September 4, 2008 - A New Life in Nairobi!

We are very pleased to publicly post for the first time that Lisa is pregnant! It has been very hard for her to write a lot of blogs without talking about the pregnancy, because from the minute we found out (the day before our first wedding anniversary!) it has been the most dominant force in our lives. Now Lisa is relieved that the secret is out and she can happily turn this into a "Pregnant in Nairobi" blog.

Baby Welsien is due on March 11th and as of yesterday we are safely into the second trimester of the pregnancy. Lisa has been feeling really well for the most part. July was a month of nausea and exhaustion and August was a bit better in the nausea department, but she was equally tired! Her worst symptom so far has been terrible pregnancy acne (skin problems!) on her face and chest, but we are hoping that the second trimester will show an improvement.

We found a recommended OB/GYN here in Nairobi at the Aga Khan Hospital, which is the premier hospital in East Africa and has a brand new state-of-the-art maternity wing that we are very happy about. They have the best care around for babies born prematurely, and we are happy to know that fathers are allowed to stay in the hospital room with moms and babies (they have family "hotel rooms") and that moms and babies are not kicked out after 48 hours! So far we have been very pleased with the doctor: she is very encouraging, positive, and calm. We have friends who had a baby here last March and were very happy with the care they received.

Because this pregnancy came to us as a bit of a surprise, especially so close to Lisa's heart surgeries in May, we saw the doctor when Lisa was 6 weeks along. An ultrasound at that time showed that the baby already had a strong heartbeat (it sounded like white noise but you could see the rhythm very clearly) and, at only .5 cm big, we were instantly in love. All of our fears about the surgeries and the pregnancies were assuaged by the OB/GYN, the ultrasound, Lisa's cardiologist here and her cardiologist in NYC (via email). As much as she can, Lisa has been eating well and exercising...although both should get easier with renewed energy and decreased hormones in the second trimester.

Now...we know some of the questions you might be wondering:

What will Baby W's citizenship be? Baby W will be born with Kenyan citizenship, but will automatically get American citizenship because Lisa is American and Danish citizenship because Kristoffer is Danish. Therefore, our baby will officially be a citizen of the world, and master of three different continents.

Can your baby be President of the United States if s/he is born in Kenya? The jury is still out on this. Baby W's "Nene" (aka Lisa's mom) found evidence online that if you are born to an American citizen residing outside of the US that you can still be eligible to run for President. But the US State Department's website is not as clear. We will investigate further (because of course this is an urgent matter!) and get back to you, but if anyone reading this has expertise on the subject - please share!

What language will your baby speak? Baby W will hopefully be bilingual. Kristoffer will speak to the baby only in Danish and Lisa will speak to the baby on English. We might try to integrate some Kiswahili too...but let's not get too ahead of ourselves.

Will you find out what kind of baby you are having? No we will not! We are both equally excited about the moment of true surprise in March when the doctor says..."It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" We do have a few names picked out in either case, but Kristoffer is definitely rooting for a boy and Lisa is thinking that it just might be a girl! Maybe somebody wants to take bets?

Will you come to the US and/or Denmark before the baby is born in March? Yes, as a matter of fact we will! We arrive in the US for 3 weeks on December 6th and then head to Denmark on December 26th for 2 weeks. After that I will be cut off from air-travel so we will really make the most of our holiday vacation. We look forward to seeing all of our family and friends (or as many of you as possible!) and showing off Lisa's baby belly.

And when will Americans and Danes get to meet Baby Welsien? Next summer we plan to take a holiday to Denmark for a few weeks in June to celebrate "Far Mor's" 60th birthday (aka Kristoffer's mom) and then we will head to the US for a few weeks as well. But of course, guests are welcome to come to Kenya before then if they just can't wait to meet Baby Welsien. In fact, Lisa's mom (and hopefully her dad too!) will be coming for about 6 weeks when Baby W is born and we already have some potential August visitors lined up. Leave it to our baby to keep a pressing social calendar.

Thank you, in advance, for sharing in our joy. Having a baby in Kenya was not exactly part of our plan when we moved here, but we are so excited and feel very blessed to be expectant parents. We have had great role models in our parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and friends with children and we really look forward to the challenges and rewards of parenting.

Kristoffer & Lisa