01.13.10
Posted in Diary Entries at 3:11 pm by Nicole
Tomorrow marks the 19 week point. Once we get home from Switzerland, we will be in the home stretch. Hard to believe. So, lots has gone on since my last update… I met the doctor that will be taking care of me. Simon wasn’t there but I had a lovely visit with her. She seems very nice, caring, knowledgeable and helpful. I got to hear the baby’s heartbeat (130bpm) through a doppler – she assured me it wasn’t an alien! I was sent for a blood test and got the news that the chance of Down Syndrome is 1/8000. Which I suppose is pretty good. *crossing fingers*
The moment of truth came last Friday when we went to the gender ultrasound. I was positive it was a boy…Simon wasn’t so sure. I took bets at the office for fun to see what the gang thought. 14-girl 10-boy. As the technologist was doing the scan, she announced, “Congratulations! It’s a…GIRL!” A girl?!?! NO that can’t be! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY I was so happy and shocked to hear the news. I still am actually. I can’t believe we are going to have a little daughter. I can imagine her being Daddy’s little girl already. I’m surprised he isn’t out shopping yet. I was laughing and crying all at the same time for most of the day and went to Babies R Us to see what I could find. Unfortunately I got so overwhelmed that I didn’t buy anything! I can’t wait to start shopping though. I called my parents to share the news and they were suprised it wasn’t a boy either!
As for us now, we are hanging out in Switzerland with the family. We had a lovely day today, celebrating Grandma’s 70th Birthday. With only 28 of her closest friends we spent the afternoon lunching and chatting it up. They gave her an amazing gift of coming to visit her granddaughter, whenever she wants! How wonderful!
I’m feeling pretty good lately. Not *too* many headaches. I find I can’t sit for very long or my legs get restless. I take care of that by doing a 30-45 minute walk daily then I sleep like a baby at night. I have been feeling the baby daily for about a week now, it is very sporadic and very enjoyable. Before I didn’t know what was going on inside…now I’m glad I know what she is up to. I have been religiously using multiple types of cream to try to prevent stretch marks. I am using Palmers, BioOil and now Frei Ol from Germany. I can only pray they all work…
Permalink
Posted in Diary Entries at 1:23 pm by skay
Saturday was dog day we went to Martigny to see the St. Bernard dogs again which are the world’s cutest animals. We had lunch in the cafe at the kennel with the same excellent French fries as last time. The dogs were even cuter if that is possible. At one point the puppies were all asleep and obviously dreaming of chasing Swiss rabbits as they twitched and grumbled their way through their nap time. We did get to spend some time with one of the retired older dogs which was amazing. The sheer size of the animal is quite a thing to see. I thought I had a big head… geez. I stayed up to watch match of the day and saw Liverpool once again lose a match they should easily have won. The only thing that worries me more than their performance is the idea that Guus Hiddink or Alex Mcleish might take the reins. I have been watching some of celebrity BB but it was pre-empted by Nicole and I watching our new best friend Kevin McCloud (seriously!) watching the process of a couple building a cross shaped house out of green oak and glass. The show is called Grand Designs and rapidly became a daily ritual for us.
It’s Sunday afternoon, up late, read for a while and took down the Christmas tree and rearranged the furniture, vacuumed and took more pictures of the mountains. Had feet and meat for lunch (most of the cheese here smells like feet especially when you heat it up and so a cold cut sandwich then becomes feet and meat). Went for a walk in Montreaux and ended up at Zurcher for a small coffee and an even smaller glass of water. The dessert item I had was out of this world I can’t really describe what it was other than two waffly type round biscuits of sugary heaven with a creamy caramel deliciousness in between. We are out tonight for Chinese food at the neighbour and then next week we may be off on our Frenchist road trip depending on the cost of course. I am about half way through the baby whispering book and have picked up some tips however I can’t imagine that a boatload of tips are going to help once I get the baby in my hands and panic.
It’s Tuesday we went to Italy yesterday for pizza, a notion that seems fairly innocuous however on arrival finding that the ovens weren’t on and for the most part Italians obviously don’t actually eat pizza when nobody is looking we ended up in La Croix Blanche and had a very flat but tasty lasagna and some veal. Not young veal however, slightly older and apparently almost adolescent veal which sits better with sensitive types. The drive was only about 90 minutes and well worth the trip. The views were amazing and the food was excellent. Today went to town for coffee with Inge and Freddie both of whom are wonderfully entertaining people. Went for 40 min walk after and then to Charlot’s again for another chorizo sandwich despite last night watching a program called Britain’s most disgusting food: meat. It went into the details of what exactly mechanically separated meat is. It also exposed that you can make a hot dog with zero meat and still call it a hot dog and that a patty with 47% meat and 21 % heart meat can legally be called a beefburger. The sandwich I had was very tasty chorizo and it is made according to Swiss standards but seriously how long it will be until I eat a sausage or hot dog again I can’t say
Permalink
01.12.10
Posted in Diary Entries at 1:19 pm by skay
Day 2 was the cold walk down by the lake and little else. A shopping trip to the coop, then a drive down to Placette to walk around the mall. Since it was late in the day, the crowds were minimal so we cruised around each floor then up the escalator. I think we did 3 times, it was 30 minutes anyway. We are both pretty jet lagged still so we did some reading and some TV but in reality we are both just very tired…
Day 3 was the party and Liverpool getting dumped out of the FA Cup by Reading. The party was quite spectacular; the location which was The Hotel Du Lac in Vevey, a truly magnificent hotel recently refurbished to good effect. There were 28 of us and the atmosphere was truly wonderful. All Mum and Dad’s friends chipped in to get them a return ticket to Canada so that they can come and see their Grand Daughter in the fall. What wonderful people they are!
Day 4 was yesterday which we went to town on the train to Placette for lunch with Fiz and to do some shopping. We got the train back not from platform 28 but from platform 7. The stop is actually Hauteville; the train is the Blonay train. We watched a program about the Dharavi slums outside Mumbai, a real eye opener of a show actually. I also caught part of celebrity big brother which I hope to see more of now I have found it and know who is on. Of course irritating Steven Baldwin is on once again trying to lead everyone to Jesus. We also took a drive along the highway to the big coop to do some grocery shopping. Found some picnic boiled eggs and big bags of pistachios, 600g for 8.99CHF.
Day 5 is today, up late again, its Friday, tomorrow should be the market. Tonight during dinner I managed to break one of our dining chairs. Hardly surprising given that they are older than I am and the whole set has seen better days. I think it is due to the low humidity. Either that or I am too fat for sitting at the dinner table. I think I’ll go with the humidity thing for now.
Permalink
01.11.10
Posted in Diary Entries at 1:14 pm by skay
Day 1
After the drama last night with the passport issue (don’t ask…) it was good to be on our way. The “limo” arrived at 230 as arranged however it was a little Indian guy with a bum leg driving a minivan. Don’t use Aeroport limo service again! We got to the terminal with lots of time to spare, we left from terminal 5 which is nice however we were in gate 33 which is, of course, the furthest gate from anything and everything. We waited a long time for the flight to board and for that reason as soon as they announced that anyone requiring assistance would be allowed to board, Nicole put on her best waddle and we went up to the counter. By the time we got up there with the family towing a gaggle of children, they decided that they weren’t in fact ready for us yet. We retreated back to our seats only to see a Nun with a bad back wander up and be boarded immediately. Not to be outdone by the god squad we all immediately returned to the desk and were ushered onto the plane. This was our luxury flight of the two meaning that as people boarded the plane they had to wander past us sad faced and pathetic wishing that they were sitting in our extra legroom seats. As the plebs were ushered into the rear of the plane we basked in the extra 6 inches of legroom and whopping 4 inches of bum room. The flight went quickly since I got to see district 9 (finally!) and Nicole watched part of Julie and Julia interrupted only by our lunch. I was given a regular pasta meal despite being told at check in that I was slated to receive a seafood meal…. Seafood, on an airoplane, I think not. After dinner I slipped in and out of my pasta coma for the next couple of hours while trying to watch a movie which was so forgettable I can’t even recall the name. Before we knew it our cold pathetic mashed mush and poop on an English muffin came around and it was time to land. We were greeted in England by having to take a bus to the terminal since we landed in terminal 5c which wasn’t finished yet. Makes you wonder why they are using it if it’s not finished. But there we were, in an under construction airport terminal waiting for our connection to Switzerland. On our way between gates we had to go through customs and another security check which were both very fast and efficient even having a bin return system for the plastic bins in which you are supposed to put your shoes and various worldly belongings. There is something appealingly simplistic about being reduced to two plastic bins. We went to the washroom, bought some baby powder and crisps and meandered through the terminal shops marvelling at the unnecessarily inflated pricing.
The flight was full according to the fight staff, their blatant lies being exaggerated by the gaping rows of empty seats towards the back of the plane. Nicole and I took immediate advantage by taking the empty row behind us. The guy with whom we were sharing the row was apparently pretty chuffed too since he went and grabbed his wife from between some suspicious looking strangers and settled into their now luxurious space. We were delayed almost an hour due to the plane de-icing that apparently is only done by one truck. Pitifully inadequate for such a large airport and even if there are more, they were mysteriously not deployed to any of the flights actually waiting to leave.
the flight itself was short and pleasant, we both nodded off of course and despite the attempts of the British Airways staff to cram more substandard dross down our throats we managed to sleep almost the whole way. Deplaning (a term only ever heard in American announcements) was fine; the luggage was there since we were purposefully the very last two to leave the aircraft. We headed to the train station intent on catching the train departing in 8 minutes. Naturally our disappointment continued with the train we were slated to take being cancelled (shock horror) due to a fatal accident on the tracks in Geneva. we got off the train (or detrained if you like) and went to a snack bar where we enjoyed a disgusting snot sandwich which we both think was supposed to be eggplant and was listed as being vegetarian. By this time we were ready for the end, the day had already been long and we were short on sleep. The trains eventually sorted out, our scheduled train being 14 minutes late (which is almost unheard of in Switzerland) and we sat on the rear facing seats listening to a young black girl talk at her friend for the entire duration of the hour plus ride without apparently taking a breath. The only pleasant surprise of the day was seeing dad at the train station without us having to call. We finally got to the house after approximately 20 hours of travel slightly worse for wear but certainly psychologically unfazed. Our balance of the day was spent unpacking, eating and settling in. At this point time meant very little and at some point I suppose we went to bed and tried to sleep.
Permalink