Surprise Arrival

Here we go...

I woke up Saturday morning, looking forward to a relaxed day taking my friend to the embassy pool and letting her acclimate to the city and the time zone.  But instead, we went to the hospital at 9:30am and Daniel Knox was born at 3:30pm!  Welcome, tiny man.  You are very loved.

I had been a little freaked out about having labor go super fast the second time around, but it actually went a little slower, at least at the beginning.  I was able to walk around and get things going a bit before succumbing to the epidural.  The anesthesiologist was the same nice man who did my D&C, and it was a super quick and easy process.  Earlier in the morning my OB said that I had the option to go home, as I wasn't very far along but I'm glad Thomas convinced me to stay.  And I didn't need any Pitocin or other labor-enhancing drugs, which was a blessing.  All in all, it was as pain-free as I could wish it.  Praise the Lord!

My sweet friend, who had arrived just over 24 hours before, stayed home with Benjamin for two solid days, then we came home Monday morning a bit before lunch.  Our hospital room was one of the biggest available, and while it was so great to have space to walk around and recover, I was ready to get home.  Not to knock Virginia Hospital Center, but my bathroom at Farah was the size of our room at VHC.  Thomas had his own bedroom and full bath, and there were two sitting rooms, one for the guys with leather couches and the other for the ladies.  I was impressed with the food at Farah Hospital and the nurses were generally very responsive and helpful.

Proud daddy.

We could hear large parties happening in the other suites on our floor, people would be eating gigantic buffets of food and talking until 11 at night.  It was nuts.  Thankfully despite the Arab nighttime culture we were able to get some good rest.  So far Daniel has been a good nurser, fingers crossed I can make enough milk and we can skip doing the full-on formula and bottles scene.

Postpartum bump, day 3 (Monday).  Go away, please.

Benjamin has been mostly good, some fussiness and nighttime tantrums, usually around dinner and what food he needs to eat.  But he asks about Baby Brother Daniel and wants to see him, and he gets lots of attention from my dear friend and Thomas, and Emy when she's here.  It'll be a shock when Thomas goes back to work, and when my friend leaves, but right now we're in a pretty good groove.

Ready to go home!

Today (Wednesday) we went back to the hospital for the newborn blood screening, and then ate lunch at the embassy.  We also got Daniel his first immunization shots, so it was a big morning for us.  I even nursed him at the hospital, and at the embassy.  I'm so grateful that it seems to be working alright, but we're still supplementing a little (with a syringe, to avoid nipple confusion).

I think that's about it, we're just living feeding to feeding and attempting to remain showered.  Pray for a good milk supply, and continued good health for all of us.  And also for our safety in Jordan, as the Syria situation gets more complicated.  I'm still glad I had the baby here, but the news does stress me out a bit.

More to come...
Rachel

In Other News

Well, I had my doctor appointment this afternoon.  It seems I've gained two kilos since last week, so it appears I'm retaining water.  Oh well.  The doctor said my blood pressure looked good, so he's not concerned.  I would still really like to make it to September, so please pray that it won't turn into anything serious.  I'll see the doctor again next week, and then it'll just be a few more days!  So crazy. 

38 weeks.  Feeling very puffy and large.

Notice the guest room is clean and ready for our visitor!

We got our supplemental shipment delivered today, which is fantastic.  We now have my breastpump and assorted bottles, and the bouncy chair and exersaucer, etc.  Everything we used with Benjamin, including all his baby clothes up to 18 months.  Now I'll work on getting everything put away.  Probably some stuff will get donated, we already have a good bit of baby clothes.  Sweet friends have gifted us new things for the baby and I got a pile of hand-me-downs too, so we're totally set.

Now we're just waiting for the layette shipment, which has the new crib.  I'm planning to set up the pack-n-play in our room for the first weeks so it's not totally necessary to get the crib set up and everything, but I'm a planner and would love for it all to be ready to go from day one.  I've gotten a couple new crib sheets and have the new baby's loveys all washed and ready.  I can't remember when we started giving Benjamin his owl to snuggle, but it was maybe a month or two in.  I'm hoping this baby loves his raccoons just as much, Benjamin always gets owl out of the bed and carries him around, and has other toys talk to him.  So fun. 

We've started talking to Benjamin about mommy staying in the hospital for a couple days, which hopefully won't be too strange for him.  I'm trying to think if I've spent any time away from him other than the normal mornings/evenings out.  I can't remember spending nights away, so this will be interesting.  Thankfully I have an amazing friend coming to stay for a while and she'll take care of Benjamin while I'm indisposed.  What a blessing.  I can't wait for her to arrive! 

-Rachel

Lots o' Boxes

Because the embassy was closed for a week, we got a deluge of mail this week.  It's amazing how much getting packages improves my day, even if it's a new ice cream scoop, or laundry detergent.  (Yes, I have it shipped.)  Poor Thomas had to schlep all this into the house, though.  Bonus points to him!

It's like Christmas!

I've been getting anxious about going through labor, and even though we're officially in week 37 and I should have some time, Benjamin came three weeks early and I'm trying to be as prepared as possible.  We got the car seat and stroller set up, I've got diapers in sizes newborn through 2, and our storage and layette shipments are on the way.  I would feel a little better if I had my breast pump here and ready to go, but worst case scenario I can always rent one for a month.  But labor, there's just no way to really prepare. 

So I'm focusing on life after labor, and as dumb as it sounds, I'm ordering some clothes for post-baby.  I know in theory it'll take longer to lose weight this time, with the second baby, but I really want some black jeans for the fall.  And a camel-colored sweater.  And a leopard-print scarf.  So ridiculous, but it's also distracting me from thinking about delivering this baby, so I've spent some time on Pinterest looking at fashion.  I ordered a variety of things from Old Navy, their jeans were on sale, and I can always return them if in a month nothing is working.  But I remember with Benjamin I wore pajamas and a bathrobe for longer than is humanly acceptable, and I'd like to keep up appearances.  Of course after this baby comes I will laugh hysterically at my silly goal, so bear with me.

37 weeks.  Not sure I can get any larger.

I'm really grateful that the baby didn't come right at 37 weeks, but I'm also feeling very heavy and awkward.  The pregnancy waddle is in full effect over here.  But I'm trying to still do fun stuff, last night I went to book club, which was so great.  I really like getting to hang out with interesting women from all backgrounds, none of whom I would have ever met except from being here.  What a blessing.  I'll probably skip the next one in September, and maybe more, but knowing I can slide right back into it after taking some time off is reassuring.  And I'll probably want a night out sooner than I expect!

We're still pretty undecided on a name.  I keep waiting for divine inspiration, or a sign or something.  Not that we had anything like that with Benjamin, we just both liked it and agreed.  Argh.  Time to start looking at baby name websites again.

That's all the news for now, looking forward to a relaxed weekend and keeping my feet up whenever possible.  Pregnancy puffiness is the name of the game at this point.

Rachel

The Home Stretch

Well I've officially hit the "over it" stage of pregnancy.  Waking up twice a night to visit the bathroom, needing a crane to turn over in bed, and wicked heartburn are really cramping my style.  I think I promised not to complain when we shared the news some months back, but dude.  It's much worse than I remember.  I'm still amazed and thankful and half not believing we're having a second baby, and it's totally a miracle from God.  But I'm ready to have this little boy here and just skip over the next month and the whole labor scene.  It's weird that in a few weeks we'll have two kids, and be a family of four.  What a blessing, but also pretty scary. 

35ish weeks.

When they announced the embassy closing I was glad, because it meant more time with Thomas but it's been a pretty long week without the usual schedule of swimming once or twice, having the playground access, getting to eat lunch with Thomas solo a couple times, etc.  I definitely spend too much time there.  We haven't felt unsafe here in Amman, which is a big blessing, and honestly it's just been inconvenient.  Looking forward to having more of a normal life once Eid is over (after this weekend) and things settle down a bit.

We've resorted to some TV time, complete with Cheez Its.

Not much else to report, honestly we're just hanging out at home mostly.  Although Thomas and I did run out to the mall today to walk around.  Which completely wore me out, then we had lunch just the two of us at one of the few restaurants open during the day.  Thankfully today is the last day of Ramadan and Eid begins tomorrow.  I'm not sure what will remain open during the holiday, but fingers crossed Fatburger will reopen.  I'm in desperate need of burgers and shakes.  Or so this baby tells me.

Benjamin is ready to be a big brother!

We've got most things lined up for the baby, Benjamin is moved into his "big boy" room, and we've got the bottles and formula ready in case nursing crashes and burns like last time.  But I'm holding out hope, evidently there's an amazing lactation consultant here.  I feel silly asking God to let me breastfeed, I did that when I was still pregnant before my miscarriage in September last year, and then when I lost the baby I felt like I should only ask for a healthy child.  But I would really like it to work out, so I'm starting to pray about it.  Trying not to hinge my self-worth on it though, it was so devastating last time.  But in addition to praying for a healthy baby and smooth delivery, please pray that I will rest in God's grace no matter what happens nursing-wise.

Rachel

A Year Ago...

Last year this time, we'd just arrived in Amman.  Re-reading that post, I can remember that day, but only in a very hazy sense.  And Ramadan this year isn't nearly as strange, it's inconvenient when I want something from a specific restaurant and they're not open, but knowing what to expect I can just suck it up for four weeks (just two more to go!).  Last year we'd just arrived and didn't have a vehicle, didn't know where to grocery shop, etc. so life was just harder.  Thankfully having one year under our belts we're just sliding back into life here in Amman!

This past weekend we moved Benjamin's crib and sundries into the playroom to make it his "big boy room", and the other, slightly smaller room will be for the new baby when he arrives.  He has done really well with the transition so far, thank goodness. 

Benjamin's big boy room

Using the dresser as the changing table is very high, I'll probably start using the floor soon.

This used to be just the playroom, but the toys still fit.  I need to have them take away the extra mirror though.

The past couple weeks we've said goodbye to some friends who are leaving, and a few more leave this week.  It's hard to see awesome people go, but I'm hoping that we'll make some new friends and continue to create our own little community here.  And hopefully we can all be in DC at the same time, at some point in the future.  God has been so gracious in giving us meaningful friendships in such a short period of time.

There's been a customs strike in Jordan, so the police have been called in to help man the customs offices.  Not sure if it's made any difference to our packages getting delivered, but it does seem that this week things are arriving all the time, last week was pretty bereft of brown boxes. 

We've got lots of diapers!

I was craving pretzels last week so I ordered a gigantic tub which will hopefully arrive soon.  I vacillate between sweet and savory in my cravings, last night I made cheese dip at 10pm after eating ice cream earlier.  It's calcium, right?

Almost 34 weeks, in the empty-ish baby room.  Waiting on the crib to arrive.  (It'll be the same as Benjamin's.)

At the last Dr. appointment, the baby measured about 5 pounds!  Yay!

Not much exciting is happening these days, we're just laying low and I'm trying to take it easy, keeping my feet up as much as possible.  I did get a mani/pedi with a girlfriend yesterday, which was really fun.  I'm trying a bolder color than my usual pink or red, so we'll see how long I can keep it going.  When we were traveling back to Amman and I was all puffy and weird, I was so stressed that I bit my nails back down so I've got a long road ahead to grow them out.  But it's helpful to get the professional polish job, it definitely lasts longer so I hope I can get in the good habit of moisturizing my hands and leaving my nails alone. 

Electric blue.  Definitely out of the box for me.

Man, a whole year has passed.  We've got two more to go and I'm guessing they'll go by quickly as we adjust to life as a family of four.  It was hard coming back to Amman after being home for three weeks, but now we're in the groove and getting into a routine again.  Praise God, Benjamin is sleeping better and if he wakes up he doesn't take much coaxing to get back to sleep.  Fingers crossed we can all be rested up for when the baby arrives!

Rachel

Home again

We're back, and it's been about a week.  Despite Benjamin's continued nighttime struggles against sleeping, we're glad to be home and back in the "normal" routine.  I got to attend book club on Monday night even though I never read the book.  I plan to in the future, though.  (It was Khaled Hosseini's latest, "And the Mountains Echoed".)  I feel very motivated to read the next one, for August, which is "The Orphan Master's Son".  I'm a couple chapters in and it's good, but a little disturbing.  After reading a nonfiction book about North Korea, fiction seems extremely plausible.

Emy has started working for us more hours during the week which is fantastic.  She's such a blessing and help.  I know it will be a sanity-saver in the first months after the new baby comes.  Parents of 2+ kids, I'd love to know your strategies for preparing to have more than one kid.  And it seems so weird that this baby isn't Benjamin, if that makes sense.  He's the one baby I know, his patterns and habits and personality, and looks even.  It's strange that this is an entirely different person who I'm going to meet soon.  (Although hopefully not too soon, I'm praying that he can wait until 40 weeks.)

In random news, Thomas has become a bit of a fashion plate.  He found some good deals on suits and work clothes while we were in SC and ordered some shoes and things online to round out his new look.  He's also getting some older suits tailored to update the silhouette, and it feels strange to have him be so put-together and stylish while I get larger by the second and wear the same five things every week.  And it will be at least a year before I plan to buy clothes, considering that I'd like to lose weight after dropping the baby weight, and who knows how long that will take with baby #2.  I feel like I'm definitely gaining more with this one, but I think that's normal.  My SC splurging was epic, but now we're home I'm eating more salads and cooking much more.  It was a glorious three weeks of stuffing my face though.  (stares wistfully into space)

Sunday night I tried finger painting with Benjamin, the previous attempt many months ago just made him upset, since he likes to be clean and sticky stuff isn't his favorite.  He started getting into it more this time so hopefully we can introduce more arty things.  I think I have some IKEA watercolors we can break out, which could be fun.

Messy.

This afternoon Thomas came with my to my doctor's appointment and met the doctor for the first time.  After a couple ultrasounds Dr. Mashini told us that the placenta had moved and it didn't look like it would be an issue going forward.  I was so glad, and I'm guessing that as I get bigger and bigger it'll move even farther up and out of the "danger zone".  I'm so grateful and am praying that no other complications arise and that everything can happen normally.  I've been nesting a bit and putting away lots of baby clothes into Benjamin's room and putting his clothes away in the playroom, soon to be his "big boy" room.  I think we'll make that transition in a week or so.  And I'm trying to get our guest room/office in order for a visitor in a few weeks!  Can't wait!  :-)

Almost 33 weeks!

Another benefit of being home for a while, I finally got the shoes I'd ordered but were then lost in the mail.  So happy with them, even if they were criminally overpriced.  But I love them!  (See above pic.)

Someone was very snuggly today.

And I'm out.
-Rachel

SC Trip #3

After eating lunch with my parents and sister, niece, and my niece's friend on Thursday, we drove to Charleston to spend a long weekend with my brother and his family.  It's a pretty easy drive, but there was a massive thunderstorm on the way down so we were a little slower than usual, but we made it and really enjoyed a relaxed time just hanging out with family.  Benjamin immediately loved my other niece and she played with him tons.  He was a little afraid of the family dog, a black lab, but she's older and very sweet and eventually he would try to give her hugs and kisses.

Leaving Moe's in North Myrtle Beach, Diet Coke in hand.

A fun park on Daniel Island, with a pirate ship to play on.

Checking out the ship.

Benjamin loves swinging.

Attempting to kiss to Gracie the dog.

My sister-in-law is an amazing cook and she fed us well, and one night we ate some good Mexican food at their usual restaurant.  It was fun watching my brother and sister-in-law deal with the parenting issues of pre-teens and teenagers, that stage of life seems far away but I'm sure the next 10 years will fly by. 

Sunday morning they all drove to the airport so the kids could get on a plane to camp, so Thomas and I had a leisurely time packing everything up and as soon as he started loading the car, the heavens opened up and it was a deluge.  We hung out and waited for the worst of it to pass, but eventually just got a little wet and set off for Aiken.  The downpour lasted a good half hour at least, it was a little hairy on the interstate, but once we got on the highway the weather was clear and it was a pretty drive to my hometown.

My parents beat us to their house only by an hour or so, they left that morning from the beach.  It was good to see them again and unload all our stuff for the last time.  I think the time in Aiken went the fastest, I had a busy schedule of meeting up with friends and Thomas ran some errands too.  We stayed from Sunday then left for Jordan again on Friday.  Tuesday I got to get a haircut, which was so luxurious.  We had a fun Fourth of July at my parents' house, they pre-ordered Carolina BBQ, and it was awesome.  My sister and her family came, and Thomas's parents also, so it was a fun family day and very low-key.  Benjamin enjoyed the bubbles that Thomas's mom brought and we had a few sparklers to wave around in between rain showers.

New 'do.

Concentrating on the bubble blowing.

So much fun with Grandma!

Sparklers, and my attempt to style the new haircut.  Still working on it.

Our saga of leaving began Friday, our flight from Columbia to DC was scheduled for 2:30.  We got to the airport at noon and checked in quickly, no line at all.  My dad drove us, he said goodbye and then headed home.  Thomas's parents came to eat lunch with us a little cafe in the airport before security, which was fun.  Not many people around, it was a relaxed time to visit and then we said goodbye around 1pm and went through the security process.  I'd forgotten about a Leatherman mini-tool in my purse, so thankfully the TSA guy handed it over to Thomas's parents.  I would have been sad to lose it. 


We waited at the gate for a good while, since the rain seemed to delay things.  Then we heard an announcement about lightning strikes in the area, and the plane refuelers have to wait 20 minutes for the "all clear" before they can fuel the planes.  Ugh.  Our layover in Dulles would have been about 90 minutes, and we left Columbia over an hour late.  The whole flight (an hour and a half) I was stressed thinking that we'd definitely miss our flight.  And naturally, we did.  But they rebooked us immediately onto a flight to Frankfurt (instead of Vienna, the original stopover point) which was actually boarding at the time.  Thomas stood at the counter with Benjamin and sorted out the baggage issue while I got drinks and a snack at Potbelly, one of my favorite sandwich places.  We got terrible seats because it was so last-minute, Thomas and Benjamin sat in the middle two seats of a four person row in the center of the airplane, and I was in the middle of three seats on the side.  Eventually a guy on the end next to Benjamin switched with me, it turns out he has three kids of his own and was very sympathetic.  It was a long flight though, and all the stress of changing itineraries really got to me. 

We landed in Frankfurt at 8am and had 12 hours to kill.  If we'd just been two adults we could have made it into town and seen some sights, but with Benjamin and all our carry-on junk, it didn't seem worthwhile.  Thomas hoped that the trip would have given him enough miles to upgrade into the lounge, but no dice.  We found some benches without armrests, the only positive part of the airport, and took some naps.  My feet and ankles had swollen like crazy, I guess I didn't walk around as much as I should have.  They didn't hurt but felt very weird and I was really worried about random medical stuff.  We didn't have access to wifi, and weren't going to pay to sit at the public access computers, so it was a very long day.  We ended up eating three meals there, before our flight boarded at 8pm.

The flight from Frankfurt to Amman wasn't terrible, at least we were all sitting together in a three person row.  It was extremely full and the four hours seemed to never end, but we finally made it back to Amman at 1am.  There must have been another flight coming through the exact same time, because the line for immigration was crazy long.  Thankfully we used the diplomatic passports and jumped to the front of the line, but still had to wait ages for our bags to show up.  (They all made it, thanks to that ridiculous layover.  I am grateful to not have to deal with lost bags though.)  At that point my legs and feet were still swollen and I felt terrible.  We went through customs with no problems and found our driver, who got us home in record time, only about 20 minutes.  I'm glad we came in at night, I was grateful to not be faced with the stark reality of desert life again right away.  We unloaded and got Benjamin into a bath and settled in bed, and passed out. 

Thomas went to work the next day, poor thing, and Benjamin and I both slept until noon.  We're still working on getting over jetlag, he'll wake up around midnight and fuss and fuss for hours.  Not the best.  I went to the embassy clinic yesterday and talked about my edema/swelling.  The nurse said to watch it and it should keep going down, and today it seems to be basically normal.  Even baking bread and washing dishes, being on my feet, it hasn't come back.  Praise God, I was so stressed about the baby and everything.  I'm so thankful that it seems to have been just travel related and not a harbinger of anything really serious. 

Puffy legs, taken 4am Sunday.

Pretty much back to normal, today.

I tried to force Benjamin to skip his nap on Sunday, but let him snooze an hour on the sofa.

We enjoyed our time in South Carolina so much, and are glad to have seen so many people.  I know there are many we didn't get the chance to hang out with, but hopefully we'll have another trip home in a couple years.  My plan now is to find somewhere in Europe for our next vacation, preferably one with a nonstop flight from Amman.  :-)


-Rachel