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Contemplating Babybell - again...
DH and I had a talk about when we want to have kids and repatriate. I think we have a rough plan (all kinda depending on the job situation after March though). We want to do one last big partying/drinking trip, so I figured we should go spend Saint Patrick's Day in Dublin, then I would stop drinking and in April we may start TTC. It's really exciting, but DH doesn't want to tell any family when we're trying - just when it happens!
We plan to stick around Belgium until Babybell is born, and then repatriate in early 2013 - by April so we can hopefully buy our house in the US by summertime of 2013!
Now with parenthood possibly in the near future, we are trying to get big scuba trips out of our system. We are attempting to plan a week long liveaboard scuba trip to the Maldives for the week after Xmas! And then we already have Thailand booked with the scuba club for late Jan/early Feb. It's going to be amazing!
Anyone have any other pre-baby travel ideas that we should get out of our systems? Anything you wish you had done? Did any of you take a 2nd trimester, prebaby vacation/trip with your DH? I hear 2nd trimester you're feeling your best...
And finally, for all the new mothers in other countries - was it hard to get your baby registered at the US embassy and get passports so they can fly home to see family? This is something I was a little bit worried about having my baby not in the US. How often do you have to get baby's passports updated?
Sorry for all the questions - thanks!
We're headed to the Maldives on Christmas Eve!
Re: Contemplating Babybell - again...
Great for you and your H!
I'm so jealous of your diving trips! Have fun!
We didn't do any specific "pre-baby" trips, but we were travelling a lot in the few years before we had M.
We would have loved to do a safari before we had M, now we will have to wait until he is older to do it as a family.
I was travelling for pleasure and work up until about 34 weeks. My favourite trip was trekking in northern Vietnam for my birthday with H. We also did a relaxing beach holiday in Malaysia when I was about 3 months.
Not sure about the American papers/passport, but to get the Canadian it wasn't hard, just time consuming getting everything translated, notarized etc, there was a lot of running around. For the French papers, it was easy as pie and most of it was done online.
We're in the exact same boat with close to the same timeline minus the repatriation plans. We're headed to London and Prague for a piss up in December, South Africa and Namibia over Christmas and New Years, New Zealand in March (planning on a lot of things that wouldn't be so easy with a kid--like hiking on a glacier and really enjoying the local wines), we'd like to go to the Maldives in June for our anniversary, but that will probably depend upon timing.
What's really throwing us off is that we have to be in Austria for a friend's wedding in August.
I don't have any other ideas for vacations, but I just wanted to say that DH and I registered LO in Frankfurt on Monday, and it was pretty easy. The biggest pain was getting all the papers together, but even that really wasn't a big deal. You have to prove that at least one of the US citizen parents spent at least 5 years in the US, using high school/college transcripts, W-2 forms, etc. The other thing that was a pain was getting a biometric picture of a 6 month old!! Try explaining to her that she has to look directly at the camera, not smile, not make faces, not blink, not shove her fist in her mouth, not wiggle, etc, etc, etc. And no part of mom can be in the picture, so we put a white sheet over my chest/lap, had her sit on my lap, and then tried to get the picture taken.
After spending a long time before finally getting a picture that would work, that afternoon I was talking to a friend and she said, "Why didn't you just lay a white blanket on the ground and put her down on it then take the picture from above?" sigh. So I'm passing along wisdom that I wish I would have had before the picture...
As for time, they told me I'd get her passport in 2-3 weeks, and her SS card will come 2-3 weeks after that (they have to see the passport before they get to work on the SS card).
Cecilia arrived 12 October 2012
Sounds like you've got some amazing trips planned. I think I'm too much of a scaredy cat to scuba dive. I'm a float on top of the water with a snorkel type. We were planning a trip to Italy when I found out I was pregnant so we went to San Francisco instead. After going to Italy a couple months ago I'm glad we changed our plans. That would've been rough at 6 months pregnant.
Now that we have a 14 month old, we really do all the traveling we would've done without him. I want him to see the world even though he won't remember it.
It isn't difficult to register the birth or get a passport. Kids under 16 get 5 year passports instead of 10.
Ditto frlcb. It wasn't hard to get D's passport. DH and I both went to the consulate appointment with D, took our marriage license, birth certificates, both of our passports and the applications for registering the birth abroad, passport and ss #. On the application they asked for dates that I'd been in the US, and why I left the country. I'm pretty sure we also needed a photo of both DH and I, and two US passport sized photos of D. We went to a photographer in Edinburgh who does both British and American passports. They laid him on a light grey inclined board and had me stand beside him to make sure he didn't tip over.
Once the applications were submitted, it took four days to get D's passport, and 30 days to get his SS card.
We travel pretty frequently and although everything has sucked lately, I was really glad we went to India pre-babies, I think it would be a really hard country to go to otherwise. We definitely plan to keep travelling after babies but I think there are easier places to go. Another place I've heard is really hard is Venice (just so many stairs!). I think anywhere else I've been in Europe would be fine pregnant or with a baby.
Places I would put on my list are most places in Asia and Africa, just because it would be hard with the water situation. Also any 'extreme sport' trips - skiing or diving or anything else would be impossible while pregnant (but totally possible with a baby depending on the situation). So if you have anything else like that on your bucket list, this is a great time to do it.
What I never really realised is that a lot of time, this is impossible to plan. A lot of people said we should cancel the India trip when I finally got pregnant but we kept it and as it turns out, that was definitely the right thing to do. I guess I'm just saying you should keep living your life until there's a reason to change it!
BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks
Wow! Thank you all so much for the feedback. It doesn't seem too hard, just might be kinda a pain - but I can ask DH to take the day off and go with me & LO to the embassy. I already know where it is since I did my name change in Belgium. I love that all of you have done some amazing trips! I meet a lot of people from the US that just don't really travel or are scared to. Definitely not the case on this board!
Are you worried you would be too pregnant to fly for your friends wedding in Austria?
*Publius* Yay! So exciting for you and your DH too! Sounds like we could be TTC buddies when the time comes
*Kelly321* - thanks for the motherly wisdom - that's a great idea to get baby's pic. Do you think I need both the passport and SS card to fly with the baby? Or, do you think just passport would be good enough?
*sushisamba* - Have you given up drinking since you've been TTC? My cousin was drinking at my wedding (had been TTC for years) and finally found out she was pregnant a few days later! Oops! Thankfully, the baby is fine, but I would always be so worried about drinking if I was TTC. DH says he would give up alcohol with me, but it would probably be pretty hard. We really love red wine
*Emily523* - I am glad to hear you all still travel. I would love to take our LO to Paris and get a family pic with the Eiffel Tower before we repatriate (as DH proposed there, we got engagement photos there...etc) Hopefully we can make that happen!
*Bananas0827* - The process doesn't sound too bad. I can probably manage to take the passport photos on my own (if they would be accepted) as I made some for DH last time I went home. The ones here in Belgium are small compared to US size passport photos. Just another weirdness ;-)
Do you all have to get International Drivers Licenses where you are? We got some from AAA - it's really just a translation booklet, but its good to have.
We're headed to the Maldives on Christmas Eve!
Great advice - thank you!
We're headed to the Maldives on Christmas Eve!
You only need the passport to fly, not the SS card. Just wanted add that that takes longer since you were concerned about how long things could take. And since someone mentioned the other things you might need, here's a complete list of what we had to bring:
1) birth certificate
2) US passport of US citizen parent
3) photo ID of other parent
4) If you're getting a passport, both parents should be there. If the non-US citizen parent can't come, they have to sign a form and have it notarized that they're ok with their child getting a passport.
5) Application for Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America
6) Application for a SS Card
7) Application for a US passport if you want a passport
8) Biometric pictures of baby if you want a passport
9) Marriage certificate
10) Proof that the US citizen parent has lived in the US for at least 5 years (as mentioned above, with transcripts or W2s)
11) Money. I think we ended up paying about 144?, although that varies according to exactly what you need and the exchange rate (the rates are set in dollars but you can pay in euros).
12) Piece of paper we had to print out when we made our appointment online (don't know if they do it the same way in Belgium, but I assume so)
13) There's actually a list essentially like the one I just wrote here that you have to print out, check off the items, sign and date, and bring with you.
Agreed. I'm in the "drink 'til it's pink" camp - e.g. drink until I get a positive pg test. I've probably cut back a bit just for all around health, but I definitely still enjoy my red wine!
Cecilia arrived 12 October 2012
Either being too pregnant that one or both of us won't be able to go (H is in the wedding) or not far enough along and not wanting to go because I'm feeling miserable all of the time. It's too bad that you don't have entire control over timing.
we did a big trip before TTC of the Americas - we just knew we couldn't/wouldn't want to do a long trip like that with kids - especially not some of the stuff we did in Central & South America (backpacking)
I'd suggest Machu Picchu if you are intersting in hiking the inca trail - that'd be something you couldn't do with kids (although you could still visit the ruins, but not do the hike)
the US passport was super easy for us to get too - just a lot of paperwork to get in order, but I got 99% of that ready while I was pregnant, so it all went really smoothly