Almost time for baby..

As of today, I am officially 37 weeks pregnant. When I first found out I was pregnant (post complete freak out of course), I pictured myself giving birth to a bouncing baby in my mommy's hospital. I figured the hardest thing I would have to deal with would be my friends drinking beers in the visiting area. After hospital registration and my doctor's appointment this week, I realized this is not going to be the case at all.

I will be giving birth at Martin Luther Krakenhaus. It is supposed to be the top hospital in Berlin. Silly me, I expected it to be all high tech. WRONG!!!! We got to the hospital to meet the lady to register. We sat in a room with no computers. She wrote down all of my information. As we walked back to make the other appointments with the doctors there to review some of my medical history, I still didn't see any computers. Ahh, the appointment desk, I was sure they would enter that into the computer. Wrong again!! They have an appointment book. The lack of computers and use of technological advances terrifies me that they might lose my baby. I actually had quite the nervous breakdown about the thought of them losing my little princess. Luckily, Noah came to my rescue again. He promised to write D's on her before she leaves the delivery room so we know it is her when they bring her back.

Along with the lack of computers, another thing worried me. I'm supposed to hire a midwife?!?! WTF?!?! I have a doctor and a hospital, but apparently you need a midwife too. Do you know how hard it is to find a midwife when you have maybe 3 weeks left of your pregnancy? Most women book them the day they find out they're pregnant. I still haven't found one. Hopefully the world won't end if I can't get one.

Yesterday, I went back to see the doctor. My little monster was tipping the charts of the EEG machine with all of her movement, so the doctor decided she needed to do another ultrasound to make sure everything was ok in there. Everything was ok alright. Sylvia hit quite a growth spurt in the last 2 weeks! The first time she was measured, she ended up being 7lbs 6oz. The doctor thought that was a little big, so she measured her again. Her second was 7lbs 8oz. Mind you, the measurements aren't an exact science at this point, and they can end up being over or under by up to a pound. Even if she is at the smallest weight she can be, she is still about 8oz more than the average baby at her gestational age. They don't want to make any decisions about what to do with her now (Germans like things to follow their natural flow and not intervene unless it is completely necessary), but I go back in 2 weeks (if I last that long) to be measured again and make a decision on what to do. I'm really not looking forward to pushing a 10lb baby out of my vag. That just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

Needless to say, this is about to be the biggest adventure of our lives. Noah and I aren't going to get the cushion of having friends and family around for support. We're on our own over here. To quote one of my very favorite people, "Things are about to get weird..."