Just a quick note to let you know I am off work now. My doctor put me on what we call “Beschaeftigungsverbot” in German. It basically means I am not allowed to go back to work until some time after I have Munchkin. Got some pretty mixed emotions there, but I am actually really relieved I do not have to go back to all the stress, worry and general anxiety. The only kind of non-pregnancy stress I will experience now will be my studies at uni, as there is still at least one exam I have to take before the birth. I’ll see how that goes.

I can’t believe I will be starting into my seventh month in three days! Time to begin enjoying pregnancy while I still can, methinks.

The Laddie and I have done an awful lot of baby shopping over the last little while - my head’s still reeling from it. I think we might post a few pictures of the things we got on here soon.

I hope you’re doing wonderful out there!

Yesterday I got to see my midwife for the first time. I was a bit nervous, as I somehow expected some sort of remark regarding my weight and I just don’t do well with that kind of thing at the moment. Luckily, it turns out my midwife is not exactly slim either and is extremely nice.

We had our appointment at the hospital I’d potentially like to give birth at, as my midwife is what in German we call a ‘Beleghebamme’ - she is basically employed at the practice that I go to and is contractually bound to this particular hospital. Only patients from my doctor’s practice can have her as their midwife and she will only be present at the birth of your child if you choose to give birth at said hospital. This is a big advantage in my eyes, as it’s not common in Germany for you to have one midwife who will take care of you before, during and after the birth of your baby. The other good thing about this is that my doctor actually is the medical director of this hospital, so he, along with the midwife, would be delivering our child if I decide to go there. I feel comfortable and safe, knowing that I’d have two people I’ve known for a while around me when our daughter comes into this world.

The hospital itself is beautiful - it is Berlin’s only ‘Belegklinik’, which again means that not just anyone could go and get treated there, but you’d have to have a doctor who’s contractually bound to the hospital. The building is located beautifully, not too far from us and with a park more or less directly in front of it. Because it is a Belegklinik, they don’t have too many rooms there, which makes the whole thing feel much more cozy and homely than you would expect from a regular hospital.

So, my decision is pretty much made - should I make it past week 36 in my pregnancy (which I sincerely hope), I will be giving birth at this specific hospital. If our baby comes before that point for whatever reason, I’d be referred to a different hospital, where they have an ICU for children and also all the necessary equipment for premature babies. I am in week 23 now, let’s hope everything will continue to go ok.

Tomorrow the Laddie and I will go out shopping for a baby bed, a baby car seat and the pram. Very exciting!! I’ll probably post some pictures on here once we’ve got what we need.

Hope you’re well out there - I’m specifically thinking of Pamela and her scan today!

Here’s a little bit more information for y’all about yesterday’s scan:

Munchkin seems fine, she has grown beautifully (26 cm and 490 g at 21+6 weeks) and is really active. The doctor looked at everything on a huge screen (which the Laddie would have liked to take home with him) in much detail: the little heart, brain, stomach, liver, kidneys, torso…everything’s all developed nicely and in working order. It still amazes me how very closely you can monitor your baby’s development these days…Anyhow, our little girl is luckily unaffected by my blood pressure issues, which is a big relief.

Other than that, I am to keep an eye on my blood pressure, as the doctor might yet decide to put me on medication for that particular thing. Obviously I am to avoid excessive stress, but I am pretty sure he’s aware how hard that is in everyday life. My thyroid medication had to be adjusted, too, as I had slowly slipped back into hypothyroidism over the past few months. Also, I started taking iron supplements today, as I’ve felt extremely overwhelmed by a strange sort of tiredness lately and looking at my blood results, my doctor determined that my lack of iron is probably responsible for my sleepiness.

All in all, things are going well, I think - everything that seems to be a bit of an issue at this point can be taken care of without too much hassle and most importantly: Our ickle Munchkin is fine!

Off to finally contact a midwife, organize an appointment with the hospital I potentially want to have my baby at and ponder baby names.

Just a really quick note to let you know Munchkin is fine and:

We’re Having a Girl!

The Laddie and I are both so incredibly excited, relieved and happy. I will tell you a bit more about the scan soon, but for now I will leave you with a new picture of our little one:
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So last night I tucked the Lassie into bed (I went to bed later because I had work stuff to do) and I stroked the baby belly. Nothing happened and the Lassie told me that she was worried about the baby, because she had felt nothing all day. I then put my ear to her belly and listened for anything…

WHAM! The bugger caught me in the ear! Like the title suggests, it seems our little fella wanted me to stop eavesdropping and get back to stroking, thus the swift kick into my head.

We, or really the Lassie, found a changing table mat (which was relatively expensive) that “sorta” fits our table we also bought. I say sorta, because it hangs over about 5 cm which is seemingly acceptable, according to the baby shop people.

Our conversation about that still rings in my head.

The Lassie: “Are you going to be mad at me about the mat if anything goes wrong with Munchkin?”

Me: “If anything went wrong that’s obviously not what would matter. It’s not like the doc would say ‘I am sorry, Mr ********…’ and I’d scream ‘Damn it, we just bought a changing table mat!’”

I was very agitated and the Lassie laughed at her own weird thought process.

But it is serious too, nothing on this planet is more important than my wife and baby!

It seems I can’t stop worrying these days. On Tuesday, the next long 4D scan is coming up. We’ll find out if our Munchkin is healthy and potentially whether we’ll have a boy or a girl. I’ve been dreaming about horrible things, like our baby being either very ill or dead in my womb. I wonder where all this comes from, really. Shouldn’t I be having some natural sort of confidence in mother nature? I’m seriously trying to stay calm, but no matter how much I tell myself things are going to be fine somehow, the dreams and worries keep coming back. I am extremely anxious about this upcoming appointment. Anyway, I am trying to distract myself, rather unsuccessfully.

Things with work aren’t going so well. This past week, I’ve been trying to work things out somehow, but to no avail. My blood pressure remains way too high throughout a regular work day. I don’t want to go into much detail on what exactly is happening there, let’s just say it’s unbearable. Not just for me, really, everyone is extremely stressed out, frustrated and on the brink of collapsing - but none of them are pregnant. They can wear themselves out if they so desire, but I don’t want to do this any more. I will go and see my doctor tomorrow and see what he’ll say. Always the worrier, I feel somewhat guilty about potentially leaving the office now, but I am trying to heed doctor’s orders and be more selfish in this particular situation.

Provided things will turn out fine on Tuesday, the Laddie and I will start buying baby stuff, too. We’d already bought a baby bed online, back in November last year, but unfortunately the seller took our (and other people’s) money and shortly after told us he’d declare bankruptcy in a few days. Great. We’re operating on a strict budget here, so this thing has hit us hard. Now we’re trying to locate another decent bed that’ll last a while, but regular stores are just way too expensive. Sturdy beds start at 300 Euros (somewhat over 440 Dollars), which in addition to the money we’ve lost is just way too much. Hm. I recently spotted another bed - again, online. You can get it in regular stores too, but it’s much more expensive there, so currently I am debating with myself whether I want to take the risk of ordering online yet again. In any case, we’ll hopefully reach a decision after Tuesday concerning a few other things, too - I was told that stuff like the baby car seat, pram and certain furniture have ridiculously long delivery times.

Speaking of shopping for baby stuff, I seriously envy you Americans and Brits out there. You’ve got such a wide variety of really pretty clothes, accessories and what not. I can’t seem to escape frills or teddy bears on all things baby. As I don’t really enjoy shopping around so much, it’s really annoying for me to search in vain for even just one store that sells just what I like.

Off to bed - sleep tight!

Hello there!

As you can see, we’re finally getting things set up for our baby-related blog. Here we’ll post everything to do with Munchkin, thus hopefully avoiding boring people to death with baby stuff on our regular weight loss blog. Baby Pill is still under construction though, so bear with us. The Laddie is working on everything!

My due date is the 21st of May this year, so I am now in my sixth month. Unfortunately I am still stuffering certain not so nice side effects, including sickness and very dry skin. I personally can’t see any pregnancy ‘glow’ happening here yet, but I suppose there is still time.

A more immediate problem for me right now is my blood pressure. I’ve always had a rather low blood pressure and things were fine that way. However, ever since I announced my pregnancy to my bosses and colleagues, things have gone downhill in that area. Whenever I am at work, my blood pressure goes through the roof and remains high all during a regular work day. I was told to start being more selfish in this area (as I could potentially be hurting Munchkin and myself quite some if I don’t pay attention to our needs) and I intend to be just that. I will be back at work again next Tuesday and I will give it two weeks before I decide what to do next. Should my blood pressure not improve, I will take my doctor up on his offer to put me on sick leave. Nothing is more important to me than Munchkin’s health at this point.

We still don’t know whether Munchkin is a boy or a girl, but we’re hoping to find out on January 15th - that’s the day of our next 4 D scan. They want to check if Munchkin has developed properly and whether all organs are functioning they way they should. As I’ve miscarried before, I am always very much afraid to find out that something is wrong with my little one. The only thing keeping me relatively sane right now is feeling Munchkin kick - which the little bugger obviously does not do on a particularly regular basis, so I am always anxious there, too. Waaaahhhh! I am sure that pretty much every mommy out there was/is much more relaxed than I am in this situation.

That’s it for now, I am hoping Baby Pill will be properly up and running very soon!