Did You See Where My 2 Weeks Went?

So somewhere between bringing Aiden home and arriving at work this morning two weeks have evaporated in a haze of day trips around town, afternoon naps, baths, snuggles, interrupted sleep, grandma A's departure (she will be GREATLY missed) and our first thunderstorm in Doha in 2 years! In lieu of sharing each incredibly detailed moment I'll pause to recap some lessons we've learned along the way. I (Brandon) will start with concepts for Fatherhood 101 (aka Sleep Hoggers Anonymous), and let Sheri tackle Motherhood 101 (aka Superwoman Training) when she has collected her thoughts.

What to expect from Fatherhood 101 (1st two weeks):

1. Your child is an incredible source of joy but a continuous drain on your emotional and physical energy (the magnitude of which makes running a marathon seem trivial)

2. Fortunately, your wife is an incredible source of strength and energy who apparently requires no sleep at all to maintain her motherly duties, were it not for her occasional slurred speech or midsentence 'nap', you might not know she only gets 3 hours of broken sleep a night

3. For dad, who currently reaps the benefits of a breastfeeding program that allows him to return to sleep during feeds - 8 hours of sleep obtained in 2 hour intervals is equivalent to 4 hours of traditional sleep (at best)... causing me to still deal with significant gaps in productivity at work. Thankfully my team has been great throughout, even laughing 'with me' when I slur my speech or forget about a meeting in my fatherhood stupor

4. Physical interaction with urine and feces becomes common place; you measure greatness within the family in terms of 'diaper changing heroics', which at times provides outburts of comic relief that would have previously been fits of sanitization (Aiden isn't shy about spraying folks, including our friend Cassie and pretty much every doctor he meets)

5. Grandma's are great tools to have around the house, which made it hard to put Grandma A back on a plane this weekend and wave goodbye to our extra set of hands (and extra hot, extra long showers!). The only silver lining is that I can now safely walk around the house in boxers during midnight trips to the kitchen.

6. You can almost set your watch by our little guy's 'emotional states'... we know he's awake and active most in the morning (10am), that he eats about every 1.5-2.5 hours, usually 1.5 hours when we plan on 2.5 hours and vice versa. He can survive trips to the mall, including the occasional introduction to a friend we bump into

7. A month ago my alarm clock had to be set on LOUD to avoid the infamous 'sleep thru'... now the slightest little grunt or whimper from the Moses basket has me tossing and turning (and has Sheri standing by for the night feeds). I don't think either of us had an appreciation for how much noise this little guy can produce, most of it incredibly cute during the day - some of it quite frustrating at night. We know the answer is to shift him to the big bed in the nursery, but as any parent can tell you that transition is a difficult one... especially since the only material difference at first is the white noise of a baby monitor and having to get up and walk into another room to investigate all the noises!

8. We have the best friends and family, who have been so supportive. I'll apologize now for any return call/text we haven't yet made, we hope to settle into a 'pseudo-routine' that will allow us to more efficiently contact the outside world. Until then know that we appreciate all that you've done and that you will do in the years to come.

Now for the real reason you check the blog (new photos & a short video on Flickr):

Welcome Home

Aiden and mom are doing great and we're all settling in back at home. As wonderful as everyone was at the hospital, it feels so good to sleep in our own bed and change Aiden's diapers ourselves without a nurse impatiently asking how the feeding is going in an attempt to slip Aiden a bottle of formula. He is an absolute dream - offering so many amazing experiences each day that we are having trouble remembering what life was like before our son arrived.

Our friends and neighbors have been so awesome - cooking us food, running errands, stopping by to lend some positive encouragement, and giving us . They are helping bridge the gap between our family and friends back in the US until our first tour this summer.

Sheri's mom arrived safely a few nights ago and has been a HUGE help. We had learned before her arrival that simple things like showering, changing clothes, feeding dogs, and sleeping are much more complicated with a one week old baby to look after. The extra set of hands is helping us slowly acclimate to our new environment, while also giving Aiden some well enjoyed granny time.

You might wonder if Aiden becomes a citizen of Qatar after his local birth - the quick answer is NO, he will not inherent any of the billions of dollars of hydrocarbon revenue that the other Qataris are entitled to - but he does still have to jump through plenty of hoops to get registered in the country, allowing us to then proceed with requesting a passport and social security number. The paperwork started two days ago, getting forms typed up at the private hospital where Aiden was born, then a friend from prenatal class and I went down to the government hospital (frightening place - imagine downtown houston ER) and we successfully navigated the obscure building guided by several nice folks with ESL and got our sons Qatar medical numbers. We then took those numbers across the street and had all our forms translated into Arabic by some really sweet arab ladies before paying 40 dollars and being given a slip to pick up our birth certificates a week later. So I've got a few days rest before we begin the much harder process of getting his passport/social security # (embassy is open 2 hours a day on a road that's completely under construction, and we have to get a photo of our cutie with his eyes open AND looking at the camera!).

In preparation for our pending trip to the embassy, Aiden made his first car trip back to the hospital yesterday to have his frenulum inspected after our lactation consultant noticed that Aiden's tongue was moderately tied (the membrane connecting his tongue to the floor of the mouth is a bit tight). The surgeon who did Aiden's circumcision confirmed that his frenulum could use a snip, but we will look to our pediatrician tomorrow to provide a 2nd opinion before we schedule any procedures. Throughout the whole trip (car ride there, waiting room, doctor's prodding, car ride back) Aiden was a champ, hardly crying and instead inquisitively looking around the world outside with huge, wandering eyes!

Aiden has successfully removed any doubt that he's a man's man, going through 12 diapers a day and at his peak yesterday going through 3 diapers, 2 changing pads, and a pair of dad's pants in less than 10 minutes! This immediately resulted in his first bath and subsequently the cute first towel dry in his froggy towel. We're also happy to report that Aiden is eating very well, and sleeping even better. He has gone through the past two nights with a single feed, and thanks for mom's stealth mode (or dad's complete exhaustion), it has resulted in 7 hours of solid sleep for dad and two 3 hour sessions for mom. Despite some slurring of speech in the first few days back at home, our bodies are making the adjustment - which will be very important next Sunday when Brandon heads back to the office. For the rest of the week daddy will 'work from home' as little as he must and continue to spend time with his dream team.

We have been struggling to get our photos up on Flickr, something seems to be interrupting our uploads from Doha (slow internet, government monitoring, etc). Slowly and completely out of order - you will find the photos creeping onto Flickr atleast until we discover if our Mac website uploads more efficiently.

Pictures

Photos are faster

Good Morning Beautiful

We made it through our first night with Aiden.

Momma and baby are recovering quickly, up and walking around the room, getting the hang of the feeding 'procedure', and all around loving on each other. Sheri's had her first shower, is eating well, changed into a much more efficient nursing gown, and can get around without my help as of a few hours ago.

We've already seen Aiden's first 3 dirty diapers (nurses are handling them while we're here!), learned how to swaddle him into submission, got him opening both eyes when there's something interesting to see, and are on our 2nd outfit (the 'italian job' look with brown pants and a white low cut shirt to show off his chest to the ladies). He's a natural ham when the camera comes out - so we'll have plenty of pictures on Flickr once we sort through them all.

Stay tuned for all the 2nd day adventures. We're headed home tomorrow, so we'll have to keep ourselves busy until then - thankfully visitors will help distract us most of the day, including the most important visitor, our lactation consultant this afternoon - what a job!

Stories on the blog. Photos on Flickr and Facebook. Keep on commenting and we'll keep on posting (give/take).

At Last

Sheri and I are happy to announce the birth of our son, Aiden Vaughn Phillips, 15:07 local time on Wednesday, the 11th of March delivered at Al Ahli hospital in Doha, Qatar. He weighed in at 3.5kg and measured 55cm long. We are officially in love with our little guy, and can’t wait to get him home and start adjusting to our new role as parents! Thanks for all of the support, well wishes, and prayers these past 9 months – it’s meant so much to us... we are so excited to bring our rockstar on his first American tour this summer so you can meet him in person. Until then stay in touch and we'll try our best to update our blog and flickr pages with all the latest hap's with our new addition here in Doha.

All the best,

Brandon, Sheri, and Aiden!

Choose your adventure

It's been 12 hours after admission and while we've made progress, it looks like some time to go before delivery. We are having another doppler scan of contraction strength and timing (4-5 minute intervals) as I type, then headed to the labor ward for internal exam and one of 3 options (will probably read as complete gibberish to any male or anyone not previously around a delivery):

1. Dilation is 4+cm and proper effacing - the 'no induction' option where we Walk, Rest, repeat and let nature handle the rest
2. Dilation remains close to 3cm and proper effacing - potentially apply Petocin and give nature a gentle hand in making the contractions more effective
3. Dilation stalls at 2cm, not fully effaced - introduce a 2nd sepository to encourage further cervix softening and dilation before applying Petocin

Option #2 is probably the one that gets Aiden out sooner (Tina still has an outside chance), but atleast with Option #1 there's some assurance he's on the way soon. Expect one more update before midnight here, when we're either shifting rooms into the labor ward or hunkering down for the night in our room to rest for tomorrow's final gauntlet.

As we say around the office - "by definition we're always one day closer to completion, even if no one knows where the end is". I'll spare you the rest of the nerdy project management jokes I've been telling at work (aka I'll save them for later posts).

Off to the labor ward for internal exam. Come on Aiden!

Is that a light at the end of this tunnel?

In a series of events far less chaotic and dramatic as one typically sees in the movies, Sheri was admitted into the hospital early this morning, after her water 'leaked' a few hours before going to bed. We got a full night's sleep and hit the hospital looking for answers. As suspected, because we were already 39 weeks along, and nearly 2cm dilated, the doctors suggested we pursue a round of antibiotics and wait 12 hours to see if Aiden started things on his own... and he's coming along nicely. 5 hours into things the doplar is showing much more consistent contractions ~8 minutes apart, and Sheri is finally feeling subtle pain associated with each contraction. In another 2 hours we'll have an internal exam to determine if Sheri has gained any more dilation - which will determine the path forward. Updates to come as the night and delivery progress.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers in this final day+ before we welcome Aiden into the world!