We had our first official hospital visit last Wednesday and believe it or not we had a really good experience. The hospital itself was really old and overcrowded. There were people waiting everywhere – on the benches, extra chairs in the hallways and just standing by the walls. We had to get an ultrasound, give blood, a urine sample, go over family history and finally meet the doctor. That meant 5 different appointments in one day. There were no scheduled times for those appointments – we were just told to show up at 12pm and start our rounds.

Every office had a huge line and I was pretty sure we are going to spend there half a day at least. But I was wrong – everybody was really nice, the lines moved really quickly and for some reason a lot of times I was asked to come in without waiting. Not sure why or how did they even know who I was because I didn’t give them my name or ask any questions.

They had a few “crowd control” nurses running back and forth in the hallways. One of them would just run up, point at me and say: “Follow me”. We did what we were told and surely enough she would walk us through the door to our next appointment and then disappear as quickly and unexpectedly as she showed up. Amazing. It was a well controlled chaos and every person we’ve met was nothing but pleased to see us and very helpful.

The nurse who took our family history was from Germany – young and a bit funny girl. She seemed relieved once I told her that I have decided to breastfeed. So we asked her why and she said that a lot of women in Ireland are not well educated and very few are actually breastfeeding. I hope that is not how she is promoting breastfeeding to her Irish patients.

The ultrasound was obviously the most wonderful experience. The baby is finally looking less like a sea monkey and more like a baby. The heartbeat was perfect, little legs were kicking and the baby even waved at us once as if to say: “Hi there!” It was very happy and heart melting 5 minutes. Checkout a perfect button nose:
It was great to hear that all my pains are absolutely normal and even good signs of healthy pregnancy. My immune system is absolutely shot, but that is normal because otherwise my system would fight the baby as an antibody. So being sick for two weeks, having sore throat, running and bleeding nose are just a few typical things a lot of women go through while pregnant.

I don’t sleep well because I have hard time breathing, I don’t hear well because my head cold has now attacked my ears. And just recently I’ve noticed that I can’t walk and talk at the same time for too long, because I simply run out of breath. Which I was told is due to the pregnancy hormone, progesterone, and the expanding uterus. Apparently this hormone causes me to breathe more deeply than before pregnancy, and gives me a feeling as if I am not breathing deeply enough. I was also told that in a couple of weeks, as the uterus grows, my lungs won’t expand as easily, which will lead to shallower respiration and shortness of breath… Looks like Dennis is going to have a quiet and half-deaf wife… for a change.