I am pregnant!

Woohoo!!
16 weeks already. So thats like 4 months. So I'm almost half way. I have a belly...but I dont look properly pregnant yet...it really just looks like I ate 5 burgers for lunch.
We've had 2 scans and all seems good with little Cecil. He is the size of my hand now... quite big really. And apparently my uterus is the size of a melon! Its all SO alien to me. I don't actually believe there is something else living inside of me... its just so weird!
I'm gonna have the baby here in Nairobi... at the Aga Khan hospital which is very good and has an excellent maternity ward. Its called the 'Princess Zara' ward - how bloody appropriate!
So.... how we we found out I was preggers....
If some of you (diligent ones) will remember I mentioned a while back (beginning of December) that I had been bitten by a dog... well, that whole episode was a HUGE palaver! At the hospital where I went for my rabies vaccination, the very alert doctor noticed that I should have a pregnancy test before administering the vaccination. We agreed, although very grudgingly, as it would mean a further delay of 2-3 hours and we'd already been there ALL evening. Benedikt didn't want to have the test at all!
In the end, the kind doctor took my number and said she's sms me the result. We were grateful to her, but mostly just irritated not to get the vaccination over and done with as we were certain it wouldn't be positive... time was of the essence after all.
So at 1am the following morning, we got a call from the doctor, waking us up, informing us that I was pregnant! It was a lot to take in in our sleepy confused state!
The next morning I phoned my gynie to ask if I should still have the vaccination, she was adamant that I shouldn't as there is a chance it could harm the baby... and the dog was a low risk case, it wasn't a stray and it had owners with a decent income etc etc.
Still not 100% convinced, Benedikt and I both did some googling and found out more about rabies in general and how the rabies vac can damage the baby. There were no real cases where a baby was proved to be abnormal via a rabies shot, and nor was there hard evidence that taking the rabies vaccine damages an unborn baby. The rabies vaccine pamphlet merely warned to take precautions if pregnant - not very helpful!
It seemed like there hadnt been enough research on this topic at all really.
But, seeing as rabies would kill me within 2 weeks if i got it, it almost felt like we had to choose between our baby or me! Quite dramatic!

So we decided the best way to make up our minds was to establish if the dog had rabies or not. So I went back to the house where the dog was... but the askari (the guard) had instructions to not let me see the dog and to not let me see the vaccination books. So then we got suspicious... why were they hiding things all of a sudden? It made us worry that the dog was rabid. The owners would get into trouble of course if this was found out. So I spoke to the owner by cell phone and she agreed that I could bring our vet around to inspect the dog. Our vet said he could make a fairly good assessment as to whether the dog was rabid or not. BUT when we went round again, it was the same story, we weren't allowed to see the dogs. Nor their vaccination booklets.
We had initially asked the dog owners to pay for the vet fees, hospital fees and vaccination fees, but when they were giving us so much trouble in just seeing the dogs... we gave up trying to claim money back from them. The most important issue was to see and asses the dog. The owners got increasingly rude with us and hung up all the time and refused our calls. They were 100% uncooperative. Even though we were begging them to just see the dog, and we told them we would not lay any charges, and we wouldn't get any officials involved... we pleaded with them over and over... and told them that it was a matter of life and death. But all to no avail. They just wouldn't let us see the bloody dog. SO infuriating!!

So the vet and I went off the police station to see what they could do. After many (arb) formalities, they came back to the house with me and spoke to the askari and the owners (by cell phone only) but also made no progress. In fact, I think the fat useless sergeant was just using the case to get out of being in his office. He really wasnt at all helpful and just bullied the other policemen around and acted like he was King of the world. He was rude and obnoxious and I seriously disliked him!
So we gave up on the police.

In the mean time, I had let my parents know, and my sister and Vicky, my best friend.
Benedikt had let his folks know too.
In turn, all of them did their own research. My sister spoke to several vets at her hospital and a doctor, Vicky spoke to 2 doctors and friends in the know and a psychic! My folks contacted a vet and a doctor in cape town and sought their friend's advice. Benedikt's parents spoke to professionals at a hospital in Germany that specialises in diseases like rabies... and they put us on to a German doctor here in Nairobi. We called him for advice, we went to our local GP for advice, we called my gynie again and asked my vets opinion on things. So we got ALOT of help and advice. About 70% of the advice we received was to not have the vaccination.

So thats what we decided in the end. And we've been past the house many times to see if the dog is still alive... and it is. And so am I!
So... lesson learnt... as soon as I hatch Cecil I am going to have EVERY vaccination under the sun. I advise all you girls do too!