Friday, March 26, 2010
Spring is here!
Spring is officially here. It has been sunny and warm this whole week and yesterday was so far the warmest day - 18 degrees, sunny and with a nice warm breeze in the evening. Since Jack was working more hours each day this week than regularly, he was able to take half a day off and we spent it outside. It almost felt like we were travelling, because we were just wondering the streets without anything specific to do and just enjoying each other and the beautiful weather. Some snaps below (belly = 34 weeks and 5 days).
Monday, March 22, 2010
Latte offence
It's a beautiful spring day in Berlin today. The sun is shining, it's about 12 degrees and people are out in side walk cafes - just sitting, watching, soaking up the beautiful day. I spent the best of my morning in the Russian Embassy getting registered - something that I need to do in order for the baby to get a Russian passport later. I won't bore you with the typical overly complicated procedure (read torture) that I had to endure, but I'll say that it only took 2 hours and I didn't even have to line up at the front of the building. And that was very lucky, because one lady told me that people have to line up from 5am in the morning in order to get a chance to get in when the embassy opens its generous doors from 9am-12pm.
I got out of there happy with my little stamp and even got a little extra attention for my belly, which saved me standing in a couple of lines. So all happy and bouncy I decided that I can treat myself to a coffee at Einstein Cafe. As I lined up at the counter to get my latte take away I got confronted with an overly caring 30-something male waiter, who prior to pouring my coffee for me decided to enquire "Wouldn't you like your coffee without caffeine?" looking at my pregnant belly. I got so taken aback and paused, and then looked him right in the eye and said "Nope, definitely WITH caffeine!". Being pregnant is great - you get so much extra care and attention. I mean even the cafe guy is giving me nutrition advice - something that I was quite happy to leave to my gynaecologist and midwife, oh and a billion books that I've read. But no!
I got out of there happy with my little stamp and even got a little extra attention for my belly, which saved me standing in a couple of lines. So all happy and bouncy I decided that I can treat myself to a coffee at Einstein Cafe. As I lined up at the counter to get my latte take away I got confronted with an overly caring 30-something male waiter, who prior to pouring my coffee for me decided to enquire "Wouldn't you like your coffee without caffeine?" looking at my pregnant belly. I got so taken aback and paused, and then looked him right in the eye and said "Nope, definitely WITH caffeine!". Being pregnant is great - you get so much extra care and attention. I mean even the cafe guy is giving me nutrition advice - something that I was quite happy to leave to my gynaecologist and midwife, oh and a billion books that I've read. But no!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Pram
We bought a pram, well actually Polina's parents bought us a pram. It wasn't that hard to put together once I figured out that the cat did not come from the box...
Oh yeah the final picture is blatantly stolen from their website - as one of the bolts they supplied us is foobared and hence we couldn't actually finish putting it together properly. Gotta love German engineering and Chinese manufacturing...
Thursday, March 18, 2010
German bureaucracy at its finest
Any official government office just loves paperwork and documents. Germany being no exception. Knowing this and knowing the approaching of our little baby, I put together a list of forms that we'll have to file when he is born (eg. passport applications, application for child assistance, etc.), and the relevant documents that are required for submission of each one. The list is most impressive, counting 59 documents in total (some of these are doubles though, like the passport, which is required for many of the applications).
Last week at our birthing class we found out that in order for the baby to get a birth certificate we have to provide: both of our passports, our marriage certificate (translated and certified), and both of our birth certificates. Why I ask?! Why do we need to provide our own birth certificates to certify that our child is born?! What sense does it make if we can already prove who we are with our passports? The problem is also that Jack doesn't have his and mine is in Russian, so I have to get it translated and certified. This list of documents was contrary to what we have so far been able to find out from one of our registry offices (which requires only the two passports and our marriage certificate). Another registry office, however, requires all five. Confused? So are we! I have since also got conflicting information from people who went through this - some people seem to have had to provide their birth certificates, and others didn't. To clear this up Jack has been trying to get in touch with our registry office and find out "the truth". To no avail... the office, which is open at only odd hours on three weekdays, and has about 20 different phone numbers is unreachable. They simply don't pick up! A little like the Russian embassies here and in Sydney. So we're still in the dark... and most likely on the day we'll get to find out that even these five documents are insufficient and we'll have to provide yet another obscure document :(
As a side note - we have since worked out that Jack can order his birth certificate through the registry office at the town of his birth. The amusing thing is that one can just ring up, tell them their name and DOB, pay 10 EUR, and viola - they send you the birth certificate per post. They don't even ask you to send them a copy of your ID. So in theory - anyone can order birth, marriage and death certificates for anyone without any privacy issues! Gotta love bureaucracy and its workings!
Last week at our birthing class we found out that in order for the baby to get a birth certificate we have to provide: both of our passports, our marriage certificate (translated and certified), and both of our birth certificates. Why I ask?! Why do we need to provide our own birth certificates to certify that our child is born?! What sense does it make if we can already prove who we are with our passports? The problem is also that Jack doesn't have his and mine is in Russian, so I have to get it translated and certified. This list of documents was contrary to what we have so far been able to find out from one of our registry offices (which requires only the two passports and our marriage certificate). Another registry office, however, requires all five. Confused? So are we! I have since also got conflicting information from people who went through this - some people seem to have had to provide their birth certificates, and others didn't. To clear this up Jack has been trying to get in touch with our registry office and find out "the truth". To no avail... the office, which is open at only odd hours on three weekdays, and has about 20 different phone numbers is unreachable. They simply don't pick up! A little like the Russian embassies here and in Sydney. So we're still in the dark... and most likely on the day we'll get to find out that even these five documents are insufficient and we'll have to provide yet another obscure document :(
As a side note - we have since worked out that Jack can order his birth certificate through the registry office at the town of his birth. The amusing thing is that one can just ring up, tell them their name and DOB, pay 10 EUR, and viola - they send you the birth certificate per post. They don't even ask you to send them a copy of your ID. So in theory - anyone can order birth, marriage and death certificates for anyone without any privacy issues! Gotta love bureaucracy and its workings!
'Tis done!
Today I submitted my Bachelorarbeit - all three unbound copies of it. Now I just have to wait (some undetermined and probably long amount of time) for my mark. This also means that I am free from uni for a little more than one year - because I'm taking two semesters off to look after the little one. It's a bit hard to believe that I won't be going to lectures for so long.
Today is also the first sunny and warm day this spring. It's the first time this year that I've been out of the house without my beanie and could finally walk around with my coat open. This is very important, as the coat is becoming tighter and tighter around my abdomen to the point where I had to reinforce my buttons to stop them from popping out into someone's eye. Thus I've been hoping for warm weather to come asap in order to avoid buying a larger jacket and this is good.
Ahh - today is a good day!
Today is also the first sunny and warm day this spring. It's the first time this year that I've been out of the house without my beanie and could finally walk around with my coat open. This is very important, as the coat is becoming tighter and tighter around my abdomen to the point where I had to reinforce my buttons to stop them from popping out into someone's eye. Thus I've been hoping for warm weather to come asap in order to avoid buying a larger jacket and this is good.
Ahh - today is a good day!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Baby Furniture
As the baby approaches I've decided to build some more furniture for him. This is mainly because what you can get in the shops is a. horribly overpriced and b. crap.
Instead of buying a special "changing table" we bought a cheap 2nd hand set of drawers from fleeBay.
These got pulled completely apart, sanded, glued and put back together (so now it's not wobbly and cheap feeling), the outside got varnished, the drawers were done in acrylic paint, and the insides laid out with contact. Polina still has to do some funky coloured knobs.
PS. The extra holes on the front of the "arms" of the changing mat area are not an accident, they're there in case we ever have to put the drawers in such a way that the changing mat cannot hang off the back. It simply unscrews, flips over and the end piece gets swapped to the other side of the arms - you can't buy that in a shop either ;)
I've also started building a cradle and a cot, here the sides of the cradle (damn fiddly work cutting and sanding all those little bits of wood) and the base of the cot. You can also see the beginnings of a small set of shelves that will fit behind the drawers under the changing mat area.
Instead of buying a special "changing table" we bought a cheap 2nd hand set of drawers from fleeBay.
These got pulled completely apart, sanded, glued and put back together (so now it's not wobbly and cheap feeling), the outside got varnished, the drawers were done in acrylic paint, and the insides laid out with contact. Polina still has to do some funky coloured knobs.
Before to these drawers are now clean.
PS. The extra holes on the front of the "arms" of the changing mat area are not an accident, they're there in case we ever have to put the drawers in such a way that the changing mat cannot hang off the back. It simply unscrews, flips over and the end piece gets swapped to the other side of the arms - you can't buy that in a shop either ;)
I've also started building a cradle and a cot, here the sides of the cradle (damn fiddly work cutting and sanding all those little bits of wood) and the base of the cot. You can also see the beginnings of a small set of shelves that will fit behind the drawers under the changing mat area.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Little update
Well there isn't much to report... Jack has been sick in bed/couch for the last two weeks with a virus and then something bacterial and last Sunday I managed to catch it, too. I was hanging in there for almost a week, very proud of myself, but my immune system eventually gave in and I spent this week also in bed. We're both finally feeling better and hopefully will be able to get out and about in the next couple of days.
It hasn't all been totally unproductive though - I managed to watch every single episode of Desperate Housewives starting from season 2 and also did some work on my Bachelorarbeit. The final draft is due this Thursday and after that I just have to submit the whole thing to my student office at uni and wait for my mark... which hopefully will be a good one *fingers crossed* This week I did manage to make it to my first appointment with a midwife, who will come around after birth to make sure that everything is working out well with the baby and breastfeeding. She was nice and I'm planning to get her to do a course of acupuncture pre-birth, which in theory should shorten labour. The best thing is that she'll come over to my place and do it here, so I don't even have to go anywhere.
Other than that we've had our first instalment of birth preparation classes. Well the second one we missed this week because of the colds. So far it seems to be OK. It's taking place at the 'parent school' at the Urban hospital where we're planning to go for labour. There are three other couples with us and the course is very relaxed and, truth be told, a little boring for me. Mainly because I probably read a lot (too much?) already and many things come across as old news. But it's nice to focus on the big day anyway and some of the tips have been helpful... mainly all the things related to Jack massaging my back and making me feel more comfortable :)
32 weeks and 1 day!
It hasn't all been totally unproductive though - I managed to watch every single episode of Desperate Housewives starting from season 2 and also did some work on my Bachelorarbeit. The final draft is due this Thursday and after that I just have to submit the whole thing to my student office at uni and wait for my mark... which hopefully will be a good one *fingers crossed* This week I did manage to make it to my first appointment with a midwife, who will come around after birth to make sure that everything is working out well with the baby and breastfeeding. She was nice and I'm planning to get her to do a course of acupuncture pre-birth, which in theory should shorten labour. The best thing is that she'll come over to my place and do it here, so I don't even have to go anywhere.
Other than that we've had our first instalment of birth preparation classes. Well the second one we missed this week because of the colds. So far it seems to be OK. It's taking place at the 'parent school' at the Urban hospital where we're planning to go for labour. There are three other couples with us and the course is very relaxed and, truth be told, a little boring for me. Mainly because I probably read a lot (too much?) already and many things come across as old news. But it's nice to focus on the big day anyway and some of the tips have been helpful... mainly all the things related to Jack massaging my back and making me feel more comfortable :)
32 weeks and 1 day!
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