Nous sommes arrives deux; nous partons trois...

Well, I must admit that I wouldn't mind being in Paris if/when I next deliver a child... The American Hospital was wonderful. Although I will probably do many things differently the next time concerning feeding schedules and such (live and learn with a newborn, right?!?!), the hospital facilities and staff were all very kind, helpful, and patient with my poor French (only the doctors and a few of the nurses spoke English). For the record, it is MUCH harder to think/speak in French at 3 am when you are a sleep-deprived new mom!!!

Anyway, the first few days were awesome: lots of staring at a precious, sleeping little boy. He had his first bath, and he did NOT like being cold:

But once dressed, he was much happier (and he likes my kisses, or so I tell myself :-):
He experienced his first swaddle (something I highly recommend - he doesn't like it while I'm swaddling him, but once he calms down it keeps him from waking himself up with his flailing):

He even had some awake time that second day. Although he may not be doing calculus yet (sorry, Gabby and Megan), he does seem to be pretty alert for being less than 48 hours old:
The next day he slept almost the whole time. I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture, but he was a little jaundiced, something that makes newborns even more sleepy than usual, so we got lots of cute sleepy pictures. I'll spare you the 45 others that look almost exactly the same. :-) Thanks, Tiff, for the fabulous blanket!
This was supposed to be our last day in the hospital, but his jaundice was still borderline and he had dropped too much weight to leave, so they kept us an extra day. Babies are only supposed to lose up to 10% of their body weight after birth, and Oliver had lost 11%. Thankfully, that's obviously not too far beyond normal, but it is still a scary thing to think that your child might be starving. His sleepiness due to jaundice probably had something to do with it because he didn't want to wake up to eat. Anyway, he looks very peaceful in this picture, but he actually was having a rough day. I think he finally was feeling hungry... I tried not to be a paranoid new mom, but it's so easy!
Finally, on Saturday, they released us to go home. We had arrived at the hospital Monday morning... Long stay. I'm thankful, though, for the help. To get to eat three full meals (and really good ones at that!), have a nice long shower, and sleep for several hour stretches at a time every day for the first 5 after a child is born... I would call that a success. But we were ready to go home, and I was (obviously!) ready for them to tell us that he was ok, so our release was welcome. He was SO cute in his carseat!!
He slept the whole way in the taxi, and I tried to commemorate his passing of the Eiffel Tower (which was showing out the window when I took this picture), but I couldn't back up enough in the back seat to include it in the shot... You'll just have to take my word for it.
Arriving home for the first time:
And waking up from his taxi-induced nap:
Life began changing drastically that evening, as we tried to figure out how to take care of this little one at home... But I'll fill you in on that more later. For now, know that I'm proud of myself for getting this posted, despite the fact that I intended to post this a full week ago... Oh, how your timelines change when an infant is around! ;-)

Pictures from the last few days...

Well… We made it. And we have a beautiful little boy to thank God for. It was a LONG day at the hospital; we arrived a little before 8 am, and Oliver was born at 8:53 pm… He took his time. The waiting was not too bad at first (when Chris decided to take all those pictures of Rachel who still, at the moment, looks decently comfortable, no?). We decided to spare you any pictures of the last few hours, though. The rest of the pictures are from that evening and this morning. Please forgive us the lack of commentary; we are a little preoccupied at the moment. Enjoy, though!

O.A.P. is coming

We are at the hospital resting comfortably (more or less) awaiting the
arrival of the little one. Will keep you all updated.

Some things to be thankful for...

Have you ever had a "lovely" day? It doesn't have to be exciting; it doesn't have to be exquisitely beautiful; heck, it doesn't even have to be particularly interesting... It just needs that perfect balance of good company and peaceful activity that leaves you feeling satisfied. Saturday was such a day. And (as should probably happen more often) it left me thinking about the incredible blessings I have in my life. So, in honor of my "lovely" day, here are some things I am thankful for:

1. My hot husband. Isn't he adorable?!?!

Even more impressive is that he not only bought me a fancy new camera so that I can attempt to learn to take decent pictures before our son arrives, but he even allowed me to practice on him, a sacrifice for this man who doesn't particularly like having his picture taken. He is so patient!

Not only that, he allowed me to practice in a public place - Les Halles Park:

After this one, I "got the picture" and decided to give the poor man a break:

2. Our peaceful neighborhood. In a city with millions of people: old, young; rich, poor; owning, renting, and homeless; French, foreign... all living in very close proximity... Needless to say, it can be difficult to find some peace and quiet. But I am SO thankful for our neighborhood with its park at the end of our street (at the trees):

And multiple bakeries to choose from:

And, my favorite, the stylish flower shop on the corner which displays its flowers out front in different geometric arrangements every day:

Plus the quiet, tree-lined streets:

A gem!

3. My HUGE baby belly. Although I cannot say that I don't complain about it (probably all too frequently), I am thankful for our son growing in there, thankful that he's already made it full term, thankful that he will come soon and be yet another reason to praise God.

Since we haven't been very good about taking belly pictures (and many of you have complained about that to me), I gave Chris the camera and told him to take a few... He got a little carried away, but I thought you might like to see some anyway:

4. This beautiful, historical city. There are not many places where I can take such pleasure in just snapping photos as we wander out of the movie theatre (which happened to have a special deal where all movies were only 3.50 - I'm thankful for that, too!). The tiny streets of the 1st Arrondissment:

The Seine River, complete with Bateaux Mouche (the tour boats) and the Tour Eiffel in the distance:

The beautiful flowering trees of Paris' springtime:

The view of the Conciergerie from Pont Neuf:

Antique-looking boats lined up along on the Left Bank:

All that to say, "Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!"

Explore Paris: The Opera Area

Paris, full of medieval architecture and revolutionary history, is also a classy modern city, with wealthy bankers and other businessmen during the day and glamorous theatre goers by night. The center for both of those activities is the area surrounding the Opera Garnier, just a bit north of the Louvre on the Right Bank of the Seine. This is also the main center of Haussmann's 19th-century renovations of the city, leaving elegant neoclassical landmarks surrounded by wide boulevards and elegant yet uniform building fronts. Naturally, we started our visit to this upscale area with our first trip to the Paris-streets public restrooms, and I had to document it:

Surprisingly, these things are really very clean and sanitary, for the record. ;-) We then walked by the Palais de la Bourse, the former home of the stock exchange (until 1987) and the current home of the futures and traded options markets:

We passed many other office-building-type structures, including this one whose iron framework was designed by none other than Mr. Eiffel himself (yes, the same one that designed that little tower across the river, of which you have probably heard):

Since this area was designed (and rebuilt almost entirely) during the height of Napoleon III's renovations for the city, it has many features native to that time period, including chic indoor shopping galleries, such as the Galerie Vivienne:

Far more aristocratic feeling than our modern-day shopping malls, these galleries nonetheless house a similar crowd of every-day shoppers enjoying their lunch hour:

But in a beautiful setting:

And, unlike most modern-day shopping malls, some of the stores have fascinating antique items, such as these two stores that offered beautiful old letters, globes, and maps for sale:

Outside the shopping galleries, there is still plenty of entertainment in this business center. Although the Opera Garnier is the crown jewel of baroque architecture and elegance, another, smaller building in the area, the Opera Comique, is a favorite for locals to visit during their lunch hour. The steps out front offer a perfect place to rest and enjoy a baguette or quiche on a beautiful spring day:

And, as per Haussmann's plans, there are some beautiful parks and green spaces intermixed with the buildlings. This one, Square Louvois, is home to a beautiful and extravagant fountain designed by Visconti:

Finally, we finished our walk at the Opera Garnier, a theatre still used for ballets and some operas, though the ultra-modern steel and glass Opera de la Bastille has replaced this building as the main opera house of Paris. I find that the ridiculous advertisements parading in front of the building only increase its impressive stature as a Parisian landmark:

And, since this is the heart of Haussmann renovations, I had to share Keeley's wonderful explanation of the traditional Haussmann building. This particular one happens to face the Opera Garnier, but buildings just like this are all over Paris, and most of the buildings erected any time from about 1850 (the start of his renovations) until 1920 mimic this style (including my own apartment, which was built in 1905). These buildings make up more than half of Paris' architecture. One more interesting note about true Haussmann buildings (those built before about 1880) is that the 2nd floor (European style, what we would call the 3rd floor in the US) is the most elegant place to live. notice in this picture that that floor not only has a lovely, substantial balcony, but its ceilings are actually a bit taller than the other floors. Why was the 2nd floor considered the ritziest place to be? Think about it... No one wants to live right above a shop, but elevators were not put into use until the late 1800's. How many flights of stairs do you want to climb up every day?

And finally, our walk would not be complete if I didn't include our visit to the classy department stores: Galleries Lafayette and Printemps, just around the corner from the Opera Garnier. To my joy, we found a smoothie stand in Printemps, and I thoroughly enjoyed my little treat while we waited for the metro to head to our next destination: