Following yesterday’s long travel day, we bathed Ayo in his borrowed blow-up duck bath and then we all went to sleep fairly early. We cocked open the windows to enjoy the cool breeze and the drizzle outside, which turned into a fantastical set of summer storms. It was so loud yet so peaceful. I had expected to wake up all night with a jet-lagged baby, but I think the hard work to reverse his schedule might have paid off as he slept the whole way through from his late night feeding until my alarm clock went this morning at 7am. At home, during the daytime, I’ll feed him every 3-3.5 hours and let him play until he is fussy, then put him down for a nap. At night, I’ll feed him and then immediately put him to bed. My sweet friend who had all of her kids on this schedule helped me plan the trip. She told me to work with the daytime schedule on the first (domestic) flight and the night-time one on the international leg. Upon arrival in Geneva, even though it was still night-time for all of us, we tried hard to give Ayo his wake-time after every feeding. I’ve rarely seen my baby so tired and willing to sleep the day away. But this mama pushed through to preserve the sanity of her nights!

Anyway, today we were all back to our normal daytime/night-time routine and after baby’s first solid nap, we jetted off to see the dermatologist to get tall mountain and myself checked out for hazardous moles. I had one removed right then and there for 40 Euros. The medical system is so stress-free and uncomplicated here, I love it. I filled out a small form with my address, my date of birth, any meds I was on and my medical history (in 5 questions). The dermatologist then measured the mole and took out a 6mm tubular knife and after a local anesthetic, proceeded to remove the mole and stitch it up. We were talking and laughing the whole time about various things, during which time, he told me I frown a lot because I am so expressive. While that’s no news flash, what was sort of funny is that he told me I should get botox to avoid wrinkles when I frown. Oh and that for those “terrible stretch-marks”, I should really consider carboxytherapy. I told him, thanks for his thoughtfulness but I’ll wait to have all my kids first. 🙂 Women really do take care of themselves way into their old age here, that’s for sure. The receptionist loved tall mountain and his “charming accent” when he spoke French and asked if her family could come and visit us in the United States. What do you respond to that? “Umm, sure!?!” Except that with a European “we ought to swing by”, they might indeed come. Oh well, at least I was given a high quality Avène cold cream gift as a down-payment on their arrival.

From there, we went ourselves to drop off my mole-in-a-flask at the lab 500m away. Funny how they say ‘we systematically send moles to be analyzed’ when they in fact send YOU. haha! Thankfully the lab had a mailbox because it was between 12:00 and 14h and at 12:05 there was of course no one to be seen. From there we went to the Friday market and Lidl and remembered how normal it is to eat non GMO foods or hormone-free dairy for cheap here. Mascarpone 1 EUR, a half kilo crème fraîche 0.95 EUR, 4 peppers + 500gr mushrooms + large squash for 2.80 EUR total. Quality food comes at such a cost in the US, it makes me so ill to think about how much we pay on groceries. Then on the heels of that, we stood in line for ages at the bank (for which we had to wait until it was 13h45) and had to race to the post office to make it during business hours and then I remembered how those sorts of things are so much easier in the US. All that to say that no place is perfect. Having said that, I do regularly tell Ayo: maman va te montrer la région la plus belle du pays le plus beau du monde (mama’s gonna show you the most beautiful region of the most beautiful country in the world). Mama is hardly biased. Ahh, it feels so much like home still here.

Ok, that’s all for now as it is getting late and I want to wake Ayo up for his late-night feeding, in the hopes that he will sleep the whole night again. Originally I had thought to rent a breast-pump at the pharmacie so papa could give him his normal 8oz bottle at night. The pump costs 15 EUR to rent per week (reimbursed by the government if I had a pediatrician’s prescription) and mamie had ordered one for me to rent. But then I realized you had to purchase the tubing and shield/bottle combo for 17 EUR. It makes sense that you would want that to be new and that would be a no-brainer if I lived here. It just wasn’t worth it to me for the two weeks. So breast it is. Thankfully ‘breast is best’! 🙂

*A day in France