Balancing Baby and Bonjour

This past Friday I had an appointment with Dr S.  Henry and I were a little nervous just because the baby was measuring a bit small via ultrasound last time and I haven’t been gaining all that much weight ( hard job to do when you’re running after 2 boys all day long!).  Along with these potential problems, I’ve also been feeling the baby really low and my uterus still hasn’t popped above my belly button.

Henry took off work early so that he could come to my appointment at 3:30 pm.

Here are my current stats:

BP: 110/70

Weight gain: 9 lbs

Baby’s HR: 139

My placenta has moved a bit and I’ve been feeling the baby move like crazy lately.  I have to admit it’s one of my favorite parts of pregnancy!

Baby’s current weight: 800-839 g (depending on which formula you use), so almost doubled from my last appointment (418 g)

Current problem: Baby is lying transverse, meaning from side to side which is why I’m feeling all the movements so low.  I guess it’s common at this stage, let’s just hope she decides to move head down because you can’t deliver a transverse baby vaginally 😦

Exercise: I’ve been walking a few miles a day, while pushing the stroller, and that in and of itself with these hills is a killer workout!

Sleep:  I have such a hard time falling asleep, but once I’m asleep I’ve been ok.  I have to admit I look forward to naptime (which is now at our house) each and every day.  I don’t always sleep but I do rest!

Appetite:  Dinner has been difficult for me to eat lately, but I do make myself eat.  Henry and I made a big pot of soup on Saturday, so that helps when I have something so quick at my hands (it’s been in the high 60s, low 70s, so it’s soup season for me :))

So the baby is growing, just still measuring small.  I’ve scheduled my next appointment when my parents are here so that my mom can join me and see our newest addition via ultrasound.

Here’s a semi-current photo of the belly (25 weeks) when we were in Avignon, France:

25 weeks prego in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Avignon

Speaking of France, I really need to get on it about keeping up with this blog…I’ll make it my goal for the week 🙂

All is going well around here.  I had an appointment last Wednesday (17 weeks 1 day) and the baby looks great.  I’ve tried to compare the ultrasound to both Henry and Thomas, and there are similarities so we’ll just have to wait another 22 weeks to see if it’s a boy or a girl 🙂

As of today , I’m 18 weeks 1 day and feeling pretty well besides this awful chest cold I acquired from one of the boys.

Due Date: November 26, 2013

Weight: Per the doctors office I’ve gained 5 1/2 lbs so far.  Probably very similar to what I gained with the boys

Baby Development: This week the baby is as big as a mango, weighing in at 0.5 lbs and 6 inches from crown to rump

Cravings: This one is a hard one.  I’m not sure if some of my cravings are pregnancy related or just the fact that I haven’t found them here yet.  The usuals are sushi, Wawa italian hoagie, Vietnamese food.  The great thing is; we’ll be going home next Tuesday and I’ll be able to satisfy all my cravings…all but the raw fish sushi but I’m sure the cooked version will do.

Aversions:  With both boys I could not even look at chicken, however this time around I’ve been eating a lot of it, between beer can chicken, grilled chicken breasts and chicken burgers.  Umm, cheese really turns me off, but other than that I can’t really think of anything

Symptoms: I’ve been so unbelievably tired lately, is it the cold or is it something I need to bring to my docs attention (anemia), I’m not sure.  That or this little one is just growing and taking it all away from me.  I seriously look forward to 2pm when the boys nap 🙂

Sleep: Ok.  I’m usually a great sleeper and up until I got this cold I was sleeping great.  Now when I lay down all I can do is cough…blah

Clothing:  I’m still in my pre-pregnancy clothing, but I’ll give the stretch in my jeans the credit.  My belly hasn’t popped yet…but soon I know

Movement:  Yes I feel the baby swimming around in there, no major jabs but I know those are soon to come…and often times painful

It’s a: I go either way.  At my appointment last  week I had the option on finding out and I said no…but it was harder this time.  I kinda wished I knew just because we’re going home next Tuesday and I could grab boy clothes if need be or our neighbor is having a boy and has 4 boxes of girl clothes waiting.  Oh well, in December when we’re home for Christmas the baby will only be 4 weeks (Yes we’re hoping to get a passport and fly the baby home for Christmas, it was ok’d by my doc) so the baby won’t need much in the interim.

Exercise: I try and work out 30 minutes each day, except for this week just because I tried and it only makes me cough more

Diet:  I’ve been eating more like 6 small meals a day, or whatever I can squeeze in between playing with the boys 🙂

Photos:

Baby C #3 17 weeks 1 day

Belly shot at 18 weeks

Wow I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve posted.   Things have been quite busy around here so I’ll just do an update on the big items.

This post I’ll focus on the biggest event so far!

We did it again.  Our trip to the Islands in February landed a little bambino/a in my belly.  It’s crazy how that happens, a week without kiddos and little peace and quiet and there you have it!

We found out Easter weekend, but I just knew I was prego.  We are thrilled to welcome Baby C #3 in late November of this year.

While on this topic, I’ll explain the process here in Switzerland.  I found an amazing doctor who’s actually from Salt Lake City, Utah and now practices over here. He takes patients with private insurance (remember it’s socalized healthcare over here).  He’s amazing and specializes in high risk pregnancies so he was the perfect match for me.  He does all his own ultrasounds in office so each time I go I get a new photo of the baby.  I’ve been 3 times already and it’s amazing to see how much the baby has grown.  I’m going every few weeks with my history, just to be safe.  Towards the end I will also tour the University (Public) hospital just in case I deliver before 34 weeks, where the private hospital doesn’t due to the lack of a higher lever NICU.

Here’s the hospital where I most likely will deliver:

In Switzerland, a mother with a natural birth stays 5 days, and c-section 7 days.  I’ve heard that if you feel good, you can request to go home after 2 days with a vaginal birth.  Each room is like a 5 star hotel, complete with your own chef.  Amazing right?!?!

Photos of Baby C #3:

8 weeks

11 weeks

13 weeks

And for me, I’m feeling pretty well.  The first 13 weeks were a bit rough with the non-stop nausea, but that’s getting better with only a few bouts here and there.

Weight gain: Around 3 pounds so far

Aversions: Nothing really, the first 12 weeks eating veggies was quite hard for me (which is rare because I live on veggies).  Beer, usually I salivate for a nice Guinness, however now alcohol doesn’t even sound good

Cravings: Recently it’s been non-stop fruits and veggies (as I sit here eating an orange and 2 kiwis), that and dried fruit and nuts.  On top of that it’s the usual: Sushi

Photos; not big changes yet:

8 weeks prego

15 weeks prego

The weather has finally taken a turn here and it’s simply beautiful.  Saturday morning we headed to the city to hit the market and grab some fresh produce and stop in a few stores.  After our morning errands, we went to the ‘bird park’ which is nearby our house.  Thomas napped in the stroller while Henry played in the sand. Saturday afternoon, Henry and I had a ‘day date’ plan and we couldn’t have asked for a better day.  We ran a few errands around the city (trying to decorate the place), walked down to the lake, had a super early dinner and then slowly walked home…it was amazing.  The weather was around 65 degrees – Perfect!

Sunday we went to church then headed down to the Port de Pully or the Marina.  First we ate a very nice lunch and the boys were tremendous, then we strolled over to the park and played for a good 2 hours.  This park is great, it had a little train that the kiddos can ride on (I may have mentioned this before) and this is probably bad to say but to our luck it was their lunch break.  When the train is working, Henry just wants to keep riding it over and over again and that’s fine, but we like for him to get his energy out.  Instead of riding the train, he just pretended to be a train and walked all over the park on the tracks.  This park is right on the lake, I mean you have to be a bit careful it’s so close.  Another great perk to this park is the fresh gelato and sorbetto stand…to die for!  We made it home for naps and both boys cooperated and napped at the same time.  After nap we headed to the park nearby our house.  Funny enough one of Henry’s classmates was there so we played with then the entire time.  The little boy is 3 and his sister is 18 months, perfect combination for us.  They are from South Africa, I love meeting everyone here just because they all have such interesting backgrounds.  Anyway, we had a such a fun time at the park and the kids were beat by the time we came home!

This weather is suppose to continue for the next 10 days at least and that makes me super happy!  I hope you all had a great weekend!

Day date on Lake Geneva

T and daddy at Pully Park

What a magnificent view

Afternoon at the park with my boys…yes that’s typical of Henry 🙂

T walking along the lake

Cheesin for daddy on our patio

Our attempt at a photo

Easter weekend we decided to head to the chalet, because if it was going to be cold for the holiday, we might as well go somewhere where it’s suppose to be cold 🙂  We left Friday afternoon (here in Europe they become very religious around the holidays and everything closes and nobody works from Thursday until Tuesday) and headed to the mountains.  It’s nice to get away and have a change of scenery.  It was a rainy day which also makes it nice to go somewhere different, there’s only so much you can do here in our apartment and up at the mountains we have an entire house with different toys.

We just relaxed on Friday and went for a walk through town and one of Henry’s colleagues invited us to their chalet for drinks and some antipasto.  Their children are 6 and 8 and were great with our boys.  We got home and put the boys to bed and Henry and I enjoyed dinner and some T.V.  We don’t have a T.V. in our apartment yet, so it was nice to just sit there watching something mindless.

Saturday we were suppose to go skiing, however Henry’s colleague had gone the day before and said the conditions were awful with it storming up top and no visibility.  The conditions were the same Saturday if not worse so we decided to opt out on skiing plus I wasn’t feeling very well at all.  Our babysitter was on here way via the train to watch the kiddos for the day, so we decided to go for a hike instead, you know a nice leisurely hike .  Well our hike turned into a 9 mile hike, through 2 feet up snow, up the mountain.  We actually ended up at a restaurant on the ski slopes (again Henry’s colleague had recommended it thinking we would be skiing), and I mean we were hiking up the ski slope…craziness.  Anyway, we laughed the entire time thinking how crazy we were.

We made it back to town safely, had a hot cocoa and then headed to an early morning.  The boys had a great day with the babysitter and were ready for bed.

Sunday we had planned to go to Aosta, Italy, a short drive from the chalet however we woke to 6 inches of fresh snow and it was falling quickly.  We decided to stay in Champery and enjoy the local activities.  It was a fun day playing in the snow.  After the boys nap they had entertainment, crafts and face painting at the local church.

We headed back to Lausanne on Monday late morning and we went straight to Ouchy, the main port here in Lausanne.  We went for Crêpes first, and they were divine and then we spent some time on the walking path by the water.

All in all it was a great holiday weekend.  We missed being with the family so we made the best of it.

Now here are a few photos to outline the weekend.

Just starting the hike, little did I know what was ahead

On our way back

What we woke up to Easter morning

Henry, before church Easter morning

The family

I didn’t really know what to ‘title’ this post just because there is so much to catch you all up on 🙂  As I sit here on the couch after dropping Henry off at school for his first field trip and laying Thomas down for his morning nap, I catch myself taking a deep breath and relaxing.  Last night, very late, daddy returned from being away for a week (counting the weekend which was the worst part).  He was in Milan, Italy, Oslow, Norway and then Stockholm, Sweden.  It’s so nice to have him here, especially for my emotional wellbeing.

Yes Henry had his first field trip today for school.  We had to drop his car seat off to because they are taking a big charter bus for the entire school (grades Educative Kindergarten, which Henry is in to Primary school grade 2) to a Papiliorama, or butterfly farm.  It’s an all day excursion where they leave at 9 am and return at 3:30pm.  I’m excited to see how the day goes.  Henry has made a bunch of new friends at school, mostly girls 🙂  There are 4 girls that I know of so far that speak English and they are so darn cute, 2 of them being twins.  As I dropped Henry off yesterday, Henry was a little upset and one of the girls who is a little older and has a British accent assured me saying “Don’t worry, I’ll look after him.”

Last Friday Thomas really took off with his walking and ever since he is super independent.  He has to walk everywhere, to and in the elevator in our house, to the car in the garage and all over the park.  I love it and Henry really enjoys it too, almost like ‘wow he can play with me now!’

I’ve looked online all week to try and find Easter activities for the boys to do this weekend but have come up with nothing 😦  So the next best thing; Cailler Chocolate which is about a 45 minute drive from us, is opening it’s doors to the public for free this Sunday because they’ve just had their 1 millionth visitor.  They have a bunch on family and children activities planned so we’re excited to see it.

Next weekend is Easter and I can’t believe it!  We’ve decided to go to our chalet in the Swiss/French Alps and spend Easter there.  Since Italy is only a 45 minute drive from there, we’re going to do a few day trips to there and Zermatt, Switzerland.  I read that the Easter bunny will be skiing in Champery next weekend, so Henry and I hope to get one last run in before the seasons over.

Now for some recent photos:

Eating dinner at Henry’s table

Daddy and Henry doing their exercises

Blowing on Henry’s ‘hot’ scrambled eggs

Those curls

Henry eating his chocolate ice cream bar

Reading books

Love my boys

Making guacamole with Mommy

Very concentrated on his walking skills

Cheese

We have made it back to Switzerland safely and the boys are recovered from their jet lag for the most part.

Our vacation started off very early on Thursday, February 21st.  It was our 4th anniversary and we were able to spend it on planes, trains and automobiles with our 2 boys – that’s love 🙂  Our day started at 4 am Swiss time, or 10 pm EST.  To sum it up, by the time we got home and put the boys to bed, it was a 22 hour day of travel.

We were able to enjoy some family time while we were home, and I was able to attend Asia’s baby shower.  Sunday morning we left Philadelphia for our week of relaxation.

We arrived at St. Peter’s Resort after 2 flights and 1 boat ride (Philly to San Juan, San Juan to Tortola, Tortola to St. Peter’s via boat) around 4:30 pm.  It was a beautiful afternoon so we sat by the beach for a short while then got ready for dinner.  It was a work trip that officially started on Tuesday, however a few couple arrived a few days earlier.  That evening we had dinner  together at the resort restaurant.  It was an early night as everyone was tired from their day of travel.

The rest of the week kind of blends together.  We did a few amazing excursions, a lot of beach time, a few spa days and Pilates and tennis most days.  One evening, a group of us chartered a 50 ft boat and sailed the Caribbean until sunset, stopped by a bar for a cocktail and then had dinner at this amazing yacht club that pictures could never do justice.  It was a full moon with not a cloud in the sky on our ride back, utterly peaceful as we sat on the bow of the boat.  On Saturday we chartered a boat to fit 47 of us and we went snorkeling of a secluded reef, had lunch at Foxy’s and swam up to the Soggy Dollar Bar for their famous Painkillers.  We were on the boat from 10 am until 6 pm and it was so much fun.

We were blessed the entire week with wonderful weather, great breezes and relaxation.  A few times I thought that maybe it was too quiet, I was missing the boys.

Here are a few photos we captured, we’re still waiting for more from the others on the trip.

Beautiful Sunset at Sunset Loop

Cruising the BVIs

Virgin Gorda in the background

View of the Sunset before dinner

Our stop for drinks before dinner

Outside at the Yacht Club after an amazing dinner

The European Team

Foxy’s Shack for lunch

The boys were a delight for both of our parents ( or so they say ) and they had such a great time with the cousins and of course Maggie, my parents dog.  It’s nice to be home and get back in a routine, but boy do I miss that sunshine 🙂

Where to begin?? It’s been such a busy week around here.  Henry started school yesterday and it was a total success!! We have enrolled him into the Ecole Privee Bilingue or the Private Bilingual School here in Lausanne called Club Alpha, and he is in what they call the Educative Kindergarten.  The youngest you can start is 30 months or 2 1/2 years and Henry hit that milestone on Saturday.  Another must is that the child must be fully potty trained.  This has been an ongoing issue for us.  I’ve always heard boys are harder, but we were taking two steps forward one step back.  I’m sure all the moving back and forth from Switzerland didn’t help but we are fully potty trained at this point – Yay Henry!  Both yesterday and today he stayed dry for the 5 1/2 hours he was at school.  School starts between 8-8:30am, they can play until 9 and that is when the lessons begin.  They start each day off with an English lesson taught by a native English teacher, and they do puppet shows, sing songs, read fairytales, etc.  After this the majority of the day is in French.  They have recess from 10:30 – 11:00 am and lunch as a class at noon.  At the school the children have a private chef and they will never eat the same thing twice.  They also abide by the Swill nutritional system, meaning they will never have french fries or any fatty foods on their plate, it must always be balanced.

For instance, yesterday Henry had:

Le tortellini au jambon cru
Et asperges vert
Emulsion mousseuse d’artichauts
Salad de saison
*****
Compote de pommes
Et crunchy au chocolat

or in English:

Tortellini with ham
And green asparagus
Foamy emulsion artichoke
Salad of the season
*****
Applesauce
And crunchy chocolate

I guess I’m going to have to amp up my cooking abilities if I’m going to have to hold to that standard 🙂

After lunch they play outside if it’s nice or in their gym for 30 minutes before being picked up at 1pm.  I’m very happy with the school.  Henry will be learning to read in French and they guarantee it by age 5-6.

Yesterday I finished my 12th hour of French tutoring and I’m really loving the language.  My tutor is a very good teacher and really pushes me.

Tomorrow is our 4th wedding anniversary.  We will be spending it very romantically with a 9 hour daytime flight with 2 kiddos 🙂  That’s what love is about right??

Tomorrow morning we leave very early in the morning for the Zurich airport.  Our flight isn’t until 10:15am but with the kiddos, the carseats, the bags and how massive the airport is, we have to allow for ample time.  It’s also a 2 1/2 hour drive there but it’s totally worth it for the direct flight to Philadelphia.  We land in Philly at 1:45 pm EST and then we drive to Camp Hill, after the customs process, getting our bags and picking up the rental car.  We’ll probably arrive in Camp Hill around 5pm, just in time for dinner with the families, running around for the boys, bath time for the boys and then an early bedtime (or to them very late with the time difference!).

Saturday is my sister-in-law Asia’s baby shower and I’m thrilled to be able to be home to attend.  The shower is outside Philadelphia, so I’m leaving Henry with the boys, Asia’s hubby Thomas (or Henry’s brother) is coming to Camp Hill to spend the day with the boys, Henry will drop the boys off at my parents place Saturday afternoon and then we’re all meeting at Thomas and Asia’s house Saturday evening where we will stay.  We have an early flight to catch Sunday morning so staying at their place takes off about 1 1/2 hours in the car that we won’t have to do Sunday morning.  Sunday, Henry and I are headed to St. Peter’s Island…alone!

With Henry’s newest promotion, he has been invited to the Awards trip which takes place in St. Peter’s Island, which is in the British Virgin Islands.  It’s a small island near Tortola (where we will be flying into), about a 15 minute yacht ride.  The hotel has around 35 rooms and his company will have 26 of them.  It’s going to be such a fun trip.  I’m close with many of the wives and many of the couples were at our wedding.

St Peter’s Island

The trip doesn’t start until Tuesday, however Henry and I going 2 days early and will be there from a Sunday to a Sunday.  To say I’m excited would be an understatement.  I’ve been through a lot in the past 6 months with Henry’s travel, our family’s move, the move back to the US and now the move back to Switzerland.  I would rarely say this, but I do indeed think I deserve this.  Henry and I really need some time to ourselves.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to miss the boys like crazy, but they will be having the time of their life with both sets of grandparents and all the cousins.

So in just 3 short days we’ll be trading our very beautiful snow views for this:

Insert Henry and I into this photo with a few cocktails in hand

Absolutely breathtaking

Another big accomplishment to note: Thomas is finally walking!  He’s been taking steps to and from the couch to the coffee table (2 max) but last night he just started standing in one place for a long time.  Then today all he wants me to do is when I put him down, he wants to be in the standing position.  Since then he has take 3-4 steps a couple of times.  We are getting there slowly but surely.  He just crawls so quickly  and chasing after Henry is just so much easier that way!  Henry walked around 11 months and Thomas looks like he’ll be there in just a week or so…probably right when we leave.  I keep trying to upload the video here but it’s not letting me…oh well.

Well I best get back to the unfun (is that a word???) of vacationing and pack for all of us….tomorrow will be here before we know it!

This past weekend we decided not to go to our chalet in the mountains due to the fact that Henry had 3 stitches in his chin and our luck something would have happened to them.  It’s alway high activity up at the chalet 🙂  It was a great weekend with a lot of family time, walks, parks and sunshine!  On Saturday we discovered a park that’s not even a 10 minute walk away.  It’s such a great one too with a little toddler pool for summertime, swings, wooden train house with slide, a fun merry go round, a few more playground toys and it also has a little fenced in zoo.  It’s amazing what you find at the parks here.  The park we had been going to (Park Mon Repos) is a bird park and has over 6 huge bird cages with a variety of beautiful birds.  We always visit it before and after the playground.  Anyway, Saturday was just an all around great day.  The hubby and I ended the evening with our first fire in the living room, the glass doors open and the snow falling outside – perfection!

On Sunday we walked to a new church that was about 20 minutes away, grabbed a few chocolate croissants at the neighborhood bakery on the way home, had a little lunch and playtime and packed the car for a fun afternoon!  The balloon festival was about 1 hour 20 minutes away which was perfect for the boys to catch a nice nap.  The town the festival was held in was the balloon capital of Switzerland and absolutely beautiful.  The event was cancelled on Saturday due to heavy snow, which made a great day for us on Sunday.  They had a couple huge sledding hills for the kiddos with some nice new powder 🙂  We arrived just in time for the air show and then next was the colorful balloon flight along with helicopter rides.  We had a great spot to watch all the action, right in between the helicopter pad and the pad where the balloons took off from.  It was like a huge carnival, all with food from all over Europe, beer, you name it.

Here are few of the photos we captured.

Such a beautiful day

Paragliders and Balloons

The balloons getting ready for take off

Just hanging out

Looking high in the sky

Watching the balloons take off

My love bug

The old town church

Picturesque