38 Weeks - Zollikerberg & Shower

Phil and I had a joint baby shower on Thursday night; our friend Kerry from work, was gracious enough to host the shower for us in her back garden. It was a great night and I had a lot of fun. The girls got together and got both Phil and I each a Bobby Car (actually a SUPER Bobby Car). I know our little one is going to spend hours and hours playing on that thing. I also got some gift certificates to a baby/toy store in town as well as some super cute outfits. Phil also got me a Bumbo! It was great chatting with everyone and telling stories. For some of the girls it was their first baby shower! I've attached some photos from the night.

Matt left on Thursday to the UK. He drove 13-hours straight and arrived around 3am at his Mum's place. I know he is hating me for making him drive there to collect all our goodies, but I am very grateful to him for doing it. He should be heading home tomorrow sometime.

I had my 38-week check-up yesterday at Zollikerberg Hospital. They did an ultrasound and the doctor wasn't that happy with the level of my amniotic fluid. She said it wasn't too low, but wasn't as much as it should be. So, I have to go back on Monday for another ultrasound. Hopefully everything is okay. Our normal doctor checked just a week ago and said everything was fine. I am hoping that the Zollikerberg doctor was off - because she was also showing an intern how to take measurements. But she went back and measured again herself. I guess we'll know more on Monday. The baby still hasn't "engaged" and has flipped back on the right side. But it's head is still down, which is good!

I am feeling okay, except for the sharp pains that I mentioned in the last blog as well as super swollen feet. It was really hot here this week and my poor feet just blew up. I've been putting them up more, but it's not really helping. The weather has cooled down a bit, so hopefully that will help alleviate it a bit.

Fulled Baked at 37 Weeks

Well, we had our last appointment with our normal OB/GYN today as her office is closing for renovations for the next fours weeks and hopefully by that time I will have had the baby. Everything is still on track, all of baby's statistics are still coming in on average. Today the baby's weight is 3.0kg/6.6lbs. Doctor thinks that it will probably add about one more pound before I give birth. We also did a stress test - hooking me up to a monitor for a while to watch how the baby reacts when I have a contraction to make sure it's not elevating the heartbeat too much. Everything came back normal there too.

I think I will be having an appointment each week now until I give birth. I have to start having the checkups at the Zollikerberg Spital (where we're giving birth), which is good because it'll give us a chance to meet the birthing/obstetrics staff as well as get more familiar with the hospital.

Matt will be away for my next appointment as the magical rocking/nursing recliner we ordered has finally arrived in the UK. So he'll drive up next weekend to collect it along with all the other goodies.

Christian and Philippa have been put on standby notice as my ride to the hospital in case anything should happen while he's away. They'll also be on call the week after when Matt is in Sweden. I was joking with Phil today saying that it would be just typical that I have a very straight forward pregnancy with no drama, and then at the end our baby makes an 'early' appearance when Matt is away. That is a kind of excitement I really do not want. I would also feel sorry for Phil, because of course I would drag her into the delivery room with me to act as my coach and I'm not sure that is the kind of thing she should be experiencing as she's about to go through it herself! That is just mean!

I finished my birthing plan this week. Gundi was an angel and made a translation into German for me. I could not have done that by myself and this way we can really be sure the staff understand our wishes for the birth. Before you ask (Melissa), it is not like my famous 7-page wedding itinerary. It is just 2 pages long, very concise. Of course the translation makes it actually four, but I'm not counting that.

We also decided to just buy out the RAV-4. We have looked at several estates, but for what we (actually, I) want, it's just too expensive. With this option we could buy it out and resell it and make about 14K on it as it seems to have really held it's value and that is what similar models are selling for. Then we could still buy an estate if we wanted to.

36 weeks and 29 weeks

Last night, the Milz's and Matt and I watched Tim and Gundi's son, Daniel, while they enjoyed a dinner for two out in Zurich. While we were there, we decided to take a few comparative shots of Phil and I's bumps. She is 7 weeks behind me, so around 29 weeks. It's funny, because when I look at her I think she's showing quite a bit now and when I look at myself, I don't think I'm that big. But when you put us side by side you can really see a difference! Tim also thought he could get into the action, but his belly a little pathetic; too much biking I think.

Matt and test drove some more cars yesterday. We are leaning more towards a wagon/estate right now, but it's not something I'm very happy about. I'd much rather have an SUV, but the gas mileage is horrible and the back is too high for Tucker's arthritic hips. We also looked at some "multi-person vehicles" (read: MINI-VAN), but I don't think we are quite ready for that sort of car yet. Now we just have to find a model that looks sporty enough for me, drives well and has all the bells and whistles we want. Oh, and is within our price range. Car shopping is annoying here, because dealers carry hardly any stock, so finding a good bargain on a new car is next to impossible.

35w6d - Nursery Shots

As promised, here are some shots of the nursery. Matt did a fantastic job of putting everything together and managed to do so with only a few curse words. You can see the baby bay bed in the corner by the window. We'll move that into our room once little one is here and hopefully put the recliner in that corner. It gets a good amount of sunlight and the balcony overlooks our back garden and the farmers fields beyond. That peaceful view will hopefully come in handy when trying to deal with the endless crying sessions that I'm sure will come at some point.

Baby is still as active as ever and has developed a new trick of sticking it's head (at least that is what I think it is) further down into my pelvis and against my bladder. When it moves against my bladder it triggers the worst sensations. I would guess that it's slid further down into position and that is why I'm having these pains, which is a good thing, but it sure makes me uncomfortable!

It's not only the baby that is getting set for the final countdown. My body is also starting to do new and interesting things. I was getting ready for my nightly bath last night when I looked down and thought "What the hell is coming out of my nipple!?" Apparently my boobs are in 'warm up' mode as it seems that they are now secreting small amounts of colostrum. I just hope they don't get themselves too fired up before the big day as I don't want to have to start wearing nursing pads before I actually start nursing! My ankles have also taken on more of a constant swell over the last few weeks and I swear my usually comfortable flats are starting to pinch at the ankles. I am now turning into that giant pregnant lady, who waddles her way to the bathroom twenty times a day and grunts whenever she sits down or stands-up. :-(

35 Weeks - Getting Bigger

We are one week closer to having our little one with us! This week, we had our final infant care course. Overall, I'm not sure we needed to do the course as most of what she taught I already knew. We did learn some tips particular to Switzerland - where to buy stuff and things like that. One of the things that surprised me was that our instructor said that my diet can go back to normal after I give birth, with just one exception of alcohol. I remember all you girls telling me I still had to watch what I ate just like during pregnancy? I think I need to do some further reading.
This weekend was Swiss National Day (think 4th of July), so we went to Tim and Gundi's for a BBQ last night. They are pretty convinced that we are going to have a boy based on the way I'm carrying. Maybe they will be right?!
I was very disappointed this week to find two stretch marks appearing on my lower tummy. They look like two lightening bolts, but I don't feel like much of a super hero. You can see from the photos that I am getting bigger. It seems like the bump is growing out horizontally - like a shelf. Even some of my pregnancy clothes aren't fitting any longer. :-(
Today, we washed all the baby's things and finished puting the nursery together. I know you will all want to see pictures, so I will have Matt take some later this week. We also bought some of the final things for the baby, including a diaper genie, room monitor and a baby bay. A baby bay is a half-moon shaped sort of crib that attaches to our bed so we can have the baby in our room with us early on - but on it's own bed. We decided that was safer and more convenient than a mose basket or travel bed.
We've also looked at flights to the US for Thanksgiving. Now that I have my new passport (and name) I can go ahead and book! Speaking of booking trips, Matt's got to go to Sweden 26 - 28 of August for work. I'm really hoping baby comes late, as there aren't 24-hour flights to Zurich.

34 Weeks - She's a Thompson

Well, this was the week where I feel like I accomplished a lot. First off, before we left for Paris, I (finally) received notification that my Swiss residency permit was available for collection. Then, I received a call that my new US passport was available. So, now I am officially a Thompson. I am not sure what I will do at work in terms of changing my name, but at least I have all the needed documentation. Now I have to go about changing all my other stuff - drivers license, credit cards, bank accounts. And, Matt and I's birth certificates have arrived!

We also had another check-up with the doctor this week. I think she is a little surprised that I am still working full-time and even more surprised that I'm intending to do so right up until the due to date. She told us this last visit that she thinks I should keep working for about three more weeks, then call it quits. I had to laugh at that because I know I will definitely go crazy if I take off work three weeks before the baby is due. Don't get me wrong, if I start to feel tired or can't handle the full working days, I will be getting that doctor's note and cutting back. But I think just waiting around for the baby will drive me crazy.

She did another quick scan and measure of the baby and everything is absolutely normal. Baby is weighing in at 5.2lbs and all the measurements for it are still coming up right on average. Nice to know that she doesn't think I'll be delivering a big-headed, heavy baby! We also found out that the baby has moved over to the left side with it's head down (but not engaged yet), which means an even greater chance of delivering with the baby's back towards my stomach. Even so, I feel like the baby moves around a ton -it's probably changing positions every day! Matt and I have also enjoyed feeling the baby's hiccups. We noticed it last weekend in Paris for the first time and now feel them happening more often.

Doctor also took some more 3D scans of the baby. You can really see how our little one has fattened up!

Matt's brother, John is in town visiting for the weekend. Matt's had the poor guy mowing our lawn, putting up ceiling lights and lots of fun things like that. It's a great help, but I'm not sure he'll be jumping at the chance to come back and visit again soon! Tonight we're going to dinner in Zurich with Christian and Philippa.

33 Weeks - Oui, Oui mon cheri!

Matt and I just returned home from having a weekend trip in Paris. It was our anniversary trip and also Matt's birthday. I just realized that Matt turned 33 on the same day that I was 33 weeks pregnant.

Paris is actually a great city to visit when you are nearly 8 months pregnant. We got a little bit of special treatment at some of the major sites. At the Eiffel Tower we were able to jump the cue to get down; at the Arc de Triomphe instead of taking the 284 stairs up to the top, we got to take a 10 second elevator. It was actually quite nice to have people notice and go out of their way to make it a little more comfortable for me.

We did have a good time playing tourist. Besides the Arc and the Eiffel, we also went to the Louvre - where we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venice de Milo among other well known pieces - the Notre Dame, Invalides (where Napoleon is buried) and lots of other neat stuff. The food was also pretty good, even if Matt ended up with a mild case of food poisoning. He tried escargot so maybe that was it. Nevertheless, he won't be trying them again. Baby seemed to enjoy Paris too. It wasn't the easiest walking around the city all day, but Matt was a very good husband and gave me lots of foot massages. Baby was full of lots of kicks and squirms - in fact - baby might have even flipped to the right side. At about four pounds now, I'm starting to really feel every movement.

We'll know for certain this week the position as we've got another appointment on Thursday. Matt's brother is also coming into town that day to visit for a few days. Just seven weeks to go!