Traveling with Three!

So on this trip we had the usual diarrhea and urine leakages but we also had an epic breastfeeding fail. After breastfeeding for more than 6 years straight (except for most of two pregnancies) I thought I got this breastfeeding thing. Here I am using my English reserve to understate this: not exactly.

the baby in her traveling outfit

I normally feed the baby at 7:30 when we both wake up. The day we flew we had to be the airport at 7 for a 9 am flight. So when I woke up at 5:30, I fed the baby. Job done, right?

Wrong. At 7:30 just as we were halfway through security, my breastmilk let down. I was tiptoeing in socks as my shoes had been taken and folding my arms across my chest while security personnel said things like 'Is it okay if I check this bag/baby food...?' and 'Can I check this bag?' and I was like DO WHAT YOU WANT.

I had forgotten my breast pads. Note to self: passports are not the only important thing to pack - think passports and breast pads, the two P's in future!

Anyway by the time I got through security it was too late. My shirt was drenched.

On every trip for the last 7 years I have packed a spare shirt for myself and never needed it. So when I was packing for this trip I said to myself I never need a spare shirt so why pack something useless?

during a layover at the Newark airport

I ended up buying a shirt. At an expensive beyond-security-airport-shop. It was supposedly half price so I guess I should be thankful. It is also the nicest shirt I own. As it should be. The fabric for my wedding dress cost less. This shirt basically cost more than my wedding dress.

Anyway so after going wedding dress I mean shirt shopping, we hunkered down by the smaller but still existent soft play in the Edi airport. Why did they remove the good and bigger soft play?

The whole trip single people kept stomping by me muttering 'Ridiculous' and 'Can't believe this' under their breath and I felt like standing up and saying 'You don't have kids, you have NO IDEA what ridiculous and can't believe this mean!'

waiting for the shuttle in Newark - Primus and Secondus refused to wear coats; Tertius in the sling with scarf over her head

We were impressed with the Edinburgh-Newark flight. The difference between a 9 hour and 6 hour + flight is huge - it's those last 3 hours where everything really falls apart!

People in Newark airport were pretty nice. Not all of them but a lot! Compared to 0% of people being nice at the Atlanta airport, this was a nice change.

Our layover in Newark was due to be 7.5 hours. I figured we would just look for the breastfeeding room advertised on the Newark airport website and hunker down. But then we got rescheduled for a 8.5 hour layover and my husband wisely said 'Let's get a hotel.'

It was the best decision ever. On our way back we tried vainly to locate the breastfeeding room and got sent on a wild goose chase for an hour around the terminals and air trains that ended with finding a locked family bathroom.

But the hotel was great! We paid basically the equivalent of a full night's stay for the 8 hours but it was so nice to have a place to change the baby, nap and have free wifi. The kids had a whale of a time. They were supposed to sleep but I think they thought it was a sleepover. Why do hotels always put beds just far enough apart for kids to jump from one to another?

on bed at the hotel

We made coffee and there was free ice water downstairs and a pool, though we didn't use that. The shuttle was free. It took longer to get to than I expected, having been spoiled once in Paris by staying at an Ibis that you could walk to and was literally next door to the airport. That was sort of what I expected but alas. All the other hotel's shuttles came and we were told that the Fairfield's shuttle driver was asleep in the car park across the way lol.

Despite starting a month early on getting the kids onto American time, the baby was seriously weirded out by our trip. I thought my Super Mom of Three powers might do away with all the waking-up-in-the-night-hourly nonsense but no, baby still reverted to her newborn state for the first week. She also broke a new tooth. It was fun.

middle child cuddling baby in airport

Observations about traveling with three:

• instead of sewing cute swaddling blankets from upcycled materials, I grabbed two bin bags for changing diapers on. they folded up smaller than my reusable diaper changing mat and were disposable, or could be used for rubbish or soiled clothing.
• Baby got that game on the kindle where you hit the 'Tom' cat rather than classic board books like her brothers
• we packed 3 kindles which was good because the built-in tv in front of my husband and sons were broken! Thank goodness for the Ninjago game app!
• instead of sewing my own sling, we used the one we bought this time around. It had clever buckles and was a lot less warm and fiddly than my homemade slings!
• Baby wore her 2nd nicest dress and best frock coat as opposed to my sons who I think wore sleepsuits and jean overalls on their first flights. Baby had a huge following of enthusiastic fans. People offered to hold her so I could eat and take the middle child to the bathroom!

Things I regret on this trip:

• not packing a backup shirt so I had to go shopping for the-shirt-more-expensive-than-my-wedding-dress  

  

  the infamous shirt on the left, verses the wedding dress on right

• not packing the baby's moisturizer creams - after all my banging on about not forgetting prescription medicines, I forgot the baby's
• trying to bag up and bring up diarrhea-covered clothing to wash later. It just got thrown away at a later date after being accidentally discolored in a bucket of bleach by a braindead jetlagged mum.
• not asking my in-laws to turn the heating on the night before - it took hours for our home to warm up and we were freezing
• feeling like I was spending so much money. You spend money to get prepped, you spend money while you're traveling on shirts and food, you spend money to come home. It just felt like an endless spending expedition.
• not being Super Invincible. There was still that feeling of going on when too exhausted to do anything but exist (and maybe not even that). 
• There was still the feeling of being watched all the time and like my parenting was being judged and found wanting - like when I stared fixedly at walls rather than engage my children in nurturing discourse. Or when I fed them candy instead of craisins. Or when I should have taken the baby to the nasty, smelly airplane bathroom for a diaper change but everyone around me was asleep, it was dark, and I just did it on my lap in about 25 seconds and hoped no one noticed.

Recovery

I think it takes a week per person for the family to recover. So if there are 3 of you, it takes 3 weeks, if there are 5 of you, it takes 5 weeks.

So here we are 5 weeks on and starting to feel normal or as normal as you ever feel with 3 children under the age of 6.

Apple and bramble crumble

Nothing can beat this seasonal favorite for being a budget dessert which is a hearty finish for a budget eating day! If you forage for the apples and blackberries, and already have flour, sugar and a few spices on hand, it could be next to nothing or perhaps 20p for the whole dish! The icecream some people serve with it is definitely the most expensive part of the dish but worth it if you can afford it!

Ingredients:
A few apples, peeled, cored and chopped - just enough to cover the bottom of whatever dish you're baking this in
a handful of blackberries or so
A bit of flour if above blackberries seem too juicy
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of brown or white sugar
a teaspoon of cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg, ginger, whatever you fancy
1/2 cup of butter, melted
almonds/pecans/hazelnuts/porridge oats/seeds (optional)

Arrange apples and blackberries in pan or crumble dish - you can often find a 6 inch crumble dish in a charity shop for under five pounds.
Stir the dry ingredients, then add the butter. Stir till crumbly then sprinkle over apples and blackberries. Add nuts. Bake till golden brown and fragrant - 15 to 30 min depending on oven and size of dish, etc.
Serve with vanilla icecream or Greek yogurt!

Durham

Durham is famous for its cathedral which was recently ranked the top cathedral in the UK. This city is on the fast train route to London so it is easy to access. With the cathedral, castle, and riverside walks there feels like loads to cram into a day trip - or a series of day trips!

Fast facts:

• Distance from Edinburgh: 125 miles
• Using public transport: 1 hr and 46 minutes
• History: It has been in continuous use as a city since at least the 900's with the body of St. Cuthbert being brought to rest and the eventual rise of the cathedral and castle following this.
• What there is to do: visit the cathedral and the castle, many beautiful walks, Krispy Kreme's

Pros

• One of the best cathedrals in the UK to visit
• great castle tour available
• lots of quaint, English brick houses
• good transport links
• clean bathrooms
• lots of places to eat
• wonderful walks
• not too busy

Cons

• lots of hills - quite tiring to get lost here!
• lots of construction - including work on a new Odeon cinema - which caused the area to be harder to navigate and of course smelled very much of pollution
• the signage and street layout could be marked a little better
• it's a student town and there were parts that felt like they weren't kept up very well

one of my favorite attractions - a Krispy Kreme's on the hill road up to the old part of town!

beautiful riverside walks

Rosehip cordial

This is a very British drink - and full of vitamins. It is aromatic and soothing to the throat. It's a great thing to make that doesn't involve a lot of chopping for those with tendinitis tendencies!

Soak wild, freshly picked rosehips for an hour. Drain. At this point you can freeze and do the other steps another day or just plunge ahead.

To avoid chopping - I pour boiling water over the rosehips and let sit for half an hour.

Then I strain off the juice - and reserve for later! - and whizz the softened rosehips in the food processor.

Pour whizzed fruit into pan with more water and the strained juices and bring to a boil. Turn off and allow to infuse.

Pour this mix through four layers of muslin arranged in a colander over another pan or bowl.

The goal is to strain out all the irritating hairs, as well as seeds, etc.

Let drip overnight. Squeeze muslin to collect excess moisture - but maybe over a different bowl or you might do like me and dump all the irritating hairs back into the pure cordial!

Put in a pan and cook till the desired concentrate. Some people make rosehip syrup, some cordial.

For cordial, the recommended amount of sugar is usually
1 kilo rosehips - 350 g of sugar
or
1 pound rosehips - 1 cup sugar

I find I can put in a bit less sugar and it's fine.

Drink and enjoy! We usually drink ours within 3 days. It also freezes into ice lollies or ice cubes pretty well - these are fun to flavor smoothies with later!

If you want to try to keep it longer, add a campden tablet and put in a glass container with a non-metal lid.

Heathrow Airport

London Heathrow has had a bad rep for a long time. Some is legit, some is not deserved, in my opinion.

The Heathrow British Airways baggage handlers' shift ended in the middle of unloading our plane to find two passengers' bags who didn't board. The next shift didn't come on for about 45 minutes so we sat and sat on the unmoving plane for at least an hour and a half till we got permission to use the runway.

The queues went on for miles but every employee at Heathrow was polite. Interestingly I expected their English to be better than Amsterdam or Paris's airports and it was - but most of the people we interfaced with did not speak English as their first language.

Heathrow has amazing escalator systems going up three or more levels. Our kids thought this was novel.

It has lots of shopping and places to eat. There was even a cash machine.

The seats seemed clean and new.

 The ladies bathrooms were clean with free hand cream!

There was this amazing soft play area too - with separated zones for babies and older kids - and an attendant who supervised the play! The best part was that there was a loooooooong couch-like object running alongside and many parents were lying down and napping while their spouse watched the kids.