My mind has been a little consumed with baby prep here, and I’ve been terribly neglectful of the blog. And now that I am getting around to writing a post, you will just have to put up with another baby post since that is what is on my mind.

Overall the pregnancy has been going quite well with very little issues. But, it does occur to me sometimes that being pregnant is not easy. My energy level is low, I need a nap almost every day, and there is always something that hurts. But I really have very little to complain about and I love watching my belly grow and feeling the baby move, and I’m thankful that it has gone so smoothly. In fact, I’ve even almost completely avoided some issues that plagued me in other pregnancies, like lower back problems and carpal tunnel syndrome. I occasionally wake with my lower back feeling iffy, but so far walking has worked to loosen everything back up again. And I am just now beginning to feel just a twinge of warning of carpal tunnel, but I’m hoping that the baby will come before that gets bad enough to be an all day thing.

Emotionally I am also doing very well. At the beginning of this pregnancy I became aware of the fact that I may be dealing with what is termed antepartum depression (or more specifically in my case, antepartum anxiety). This is similar to postpartum depression and anxiety, only it occurs during the pregnancy. I really didn’t know that was a specific thing until I had a panic attack during the first few weeks of pregnancy and started doing some research to figure out what was going on. As most of you know, I have always dealt with some level of postpartum depression/anxiety after each birth. Looking back I think I even dealt with a bit of anxiety during Will’s pregnancy as well, so this isn’t completely new to me. But it was a surprise and an eye opener for us when it happened.

After pregnancy I have relied on anti-depressants to help me get through the postpartum period. But after doing some research and seeking advice, we felt uncomfortable with using anti-depressants now, during the pregnancy, because of the potential side effects for the baby. So, knowing I needed a plan in place to make it through nine months without them, I began seeing a counselor once a week. Amazingly, just before we arrived in Germany the position of woman counselor was filled for TeachBeyond. I know she isn’t here just for me, but it has been a tremendous blessing to be able to have free weekly appointments with this godly woman who I can now also count as my friend.

I want to thank all of you have been praying specifically for this issue for me. It turned out that I had very little anxiety all through the second trimester, which is when we moved. I was surprised that the initial transition here was so easy, since I had anticipated it being quite hard. The third trimester brought back some of the initial struggles, but they have been for the most part quite manageable. And for some reason the last couple of weeks I’ve felt great. I do intend to start taking anti-depressants starting next week with the hope that I can get enough in my system to help me tread the waters of postpartum depression without feeling like I’m drowning those first few days. Over a short period of time, there is very little risk for the baby, but please pray extra protection for the baby during that time.

Monday marks 38 weeks in the pregnancy, which means according to the doctors I am definitely full-term. Anytime in the next 4 weeks is considered normal timing for the baby to arrive. I have tended to carry my pregnancies past the due date (except for Will who came 1 week before the due date), so we still probably have a few weeks, but we are trying to be ready. We bought a used crib from someone who is leaving Germany, and we have collected quite a few free things from people generous enough to pass on the baby things they are no longer using. We still have some organizing and packing for the hospital to do, but I am feeling that we are a bit closer to being prepared for this little one to arrive.

We are all (except Will, who claims he is dreading the baby’s arrival, though I’m not sure if I believe him or not) very excited. I am having a hard time picturing life with an infant as it has been a long time since we’ve lived that life, but I’m sure it will come back to me. I am also feeling excited to experience the birthing process here in Germany as I agree quite heartily with their philosophy of childbirth. I am missing my doctor and midwife at home though, as here there is not the same level of relationship built with your ob or in my case with the midwife as I have one to see me before and after but I’ll have just whoever happens to be on call deliver me in the hospital. But, as we tell our kids, different is not bad, it is just different. So I am taking one difference at a time and trying to learn what I can to be prepared for this huge life change coming our way.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been great at updating the blog lately. The last two weeks have been Spring Break for the kids. Even John finished up his language class and had a break before officially starting work with TeachBeyond. So we spent the time mostly relaxing and enjoying a few outings. We even got to spend some time with our friends the Greathouses.

The weather unfortunately was not very spring-like. We hear from Germans and Americans alike that this weather has been quite odd and frustrating for this late in the year. This week promises to start getting warm and then hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy an actual Spring in Germany. We are all ready for it.

John’s time off meant we accomplished some things that had been on hold for us. We bought a van! It’s a old VW 8 passenger van and we’ve enjoyed a couple shopping trips in it already. Thanks to the Greathouses we were able to figure out the buying/registering process. And thanks again to the Greathouses, who were selling a great bed, John and I are now no longer sleeping on the floor.

This week John has been setting up meetings and starting plans for work with TeachBeyond, as well as getting both his home office and work office set up. Will started back to Kindergarten, but then unfortunately caught a stomach bug that is making its way through the Kindergarten. In fact so many teachers and kids were ill that they have closed the Kindergarten for the rest of the week. Thankfully Will seems to be improving pretty quickly. Elise started her week with a 4th grade retreat in the Black Forest. She will get back later this afternoon, so I don’t know yet how it went from her point of view, but I did get a glowing report from her teacher. Seth and I are attempting to get back into our regular weekly schedule as well as thinking through ways to interact more with others in the community.

I’ve included some pictures, most of them are actually from an outing we took before Spring break on a rare warm day. We went to the castle ruins in Lörrach, which is a city very near here.

Last week, I had my second appointment with the OB here and also met his wife, who is the midwife. The midwife did part of my appointment and the doctor did the other part. I was sure this appointment couldn’t be as long as last time, but I was wrong, it was 2 hours long again, although most of it was not spent in the waiting room this time.

The first thing they had me do was lie down with a heartbeat monitor and what I assume was a contraction monitor. Apparently this is a normal test here for 24 weeks along. Instead of just listening to the heartbeat, they hooked me up to the monitor and I had to stay there for probably about 30 minutes. At least it was relaxing. The baby’s heart-rate (when the baby cooperated and didn’t move away from the monitor) started out running around 140 bpm, but towards the end I started feeling all sorts of little kicks and punches and movements and the heart-rate went up to 150. Either way, perfectly normal. The other monitor showed no change, so I assume that means I am having no contractions.

Then they did the normal weight and blood pressure checks. When I came home I converted my weight from kg to pounds to see how much I weigh now. I kind of wish I had just left it in kg, it sounds so much better. 🙂 I don’t have a good record of my weight before, but I think I’ve gained about 15 lbs, which I suppose isn’t too bad. I don’t feel like I’ve been noticeably gaining, so I guess I should just be content that things are progressing as they should.

After another short wait, the doctor was ready to see me. He checked my cervix length again and said it was way over the recommended thickness, so no chance of preterm labor. He did another ultrasound as well and the baby looked great. He/she is still breech, but that isn’t worrisome at this point. I think it is funny that they do this since I don’t believe it can be terribly accurate, but the doctor took the ultrasound measurements and gave me an estimate of the baby’s weight and length. According to his estimate the baby weighs about 1.5 lbs and is almost 12 inches long. Again, I don’t think that is a terribly accurate way to measure it, but if he’s close, the baby is normal size for this point in the pregnancy (although possibly a bit short, but as we know there are obviously some short genes in my family).

We discussed Emma’s problems again and the doctor has decided that he would really like me to go get a specialized ultrasound to check the heart. Today we got a good look at all 4 chambers and he said he can almost guarantee there are no large heart defects. But he would feel better having a specialist do a better ultrasound to rule out the possibility of the same heart issues Emma had. I’m not worried about it, but I am willing to go to Freiburg to get the ultrasound if insurance will cover it, which they say they will. So on Thursday I’ll be venturing out with the boys on an adventure in Freiburg using both public transportation and our feet. Too bad it’s going to be cold that day.

P.S. I’ll try to get a better pregnancy photo to show, but this one will have to do for now. Plus now you can see my wonderful maternity jacket that I was able to find here.

I know many of you were probably wondering why I wrote a whole blog post about Will’s Kindergarten experience and haven’t mentioned anything on here yet about Elise’s school. Part of the reason was that Will’s was easier to write. Elise has experienced so much in the week and a half that she’s been attending school, I’m not even sure where to start.

Every school day around 8:30 in the morning, she and I (and now Will) walk the two minutes down our street, across one of the main streets in town, and into the Blumenplatz where a large city bus picks up the elementary students. Once she gets on the bus, I’m afraid I don’t know much about her day other than the schedule I have from the teacher. Just before 4 each day we traipse back down to the bus stop in all kinds of weather (yesterday it was snowing quite hard), to meet the returning bus.

Elise usually has several important things to share with me about her day. These moments right after meeting her and the short walk home is usually full of her excited retelling of the highlights of her day. Occasionally more things will come out later as she thinks of them.

The first day one of the main highlights was one of her classmates coming up to her during snack-time and giving her a piece of cake. On possibly the second day of class as I was cleaning up the kitchen and she was sitting at the table she looked up suddenly and asked, “Mom do you know what rechter Winkel is?” I, of course, had no idea. “It means right angle,” she replied. In science the students are studying the solar system. Elise had tons of fun at the planetarium in Freiburg on just her second day of school. Part of their assignment after the trip was for each group of 4 students to make their own planet model. Elise described in detail how they were going to do theirs and that she was the one to come up with the idea.

Two days ago her normal PE teacher was out due to an injury and the substitutes that came in did gymnastics for PE. Elise came home glowing as she shared how much fun she had. She described how the teachers were teaching the students how to do falls correctly, and I asked her if she did well (knowing that she is quite skilled at gymnastics). “I was the one showing the other students how to do it,” was her reply. (I later got a very good report of her gymnastic skills from the substitute teacher herself).

As I said, these snippets from her day give me just a little peak into how she is doing in school and I am pleased that she seems to be adjusting quite well. We’ve had some mishaps with forgotten items. Elise has never before had to be responsible to remember homework assignments and lunch boxes and she’s had some adjusting to do to remember everything she is supposed to. I’ve recently began to sort through her backpack each day to make sure she has told me about all her homework assignments, because she is notorious for forgetting them or for not really knowing what they were in the first place. It doesn’t help of course that sometimes her assignments are given in German. Thankfully she really doesn’t have that much homework to do and we are settling into a good routine to make sure it gets done.

The hardest part of the day is usually right after we get home. Elise is understandably exhausted from her day at school and she has had a hard time dealing emotionally with anything that is the slightest bit frustrating or hard. You can pray for that bit of time for her. Usually she will eventually pull it together. Thankfully she doesn’t fall apart at the mention of homework after supper anymore. She is finally used to the idea that she’ll need to do a little bit each day, and that it isn’t much, usually isn’t hard, and sometimes can even be fun. The grades I’ve seen have all be excellent, by the way. Though admittedly I only see the grades from her English teacher. I have no idea how the other subjects are going, but based on the little bits she shares with me she is understanding the math concepts even if she doesn’t understand the German and I think they are giving her different assignments than the others in German. I will hopefully find out a bit more next week when we have parent/teacher conferences.

Thanks for your many prayers on Elise’s behalf. She really has been adjusting much better than I anticipated, not only to school, but also to being far away from family and friends. Continue to pray over the next few months as I know there could be more processing to deal with later once life starts to settle into a better routine, but for now she is doing very well.

Will’s first day in German Kindergarten was yesterday. While he and I waited at the bus stop for Elise to be picked up, one of the German moms asked me what Kindergarten was in English. I explained that it is the same word in both languages. But despite the fact that we have taken the German’s word for Kindergarten, I do not think that our US Kindergartens resemble the ones in Germany.

I was scheduled this morning to go with Will for a shortened morning and stay with him from 10-11:30 to make sure he was comfortable. But by about 10:15, after I had been given the tour, the teacher told me she thought Will was doing fine and I was free to leave. She gave me a full report when I came to pick him up at 12, including a list of all the things he had done and what he had eaten. Even though Will doesn’t seem to need the extra slow start to get acclimated, I do appreciate that they are taking the care to make sure both mom and child are feeling good about the transition.

German Kindergarten appears to be closer in likeness to a US preschool or daycare. The normal Kindergarten hours are from 9-12 each weekday. But they do allow extended hours for a higher price for parents who wish their kids to be watched all day. The Kindergarten hours have very little structure to them. From what I can gather from observation, the intent of Kindergarten is to give kids a safe place to explore their world by themselves with very little intervention. I assume the expectation is that they will learn social skills, creativity, and self-expression.

Shortly after 9 when the majority of the kids are dropped off, there is a circle time which includes songs and some structured learning, such as the calendar. This only last for about 15 minutes I believe and then they are all free to explore any of the rooms in the building. I got the tour today when I took Will for his first day. His group officially starts in the toy room (it’s not actually called this, but I don’t remember the name). Basically the room is filled with all sorts of creative building and imaginative toys. The other rooms are the role-playing room (full of costumes, toy kitchen, etc), the painting room, and the game room (which includes games and books). There is also a gym, but I think the use of that is more scheduled. Last, but not least is the kitchen, which is open until 11. The children are encouraged to go to the kitchen when they are hungry and fill their own plates with a snack. There is always adult supervision in all of the rooms and each “group” of kids has two teachers assigned to them. But in general it seems that the kids are allowed to order their own play.

There is also a large playground outside called the “garden.” I think that was Will’s favorite part as there was lots of slushy snow this morning to play in. The children are all required to have snow or rain gear and boots if they want to go outside, which is nice because otherwise I am sure Will would have come home very wet, based on the stories he was telling me from his outdoor play.

Our hope for Will in Kindergarten is that despite the fact that this is not very like “school,” the scheduled away time from home each morning will help prepare him for 1st grade next year. We also hope he’ll start picking up some German from the teachers and the other German kids. And of course, as our kids get involved in the community, it gives us a chance to meet German families and get outside of our little circle.

I feel like I have so much to blog about lately, but unfortunately it would take forever to share every little detail of our lives these past few days. It’s funny how a transition like this makes every detail of your lives feel worth sharing though, so if you want to hear more details feel free to email for more.
Since I can’t share everything right now, I’ll start with our travel as promised. I was hoping that I would have tons of tidbits of information to share for those of you looking forward to travelling internationally with small children in the future, but I’m not sure I learned much. All I can tell you is how it went for us and that we survived.
Actually things went pretty well. We drove all the way from Sioam Springs to Dallas, because that saved us one leg of the trip and insured that all our baggage could make it on the airplane.The car ride was like any long car ride, kids went back and forth between being bored, being loud and being entertained. We are thankful for all the extra special new coloring books and things that were given to us for the trip. I didn’t let the kids open them until it was light enough to see in the car. Those helped pass some of the hours.
We had planned on getting there early, which we did. We thought (somewhat foolishly) that we would check the baggage and then have time to leave the airport to get lunch with John’s parents, who had driven us down. Thankfully we realized after we followed the maze of roads through the massive Dallas airport that we wouldn’t want to try to get out and back in again. So we said good-bye at the door after all our baggage was loaded onto carts by two very helpful porters.
Since we got there early, there were no check-in lines for British Air and we were able to get all the bags checked without issue. Of course by the time they were done there was a line behind us just because it took so long. Then because there must not have been tons of flights leaving yet, we were able to speed through security as well. “Speed” being a relative term as 10 carry-ons and 3 kids does slow things down quite a bit. The airport personnel were extremely nice and gave us our luggage carts back after security so that we wouldn’t have to carry all 10 bags on our own.
We had plenty of time to eat lunch and find our gate. I even fell asleep for about half an hour as we waited for boarding. We took the option to early board with the kids so we could deal with the luggage without being crowded.
While waiting to take off, we let the kids open the gifts we had saved for the plane (the ones from Miss Barb that they had been begging to open since we left the house). Those helped pass the time and I knew Barb had included gum for takeoff. We let the kids watch a movie after takeoff as we waited for supper and then after supper the boys went straight to sleep. We hadn’t let them nap that whole day (other than Seth’s impromptu 10 minute nap right before we reached the airport) or the day before, so they were super tired. Elise, who is old enough to deal with both the discomfort of airline seats and the over-excitement of the journey had a harder time. For her, I decided to use melatonin when she started to get worked up about the fact that she couldn’t sleep. John did not sleep, but I was able to doze on and off throughout the flight.
I think the hardest part of the trip was the next bit – London Heathrow. Actually, London Heathrow is a nice airport and in general I don’t have any complaints except for the confusing directions to get to the right terminal. We thankfully knew where to go having travelled this route before. The hard part was the fact that the kids bodies were still telling them it was night-time and we had no carts for the bags. We also only had 1 1/2 hours to get through security and to our next gate. So if you can imagine us trying to hurry with three tired kids each wearing a very heavy (at least in kids’ terms) backpack, while trying to roll 5 suitcases you can imagine it wasn’t the high point of the trip. Will was the most helpful and never complained. But Seth eventually gave up on the backpack carrying and kept asking for water, which of course we didn’t have since we were about to go through security. Elise also had a hard time carrying a backpack that far, but she made it. Thankfully, because of our obvious need for help, the airport personnel waved us through to the fast pass lane, which means that we bypassed the “pre-security” area that they have and we only had to go through the main security line. They also offered to check our rolling baggage since we’d be on a smaller plane. We very gratefully accepted their offer. So security went smoother as we only had the 5 backpacks and the kids. And in London they don’t always make you take off your shoes, and so they let us go through without that extra hassle as well. The security personnel were extremely friendly to the kids as well. It was a pleasant experience.
We made it to our gate with just enough time for a bathroom visit before boarding started. The next flight was relatively easy, though Elise did start getting nauseous. The Basel airport is actually very low key, which is nice since that is where we were to do customs. The first difficulty that we had there was that Will got separated from us on one side of an automatic one-way door that for some reason wouldn’t open for him. He had to wait several minutes for someone to come help as we couldn’t get to him. He was pretty scared until he realized we weren’t going to leave him and then he stoically waited in his courageous fashion. The second difficulty just had to do with the sheer volume of bags we had to get from the baggage claim out the door. Thankfully customs is almost non-existent in this airport. You just have to walk down the green line that says “nothing to declare” and you are out. The hard part for us is that we had about 6 carts of baggage (which we couldn’t all roll at once) and once you exit customs you can’t come back. So I had to take the kids through first and John passed the carts through the door. Someone had told us we could ask for help, but neither of us felt courageous enough to try to find the office and stumble over German. Thankfully once out the exit our host family was waiting for us and helped us get the bagage to the van and loaded.
So here are the few words of advice I have:
-Make sure to arrive early at the airport, especially if you have more than the normal amount of luggage.
-Pack (if you are not given) special gifts for the kids to open on the plane with some new exciting activities, gum, snack, etc.
-Bring your children’s special loveys or blankets to help them feel comfortable enough to sleep.
-Take advantage of porters (they did most of the check-in work for us) when they are available.
-Take advantage of luggage carts for carry-ons. Even if you can possibly carry all the luggage, it makes it much easier if you can roll it on a cart when you have the chance. There will be plenty of times where you will not have that chance and you will be thankful for taking the opportunity when you had it.
-If you can get by with less carry on luggage, I would suggest you try. Ten bags was not fun, but we did make it, so it is possible.
-Bring gum for the kids, and make sure you keep it where you can find it, we misplaced ours for the second flight. Thankfully all the kids were fine as we taught them a few more tricks to relieve pressure.
-It helps if you know the airports already, so if you don’t perhaps talk to people that have travelled through them to get helpful tips and the basic rundown of the routes you will need to take to get between terminals.
-Smile a lot, people will probably respond better to your family and large amount of baggage.
-Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
-Give your kids lots of grace.

On Thursday I had my second midwife appointment to check on the progress of the pregnancy. Everything looked normal and we got to hear the strong little heartbeat again. I am measuring right on track now. I took Elise with me this time and she took this picture of me holding a 16 week model to show how big the baby is now. Seth appreciated the picture, but he was disappointed we didn’t bring the little “doll” home. We also recorded the heartbeat this time so the boys could hear it.

People ask me all the time how I am feeling, and the answer is, most of the time fairly normal. I am past the first trimester morning sickness, but I have occasional bouts of nausea and have started experiencing some headaches. But all in all, things are greatly improved over what they were just a few weeks ago.