a really nice photo of the markets just after some snow. You can see maybe 5 huts here. The complete markt is spread throughout the city centre, and would number close to 100 huts.

Here is Nathan drinking one of the many Christmas drinks. The common denominator in these drinks is that they are all hot. Some of the varieties include 1) Glühwein - a hot, spiced, sweet red wine. Quite nice. 2) Feurzangenbowle (flaming tongues of fire) - similar to Glühwein, except you light a rum soaked sugar cube over the drink so that flavoured caramalised sugar mixes into the drink. Novelty, but tastes OK. 3) Eierpunsch - mixture of raw eggs and some kind of strong alcohol. Too strong - could hardly finish it 4) Kinderpunsch (childrens punch) - hot spiced fruity drink so the children don't feel left out. Keeps you warm but otherwise not that exciting. The drinks are served in several kinds of interesting cups, which we have kept as souveniers (there is a deposit that you lose, though).

Here's Jo's mum at a stall selling chocolate coated fruit. These were a real hit with us - the fruit is really good quality, despite being hidden by the chocolate (the stalls must rely on repeat business), and who can argue with chocolate? In her hand is krappelchen - best way to describe what they look and taste like is sugar coated donut holes (but shaped like little pillows).

One of our good friends Vera is visiting us for Christmas and New Year, and caught the last two days of the markets. Here she is enjoying a chocolate coated pear.

Geschenke (presents).

Another difference here is when you receive Christmas gifts. There's at least three different times a child could expect to receive something. Before December, an Adventskalendar, which is actually 24 little presents in one. On the night before the 6th January (Nikolaustag - Saint Nicholas Day), you leave your shoes on the window sill, and Saint Nick puts presents in them overnight. On the 24th December - Weihnachten - usually after dinner, you open your Christmas presents. On the 25th December - Weihnachtstag - you don't get any presents. This year, we're going to open our presents on 24th. Though when you take into account the time zone difference, it will actually be the 25th in Sydney anyway.

Here is a picture of Owen's socks (He doesn't have any shoes yet!) on the window sill. The socks were made by a friend from our German classes we took in Sydney. They're green and gold so Owen can support the aussies in the soccer world cup!

Important German Word: -chen. Any word ending in chen means a small version of what preceeds it. For example:

1) Gummibärchen = little gummy bear. For those who are old enough to remember them, they came from Germany!
2) Ampelmannchen = little traffic light person (see post on 9th Sept, 2005).
3) Brotchen = little bread = bread roll.
4) Schlösschen = little castle

For all you out there with the surname Chen, be aware that when you introduce yourself to a German, they may have a quiet little chuckle when you introduce yourself as "little John", for example.

Ein Monat (one month)

Time has just flown by, and Owen is now one month old! Today we present to you a typical Owen cycle (illustrated), which usually lasts between 2.5 and 4 hours.

Here is Owen looking peaceful. If he manages to get to sleep (around half the times he is supposed to), he sleeps quite soundly.

When he just wakes up, he often looks a little puzzled, but that usually doesn't last long!

Pretty soon, the crying starts.


Here is one of our favourite looks - eager anticipation. Here Owen has woken up hungry, and has just been swaddled. His young mind has worked out that those two in combination are a sure sign that he will soon get fed.

After feeding (sorry, this is a G rated site!), Owen is usually in a good mood. Here he is sharing a secret wink with us. The nappy change is during or just after feeding (see previous post).

We try to have some kind of activity time after eating (according to one of the many theories we've been told, this is supposed to help with sleeping patterns). One activity is bath time. Here is Owen being dried after his Daddy gave him a bath. It was Daddy's first try at bathing, and was a little scary for all the males involved. How exactly does one keep a baby from falling under the water when he's wriggling around, and you've only got him by one hand because you're trying to wash him with the other???

Talking to Owen is supposed to help his speech (no, it's not too early - and this comes from a Paediatric Speech Pathologist). Here's a "what are you babbling on about?" look.

If we've got Owen on a good day, he'll bring out the charm and make us feel like we aren't making a total mess of this parent thing... with a SMILE!

Then, it's off to sleep, and the cycle starts again.

Wickeln (Changing nappies)

You might have noticed that the posts have slowed down over the past few weeks, and that your emails have gone unanswered. There's a good reason for that - we've been quite busy looking after Owen.

Here is a photo of Owen surrounded by nappies from a nappy tree present from his Uncle Richard and Aunty Michele. Windeln (nappies) are a recurring theme in our lives right now, along with stillen (breast feeding), weinen (crying) and if we are having a really good day, schlafen (sleeping). The present was very appropriate - with 59 nappies. We've almost used them up in just over a week. Yep, that's right, that's no typo. It's about 8 nappies A DAY!


Here is Nathan changing Owen's nappy. Owen is getting really good at being changed now. When it's time to take off his jump suit, a simple tug on the feet, and Owen bends his legs so that they come out of the suit. After that, he obligingly straightens his legs to make it easier to lift him out of his dirty nappy, clean his bottom and put the new nappy on.

For those who have not had the privilege of changing numerous nappies, the key performance indicators (KPI's) are:
Time between one nappy off and a new nappy on (2s). This must be kept low to minimise the chance of surprise (and uncontained) outflows.
Nappy location (waist). Too high, and Owen is uncomfortable, too low and he leaks (YUK!).
Time outside of jump suit (1.5 minutes): Longer and Owen gets too cold.
Maximum bum tilt (25 degrees): More than this increases the probability of spülen (vomit).

Er ist suß. Er ist zu niedlich! (He is sweet. He is so cute!)

Ok. Back to Owen. We know that you may not be so interested in our anecdotes of life here in Leipzig and would rather see some pics of our beautiful boy. This post is entirely of Owen Matthias. We think he is the cutest baby in the world!

First, a few shots of Owen by himself. He has had some newborn Acne, which has pretty much cleared up now.








And some shots of Owen with some of his family - Mum, Grandma, Dad.















And now, taking our cue from the sound of music, here are the Chang family dancers!

Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, nur die falsche Kleidung (There's no such thing as terrible weather - only the wrong clothing)

This is a German saying that Nathan thinks is quite cute. It's true, though, that good clothes make a huge difference to your experience of the German winter.

Actually, it's not officially winter yet, even though we've had our first snow. It came one morning while Jo and Owen were still at the hospital, though not enough to whiten the road. Since then we've had much more, and boy is it cold! Here are a couple of photos from just outside our apartment. The snow hasn't persisted, and right now it's melted away, though we have been getting a little bit more every few days.

For those who already live in these chilly northern hemisphere climates, yeah we know...we have been told that we haven't experienced "winter" yet. For those Aussies reading this, it IS cold! We've shown you some photos of Owen's Kinderwagen from the outside, now look what's inside! No wonder you can't see him under the thick outer capsule, sheepskin lining, blankets and warm clothes!

Finally, a photo of Owen in Johanna Park after his first visit to Church. Note the warm clothing of Nathan and Jo - thick heavy overcoats, scarf, beanie and gloves. Nathan recently bought some Winterschuhe (winter shoes), which are doing a good job on his feet, but his super duper Kathmandu windproof gloves don't stop his fingers from feeling like they're going to fall off!

Endlich nach Hause (Finally home)

Owen was disappointed that he had to stay in the hospital for one more day. He made up for it, however, when we came home on Monday at around lunch time. Here are some of the highlights of the past two days, with many firsts!

His first German clothing. The weather is quite cold now, as evidenced by snow, hail and frost on the car windows. Today (Tuesday) it was 0.5C in the morning. All the Australian clothes Owen had recieved as presents wouldn't cut it "on the outside", so to ensure Owen had a pleasant trip home, we bought some local warm clothes. Here's a photo of Owen dressed as a local. It's a little big for him, but it does the job. It's true that in the hospital he was wearing german clothes, but these were the standard hospital clothes, and not his own. This explains his strange fashion sense to those who commented on such things.



First time in an Autositz. The car trip home was uneventful. Owen was peaceful, since we fed him just before leaving, and didn't seem to mind the cold or the moving car. Here you can see him comfortably wrapped up and ready to go.

First time in own kinderbett. Owen has now tried out his kinderbett, several times in fact. He doesn't look happy here, but it's now one of his favourite places (when he's not feeding, of course!).

First ride in his kinderwagen. We visited the doctor and had to take a tram through the cold weather. You'll be pleased to know that the doctor was very pleased with Owen's progress, and didn't even bother to do a blood test for the jaundice since it had so obviously stabilised. Sorry you can't see Owen - he's hiding from the cold and wouldn't come out. Not too surprising - we would have stayed indoors ourselves if we could! The kinderwagen has a very bumpy ride over the cobblestones, despite the suspension, but Owen didn't seem to mind it at all.

First bath - that look is a look of surprise and wonder, as he experiences the strange sensation of floating in warm water - a little like back in the womb, perhaps? He really enjoyed his bath, though it was pretty cold when he came out!

First night at home - Finally, the expanded family is together at home. Jo and Owen have now introduced Nathan to the night time feeds, and the disruption to sleep it causes. It's bed time for the whole family if we are going to get through another one intact!

Zurück mit Mama (Back with mummy)

I’ve been having photo therapy in the "Kinder intensiv station" (children’s intensive care ward) for the last 2 days and nights. They had to go and get Mummy every time I was hungry and even had to wake her up in the night. It’s pretty exhausting sleeping under the lights, and I get dehydrated a fair bit. Fortunately the jaundice is going away, and I’m getting a lot more energy to drink mummy’s milk. Dad says that I’m sucking like a champion! Mum says "ouch!". My current problem is that I am so hungry that I gulp too quickly, and I get uncomfortable until I can burp. You saw a photo of me yesterday, here's another one with my daddy. You see all the wires coming out from me? They're to monitor my heart rate, oxygen levels and temperature. My dad is an engineer, and he really liked all the gadgets. There were machines all around me, and they kept going "ping"! Do you like my cute hat? It's a bit big for me, and it covers my eyes. Not very practical if you ask me.

This morning I got to move back to Mummy’s room so we can room in together. They brought in a special bed just for me that is different from the one I had before. This bed looks like an aquarium for babies where there are porthole windows that Mummy and Daddy can touch me through. It also has a special heater to keep me warm because I have to "fake sun bake" in the nuddy. Here’s a photo of me in my aquarium bed next to mummy. See the fake sun over my head? I've only ever seen it off - as my silly hat is covering my eyes. If you look really closely, you can see that I'm on my tummy. They said I need an all-round tan.

After a day of baking in mummy’s room, my blood test results were good, and tonight I’m allowed to stay in my normal bed. I’m so excited that I will be able to call my mum at any hour of the night, and she will be there within a few seconds! Tomorrow morning I’ve got to have another blood test (my poor feet have pin pricks all over them now!), and if that looks OK, then I’ll be allowed to go home and see my very own room.

Mummy and Daddy think I sleep the way they do. Here’s a photo of me and my dad sleeping on our backs. Can you tell who is who? Yes, I know, it's a dead giveaway. Daddy has slightly greener eyes.

Here’s a photo of me sleeping on my side. That's mum holding me, but she says she sleeps like that too!

BTW, this is my first post on this blog site. I’d like to thank my editors for fixing up my mistakes. I have been hearing a lot of German because all the nurses talk to me in German and so "Mein Englisch ist nicht so gut". That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Actually, I'm quite impressed with how well mummy and daddy can interperet my speech. They know my hungry cry, my need a change cry, my burp me cry and my tired cry. Well, I think they understand. Usually they do what I want, though sometimes they get the order wrong. I’d also like to thank my mom and dad - they really love me heaps, and without them I wouldn’t be the baby I am today. Thanks also to everyone who gave me a present. So far I have only tried on my little white beanie hat with a yellow duck on it. Was that from you Aunty Caro? It is sooo much better than the hospital bonnet with strings. That thing didn’t stay on right and kept twisting around. I was afraid I might strangle myself. Here’s a photo of me wearing my nice hat. You can see the other one in some of the previous posts. I'm not crying because I don't like the hat - I just need to burp. No mummy, that's not right! I said I'm hungry! Remember the signs? When my lips are vibrating and my tongue sticks out and my cry pierces the night.

Signed: Owen Matthias

Gelbe Haut (Yellow skin)

The last few days have been unexpectedly different. The Jaundice had persisted and gotten worse, so they decided he needed photo therapy (fake sun). We've been offered one explanation that people with darker skin tend to get jaundice more often in the colder climates because the sun levels are so much lower than the norm where our forefathers came from. The phototherapy helps break down the chemical causing the yellow skin so it can be removed from the body. It is certainly the case here that there is not much sun! Sunrise is at 7:30 and sunset at 4:30, and the sun is very low in the sky! Add to that that the weather has been dreadful (cold and raining), it must have contributed to making the situation worse than if we were in sunny Sydney!

The phototherapy is almost continuous, only stopping to feed him every few hours. It also takes a few days to stabilise the jaundice at acceptable levels. As a result, we have been very disappointed to have to stay at the hospital for at least 4 days longer AND we hardly get to hold and play with Owen. During the therapy he mostly just lies there sleeping. When he's feeding, it's not the same either, as he has various sensors and a drip attached and we have to be careful not to pull anything out. We've found a cultural annoyance during all of this - the German doctors don't actually tell you what is happening unless you ask them. We've often had blood tests, and waited forever for the results and explanations of what is happening. It's only several hours later when we've fretted away and hunt down the doctor and ask them that they tell us what they are doing. Now that we know how it works, it's alot better. We chase the doctor when we know the results are ready and get updates straight away.

We are thankful, however, that this is a short term treatable condition with no long term consequences (for the medicos out there, there are no blood incompatibilities, etc). We'll just have to put up with the inconvenience for a few days longer. One benefit has been that it is easier for Jo to get sleep, so she's been trying to store up some for the coming weeks.

Here is a photo of Owen sunbaking. Notice that they have opened his nappy to give him a VERY even tan.

The lastest good news is that he has been feeding really well now, and the jaundice is (slowly) going away. We are hoping to come home on Sunday.

Der zweiter Tag (The second day)

We’ve had a tiring few days, as Owen hasn’t been feeding so well. As a result (or is it the cause?), he has some Jaundice, and the doctors and nurses have been a little concerned. Apparently this is reasonably common, however it was all a bit stressful because the language barrier made it difficult to know what they wanted us to do. To add to the difficulties, the nurses are quite disorganized, and whenever there is a change of shift, they don’t seem to tell each other which instructions we have been given. As a result, we get told to do a different thing every 8 hours! The Jaundice means that he likes to sleep a lot, which means he’s been very peaceful.

Most of the instructions (eg feed every 2.5 hours) have been quite demanding, especially on Jo. As a result, she is particularly tired. The nights are the worst, because Nathan isn’t around to help out. Jo’s looking forward to going home so we can share the load more easily.

Fortunately, we have our English speaking midwife, the one who was at the birth. She knows the German system of doing things, and has been able to help us understand what we are being asked to do. She has also been able to act as an advocate for us in ensuring we can take actions consistent with how we want to do things and in a way that is manageable.

Owen is getting better, and we hope to go home tomorrow. He’s filling out a bit, though his fingers are still a little wrinkled. We’ve noticed that he likes to sleep like Nathan –with his hands above his head. Here’s a photo.

We’ve also had a visit from Fu and Bood at the end of their European holiday. Here’s a picture of them holding the baby – they are quite privileged – the first Australian friends to see Owen in person!

Food – Jo has rejoiced in being finally able to eat some of the forbidden foods. Today she had some Sushi. She said that it’s been so long since she’s eaten it - even if it was terrible sushi, she wouldn’t have been able to tell. She’s also eaten some camembert, black forest schinken (cured ham) and salami. Once she gets home, she’ll be having some Bratwurst, and a celebratory champagne.

Der erste Tag (The first day)

One day has now gone past. So far Owen has mostly slept. He woke up two times during the night, and had a few nappy changes. Nathan is proud to have successfully changed his first nappy but wasn’t able to catch the pee that projectiled towards him while he was reaching for the nappy wipes (recorded on video).

We’ve both enjoyed just holding Owen, though he is REALLY heavy. He must have spent the extra week inside packing on the pounds. He hasn’t cried that much, except when Nathan was trying to change his nappy. Here is a photo of him crying.

The nurses are obsessed with keeping the babies warm. The first night, the kept telling us off because "seine Nase ist kalt" (his nose is cold). He was wearing the standard hospital issue clothing and blanket, but they wanted us to hold him to our chest and wrap him in a big pillow as well. When he’s put to sleep, the big pillow is like a little doona. Here are a couple of photos demonstrating the methods.

It probably makes sense to take these precautions in a country with such cold winters. When a German asks "how cold does it get in Australia?", and we answer "maybe 10 degrees", they then ask "plus or minus 10?" The fact that they know Australia is a warm place, and they still need to ask that question gives you an idea of how cold it could get over here. The night before the birth, it was +3 degrees outside... and it's only November!

Useful German vocabulary for looking after a baby:

Stillen (Breast feed)
Saugen (Sucking)
Warum weinst du? (Why are you crying?)
Hugrig (hungry)
Müde (Tired)
Windel (Nappy)
Wickeln (change a nappy)
Wer ist der nette kleine Junge? (Who’s a cute little boy, then?)
Stuhl (Poo... or Chair!!)
Urin (Wee)
Spucken (vomit)
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine Blätter (German kids song)