Friday, May 23, 2008

Alexandra at 1 month...

Well what a month it has been! It is hard to believe that 4 weeks have passed already, but here we are with a growing little girl that just seems to fit into our family so well it is amazing!

One of the benefits of birth in Germany is the follow up care. Every woman is entitled to 8 home visits from a mid-wife in the first 2 months of a baby's life. The mid-wife helps out with anything you need that you would normally see the doctor for in the US. She weighs the baby to make sure nursing is going ok, cleans the belly button stump, checks the mom out to make sure we aren't abnormally exhausted & that we are healing ok from the birth process. It has been a wonderful support for a foreigner, and I feel very fortunate that our mid-wife was a very cheerful woman who was an Irish-German. Jessica has been great & today was probably our last day of seeing her, because things are going so well.

Alexandra has taken to nursing very VERY well. Today she weighed in at 4,410 grams or 9lbs 11 oz. 4 weeks ago she was 3,250 grams (7lbs 3oz). She is getting wonderfully chunky in all the right places. Her cheeks are shiny and her legs are getting those great rolls that all babies should have.
Hopefully we are approaching the magic 10lb mark, where the babies start sleeping in 5-6 hour chunks at night. I woke up with a cold yesterday, a bit frustrating because I've been feeling so good not being pregnant after feeling sick for so long, and a 5-6 hour stretch would do me a world of good right now. However, we are going to the US in 7 weeks (only 7 more weeks mom!) and I know it will mess up sleeping again for all of us.

Update on the consulate visit. I cannot tell you what visiting a consulate or embassy is like in any other country (except Paraguay but that is another story), but if you could imagine American Customer Service & German efficiency combined for the best possible outcome I think we experienced it.

We were able to send all of the copies of the paperwork to the Consulate by email & we received a phone call the next morning at 9am to set up an appointment for a CRBA (Consular Report of a Birth Abroad). Monday we presented ourselves to the consulate at 10am for a 10am appt, since our name was on the list we walked right in (there wasn't any line outside that morning either) and the entire process took less than 30 min. The agent working with us told us by sending the paperwork electronically we saved tons of time & they could make sure everything was correct without having to deal with deutsche post.
Also, it turns out that new applicants abroad receive priority for passports from the US & we should have Alexandra's within the next week or so. Her Social Security Number will take longer, but the Agent was sure we would have it in time to file taxes next year!

As we left Troy kept saying, "this was SO much better than trying to go to the Embassy in Paris!"

No comments: