Update on Baby Welsh

First, thanks to all for the great response to our news! All the congratulations and well wishes are greatly appreciated.

Steph is starting her tours of the various hospitals and birthing centers in Shanghai. I have not been able to attend, as work remains stressful and busy beyond belief, not to mention logistics issues discussed below...

We had some good news today - Steph went to have an appointment and a 14 week ultrasound... they reviewed some of the early 'soft signs' for downs syndrome and all looks healthy! Steph said the baby was doing some pretty serious gymnastics during the ultrasound.

One of the big differences between having a baby in Oregon and in Shanghai has to do with my involvement with the pregnancy (outside of initiation, an activity in which my role was consistent from child to child). In Oregon the access to the doctors office was amazingly convenient. Our OBs office was basically right across the street from my office. For Olivia, I attended every pre-natal appointment. For Gigi, I was able to attend many of the appointments, but was sure to attend all ultrasounds.

Logistics of trying to get to these appointments is prohibitive... it takes 30-45 minutes to get anywhere in Shanghai and our office is in the middle of nowhere! And with 1 car and 1 driver, it means I had to put my pregnant wife on the subway to her appointment today! That will have to change... I will be working from home or carpooling as she gets farther along.

The other logistics issue is around the birth itself. Likely the hospital we will choose will be 30-45 minutes (during light traffic) from our apartment. If we need to get to the hospital during rush hour, there is no telling how long it might take! And then the complexity of being in a city in which we can't drive: our driver lives 1 hour away from us on the other side of the river. One of my fears revolves around Steph's water breaking in the middle of the night (like it did with Olivia)... Having to wait an hour on our driver, or taking the Shanghai Death Trap known as a Taxi? When this discussion starts to work its way into my head, I choose to ignore it and think about it later... always later...

Anyhow, I thought I would post the most recent pics from today's ultrasound... Steph remains tired and fighting off evening nausea, but otherwise doing OK.
Hope this finds you well.

Cheers,
Joe