Hello, Due Date!

Baby Wazz is due TOMORROW!! WOW.

I am so so ready to meet our little son or daughter! I think I've been ready for at least two weeks. Every day gets harder and harder to be patient - I just want to meet this little one. It's hard to sleep with so much excitement ahead.

So 279 days have almost passed since we made the baby. And here we are, ready and waiting for his/her arrival. I know Jackie will be so strong during her labor. I imagine she'll be a birth goddess:-) I am looking forward to supporting her throughout her experience and strengthening our bond through the birth of our baby.

So Baby Wazz, we are ready to meet you! We can't wait for your birth - to see what you look like and to finally hold you - and to learn if you are a girl or boy! Your Mommy will be birthing at home until our midwife says it's time to go to the hospital. If you happen to come out really fast or if your Mommy wants to stay home (and the midwife says it's ok), then we will do that. We wish the best for your birth and hope to see you soon!!

Ten day countdown!

posted by jackie

I can't believe how quickly time has gone by during our pregnancy! Em and I are at the 10 day countdown already! My lack of posting/updating to our blog has been disappointing. I'm a slacker, what can I say...

So, here is my attempt at starting this up again! wish me luck!

Today I had a reflexology session to help possibly induce labor, diminish some of the swelling and work out any kinks necessary. The main reason, however, is to hopefully induce labor. We want our little one to come out when he/she is ready but we are hoping their his/her timeframe coincides with ours, which would be tomorrow ;) Well, OK, we'd be ecstatic if the baby made their debut before September 1 at the very least.

As I was reclined and ready for my reflexology session I had a distinct feeling that the baby is NOT going to come out in the next few days. I didn't say anything to the practitioner though, hoping I was wrong and hoping she could work some magic. Hilda, the reflexology practitioner, asked me several questions about my health before we started. She had such a calming disposition; I felt relaxed immediately.

I watched her carefully as she started intently rubbing my right foot and its toes. I was a bit enchanted by watching her at first - she looked like a musician playing their favorite instrument with passion. I immediately had the impression of a violinist swaying with the notes as she worked her instrument. In this case, it was my toes. I closed my eyes and relaxed as she listened and played her instrument. I felt myself sinking down into the massage bed with each rub of my toes. I don't believe I fell asleep but I was relaxed and comforted to the fullest extent imaginable. I tried to listen to the baby and I attempted to communicate that we can't wait to meet him/her. I said that we want to meet them soon but that they should only come with they are healthy enough to do so.

When Hilda started out on my left foot I felt some little pangs on the right side of my tummy. I'm not sure what it was or what was going on but something she was doing was creating tiny jolts througout the right side of my tummy. I watched Hilda again for a few moments - her expert hands on her instrument; her swaying with each pressure she gave to my foot and toes. The image of a violinist came to mind again.
Hilda continued on and I felt relaxed and comfortable - I think I dozed off for a few minutes. I apparently also had a reaction when she worked on the part of my foot that was related to my minor back pain I've had for the last week or so.

We finished and she noted a few things about the session to me. Hilda said that the baby is not yet ready. She marked down a date she believes the baby will come but she chose not to tell me! boo! Hilda showed me a few points on my hand I can use to help "activate" the baby and a few other presure points I can do at home as needed.

Before I left I told Hilda that I thought she looked like a musician when she was working her reflexology magic. She said, "That's my profession, I am a musician.". I said I envisioned her playing the violin; turns out she plays the viola ;) ha. close enough!

My next appointment is 31 August - that is, if Baby Wazz doesn't come out before then!
Wish us luck!

Visiting Copenhagen

In honor of BabyWazz, we spent a long weekend at the end of May visiting Copenhagen! As you may or may not know, that is where we found our Sperm Donor. Our trip began Friday night (29 May) with a 1hr 5min flight up to Copenhagen. We managed to find the train, get into the city, pick up some Danish Kroners and get settled in our hotel. I already felt so much excitement! Becoming settled seemed grim, our hotel was not so nice so in the morning we searched for a better place to stay. We ended up at the First Skt. Petri which was in a great location! We received an upgraded room with a balcony, inclusive breakfast and two tickets to Tivioli amusement park.


Off we go!

Saturday we planned to walk around the city and go shopping! Along the way, we witnessed a Danish carnival celebration. Near our lunch stop was a temporary art exhibit called 'Signspotting" – we got a kick out of some of the funny signs that actually exist!

"Signspotting" Exhibit "Signspotting" Exhibit">The most famous restaurant for open faced sandwiches, Ida Davidsen, happens to be closed on the weekends so we found a different restaurant to try this typical Danish lunch. We enjoyed our open faced sandwiches but mine was missing the bread!!

Danish Open Faced Sandwich

First Lunch in Copenhagen

We knew it was our only shopping day because the stores are closed on Sunday and Monday was a holiday. Leaving Denmark without any cute Danish baby clothes would be a sin, so we headed to the Stroget, the main shopping street in Copenhagen. We got two sleepers at Name It – oh my gosh these clothes are so cute and I later found out we can find them in the NL!

How could we be in Denmark without having a Danish!?

This one was very good, not too sweet. At the Danish department store, Illum, we found two more sleepers and a nice blanket. I love the bright patterns on the clothes in Denmark! Let me show you the prams in Copenhagen, they are basically cribs on wheels! It is common to see prams outside of stores with or without babies sleeping in them!

Big Danish Prams

After the stores closed we made our way to Nyhavn (pronounced New-Han but sounds more like new-how).

Nyhavn
As we walked to the edge of the harbor, we stopped to take pictures and also found the best ice cream ever!!! Who knew Danish ice cream would be so good?! The ice cream was soft serve vanilla and you could see the vanilla bean specks in the soft serve. We could either have a hard chocolate coating or a cocoa powder on top! During this trip (there were subsequent visits!)

I had the hard chocolate – yum yum yum!

Best Ice Cream Ever! Same Day, Different Ice Cream

And the cone was the best cone I've had!! Freshly made right at the shop. We made some room in our bellies and decided to stay in Nyhavn for dinner. There was a nice little Italian place we both got pasta at and it was pretty good, I think even made with fresh pasta. That night we wandered back to the hotel to relax and fell asleep early.

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:45!! This never happens to me and I was wide awake! So we just got up and tried our inclusive breakfast at the hotel. It was so good, Jackie was extremely happy!!! We had so many choices – yogurt with many toppings, meats, cheeses, fruits, eggs, fresh juice and great coffee! Our plan for the day was to go on a bike tour of the city so we ate a lot and got out of the hotel. We found Mike's Bike Tour by 10am when the tour started.

Mike's Bike Tour

Mike's Bike Tour

There were about 16 people on our tour from various nationalities. The tour was such a good idea to do and we really enjoyed seeing the city by bike because we went to areas we wouldn't have gone to by foot. We saw Hans Christian Andersen's grave and learned he wasn't very well liked among the Danish.

Hans Christian Andersen Gravestone

Talk about popular – the Little Mermaid Statue was the most busy place! Jackie managed to snap a few photos of me alone with the mermaid.

Little Mermaid Statue

There is a real hippie village called Christiania, which we biked through. When our tour ended we found out we biked around for over 3 hours totaling 26km!! The tour ended and we kept our bikes to explore more alone. First we needed some food and stumbled upon a cute café called Café Luna. Guess where we went next? Back to the best ice cream shop!!! I'm telling you, it was so good!!! We had to return our bikes that night by 7pm so we biked a bit more around the city, had a resting break at the hotel, parted with our Danish bikes and then headed to Tivoli amusement park. Jackie and I went on our first ride together! It was a slow one, safe for the baby! We played skeeball, Jackie beat me as usual. Then Jackie got an airbrushed tattoo on her belly of a Virgo sign – totally cute.

Virgo Air Brushed Tattoo

We walked around for a while and then got hungry so we decided to head back towards the hotel. Unfortunately, we thought it was a good idea to eat Mexican in Denmark – I think we found a too touristy place. And that was our Sunday in Copenhagen. I took this photo of the outfits we got for babywazz.

Special Danish Outfits

Monday we went to Sweden! The city is Malmo is only a 40min train ride so off we went after checking out of the hotel and storing our bags. We only had a few hours so we walked the main shopping street and went to a Swedish supermarket where I was so totally distracted! I wanted to look at everything. At least we found some Swedish meatballs and Swedish Fish!

Swedish Fish in Sweden

Swedish Meatballs in Sweden

The stores were similar to Danish style and we found a nice red blanket for the baby as well as the cutest little red sweat suit.

Blanket from Sweden

Before we knew it we had to head back to Denmark to get to the airport in time.
Our trip was meaningful to both of us as we were able to feel connected to a part of where our son or daughter comes from. While we were there, I wrote a note to the baby, telling him/her how happy we are that someone special from Denmark helped us create our family. Baby Wazz, we can't wait to meet you soon and visit Copenhagen with you.

4D Ultrasound

Last Monday we had our 4D ultrasound! We had our two standard 2D ultrasounds and chose to have a special 4D one, which insurance does not cover, because we wanted to see what the baby looks like and what it does in the womb. Babywazz cooperated for about 10 of the 40 minutes, at first s/he was covering its face with a hand and we got this cute image below!

Babywazz in 3D

The sleeping baby then decided to face downwards which made it more difficult to see anything more than the legs, which at one point were above its head! We got 3 leg photos:

Body, Arm and Leg

Baby's Leg

Baby's arm around leg

Jackie asked if the baby has any hair so the technician put the ultrasound on 2D and said "lots of hair!" If you feel so inclined, here is a 10 minute video of the end of our ultrasound for you to watch, inclusive of the baby's hair. The baby's sex is still unknown. I've watched the DVD trying to spot parts because it's fun to guess. Only 10.5 weeks until the baby is due!!

Partner Childbirth Class

Last Wednesday we went to our first class, "Preparing Partners for Childbirth". We are the only two mom couple out of the nine in our class. For a few minutes I did feel a little awkward being the only non pregnant female in the class but my awkwardness subsided once we got settled on our yoga mats. The class is held at a spacious and light studio about 15 mins away by bike. We have two teachers who are pretty well known in Amsterdam for their classes. They talked a lot about childbirth and preparing yourself to be relaxed. A month before our due date, Jackie starts her maternity leave in order to not be distracted by work and to focus on her body. Natural childbirth is the expectation here and I would also say having a homebirth is also expected and encouraged. More recently, hospitals and birth centers are becoming a more frequent choice. Our minds are not made up about where we'll have the birth. We are open to at home or in the birthing center which is next to the hospital. I will support whatever Jackie wants in order to feel comfortable. I found the class to be really empowering for the birthing moms and partners. We participated in some movement exercises alone and with our partners, the excercises are for gaining leg strength. I really have to work on this so that Jackie can put all of her weight on me during labor! At one point, the dads and me had to sit against the wall w/ out partners in our laps and wrap our hands around the pregnant belly. Well, this works a lot better with a mom and dad - I had to stretch so far and was basically hidden behind Jackie! The teachers also talked to us about relationship challenges and we had to sit facing each other and discuss things that we can improve together as a couple. So I'll be really trying to help out around the house so Jackie and rest and grow our babywazz. At the end of the class we learned a partner massage. Jackie sat facing me with her legs over my crossed legs. I put my hands on her belly to feel the energy and then I slowly moved my hands down towards her pelvis, focusing on the energy as I moved down. It was quite the shared intimate moment!! Doing this massage is the number one thing we were told to do because it'll help Jackie relax her muscles and focus on her birth. Our next class is in a month. Jackie starts pregnancy yoga at the same studio when she returns from her biz trip to California - I hope she really enjoys it!

Right now we are 23 w and 2 days. Time to get babywazz's room set up!!

Tummy Tub Owners!

We are going to bathe babywazz in this TU.MMY TUB!!!


Hopefully it'll feel like the womb! I think we'll start with a very small amount of water and see how the baby feels. It looks warm and cozy to me.

The T.oday Show did a segment about the Tummy Tub last week (after we bought ours!) and the babies appeared to really enjoy their tubs.

Since we don't have a bathtub, we've been checking out our tub options here. We'll also get a regular bathing tub but for 18 euros we just had to try the T.ummy Tub!! It was designed here in the Netherlands.

It it a super cool bathing bucket and babywazz will show you later how fun it is!

It's a ______!

By Emily

It's a SURPRISE! We decided we want to wait until the baby is born to find out if we have a son or daughter.

Our ultrasound was last week and everything looks great with the baby's growth. We are so thrilled! I took a few videos of the ultrasound and have been quite obsessed with trying to figure out if we have a boy or girl. We had a (highlight if you want to know what we think)girlvibe before the ultrasound and we still do. You really never know though and it's part of the fun!!

We both were on a baby high right after the echo and for a few days after. Seeing our little baby was so real.

We just got back from our 5 minute midwife appointment. Jackie's placenta is in the front which means she will not feel the baby kick as strong or as soon. Typically the placenta is to the side or on the top so women can feel the kicks better. Our midwife said it's totally not an issue so we are relieved. As for the 5 minute appointment, I have nothing to compare to so it seems normal to me. How long is a 20 week midwife or OB appointment in the states? Jackie's blood pressure is fine, her uterus is growing with the baby and that all means everything is progressing.. We go back in 4 weeks.

Now for some fun!!

BabyWazz's profile.


Check out the baby's profile in action!
(Upon request, I can share more videos)


I am getting so excited!!