The Good Girl, more pics Lente + video...

Hi all,


For more pictures of Lente please visit the following webalbum
Here we also uploaded the birth video (C-section!).. Only for the ones who are really interested to see that of course...

Lente is now 18 days old and doing great. At night she sleeps 4 or sometimes 5 hours untill the next feed which gives me time to get some good sleep. It is unbelievable, we are waiting for the day this will change (I hope not though)!! I used to wake up Femke at 10 in the evening for an extra feed before the hopefully long sleep in the night, but with Lente this is not needed at all... During the day she is more awake, but still sleeps 2 to 3 hours in one row.
My stiches were removed last week and I feel great. We have made long walks with Lente in the stroller and we've been to a big mall alltogether for shopping.
Femke is also very sweet to her sister, but for sure she show signs of jealousy and seeks more attention than ever from me and Arthur. My mother has been a great help and played a lot with Femke. Sadly she left this morning.
Femke is still going to the nursery from 8.30 till 3.30 3 days a week to keep her entertained, which gives us quiet time at home. And last Wednesday I started to visit the Play groups again at a friends house.


So far so good.

But now with my mother gone, we all need to find a new routine.
Luckily I don't have to worry about cleaning the house, or doing groceries (thanks to the delivery service of many shops). I just have to bring and take Femke from nursery, make a week schedule for cooking, and with Femke away most part of the day, I will try to nap once a day (which I did not do the last 2 weeks) and do some serious organizing of files and photo's.
Also the occasional social meeting with a friend can be planned.
6 weeks after the birth, so sometime end of June I also want to pick up sports again to get stronger and more fit.

We have very hot months ahead of us, in May already we had a few days of 40+ degrees!!
Next weekend we will start going to the beach again and stay at Stella di Mare Grand hotel.
Another thing we would like to do is go for a 1 hour walk in the evenings, after dinner.

Hello Lente Annabel Janse !

Our baby girl was born on Wednesday, 5 May, at around 3 pm in El Nada Hospital in Cairo.

She weighs 3,8 kilo and measured 51 cm.

Since Friday afternoon we are all home again. Meryem's mother is also here for 2 weeks.

'Lente' means 'Spring' in Dutch...

More photo's and stories soon...

Last preggie picture

I am now 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant and Arthur took yesterday evening the last picture with my big belly.. This afternoon we will go to the hospital for a c-section, my own choice no medical reasons. I am happy I waited this long, normally they plan a c-section 2 weeks before due date!

I had a good night sleep without any pain but with weird dreams, the delivery was postphoned maybe 4 times, very strange...it was one long waiting dream..

At nursery this morning I heard some sad news though, Femke's class teacher had a miscarriage 2 weeks ago while being 6 months pregnant... I think they didn't tell me in order not to upset me, but today I heard the news..Really sad for her, but at least she already has a daughter of 5, I guess that must be some comfort.

More news from the Janse family later today! I am happy it is almost over.

Comparing Izmir and Cairo

My feelings of dissatisfaction with living in Cairo got a bit more objective when I wrote down comparisons and differences of the 2 cities..
I felt I had to stop idealizing Izmir/Urla/Turkey and give our situation in Egypt a chance.

Interesting enough I found many similarities both in advantages as disadvantages.

Here we go:

What Cairo/Egypt and Izmir/Turkey have in common:
- Chaotic busy traffic
- Hot weather from May onwards
- Very few public parks or play areas for children
- Very few public swimming pools
- Ugly high rise, buildings, unfinished buildings, with no paint
- Arthur is home early (between 5 and 6)
- Beach resorts within travel distance, say 1,5 hours
- Western style shops and malls available
- Medical services good, cheap and widely available
- Low criminiality, high social control, quiet safe
- No cities to bike around


The advantages of living in Cairo above Izmir

- It is easier to get direct international flights
- No worries about workers around our house in Urla/our financial situation
- Staff is much cheaper, in Turkey 30 euro’s p day, here 100 euro’s a month
- We can save money again!
- The nursery for Femke is excellent
- I have all the time in the world, no obligations or projects
- As it is a world city many good international restaurants are available
- The international community is much bigger and better organized
- The area where we live is greener and therefor much cooler than in Urla


Now the advantages of living in Izmir THUS THE THINGS I MISS!!

- Many nice plces to have breakfast, we haven’t found them yet in Cairo
- Charming villages and beautiful nature not far from Izmir
- Izmir is a better walkable city
- Alsancak and Forum Bornova nice outside shopping
- Beautiful long boulevard
- No language problems

So what to do?
Make a list of all international restaurants we would like to visit
Make a list of top 50 things we want to see in Egypt and Cairo the coming year
Explore our neighbourhood Maadi to the fullest
Accept the fact that we need to take the car or metro for any place outside our Neighboorhood
Learn Arabic as soon as possible!