Advent 2014

This year is the first year Ethan is starting to get Christmas. As a result, and as I'm excited to have someone to get excited with on Christmas Day, I'm trying to build momentum through advent.

This year the Elf has joined the family. Currently called 'Elf' as that's as inventive as two year olds get, he's here to help us get ready for Christmas. (Some people tell their kids the Elf is here to report back to Santa if they've been naughty or good but this is not a concept that we apply so our Elf is just here for some fun). Every morning Ethan has to find the Elf and then go and see what the Elf has put in his advent calendar overnight ( or the number box as he calls it, which is different to his chocolate box, a chocolate advent calendar given to him by a friend).

Here is our Elf waiting for Ethan on 1 December

And here are some of the things it has been up to:

Our Christmas tree also went up early and Ethan helped decorate it:

I took Ethan to see Father Christmas. However he refused to go anywhere near him so photographic evidence is lacking! Here is a photo of Ethan and Joshua after we got home:

We did go to the Mamaroneck village tree lighting to help us get in the Christmas mood:

 

Looking forward to flying back to the UK for Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2014

Last year we went to Boston for Thansgiving. This year we decided to host some friends; Caoihme, Dave, Lucy and Ben (our Irish friends) and Jo, Chris and Elsie (our Yorkshire friends). Impressively though we managed to have three Americans (Lucy, Ben and Joshua) and a South African (Elsie) by virtue of birth.

I'd intended on cooking a full meal until I finally listened to Caoihme who had pointed out many times this was crazy with a 5 week old baby. So I ordered a 'heat and serve' meal from a grocery delivery service. They made it very easy!

Which was particularly helpful given someone didn't want to sleep!

Matt had expressed serious concerns about the lack of food (in his perception). Thankfully the leftovers proved him wrong!

And just because it's cute, here's one of all the kids.

We had a lovely day, we are truly thankful to have made some good friends while here that make being far from home so much easier.

The birth of Joshua

I did a few posts through out my pregnancy on the prenatal care system in the US and wanted to reflect on the differences I found postnatally.

The birth went well. I laboured at home, consulting with my Doula via telephone. Mum, who was worried I was going to give birth on the living room floor, sent us off to hospital. We arrived at 730 where a nice security guard took one look at me outside the hospital doubled in pain (Matt was parking the car) grabbed a wheelchair and took me to the delivery ward without delay. Matt and my Douls Julie followed shortly. I was 8cm dilated on arrival and Joshua was born an hour later. I managed the natural, intervention free birth I had hoped for and most significantly got the skin to skin time I had missed with Ethan as he'd been rushed off to special care.

The post natal care was excellent. We managed to get a private room. Which is good because you spend a minimum of two nights in hospital as standard. Every time you pressed the buzzer you had attention immediately. The food was great. The security for the babies was impressive (electronically tagged, matching wrist bands with codes for parents and baby, each time Joshua was separated from us they checked all the codes marched etc).

Birth certificate documentation is completed in hospital (you need to have chosen name before you leave) which is very handy.

There was a lot of support if needed. A lactation consultant visited for example, checking breast feeding was going ok.

Overall it was very impressive and I was happy with the care I received at every stage. I am very glad I used the services of a Doula, not least because I also used their placenta encapsulation services (where your placenta is freeze dried and put in capsules for you to take) which meant I flew through the first few weeks with great energy levels and balanced hormones. For any cynics out there, just ask my mum who is now a massive advocate of this!!

Hello Joshua!

Our doula Julie

First family photo

The celebration dinner menu!

Our son the US citizen!

One year (and a bit) in

This post is late, it was due to be written on the 14 October but I was in a haze of pregnancy exhaustion and preparing myself for the arrival of Joshua.

We've been here a year now. And it seems like a good time to reflect on our experiences to date.

It's been a fun year. The USA is definitely a land of opportunity and there's been lots or fun things to do. I feel like we've a great selection of activities for Ethan within a short drive on a day to day basis. And good family days out with the zoo and children's museum all within a half hour drive.

We've made friends, good friends. Friends who when we come home will be painful to leave, especially for Ethan who is becoming inseparable to his friend Lucy. They're often mistaken for twins when we're out and they can bicker like siblings and boss each other round too.

Matt has enjoyed his job. Yes it's been busy and stressful but it's been a different experience to the London office.

We have a lot more time as a family. As we're living in a rental this doesn't consume time at the weekend. As we have left our family and friends behind we don't have the opportunities to do as much wih other people. Therefore we spend weekends together as a family which we are really enjoying. Ethan loves his time with Daddy at the weekends as he doesn't see him Monday through Friday. Currently they're doing swimming lessons together on a Sunday and Ethan likes helping him walk Bruno at the weekends.?

Culturally it is much more different than we expected. Speaking the same language does not make the transition as easy as we expected. The differences are subtle in places and significant in others. I am still uncomfortable with the divide that wealth creates here. It feels that if you have money the quality of life is better than the UK, but if you don't it is worse. I especially don't like the divide this creates in the health system!

Overall we are having a great time. We do miss our family and friends lots and have had to learn to detach ourselves from these emotions. We are very fortunate that we've had so many visitors this year and that modern technology allows us to stay in touch easily. 

Halloween

Our second Halloween! Our first doesn't seem that long ago so scary to think a year has passed.

Ethan went to two Halloween parties this year.

His first was at the Y and he went as an elephant, his second at My Gym and he went as Superman. Photos below. His friend Lucy is the lion and Elsie the ladybug.

Fall fair

October sees a big celebration of Fall and also is the run up to Halloween. It is a very traditional family activity to go apple picking and also to a pumpkin patch to pick your pumpkin. So we all decided to head to a local fall fair. It was a great afternoon out. They had a live band which Ethan loved, he got to go on a tractor ride, we ate donuts and picked a pumpkin. Here are some photos from the afternoon. 

Lake Placid

Last week we took a trip to Lake Placid for a holiday. It's a 5hr drive in upstate NY. It also coincided with Ethan's second birthday. Here are some of the photos from our trip.

Beautiful drive:

View from our room

First kayak ride

Selfie

Enjoying one of his birthday presents 

Relaxing in the library

The easiest way to get around the hotel.

Ethan's first day at Nursery

Ethan started nursery this week. I've signed him up for two mornings a week at mamaroneck Community Nursery School. It's quite common out here for toddlers to join a '2s program' at nursery school. It's not something I was initially keen on but with our impending arrival I realised I may need a couple of mornings to focus on the baby.

Here is Ethan on his first day with his new school bag, the school bag is provided by the school thus why it is so big!

Pregnancy progress

So, I've passed the 30 week mark now and things are progressing nicely.

I've been having weekly progesterone shots since 17 weeks and these will continue until 37 weeks.

As well as the standard first three scans I've been having fortnightly cervix scans at 24,26,28 and 30 weeks. They've been happy throughout and today have told me I don't need any more cervix scans.

And in the past week we've also engaged our doula. She will attend the birth with us and provide support to us to hopefully help us achieve an intervention free, natural birth. We've appointed Julie and Kharis from Beautiful births doulas (http://www.beautifulbirthsdoulas.com) and whoever is on call will attend with us.

So all things are progressing nicely and hopefully we'll have a full term natural birth!

Muscoot Farm

Today we went to Muscoot Farm, a free farm that is a 35m drive upstate. Farms are not as plentiful in this area as they are in the UK. We went with a new friend, another Brit, and her little girl Elsie.

Here are some photos from our trip.

Sals pizzeria block party

Our favourite pizzeria threw a block party on Sunday to celebrate their 50th anniversary. We made a trip as wanted 50c a slice pizza. Unfortuanately the queues were huge and on a hot day we didn't feel like queuing. However we managed to get Ethan a hot dog and stopped for ice cream on the way home so all was not lost!

Greenburgh Nature Centre

Yesterday Ethan and I were, at short notice, at a loose end in the afternoon. Coupled with nap being over by 12 it looked like a long afternoon. So we decided to go on an adventure, somewhere new and headed to a local nature reserve. Here are some photos of the fun we had.

The turtle that freaked Ethan out (it was pretty big!)

Checking out the animals ( less scary than the turtle, no personal space violation!)

Selfie

Story time woodland walk 

The slide on the 5-12yo playground that he climbed straight to the top of and went down without second thought (whilst Mummy paniced!) 

Stone throwing provides endless entertainment 

And finally after an afternoon in the sun mummy was too tired and uninspired to cook so we went to the Diner for dinner.