baby news | 17 weeks

In case you haven't heard, we will be welcoming a new baby in early May!  With all the craziness of moving to Germany and finding a doctor, I wasn't able to get an appointment right away, but I finally had my first OB appointment about 3 weeks ago.  Baby J measured at a little over 14 weeks which puts my due date right around the first week of May. Judging from my track record though, I'm not holding my breath that I'll deliver a day before 42 weeks. :)  Everything looked good on the ultrasound, and baby J was moving around a lot which was fun to see.  We're looking forward to the big 20 week scan coming up in about a month, and we're hoping to find out the gender at that time.  

I really like my doctor a lot, and her English is quite good which is incredibly helpful!  A few of the nurses speak some English, too.  I had a very nice nurse who did my blood work and medical history, and we did pretty well with our communication except when I was trying to explain that I had my gall bladder out a few years ago.  The nurse understood that I was talking about surgery, but I didn't know the word for gall bladder in German, and she didn't know the word in English.  At first she thought I was talking about my appendix, but I told her I still had that one.  Finally I ended up showing her my scars from the surgery, and she confirmed with the doctor that we had the right organ figured out.  It was pretty entertaining all things considered.

While I'm sure there will be a few challenges along the way, I'm actually really excited to have our baby here in Germany!  Having already had one baby in the US, I'm curious to see the similarities and differences of how pregnancy and labor/delivery are handled here.  Plus, this is kind of a "vacation" year for me since I'm limited on how much I can work, and I can't imagine a better way to spend it than enjoying lots of time with Elise and preparing for the new baby to arrive!  Neither of our families will be able to visit when the baby is born, but thankfully we'll be returning home just a little over two months later (the end of July), so they will get to meet the new baby without too much delay.  This upcoming summer is going to be quite exciting for my side of the family - my younger sister (Meghan) is due about 3 weeks after me at the end of May with her first baby, my youngest sister (Sarah) graduates high school around that time as well, and my middle sister (Hannah) is getting married on August 1st (about a week after we return from Germany)!   We're so thankful for the blessing of new life, the joy of a wedding, and an ever-growing family!