Today marks a very important milestone in this pregnancy. I am 28 weeks pregnant. Babies born after this point have very good odds of surviving without any handicaps or defects from early birth. Of course, we want to keep them on the inside for another month, but should things change and necessitate us taking them out early, we have good chances of having healthy babies.
When we learned that instead of the normal, healthy, relatively simple pregnancy with one baby we thought I was having, I was in fact having an extremely high-risk, nerve-wracking pregnancy with identical twins in one amniotic sack, I could hardly imagine making it this far. That was 15 weeks ago. At the time, it felt almost as if time was standing still, and now, it is hard to believe that amount of time has passed and here we are. I am in the hospital being closely monitored and have reached week 28!
There are some very funny things about being in a foreign hospital. My room is right next to the midwife office and I often hear conversations between midwives. Sometimes they are having loud conversations with lots of laughture. If I could understand Danish, I would know so much more about everything going on in the hospital and about the individual midwives and their personalities. But, alas, I cannot eavesdrop.
Another funny thing is the signs. The hospital is covered in signs with important information. There are at least 9 signs in my room alone. I have deciphered most of them, but it took a few days and when I got here, I really had no idea what was going on. The midwives told me a lot, but since most patients can read signs, they neglected to mention some things like how to use the television, which water is drinkable and which is not, how to get the shower to drain, etc.
I have gotten used to reading Danish at stores, supermarkets, in public transport, etc. but hospitals introduce all kinds of new words that are beyond my knowledge of the Danish language. So, I am taking the opportunity to expand my vocabulary. I have learned the words for clean and dirty among others. Give me another five years and surely I will be fluent.
Fortunately, all the midwives speak perfect English and are happy to talk to me. I feel very fortunate since it certainly wouldn't be as easy to communicate in some other foreign hospitals. I sense that I am a bit of a novelty to most of the staff here, they like to ask me questions and talk about America with me - San Francisco, marshmallow fluff, American medical practices, etc. It's a little funny, but also makes the days a bit more fun.
It is past time for me to be sleeping. Time to put the earplugs generously given to me by one of the midwives in my ears so I can sleep through all the beeping and banging in the night. Four weeks to go till baby time.
When we learned that instead of the normal, healthy, relatively simple pregnancy with one baby we thought I was having, I was in fact having an extremely high-risk, nerve-wracking pregnancy with identical twins in one amniotic sack, I could hardly imagine making it this far. That was 15 weeks ago. At the time, it felt almost as if time was standing still, and now, it is hard to believe that amount of time has passed and here we are. I am in the hospital being closely monitored and have reached week 28!
There are some very funny things about being in a foreign hospital. My room is right next to the midwife office and I often hear conversations between midwives. Sometimes they are having loud conversations with lots of laughture. If I could understand Danish, I would know so much more about everything going on in the hospital and about the individual midwives and their personalities. But, alas, I cannot eavesdrop.
Another funny thing is the signs. The hospital is covered in signs with important information. There are at least 9 signs in my room alone. I have deciphered most of them, but it took a few days and when I got here, I really had no idea what was going on. The midwives told me a lot, but since most patients can read signs, they neglected to mention some things like how to use the television, which water is drinkable and which is not, how to get the shower to drain, etc.
I have gotten used to reading Danish at stores, supermarkets, in public transport, etc. but hospitals introduce all kinds of new words that are beyond my knowledge of the Danish language. So, I am taking the opportunity to expand my vocabulary. I have learned the words for clean and dirty among others. Give me another five years and surely I will be fluent.
Fortunately, all the midwives speak perfect English and are happy to talk to me. I feel very fortunate since it certainly wouldn't be as easy to communicate in some other foreign hospitals. I sense that I am a bit of a novelty to most of the staff here, they like to ask me questions and talk about America with me - San Francisco, marshmallow fluff, American medical practices, etc. It's a little funny, but also makes the days a bit more fun.
It is past time for me to be sleeping. Time to put the earplugs generously given to me by one of the midwives in my ears so I can sleep through all the beeping and banging in the night. Four weeks to go till baby time.
No comments:
Post a Comment