KK85

I am such a fair-weather forum user...

I have been politely nudged by a lovely friend I made through this website, to come back here and share my news. I'm also hopeful, perhaps because of the nature of my news, that this time I'll come back and stay back, and put more into the forum after it gave so generously to me. I do miss it! Maybe it just takes a wobbly person a couple of years to find their expat feet, and now that the ground has firmed back up I can devote less of my time to 'just getting by' and more of it to the fun stuff. Like watching you lot conduct your eye-rolls at almost any mention of Florida.

My husband and I are delighted to be expecting our first baby - a boy - this October. Those who might remember me may recall that my husband and I struggled a little with the adjustment that came after our CR-1 visa journey reached its finale, but I am very proud and relieved to say - and one might hope it should be obvious, life events considered - that we recovered fully. High-five to anyone going through it. (You got this!) We started trying for our little British-American hybrid human in December and were shocked to find ourselves pregnant a mere six weeks later (I'm on the dodgy side of my mid-thirties, plus a couple of other factors), but as soon as the shock subsided the excitement kicked in. We're off to Lancaster to buy the stroller this weekend. It's bonkers how quickly one can adjust to saying 'stroller' instead of 'pushchair'. Though I doubt it will ever come naturally to say 'pacifier'.

I am one month and assorted days away from being able to apply to have the conditions removed from my green card, so that's on our to-do list this summer as well. And then comes the stay-at-home-mum life, at least for a few months! I'll be leaving my job as I'm paid almost the same as it would cost us to put our son in childcare, so it makes better financial and personal sense for me to be home. I'm hoping to become a self-employed English tutor once the baby is old enough to be vaccinated and I can more comfortably leave him places, but who knows! We'll see where life takes us next.

I'll be sticking around to do my research on baby citizenship, green card condition removal, and hopefully regain some camaraderie now that I'm starting a whole new chapter yet again. I'll spare you the tirade about feeling guilty for running off just as soon as my feet landed Stateside - it won't be the first time I've left it. But I'm more hopeful, this time, that with a potato of a newborn stuck to my chest for the next few months, I should have a little more time to invest here. (Cue new mums everywhere laughing.)

I hope you're all well! It's firefly season here in Pennsylvania - one of the tolerable bits about our summers.

lansbury

Rete

Congratulations on the news! BTW the baby does NOT need a pacifier or a binky or whatever those stupid things are called now. My kids and my grandkids never had one. IMHO, they do more harm than good ... like an an adult gets addicted to a cigarette, a baby gets addicted to always having something in its mouth to soothe it.

Your son will be an US Citizen automatically by virtual of being born in the US and if you are able to confer British citizenship to him, he will be a British citizen as well. You can get him passports from both countries. Not sure if you should register his birth with the British consulate ... others can advise you on that aspect.

Nutmegger

BenK91

Congratulations!

KK85

Thank you all so much!

Rete, this is exactly why and where I need to do my research. I was of the understanding that any children we had here would be US citizens by birthright, but I had no idea that they would (might?) also inherit my British citizenship until somebody told me - that came as quite the nice surprise. I'll be looking into all of this. I'm also unsure about processes when it comes to registering his birth in the UK, if it's necessary at all. This is why I'm glad to be back!

petitefrancaise

congratulations! your life will never be the same

You'll be saying "pacifier" before the first week of mum and baby get togethers!

Also, Rete, I was also against pacifiers on a professional ( dental) level, hygiene level ( saw too many mums pick them off the pavement, give them a lick and put them back in baby's mouth) however, I believe recent research shows that a baby using one has a greatly reduced risk of SIDS. Also, you don't see too many teens wandering around with dummies so I guess it is perfectly possible to "wean" them off.
So, KK85, it starts..... everybody giving you conflicting advice!! Do what you think is best and ignore the others because at the end of the day, the buck stops with you.

BEVS

Ooo. Lovely happy stuff.

Congratulations KK85.

dj6372

Woop woop congrats!!

civilservant

I did wonder when you were going to be back!

kateinbrooklyn

Congratulations! I never bothered registering my baby's birth with the consulate, but I did apply for a UK passport for her and it was a relatively simple process. Soon after I had my baby, I joined a local mums' group and it was amazingly helpful and I got to know some really great women who I am still in touch with. If you are interested in doing that, you can google listservs or Facebook groups or even take a prenatal class. I would have found early motherhood extremely isolating had I not found other like-minded mums. had I had my daughter at 40 with no complications, so you're a whippersnapper in comparison!

SpoogleDrummer

Congratulations. My only advice is be careful when filling out the your place of birth on the birth certificate information. I put United Kingdom on my son's, when the actual certificate arrived it said United Arab Emirates so I had to contact them and get that fixed which was a pain. Suffice to say I put Great Britain on the next 2.

civilservant

Just go the whole hog and put England.

Not that England has existed since 1707, but I digress...

KK85

Thank you all so much for the congratulations, and to kateinbrooklyn and SpoogleDrummer for the pointers. Very good food for thought.

I will definitely be looking into groups I can join to try and circumvent the isolation issue as best as I can (I do foresee it, and do not look forward to it). Unfortunately, the ones offered by our hospital are stupidly expensive. For example, I'm likely to require a C-section due to a medical issue and we were advised to take the hospital up on their C-section course in order to familiarise ourselves with the process, but it's $75 for the privilege. For a bunch of info that I can find on YouTube. Bonkers! The cost of their other classes/groups are no better, so to Facebook and Meetup I will go. And as for the surgery... I'm just going to go with the flow and do what the doctors tell me. I'm not precious about the birth. I trust them to get my baby out safe and sound, so I'll happily just do what I'm told throughout! There - $75 easily saved.