We had our regular doctor's appointment today, and spent most of the time discussing the results on my glucose tolerance test. They tested my blood sugar levels after fasting, 1 hour after taking the glucose solution, and 2 hours after taking the solution. Although the fasting and 2-hour levels were fine, the 1-hour level was a bit higher than the normal range. Our doctor says it's not high enough to be diabetes, but he does want me to take a few steps to lower my blood sugar through diet and exercise. (Cutting out my chocolate fixes and my morning glass of juice should take care of most of it, plus making regular exercise a bit more of a priority.) But to make sure, he's ordered me to come in for a 24-hour monitoring session, so they can draw blood every hour to get a more detailed profile. So I get a preview of the maternity ward in another week and a half, when we've scheduled the session.
Pauline is right as rain; she's still right in the middle of the optimal growth chart. Since gestational diabetes often causes fetuses to grow more than they should, this was a relief for all of us. She was moving around a bit during today's ultrasound, which made it harder to measure her blood flow, but we got it in the end. She also was kind enough to confirm that without any doubt, she is a little girl. (Tim and I had a brief moment of panic when the doctor asked if we knew already if it was a boy or a girl. We said we'd been told it was a girl... well, today's ultrasound showed that her reproductive system is also developing right on schedule, and she's definitely a she. Whew!) However, she's already settled into the head-down, face-back position she should be in for delivery, so we can't get a good image of her face with an abdominal ultrasound. Tim says this just confirms that she's his daughter - "OK, I know I've got 2 months left before I have to move into position, but there's no reason not to get ready now!" Let's hope she takes after him in terms of punctuality; if she were more like her mother, she'd still be turning this way and that, wouldn't get into position until she'd been reminded a few times, and would remember halfway out the door that she forgot something back at the top of the uterus that she needed to go back for.
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In other news, Melissa and Jeremy arrived Tuesday without any problems. I picked them up at the airport by myself because Tim has been down for the count. He got a sore throat last week, and by Thursday was running a fever. It seemed to go down at one point over the weekend, but then went back up - by the time we took him to the embassy health unit (our primary care facility) on Monday, he was running a fever of 101.8 degrees. The nurse-practitioner said she wasn't certain if it was strep or flu, but put Tim on antibiotics and regular doses of ibuprofen. As of yesterday, he's been feeling much better, though still completely sapped from the illness. Poor Tim! This flu has been running wild around Berlin in the last few weeks. Lucky for me, it's a strain that's covered by the flu shot I got earlier this winter. Hopefully he'll be back to normal before too long!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Still growing...
We reached week 32 today - or week 31, if you're counting on the German system - and continue to grow. Pauline is as lively as ever, pushing and stretching and kicking and hiccuping and generally making the most out of her increasingly limited space. In the last few weeks, I've started having more Braxton-Hicks contractions (the sort of warm-up contractions that are common in the 3rd trimester.) They're not painful, but can be a bit uncomfortable, especially when Pauline lands a good kick at the wrong time.
Although I haven't had too much pregnancy swelling before this month, it seems all of a sudden it's gotten much more pronounced. Thank goodness my favorite work shoes, which are wearing out fast, have nice stretchy elastic tops to them. But most of my other shoes are getting very tight, my watch has grown a bit too small, and this week I finally had to face facts and remove my wedding rings. Alas! I let it go too long, and was unable to get them off my finger. I think I tried just about every home remedy known to the internet, but no luck. So today I went with a German friend over lunch to a jeweler friend of hers. The jeweler was able to saw them off, with only minor cuts to my hand in the process. Since both my engagement ring and my wedding band have a plain gold band on the back (normally turned back to my palm), she said it should be a piece of cake to forge them back together; I'll go back next week to pick them up, along with a very sturdy chain to wear them around my neck for the time being. The good thing is that the beautiful diamond-and-sapphire eternity band Tim gave me for Christmas last year, which I normally wear on my right hand (the hand where Germans wear their wedding rings), I managed to take off several months ago - intact. Sigh. Next time I'll know to do it sooner; I'd been hoping to avoid it entirely, but no such luck.
We enjoyed watching the various inauguration events. Tim came downtown to join me in watching President Obama (yay!) give his inaugural address, before we went to the European premiere of Tom Cruise's new movie, "Valkyrie." It was pretty good - I don't know that Tom was the best bet for the main role, but the rest of the cast was great, and the story was well developed and well researched. And what the heck, every once in a while it's awfully fun to go to the movies via the red carpet...
Our friends Melissa and Jeremy are coming to visit us next week! I've been looking forward to this for a long time. The two of them are dear college friends of mine; I'm so happy we get to see them here in Germany. We also have a doctor's appointment next week and an appointment with the midwife the following week, so hopefully you'll get more news about Pauline in the next few posts.
Although I haven't had too much pregnancy swelling before this month, it seems all of a sudden it's gotten much more pronounced. Thank goodness my favorite work shoes, which are wearing out fast, have nice stretchy elastic tops to them. But most of my other shoes are getting very tight, my watch has grown a bit too small, and this week I finally had to face facts and remove my wedding rings. Alas! I let it go too long, and was unable to get them off my finger. I think I tried just about every home remedy known to the internet, but no luck. So today I went with a German friend over lunch to a jeweler friend of hers. The jeweler was able to saw them off, with only minor cuts to my hand in the process. Since both my engagement ring and my wedding band have a plain gold band on the back (normally turned back to my palm), she said it should be a piece of cake to forge them back together; I'll go back next week to pick them up, along with a very sturdy chain to wear them around my neck for the time being. The good thing is that the beautiful diamond-and-sapphire eternity band Tim gave me for Christmas last year, which I normally wear on my right hand (the hand where Germans wear their wedding rings), I managed to take off several months ago - intact. Sigh. Next time I'll know to do it sooner; I'd been hoping to avoid it entirely, but no such luck.
We enjoyed watching the various inauguration events. Tim came downtown to join me in watching President Obama (yay!) give his inaugural address, before we went to the European premiere of Tom Cruise's new movie, "Valkyrie." It was pretty good - I don't know that Tom was the best bet for the main role, but the rest of the cast was great, and the story was well developed and well researched. And what the heck, every once in a while it's awfully fun to go to the movies via the red carpet...
Our friends Melissa and Jeremy are coming to visit us next week! I've been looking forward to this for a long time. The two of them are dear college friends of mine; I'm so happy we get to see them here in Germany. We also have a doctor's appointment next week and an appointment with the midwife the following week, so hopefully you'll get more news about Pauline in the next few posts.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Midwifery
Our learning process continues! We've already learned a lot about how the whole process, from conception to post-partum care, is different in Germany, but we still have much to learn.
One thing we've discovered is that most of the heavy lifting during the delivery process is done not by the obstetrician, or even by the labor and delivery nurses, but by midwives. Each mother-to-be is assigned a midwife ("Hebamme", in German) at the hospital, who is responsible for checking on you, monitoring your labor, delivering the baby (with the doctor in the room, but the midwife will actually be in the catcher's position, so to speak), and coordinating post-delivery care for you and the baby. Now, we made very certain to find an English-speaking doctor, many moons ago. That seemed too important to risk to my German skills. But what about a midwife?
It turns out that you can bring in your own! In addition to the staff midwives who are on duty at the hospital, there's a list of midwives with privileges at each hospital. If you want, you can make arrangements with one of them to be on-call for your delivery - to meet you at home or at the hospital, and go forward from there. It's a slightly more expensive option, but when push comes to shove (ha ha), we really want to make sure the key people in the room speak our language!
So we got a recommendation from our doctor, and met yesterday with the midwife he suggested. Katrin O'Malley is a lovely lady of German and Irish parentage, who did most of her training in Germany but worked in Ireland for several years as well - which also means she's more comfortable than I think many German midwives would be with some of the ideas and questions we have, coming from our American context. She's seen various ways of practicing medicine, and recognizes that the German way, great as it is, isn't the only possible way to do things.
This also means that we'll be able to do pre-natal classes, since those offered by our hospital are all in German. Katrin has two other American couples she'll be working with, and suggested getting all of us together for two intensive class sessions. We're relieved that we won't have to miss out on these classes. And I'm super relieved to have found a midwife! From what I've been able to read online, she'll be very important to this whole process. I've been stressing for a while about how that would work, and am so relieved to have checked this particular box!
Speaking of which, one of the many routine services she'll be able to provide for us is pre-registration at the hospital - so when the time comes, we can just waltz on in and not have to worry about paperwork. She even gave us the consent forms for epidural and other anesthesia to fill out in advance, so that's taken care of. The less paperwork in German we have to confront when we're in labor, the happier we'll both be!
One thing we've discovered is that most of the heavy lifting during the delivery process is done not by the obstetrician, or even by the labor and delivery nurses, but by midwives. Each mother-to-be is assigned a midwife ("Hebamme", in German) at the hospital, who is responsible for checking on you, monitoring your labor, delivering the baby (with the doctor in the room, but the midwife will actually be in the catcher's position, so to speak), and coordinating post-delivery care for you and the baby. Now, we made very certain to find an English-speaking doctor, many moons ago. That seemed too important to risk to my German skills. But what about a midwife?
It turns out that you can bring in your own! In addition to the staff midwives who are on duty at the hospital, there's a list of midwives with privileges at each hospital. If you want, you can make arrangements with one of them to be on-call for your delivery - to meet you at home or at the hospital, and go forward from there. It's a slightly more expensive option, but when push comes to shove (ha ha), we really want to make sure the key people in the room speak our language!
So we got a recommendation from our doctor, and met yesterday with the midwife he suggested. Katrin O'Malley is a lovely lady of German and Irish parentage, who did most of her training in Germany but worked in Ireland for several years as well - which also means she's more comfortable than I think many German midwives would be with some of the ideas and questions we have, coming from our American context. She's seen various ways of practicing medicine, and recognizes that the German way, great as it is, isn't the only possible way to do things.
This also means that we'll be able to do pre-natal classes, since those offered by our hospital are all in German. Katrin has two other American couples she'll be working with, and suggested getting all of us together for two intensive class sessions. We're relieved that we won't have to miss out on these classes. And I'm super relieved to have found a midwife! From what I've been able to read online, she'll be very important to this whole process. I've been stressing for a while about how that would work, and am so relieved to have checked this particular box!
Speaking of which, one of the many routine services she'll be able to provide for us is pre-registration at the hospital - so when the time comes, we can just waltz on in and not have to worry about paperwork. She even gave us the consent forms for epidural and other anesthesia to fill out in advance, so that's taken care of. The less paperwork in German we have to confront when we're in labor, the happier we'll both be!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Pauline's Zero-th Christmas
The tree is down, the ornaments and decorations are all packed back up, and the presents have been put away... Usually I hate packing up the Christmas things, but this year we did it over the weekend after New Year's. For one, I had some energy to do it; for another, I'm ready for the holidays to be over so March can get here more quickly!
Santa was very generous to Pauline. Mostly she got clothes, but she also got her very first bicycle.
One thing we've noticed is that well-made wooden toys are very common here, something we both like. One wooden toy we'd never seen before we came to Germany is a toy bicycle. German kids tend to start off on bikes like this one - low to the ground and without pedals - which they'll ride like crazy while out for walks with the family. They learn balance and steering this way, so when they're big enough for a real bike, they can hop right on - no training wheels required. We love this idea, and wanted Pauline to learn to ride a bike the same way - so Santa arranged for her to have her very own wooden bike. We can't wait until she's old enough to actually use it!
Our last doctor's visit was on Thursday; everything's just fine with Speck and with me. Tim and I have a meeting on Tuesday with a midwife. We're learning that the whole labor and delivery process is handled a bit differently here than in the U.S. - but more about that after our meeting.
We hope you've all slipped into the New Year successfully (as the Germans say), and are keeping healthy, safe, and warm wherever you are.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Happy New Year!
Happy 2009 to everyone! Somehow turning the page on the calendar makes Pauline's eventual arrival seem more real to me. One way or another, one day or another, she will be born this year! Tim and I cannot wait to meet her.
The holidays were nearly as quiet as expected. We got to watch my brother Jim's 7-day run on "Jeopardy!" all of Christmas week and at the beginning of this week. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, but he was amazing on the show. He's flying out to Las Vegas shortly to tape the Tournament of Champions, which will air in March (hopefully not while we're at the hospital!!), along with a small legion of family, friends, and supporters.
Meanwhile, Tim and I enjoyed our last quiet Christmas as a couple. We realized this was our 5th Christmas together - time flies when you're having fun! - and our 4th overseas. We got to spend a few days of the holiday together with Connie and her husband Jim. Connie and I have been friends since middle school. She's now Dr. Chang Wilking and I'm climbing through the ranks of the Foreign Service, but put the two of us together and it seems very little has changed since we were 14, much to the amusement of our husbands. It was wonderful to see Connie and Jim again! They're now doing post-doctoral research in Boston, and so we look forward to seeing them much more often when we're back in DC.
We had a brief... episode earlier this week. I've had asthma since high school, though since I've lived overseas it's generally been very well controlled. I had an attack that began Saturday night, though, and when it still hadn't cleared up by Tuesday, the embassy health unit was a bit concerned. They sent me to the local emergency room, which was fine (please, just check and make sure the baby's OK!) except that I wound up having a linguistic argument with the attending physician in German. Apparently the term I learned for "asthma attack" means something more acute than what I was technically experiencing. (There is no such thing as a "mild asthma attack" in German.) OK, so call it whatever you want, but please stop arguing with me and do something about the fact that I can't breathe! Sigh. Meanwhile, poor Tim had to sit there and listen to me become frustrated to the point of tears in between coughing fits and wheezing. The treatment was much less aggressive than ER asthma treatment I've had in the US, though this was also fine with me (less medication = safer for the baby). Mostly it was one of those bizarre foreign moments. My first time to an emergency room outside the US. Here's hoping it's also the last... although my German is very good, it's not too nuanced in terms of medical terminology. Thank goodness our obstetrician speaks English!!!!!!
The holidays were nearly as quiet as expected. We got to watch my brother Jim's 7-day run on "Jeopardy!" all of Christmas week and at the beginning of this week. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, but he was amazing on the show. He's flying out to Las Vegas shortly to tape the Tournament of Champions, which will air in March (hopefully not while we're at the hospital!!), along with a small legion of family, friends, and supporters.
Meanwhile, Tim and I enjoyed our last quiet Christmas as a couple. We realized this was our 5th Christmas together - time flies when you're having fun! - and our 4th overseas. We got to spend a few days of the holiday together with Connie and her husband Jim. Connie and I have been friends since middle school. She's now Dr. Chang Wilking and I'm climbing through the ranks of the Foreign Service, but put the two of us together and it seems very little has changed since we were 14, much to the amusement of our husbands. It was wonderful to see Connie and Jim again! They're now doing post-doctoral research in Boston, and so we look forward to seeing them much more often when we're back in DC.
We had a brief... episode earlier this week. I've had asthma since high school, though since I've lived overseas it's generally been very well controlled. I had an attack that began Saturday night, though, and when it still hadn't cleared up by Tuesday, the embassy health unit was a bit concerned. They sent me to the local emergency room, which was fine (please, just check and make sure the baby's OK!) except that I wound up having a linguistic argument with the attending physician in German. Apparently the term I learned for "asthma attack" means something more acute than what I was technically experiencing. (There is no such thing as a "mild asthma attack" in German.) OK, so call it whatever you want, but please stop arguing with me and do something about the fact that I can't breathe! Sigh. Meanwhile, poor Tim had to sit there and listen to me become frustrated to the point of tears in between coughing fits and wheezing. The treatment was much less aggressive than ER asthma treatment I've had in the US, though this was also fine with me (less medication = safer for the baby). Mostly it was one of those bizarre foreign moments. My first time to an emergency room outside the US. Here's hoping it's also the last... although my German is very good, it's not too nuanced in terms of medical terminology. Thank goodness our obstetrician speaks English!!!!!!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas!
We finally managed to scan in Speck's latest ultrasounds yesterday. As you can see, she's gotten so big that she doesn't really fit in a single "frame" of sonogram anymore. She's about 2 pounds big; I don't remember the length guesstimate, but her cranium measures in at about 7 centimeters in diameter. Our ultrasound specialist managed to get a few lovely 3-D images of her; our favorite is the one where she seems to be sucking on her thumb.
We have a 2 day holiday for Christmas (the 26th is a German holiday - Second Christmas, who wouldn't love that?! - and was given to us as a Federal holiday this year, too) plus a head-start today, since the Embassy will officially close at noon. We are planning a quiet Christmas at home, the last one of these we'll have as a couple. (Mind you, Pauline probably has as many presents under the tree as either of us...) In addition to lounging in our PJs, watching movies, eating fondue and other yummy treats, and decorating our gingerbread house, we'll need to do a bit of cleaning, because our friends Connie and Jim are coming on the 29th! Just for a few days as they pass through Europe, but we're super excited to see them. I can hardly believe it's already been a year since their wedding!
And, of course, we'll continue to enjoy watching my brother Jim's run on "Jeopardy!" It's very neat to have him right there in our living room this week.
We wish you all a very healthy and happy holiday season, and a peaceful and joyous 2009. It's going to be a very exciting year!
We have a 2 day holiday for Christmas (the 26th is a German holiday - Second Christmas, who wouldn't love that?! - and was given to us as a Federal holiday this year, too) plus a head-start today, since the Embassy will officially close at noon. We are planning a quiet Christmas at home, the last one of these we'll have as a couple. (Mind you, Pauline probably has as many presents under the tree as either of us...) In addition to lounging in our PJs, watching movies, eating fondue and other yummy treats, and decorating our gingerbread house, we'll need to do a bit of cleaning, because our friends Connie and Jim are coming on the 29th! Just for a few days as they pass through Europe, but we're super excited to see them. I can hardly believe it's already been a year since their wedding!
And, of course, we'll continue to enjoy watching my brother Jim's run on "Jeopardy!" It's very neat to have him right there in our living room this week.
We wish you all a very healthy and happy holiday season, and a peaceful and joyous 2009. It's going to be a very exciting year!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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