On Thursday night my closest cousin (closest in everything from age, life experience and geography) came over for dinner and to tell me that she is 4 months pregnant. Which I kind of suspected as soon as I opened the door, since she was wearing oddly demure looking clothes with a wrap. Which is not her. Or me to be honest.
Anyway, so we talked pregnancy over wine (me) and water (her). I told her how I hated the feeling of being pregnant (because I did and I think more women need to be ok sharing that). Not only did I not feel like me, struggle with identity issues (i found it stressful that pregnancy shifts how everyone from your mother to your husband relates to you) - I also hated the feeling that I was never ever alone. It was creepy that this baby was always with me.
Coincidentally, right after she left, I noticed an email with the cryptic message, " Do you remember?" It was a close friend from London. She's now pregnant with her third and six years ago we'd both been pregnant with our first. The month before we were both due, we'd all spent the Easter weekend together with our husbands in Paris. It was our, "Babymoon".
According to USA today, 60% of parents now take the annoyingly named "babymoon" (which is really just a vacation before the baby comes, but of course everything to do with modern parenting now requires the clever marketing moniker).
Anyway, six years ago, it was Paris, at Easter and we stayed here (not quite as luxurious as trashy romance books or the little movie on their site had led me to believe); we ate our way through several Michelin star meals (involving foamed bits) and we walked and talked. I hadn't seen the pictures in since then, and my first thought was: my pink coat looks terrible (I find that pictures often reveal the truth to me that outfits or items that I thought looked ok or maybe even great, really just didn't).
Right after, I dropped my cousin a note to see if she was going to do the Babymoon thing her response: "How is it a vacation if M (her husband) is relaxing and drinking while I'm stuck just watching him? So no."
Like I said there's a reason she's my closest cousin. /x.r
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