london, lunch & swollen feet

A week ago today it was Josh's birthday! So I decided to take him to London for the day and I had booked us a surprise lunch at Babylon Restaurant at The Roof Gardens in Kensington. I just thought how lovely it would be to enjoy lunch with views of London's rooftops/skyline and pretty greenery (how romantic of me!) followed by a bit of shopping and just enjoying the change of scenery!

We were pretty tired to start off the day, both of us ended up sleeping on the train going to London because we had had our Baby Brunch the day before (click here to read about our Baby Brunch). First stop in London, was coffee and a toilet for me! Then I took Josh to the Nike shop to buy some trainers as one of his presents! Josh is also a personal trainer so he goes through a lot of trainers!! After that we made our way down to the Kensington/Chelsea area from Oxford Street ready for lunch!

It wasn't the sunniest of days.. but the weather was on our side as despite being scheduled to rain alllllllll day it didn't! - phew! I was so worried when I saw the forecast as continual rain that it would ruin the day, knowing I'd booked for us to be on a roof garden! The food was gorgeous, the service was fast and every member of staff were polite and friendly. The views were amazing! You almost didn't feel like you were in London! Oh and the mocktails were reallyyyyy good, so despite being pregnant I didn't feel like I missed out having a nice celebratory drink! If anyone is thinking of somewhere different and special to go in London, I would highly recommend it!

Now with full satisfied tummy's, we thought we'd head up to Harrods to do a bit of shopping. We decided to walk as the weather was holding out and we thought it would be a nice way to let the food go down... (bad idea!) Looking at google maps, it seemed like an easy straight forward walk, which is was, but what we assumed it would be around a 20 minute walk, was more like 45 minutes! I know this doesn't sound like a horrifically long walk, but when 9 months pregnant and needing the loo every hour.. the long straight road to Harrods seemed never ending! I should have known better having lived in London (I'm blaming my pregnancy brain!) By the time we got there my feet felt so hot and swollen in my shoes, I hadn't suffered with swollen feet up till then so I had completely underestimated what it would feel like! We both were desperate for a drink, so we headed straight to Laduree for iced coffees and a little sweet macaroon treat! Feeling recovered we did get a little bit of retail therapy done, but it wasn't long till we thought we'd rather skip the chaos that is London 'rush hour' and head on home.

Looking back, I think I may have not planned such a long day or walked quite as much if I'd have known what it feels like to be heavily pregnant!! I hadn't considered when I booked it 2 months ago, how swollen my feet would get, or how tired I would get! On the train home, I put my legs up over Josh's lap to try and drain some of the blood and swelling, I must of looked like a hot pregnant mess haha!! Think it's safe to say.. I found my limit and I have accepted I won't be going on another outing to London till I've had my baby girl! But I am pleased I was able to take Josh out for a lovely day trip and treat him for his birthday.

It's always that question of when to start slowing down in pregnancy... when should I just calm down and rest? When to stop working? When to scale back on how much you do in one day, and what is TOO much to be doing when 36 weeks pregnant?! But you don't want to stop too early, otherwise you get bored!! It's one of those things that I think we know deep down when enough is enough, as we know our own bodies and how much activity and busyness we can cope with!! I get pretty fed up of people telling me to 'take it easy' or 'look after myself', of course I'm going to look after myself, of course I'm going to listen to my body and of course my baby comes first! I never fully realised till being pregnant myself, how much judgement there is in pregnancy, people always feel the need to comment! Guess it's just one of those things that is different for every women and we all have our limits.. and I now know I've reached mine (in terms of how long to be on my feet for in one day anyway!)

I'd love to hear your thoughts/feelings on when you knew to 'calm down' in your pregnancy and get some before the little ones arrive! Comment below or contact me via the social page!