This morning we were supposed to leave on an early flight to Doha to catch a connection to Germany. We booked the tickets last August and I had it all planned out so that we would get to a hotel by naptime and we'd be all caught up on sleep in time to go to the Christmas market in the evening.
I should have been tipped off when on the way to the airport we were in the thickest fog I'd ever seen in my life. Our driver plowed on (safely) through and we made it to the airport with time to spare. The check in counters weren't open yet, but we figured maybe they stayed closed until 2am. 2:30 came and went, and finally a little before 3 someone made the announcement that our 4:45 flight was canceled. I was still pretty upbeat and positive at this point, even though the airline workers didn't seem to have any remedies for the situation. They told everyone to go sit down by the Krispy Kreme and they'd tell us when they figured out what to do. We patiently waited for awhile, and eventually Travis noticed a crowd gathering by the ticket counter so he went to check it out. When he came back he told us we'd been rebooked on the 10:35 flight to Doha. This didn't sound too bad... until he said the next flight to Germany from Doha didn't leave until the following day at 2 am. We didn't really have a choice so we settled into our Krispy Kreme chairs to wait for the ticket counter to open at 7. Travis and the girls napped and I kept an eye (sometimes just an ear) on our stuff.
Of course at 7 the lines to get checked in were huge. I'm not sure if it was because we are white, American, or the fact we had two little kids, but they let us check in through the business class line so we made it through fairly quickly. Unfortunately it may have been better to just wait to check in at the counter because the smoking lounge was next to our gate. Of course the door was open to the smoking lounge, which I think defeats the purpose of a smoking lounge, but I was too scaredy pants to close the door myself.
Two diaper changes, a gate change, and after a very inefficient gate check process for the stroller and Ellie's car seat and we're finally boarding the plane at 10:45. The flight was lovely and both girls slept well. This flight is only 30 minutes long though so unfortunately we had to wake up a rather cranky Lucy to deboard the plane. Doha is undergoing MAJOR renovations to the airport so you have to go up and down stairs and get on busses that take you to your terminal for basically every flight. I have a packnplay on my back, a baby strapped to my front and a diaper bag on my shoulder, and Travis has a backpack, carseat, our carry on bag, and Lucy. A very sweet Qatar Air employee was extremely helpful upon arrival and walked us through security. Travis asked if it would be possible for us to use the 'privilege club' lounge since we were facing a 14 hour layover, and they graciously accommodated (he was only 10 frequent flyer points short, so I don't think it was too much of a stretch for them). This lounge has been our saving grace! There is a constant supply of food, the wi-fi works great, and we were able to set up the pack n play. Lucy has yet to get the message that we actually want her to sleep in it (this is her bed at home right now so she's used to sleeping in it), but we're hoping that maybe now that it's getting close to normal bedtime she'll just fall over from exhaustion without much fuss.
It's been fun exploring the Doha airport and we've met some interesting people. One Pakistani lady was very concerned about the fact that Ellie uses a pacifier. She kept telling me 'no good, no good!', and I told her we were going to have to agree to disagree. I've also learned some valuable lessons about what to put in your carry on bag. Maybe it's the newborn haze, but I did not at all think through packing the carry on bag for this trip. Now our checked bags are organized by outfits for each location we're visiting and I'm quite proud of how organized they are. If only I had anticipated actually needing to use things in the carry-on bag! We truly only even brought one because it had wheels and we could use it to help carry Lucy's carseat (as well as provide extra space for all the goodies I intend to bring back from Germany!) I feel like we've traveled hundreds of times over the past 10 years and at first I always made sure to have essentials in my carry on bag... and I've never really needed them, so this time I was a little too relaxed about it. For fun, let's just go through what's actually in my carry-on bag:
-Lucy's purple rainboots
-The glider board for the stroller that got checked through to Frankfurt
-My winter coat
-Two boxes of Nature Valley granola bars
-Two blankets for Ellie
The blankets have been useful. Lucy is wearing her rainboots just because she saw them in the bag, and at the moment I'm wearing my coat, but those totally weren't necessary.
Next time we travel I'm going to pack:
-A change of clothes for each person
-A variety of toddler food
-Phone chargers
-The large pack of wipes
-More books
-A toothbrush
Now the good news is we did have some other essentials (laptop and charger, ipad and charger, plus the typical stocked diaper bag), but the things in the above list would have made a much more practical carry-on.
Travis now needs to use the laptop to watch the K-State / KU game. Please pray we make it to Germany (another 6 hours until we can board the plane) and can somehow function despite not sleeping more than a couple hours since we woke up on Friday morning!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
Ellie's Two Month Update!
Ellie turned two months old today, and in fine Rogers baby style she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT last night! And by sleeping through the night, I mean from 10 pm until 5 am, which I thought was fantastic. We have been telling her since the day she was born that two months was the goal because Lucy slept through the night at exactly two months of age. I didn't think Ellie was listening because it had been awhile since she had gifted us with a stretch of sleep longer than 4 or 5 hours, but being the amazing little baby she is she clearly was saving it up for this milestone.
She's changed a lot in a month, don't you think?
Another great thing that happened today was that she pooped! It had been a week since we last had to change a poopy diaper for her and even though I know this is fairly normal for infants I was starting to get worried! Sorry if this is TMI for those of you who don't have kids, but for those who do you know this is something to celebrate! (Side note: it's amazing how after 7 days of no poop, when she finally does it takes two adults, 10 minutes, 5 diapers and almost a pack of wipes!!!)
Ellie has been a joy and we have had so much fun with her in two months already. She is a great sleeper and generally doesn't fuss unless there's a problem. Like most babies she was fussy in the evenings from 2 weeks until 6 or 7 weeks. Mylicon drops seemed to help a lot, and it's been nice to realize I haven't needed to give them to her for over a week now. So now at two months she's less fussy, sleeping better, and she's also started smiling!
Oh how I love baby smiles! In the past week she's gone from smiling once a day or so to after most feedings, and when I set her down in familiar places like the bouncer or the stroller. She will also smile at Lucy sometimes which absolutely melts me. Sometimes we think she's going to smile but instead she just wants to stick her tongue out.
Being the second child she's had to be a lot more adaptable then a first child would. She's doing great at it so far! Every morning we load up to take Lucy to play school, and she typically naps then as well as on the way home. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to a yoga class while Lucy is at school and as long as I feed Ellie before the class, swaddle, and let her hang out in the bouncer she will nap great during class. It took a few classes to figure out this routine but once we did she's been perfect! Maybe she knows mommy needs some 'me' time :) She is also very tolerant of Lucy's love for her which I'm sure is a little overbearing. Lucy is constantly asking to see, hug, kiss, or hold Ellie and I love encouraging the relationship, though I'm sure Ellie will start protesting soon. Lucy just doesn't realize that her hugs are more like headbutts sometimes! She also loves to be held by her "Saudi Mimi's", and they are great at soothing her and giving mommy a break.
Ellie worked her way from the 25th percentile (6 lb 15 oz) to the 50th (11 lb) between birth and her 8 week appointment. I'm sure she was a little underweight to begin with due to being born at 38 weeks, but it was wonderful to see her gaining weight so well. She also has gained a lot of strength in the past couple weeks and is starting to bear weight on her legs!
She was almost 4 weeks old when my parents visit was over, and she has become so much more alert and bright eyed in those four weeks. Speaking of bright eyes, she has beautiful dark gray-with-a-hint-of-blue eyes. We're 99% sure they will turn brown, but for now we love staring at their pretty gray-blue color.
While my parents were visiting we tried to get out and do some things, so Ellie was able to visit some archeological ruins at only 3 weeks old!
This week we've moved up to size two diapers! She's also really taken a liking for the Soothie pacifiers and no other style will do. Luckily several friends here on the compound had a stash of them that they were able to loan us, because I haven't seen that brand in the stores yet.
I love that compound life means taking walks every day. Ellie gets to go for a walk almost every morning, noon, and afternoon and I think she really likes being outside. I truly don't remember taking more than a couple walks with Lucy when she was this young. We have been blessed with incredibly nice weather the past 4 weeks making these daily walks not only possible but fun!
She also had the chance to experience her first thunderstorm earlier this week.
One special characteristic about Ellie is she is an extremely noisy sleeper. She constantly grunts, squeaks, and squawks! So much so we immediately had to move her crib into the guest bedroom from our room the second my parents left, because despite being incredibly sleep deprived sleeping in the same room with all those noises was really difficult.
Overall I think we've all adjusted pretty well to each other. We're looking forward to seeing her personality develop and have no idea what the next months will bring!
We love you, Ellie!
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| Two months old today! Notice the matching shirts. Lucy was very excited! |
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| Ellie's One Month and Lucy's Two Year picture |
Another great thing that happened today was that she pooped! It had been a week since we last had to change a poopy diaper for her and even though I know this is fairly normal for infants I was starting to get worried! Sorry if this is TMI for those of you who don't have kids, but for those who do you know this is something to celebrate! (Side note: it's amazing how after 7 days of no poop, when she finally does it takes two adults, 10 minutes, 5 diapers and almost a pack of wipes!!!)
Ellie has been a joy and we have had so much fun with her in two months already. She is a great sleeper and generally doesn't fuss unless there's a problem. Like most babies she was fussy in the evenings from 2 weeks until 6 or 7 weeks. Mylicon drops seemed to help a lot, and it's been nice to realize I haven't needed to give them to her for over a week now. So now at two months she's less fussy, sleeping better, and she's also started smiling!
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| Cheese! |
Being the second child she's had to be a lot more adaptable then a first child would. She's doing great at it so far! Every morning we load up to take Lucy to play school, and she typically naps then as well as on the way home. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to a yoga class while Lucy is at school and as long as I feed Ellie before the class, swaddle, and let her hang out in the bouncer she will nap great during class. It took a few classes to figure out this routine but once we did she's been perfect! Maybe she knows mommy needs some 'me' time :) She is also very tolerant of Lucy's love for her which I'm sure is a little overbearing. Lucy is constantly asking to see, hug, kiss, or hold Ellie and I love encouraging the relationship, though I'm sure Ellie will start protesting soon. Lucy just doesn't realize that her hugs are more like headbutts sometimes! She also loves to be held by her "Saudi Mimi's", and they are great at soothing her and giving mommy a break.
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| "Please be gentle, Lucy!" |
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| It's ok Ellie, she's just trying to kiss you, not eat you. |
Ellie worked her way from the 25th percentile (6 lb 15 oz) to the 50th (11 lb) between birth and her 8 week appointment. I'm sure she was a little underweight to begin with due to being born at 38 weeks, but it was wonderful to see her gaining weight so well. She also has gained a lot of strength in the past couple weeks and is starting to bear weight on her legs!
She was almost 4 weeks old when my parents visit was over, and she has become so much more alert and bright eyed in those four weeks. Speaking of bright eyes, she has beautiful dark gray-with-a-hint-of-blue eyes. We're 99% sure they will turn brown, but for now we love staring at their pretty gray-blue color.
While my parents were visiting we tried to get out and do some things, so Ellie was able to visit some archeological ruins at only 3 weeks old!
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| Exploring the Jubail Church ruins. |
This week we've moved up to size two diapers! She's also really taken a liking for the Soothie pacifiers and no other style will do. Luckily several friends here on the compound had a stash of them that they were able to loan us, because I haven't seen that brand in the stores yet.
I love that compound life means taking walks every day. Ellie gets to go for a walk almost every morning, noon, and afternoon and I think she really likes being outside. I truly don't remember taking more than a couple walks with Lucy when she was this young. We have been blessed with incredibly nice weather the past 4 weeks making these daily walks not only possible but fun!
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| Life is good. |
One special characteristic about Ellie is she is an extremely noisy sleeper. She constantly grunts, squeaks, and squawks! So much so we immediately had to move her crib into the guest bedroom from our room the second my parents left, because despite being incredibly sleep deprived sleeping in the same room with all those noises was really difficult.
Overall I think we've all adjusted pretty well to each other. We're looking forward to seeing her personality develop and have no idea what the next months will bring!
We love you, Ellie!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Happy Halloween!
I was so excited when I saw a small display of pumpkins, gourds, and indian corn at the entrance to the supermarket last week.
Aren't they beautiful? Through the rest of my shopping trip I was imagining this artful display and had visions of roasting pumpkin seeds.
Then I got to the checkout... these cute little pumpkins and gourds cost over $60! Oooooops. Sorry honey. I promise I'll figure out how to cook every single little gourd! I've never cut up a pumpkin for eating before but I'm certainly inspired to do it with these!
On Wednesday we were invited to take pictures in the 'pumpkin patch' on the compound. Lucy really enjoyed standing in this spot between the two smaller pumpkins, but refused to smile.
I'll update tonight after the trick-or-treating festivities!
Aren't they beautiful? Through the rest of my shopping trip I was imagining this artful display and had visions of roasting pumpkin seeds.
Then I got to the checkout... these cute little pumpkins and gourds cost over $60! Oooooops. Sorry honey. I promise I'll figure out how to cook every single little gourd! I've never cut up a pumpkin for eating before but I'm certainly inspired to do it with these!
On Wednesday we were invited to take pictures in the 'pumpkin patch' on the compound. Lucy really enjoyed standing in this spot between the two smaller pumpkins, but refused to smile.
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| But she's always happy when she's holding baby sissy! |
I'll update tonight after the trick-or-treating festivities!
A C-Section in Saudi Arabia
On Sunday September 22nd we welcomed little Ellie Kate, or "Baby Sissy" as she is lovingly referred to most often, via a scheduled c-section at Saad Hospital in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Since this was my second scheduled c-section (apparently I only carry babies in the frank breech position) it has been fun to compare the two experiences. Again this is a long post, and I don't spare the medical details so if you don't want to know, don't read!
1. OB Appts
I am very thankful that several of the girls on the compound have already had babies here so I could piggyback on their recommendations and not have to go through the process of vetting an OB and a hospital at 30+ weeks pregnant. The Saad complex is beautiful. Driving up to it is a little intimidating because it looks like a walled fortress. The inside of the clinic part of the complex is unlike any hospital clinic I've ever seen--marble floors, large koi ponds, fish tanks, mosaics, bamboo adornments, I could go on and on! At each appointment I was called back into a "female only" room for a nurse to take my blood pressure and weight (no idea why the husbands can't be privy to this information!) and then we would meet with Dr. Ashour in his office. In the back part of his office was an exam table with an ultrasound machine. While the exam table was covered with the usual sanitary paper they used nice sheets and blankets to cover me during the ultrasound. I had either an ultrasound or non-stress test (NST) at every appointment, as my Doctor specializes in fetal ultrasounds. However the only time I had a urine test was during my lab work, which was quite a change from having them every appointment back home! Another difference is I think they only measured fundal height at one of my last appointments, which back home was also a standard thing for each appointment. Also I was never checked for dilation and effacement. Here scheduled c-sections are simply done at 38 weeks to avoid going into labor on your own.
2. Hospital admissions
My surgery was scheduled for 8 am, so they told us to be at the hospital at 5. We left our compound at 3:15 and arrived at 4:55. Turns out that they expect Saudi's to always be late and we didn't really need to be there until 6:30 or 7:00! We had to enter through the trauma entrance because the main entrance wasn't open yet. In fact they made us wait a few minutes so we wouldn't be admitted before 5 am and charged for an additional day. Once it was time to be admitted, a nice man walked us down a dark alley to the main hospital, past the check-in desk where two security guards were sleeping, and into his office where he then processed my admission. Travis paid extra to accompany me as my 'companion'. One perk (for me) is this did include three meals a day for him, so he didn't have to leave 3 times a day to go to the cafeteria. He may have preferred having an excuse to leave the room though, ha!
3. Surgery Prep
After being admitted I was led to my hospital room in the maternity ward where we were to be for the remainder of our stay. It was nice knowing that we had a room right when we got there and not worry about what to do with our bags during the surgery (in Texas you leave your bag in the car until you've had the baby and you're admitted to your regular room). A nurse soon came in to prep me for surgery and administer my IV. The IV didn't go well and they had do it a second time. Then my hand and arm started swelling around the second IV but the nurse just said "We'll keep an eye on it." This wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear but it didn't seem like they were concerned about it so I tried not be concerned either. Thankfully this was probably the worst part of the surgery prep. At this point we then had over an hour to kill before the surgery so we tried to nap a little. I may have slept a few minutes but it would have been a lot more valuable to sleep at home and arrive an hour later!
4. The surgery
A little before 8:00 they came to wheel me to the operating room. Conveniently the operating room was just outside the maternity ward and down the hall. Travis had to change into scrubs in a men's changing room and was to come out through a different door on the operating side than he went in on. It was a little disconcerting waiting for him and hoping he would be allowed through that door! While I was waiting the anesthesiologist came up and introduced himself. He was very nice and asked me a few questions about my previous experience with anesthesia. While everyone had assured me that Saad was a fantastic hospital the anesthesia was by far the part I was most worried about. Specifically the spinal! I had a good experience with the spinal and my c-section at The Women's Hospital in Houston and I was pretty nervous that this hospital wouldn't measure up. He was very reassuring and extremely professional.
Dr. Ashour appeared with Travis through the door a few minutes later and I was relieved to see both of them.
At this point I think Travis had to wait somewhere else again while the surgical team prepped me for getting the spinal. I was very impressed with the surgical team and thought both the nurses and the anesthesiologist did an excellent job. In fact I think the spinal was easier than the IV! Once the spinal took effect and Dr. Ashour was ready for the surgery he came around and said "So I can make the incision a little shorter than the original or I can make it a little longer and give you a small tummy tuck." Why yes I will take the gratis tummy tuck! Now that is something that would never happen in the states!
The c-section itself took a lot longer than Lucy's. I also had a better experience with the anesthesia--with Lucy's I felt like I couldn't breathe very well, and I'm not sure if it was because I was more prepared for it or what but this time I did not have that side effect.
5. The first few minutes and recovery
With the delivery came another 'only in Saudi' experience. My Dr. called Travis to the other side of the curtain so he could take pictures as they were pulling Ellie out! I'll spare you the actual images of my gory guts but part of me think it's pretty cool we have these pictures :)
As soon as they cleaned her up and wrapped her in something warm Travis was able to bring Ellie over for me to see her.
They took her back to check her vitals, and then a nurse brought her back to start nursing. I was impressed by this! The surgical team took their time sewing me up and Travis was able to hold and snuggle with Ellie for most of this time.
The anesthesiologist and my doctor kept trying to tell jokes as they were finishing the surgery. One of them was "Dr. Ashour, what happened to your diamond ring?" implying that he lost one inside me. I did not laugh. Then I think they started talking about the price of gold and told me I needed to make Travis buy me some as a present, and I think they were describing the best markets to go to. Sorry docs, I wasn't really in the mood for joking! Dr. Ashour also insisted on adding Travis as a facebook friend at some point during the surgery so he could share pictures he was taking of Lucy with us. I can't see any doctors from my Houston practice doing this either!
Once they were finished (it seriously took at least 45 minutes--I didn't realize my tummy needed that much tucking!) they sprayed what looked like a hair spray all over my wound. I found out later that it was a spray adhesive and therefore they did not have to use any sort of bandage! Then Dr. Ashour told me "I fixed your belly button too". Um, thanks, didn't realize anything was wrong with it! After talking to several other girls here I have learned that Saudi's are very pro-plastic surgery, so this came as no surprise to them. At the end the anesthesiologist told me "The baby weighed 3.1 kg, the placenta was 1 kg, and you lost 1 kg of fluid. Congratulations, you lost 5 kg!"
Next Travis was sent to our postpartum room and I was sent to recovery. Now in general I really don't like recovery rooms. I have been in 5 in the last 3 years and the only one that was pleasant was after the birth of Lucy. At the Women's Hospital in Texas Lucy and Travis were allowed to stay with me while I was in the recovery room. This was the first chance I had to start nursing with her, and I really treasure this time where Travis, Lucy and I first got to know each other. In all the others, and this one was no exception, I was all alone for what felt like 30 minutes (it was probably 5) before anyone came in to say hello or tell me how long I had to lay there. The nurse here did not speak very good english and it was a long, boring wait until they finally let me leave.
6. Postpartum care
Once I was back in my postpartum room and the anesthesia wore off I was a little surprised at how high my pain level was considering I had opted to pay extra for a pain pump. This must have been different than the pain pump they use at the Women's Hospital because it did not really seem to be working! By noon I couldn't sit up to nurse Ellie. I was really thankful I already knew what I was doing with nursing because if this had been my first it would have been really, really hard. It wasn't easy trying to nurse her lying down but I didn't really have a choice. Then we realized that my hand/wrist with the IV was continuing to swell and now my hospital bracelets were tight.
Once the nurse saw it she immediately took it out and put a new IV in my other hand. Thankfully this one worked and was not painful like the other ones. I think all those expensive pain pump meds were just building up in my wrist! The nurse also gave me a new pain medicine and that one seemed to be much more effective, so by about 4:00 sitting up was bearable again.
Our good friend's the Feimster's had been taking care of Lucy while we were in the hospital and Heather brought Lucy to visit that evening. It was so fun to watch her meet Baby Sissy for the first time! I think she was even more excited to see me and Travis though :)
Later on in the evening, with a LOT of help from the nurses, I was able to walk to the bathroom by myself. This was definitely not a pain free experience, but I was impressed at how mobile I actually was 12 hours after surgery. I think I was on different pain meds in the states because while I don't remember as much acute pain, I know walking the day Lucy was not possible.
As usual the first night was busy with nurses coming in and out to take vitals. At one point I really wanted a light turned off and Travis was hopelessly asleep. The only thing I had to throw at him was a bulb snot sucker but he continued snoring away, so I bravely got myself out of bed and turned the light off myself. This probably isn't recommended, oh well!
By the end of the next day we were getting pretty restless. I had been disconnected from everything and as long as I took my pain meds regularly I was feeling ok enough to walk across the room, sit up, etc. I was relieved that the nurses agreed I could probably go home the next day since the hospital c-section policy stated that a 3-4 day stay was the norm. We attempted to go on a walk around the ward, but we were thwarted. When the nurses saw us they started panicking and whisked Ellie back to our room. I was really confused, but it turns out that as part of their security plan the baby is not allowed to leave the room without a nurse! Oops. They realize they had not explained this to us so we didn't get in further trouble, and we explained that this is a typical postpartum activity in the states so we had no idea it would be a problem.
At some point I realized that no one had been in to talk to me about lactation, or newborn care. In fact no one even came in to check my vitals the second night (which I was totally fine with, but it was unexpected.) I wasn't sure if this was because they knew this was my second baby or what. At my one week follow up appointment with Dr. Ashour he explained that lactation and newborn care services are not covered by the national insurance here. I thought that was really interesting since the insurance covered almost everything else 100%. The only things we had to pay for were the pain pump meds and some other prescriptions (which cost me a grand total of $10). I did see signs with a number to call for lactation help if needed, but I'm guessing that is extra.
By Tuesday we were stir crazy. Thankfully the check out procedure was much more efficient here (possibly the only thing in Saudi that has been more efficient than in the states!), and we were on the road about 1:00 after getting some panini's from the Costa Coffee at the clinic.
We've been blessed that all of us have stayed healthy since the birth. I did venture out about a week after Ellie was born to try and find some spare parts for my pump. Unfortunately I was not successful in finding spare parts, but I did find this amusing display of Medela accessories at a BabiesRUs in Khobar:
The top row is Medela panties, support briefs, support belts, tank tops and nursing bras. All the women in the pictures have been censored. Apparently the woman modeling the support belt needed her face censored too. You're out of luck if you'd like to see the difference in panties vs support briefs or the cut of the nursing bra before opening the package.
And there you have it. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have about having a baby in the Kingdom!
1. OB Appts
I am very thankful that several of the girls on the compound have already had babies here so I could piggyback on their recommendations and not have to go through the process of vetting an OB and a hospital at 30+ weeks pregnant. The Saad complex is beautiful. Driving up to it is a little intimidating because it looks like a walled fortress. The inside of the clinic part of the complex is unlike any hospital clinic I've ever seen--marble floors, large koi ponds, fish tanks, mosaics, bamboo adornments, I could go on and on! At each appointment I was called back into a "female only" room for a nurse to take my blood pressure and weight (no idea why the husbands can't be privy to this information!) and then we would meet with Dr. Ashour in his office. In the back part of his office was an exam table with an ultrasound machine. While the exam table was covered with the usual sanitary paper they used nice sheets and blankets to cover me during the ultrasound. I had either an ultrasound or non-stress test (NST) at every appointment, as my Doctor specializes in fetal ultrasounds. However the only time I had a urine test was during my lab work, which was quite a change from having them every appointment back home! Another difference is I think they only measured fundal height at one of my last appointments, which back home was also a standard thing for each appointment. Also I was never checked for dilation and effacement. Here scheduled c-sections are simply done at 38 weeks to avoid going into labor on your own.
2. Hospital admissions
My surgery was scheduled for 8 am, so they told us to be at the hospital at 5. We left our compound at 3:15 and arrived at 4:55. Turns out that they expect Saudi's to always be late and we didn't really need to be there until 6:30 or 7:00! We had to enter through the trauma entrance because the main entrance wasn't open yet. In fact they made us wait a few minutes so we wouldn't be admitted before 5 am and charged for an additional day. Once it was time to be admitted, a nice man walked us down a dark alley to the main hospital, past the check-in desk where two security guards were sleeping, and into his office where he then processed my admission. Travis paid extra to accompany me as my 'companion'. One perk (for me) is this did include three meals a day for him, so he didn't have to leave 3 times a day to go to the cafeteria. He may have preferred having an excuse to leave the room though, ha!
3. Surgery Prep
After being admitted I was led to my hospital room in the maternity ward where we were to be for the remainder of our stay. It was nice knowing that we had a room right when we got there and not worry about what to do with our bags during the surgery (in Texas you leave your bag in the car until you've had the baby and you're admitted to your regular room). A nurse soon came in to prep me for surgery and administer my IV. The IV didn't go well and they had do it a second time. Then my hand and arm started swelling around the second IV but the nurse just said "We'll keep an eye on it." This wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear but it didn't seem like they were concerned about it so I tried not be concerned either. Thankfully this was probably the worst part of the surgery prep. At this point we then had over an hour to kill before the surgery so we tried to nap a little. I may have slept a few minutes but it would have been a lot more valuable to sleep at home and arrive an hour later!
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| The point of this picture is not my humongous belly, or the fact I'm overdue for a haircut, but rather the beautiful crown molding above the closet doors and on the ceiling seen in the mirror. It was almost like having a baby in a hotel! |
4. The surgery
A little before 8:00 they came to wheel me to the operating room. Conveniently the operating room was just outside the maternity ward and down the hall. Travis had to change into scrubs in a men's changing room and was to come out through a different door on the operating side than he went in on. It was a little disconcerting waiting for him and hoping he would be allowed through that door! While I was waiting the anesthesiologist came up and introduced himself. He was very nice and asked me a few questions about my previous experience with anesthesia. While everyone had assured me that Saad was a fantastic hospital the anesthesia was by far the part I was most worried about. Specifically the spinal! I had a good experience with the spinal and my c-section at The Women's Hospital in Houston and I was pretty nervous that this hospital wouldn't measure up. He was very reassuring and extremely professional.
Dr. Ashour appeared with Travis through the door a few minutes later and I was relieved to see both of them.
At this point I think Travis had to wait somewhere else again while the surgical team prepped me for getting the spinal. I was very impressed with the surgical team and thought both the nurses and the anesthesiologist did an excellent job. In fact I think the spinal was easier than the IV! Once the spinal took effect and Dr. Ashour was ready for the surgery he came around and said "So I can make the incision a little shorter than the original or I can make it a little longer and give you a small tummy tuck." Why yes I will take the gratis tummy tuck! Now that is something that would never happen in the states!
The c-section itself took a lot longer than Lucy's. I also had a better experience with the anesthesia--with Lucy's I felt like I couldn't breathe very well, and I'm not sure if it was because I was more prepared for it or what but this time I did not have that side effect.
5. The first few minutes and recovery
With the delivery came another 'only in Saudi' experience. My Dr. called Travis to the other side of the curtain so he could take pictures as they were pulling Ellie out! I'll spare you the actual images of my gory guts but part of me think it's pretty cool we have these pictures :)
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| I think it's pretty cool that you can see how Ellie's leg was stuck in the frank breech position--it's still sticking straight up here! |
As soon as they cleaned her up and wrapped her in something warm Travis was able to bring Ellie over for me to see her.
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| She gave me kisses as soon as she saw me! |
They took her back to check her vitals, and then a nurse brought her back to start nursing. I was impressed by this! The surgical team took their time sewing me up and Travis was able to hold and snuggle with Ellie for most of this time.
The anesthesiologist and my doctor kept trying to tell jokes as they were finishing the surgery. One of them was "Dr. Ashour, what happened to your diamond ring?" implying that he lost one inside me. I did not laugh. Then I think they started talking about the price of gold and told me I needed to make Travis buy me some as a present, and I think they were describing the best markets to go to. Sorry docs, I wasn't really in the mood for joking! Dr. Ashour also insisted on adding Travis as a facebook friend at some point during the surgery so he could share pictures he was taking of Lucy with us. I can't see any doctors from my Houston practice doing this either!
Once they were finished (it seriously took at least 45 minutes--I didn't realize my tummy needed that much tucking!) they sprayed what looked like a hair spray all over my wound. I found out later that it was a spray adhesive and therefore they did not have to use any sort of bandage! Then Dr. Ashour told me "I fixed your belly button too". Um, thanks, didn't realize anything was wrong with it! After talking to several other girls here I have learned that Saudi's are very pro-plastic surgery, so this came as no surprise to them. At the end the anesthesiologist told me "The baby weighed 3.1 kg, the placenta was 1 kg, and you lost 1 kg of fluid. Congratulations, you lost 5 kg!"
Next Travis was sent to our postpartum room and I was sent to recovery. Now in general I really don't like recovery rooms. I have been in 5 in the last 3 years and the only one that was pleasant was after the birth of Lucy. At the Women's Hospital in Texas Lucy and Travis were allowed to stay with me while I was in the recovery room. This was the first chance I had to start nursing with her, and I really treasure this time where Travis, Lucy and I first got to know each other. In all the others, and this one was no exception, I was all alone for what felt like 30 minutes (it was probably 5) before anyone came in to say hello or tell me how long I had to lay there. The nurse here did not speak very good english and it was a long, boring wait until they finally let me leave.
6. Postpartum care
Once I was back in my postpartum room and the anesthesia wore off I was a little surprised at how high my pain level was considering I had opted to pay extra for a pain pump. This must have been different than the pain pump they use at the Women's Hospital because it did not really seem to be working! By noon I couldn't sit up to nurse Ellie. I was really thankful I already knew what I was doing with nursing because if this had been my first it would have been really, really hard. It wasn't easy trying to nurse her lying down but I didn't really have a choice. Then we realized that my hand/wrist with the IV was continuing to swell and now my hospital bracelets were tight.
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| Picture of my wrist ~9 hours after they switched my IV out. It was sometime the next day before it went back to normal! |
Once the nurse saw it she immediately took it out and put a new IV in my other hand. Thankfully this one worked and was not painful like the other ones. I think all those expensive pain pump meds were just building up in my wrist! The nurse also gave me a new pain medicine and that one seemed to be much more effective, so by about 4:00 sitting up was bearable again.
Our good friend's the Feimster's had been taking care of Lucy while we were in the hospital and Heather brought Lucy to visit that evening. It was so fun to watch her meet Baby Sissy for the first time! I think she was even more excited to see me and Travis though :)
Later on in the evening, with a LOT of help from the nurses, I was able to walk to the bathroom by myself. This was definitely not a pain free experience, but I was impressed at how mobile I actually was 12 hours after surgery. I think I was on different pain meds in the states because while I don't remember as much acute pain, I know walking the day Lucy was not possible.
As usual the first night was busy with nurses coming in and out to take vitals. At one point I really wanted a light turned off and Travis was hopelessly asleep. The only thing I had to throw at him was a bulb snot sucker but he continued snoring away, so I bravely got myself out of bed and turned the light off myself. This probably isn't recommended, oh well!
By the end of the next day we were getting pretty restless. I had been disconnected from everything and as long as I took my pain meds regularly I was feeling ok enough to walk across the room, sit up, etc. I was relieved that the nurses agreed I could probably go home the next day since the hospital c-section policy stated that a 3-4 day stay was the norm. We attempted to go on a walk around the ward, but we were thwarted. When the nurses saw us they started panicking and whisked Ellie back to our room. I was really confused, but it turns out that as part of their security plan the baby is not allowed to leave the room without a nurse! Oops. They realize they had not explained this to us so we didn't get in further trouble, and we explained that this is a typical postpartum activity in the states so we had no idea it would be a problem.
At some point I realized that no one had been in to talk to me about lactation, or newborn care. In fact no one even came in to check my vitals the second night (which I was totally fine with, but it was unexpected.) I wasn't sure if this was because they knew this was my second baby or what. At my one week follow up appointment with Dr. Ashour he explained that lactation and newborn care services are not covered by the national insurance here. I thought that was really interesting since the insurance covered almost everything else 100%. The only things we had to pay for were the pain pump meds and some other prescriptions (which cost me a grand total of $10). I did see signs with a number to call for lactation help if needed, but I'm guessing that is extra.
By Tuesday we were stir crazy. Thankfully the check out procedure was much more efficient here (possibly the only thing in Saudi that has been more efficient than in the states!), and we were on the road about 1:00 after getting some panini's from the Costa Coffee at the clinic.
We've been blessed that all of us have stayed healthy since the birth. I did venture out about a week after Ellie was born to try and find some spare parts for my pump. Unfortunately I was not successful in finding spare parts, but I did find this amusing display of Medela accessories at a BabiesRUs in Khobar:
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| Add caption |
And there you have it. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have about having a baby in the Kingdom!
Friday, September 27, 2013
Introducing Ellie Kate!
We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Elizabeth "Ellie" Kate Rogers!
The statistics
Birthdate and Time: September 22nd, 2013 at 8:39 am Saudi time (12:39 am CST)
Place: Saad Hospital, Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Weight: 3.145 kg, or 6 lb 15 oz
Height: 50 cm, or 19.75"
So far Ellie has been a pretty typical sweet and cuddly newborn. She has had a great temperament and rarely cried at all while in the hospital. Our first night home from the hospital was a little rough as she was not happy sleeping anywhere but in our arms. Guess we can't complain too much about that, but Lucy as a newborn was happy to sleep anywhere so we weren't prepared for it!
Lucy is a very proud big sister. She loves her "baby sissy" and is happy to help mommy and daddy take care of her in her own little ways. I am sure reality hasn't set in for her yet that this whole family doesn't revolve around just her anymore.
Stay tuned for a more detailed report on our experience having a baby in a Saudi Arabian hospital!
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| Our precious Ellie Kate |
The statistics
Birthdate and Time: September 22nd, 2013 at 8:39 am Saudi time (12:39 am CST)
Place: Saad Hospital, Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Weight: 3.145 kg, or 6 lb 15 oz
Height: 50 cm, or 19.75"
So far Ellie has been a pretty typical sweet and cuddly newborn. She has had a great temperament and rarely cried at all while in the hospital. Our first night home from the hospital was a little rough as she was not happy sleeping anywhere but in our arms. Guess we can't complain too much about that, but Lucy as a newborn was happy to sleep anywhere so we weren't prepared for it!
Lucy is a very proud big sister. She loves her "baby sissy" and is happy to help mommy and daddy take care of her in her own little ways. I am sure reality hasn't set in for her yet that this whole family doesn't revolve around just her anymore.
Stay tuned for a more detailed report on our experience having a baby in a Saudi Arabian hospital!
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Cooking Adventures
If you've been keeping up with the blog you may have noticed I've lamented on not having my full kitchen available to me, as well as a sometimes strange assortment of items in the grocery store. I think I've learned a lot in the last six weeks and wanted to document some of the fun things I've cooked!
Our kitchen came equipped with an oven, electric stovetop, microwave, dishwasher, and hot pot (and ironically my hot pot is the only appliance that made it in our air shipment... so now I have two hot pots and no coffee maker). I had two mixing bowls, about 3 ziploc sandwich storage containers, 3 oval shaped casserole dishes, a cheese grater, and a colander. For utensils we have the tiniest wooden spoons you've ever seen and a couple of spatulas, and a set of large knives. They also included the worst vegetable peeler and can opener IN THE WORLD. The handle broke off the peeler the second time I tried to use it, and I bet a friend he couldn't open a can of tomato sauce in 2 minutes with the can opener. He quit after about 40 seconds, it was that terrible! So I have purchased new ones. A small price to pay for the convenience of a working can opener and vegetable peeler! I also purchased measuring cups and spoons. Not sure how they expected two engineers to cook without those!
The good news is grocery shopping is relatively easy since the arrival of the Tamimi market earlier this year. Tamimi's is owned (operated?) by Safeway and they have a good variety of American products. Additionally all the food labels are in BOTH english and Arabic! Now what's tricky about shopping at Tamimi's is the selection is not always consistent. Sometimes you can find spinach, once I found arugula, but I think they always have iceberg and romaine. We have valencia oranges from South Africa and a good variety of apples. They import Driscoll's berries (for a steep price!) and even some Annie's salad dressings. Don't buy the local avacados--it's worth the $10/kilo mark up to get the imported ones! The beef from New Zealand is pretty good and they always have a large selection of lamb and veal. They also had this fun display a few weeks ago:
Unfortunately I am not yet adventurous enough to cook with it. At 50 SAR/kilo I didn't think this was quite the right time to experiment without a plan, either! It was very popular--it was sold out the next time I went to the store.
However, there are things that they just don't sell here (besides the obvious pork products and alcohol). The things I've missed the most in my cooking are chicken broth in a carton and vanilla. I'm not sure why they don't sell chicken broth but I know they don't sell vanilla for the alcohol content. They do sell what I think is an imitation vanilla but one look at the mile long ingredients list made me put it back on the shelf. However, I was able to find vanilla beans! And thanks to Alton Brown and his Good Eats episode on Vanilla, I knew what to do with it :) I've also missed things like Red Wine Vinegar and cooking with wine in general. I didn't realize how many recipes I used these for until I didn't have them!
Blueberry Scones
When you do find delicacies from home it's best to stock up. They had some organic vegetable broth cartons a few weeks ago so I bought four of them. They were still there this week but I'm guessing they won't be around much longer. I also bought four boxes of Kashi Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal a few weeks ago. Lucy loves eating oatmeal for breakfast and this stuff is really good! They have Blue Bell ice cream right now too, straight from Brenham, TX... if you're willing to pay $14 a carton... and I am. :)
Some other grocery store oddities (for this American) are that milk comes in 2L containers and butter comes in a large 400g block (that's 1.76 Cups) with no measurement markings on it. Next time I buy a block of butter I'm going to have to put my own markings on it! I've done ok guestimating how much to use so far but having some markings will really take off some stress! Once I figured out how to pour milk from the carton without spilling it everywhere I've decided I really like the smaller size. I also found it strange that occasionally you see Kroger brand items, despite this being a Safeway store!
I also find the cheese selection to be really odd. Now they have a nice deli where you can get most cheeses, but only once in the 7 weeks since I've been going to the store here have I seen bagged, shredded cheddar or bagged cheese other than mozzarella. They have an entire 5 ft wall of bagged mozzarella, and one time there was a small section with bagged cheddar, mexican blend, and some string cheese. I was new enough I didn't realize how rare this was so didn't stock up as much as I should have. But that's ok, because I can get a block of cheddar from the deli.
Because chicken broth is truly a staple I can't live without, I've learned how to make my own broth in the crock pot from my friend Heather--it's actually really easy! I've only done it twice since moving here but that's provided me with enough to last awhile. Here's the method:
Ingredients:
Leftover cooked Chicken carcass (I've been using a rotisserie chicken)
Vegetable scraps (celery hearts, scrubbed carrot peels)
A few celery sticks
An onion cut in half
Water
Directions:
Put all ingredients in crock pot, add water to an inch from the top. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Strain, let cool, refrigerate overnight. Skim fat off the top and pour into ice cube trays. Once frozen put in a freezer bag and store.
See, doesn't sound too hard does it! Much thanks to Heather for the recipe because I probably wouldn't have tried to figure that out on my own. The smell was HEAVENLY!
With the chicken meat from the carcass I made this recipe:
Chicken with Potatoes and Mustard Vinaigrette
Mine looked similar, except I had to use Arugula instead of watercress. I would love to make it again but haven't seen an acceptable greens substitute.
I haven't ventured into making a beef broth but I did find a good mushroom/veggie broth recipe that makes a good, hearty substitute for it.
Easy Mushroom Broth
The other pantry staple I'm now hooked on making from scratch is bolognese sauce. Partly because I can use carrots, onions and celery in it and then have the leftover veggies and scraps for my broths!
Now my favorite thing I've made since moving here was a recipe I found earlier this week:
Cajun Chicken Pasta
It was SO good! Go add this to your meal plan for next week right now!
I wish I had taken a picture of my own creation. We subbed snow peas for the mushrooms so mine was a little more colorful :)
Of course despite all the fun cooking adventures, Lucy still prefers peas. Thankfully there is a good selection of frozen peas at Tamimi's!
Our kitchen came equipped with an oven, electric stovetop, microwave, dishwasher, and hot pot (and ironically my hot pot is the only appliance that made it in our air shipment... so now I have two hot pots and no coffee maker). I had two mixing bowls, about 3 ziploc sandwich storage containers, 3 oval shaped casserole dishes, a cheese grater, and a colander. For utensils we have the tiniest wooden spoons you've ever seen and a couple of spatulas, and a set of large knives. They also included the worst vegetable peeler and can opener IN THE WORLD. The handle broke off the peeler the second time I tried to use it, and I bet a friend he couldn't open a can of tomato sauce in 2 minutes with the can opener. He quit after about 40 seconds, it was that terrible! So I have purchased new ones. A small price to pay for the convenience of a working can opener and vegetable peeler! I also purchased measuring cups and spoons. Not sure how they expected two engineers to cook without those!
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| Did you know they even made wooden spoons this tiny? They seriously aren't much wider then the paring knife! Sorry the picture is sideways. |
The good news is grocery shopping is relatively easy since the arrival of the Tamimi market earlier this year. Tamimi's is owned (operated?) by Safeway and they have a good variety of American products. Additionally all the food labels are in BOTH english and Arabic! Now what's tricky about shopping at Tamimi's is the selection is not always consistent. Sometimes you can find spinach, once I found arugula, but I think they always have iceberg and romaine. We have valencia oranges from South Africa and a good variety of apples. They import Driscoll's berries (for a steep price!) and even some Annie's salad dressings. Don't buy the local avacados--it's worth the $10/kilo mark up to get the imported ones! The beef from New Zealand is pretty good and they always have a large selection of lamb and veal. They also had this fun display a few weeks ago:
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| Fresh, Local Camel Meat! |
However, there are things that they just don't sell here (besides the obvious pork products and alcohol). The things I've missed the most in my cooking are chicken broth in a carton and vanilla. I'm not sure why they don't sell chicken broth but I know they don't sell vanilla for the alcohol content. They do sell what I think is an imitation vanilla but one look at the mile long ingredients list made me put it back on the shelf. However, I was able to find vanilla beans! And thanks to Alton Brown and his Good Eats episode on Vanilla, I knew what to do with it :) I've also missed things like Red Wine Vinegar and cooking with wine in general. I didn't realize how many recipes I used these for until I didn't have them!
.jpg) |
| Scones I made by scraping vanilla from a pod. YUM. |
When you do find delicacies from home it's best to stock up. They had some organic vegetable broth cartons a few weeks ago so I bought four of them. They were still there this week but I'm guessing they won't be around much longer. I also bought four boxes of Kashi Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal a few weeks ago. Lucy loves eating oatmeal for breakfast and this stuff is really good! They have Blue Bell ice cream right now too, straight from Brenham, TX... if you're willing to pay $14 a carton... and I am. :)
Some other grocery store oddities (for this American) are that milk comes in 2L containers and butter comes in a large 400g block (that's 1.76 Cups) with no measurement markings on it. Next time I buy a block of butter I'm going to have to put my own markings on it! I've done ok guestimating how much to use so far but having some markings will really take off some stress! Once I figured out how to pour milk from the carton without spilling it everywhere I've decided I really like the smaller size. I also found it strange that occasionally you see Kroger brand items, despite this being a Safeway store!
I also find the cheese selection to be really odd. Now they have a nice deli where you can get most cheeses, but only once in the 7 weeks since I've been going to the store here have I seen bagged, shredded cheddar or bagged cheese other than mozzarella. They have an entire 5 ft wall of bagged mozzarella, and one time there was a small section with bagged cheddar, mexican blend, and some string cheese. I was new enough I didn't realize how rare this was so didn't stock up as much as I should have. But that's ok, because I can get a block of cheddar from the deli.
Because chicken broth is truly a staple I can't live without, I've learned how to make my own broth in the crock pot from my friend Heather--it's actually really easy! I've only done it twice since moving here but that's provided me with enough to last awhile. Here's the method:
Ingredients:
Leftover cooked Chicken carcass (I've been using a rotisserie chicken)
Vegetable scraps (celery hearts, scrubbed carrot peels)
A few celery sticks
An onion cut in half
Water
Directions:
Put all ingredients in crock pot, add water to an inch from the top. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Strain, let cool, refrigerate overnight. Skim fat off the top and pour into ice cube trays. Once frozen put in a freezer bag and store.
See, doesn't sound too hard does it! Much thanks to Heather for the recipe because I probably wouldn't have tried to figure that out on my own. The smell was HEAVENLY!
With the chicken meat from the carcass I made this recipe:
Chicken with Potatoes and Mustard Vinaigrette
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| Recipe and photo credit: Realsimple.com |
Mine looked similar, except I had to use Arugula instead of watercress. I would love to make it again but haven't seen an acceptable greens substitute.
I haven't ventured into making a beef broth but I did find a good mushroom/veggie broth recipe that makes a good, hearty substitute for it.
Easy Mushroom Broth
 |
| Too bad you can't smell this |
The other pantry staple I'm now hooked on making from scratch is bolognese sauce. Partly because I can use carrots, onions and celery in it and then have the leftover veggies and scraps for my broths!
Now my favorite thing I've made since moving here was a recipe I found earlier this week:
Cajun Chicken Pasta
 | |
| Recipe and Photo Credit: Skinnytaste.com |
It was SO good! Go add this to your meal plan for next week right now!
I wish I had taken a picture of my own creation. We subbed snow peas for the mushrooms so mine was a little more colorful :)
Of course despite all the fun cooking adventures, Lucy still prefers peas. Thankfully there is a good selection of frozen peas at Tamimi's!
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| "Lucy peas!" |
Friday, September 6, 2013
The Other Side of Life
I realized that my Saudi posts have mostly centered around the scary and shocking things that have happened since moving here, and I don't think that's a fair and accurate picture of our life. While they are fun to talk about, I'm not sharing the whole story. We actually have a pretty nice life! Here's why:
1. We live on a compound that has almost everything we need within walking distance, including a beach, restaurant, mini-mart, fitness center, pool, and playschool. The compound feels extremely safe (much safer than our neighborhood in Houston), and I really like it. Yesterday Lucy and I walked out our backyard and played on the beach for two hours. Travis has had more opportunities to exercise since moving here 6 weeks ago than in the previous six months. He can spend his time with us and focus on his health instead of commuting. Which brings me to:
2. NO DRIVING! Travis is never stuck in traffic (or at a train!) coming home from work. I'm never stuck in traffic just trying to go to an appointment or playdate! I can always address the toddler's needs when we're in the car (although sometimes I miss being able to sit up front and ignore her). Our drivers are fabulous and truly take care of us--I haven't put groceries in the car or taken them out since we arrived! A really nice change from having to carry groceries up the stairs in our townhome. Now I have heard that when more families are back from their summer vacation a car might not always be available when I want to go somewhere, but I suppose that will just force me to plan ahead better.
3. Living on a compound means we live within walking distance of our entire community. I love the regularity we can eat dinner and fellowship with friends simply because they are close! It's also really nice actually knowing all of our neighbors.
4. Moving here isn't just about being in Saudi--We will have so many more travel opportunities than ever before. Travis gets 3x as much vacation, and as part of our benefits package we also get compensated for some of our traveling expenses. Some of the places our friends here have traveled to are (most of) Europe, Thailand, the Seychelles, Maldives, Australia, and of course other parts of the middle east like Dubai. I am so excited to see the world!
5. Financially we could not make a better decision. Our time here will allow me to stay at home with the girls indefinitely... or go back to school to pursue something I'm truly passionate about.
6. The cities we spend our time in are so much more Western than I ever anticipated, so it doesn't feel like we're actually living all that differently from before. Maybe it was because I was 10 years younger and a poor student at the time, but living in Prague felt more complicated than living here.
Yes, there are inconveniences. If we want to shop or eat we have to plan them around prayer time. We have to call for a driver ahead of time, but they can usually be here in 15 minutes which actually has helped me to be more prepared to leave the house! I do have to wear an abaya when we leave the compound. Clearly we have some work to do to figure out the visa situation. To talk to our families we schedule skype dates--however this is how we communicated with them when we lived in Houston, now we just have to accomodate the time difference. I think being here has actually prompted MORE skype dates since it seemed "easier" when we lived in the states. Or maybe it's because we aren't as busy so we have more time to talk with our families? Regardless it is a welcome change. It is inconvenient not finding chicken stock in the grocery store, and not having alcohol or pork available, but there are plenty of other options and no one seems to be any less happy here because of it.
And yes there are things we miss about being in the US, namely our Houston community who we shared life with on a daily basis for 7 years. But for this season of our lives, this feels like the right place to be. We are excited for future adventures and hope that all of our learning experiences in the past six weeks will prevent some of the scary things from happening again. And while I don't yet feel comfortable discussing the details on a public blog while living here, know that we are leaning on our faith to provide for us and sustain us in those times of need.
1. We live on a compound that has almost everything we need within walking distance, including a beach, restaurant, mini-mart, fitness center, pool, and playschool. The compound feels extremely safe (much safer than our neighborhood in Houston), and I really like it. Yesterday Lucy and I walked out our backyard and played on the beach for two hours. Travis has had more opportunities to exercise since moving here 6 weeks ago than in the previous six months. He can spend his time with us and focus on his health instead of commuting. Which brings me to:
2. NO DRIVING! Travis is never stuck in traffic (or at a train!) coming home from work. I'm never stuck in traffic just trying to go to an appointment or playdate! I can always address the toddler's needs when we're in the car (although sometimes I miss being able to sit up front and ignore her). Our drivers are fabulous and truly take care of us--I haven't put groceries in the car or taken them out since we arrived! A really nice change from having to carry groceries up the stairs in our townhome. Now I have heard that when more families are back from their summer vacation a car might not always be available when I want to go somewhere, but I suppose that will just force me to plan ahead better.
3. Living on a compound means we live within walking distance of our entire community. I love the regularity we can eat dinner and fellowship with friends simply because they are close! It's also really nice actually knowing all of our neighbors.
4. Moving here isn't just about being in Saudi--We will have so many more travel opportunities than ever before. Travis gets 3x as much vacation, and as part of our benefits package we also get compensated for some of our traveling expenses. Some of the places our friends here have traveled to are (most of) Europe, Thailand, the Seychelles, Maldives, Australia, and of course other parts of the middle east like Dubai. I am so excited to see the world!
5. Financially we could not make a better decision. Our time here will allow me to stay at home with the girls indefinitely... or go back to school to pursue something I'm truly passionate about.
6. The cities we spend our time in are so much more Western than I ever anticipated, so it doesn't feel like we're actually living all that differently from before. Maybe it was because I was 10 years younger and a poor student at the time, but living in Prague felt more complicated than living here.
Yes, there are inconveniences. If we want to shop or eat we have to plan them around prayer time. We have to call for a driver ahead of time, but they can usually be here in 15 minutes which actually has helped me to be more prepared to leave the house! I do have to wear an abaya when we leave the compound. Clearly we have some work to do to figure out the visa situation. To talk to our families we schedule skype dates--however this is how we communicated with them when we lived in Houston, now we just have to accomodate the time difference. I think being here has actually prompted MORE skype dates since it seemed "easier" when we lived in the states. Or maybe it's because we aren't as busy so we have more time to talk with our families? Regardless it is a welcome change. It is inconvenient not finding chicken stock in the grocery store, and not having alcohol or pork available, but there are plenty of other options and no one seems to be any less happy here because of it.
And yes there are things we miss about being in the US, namely our Houston community who we shared life with on a daily basis for 7 years. But for this season of our lives, this feels like the right place to be. We are excited for future adventures and hope that all of our learning experiences in the past six weeks will prevent some of the scary things from happening again. And while I don't yet feel comfortable discussing the details on a public blog while living here, know that we are leaning on our faith to provide for us and sustain us in those times of need.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
That time we (almost) got deported...
A peaceful, relaxing planned day trip to Bahrain
Stopped at the Border
Change of plans--a weekend in Bahrain
What went wrong?
A peaceful, relaxing planned day trip to Bahrain
We found out on August 26th, last Monday, that our company was again allowing CPChem employees to take daytrips to Bahrain. Bahrain is an island nation connected to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd causeway and is about a two hour drive from where we live. While the state religion is Islam and most of it's inhabitants are Muslim, as a country Bahrain is much more accepting of western culture than Saudi. This means that westerners who live in Saudi Arabia enjoy traveling to Bahrain because you can find pork products, drink alcohol, and women are not required to wear an abaya. As you can imagine everyone around here was pretty excited that it was open for visits again. Since baby #2 is scheduled to arrive at the end of the month, and we thought this was going to be Travis' last two day weekend before her arrival, this weekend seemed like the best option for going, as otherwise it might be a while before we felt like traveling again.
Friday morning we left at 7:30. First stop was for gas to top off the tank, which turned out to be one of the bigger culture shocks I've had in awhile. I knew gas was cheap here, but...
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| In case you can't see it, that's 0.61 Saudi Riyals/Liter |
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| Mommy and Lucy excited for our day trip! |
Lots of people recommended Ric's to us because they serve an American style breakfast. It didn't get the greatest reviews on TripAdvisor, but I realized that's because non-American's just don't understand what a good, greasy American breakfast actually is :)
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| Could have been straight from Bob's Diner! |
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| Lucy and daddy sporting their purple pride! |
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| Lucy loved the bubble machine at the Homestore |
The rest of our shopping trip was rather unremarkable. Travis bought some needed new shirts and I was excited to find some matching outfits on an end of season sale for Lucy and baby Ellie to wear next year. After dinner at Potbelly's (yes they have a Potbelly's! Have to say I didn't enjoy the sandwich as much as I had hoped but the strawberry shake was spot on) we found our driver at the designated pick up point, I put on my abaya, and settled in for the ride home.
Stopped at the Border
I was originally hoping this is where this blog post would end. At the border crossing, which is in the middle of the causeway, we made it through 3 of 5 checkpoints, and then there was a commotion and the border guard wouldn't give our passports back. Our driver pulled off to the side, assures us everything is fine, and he and Travis went into the office. There are three other cars pulled over so I'm hoping this is somewhat normal. After about 15 minutes the driver for the first car comes back, then eventually the other two cars also leave. After about 30 minutes Travis comes out and tells me that there is something wrong with my visa, and he's been talking to our company's government relations person on the phone, but everything should be fine, and returns to the office. Lucy is happily playing on the Elmopad so I focus on praying for strength, peace, patience and understanding (and a long lasting battery on the Elmopad!). While I haven't asked Travis exactly what happened in that office, I'm glad I wasn't in there too. After an hour or so Travis returns and is pretty upset because they won't let me and Lucy cross the border. Seeing as it's 7:30 pm on a weekend evening, our government relations person cannot talk to the embassy or whoever else he needs to talk to until Sunday (the start of the work week). Obviously Travis isn't going to leave me and Lucy in a foreign country, so our driver turns around to go through the checkpoints to get back into Bahrain. Of course we had to pay our 50 SAR fine to cross the border again. I'm so thankful that at this point my phone began to receive its Saudi data coverage so I could email our mothers and some friends back home and tell them to start praying. I also emailed a friend on the compound knowing we might need their help to gather documents and other needed items if we were stuck in Bahrain for a few days. The traffic was pretty slow going getting through the Bahraini checkpoints so I was also able to look up the phone numbers for some hotels. In the meantime Travis is calling people to get advice on where to stay in Bahrain and what we can do to get this resolved as soon as possible. As soon as we get through the final checkpoint, our driver informs us that our Bahrain tourist visa expires after 72 hours, so that means we were only ok staying in Bahrain until Monday morning. Yikes!
Change of plans--a weekend in Bahrain
We decided to stay at the Gulf Hotel, mostly because it's closer to the causeway than other hotels in case we were told we needed to be back at the border in a short time frame. Turns out this was a great decision--the hotel is beautiful! The service was excellent and we appreciated being somewhere that they take your bags to your room for you after a long day (evening). I'm sure they found it peculiar we were only traveling with a carseat, stroller, and three plastic shopping bags. As we arrived at the lobby, Travis received a phone call. I stood around for a few minutes before I realized "hey, this isn't Saudi, I can check us into the hotel!" I was pleasantly surprised when the receptionist greeted me warmly and talked to me as if I was equally capable of checking us in as Travis was. So funny how I've only been here a month but have already adapted to some of the culture norms. Now I've never checked into a hotel in Saudi, so I have no idea if they would actually treat me as less capable, but that's how I think it would feel.
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| The Gulf Hotel lobby... not shabby. |
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| Outside the Gulf Hotel |
Our driver kindly waited for us and took Travis to a nearby grocery store to buy cheerios, milk, and diapers. Heaven forbid we run out of cheerios. I put Lucy to bed and was so thankful I had thought to bring her Elmo doll with us for the day trip. She was a little upset we didn't have her purple blanket, but she found the bath towel to be an acceptable substitute.
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| The diapers Travis returned with. I don't think Huggies sells these in the states! |
Neither Travis or I slept much that night but it had nothing to do with the hotel room. In fact I wish I could have brought those linens home with me. Once he realized I was awake he turned on the K-State game on his phones Slingbox app. (Probably would have been better if we'd just slept through that...) When Lucy woke up we decided to eat breakfast at the hotel because we didn't want to stray too far for when the call came that our essentials had arrived. The hotel had a lovely (and pricey) buffet style breakfast with french toast, 3 varieties of eggs, sausage and turkey bacon, some arabic looking yogurts, sauces and toppings I didn't understand, an assortment of pastries, a few cereals, and some fruit. Not sure that it was worth $25 but I guess you pay for convenience.
After breakfast and getting our essentials delivered we decided to venture back to the mall because they had a large super-target type store where we could pick up a few more things. I also wanted to buy Lucy a toy since we only had Elmo and the Elmopad to play with.
We returned to the hotel in time for Lucy's nap--we ALL needed a nap! After nap we had the opportunity to skype with the Thompson family. It was wonderful to to talk to you! We loved seeing your familiar faces :) That evening we tried to go to a sports bar type restaurant so Travis could drink a beer, but they wouldn't let Lucy in. It's ok though, because on our way to find another place to eat we found ourselves in an adorable European style neighborhood.
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| A construction zone that used colorful doors removed from buildings instead of a fence! How creative is that! |
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| Strawberry avocado juice |
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| I don't remember what this was called but it was amazing |
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| This is for you, Tiffani! |
Of course you can't go to a french cafe without ordering the chocolate croissant. It didn't disappoint! We also ordered breakfast croissants with eggs.
After breakfast we headed back to our hotel. We were about to catch the 10:30 hotel shuttle to a different mall (we heard it had a great indoor playground) when Travis got a call at 10:25 from government relations telling us to come to the border right away. So instead we hurriedly pack our belongings, check out and ask the concierge to call a taxi. Right as the taxi arrives Travis gets a text that says "Wait don't come". We tell the taxi to leave and park ourselves in the lobby. About 10 minutes later he gets another text saying "okay come now", followed by a phone call from government relations 5 minutes later telling us we need to be there in 30 minutes or whoever he's talking to is going to leave for the day. This is highly frustrating and we wish we would have just gotten in the first taxi! It takes another 15 minutes for the second taxi to show up but we are relieved to be on our way to the border.
Once we arrived Travis went into the border/customs office with our government relations person. It only took them 10 or 15 minutes to emerge again but it was a very long 10-15 minutes for all of us, especially Travis as he sat quietly in a high ranking Saudi official's office, listening to him shout back and forth with our government relations guy in Arabic. Eventually, Lucy and I were approved to go across the border, got all of our paperwork back and left before they changed their minds!
Thankfully the rest of the ride home was uneventful. The taxi driver left us at a McDonalds on the causeway where our CPC driver met us. While it was a relief to be heading home, I was a little sad to have to put on the abaya again and start looking for the family section of the restaurant.
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| That's how we all felt, Lucy! |
What went wrong?
To be honest, we still aren't entirely sure! What we know now is a) my visa is only single entry, and I used up my single entry when we arrived b) my residency permit was not yet complete and c) the combination of these two made it illegal for me (and Lucy, who has the same visa and residency status) to re-enter the country. Now we knew that my residency permit was not complete, but as I mentioned in part 1, we knew that we would have to pay a fine for not having this, but did not realize it would be a problem. We also did not realize that my visa was only single entry because it does not actually say anything about number of entries allowed on the visa! I truly don't know how we were supposed to have known this, as the visa and residency permit process has never actually been explained to us. Additionally, my visa says "Validity - 90 days" so I was under the false impression I had 90 days to leave and re-enter the country. We had heard stories of other ex-pats who were deported in trying to return back to Saudi after an expired visa period and I honestly thought it was a good thing we were exiting the country when we did! What we still aren't sure of is 1) if my residency permit had been complete, would I have been allowed to enter the country, even with the single entry visa? 2) Will I receive a multi-entry visa? I sure hope so because I certainly plan to leave the country on a regular basis during our time here! 3) How come we were allowed to travel to Bahrain and then allowed to cross the border in the first place? 4) I know the visa that my parents will receive when they come to visit is a 5 year, multi entry. Why did I not receive this to begin with? (*Note: If anyone reading this knows the answers to my questions please enlighten me!)
In closing, we are so grateful to CPChem for handling the situation expeditiously and doing what they could to make sure we were okay during our time in Bahrain. Several people, up to and including the Executive President called throughout the weekend to make sure we were fine and that Ellie hadn't decided to show up early! While parts of the weekend were really stressful, we tried to make the most of it and I'm glad we had the opportunity to see more of Bahrain than the large shopping mall. We are looking forward to our next (legal) weekend trip back!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Lucy 22 Months
I had not intended on writing an update for this month, but I don't
want to forget how much Lucy has changed in the last month! It's
unbelievable how fast she's growing up.
Her favorite song (by FAR) is the ABC song. We had to sing it three times before nap today. She has several toys that sing the ABC's in a rotation with other songs, and she has no patience for the songs that aren't ABC. She also sings along, usually repeating "A-B-C-D" throughout the song. Did you know that there are lullaby and rock versions of ABC? I really appreciate that some of her toys play different versions of the song.
At bedtime she also requests Jesus Loves Me and just in the last week she has started requesting Wildcat Victory (the K-State Fight Song). Now Travis has been singing it to her almost daily since before she was born, and his hard work is finally paying off--right in time for football season!
She still loves dogs and now says "Dog" correctly now instead of "Ga". I knew this day would come but it makes my heart a little sad that she's already growing out of some of our favorite Lucy-isms.
Mommy and Daddy are becoming quite skilled at drawing Elmo, Abby Dabby, cats, turtles, feet, and hands. These are all requested (demanded?) daily. I wish art classes were complimentary for toddler parents--drawing is not a skill of mine!
She still says "Hi" and "Bye" to our Houston friends daily and now she announces when her Saudi friends are napping or eating throughout the day. Our friend Baby Luke apparently naps A LOT.
And continuing the trend from the past couple months, her language skills are still growing exponentially. This week I've heard more three word phrases then I can count! She will now repeat almost anything we say, including "1 package of ground beef please", which earned her a pat on the head from the butcher this morning.
This month she has also taken a liking to the phrase "Happy Birthday", probably because Houston friends Clara, Evan and also Grandma have birthdays this month and we've been talking them up! Even though she couldn't be there for your birthdays she has been celebrating all month long with you :) Earlier this week she had the opportunity to tell our neighbor Happy Birthday, and she was even more excited about it when she realized cake was involved! I think her 2nd birthday party is going to be fun this year!
She still loves peas and broccoli and over the course of a week I think will eat a pretty balanced diet. But yes we have some meals where she only eats french fries or breadsticks. She also routinely requests apples, oranges, and raisins.
Lucy was pretty excited to see her Elmo potty in our air shipment and even made me carry it upstairs to her bathroom. I've started to pick up on the fact she's asking to sit on it before nap and bedtime--I think she's trying to distract me from putting her to bed, not that she's actually interested in using the potty! Of course nothing has happened in the potty yet but neither of us are in a hurry for that.
This time next month things will be a lot different--baby sister should be here! Lucy loves giving hugs and kisses to "Baby Sissy" and gets very excited to see her 'picture' on the ultrasound at my appointments. I hope she still loves giving hugs and kisses once baby sister is actually here :)
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| Having fun outside! Notice Mommy took the picture from inside in the air conditioning. |
Her favorite song (by FAR) is the ABC song. We had to sing it three times before nap today. She has several toys that sing the ABC's in a rotation with other songs, and she has no patience for the songs that aren't ABC. She also sings along, usually repeating "A-B-C-D" throughout the song. Did you know that there are lullaby and rock versions of ABC? I really appreciate that some of her toys play different versions of the song.
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| She loves to dance when Puppy plays the ABC song |
At bedtime she also requests Jesus Loves Me and just in the last week she has started requesting Wildcat Victory (the K-State Fight Song). Now Travis has been singing it to her almost daily since before she was born, and his hard work is finally paying off--right in time for football season!
She still loves dogs and now says "Dog" correctly now instead of "Ga". I knew this day would come but it makes my heart a little sad that she's already growing out of some of our favorite Lucy-isms.
Mommy and Daddy are becoming quite skilled at drawing Elmo, Abby Dabby, cats, turtles, feet, and hands. These are all requested (demanded?) daily. I wish art classes were complimentary for toddler parents--drawing is not a skill of mine!
She still says "Hi" and "Bye" to our Houston friends daily and now she announces when her Saudi friends are napping or eating throughout the day. Our friend Baby Luke apparently naps A LOT.
And continuing the trend from the past couple months, her language skills are still growing exponentially. This week I've heard more three word phrases then I can count! She will now repeat almost anything we say, including "1 package of ground beef please", which earned her a pat on the head from the butcher this morning.
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| Climbing on the furniture is another new skill |
This month she has also taken a liking to the phrase "Happy Birthday", probably because Houston friends Clara, Evan and also Grandma have birthdays this month and we've been talking them up! Even though she couldn't be there for your birthdays she has been celebrating all month long with you :) Earlier this week she had the opportunity to tell our neighbor Happy Birthday, and she was even more excited about it when she realized cake was involved! I think her 2nd birthday party is going to be fun this year!
She still loves peas and broccoli and over the course of a week I think will eat a pretty balanced diet. But yes we have some meals where she only eats french fries or breadsticks. She also routinely requests apples, oranges, and raisins.
Lucy was pretty excited to see her Elmo potty in our air shipment and even made me carry it upstairs to her bathroom. I've started to pick up on the fact she's asking to sit on it before nap and bedtime--I think she's trying to distract me from putting her to bed, not that she's actually interested in using the potty! Of course nothing has happened in the potty yet but neither of us are in a hurry for that.
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| Drinking Elmo juice on the Elmo potty. Could life get any better? |
This time next month things will be a lot different--baby sister should be here! Lucy loves giving hugs and kisses to "Baby Sissy" and gets very excited to see her 'picture' on the ultrasound at my appointments. I hope she still loves giving hugs and kisses once baby sister is actually here :)
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