Peter's Birth Story

Peter was born late Tuesday this last week and I wanted to document everything while it was still fresh in my mind, so here is Peter's birth story.

I started getting contractions much earlier in this pregnancy probably due in part to the physical and emotional stresses of moving. On Sunday, Doug and I were asked to speak at a Q&A session for a group of young adults going to a competition in Abu Dhabi. We had fun recounting our experience abroad and sharing what we learned with a group. When we got back home I was feeling dizzy, sick, and I thought I felt a few contractions. I decided to crash on the couch for a few hours and I hope up feeling MUCH better, but I was still having the occasional contraction. On Monday, I continued to have irregular contractions and decided to go ahead and finally pack my hospital bag. Monday night I was woken up a few times by contractions, but once again they weren't regular at all. On Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling a real urgency to get things done. My contractions may have not been regular at that point, but after two days of having them I knew that the end was near! I took Leah to Pre-K first thing in the morning and warned her that Peter would probably be coming soon. I then got home and immediately got to work washing and putting away two loads of laundry and switching over Leah's summer wardrobe to her fall one. At around noon, I messaged Doug telling him that I thought I was in active labor after having a few contractions seven minutes apart. I continued to monitor them with an app on my phone while hurrying to get everything ready. I went ahead and picked up Leah from preschool, filled up the car with gasoline, and went on a quick shopping trip to Aldi... All while having contractions every 7-8 minutes!

When we got home, I texted my mom that I was in labor and needed to talk to her about care for Leah while we were going to be at the hospital. I called the doctor's office and left a message to let them know that I thought I was in active labor and wanted to know if I should head to the hospital yet. I took a quick shower and had Doug pack his stuff into our bag. The doctor's office called me back and told me that there weren't any doctors in office, but to go ahead and check in at the hospital in triage. Leah's labor had been very slow and they didn't have me go to the hospital until my contractions were 5 minutes apart, so I decided I would take my time and blow-dry my hair.

As we were leaving, I decided to get one last picture with Leah with my pregnant belly and then she ran off happily to spend time with her cousins. During the hour long car ride to the hospital, my contractions slowed so they were 10+ minutes apart, but getting much stronger. We checked into triage around 5pm and for some reason they took me back first over another pregnant woman saying that they had been waiting for me. I changed into a gown and got the monitors on my belly. The triage nurse started asking me the standard questions and I could tell that she didn't think I was in active labor. She asked me when my due date was and when I responded the 16th, she said, "Of October?"

A hospital doctor came in to check me since none of the doctors at my practice were available. She continued with the questioning and treated me like I wasn't in labor either. When she finally got around to checking me, she said, "Wow! You're actually a 4! Let's get you checked in and get this baby out."

We were moved to labor and delivery, but it took some time to get my blood work done and to find a vein to start antibiotics since I was strep b positive. The doctor from my practice came in and told me that she didn't even want to check me for fear of breaking my water and the baby coming before I was finished with my two rounds of antibiotics. It was around 7pm at this point and she said she would be back at 10:30 to break my water so I would be ready to deliver by 11:15 or so when my second dose of antibiotics would be completed.

The contractions were getting pretty painful at that point and I was waiting impatiently to get the epidural. It took a bit more time to take than my last epidural, but once it did... Oh sweet relief! The doctor told me to take a nap in the meantime, but I was about to have a baby and I couldn't get to sleep! I laid around impatiently waiting, counting down the minutes with Doug until the doctor would get back. Once I was on the epidural, they started giving me Pitocin and increasing the dosage every 30 minutes. I mentioned to my labor nurse that I was feeling a bit of pressure (which usually means you're ready to push) and she was like, "Okay." and didn't really make a big deal out of it.

We waited a while longer and my doctor finally got there a little before 11pm to break my water. She wasn't even trying to break my water... She just checked me and my water sac suddenly burst everywhere. Doug exclaimed, "Woah!! The first one wasn't like that!" The doctor then checked me and said, "Wow! She's COMPLETE! ...and a +2! Ooookay! This baby wants to come!" Doug and I looked at each other in surprise, we had thought it was going to be a much longer process and that Peter would not be here until the 13th. The labor and delivery nurse asked the doctor if there was "An average amount of fluid?" And the doctor was like, "No, that was definitely HIGHER than average. Now excuse me while I go to the sink to clean up." I confirmed with them that there was no meconium like with Leah's birth which was good news. While cleaning up she explained to me that she wanted to wait for me to push because I needed to get the second dose of antibiotics or they were going to have to do a lot more work on Peter once he was here.

The labor and delivery nurse started me with some little pushes which were much harder to do than I ever remembered with Leah. The doctor then came back as soon as the antibiotics were complete and had me start the "real" pushing. They set up a mirror for me to see everything which made a huge difference. I had no clue what was going on with Leah's delivery and felt so much more control and awareness for Peter's delivery. Pushing was difficult and they got me some oxygen, but the mirror really helped me focus. While I was pushing, he was actively kicking while still inside me which the doctor and nurses thought was rather entertaining.

I only actively pushed for maybe 30 minutes and then he was here! He was facing upwards through the birth canal which is apparently harder to deliver that way. He didn't really cry like you hear babies on TV. They did a quick suction of his mouth and nose and he breathed right away. Then they laid him right on my chest immediately after delivery without cleaning him off or anything. (Leah had to be taken away and suctioned from the meconium and was cleaned and prepped before I ever got to hold her.)

It was surreal to have him REALLY there and just laying on my chest. Doug cut the umbilical cord this time and examined the placenta with the doctor while I enjoyed skin-to-skin with Peter. They let me nurse him (which he picked up right away) and spend as much time as I wanted with him before they weighed him and did the eye goop and vitamin K shot. It was such a different experience than with Leah. Everyone in the delivery room made predictions as to how much he would weigh exclaiming how big he was. I guessed an even 8 pounds, but he came in at 9 pounds and was 21.5 inches long!

We are so glad that Peter is here now. He is the perfect addition to our family!

Peter was born with a cephalohematoma on his head from being in the birth canal for an extended period of time. You can see it somewhat in this picture. (upper left side)

The proud big sister

Peter in his car seat ready to go home!

I texted Leah a picture of Peter and I "breaking out of the hospital."

Starting Up The Blog Again!

We've had lots of ups and downs in our lives since Abu Dhabi when I last blogged. I'll go ahead try to summarize them here, so I can be caught up. Warning: This is basically a book.

Abu Dhabi was a great adventure for our family, but it did not last. We found out the contract Doug was working on was ending the beginning of February. Doug was offered a very nice job in Abu Dhabi and we had the option of staying, but there was an even better offer made by a company back in the US, so we packed everything up and returned in March just about a year after we arrived. It was crazy leaving so quickly. I was barely able to leave my two weeks notice at the nursery.

Leah and I taking pictures during a desert safari on our last weekend in Abu Dhabi

Last Day at Friend's Nursery

Our shipping crate packed up and ready to go!

Once we were back in the US, we decided to start house shopping immediately so that our shipping crate when it arrived in 6 or so weeks could just be unpacked into a new house. It also gave our house sitter a little bit more time to find a place to live since everything ended so abruptly. We stayed with my parents for a few weeks in the transition. We found a house that we loved and signed a contract on it. Before the seller had the chance to even sign it, Doug got a phone call saying that the job that we came all the way back home to the states for was not going to work out.

We were suddenly without employment and health insurance and the home that we wanted to purchase was no longer an option. It was a stressful time, but fortunately we had plenty of savings which allowed us time to figure everything out. We were still trying to jump through hoops to get the original job we came home for, but nothing was working out and we were left with more questions than answers. In the meantime, we moved back into our home and Doug went ahead and started applying for several jobs. Unfortunately, the same problem came up with all of the government jobs that he applied for, so he decided to look in the private sector.

After six months of unemployment and still no answer in sight for his government job issue, he decided to take a private sector job that he wasn't all that thrilled with. We were tired of our terribly expensive health insurance plan from the government marketplace and he was just plain bored. He started his new job in August 2016. The job came with a good salary and benefits, was work from home, but also required more than 50% travel... And it was only domestic travel which Doug finds rather boring.

Leah turned 4 in April and I was concerned about how long it would take to get pregnant again, so we decided to start trying once he had started the new job. I had a lot of anxiety that it wouldn't work out and started out very proactive fastidiously tracking everything with an app.. even purchasing OPKs online to help track my cycle even better. After three months of trying and tracking I was concerned that my cycles were too short. (Side note: I was training for a half marathon and had been running about 5 miles a day which probably was affecting this.) I scheduled a doctor's appointment to discuss my concerns and was told by my doctor after she barely looked at my chart, "You're young and healthy. I think you can get pregnant!" And left it at that. I fumed. I was SOOO upset... Aaaand I got pregnant the next month. Stupid doctor. I'm just glad she ended up being right!

My pregnancy was for the most part uneventful. I decided that I wanted to continue to run through my pregnancy. Leah and I took a month long vacation to Hawaii to visit my sister and we ran a few races including the 8 mile Great Aloha Run. When we got back, I had my 12 week ultrasound and when I asked, the tech told me that she thought we were having a boy. Leah wanted a baby sister, so we started preparing her then that it might be a boy. It was confirmed later at the 20 week scan that we were indeed going to have a boy!

It was around this time, that Doug finally made the decision after hating his job for nine months to leave. It paid well and had good benefits, but he had no passion for the work. He started working at a small start up company that he had done 1099 work for in the past. I was initially hesitant of him working for such a small company, but it has worked out very well. He feels valued and appreciated and he is able to do some work that he is passionate about. The company has also tripled in size since he began and has a promising future. The new job is work from home as well and we were finding our existing home to be too small for all of us to be there 100% of the time. Doug needed space. Leah and I needed space.

I've always kept my eye on the housing market. I have several real estate apps on my phone and I regularly check out properties in our area. It all started with a home in our price range that had a detached garage with an office above it on an acre of land. I talked Doug into coming and looking at the property with me (which had issues unfortunately) and then we were somehow officially looking at homes. I knew that the market was in a good place for us to get a return value on selling our current home, but we were staying uncommitted until we found THE home. All of the homes that we had been looking at ended up having age related issues so I decided to start looking at new builds. There was a community that I drove by frequently that I didn't think we could afford, but when I looked closer I found that the floorplan I liked was in our price range. I decided on a whim one Friday morning to visit and found that there was only one lot left in the neighborhood and it was already spec'ed out and permitted with a floorplan (the one I liked). Time was going to be an issue though if we wanted to be able to pick other features on the house though.

To my surprise, Doug was willing to come and look that next day on Saturday morning. We looked. He seemed interested and then we left and got home and he was like. It would be NICE, but nope... We're not doing it. We'd have to sell our current home quickly for $__ and you're 7/8 months pregnant. I however was not to be swayed and made an appointment with a listing realtor to come to our current home and tell us what we could sell for. To both mine and Doug's absolute surprise, we were told that we could potentially sell our house for $45k more than we had originally thought. We were using Redfin which was not commission-based so we felt confident in their estimate of the market value.

We signed a listing agreement with Redfin and the next day we were over at the model home signing a contract on a new build. It was all rather exciting and stressful at the same time. The new build would not be completed until December which meant that we would need to live with my parents after our current home sold and while our future home was being built... And I was supposed to have a BABY during all of that!

Also to add to the stressful situation, we had a beach trip planned with Doug's family who were flying all the way out from Utah. We were supposed to leave for the beach the week before our house was to be put on the market. That meant we had 10 days (TEN DAYS PEOPLE!!!) to prep and stage our current home to be sold. Also, during the time I would need to choose all of the design options for the new house. My family stepped in and helped us paint, clean, and repair as well as move any clutter into a storage unit for staging purposes. We got it all done and were able to enjoy a few days at the beach.

The day we drove back from the beach was the day our house went "live" on the market. The unsurity of finding a buyer was very stressful on Doug and I especially knowing that our contract on the new build which would be ready in December was not contingent. That basically meant that if we didn't sell our home by then, we would be saddled with TWO mortgages in December. Merry Christmas.

We decided to boldly drop our asking price 10k and include closing costs since we had wiggle room. We were able to find a buyer in under a month on market that was willing to abide by our terms as well as do a quick 21 day closing... Which meant that we would be able to close on the house before my due date. We hurried and packed everything into a storage unit (very uh.. interesting.. when you're 36 weeks pregnant and not supposed to lift anything) and moved what we would need for the next few months into my parents' house. With Doug working for a small company, he could not really take time off (which I completely understood), so I had a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. 

Fortunately, my family stepped in and really saved us. Local friends in the neighborhood came and took Leah for multiple hours without being asked. My ward's Relief Society came and helped me deep clean. We were VERY blessed.

The selling process was not without its own set of stressful problems. (We even had a scare that the deal would not go through less than 24 hours before signing papers), but in the end it all worked out. Whew!

Now I have a newborn and plenty of time to document everything on my blog during the tons of nursing sessions I have with Peter.

If you made it through that book, you're basically all caught up. Hah.

Leah 2 1/2 Years Old

We're living so far away and my mom asked on Facebook if I was still doing the monthly updates on my blog. I instantly had serious mommy guilt when I responded in the negative. So now, since I have a few spare moments, I will write a few things that Leah has been doing lately. This is just a random update and I'm not sure if/when there will be another one.

Leah is officially 2 1/2 years old today. She is 36 inches tall and weighs 28.8 pounds... Since we're living in Abu Dhabi, I guess I could post it in in metric as well, so that is 91 cm and 13 kilograms... :) She is wearing both 2T and 3T clothing, but the 2T dresses are starting to get a little short on her because she is so tall.

Leah is such a big girl... she decided that she wanted to be in charge of her own photo shoot. You can see the little remote in her hand.

I don't know if I can officially say that she is potty trained because she still has the occasional accident, but she's doing pretty well. She lets me know when she wants to go potty, but we still need to work on her pulling up/down her panties independently and also getting on the potty since it is too tall for her. We put a diaper on over her clothes for the car, but she has been going out in panties for about two weeks. Unfortunately, those two weeks have not been without incident. We went to a doctor's appointment earlier this week and she peed while sitting on my lap during the appointment. We were a 30 minute taxi ride away from home and it was only the beginning of my appointment. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. She is doing pretty well at night and will wake me up in the middle of the night calling, "Potty!" rather urgently if she needs to go. She is in a big girl bed now, but she still doesn't quite get that she can leave the bed on her own to go.

As far as eating goes, she has gotten a bit pickier in the last few months. Every morning, we eat scrambled eggs and cereal. She insists on counting the eggs and "assisting" in cracking them. She loves breakfast and usually finishes everything. If you ask her what she wants to eat, the answer will be "eggs," so we'll say that's her favorite food. For lunch, we usually have PBJ, egg and cheese sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, or yogurt. I still do not cook anything special for her for dinner, but we will give her a yogurt after she has tried at least one of everything. Last night it was a noodle, a small piece of chicken, and a miniature asparagus. She sat at the table for about 30 minutes refusing to eat until daddy played "Open the Hanger" with her and her food. She's been eating a lot of yogurt lately.

Leah plays very well independently and loves her dedicated playroom here in our home in Abu Dhabi. She likes to make believe that she is cooking different meals in her play kitchen. She puts food on plates, puts them in the microwave to "cook" them, and then serves you. She'll also get you water from the fridge dispenser and she likes to make tea. If she's not playing in the kitchen, she usually is playing with Play-Doh. I haven't seen it here in Abu Dhabi, but luckily we have a bunch that we got as presents at Leah's 2nd birthday. She also likes to play with her doll babies. She has a doctors kit that she treats them with and she feeds them whenever mommy and daddy aren't available to eat her yummy creations. She also likes playing with her Little People and puts them in the bus or airplane and drives/flies them around. She enjoys doing puzzles, making towers with her MEGA blocks, and making random silly creations with Mr. Potato Head. She is getting better at cleaning up, but needs to be reminded to put away her toys before taking out something new.

Even though it is literally 100 degree (Fahrenheit, of course) out here, that doesn't faze Leah. She loves riding her tricycle around the compound, pushing her stroller, playing on her Power Wheel 4-Wheeler, or riding on her scooter. We picked up a little outdoor playhouse from a friend who was moving away and Leah loves playing in it. Since our kitchen is outside here, I am constantly going in between the two and it is nice that she has outdoor activities that she can do here. I am still kicking myself that I didn't bring Leah's water table or sand box. Yes, I did say sandbox! Most of the ground here is sandy, but we actually have some sort of lawn and we have a bunch of foster kittens that use it as a bathroom, so it would be nice to have her covered sandbox here.

Leah is a pretty happy and content child, but she occasionally has times where she gets upset. Her latest thing is that she will say, "Happy.. happy... HAPPY!" sometimes through tears to try to cheer herself up again. Recently her emotions have become a little erratic. I'm not sure if this is standard toddler behavior, but the smallest things can set her into a fit. We've been trying to teach her how to calm down and she's be hanging out in time out pretty frequently just to get her composure together again.

Leah still is my little shadow and likes to help with everything. She cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner with me every single day. She insists on cracking eggs and adding different ingredients. She loads the laundry and puts in the soap and helps me vacuum and mop. She even goes running with me every morning. She is my mini me... and MOST of the time, I wouldn't have it anything other way.

Leah is communicating more and more each day. She uses 2-3 word sentences and is learning new words each day. She knows all of her colors, can count and identify numbers up to 5, and is working on letter sounds at school. She loves to sort objects by color and I have caught her organizing her toys by color multiple times.

Leah loves to sing! She knows most of the words to "Popcorn Popping" and "Twinkle Little Star." Doug and I have caught her singing out loud to herself and it is the best! Each night we sing several songs before bedtime and she makes requests as to which ones she wants to hear. Her favorite book right now is "Good Night Moon." Her favorite thing to do is find the mouse each time it changes places in the great green room.

Right now, an average day for us starts out between 6:15-6:30am. We go for a run (I push Leah in the jogging stroller), we make breakfast, get ready, and then are out the door to arrive at school by 8:30am. We are at school for 4 hours Sun-Thurs (standard school/work week here). We get home a little after 12:30pm and eat lunch. Leah goes down for a nap and usually sleeps about 2-4 hours. When she wakes up, we're usually ready to start making dinner. We have dinner by 5pm, watch a show on TV ( Leah usually watches something on her iPad or plays in her toy room) and them we usually play outside in the evenings... she likes to ride her tricycle and we like to go to get ice cream at the little Baqala market that is inside our compound only 4 villas down from us. We start bedtime rituals around 8pm. It usually involves lots of jumping on mommy and daddy's bed, stealing Jumper (Daddy's beloved childhood stuffed frog), reading some stories, brushing teeth, getting in jammies, and singing songs. She is usually in bed by around 8:30.

Leah is still adjusting at school. It's pretty tough to understand that you need to share your mommy with the other kids. We're together for about 2 of the 4 hours while at school. She still gets emotional each time we have to part ways, but is fine minutes after I leave. She loves messy play and recess and is learning to sit at circle time. Her teachers love her and she is learning tons. She looked a lowercase 'a' yesterday and said "a a apple."

I love this little girl and I feel so lucky that I get to be her mommy!

Potty Training/Transition to a "Big Girl" Bed

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Babycenter about potty training your toddler in three days. The potty training expert said that she preferred to use her method on those 15-28 months because they can become resistant to potty training later on. Crap! (counting up in my head) Leah was going to be 29 months on September 10th. So I decided to start right then.

I woke Leah up that morning and exclaimed to her, "It's naked day!" We played together ALL day long! I didn't leave her side. (Yeah.. not the norm AT ALL.) She would start jumping up and down when she needed to go and say, "Potty!" urgently and then I would sit her on the potty and she would go. It was as easy as that! We had dinner with some friends that evening and were going out, so the diaper went back on.

The second day, I woke her up the same way and she was admittedly less excited about naked day, but I wasn't really giving her a choice. We played inside, we played outside (within the confines of the walls of our villa)... she was doing great!

BUT, I was there at her side every single moment. By the third day, we were both itching to get out of the villa, so I put a dress on her and introduced panties. She picked out some Elmo ones and I just emphasized with her that panties are not a diaper and that she would still need to use the potty. The next day there were several accidents. All of the floors in our villa are hard-surfaced, so it wasn't really a big deal. I kept on enforcing it and reminding her that she had panties on.

Everything was going pretty well and then I landed my surprise job at Friends Nursery. She had only been potty training for 6 days when we both starting going to school for four hours a day. She ended up back in diapers during school and in panties while at home. We did that for about 2 weeks and then had 3 days off of work/school for Eid, a holiday is Islam. I took the opportunity to only do panties the whole time and there were several accidents, but she finally REALLY started to get it. Each accident in her panties reinforced the idea that she needed to start using the potty.

When we started back at school on Sunday this week, I decided that she was ready and sent her to school in panties. The first day, she had an accident, but she has done great days 2-4. She doesn't like to go potty at school and just holds it until we get home... which isn't ideal, but I guess it's working for now.

A couple nights ago, Leah woke me up at midnight and asked to go potty. After going potty, she asked if she could wear panties for the rest of the night and I obliged. When we woke up the next morning, I made the quick decision to convert her crib to a toddler bed. She had a blast jumping in her "new" bed and filling it with toys and stuffed animals.

We went to school that day and when we came back home is was nap time. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't nap, but I just explained to her that she had to stay in her bed during nap time and then I closed the door and posted myself nearby to catch any shenanigans. This is what I found when I snuck in to check on her 30 minutes later.

When she woke up from nap, she wouldn't get out of the bed until I was in there. Last night, I put her to bed as I usually did with the only difference that I told her that she needed to stay in her bed. I heard no complaints and I went to bed as usual. Doug and I stayed up a while longer, but no noises came from her room, so we just went to bed. I woke up around midnight after having the realization that she could work all of the doors in the house and there was nothing keeping her from just waking up and leaving in the middle of the night. She's only every left the villa once without my permission and she was only about 2 feet away, but I still felt a moment of panic.

I was awake in an instant and went to her room to check on her. I quietly and slowly opened the door only to discover her in EXACTLY the same position that I had placed her in to go to bed that night. She was sleeping happily and peacefully.

My little girl is growing up so fast! I took pictures of my class to use for attendance and labeling and such. Here is Leah's... I love her so!

Learned Some Arabic

Today, I was teaching letter sounds in a small group of 3 year olds. We were sitting on floor all gathered around a pocket puppet chart and I was picking up different animals and saying their names emphasizing the first letter sounds as I placed them in the correct pocket. After filling several pockets, I picked up a lion and said, "La la LION... la la la la la." The kids who had been joyfully playing along and holding different puppet animals all dropped their puppets, stopped what they were doing, and looked at me like I was disciplining them. In confusion, I looked back to the other teacher in the room who was laughing at me.

"La" means "No" in Arabic.

My First Week of Work

Today marks exactly a week that I have been back to work. It's been full of ups and downs, but unfortunately it seems like mostly downs. Leah has had difficulty transitioning. I'm not sure if it is more than usual or if I am just feeling serious Mommy Guilt. She is fine about 5 minutes after I am out of the room, but there are meltdowns each time I leave or if I am seen while at school.

I spend half of the day in the 2-3 year old class with Leah, Miss Jane, and our helper. The other half of the day, I am in Miss Lina's 3-4 year old class. I take a break between... I thought it was 30 minutes, but then I found out that everyone else only gets a 15 minute break...  so now I'm a little confused. Let me explain...

Unfortunately racism is pretty rampant here. I expected to encounter lots of diversity, but the racism was definitely a surprise. :/ Here in Abu Dhabi, your salary, your breaks, your job, etc.. all has to do with your nationality. So far as I can tell you're set if you're Arab, American, or European. Labor jobs are usually done by Indians and service jobs like nursing and cleaning are usually done by Filipinos. I'm still trying to figure out where Africans and Asians fit into the "pecking order," but I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of education obtained.

Wednesday last week was my second day of work. Miss Majdah hired me as the 2-3 year old teacher. The problem was - that I could CLEARLY see - is that there already was a 2-3 year old teacher, Miss Jane from Kenya. I was very concerned, so I asked another person at the nursery in private if Miss Jane was going to lose her job and she assured me that she would not. (Whew!) This person also told me (as nicely as possible) that a big reason I was hired was because I was an American and it is good business for a nursery to be able to say that they have "native English speakers." I've heard that parents here will sign up their kid for a nursery if they see an American (white person) there.

Yep! That's me they're talking about - Native English Teachers. This flyer went out yesterday.

I've been watching (all two days of my employment) trying to learn how the nursery works. I asked Miss Majdah when she would like to have me start writing plans. She said I should start for next week... and plans are due on Thursday, so that meant I'd be writing my first lesson plans during nap time that day.

My first shot at lesson planning for preschool. (Lots of Pinteresting going on!)

Thursday (the start of the weekend here) was interesting.  I had emailed my plans to Miss Majdah prior to coming in and continued to observe and help as I usually do waiting for feedback from her. At one point, I was helping gather the kids in for the 2-3 year old class and I asked Miss Jane, "Is this kid in our class?" She responded, "No, she isn't in MY class." Uhhhh... okay. Then during my break, Miss Majdah hollered up and said that my plans were good and that I would start teaching the 2-3 year old class next week, Oooookay! So it's the afternoon and Leah and I are getting ready to head out when the class newsletters that are sent home each week are dropped off in the room. I scan the newsletter quickly and see that I am introduced and my name is at the top as the teacher. Miss Jane is in the room with me at the time and takes the chance to glance over it as well. She stopped DEAD in her tracks and just sadly stared at the paper in complete shock with my name at the top. I guess no one told her of the change. I felt SO terrible and it was incredibly awkward. During the rest of my time there, I tried to apologize and also to show that I had experience teaching and that I wasn't just some "token American" placement in the school... that I have a teaching degree. It was terrible.

As I was leaving, Miss Majdah comes to me and decides that this is the time to critique my plans. I stopped and listened, welcoming any bit of constructive criticism. I am an elementary school teacher and not a preschool teacher and I am just trying to meet expectations. Her criticism... "You need MORE." Uh, more what? I tried to get clarification, but Leah was pulling on my arm to leave and we had somewhere to go. This working mom thing is going to take some adjusting.

Sunday was my first official day teaching. The whole week prior I had started off the mornings in the older class because the younger class was in Arabic, so I had been planning to have a little prep time during my 30 minute break. Upon arrival Lina explains to me that I will be STARTING the day teaching because they are now going to be alternating days for who has Arabic in morning. I freaked out a little because I wasn't ready. Lina reassured me that everything would be okay and that she would help me cut out what I needed. Then Leah decides to have a HUGE meltdown. She refuses to walk. She is sobbing. I am nervous about teaching a lesson that isn't even ready. It was ugly.

Luckily, this is preschool, the kids don't even understand how school works, and the 2-3 year old class has just as much experience with preschool as Leah and I do. Jane helped me fly by the seat of my pants until we could get things together and it worked. Communication is still very difficult. Leah is the only native English speaker in the whole school. The rest of the students speak Arabic at home. You can't give the kids even the most simple directions because they don't understand you. On top of that they're still learning the game of school - sitting on the carpet for circle time, standing in a line, taking turns - all of it is brand new to them.

Each day has gotten slightly better. I am lucky that the staff so far has been incredibly helpful and nice to me...even though I feel like such an overprivileged American jerk sometimes. I come in and take someone's job. I work 3-4 less hours than everyone. I am probably paid about the same if not more. I get a longer break. I work, not to provide or pay bills, but because I am bored and I want my toddler to be able to socialize with other kids. The list is incriminating.

One of the classroom helpers, a single Filipino mom has a 3 and a 4 year old at home in the Philippines that she hasn't seen in person in more than 2 years that her mother takes care of. She sees them on Skype. The other teacher, Lina, is from Palestine and grew up in the war-torn West Bank and Gaza Strip. She has sons back home in Palestine and lives and works in Abu Dhabi because it is too difficult to find employment back home. I am slowly getting to know everyone and I am interested to learn about different perspectives of the world.

Personally, I am finding it difficult to get back into the groove of working with the addition of being a mom as well. When I taught before, my time away from work was my own. Now, I don't really have "my time" anymore... not that I really have so much as a stay at home mom, but now it just seems like less. I also need to somehow fit in cooking dinner each night, doing laundry, and the general cleaning of the house. We'll get there... at least I'm not bored, right?

So I can end on a positive note... Leah and I were invited by a friend at church to tea on the observation deck of Etihad Towers which is the highest point in Abu Dhabi. We had a great time and it was nice to be able to do a little touristy stuff even though I am working.

Surprise Return to the Workforce

We've been living in Abu Dhabi now almost two months and I have been feeling a little isolated and bored without a car. I guess I never really appreciated having my own back back in the states. Leah and I were accustomed to going to some sort of playgroup or library 2-3 times a week and here we are in the middle of the desert in Abu Dhabi with no car and no friends. Taxis are pretty inexpensive here, but it is still expensive when you are paying EVERY time you want to go out. We went to visit a friend from church in the neighboring Khalifa City A and it was about 20 USD one way.

Leah and I would go swimming several times a week in the pool in our compound of 50 villas, but there were no other children here. The only exposure Leah had with other children was each Friday (the Sabbath is on Fridays in the United Arab Emirates) and about two play dates. I realized that Leah was starting to feel very lonely as well whenever we went to someone's villa to check out a yard sale item and she had an absolute melt down after we made her leave... There was another little girl around the same age and they had been playing together for about the 10-15 minutes.

Both Mommy and Leah needed friends and socialization STAT!

I was having a particularly rough day on Sunday and I told Doug that evening that I REALLY wanted him to buy me a car and that I was unhappy here without one. It wasn't a pretty discussion.

The next day during nap time I saw a posting for a preschool job on the Abu Dhabi yard sale group that I frequent. When I mapped out the location, it was too far away to commute to. At that point, I decided to do a search for nurseries near where we lived and Friends Nursery popped up in results. 

On a whim, I decided to call and see if they had any part time openings. I explained that I had seven years of elementary school teaching experience and a two year old daughter that I would be interested in enrolling the days that I worked as well. I was transferred to the director and asked if I was available to come in the next morning at 9am and I agreed that I would. That evening, I pushed Leah in the stroller and it only took 5 minutes from doorstep to doorstep... the only catch is that we need to walk through a very dirty and sandy alleyway.

The next morning Leah and I woke up and got there right on time. The receptionist welcomed me in and I met with Majdah, the director, for an interview. What I had in mind, was that I would work 3 days a week as some sort of classroom assistant or clerical worker. Majdah was pretty pretty up front with me in the beginning saying that it is illegal (or something like that) in the UAE to hire someone part time. She said that I could work "full time" 8:30a-12:30p, but that it would need to be five days a week. (The work week here is Sunday thru Thursday.) 

Then after only about 10 minutes of talking to me, she offered me a competitive monthly salary with a 50% discount in tuition for Leah. The offer seemed pretty decent, but we had already purchased tickets to go home over Christmas break for over a month and I would be absent for part of the term. Majdah said that those dates would be fine and that I just shouldn't expect pay during my absences.

She then took my on a tour of the nursery while Leah happily played in the front room with the toys there. We were there for a little under 2 hours and I left telling Majdah that I would get back to her that evening with whether or not I was going to accept the job offer after talking to my husband. 

The only paperwork I would need was a "Certificate of Good Conduct" and my diploma needed to be attested. She had mentioned during the interview that I could take of getting my diploma attested while I was home for Christmas. 

I was feeling pretty good about everything and talking to Doug was only a formality anyways since I knew he would be fine with me working if I wanted to work... so I asked one more question.

     "About when would you like me to start?"

     Tomorrow.

     Uh... Okay! (Wow!!)

So I went from "unemployed" stay at home mom kind of thinking about maybe looking for a part time job on Sunday to I'm-accepting-a-full-time-job-offer on Monday to STARTING WORK on Tuesday. It all was pretty overwhelming.

I didn't sleep much Monday night. I woke up and started researching British Early Years and Montessori because the director is very passionate about Montessori. I then realized that it was also my sweet Leah's first day of preschool tomorrow, so of course I had to still fulfill my mommy obligations of "Pinterest-worthy" first day pictures. I only ended up getting a few hours of sleep and because of that, we SLEPT in Tuesday morning.

We woke up at 8am and needed to get showered, dressed, eat breakfast and pack lunches all by 8:25 in order to get to school on time. My first day "Pinterest-worthy" picture was going to have to wait. By some miracle, we made it on time (without lunches or snack). Luckily, they didn't expect to have me create any lesson plans or anything. I was just observing in two of the classrooms and helping out. Leah and I got home and I decided that I could take a first day picture even if it was after school. I redid her hair, cleaned her face, and handed her a frame off the wall. We sat out on the front steps of our villa and she actually smiled. CHECK! Unfortunately, I don't have Photoshop installed on my computer yet, so it was a ghetto Microsoft Paint job to add text to the frame... but alas, it's done! ..and I think she's adorable!

Today is Wednesday and we are back home and I am waiting for Microsoft Office to install on my computer so I can try my best to make my lesson plans for next week. My class consist of ten kids right now. Only one of them speaks English at home... Leah. Heck,.. I can barely pronounce their names correctly - Ahmed, Mariam, Matar, Mezna, Mys, Lilas, Rashed, Fatima, and Khalifa, In my classroom before, you would have maybe 5 or 6 ELL learners, but the other 20 kids in your class spoke English. Now, none of my students speak my language and I don't speak theirs. It should be an interesting challenge. They're all 2 years old and just learning to speak anyway. The director tells me that they will have English down by third term.

My biggest concern about this job right now is my little sweet Leah. She has been having difficulty sharing me with the other kids and has been crying a lot. The other teachers and the director tell me that it is just a transition and that she will be fine soon enough, but I can't help but have this terrible awful feeling in my mommy gut. A part of me is really concerned that she's not READY to go to preschool 5 days a week for 4 hours a day. That's A LOT! She's only two years old. :( I keep on telling myself that the socialization and structure that she is getting will be good for her, but it all just seemed WRONG whenever I heard her sobbing at school and asking to go home today... she's not really much of a crier at all.

When we get home, we just snuggle on the couch, just the two of us and discuss our morning. I guess I'm going to have to pull the band-aid off sometime... and I guess being her preschool teacher is about as transitional as it can possibly get. 

Moving Overseas: A Process

When Doug took the job, we knew we weren't going to have time to get our home in Virginia ready to sell or even ready to rent, so we decided in order to make things less complicated that we would either leave the house vacant or get a house sitter that we could trust.

I happened to know that the mother of a friend of mine in the neighborhood was looking to move to the area to be closer to her grand kids...  and her daughter too. We had probably talked briefly about her mom wanting to move nearby over a year ago, so it was a LONG shot. In mine and Doug's minds, she was the perfect match for a house sitter - no kids, no pets, neat, independent, and on top of all of that, she would be able to go stay in her daughter's house nearby whenever we came home to visit. Now all we needed to do was break the news that we were moving to Abu Dhabi to my friend and see if her mom might be interested. It was a LONG shot, but somehow it ended up working out.

We would leave some furniture, our cars, and other odds and ends, but our house sitter would take over paying any utilities, mow the lawn, and basically keep an eye on the place. We made arrangements with our home and car insurance and everything went smoothly into place.

House sitter... CHECK!

Next on the list - pets. Doug had a saltwater aquarium that he needed to take down and rehome several fish. We also have two cats, Darwin and Lucky. We knew that Lucky would never be able to come with us because he was an outdoor cat. We weren't sure of our future living situation at the time and knew that Lucky would want to be able to roam freely in the woods behind our house. We briefly discussed finding another home for him, but in the end, our house sitter said that she would be more than happy to take care of him.

Lucky's personal romping grounds behind our house.

We figured Darwin would be able to live anywhere with us, even if we ended up in some small city apartment. The next part would be to research relocating a cat to Abu Dhabi. We called around and got some quotes for a professional pet relocation company to do it and our best quote after calling several companies was $4500. Yep... and that didn't include any vet costs. We were devastated. There was no way that we were going to pay that much to move our cat. We had a moving stipend that would cover the costs, but it was only one way and any costs for furnishing our home in Abu Dhabi would be coming out of the same pot.

I was determined to find a cheaper way. I had done my research and decided that I was going to do it all myself. I called the vet and arranged to get him all the required shots that the UAE required. It was going to take multiple appointments and cost several hundred dollars because of ridiculous requirements like a $180 blood test to check for rabies. Once we had our tickets, I called our airline KLM to make reservations for Darwin in manifest cargo since all pets are required to go into the UAE this way. Darwin's ticket was going to be $250, but that included a stay in a "pet hotel" in Amsterdam, so I figured I was still saving a ton. I purchased a special "airline kennel" for $50 that would meet all of the strict IATA requirements. We ended up having to hire a company in Abu Dhabi to handle the import since we couldn't handle translating certain documents into Arabic. The import service was going to be $950... still not $4500, so we figured it was the best we could do.

Leah checking out the sky kennel for Darwin.

We added up all of the expenses and it looked like we were going to be able to do it all for just under $1800... which is STILL A LOT, but a lot less than $5100 it would have been with vet costs included. I had called the airline at least a half a dozen times to confirm Darwin's booking and all seemed to be going smoothly. We were patting ourselves on the back for being able to save so much money.

Pet relocation... CHECK! (or so we thought...more on this later.)

The company that had hired Doug in Abu Dhabi had provided a nice moving package and we were given an allowance of 9000 pounds to move our stuff overseas. We were warned that it would take around 6 weeks for our stuff to reach Abu Dhabi and then it would need to go through customs. An appointment was made shortly after Doug left and a surveyor from the moving company was supposed to come through our house and estimate the weight and how big of a shipping crate they would need to bring to our house. I read all the fine print and decided that I would type up 8 pages in 12 point font of what we wanted to bring with us as well as calculate replacement costs for insurance. This took several hours and was an interesting way to spend my sleepless nights prior to the move. Deciding what to bring was particularly difficult because we had no clue what kind of place we would be able to get. Doug had been in Abu Dhabi for a couple of weeks at this point and he was having a terribly difficult time finding a place to live within our living allowance provided by the company.  Here is my "Move Inventory." Doesn't it look pretty?

SOOO the day of the move survey came. A guy came to my house and I pointed at what we would be bringing. I asked him if he needed a list of items.. holding my neatly type and categorized inventory proudly in my hands. And NOPE, it wasn't necessary at all. But, at least I knew what we were bringing. So yeah, that was sort of a waste of time, but my OCD self was still somewhat pleased with my 8 pages of spreadsheets, so it was going to be okay. :)

The moving company would be there June 1 to load everything into boxes and into a shipping crate. As it was explained to me by the move surveyor, our stuff would be loaded into a big metal 20 foot shipping crate that would be sealed with a special lock. Then it would be taken to Baltimore and put on a ship that would arrive 5-6 weeks later at a port in the Middle East. The next time my crate would be opened would be at customs clearance in Abu Dhabi. We were given a very non-specific list on what we could and could not bring with us. If we had any questions, we could ask our "personal move coordinator" April. Unfortunately, she was not much help and told me to "refer to the move paperwork" to answer questions which was very frustrating.

Moving day came on June 1st. Our move was different that others that the company does in that we weren't bringing all of our stuff with us. I had spent my time preparing and sorting every inch of my house so that I could clearly show the movers exactly what we would be bringing and NOT bringing. Three moving guys came in a truck and I searched up and down my street for the big 20 foot crate that I was told would be coming. The guys told me that the crate was on it's way from Baltimore harbor and that they were just going to start packing everything up. IT HAPPENED FAST! They carefully wrapped every cup and plate and even emptied my pantry (to my complete surprise). Before I knew it about 80% of home was wrapped or packed in boxes,

Then the head of the moving crew came and casually explained to me that the shipping crate would not be making it to my house that day and that they would just be loading all of our stuff into their truck and then bringing it to a warehouse where it would then be packed into the shipping crate (without me there). I WAS NOT OKAY WITH THAT.

Each time our stuff was moved, there was the possibility of things being dented or broken or lost. Not cool. The moving crew had been fantastic and hardworking and when I kind of freaked out, he mentioned that I may want to call our move coordinator. I called and explained to her that I was not going to let them take a single box out of my house unless it was going into a 20 foot shipping container that was parked directly in front of my home AS PROMISED. She told me that I was mistaken and that no such thing had been told to me. I explained to her that I had been told by the move surveyor, the packing crew, AND BY HER. She denied everything, but I still refused to let the crew move a single box onto their truck, so they went ahead and left for lunch. She said she would work on it, but there were no guarantees.

About 30 to 45 minutes of nail biting later, I received a call back from her with an apology because she reread the email that SHE sent me that told me about the shipping crate. Then magically, she was able to make the shipping crate get to my house. The move was back on.

It was tight, but the packers were able to get everything into the shipping crate. It took some mad Tetris skills, but we got everything in! All in all, we only used about 4500 lbs of our shipping allotment, so we should be able to bring lots of souvenirs home!

Furniture and household goods in shipping crate... CHECK!

Leah and I had 6 weeks of living in our house with basically NO STUFF. It was interesting, but we have great friends and family nearby, so the time flew by!

Yeah. It was empty.

We filled the next 6 weeks with tons of playdates..yes, there was even a baby goat involved!  We took trips to the lake, went swimming almost daily, traveled to Skyline Caverns, went hiking, did fireworks, Leah rode a horse at a birthday party, we went to the carnival... you name it. We stayed BUSY! Now I will assault you with a million pictures. :)

Everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly. I even decided to take upon a home improvement project that I had been thinking about doing. I used gel stain on my builder grade oak bathroom cabinets to make them a dark espresso and I finally got around to painting my white bathroom after living in our house for 7 years. I was going to frame the mirror too, but never got around to it.

THEN 9 DAYS BEFORE mine and Leah's flight was to leave, the crap hit the fan. We just just had our last appointment with the vet to get the health certificate, a document required for you pet to travel. In everywhere else in the world, you are required to have it completed within 10 days of travel. Once the vet checks over your cat, you must send the documents express mail to the nearest USDA office in your state for a stamp and then have it sent back express mail to reach you prior to flying. The import company in Abu Dhabi informed us (just 9 days before leaving) that the UAE requires health certificates to be completed 6 days within flying.. oh and the USDA endorsement would need to be less than 48 hours old. WHAT?! I was almost at my wits end at this point, but I rescheduled with the vet to come again to redo the health certificate in a few days so that it would be within the proper window and then Leah and I would drive 3 hours down to Richmond the day before we flew in order to get the USDA endorsement. Everything was going to work out.

THEN 3 DAYS BEFORE we were supposed to fly, we found out that Darwin was booked improperly on the flight to Abu Dhabi. He was supposed to be booked as "manifest cargo" as I had requested, but apparently he was booked as "in the hold." (Fun Fact: The ONLY difference between flying manifest cargo and in the hold is basically some paperwork.) We were told by the import company that there would be at least a $1000 fine if he came to the UAE this way. I was told to call KLM cargo in order to book him. I called KLM cargo to find out that it was against policy for any "private person" to arrange booking for a pet and that we were REQUIRED to hire a company to oversee the process. I about lost it here, but calmly asked for numbers of such companies in the area, I called and found out that it would be an additional $1500... not $250 to fly Darwin. I called Doug in tears. He said that we would have to leave Darwin behind and eat the $1800 that we had already spent because we were at the breaking point.

I was stressed. I sobbed. I was done.

During this whole process, Doug had been working on getting an increased allotment for housing since we were having such trouble finding a place that would fit our stuff in the shipping crate which was already in route... so no going back. In this process, it came to Doug's attention that HR somehow had a old version of his resume that had left off over 10 years of work experience. Doug was able to get the housing allowance plus other allowances adjusted. This included an increase in the allowance for pet relocation and literally last minute... Darwin was able to come!

So on July 15th, Leah and I were finally able to get on a plane to Abu Dhabi to join Doug!