he’s now 2 weeks and 4 days old

Yep, Nicolai (Nico) was born March 21, 2010 (10 days late!) at 6:39 a.m. after about 12 hours of labor and 1 hour and 20 minutes of pushing, without medication, in a birthing tub. After all that, I still remembered to speak to him in Portuguese (disproving all of the nightmares I’d had throughout my pregnancy, where suddenly he was 5 years old and I’d forgotten to speak Portuguese with him!)

I’m very tired, but absolutely in love, and I’ve been busy reading Portuguese books to him which were sent by his “aunt” and “grandmother” in Portugal.

At this stage, it seems like speaking to him in Portuguese is about adding “-inho” to as many words as possible. “Oh menino fofinho tão queridinho” etc. etc.

So far he’s only been read to in Portuguese, but between his father and all of his grandparents and aunts, he gets plenty of English input. I really hope his Portuguese ends up being strong. I keep wondering, can I do this? Can I be the only one to speak this language to him (especially since it’s not my native language)? Am I just doing this because I love the language? But at this point, while I am discovering holes in my Portuguese (going on exchange in high school did not familiarize me with most of the baby words!), it’s becoming more and more natural to speak to him in my beloved second language. After all, he is a menino fofinho, not a “cute little boy.”

I do have my work cut out for me, that’s for sure, but I’m excited about the journey.

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