Week 30: Going, Going, Gone!
Week 30. Man you were a doozy! *Warning, this is a long post…Sitting here now trying to recap I’m realizing two things – one, so much has happened it’s hard to remember all the details, and two, the day I count as a week passed will now be different since Turkey is 7 hours ahead of NC.
The Last Week
It was crunch week at home, time to get in any and all last minute dinners, breakfasts and time with family and friends. It just so luckily worked out that Dad’s transition between jobs allowed him to skip a week of traveling so I actually got to see him every day, which was awesome. Monday night we had a Daddy/daughters dinner at Hannah’s house, a perfect combination of sister’s cooking and some garden goodies from Granny. Tuesday, Hannah and Jeffry came to mom and dad’s and we dined on the porch enjoying the amazing weather. Wednesday mom had her weekly knitting group over, so we opted for a Daddy/daughters date #2 and tried out a new (to us) restaurant in West Asheville called The Barleycorn. It was just incredible. Not a single one of our dishes were bad, in fact they were all amazing! Then we stopped at The Hop one more time for a scoop of ice cream (hard scoop in a waffle cone of course for those of you who know me haha!). Thursday I attended my last crossfit class in Asheville, spent the afternoon hanging out with Liz, then went over to my best friend Lu’s parents’ house to visit before the big wedding festivities (Lu’s sister was getting married that Saturday). Friday I worked on getting my bags packed and ready to go and waited on sister to get off work so we could spend the afternoon with our cousin Nedge downtown. All I wanted for some reason was a blended fruity drink, even though it obviously had to be virgin. Turns out it’s quite difficult to find one of those in downtown Asheville. I have to give kudos to the sweet waiter and Local Taco that so kindly improvised and came up with a fruity concoction shaken up with crushed ice that sufficed this preggo craving. That night Jill and Missy drove in one more time from Charlotte, and everyone met at my parent’s house to grill out. Will had also driven in after his classes finished up that morning and got to enjoy dinner with his parents and sister.
Leaving NC
Then Saturday finally arrived. We picked up our rental car first thing that morning then met everyone at the Cracker Barrel for one last breakfast together. I want to say thank you again to our awesome family and friends. Dragging yourself out of bed and giving up your Saturday free time to see us off meant the world. I still can’t believe everyone who made it. It was perfect. And emotional. I kept trying to tell everyone (and myself) to just think of it as a long vacation, because in the moment it felt like we were leaving and never returning. I don’t think there was a dry eye around (including Will’s).
On The Road Again
Loaded up in our sweet rental car we hit the road for Staunton, Virginia. The drive was pretty easy, and we found ourselves in the darling little Virginia town in no time. We walked around town, enjoyed a great dinner at a restaurant called Zynodoa, and as if you had to ask…had ice cream (well gelato) at the Split Banana before getting to bed early.
The next morning we had a quick breakfast then got on the road to New York. Although the total drive was only about an hour longer, it seemed to drag on forever. Navigating the New Jersey Turnpike was nothing less than stressful, and as soon as we got off it and into the regular traffic entering the city, a swarm of bikers (and maybe some four wheelers??) surrounded us and all but stopped traffic as the weaved in and out of the lanes between cars. Two police cruisers were following them and we never did determine whether they were running from the police or if the police were just trying to get them off the road to avoid a huge accident and pileup. We were pretty happy to finally make it to our hotel, and happy that it was practically right beside the airport, but not so happy to find that it was not located near any restaurants or things to do, or even a decent sidewalk to let the dogs stretch their legs properly before the mammoth flight they faced the next day. We ended up eating dinner that night and breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant (dang those overpriced eateries!), and Will took Jim on a run around the small block that seemed safe near the hotel.
Taking to the Sky
Monday was the big day. Our flight didn’t leave until 6:50 that evening so we had the day to relax and make sure we were prepared. Unfortunately it also meant a lot of laying around for the dogs which was the last thing they needed since they would be facing 16+ hours in their crates for the flights. The hotel allowed us to stay there until 3:00, which was very helpful, but still left us having to go to the airport 2.5 hours early for our flight.
It ended up being a good thing. We flew out of JFK, and as you can imagine trying to check four huge bags, a handful of carry-on bags, and two dogs (including a massive crate) into one of the biggest airports in the country was not easy. A problem we faced (continually during our trip) was trying to figure out how to get all of our stuff from the sidewalk inside (or from inside the building to the outside sidewalk). We only had two of us, and we couldn’t leave our baggage or the dogs alone, AND we couldn’t find a vessel big enough to move the crate and all of our luggage at one time. We ended up dragging the crate a lot (or Will wrestled the whole thing by himself while someone else helped with the bags), and taking small legs at a time so everything remained in eyesight while we inched our way inside.
The good Lord blessed us with a short check in line, and we began what ended up being an hour long process to get checked in for our flight. The people working the desk were more interested in petting Jim than actually getting him ready for the flight. A lot of running around, about a whole roll of clear tape, and a seat reassignment later we were finally saying goodbye to Jim and waiting in the mile long security line. *By the way, I am going to write a whole separate post about what all it took to get the dogs to Turkey so stay tuned if you are interested.
We flew commercial with Turkish Airlines the whole way. We are so very impressed with their service and flights, but instead of making this post even longer, I”m going to write a separate post about our actual flight and first experiences in Turkey.
Pregnancy “Fun”
Since these are weekly pregnancy posts, even though lately they’ve become more of a weekly recap of the craziness that is our lives, I thought I should update you on what’s going on with me and baby. Here we are at seven months and it seems the “fun” is just beginning. This past week I started dealing with swelling in my hands and feet. Nothing too bad, but anytime I get overheated, or spend too long on my feet, or just sit too long without my feet propped up I end up with Ms. Piggy feet. One of my everyday rings that has always been a little snug had to go into temporary retirement. This made the flight pretty tough. I hardly slept because I couldn’t go very long without my feet being propped up (thank GOD we lucked into having an extra seat between us). I wore compression sleeves on my calves and didn’t have an swelling there (although I haven’t had swelling there anyway at this point), but my feet stayed in bad shape.
My skin is also not looking too fantastic these days. I have a small dark patch on my right cheek that I’ve decided must be a partial mask, but thankfully not a full mask of pregnancy (unfamiliar? click here). Another unpleasant symptom has been broken capillaries (it’s seeming like I’m getting all the weird symptoms and none of the regular ones). It’s been very frustrating. My skin stayed broken out when we lived in South Dakota because the dry weather caused my skin to overproduce oil. It finally cleared up when we got back to NC, just in time for these lovely red blotchy spots to show up. I’ve got 5 or 6 bright red spots on my face, that unfortunately look like the remnants of zits until you look up close. I’ve also developed a large collection of these spots on my chest and on my shoulders and upper arms. Supposedly we have capillaries covering our bodies that are normally invisible, but during pregnancy they can become visible or “break” due to the increased blood volume in your body. I’m just praying they will fade after I give birth (most things I’ve read said they should), otherwise I will be looking to laser treatment to take them away.
And lastly, baby is very much making itself known by way of kicking my ribs and taking up enough room that my lungs are having to fight for space. I have a short torso so the poor thing only has a limited area in which to squirm around in, this means I’ve sort of always got to sit a little leaned back to give it some space if I don’t want to cut my air supply short. For the most part it seems to stay on the right side, and I’m happy to say now that Dad is back around, he has been able to feel and see some good movements. Stomach sleeping is definitely not an option anymore, and really neither is back, which doctors obviously say to avoid anyway. Sleep is getting harder mainly due to stiff joints and muscles from laying in positions I’m not normally used to, but in general I feel wrong in complaining because I do still feel really good overall. We’ve only got about two months left, and I’m thankful to have made it this far without too much suffering.