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.