September 2017

69 photos – Published on Dec 12, 2017

Waking up in a new bed. It’s not long now until our daughter will be born. This close to the birth date, we wonder every day, what it will be like having a child. What will she look like? Will she be alright? How will we feel? Are we really ready for the responsibility? Our feelings are a mixture of anticipation, nervousness, curiosity, excitement.

For medical reasons, the birth had to be a C-section, which meant that we knew the birth date in advance. This made the days prior quite predictable, and we enjoyed the mostly lovely late-summer days. We went for walks across the nearby fields and in the adjacent forest, went out for lunches and dinners, and got settled into our transitional apartment.

One last date night at our favourite Ramen restaurant

And then the day arrived. In the early morning we walked over to the hospital, which was only 10 minutes away by foot. Arriving there, the nurses went through all the preparations for the surgery with Nicole. Then we waited. Until we got picked up around 10am.

I sat right next to Nicole during the surgery. Then everything went very quickly.

At 10:37am our daughter Zoe was born. It was a great relief and an amazing feeling to hear her cry and see her for the very first time.

Nicole had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. And except for the nights, I spent my time there, too. With the newborn and frequent visitors it was never boring.

Handling her – carrying, dressing, changing diapers – was something I did with caution in the beginning, before easing into these tasks.

First selfie with Zoe. Yeah, rangefinders aren’t great at close focus.

Beforehand, we could never really picture having a child with us at home. And now it was reality.

At home, the first couple of weeks with her were sometimes challenging and mostly wonderful.

Our midwife came almost every day during the first couple of days.

Baby-watching was a favourite activity of mine.

The pizza delivery was our friend a couple of nights.

I went to the opening of the “100 years of Nikon”-exhibition at NRW-Forum

Now having a little baby girl, working from home took (and still takes) some adjustment and more discipline!

For a short while, these mushrooms appeared everywhere.

Can’t get enough of mirror self-portraits.

♥