A baby overseas

Well,  you probably know that I am eating for two these days. Since I am having a baby in Germany, I really wanted to use my personal blog to chronicle my personal experience receiving German maternity care. I have had three babies in the United States, so when I had the opportunity to receive care at the American hospital on base or the German hospital, I opted to go to the German hospital. I had heard really good things about delivering at the local hospital, and with Germany having a better record of maternity care than the United States, I didn't think it was that big of a gamble.

In July of 2014, when I was 4 months pregnant, we learned that I had lost the baby. We had been seen at the American hospital (I was less adventurous at this point in our stay here), and I have to say that I was treated well for the duration of my pregnancy. They were particularly accommodating in dealing with my loss. We decided to wait for quite a while before trying again, mostly because Vivi was still in the pre-terrible twos, and we wanted to figure out living here a bit before we added another baby to the mix. Not to mention, I felt we needed to heal from the loss first. I certainly don't judge those who decide to try and get pregnant right away after a loss--we just chose to wait because it was right for our family.

Anyway, we had initially planned to wait until 2016 to conceive, but I felt that I wasn't getting any younger. Montanna and I have always been incredibly lucky to conceive quickly, and this time was no exception. So, with great fear & anxiety, we discovered the news in October. I didn't want to tell anyone until I made it for a while and saw a healthy baby on the ultrasound. I knew that seeing a healthy baby at one point didn't mean that everything would be ok, but For some reason, I felt like I had to see it this time.

In November, I was able to get an appointment with my German doctor. She and the staff were so incredibly nice and kind. My first appointment consisted of the normal weight, blood pressure, and urine check. Because I was American, I was told that I would have to fill out "a lot" of paperwork, which only ended up being two short sheets of paper. Nothing like the books I am used to filling out. Then, the doctor interviewed me on my pregnancy history. This was pretty uneventful. Then, I told her I was very nervous because of what had happened, and she said, "Well, let's go look!" So, we went in, and she allowed me to take a video for my family. It was wonderful.

So, after that I appointment, I felt confident enough to share. With my previous pregnancy, I had only told a few people that I was expecting, so when I experienced the loss, it wasn't very public. I decided to go back to our old method of letting everyone know pretty early. It just felt right.

So, I shared this picture of the girls on Facebook. It was pretty exciting. From that point on we have had a fairly uneventful pregnancy, which is what you'd like! Each appointment with my doctor, every four weeks until 8 months, consists of blood pressure, weight, urine check, and ultrasound. After 16 weeks, I received what's called a "Mutterpass." It's a small book that contains all of my test results and pertinent pregnancy information. If I need to go to the emergency room anywhere in Europe, I can hand over this information to the physician and not have to rattle off all of my information while I'm in a state of distress. It's pretty cool, I think. I hope I get to keep it after I deliver.

It's no secret that we've been wanting a boy. I feel like I was a bit to preoccupied with gender in my last pregnancy. Not that my preoccupation was "why" I lost the baby, but I do think losing that baby made me especially focused on having a healthy baby and pregnancy and seeing the gender as an afterthought. Really, I was just convinced that we were having a girl. But, I thought, on the off chance that we happen to be having a boy, I wanted to find out by myself so that I could do something special to surprise Montanna. So, I went to my 16 week appointment by myself, but our silly baby was in a crazy position. Its hands were above its head, and its legs were crossed and feet up by its face. Legs were completely closed! Bummer. So, we scheduled for the next appointment (January 26th) and hoped we'd be able to see then. Well, I thought that I would make an appointment for the week prior to this appointment, but when I called the elective ultrasound place, they had an opening that day (January 8th). So, I quickly got ready and took the kids to a friend's house. Well, after waiting thirty minutes, they called me back into the room, and the doctor told us...

It's a boy! Holy cow! I couldn't believe it. In fact, I kept telling the doctor this, and he'd say to me, "Well, I don't know what this little dangling thing is, I only deal with women." He was really funny. So, I took this photographic evidence, picked up the kids, and we went to buy a little boy present and go surprise Daddy. I bought this little set that said, "Future #1 Draft Pick" (we're pretty big football fans). I put that outfit and the ultrasound pictures in a gift bag with pink tissue paper in it. When he pulled out the shirt he said something like, "A girl draft pick?" I know he was thinking that I would come up with some feminist thing about girls of the future being able to play football/be drafted, haha. So, it was pretty awesome to see him realize that I was being typical. :)

And that's about where we are now. I am just over half way done, and our little boy so far has been checking out to be super healthy and doing great, for which we are thankful every day. Being pregnant with a boy has definitely been a little different than when I was pregnant with the girls. I am definitely less emotional (lack of extra extra estrogen?). I have had a few more tummy troubles than usual. And I seem to be carrying a lot higher than I usually do. I do think being pregnant several times lends you an interesting familiarity that you generally don't get when you're pregnant once or twice. I definitely feel like I know what to expect, and I suppose I have an easier time planning around it.

I'm definitely excited to welcome a baby boy to our household in June!

Approximately 21 weeks.