Random Moments

With the recent addition of a family member, I've fallen behind in a few things.  Blogging.  Showering.  You know, the non-essentials.  I've written a jillion blog posts in my head.  Sometimes I even lose track of whether I've posted them!  We are having a blast with our latest addition.  Maya loves him and so far our biggest problem between Maya and Zain is that she loves to get right up in his face to kiss him and at the same time, leans her full body weight on him!  At some point I want to write a post about Zain's birth story (before I forget it!).  Right now I have a few random Maya moments to share.  Because of her blonde hair and blue eyes, her extremely gregarious personality and her ability to speak a little Arabic, people everywhere seem to love her.  She is such an answer to prayer, in that she opens doors all over the place.  She also gets a lot of free treats. . .

Free ice-cream at Chili's (only for her, there was no free ice-cream for us).

This place is called Pinkberry (I think it's a U.S. chain) and it's frozen yogurt.  I think it's the most excited we've been about any chain coming to our city!  They loooove Maya there and always give her gummy bears and animal crackers.

We're doing a lot of policing of this right here.  Maya is just so in love with EYES!

We're very excited about a trip we are taking to Turkey next week, and we've only got one more step to accomplish before all of Zain's paperwork will be done and we'll be okay to take him out of the country.  We have his passport and record of birth abroad, we just need to get a visa put in his passport before immigration here will let him leave, but as soon as we get it, we only have seven days before we have to leave, so we had to wait until next week to go and get it.

Nice To Meet You

Zain David Jacobsen was born on October 4th at 3:38 p.m. in Beirut, Lebanon, weighing in at 3.435 kg (7.57 lbs ) and 50.5 cm long (19.88 in).  Nice to meet you!!!

The plans of men, the itching, and the new due date

Well, after weeks (months really) of thinking, conversing, worrying, speculating, weighing and praying about whether to do a repeat C-section or to go for a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean), the decision has been completely removed from my hands-YIPEE! My due date was October 13th, but we need to travel Nov 4th, which means we would have had to accomplish the following between his delivery and our travel date:

 

1. Get hospital birth certificate
2. Take hospital bc to our neighborhood official to get it made “official”
3. Take bc back to hospital to have Doctor sign and stamp new official version
4. Take new stamped and signed version to neighborhood official
5. Neighborhood official issues government official version
6. Government official version gets officially translated into English
7. Get a passport picture taken (not easy—they have to have their eyes OPEN!), get the correct size printed
8. Fill out 5 forms for the U.S. government
9. Take official English translated government version to U.S. Embassy (we made the appointment a month before Zain’s due date to make sure we could get in)
10. Embassy issues U.S. passport and report of birth abroad certificate
11. Take new passport to a place called General Security to get a visa stamped in it, so that Zain can legally leave the country

Because of that, there was no way that I could go overdue with Zain and still make our travel plans, but the thing we are traveling to happens about once every five years and is a super encouraging time to get to meet up with people like us who work around this area that we never get to see or learn from . . . so we really wanted to go! So I was hoping that Zain would just come on time, on his own (because you can’t induce a VBAC), we would miraculously get his papers done, and I would even be feeling good (no C-Section to recover from) in time to travel. But then we decided that if he hadn’t arrived on his own by the 11th, we would schedule a C-Section for the 12th or 13th. And then the itching started. . .

 

My hands started itching like crazy. Random, right? Like I couldn’t stop thinking about how bad they were itching, couldn’t stop scratching them. And then my feet started to itch too. Fast forward two days. Zain had been pretty quiet and hadn’t been moving much, which was not normal for him. I had the sense that I needed to get online and look up pregnancy and itchy hands and feet after we got back from the beach that evening. I discovered a thing called Cholestasis of pregnancy. I was freaking out. The words stillbirth and intracranial hemorrhaging kept running through my mind. I told Matt about it, but it was already 11 p.m., so there wasn’t much we could do other than wait till morning so we could call the Doctor. I laid there in bed and prayed that if Zain was okay, would God please make him move. He did. Not a big movement, but enough for me to know he was alive (I was imagining the worst at this point). All night I dreamed that I couldn’t get my fingers to work to send the text to the Dr. (that’s how you communicate with your Dr. here—you send a text message and they text back). I kept trying to make the message shorter, or get my fingers to work, or my phone. By the time I hauled my exhausted self out of bed, my wonderful husband had already texted the Dr. and she had actually CALLED him back and told him we should come in right away for some testing. So we threw ourselves together and walked to the hospital (it’s faster than driving b/c of the bad traffic). My precious precious Doctor called the Labor and Delivery Suite 6 times between when she heard from matt and when I got there and got hooked up to the fetal monitor. She was so concerned about our baby! She is the same Dr. who delivered Maya and she is just a gift from the Lord. Anyway, as soon as we got there, we realized that Maya was not allowed into the Labor and Delivery area, so matt and Maya waited in the waiting area while I got hooked up to the fetal monitor.

Just as soon as those monitors came on, Zain started to perform a tap dance! He was moving and kicking so hard you could see it from the outside. I was very relieved, and so was our Dr.! They did a blood test that didn’t show anything abnormal, but went ahead and put me on medicine. Fast forward one week. When the Dr. saw me again she asked how the itching was—gone. Completely gone. She said this indicated that I was responding to the drugs and that I for sure have cholestasis. Then she said, we need to schedule you for a C-section! So, long story long, Zain’s birthday looks like it’s going to be Tuesday, October 4th, just one day before my birthday! Matt was so funny (and charming), while the Dr. was looking to schedule the C-section on Oct 6th, Matt was saying, are you sure you want to be preparing for Zain’s birthday on your own birthday every year?  It ended up that she scheduled him to be born the day before my birthday so it all worked out!

 

We are so thankful for amazing medical care right here in our city, a Doctor who truly cares about us and our baby, and the fact that we were able to catch this so quickly after it developed. I went in for a Non-stress test for Zain yesterday and he’s doing great, so we are thanking and praising the Lord for His hand of protection being upon us and upon our little boy!

 

 

 

Maya and Hannah

Did I already post this?  I thought that I had posted it a long time ago, but it was labeled draft, so here it goes again.  I'm feeling guilty for not posting for the last month!  I've been trying to get a few projects done around the house since we're nearing the arrival of Zain David. He is due, according to the Dr. on Oct 13th, but according to my original calculations, he's due the 7th, and I've started having Braxton Hicks contractions, so maybe he's gonna show up early and bless his momma!

They look so sweet, but I'm pretty sure this lasted about 4.5 seconds before Maya pushed Hannah for holding her hand.

I think our water must come from a well, because even in the summer, it is COLD!

 Do you see all the water flying through the air?!  Love Hannah's face in this one!

A true friend--Hannah is always ready to offer a helping hand.

And another helping hand. . .

Maya's face in this one just defines JOY!

Splash!

They really do like each other.

See?

Hannah's sister Breeley trying to edge her way into the action.

I feel as though Maya is defying gravity here (that's some bubble blowing, in case you're wondering).

Such pretty girls, and so much fun!

Year and a Half, Sort of

Because I haven’t kept a baby book or a scrapbook and I rarely have time (or make time) to journal these days, I’ve been wanting to write a post about what Maya has been up to recently. I missed her year and a half mark, so this is kind of a belated year and a half post.



Maya baby, you bring so much joy to our lives. You are a little over 20 months now.  You are learning things SO quickly. You often repeat the last word of every sentence we say-English or Arabic. Some college-age visitors recently taught you to give the fist bump. You love anything having to do with water—everything from your baby pool on the balcony, to a glimpse of the sea. When you see the sea, you say “May” (Arabic: water) over and over. You also use the word, “wa-wa” for water, and milk is, “Me-me”. You’ve just started to say things are pretty, and you love babies. You’re a little dangerous around actual babies, as you enjoy pointing out all of their body parts, especially their eyes (and you’re a little unaware of personal space and kind of sit on them a little bit). After baths I wrap you up in a towel and hold you in front of the mirror and call you my little baby. Then you let me snuggle you. I love it! When you want us to do something, or feed you something you’ve asked for, you nod your head up and down emphatically and make a little “um-hmh” kind of sound (and sometimes add in eyebrow raises for effect). I would love to catch this on video, but when a camera comes out, you want to see it, rather than be seen by it. You have started to learn the names of all of our friends and family and your tone of voice is so cute, especially the way you say please and thank you. You also do the intense nodding while saying please if you really want something. You are a GREAT eater and almost never reject food that we offer you. You’ve just about mastered eating with silverware (well, sort of mastered).


Much to my surprise and delight, you still take two naps a day, which has helped me so much (I need two naps a day too!) You wake up early in the mornings and have special time with Daddy while he gives you milk and reads you books. You still love to read books and you’ve just started to ask to watch videos occasionally, though I try not to let that happen too often (you know, I don’t want to kill all those brain cells). You are extremely cautious when walking over anything slanted or bumpy or raised--to the point that it’s kind of comical, but you’ve saved your face and teeth a lot of pain by being so careful. That may be the only thing you’re really careful about! You are fun-loving and you love to play chase (which is more like hide and seek) with Daddy and you like to wrestle and tickle too. You still love the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” (because we row you like you are the oars) and you've just learned "Ring Around the Rosies". You are learning to count, but most of the time, you just like the number two. You hold up your fingers and point to them while saying two over and over. We were at the pool last week and we would count to three and then you would step/jump into the pool. You got very brave and let us hold just your hands while you kicked your legs. You have also recently learned to blow bubbles and have done that in the baby pool, the big pool and even the bathtub. You are friendly and sociable, even when there are a lot of people, unless too many people get in your face at once. We are trying to teach you to at least give a polite greeting to anyone who greets you (a lot of people want to greet you here b/c you look so special to them with your blue eyes and blonde hair).  You have been out of your crib on your very own "big girl bed" for about two weeks now, and you handled the transition like a rock star! 


I never could have anticipated how much I would love you or how much joy you would bring to our lives!

Baby Charm?

Hey all, I need some help.  I am hoping to get a special gift for our OB/GYN who delivered Maya and will be delivering baby boy.  I'm thinking about a charm/necklace that looks like a baby.  Anybody know any good Etsy shops that sell silver stuff--particularly something that would be a cool gift for our wonderful Dr.?

SEVEN years!!!

Seven years ago today, I married my love!  I loved him before I ever met him.  No joke.  I don't have time to write about how amazing and wonderful he is because I need to get to bed because he's taking me out of town tomorrow!  Without our child! (of course, in-utero boy is coming along)  We're going to stay in a hotel--for TWO NIGHTS!  We're going to swim!  We're going to eat every meal prepared by someone else!  We're going to run the A/C non-stop at ridiculously low temperatures!  I may even get COLD!  Hah!  So excited to be sneaking away for two nights together.  Away.  Alone!  Just me and my MAN!  We'll have adult conversations, unpuncuated by whining!  We'll sleep as late as we want, without our human alarm clock saying, "Mama!" (even though her daddy is the one who takes care of her first thing in the morning).  We will do our yearly ritual of writing on a greeting card all the memories we can think of from the last year.  My amazing friend Kendra has volunteered to keep Maya in addition to her two ankle biters, while her husband is out of town!  Isn't she the most amazing woman you know?!  Kendra, I owe you big time!!!  There's ice-cream in our freezer for you! :)