It's the final countdown....

(cue 80's hairrock)

Louise just told me that they have given her an injection to help mature the babies lungs. Just before that pr. Deprest came to see her and told her that they have a preference to operate on wednesday (7th of July), but not everything is arranged yet.
The doctors are meeting this afternoon to decide when the operation is going to take place, but from the looks of it, wednesday is the best bet.
I'll update this post when i hear more.

Confirmed! Louise will go into surgery wednesday morning, around 7.30 to be prepared, and I expect to see our son arrive before lunch. (Louise will probably still be out, so I get to be the first to greet him.)
Don't call us we'll call you! Mobile phones are forbidden in the baby department anyway, as well as near the operating theather. So do not worry when you don't hear anything for a while, we'll be way too busy admiring our son :-).

Thijs

Update from Stalag Leuven!

Writing smuggled out from cell 3006, wing E403, women’s unit.

My incarceration began on Sunday evening when the administrator attached an identity tag to my wrist; I am reduced to a number. I share my cell with a quiet Ghanaian lady with a very loud whirling dervish of a son, called Dennis, who comes to visit. This always livens up the place. I’m situated next to the window, and so have a pleasant view of a 1970’s concrete building with a strip of grass in front of it, occasionally rabbits like to visit to eat the new shoots. The exercise yard is in front of the complex, a three tiered pond filled with goldfish, other sorts of fish and ducks. Inmates from all over the complex congregate there, the saddest of which are the pitiful addicts puffing away on their cigarettes whilst strapped to all sorts of strange and perhaps torturous contraptions.

My cell guards are very pleasant and the food is also good and plentiful – I suspect this is all to keep the inmates compliant for when they run their experiments. Like vampires they descend regularly for blood, and I’m attached daily to monitor machines that record the baby’s heartbeat. However, the baby is on to their Orwellian ways and refuses to lie still long enough for “big brother” to track him!

What?! You don’t believe me? Come see for yourself!!

In all honesty, Leuven is not all that bad and I’m in the best of hands for looking after me and the baby. We’re getting the best of care and even the slightest change in either of our condition is investigated – and found to be normal. The baby is driving the staff nuts by not staying still for the monitor, so it’s likely that we’ll be heading off for another ultrasound (echo). This baby is destined for a career on TV with the amount of time he has spent on the small screen already!

The professor has been to visit and is happy with both my and the baby’s condition. I’m not sure if it’s a threat or a good thing but he mentioned that perhaps we can delay the procedure until 37 weeks! J He did mention that it’s difficult to measure how the baby is progressing, they don’t have anything to compare it too, but he’s moving about so much and so strongly that they believe this to be a healthy indication. Of course if anything changes, my waters break or our condition deteriorates then they will reconsider. The main reason for me to be here is as they can respond quickly to the slightest change, and we both find that very reassuring.

Thijs is here to visit and if that wasn’t fabulous enough, he came bearing packages! I have a beautiful flower arrangement as a gift from him to brighten and perfume the room, which is wonderful as the room is very dull.

My dad had posted even more clothes for the baby – I think my dad is determined that this will be the most fashionable of grandchildren!

The biggest box was from our friend Lol, who’s living out in America at the moment. When we opened it, it was fantastic. We felt like we were having one of those parties that they throw for parents to be in the USA, a baby shower. Package after package of the most gorgeous Winnie the Pooh baby room items were opened and admired. Even the staff commented on the lovely and sometimes unique items. A huge thank you from us Lol, we’re overwhelmed. Plus the timing was fantastic and cheered us up no end!

Thijs loves the canteen; he can enjoy a Duvel or a Blonde with his meal plus they are cheaper than in the Netherlands. I love that they have Stella Artois non-alcoholic beer, so at least I don’t feel too left out!

It’s great that people have phoned, keeping me in touch with the outside world! I’ve also have a few visitors coming to see me which I’m looking forward too and Bart is fixing me up with some viewing material. Daytime TV is awful whether in Belgium or the Netherlands!

Well that’s all the news from Stalag Leuven, I just hope Thijs can smuggle this out undetected. I shall leave his hiding place a secret as some things are best left unsaid!

Love to you all,

Louise – Prisoner 62075924

More hospital news

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update: Louise has been admitted in Leuven.
For those who wish to visit or call, here is the adress.

UZ leuven, location Gasthuisberg
Department E430
Room 3006
+32-16-333948
A description of how to get there can be found at:
http://www.uzleuven.be/UZroot/content/Home/overuzleuven/bereikbaarheid/UZGasthuisberg/

She is also reachable on her mobile phone, or my old private mobile phone. If you need any of those numbers please contact me, or leave a message on the blog.

I'll be of to Leuven tuesday afternoon for a visit, and will post again after that.

Thijs

Comitted

Hi everyone,

So a quick visit to Leuven will turn out not be very quick for Louise. She will stay in the hospital in Leuven from Sunday evening. We are now visiting my parents, and getting some pyama's to wear for Louise.

From the medical front: They did an MRI yesterday, but we haven't heard if there was anything to see from that. The baby got a bit spooked by the loud noise from the MRI machine, so the pictures may be a bit fuzzy. After that a few hours waiting, where the nurses let Louise sleep in one of the little examination rooms. That was very nice since we were up at 4 on friday morning to get to Leuven before the rush hour would delay us.
An echo was planned in the afternoon, but they managed to move it forward a bit. Aside from all the normal measurements, they did a test to see how the babies lungs have developed. For this they gave Louise pure oxygen to breathe, and then check to see if the baby reacts to the increased amounts of oxygen. They didn't mention that this works like speed for the baby, who danced around so much that they took 10 minutes to measure the effects.
All measurements turned out to be good, and the lungs were better developed than expected, so this was good news.

Then why does Louise have to stay in the hospital? Well, they are a bit worried about the amount of amniotic fluid (our babies olympic sized pool). This puts a lot of pressure on the membranes, which could lead to an early labour. Since it is a 2,5 hour drive from us to Leuven we may not get there in time, and so in the hospital all will be ready.

One last weekend of freedom is all that is left for Louise, so shopping it is!

Lilo is enjoying a holiday with Marijke from Easydog. Judging by her previous holidays there, Lilo will be super fit, and sleeping under Marijke's blanket. We hope she will want to come home after all the luxury of Marijke's dog spa!

See you soon,

Thijs

Some news, but nothing final

Hi,

Not a full decision, but something at least: A team of specialist has been formed at Leiden for an unhoped emergency, and the EXIT will be planned for Leuven most likely. This will all need to be finalised, but we got the impression it is a case of signing of and getting everyone on the phone.

So we are starting to think about what happens next and it will most likely be a though time (again) for al of us. I have for you a weblink, which I hope you'll read some parts from. It is in Dutch, but hopefully I can add a similar link to an english website soon.
http://www.canule.nl/index.htm
Not sure what to think about this load of information, but I am sure we'll do just fine. We'll discuss some more medical stuff with a throath specialist (KNO arts- dutch) soon, to find out what we can expect for our little boy.

I'll update again later with more information about yesterdays hospital visit, so check back soon :-)

Thijs



Tuesday evening Update:

We will be going to Leuven on friday to consult with the doctors. The birth will be in Leuven as well, with possible dates being the 4th or 9th of July.

Another week has flown past: Thursday again.

Hi all,

Another week has gone by quickly with visits to Berghem, Doetinchem and Arnhem last weekend. Louise went into work for a few hours to finish some administration, so the weekdays were filled as well.

And before we knew: thursday again, with another scan. All was well, as we expected from the healthy kicking that our little boy gives his mum everyday. We could see him moving about and all the measurements were good (a bit difficult to take sometimes as he wouldn't sit still). Plans for the future are still unsure, but the doctors will have a big meeting next monday afternoon to decide were the birth will take place. Our usual thursday appointment has been moved to tuesday morning, so that we get the news as quick as possible.

After that, more meetings will be set up and in the next weeks we will get to know more about the care he will need, and how much we can be with him. Offcourse all of this is dependant on his condition, but at least we will get a better picture of what we may expect. Things may differ a bit between Belgium (Leuven) and The Netherlands (Leiden), so we'll have to wait for that decision before telling you about visitors hours etc. .
So, back to doing the few things that we can do, which is the baby room. I'll start clearing it out this weekend, and we may start on reorganizing the cupboard, washing baby clothes, and whatever else springs to mind.

We'll let you know tuesday what has been decided, so till then.

Thijs

Another Thursday update

Another steady report, our little one is doing well.

All the bloodflow measurements were the same as last week, and he was moving about a lot, kicking and punching his mom. They did check on his growth, allthough it was not scheduled, but we are offcourse always curious. His belly has grown a little further, but no more then a normal childs belly would grow, so the amount of 'extra' fluid is stable. All the other growth measurements are good, so we are very happy.

With all the good news, we need to start working on the baby room soon, especially since we haven't done anything yet. We're off to the east of the Netherlands this weekend, but I hope to get started with clearing out the room next weekend. Shopping for some new stuff in two weeks, so we have enough time to prepare mentally to face the IKEA chaos. Shouldn't be too difficult after our little man's CHAOS, but I'm still not looking forward to it......

Thijs