Week 31 Survey

Week 31 started in the middle of our 5 day vacation to Krakow.   We planned this trip in June with hopes that I would still be feeling up to getting on a plane at the beginning of Month 8. I have tried to stay fairly active for the past 7 months and I think that had I not, I would have been completely miserable since visiting European cities generally involves walking and a lot of it.  I will type a post about our week in Krakow later.  For now, I will just cover what the baby and I have been up to this week. 

How far along: 31 weeks. I print off monthly calendars 2 months at a time. I just printed August/September so I can now see the due date on the calendar!

Next appointment: Not scheduled yet, but it will be for our 2-on-1 birthing class with our midwife.  I am thinking that a group class in Danish would benefit me very little :)

Total Weight gain/loss:  I haven't stood on a scale recently but I am just going to guess that after a week of vacation, I have gained weight.

Exercise: 4 hour bike ride around Krakow and lots of walking

Stretch Marks: yes, they are faint but have finally made their appearance.  I knew I wouldn't get away without them...

Swelling: Only after our flight home.   There is something a bit disturbing about looking at my feet and not recognizing them.

Belly Button: Still hanging 'in' there

Sleep: Interrupted often by trips to the bathroom and back pain.  I was not meant to sleep on my sides.  I have to wonder if my back will ever be the same again.

Symptoms: Excessively large abdomen.  Maybe this 'question' is meant for earlier in pregnancy but I will add that my neighbor's six year old daughter asked her mom just today if I was having a baby. 

Movement: Yes.  It is almost funny how much he moves at times.  Ed thinks that it must be because something is wrong. Me, well, it just makes me happy.  I will add that he is now kicking just below my ribs so he is slowly but surely taking over my entire stomach.  Also, he was head down at our latest appointment.  Hope he stays like that!

Labor Signs:  Still having Braxton-Hicks.  The midwife said that mothers having children beyond their first generally have them more often because their uterus 'needs the exercise'.  I guess my uterus is out of shape??

What I miss: Not having back pain.  And running, oddly enough.  I ran out of the rain recently and just felt awkward.

What I'm loving:  Ed's conversations with the baby

What I'm looking forward to: My mom and dad *may* be coming sometime in August for a few days (so my dad can 'see' his grandson). It's been nearly a year now since I have seen my dad in person so that would be nice.

Best moment this week: I am a bit ashamed to even write about this but it was one of the funniest moments of our trip to Poland.   On one of the days, we hired a man who basically just drives tourists from one site to another in a minivan (rather than on a giant tour bus).    He did a bit of 'tour guiding' at Birkenau but was basically just a chauffeur.  The only other people along were an older couple from New Zealand.  When we arrived at the Salt Mine, we were running a bit behind for our tour time so our guide conveniently led us around the line of about 70 people and into the building where the tour started.  I didn't even realize we were 'cutting' until we were inside and he said "Well, if anyone asks, we'll just say that you're pregnant and couldn't stand in line outside"  He also mentioned before he left that there would probably be a really long line to come up the elevator at the end of the tour so he said to not waste time in the gift shops or restaurant and head straight for the line.  After the tour, we, along with our new kiwi friends, hurried to the line only to find 150-200 people waiting ahead of us.  We stood without moving for about 15 minutes before Ed and the other couple walked further up to see what the hold up seemed to be....Long story short, the lady ended up finding our salt mine tour guide (not our chauffeur but the lady who worked for the Salt Mine)  and told her I was pregnant.   I was not there for this conversation so don't know exactly what was said but whatever it was brought our tour guide around to take us to the front of the line. There, she handed us off to another tour guide who personally walked us through more tunnels to another queue of 40 people waiting for the elevator.  Here, I thought we'd just be dropped off at the end of the shorter line but no, he walked us past all those people and left us at the front of the line with a few words of Polish to the girl who was loading people into the elevator.  One girl even offered me her spot on the very next elevator up but I assured her that I could wait for 4 more minutes and with that, I hung my head in shame, held my stomach, and  took a seat that someone had offered me along the wall.  I cannot tell you how embarrassed I was about the whole fiasco! I hate being the center of people's concern--I actually felt like I could cry about the whole thing but figured that'd just look really dramatic so I managed to hold back the tears.  The stress of the whole situation even brought on a few BH contractions that didn't really go away until I had reached the safety of the van :)  

Weekly Wisdom:  If you are going to be traveling by plane in the 3rd trimester, check your airline's policy on pregnant women before you go.  To fly on Ryanair past week 28 requires a "fitness to fly" form that has to be filled out by your doctor or midwife.  While I was never asked to show this form, I did have peace of mind knowing that if they did ask, I would have it. 

Luke's pictures at his 'Fit to Fly' check up.  He doesn't look the same in any of the pictures. I had to include the umbilical cord around the arm because it's a bit scary looking to me, though is nice of his hand  :)

Sometimes it takes a picture to see just how big one really is...or maybe it was the shirt :)

So we can tell Luke that he was along for the tour of Krakow as well. 

A Second Look at Hamburg

At the end of November, I went to Hamburg with some new friends that I have made in Denmark.  I wrote a post about it, but really, I felt like I didn't have anything to say because I had spent most of my weekend there in various shopping locations--indoor and out.  Not that there was anything wrong with that trip, but I came home feeling like I had been to a city, but hadn't seen what the city was 'really like' (I know that's impossible to do in a weekend--I lived in DC for 6 months and was only beginning to see what it was really like) .  Around Easter weekend, Ed had a few days off of work and the dog kennel thankfully had an opening so we decided to go back to Hamburg for a couple nights.   

Before moving to Denmark, I doubt I had ever thought to myself "I would love to visit Hamburg"  While it is the 2nd largest city in Germany, it doesn't have the any big tourist attraction that an American would want to see--i.e. it's not a Paris, London or Amsterdam (maybe this is different for someone who has grown up in Europe and I am sorry if you are an American that has Hamburg at the top of your 'must see before I die' list! ). Anyway,  Ed is a huge fan of TripAdvisor so he spend several hours searching for the best hotel and what we could do in the city while we were there since it is not the season of Christmas Markets and Glühwein.  The number one thing to do in Hamburg according to TA is a museum called Mini Wonderland (watch the video if you have time! it's awesome!)  Well, we couldn't deny the fact that it was the top tourist attraction so we booked our time slot and set out Friday morning to see this giant Mini world.  Once arriving, I could totally see why this thing got such amazing reviews.  Unfortunately it was Easter weekend so it was packed! 

The lights would go down every 15 minutes or so and then it would 'be night' in the whole area.  Of course Las Vegas was in the America section

 It was fun to look at all the tiny little people and what they were doing. Some were doing perfectly normal things, while others, not so much!  Men cutting down trees that fall onto a house, a parking lot gate closing on the hood of a car....I think one could spend hours here if there were not the crowds of people!  When and if we go back, we will probably pick a middle of the week day in hopes of there being a few less people to contend with for rail space to peek at the sights.

 Our favorite part was the airport.  All the planes in this picture will eventually taxi to the runway and take off.  Others will land and take an empty gate.  I took a video of it but it really didn't turn out well so I will just let you watch the video on the Mini Wonderland website to see the planes in action.

 Mini Wonderland is near the water and several of Ed's colleagues recommended taking a boat tour through the loading docks of the port to see all the giant cargo ships up close.  We found only 1 tour company that offered the tour in English and we were there just in time so we set sail to see Europe's 2nd largest shipping port after Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  While taking pictures, it seemed like the pictures could convey the massiveness of each of the cargo ships but upon returning home and looking through the pictures, I realized that pictures did not do the size of the ships any justice!

View of the port from near the boardwalk

Mærsk, the Danish shipping company

I think this is a Chinese company.  The tour guide said it would take a boat of this size 21 days to sail from the North Sea to Hong Kong

 While we were going by, containers were being loaded and unloaded from the ships.  Our household goods sailed across the Atlantic on a ship like this.  After seeing all the hundreds...thousands of containers, we were kind of amazed that we ever saw our couch and dining table again.  It's amazing that they can keep track of all these moving boxes.

A South Korean company

Neat view through the lane of ships

I had to add this last picture because the boat we were sailing on was about the size of the small boat in this picture. Not a big size difference or anything :)

Our last big stop of the day was to climb the tower of St. Machaelis Church.  I think walking up to the top of tall structures with narrow stairs and stone walls is quickly becoming my favorite thing to do in Europe.  I'm trying to convince Ed that it is a good idea to visit Florence when I'm 7 or 8 months pregnant and walk/climb to the top of the Duomo. He doesn't seem convinced though....

 This only took us about 12 minutes though--wasn't too bad.  I've been using the elliptical or 'cross-trainer' as the Danes call it everyday for about 30 minutes but even that can't prevent huffing and puffing after 12 straight minutes of stair stepping.  The views from the top gave a neat perspective of the cities layout though so the climb was worth it. 

Port, St. Pauli and the infamous Reeperbahn in this direction (I don't think I actually wrote about the event that made the Reeperbahn infamous in my mind but it was interesting to say the least! )

The city center to the left side of the picture (Rathaus is the tower with green roof)

Warehouse district (with Mini wonderland) in the brick buildings in the background

And a few more pictures that both Ed and I took earlier in the morning.

Rathaus in the spring. Last time I was here, Santa Claus was flying over the square in his sleigh being followed by a strange plastic cloud with a seat for an angel who was along for the ride (I didn't get it either-I'll just include a blurry picture to show you)

??

Okay, now for a few pictures from Ed's camera (after my Santa Claus rabbit trail) and then I will close this picture-filled look at Hamburg!

Lake near our hotel- The George.  Great hotel, by the way. Nice rooms, fast check-in, underground parking garage.

Spring Daffodils in the morning

Kuchen, breakfast of champions- and coffee--real coffee for me :)  Obviously not all the time but I was on vacation!

Notice the banks of this waterway--it rises and falls with the tide despite being around 100 km from the North Sea

Mini Wonderland

Plane taking off--ignore the phone in hand.  They couldn't be avoided

Looking down the boardwalk (i guess the boardwalk isn't in the picture but this is where the water meets the land

Ed's favorite thing. He took a video but it's not on Facebook so I guess I can't share it here

I will never forget sunglasses again.  I'm like a mole in the sun after living in Denmark for a winter (notice the bell--what Ed has taken to calling my stomach.  I'm worried about the names if this size is considered a 'bell'!)

St. Michaelis from afar

 

At the entrance of St. Michaelis

Alpbach: Austria's most beautiful village

Over winter break, Ed and I returned to Austria for another few days of skiing.  After our last trip to Kitzbuhel, we decided that we should get them most out of our new skis and boots by heading back to Austria one more time this winter.  I don't recall why we picked Alpbach but we figured that a place voted 'most beautiful village in Austria' in 1983 had to be alright.  It is at a lower elevation so I think we both were a little bit worried that we would arrive to find no snow....we couldn't have been more wrong!  There was more than enough snow and we had a memorable week!

We arrived on Monday around noon after spending the night somewhere in Germany.   We checked into our hotel and decided to relax the rest of the day.  At first, everything about our room and hotel was great. 

Not a bad view right?

 The room was large, clean and had a nice view.  It did seem a little cold though.  Ed discussed this with the front desk and they explained that the temperature went down during the day when everyone was out.  Fine. I understand that. They brought us a small space heater to warm the room up for us since we were staying in the room for awhile.  So after cranking up the space heater and turning the radiators to high, we kicked backed to relax and surf the internet for a bit...but there was no internet service to be found.  Ed made a return trip to the front desk to inquire about the lack of service, to which they replied "We've never had a problem with your room before but we are having an internet specialist come tomorrow so if you need the internet tonight, you may use the 2 hour internet voucher (that we paid for at check in) here at the lobby computer"  To skip to the end of the story, we ended up checking out of our hotel in the morning because of that pesky heating issue.  They turned the radiators off (yes, completely off--they came back on at 7a.m.) at night as well so by midnight, the room was so cold that even the thin cotton duvet didn't offer much comfort. In the night, while we were huddling under our duvets in attempt to stay warm, Ed found a nearby guest house with a 2 person room available.  The cost for the remaining nights was a third of what we were paying at our first place and our room was about 100 times better.  It was cozy, warm, had fluffy down duvets and a great view of the valley.

After checking into room number 2, we went skiing.  Alpbach has a great little ski resort. I think that if I didn't know how to ski, this would be where I would want to learn--which is probably why there were hundreds of ski school attendees on the mountain while we were there. Our first day of skiing was nice, uneventful, pleasant even....Enter: day 2.   I guess that it began snowing at night.  When we woke up, our car looked like this

and it was still snowing.  We have winter tires but did not have chains so we ended up walking to the ski bus and leaving our car in the safety of the parking lot.  Day two of skiing was a bit different than day one.  It was really windy and nearly white-out conditions.  After lunch, we left the restaurant to find no one on the slopes (which was very strange-feeling to me) It was snowing and blowing even more than before lunch so we decided that we should just ski to the bottom of the hill and call it a day.  We found a run that we both thought we had skied before lunch and headed down---I would never make this up--the entire run was untouched powder to our knees. As it was even more white than before, I was nervous that I would lose Ed in the storm.  Every time I would fall in the powder I would try to keep my head up so I wouldn't lose sight of him.  I will add that falling in powder is definitely more fun than a normal fall on skis :)

The next morning, we planned to drive to Innsbruck and walk around for the day but upon attempting to drive down into the valley, (and sliding on very slushy, and icy roads with no snow chains) we turned around and thankfully made it back our guesthouse parking lot without being involved in any accidents.

The most snow the mouse car has ever seen-we never did find out how much snow fell but apparently it was a lot even for Alpbach

 It was still snowing so we opted to go tobogganing instead of skiing.  We walked uphill for over an hour to reach the start of the run.  The trail hadn't been plowed yet, so we were walking in several inches of snow and following a set of footprints from earlier in the day.  I have been warm while skiing but I have never been so warm that I wanted to take off my jacket.  I guess walking uphill is an entirely different animal because I would have been happy in a tshirt!

I can imagine that in the summer, Alpbach would be a beautiful village

Ed did make it into a tshirt

We finally made it to the lodge at the top of the hill where we had lunch and visited this friendly fox.  When preparing to leave, we discovered that they only accepted cash as payment for meals.  Ed pulled out his wallet to find the cash clip..empty.  Fortunately, I had left my little cash purse with 20euro in it in my jacket pocket so after scraping all of our coins together, we had enough to pay for lunch and our toboggan rental. 

We collected our toboggan and set off down the hill.

Ed, the one with a cat allergy, stopping to make a friend...

 We had no prior tobogganing experience before our trip down

The snow had finally stopped, but the low-hanging clouds stayed

And look, a video!  Taken by yours truly as I screamed...possibly cried down the mountain.

 

 

The tobogganing turned out alright so we continued to sled for awhile after we made it back to the main road. It was my first time to use one of these disk sleds--they are fast on a steep hill!

We left the next day.  The roads had been cleared so we had no problems. I would like to just add one more thing to this post...if you ever visit Alpbach, I would highly recommend that you stay at Gästehaus Larch.  It is owned and operated by a family.  Most rooms include a kitchen (ours did not) so it would be a perfect place for a family to stay.  They serve breakfast only.  Other restaurants (and the ski bus) can be reached by an eight minute walk. 

Merry belated Christmas!

Before we even arrived in Denmark, Ed and I planned our first Christmas together away from the States. I don't recall exactly how the location was picked, but we booked our hotel in Kitzbühel Austria in August or September.  It was a great week spent with friends in a 'cute' town and cozy hotel. 

We left on the 21st, spent the night in Würtzburg Germany and arrived in Kitzbühel on the 22nd. 

Würtzburg Christmas Market

We stopped at InterSport to pick out my Christmas present and while waiting for skis to be finished, I made a quick visit to a bakery (which surprises no one :) and then

  arrived at our hotel just in time since it was snowing 'cats and dogs'.

'our' fireplace

Snowy Mouse Car

On the evening of the 22nd, we met up with some friends of ours for dinner

From the 23rd through the 25th, we spent the days skiing & exploring the town with friends

New skis--and a great nerdy look to go with em.

Downtown Kitzbühel

I love the colored buildings..

Austrians know how to decorate for Christmas

Snowy Kitzbühel--for the first 2 days, the clouds never left the valley despite being somewhat clear in the mountains

Finally, the sun came out at the top of the mountain!

Jeremiah's "texas briefcase"

Snowy Chapel in the Mountains

Lift ticket

Christmas Morning--clouds finally left!