Carnival Cake

I was asked by my neighbor and another lady on our compound to make a birthday cake for their 4 kids Carnival themed birthday party.  I have a really hard time saying no to people and the fact that Miles was  just born and my mom was here didn't seem to change that.  I ended up working on the cake for two weeks to make sure that I only had to spend a few hours at a time working on it.  This was a really fun cake to make and I loved how the colors came out so bright.  I made the cake to match their plates, cups, and decorations.  

                   

One more Update...

This is Gavin playing with toys at our compounds play school.  

Brooks and I decided last night that we were ready and willing to take advantage of the play school and let Gavin participate.  There are 5 boys who live on the compound all under the age of 4 and as of last week 4 of the 5 were enrolled in the play school, Gavin being number 5.  Now that my mom is gone, I've been thinking a lot about how to adjust to having and managing 2 kids on my own.  I've also realized that Gavin is at a place where I think he's bored of just being at the house.  We don't have options of places to go or events to participate in like we would if we were back home- such as Little Gym, Mother's Day Out, YMCA, etc.  So, we figured this would be great for Gavin to hang out with kids his age, have some time away from me, and get to be in a new environment daily.  

Today, I brought him to the play school to see how things were run, watch him interact, ask questions, meet the ladies, etc.  Gavin immediately hid behind me when we walked in the door and wouldn't budge for the first 10 minutes.  I quickly realized I needed to help motivate him so I sat down on the floor and told him I was here to stay-- and I did.  I sat for 30 minutes and he eventually got up and started playing. It was interesting because in the beginning, he played by himself, hence why he's in the above picture alone.  Now, he knows all the boys that were there and plays with them often, so I was shocked that he didn't want to hang out with them right when he saw them.  After a while, he was right there with the boys, laughing and goofing off.  I actually was able to slip away for 45 minutes and Gavin did fine.  He was excited to see me when I showed up, but told me he wanted to go to "school" tomorrow.  Fine by me!  I'm excited for him to get this chance and am looking forward to having some time for me, for the first time since we moved in August.  It will also allow me time to focus on Miles, too.  

Updates

I've been blogging lately, but realized there are so many things that I have yet to share about.

For starters, my dad left the KSA a few weeks ago and Gavin was very sad to see him go.  They became great buddies while my dad was here and Gavin has missed getting to go to the playground with Captain, having his food flown around on a fork like a plane, and since my dad has left, Gavin has quit drinking his chocolate milk.  I guess no one makes chocolate milk like Captain.  My dad taught Gavin to say, "beep beep" so anytime we're out in the car, and Gavin hears a car honk there horn, he says, "beep beep!"

Brooks' has gotten a little break in work and has actually been off on Thursdays the past few weeks.  (Thursdays are our Saturdays here)  It has been really nice having him around.  I'm holding on to these days because pretty soon he could start working 7 days a week once start up gets going.  Yikes.  He's also been enjoying playing basketball with all the guys every week.  It's a sad day for him when basketball gets cancelled.  However, they always seem to make up for it by rescheduling on a different day of the week.  

I stopped nursing.  Let me first say, thank you so much for all the emails and posts you sent regarding my heartfelt post about nursing.  I received a TON of encouragement and lots of suggestions and ideas and I appreciate those of you who took time to write me!  After three weeks of many ups and downs, I decided nursing Miles just wasn't the best thing for him.  Our concern was making sure he was gaining weight and able to thrive and we have seen a MAJOR difference in him all around just in the last week.  There was a small part of me that was sad when I was done nursing him, but I was also relieved that the pressure was off.  I'm also convinced that there was really something wrong with my milk supply.  I was able to stop nursing Miles cold turkey.  I only had to pump twice since quitting and even then, I really didn't have to pump, it was just to make sure I didn't get any clogged ducts that could have caused more pain for me.  

We are in the process of selling our house.  We actually have a contract on the house and are closing on it this coming Monday.  We are super excited and are praising God for this sale going through.  We put the house on the market in May and finally got a serious buyer this past month.

We are also in the process of getting all of Miles paperwork taken care of.  We were given a certificate of birth at the hospital where Miles was born and then had to get a Saudi birth certificate which is written in Arabic. We went to the US Consulate office and applied for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, which is primary proof of American citizenship to a child born abroad to American parents.  Saudi does not issue citizenship to children whose parents aren't Saudi's.   We also attempted to apply for Miles passport, in order to allow him to travel out of the country.  We ran into a small issue with this process, due to the USA requiring all international, overseas applications for US passports to be sent through Washington DC, instead of being printed globally.  Khobar is no longer allowed to print passports, therefore it will take longer to retrieve his passport.  The main issue is the USA isn't ready for this system change and are now requiring international locations to HOLD all passport applications until they are ready.  Which, for us, means, Miles passport applications will not get processed for a few weeks.  The USA doesn't even know when they are going to be ready to start receiving applications so who knows when things will take place.  All we know is we have purchased plane tickets to come home March 3rd and we are hoping and praying the system is ready soon, Miles application goes through swiftly, and we receive his passport in a timely manner in order to complete other paperwork required for him to travel out of the country as well as to get back into Saudi.    Say a prayer for us please!

Gavin is still loving Miles and is an awesome big brother.  He has been doing amazing with pottying lately and is finally making it all the way through his naps and bedtime DRY FREE, consistently.  He went through a phase where he was wetting the bed 2 and 3 times a night.. it was pretty rough on us at night.  I think what's helping him is when we get up to feed Miles, one of us goes and gets Gavin and takes him to the bathroom.  We're hoping he will eventually get back to waking up himself at night and calling for us when he needs to go.

Gavin is growing up.  He has been talking more and more every day.  He can repeat words, hold conversations, give his opinions, plays independently, and explores.  He is always trying to figure out how things work and has a strong desire to keep things in order and they way they are suppose to be.  He has also been showing us a new side to him.  His opinions have been accompanied with very intense emotions when he feels he isn't getting his way.  He has also been testing us a lot lately.  We are constantly working on teaching him to be patient, to listen, and obey.  He's two and we know that this is a phase, but, wow!  Wonder how long this will last?

My mom left two days ago and it was a tough day.  We were very sad to see her go.  Things just aren't the same around here without her.  It was WONDERFUL having her here on our side of the world for the last 6 weeks.  I can't imagine her not having been here for Mile's birth and getting to celebrate Christmas with my parents was a bonus.  We're looking forward to getting to visit them in a month along with the rest of our family and friends.

As for me, I'm preparing to have two kids on my own tomorrow for the first time.  I'm anxious to see what life will be like managing the boys, the house, cooking, cleaning, etc, but I have to do it sometime or another.   I'm ready to get into a routine and help create some normalcy for all of us.  Wish me luck!

He's 2- what did we expect?

We experienced a first this week with Gavin.  He got a hold of a pen and decided that he wanted to draw all over the walls.  Boy- was I upset when he called me in the living room and said, "Mom, look!"  He was so proud of his drawings, but momma was NOT happy.  Hopefully, Gavin learned his lesson to NEVER draw on the walls.  I did make him clean it up, but of course, I had to do most of the cleaning to actually get it to come off the wall.  

The next new experience was actually quite funny, but only because Gavin learned this from us.  Brooks and I don't particularly like cats.  Actually, we don't like cats at all.  Our compound has several stray cats that people who use to live here left behind.  Apparently, some of the new tenants feel sorry for the cats and feed them so they stay around.  Well, there is one cat in particular that is always around and is annoying to us.  So, we tend to grab a bat when he/she comes around and swat at it (but never hitting it) to shoo it away.  This cat has been hanging around our house a lot in the past two weeks.  More so then usual.  We think it might have been because we had a mouse under our kitchen sink that we didn't know was there- but maybe this cat did.  This stupid cat got into our house one night and scared me half to death when I opened our bed room door to go downstairs at 1:00am and he took off running down the stairs.  Ugh- our front door had been pushed open due to the wind and we had forgotten to lock the door.  So, when the cat jumped up on our kitchen window sill and scared me to death one morning, Gavin saw him and took matters into his own hands.  He went and got one of his bats, grabbed the stool, and preceded to swat at the cat.  Only problem was, he nailed the window.  It didn't break, but we had to explain to Gavin that he wasn't hitting the cat.  Brooks and I know now, more then ever that Gavin watches everything we do.  

Having some fun!!

Even though we're busy with Miles and are still, somewhat, adjusting to having a new born baby around the house, we've been trying our best to entertain Gavin and help keep things "normal" for him.

Gavin continues to amaze us everyday with how much he loves Miles and adores him.  He is constantly kissing him, checking on him, showing him things, and even talking to him.  Tonight, Gavin told Miles he pooped in the potty.  Too cute!  When Miles is awake, he is always looking for Gavin when he hears his voice.  It's precious!

We went to Toys R Us last week and picked up a bike with training wheels for Gavin to start learning to ride on the compound.  He hasn't figured it out yet, but loves the idea that he has a big boy bike like all the other kids.  With his new bike- he needed a helmet and knee pads.  I think the helmet and knee pads have been ridden more then the bike. Brooks had some fun with the helmet, too.  Check out Gavin's new Buzz pajama's.  Gavin's friend, Tucker got them for him.  

We also got Gavin a motorized truck/jeep for him to ride around the compound.  He LOVES it and it only took 1 trip around the block for Gavin to figure out how to drive the truck.  He learned to go forwards, backwards, and turn.  Gavin crashed a few times and Brooks and I decided to make him push the truck out of the bushes or grass himself. Now, he's not as willing to crash anymore.  The truck has provided hours of fun and entertainment for Gavin.  

 

Got Milk?

I don't.

It seems in order to nurse a baby and give them nourishment's to grow healthy, gain weight, pee and poop, and simply function... you need milk.  Apparently, I don't have what Miles needs.

Here's what's been going on.

When Miles was born, I wanted to try nursing again (I'll tell about my experience nursing Gavin later).  My milk came in while I was still in the hospital, Miles was 2 days old, and I was excited to think this was going to be "easy" to do.  We had a few bumps in the beginning, but with the help of a nursing tool, things got rolling.

Miles was born weighing 3.7kg= 8lbs 2 oz.  We had an issue with his billirubin numbers and went to the doctor a few times during the week he was born.  At those appointments, we noticed his weight had dropped, but that's normal for a newborn baby, as long as by day 10 they have reached their birth weight.  And, I will say, at one of those appointments when they were checking his number, he had gained 1/2oz from the previous day.

Then, we went back to the doctor for Miles to retake his hearing test that he had failed when he was born.  Miles was 13 days old at this point. The nurse weighed him and the scale said 3.4 kgs= 7lbs 4 oz.  WHOA!  I had a small flipping out moment in my head when I saw the number, but had to push it aside, because I was already nervous for the hearing test.

When we got home, I immediately pumped to check my milk.  Here's where's Gavin's experience nursing comes in.

Basically- Gavin was born weighing 6lbs 10oz.  At 6 weeks old, with me exclusively nursing him, he weighed 7lbs.  He was tiny, little, and skinny.  We didn't think anything of it.  Looking back, we remember he cried a lot during the day, but he slept well at night.  We were never concerned that he wasn't getting enough milk or nourishment's until one day when a family friend of ours whose a doctor saw a picture of Gavin in the bathtub and called my mom immediately.  He noticed that Gavin looked mal- nourished and didn't think that it was normal for him to be as skinny as he was-- his skin hung off his bones and he had wrinkles everywhere.  That was when I pumped my milk one day and noticed it was a clear liquid (it literally looked like dis colored water).  I also was only able to pump 2 oz total, not at all, what a child at 6 weeks old needs.  Our pediatrician told us to try formula for a week and see how Gavin reacted to it.  He did great-- he gained weight, became more content, and was overall more happy.  I just assumed the problem with my milk could have been contributed from all the meds I took while I was pregnant with Gavin therefore I was willing to try again with child #2, and just stay on top of things.  


Which brings me to where we are with Miles now.  When I got home and pumped, I noticed I was only able to get 1oz to 1 1/2 oz total.  So, I decided to start nursing Miles more often.  Well, that only lasted a few days, because then I started having more issues.  I was in extreme pain when nursing.  Like EXTREME!!  It was bad.  It was horrible.  I was bleeding.  I was sore.  Things that I know are common with nursing, but still- it was making nursing really difficult not to mention I was getting frustrated and starting HATING to nurse.  I didn't realize it, but I started going longer time periods between Mile's feedings, just so I didn't have to feel as much pain.  When I say pain, I mean toe curling, light headed, dizziness, probably could have used a leather belt or wooden spoon to bite down on PAIN.  To top it off- we noticed Miles was sleeping a lot more then what he had been a few days before.  He wouldn't want to wake up to eat, he wouldn't wake up after eating.  When we changed his diaper, which he doesn't really like, he would stay sleeping.  It almost seemed like he became lethargic.  I figured I needed some help and quick so I started doing some research.  I didn't want what happened with Gavin to be happening all over again.  This time, I knew what signs to look for and knew how important it was to stay on top of things.

I found the La Leche League of Saudi Arabia.  I made a phone call to a leader who has been wonderful.  She has been helping me out and told me things to do.  I had lots of issues to work on, but the first one was making sure Miles was getting enough milk.  Therefore, we started supplementing formula to give him more nourishment, while giving him what milk I was producing as well.   We quickly noticed a BIG difference in Miles.  He started staying awake more often, his night time crying fits stopped, and he gained more color to him and his body started filling out more.  Whew!

She also told me to start pumping around the clock to help build up my milk supply and see how much milk I was producing and what Miles was getting.  This was also going to help with the bleeding and soreness because now Miles would be getting my milk from a bottle, in order to allow me some time to rest and heal before going back to nursing.  The only problem was-- It takes 3 pumping sessions (6 hours) to produce enough milk for him to have in 1 feeding.   I have been pumping for 4 1/2 days now, every 2-3 hours and my milk supply hasn't gone up AT ALL.  It literally hasn't budged.  I'm only able to produce small amounts of milk.  So--- we're at a cross roads at this time because I can't keep pumping with this schedule and continue to take care of Gavin, Miles, our house, cooking, cleaning, etc.  Thank goodness my mom has been here to tend to lots of these things so that I could pump ALL the TIME, but she's leaving in a week and then everything will become my responsibility.

You may be wondering after reading all of this why I'm still even bothering with nursing.  To be honest, I don't know why.  Maybe, this go around, I wanted to make sure I had done everything I could before stopping.  I didn't want to just give up.  I'm not the type to NEED to nurse, nor do I have a strong opinion about breast milk being the only way or the best way.  I actually believe in formula and how it can help a child's nourishment.   I just feel like this was what I was suppose to be doing.  This situation has definitely been a roller coaster ride.  I've felt pressure, guilt, selfish, angry, annoyed, care less, stress, overwhelmed, put out, distracted, and more.

While going through this experience, we actually found information on a real condition that apparently 1 in 1000 mother's can have called Mammary Hyperplasia.  Who knows if this is something I actually could have-- I'm not trying to diagnose myself, just wanting to make sense of how there are mom's out there who can produce so much milk they need to donate it, and here I am, can't even give my child enough for what he needs to function.  There are several components of the hyperplasia that actually pertained to me-- it  being a genetic component (my mom and great grandmother could not produce milk), the use of progesterone during certain times of your pregnancy (um. hello. we added progesterone to my body for 18 weeks), and visual signs that I had 3 out of 4 of them.

So anyways.  I'm sure we will make a decision soon as to what needs to happen next.  Our main priority is Mile's health and making sure that he is getting everything that he needs.

Thanks for letting me ramble on about this topic, even though it may be something that none of you wanted to know about.  Sorry.  It's just a really big thing that's going on and I needed to release my feelings about it.   

These Days....

We spend time on Skype introducing Miles to family and friends. 

We spend available moments to catch some sleep.

We do take baths-- even if they aren't everyday.

We like to hang out.

We play with our new friends-- this is our friend's baby who was born one week after Miles, at the same hospital here and by the same doctor.

We've gotten out in the city.

We've done a little bit of shopping.

We've taken a lot of pictures, almost too many.  I had a 'little brother' shirt made for Miles that matched Gavin's 'Big Brother' t-shirt we used to tell people that we were pregnant with Miles.

These days we are loving life with 2 precious boys.

Since We've Been Home

We got home on Saturday, New Years Day and have been enjoying having Miles here with us.  We can't believe he's already one week old and we already can't imagine our life with out him.

Miles is a very sweet and calm baby.  He maybe has cried a total of 10 minutes throughout an entire day period and is generally easy to soothe.  He's still sleeping NON stop and wakes up about every 3-4 hours to eat.  Our first 3 nights with him were a different story.  Around 11pm when it was time to go to sleep, he would wake up, and fire off and cry on and off for 3 or more hours.  Brooks and I weren't getting a lot of sleep, but that was expected with a newborn.  However, since Tuesday night, he has been sleeping beautifully, and only wakes up every 4-5 hours to eat.  Brooks decided in the middle of the night as Miles was crying after being nursed, getting a diaper change, and being swaddled that it was already time to let him start crying himself to sleep.  I wasn't ready to do this yet, but Brooks encouraged me to stay in bed, and within 6-8 minutes, Miles was fast asleep.

 Here is where Miles camped out on his first evening home.  We took this same picture with Gavin the day we brought him home from the hospital, too.  

Miles:

Gavin:

Gavin is loving his little brother and is always eager to check on him and make sure he's okay.  HIs reaction and response to Miles being apart of our family has been an answer to prayer!  

We went on a family outing Wednesday to our park with Gavin to give him some time with Mommy and Daddy out of the house.  It was a fun, fun day!!  He pushed Miles in the stroller all the way to the other side of our compound and was very proud of himself.  We realized that Miles has found his thumb and enjoys sucking on it-- something we DON'T want him to do, but may not be able to do anything about it. Brooks and Gavin rolled around the little hills, went up and down the slides, and ran around like crazy.  Something Gavin has learned, thanks to my dad, and their numerous outings to the park-- is to pee in the bushes.  Gavin has done it so much, that now, he doesn't even tell us he needs to go potty, he just walks to the bushes, stands there, and turns around and looks back at us and waits for help.  He's a boy- what can we say?  

Hello!!! 

Brooks has been home for the week with us, which has been WONDERFUL.  He goes back to work tomorrow and I'm really sad that we won't have him around.  Gavin has attached himself to Brooks and wants to do EVERYTHING his daddy is doing.  Brooks had to bring home his work with him so Gavin set up his own work station using his tool chest and computer.  He sat and worked next to Brooks all morning one day.  So cute!  

We gave Miles his first sponge bath on Monday and he did pretty well with it.  He cried, which was expected, but was very calm and relaxed afterwards.  His umbilical cord hadn't fallen off yet and his circumcision is still healing and we can't get it wet for another week or so (the circumcision procedure they do here is with a plastic ring) so it looks like we'll be doing sponge baths for a few more days.  Miles umbilical cord actually ended up falling off Monday night-- at 4 days old.  That seemed fast!  

On Monday, we had to take Miles to the doctor for a few tests to be run that didn't get done while he was in the hospital.  One of them was to check his billirubin levels for jaundice.  His numbers were great when we left the hospital on Saturday so we weren't really worried.  We were shocked when the doctor came in with his results and he was 14 points away (on the scale they use here) away from needing the light therapy.  We were stunned and told to come back the next day to repeat the same test.  We went through this with Gavin and instantly knew what to do.  I fed Miles every 2-3 hours for 24 hours and we put him in the sun ALL day Tuesday.  He literally "baked" in a window with no clothes on.  It worked because when we went back to the doctor and did the same test again, his numbers dropped almost 80 points!  Woo hoo!    

New Years Day and the Park

We spent New Year's Day bringing Miles home from the hospital.  I forgot to download these pictures with the rest of our hospital pictures. 

We got Miles dressed in his going home outfit, that had a monogrammed 'M' on it.  

I was being wheeled out to our car.  Here, in SA, it's not required to have a car seat in your car for your baby, therefore Miles was taken out of the hospital in my arms.

Putting Miles in his car seat.

Arriving home.  Gavin realized 'the baby' didn't stay at the hospital.

The four of us with our driver, Saju, who was a true blessing.  The company assigned him to be my driver for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy.  He was trained and briefed on getting to several hospitals, given alternate routes incase of traffic, and accompanied me everywhere I needed to go incase I was spontaneously to go into labor.  Saju was a HUGE help to us.  He learned how to install Gavin's car seat, carried strollers in and out for me, and made multiple trips to and from Khobar to our hospital numerous times!  When we pulled up into the house with Miles, we all started clapping and cheering that we made it safely and without any emergency trips or with me in labor in the car.  You could tell Saju was truly RELIEVED!!  I think he even was given 2 days off after Miles birth for how much he was on call.

This was the cutest moment ever.  Gavin wanted me to hold him, but I was nursing Miles and told him I couldn't because Mommy was feeding Miles.  Gavin then asked me if Miles was eating and I said yes.  Gavin preceded to try and give Miles some cheetos.  I told him Miles can only have milk so Gavin went to the fridge and got out his own 'milk' (yogurt) and brought it to Miles.  It was so precious to watch Gavin want to take care of his baby brother.

We introduced Miles to his grandparents via skype.  They were so excited to see him!  It was really difficult for us not having internet access at the hospital to allow them the chance to share in Mile's arrival.  We knew they were at home waiting to see the little guy.

Meanwhile, this week, Gavin got a hold of my shaving cream.  Thankfully, he didn't find the razors.

We went to the park one day and had a picnic.  We were all really needing to get out of the house.  I think this was last Thursday when Miles was one week old.  We ate pizza and let Gavin run around sliding and swinging.  Miles slept the whole time.  At one point, Gavin's friend Tucker came by so they got to play together.  It was a fun filled afternoon.