Already

Thankfully, I have been able to visit Sus yesterday and today, and I am pretty sure I was thus able to help her feel better, even if only by keeping her company, making her think about something else or making her laugh. She's the one who made me realize I should be slowly but surely starting to make some decisions, such as choosing my midwife and registering for the classes I want to take. She made the mistake to wait until late in her pregnancy, and she thus was quite limited in her choices. Indeed, by the time I come back from the Christmas holidays in Switzerland, it will be January, and I will be in the 20th week, so if I want to take the yoga class for pregnant women for example, I should at least find out when the classes begin and register before the class is full.

As for the midwife, I really hope I find one who speaks either english, french or spanish, which would make me much more comfortable. But another wish I have, is that she can be present during the birth, as here in Germany your gynecologist is not in charge of the delivery. You choose the hospital, and pray that you'll like the gynecologist in charge that day/night when the baby decides to come. So if at least the midwife would be there, I think I'd feel better about having that familiar face around, other than my husband of course. Meaning I would need to choose a midwife who works at the hospital where I want to give birth. Meaning I need to be choosing the hospital... already!?!?

... three important decisions I need to be taking very soon, although I thought I had all the time in the world ahead of me. Any advice is more than welcome.

Troublesome phone call

I don't know if it is because I'm pregnant and am therefore maybe more sensitive to bad news these days, but the phone call of Sus' husband today really affected me. He began by canceling our dinner plans and proceeded to explain that Sus is in the hospital, being operated as we spoke, due to a pneumothorax (collapsed lung.)

It's not a big operation, although we all know that any operation implies risk, and she'll be fine. She will have to stay for at least a week in the hospital however, and they have therefore canceled their trip to Italy this weekend, and called Sus' mother to take care of Gabriel in the meantime. I might not even be able to visit her as apparently Sus might still be contagious from her intestinal flu, so the doctor said. But it is just shocking me how quick things can happen, how our lives can change in seconds, maybe more so knowing that I will soon be a mother. Sus is always so healthy and so full of positive energy. I wish I could be there for her.

The BIG news

I can finally say it. It's official at last. I am 12 weeks pregnant. I feel great. I feel happy. I feel zen. I feel eager. The due date is June 3rd, and I cannot express how much I look forward to these 6 months.

More than a thousand words

Pictures are worth more than a thousand words, right? Well, supposedly. Therefore, here are some of our new flat, one project that's been keeping me so busy lately...

Americans are NOT stupid

too much

Too much is going on in my life right now to be writing it about it here. I would not even know where to start, even if I wanted to.

I need some time to take it all in, to take care of it all. Then we'll see. But the move being one of them, I probably won't have the time or the internet connection working to update Lovely Planète until a couple of weeks. Bare with me. I'll be back.

Another red balloon

Despite our weak health condition, Saturday was a beautiful day. M's uncle and aunt took us to the Deister for a 15km walk in the forest, stopping here and there at the different towers and cabins converted into little cafés. We could not have been luckier with the weather: blue sky and ideal Fall temperatures. In the evening, they invited us to have dinner at their house, and were quite surprised to hear that their balloon was the fifth and last one we had gotten back. We were actually quite happy to have gotten five red balloons back at all, as we truly did not expect so many people to participate and send it back to us. Besides, as we said jokingly, since theirs was found in the south of France, we did not expect Northern Africa to play the game!

But to our very big surprise and joy, we got another card yesterday in the post. The sixth red balloon was found, this time near Geneva, approximately 150km away from where our wedding took place. Our present this time is a dinner with the friends of M's parents.

So, bets are now open: considering approximately 70-75 balloons were released, was this the last balloon we'll get back, or do you think we'll receive others back and how many?