These days a lot of pregnant couples go away for one last baby-free holiday before the baby arrives called a babymoon.
With all the nausea and back issues we decided to do a mini babymoon celebration in Brighton instead.
I had been so looking forward to a babymoon – the idea of having a celebration just for me and BF that we could enjoy some time together and look back on years down the line. Going abroad had never been something we were keen on for lots of different reasons.
As my nausea and back issues got worse, travelling very far or even at all slowly but surely disappeared. The thought of being away from my fort of pillows and things supporting my back at night went out the window after spending just three nights in Exeter – I could hardly walk or move after that.
It was soon clear that we would have to do something special in or around Brighton. With my nausea and other side effects of pregnancy not being very reliable, we also needed something that could be cancelled or flexible.
For a year and a half I have been wanting to take BF to Brighton Pavilion. If you haven’t been it is something I would really recommend as it will be something you won’t experience anywhere else. Ever since my first visit in March 2015 I have wanted to take BF though for one specific room – the dinning room. Why just for one room; without spoiling it, he loves dragons and the room has one I wanted him to see.
BF hasn’t done any tourist stuff around Brighton so this was a perfect excuse to take him around some of my favourite places. We only had my stamina to deal with so we would need to go slow and see what we could manage.
With BF leaving Sunday afternoon to go to Exeter ready for a Monday morning meeting and the next few weekends booked up with something or other, it had to be that Saturday or it might have gotten too late. I wanted to have a fancy cream tea so I researched for where would do a great cream tea that we could both enjoy.
Now as I have been dealing with huge issues around food aversions and BF being a veggie, going to the beautiful Grand Hotel was out of the question. Their cream tea while normally an incredible idea was not good for either of us. I found however that a lot of people recommended the cream tea experience at Terre a Terre even for non-veggies. With neither of us having gone to the award winning veggie restaurant it seemed to be the perfect choice and their cream tea menu was perfect.
With our cream tea booked at 3, we had the morning to wake up, eat and do some exploring before heading to the restaurant. After a relaxing morning of food and TV, we got the bus into town and headed to the palace.
Over the last year and a half, everyone I have taken around the palace have been in utter awe; so much so that it has taken about an hour and a half to get around. I planned for the same sort of timescale so made sure we arrived at the Pavilion for about 1pm. Tickets in hand we headed in and I started to explain everything I had picked up on my vast number of visits when I had a membership. BF isn’t like everyone else though.
One of the things we have in common is our crazy fast ability to take in visual information; it is one of things I really love about him. In this situation though it meant that while someone else would need 15 minutes to look around, he was able to take in everything in less than 5 minutes even for the bigger rooms. The room that made me want to take him to the palace as room three, I told him the same as I would for anyone else as they entered the dinning room; don’t look up until you are about 5 meters in to the room.
As this was BF though I even man handled him and positioned him in the perfect spot before he looked up to see the dragon chandelier. I was so excited – here was one of my favourite things in Brighton as it made me think of BF every time I saw it. While he only looked at the chandelier for 90 seconds, this was a win for me – this was longer than he looked at anything else and even got a compliment of “that’s really cool” with follow up questions about how it was possible.
The rest of the ground floor was a bit of a blur other than a brief pause in my other favourite room, the music room. We had managed the whole ground floor, the majority of the tour with most people, in less than 15 minutes so as we headed upstairs we went to the tea room and sat on the balcony.
It was a beautiful day and Brighton Festival was underway so as we sat out enjoying the sun we got to enjoy an array of music, dancing and even stunts. I think this may have been BF’s favourite part of the Pavilion – he got to sit out in the sun, with a beer, and talk while enjoying some free entertainment. I think he felt like a king.
After about an hour, we finally decided to finish the tour, in record timing, before we slowly wondered towards Terre a Terre for our cream tea. Even with the hour rest stop and slowly walking through town stopping off at the Whiskey shop, we still turned up early for our cream tea. It didn’t matter though as they placed us at a nice quiet table.
Now with most cream teas you have the option of what tea you have and that is about it – here however we got a choice of different ones. We ended up going to a normal one in the end, though BF ordered a cocktail to go with his. When we ordered they asked if I wanted one too only for us both to chuckle and then me leaning back and showing my now obvious baby bump.
It was funny when the waitress brought over the chocolate orange cocktail thinking it was for me to find it was for BF. Again we couldn’t help but giggle and explained how this was our babymoon. He loved it so much he was tempted to try another one but decided to hold out as he had a pot of tea coming.
Weekends in Brighton are busy, especially when the weather is good, so the restaurant was fully booked and we kept seeing people being turned away who hadn’t booked a table. It was an hour into being at Terre a Terre and out first course still hadn’t arrived though. After finally managing to flag down the waitress she told us she had already barked at the kitchen to why we hadn’t received anything and a minute later it arrived. It seemed our first course had been missed by the kitchen but the waiting staff had been good to spot this.
It was incredible. Normally with a cream tea you have sandwiches but we had an array of very different mini dishes to try. As we tucked in it was clear why this place was so busy, booked up and award winning. We both liked very different parts of the savoury course but it was clear BF was enjoying this part with flavoursome dishes.
Just as we finished the savoury course, the three tiered stand with our sweet part of the cream tea arrived. It was the most beautiful cream tea that I have ever seen. The first two tiers were made up of an array of treats to try, with a fruity tier and a chocolate tier. The final tier was a twist on the traditional scones and looked just as beautiful.
Starting with the chocolate tier, I was utterly shocked to find that even as someone who doesn’t like milk chocolate how much I enjoyed it. With mini alcoholic shakes on the other hand were not my cup of tea as they were a bit strong and with bump I have been avoiding alcohol the whole of the pregnancy so far. BF was happy though to drink the two miniature shakes that even he found strong.
My favourite tier was the fruity layer and while BF was feeling rather full I happily finished off the plate only to find that I too was full. When the sweet tiers had arrived we had asked what order to try and offered the advice to leave the scones till last as they were easiest to box up and take home. I am so glad that we took that advice as those scones were beyond us both in one sitting.
With our scones boxed up, bill paid and a lovely couple photo taken thanks to the pair beside us, we headed to Build a Bear. A couple of years ago we had brought a build a bear for his cousin as a Christmas present and had always agreed that when we finally had a baby how we would go to a Build a Bear for our baby. With us staying in Brighton for our Babymoon, we had decided that this would be when we would finally make it.
Last time it had been easy to decide on the bear – it had to be pink as his cousin adores anything and everything pink. For us we wanted it to last as the first teddy so pink wasn’t on the cards. After much discussion and looking we finally decided on a dark brown monkey. Bump will be born in the year of the monkey and will probably be a cheeky little baby if she is anything like her dad – it seemed perfect.
We got the monkey stuffed, both kissed the little red heart making a wish and putting in a beating heart noise box with me putting my foot on the pedal while BF held my hand. This was it – we were getting her first teddy together. Once stuffed and stitched up we walked around the store to see if there were any clothes or accessories that we wanted for her monkey. In the end we just got a simple bow to show it was a female monkey for our baby girl, and a banana.
We didn’t do the certificate or name the monkey – it will be up to bump to decide what she will call her teddy. Hopefully she’ll be far more creative than my naming of things as a kid with teddies called “puppy”. I won’t be surprised though if BF calls it Bob and it catches on.
Our babymoon may not have been very exciting but with pregnancy I don’t have much stamina these days so after popping into one or two more shops we then headed home with our boxed up scones and monkey in hand.
Being the nerds we are, we finished the day playing video games and watching a film while munching on our scones. I also managed to get in a nap, because pregnancy naps are a must these days after exciting days out.
It really was a fantastic day and I am so glad that we did it this way. A holiday abroad would have involved stressing over getting to the airport, travel, costs, planning and just lots of stress for a short weekend before BF had to head back to work. Going away somewhere even the UK would be exactly the same but without the airport or sun. The advantages to such a close babymoon meant I could enjoy my own bed, show BF my favourite places, shop without having to worry about how we were getting it home and try out some amazing food.
Sometimes the simple solution is the best one and if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t change the day that we planned.
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