A Casualty of Ameringlish

When I first moved to England, I found that there are a few words that have completely different meanings to what I was used to.  One of the most confusing was the word CASUALTY.

The first time I noticed this confusion was when I heard a news report of some accident or other.  They report went something like:

"An accident in North England has resulted in 8 casualties.  No fatalities have been reported."

I was so confused!  If the first sentence was true, then how could the second also be true?!?
In America, if a news story reports a casualty, that's really bad news.  It means that someone has died.
But then I remembered something.  There's a show here called....

Sorta like ER...

And it's not a show about death (always... obviously sometimes patients die), but rather a show about the Casualty Department at Holby City Hospital (a fictional hospital that is the subject of a different show).  The Casualty Department, also known as A&E (Accident and Emergency) is the equivalent of the ER.  

Here a casualty simply means an injury.  Very confusing for a poor, unsuspecting American!  So if you're ever injured in England and someone asks you if you need to go to Casualty, don't worry... they aren't implying that it's so bad you'll die.

The 2nd most influential factor in getting pregnant

The number one thing that helped me get pregnant was having sex.  Duh.

But besides that, I did something that I truly believe helped me conceive.
I am not normally into new agey or non-traditional treatments for things.  In fact, I don't often go in for treatments full stop.  I would probably put myself in the "suck it up and get on with it" camp when it comes to most things.  Now my husband is not a fan of medications and doctors in general.  He prefers to find natural treatments for ailments.  After I moved to England, I was complaining of my usual little aches and pains and my husband suggested that I try something that he'd used with good success.  My pains were mostly old ballet injuries to my joints which caused them to ache and swell from time to time, as well as a general extremely tight muscles in my shoulders.

Early dancing days

And so I went to see a Bowen Therapist for the first time.  The Bowen Technique has to do with small movements or adjustments performed on muscle groups.  Conceptually, the body wants to be healthy and function properly, but has gotten stuck in a bad habit.  The theory is that the movements "reset" the body, allowing it to heal itself.  (That's the short version, as interpreted by me.)

Ann, the practitioner, commented that I was carrying a lot of tension and mentioned the connection between being physical uptight and being uptight as a personality trait.  I laughed and said, "I don't really think of my self as a tense person consitutionally."  She basically said, "You can't argue with these shoulders.  You ARE uptight."

I had to admit she was right.  After seeing Ann, I started to notice how often I was tensing my muscles (i.e.  standing with my butt cheeks totally flexed, clenching my jaw, etc).  I started making an effort to force myself to relax.  And boy was it an effort!  But as time went on, it got easier and I noticed that I wasn't carrying as much tension.

At a second visit to see Ann, I mentioned that I was very prone to UTIs.  I would get them really easily, and had even had a really bad one that resulted in me going into sepsis.  Yikes!  She did something to my abdomen.  I'm still not sure what it was.  It wasn't really part of the Bowen therapy.  She described it as an "add on treatment" that she offers sometimes.  I think she said she was removing energy blockages.  **Cue my eye roll**  She pressed rhythmically on areas of my lower stomach (forcefully, but not painfully) and made whooshing noises.  I was sceptical to say the least.

A few days later, the area she'd worked on started coming up in dark purple bruises that lasted a couple of weeks.  These were some serious bruises.  And my UTIs immediately got better- in fact, I haven't had a hint of one since then.  My next cycle was totally wonky and made me think I was pregnant and then crazy.  One more treatment after that (which included removing more energy blocks from my abdomen) and I was pregnant.

Coincidence?  Possibly.  But I'm not convinced.  It makes sense to me that if things (energy/chi/whatever) weren't flowing right in an area related to baby making, that it would impact my ability to conceive.  Like I said, I have no proof that this new agey "energy work" helped me get pregnant, but I still believe that it is a key factor.

Did you try anything unorthodox to get pregnant?
Or did you maybe stumble upon something that you didn't think was related to your fertility that ended up having an impact?

Cheerful Sunday

My pretty pretty new phone.  (Thank you Orange upgrade!)

My new white Samsung Galaxy S2

Word of the Week

Cotcrib

The Camelot Cribcot $3650

Perfect for Daddy's little princess

Definition:  The, often cage-like, place where babies usually sleep.

Used in a sentence:  Ross and I will probably buy our cribcot from Ikea because they are stylish and inexpensive.

The cutest thing ever

One of the hardest things about being an expat is being far away from loved ones.  For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in the same city as my mom's parents.  We saw G'ma and Papa every Sunday for church and went to stay at their house rather than have babysitters.

After we moved to Dallas, G'ma and Papa moved to San Antonio to be near my cousins.  They were always within driving distance.  Even when my parents moved to Virginia after I graduated from high school, I stayed in Texas for college.  I never gave much thought to the fact that they are there.  They are the kind of people that just exude love for their family.

For most of the family and our closest friends, we used email to tell them about our impending arrival.  We didn't do anything cute, we just told them the news.  The only people who don't "do" the internet are my G'ma and Papa.  Ross and I put the phone on speaker and dialed them up through Skype. (They still don't believe that it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to call them.)  They've been chomping at the bit for a great-grandchild for at least the last five years, so we knew they'd be thrilled with our news.  So once we got them both on the phone, we made our announcement.  "How would you feel about a great-grandchild?",  I said.  They were as excited and happy as we'd imagined.  G'ma proclaimed that she was "shocked and excited".   We told them the due date and how far along I was and they waxed adorably rhapsodic about the first great-grandchild.

G'ma announced that she'd bought a card and the first present for the baby years ago, but that now she could "really start shopping".  After we talked for awhile, she said she'd let me go so that she could "go gloat".  So cute.

And that's not even the cutest thing ever.  This is...  My Uncle, Aunt, and 3 grown cousins (the 2 girls with their husbands) all live in San Antonio.  I found out that G'ma and Papa hosted a Labor Day lunch, complete with a home-cooked feast and a champagne toast in honor of Baby Ameringlish.

My cousin sent me the pictures.

Papa with Uncle Bob pouring the champagne

Cousin Jen looks on as G'ma looks at the baby's ultrasound picture-

already in a frame.

Papa checks out the baby too.  Word on the street is Papa said "he looks handsome".

I guess we know what his vote is for boy or girl!

The whole family toasting.

The proud great-grandparents.

So cute!

Seriously, is that the sweetest thing ever.  I confess to getting a little misty eyed looking at the photos.  It's so sweet that they had this celebration, even though we couldn't be there with them.  It would have been nice to celebrate with them in person, but it was almost as nice to know how much they love us from a far.

(P.S.  Sneaky Cousin Erin was actually also pregnant at this celebration!  She and her sweet husband Kevin have just gone public with the news that a second great-grandchild will be joining the family about a month and a half after ours!  I bet G'ma and Papa are the happiest great-grandparents on the block.)

Has your family ever gone above and beyond to make you feel loved?

What's the hardest part of being away from family for you?