Two parents, two kids, approximately two hundred kilos of luggage. Two cars to get us and our stuff to the airport. Two seats on the plane. Two pictures of Michael to commemorate his first flight.
Two airplane meals successfully consumed (we are still stunned about this!). Two sleeping kids for much of the flight. Two hour time zone change. Two porters at Cairo airport to shift our luggage into one of these . Two AM arrival at our home in Maadi.
Innumerable benefits for my children - health, IQ, and sociability.
Cons
Can feel like I am nursing constantly, but that is usually true of anyone exclusively breastfeeding a newborn.
Often toddlers who were content to nurse only a few times a day, as my older child was, suddenly demand far more for the first six to eight
weeks after their sibling arrives. According to midwife Sangeeta, the milk switches from 'skim' to 'full fat' during these few weeks and neither the newborn or the toddler wants to miss a bit of it.
Haven't yet worked out how to take a nap while feeding two at once.
With My Brest Friend, sitting on the sofa is no problem, but I have not yet figured out how to lay flat in bed in order to get a nap while feeding both at the same time. Resting in bed while nursing is one of my favourite perqs of breastfeeding, so I am determined to figure this one out.
My toddler requests numnums much more frequently when she is bored, and I find it a challenge to provide a variety of other activities for my older child when nursing is the easy option.
Play-doh, picture books, peek-a-boo...
The distress of my older child when I ask her to wait a few seconds while I get her younger brother latched on first.
She must fear that I will suddenly refuse her access to the breast, since she can patiently wait in all other circumstances. I think this fear goes to the very heart of anxiety over being replaced by the new baby. So I will keep reassuring her and racking my brain to come up with ways to communicate how special, unique and irreplaceable she is while continuously caring for her little brother.
We had our last visit with our Birth Centre midwives yesterday. Tanisha came and weighed Michael: 4975 grams, or one ounce short of eleven pounds. She also pronounced me completely recovered from the birth, just in time to travel back to Egypt.
Ben and I took Nikki and Michael to the zoo for the first time today. We were blessed with great weather and since it was a weekday we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Lions roaring, monkeys chasing each other, penguins swimming, butterflies fluttering, and a parrot brushing past us. A very fun day out!
Yesterday Nikki went to Tumble Tots for the last time. I wore Michael in the Ergo carrier and took pictures while Ben helped Nikki play on the equipment. Here you can catch a glimpse of the variety of activities in a typical 45-minute session.
Congratulations to cousins Wendy and Randy on the birth of their son, Benjamin David , born today measuring 6 lbs 11oz and 19.8 inches. Congratulations also to 18-month-old Abby on becoming a Big Sister!
Today Nikki recognised her first letter. She was spending time with Ben this morning while I alternately dozed and fed Michael. When Ben got to the 'Mm' page in My First ABC Board Book that we borrowed from the library a few days ago, Nikki made the 'mma' sound before Ben did. Then she made the sound again while using the sign language for 'milk.'
So, today marks Nikki's first bit of reading/letter recognition. Ben and I are now firm believers in phonics .
We all got up early this morning to be at the American Embassy for our 0930 appointment to apply for Michael's passport. We were in the queue for security outside the building at 0915. And we finally made it into the embassy at around 10am, by which time we realised that our "appointment" was more of a vague placeholder than a set time for beginning the passport application process.
The process involves meeting with different officials no less than four times. One of the times we were called, Ben was downstairs changing Nikki's diaper and I was breastfeeding. I went up to the man behind the counter and started answering his questions, but I could not fill out the forms since my hands were full. He also needed Ben's signature so I sat back down for a couple of minutes until Ben and Nikki returned and Michael had nursed his fill. Hopping up to answer questions while nursing earned me a small cheer from the crowd, many of whom were breastfeeding as well.
Due to a glitch that delayed our paperwork by at least two hours,
we were the penultimate family to leave as the American Consular Service closed for lunch at
1330. Fortunately there were toys in the back for Nikki to play
with, diaper changing facilities downstairs, and several nice people to
chat with, including 10-day-old Benjamin and his family who are expats
out in Egypt with us, and 9-month-old Lily and her parents who will be
returning soon to the US, as well as another man who is a long-term
resident of London and joined Lily's mum and me in an animated
babywearing discussion.
After leaving the embassy, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Gloucester Road branch of ASK and made it back to our apartment at 1530. A little late but still a reasonable naptime for Nikki, a trip to the post office for me, and then... what do two children need after a day out in central London? A bubble bath!
Congratulations to my sister, Erin , and her husband Patrick on the birth yesterday of their second son, Nathaniel Patrick. Congratulations also to Timothy on becoming a Big Brother! Nathaniel weighed in at 7lb 13oz and 20 inches long, but he was taken to the NICU initially as a precaution. Many thanks to Erin for sending me a picture of little Nathaniel from her cell phone before she'd even gotten a chance to hold him - he's a good looking little boy!
One of the benefits of living abroad is being able to claim extra holidays! As an American visiting Britain on Mothering Sunday, I was both surprised and pleased to receive an immense bouquet of red and pink tulips this morning. Thank you, Ben!
Ben has had three wonderful weeks off since Michael was born. He has one more week of leave planned, and we have decided to split it as two weeks of half-days. That way I can more gradually get used to being double teamed by two children under the age of two.
Today was Ben's first half-day of his return to work, and fortunately he opted to work from home this afternoon. There were a couple of times when I urgently needed his extra set of hands to help Nikki when I was immobilised feeding Michael. I can see already that I will be doing a lot more babywearing at home, in addition to when I am out and about. Let's hope I am a pro at this by the time Ben is back to full-time work!
After a visit from Tanisha this morning, who weighed Michael in at 4490g (9lb 14oz), Ben, Nikki, Michael and I travelled in to central London for Michael's passport photos. We changed Tube lines on the way at Westminster Station , where we popped out for a photo of Michael (or at least his socks ) alongside Big Ben .
As with Nikki's infant passport photos , we took her to the pros on Oxford Street . Madonna, Eric Clapton, and Muhammad Ali all appear on the wall of fame, and who knows... maybe one day Nikki and Michael will go right up there with the other celebrities.
We took a family outing to Kew Gardens to feed the water birds and see the stingrays. As Ben and I threw our stale wholewheat bread in various directions from our post on Sackler Crossing , many of the birds fluttered and dove all over the place. But one Canadian goose took up position right in front of Nikki. He knew that she might not throw her bread very often, but when she did, it would go straight to him.
After the bread was eaten and our feathered friends departed, we visited the Princess of Wales Conservatory , enjoying tropical plants, freshwater
stingrays , water dragons and poison-dart
frogs . Here is a picture of Michael and me in the wet tropics zone .
