Chris and I just came back from a week-long trip to the Catskills. When he was asked at the time of reservation if we were celebrating anything, he said it was our Babymoon. Was that true? I guess so. We probably wouldn’t have gone away for a week in the middle of earnings season if it wasn’t for the thing growing inside me. We also probably would have gone somewhere much further than a 2-hour drive away, if I wasn’t too nervous to step on a plane or be anywhere far from a hospital. I also am terrified to leave the state, since it seems that every other day, there’s a news story of pregnant people dying in other places. Anyway, we went on a babymoon. Maybe.
I really don’t know why I hate the term. I guess it’s just the confidence factor. Like “we are on vacation because soon we will have another person to bring with us!” Will we? I don’t know. No one knows.
We didn’t take a babymoon with Maliyah, although we talked about it with a lot more confidence. But we never got past 25 weeks with Maliyah. Most people take babymoons much later! Maybe that’s why they have (false) confidence. This time, I just knew that once I hit the third trimester, my anxiety wouldn’t allow a trip. Ironically, before we booked the trip, I wasn’t sure if my doctors would be ok with it, so we decided to clear it in advance at 23 weeks. My main doctor seemed a lot more confident than me, in fact, she said she thought it was a GREAT idea. i.e. she knew I needed something to lower my stress and distract me.
So that’s how we ended up in the Catskills in a crazy luxurious lodge with only 5-7 other guests on any given night.
The entire property only had 14 rooms, including three stand-alone treehouses, and they were all suites. We were there during the week, and during a low season, so we were upgraded for the entire week to the second largest room in the place (thank you husband and your credit-card-churning-hobby). It was insane the size of this place. We had an indoor AND personal outdoor fireplace. We had an indoor and outdoor shower. We had a hand-painted claw foot tub and double vanity. We had a separate sitting room and minibar. We also had random animal sculptures around the room including a bear perched on the corner of the 4-poster bed. The bougie log-cabin aesthetic was so cozy and fun. It really felt like we were thousands of miles from home, even though it was a relatively short drive from the hustle and bustle of the largest city in the country. The “room” itself was actually the least impressive part of the place, if you can imagine.
The grounds were breathtaking. Our room was directly on the waterfront of a reservoir, and we had a dock, hammocks, chaise lounges and a jumbo Jenga right on the water. Unfortunately, it was a bit too cold to spend long periods of time out there, but I did spend some time journaling midday when the sun was highest. I also spent lots of my time walking around the grounds and trails, either listening to an audiobook, or listening to nothing at all (besides my more-laborious-every-day breathing up hills). Every evening, dozens of deer took over the grounds. It was a common sight for us to pass 10 or more on our way up to the main lodge for dinner.
The best part about this being a lodge, but also being a 5-star resort, was that there was impeccable wifi everywhere. That meant that I was still able to have therapy and attend a support group, and Chris was still able to work. Thankfully, he didn’t have to work at all the first two days we were there, but after that, he had a comfortable work set up, and I had lots of down time to read three books, go on walks, and of course explore the many activities I could do solo. More on that later.
When we first booked the vacation, they listed all the activities that were included on the property, but they also offered individual activities if we chose to partake and wanted privacy. One of those activities was horseback riding which was a hard no from me, but some of the others like archery and stargazing sounded fun and pregnancy-safe. However, when we arrived at the property and noticed that there were basically no other guests, we realized we didn’t need to book private activities, because basically all activities were private.
Our first full day there, we saw that archery was on the lodge schedule. We both had been intrigued by archery, since we had done it as kids, but not in 20+ years. We decided to take our chances with a lodge-wide lesson, and said we could always ask to have an individual lesson later if it was packed. Well… we were alone. 100% alone with our instructor Anthony who was an amazing instructor AND photographer. (See photos below of our Katniss and Peeta moments.) Once I realized I could only wink my right eye and switched to shooting leftie, my aim improved exponentially. Anthony said he would call on us for the next zombie apocalypse. High praise. As we were getting tired (it’s a massive shoulder workout!), another couple arrived (also pregnant!). Perfect timing.
Our home-away-from-home was 10 minutes from the site of Woodstock, which was very exciting for me as a child of boomers. I told Chris we needed to go visit Bethel Woods, which has an entire museum dedicated to 1960’s and 1970’s music, the soundtrack of my childhood. We had so much fun exploring the hippie bus, learning about the last-minute location change, and hearing about the artists who turned down the opportunity to perform (talk about having regrets!). Unfortunately, the main grounds weren’t open yet for the season, so we couldn’t explore, but it mostly looked like beautifully landscaped fields, probably much cleaner and more manicured than they were when 890128930 un-washed music fans overtook the grounds for a week. I also texted my mom while I was there and learned that she unknowingly drove through the area while Woodstock was happening! I love learning new old stories about my parents.
While it was fun to leave the resort grounds for a few hours, we primarily stayed on the campus. Our main goals were to relax, spend time together, and try to keep my stress low while getting through the 25 week, 4 day mark with baby 2, also known as the day I had Maliyah. That meant that we mainly hung around, went on walks, and played games at the Rec Center. They had pool (Chris was far superior), jumbo Connect 4 (I out-strategized him), shuffleboard, curling, and cornhole. They also had a LOT of fire pits. It felt like everywhere we turned there was another one, and on our very first night, the groundskeeper set us up with a private fire and a s’mores kit with branded chocolate disks. It was delicious, but I always forget that being fire-adjacent means I need to wash my hair. Thankfully our massive room shower had multiple shower heads for very clean hair.
Chris had to work on a couple of the days, but I kept myself busy. I went to the gym, I went on hikes on a few trails, and I did a solo crafting activity where I painted my own bird house for the staff to hang up on one of the trails. See the little hearts on each side of the door for my babies?
On our final night, they brought in a resident astrologer who came with his massive telescope, and walked us into the low reservoir for star-gazing. He pointed out constellations, specific stars, and he had a special app on his phone to line up the telescope exactly with many of the celestial beings. He personally felt he was cheating by using the app, but I had no idea something like that existed! We saw neighboring galaxies, we saw the red-orange hue of Betelgeuse, a red super giant star, and toward the end of the night, the moon rose high in the sky and we saw every tiny crater. It was unbelievable.
Besides the major relaxing vibes, I’d say the star of the show for the week was the food. It was absolutely incredible. Not only did it feel like we had an on-call private chef because there were basically no other guests, but everything we had was amazing. Ok, I hated the quail but that’s my fault, I was trying to be too adventurous. Of course they also had many mocktail options, all included!
Room service was available 14 hours/day, and since there were no other guests, it appeared at our cabin on a golf cart nearly instantaneously. After our Bethel Woods adventure, we ordered late lunch to the room, and I was even able to ask for the turkey club sandwich, which I have been sorely missing while being pregnant, and they heated up the meat for me so I could eat it! Every single change to a menu item we wanted, they did and they didn’t bat an eye. One night, we were stuffed after dinner, but decided we wanted to have dessert later, and they said no problem, they’d deliver it right before the kitchen closed. So, while Chris and I discussed possible baby names with the in-room fireplace blazing, room service delivered a massive banana split sundae that we ate in bed. Talk about decadent!
I will admit, I see a lot of people go on babymoons to far-flung places and beaches, they get tans, they feel completely comfortable getting on a plane, they don’t worry about blood clots or proximity to level 4 NICUs, and they don’t panic about fresh fruit or contaminated water in other countries. It makes me jealous. I wish I had that confidence and naivety, and those uncomplicated circumstances. But that isn’t my story and that’s ok. What we wanted to achieve, time together, and a low-stress environment at a distance I felt comfortable going, we did. And we had a great time. We maybe even decided on a name…
(Started writing at: 25 weeks, 6 days, finished writing at 29 weeks 3 days)
