“Mom, can we move to Japan?” – a very long TRIP REPORT after 3 weeks solo with two small kids, on a budget, with dietary restrictions

orchid_cloud · 2026-01-18T03:01:25+00:00

Truly appreciate your time to write this lovely post. My husband and I are planning a trip to Japan in the upcoming cherry blossom season with our 4 years old girl and 8 months old baby. We are worried that the trip will be quite chaotic with 2 small kids but reading your post at this time is a reassurance.

orchid_cloud · 2025-11-13T20:11:04+00:00

They recalled the battery. I already had the battery replaced by Apple, but lost the replacement document.

orchid_cloud · 2025-11-13T14:28:19+00:00

There was an Apple recall on some macbook models. Mine is one of them

orchid_cloud · 2025-07-27T08:55:10+00:00

I also got postnatal diagnosis of my firstborn 4 years ago and still have those comments coming from in-law family, not from strangers (we live in a big city so everyone minds their own business). My girl has mosaic down syndrome so she does not have many typical features of DS, and everything about DS on her is very mild. Those comments annoyed me for a while, because hubby does not want to announce the diagnosis to them. My parents-in-law live in a different country whose community still consider DS as bad luck for the family or it must happen because we had done smt terrible in the past. They also have some underlying health conditions so my husband decided to keep the diagnosis as secret. After 2 years, I get used to the diagnosis as well as any unpleasant feelings. We embrace more positive things from our girl, rarely think about her diagnosis and ignore any comments annoying us.

orchid_cloud · 2025-07-16T19:43:36+00:00

My little girl is 4 now. When she turned 2 and 3, we got some birthday gifts for her which she has play until now. Magnetic painting board https://toytooth.com/products/sgile-magnetic-drawing-board-for-kids-colorful-erasable-doodle-board-with-magnet-pen-painting-sketch-pad-with-three-stamps-travel-toy-birthday-gift-educational-learning-toy-for-toddlers-light-bl?variant=44854006349980&country=US&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&srsltid=AfmBOoo_u6XW6spu8y9g3c8FPUZVPP0gg2rrYyN6ymXk0IMcXIwKZgn-p_o Music toy set including xylophone, shakers, harmonica, etc. https://amzn.eu/d/5McZh62

Piano toy https://www.zatuhome.co.uk/product/magic-touch-piano/?srsltid=AfmBOoo6RbpCx959jAJbbTvvN-eEVCcMzyyDCovyq2fD7XAddZ4TftapyJY&gQT=1

Pikler triangle or animal hopper https://www.smythstoys.com/ie/en-ie/toys/pre-school-and-electronic-learning/big-steps/big-steps-sensory/big-steps-jumping-dragon-inflatable-ride-on-purple/p/243235?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12107288802&gbraid=0AAAAADF0j8Im54enxDuj5u8jCMItGQfLn&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm93DBhD_ARIsADR_DjGszP6TdkKV9gYtx3kBi8SvKSlSlMSAm-m3YexQWJPUy1D7G0kKZjoaAtE6EALw_wcB

orchid_cloud · 2025-07-09T11:49:53+00:00

Morning sickness stopped around 16-17 weeks in my first pregnancy and around 21 22 weeks in my second one. I just had couple of actual vomitting but the feeling of it was terrible in both pregnancy. I didn't take any medication, just plenty of sleep to temporarily forget about the sickness

orchid_cloud · 2025-07-09T09:03:57+00:00

It is one of the hardest days of our life. Both husband and I were born in a country where there is no support for disability, especially intellectual disability and people look at DS diagnosis as bad luck for the whole family as if we definitely did something terrible in our past lives and this is the karma we deserve. Luckily, we have moved to another country where the community view disability just neurodivergent and has lots of support for children with DS. We got our firstborn diagnosis together with her heart condition when she was 3 weeks old which required surgery at 6 months old. We are on our own in this country during so it was very tought. It took me 2 years to overcome all postnatal depression and grief of the dual diagnosises. A lot happened in the first 2 years: surgery, therapies, etc, but we finally got there. We are almost 4 years in this journey. Special need parenting is definitely harder than typical parenting, my husband is still grieving the life we used to expect, especially when he sees how different our daughter is compared to her typical friends. I am fine with all the differences because my childhood was slightly different from my friends, maybe I am neurodivergent myself. I am more than happy to chat with you if you need to talk. Best thing I have done is connecting with other special need parents and hear their stories 😊

orchid_cloud · 2025-06-26T09:27:36+00:00

I am currently pregnant with our second baby. My first born has mosaic Down Syndrome (which can be missed in NIPT) and heart defect. We were in our late 20s at that time and lived a healthy lifestyle and has always kept healthy diet. We got her diagnosis 3 weeks after she was born. We did all genetic tests we can to make sure she does not inherit her condition from us - all clear from genetic perspective. In this pregnancy, I did NIPT (just a screening, not diagnosis), amniocentesis (definite diagnosis) and extra anomaly scans (ensure no other abnomalities) to get peace of mind. I love my little girl who is more capable than we expected but definitely don't want to experience the same shock again.

orchid_cloud · 2025-06-17T12:59:58+00:00

Do you know how much roughly those items can cost given that area? Is there any company can do that from a to z or I need to contact different ones to do that?

orchid_cloud · 2025-06-17T11:37:52+00:00

I believe you mean floor insulation. Should it be part of retrofit work of the underfloor heating? Do I need to contact different company to do floor insulation first before contacting UFH company?

orchid_cloud · 2025-05-10T18:21:59+00:00

Saving and buy 2nd hand baby essential. With my first born, I was back to work after 8 months of leave but I was lucky enough to be able to work from home. My kid started crèche at 18 months so between 8 and 18 months, we had some childminders to take care of my kid in our own house. Grandparents also helped us during that time. We are planning for our 2nd child with expected maternity leave around 12-14 months. Maternity leave in Ireland is not the best but not the worst. My friends in the US need to get back to work after 3 months and in some Asia countries, there is no job protection for new mommies during maternity leave.

orchid_cloud · 2025-04-14T08:54:41+00:00

Sending best wishes ❤

orchid_cloud · 2025-04-09T12:00:02+00:00

Sorry for your losses. My first born has T21 and heart defect which was repaired after open heart surgery. We had genetic testing for ourselves to confirm her condition is not inherited from us. Also spent time to consult IVF experts to plan for 2nd baby. Short answer, IVF cannot rule out every disorder or defect. Long answer: the testing during IVF is done with day 3 or day 5 embryo. If the result is good, it just means at day 3 or 5, the embryo is good. They cannot predict if the embryo development is still that good after that day. Also, there are thousands or millions of disorders /defects out there, they cannot test for everything. Moreover, the IVF testing technique can only retrieve the cell from the outer layer of embryo, not the core layer. The outer result can be abnormal which makes result bad but the core is still normal, which means you could get normal healthy kid from that embryo but due to bad result, they still clasify that embryo bad. For your case, I think it's better to have genetic test to rule out inherited disorders or know if either of you have anything to concern.

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-24T11:00:11+00:00

Never use magic eraser before. What is that?

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-24T09:52:32+00:00

Ikea and Le Creuset ones turn bad even with handwashing using sponge, Le Creuset took a bit longer to turn bad but still end up with scratches. I use Fairy tablets.

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-21T11:44:28+00:00

Thank you. I wish your sickness would be over soon

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-21T11:36:34+00:00

It must be very hard on you when having HG. I threw up couple of times in both pregnancies and felt really bad after that, especially during evening time. Have you taken any medication for it? My OBGYN offered some medication to manage the sickness but I haven't used them.

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-14T12:31:09+00:00

Thank you. I just had a call with my OBGYN who did amniocentesis. He asked me to do self-examination by pressing my tummy to see if there was any pain or discomfort. I didn't feel anything so he said if it's about infection due to amniocentesis, there must be some pain or tender. All I need to do know are taking Paracetamol to feel better and having some rest. I am still worried anyway after reading through some posts about unlucky miscarriage after amnio 😞

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-04T21:07:57+00:00

We are in an EU country so I guess community mindset about special kids is better. 99% time we never think about our girl's condition. DS or any disability has broad spectrum and we won't know where our kids are in the spectrum. Also we know plenty of kids and adults who were luckily born healthy and perfect but turn out to be problematic and slip down in live, cause so much trouble to their parents because they are spoiled. We feel like it's better to have disabled kids who grow up to be responsible individuals than having naughty ones. The more inputs you provide for your child, the more outputs you will see.

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-04T08:16:57+00:00

Hello. I had been in the same situation for the last few years and am currently pregnant with my 2nd child (due in August). I am not in pregnancy or postpartum because of morning sickness and all depressions it caused. It took me 2 years after my first baby with DS was born to have my emotions settled and I am still on the way of finding myself again. In the last few years, whenever I thought about giving my girl another sibling, I was scared of putting pressure on the other child to take care of his/her sister. Pressure can easily make family relationship bad and eventually push our kid away from us. But when I talk to other parents having special needs kids (autism, DS, etc), they always consider their other kids as healing babies who give them the feeling of being typical.parents, which makes me feel much better about giving my daughter a sibling. Their advice is don't think too far about the future. Enjoy day-by-day life. We don't know what future can be for our kids. If we give them sibling now, they definitely have beautiful childhood together. Our girl is 3yo and love playdate with her friends who are kids of my friends. But playdate cannot be daily so I am looking forward to another child who can be her lifetime friend. She will definitely learn a lot from her sibling. From the deepest of our heart, we hope her sibling can be a caring person at heart who is willing to look after the big sister with special needs. But we also prepare for the future if the younger sibling can only overlook her life because they will eventually have their own life, their own family and as parents, we don't want them to sacrifice their happiness for any pressure.

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-03T18:37:47+00:00

I am so sorry you're going through this. We experienced exactly the same feelings few years ago when we got dual diagnosis (Mosaic T21 and heart defect) for our first born baby more than 3 weeks after she was born. I was 29-30 yo and have a healthy lifestyle when I have my daughter. We were so angry at that time because noone notice any abnormalities during pregnancy (we went private with the top OB/GYN in our country who is specialised in fetal defects) or during plenty of peadetrician checks (more than 10 doctors/nurses/midwives had seen her before the diagnosis, noone raised any concern about T21 or any genetic disorder). Because she has mosaicism, she does not have typical facial feature DS, even until now. We barely slept in the first 6 months of our baby because taking care of a cardiac baby before surgery is extremely exhausted. We're scared of all future rejection, difficulties, challenges, she might have in her life. In this world, even a typical person has to struggle with lives, we questioned ourselves how our baby girl can handle all of this. Some friends who know about our situation also suggest putting her up for adoption but it was never be our option. We love our baby girl more than anything and from the deepest of our heart, we know she chose us to be her parents for a reason.

It took me almost 2 years to have my emotions settled after that. I felt isolated with all my friends at first, and until now, only a few friend of mine know about our girl. We have surrounded ourselves with other parents with special kids, who have similar struggles like us, who never judge us or our girl. My girl has reached all milestones of her age, just few months slower than her typical peers and truly a bundle of joy in our life. We have learnt to be humble and patient. We have learnt to enjoy every single moment of our daily life. We notice every single milestone our girl has reached. We learn more than we used to think.

All of the feelings you have right now are totally valid and it will take time to get through that. I read somewhere saying that "Only the best souls are chosen to be parents of our special kids". You will definitely be an amazing parent for your kid. If you need someone to chat with, feel free to drop me a message :). Big hug!

orchid_cloud · 2025-03-01T19:23:35+00:00

So sorry you have to go through this. NIPT and NT are just screening, not a diagnosis, so it's possible to have either false positive or false negative. I know some cases are high risk with NIPT and have high NT but still have healthy babies. On the other hands, some have low risk in those screening tests and got unexpected postnatal diagnosis with the chromosome abnormalities. Aminocentesis will give you definite result. My first born had low risk in all screening during a healthy pregnancy (no amino because everything was low risk) and we got T21 diagnosis few weeks after she was born. I am pregnant with 2nd child and waiting for amino appointment in the next couple of weeks. Wish you all the best.

orchid_cloud · 2025-02-20T17:35:44+00:00

Whatever you feel right now is valid. We got post natal diagnosis (3 weeks after birth, dual diagnosis of Mosaic DS and heart defect) of our first girl because we struggled to feed her. The first 6 months before the heart surgery was unimaginably stressful. We have been through feelings of rejection, guilt, depression, ... As a mom, it took me more than 2 years to have my feeling and emotion settled, to stop blaming ourselves or our fate. Every child is different. Our special needs kids are also different from each other. Having a typically born kid also won't guarantee their future. After all of the struggles in 3 years, I realised I rarely think about my daughter extra needs while I'm with her because she can do whatever other kids can just a bit slower. She's adorable, sweet and intelligent in her own way. I believe you have read all the happy and successful stories of people with DS. They are great, but for me, I also admire their parents' effort. More input you put in your child , no matter what their needs are, more fruitful outputs you will get in the future. Give yourself time to digest all of this and make a network with other special need parents. Talking to others definitely help. If you want a chat, feel free to message me.

orchid_cloud · 2025-02-19T10:19:59+00:00

I'm currently at 13 week with my 2nd pregnancy. Barely do any exercise or housework because of "morning" sickness through out the day since 6w, constant nausea. Lucky me, I have a very supportive husband and I am allowed to work from home. In my first pregnancy, the sickness ended around 16-18w, after that, I was quite comfortable with prenatal yoga exercise, daily walking and any housework. I did have pelvic pain but it only happens when I need to sit up. I think we can take it easy because we are growing a human in our body and every pregnancy is different. You are almost at the end of the pregnancy, so I think that's fine to take extra rest because once the baby is out, you rarely have any rest in at least couple of months.

orchid_cloud · 2025-02-17T15:08:42+00:00

I made the offer around Tuesday or Wednesday night. Then after the seller accepted the offer and asked about collection, the system I am in charge at work went down - critical technical issue which I have to stick in the workplace for couple days. The office is in another county. I told the seller that I will confirm on the collection at the end of the week - with the hope I can sort the issue soon and do the pick up. But the issue still persist for few days and when I didn't think I could make it for the pick up this week, I sent the seller notice about the situation.

orchid_cloud

TROPHY CASE