It is exactly 2 weeks today until we move to Spain for 5 months! I decide to mark this occasion I would do a question and answer style blog post as people seem to ask the same questions alllll the time!
1. Will we be having our baby abroad?
We are, with the European Health Card we are entitled to the same state health care as the Spanish and their health care is pretty good. We have got the forms we need from the NHS that means they will fund our health care over there. I'll admit there was a point where I had read a few things online from British mums who had given birth in Spain and they had had experiences that were quite different from what is usual in the UK which made me panic and led to us looking into all the different options in coming back the the UK to have the baby (none of which were either practical or cheap). However after talking about all the options with Ethan we have decided to stay having the baby in Spain, none of the experiences I read online had any effect on the healthtiness/safety of the delivery, all of the babies were born healthy, it was just the experience was different to what you would expect in the UK as obviously it is a different culture that has slightly different ways of doing things. And so because we're aware of the fact that they do things slightly differently in Spain we are prepared for that unlike the women online and so are very happy with the plan of giving birth in Spain.
2. Have we got where we are going to be living sorted?
Yep. We have a lovely flat a few minutes from the sea which comes FULLY furnished (crockery, towels, bedding etc.) so we don't have to bring over/buy anything for the flat which saves us so much money! It also is very spacious which I think will be quite nice for having a newborn in, and has a spare bedroom with 2 beds and a sofa bed which means that our family and friends can come and visit us really easily as they only need to sort flights! (My family had their flights booked before we even had ours booked!)
3. How are you going to cope knowing no Spanish?
I have actually learnt Spanish for 4 years in total and so although I'm by no means fluent I know the basics to be able to get by and can understand enough to be able to cope. So with that I plan to pick up as much as I can while we're there and who knows, maybe I'll be fluent by the time we leave... ;)
4. What will you be doing there?
Me - Having a baby and getting a tan. Ethan - he has a university placement at the University of Valencia for the Autumn semester (then a placement at the University of Pavia in Italy for the spring semester). However because you learn a language best by being immersed in the culture, he only has to take half the number of modules than his other 3 years of his course so we will be spending as much time as we can enjoying the Spanish culture with our little baby dragon :)
5. Will your baby have a Spanish name?
Most likely not, although we haven't decided on any names yet, we have a few we like but are going to wait until the baby is born to see what he suits best. Although it would be fun to give him a Spanish name it would just be very out of place in the UK, however there are a few Italian names that are a bit more 'acceptable' in the UK but they might be used for later children, we shall see...
6. Are you scared about moving to abroad for a year/having a baby abroad?
Nope, we are so excited! It's a logistical nightmare working out how to get our things and all the things we have for the baby like a pushchair, car seat etc from the UK to Spain, Spain to Italy and Italy back the the UK, although we've got it all sorted out for taking to Spain at least :) But other than that I don't think there is actually a better time to have a baby as financially we are in a very good position thanks to student finance and Erasmus and it will be so lovely for Ethan as he will have twice as much time to be able to spend with the baby and support me than if he was at uni in the UK and 10 times more time than when he's graduated with a full time job.
7. What about your degree?
I've just finished my second year, I'm taking a year out which is all sorted and approved and then we are both finishing our final year the next year. My course has very few contact hours so in reality baby dragon will only need to go to the uni day care for a couple of hours a week. If people can go back to work full time after 6 weeks, finishing a practically part time degree after a year is not going to be an issue :)
I'm sure there are probably more questions that people ask, but I can't think of them right now and I think they get less interesting too so I shall stop there for the greater good of everyone... :)
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