Latest Check-up, Pre-natal Class and Promise of a New Photo!

I had my 32-week check-up yesterday and once again had the privilege of seeing our little boy on the ultrasound monitor. He was quite active during the scan and kicked several times--staying true to the nickname that his American Grandmother gave him, namely "Happy Feet". His head continues to be down, which is good, and he seems to prefer to lie with his spine toward the right side of my belly as he's been that way for the last couple of scans. His digestion system seems to be functioning well as the doctor doing the scan told me that he urinated while she was watching! (I can just hear our son now saying, "M-om, why do you have to share that part!" :-) ) I also saw him drinking in more amniotic fluid afterwards so he seems to be an active eater--maybe that's why he already weighs 2.1 kilos (4.62 pounds)!

We were given a picture of the bottom one of his cute little feet, which we will upload sometime next week when Olli is back from his business trip and can use the scanner at work.

Olli and I had our 3rd pre-natal class last night where we learned some breathing techniques and positions for the delivery. The birthing part is all still a bit overwhelming for us at the moment, but our desire and prayers are simply that, no matter what the actual process ends up being, in the end, we will have a healthy little son.

Our Pediatrician

We met with our pediatrician today for the first time and all went well. There are many things that I find to be good reasons for choosing him outside of the fact that our doctor recommended him and a pair of our friends go to him with their little girl. Here are a few positive things that come to mind...his office is about a 10 minute drive from our house, he speaks English very well, and he has a baby boy about a year old himself so can offer up-to-date advice about decisions and occurrences that he and his wife have recently made and experienced. Even one of his receptionists speaks some English, which I suspect will come in handy if I need to explain symptoms etc. over the phone in order to get an appointment or question answered.

The only potential "downside" at the moment is that he is on vacation until September 9th so if our baby comes a bit early, he will not be able to make it to the clinic to see our little one. He does, however, have a couple "back-up" pediatricians who will come for a visit, but I would of course prefer him. So, we have another item to pray about! :-)

During the appointment, he asked us about our medical backgrounds and gave us a lot of information about things that will happen after birth (i.e. different appointments, vaccinations etc.) as well as answered the questions that we had for him. Both Olli and I left with a good feeling, which is the most important thing.

We have our third (out of five) pre-natal class tomorrow as well as another ultrasound for our baby (maybe we'll have another photo to share!) so I'll probably write a little bit about those things in the next few days.

We've finally begun to set up the nursery. Yea! Olli painted two of the walls last weekend, I built the crib on Monday and Olli helped me build the changing table. We have the wardrobe to build this weekend and I want to hang things on the walls and buy a nursing chair etc., but most of the big "to-do" items will be finished. Photos of the room will be coming soon!

Our Baby--Growing Big and Strong!

We just had our 30-week check-up today and we found out that our little boy is growing VERY well as he's already 1.7kg (about 3.74 lbs), which is a little ahead of the growth scale. The doctor's comment was, "We like to see that," when he pointed out where our little boy was ahead of the average on the chart. My tummy continues to get bigger (See the picture below from our trip to Munich last weekend), but he definitely has less space than he used to. He still moves around quite a bit, but now I can feel him shifting parts of his body more than just kicking. His head is down and he likes to head-butt me in the bladder sometimes, which isn't so pleasant!

We heard our baby's heartbeat again loud and clear, which is always really neat. Unfortunately, we didn't get any cute pictures this time because he had the back of his head facing outwards so his profile was not possible to capture this time. Bummer!

Baby Paperwork and...Shopping!

Today was an adventure! I spent half the day with a dear friend who went with me to ask questions at the US Consular office in Geneva as well as the etat civil (state office) regarding paperwork for our baby's report of birth abroad, American passport, social security number and Swiss birth certificate. After a very curt conversation with an American official and a two-part conversation in French (translated by my helpful friend), I think I have our questions answered and can proceed with the paperwork. Of course, we won't be able to file anything until the baby is born and we decide his name (aren't you just so curious as to what the name will be?!), but I plan to have everything else in order before his due date.

According to the information I had received from our birthing clinic and on websites online, it seemed that we were going to have to re-order certain documents as well as have them translated into French for the birth certificate, but the person we spoke to today said that we don't! This is a huge relief and answer to prayer. There are a few complications with my last name being spelled differently on several of my own documents (marriage certificate, passport etc.) because not everyone seems to agree how to translate an "Umlaut" (the two dots above the o in Höltje) into English. However, it seems that we'll be able to get around this for the baby. It is also a bit tricky that Olli and I have different nationalities, but this will be an advantage to our little one so we will work it out so that he can claim both nationalities. Olli will have to make a special trip to the etat civil after our baby is born to take care of this on a special form in the presence of a representative, but at least we know that now and can plan for it!

As a celebration, and because I'm an excited mommy-to-be, I went shopping afterward! One of the baby stores in town was having a sale so I had to take advantage of it. There are only two times per year when stores in Switzerland, and most of Europe for that matter, put several items on sale--for you Americans who are used to stores running sales all year round, I'm not exaggerating. The sales usually occur at the beginning of summer and at the beginning of winter. This store had some of their baby clothes on sale so, needless to say, I bought some things. It was exciting to get them at 30, 50 and 70% off! I also bought a night-light for the baby's room that has a green shield with a bear, giraffe and zebra on it. It was the only one left and it goes perfectly with our nursery theme so I bought it even though it wasn't on sale. It probably wasn't worth the 30CHF I paid for it, but that's Swiss prices and I felt like it was a rare find so I got it anyway. The entire outing was a special treat, remember?!

Baby Shower Photos

Here are a few photos from the baby shower that was held for me in Colorado on Saturday, June 9th. My friend Catherine took these photos so that I would have some record of the party--many thanks, Catherine!

The baby shower was held at my sister's house. She was an excellent host and of course my mom helped to make it a very memorable day as well. My sister, Lesley, is in the photo above in the middle. On the left is Lesley's mother-in-law and on the right is a very close family friend.

As I mentioned before in a previous blog entry, the food at the shower was delicious and displayed very elegantly! Here you can see the chocolate-covered strawberries, tiropites, pasta salad, sandwiches, some veggies and baklava.

Here I am serving myself (and the baby) some of the yummy food!

Our baby was definitely showered with an abundance of gifts!

Who can help but smile at the generosity of all the friends and family that made this day such a special one!

Above and below are some of my friends who came to the shower. Lisa is on the left and Kristin is on the right in the picture above and Anna is on the left in the picture below. It was a great blessing to be able to share this special time with some of the dearest people in my life outside of my direct family. I'm so thankful for everyone who came!

Finally, more baby pictures!

The ultrasound pictures below were taken when our baby boy was 24 weeks and 1 day old. As I write this now, he is about to begin his 31st week inside my womb so he's even bigger and more developed than the pictures show. However, these were the first pictures where we got the chance to see some of his individual features! We'll be seeing our doctor again this Thursday so maybe we'll have more recent photos to share with you soon!

The picture above is a 3D image of our baby! Although the image is a little blurred because he was moving about a bit, you can see that he has his hands by his mouth just under his nose. His eyelids were still sealed shut at this point, but by now, from what I've read, his eyes should be opening and closing as he practices blinking and he can decipher light from dark. Amazing, I think!

This is my favorite picture so far because I think our baby has an adorable profile. :-) You can see the outline of his skull (the white part is bone) and his profile is pointed upwards. Doesn't he seem to have a sweet button nose? We saw him opening and closing his mouth when looking at him from this direction. We think he was swallowing amniotic fluid. I know he continues to do this now as he "eats" and practices breathing movements because he gets the hiccups very frequently! It's such a strange sensation in my tummy and I don't think he likes having the hiccups because he moves around a lot when he has them--maybe trying to get them to stop?