We all piled into my midwife’s car and my husband followed in ours. I was basically 10 cm at this point, having intense, almost pushing contractions, speeding down miles of incredibly bumpy dirt roads. When we finally got into Valparaiso I remember looking at all of the college students coming out of the clubs and bars on Errazuriz street, feeling very strange that something so life-changing was happening to me while these kids stood five feet away, going about the very normal business of having a good time. It was surreal because I knew I most likely wouldn’t be them ever again, at least not in the same way.
Read Morepregnancy
Whirlwind /
These last three weeks have been intense and beautiful and incredibly challenging in about a thousand different ways.
Read MoreThe Last Days /
I feel like I'm caught in limbo between an old life and a new one I know nothing about. I feel like I'm saying goodbye to someone, to the 'pre-mother me' and I guess that makes me nostalgic and a little sad. I keep thinking of all the things I may never do again - staying up all night in a strange city with new people, spontaneously taking a trip (spontaneously doing anything...), smoking a cigarette in a car with the windows down and the music blasting with my best friend.
Read MoreAnd Now We Wait /
I'm trying to get everything prepared before she comes, though I actually think this is impossible and is really just my way to have some semblance of control before our lives are flipped upside down.
Read MoreAlmost There /
We're trying not to focus on the fact that we are financially strapped and that our addition won't be done before she gets here. I'm trying not to freak out about not having a crib yet. Or a wood stove for our addition to keep us warm when the nights truly get cold. I'm trying to remember that these things tend to work themselves out, that our baby will have everything she needs when she gets here and that we will be ready.
Read MoreA Visit /
I sometimes think we expats (or maybe it's just me?) try to push out of our minds the fact that we even have families so as to miss them less. Because when you see your family once a year (if that) pretending they don't really exist is a.) not that difficult and b.) easier than admitting how much it sucks to be so far away.
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