"Nitty Gritty"

I’m back, or should I say, we’re back, plus one. You haven’t heard from us since October and that is because I chose to return to the states to have our second child. Now I am sure questions are just reeling through your mind right now about the entire situation. I will try and answer them. First of all I took a break writing on the blog because I thought my “readers” would get bored hearing about my life in the states, everyone knows what that is like, since most of you live there or once did. Maybe I should have written anyways, but the time has past so I will just give you an update. We have a beautiful baby girl now. I have two wonderful daughters to take care of full time. I am ecstatic! Really I am.

Rewind to November of 2011. I decided to have our second child in the United States. Is the health care horrible here?  I don’t think so, but to me giving birth to a baby is huge and I just didn’t feel comfortable here.  I would ask around for information about the experiences of others but I got very mixed stories. Literally every other story would be bad. I do have trouble communicating with anyone who has a strong accent of any kind (Read my “repairs” post if you need a refresher on my language problems). Between the bad stories, my language barriers, and the trauma of child birth I felt it best to return to the land of comfort and familiarity.  Who knows, it could have been the best childbirth experience of my life or the last experience of my life….depends on whom you ask.

I had to leave my husband here. That was the hard part. Not only did I have to leave him here but I also had to take our daughter with me. Separating father and daughter is not fun to say the least, but I did it. The upside was that our child and soon to be second could have a time to bond with extended family while we were in the states. That time was very special and we created  many warm memories.

Being 7,000 miles from your husband and home, while being 30 something weeks pregnant is not for the weak!  Thank goodness for Skype. Don’t forget that includes being away for Christmas as well.

My biggest fear was that I would give birth without my husband. Fortunately, he arrived in plenty of time as I had to be induced…she just didn’t want to come out! We tried everything. I even went spelunking to try and coax her out in a cave! I thought for sure I would give birth in a cave…but no luck. Our birth experience in the states was wonderful and without complications.

After her birth came the really difficult part. Saying goodbye to my husband yet again, but this time with a 2 year old and a newborn. Nothing like that hormone infused, reality driven roller coaster ride I was on. It was also a lot of extra work to get birth certificates, passports, and visa for a newborn trying to get overseas. Most “normal” people don’t try and leave the country with a newborn to live overseas. This was oh so obvious when we try and take passport photos, apply for passports, get birth certificates expedited, all that stuff.  Because you know, you can’t get a passport without a birth certificate, and you can’t get a visa without a passport. It is a vicious cycle.  Just a little difficult for a sleep deprived mother of a 2 year old and a newborn to try and explain our situation over and over hoping to get paperwork completed quickly. Thank goodness for grandparents and a great husband!

So fast forward a little, we did finish all the paperwork for travel. The question of the day is….how does one mom survive a 12 hour plane ride with a 6 week old and 2 year old alone?  Well, I don’t really know the answer, because I didn’t come back alone. I had a wonderful, fantastic friend who chose to fly back with me to visit us and Qatar at the most convenient time! Yay! Could I have managed alone? Maybe, but I am so grateful I didn’t have to try.

Now, I am sure you are wondering how I survived jet lag with two kids. It wasn’t so bad actually. It is a 7 hour difference from the states, but really the kids adjusted well. Our little baby is sleeping through the night now! We had a wonderful time visiting with our friend and hope that more people are brave enough to hop the pond over into the hot sands of the Middle East with us. It is just a visit; you don’t have to live here.

Am I settled into mommy hood now? Yes, for now I am quite happy just to be a family again, I don’t really care where we are just as long as we are together. As cheesy as that sounds, it is totally true. If given the choice to go back to the states again, knowing what I know now about the experience, would I have still left anyways? That is hard to answer. I chose to leave and that is it. There were tough times being away from my husband and also really great moments in the states with family.  I can’t spend time right now thinking about my past choices when there so many new experiences to enjoy in the present.

 I have been thinking about my blog a lot lately. Where do I start? How do I continue? What is most interesting to my readers? I think I have posted a few blogs that are truly personal experiences of our lives here. But, some posts are more about tourist attractions, although they are very real to me, you could also read about it on the internet.

While in the future, I am not going to write about how many times my new baby wets her diaper in a day or how I had to pretend to be a bunny or princess for my two year old, I am going to get down to the “nitty gritty” of our lives with you from here on out. We are after all, a family of four mapping the globe.