The past week and a half has been very busy and full of changes. We completely cleaned the apartment and got it ready for whenever the baby decides to make its apperance. This past week was also filled with changes in basketball. Wednesday night we had our last pre-season and now we change from the pre-season to the regular season (a much looked forward to change). But, last week we had the biggest basketball change so far. Management decided to make a coaching change and brought in a new coach on Monday. The last week and a half has been busy and intense trying to learn the new coaches philosophies, plays and how he wants us to play. Although there is always work to be done I think we have most of it down and are excited for our first game tomorrow. Check back next week to see how our first game went. (Our new coach - Pete Miller)
Obviously when you have baby a stroller is a very important thing to have. It allows you to be able to take the baby with you where you want to go and helps you with the grocery store and carrying things you otherwise wouldn't be able to. Here they do the stroller thing a little bit different. You dont get a stroller that fits the car seat you have, here you get a buggy. A buggy is like a stroller but it comes with a small bed/carrying case that can be removed and allows the baby to lay down in it like it is laying in a crib. The removeable bed allows you to easily carry the baby from the buggy to somewhere you might want to take it. This past week we got our buggy - we got from someone who had it for thier kid and was looking to sell it. It was nice we were able to get one from somebody as new buggys go for up to 900 Euros, you can get some cheaper ones but they can still cost quite a bit. For the most part the buggies are pretty expensive, but they convert from a bed or a place where your baby can lay and sleep into a stroller as the baby gets older, so I guess even though it is expensive you would have it for a long time. It is interesting to walk through some of the stores and the downtown area and see all the moms and dads pushing the buggies. At first it was a little different as we weren't used to it, but now that we are I think it will be a great thing and a great way to take our baby from place to place.
With Katy's due date less than a week away - (October 1st, this coming Saturday) - I thought I would share some of the differences about having a baby in Austria. We decided not to find out if it is going to be a boy or a girl and up to this point really dont know, so we are getting prepared for either a boy or a girl (nuetral clothes, names for both boy and girl). One of the things that we are trying to prepare for if we have a boy is cirumcision. It may seem like an easy thing a no-brainer. But, over here its a little different, not quite as easy as if we were going to have the baby in Wisconsin. Here circumcision is a very uncommon thing. Most of the time if someone has it done it is beacause there is some sort of problem, and they dont get it done until later on down the road, as opposed to in the first few days of life. We have asked about getting it done as we want to get it done right away, but from what we have found out we are not sure if it will happen or not. We have to meet with the urologist this week and see if there is a way we can get it done within the first few days of life (if the doctor has even done it that early in the past) or if we would need to wait until the baby is 1 or 2 year old, like people have told us is a common age if a circumcision is needed. Another thing we have talked about is maybe trying to talk a Rabbi and see if he could do it for us. We have been told that Jewish people get it done on the 8th day, or early in life and so maybe that it would be an option for us. I guess we will find out more when we meet with the urologist on Friday, but its crazy that there is such a big cultural difference where they think it is strange here that we really want to get a cicucumcision and for us that they dont get it done and that is so hard to be able to get one right away.
We got our travel gear, or our sweatsuit that we will be wearing to the games a little while ago. When I pulled it out of the package and tried it on, it fit pretty well. But, when I looked at the tag I had to some self-reflecting. 5XL. What? If you were wearing 5XL clothes would you think you might be a little on the larger size? When I got my polo it was 4XL and I thought that was a little big, but 5XL? Maybe its time I start thinking about a diet or something. I think I work hard in practice, but maybe I should do a couple marathons during the day too.
Okay, so maybe its not that big of a difference to what I have back home. I guess the clothes over here are a little bit smaller in the way they are cut and made. The other guys were talking about it too, how their clothes were a little on "sounding pretty big" side, so I think I have nothing to worry about. If it looks right (and it does) I guess just go with it, even if it were to say 20XL, right?
Last week on Thursday, Katy had the Cephalic Version to see if we could get the baby to flip from its naughty head up position to a head down one so she can think about having a 'normal' birth. The procedure itself wasn't too complicated. She checked into the hospital in the morning because in Austria you have to stay overnight so they can do some checks on the baby's heart rate and a blood test to make sure everything is normal afterward.
On Wednesday we talked to the doctor who would be doing the procedure and he checked Katy's belly to see if the baby would be mobile or had a good chance of moving. He checked the bottom of Katy's belly real quick with his hand and an ultra-sound and said we would have a good chance of it working. So Thursday morning we were back. He started off by doing an ultrasound to make sure the baby was still head up - it was. Then he began to push of Katy's belly, but after 10-15 seconds he stopped and said that she needed to have the uteran relaxant. Since she already had an IV line in (they needed to draw blood when we first got there and kept it in just in case something went wrong and they needed to do an emergency c-section - the doc said in the 12 years he has been doing this procedure only 2-3 people out of the hundreds he has done needed to have an emergency c-section - mainly because something was drastically different with the fetal heart rate after the procedure or if there was a placenta abruption) they just put uteran relaxant into her arm that way. She said it made her feel very jittery and worked after about 30 seconds. As soon as it started working the doctor started pushing again. You could tell he was pushing very hard and it was uncomfortable for Katy (she did have a midwife standing right next to her helping her breathe and I think that might have taken some of her concentration for a little while). After 30 seconds he stopped and did an ultrasound to see where the head was and it had moved down a little ways. Then he went back to work pushing hard on her belly again. After a little while he just held his hand in one place and because he was pushing hard you could see a perfect outline of baby - straight up and down. A quick check with an ultrasound showed the baby's head was down and right where we were hoping it would be. We were so happy, especially as the whole procedure took all of about 2 minutes. Katy was a little nervous before-hand but said she got herself worked up for no reason. To try and help the baby stay in place they rolled up two towels and put one on the left side of the baby and one on the right side and put a big wrap around her whole midsection to keep them in place. She spent the night in the hospital and after 3 EKG's to check the baby's heartbeat and a blood test she was able leave....with the baby the right way. So, instead of planning a c-section for the baby a week from Monday we need to be ready for the baby anytime now. Since the due date is October 1st it could come this week or maybe not for another 3-3.5 weeks.
Here is a link to an article done here in Austria about the group/organization that did my rehab. It is translated using Google Translate so it might not be the best translation, but for the most part I think it is understandable.
Well, we just had our latest doctor's appointment on Thursday and found out that our baby is comfortable sitting with its head up - breech. Normally at this time the baby is with its head down and getting ready for a normal birth, which in our case would be in about another month. Our little one decided that he/she wanted to make things interesting. We found out at the doctor that if the baby isn't in a head down position that we will need to schedule a c-section. For a c-section they recommend that you schedule it 1-2 weeks before your actual due date as they would rather you not go into labor so things can be more planned out. Right now Katy is 37 weeks pregnant and the baby is considered full term even though she isn't at her due date yet. So, we are trying to decide when, what week and day, would be the best to have the baby (as it could be in just over 2 weeks). There is something they can do, called a cephalic version, to manually help try and move the baby. A doctor uses his hands and pushes on the stomach of the mother to help the baby turn and get into a head down position. This would enable the mother to have 'normal' birth. The doc said that this would be done in the hospital and Katy would be monitored with machines to make sure everything is going well for the baby. There are some risks to the placenta or umbilical cord, but with monitoring they would be able to see if there is a problem. I guess they have had some success, about 50%, with this and the doctor said we should talk it over and decide if it something that we want to do. I guess the procedure can take as little as 30 seconds, or it could take much longer. I've included a link to a YouTube video to give you an idea of what a cephalic version is like. The doc said they have done hundreds of them at the hospital here in town and only a few times has there been something that has gone wrong where they needed to do an emergency c-section. Obviously you don't think anything will go wrong, but I guess we have learned to be prepared for anything (we would need to be ready for the baby when we went in for the cephalic version just in case) as we just assumed everything would go like it should and the baby would be head down awaiting its birth into the world at this time. So depending on what we decide to do, and I guess what the baby decides to do, we could have a baby in as little as two weeks or as late 4+ weeks.
The past couple weeks over here we have had fun listening to the different names (especially as we are in the process of trying to pick out a baby name). But, its not just because some of them are totally different than what we are used to back home (like the names I mentioned in the first Name Game post http://katyandjoey.blogspot.com/2011/08/name-game.html) but because of the pronunciation of some of the names. Although many may be the same or look the same as what we would see back home, some sound completely different.
Here are some examples:
Manny - pronounced MAH-nny Markus - MAR-koos Martin - MAR-teen Joseph - YO-sef Julian - YOU-lee-in Simon - SEE-moan
Ruth - pronounced Root Sarah - ZAH-rah Anna - AH-nah Katherine - KAH'T-a-reen-eh Laura - LA-oo-ra Judith - YOU-dith
This weekend we had our first pre-season game and for me it was the first game I have played in roughly 10 months. I have to say it was great to be able to get back on the floor and go up and down against another team. My knee did fairly well and I really didnt think about it much, maybe a time or two, but hardly at all. I put in a lot of work over the summer and it is nice to see that it is paying off. I still have a little ways to go, but it felt pretty good and worked just like it should. We had our second game on Sunday but I didnt play. My knee swelled up some after the game on Saturday night and was a little sore. Since it is just pre-season we thought it would be best to give it a rest and make sure something didnt happen to it (as a lot of injuries occur during fatigue). It was hard to watch and not play but I know it doesnt count until October so I think it was the best thing for me. Plus, we have 8 more preseason games in the next 2.5 weeks so I am sure I will have other games to get more reps. Our next games are on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. So check back soon to see how we did.
