Our (Almost) Trip to Oman and Some Other Exciting News!

Whew, it's been MONTHS since I last updated this blog, in large part due to some big changes for our family!  If you follow me on social media, you'll know that our family is expecting to grow from a family of 3 to a family of 4, effective early May!  Somehow, when I had Baby L and held her in my arms, I magically forgot how much I dislike pregnancy - the nausea, the all-day-sickness, and the general fatigue. I have been reminded of all those things again, and it's even worse because I have a toddler to chase after when I get home from work!

Hats off to all those moms out there with "2 under 2" because I have no idea how you do it alone. I'm so, so, so thankful for Miss J, Baby L's nanny, because she not only takes care of Baby L, she takes care of sick, pregnant mommy!

Baby #2!

Fortunately, at around 16 or 17 weeks, Baby #2 decided to do something different from Baby L, and the nausea, sickness and fatigue has started to subside. I actually made it a full day on the weekend without taking a nap when Baby L took a nap! And I've been able to eat meat during this pregnancy which has also been nice (still no onions).

We think Baby L is excited for Baby #2. She sits on my lap and rubs my belly saying "hi baby!", and she hugs my belly saying "I wub woo" (I love you). She then proceeds to rub her own belly saying "hi baby!" which is also hilarious.  We're trying to teach her to say "big sister", with some success!

Similar to the last time I was pregnant, my job also decided to grow simultaneously with my belly. When I was pregnant with Baby L, we had a reorganization where we merged 2 project management sections into 1, and while most people weren't impacted, my role was consolidated with someone else's role (so...my organization got a 2-for-1 deal out of me).  Almost the same thing has happened again, except this time we're not consolidating organizations. The other person in our group with my same job title is retiring, and so I've taken over his scope in addition to my own - and now I have 2 bosses, and 2 completely different portfolios. I'm hoping this consolidation is temporary because it's definitely been the source of some stressful days at work in the last few weeks!

In the midst of all this, we tried to take a little getaway vacation to Oman. Oman is nearby, flights are not expensive, and we thought it would be nice to check out somewhere new since all of our family trips with Miss J have been local to UAE. 

Baby L and Miss J walking around the airport while G and I were checking in our bags

Unfortunately, I thought I'd done my homework on Miss J's visa requirements - she should have been able to travel with us and obtain a visa on arrival to any GCC country, even on a Filipino passport, because I am her visa sponsor in UAE.  HOWEVER at the gate at the airport, we learned that she needed to have 90 days validity on her UAE visa, and since her visa was up for renewal in just over a month, Emirates Airlines would not let us board the plane.  Trust me when I say that you NEVER want to be turned away from an international flight at the gate, especially with checked bags.  Airports are not set up to handle this!  We had to go back through a special immigration counter to get our exit stamps cancelled, and then re-claim our luggage - in the time it took us to leave the airport in Dubai to go back home, we would have already been at our hotel in Oman sipping fruity mocktails by the pool.  We were all super duper bummed - the only upside was that I booked the trip on points, so it wasn't really "cash" out of pocket, but I did lose all the points, so that was also a bummer.  Depending on G's job situation, we'll probably make a second attempt at Oman in February when I can still fly without a doctor's note.

Until then...we're pretty much just hanging out in UAE!