I'm back!!! I miss H's family already but it is nice to be back. For the record, I would also never, ever, EVER travel to India again while still in the nauseated/exhausted stage of pregnancy. All day morning sickness in India, combined with jet lag and Celiac is really challenging. H is super proud of me being such a trooper in India though, which is nice.
I traveled alone to India since H left before me...it took nearly 30 hours to get there but it was pretty smooth travel other than the time it took. I didn't sleep at all on the plane so I was pretty beat when I got to India but still going on adrenaline. Thankfully we had a day off once I got there to rest. Other than that, our trip was PACKED.
First up was Diwali. We had a nice little celebration in H's Mom's town. Some pictures are below with me and H and me and H's brother's GF.
There were tons of fire crackers the day leading up to Diwali and the day of until well into the night. I mean TONS, the fire crackers were all over the place plus beautiful Rangoli designs. Everyone had a great time and there were lots of special foods to celebrate with.
A day or so later we started the wedding festivities for H's cousin. We went to an engagement party first, which was awesome. We met a lot of family H and I hadn't seen in several years and it was nice to catch up.
After that, we had several business meetings for a business H, his brother and a third-party are starting up in India. I'm so proud of H and his brother...the business is really starting to come up and we will be launching soon (its a security/safety business) so we spent a few days in meetings. Speaking of safety there isn't much in India on the motorways....you can't see the third child in this picture but this is family of five riding a motorbike. Why the parents have helmets but the kids don't, no idea.
After about a week into the trip, we went to Gurgon, a nearby town, to hang out with H's brother's GF and do some shopping as well as have a few business meetings. We stayed in a hotel one night and that was glorious...we stay with family and friends when there so a hotel is a luxury. I also went to the spa in the hotel and it was heaven. I got a facial and was all relaxed.
We then went to Panipat in India (the textile center of India). We visited with some of H's childhood friends he hasn't seen in YEARS. One of his friends reads astrology charts too so I had mine read. The good news is I'm going to do great financially for a number of years. On the negative side, the guy said I'm a very angry person (? couldn't be further from the truth?) and that I'm going to get very, very angry at H soon until May of next year. I told H he better behave then. I'm due in early June so maybe my pregnancy hormones are going to go crazy.
He also said my "child" will develop a lower leg injury. We treat Rajah like our child so we were pretty weirded out by the latter prediction since Raj needs knee surgery. That said, I don't really believe in astrology so I didn't take it too seriously. We lit some wish lanterns there too...
We also found curtains for our house while we were in Panipat! We have a huge picture window (8 feet tall by like 24 feet wide) and it was going to cost a small fortune to dress the window here in the U.S. Since H's friend knew a bunch of curtain makers in Panipat we got a great deal (even with shipping to the U.S.) on curtains...here is the fabric.
About a week or so into the trip I got really sick from my Celiac (I was being as careful as I could be but there is only so much you can do to avoid cross-contamination in India) and I simultaneously developed an infection around this time. I called my doctor and had a hell of a time trying to get the name of an anitbotic I could take in India to help with the infection that is safe during pregnancy. The doctor's office kept telling me to go to "prompt care" in India...yeah, thanks for the advice...that doesn't exist where I was. I ended up going to the ER hospital to see a doctor. She freaked me the F out. First she shamed me for traveling while pregnant, then she asked me very few questions about my medical history that were important (i.e., am I allergic to any medicine...I am) but bothered me with questions like "have you had an abortion ever" (WTF), then she questioned how far along I was in my pregnancy and said I must be wrong (thanks, I'm not) and finally she couldn't find the baby's heartbeat on the Doppler. All thoughts of the infection went out the window at that point and I was a mess. They don't regularly do ultrasounds in India because of female feticide so that wasn't an option. I ended up trying to trouble shoot with her with the Doppler machine, emptied everything I could out of my stomach/bladder to help find baby and demanded she try again. After some reluctance on her part to try again (she was just going to let me leave the hospital a mess without trying again but H had my back), thank GOD we found the baby's heartbeat then. I couldn't have been more relieved and was just in tears from happiness at that point. After that, I didn't really trust the meds she was going to give me so I tried a few non-medicinal remedies for the infection after a fair amount of research and talks with my doctor in the U.S. Thankfully, the infection has seemed to go away but I have a doctor's appt here in the U.S. tomorrow to confirm.
After that whole ordeal I couldn't go to the Sangeet (dance party for the wedding where henna is done) but we still had the wedding to go to! I wanted to wear an India outfit but we didn't have time to get it stitched so I just wore a fancy dress with my MIL's jewelry. The wedding was georgeous! Tons of color, decorations, food and festivities. It went until well into the morning. The wedding itself didn't start until almost midnight...H fell asleep during it.
Sorry my picture of it sucks (as did my hair that day apparently), but the wedding itself was really stunning. We threw flowers at the bride and groom and said our farewells around 2 am.
We then had more business meetings and I also celebrated my 34th birthday in India! H ordered flowers and a cake for me...I couldn't eat the latter because of Celiac but I got to blow out the candles and I thought the gesture was really sweet of him. I married a keeper, ladies. He promised me a gluten-free cake in the U.S. too.
Work mostly left me alone except for the last few days of travel, which was nice. As to the travel home it was LOOOONG. We got delayed a few times due to weather. It took about 40 hours to get back and all I can say is I'm grateful for being back to drinking coffee even if its limited to a cup. I'm sure I'm missing some things but I can't remember what at this point. It was a long trip and I miss H's family already. Poor H must really miss them. We have the holidays to look forward to here though so that is a nice thing to return to.
Any questions, ask away! I'm glad to be back with you all though, ladies!