London – On An Even Kiel

I already mentioned in my 3 month post about Gerrit that January was a whirlwind month. Since I had my hands full with Mr. G, Andrew dealt with nearly everything regarding our move. I’m glad he dealt with everything, because I was always feeling stressed with Gerrit’s sleeping & eating. Typical new mother, I’m sure!

When I had free time, I worked on a list on my phone of things I needed to pack. It helped a little when I actually had to pack up the suitcases. It was still difficult though, because Gerrit was not in the mood to cooperate! Andrew and I would trade off holding/entertaining him while I packed things up. I was basically running from room to room throwing things in any suitcase that had space. Not organized at all. Somehow we managed to get everything to base (in two trips) before I had to start getting our little guy ready for bed.

Things that I’m really glad I packed for Gerrit:

Pack ‘n’ Play: We had started putting Gerrit to sleep in the Pack ‘n’ Play in our bedroom a few days before we moved into lodging on base. I wanted to bring it along (vs borrowing one) so that he would have some consistency when it came to sleeping.
Activity Gym: This folded up fairly flat, so I was able to fit it into a suitcase. We haven’t used it much since getting to the US, but I used it daily while we stayed in lodging.
Blooming Bath: I’m so glad we packed this! Andrew seemed surprised that I was taking it, but we’ve been in several different places since we left England, and they all at least have a kitchen sink. No matter what size the sink is, that flower fits in there. We can easily throw it in the dryer if we need to, and we can throw it in a plastic bag and stuff it a suitcase.
Car seat/stroller combo: We got this combo at the last minute, because we didn’t want to deal with going through the airport without a stroller. We’re really thankful we did! Gerrit was mostly content to sit in his car seat being pushed in the stroller through the airport. And even when we took him out, we used the stroller to transport other bags. That being said, we’re not in love with the car seat. We have a Graco one that is currently in our vehicle being shipped from England, and we prefer that hands down. But it was still a good purchase for traveling.

Living in lodging was pretty nice. Since we were officially a family this time, we had a larger room than what we had when we stayed in lodging after arriving in England over 3 years ago. This time our room had a living area, a kitchen, a separate bedroom, and a washer and dryer in a closet. So convenient! It was nice to be able to use up my laundry detergent and some of my dryer sheets. I packed my recipe binder so that we could cook some meals which came in handy.

The night before we flew out of London was a little rough. I don’t know if Gerrit was just picking up on our stress levels, but he did not want to stay asleep that night. I think I finally got him down after midnight, but he was still restless. None of us got much sleep before we had to be up and waiting for the bus (at 4 in the morning). Thankfully, Gerrit slept in his car seat on the bus, so I was able to snooze for awhile myself.

Dealing with the airport itself was not that bad. The employees were friendly and helpful. Everyone wanted to see Gerrit and say hi. 🙂 Again, I’m really glad we had the stroller! It would have been fine to put Gerrit in the Moby Wrap, but it was much easier to just push him along. Gerrit stayed in a pretty good mood throughout the airport as well. I think he was pretty entertained by all the new sights and sounds.

We were one of the first to board the plane, so we were able to get situated without too much hassle. Again, I think Gerrit was distracted by all the new things to check out to be upset while people were boarding. We kept Gerrit in the car seat for take-off, and he did pretty well. In fact, at some point, he fell asleep. That was nice for me, since I got another nap in.

I did have to nurse several times on the flight, but it didn’t go too badly. It was more difficult when Gerrit was tired or irritable, because then he was thrashing around, making it a hassle to keep the nursing cover on. Not that I cared… I would have been fine nursing without anything. We were hoping Gerrit wouldn’t have any poopy diapers, but, of course, he had at least 4 of them! It was fairly easy to change him in the airplane bathroom, since they were all equipped with a pull down changing table.

I think the biggest surprise was how Gerrit reacted to the plane’s descent. I buckled him into his car seat again and had a few toys ready in case he started fussing. But when my ears started popping, he just began smiling and gurgling away! I have no idea if the pressure changes just didn’t bother him or what, but he seemed to enjoy that part of the plane ride.

Gerrit was fine going through the Chicago airport too. I carried him that time (we used the stroller to carry some bags), so maybe that helped. My sister, Amanda, was so excited to meet her little nephew! I think I got half a hug from her before she scooped him up. 🙂 By the time we got to her car, he was done though. He was so upset (way overdue for a nap), and it took awhile to get him settled. But I was very happy that he did so well with his first airplane ride… especially with it being over 8 hours long!

Yikes, I’ve been working on this (slowly) for over a week! It has been crazy times getting ready for this move.

Moving back to the US of A just a couple of months after having a baby means… Baby needs a passport! Since we knew we would be short on time, we opted to go to the embassy in London to get an emergency passport for Gerrit.

I was nervous about the trip to London. We decided to drive to Epping and take the Tube into London instead of driving there ourselves, which would have meant paying for the congestion fee and parking. I was mostly nervous about breastfeeding whenever and wherever Gerrit would want to feed! But I also worried about having him in the Moby wrap for large amounts of time. I didn’t think he would like being confined for more than 15-20 minutes at a time.

Well, we left a little bit later than we wanted to, and when we got to Epping, the lot was full. I knew the next station was in Theydon Bois, so we drove the 5 minutes to that town. Luckily, there was one spot left in that parking lot! While Andrew paid for parking, I quickly changed Gerrit’s diaper in the backseat of the car. Then we got on the Tube and headed toward London.

It didn’t take long for Gerrit to start fussing. Based on the amount of time since his last feeding, I assumed he was hungry again. I got set up with my nursing cover and thankfully, Gerrit started nursing right away. It was a little awkward, but the train was fairly empty, so I wasn’t too uncomfortable. Then the conductor announced that we had to switch trains because the one we were on was having a problem. So I maneuvered a mostly asleep Gerrit (still nursing) to a bench outside. And he kept nursing. When the next train came, it was already pretty full. Andrew asked a woman if I could have her seat to nurse, and she very willingly gave up her seat. The man sitting next to her gave up his for Andrew to sit too, which was really nice. Would this happen in a city in the States? I don’t know! I feel like maybe English people are just more polite!

I pretty much let Gerrit nurse until we got to the stop right before the one we were waiting for. Then I got him back in the Moby wrap, which was pretty easy since he was drowsy. And he actually did pretty well while we walked around trying to find the US embassy. He is such an alert little guy, so I think he really enjoyed walking through the London streets! His eyes were big and alert, and he just quietly took it all in.

Although we had an appointment for 10am at the embassy, we didn’t get seen right away. But we didn’t have to wait terribly long either. I think we were done by 1pm at the latest. Of course, right when we got there, I heard Gerrit have a big poop, haha. Thankfully, it stayed in the diaper, which isn’t always a guarantee anymore!

Although I had nursed on the Tube, Gerrit started fussing again once we sat down to wait. I got him covered up and breastfeeding, and he started dozing off. Ten minutes later, he spit up ALL over himself and me. I mean, a LOT of spit up. I had an extra outfit for him, but nothing for myself. And I had the Moby wrap on me too, so that smelled lovely the rest of the day. I’m so glad Andrew was there to help — it would have been a challenge by myself!

After everything was squared away at the embassy, we walked to a nearby pub for lunch. And I breastfed there too, haha. What can I say, Gerrit likes to eat! We were at a table near the back, so I wasn’t too self-conscious about it. I did have to eat my lunch one-handed though since Gerrit was having lunch too. I enjoyed my last Aspall cider with my lunch too… I will miss that! Andrew thought it was “interesting” that I was drinking it while breastfeeding… but I figured drinking it at the end of a feed meant it had plenty of time to get through my system, right?

Gerrit started getting fussy on the walk back to the Tube, and he cried a bit once we were settled in our seats, but he didn’t do too badly. He even took a little nap! He was more fussy once we got to the car. Andrew had to pull over so I could nurse. But I think Gerrit just wanted to comfort nurse to fall asleep, which he couldn’t do since he had to go back in the car seat. Poor guy. He did end up going to sleep though, and we got home without any issues.

Our London adventure resulted in our little guy being ready for his first international flight!