Home Visit & Krankenhaus

The home visit from Ms. Beckham yesterday went very well. She was a little late, not really a big deal, except that Annika and Josiah were so anxious to meet her that they mobbed her a little at the door. Josiah immediately took her to his room and showed her his collection of trains...or at least part of his train collection. When it became apparent that he wanted to show her each one, I had to put the brakes on...or the poor woman would have been there all afternoon!

Ms. Beckham admired his room, his trains and some of Josiah's artwork on the walls. Then she asked if she could give him a little test. We all sat down at the table and she produced a sheet of upper and lowercase letters, asked him to identify the letter, tell her what sound(s) the letter makes and a word that started with each letter. No problems there. In fact, I had a hard time keeping Annika from butting in--she's been getting heavy on the phonics lately. Ms. Beckham seemed impressed that Josiah would know certain things--like that most vowels make two noises. She asked if he wanted to do a math test too, but he was getting antsy and she said that was fine, they would do it during the first week of school.

I didn't get much more information about his class, unfortunately. I am so utterly scatterbrained lately that I forgot most of the questions I was going to ask her. I asked her for a class roster and found out that Josiah will know at least four other children in his class. Classmates from preschool and our neighbor Sydney. That's a relief. What I should have asked is if Ms. Beckham is the sole teacher (plus aide) for the entire K-2 class or if there is a teacher for each grade, because if she is the sole teacher, then I'm guessing there are only a handful from each grade. I guess we'll find out.

So, we're all set for next Tuesday, I think. Hans and Josiah have their trip Friday/Saturday. They are taking a boys only trip to Paris, leaving Friday morning and taking the TGV to Paris, staying overnight and returning on Saturday evening. I hope that they have a great time. It was actually Josiah's idea to go to Paris. After reading Madeleine, he has been curious about the city.

Today was my visit to the krankenhaus in Boblingen. I have been seeing Dr. Voss at her little clinic in Vaihingen this entire time, but she suggested a visit to the actual hospital where we'll deliver, so that I could meet at least one of the doctors and the staff there, see a room and get familiar with where the delivery area is. The visit today got off on a rocky start...Dr. Voss' office made the appointment for me and the ladies at the krankenhaus seemed confused by that...it wasn't immediately apparent if I really had an appointment or not. I got shuffled from the front desk to the frauenklinik and then to the actual delivery area (which made me a little nervous that there had been a very mixed up message!). Finally, after waiting and waiting, I got to see the German doctor, Dr. Mayer, who was very personable and nice. I had to monitor again for almost 45 minutes...15 minutes longer than normal because Will kept squirming around and kicking the monitor out of place!

After the doctor was satisfied by a long enough monitor, I went into another room for another ultrasound. They are so thorough, it's unbelievable...Dr. Mayer measured all sorts of things again, including blood in the umbilical cord and bloodflow in Will's brain and heart. Everything looks great. He's still a boy. A boy with a darn big head. His head is still measuring two weeks bigger than his body, but Dr. Mayer said not to worry, it isn't uncommon and nothing to fret over. Except for the woman who has to pass said head, I guess!!

We also talked a little about the precipitous delivery "problem". I wanted to make sure that their policy is the same as Dr. Voss'. I would hate to have her send me over there for induction help and get turned away because they had a different policy. Dr. Mayer was very reassuring, told me that there was no problem. Anytime after 38 weeks, as long as dilation and effacement were occuring, they would admit me and take steps to bring labor on so that we can have a more peaceful delivery...

Last stop was a short tour of one of the birthing suites...wow. The Germans just do it right. The room was huge. There is a regular bed for hanging out on, a bed just for delivery, a big whirlpool hot tub, all kinds of balls and chairs and racks and ropes. It looks like an obstacle course! And for weenies like me, they assured me that epidurals are available on demand.

I think we're going to be in good hands...