the last stretch........

Ploy is now in week 36 and a bit.

Everything in her belly is stretched to the max!

Thijsje is "glugluglu" as Ploy says, meaning he twirls and kicks and bumps all day.

We both sleep very irregular, the big belly bump gives Ploy a lot of pain in the back and ribs and I have to massage her often.

Ploy goes to the prenatal-yoga classes in the city center and practices at home as well.

Here in the back of the room you can see the "birthpool" stand-by.... who knows we might use it one day.....

We have recently transferred to another hospital for the birth. Central General is really sterile with no room for alternative or natural birthing.

The Samitivej in the center of the city is much better equipped.

Ultrasound

Ploy and I like to see regularly how our little baby is doing. So we have an Ultrasound examination almost every month.

Here is Ploy in the Ultrasound room. This time we saw that the baby is in Breech position, so feet down.

That was the first time, before this we always saw the head down. According to the doctor this is not a problem yet, as Thijs has still room to twist around.

Actually we could see the following day that this has - most likely - happened, because we could see 2 bumps on Ploy's belly, one smaller and one longer, the smaller (head?) was down.

Dad's blessing

Last weekend we met with the Udomsinka family near the temple where Ploy's father stays as he has become a monk.

At first we went for some food at the nearby floating market (Talat Naam)

This temple is located in Ayuthaya, a famous old city, former capital of Siam.

Then we went to the temple where Ploy's father, now a monk, received us.

He recently had his birthday so we congratulated him and then he told us some sermons about life.

For Rob there is not much to do, as all conversation is in Thai, but Ploy will translate the important parts later.

Of course we had plenty of discussions about the round baby-bump from Ploy.

Everyone is amazed how lively en energetic Ploy is, as most Thai women seem to fall down on the sofa, bed or mat and never move until the baby is born....

Not my Ploy-jah, because right after this we went to the fitness center for some swimming.

Ploy really likes that, it supports the extra 10 kg that she now carries in front of her.

Catching up with the Blog

Yesterday we were at a farewell party of a few of Ploy's colleagues and we met an Indian couple with a young son. They told us that they were making a Blog about his life as he is growing up, as a replacement for a real photo album.

That idea sounded so good to us that we decided to do that too, so Thijs can see later how he started in life!

Of course we have to fill in some blank pages, as we went through some interesting examinations with the doctor in the hospitals.

At first we visited Vibhawadi Hospital, a smaller private hospital where we did the first ultrasound scan.

Here we can see the early beginnings of Thijsje. At that time we didn't decide on a name, we also did not know it it would be a boy or a girl.

The second visit to this hospital was not so good, the first doctor was not available and another, female doctor this time was examining. She had all kind of strange suggestions and basically told us that Ploy could not do anything anymore like exercising because the fetus was with it's hands and feet down...., a ridiculous advice for such a young pregnancy.

She also told us, without asking if we wanted to know, that it was 95% sure a boy...

So we never went back to this hospital!

Here you can see the legs and XY marks the little penis. The picture was taken in the next hospital: Central General.

In this hospital we met a nice doctor, on advice from Khun Mair, who has helped us until now.

Though he is for sure an "old school" doctor, he is helpful and shows a lot of images on the Ultrasound.

We get really detailed information and test results from him, as well as interesting scans van Thijs:

Here we can see that everything is OK and that the growth of Thijs is normal.

We were in the Birthing Room of the Central General Hospital and that was NOT a good experience: very cool and clinical and definitely not the place where we would like to see Thijs coming into this world!

Babyshower

This week we had the Babyshower, organized by Ploy's colleagues.

We all kept it a secret to her, which was difficult as Ploy was quick to ask me why her boss wanted to have my email....

We all met at the Fat fish restaurant in Bangkok. Ploy was completely surprised.

Thijs "in the making"

This is the first post for Thijs, our first son who yet has to be born!

Thijs was "made" during our short holiday in Krabi, around my birthday, 20th october 2009.

Now, 8 month later we are preparing for our first child.

We have gone through all the tests and examinations in 2 different hospitals.

Everything has been perfect until now. Ploy's pregnancy is like the books tell you it should be.

We are very sure that Ploy will have a smooth and painless birthing and are preparing for that.