zauber-a

Was signed up to register at Krankenhaus Harlaching this morning. Appointment at 10am, they asked me to please be there by 9:45am to get the paperwork taken care of. At about 8:20am I was about to rush out the door to catch the bus when Sven offered to drive me. Yay. He did, and even better, stayed for the whole thing. Good man!

The doctor who talked to us was very friendly, and very nice. I liked her quite a bit. What I did not like, was when she told me that it is the hospital's policy to induce labor after 7 days. Always. I do not want to be induced and there is some confusion over when my actual EDD is, as I still insist (knowing my cycle quite well) that Ovulation and therefore conception did not occur until the 23rd of January, and the doctors insist on making my Ovulation on day 14 of my cycle. I have never ovulated on day 14, ever! Point being, there is a discrepancy of 6 days and if they won't let you go over 7, then they are going to want to induce me when I am one day over my personal EDD of Oct. 16th!

The doctor also tried to scare me by telling me that stillbirth rates go up after 7 days and that the baby does not benefit by staying in the uterus any longer at this point. What I want to know is: how in the world did women have babies since time began, without doctors or inducing, if mother nature, the baby, and our own bodies don't know better than a few doctors, when to start labor?!

So I'm a bit unhappy about that, especially as she admitted that this particular hospital does induce labor earlier than most. I'd really, really like to get going naturally, but would also like to do it at this particular hospital. Frustrating.

Other than that, she was very friendly and understanding of our past history, the hospital looks much better since having its makeover and I guess I needn't worry about inducing until it gets closer to time, right? Plus, she explained fully what Dr. T meant when he said I had 'infected urine'. Apparently, they found white blood cells in my urine, which is a sure sign of an infection, as those boogers get sent out to fight infections. There was no sign of actual bacteria however, so most likely, there was an infection and it was sucessfully fought off. I still have to take nasty 'bladder tea' though. I can't tell you how bad that stuff tastes!

More tomorrow on Zittau and the Bimmelbahn!

Posted at 04:46 pm by zauber-a
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Visiting the Former East Germany

We took off for Neugersdorf in Oberlausitz on Thursday around 4:30pm and did not arrive until after 10pm. It was an exhausting trip. I thought it was closer than Lübbenau, boy was I wrong! Where is Neugersdorf, and why in all this world did we go there, you ask? Neugersdorf is located at the eastern tip of Germany, surrounded on one side by Poland, and on the other by the Czech Republic:

The reason we went to Oberlausitz, and Neugersdorf in particular is because this is where Ute grew up. She'd apparently been wanting to spend a longer vacation in her old childhood city for a while. She mentioned the fact that there was never enough time to visit everyone when you were only there for a weekend and if you missed one person, they would be offended. So they made plans to spend a whole week in a vacation bungalow in Neugersdorf and invited both their children to spend some time as well. Grit and the kids drove with Ute and Rainer on Monday and the five of them spent the week together. From what I hear, the kids spent the week asking 'when is sven coming?'

Well, Sven finally came on Thursday night, and just after the kids had gone to bed. You better believe they were both back up in a flash to see him that night!

The bungalow was a 2-story house, one room on the bottom level, one room on the top. The twisty stairs up to the 2nd story didn't lend themselves to fat, unbalanced preggos, so I never saw it, but I saw pictures in the brochure. 4 little beds lined up under the slanted ceiling (Ute slept on the sleeper sofa downstairs). It also had a teeny kitchen and bar for eating, a couch, two armchairs, bathroom with shower and a TV.

So where did Sven and I sleep? We were banned to an old youth-hostel-turned-hotel about 3 mins drive away. Nothing amazing or fantastic, a hard bed (I only say this because I have a lot of weight on my legs when I sleep, and a hard bed is positively miserable), a shower, a TV. The weirdest part of the experience was breakfast. Now, we've stayed in plenty of hotels where we get breakfast in the morning. Usually, there is a buffet, you walk in, fill youp late and choose a table. Well, at this place, we walked in and were ushered to a big round table where all the food and plates were laid out, and where people were already sitting. Turns out, the owners of the hotel had their family visiting from Ulm. Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter, Oma and Son-in-law. And Sven and me. It was weird, eating breakfast with a family that were total strangers to us!

After breakfast, we hurried back to the bungalow to meet up with the family and decide on the day's plan. No one was in any hurry on Friday, they had only just breakfasted and half of them still needed to shower and get dressed. Very strange to be with Sven and the first ones done and ready to go! There was much discussion of where to go and what to do (Grit took the lead) and I made the mistake of saying I'd be interested in a trip to the Czech Republic...

Why a mistake? Beause the kids had no ID with them, but Grit thought she could get them in just by being their mother, and we took off. Turns out, no entry without ID. So Rainer jumped in our car and the four of us drove into the country and Grit and the kids stayed behind. The plan was to meet them elsewhere shortly after.

It wasn't anything exciting, as you can see from the pictures, the buildings look the same, the people looked the same etc. The only differences were the cars, the signs (and even some of those were in both German and English) and the dirt. Yes, it was very dirty there. The pictures are terrible, I was rushed. No one really wanted to be there, the mess with Grit and the kids was worrisome and they didn't really understand what we were doing there anyway! So I snapped a few shots in the square of Rumburk and then we jumped back in the car. At this point, Sven freaked out because his cell phone was missing. There was a lot of swearing and yelling (at himself) and we drove back to the little square to see if it had fallen out there (it hadn't) and then we drove back to Neugersdorf adn the bungalow to see if he had left it behind (he had). This was not a big deal, Neugersdorf is literally all of 10 mins away from the border!! The only irritants were the Czechisch guards, checking our passes in and out of the country.

Get this: on our way back into Germany, the German border control recognized us from before and waved us past, before we could go 2 inches, the Czechs stopped us and made us give them all our ID's! Isn't this a bit backwards? Why would the Czechs want to stop us from going into Germany if the Germans didn't?! In any case, the American passport was a novelty...

Back to Neugersdorf, picked up the cell phone (which I carried with me in my purse from then on out) and then to the Kaursek Museum where Grit and the kids were waiting for us.

It's funny, when you travel with kids, you don't go-go-go, you stop and go. So when we got to the Museum, we walked to a little park and had fruit bowls for lunch (yes, just fruit, imagine you are pregnant, haven't eaten since breakfast and are getting fruit for lunch, tastes good, sure, but filling...?). After which we walked back up to the Museum and instead of going on, everyone sat down in the backs of the cars and ate Knoppers! We did eventually move on, the goal was another Museum, the Deutches Damast- und Frottiermuseum Großschönau (German Damask and Towel Museum in Großschönau). Okay, the name of the museum sounds rather dumb, no? It was basically a museum dedicated to the history of hand and mechanical looms that weaved both materials for towels (frottier) and other cloths, such as damask, or napkins, or table cloths. It was actually interesting to some extent, to see how those hand looms actually worked. The Mechanical ones were amazing, I can't imagine what kind of a mind you'd need to design that thing! The hand loom was even more interesting for me, having read The Lady and the Unicorn a few years back, and never understanding exactly what kind of work went into the weaving that made up the soul of the book!

After the Museum, we went on to visit Onkel Horst and Tante Irmi, two relatives I'd heard much about, but never had the chance to visit, as they are both older, and not in the best of health. They were so nice though, Onkel Horst was full of fun and funny stories, and honestly, just full of life as far as I could tell. He can't hear worth a darn, and she is blind as a bat, together they make the perfect couple! Anyway, having never met me (or the kids) they were very friendly and kind, and asked again and agian if I could understand them. Now, this isn't as easy as it sounds, they speak German all right, but in that funny Oberlausitz dialect that is a mix between Sächisch and American - oh yes, american. they say their 'r's' even harder than we do!

Fascinating people, I'm so glad I finally go to meet them. They told stories about themselves sort of in passing, you had to keep a sharp ear to catch them: how their first dog, Prince was poisoned by an officer's son because the dog hated uniforms and would bark and bite any that came near them. How they chose to have a dog because after two miscarriages, the doctor warned them against trying again for fear of Tante Irmi's health, and the GDR refused them children from an orphanage because they were not employed by the state, but worked independently and therefore would not raise children to be good socialists...and of course, many stories about their dog 'Spider' who died 4 years ago.

The only bad part is that as the time wore on, the fact that we had had nothing of substance to eat all day started to eat away at my head, badly. It didn't help that they had prepared a pot full of boiled hotdogs for everyone, leaving me to eat a buttered roll and try not to roll over with the pain in my head (that was overwhelming the hunger and the heartburn, which came from my empty stomach!).

Thankfully, the few hotdogs weren't actually enough to fill any of us up and after we said good-bye to Tante Irmi and Onkel Horst, we drove to a Kneipe and had dinner. My headache did not go away until sometime late afternoon the following day!

I'm going to stop here, because MAN did I get wordy! I still have two days of stories to tell. I'll just break it up over the week.

Posted at 01:33 pm by zauber-a
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I had a stupid appointment at the doctors at 12:30. Can I just stress how stupid it is to book people in at lunchtime, when everyone is hungry and in a bad mood and have already seen too many people that day and can't give you the time you need? Yes. I had a very frustrating visit. Let's break it down, shall we?! Sit back and relax, because I REALLY need to vent and this is going to be long...

I came in about a quarter after 12 to new faces (why can't the same people be working from one visit to the next?!). Got sent off to do my urine sample, walk in, grab the pen and a cup to write my name on and my hand gets wet, besides, the cup is rather heavy for a thin plastic-thing. Oh yes, you guessed it. Some idiot left her sample in the cup and just stacked it on top of the other cups. WHAT is up with THAT? Totally disgusted, I go to the sink to wash my hands before I get started with the whole procedure, only to discover there is no soap (have I mentioned I hate going in the afternoons?!). GREAT. When I'm done, I go to the reception, tell the girl (she can't be more than 17 years old) that there is no soap and someone left their sample behind. She takes care of the sample, but does not replenish the soap (which becomes a problem later, when I have to give up another urine sample).

Wait in the waiting room. Usually, shortly after coming in and doing the urine, you get called back for blood pressure, drawing of blood, weighing etc. They left me until the doctor called me in, at which point he proceeded to ask me stupid questions, as if I haven't been in every 4 weeks since January and then said my urine was 3x's positive, did I use the first strain of urine? He never bothered to tell me NOT to use the first strain, what tha means, or WHAT 3x's positive means. He then sent me over to the exam table, told me to undress so he could check my cervix and went BACK to his desk and left me there. hm. Then asked me AGAIN about my rubella vaccination. Finally came in, checked my cervix, mumbled something I didn't understand, told me to get dressed and proceeded not to hear me when I asked both about BH ctx and pelvic floor pains.

Sent me into the side room where I got hooked up to the heart & ctx monitor (CTG). The girl who hooked me up didn't look at the paper, didn't see that it was RED with a big STOP on it, left me over 10 mins before someone else came in, saw that the machine had run out of paper, and I got to go through the whole thing again.

The woman who was drawing blood couldn't do it while I was sitting, so we had to wait for the CTG to finish, then she made me lie down, took blood, then blood pressure, made me get on the scale and then I got to do another urine sample. Let me again stress, that NO ONE told me there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.

I got a lecture on using the MIDDLE STRAIN of urine (had to ask what that meant) and was then told my urine is infected, do I want pills? Um, what does that MEAN, my urine is infected? Something is in it (the something was explained, but i didn't understand it). I still don't know what that means, that my urine is infected, but I was told to get bladder tea. What is THAT? My doctor proceeds to explain what tea is. Um, duh. I KNOW what tea is, just what is bladder tea? He gave it up as a bad job and had them write me out a prescription for something else instead. I have to go back next week and give them another urine sample. And speaking of going back, why is that they only want to see me every THREE weeks anyway? I thought it was every 2 weeks by this point?

On to the prescription, the pharmacy didn't have it and had to order it, I asked what exactly it was that I was being ordered? She said it was pills to reduce my blood pressure. Um, WHAT?! I told her that I was supposed to be getting something for infected urine, not blood pressure. Back and Forth, the precription was written wrong. GREAT. Got it figured out, ordered, unfortunately, it won't be in until 6pm, they close at 6:30 and the place is not close at all, I just stopped by there on my way from subway to bus before going home.

Had a 20 min wait for the bus after that (had already waited 20 mins for the Sbahn because I went to the Dresdner Bank to cash that BHG check from ages ago - another stupid event as the guy was half-clueless about HOW to go about it, and cashing it wasn't an option, i had to get it put into my account, and therefore missed my train) and just finally got home. I called Sven to see if he could come home early and drive me back to the pharmacy before it closes and in the process, all my frustration came tumbling out in a good cry, making me incoherent on the phone. Poor Sven.

After my life calms down and I've gotten my prescription and gone to the P.O. to pick up a package waiting for me, which is NOT the one I ordered from Ebay because the idiots there messed up my order and sent it to someone named 'Antje Riese' instead, I will give you a breakdown of the past weekend, which also had it's ups and downs.

Posted at 04:00 pm by zauber-a
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We're off to Neugersdorf for the weekend. Should be....interesting. This is an area of Eastern Germany where Ute was born and grew up, they say their 'r's' like us Americans! Ute, Rainer, Grit, Annegrit and Ben are already there, the kids sounded excited to see us again, it's been a year!

In other news, I'm starting to get comment-spam. Not happy about this, not sure how it's happening. They think they are sneaky, putting the comments on really old posts, but I catch them (and delete them).

One more thing, in case she stops by any time soon, a big ol' HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, Terrie!! I hope it's a happy one with lots of fun and goodies!!

Posted at 11:53 am by zauber-a
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That's right, my copy of the CK HOF Vol. 7 finally arrived this morning, so you will hear no more whining from me on that front. It came, I read, I laughed, I cried, it was fabulous. And now it's over, but WHAT a ride!

I do have to whine on another front though, and that would be pelvic pain. The wondefully informative pregnant pubsters over at 2P's assure me it's ligament-stretching, making more room for G, all I know is that the pain is so bad I can hardly walk and will it ever end?!

And on that note, I think I'll go lay myself down on the couch and watch "What's my Line Part 2", because how better can one spend her time on a rainy afternoon with ligament pain?!

Posted at 04:02 pm by zauber-a
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How can I tell whether the baby has the hiccoughs, or is just making erractic-to-regular taps in my tummy? What do they feel like? Come on experienced women, help me out! I was noticing the other night, that G seemed to be tapping me fairly steadily, but not the hard pushing and squirming she does, now that she is bigger, rather a very light gurgle-bump, like she felt way back in week 19. Something you wouldn't notice from the outside, and I got to wondering: maybe she has the hiccoughs? Maybe this is what it feels like? If that is the case, she gets them quite often!

Posted at 04:15 pm by zauber-a
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So you know how they say to play lots of Mozart and Vivaldi for baby? How children who listen to Mozart are smarter, maybe even calmer than those who don't? Yah, that's what they say. So I thought today I'll remove

An Irish Lullaby by Padraigin Ni Uallachain and put in some good, brain stimulating Mozart. I chose Mozart over Vivaldi because I knew I had nothing from Vivaldi, nothing. I've been told not to buy 'Baby Mozart' because a friend wants to lend it to me, and in all honesty, I even considered thumbing my nose at Baby Mozart, because I, I was a classical musician. I have a perfectly good library of classical music to choose from in order to stimulate my baby's brain...What did I discover? I am a classical music snob! You want music by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky...oh hell, any Russian composer, then I am so at your service. Piano Concertos, Symphonies...but Mozart? Vivaldi? Oops. Nothing doing. I have The Marriage of Figaro, highlights out of Don Giovanni and well, that's it. I have a feeling, when they say to play Mozart, they don't mean opera. And I am positive that I have some cassettes back in Woodinville with Mozart on them, hell, I KNOW I have Amadeus on cassette somewhere. Now THAT would be worth having, maybe it's time to go pep up my wishlist at Amazon!

In the meantime, poor G will have to suffer through more Irish and Celtic Lullabies and the occasional piano concerto, though I will not subject her to the Russian Composers, even I know they are a bit too intense, because her Momma is a total classical music snob!

Welcome any suggestions for composer compilations that are not titled: Baby Mozart...as I'd like us all to have no qualms listening to the music when we are no longer babies...! Oh, and in case you were wondering, I do have Bach. Oh do I have Bach, but I can't bring myself to put Bach in the CD-player. I just cannot do it...apologies to Bach-lovers, I told you I was a snob!

Posted at 11:11 am by zauber-a
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bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, eyes snap open, hand waves through the air trying to hit the source of the high-pitched whining that seems to be right in my ear. I grope for my glasses: 4:30am. Damn mosquito. Get up, go to the bathroom, turn on the light and look for the offending mosquito. There it is! Grab a pamphlet: WHACK! Damn, missed! Lay down again. Stomach is silent, but veeeery empty. 5:30am. Forget it, I'm getting up. Eat something, turn on the computer (what would I do without it?)

Exciting news, a CK newsflash (bear with me while I shed the modesty-mask for an entry):

Sneak previews of the HOF Vol. 7!!! Preorders are shipping (not that I preordered) and it's getting more and more real every day. I guess this also means it's all coming to its end but still, yay! So giddy, and a bit anticipatory (I have no idea who the lucky ducks are, that will have featured layouts online for the sneak preview), I click on the link and look at page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5...!!! There! I'm in! I made it!

Not my favorite layout of the bunch, in fact, it's probably my least-favorite of my whole entry, and the very last one I did, but who's complaining? I made it! I'm in! Giddy. Yup. It's almost time. Another week, maybe two and it'll be here! So excited.

Yes, I am awake way, way, way too early and my stomach is giving me problems. Still excited, giddy. Time to learn a new word?!

Posted at 07:40 am by zauber-a
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Can it be? Can my morning sickness be returning? Say it ain't so!!! But seriously, my tummy is starting to feel an awful lot like it did back in the first trimester, a sort of steady nausea that is relieved only so long as I am eating and goes back to feeling like blech as soon as I stop eating. Add to this a steady ache on my left inside thigh/groin muscle, aching legs during the night and continually worse indigestion and you've got one unhappy girl on your hands.

Seriously ready to be done with this!

Posted at 07:57 pm by zauber-a
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On August 4th, G weighed 1,404grams, that's about 3.09 pounds. According to pregnancy.org, that is right on. Their pregnancy calendar for August 5th (one day after we were at the doctors) reads: Baby weighs 1,420 grams and is about 38 cm in length (3.1 pounds; 14.9 inches).

So, little active G would appear to be right on schedule and still expected (happily) on the 16th of October, despite doctors telling me to expect her on the 10th and that she is 31 weeks old when she's really only 29. And with that, I leave you with some belly shots in the 31st week. Just click on the link to go to the set at flickr and you can see about 5 shots taken today in the back garden by Sven, as well as the 24-week shot for comparison. I changed them to black and white, though it was a tough call, since the sun was shining and it's all loverly and green, but the black and whites just caught my fancy and so they stay.

p.s. - yes, I know the heart is a cliche, but who can resist when it's their turn to do belly shots?!

Posted at 01:08 pm by zauber-a
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