3 Months and a Finished Nursery

My sweet baby boy is 3 months old today.  He just gets sweeter and cuter everyday! The best part of being a mommy is seeing that precious smile every morning. I can't believe how lucky I am.  Jacob has been overall healthy and happy since he got rid of jaundice.  He wakes up with a smile on his face and goes to sleep every night with barely even a whimper of protest. Jake smiles, talks, gurgles, oohs and ahhs and almost laughs at mommy and daddy. He still loves sitting in his nap nanny and having someone talk to him. He eats about every 3 hours and takes a nap between each feeding. He mostly nurses but is more than willing to take a bottle. I can't wait to see what the next month brings for us.

 Ohh yeah, and now that Jake is 3 months old I finally decided to finish his nursery.  I've had the letters to go over his crib and a couple other things ready for weeks but just now made the effort to put everything together.  So, here is his finished nursery.

How to Travel with a 2 month Old

I know what everyone was thinking when we announced we were going to France when Jacob was 2 months old.... "They are crazy", "He's too young", "They don't know what they are getting themselves into", etc. But as usual, Micah and I didn't really listen to what everyone else thought and decided to do it anyway.  Hey, if you never do anything that might not work out or might be hard then you just stay home and NEVER do anything.  So off we went.  Now that we are back I can say that it was no big deal and a great vacation.  However, we did learn some stuff along the way.

Location:
We picked France because it is a "first world" country and I knew if anything happened we would have access to doctors, hospitals, etc.  We also picked for our first trip a place where we would only switch hotels twice and didn't involve a lot of driving.

Bedding:
Before Jacob was born I picked out this awesome travel bed that folds up like the spring car window shields.  Holly was nice enough to give it to us as a gift and it worked amazing! It was light and small enough that during the day we could move it out of the way.  In one hotel I literally put it on top of the shelves holding the mini-fridge. I also loved that it folded so small when it was time to move. I also brought his pack-n-play sheet to put on since it was the lightest sheet we own.

Daily transportation:

Our first day in the metro system was a little rough.  We didn't really have a plan going into it and we didn't have Paris's system figured out yet.  I would say we learned from experience on this one.  The first day we only brought the stroller out with us and every time we would get to stairs or a turn-stile I would take Jacob out and carry him while Micah would deal with the stroller.  Well there are A TON of stairs in the Paris metro system so eventually my back was worn out.  It also took some time for Micah to figure out the best ways to deal with the stroller. On day 2, we brought the carrier and I carried Jacob in that while Micah continued to deal with the stroller. We basically didn't take Jake out of the carrier until we were at our destination and done with the metro for a while. This way if the metro was really crowded Micah was able to fold the stroller to fit us in without worrying about Jacob. It was a much better experience our second day.  We also learned it was nice to have both the stroller and the carrier at all times to be prepared for any situation. 

Packing:

We knew we needed to pack light in order to survive taking the train to Normandy.  Originally I had packed a rolling carry-on and Micah convinced me to change to a back pack and I'm so grateful I did.  In order to get to our train we had several metro stops and lots of walking so we needed to easily be able to carry everything.  So,  Jacob and I had one bag and our over-flow went into Micah's bag. We also had a carrying bag for the stroller. Then Micah and I both had a back-pack. The morning leaving for the station I had Jacob in the carrier, my back-pack on my back and my rolling bag while Micah had his back-pack, the stroller, and his rolling bag.  And we made it!

For packing, I was mostly concerned with having everything we needed for Jacob. I found disposable bibs in Bahrain, packed 3 burp clothes, 3 pacifiers, diapers, and wipes.  I didn't worry about the amount of diapers and wipes since I figured if we ran out on the trip we could just buy more. Since Jacob is mostly nursing I only brought 2 bottles and a small canister of formula.  I also had a small thing of dish soap and would wash the bottles and pacifiers every night. 

Feeding:

We are super lucky that Jacob has always done well with either nursing or a bottle and he is also fine with formula. So everyday I would be prepared for either type of feeding depending on what worked out. I did learn to be way more comfortable with nursing Jake in different places and a little more in public than I used to be but you gotta do what you gotta do.  Jake was nursed sitting in parks, standing in the rain under a canopy, on the trains, etc.  

Sometimes nursing just wasn't feasible so Micah and I would get out the bottle and feed him where we were.   Also, since he takes formula and bottles so easily it allowed this Mama to drink wine at night and he would get a bottle at bedtime. This kid is awesome!

Diaper Changes:

Another thing you have to get used to when traveling internationally is changing a diaper wherever it has to be done.  We changed diapers on the grass in the park, in the stroller, on bathroom counters, in our laps, in the back of the car, etc.  I had this nifty changing pad thing that was AMAZING! It worked so great for all of those situations.  I got it on Etsy from Little Bits Beautique. 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/108541683/custom-all-in-one-changing-pad-diaper

Mine is OSU fabric of course :)

Other random things:

Jake loves sleeping swaddled and I figured out that our swaddlers have a hole in the bum so that you can have them strapped into the car seat or stroller and swaddled at the same time.  This was awesome! Jacob took 95-100% of his naps during the day in a car seat, stroller, or carrier. 

I say all of this to say that it is possible to travel with a baby and to have a blast doing it!

France Part 2

"There's Paris and then there's the rest of France" - Rick Steves'.  After spending the first of our trip in Paris we headed off to see "the rest of France".  Upon picking up our car in Caen we made a stop at the WWII memorial museum. It was a fascinating museum starting with the time period a little before WWII and going all the way through the cold war.  By this time I was already a little tired of the museum scene but I still enjoyed it and did my best to soak up some information. Once we finished the museum we continued driving to Bayeaux which is a cute little town close to all the D-Day sights.

The next morning we left Bayeaux and headed to the abbey of Mont St. Michel. This abbey is on a rock island surrounded by water with some of the highest tide changes in the world.  When the tide is out you can walk around it but when the tide comes in there is only water.  We arrived when the tide was out so we decided to be adventurous and walk a little ways around the outside. Now, this area is also known for quick sand so we were careful to only walk where others had walked before us. Looking at the island itself with the small town and abbey is stunning.

Since it is basically a rock island there are a ton of steps and very cobble stoned streets so I decided to tough it out and spend the whole time there with Jake in the carrier. I just kept telling myself it was my work-out for the day.

Basically everything about Mont St. Michel is beautiful.

Micah and I decided we wanted to see Mont St. Michel at night but probably couldn't kill that much time just hanging out there so we took a quick drive to parts of Brittany.  There was a pretty look at point that we stopped at and took a brief hike and then headed back.

Although we were able to see Mont St Michel at night, we weren't able to get as close as we wanted to get a good picture without repaying.  So we parked on the road and did our best.

For our second morning in Bayeaux we did and half day D-day tour with Overlord tours. Our first stop was at a place where there were old German bunkers with the guns still in place. It is called the Batteries of Longues-sur-mer.

Then we headed on to Omaha beach. It was hard to imagine the horrors our service men experienced that day on that beach. I kept having flashes of "Saving Private Ryan" in my head.

After Omaha beach we went to the American military cemetery. It is such a humbling experience to walk through the graves of all those who died to defend freedom. Micah and I even found the graves of brothers from Oklahoma.

Our last stop was Pointe du hoc. This is where the army rangers climbed up some crazy cliffs to take over the area. This area was also heavily bombed so it had craters everywhere like the surface of the moon.  The cliffs these guys climbed were insanely steep and rough. 

When our tour was over we regrouped, ate some lunch and headed on our own to do some more D-day sights. First we headed to Utah beach and did the Utah landing museum. This museum was more to my liking with short and to the point presentation and facts that I found interesting. Micah and I decided we could tell it was done by Americans because it appealed to us more. After the museum we took a brief walk on Utah beach.

Besides Utah beach we made a couple more stops with D-day significance including the town of St. mere Eglysee, Dead Mans Corner, and the artificial harbor.

Our hotel in Bayeaux was in the center of town, quaint and had a great restaurant. We ended up eating most of our meals out on their terrace. They also had the BEST crepes which we ordered several times. I was actually surprised with how much I enjoyed French food. I don't think I had a meal I did not like and I love gallettes (savory crepes). I ate several ham, cheese, sausage, sour cream gallettes.

On our last day to actually be in France we started driving our way back to Paris with scenic stops along our route. First we stopped in the cute harbor town of Honfleur. This town was the quintessential French town with the sidewalk cafes and colorful umbrellas. We didn't have anything we wanted to actually do in the town besides see it so we walked around, took pictures, and had an excellent water front lunch.

The final stop we had on our list was in a beach town called Etretat. This area has some of the infamous white cliffs in paintings and such of France. It was also a very popular place to be so we had to fight for a parking spot but once we found one we suited up and started hiking.  The hike was actually relatively short (compared to Petra) but offered some great views of the cliffs, the town, and the beach.

This was our last touristy stop and now it was time to head to our airport hotel and prepare for the trip back to Saudi. Thanks for the wonderful memories France! Au revoir!