I completed my last work trip PB (pre babies) yesterday – 36 hours in Germany, done! Boom, yay, Ka-ching etc
Very pleased not to be doing any more flights. I’m not worried about flying; I’m just getting big and lazy and not in the mood for faffing around at airports. My tolerance levels have plummeted to an all time low. I got irrationally angry with a man eating soup in airport lounge last night. It went like this:
- SLURP soup
- DUNK bread
- CHEW wet bread with mouth open
- REPEAT
I was fuming. I stared at him but he didn’t care. He was in a soup stupor.
Anger management issues.
We had a scan last week and both babies are doing fine. They don’t really like to be photographed but this pic of twin 1 is a good’un:
You can see lips! And a hand waving! She looks pretty crammed in there. Whenever I look at this picture I can hear Adele singing ‘HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE’. Aww. Not long now, squashed little baby.
We haven’t really bought much for the babies yet but we have chosen a pram. We don’t have a car and we use legs, two wheels and the bus as our transport so it was a tough decision. Most twin prams are enormous side by side monster trucks.
What is the least annoying pram available? How can we take up the smallest amount of room on the pavement and on the bus? How the bloody hell are we going to get an enormous twin pram up the Victorian stair cases of London tube stations? How…in fact…are we going to fit a twin pram through our front door?!
I introduce you to the Peach Blossom 3:
Yes, one of the twins (our least favourite one?!) will have a rubbish view. That’s ok…they can take it in turns. We’re buying it in a darker colour of course, to hide the inevitable stains. Prams are ridiculously expensive, this one costs about as much as a second hand car.
However no need to feel down. Just imagine the alternative! We could be expecting quads! No way you could get this bad boy on the 137 bus without attracting some very British tuts and eyerolls….
Babyscienceproject 
You know before I scrolled down to see the one you picked I thought “the best way would be to stack ’em”…so that’s awesome I’m not the only one thinking that! If I may ask, how much paid time off do you get to take off from work? Us Americans (who get stiffed by employers since we’re one of the two countries in the world that don’t mandate paid parental leave) are always curious 🙂
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In the UK we can take 12 months off (job kept during that time) but not on full pay. Depending on your employer you get a ‘sliding scale’ of pay – I get 6 weeks at 90%, 6 weeks at 70%, so on – until you go on to statutory maternity pay which is £139 per week for the rest of your leave. So yeah, it’s pretty good really! I’m planning to take 6 months off. Husband has been made redundant and is working on a temp contract at the moment so we’ll need the money. Can’t complain though, I know it’s better than the US. Crazy that you don’t have a better system – will Hillary do something about it if she gets the vote? Doesn’t seem to get much coverage in the press (weirdly).
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Good to hear. Yeah with my husband from Australia, he’s dumbfounded that all he’ll get are 12 weeks of protected *unpaid* leave along with his 2 weeks of vacation time if he chooses to use that up. I’m self employed so I don’t get nothin’ either way so if/when this happens we have to make sure we have 3 months’ worth of pay saved up to cover his.
God I hope Hillary wins the election – it’s scary how popular the alternative is. She’s been pushing for paid parental leave and Obama has tried to start off by getting 6 weeks for federal employees but we have a hardcore woman-hating Republican majority in congress who won’t pass anything that would cost employers, so you just have to try to find a private employer who provides paid leave, which is very rare.
A good article on our bullshit situation here in the States: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/america-trails-the-world-on-paid-maternity-leave/
Yeah my husband and I crack up at the hillbillies yelling “America is #1!” when we’re like, “number one at WHAT?” The only thing we lead the world in are things like guns, prisoners, obesity and anxiety. Ahh…time to blog…
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Yeah, I think the UK system is pretty similar to Australia. Either parent can take (or share) the 12 month maternity leave allocation I think. The US situation sounds dire. What the hell do single parents do?! There must be a whole section of society who drop out of the workforce after having kids.
I also hope Hillary wins. We’re following the Trump campaign with a mixture of horror, fascination and impending doom over here.I’m sure protected maternity leave doesn’t feature on his f*cked up manifesto. Women should stay at home and look after kids forever, right?
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Yep, exactly. Daycare here costs on average $1200-1500/month so many couples end up having the lower wage earner stay home because they’d otherwise be basically working to pay for daycare. I know very few who take the full 12 weeks off as well because of not only this but our “live to work” world that is so common here. Also when you go on unpaid leave, many companies make you pay the full price of healthcare benefits ($1000+/mo) instead of the subsidized version you get when you’re on the clock ($200/mo), and of course even with benefits it costs $3-10K to have a baby, more if there are any complications. You definitely have to have a lot of creative resources if you’re single, or be making a great salary. In our family my husband has the healthcare benefits through his work so he can’t stay home, but I’m the primary breadwinner so I need to find a way to keep working as much as possible as well. And of course we’ve already paid $40K+ for the IVFs and adoption costs with more to come 🙂
Pray for Hillary!
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hehe..wow quad chairs, I’d never have thought it!!! Your chosen pram does look very practical for London!
From what I understand from my friend you will quickly learn by heart which tube stations have lifts!!! Buses probably wont be so bad because people get out of your way generally and they have the lowering platforms. I think it’s awesome you are doing this all without a car!!! oh what about food shopping?? Oh my goodness that sounds like it could be complicated! I think you are quickly going to be known as the super hero parents!
Other than the usual annoying travellers like Sir munch a lot, have people been generally kind to you when you have been travelling/flying?
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Not having a car is pretty normal in London….nowhere to park, £10 a day to drive into the centre of town and good public transport means it’s bus/tube/train all the way! I haven’t seen anyone with a twin pram on the bus yet but there must be people like us out there….somewhere….
People are actually very polite in London – I’m offered a seat almost every day. Germany is a different story – nobody holds the door open and I just got stared at on the metro. Different culture I guess! Do you have much more travel on the cards over the next few months? Remember to take a low dose aspirin every day (if doc approves) and invest in some flight socks for long haul. I’ve got varicose veins on both legs now and I’m pretty sure the air travel hasn’t helped.
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Yikes…you are going to have some really interesting blog posts in the future living as a Londoner with twins!!! That’s really interesting to hear about your experience of politeness in London v Germany!!
I have about 6 more transatlantic trips planned…ambitiously (??!) up to 7.5 mths 🤔 I think I’m going to act on your advice about flight socks thank you!!! I will also ask about the baby aspirin too. I’m also going to try to upgrade myself for the red eye flights to keep it comfortable. 😁
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hmm – yeah. Not sure how you’ll feel at 7.5 months, I am pretty uncomfortable at the moment and really not sleeping well at all (and only 5 months!). Then again, I’ve got two on board so maybe you’ll be ok. I advise you to play it by ear! Definitely get the flight socks, take a big 2L bottle of water on board, see if you can do the low dose aspirin and walk around as much as possible. Oh and the upgrade is absolutely necessary too of course 🙂
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Oh the agony of choosing a pram! Such a pain in the A! We have just been through the same experience. Glad you found something you like. It looks great!
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Yep. We were thinking about getting a second hand one but they are inevitably covered in mysterious stains and have wonky wheels. I’m hoping we’ll have it for a couple of years so I guess it’s a good investment. Might as well get used to handing out $$$ right, left and centre for baby stuff!
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Yes we looked at second hand too. I know sometimes you can get good buys but there is a lot of rubbish out there.
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Pram looks brill! Guy in airport sounds annoying! (You sound like me at hardly-preggers-at-all, pangry!) And so great the trips are over now – congrats! X
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Yeah – pangry. I’ve always had a seething rage for noisy eaters but now I have zero tolerance. Probably not good for my blood pressure, I need to chill. I told my husband off for breathing too loudly the other night….arrgh.
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I have a snoring dog and a snoring partner who both sleep in our bed. So basically I’m used to sleeping in something that sounds like an aircraft hangar! 😂
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True, but we weren’t even in bed. We were watching TV. How dare he breathe loudly whilst watching TV! Haha.
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I visited London on holidays last year and I remember thinking how totally child unfriendly the tube is! I saw some parents struggling carrying buggies down the steps at the stations with no lift. Would it be possible to carry both babies in a sling to help you get around or does that one work for singles? Anyway, hope you find something!
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Oh you’re funny… “least favourite twin”. Hehe. And prams are so expensive I can’t believe it
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