You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2007.
We are all finally home from a long restful stay at the hospital and a very successful delivery. Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers throughout this pregnancy and birth. The boys are doing fantastic and we love them dearly. As I cannot yet sit up because of a fractured tailbone and other unpleasant things, the birth story will have to be typed out later. I have my hands full with these two hungry boys and am adjusting to my new role as mother.
Lucas Henry Graf Beissel von Gymnich
Born Sept.18th, 2007 at 4:25pm
3010 grams, 6.6 lbs.
50 cm, 19.6 inches
Apgar score: 10
Here I am a few hours before the birth. I hadn’t yet recieved the epidural and I was very irritable at this point. Maybe it’s obvious in my face. I had been poked and prodded one too many times and was hooked up to all kinds of machines. The epidural put a calm smile back on my face, so did the boys.
Tuesday, September 18th will be the day. I will either go into labor sometime the night before or will be induced early in the morning. I will have carried to 38 1/2 weeks. Bravo.
I’ll post all the details and some newborn photos as soon as I can afterwards.
Keep us all in your prayers and pray that the birth goes as smoothly as the pregnancy has.
If all goes as planned, we will arrive at Clinique de la Muette (46-48 Rue Nicolo, Paris 75016) at 7:30 am on Tuesday morning and I will be staying there until Friday or Saturday before going home.
My blood pressure is stable so we are waiting until the 18th, 19th or 20th for the babies to reach the end of 38 weeks. If I go into labor before then, it will be fine but if not, I don’t think we’ll wait longer than the 20th. Next wednesday we’ll see if anything has changed and go from there.
We saw the midwife this morning and we went over what I should expect when I get to the hospital and during the birth. It all seems so chaotic and messy but I guess women have been doing this forever and I will be able to too. She thinks that the boys are in no hurry to come out and wont until the 18th or maybe even later. My body is doing nothing in preparation, I barely ever have contractions and everything is closed and show no signs of change. I feel like someone is going to soon tell me that in fact they will never be coming out. My blood pressure has also returned to normal with the medication. I am big and really uncomfortable now but I have to relax because I think it’s going to be a while. We’ll see what the doctor says on Wednesday. Part of my impatience is that I just really want to see them too, it is such a mystery to me what is inside my large and silent belly. It helps me relax to think that all this time will be better for the boys. I am uncomfortable but it is only physical; it would be a lot worse to have them come early and be worried about their health. I can deal much better with the physical discomfort then the mental. They will probably be born with the strength and size of a single pregnancy. Good for them. And once they are born, well, there they’ll be. We will have a lifetime to get to know each other and what is inside the big silent belly will no longer be a mystery, or maybe it will.
Today we went to the Louvre to look at Fragonard, Ingres, and other French painters from the 17th to 19th c. Here I am standing outside by a big fountain. I am a sight to behold and people don’t resist telling me, or just staring, unsure of how to react. I am so big in real life, I’m not sure it comes through in the images but my belly is severe, and I am swollen. I am so ready to deliver.
As I have already said, we have been visiting museums every weekend to get out of the house. Bertram pushes me around in a wheelchair and we have been having so much fun together this way, as you can tell in our facial expressions in this image. 
Actually, our expressions don’t really communicate fun, but really, outside of the handicap elevator, there was a lot of laughing. Here we are at the quai Branly on Friday afternoon.
