The Waiting Game
There are some benefits to living in a small village, like never having to wait more than five minutes to see your ob/gyn. I LOVE this. In Berlin, Rostock, and Potsdam, the waiting rooms were always jam packed and you could look forward to at least a two hour wait. I haven’t been to any other doctors down here yet, but I’m hoping that when I need them, I’ll find the same thing waiting for me in their offices as well.
Ultrasound off
I also love that I get an ultrasound at every appointment, I think I’ve already had 6 or 7 ultrasounds. From what I understand, in the US you might get three done over the entire course of the pregnancy. It’s cool to see the progress from just a speck in the little black amniotic sac at four weeks to a baby who’s quite the athlete at twelve weeks. Oh yeah, in my disappointment about not learning the sex, I forgot to tell you what I did see. The baby would scrunch itself up in one corner of the amniotic sac, then suddenly push off with it’s legs and fly across to the other side, then it would slowly drift back to it’s starting position and do it again. I’m pretty sure it was sucking it’s thumb at one point too. Anyways, it has all it’s arms, legs, fingers and toes. They also concluded that there is very little chance of Down syndrome, which I was surprised they waited so long to check on. I hadn’t thought of it before, but before the ultrasound, they were telling us all the options if the baby turned out to have Down syndrome and abortion was one. So at what point does abortion become illegal in Germany? I don’t know this, but it’s only legal in the first trimester in most US states, but since they didn’t check me until now, it must be later in Germany.
“We love to entertain you, du Arschloch”
Comedy Central Germany started broadcasting this morning, you can find it on the channel that was formerly occupied by Viva Plus. It does not appear that they will be showing the Daily Show, so you’ll still have to tune in to CNN International on Sunday nights at 11:30 to catch the once a week Daily Show International, but they will be showing Chappelle’s Show, which you could previously watch on MTV Germany, so…
Enough With Little Evil Jared
And finally, since I guess Evil Jared Hasselhof from the Bloodhound Gang is incapable of keeping little Evil Jared in his pants, I must direct my plea to the producers of MTV Germany. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, stop showing all of little Evil Jared’s appearances. He is overexposed. All I have to do is close my eyes to see him and I find that disturbing. Just because he is now living in Berlin does not mean we need to see him once an hour.
And with that, I’m outta here!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice to hear of your progress!
Do you get Comedy central on cable or satellite?
@vailian: I get it on satelite, but it should be on cable as well. They just started broadcasting this morning at 6am, so take a look!
Awesome to read about your doctor’s visit. I LOVED the ultrasound every visit in German… especially after not seeing The Boy for so long (France and the US in between the first ultrasound and Germany). My second surprise was that my OBGYN in Frankfurt hardly ever had a wait. Maybe I made appointments at the perfect time? I think I waited once or twice the entire time I saw him (three months).
when my mum was pregnant with my sister, over the course of the pragnancy, she collected enough print-offs from the ultra sonic thingy that she actally was able to start a little photo-album. i guess she wanted to compensate since there wasn’t this kind of technology (meaning print-offs) in the GDR when she had me.
OMG, that was funny. Hi, just found your blog, and about 1 hour before I realized that it was Jan 16th and Comedy Central began yesterday. What’s the first thing I went digging for? Yup. Daily Show. Before CC began broadcasting, my husband read somewhere that it would be showing Jon Stewart, but….? Nope. Not there. Argh. Thank God for CNN on the weekends or I think I might go crazy.
Hi, Christina,
my experience has been that while pregnant (twice so far) I’ve never had to wait for my appointments, but for regular check-ups I’ve had to wait for an hour or so even though I made the appointment months in advance. My theory is that the ob-gyn earns so much with a pregnant patient that he/she doesn’t want to lose her and thereofore schedules those appointments differently.
Anonymous-M.
That’s so cool – to be able to watch your baby’s progress before birth. Cheers to ten fingers and ten toes!
@maria & anon-m: Were there people waiting at all? Even in Potsdam when I was pregnant the waiting room always had at least 10 people in it, no matter when I went, and they didn’t seem to make exceptions for me being pregnant, so maybe it’s an east-west thing then. When I first moved to Berlin I got migraines a lot and had to go to my gynecologist for injections and the waiting room was always full (15-20 people) and I still had to wait my turn. I once waited three hours, got fed up and told the receptionist I was going to the emergency room. She was like, yeah, that’s your choice then. Down here I’m usually alone in the waiting room. Do you guys have public or private insurance? I’ve heard private patients do usually get quick treatment with little wait.
@rita: Yeah, I’ve got a nice little collection going and was thinking of making a little album.
@debbie: That’s so funny! I WISH I could see the Daily Show every day (or Mon-Thur, actually)!
@schokolade madchen: it is really amazing. Thanks!
Christina,
I have public insurance, but you’re right, my mom has private insurance and hardly ever has to wait for an appointment.
I was never alone in the waiting room, but it was never crowded, either when I was pregnant. Regular check-ups is another story; the waiting room is sometimes so full that all seats are taken.
Anonymous-M.
@Anon-m: Hmmm, maybe they do schedule people differently. I dunno…