A Baby Boy!

I have let people know on Facebook and Twitter about the safe arrival of our latest addition - but until now have not found the time to provide a proper blog update - and after a prod in the week - here it is.

My third son made his appearance at 9.09am on Friday 7th October weighing a kilo less than both his brothers at 3520 grams but making up for it in his length of 52cm.

The weeks since have been quite 'pittig' (as the Dutch say) with a re-admittance to hospital for me (nothing like being taken away in an ambulance to get the street's attention and freak your children out) and reflux diagnosed for the little one. Sleepless nights are certainly no stranger to me and his dad.....and I can honestly say I have gained a good understanding of the ins and outs of the Dutch medical system for later blog posts.......

However, things are getting back on track for us all.

Thanks for all the congratulations and well wishes over the last few weeks.

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Bikes, Kids and the Dutch

A Bike Child Carrier or Fietskar in Dutch
Photo: Tom Pickering

A recent article confirmed that it's actually safer to ferry your children around in a bakfiets (a carrier fixed to the front of the bike) than a child seat fixed to either the front or back of your bike. The reason for this is simple - if you are involved in an accident with a car whilst on your bike more often than not your head tends to meet the windscreen. In a bakfiets this won't happen. The other reason cited for it being safer than a child seat is because drivers notice a bakfiets more than child seats. It all makes sense to me when you think about it logically - with a bakfiets the centre of gravity is lower and it is therefore more stable.

With the imminent birth of our third baby I have thought about a fietskar (a child carrier in the form of a trailer that fits to the back of a bike) as getting about would be a lot easier by bike as the kids get a little bigger. It is safer than two children in seats on the front and back of my bike - particularly given my amateurish, shaky cycling skills. The downside of bike trailers or bakfiets is that they are not cheap!

For a bakfiets you can expect to part with more than a thousand of your hard earned euro - but it is a replacement for a car for many. A bike child seat will set you back anything from 50 to 100 euro depending on the model and the price for a trailer for your bike starts around 170 euro (but remember you need to buy accessories to attach your children safely in the trailer....) and rises easily to near 1000 euro.......

Do you cycle around with your children on your bike? Do you use child seats, a trailer of a bakfiets? Which form do you feel is safer? Did you transport your kids by bike before you moved to the Netherlands? I would love to hear your views!

A Little Update

Some of you may have noticed there has been a bit of a blogging gap since the end of August - and all I can say is that I did warn you...... It's been a mad few weeks making the last preparations for our impending arrival and the blog has fallen by the wayside in the rush to get ourselves ready.

Back in July we had the builders in to split up our top floor in to two rooms. This was after a prospective house move came to nothing and we decided to stay put for the foreseeable future. It was a dusty but fast moving week. We then had someone in to install new radiators in the new rooms... and then we could start decorating. Looking after two children, being 36 weeks pregnant and up a ladder painting a ceiling and washing baby clothes and buying baby essentials certainly added up to a heavy, tiring few weeks. Blogging on top of it all never entered my head.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel.... or in other words the due date is looming and we are ready! The baby's room is all set for our new arrival and my youngest has a new room of his own too (albeit with furniture delivered by Babypark.nl that looks like it fell off the lorry on the way here or was used as a show model, but that is an ongoing battle with them and another useless Dutch customer service story for a rainy day).

So there you have it - the last few weeks in the Van Mulligen household and the reason for the lack of blog postings....... I am now officially two weeks in to maternity leave so work wise life has pretty much ground to a halt - but watch this space! My study has been rehoused and is back up and running so I may just be back to chip in every now and then.