Olga and I went to our caretaker today for a routine check. Dr.Tatiana Lavrennikova kindly allowed me to make a few pictures. (Not to mention that Olga surprisingly agreed). Anyway, it was a bit dark for shooting there, because the screen of ultrasound machine is turned towards the window, so it was curtained (blinded if you wish).
Album location: /photos/2005/2005-01-11_POTD
Aparently, the circumcision discussion that I mentioned the other day is still hot and kicking. There was an expert opinion posted here with a couple of links to medical resources. I’ve read it through and I have only a couple of points to bring out.
Resume: I am still far away from being convinced that the procedure is necessary.
I was reading this post about circumcision from a little pregnant blog. It was spawned by another blog entry. Both posts were written by women. Each one decided differently on the issue. So I guess I would add some from “that could happen to me” point of view.
Yesterday, Olga and I went for the regular check to the caretaker. After than we went (finally!) to see the clinic where Olga will be taken care of when the time for labour and delivery will come. And we were so surprised! It was unbelievable.
Limassol clinic is a small two or three floor building not too far from our house. It looks like any other building in the area. But it is inside that shocked us. There are not to many 4-star hotels in Limassol which feel that good. Clean and tidy, cozy, with paintings and plants were all over the place. Excellent furniture and a touch of style to everything. All rooms have a single bed, shower, couch and a couple of armchairs, TV, fridge and anything you could with for. Newly born babies can stay either in the rooms with their mothers or in a separate place. There is also a VIP lounge. It is a huge two-room space with more furniture and comforty items.
And there was no this hospital smell anywhere. I was really shocked.
When I saw all of this beauty and excellence I started to prepare myself for a bloated bill with at least 4 digits in it. It turned out that the whole thing costs almost twice as cheap as I was imagining it before seeing the hospital. 650 CYP includes labour and delivery, with 3 days stay in the clinic. This is a very reasonable price. If it is not, at least I am satisfied with it.
Anyway, now we are looking forward for when the time is right. The baby is doing fine. It is about 1.7 kilograms now. All the tests look OK, ultrasound doesn’t show any problems and the heartbeat sounds clean and good. We will be monitoring the progress even more often with the caretaker now – once every two weeks instead of once a month.
Olga and I continued our Holy Shopping Crusade today. I am already thinking in Alexander turms: “By the time he was 25 he bought all the known world…”. We’ve got most of the major stuff so far.
3 pairs of nice wooden chairs to fit our dining-table that will arrive next Tuesday were purchased from Elias Christodoulou furniture shop. These are very comfortable, with a large dark brown leather seat, came at 35 CYP a piece. All of them were delivered about 30 minutes after they were bought. Now we have 6 chairs all over the place and no table. Looks strange. But not for long. Not for long.
“Jumbo” provided us with the child’s bed (lightly brown wood, 80 CYP) and mattress to fit the bed (20 CYP).
Than we proceeded to CXC Toys shop and bought a mideum-sized wooden dresser. This one has few drawers for clothes, and, most importantly, a changing table and child’s bath attached to the top. Both changing table and bath are removable. We intend to get rid of them when our son will grow up a bit, so that he will have a normal dresser for his stuff. This piece came from 120 CYP and will be delivered Monday morning.
These are all for the moment. Now we have only two major purchases left: Washing machine to replace our wierdly broken one, and repainting of the kid’s room. All walls and ceiling will be painted after the holidays. I have already agreed with one of the guys to come and check out the current state next week. We’ll see how it goes.
By now, both Olga and I had sufficiently calmed out about all baby business. At least we have all the vital and important stuff purchased.