We had our precious little baby girl in September and my life is totally revolving around her right now. Haven't gone out except for doctor checkups. Having a tough time dealing with my son's tantrums when it comes to sharing parents love with his little sister. I had a wonderful delivery experience at Apollo, Jubilee Hills and would recommend it to everyone returning from US to Hyd. I was so worried on how the facilities would be here but it's so much like there if you are ready to pay. Had a normal delivery and happy with overall experience. Now dealing with some postpartum blues and aches and longing to start my Zumba workout upon completion of 6 weeks. Looking out for good gym here but could not find one that is somewhat closer to how gyms are in US. If you are going to stay in posh areas such as Banjara and Jubilee hills, you'll have very good options but for those living in other areas, it's so difficult to find a proper gym for Women in particular.
Coming to baby stuff here, they are very expensive if you are looking for imported stuff. Aveeno baby wash small bottle is 1000 Rs while we could get the same thing for 6$ there. So, I got most of the initial baby stuff from US.
When I had my first baby in US, I didn't follow any traditions and that's how I like it as they don't make sense to me. But for the second baby that I had in India, I was flooded with advice from everyone on what I should and should not do, what I should and should not eat, how to take care of baby etc. and I was getting so tired of it. Prepare for these things if you are planning to have a baby here.
We got lot of items shipped from US to India. Lot of baby stuff, my son's toys, lot of electronics, kitchen/baking stuff, creams, kids' clothes/shoes for next few years and so on. We found some shipping company online that ships to India frequently and had good reviews. There were multiple shipping options. We could rent a container, or we could ship few boxes. We went with shipping few boxes option as we didn't want to move any furniture. If you want to move furniture, you might need half container or full one. Some companies give free shipping option to employees. Check out if your company provides something like that. So, the shipping companies first ship to Mumbai or Chennai or some other places where we have ports and then our stuff reaches its destination through Trucks. There can be some damages during this transit and so it's better to take insurance if you are shipping expensive stuff. We got 2 big TV's, big speaker systems and some computer related stuff etc. and so we were charged significantly in Customs. That was the sad part. So, account for that also in your overall shipping expenses. Our shipping company delayed our stuff for many months. Shipping takes forever and you cannot really estimate the time when you would receive your stuff. So don't buy "soon to expire" or things that kids would outgrow as this process could even take up to 6 months.
So far, our India experience had been good. We had some challenges along the way with in-laws health issues but we overcame it by god's grace. Another small challenge I had was that, it was difficult to do out of state and out of country trips as our vacation time would usually be spent on visiting parents/in-laws/relatives' places.
If you are thinking of moving back to India, have a strong motivator to move back so you don't think of coming back for every small challenge you might face. You will definitely face lot of challenges and changes considering the life we have in US, and you might compare everything in the first year but slowly you will start liking it there and you may not feel like returning if you made your life comfortable there. Most important factor is financial ability. If you have good income and savings, you can live comfortable life there. Everything is so expensive in India and so please plan your finances properly when you plan to move. You might have some savings but all that will go away very soon. So, a stable income is very important.
Also, if you already have a GC or Citizenship, you could move back happily when kids are young (the younger, the better), stay in India for as long as you want and if your kids plan to do higher studies in US, you could come back at that time if you'd like. If you want in-state college tuition fees for your kids, it would be advisable to have them do few years of their high school in US in the place where your preferred colleges are.
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