Our stay at Dritter Orden

A late update but at least it is here now. For our first week, we were able to stay for the first week with Will in the hospital. All 3 of us were able to stay in one "family" room which was really great. The German's have a rooming in concept so Will was with us 24/7. It was a great introduction to parenting: little sleep, new schedule, tons of great bonding time with Will and we enjoyed every minute. We quickly learned that Will was the new manager. It is amazing how fast dad and mom became expert diaper changers!


The nurses and staff were all so super nice and we really enjoyed our time there. They also had the cutest clothes for the kids; the picture below is the sleep sack they had for all the kids there.


The hospital itself was super nice and was a great facility. We all feel blessed to have been able to give birth there. It is one of the most famous places to give birth in Munich, so we feel really lucky to have gotten in.


Because Sarah had a c-section, the rule is 5 days in the hospital in Germany, so we stayed there until Sunday. We enjoyed our daily visits from the Milams who were staying at our house and helping us get tasks done before we came home.

Will's Big Adventure

We knew when we moved to Munich with Sarah 7 months pregnant that we were in for an adventure, and like anything else, welcoming Will into the world was quite the adventure.  During our routine doctor visits, Will quickly became know as the "dancing baby," as he loved to move around inside his mom.  We know he was an active little guy from our days back in California where Sarah would eat a little chocolate right before an ultrasounds just to hear the doctors say, "my goodness, he is an active one."

Well, it seems German chocolate has the same effect as Will constantly turned around inside Sarah.  It was all fun and games until about 3 weeks before his expected birthday.  On a routine doctor visit, our great doctor discovered Will was quarlagen (German for transverse).  As he used to be head down, she thought perhaps the accupuncture had turned him back.  The next day, she scheduled an appointment at the hospital the next day to have him turned; however, upon arrival, our dancing baby was back to head down.

Will continued to dance around, until he got stuck . . . only later would we find out why:)  So once again, they sent us to have him turned on Thursday, October 15th.  Sarah was just getting over a cold and once we got to the hospital, we learned not only were they going to turn him, but also induce her.  After some contemplation, we decided to wait until our Friday doctor appointment and see if Sarah's cold might get better soon for an induced labor.

After some reading, we learned that perhaps the safest thing to do rather than to try and turn him was a Kaiserschnitt (c-section).  Even with transverse babies being turned, we had about 50% chance of a c-section anyway.  So we scheduled the next possible one which was Tuesday, October 20th at 12pm.  The dancing baby didn't want to wait.

Six hours before his scheduled c-section, Sarah woke me at 2:30am as her water had broken.  Once again, shouldn't have been that complicated, but the doctors had warned me multiple times that this could be dangerous as the baby was transverse and so high in the womb.  The risk was that the umbilical cord could drop and pinch.  Should the water break, Sarah was instructed to lie on her back with feet up and we were to call a Krakenwagen (ambulance).

So, Jeff called the local emergency number, successfully conveyed the situation in German (after a quick Spriechen Sie English? - Nien) and the paramedics and firemen were on the way.  An additional call to the hospital started the delivery in motion.  When the paramedics arrived, the hospital told them to be careful about having her walk.  Seeing that we live in a "Altbau Treppenhaus" (one floor up with steps and no elevator) and that we had a tight turn in our hallway, it became a discussion between two ambulance attendants, four firemen in full gear, a worried soon-to-be daddy, and Sarah flat on her back in bed (all crammed into our bedroom) about how to get her into the ambulance safely.  At one point, they discussed moving her out the window.  As Sarah had just learned the word "Fenster" in her German classes, she picked up on this quickly and was not too keen on the idea.  Eventually, they carried her on a flexible stretcher to the hallway and onto the real stretcher.  Off in the ambulance we went.
 



As if not crazy enough, the Milams had just arrived the night before.  We went out to a nice dinner, had a couple of beers (non-alcoholic for Sarah of course) and all went to bed around 11.  To help them sleep, they tried the Jeff Zabel no-jetlag method.  This is 2 Tylenol PM the first night, 1 the 2nd and 1 the 3rd.  Works like a charm.  Except when you have the first 2, sleep for 4 hours and wake up to hear a bunch of German in the house.  Little to say it was close to Steve Martin in Father of the Bride 2!  Seeing that we forgot to tell them an emergency call is what would happen should Sarah's water break, you can imagine they were quite shocked.  (Add two worried, drugged, and pajamas-clad future grandparents to the mix of people tramping around our apartment at 3 in the morning!)

At the hospital, we were greeted by an 8-woman on-call crew (Yeah! Girl Power!) who were ready to deliver our dancing baby via our pre-planned c-section.   Meanwhile Zabebe was preparing to enter the world by tossing a contraction his mom's way every once in awhile.  And enter he did.  William Jeffrey Zabel was born at 5:32am CET at Dritter Orden Kinderklinik in Munich, Germany.  He is quite the big boy, so we think we are quite lucky that we didn't try to to turn him.  He weighed in at 4370g (9 pounds 10 ounces) and 57cm (22.5 inches).  We love him so much.



His first night was filled with lots of eating and not much sleeping (we now know how he got so big) and so we hope he starts to sleep like a big baby soon.

Can't wait to share more stories as our Munich adventure continues.

Tegernsee

August and September in Munich hosted some pretty nice weather. Much nicer, we were told, than June and July. So, whenever we found ourselves with great weather AND a weekend, we made sure to enjoy it!

One lovely Sunday we packed a picnic lunch and drove to Tegernsee. The weather was perfect, the town quaint, and the lake just beautiful.

We even went for a hike, but my cute husband wouldn't let this prego mama go too high in elevation!


After our beautiful hike, we needed to quench our thirst so we found the most awesome beer garden. It was packed! People were dressed in lederhosen and dirndls, their Sunday best, to celebrate birthdays, friends, or just a beer on a gorgeous Sunday! It was really fun to notice the traditional lederhosen amped up by the 20-somethings. The traditional shirt was replaced with pink Ralph Lauren polos, aviatar sunglasses, and/or converse shoes. The beer was great (or so Jeff tells me) and the atmosphere festive.

Mid-beer all attention in the beer garden turned to a loud rumbling coming down the street. To everyone's amusement it was a train of 8 large tractors being driven by lederhosen-clad guys. Apparently in Germany there are tractor clubs where guys who own tractors get together and go out for beers. Pretty funny. Here's a pic of a few of them exiting the parking lot with one of their own helping them with their parking stubs. Their tall tractors made it hard for them to do it themselves!

Corporate Housing!

We arrived in Munich safe and sound!

We knew we were permanent fixtures in our Haidhausen neighborhood with our name on our buzzer, but our acclimation was made easier with many of Jeff's co-workers who were coming into town for business trips over the next weeks. Our second official night in Germany, we were excited to show our great friend (and Jeff's co-worker at BMW) Jeff Ota our empty apartment and sample a neighborhood restaurant together!

We received our keys on our first day in town which happened to be the last day of school for Munich kiddos. Summer vacation, also known as holiday, lasts from August 1-September 15th. We knew many families traveled at this time, but we were soon to learn the city really did come to a screeching halt for these 6 weeks. Calls don't get returned, people aren't in their offices, etc. all because they are on "holiday". And when the Europeans holiday, they do it right! They're gone for weeks at a time! Exciting for them, frustrating for two Zabels who just arrived and want to get settled ASAP! Oh well! Germany holiday season and corporate housing just forced us to relax a little, which was nice after our busy July.

Highlights of life in corporate housing:
- Google translating every word on the washer and dryer in order to do laundry
- Getting creative cooking with only a bread knife, industrial size ladle, and wooden spoon
- Laughing at the silly Americans (us) thinking they could park their X3 in the 2-story parking space assigned to them for corporate housing (We never used the space. Just had to park our car on the street for 2 weeks!)
- Trying to work on our apartment at night after Jeff was home from work. Sarah held the flashlight while he navigated German electrical wiring in order to install all the ceiling lamps in our place. We soon abandoned this nighttime effort and figured we had the rest of the month to work on it . . . or so we thought!
- Hosting Crazy Uncle Pete as he blew through town for 22 hours (as only pilots can!). He witnessed my christening to the German post delivery (apparently I CAN sign for anyone's package in the building, just like my neighbors signed for mine!) and helped us assemble the first of many IKEA pieces of furniture. We gratefully repaid him with schnitzel and beer!
- A Saturday afternoon at Starnberg Lake that unfortunately turned to a rainy day the minute we set foot out of the car. We just enjoyed a giant ice cream sundae indoors and worked on choosing a name for our sweet, sweet, baby!
- Going to the fireworks at Olympic Park -- They were so close and so cool! Lots of the sparks and shrapnel fell into the crowd. Crazy! Never in America!
- Taking a 6 and a half hour first aid class as step number 2 (#1 was having out eyes tested at on Optik) toward earning our German driver's licenses. All right, that wasn't a highlight, but meeting our first official new friends Lauren and Lawrence, expats from the east coast, was!

July 2009

So where does one begin a blog about adventures in Germany? How about at the beginning?! The movers arrived the morning after our 3rd wedding anniversary and spent two days packing our entire life (and Sarah's classroom) into a crate to be shipped through the Panama Canal and onto to Munich. It really sunk in that we were making a HUGE life change as the boxes piled up. However, at the same time, realizing the crate wouldn't be more than 2/3rds full, I sent Jeff out to purchase a cart full Costco diaper wipes while I ran to Target to buy as many diapers as possible! People warned us Munich would be expensive, so I was just trying to be frugal!

The crate pulled away and my parents graciously allowed Jeff and our chaos to enter their home for 3 weeks until we flew to Germany. Lucky for them, we headed off to a vacation in Colorado, Kansas, and Montana to visit family, friends, and attend two dear friends' weddings. We spent two weeks hanging with the Zabel clan and flying to Kansas to visit the Fuhrmans. You can see little cousin Wyatt gave me a tour of their beautiful soy bean and corn fields and farm house . . . tractors and all! We especially loved a vivacious evening barbecue with the entire Zabel and Zeckser clans colliding! Literally and figuratively! It's always a great time when we all get together!


Plus, Jeff was honored to be a part of his longtime friend Jarrett and Emily's wedding. It was a beautiful day filled with love and personal touches hosted in her parent's backyard. It's so fun to catch up with all his best friends, plus I think his friends have fabulous taste in the women they've chosen for wives! Anytime the crew of childhood buds reunites good times are had by all.

After Colorado and Kansas, we headed to Montana for another great friend's wedding. Thanks, Dave and Alexis for getting married and allowing us to reunite with Santa Clara University buds, plus explore Big Sky, Montana. As you can see, in addition to a beautiful lodge reception, we managed to fit in some fly-fishing. There were no Brad Pitt sightings (movie reference, anyone?), and I was thankful the waiters came with room to spare for Zabebe!

We arrived home from our fun-filled vacation for one last doctor's appointment, final lunches with friends, and dinner with the fam. My awesome brother even flew up from Los Angeles for a Bon Voyage evening. We felt so loved! Withing 48 hours of being back in the Bay Area, my parents dropped us (and our 6 pieces of luggage) off at SFO, and we were off to Munich for our two-year adventure!

Kleiderschrank what!?

So - talk about an adventure tonight. With our shipment and airfreight arriving soon, we realized we needed somewhere to put all of our clothes. For those of you familiar with German apartments, we don't have any closets in the entire place (correction, there is a small closet in the bathroom for linens). We also don't have any lights - they take these with them when they leave. Not the lightbulb, but the whole light fixture right off the ceilings, walls, bathrooms, etc. Just wires hanging out from all over.

So ikea it was to buy a Kleiderschrank (clothes closet) to put in our bedroom, 7 lights for the house, and an island for our kitchen, plus two stools. Sidenote on the kitchen - like other things in German housing, we were lucky to find a kitchen that comes with the rental apartment. Usually they take these too which includes the counters, sink, appliances, cabinets, you name it. Just pipes and wires dudes is what you get, plus some walls.

We were IKEA rock stars. We left at 5:30 with me on a conference call to California that latest halfway through the store. As the stores close at 8, and I mean you must be checked out and gone by then, we didn't have much time to waste! In this time, we successfully designed the kitchen island, designed our Kleiderschrank (using a German website configurator none the less), and purchased all our lights; all in about 1 and a half hours. We also managed to interact with the employees to figure out how to order our stuff and get it set up to be transported to our house this weekend (the cabinets were even too big for our X3).

We are slowly learning that advance planning and getting out of work is necessary just to survive with the early closing times of all stores 8pm max, open half day Saturday and then closed on Sundays. Can't wait to enjoy those days with no shopping . . . .