Today I met our obstetrician who is surprisingly short, but is very well spoken and sympathetic, and has very small hands, which I think must be an advantage in his profession. He listened and suggested ideas with exactly the right manner; not too condescendingly simplified, but without assuming too much either.
The other big landmark of the day was that I had breakfast! This is the first breakfast I have been able to "keep" for the last two months! Maybe this is it - the beginning of the end of the nausea! Yay! (And not before time either, since I have to work this weekend.)
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Pregnancy week 12
We had our ultrasound today! It was so exciting, and somehow made it seem more "real" to see the baby right there on the screen. It moved in response to the pressure of the probe on my abdomen, curling up its legs and turning over. It would be lovely to be able to name the baby, but of course we still don't know what kind of name (boy or girl) and I don't think we want to know.
I wonder a bit about the 20 week ultrasound, because since Dean and I can both read ultrasounds it means we shouldn't look at all if we really want to keep the sex of the baby a surprise. Although having seen this quick ultrasound I would love to have another look!
It's funny that all the breast soreness and vomiting hasn't made it as "real" a ten minute image on the screen. I can sympathize with Tom Cruise buying his own ultrasound machine so he could look at his baby a bit more.
Also, I was very pleased to have my dates confirmed exactly on the ultrasound. I knew I got it right! On the other hand, this also confirms our due date for Jan 1st. The way I feel at the moment I want to stop work straight away! I can't imagine working through until November or December! Ugh! I hope the nausea stops soon.
I wonder a bit about the 20 week ultrasound, because since Dean and I can both read ultrasounds it means we shouldn't look at all if we really want to keep the sex of the baby a surprise. Although having seen this quick ultrasound I would love to have another look!
It's funny that all the breast soreness and vomiting hasn't made it as "real" a ten minute image on the screen. I can sympathize with Tom Cruise buying his own ultrasound machine so he could look at his baby a bit more.
Also, I was very pleased to have my dates confirmed exactly on the ultrasound. I knew I got it right! On the other hand, this also confirms our due date for Jan 1st. The way I feel at the moment I want to stop work straight away! I can't imagine working through until November or December! Ugh! I hope the nausea stops soon.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Munich, Neuschwanstein and Dachau
I wish Helen had decided to come with us for a weekend in Munich - I hadn't realized how much we had been relying on her to talk for us in restaurants! We arrived in Munich and discovered that we couldn't even say "a table for two, please". Not a brilliant effort for two supposedly cosmopolitan and well-travelled people. I can always say I feel too sick to concentrate, but I don't know what Dean's excuse is.
We have walked though Munich, seen the clockwork on the tower, visited the palace, marketplace and the cathedral and decided not to do a Hitler tour. Apparently Munich is where he got started, so there are lots of walking tours around which point out the highlights of Hitler's career. We did go to the Hofbrauhaus and Dean had a litre of beer, which is the smallest glass they serve it in! The serving people really do carry 8 litres at a time - 4 glasses in each hand.
We took one day to visit Neuschwanstein (New Swan Castle) which was built by Mad King Ludwig and, exactly as advertised, has swans all through it in the architecture. Every room has a theme - one of Wagner's operas. If you knew them all, you could read all the stories around every room. From the ouside, the castle is the true fantasy castle as popularized by Walt Disney as the "Sleeping Beauty" castle. It also has the perfect setting, being built on top of a mountain, near a lake (Swan Lake, of course) and also near a tiny metal bridge over a waterfall. Since the building is less than 100 years old, it also has all the modern conveniences of electricity and plumbing, so maybe Ludwig wasn't that mad after all.
For a complete change of pace, the next day we went to Dachau, which was the original concentration camp of the Nazi regime where all the future guards and leaders of the other concentration camps were trained. Some of the stories from there were bizarre and all were chilling. I find it difficult to understand how people could do all that to other people. The medical experiments alone were sickening, let alone the actual torture inflicted. The strange part is that none of it seemed to have any point. Most of the work was make-work, like digging holes and then filling them in again, or doing star-jumps in a winter coat in the middle of summer. Pointless. Apparently because of the risk of sabotage very little real work was entrusted to the inmates.
At the end of the war, the government was keen to plough Dachau into the ground and try to forget that it ever happened, but there were some survivors who insisted on setting up a memorial there. Interestingly, the memorials very much reflect the politics of what was going on at the time. The memorials set up in the 60's don't commemorate the gypsies, homeless or homosexuals, as there were still considered "undesirables" by the government at the time. Reminds me of Animal Farm, where all are equal, but some are more equal than others...
We have walked though Munich, seen the clockwork on the tower, visited the palace, marketplace and the cathedral and decided not to do a Hitler tour. Apparently Munich is where he got started, so there are lots of walking tours around which point out the highlights of Hitler's career. We did go to the Hofbrauhaus and Dean had a litre of beer, which is the smallest glass they serve it in! The serving people really do carry 8 litres at a time - 4 glasses in each hand.
We took one day to visit Neuschwanstein (New Swan Castle) which was built by Mad King Ludwig and, exactly as advertised, has swans all through it in the architecture. Every room has a theme - one of Wagner's operas. If you knew them all, you could read all the stories around every room. From the ouside, the castle is the true fantasy castle as popularized by Walt Disney as the "Sleeping Beauty" castle. It also has the perfect setting, being built on top of a mountain, near a lake (Swan Lake, of course) and also near a tiny metal bridge over a waterfall. Since the building is less than 100 years old, it also has all the modern conveniences of electricity and plumbing, so maybe Ludwig wasn't that mad after all.
For a complete change of pace, the next day we went to Dachau, which was the original concentration camp of the Nazi regime where all the future guards and leaders of the other concentration camps were trained. Some of the stories from there were bizarre and all were chilling. I find it difficult to understand how people could do all that to other people. The medical experiments alone were sickening, let alone the actual torture inflicted. The strange part is that none of it seemed to have any point. Most of the work was make-work, like digging holes and then filling them in again, or doing star-jumps in a winter coat in the middle of summer. Pointless. Apparently because of the risk of sabotage very little real work was entrusted to the inmates.
At the end of the war, the government was keen to plough Dachau into the ground and try to forget that it ever happened, but there were some survivors who insisted on setting up a memorial there. Interestingly, the memorials very much reflect the politics of what was going on at the time. The memorials set up in the 60's don't commemorate the gypsies, homeless or homosexuals, as there were still considered "undesirables" by the government at the time. Reminds me of Animal Farm, where all are equal, but some are more equal than others...
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Stuttgart
We have spent the last week in Stuttgart with Helen and Sam. I think this baby is German! It loves sausage and sauerkraut and pretzels! The Germans certainly know how to make sausage and pretzels, so we are in the right place for it. The beer is apparently very good too, but I'm not letting the baby try beer just yet.
Helen's German is getting very good, and she has been showing us around and ordering in restaurants and finding me bathrooms and explaining to other concerned women that the food is really very good here...
Sam has applied for another year's scholarship in Germany, and I hope for his sake that it goes through and that he can continue his work here. But I hope for Helen's sake that it doesn't go through and that they can come home soon, and for my sake that Helen will be around when I finally have this baby!
Stuttgart itself is a traditional little Schwebian town. That is the name of this regional part of Germany. They have traditional Schwebian foods which are heavily Italian influenced, such as sausage meat wrapped in pasta rather like a large ravioli. They also have a rather unimpressive thing which is like macaroni and cheese which they serve with onion and (of course) sauerkraut. Potato salad is also astonishingly popular and appears beside just about every dish. Pretzels are used instead of bread, and come to the table as soon as you sit down.
My main nutrition at the moment comes from this amazing drink called Apfelschorle which is nothing more than half apple juice and half mineral or soda water. Sounds simple, but the baby loves it, so it is one of the few things I can tolerate - and I'm drinking it by the litre. Interestingly, Germany is very big on recycling, so we save all the bottles and get 30 cents back for each one returned! You really could make a living here collecting bottles, especially around the airport and other tourist places where the foreigners don't know how it works.
The Germans are very compliant with rules, though. I don't know if all the recycling bins would be respected if you tried the same thing in Melbourne. I don't know that people would take the time to work out which of the four bins each item of rubbish needs to go into and to separate them all out. Even inside McDonald's they have a person employed just to go through all the trays and separate out the different types of rubbish - now that would be a fun job!
Helen's German is getting very good, and she has been showing us around and ordering in restaurants and finding me bathrooms and explaining to other concerned women that the food is really very good here...
Sam has applied for another year's scholarship in Germany, and I hope for his sake that it goes through and that he can continue his work here. But I hope for Helen's sake that it doesn't go through and that they can come home soon, and for my sake that Helen will be around when I finally have this baby!
Stuttgart itself is a traditional little Schwebian town. That is the name of this regional part of Germany. They have traditional Schwebian foods which are heavily Italian influenced, such as sausage meat wrapped in pasta rather like a large ravioli. They also have a rather unimpressive thing which is like macaroni and cheese which they serve with onion and (of course) sauerkraut. Potato salad is also astonishingly popular and appears beside just about every dish. Pretzels are used instead of bread, and come to the table as soon as you sit down.
My main nutrition at the moment comes from this amazing drink called Apfelschorle which is nothing more than half apple juice and half mineral or soda water. Sounds simple, but the baby loves it, so it is one of the few things I can tolerate - and I'm drinking it by the litre. Interestingly, Germany is very big on recycling, so we save all the bottles and get 30 cents back for each one returned! You really could make a living here collecting bottles, especially around the airport and other tourist places where the foreigners don't know how it works.
The Germans are very compliant with rules, though. I don't know if all the recycling bins would be respected if you tried the same thing in Melbourne. I don't know that people would take the time to work out which of the four bins each item of rubbish needs to go into and to separate them all out. Even inside McDonald's they have a person employed just to go through all the trays and separate out the different types of rubbish - now that would be a fun job!
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