October 9, 2008 - POP!

I wasn't planning on posting another pregnancy picture for 2 more weeks when I am 20 full weeks pregnant, but yesterday at 18 full weeks I woke up with a much bigger baby belly than I had before! When I saw my neighbor last night she greeted me with, "Oh my! You've popped since I saw you on Saturday!" Of course I know I will only get bigger and that by the time March comes it will seem like there are 3 of me, but for right now waking up yesterday morning with a significant and noticeable belly was a bit of a shock. I didn't know it would happen overnight like that!

So here I am below at 18 weeks...taking my own picture while Kristoffer is away for work...and marvelling at the wonders of pregnancy. This week my skin is very slowly but surely getting better, my wake-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-leg-cramps are getting worse, and I seem to be better in the eating department since I haven't had a bad headache in more than 10 days. Simba is growing and we are so excited for our ultrasound next week to mark the halfway point of our pregnancy!
LMW

October 7, 2008 - Internet at Home!

Definitely the most exciting news for us - we finally had internet installed in our home yesterday! It is a big moment as we haven't had internet at home since we moved to our house in June. We had previously taken for granted our internet access and have really been missing it - especially with all of our guests who would have liked to use it! The company we are using is the third one we've tried in the house and they finally had success (and are actually cheaper than the other companies too!).

Now Kristoffer will blog more, hopefully, and we can finally SKYPE (!) and download itunes and pictures! Simple pleasures, right? It may not be the fastest internet on earth, but it is ours finally!

Kristoffer is leaving today for a field mission until Saturday so especially because I am home alone for the rest of the week I am happy to have some virtual company. A happy day in Nairobi, indeed :)

LMW

October 6, 2008 - Two Month Travel Countdown

Two months from today we arrive in Boston to begin our 5 week holiday vacation - 3 weeks in the US and 2 weeks in Denmark. Although we usually don't like to wish away time, we are really excited that this break seems to be coming quickly (although during our vacation we hope that time will really slow down!).

On Friday we had our first "pregnancy panic" which I suppose at 4 1/2 months was bound to happen. I had a cramp in the right side of my stomach for several hours; it wasn't so painful, felt more like a runner's cramp, but it just didn't go away for so long that I got really nervous because I'd never felt anything like it before. My doctor asked us to come in right away when I called and she confirmed that everything was fine. She did some tests, checked my blood pressure, and checked the baby's heart rate determining that the baby was in no danger at all. She suspected that I had a urinary tract infection, which turned out to be not true. So after ruling out everything bad that it could be, she said I had probably overdone it at the gym or needed more rest. So this weekend was pretty relaxing for us; by Saturday morning my cramp was gone and we were very relieved that it turned out to be nothing. First time parents, you know!

Our friend Karen went back to Denmark yesterday and we will have no more visitors (that we know of right now) until Simba is born. Before she left, however, we took her on a treasure hunt. In our foyer there is sort of an empty nook to the left of our stairs and we wanted to put some life into it! So we went hunting for the perfect plant and, because we have such high ceilings, we ended up buying a 10 ft. 10 inch TREE. So when you walk into our house now it takes a second to figure out if you are in a house or the rain forest! It takes a bit of getting used to, but we are really happy with it. We are sure our housekeeper will be in for a shock when she arrives this morning :)

Otherwise, all is well in Nairobi. The "short rains" have come...it still surprises me a little that I live in a country with "short" and "long rains". But the rain is really good for Kenya because much of the country has been experience severe drought so rain means food, water, electricity (hydro power), employment, and money for the country. It is a very good thing...that is, until there is flooding in some places (not Nairobi, don't worry), which is a very bad thing. Kenya is very disaster-prone...can you tell?

LMW

October 1, 2008 - By Grace part 3

Back in July I wrote two blogs about an orphanage we visited in Nairobi called "By Grace", which Kristoffer knew of through work initially, but to which we have become personally attached. We have brought our visitors to see the orphanage and Kristoffer has been working to get more food aid to them for the 300 children who live and attend school there. The orphanage is in the process of buying land on which to build a proper school and dormitories (their current facilities are the worst imaginable). The people who operate this orphanage are very Christian and very grateful for all donations and support; the children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and, while their circumstances could be described as dire, they remain hopeful for their futures. Please see the blogs from July 23rd (By Grace) and July 27th (By Grace part 2) to find out more information. Below are some very belated pictures of our first visit with Kirsten and Hans. Thanks to Hans for taking such great pictures!

I would also like to add that it is a very humbling experience to be bringing a child into the world at the same time as we are getting involved with this orphanage. Our child will have access to good medical care and be well-fed, be sheltered in sanitary conditions and properly clothed, our child will be infinitely loved...he or she will essentially want for nothing. We have realized what an enormous responsibility this is and how important it is for our child to understand and appreciate his/her fortune and opportunities.

-LMW

Two pictures below of one small classroom. During the day there could be over 20 children attending an early primary school class, and at night there will be the same amount of children sleeping in the room.


These are their (decrepit) mattresses, which are rolled up during the day so the rooms can be used for school.

These are some of the desks for the classrooms that are stored on the fire escape during the night time and on weekend when children are not in classes.

The chairs below are used for the older students. They store their personal belongings below during the daytime.

The following five pictures are of children outside at the "assembly" they held for us. There was dancing by the younger children and then singing by the older orphans. The white woman in the first pictures is an American volunteer affiliated with the orphanage; she is a university professor who spends all of her holidays at the orphanage and participates in significant fundraising activities for them.





Kristoffer, Kirsten, and I each had to speak to the orphans on our first visit. Here is Kristoffer's motivational speech.

The children were extremely sweet and well-behaved.

September 26, 2008 - Home Sweet Home

These pictures are also quite belated, but they are of our house in Nairobi. As you can tell, we have really only decorated one room of the house so far, but it is the room we spend the most time in so we are definitely enjoying it. Before the baby arrives, we hope to have the rest of our act together. Anyone with interior design aspirations is welcome to come help us out :)
This is our house from the outside. We are living in a compound of 10 houses (with a pool and sauna that we share) and our house is in a valley so we are located at the bottom of a hill.

The first floor of our house has one bedroom with it's own bathroom. There is also a guest bathroom in the hallway...but I didn't take any pictures of the bathrooms because they are really not that interesting.

This is our kitchen, taken from where the refrigerator is...so even though you can't see the fridge, we have one and you shouldn't fear that we aren't eating well-preserved food :) We do not have a microwave, but that is not because you can't get them here...it is just because we have not bought one!

This is our dining room. The white curtains have a black giraffe print that can also be found in the soon-to-be nursery. The Masai tablecloth is courtesy of Kirsten and Hans :)

The two pictures below are of our downstairs living room, with the furniture we had made at our first apartment here. We actually think the furniture is comfortable, but the furniture (especially the coffee table!) is poorly made. It is a huge room and is very nice both in the sun and when it is cold because of the fireplace...but we absolutely cannot decide what to do with it. You can see in the second picture that we have a little veranda out onto our small garden.


This are the stairs from the front hallway door that go upstairs.

This was an early Christmas gift from Kirsten and Hans that hangs on the large wall (high ceiling!) as you walk up the stairs. It is even more beautiful when you see it in person :)

Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms. The first bedroom is currently our "office" but will be the baby's room. It has its own full bathroom.

This is the second bedroom upstairs, also with its own full bathroom. It has been called "Christine's Room", "Mor and Hans' Room" and "Morten's Room" in the time that we've lived here.

This is the master bedroom on the second floor. You can see our big mosquito-free bed, which we love. The room is quite large but we don't have much furniture, because as you can see below this picture we have a walk in closet with built in shelves and drawers (that's the style here) that leads to our master bathroom.


These two pictures show our upstairs living room, which is in the middle of the three bedrooms (sort of like a loft?). This is the room we have happily decorated (with me at 12 weeks pregnant standing in it).


Outside in our garden...we have beautiful roses!

We hope you have a better idea of where we live now. Our compound has excellent 24-hour security, along with walls and gates and wires for our safety, patrols in the neighborhood and guard dogs in surrounding compounds. Despite what people fear about Africa, we are clearly not living in a hut and you can be sure we couldn't afford to live in a house like this in the US or Denmark at this stage in our lives. We hope even more of you will come visit soon!

LMW

September 25, 2008 - Happy Birthday, Kristoffer!

So Kristoffer should be writing a blog one of these days about his climb up Kilimanjaro, but after taking a week off of work he has certainly been busy this week. Maybe this weekend! Anyway, today is Kristoffer's 31st birthday. It is also the first time we have ever celebrated his birthday together, as we were always in different cities or countries (even last year after getting married, Kristoffer was in Denmark interviewing for his job in Kenya on his birthday!). He doesn't LOOK any older (is it possible that he looks younger?), but of course impending fatherhood is an exciting prospect on his birthday.

In addition to birthday festivities, yesterday marked 16 full weeks of pregnancy for us. As you can see below, I am not the cutest pregnant woman to ever live, but yesterday I looked and felt particularly haggard after becoming extremely, extremely car sick on my way back to work from a meeting at the Ministry of Education. I am hoping that in the coming months future pictures will show me to be a glowing, radiant pregnant woman but for now, I'm working with what I've got :)



A much more amazing and exciting picture, however, is the one below of our baby at 14 weeks in utero. The doctor actually gave us 10 different shots, but this is by far the coolest one, taken when Simba was actively waving to me. S/he might have a future in modeling, I think.



If we had an ultrasound today, Simba might be doing a little birthday dance for his/her Far (Far = Father in Danish). Tillykke med Fødselsdagen, Kristoffer!

LMW

September 19, 2008 - Masai Mara Pictures (belated, take 2)

So...shortly after our safari with Kristoffer's Mom and Hans in July I tried to post a slideshow of pictures from our days at the Masai Mara and our brief visit to the Nakuru National Park. Come to find out afterwards that I am pretty much the only person who is able to see the slideshow, for some technological reason that I don't understand. Because they are so pretty, below are some of my favorite pictures (mostly taken by Hans) from our safari. I think they are self-explanatory (Masai people...animals...animals eating other animals ...sunset...the flamingoes and rhinos on the beach are from Lake Nakuru and not the Mara).

This was very early in my pregnancy (like 4 weeks?), which is not obvious except I think I look a bit puffy. It was an amazing trip for all of us; I was a bit uncomfortable in the car and was learning to deal with both a changing appetite and regular fatigue but still managed to appreciate how amazing Kenya's wildlife really is. And believe you me when I tell you that I have gone to the bathroom in the wild with the wildebeasts (gnu) and zebra more than any other visitor to the Mara ever! Enjoy! LMW

September 15, 2008 - 15 weeks pregnant

According to my ultrasound last week, I am 15 weeks pregnant today. My body started changing A LOT last week so that now I have a noticeable, although not huge, baby bump. I also want to clarify that "Simba" is just a nickname that we call the baby now in order to avoid saying "he or she" all the time. When the baby is actually born, that will not be his or her name (I think my last blog was unclear).

Kristoffer began climbing up Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with his friends Morten and Karen a few moments ago (10:00 am our time) and will finish the climb on Friday afternoon. I can't remember the last time I didn't talk to him for 5 days, but I suppose he has only been gone for one day now so I shouldn't start complaining just yet.

He promised me that he would write a blog about his climb when he gets back!

LMW