Hi D Ho! Double week pregnancy update this week, we have been in New York for nearly  the last two weeks so between traveling and pregnancy/toddler jet lag I didn’t get a chance to write last weeks update.

So baby is now the size of a corn on the cob and bump has got huge!!!!!! Baby is kicking all the time and some of the kicks are so strong that they make me jump – its like someone coming up behind you and giving you a right wallop in the arm (except in your tummy, and from the inside – sneaky little thing 🙂 ).

On the weight gain front I am now up 7Lbs and most importantly this is a  whole stone (14Lbs) less at 24 weeks than I had gained at this point on my first pregnancy (although you wouldn’t really see the extra stone in the bump 1 photo above 😦 ). Hopefully I’m well on track to only gain 15 – 20 Lbs as opposed to 45 Lbs last time.

It also turns our that all my hard work at bootcamp hasn’t gone unnoticed either – believe it or not I won member of the month at Ronan Bilbow Fitness for November. Gobsmacked doesn’t begin to describe my reaction when I found out – who would have ever thought that I’d be member of the month at a gym at the best of times never mind at 5 months pregnant!

So on to the good stuff – traveling to New York pregnant with a toddler, my dear husband and his mad friend PJ wasn’t too bad at all. We flew out from Shannon and got through the airport really quick and hassle free. Little man stayed awake for most of the flight but was pretty good humoured throughout. He even adjusted to New York time (5 hours behind) pretty easily and settled in his travel cot without any complaint – something he’s never done any time we’ve gone away for a night before.

 

So heres the big highlights of our trip (I’ll do a separate post in more detail on some of these later):

1. Spending time with our wonderful friends Triona, Cormac and their beautiful daughter Emer!

While on out trip we stayed at their lovely new home, it great getting to spend time with them and to get to know the wonderful Emer a little bit more. Ethan had a great time and even made friends with Gibbs the dog!

2. Santa at Macys

The big highlight of our trip had to be going to see Santa in Macys. The famous movie Miracle on 34th Street is based on Macys (on 34th street) and they really go all out to create a magical Christmas village and Santa experience. Ethan was fascinated by all the Christmas trains 🙂 and no one bit scared by Santa.

3. Bryant Park Christmas Market

The Bryant Park Christmas market is really a treasure trove of beautiful little shops displaying everything from colourful christmas decorations, beautiful handmade jewellery and unique christmas gift ideas. In the centre is a large ice skating rink overseen by a huge Christmas tree. Plenty of hot food vendors are on site also making it the perfect place to wander around with a hot chocolate and some churros while doing some christmas shopping. There is also a lovely vintage carousel where little man got his first ride on a merry go round (with a little help from Daddy).

4. Shopping

You just can’t beat shopping in New York – my favourite store has to be Henri Bendel on 5th Avenue, its got the most amazing collection of jewellery, bags, candles and odds and ends – I could spend all day there (and all my money) much to dear husbands annoyance.

For that Christmasy feeling you really should check out all the windows, Macys, Bloomingdales, Saks all do an amazing display but the winner clearly is Lord and Taylor on 5th Avenue, the detail in the sets is amazing and its s full tourist attraction in itself! On the plus side, its a great shop too but compared to the crowds outside its pretty calm inside the store.

The one thing I would really recommend if traveling to New York at Christmas time with babies or toddlers is to bring a baby carrier, Manhatten was really busy every day we were there but our last Saturday there was unreal, the footpaths were so crowded that myself and dear husband were often getting separated from one another – the big shopping areas were like being in the front row of a one direction concert. A buggy would have been murder, at least with a baby carrier you know your child is safely protected close to you and you can’t be separated no matter how big the crowd. Plus is makes it so easy to get around – no waiting for packed elevators, you can easily navigate the store displays and keep your hands free for shopping. We use a toddler Tula which is an ergonomic carrier so little man doesn’t feel at all heavy to wear for the day – and he loves being up close to us and seeing everything around him!

Finally maternity clothes shopping – Macys have a nice maternity department, GAP and H&M have a couple of small sections of maternity clothes but apart from them there is very few others places for maternity clothes in Manhattan. Your best bet for this sort of shopping is to head to one of the specialist shops like Destination Maternity or Motherhood Maternity, I managed to check out this store in Jersey Gardens and got some lovely pieces at half the price of the stock in Macys.

The one scary unusual thing I would mention about maternity shopping in New  York is that the changing rooms come complete with a fake bump to try on with your clothes. Worse again was the fact that the bump was meant to represent a 7 month bump but my 5 month bump was definitely bigger!

Overall we had a great trip, along with the few highlights above we also spent time walking the length and breath of Manhattan shopping, Emmets aunt Margaret brought us shopping in some of the lesser know areas selling great bits and bobs at wholesale prices. Sinead flew in from Dublin to join us for a few days and all 5.5 of us spent a day at the Statue of Liberty and Elis Island – part of New York I had never experienced properly before.

We had some amazing food – most notably,  dinner at NoMad Restaurant on Broadway. Myself and Triona went out to NoMad for a real life grown up dinner without any babies or husbands and it was fab, definitely not the sort of place a tourist would go so it was really cool to get a little glimpse into the life of a real New Yorker!

On our last day we had Pancakes at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) – seriously you have to try IHOP if your ever in the states, its a million miles away from the fancy NoMad meal, this instead is cheap and cheerful and a major sugar overload but soo worth it!

The trip home was easy enough, luckily we were able to use bump to skip loads of queues in the airport, I even had time for a pedicure before the flight. Dear husband was so excited about skipping the queue for security in JFK (it was HUGE) that he thinks we should only travel when I’m pregnant in future – personally I think thats a bit extreme just to skip a queue and I’d like to see if he still had the same plan if he was the one with the bump 🙂

Unfortunately little man has not received the memo that we are home now and back on Irish time – he’s wide awake all night and wants to sleep all day. We’ve been trying to keep him up as much as possible and bring him outside for some sunlight and fresh air as much as we can but its still taking a long time for him to settle back to normal. If you have any tips for dealing with toddler jet lag please let me know.

Anyway thats my very long pregnancy update for weeks 23 and 24, hope you are all ready for Santa this week – Happy Christmas everyone!