My dearest Coral treated me to a delightful afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel. Delicious treats and the best of company savored slowly. Missing from the photos is the beautiful view- the palace, sea, islands of Stockholm. And the sandwiches we had already eaten. Such a lovely afternoon! Thank you, Coral!
While we had borrowed a car for shopping and gathering baby things, we took the opportunity to visit our favorite summer café by the sea, Koloni. We usually ride our bikes there, but that wasn’t happening this year. We ate our favorite dessert there, pecan pie, and sat and enjoyed the light summer breeze. Such a lovely sunny afternoon, with my favorite person. With my favorite people.
Today we went shopping for crib, bedding, changing table, etc, etc. It felt so strange shopping in the children’s section of IKEA, so exciting bringing all these things home!
Yesterday’s day of rest included a trip to Ben & Jerry’s. I had a Belgian waffle with vanilla caramel fudge ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel sauce for dinner, followed by a scoop of mint chocolate chunk for dessert.
Although being fond of a few flavors, I’ve never been crazy about ice cream, or sweet things in general. Nowadays I have a horrible sweet tooth and in particular an ice cream fetish. Mint chocolate chip has been my favorite flavor as long as I can remember and is nearly impossible to find in Sweden. A special treat!
This summer is marked by an addiction to the much more accessible B&J’s caramel chew chew, which I suspect a non-pregnant me would think too sweet. I crave it constantly and would gladly eat it for every meal every day, but I am adhering to a strict limit of one (or two) scoops every other day. For the most part anyway.
P.S. In an attempt to be an honest blogger, I will admit I’ve even eaten caramel chew chew for breakfast upon occasion. As I scoop, I try very hard to imagine my midwife saying better ice cream than nothing.
P.P.S. Eating ice cream for breakfast may be grounds for deportation from Sweden. I don’t think they can deport me now that I’m a citizen, but maybe I should check before I go confessing such things for the whole world to read…
We’ve declared today a day of rest and plan on doing whatever relaxing and/or fun things we want to do. We have worked hard this week. We’ve moved furniture, cleaned out closets and shelves and drawers, and made tough choices of what to keep, what to throw out, and what to give away.
Next week we have sorting and organizing to do, another heavy load of stuff for Jonathan to drag on the subway to second hand, and a few things we hope to sell on Blocket. And what life-changing event doesn’t warrant an epic shopping spree at IKEA?
I’m hoping we’ll be able to get everything done soon so we can spend the rest of Jonathan’s vacation visiting our favorite archipelago cafe, doing a little unnecessary baby shopping, and eating ice cream along Stockholm’s beautiful shores. (He’s hoping to get everything done soon so he can go fishing.)
We had a visit with the midwife on Friday. She said it was normal for discharge to change in amount and consistency, but to go back in to l&d if I was worried. She assured me that I am not starving my baby with my reduced appetite, and confirmed that yes, babies can hiccup that fast. We received a homework assignment; we are to read and watch a video about breastfeeding which we will discuss at our next visit in two weeks. Just two more visits!
It seems whenever more than several days pass by without anything to be paranoid about, something has to go weird. After feeling like I was leaking several times yesterday, last night I called the labor and delivery unit. They told me to come in for a check- with my bag. My bag?! I threw a pair of underwear, a toothbrush, a tank top and sweat pants into a cloth shopping bag, and we hopped on the next train.
The first thing the midwife did was press and squeeze to try (unsuccessfully) to determine how the baby was positioned. Then she put monitors on my belly for a curve of baby’s heart rate and my uterine activity. But after all the pressing and squeezing, Barcelona was, of course, very awake and not at all inclined to lie still, and the midwife had to hold and move the fetal heart rate monitor around the entire 20 minutes or so.
The doctor did a quick swipe and test with a little machine. She said I didn’t seem to be leaking amniotic fluid at that moment, but she couldn’t know if I had been. Not exactly the reassuring answer I was hoping for. She said it was likely watery discharge, but to keep watching and come in again if I’m concerned. And so I left, a little less concerned than when I went in, and wondering what level of concern should warrant another visit…
P.S. Is it already time to have a bag packed? I suppose then I should look into what should be in such a bag…
There is one good thing about nearly all of our friends being finished having babies by the time we are pregnant, hand-me-downs. We have been grateful recipients of lots of baby things from several kind families.
After we finished cleaning out the closet in the office/nursery, we sorted the clothes into sizes and put them in the closet. It was fun watching all those little clothes make their way into a closet in our home, imagining a little one here wearing them in the not-quite-so-distant-anymore future.
