My new favorite city.... sorry Wurzburg

Well, MY favorite German city has been Wurzburg for so many reasons, however, today it lost it's title rank.  Rick decided that we should go to this little town a little further south than Wurzburg called Rothenberg.  I thought he was crazy but, he's Rick... so I went along with it.  Besides I really didn't care where we went as long as we got out of the house and into the nice sunshine, so off we went.  It was easy to find... right off the autobahn.... As soon as we walked through the old city wall it was as if we walked onto a street straight from Disney.  All the buildings were together in "bold" colors with brightly colored shutters attached to the stucco walls.  The narrow cobblestone streets that made the car tires rumble as they passed (we wouldn't dare take even the RAV down these streets in fear it may get stuck).  Little shops line both sides of the streets filled with authentic German wares.  Just the feeling of quiet old world charm fills the air.  It wasn't too busy, nor was it too quiet.  It was just right.


We stopped in many shops on our way to the crime and punishment museum.  We picked up a few things... some we may keep until Christmas.  Then we explored the many medieval torture devices found in the museum before we headed back (we would've stayed longer but everyone closes up shop at around 1800).  The kids and I ate our first Doner's.  Aeris loved hers, Elliot not so much.  It's a burrito of sorts with seasoned meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a sauce wrapped in a tortilla.  I thought it was pretty good.  Then we headed home.  I can't wait to visit again.

Differences between American and German OB care

Okay, I was warned that things were "different" here, and I heard horror story after horror story about having a baby in Germany.  If this was my first I wouldn't have been so scared because I would know no other kind of care other than what I received here, but I have had 2 children in the States.  I don't have much of a choice so I have to deal with what I will receive.  Well I've visited my German Dr. twice so far and have nothing to complain about.  The care is different, but no worse or better.  The Dr and most of the nurses speak very clear English and are very friendly.  Dr. Staudlbaur has a very firm and confident handshake and has a sense of humor even when I make jokes in English.  So the language barrier is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be.  So now onto the "typical" appointment... I arrive they give me a cup, no difference there.  I hand over my Mutterpass (Mother Pass) which is a book that I carry around everywhere that is essentially my pregnancy medical records so if I'm somewhere away from my Dr. I have all of the pertinent information with me.  It's something the Dr's in the States might want to consider.  Then I wait in a waiting room filled with German magazines... at least I can look at the pictures ;) I'm then weighed, blood pressure measured, and my iron level tested... again no difference (except the weight is in kg not pounds). **When I got home I converted the kg to pounds so I could check, but I knew I had lost some weight just by looking at the kg... I dropped more than 1 kg in the 4 weeks** Then I'm done with the nurse.  The Dr comes in... looks over my Mutterpass, asks if I have any concerns then I hop on the bed for my ultrasound where he measures 3 things:  the baby's head, abdomen, and the umbilical cord.  The look on the Dr's face when he measured the head was... well... interesting... his eyes got real wide and he said "this is a big baby".  He measured the abdomen, and it was right in line with the head "big baby" he then told me that the baby is measuring the average size of a baby at 34 weeks 5 days, when I'm only 32 weeks 3 days.  The baby weighs 5 pounds already!! Then he switched to a 3D ultrasound I wasn't expecting that... sorry, but seeing the baby in 3d is SOOOOO cool.  The baby was hiding behind his little hands which made it difficult to get a good look at his face, but you could still see his little chubby cheeks.  I didn't think I would care so much about the 3D ultrasound, but I was seriously impressed.
BIG, but cool difference, ultrasounds at EVERY appointment.  The Dr didn't listen for the heartbeat with the doppler thingy like they do in the States, but he saw the heart on the ultrasound... that's just as good right.  I thought I was done, however the nurse escorted me into another room where she gave me a sexy spandex belt to wear and bring to all my appointments.  Then she hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor that monitored the baby's heart rate and contractions for a half hour.  I thought to myself, "so that's why he didn't use the doppler."  I laid on my left side and rested while I listened to the thub thub thub of the baby's heartbeat.  Very thorough I think.  I don't think laying on a bed for a half hour  would go over well for the fast paced life of an American.  I didn't mind though.  I felt more at ease that everything was well with the little booger inside me, much more at ease than hearing the heartbeat for 2 seconds like I would've in the States.  So again care here is "different" but no better and no worse.  The big question is how significant will the differences be when they start doing internal exams, and even bigger when the baby is actually delivered.  We will see, but so far I'm feeling much more comfortable about it.

Another trip to Wurzburg...

Okay... so by now we've gotten the hang of getting our train tickets and reading the train schedule.  We've also mastered walking to the train station and taking a cab, but we haven't tried driving and parking.  It can't be that difficult right?  I SAW where the girls in my SNAPS class parked and I watched them use the parking meter (but not very closely), so it won't be bad, right?  WRONG.  The instructions are in German.  We know a little to get us by, but not enough to read the instructions.  Well, I figured out how to have the screen read in English, but my only options were standard user or resident user.  Ummm... I live in Germany does that mean I'm a resident user or does it mean I want to park overnight?  EEEKKK.  Okay, okay... at least it's in English.  I'll pick standard user. Now what? Hmmm. Uhhhh. I feel like an idiot.  I'm glad no one else is waiting to use the machine.  Oh, here's the slot to put a credit card in/pull it out quickly... let's try that... okay maybe we don't take it out quickly like every other place.  We'll try that again.  Put the card in/wait... oh, there we go... now which button to choose:  the one with the house?  no. the one with the flags? no.  okay last chance... the black one? hmmm... the numbers are changing!... okay figured it out YAY!  pull the card out... now where's my ticket? Ummmm... Let's try this again at least we know which buttons to push right?  Okay card in, flag button for English, other button for amount.... hey, there's a green button here.  Should I push it to see what happens?  What could go wrong?  Cross your fingers...  "Transaction Complete. Please remove your card and take your ticket"  YAY! we have a parking ticket!!! It only took us 15 minutes to figure it out!!  It's a good thing the train to Wurzburg runs about every 30 minutes.