Two Trimesters Down, One To Go!

I know I haven't written much about my pregnancy, but that is because thankfully after the morning sickness (more like all-day sickness) wore off, things have been pretty uneventful. I've been able to continue running and working out, thank goodness-it helps me keep my sanity. I haven't had any pregnancy cravings, but I have to admit when I eat chocolate, it tastes even better than usual!

One of the perks of being pregnant in Brazil is the pregnant and senior citizen line at the supermarket. It is not uncommon to wait for 45 minutes in the checkout line, now I only have to wait about 30 minutes. This is something I would have never done during my first pregnancy, but my patience with Brazil is wearing thin.

I don't know what we would do without the APO. We have purchased everything online from the US and had it shipped to the US Consulate. Everything here, to include baby gear, is so expensive. We're talking at least 4X the price, not to mention the poor quality. It is less expensive to buy a plane ticket to the US, buy everything for the baby, and pay the extra-baggage fees for the way back. In fact, we know several Brazilians who have done this.

I have had a lot of questions about the quality of medical care here since I've been pregnant. The short answer is, we would not have decided to have a baby here unless they had good medical care.

The only downside to Brazilian medical care has been finding a doctor willing to do a natural birth. Here in Brazil 95% of births are by Cesarian. From what we can gather, there are two reasons behind this: 1) Brazilian women don't want to go through the pain of childbirth and 2) Doctors here prefer them because they can be in and out of the hospital in 2 hours instead of sitting around waiting through hours of labor. There are no labor and delivery nurses here so the doctor stays with you through the whole thing. Thankfully we have found a doctor who speaks pretty good English and is willing to try natural childbirth.

I've had four sonograms since October. The first one was too soon to tell the sex of the baby and in all the others it was very obvious we were having a boy! Going into the first sonogram I was sure it was a boy so the news wasn't much of a surprise to us.

Grace is really happy that she gets to remain the princess of the castle, the only girl. She has always said she wanted a sister so we were happy she took the boy news so well. She loves to feel and watch my stomach move. She talks to the baby and reads to him. I can't wait to see how she does when he is born. I think she will be a big help.

Some days, I can't believe we only have three months left, yet other days I can't beieve we still have to wait three more months to meet our new little guy.