Hearing is fine

Muriel had a hearing test before we left the hospital. It worked more or less the same as in Seattle. The technician comes in right before we are about to leave and needs about 5 minutes of absolute silence. Muriel did fine, but I was worried about Rowan (he came with me to take them home). He normally isn't real happy when strange people show up, but he did fine.

The tests indicated that Muriel's hearing is fine and they gave us a document to take to the pediatrician.

Maybe not as different as I thought

In an earlier blog entry I commented that children don't go to the pediatrician until they are one month old. That is true, but at the time I didn't know/understand the role of the midwife. A midwife came to the house on Friday afternoon. She weighed Muriel (she has started to gain weight), gave her a vitamin K supplement, and took blood.

No 911 in Switzerland

Switzerland doesn't have a 911 system, so you need to know what number to call for different issues. The good news is that the numbers are consistent across the country. Here are some:

Ambulance: 143
Police: 117
Fire: 118
Air Rescue (www.rega.ch): 1414
Air Rescue (www.air-glaciers.ch): 1415
Poison Control: 145

More Vitamin D

Children in Switzerland take Vitamin D supplements from the time they are 2 weeks until they are 1 year old. That means Muriel will take 1404 drops (4 a day) of a vitamin D supplement before the age of 1. Here is a related article from the New York Times.

More differences between the US and Swiss medical systems

1. Per the Swiss process Muriel does not go to the pediatrician until she is 1 month old. I believe Rowan and Niamh visited the pediatrician on day 4.
2. Mothers in the US are generally wheeled to the car in a wheelchair. Emily was told she could leave and the nurse walked out. That was the last we saw of anyone, so Emily walked out to the car.

Rowan and Muriel

Rowen enjoyed holding Muriel at the hospital.

They're home!

Emily and Muriel came home about noon today. We'll be available via Skype if anyone is interested in seeing Muriel via web cam.

Muriel and Niamh

Here is a video of Niamh and Muriel. Be sure to have the volume up so that you can hear Rowan's comments.

Muriel Update

Muriel and Emily are both doing well. The doctors won't let them come home until Thursday morning, so they have another fun filled day in the Morges Hospital. Staying in the hospital for 3-4 days is normal here. We all went to visit today and the kids had a good time. Rowan was very sad at the end because he wanted Emily and Muriel to come home with us. 90 minutes of watching Smurfs cheered him up.

Pictures have been posted at www.famillemccann.net.

Our votes have been cast!

We received our absentee ballots today and have filled them out. They'll be mailed back on Tuesday. I'll have to figure out how to vote via email prior to the next election, so I can avoid a trip to the post office.

Differences between having a baby in US and Switzerland

Here are a few of the differences I noticed between having a baby in the US and Switzerland.

• The staff in Switzerland is close, but not fluent in English.
• In Switzerland there are only three people (doctor, mid-wife, nurse?)in the room. There were many more in the US
  
• Doctors/nurses don't come in and out of the room as often in Switzerland
• The rooms aren't as father friendly - no space for the father to sleep
• Security isn't as tight or at least doesn't seem that way. In Seattle babies are required to have a band on them that matches the parent's band and sets off an alarm if the baby is taken outside the maternity ward. No parents for the bands or alarms in Morges
  

Muriel Catherine McCann has arrived!

Muriel has arrived. We decided to skip the traditional spelling and the silent gh. Here are the stats:

Date: Oct 13,2008
Time: 16:45 C.E.S.T
Weight: 4370 grams (9.6 pounds)
Length: 52cm (20.47 inches)

Melamine in Switzerland

From Yahoo:

GENEVA - Swiss authorities say they have found high concentrations of
melamine in biscuits from Thailand and Sri Lanka and have called on other
European countries to withdraw the products.
Authorities in the canton (state) of Geneva say tests have shown high melamine levels in the Thai biscuits Milk Cookies S&P and the Sri Lankan candies LemonPuff Munchee.
Melamine in milk has been blamed for the deaths of four infants and for sickening more than 54,000 others in mainland China. The authorities said in a statement
Monday that the European distribution channels for the two biscuits have been
identified. They say tests on a dozen baby milk products have shown no
melamine contamination.

The ideal process

In an ideal world the contractions would have been followed by a baby. That doesn't seem to have happened here. The contractions are down to about 1 an hour. I guess I'll be going back to the office after lunch.

Contractions have arrived

Emily started having contractions around 5AM this morning. It didn't seem to imminent, so I went to work. I was there for about 10 minutes before Emily called and asked me to come home. The contractions are currently about 6.5 minutes apart lasting 35-45 seconds.

I'm not sure what the Swiss recommend for timing prior to going to the hospital, but we'll probably wait until our fear that the baby could arrive at our house out weight the fear of a hospital where the employees may not speak English.

More train video from Uncle Mike

Here is another train video from Uncle Mike. Even Uncle Ryon admits that Uncle Mike has pulled into the lead for Uncle of the Year.

An excellent gift from Uncle Mike

This arrived in my inbox today.

This!

Niamh now refers to Grammie Krista as "this." Here is a recent example: "This help Niamh brush teeth."

I guess this is an improvement, as she hasn't referred to either grandmother by name or title in the past.

Niamh!

We tried to get Niamh into jardin d'enfants with Rowan, but the classes are full. We thought we had to wait until she was 2.5, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Here is some other Niamh related news:

• She can get into and out of the tub without our help. She is a bit wobbly, but hasn't lost her balance yet.
• She responds with "I don't know." to almost all questions. This is due to her mother getting tired of all Niamh's questions and responding with "I don't know." to her.
• She can put on most of her clothes.
• She loves squash, green beans, carrots.
  

Grammie Krista has arrived

Grammie Krista arrived on Thursday with suitcases full of loot that Emily had ordered. She was able to bring 3 50 pound bags, one very large carry-on, and one personal bag without being charged any fees. Once the crib arrives we should have everything we need for #3.