Happy New Year!

Rather than spend a couple hundred each to celebrate at one of the local hotels the Al-Malki compound group decided to celebrate within walking distances of every one's homes (even though there is 3 designated drivers in the group...at least for another month or so). The party was great and even Athena (the dog) has a hangover - so many people to throw the ball for her she's moving a little slow this morning.

Couldn't resist posting this one of Steve and Javier....

Happy NEW YEAR

And those who've been requesting an update and asking various questions about the baby I'll give a quick summary.

Due Date - Feb 3, but at this point it could be anytime. It's a boy, we've had 3 scans confirm it and will get another next week. Name is still under negotiations but we're getting close. And NO ONE gets to find out until he arrives. Mom will be arriving Jan 27 for her first visit to the Middle East and to welcome her first grandchild. All docs appt have been fine for the baby, but Steve and I are experiencing the administrative skills of this great country at it's finest (that's oozing with sarcasm if anyone didn't pick up on it). Last appt took 4 hours. Brief summary of the timeline for those who might be interested-

8:30 Arrive for 9:00 appt, get paperwork in order and pay bill

9:45 Ask reception what's taking so long, answer - doc hasn't arrived yet, they're gonna call her cell. Maybe she forgot to set her alarm or something

10:00 Doc arrives, we're told it'll be another 15 minutes

10:45 Finally see doc, she explains there was an emergency, apologizes for the delay. We go over birth plan, give copies of marriage certificate and passports. It's illegal to have a baby in Qatar if your not married so very important to have that certificate. Doc wants to hook me up to the CTG machine to see how things are going.

11:00 Someone already in the CTG room, we're told to go to the waiting room until this person is finished.

11:30 Steve goes in to find out why they haven't called us, someone else in now on the machine. I go back to speak to the nurses and completely loose my cool (love those extra hormones) since we've been there for over 3 hours now...go to the bathroom to collect myself. When I come out the nurses have me sit in the docs office so we are sure that we're the next ones on the machine.

11:45 Get hooked up to the machine, get scanned - nurse says everything looks great and the baby is very active (which I could of told them), wait for the doc

12:30 Doc finally arrives, comes into the room and starts yelling at the nurses. Apparently the husband of some Qatari lady had taken her file, gone into the docs office and basically cornered her in there asking questions and not letting her leave for over an hour (since we last saw her). Doc is mad at the nurses, nurses are yelling at the reception staff and everyone is blaming each other for this guy barging in without an appt. (This is a common occurrence here, apparently someone has told the locals that it's perfectly ok to ignore all rules that may apply to others so that you can get what you want NOW)

1:00 finally leave and head to work

Looking forward to the next appointment in a week!

This isn't meant to scare anyone, just venting a bit. The medical services we've been receiving are great and we really like our doctor - this is just an example of how things get done around here. Sometimes living in Doha is the ultimate test of your patience.

Here's to a New Year that goes better than how the last one ended...