But besides the heat, being pregnant in Viet Nam has been a relatively enjoyable experience. Next to sitting and chatting with your neighbors, having babies must be the second most common pastime in the country, given the prevalence of tiny little Vietnamese wherever you go and the overall baby-craziness of the general population. This said, sporting an ever growing belly, has made me quite popular with all of the neighborhood grandmothers.
From our well-known neighbors, to parking attendants, to strange women in the markets, my belly has been patted and remarked upon with friendly smiles; the most common question, "Con gai? Con trai?" - "Boy or girl?" to which my response, "con gai," always gets me approving nods. I'm sure if I could understand more Vietnamese, this question would be followed by others and perhaps a host of advice for the new mother, but unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I am spared further conversation due to my inability to go beyond "Boy or girl?"
The medical care here has been good and quite affordable. I've been seen once a month for the past 9 months at $20 a visit (plus a bit more for the rare blood tests, etc.) and watched our baby grow from our first view of the "sac" to a now (estimated) 7 lb little person. While the hospital is not as advanced in the natural options for labor and deliver that we'd prefer, it is as advanced as any international hospital medically speaking, we've had no complaints and feel quite comfortable and confident that we've been well taken care of (although the Labor and Delivery part of all of this is still a bit anxiety provoking, but that is a whole different post).
From January to March, we took prenatal classes offered by a British mid-wife at another hospital close to our house, during a time when our pregnancy was more a distant than a present reality and got to know a bit more about what we had gotten ourselves into as well as the opportunity to meet a few other local expecting couples. Through these classes, I learned about SIMBA (Saigon Independent Mother Baby Association) a local group of new moms who meet every Monday to support each other and meet with a midwife to ask any pressing new mom questions.
Steven and I still go to the gym once a week, where I still get a few curious stares on the tread mill, and walk at the track next to our house where we're enough of a common sight to avoid the curious stares. Besides the occasional poke of a sharp knee or elbow, and the ever present heat and discomfort of having to wear anything more constricting than a sarong, I've been extraordinarily lucky in that I haven't had any negative symptoms of pregnancy at all and have managed to stay active and relatively fit throughout it all.
I've continued to ride our motorbike, both as a driver and a passenger, even now up to my 39th week, much to the concern of my mother for what all that vibrating might be doing to her grandchild, but don't feel that I am putting our child at risk any more than the countless other pregnant ladies on the back of bikes all over the city, although I have tried to cut back to only necessary trips.
We've both enjoyed the more obvious outward signs of our daughter's growth and development, from the initial kicks in December to the now regular alien like movements of my belly and now that we're in the home stretch, we're both ready to go from "expecting" to "new" parents and are looking forward to having a baby join our family. We all have a lot of changes coming up in the next few months and we're looking forward to having some time between now and when we leave Viet Nam to get to know our daughter and get used to having a new little person in our lives. That said, it would be nice to be closer to family and friends during this happy time, but we are hoping that all will go well with the paperwork and that we'll be able to spend time during the summer visiting everyone and introducing Hazel to her new, extended family.
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