Sundhedsplejerske and Pipes

Daddy and Anika cuddling. She looks so little on his chest.






This is our home nurse, which they call a sundhedsplejerske (a healthy nurse). Her name is Else-Marie and she was very nice. And thankfully spoke some English. Anika is doing good, she has already grown 1 cm. She's still a little under her birth weight, but nothing concerning. She'll come back at the end of the week to weigh her again. It was funny, while she was getting ready to leave, she asked me if I was to have Anika sleep outside. We both looked at each other and smiled and started laughing. I told her I could do it on days with nice weather. She said she wouldn't put pressure on me, she realizes its only Denmark that does this. =)

It was a sad day for Broderick at dagpleje. It was the last day for his buddy Tobias. He's going to kindergarten. They gave each other a big hug when it was time to say good-bye.


This week Brad is helping me out by taking Broderick to and from dagpleje. Yesterday he picked him up and took him out to work with him for a couple of hours. Broderick was so excited as he has been wanting to see the "muskines and pipe" (machines and pipe).




Broderick in front of a big machine.









Playing with some parts.







In front of some pipe.







Today I will take Anika into my language school to show her off. I may attempt to run some errands too. We had more visitors on Sunday and a few more last night. Brad announced after they left, "Well, I think that's about everyone we know over here." Well, not quite, but its getting close. =D

Anika's 1st Week

Anika's 1st week has been a great one. She has been such a good little girl. We are so thankful for that. She sleeps a large majority of the day, so we hope as she starts to wake up that she'll continue to be a good girl. Broderick was not such an easy baby, so we are so happy that she has been so far.


Its been very difficult to get pictures of Broderick and Anika together. Broderick hasn't been real excited or patient to pose with her.








Daddy and Anika cuddling.



Lounging on her baby bean bag.


My mom left this week. She was a great help, especially giving Broderick the extra atttention he was needing and wanting.





Her 1st sponge bath. She wasn't a big fan.










Doing what she does best .... sleep!





We gave Broderick a castle tent as a "big brother" gift. He was so excited in it and has been sleeping in there. We would put him to bed and hear him get out and get in his tent.








Mommy holding her. I can't get enough. I love it when they're so little.







So cute.









Daddy and Broderick playing soccer at our neighborhood park.







We've been able to take walks the last few nights, so thankful the weather has cooperated.








Grandma reading books. Broderick wanted to go on the airplane with her so he could visit Grandpa.







Brother and Sister.





We have had several visitors, we're so thankful for our friends over here. I have learned so much about how I should treat and reach out to new people in a community. They have all brought something for the big brother too, which of course Broderick loves. Unfortunately he starts to expect it, not such a good thing.

Monday morning, we have the home nurse visit us. They have nurses that visit you at home to check on the baby. I think this is such a great service and am excited to meet Anika's nurse. I'm hoping that she speaks good English. =)

My mom did a great job of spoiling Broderick while she was here and we were sad to see her go. She took good care of all of us. Now we are looking forward to Brad's parents visiting. They come at the end of week.

I can't believe she's one week already. They change and grow so fast. I wish they stayed little just a bit longer.

Introducing ... Anika Mae Schmidgall

Anika Mae - 4 days old

Sorry it has taken so long to get this posted. We've been a little busy. =D But definitely a good busy. I'll give you all (well most) of the details and how everything went. There's a lot of pictures too, so I hope its not too long for you.

Friday morning we called the labor ward to see what time we were to go. They told us to be there by 8:30, so we had about a half hour to finish getting ready and head into the "unknown". Broderick had decided to confuse things a little by developing a bad cough and wheezing. My poor mom had to take him to the doctor here friday morning. Thankfully our neighbor was awesome and drove them there and showed them where to go. He was ok too. Just a cold they said that was only in his upper chest, so it was ok to bring a baby home to that.

Our little boy, soon to be big brother.











Here we are, ready to leave for the hosptial.

So we get to the hospital and they take us to a room in the delivery ward. They got some information and monitored the baby for a half hour and gave me my first "pill" to start labor. Then we were sent to the labor ward and would be there 6 hours until I was due to have my 2nd "pill". The labor ward is not a private room. There are 4 beds in there with laboring women. You can imagine how much Brad liked being in this room. What was nice though, was we were allowed to get up and walk around and even leave the hospital. So we were able to walk to a nearby Italian restaurant for lunch on that friday. We got a lot of reading done and tried to sleep when I could, since I didn't know how much sleep I could get later.

After 6 hours, I was taken back down to the delivery ward where they monitored again for a half hour and I was given my 2nd pill. Now in the US, I was given this pill every 6 hours once I started. Here they told me they only do 2 per day, so they wouldn't do anything else with me until saturday morning. WHAT??? Its only 4:30 in the afternoon right now and I'm just supposed to wait around? I want this kid out of me. They said that sometimes this could take 2-3 days. I was devestated. I was not planning on being in labor that long. So back to the labor ward with my roommates. I was in labor by now though and I thought it was severe, but they kept telling me that I wasn't bad enough for pain meds. I wasn't progressing either. Again - WHAT???? Don't tell me that. Maybe I am a wimp, but it was painful to me. =D Brad really had nowhere to sleep and wanted to get a hotel room nearby. I was not so happy about the idea about him not being nearby while I was in labor. It turns out the hospital has a few rooms you can rent for about 10$ a night, so Brad took one of those. At least he was in the same building. But here I am in labor in a room where there are 2 other women sleeping - one of which was snoring very loudly. (The nurse had to keep coming and wake her up and finally they moved her to a different room.)

Here's where Brad spent most of his time, in a waiting room down the hall from my room.

Finally at 2 AM, they decided to take me back down to the delivery ward (where you do have your own room). My midwife decided to try accupuncture on me to see if that would help. I was all for trying anything to help with the pain. I'm here to say it didn't help and actually the needles in my hands hurt.

I got a new midwife a little while later and she asked me if this was worse than my first labor. I told her that I had an epidural with my first, so I couldn't really compare them. She then said to me, "Would you like an epidural?"

My answer ....... "YES!!!!"

Here is my angelic midwife who got me an epidural. Again, I know I'm a wimp. But notice I'm smiling now.


After my epidural, I was able to sleep a little bit. This was so nice as I was quite exhausted. When I woke up, I had progressed quite a bit. This was good news. They took the epidural out about 8:00 in the morning because they like you to be able to feel when its time to push. When it was finally time, she came out in less than 30 seconds. So nice as Broderick had taken 2 1/2 hours of pushing.

Here's little Anika in her first moments.

Mommy, Daddy and baby

Proud Daddy

Her first exam.






She's already got Daddy wrapped around her finger.

Mother and Daughter. I'm holding a present. Brad was so nice to have bought me a gift.

After a couple of hours in the delivery ward, they took Anika to the neonatal unit where they would monitor her blood glucose levels. I just had to check in on my floor and then was able to be with her. Brad left to get my mom and Broderick.

Here's proud big brother.

I love my "littal soster".

Grandma with grandchild #18.















The whole family.

Her blood sugar was a little low and my milk wasn't enough, so they gave her an NG tube and gave her formula through that. Poor girl didn't like it going in, I felt so bad.

Daddy and his little Princess

My eyes are open, better take a picture quick.

Most of saturday was spent in the neonatal unit with little Anika and at 8:00 that evening she was able to come to my room to spend the night. Again, we had a roommate, but at least it was only 1 this time. We were so tired since we didn't get much sleep the night before that after Brad got us settled in our room, he went and got a room at a nearby hotel. Anika needed one more blood test in the morning and then they were sending us home.

Our view from my hospital room.

Daddy carrying her to the car.

Bundled up in her car seat.

So 24 hours after her birth, they told us we were free to leave and we gathered our stuff and headed home. So different than in the US, they would never have you leave that early. Many women over here leave as soon as 4 hours after their baby is born. Thankfully I really did feel great at this point and we had gotten good sleep our first night together.

Finally made it home.

Broderick was excited to see her again.

Here I am 1 day old.







So, it was quite an experience, at the beginning, I was not happy and was missing the big private rooms in the US. But ... the actual birthing process with the midwifes went awesome and they were great. So, I'm not sure which was better, just two very different experiences.

Names over here have to come from an approved list, so that helped us pick out our name, but since she was born here, we also wanted her to have a Danish name. Mae is my Grandma Schock's middle name and that is where that came from.

I'm sure we'll be updating soon with more pictures and how things are going. So far she is such a good baby, but maybe she hasn't quite woken up yet. =) Thank you so much to those who have prayed and all the well wishes. It meant so much to know so many people cared.

She's Coming.....

So tomorrow is the big day. The plan is to call the hospital at 7:30 in the morning and then they will tell me when to come in. This could be, "Come right down, we're ready for you" or "we're full, please come in 10 hours." I think you know which one I want. I am ready to meet our little girl and to relieve the pressure on my ribs because I cannot handle it anymore. So please pray that we can get in right away to the unit. Then they will start me on medication given every 6 hours as needed, the same as with Broderick. I'm really praying that it will progress faster than it did with Broderick. When I am dilated enough, then they will break my water. I am unsure about the pain medications. I know they have them, but they do not give them out readily. So, I need to be really dramatic so they really think I can't handle it.
Tuesday night, we went out to eat with another couple who are due with their first child a couple weeks after my due date. This was our last night out alone in awhile I'm sure.

We picked up my mom from the airport Wednesday afternoon. Broderick had flowers and a Danish flag waiting for her. He was pretty excited.

So, here we are. The final family photo as a 3 person family. You can definitely see my belly here. People have been asking for belly pics, this is as good as you are going to get. =) Poor Broderick doesn't want to make this easy for us though, so he has decided to get sick. Yesterday he started coughing and having a runny nose. Then this evening, he is wheezing and a low fever. Our neighbor across the street is a nurse for our doctor. So I went to get advice from her on what to do as I really would like to have this baby tomorrow, but I don't want to wait for Broderick to see a doctor, especially if we're going to bring a newborn back into the same house - we want him healthy. So my poor mom may have to take Broderick to the doctor, she'll know more than we will about visiting our doctor her as we have never taken Broderick to this doctor.

I guess its always something to keep things interesting. Thanks for all the prayers so far, things have gone amazing well here. Please pray tomorrow for a safe and speedy delivery. And please pray that Broderick can be healthy and heal quickly.

Hopefully we'll be posting again soon with some pictures and news of our new daughter or as Broderick says, "my wittle sisto".

Last Weekend Before Baby

Doesn't this picture melt your heart? Every night Brad puts Broderick to bed and they say a prayer together. Its one of my favorite things to see as a mommy.
Our last weekend before we add another baby to the mix, so what do you do? How do you enjoy this time before life gets a little crazier? Well, Broderick's vote was Jumboland, of course.

Here's him and Daddy both wearing their "bests". He thinks he's pretty cool when he looks like daddy.

Building a big tower!

There's a restaurant we've seen in Aalborg called Bones - an American restaurant with their specialty being spareribs. Of course our curiosity was perked, so we have tried to go their twice and they have been fully booked. We even tried to make reservations and were unable to get in. So this Friday, I actually called ahead of time enough that we were able to get in!!!!

Broderick's excited to see Goofy when we go inside. He told me "I want to sake his hand". I wish I would have got a picture of that. He shook Goofy's hand and introduced himself.

They really cater to kids. They have a playroom there and give them balloons and a hat/visor and a toy. Broderick got a sword that lights up. He thought he was like his cousin Gabe with the sword.

Going home. The restaurant was pretty good. We were expecting big things since its obviously quite popular here. I had the spareribs and they were good except they didn't have good American BBQ sauce. Brad had a big steak which he said was good too. As usual though, never cheap to eat out in Denmark, unfortunately.

This weekend we had great weather, in the 50s. Saturday, we took a walk into town and went through the park. It was relaxing and Broderick loved it. We stopped to see the ducks too.

Then today we were invited to our neighbors house for breakfast and then spent most of the day outside. We needed to condition our patio furniture and Broderick loves to play in his yard.

Broderick and our neighbor boy, Victor.

Vibeke, Søren, and Brad
Megan and Vibeke

While we were outside, there was neighbor kids outside playing across the street. Broderick was kind of eyeing them, so Brad asked, "Do you want to go play with them?" "YES!!!" Broderick ran over to them and started playing. It was our first moments as parents that our little boy went off by himself to play. Kind of a big moment. =( They grow up too fast. Then after a while he asked if he could go inside and watch a video with the kids. When I went to get him a little bit later, he was content as he could be. He's only 2!!!

5 days left for me and I can't wait. A little nervous, but I'm ready. I can only handle about 8 months of pregnancy I think. My last day of language school is tomorrow and my mom arrives on Wednesday. We'll keep you updated!!!!