I am due July 2nd, that is 7 nights of sleep from today.......
....and it has been quite an amazing experience this pregnancy.
Of course pregnancies are likely all amazing so I will not divert into the all a long narrative with all the standard remarks. Just a quick note on how it has been for me being a pregnant Dutch girl in the USA.
Fortunately the pregnancy itself has been a dream, nice and easy, very few discomforts and only the happy symptoms I have had. Now I am on the home stretch though I appear to have ALL the symptoms one can have to indicate labour is imminent. Heartburn - check, difficulty sleeping and moving around - check, Braxton Hicks (false) contractions - Check, Uterine contractions - check, 'shocks' and cramps down below - check, back aches - check, leg cramps - check, smaller stomach - check, more labored breathing - check, no space left for the baby - check, over active bowels - check, nervous husband who can't wait - check, fed up with hearing 'any day now' comments - check and then all of the unattractive side effects I really do not want to write about. Don't get me wrong, I am still loving being pregnant but it has become a 24hrs / day task almost. My body is busy with all of the above ALL day...and this all right at the time that temperatures in Houston are reaching the 40 + Celcius level (and then add some more for Humidity). It does feel as if the 'grand finale' is upon me - Any day now -;)
living through the pregnancy in the US has also been an interesting way of getting to know the culture better. Herewith the most remarkable and or memorable things:
1. Our baby will be an American Citizen and have an American Passport as it will be born here
2. I do not get Maternity leave prior to the baby being born, so yes I am still working! Once I have the baby I will be pre-scribed 'disability' leave by the Doctor. By state law it cannot be called maternity leave as that would be discriminating....against men! So yu think in reality - surely - this is managed within reason, especially also considering our employer......well guess what I am still getting new work tasks as late as today for next week. Honest! If you have no medical reasons or a boss who is willing to take a little risk and work against the system - you are working till B-day, and as my father in law says - the American TV and movie scenes in which people go into labour at work would actually be very possible here.
3. Healthcare is a service and hence you need to behave like a customer or shopper - find a Dr you like or maybe you rather have a midwife, shop around for the best hospitals and pediatricians, define what you want for the birth, shop around for classes and pick healthcare providers that will agree to have things done your way - to posh to push - no worries if you want a c-section in this country you can have one - whether required or not. Want to plan your delivery date? No problem - most births are induced anyway to ensure the that the doctor you so carefully picked is actually on duty when you deliver.
4. Not everything in healthcare is a choice though - and some things are pretty odd to us. Within an hour of being born the baby will receive a state mandatory medicine in the form of eye drops - Against STD's!!! What??? Eelco tried to give blood earlier this week and was rejected (being AB+ he usually is a popular donor). He was not rejected due to some of our more recent exotic trips, he was rejected because he had lived in Europe somewhere in the last five years.....How is that a risk one might ask - well you see, we had mad cows decease in Europe, and hence Eelco is banned from giving blood in the USA indefinitely as he may have Kreuzfeld Jacob....mmm. Me and Baby J will take his blood any time if we need it....rather his then someone who has lived the last few years in Malaria area! LAst but not least - without proper insurance you are NOWHERE and if you are not registered and they are not certain that you will pay you will not be helped - so to avoid filling out reams of registration papers whilst in labour you actually need to pre-register at the hospital and get confirmed all is ok before you go in. Even with plenty of working credit cards the process can still take a while - nice when you are in distress or pain - NOT!
5. In Houston you do not have a life if you do not have a car. This presented itself also in the fact that it is virtually impossible to buy a bassinet to fit your stroller (the stroller type in which a baby can actually lie down and sleep). Turns out in Houston hardly anyone would use that as you do not go out for a walk with a baby much apparently. Fortunately turns out that the seats in my Coupe (Beamer) are actually the most comfortable for me out of all seating options I have - so I do not mind all the driving. And I still think that my stubbornness will go a long way in dealing the with impracticality of fitting a child seat on the back bench of a coupe - haha!
6. If you do not know the sex of your baby you are the odd one out here - it is hard to buy much non-gender-biased baby items here, very hard! I also found out that the hippest baby stuff tends to come from Denmark and....yes the Netherlands. Shame as most of that stuff I cannot get here.
That's it, maybe the next blog will have the first baby pictures - who knows! xx Maartje & b
