London

London was amazing.  We absolutely loved that city and would love to go back someday, preferably when I’m not almost 35 weeks pregnant…

We left Thursday morning to drive down to Venice to catch our flight to London.  I cried on the way to drop Abbie off with our friends and while we were dropping her off.  Grrr.  I tried to keep it together, but couldn’t.  Maybe someday…

FYI: if you fly the budget airlines in Europe (Easyjet, Ryanair, etc), they require you to have a doctors release allowing you to fly up until you’re 36 weeks pregnant.  After that, they won’t let you fly.  I had a note from my doctor in the States and I also got one from my doctors here at Aviano too, thank GOD.  I figured it was just a formality incase anything went wrong.  Nope.  Every single airline personnel we encountered asked to look at my letter.  And they didn’t just glance at it, they pretty much memorized it and then discussed it with co-workers nearby and asked me to confirm how far along I was and called supervisors.  That was going and coming back.  It was no joke.  So if you fly when you’re pregnant over here, make sure to have the doctors release!

The flight from Venice to London was 1 hr and 45 mins and then it was a 30 min train ride from Gatwick Airport to Victoria Station in London.  Then we had to figure out our way to our hotel using the Tube (subway), which was pretty easy.  Our hotel was only a block from the Lancaster Gate tube stop.  We got settled and then set out to find the Hard Rock Café in London.  It’s become our tradition to eat at Hard Rock’s throughout Europe since they’re about the only places that you can get fountain Pepsi, and American burgers and a military discount.  Then we decided to go on a London by night tour.  It was fun being out and about at night.  Normally we don’t get to be out after dark because when we have Abbie with us, we’re back at the hotel for her bed time.

(Royal Albert Hall)

(London Museum of Science)

(Harrod’s and Westminster Abbey)

(The London Eye and House of Parliaments)

(St. Paul’s Cathedral)

(The Tower Bridge and Piccadilly Circus)

I will admit, our first day there, I was pretty worried about having a baby in England.  I was having cramps/ contractions and was feeling pretty uneasy about it all.  The walking was really getting to me and I was so torn between wanting to see everything we wanted to see, but needing to take it easy so I didn’t overdo it.  It took some of the fun out of it, but I eventually relaxed some and by Sunday I was handling all the walking around and going up and down stairs in the Tube much better.

Friday we decided to go check out the area by the House of Parliaments and Westminster Abbey.  I would have loved to go into Westminster Abbey but it was £16, which equals about $25 PER PERSON, so we didn’t feel like spending $50 to see the inside of a church.

These cabs were all over London.  All of the cabs are this shape, but most of them are black.  I liked the ones with the British flag on them the best.

We decided to take a river cruise from the Westminster area down to The Tower of London, so here are a few pictures from that trip.  It was entertaining and informative and we both enjoyed it, despite getting sprinkled on a little bit.

I would have loved to tour the Tower of London, which houses the crown jewels, but it was like £20 per person (so $32) and we only had an hour to tour the museum before it closed.  We decided it wasn’t worth it since we didn’t have much time and I was moving pretty slowly, so we wouldn’t have gotten to see much.  Maybe next time.

We went back to the room to relax a little and then headed to the Piccadilly Circus area again to have dinner at Bennihana’s.  All during this pregnancy, I’ve been craving Japanese food, so it was pretty good.  Mark and I shared a meal, like we usually do, which saved us a good $25 or more.

Our hotel was decent, but I guess I was expecting more for what we paid.  ($630 for 3 nights)  I had issues picking out a place because I wanted someplace nice since it was our one and only kid-free vacation while in Europe (while living here).  It was nice, but TINY, as you can see below.  The bathroom was so small you could BARELY open the door all the way because of the toilet.  And there was mold in the bathroom too, so it smelled horrible, especially to my “Bloodhound-ish” nose.  (I always have a heightened sense of smell when I’m pregnant.)  It was okay, but I was hoping for something a little nicer for paying $200/night.  Welcome to the super crappy exchange rate.

Saturday morning we wanted to check out the Notting Hill area and the Oxford Street area, but we technically didn’t make it to either.  Mark got his Starbuck’s fix and then we took the Tube to Kensington Gardens to check out the palace.

On our walk to the Palace, we walked through this neighborhood full of ambassador’s homes.  This was probably my favorite part of our visit.  This street was GORGEOUS, especially with all the leaves on the ground and the homes were gigantic.  Unfortunately there were “No photographs” signs pretty much EVERYWHERE, along with security cameras, so I couldn’t take pictures.  Otherwise I probably would have spent an hour taking photos on this walk.  I loved it.  I snapped these two photos from the street before we actually got in to the gated area.

Kensington Palace is located on the west side of Hyde Park and our hotel was on the street bordering the north side.  So we walked through the park after our visit to the Palace, and again, it was one of my favorite parts of our visit.  The trees were beautiful and it was fun to see people walking, running, biking and playing games all over the place.  And there were dogs off leashes everywhere, which was neat to see.  They’d just run everywhere and play with each other and chase squirrels.  I loved it.

(Kensington Palace and Gardens)

We did go on a tour of Kensington Palace.  They had it done up in some sort of weird fairytale-ish setting with tree branches and stuff throughout the rooms.  I would have preferred to just see it normally, without all the weird lights and displays.  I would absolutely LOVE to be given free reign in a palace like this and just wander through it and see what it’s like.  We only saw a small portion of it, but it was still huge and it was neat to see all the big rooms and intricate details.  Even the stair cases were huge – like 8+ feet wide and spirally, so the rooms for the staircases alone were like 3 times the size of our living room.  It’s hard to believe places like this were built for just one family.  Apparently William and Kate are going to move in to Kensington Palace in a year or two and it’s where Princess Diana lived also.

After our walk through the park, which about killed me since I had to pee so bad, we rested at the hotel for a bit and then headed down to the Victoria Station area to eat at a pub and to see Wicked.  I’ve seen at least 10 to 15 professional Broadway shows and Wicked was definitely in my top two.  Both Mark and I thought it was excellent.  I didn’t really know what it was about, besides the Witched Witch from The Wizard of Oz, but I still had high expectations for it, and it didn’t disappoint.  I could have listened to the girl that played Elphaba sing all day.  Her voice was amazing.  If you ever get the chance to see Wicked, GO!!

Overall, our trip to London was a success and I had fun waddling all over the place.  It was so nice to spend time with my husband without having to play the parent role also and the trip just refreshed my memory as to why I love him so much.  We have so much fun traveling together and I love how relaxed and at ease I feel with him.  He makes me laugh more than anyone else and we laughed a lot on our trip.  It was great to reconnect with him before we become a family of 4 (plus 2 weina dogs).

Pushing for an induction

(34.5 weeks pregnant)

I am much more nervous about giving birth this time around than I was with Abbie’s birth.  The size of this baby alone, is enough to make me nervous, but there are more factors than just his size.

But just for kicks and giggles, let’s talk about his size first.  I am hoping and praying with all my might that the u/s’s are off and he’s not actually 3 weeks ahead of schedule, but I really don’t think they’re that far off, for a few reasons.  Abbie was 9lbs 9.2oz at birth, and boys tend to be bigger than girls at birth.  Big babies run in Mark’s family and since Mark and I are both tall, our odds of having another big baby are pretty high.  I have a ton of stretch marks from my pregnancy with Abbie, except already, at 35 weeks, they’re getting bigger.  Not wider, but they’re getting higher on my belly than they were before.  Hopefully that means that I’m just carrying him higher, but I don’t know.  And this little guy moves a LOT.  Like almost non-stop, to the point where he’s bouncing around in there so much it actually wakes me up at night.  The NST’s they’re making me do are a complete joke.  His heart rate is supposed to go up at least two times in 20 mins while I’m hooked up to the monitors, and I think the least amount of times his HR has gone up during one of our sessions has been four times.  If he’s, by chance, actually being still, all I have to do is poke him and he squirms.  I’m not sure if I feel him so much because he’s so big and just doesn’t have much room to move or he’s even more active than Abbie was.  Either way, it’s scary.

“Shoulder dystocia” keeps being brought up because of his size.  This is a huge fear of mine – that he’s going to get stuck.  I would love to give birth vaginally, but it scares me to think about what could happen if he does get stuck.  I’d like to think my body can handle giving birth to a 10+lb baby, but that’s a BIG baby.

I’m also worried about the possibility of having to give birth in an Italian hospital due to space not being available at the base hospital.  Since they’ve labeled my pregnancy a “complicated pregnancy”, I really don’t want to have to go through a complicated birth in a foreign hospital and having to deal with the way they do things and the language barrier.  If things are going to go wrong during the birth, I want to know exactly what’s going on and not have to rely on a translator to relay info to me.  Plus if I end up needing a c-section, they don’t allow dads to be in the room and they immediately take the baby away from you for a few hours and don’t let either of us see him.  (From what I’ve heard anyway.)  I’ve also decided I do want an epidural in case there are complications.  I’d rather not have to go through a bunch of maneuvers and stuff while I can fully feel everything if he does get stuck.  And if I give birth in an Italian hospital, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get an epi, even if you ask for it.  It basically depends on if someone is around to give one or not, and if they’re not, they won’t call an anesthesiologist in to do one unless they deem it necessary.  I’ve also heard people say that they didn’t let the baby stay in their rooms with them while they were recovering.  They kept the babies in the nursery.  So pretty much having to give birth in the Italian hospital terrifies me… like REALLY terrifies me, and I’m not going to know if I have to go there until I go into labor and call base to see if they have room for me there.

Lastly, if I do go in to labor on my own, I’m worried about what we’re going to do with Abbie last minute.  I’ve asked a few friends if they’d be willing to watch her for us, but one of them works full-time, so that really limits when she’s available and one of them works part-time and lives 45 mins away, so if we’re in a rush, I’m not really sure what we’re going to do.  Another one has said that she’d help, but I really don’t know her schedule or if she’s willing to stay at our house.  I think it’s going to be a matter of us scrambling last minute to get Abbie and all her junk and her car seat to someone else’s house on our way to the hospital, which really isn’t the ideal situation at all, but it’s either that or Mark stays with her and I go by myself.

So basically, I want them to induce me.  If they could induce me between 38 and 39 weeks, that would be ideal.  I would like to experience going in to labor on my own, but there’s so much at stake here.  If they induced me, he wouldn’t be as big as he would if he came on his own, they would induce me on base, so I could give birth there, and we could set up care for Abbie in advance.  It would pretty much solve all of my problems, with the exception of him getting stuck, but again, he’d be smaller than he would if I carried him full term, so that would help.  However, they said that they wouldn’t induce me unless he’s measuring over 10lbs or I have blood pressure issues.  (Which, by the way, at all my NST’s, my blood pressure has been 100% normal…)

I’ve pretty much lived at the clinic since Mark got back.  Two weeks ago I was there Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri.  Last week I was there Mon, Tues and Weds.  This week I’m there Mon, Thurs and Fri.  Next week I’m there Mon, Tues and Thurs.  It ridiculous.  Between NST’s, fluid checks, growth scans, OB appts, and classes, I might as well just move there.  My 36 weeks appointment is next Thursday and I’m going to talk to them about inducing me then, to see if they will.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  Wish me luck!

Abbie-isms October 2011

**We were walking around my hometown with my in-laws and Abbie apparently got tired.  She looked up at her Uncle Alex and said “How about you carry me now?”.  Too bad I can’t say that to people!  Lord knows I’ve thought it!
**Last time she saw Uncle Alex, a month ago, he had gotten a boo boo on his hand.  As soon as he walked in the door, Abbie asked him how his boo boo on his hand was.  I have no clue how she remembers that kind of stuff.
**We were riding in the car and the sun was shining in Abbie’s window.  She said, “Mommy, the sun is shining in my eyes.  I’m just going to turn my head the other way.”
**On our second trip to base, Abbie was telling my mom about the park I took her to a few times before we left Italy.  We were a few blocks away from it and she told my mom that it was coming up and to keep watching.  I asked her if it was on the right or the left (while pointing to the right and left) and she said it was going to be on the left (which is was).  When we got to it she yelled “There it is!!”.  I can’t believe she remembered that park.
**On that same car ride, Abbie told me that there was another park coming up.  I honestly had no clue what she was talking about.  I told her the next park would be on base and she said, “No mommy, it’s before that.”  We passed a restaurant that had a swing set and slide in front of it on our way to base and Abbie pointed it out also.  I couldn’t believe that she remembered where that one was also.  She obviously has her eyes open for the parks.
**Abbie still gets SUPER excited when she hears jets flying around.  Pretty much anywhere we are, as soon as she hears a jet taking off, she’ll start screaming, “Jet! Jet!  Quick, quick!!  Let’s go see them!”  And then when she’s done watching them or listening to them, she says very matter-of-factly, “My daddy flies those.”  The other day we were in the library when she started her jet routine.  My mom and I quickly shushed her, and that made her cry because she didn’t want to not announce the jet.  We taught her how to whisper her excitement.
**Abbie, Mark and I were driving on the autostrada (highway) in Italy and Abbie spotted an F-16 flying out her window.  She did her normal, “Look!  Look!  Jet!  F-16!”  And then she said the usual, “My daddy flies those!!”, which was followed by her getting a very confused look on her face.  She sat there for a few seconds and then said, “But my daddy is right there?”  We had to explain to her that “other daddy’s” also fly the jets and that not every jet she was had her daddy flying it.  I think she understood.
**Abbie calls “Piglet” (Pooh’s friend), “Pliget” sometimes.  And she refers to a rubber ducky as a “ducky rubber”.  Occasionally she asks the question, “What is that called thing?”
**Abbie has heard me say to Mark, “You’re flippin’ hot.” a few times.  So now Abbie frequently looks at Mark and says, “Daddy, you’re flippin’ hot!”.  Or she’ll look at me and say, “Mommy, daddy’s flippin’ hot!” 
**”Damember” is a very common word for Abbie.  She frequently asks “Damember when ____?”.  (Translation: Do you remember.)  It’s pretty funny that she says it as much as she does.

*Sorry, no Abbie pictures in this post this month.  Been too busy and I don’t have time to get them all off the other computer.  I’ll put more pictures of her up later.*

Abbie’s 3rd Halloween

This year we took Abbie trick or treating on base at the Fall Fest.  It was basically a bunch of vendors handing out candy to all the kids and some of them had games set up for the kids to play.  They also had haunted houses, bouncy houses, mazes and a pumpkin patch, but we didn’t make it to any of those things.  We’ll try to do it next year.

Abbie really enjoyed looking at all the other kids in costumes.  I think she was a little bit overwhelmed because she went from being super excited to really quiet and back to excited a few times.  She didn’t know where to look or what to do next.  I’m glad Mark was around to witness it.  (And so was Mark’s brother, Ryan, pictured below.)

Abbie got the hang of trick or treating pretty quickly.  She was pretty shy, but she’d say “trick or treat” and a few times I reminded her to say thank you.  Sometimes she’d start walking away from the person and then go running back saying, “I forgot to say thank you!”

Mark helped her with the bean bag toss.  She had fun trying, but she missed the holes even when she was 6 inches from them.  =)

She really liked choosing a duck at this vendor.  The ducks had numbers on the bottom of them and the prize you got was based on the number you pulled.

And then we ran into this guy…  Abbie was terrified of him.

She wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, but she kept a VERY close eye on him.  She had to walk a few feet away from me to get candy from a lady, and she started out a few times towards the lady, but watching the dog.  As soon as the dog would move anything, she’d come running back to me.  She told me she didn’t like him and that she was afraid of him and that he scared her.  And 4 days later, she’s still talking about how she didn’t like the puppy.

Finally she couldn’t take it anymore and wanted Daddy to pick her up, but even walking away, she still kept a close eye on him.  He rode by on a fire truck while we were getting food and of course, she spotted him right away then too and had to keep a close eye on him to make sure he wasn’t getting any closer to her.  Guess now’s not the time to take her to Disney.  =)

And of course she had to get her face painted.  She loves having her face painted.

Luckily, Abbie isn’t big into candy so she hasn’t really wanted to eat a bunch of it, and the few she has picked out, she hasn’t even finished.  That’s fine with me.  Mark, Ryan and I dug through it and got the few pieces out that we liked anyway.  The rest of it will be around for a month before she gets around to finishing it.

Venzone Pumpkin Festival

Mark and I had been hearing about the Venzone Pumpkin Festival from a bunch of different people so we decided to go check it out.  The entire trip was pretty much a bust, but we still had a good time, even if we won’t be going back.  We got caught in traffic for over an hour going there AND coming back, so we picked a perfectly bad time to go.

Tiny Italian towns, like Venzone, are not built for massive crowds of people.  The entire town was so full you could barely walk around.  The main draw of this festival is to try the various foods made with pumpkins.  Mark and I made the mistake of thinking we’d be able to get Euros out of an ATM in Venzone.  The town had 2 and both of them were out of money around.  Luckily we ran into friends from the squadron who loaned us 30E so we could get food.  However, the parade came through just as we were going to find a place to eat, so we ended up just leaving because we were tired of fighting the crowds.

I had fun taking pictures of Abbie though, as usual.  She’s at a fun age to take to things like this because she asks questions and is so interested in what she sees.  It’s fun to watch her take it all in.

I don’t quite understand the purpose of the procession, but it was kind of neat to watch everyone in costumes go by, for the first 10 mins.  About 25 mins of trying to get out of the town, away from the crowds, going against the parade, it got a little bit old, especially since we were carrying Abbie so she didn’t get trampled.  (Most of the alleys were MUCH smaller than the one pictured below, and people were lined along both sides of them.)

Our GPS took us some crazy way home and Mark and I were worried it was going to take us on this crazy mountain road that it’d taken us on before, but luckily it wasn’t the same one.  Similar, but not NEARLY as long, thank God.  We were trying to figure out where we were and where the GPS was taking us and Abbie was in the back seat asking, “Where are we going?”, “What are we doing?”, “Are you going to turn up there?”, “Go that way.”, etc.  She’s quite the little back seat driver, for sure.

I’m glad we went, so we can say we’ve been there and done that, and we know what the hype is about.  It was fun even if it didn’t turn out exactly as we were expecting.  Next time we’ll make sure we have Euros on us!