Is it Summer Vacation yet?

As I read post after post on Facebook about everyone's kids starting there summer break, I get a twinge of jealous. Well, let me correct that. Envy. Because after that first moment, it passes. If we were still in Liberty, the girls would be out of school. Which would probably be fine, since the weather has been unseasonable warm all winter long. But for us now, I'm not quite ready.

 Spring is still in full force in Istanbul. We have barely reached 80 a few days so far. We have greatly enjoyed the perfect 70 degree weather. Today is warm but its raining. I thought the European rainy spring would get a bit depressing, but I have quite enjoyed it. There is just enough sun in between those days. Today we are even getting a bit of thunder! I love thunderstorms. And I don't have worry if a tornado could be involved. Plus I have realized that in a big city, the rain really gives a good cleaning. The funny smells go away, the grime disappears. Even though, Istanbul is an amazingly clean city, everything still ends up cover in dust. Must be because of all the building and cars.

 One thing I have missed is the smell of that first grass cutting of the year. It just really tells you that winter is finally over. There is such little grass around unless you go to a park or outside of the city. But last week, as I was driving to gymnastics, I saw a crew mowing the median and planting flowers. The windows were down and I could smell that lovely smell of freshly cut grass. It's amazing how the littlest things effect you. 

With out any hints of summer, I will happily accept that the school year is another 5 weeks. I'm sure we will be so busy that we won't even notice! Between Fun Day, all the spring programs, the three gymnastic shows and who knows else, school will be over in no time. And this will be one of the few years that Elly will ever get to celebrate her birthday at school. She is beyond excited. And we have a party to plan! Not to mention all the baby stuff to do. So I wish everyone in the States, a wonderful summer holiday! When you start back the beginning of August, I will feel sorry for your kiddos having to be in school for the hottest part of the summer! I will think of you as we are laying on the beach!!

The crazy real estate market of Istanbul

We have lived in our apartment 8 months now.  And I love it.  Not necessarily our neighbors but I can deal with that.  We gave up a few important things when we picked this place, but the two gardens are well worth it!  And our landlord is just amazing.  He’s very nice and really makes an effort to make sure everything gets taking care of.
  I was utterly shocked at the price of living here.  Our apartment sold for $880,000 US dollars.  It’s a nice place, but I would NEVER want to pay that much for it!  But its probably because I’ve never really lived in a city like this.  I know NYC is this bad, but I’d never chose to live there either.  We were the first people to move in.  Our neighborhood, Istinye, is known for being a mix of poor and wealthy.  So you find compounds and large expensive single homes next to rundown apartments and shacks.  I kind of like that eclectic feeling Istinye has.  Our street is no different.  As of now, we are the only compound on the street.  There is a much bigger one being built next door and should be finished by the end of summer.  On the other side, is a piece of land that has two house that look like they’ve been thrown together with whatever they could find.  The rest of the street is a mix of apartment builds (some nice and others in desperate need of repair) with a few nicer single family homes by the Consult.  It’s also a very busy street, but the location doesn’t get any better.  Quite a few people have mentioned their shock of choosing to live here.  But it suits us.
That being said, we just found out that our neighbors above us are having to move.  They moved in while we were gone for Christmas holiday.  Until recently, the kid drove me nuts!  But now that I know him better and the kids love playing with him, I can deal.  His mom, well, we’ll never be friends.  I like the nanny much more! LOL.   Anyways, for some reason, the owner SOLD the apartment!  And not just to another landlord, but to someone that wants to move it.  How is that legal here?  This would not fly in the US.  The family would at least be able to finish out the lease.  And the sale price…… double the original sale price!  The apartment has only be finished since Nov!!!  So does that mean, we could lose our apartment too?  I know we only signed a year lease with the option to extend.  And the Ford lawyers worked on our lease agreement for a few weeks.  So I’m hoping we are good.  Because I REALLY don’t want to have a baby and then move!  We are finally getting settled!!  Rooms are getting painted!  I like that I can just throw the girls out the door and the bus is right there.  The pool has already brought hours of entertain and that’s just the waterfall.  Would we be able to find another garden apartment!  We have to have a garden now with the dogs.  Just kind of add some stress I didn’t need.  I don’t blame the landlord.  Get paid a bunch of rent and then flip it and make back double.   Our neighbor is Turkish, so she’ll be OK.  But her husband is rarely home.  Moving twice in a year by yourself, just plain SUCKS.
Thankfully, if this all does go down, Ford will be responsible.  There will definitely be a beach vacation to follow.

Realization...

that in less than 20 weeks I'm going to be a MOM of 4!!

 Ok, I know this shouldn't be a huge shock, since it would our choice. But it wasn't until yesterday that it dawned on me that there will soon be a baby girl in this house. I'm so excited for all the fun things that come with a baby. Decorating the nursery, shopping for all the cute stuff and getting to snuggle her all day (and night) long. But I've come to realize, about the time kiddo hits the age of 2, you start to forget all the hard stuff that is involved with having a baby. Probably why people have more kids! LOL.

 I haven't changed a diaper in a year. I've been sleeping thru the night for at least two years. Any night I don't, its either a sick kiddo or my fault. Sunday morning, as I curl up in bed after sleeping 10 hours, it finally hit me. Stirring up a bit of a panic attack. I'm going to be 34 when this baby arrives. It's been 9 years since I was first pregnant!! 8 years since my first baby. And I remember how hard that first 6 months were. Can I handle another baby with reflux? Can I handle the sleepless nights, plus get three kids on the bus at 8am? Can I manage to cloth diaper again with this little Euro washer? I'm already so exhausted at the end of the day! Just all these crazy questions swirling around in my head!

 I know I'm was being totally irrational. I've already talked to friends with four or more kids. They have happily survived. Heck, I have survived with my three. In fact #3, has been the easiest! I'm just hoping that this little freak out was because I started thinking about everything that needs to be done. We gave away all the big baby stuff. I still have the furniture, carseat and stroller. But the swing, bouncy, seat, and monitor are on my ever expanding list. Even a new stroller. My Peg P3 finally bit the bullet. It lost its battle with the fun curbs and cobblestone of Istanbul. I thought being a very fashionable city, I would be able to find all the beautiful strollers of Europe. Not so. Totally bummed. And I don't think I can convince Joel to make a trip the next 8 weeks, just for a stroller. LOL.

 Now that I have decided on a nursery color scheme, I'm hoping my anxiety about having another baby will mellow out. I just keep thinking how I'm going to keep up with the kids activities on lack of sleep. But I guess I know myself…. suck it and deal. LOL.

19 weeks

I have been feeling baby girl moving for a few weeks now.  Mostly at night before I went to sleep.  Just the little flutters.  At first, I wasn’t sure.  Even as a 4th time mom, I still have FTM moments.  You’d think I’d be a pro but it’s like its all been sucked out of my brain!  Once my OB told me where the baby was, I knew I had be right.

Now I can feel her all the time.  She is currently kicking away.  Sigh… my all time favorite part of pregnancy.

LiveJournal Tags: Baby

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all the mom's (or Mum's as my kids now call me) a very Happy Day! Being a mom is truly the best job in the world!

18 weeks

This past Monday was the 18 week mark of my last pregnancy. It's a bit bitter sweet but I'm so glad the first trimester is OVER. I'm not one of the lucky ones that skips any of the miserable parts of early pregnancy. All day sickness hits between 7 and 8 weeks and last into my 2nd trimester. With my first, its was until 18 weeks!

 This pregnancy has been similar to my second. When I was pregnant with Elly, I caught a horrible stomach bug and lost about 8 lbs. That was on top of the 4 I had lost from morning sickness. Truthfully, I had the lbs to spare. I never came anywhere near losing the baby weight after Jocy. I was in the upper 170s when I got pregnant with Elly.

 This time wasn't much different… well I was no where near my old weight! LOL. But I had picked up some lbs eating all the yummy bread! But when we decided to start trying again, I got my butt in gear and dropped 7 lbs. I was kind of surprised how many people noticed. It like I cross that 165 mark and start looking chubby. Which I guess I kind of did. Again, the morning sickness hit me. I was useless for 5 weeks. At one point, I was napping twice a day and going to bed at 9pm! Then I finally had a few days of feeling great. Yea for the 2nd trimester! I lost a few more lbs and I was feeling great! But then came the stomach bug. 5 days of misery. And the funny thing about this and the last time with Elly, Joel was out of town for both! He likes to torture me. Thankfully, this time I had a sitter come in and watch the kids and clean. It was wonderful! LOL. She even tried to get me to eat. Which I'd barely been managing a bowl of Cheerios every day. By the time I started feeling better I jumped on the scale just to see how bad it was. 153. In my first 13 weeks, I was down 10 more lbs. Luckily, I had an OB appointment in a few days. The sad thing is, she basically told me that I could use the weight loss. What? LOL I was just hoping it was bad translation and she meant my body could handle it. But I could be wrong.  You see very few overweight people here. And the ones that are, are the old people that don't get around well. It's a status thing with the well off. If you are stick thin, then it shows you have the money to pay someone to raise your kids and do your work, so you can live at the gym.

 I'm not saying I'm overweight. I have a healthy BMI but still have my jiggly bits. And I know 10 years ago I weight 135lbs, so I could definitely lose a few. I have been doing really well with Pilates over the last 6 months. My core is the strongest its been in years and it really thinned out my middle.

 Anyways, this has to be the smallest I have been in any of my pregnancies! I didn't take pics of myself with my first. I had a really hard time getting fat. I know I wasn't just getting fat, I was growing a baby. But I had always been the skinny girl, so it was a really hard thing for me. 18 weeks was about the time I started bed rest with Jocy. From then on, I packed the lbs on for a grand total of 54lbs. Now I will say that I have NOT gained that kind of weight since. I have also not been on bed rest for 16 weeks again. Knock on wood, it will continue that way!

 One great thing about being pregnant in Istanbul, you don't have the processed crap to eat. I mean you can find some things. We do have McD's and KFC and a few other fast food restaurants. You can find Pepperidge Farm cookies, Pringles and Doritos. But that's the expensive stuff. The selection of fruits and veggies is twice what you'd find in a grocery at home. I haven't even made it to the local Pazar yet (our Saturdays are too busy) but I'm sure its so much more! When I make my drive to Zek, you see truck after truck on the side of the road selling Watermelons, tomatoes and other veggies, eggs, and even yogurt! And these things are so inexpensive! I find myself having a salad for lunch everyday. It's finally green bean season here! They have other green beans but I'm talking about the kind we have in the States! They taste so different from what we've been eating. With Beef being so expensive, our meat portions are small and our veggie servings are bigger. It's just so much easier to eat healthier. I do give in and buy Pringles as my one little cheat. YUM… so good. And its funny, because I rarely bought them at home! Maybe its more of a comfort food because it is from home.

 So here is me at 18 weeks….

I thought I knew where a pic of me 16 weeks with Nate but my photos seem to be less organized than I realized! Anyways, I was at least double this size! So I'm going to continue the healthy eating and hope they FINALLY get our gym open. Sadly, my pilates instructor has returned home. She gave me a referral, so I will have to check her out. There is a prenatal yoga class in Istinye but its the same time as gymnastics. I'm still keeping up with my plan to be skinny when I come home! LOL. Hmm… Joel just might have to buy me a treadmill after all.

Sadness away from home

This morning I woke up to a message from my Mom. It was 3:30am my time… so about 8pm their time. They had been on vacation and I knew they were getting home sometime soon. I just thought it was the usual "We are home" note. Sadly, not. A few years ago, my Mom somehow convinced my Dad to get a dog.

 We hadn't had a dog since I was little and she was given to my grandparents while we were temporarily living in an apartment. Grandpa would never give her up. LOL. Mom has always loved Poodles. Not my cup of tea but it's not my dog. One day they came home with a little ball of fur that mom claimed was a Party Poodle and they named him Max. It was too cute to be a Poodle! He had great colors. I couldn't believe my dad caved. But it was easy to see they both had fallen in love with him. I thought he was cute until he started looking like a Poodle. He was spoiled rotten but he knew that in our house, he had to follow our rules. The kids loved him because he was small and could play with them. At this time, our dogs were old and wanted nothing more than a pet and to sleep.

 So this morning, it was very sad to read that when my parents returned, they found a very sick Max. After a trip to the Emergency Vet, they found out Max had an incurable autoimmune disease that had pretty much destroyed most of his platelets and red blood cells. They made the very hard decision to put him to sleep. Max was still pretty much a puppy.

 So here I am again struggling with one of those moments that makes being so far away hard. I really don't know how people permanently become an expat. It hasn't even been a year and there have been so many times that I want to just jump on a plane and go home. I feel so sad for my parents. If I was home, we'd jump in the car and drive to KY so the kids could distract my parents. Even just for a little while. I liked my parents having a dog. They got out and walked. Basically gave them something to do, besides be annoyed with my brother.

 It is so sad to lose another member our our family.

Really? You just said WHAT?

On Sunday, for Nate's birthday, we took the family to the Forum (a mall) to Jurassic Land.  Elly had gone on a field trip with school and LOVED it.  The girls had soccer that morning.  I stayed home trying to recover from the sinus infection I had.  A full day of activities on Saturday had really wiped me out!  So after lunch, we headed to the Forum.   I don't know what it is about people in Istanbul, they are always at the mall.  Even on the most beautiful days, they are shopping!  A Sunday afternoon was no different.  The parking garage was PACKED!  We had to go two levels down and on the IKEA side to find parking.

We finally made it into the mall and were heading to Jurassic Land, we I heard a lady say, "OMG, look at her!  She's pregnant and has three kids."  The way she said it was like I had something growing out of the side of my head.  The two ladies weren't American.  They spoke  English but I couldn't place the accent.  I was surprised though, how much it hurt my feelings.  I know plenty of families with 3, 4, and 5 kids.  It's actually pretty normal in my group of friends.  And really, why the heck should it matter to you?!!  It's my body, my sanity, and my life.  My kids are perfect angels compared to most here.  We take care of them physically and financially.  I don't have a nanny and don't really want one.  I choose to have these kids and its my chosen path in life to be a mom.

  I know in Istanbul, two kids is the norm.  And I understand that the cost of living is very high here.  I couldn't imagine having to pay the high rents.  Ours is double our mortgage.  Plus its much easier to find a 3 bedroom than a 4 or even 5 bedroom in the city.  And usually those spare bedrooms are the Maids/Nanny's Quarters.  And having to pay International School tuition for 4 would be more than Joel and I paid for all of college (and thats just one year).   Our car will soon become a tight fit if we use our driver.  But its not that difficult to make work.  Even the President of Turkey is asking families to have 3 kids to help ease the population issues.

I still don't know how I feel about it.  For the most part, I've got nothing but congrats and happiness about #4.  But again, many of them are 3 and 4 kid families.  I'm hoping that this will just be some random incident.  This hormonal mommy might not keep her mouth shut next time.

It's a ………

After 3 pregnancies of being Team Green, I decided I wanted to know. Joel didn't care either way. So last Thursday, we piled everyone into the car and headed to the OB. Figured if we were going to find out, the kids deserved to go too. After a quick talk with the doctor, off to the ultrasound we went. Jocy and Nate were Team Blue and Elly was Team Pink. I was kind of hoping for 2 of each. Give Nate someone to play with.

The OB double checked that we wanted to know and announced…

 It's a Girl!!! 

 I was kind of surprised at first, because I thought it was a boy. But I have been totally wrong before. Jocy cried. She was really upset. She didn't want to have to share again. And she had been 100% for guessing the gender until then. We reassured Jocy that with 8 years difference… there wasn't going too be much sharing.

 After some time to take it all in, I'm excited for another girl. Joel didn't pass out or run to work and get his retirement portfolio out (like the other two girls), so I think he's good. I'm looking forward to digging out all the cute dresses and decorating a girlie nursery. I even threatened Joel at the mall the other day with a cute Black and Pink Bugaboo stroller. And I get another little ballerina! So bring on the Pink!