Month One with Rayan

My baby boy is already 4 weeks old. Part of me is glad we are already a third of the way through with the newborn phase but the other part of me wants time to slow down. He is most likely our last baby, and I want to enjoy every minute of it. (I have to remind myself of that sometimes during the 1, 3 and 5am feeds). This boy has a hearty appetite. Riya was on a predictable routine from the get go, every 3 hours. But this boy wants to eat ALL day and has started to do 4-5 hour stretches at night, giving me a much needed break. I hope this means he will start sleeping though the night earlier than Riya which was at 4 months.

Apart from his insatiable appetite, I really can't complain. Rayan is a doll. He's already handling Riya's poking and proding like a champ:) The second babies have to put up with a lot straight from the get go! Riya adores her baby brother and can't keep her hands off of him. I am looking forward to seeing their relationship and bond grow over the next year.

I cannot get over the similarities between Rayan and Riya. When he was born the first thing I said was he looked exactly like Riya. Take a look:

Here are some pictorial highlights of his first few weeks of life:

Merry Christmas from the Aiyers...

...a few days late. I'm sure you can understand why :)

At just one week old, Rayan celebrated his first Christmas in London. It wasn't our best day, as baby and I were very sleep deprived and Riya is still miserable from teething her 2 year molars. But Riya enjoyed opening presents this year at least! We spoiled her this year and bought her new pajamas, another train set (this one is girly), 2 more lego duplo sets, her first doll, a gear puzzle, table hockey, and stickers. From her grandma, she got a homemade chair kitchen and kaleidoscope. Her aunts/uncles bought her some clothes. I guess you can say we all went a bit overboard:) But the smile on her face was worth it!

Rayan has arrived!

I cannot believe I had a baby one week ago...

Rayan was born at 6:45am on December 17th at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He was 4 days early:) He weighed 6lbs 7oz and 16.9 inches tall. After 25 hours of labor and delivery, we happily welcomed our newest addition to the family.

My pregnancy experience in London has been very different than my experience in Dubai. But I have to say, overall I was very pleased with the treatment I received. For one thing, I am in a country where they embrace the concept of VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). Typically, once you've had a Cesarean, most doctors won't allow you to have a VBAC. While there is strong support that VBACs are the safer alternative, not all countries adopt this way of thinking. Luckily for me, I was in the right place at the right time. I was still at high risk for having a cesarean if complications ensued, but the system here was willing to let me have a VBAC.

The role of the midwife is central during your pregnancy. They supervise your pregnancy from start to finish. Obstetricians exist but they are specialized and address only high risk cases. So if you are having an uncomplicated pregnancy, you may only see the doctor once or twice throughout your pregnancy. Unlike the US however, you are assigned to a team of midwives, so you may not always see the same person at every appointment. So that means, you have no way of knowing who will be in the delivery room with you. Since this was not my first pregnancy, that fact didn't bother me much. But repeating my pregnancy history over and over again was exhausting (because they can't be bothered to take a minute to read your chart).

Not surprisingly, when I showed up at the hospital at 2am on Thursday morning, I was under the care of a midwife I had never seen before. But she was awesome. And in case you were wondering, the doctor came in twice. Once at the beginning to check my vitals and then again just after the baby was born.

Under NHS, you have a private room for delivery and then you are moved to the recovery ward where you recuperate in a room with 5 other mothers and their newborns and a community bathroom. Some hospitals have a private wing and offer a private room with private bath but the price tag was an astonishing $450 per night. Oh, and you cannot reserve a room ahead of time, its available on a first come, first serve basis. Moreover, if you have a normal delivery, you are expected to discharge anywhere from 6-24 hours after delivery. If you have a cesarean or gestational diabetes during your pregnancy (I had the latter), you are allowed to stay 48 hours. The length of stay came as a shock to me, especially if things didn't go my way and I needed a cesarean. Remembering how it was the first time around, 2 days seemed too soon.

After giving birth, I had a few hours alone in the delivery room (we got lucky) to enjoy our baby boy before we were rolled out to the recovery ward where I stayed for 2 days with 5 other women and their newborn babies. That was an interesting experience.  I was lucky to have a sleepy newborn, but a few other women did not. And I became privy to nasty arguments between spouses, which at first was entertaining but then got old really quick. I wanted to yell out, "get it together people! and shut the hell up!!!"

But as I said, overall I was very pleased with the care I received. I wanted a true London experience and I got one!

Now without further adue, here is a snapshot of week one with my cutie pie. Riya wants to hold her baby brother all the time which is challenging but oh so cute:)

Hive Five! 

He looks just like his daddy:) 

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park

I'm so glad we are not moving and can actually enjoy all things Christmas this year! The minute Ram told me about the Christmas Market and Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park, I marked my calendar and was determined to take Riya. The event opened the weekend before Thanksgiving but since I don't believe in doing anything Christmas related until AFTER Thanksgiving, we waited till the following weekend.

It got quite cold/windy/cloudy that week but I didn't want to wait since we have no way of telling when baby plans to make his debut (T-2 weeks!). So we rode the bus for 40 minutes to South Kensington and then walked another 10 to Hyde Park. The event was well planned and thought out. Much better than the one we attended in Dubai. I know its not fair to compare, but I couldn't help myself :p

They even had little open cottages with big fires for you to sit and enjoy a cuppa or some yummy belgian waffles. There was a heated carousel bar, which I thought was pretty cool. They also had an ice skating rink, Santa's Grotto, and an indoor ski slope type thingy amongst all the carnival rides and food.

Fire pit

A few minutes in we spotted a Reindeer roller coaster ride for Riya and she immediately wanted to get on....and round and round she went. SIX times. It was her first roller coaster experience. The girl was obsessed.

Whilst waiting why not take a selfie?!

After we peeled Riya away from the Reindeer, we walked around a bit and enjoyed the cosy fire pit and food before heading back home for nap time. When we got home I realized we didn't make time for Santa (DOH!). 

Giving Thanks

At a time like this, I have to remind myself that although I am heartbroken, I have a lot of blessings in my life. To focus on the positives. I have so many things to be thankful for...

I'll get straight to it.

1. Though I miss him dearly, I am extremely thankful that Luca was part of many happy milestones in my life and that he led a full life and is now at peace;

2. I am thankful that I am carrying this baby to term. We got a peak at baby boy Aiyer this morning at the doctor's office and he is happy and healthy; 

3. I am thankful that my mom is able to fly out and spend the holidays with us and will meet her second grandchild as a newborn;

4. I am thankful for all the joy and light that Riya has brought into our lives, she is such a character these days; and lastly,

5. I am very thankful for my husband who continues to exercise patience and unconditional love, especially now when I need it the most. And I'm thankful for the experiences and opportunities he has afforded us to live a dream life in another country.

ODE TO LUCA

After nearly 11 years with us, today we lost our beloved Luca. Due to serious medical issues, and seeing him in pain, we decided to put an end to Luca's suffering.

Loyalty and compassion are the words that come to mind when I think of Luca. He came into my life at 5 weeks old on my 25th birthday. I will never forget how he took his first steps in front of me a few days later. I will never forget how he accepted Ram as the man in my life with open arms. I will never forget how he loyally followed us around the world to experience life on the other side of the pond. After all, our home would never be complete without Luca.

The images of Luca sneaking back scratches on the rug, dragging himself from one end to the next, and snoring his way through each and every door bell ring (because lets face it, he was never a guard dog), are still fresh in my mind.

And now...all there is is deafening silence.

I already miss hearing the pitter patter of his paws and the tail wagging waddle that awaits me every time he sees me. It didn't matter if he had just spotted me 10 minutes ago in another room, he was always happy to see us. His heart was full of love. These coming days and weeks will feel empty without our Luca by our side but we know that he is finally pain free and that's all we ever wanted for him.

Keep smiling Luca...we will always remember you.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween marks the start of the holiday season, in my opinion, but overseas, Halloween is marginally celebrated and then its straight to Christmas (or Father Christmas as they call it here). Even though we have spent 4 Christmases away, and it's one of my favorite holidays, I still can't wrap my head around seeing Christmas decor out for sale in October. OCTOBER. It just doesn't make sense!

With everything we have going on, I let Halloween almost slip through the cracks this year. We weren't even sure if we were going to take Riya trick or treating. Even though Halloween was born in Scotland and is widely celebrated up north, its not a big deal here. All week at Riya's nursery they were making Halloween related crafts. So when we got a note from Riya's nursery that the kids are welcome to come in costume on Friday, I panicked. Having a family themed costume was definitely out of the question. Luckily I found a last minute costume for Miss Riya that was super cute!

Here's our lil mouse:

Halloween was such a beautiful day over here and uncharacteristically warm (70's). Only a few houses on our street participated in handing out candy, but our little mouse was too shy and overwhelmed to actually trick or treat. After going to 2 houses, we stopped. But she enjoyed watching us hand out candy:

Dancing on the street as we hand out candy <3

Yes we let her have the 2 pieces of candy she trick or treated for :) 

And we actually got invited to an American Halloween house party which required a costume as well so being as pregnant as I am, I just decided Ram and I would have to throw something together with accessories. When I saw nerd gear (aka suspenders, glasses and bow tie) at a store, I just went with it:) Ram did a much better job than I did. That hat made all the difference :p