Last week, Thomas went with me to the doctor and we got to see Baguette moving around. Before all this, I had only seen ultrasound photos on the internet, so it never dawned on me that they could show movement. It was amazing! This is the email and photo that Thomas sent afterward to our families. Next time, we’ll try to videotape it.

Today I witnessed the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I quietly watched as my future offspring was asleep on the Ultrasound unit. It reminded me so much of the fact that at 08:15 on a Monday, it was usual for the mother to be asleep as well. Then the doctor gently prodded Dallas’ stomach with her fingers, and brought the creature to life before my very eyes. It wobbled around on the sonogram, as if to say “Why are you waking me up. It’s not even 8:30 yet”.

It was really quite breathtaking to see as it flailed it’s arms as if to hit the snooze button and pull the cover over it’s head for another 30 minutes of rest. The attached photo is after it rolled over and stared outward toward us. It’s one of the happiest days of my life. — Thomas

This week, on our third wedding anniversary, Thomas and I went to our first prenatal class at the Brussels Childbirth Trust, an English-speaking non-profit providing prenatal classes and children’s groups. Although quite a haul out there, it was a really good class talking about the options for giving birth in Belgium. I really enjoyed meeting other couples that were due within just a couple weeks of me. It was interesting to see some that are just a little further along and are already starting to show.

So, I learned lots of interesting things about giving birth in Belgium, and thought I’d share a few…
(Note: If you’ve given birth in Belgium and I’m confused on something here, please correct me.)

• After a healthy birth, the mother and baby stay in the hospital for a minimum of 5 days. This is mostly so the hospital midwives can check on the baby, mom, and help with any breastfeeding issues. There really is no option for leaving early.
• Like Belgian apartments, hospitals here do not have air conditioning.
• Most hospitals have active rooms, providing exercise balls, large baths, pillows, ability to move around and labor in any position you want. If you request an epidural (very common here) though, you are changed to a traditional room and put in a bed with stirrups.
• Once the baby is born, if it is healthy, it stays with the mother. There are no nurseries in the hospital.
• General Belgian insurance provides a shared room for after delivery. The mother will share with another mother and baby, as well as any guests that come to visit. Husbands cannot stay overnight in these rooms. (Luckily, Thomas’ company gives supplemental insurance providing a private single room.)
• During the birth, the only family member allowed in the delivery room is the father of the baby. There will also be the gynacologist, various midwives, and a physiotherapist cycling through.
• Belgian midwives are different from American midwives. They work for a hospital and tend to the mother during the birth, similar to how a nurse would do. They will switch at shift changes and do not deliver the baby.
• 1-3% Belgians give birth at home with an independent midwife, different from a hospital midwife. If there are complications, she will drive you to the hospital.
• The gynecologist will only arrive for the end of the labor to deliver the baby.
• Gynecologists are linked to a specific hospital, and if you would rather a different hospital, due to location, preferred language, or facilities, you would need to change gynecologists.
• The physiotherapist is available to help with the mother’s pain. Lamaze and Bradley methods are not taught here, but yoga is encouraged and TENS machines (popular in Britain) for electric shock (oww!) can be rented from the BCT.
• General Belgian insurance provides 9 massages and meetings with the physiotherapist. These can be used before or after the baby is born, and more can be prescribed by your gynecologist.
• Circumcisions of baby boys is not typically practiced in Europe.
• Episiotomies (a cut in the muscle between the vagina and the rectum) is very common here for laboring mothers, and in which case, the area will be shaved.
• At the end of your first trimester, the mother must report to her job that she is pregnant, giving her protection on not being fired. Maternity leave is 15 weeks; 7 of those weeks can be taken before; 1 must be taken before; and a minimum of 6 must be taken after. Paternity leave is 10 days.
• Many gynecologists will give a basic ultrasound at every appointment.
• You technically have 15 days to register the baby at the commune and decide on a name. Thomas was sure to ask this since he didn’t have a name for his first month.
• It is a Belgian tradition that the mother drink a good quality stout beer after birth to get her milk ducts flowing.

That was fun! :)  Got any questions?

February

March

Happy April! This baguette should be ready around Halloween…Stay tuned!

The days before Christmas, Thomas and his brother took me to downtown Stockholm where I was amazed by the great shopping. Stores were open late and I found several shops where I could have looked for much longer. I’m starting to appreciate Swedish design – clean lines, natural fibers, traditional prints. It does go beyond Ikea. :)

Downtown Stockholm

I also found some appreciation in the different holiday traditions. There were a couple dishes that Thomas’ mom made that I hope to try my hand at – bulla (saffron buns), rotmos (mashed parsnip and carrots), and rice pudding. We didn’t do it this year, but Thomas’ family used to have a tradition of making gingerbread houses  – sounds fun to me!

Fresh-baked Bulla

Along with most of Sweden, we watched the Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) Christmas Special on Christmas Eve. The mix of Disney short clips has been showing every year since the ’60s – same channel, same time.  It’s the most watched show of the year there. I was surprised to hear even a 70-year old say he was going to watch it.

Snowy Neighborhood

The other tradition I enjoyed seems to be a dying tradition, probably due to people traveling more and moving further out.  On Christmas Eve morning, we delivered small gifts to nearby friends and family. Thomas jokes that this is a chore, but I did enjoy it. And it was a great opportunity to peek inside some Swedish homes. I think it’s a really nice gesture to spend time delivering gifts to loved ones before Kalle Anka, Christmas dinner, and unwrapping presents.

Dallas and Thomas

Thomas and I haven’t had a Christmas by ourselves yet, but especially when we have kids, we’re going to need to be sure to incorporate traditions from both sides of our families. We already have some conflicts – his side opens presents on Christmas Eve, and mine on Christmas Day – but the other traditions I mentioned could easily be included.

If you’d like to see more of the photos (and a video) from our holiday in Sweden, I’ve posted them online:

• Christmas Week in Stockholm (20 photos)
• Sledding in Sweden (2.30 minutes)

P.S. I guess now that I’ve posted my Christmas in Sweden photos, I’m way overdue for my May Day in Sweden post. I will have to get right on that… :)

No, not really, the haircut was Monday. We celebrated by going out to dinner, and we spent some quality time together this last weekend in the Hallerbos Forest and at the Het Zwin Birding Reserve – pictures coming soon.

I thought these images went well with our 2nd year of marriage though.  I asked Thomas what single word he would assign to our 2nd year together…and he chose Transition.  I agree, we have gone through a huge transition together.

On the otherhand, Georgy asked me last week how our relationship had changed from moving, and I said that I don’t think it really has.  I think that we both have changed a lot individually – even flipflopping on spectrums in some things – but I don’t think our relationship has changed a lot.

Before we moved here, we both read a book about moving your marriage overseas.  The book seemed to be a horror story of lost, trapped wives who were miserable that their husbands dragged them to this foreign land.  We took the books warnings and prepared ourselves, but fortunately, that’s not the kind of experience we’ve had.  We’ve had a great time getting to know people, exploring new places, and learning to live a different kind of life together.

There was a hard time where Thomas was commuting 2-3 hours each way, to and from work. And this put a strain both on him with his work, and with our quality time together.  But last week, he got a motorcycle and his commute has dropped to 50-minutes each way – much better.

So, anyway, the 2nd year…I think it’s been great.  Here’s to many more fantastic years together.

Okay, this is the last milestone post, at least for a couple of weeks. :) Two years ago today, Thomas proposed to me. I’ve got the original blog entry, and photo of the handmade ring Thomas made for me on my site.

• The Original Proposal Blog Entry (his version of the story is linked at the bottom)

There are two items that I forgot to include in that post:

First, I had suspected that we were getting close to getting engaged, so I was being an obnoxious girlfriend and suspecting that every fancy dinner or holiday was going to be *it*. I kept getting disappointed when it wasn’t *it*, so when he didn’t propose on our three year anniversary (the day before), I got pretty grumpy. What I didn’t know is that he had planned to, but because I was being a grump, I didn’t want to go for a drive in the VW Bus, which is what he was waiting for to propose. Oops.

Also, when Thomas proposed, he showed the weirdest nervous behavior. His eyebrows started spasming – rapidly twitching up and down. I’ve never seen him do it again, but they wouldn’t stop moving. It was really weird, but kind of cute too. :)

The photo in this entry was one of our engagement photos.

Five years ago, I had just met this interesting guy named Thomas who told me about geocaching. On a whim, I invited him to go to a VW Bus campout called Paddy’s Wagens in South Carolina (probably not one of my best moves, but it all worked out). We drove down from Raleigh, chatted the whole way, camped in the rain, and went geocaching. He was a perfect gentleman, and we had a great time. That’s him in the picture on the left at one of the geocaches we found – he found a love potion kit.

This past weekend, Thomas and I went back to South Carolina for the same Bus Campout. We drove up from Atlanta, chatted the whole way, camped in the rain, and went geocaching. Again, we had a great time. That’s him in the picture on the right at the geocache which sadly is no longer there – but I guess the love potion worked.

And, both times we took photos:

• Thomas’ Paddy’s Wagens 2003 (61 photos)
• Dallas’ Paddy’s Wagens 2008 (15 photos)
  

I didn’t take that many photos this year, but Thomas will post the rest of his photos later tonight. I’ll link them when they’re up.