Woah Baby!! It's a...

...Peacock?

No joke (but not what you were expecting, was it?) As I exited today from the massive United Nations complex, full of up-and-coming 20-somethings carrying designer bags (they can't ALL be real...can they?) there, strutting it's stuff in front of the main doors was a peacock. Minus tail feathers mind you, but a peacock none the less and looking just as cocky as one would expect.

The peacock

I soon noticed that noone else found this to be strange. It WAS, after all, my first meeting at the UN. Perhaps this is a resident peacock. We get geese on campus at home. And there are also palm trees and bamboo all over Geneva. Maybe peacocks are par for the course. Anyway. All I know is that I need to get a designer purse.

But back to the subject of this post. Aaron and I went in for the 20 week ultrasound this morning - the one where they check out all the organs and where you can find out the gender. We are happy to report that the baby has 2 legs, 2 arms, a head (with a brain inside), a beating heart (130 - but clearly in chill mode), 2 kidneys, a stomach a bladder and a little face. However, after a lot of back and forth, we decided not take a look between it's legs. I learned my lesson years ago when I hunted down and opened my christmas presents before the 25th (Ok, so it took a few christmases to learn that lesson). We are looking forward to the surprise, and to surprise you all.

Sorry Darlene.

Baby from outside - 20.5 weeks

Meanwhile, we hope you are satisfied with this pic of the blob (as my grandmother would say). Although this particular blob is now 20 cm long, the pics aren't that clear. Looks like a boy to me but maybe that's because all fetuses look slightly neanderthal-ish at this point? (big eyebrow bones and protruding foreheads). not very delicate. And those ears...

Baby from inside - 20.5 weeks

Vickie, can you tell if it has the Woodworth chin?

The ultrasound experience, like the rest of my health care experiences so far here in Geneva, was very pleasant. it was a very nice, modern facility. There was one ultrasound and a small desk in a big room where in Ottawa they would have crammed 2-3 machines. The technician was very good - took no time at all to discern that all was well and the supervising doctor came in midway to review and give the ok...right then and there. clean bill of health. The technician also took the time to tell us what everything was and tried to get some good shots of the face (kinda weird, negative-type image, frankly).

We expect that we will have other ultrasounds along the way, as my ObGYN has an ultrasound machine right in her office. Unheard of back home. Again, her office is very modern/contemporary - I couldn't believe it when I walked in there the first time. It is going to be hard to resist the temptation to find out whether Sam is getting a baby brother or sister, that's for sure.

Finally, let me share with you some images of the place where I will have the baby, sometime in the week of February 13 - 20 as I'm told I need to have a c-section (after last time, i'm not complaining). Hmmm..I was initially disappointed that I wouldn't get to deliver at the newly remodeled Montfort hospital when learning we were moving to Geneva, but I think that this has it beat.

Classy Geneva private hospital food: no Jell-o.

And this isn't even the hospital (ok, private clinic) where they have a one star Michelin chef on staff. Apparently people go to the clinic just for dinner! Unfortunately, my OBGYN doesn't deliver there...I'll have to make do with simple, gourmet food, rather than world class gourmet food. Oh well. You can see more here:

http://www.la-tour.ch/votre-sante/maternite/galerie-d-images/

Lastly, when asked about what was in Mommy's tummy the other night (a daily topic now) Sam said: "...come out, and POP! a baby chicken!" . In addition to the new baby books, he has a book where a chicken hatches from an egg. I hope he isn't too disappointed come February.

Any baby chickens in there?