Welcome to the World, Valdemar!

My son Valdemar, 20 days old

On 3 August 2009, Nitoli gave birth to our first, beautiful child Valdemar. We have now had him for over 1 year and needless to say every day is a joy as we see him learn, progress and develop.

But Valdemar did not have a very easy start to life: He was born with a life-threatening infection, which was discovered a few hours after he had been given to us. We can only be thankful that the great doctors at Fortis la Femme hospital caught the problem so early, or we probably wouldn't have had Valdemar with us today.

Valdemar was placed in a neo-natal intensive care unit, where he spent the first week of his life without even experiencing his mother's touch.

It was a difficult time for us, but only made the joy so much greater when we finally got to take him home on 10 August. He continued to receive daily injections for some time after that, but he recovered completely with absolutely no permanent damage.

This blog is supposed to be interesting to read even for people outside my immediate family, so it is not going to become a blog with endless baby pictures. But I do reserve the right to return with at least one more post just about Valdemar, with pictures from his entire lifespan so far. I hope that is okay :)

Nitoli in the car on the way to the hospital to give birth

In the delivery room, waiting for the doctors

A new life: First picture ever taken of Valdemar - apart from sonograms, of course

Valdemar, 3 hours old

Our little family, shortly before Valdemar was taken away from us for a full week
  A happy reunion - finally back in Mommy's arms

Me and Valdemar in the hospital lobby waiting for the car to take us home

Completely oblivious to the fact that his ordeal is over and its time to go home for the first time