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!

What a difference 25 weeks makes...

Well, tomorrow marks 31 weeks. Just 9 weeks to go until I officially hit "done" status. Just 6 weeks until I'm medically considered "full term". Thought you might get a kick of seeing the side by side of my 5w6d photo with the 30w6d photo.

I gotta say, I think I think I might be growing a baby in my bum too, cause it appears to have grown a bit since Jan-8th. I guess my excuse would be that I have a highly adaptive body which is desperately trying to counter-balance the increase in weight on the front with some increase in weight on the back? ;-)


Baby is turning into quite the kung-fu fighter and it's using my belly as it's dojo. I definitely don't mind it though - it's actually really reassuring. Matt has taken to resting his head on my belly and talking or humming to our little one. What is neat is that the baby reacts when it can hear Matt's voice - kung-fu fighting against Matt's head. :-)

We met this week with the agency that will be helping us locate a nanny. The good news is that they seem to have a pretty good qualified pool of candidates, so we should hopefully have no trouble finding someone for mid-January start. The Milz's were here too. We are really fortunate to have such close friends having a baby so close in time to us. Not only will baby have a playmate, we'll get a nanny a only a portion of the cost! I don't think we'd be able to afford one otherwise.

I also booked an appointment with the US Consulate in Zurich next week to start the process of changing my name. I've given up on waiting for my Swiss residency permit to come through first. We received the hospital entrance forms last week and need to fill them out and return them. I'm completing everything in "Thompson", so hopefully that doesn't cause problems and hopefully I get my passport in 20 days like it says on the State Depts website!

It's amazing the amount of paperwork we need to do to have a baby here. I am certainly not helping the situation by not having changed my name until now. But, because Matt and I are foreigners, we have to submit all sorts of stuff to the civil authorities in order to get a Swiss birth certificate issued. Then, to get passports for the baby (both British and US) we have to complete more paperwork! The only thing I can say is thank goodness for the Internet, because otherwise it'd be ten times the hassle.

29 Weeks - New Scan

Matt and I went to the doctors yesterday to have another growth scan. Everything is in order and baby is practically dead average in terms of growth charts. Baby is now weighing in at 1400gms or 3.08lbs.

Mommy however has gained 4.8lbs in two weeks! Means I need to watch those bowls of ice cream! Yesterday's weigh in a was a bit of a shock for me given that Doctor said I should be adding about 1lb a week. Guess I have to pay more attention to what I stuff in my mouth!

Baby is lying head down on my right side, which is good. It just means that as baby gets bigger it might run a little tight because it's competing with my liver for space where it's bum is currently. But all it has to do is basically roll to it's other side to get a little more room. Of course, there is still plenty of room for baby to completely flip around and end up in the breach position, but I am going to think positive and assume that it'll stay head down from here on out.

Here are two photos that the doctor took yesterday in 3D. Bit disappointed actually because she seemed in a hurry and didn't spend as much time with us on the ultrasound table as I would have liked. I think the baby has Matt's lips (and Brandy's nose??)! Baby kept sticking it's fingers into it's mouth while we were doing the ultrasound, which made it pretty hard to get a good full face shot - but at least it has 5 fingers on it's left hand! Definitely a Thompson with the way it avoids having it's photo taken!

Week 29 - More Bumpy

Thought I'd put up some pictures of the bumps progress. I felt this weird gurgling last night right under my bra, and realized that it was my stomach - about 4 inches above where it normally is and flattened out quite a bit! Baby is getting bigger and taking up more space - crazy!

The First Birthing Class - 28 weeks

Matt and I attended our first birthing class this weekend. It was a relatively small class, only 6 couples in total. At least one of each couple is a foreigner - Brits, Dutch, American are the nationalities besides Swiss. Our instructor is English, but has been living in Switzerland for quite a while. We are one of two couples who are at 28 weeks - the rest are further along than us.

It was a pretty interesting class. The only thing I found a little unnerving was that at one point I got really really faint when she was describing in detail contractions and the pain that comes with active labor. I don't know if it was me and my typical getting whoozy at the sight and thought of blood/pain or the fact that the classroom we were in was about 90-degrees! Probably a combination of both, but either way - I didn't like my reaction! I had the same reaction at our couple shower when all the girls started telling their delivery stories! What is going to happen when I actually am in the middle of labor!?!? I had better not be passing out and coming to over and over again!

Even Matt seemed to enjoy the class. There was a lot of focus on what role the partner plays in helping during labor and different relaxation techniques. Next week we'll spend more time on pain management and looking at modern birthing methods as well as spend an evening on lactation. I just hope that I can remember all this stuff when the time comes!

According to my baby book, baby is about 2.5lbs/1.1kg now! I can feel it all the time and it seems to react when I set things on my belly - especially in the evenings. I think that is pretty cool because my Mom told me I did the same with her and my Dad when she was pregnant with me. My Dad used to sit a plastic bowl on my Mom's belly and watch me kick at it. Matt and I tried it the other night with a book and our little one was making it wobble! You can also see the movements by just watching my belly - it's so neat!

Glucose Screening Test - 27 Weeks

This past Tuesday we had another check-up with the doctor. This time, I had to have the glucose screening test. Other than the fact that it took three hours to perform and I hadn't eaten anything since the previous night, it went well. I do not have gestational diabetes, so that is good! We go back in two weeks for another major growth scan.

This week, Philippa and I spoke with a nanny referral agency about getting a shared nanny between the two of us starting in February. I also spoke with a service that HP is a member of who can also help us find a nanny (without all the agency fees). Basically, I think the hard part is going to be finding a nanny who is capable of looking after two babies who are basically the same age - and hopefully willing to do it a something that isn't double the cost.
In speaking with the agency, they said that the costs actually shouldn't change too much because it's also a similar situation to multi-child families. The difference being that our kids are the same age- so like twins.
The HP-related agency also told me that I still need to apply to all the daycares in the area, so that when baby is 18 months old, we actually have a slot available 5 days a week. Crazy to think I'm apply for a daycare now, but my child won't start to attend until March 2011?!? This country is so progressive in some things, and yet so backwards in others. I guess some would argue that 'forcing' a parent to stay at home with the children because of lack of adequate daycare facilities and the nature of the schools systems is, in the long run, better for the child. But looking at the cost of living in this country, I don't know that many people who are our age who can actually afford do that. And the controls they put on daycare facilities is also good, but it also restricts the number of daycare facilities that are available to the general public. I also know that the pay that the people get in this sort of industry is pathetic.

Barbara was telling me a few weekends ago during her visit that all the daycare people in Germany went on strike for better pay and benefits. Sad to think that they have to strike to get a better wage, when at least in Barbara's case - she'd gladly pay double if that is what they wanted. But because the government regulates that sort of industry, the salaries and pay structure is pretty set. In Switzerland it's similar, but without all the government subsidies to offset the costs.
Anyway, enough on that topic. Today, we start our birthing course. I think Matt is a little wary of going - maybe the thought of watching a birth is a bit too much detail for him. I'm pretty excited though, so we'll see how it goes.