EuroTrip 2016 - Annecy, France

Now, what you've all been waiting for! Well, mainly what my mom has been asking for, and since I know she speaks for all 3 of you reading this, you can thank her directly. ;)

I've always wanted to visit the Cote d'Azure of France and we figured with Matt's European vacation schedule and me still on maternity leave, now would be the perfect time! Oh wait, we now have 2 kids... We're either completely insane or adventurous (??) for taking a 3 month old & 2 year old on a two week road trip.

We planned out the complete trip, our destinations, our stays, our activities, we were set to go. Then I was nursing little lady in the middle of the night 5 days before we were supposed to leave and saw a post "Pray for Nice" which unfortunately, in today's terms, is not a good omen. I think we all know what happened and I can't even begin to put into words how horrible we felt for the people who lost their lives and the families affected. It's beyond tragic and heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, this also left us with a decision to make. Do we continue with our original plans? Adjust? Cancel? While there were certainly the concerns of safety, for Matt & I it was more a question of respect. We didn't want to go to a city with a carefree vacation attitude so quickly after an attack and disrespect a mourning period for the city. Matt has quite a few co-workers with friends or family in Nice and we asked their opinions, who all unanimously said we should continue our plans. Our first stop wasn't Nice, so we decided we would continue to leave on Sunday and check in again 2 days before our Nice plans and change if need be.

We were headed to our first stop at Lake Annecy. Let's be clear, this was only the 2nd time all 4 of us had been a car together, and only the 3rd time little Lady had been in a car ever. I think Matt & I held our breaths for the entire 3 hours we were in the car. She did amazing! So did big man, but that wasn't a surprise because he LOVES cars.

We arrived at our AirBnb in a town a little bit outside of Annecy. We booked AirBnb / apartment stays throughout because of the room and the ability to close the door with the varying bedtimes we have in place. Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a miss. It was plenty of space, but a little icky. We spent lots of time outside the apartment, which meant lots of time down at the lake! (There was a huge bucket of legos so EZ thought the apartment was amazing)

We didn't know much about Annecy other than it was en route to Nice from Basel, but what a pleasant surprise and great, low key location to begin to get in vacay mood. Beautiful days. Sunny lakside relaxation. We didn't plan anything, even though Annecy is supposedly a outdoor sports mecca area, but our goal was just to unwind. See handful of 1 billion lake pics below.

Napping beachside

Lake panorama

Adorable Annecy town

Our best little helper

Mommy's 1st (but not last) Rose of the trip

love. this. kid.

New day. New beach.

This 2 kids thing is easy peasy. (This is also the same time that I read 5 pages of the 3 books I brought. It is also the only time I read any pages of the 3 books I brought)

Baby Birth in Basel - Postpartum Care

Ok, if you read the post about my personal Labor & Delivery experience in Basel. This is pretty much the complete opposite. The Postpartum care here, is AMAZING.

From the spacious maternity ward to the weeks out home visit, the support was unbelievable. When they wheeled us on up to our maternity room I was shocked at how enormous it was. Not to mention Matt had his own bed! Quite a step above from the semi couch he slept on in NJ. (The hospital facilities in NJ were quite nice however these were unreal.) We had a balcony overlooking a lovely private park & gardens. Our room had our beds connected together, a sitting area and a dining area. Way bigger than most hotel rooms I've stayed in. 

Plus, the food. Oh the food! I thoroughly enjoyed having all my meals catered from a full menu of about 12 different options including glorious salads and 3 course steak dinners, all accompanied by a choice dessert. The extra special surprise was the coffee/latte/cappuccino plus dessert cart that came around in the afternoon. 

Ok I digress, beyond the food..., the best part was the care. I was a little worried at first about the level of English and ability to communicate everything but everyone was wonderful. One thing in the US that made recovery difficult was the seemingly constant checking of stats, blood pressure, my temp, baby temp, baby tests, etc. They came in all hours of the night so even if we were trying to rest you were woken up for tests. I didn't rest. But here it was much more casual (could be also because it was my 2nd baby?) but if we were resting they just peeked in and would come back later. They never woke us up. Additionally, for our little man in NJ they had us wake him up every 3-4 hours to feed him. Here she slept slept slept and I fed her when she was awake. I felt that they treated us here more like humans and people and less like a checklist / statistics. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of both but from a patient perspective (who is already exhausted) I much preferred the Swiss approach. 

My favorite part of the hospital stay was when they asked me "when do you want to check out?" Me: "what do you mean?... I have a choice?" Midwife: "of course, if you feel you need to stay longer you are welcome to take as long as you need to feel recovered". WHAT?!?!

Here's just a list of some additional postpartum perks:

- a midwife comes to your home the day after you get home just to check in on you & baby 

- that midwife also comes to your home for up to 10 visits during the first 6 weeks, all covered by insurance

- our first pediatrician checkup was also at our home. (Not including her coming to the hospital). So nice not to have to A) take our precious newborn into a Dr's office with sick kids (although our own daycare loving toddler isn't exactly sanitized) and B) get dressed & out the door for a specific appt time

- there's a public mommy care center in downtown that's open every day for you to pop in any time if you need / want advice or someone to talk to. This actually applies to parents of kids at any age but we just didn't know about it until Lia.  They also called us the first 2 weeks to check in & make sure all is going well. 

- if you breastfeed for 10weeks, the government reimburses you 200CHF

...I feel like there's more I'm forgetting, but being so far from family (and super super super grateful for both parent sets coming to visit us!) it's nice to know there is a network of help just a phone call away.

Then it's all about cuddles & snuggles with my Miss & Mister. 

feeling good after some solid chunks of sleep

playing in the hospital park

they've been using these same beds for 50+ years (I assume the bedding was newer?)

you can sort of see the size of the room here (probably 1/3 of the room. this is our king bed as to the left), plus additional dining area)

Thx MaZ for loving on this guy!

and this lady!

and to KarKar & Pop Pop for also being a part of our "village"

Baby Birth in Basel - Labor & Delivery

Well, we are officially a family of 4! Since little Celia joined us in April, many people have asked if giving birth in Switzerland was different than the US. Granted, I only have n = 2, but happy to share my experience. First, I need to split it into 2 chapters: Labor & Delivery vs. Postpartum Care.

This post will be about actually giving birth in Basel. I don't plan on going into intimate detail but I will mention some specifics. Reader beware. 

I'll start by saying, I knew what I wanted and I knew it wasn't the path necessarily encouraged by the health system here. I wanted an epidural. Plain & simple. No problem in the good ole US of A. I'd had an epidural with Big E and it was wonderful. I could feel everything but not excruciatingly painful and I remember happy moments throughout the process and being very much in the know of the situation. However, here in Basel the midwives are strong advocates for medication-free birth. I knew this going into the process, so it was the first question I asked my OBGYN, I got advice from other moms and I selected our hospital based on the stories that they were "more likely" to comply. 

... I think you can see where this is going...

With little lady's due date coming and going, we were scheduled for our 2nd post date check in at the hospital to determine if I should be induced. We arrived at the hospital and I let the team know that I'd been having contractions all day (finally!) and they were currently about 10-15min apart. They suggested we head home and "try to relax and not think about it" (?!?!?!????!??). Matt & I thought that was a horrific idea so instead we decided to grab something to eat nearby (which turned out to be the restaurant at the football/soccer stadium even though there wasn't a game going on. Yeah. It was weird). My contractions became progressively stronger & closer together but still not "5minutes apart" as per the suggestion on when to return. We decided to head back to the hospital anyway in fear of them saying "you're too late for an epidural". 

We arrived back at the hospital and they checked us in. Our assigned midwife was super sweet but she just kept saying things like "are you sure you want an epidural?" "I can tell you're strong enough to do it without" "I don't want to give you one too early" "would you like to get in the bath?" Me: "no I don't want to get in a bath tub. Not now. Not ever."

Anyways, this went on for about 1.5 hours at which point Matt kept telling her he thought I needed an epidural. (Which I did!) but finally she said "I think she'll tell us if she's ready for that" that's when I realized as much as Matt was being my advocate, like a fabulous husband, she needed me to say it yet again. So in excruciating pain I screamed "he's right!!!! I want the epidural NOW!!" ... And I was politely informed that they were going on a shift change so a new midwife would be in shortly to check on me and decide. 

Within those 15min, my contractions went from 7 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart and when the poor, sweet, new midwife arrived I was absolutely screaming. She checked me and said "I think it's too late. Your baby is coming." To which I responded (in what I'm sure was the most polite way possible) "No, no, no, no .... I will hold this baby in until you give me what I want!!" (Along with a few other choice phrases, screams and tears) So she said "do you want me give you something to slow down labor so you can get the epidural?" Me: "yes!!!!" 

By this point it was 10:45pm. She immediately gave me something to "slow down labor." The anesthesiologist arrived at 11:10, I received the epidural at 11:35, I had our little girl at 12:03am and the epidural started working around 12:10. I did not enjoy the process and there was definitely more screaming. Not exactly how I envisioned welcoming our little lady into the world. After delivery, the midwife commented, "Wow, that medicine & epidural didn't slow down your labor at all." ... no, kidding.

A couple other differences... My OBGYN arrived to the hospital about 15min(?) before I delivered. The midwife actually delivered our baby while our dr was more of a consultant. There were no stirrups or anything. Just lying on a regular hospital bed (in green pic below) and when I was having trouble getting situated I ended up with one leg on the midwives lap and the dr holding my other leg on his hip. 

Also, once little lady was born, there was not a team of nurses streaming in the room as there was in the US, but rather just the midwife who checked out our lady to make sure all was good and then left the 3 of us: Matt, Celia & myself, alone for a little while. Not sure if this would be the same as the public hospital, but our private hospital is specifically for low risk births. There is not a neonatal unit onsite (but there is always one pediatrician) so if there are any baby complications we would've been rushed over to the kid's hospital (about a 10min drive)

All in all, obviously completely worth it since we now have our beautiful little lady with us. However, this was just not the (probably romanticized) evening of memories I had in mind. I think every mommy should get to choose how they bring their baby into the world (assuming safely) and I just didn't like that my choices weren't being respected.

Anywho, all over now, but I get the pleasure of reliving it with these beautiful snapshots Matt took during the evening.

Having contractions holding on to the railing outside the closed FC Basel soccer stadium where we had dinner. Weird.

The incredibly green birthing rooms. Supposedly, relaxing???

Finally!! Yay!!! All worth it!