Nana and Papa

Another week has gone by and tomorrow Aden will be 3 weeks old. We already have seen him grow and Jamie gets all sentimental thinking about our baby boy growing up. The fun part of it is seeing him do things he couldn't do before. He's starting to hold his head up on his own and is able to focus more on faces.

The exciting thing about this week is that my parents are here! They are still getting over the jet lag a bit and it is great having them here. Aden is fully enjoying having Nana and Papa here as he rarely has to be put down. There are always a willing pair of arms to hold him. They will be here with us until Feb 6. Unfortunately that is Super Bowl Sunday so they will be traveling back to the States instead of watching the game. We do want to thank everyone who sent gifts for Aden with my parents. You were very generous and we really appreciate it!

Here are some new pics!

Tara

Nana and Papa with Aden

Papa and Aden time!

Isn't he a cutie!

Tummy time

Multi-tasking

Settling In

Well, we will officially have been a family of three for two weeks tomorrow. We have gone through nearly 100 diapers, three blown out diapers, two nail clipping sessions (with no blood!), three sponge baths, one full bath, one six hour fussy fit, one doctors appointment, and one trip to the US Consulate.

It feels like we've always had Aden around and our old lives are foggy dream-like memories. It's more work and more wonderful than I ever thought it would/could be. He has been a wonderful little sleeper and eater. He sleeps in 3-4 hourstretches at night with one wake-up to eat and eats until he looks like a drunk half passed out with milk dribbling out the corners of his mouth. He is growing bigger and more cute by the day.

Aden is also working on becoming a legal US citizen (Saudi does not offer citizenship). By the grace of God we processed his paperwork at lightening speed. Our Government Relations Office at school said we needed our marriage license certified by the Saudi Embassy in the USA to get his birth certificate, which is needed for the passport. This was turning into an 8 week or more process. Long story short, we went to the office that issues birth certificates and I buddied up with an Egyptian guy processing the same paperwork for his son. He said they turned him away last time for not having an appointment, but I said I was going to try anyway. He went up the counter first, showed his appointment sheet and said something in Arabic and pointed at me. Then he said in English they would process mine too. 30 minutes later we had the birth certificate. Five days later we went to the consulate and processed all his passport paperwork. Instead of taking months, it took 9 days! However, the US government is usinga new system for new international passports that is not ready, so everything is on hold. We are confident in an April homecoming though.

As for Tara, her headaches are completely gone and she is feeling very good. She is back to walking laps around the compound and looking forward to being able to run again in the coming months.

Enjoy the newest pictures.

-Jamie

What a heartbreaker!

Our school organized dinners for us for a whole week. It was very nice and very yummy.

This is Daddy at his most tired time of the day, right before bed and after bath time.

Good perspective on how small even a good size newborn is.

Can you tell he's putting some weight on the cheeks?

Aden hanging out with some of our friends and his fans, Heather, Stephanie, and Laura (left-right)

Aden James: The Birth Story

He's here!  We've been patiently waiting and our little boy has finally come.  A lot of people have been asking for details, so here is the story of his birth.

It all started during our doctor's appointment on the 5th.  After doing a physical, the doctor told us that I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced which meant that my body was ready to go into labor.  Our doctor is scheduled to do deliveries at the hospital on Saturdays and offered to let us come in and do an induction because we live so far away.  Our immediate reaction was to decline the offer because we wanted Aden to come when he was ready.  The doctor scheduled us in anyway and told us we could decide later but he wanted to keep the option open.  After much deliberation the next few days, we did decide to get induced.  I had been having contractions on and off all day Thursday and Friday so we knew the time would come soon.  This, along with the fear of actually making it to the hospital with the crazy traffic that can sometime happen, helped us to make the decision.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:30 am!  After getting checked in and having another physical, I had the lovely experience of having an enema.  Jamie was quite amused by the whole procedure and decided it would be great to take pictures of me pacing the room, thanks hun!  At 7:30am Dr. Ashour (my doctor) came in and determined that I was only at 3 cm and broke my water.  That got things rolling and on came the heavy contractions.  I quickly asked for my epidural which worked very quickly and allowed me to finally get some rest.  Jamie and I both took advantage of the quiet, pain-free hours and napped.  At some point during the napping, my doctor came back in and started me on a drip of pitocin.  Which was supposed to get me ready for labor.  It worked, an hour later the doctor came in and said I was at almost 9cm and he would be back in an hour.  10 minutes later he came in and said "we are going to have this baby".  Jamie said, "what, I thought we had an hour?"  He was delivering babies all morning and didn't think he would be finished with a c-section he had to do before the baby came.  20 minutes later, little Aden was here!  It was relatively easy, but the epidural worked too well.  I was supposed to be able to feel pressure so I knew when to push, but I felt nothing at all.  One doctor was pushing on my belly when contractions came, another was coaching me, our doctor was trying to get the baby out, and a nurse was my cheer leader.  Aden's heart rate dropped slightly and they brought out the little hand-pump vacuum thing to use to pull him out.  Once his shoulders were out our doctor said, "Tara, quickly give me your hands."  He put my hands on the baby and with the doctor's help we pulled him out and put him on my chest.  At 10:58am Aden was born.  I was elated to be done pushing and to have this little miracle in my arms.  From there Jamie cut the umbilical cord (he now says he wishes he would have brought his own knife like he thought about doing), they cleaned him up,  and we sat in the delivery room for a while trying to make the final decision on his name.  He looked like an Aden and we both thought so.  Recovery went well in the hospital, the nurses were wonderful to us and Aden and some of our friends came to see the star of the show and tell us congratulations.

We brought Aden home Monday afternoon.  The first night home was rough.  There was little sleeping for all three of us and Jamie had to go to work the next day.  We were quite nervous the next night because we had to be up to take him to the pediatrician.  Aden slept in shifts of 3-4 hours.  It was wonderful and he did the same last night!

We are very happy and satisfied parents.  The only down side has been my headaches.  The epidural needle can release spinal fluid if they put it in to far and they did.  The doctor said my brain has sagged a little causing migraine type headaches.  If I lay down they are ok, but too much activity is not fun.  I should feel all better in a few days and Jamie has been doing a wonderful job caring for his family.  He changes diapers, burps Aden, makes dinner, does the dishes and even did laundry and dusting around the house.  He has definitely won the super-Dad award in our house.

Now for the fun part..... pictures!  Some of these have been on facebook and some are being published for the first time.

The very focused doctors and nurses

Welcome Aden James McGuire

This gives good perspective as to how small a newborn is.

Welcome home little pumpkin face!

Aden with his 4 month old friend Kamilla.  I guess they grow fast.

shhhh . . . . 

The first sponge bath!  I suppose they can only get better from here.

Sporting his cool shades from Auntie Erin

Mama and baby taking a nap together.

This is kind of sad and cute at the same time.

Looking forward to 2011!

The holidays here aren't the same as being in Wisconsin, but we did have a successful Christmas and New Years.  We were able to Skype with quite a few of you over the past week which was a huge blessing.  It's so nice to hear the voices of those we love back home.  For Christmas this year, we did a small gift exchange with each other.  Jamie got a bunch of car cleaning supplies which he promptly tried out.  I had already gotten my big present, an iPod dock that we put in the kitchen.  I love it!  Very handy for when I want to get my Dave Ramsey fix while cooking dinner.  For Christmas dinner we went to a friend's house and had gumbo.  Quite nontraditional for us, but absolutely scrumptious.  We rang in the new year on our own and actually made it to midnight!  It was a nice night of relaxing.

One exciting thing that happened this week is that we got new carpet in our place!  We had this lovely pink carpet upstairs and we asked to have it replaced.  They ended up replacing all the carpeting in the entire house.  It looks and feels a lot nicer.  Later on this week, they should be replacing the linoleum flooring in the kitchen.  These are things that we're not supposed to do on our own, instead we have to wait for the compound to approve the changes and have their crew come and do it.

On the baby front there isn't much news.  He hasn't dropped yet, but is steadily gaining weight.  As of the 29th, he weighed 7 lbs 11 oz.  He's getting so big that we can't even get good pictures anymore because he is too scrunched up.  We'll go to the doctor again on the 5th and get another update on his progress.

Tara

Enjoying some hot cider before opening presents.

Jamie with his presents, mostly car cleaning supplies.

Box that a beautiful necklace came in.  They have such funny English sayings on things here.

Updated Pregnancy Pics

Due to multiple requests, I am posting the latest pictures of Tara's belly progression.  We are up to 37 weeks today, which is considered full term.  Now our boy is just putting on weight.  Needless to say, Tara could do without this last part which just makes her uncomfortable, I mean, more uncomfortable.

Enjoy, this could be the last of the pictures until the baby pictures start!

Week 24

Week 28

Week 32

Week 35

Week 37

It isn't until I line all the pictures up sequence that I actually see how much our baby has grown!

Not a very wintery winter break

Tara and I have been enjoying our time off.  Besides doing some school work and work around the house, we took a 3 day trip to Bahrain.  It was nice to get out of Saudi one last time before the baby comes.  We were able to see two movies, the new Harry Potter and Due Date.  Due Date might not have been the best movie to see so close to our own due date, but it was funny.  I was also on a mission to see the educational sites in Bahrain before the baby comes because I'm not sure how willing we will be to take a baby through museums.  We went to the Bahrain Museum and the Qal'at Bahrain, or Fort of Bahrain.  It was interesting to see the chronological history of the small country.  It was really an important trade territory during early civilization in the Middle East.  And of course, we went out to eat a lot and had our bacon fix for breakfast one morning.  It was a good last trip for a while.  Our next exit will be to go back to Wisconsin in April.

We also had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday.  It was just a stress test for the baby, but turned into a stress test for the parents.  Tara had some monitors strapped to her belly measuring contractions and the baby's heart beat.  A nurse and doctor were checking the results a little to closely for our comfort and the baby wasn't moving much, but in the end they said everything was just fine.  We were thankful for the final outcome.

For Christmas today and tomorrow we are having small celebrations with friends.  We miss everyone and wish our family and friends a merry Christmas!  We have every intention of celebrating next Christmas in Wisconsin!

Tara was such a trooper with all the walking through the fort.

Striking a pose.

Tara liked the contrast between the old and the new in Bahrain.

It's been a while....

Sorry it's been a while since we last blogged.  These past two weeks have been really busy with school, parties, and life in general.  Here's a quick update on what we've been up to:

If you followed our blog last year, you may remember that I've been teaching a food and nutrition class.  This year Jamie decided to co-teach it with me.  We just finished our big project of planning and cooking a meal for their parents and other teachers.  We ended up with about 45 people there.  With only 6 students in the class, they did a great job.  It was a lot of work and we were all exhausted by the end of the evening.

This past weekend, we also decided to throw a holiday party.  It was the last weekend before everyone headed home for vacation.  It was a lot of work, but so much fun.  Having our home filled with some of the people we love was wonderful.  For the party, Jamie worked on the garden and had it in top shape, we even have all the vegetables and flowers planted (look for pictures below).  Unfortunately, we were having so much fun that we didn't actually take pictures of the party.

School is officially over for the next three weeks.  I (Tara) won't be going back until the middle of March which Jamie is a bit jealous of.  To be honest, it hasn't quite hit me.  I'm just excited to be able to sleep in, take naps, and read.  We will be spending some time at school as I prepare my classroom for my absence and Jamie is doing some more tutoring for a student who is staying here over break.

Lastly, we did have another dr's appointment.  We have started going every week since he is due in exactly a month.  Everything the doctor said was good, just that I have to continue watching my sugar intake so he doesn't get too fat.  I'm working on packing my hospital bag and the car seat will be permanently stored in the car from now on, just in case.  With the hospital being an hour away, we really can't play it too save. 

Being at home much more than normal, we plan on being on Skype and IChat more often.  Please feel free to give us a call.  We'd love to see your face and/or hear your voice.

Tara

He's a little squish face here

It looks like he is yawning, but how could he possible be tired?  He is fed and carried all the time.

2nd annual garden.  This years crop consists of three tomato plants, a handful of bell and chili pepper plants, potatoes, and onions.

This is the patio extension Jamie laid last weekend.  He is pretty talented.

A few of our chefs tending the buffet table.