Bump Day: 27 weeks!

I’m 27 weeks preggers today. Only 13 more weeks to go until D-Day. This past week, I feel like I’ve made a transition into feeling ‘more’ pregnant. I can definitely feel Baby Boy’s presence in my belly at all times, but especially when I try to stand up or flip from one sleeping position to another. There is just a significant weight in my stomach that anchors me down. 

Baby Boy is also becoming quite the strong little guy. His punches are becoming more powerful, and I definitely feel a bit of rib-jabbing action inside. The worst is the bladder kicking though. Even when I know my bladder is empty, I constantly feel like I urgently have to go. It made walking around Paris quite uncomfortable, but eventually, Baby would change positions and give me some relief. I’m slowly learning to distinguish between real bladder emergencies and simply ‘inconvenient uterus positioning’. 

Still, feeling and seeing the baby kick has, by far, been my favorite part of pregnancy. I could just sit there mesmerized by my belly motions for hours. I doubt you’re as enamored with the baby kicks as I am, but in case you want to see little baby movements through my bare belly, here is some video footage I took yesterday. 

Size-wise, he is comparable to a cucumber, which makes it my turn to say ‘Yuck!’. I wonder where they get these size comparisons from. I seriously doubt that our baby is as long and lean as a cucumber. I’m picturing more of a yummy butternut squash. Either way, he’s probably around 2.2 lbs and putting on ounces by the day. 

In nursery news, we have an official pack-up date for our shipment. Our sweet nursery furniture and bedding and a few other baby essentials will be on their way to Scotland as of August 1. I’m super grateful to my parents for being such a big help with letting us keep our baby furniture at their house and for being available for the actual packing process. 

I’ve decided to order this fun bunting for above the changing table. 

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I had to get husband approval to have a pink flag on the banner, but he was surprisingly supportive. I’m also planning on painting our nursery wardrobe and really had my heart set on a deep lavender, which he also approved of. 

color options for wardrobe, SOURCE

I’m glad he’s on board with raising a boy who doesn’t tie his masculinity to color:).  Jonathan’s philosophy is that we will unlikely live in this house past the baby’s 2^nd birthday, so when we move, we’ll give him a ‘boy’ room, but for now, he’s getting a ‘baby’ room. Fine by me. I can’t wait to see our pastel nursery come together! 

Alright, enough rambling. Here are the bump pics from week 27. 

Come back tomorrow to see all the bump pics we took while sight-seeing in Paris! 

P.S. Is it unrealistic for me to expect to look this good 1 day after labor? 

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I don't know how she does it. William is a lucky man. Sorry Jonathan, but I'd go ahead and lower your expectations now... 

Paris: Days 3 and 4

Well, first things first: Congrats to the Royal couple on the birth of their baby BOY! I was so excited to hear that our little guy will be born in the same year as a wee British prince. Exciting times!

Now I keep obsessively checking BBC to see if the name has been announced. I can't wait to see what historic and regal choice they've picked for the future king. Anyway....Back to me.

Yesterday I recapped the first half of our Paris trip. You can read the post here. Today, I'll be summarizing the last 2 days of the trip.

Day 3: We only had the morning in Paris on Day 3 since we were being picked up at our hotel at 1 PM for our tour of Monet’s Gardens in nearby Giverny. We decided to use the morning to check off those Paris sites closest to our hotel. First we headed to Notre Dame, which made me want to burst into song.

I instantly committed to watching Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame  as soon as we got back home (True story, it’s on my list of things to-do today. Being a housewife has it’s perks.). 

After taking in the Notre Dame, we headed to the equally impressive, albeit much smaller Saint-Chapelle. The intricate stained glass and tile work in this tiny chapel is very impressive and worth a gander. 

Once we checked these two famous churches off our list, we decided to stop by Ernest and Hadely Hemingway’s first apartment in Paris. 

Those who know me, know what a Hemingway fan I am. Reading his novels and biographies in high school English was what first inspired me to want to be an ex-pat. When I discovered that his first residence in Paris was only about a 5 minute walk from our hotel, I knew we had to swing by and say hello. 

There is a little plaque marking the spot, and it turns out that this neighborhood (Mouffetard) tucked behind the Pantheon is full of great shops and restaurants. We stopped in for a little Greek lunch before heading back to our hotel for our Monet tour. 

This was a big day for me, since Ernest Hemingway and Claude Monet are both artistic heavy-weights in my book.  I just loved getting to walk in their footsteps and take in the surroundings that so inspired them.

Monet’s house and gardens are just what I expected. Seriously, they are just like he painted them. From the water lilies to the Japanese bridges, he created himself a garden full of color and light.

It was once again quite crowded and quite hot, which took away a bit of the ambience. Still, seeing this spot was one of the big items on my Europe Bucket List so I was glad Jon and I got to experience it together.

Our tour (via Paris Trip Tours) took 5 hours from pick up to drop off and cost about 100 euros a person. The air conditioned van ride alone was worth the price and we also got to skip the long lines at the entrance. Plus our tour guide didn’t take a breath the entire ride to and from Giverny, with all the information he gave us about the Monet’s life, art, and legacy. 

He also took us through Paris and showed us some lesser known sites like the Statue of Liberty and the tunnel where Princess Diana was in her fatal accident. The company does all sorts of Paris and nearby day tours, so it’s worth a look if you’re interested in that sort of thing. 

For dinner, we decided just to wander around Hemingway’s old ‘hood until we found a place that fit our fancy. Afterwards, we found a little bar that had Delirium on tap, so I watched jealously as Jonathan drank two helpings of the best beer in the world. To make up for it, I insisted that I get some gelato next door and made Jonathan watch enviously as I consumed the whole thing without sharing a bit. 

Karma. Especially since they crafted their gelato into the shape of a rose. Yep, he was totally jealous.

Day 4: Jonathan knew I was disappointed that we didn’t get around to seeing Sacre Couer and Monetmarte on Friday afternoon, so we headed out bright and early to check these items off the list before catching our afternoon flight on Sunday. We took the metro this time and climbed to Sacre Couer first. 

This is one of the highest hills in Paris and offers a stunning and dizzying view of the city. 

After taking our fill of pictures, we had about 45 minutes before we needed to be on the metro headed back to our hotel. It didn’t leave much time to explore the Montemarte neighborhood which so many claim is their favorite district in Paris. 

We decided to walk to the Moulin Rouge and try to take in as much of the atmosphere as we could along the way. However, we ended up walking in the wrong direction before a kind local asked if she could help get us where we were going. She explained that the fastest way to Moulin Rouge was not necessarily the prettiest, but since we were on a time crunch, we just walked straight down the main boulevard. 

Needless to say, we weren’t impressed. The sex shops and permeating scent of urine just reminded us of the seedy under belly of New Orleans. We were both sad because we knew that we were probably missing the best that this district had to offer, but with the 2 short hours we had to spend there, we couldn’t really afford to scratch below the surface. 

 

After taking our photo op in front of the Moulin Rouge (which I discovered along our walk that Jonathan has NEVER seen. Add that to the list of movies we are watching this week), we decided to get brave on the metro and try to make a transfer instead of taking a straight line. We looked at the map and confidently figured out how to get from the stop right in front of the Moulin Rouge, back to within a ½ mile of our hotel by making only one transfer. Easy breezy. 

We got on the overly crowded, un-airconditioned metro and after about 5 minutes I realized that for some reason our stop wasn’t lit up on the map. Apparently it was under construction for the month of July and we’d have to get off at the next stop and walk 11 minutes back to our intended stop to get to the correct line. Metro FAIL. 

Fortunately when we finally got to the correct station, there were seats on the metro which made preggo public transport much more comfortable. Since we lost so much precious time in the metro FAIL debacle, we decided just to grab a quick, cheap, and satisfying meal at my favorite restaurant (McDonald’s) before checking out of the hotel and heading back to the airport via one last metro ride. 

It was a whirlwind weekend leaving me quite exhausted, which meant I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 on Sunday night. But at least now Jonathan can say, "Paris? Been there. Done that. Got the Starbucks mug."      

Paris: Days One and Two

It’s always so hard for me to recap a travel experience so quickly after the fact because my brain is still a jumble trying to process everything. But at the same time, I want to write it all down as quickly as possible so that I don’t forget any of the details. I apologize in advance if this seems a bit disorganized. 

We arrived home yesterday evening after our 3 night stint in Paris. The trip doubled as a birthday celebration for Jon as well as a mini ‘Baby-Moon’ for us. Since we took so much time in the States in June, Jonathan couldn’t really afford to do a lengthy pre-baby vacation so we decided to compromise with a weekend trip to one of the direct flight options from Aberdeen (Paris, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Dublin, Belfast, and a few others) and a few days spent somewhere within driving distance of Aberdeen (Lake District, Western coast of Scotland, Orkney Islands). 

Jonathan has had Paris on his radar ever since moving to Aberdeen. However, when I asked him to pinpoint why he was so gung-ho about going there, it was hard for him to articulate. I think it was more of an issue of feeling like he ‘had’ to go. He couldn’t live this close, with a 1.5 hour direct flight, and not visit the famed city. So even though he didn’t have a bucket list full of Paris must-sees, I think the city in general was something he wanted to put a check mark by. 

Well, we definitely did that! I’ll be recapping the trip little by little throughout the week, but let’s start with the first half. 

Day One: After dropping off the dogs for a sleep-away weekend at Ryan and Jill’s Angus’ house, we headed to the Aberdeen airport to catch our 1.5 hour flight to Paris. Since we were only going for 3 nights, we both just took carry-ons, making the airport process easy-breezy. 

I was a little apprehensive about taking the metro-train from the airport to our hotel, but it couldn’t have been easier. Our hotel was right on the direct line from the airport, so after 30 minutes of cruising, we exited at our stop and walked the 300 yards to our *air conditioned* hotel. Our hotel, Hotel des Grandes Hommes, was located in the Pantheon square. 

Our room, though teeny-tiny, had quite a lovely view of the building, though we were slightly disappointed to find that it was under construction (especially since this construction woke us up at 8 AM every morning). 

The day we arrived was also Jonathan’s birthday, so I made sure to let him lead the way. Since our hotel was super close to the Luxembourg Gardens, we decided to give that a stroll first. 

It was a lovely day with a nice breeze, which made it perfect for meandering through the beautiful park. Had I not been pregnant and conserving all my energy for sightseeing, I would have loved to have come here for an early morning run. As it was, afternoon strolls with my honey would just have to do. 

After Luxembourg, we headed down to the Siene River where we stumbled upon the ‘lock’ bridge. 

If you’ve traveled to any European cities lately, you probably have spotted this phenomenon of bridges full of combination locks, usually with couples’ names or initials written on them.

I’m pretty sure that 95% of the tourists who take part in this activity have no idea what the epidemiology or backstory is behind the ritual. When I was on my ‘Sound of Music’ Bike Tour in Austria, we stopped at a similar bridge in Salzburg where our guide explained that the tradition really got going after the protagonists in Federico Moccia’s Young Adult Novel ‘I Want You’ put a padlock to signify their love on Milivian bridge in Rome. The book has been described as the Italian equivalent of Twilight, complete with some Italian heartthrob cast as the lead in the film adaptation. The significance has obviously evolved independent of the novel, but I always like to know what these sorts of things derive from. 

After crossing the 'love lock' (Ponte de Arts) bridge, we headed towards Notre Dame and sampled some Berthillion Ice Cream as we explored the area. 

For dinner, we had reservations at Grizzli Café. 

My friends Michal and April discovered this little café while studying abroad one summer in Paris. They raved about the melting chocolate cake so much that they insisted I go there with my parent’s when we visited Paris the following January. We obliged and agreed that the melting chocolate cake was probably the best thing we’d ever tasted. Since then, my parents have returned to this restaurant on separate trips to Paris, and I knew that I wanted to take Jonathan there for his special birthday dinner. 

For our main meal, I had chicken and he had lamb, which he said was the best meal he had while we were there. 

For dessert, we ordered the melting chocolate cake, of course, and within 5 seconds we had devoured the entire thing. 

So yummy. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel (about a mile walk) and stopped to take in the scenery and also for Jonathan to have some more birthday brewskis at a little bar along the way. 

Day 2: Friday was our only full day in Paris and we wanted to make the most of it. Jonathan was more interested in seeing everything than actually participating, so we skipped visiting the museums and climbing to the top of things to try to check more sites off the list. 

We ate breakfast on the go and walked over to the Louvre for some photo ops. 

It was a beautiful morning but was getting hotter by the second. We have totally acclimated to Scottish weather, so anything over 80 degrees has us feeling overheated. 

We walked through the Tuileries Garden that connects the Louvre to the Place de Concorde. 

It was another park that would be great for running! Once we reached the end, we crossed the street to wander down the famous Champse Elysee. Once we reached the Arc Du Triomphe we considered climbing to the top for a nice view of the city, but when we saw the lines for this, we chickened out and decided to just snap some pictures from the ground level. 

From here we walked to the Trocadero for the hands-down best view of the Eiffel Tower. 

Since at this point we had walked 4 miles, we decided to veg out in the shade with some ice cream and just take in the scenery. This was probably one of my favorite moments in Paris. 

After resting up, we took the obligatory photo ops and then headed down to see the tower up close and personal. The heat and overwhelming crowds kept us moving pretty quickly, but it was still cool to stand underneath the tower and marvel at its engineering. Plus, it was literally 'cool' because it provided shade and a wind tunnel, which made tolerating the crowds much easier.

Once again, the long and winding lines made climbing the tower a non-option for us, which I was super grateful for. Around this time, I started thinking Paris in July was about the worst place on earth to be pregnant. I was tired and hot and my feet and hands had swollen to the point where I was extremely uncomfortable. We decided to cancel our plans to visit Sacre Couer and Montemarte that afternoon and instead, started the 2.7 mile walk back to the hotel. 

Paris is big, y’all. And if I had been non-preggers and it had been about 20 degrees cooler outside, walking the city would have been perfectly pleasant. As it was, I was cranky. Real cranky. 

The metro is a good option if you don’t want to walk, but they were pretty crowded and hot as well, so walking was preferable as long as we could stop and take breaks along the way. We would try to stop every 45 minutes or so and get some refreshments, use the restroom, and give our feet a break. 

Once we got back to the hotel, we both showered and enjoyed the luxury of our air conditioned hotel room for the next 2 hours, until it was time for dinner. We decided to take a taxi to dinner, since the restaurant, L’Ardoise, was 2 miles away. (The Taxi cost 11 Euros, and was totally worth it. We were on our ‘baby-moon’ afterall.) Dinner was fantastic, though the restaurant didn’t have air-conditioning which caused Jonathan and I to take turns heading outside to cool down with the evening breeze. 

I understand that these old buildings are not equipped with air-conditioning, but would it kill them to put in a few fans? It was probably 80 degrees F in some of these little cafes. A meal is just not refreshing or relaxing when you’re sweating throughout the whole thing. 

The nights really cooled off nicely however, so after dinner we headed back to Tuileries Garden for a good view of the Eiffel Tower at sunset. 

We were told that we absolutely had to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle, which didn’t start until 11 PM.  We killed time until about 10:50, at which point we headed down to a nearby bridge to get a glimpse of the Iron Lady shimmering in the moon light. Here are some pictures and video:
                                    

After that, we hailed another cab back home (6 euros, totally worth it once again) and quickly fell asleep in our 64 degree, air-conditioned room (another thing that was 100% worth the splurge). 

Come back tomorrow where I'll recap Days 3 and 4 of our trip!