Jaydon Comes Home

So night No. 2 at the hospital was an eye opener. Grandma felt tired and decided to sleep at home giving Mariah and I some good quality time with Jaydon. Turns out Jaydon's idea of quality time consists of an all night crying session. There is no doubt that he has strong lungs.

After staying up all night I decided it was time to go home. We did all of the inspections and tune-ups, both Mom and Baby passed their inspections. One fun moment for me was going downstairs to pay the bill. First you have to understand that this is the equivalent to a private hospital, and we were paying cash - no insurance (we file separately back in the US). You can imagine my surprise when they handed me $500 cash back (Mariah got a discount for being an ExxonMobil employee). All said and done we only had to pay about $4,000 USD for the whole thing - room, delivery, food, shots, etc. All that without insurance. There is no doubt that health care in the US is screwed.

So we made the trip home without incident. I was worried, what with the hazardous driving conditions in Doha and all. I have to admit walking into the house with the little guy was a real experience. Very happy to have him home.

So here are two fun photos. Remember that the Arabic culture is very family oriented and built around social relationships. One standard thing here is giving gifts, and especially large gifts for new babies. So RasGas (the local Joint Venture that Mariah works with) sent us an incredible flower and chocolate basket, about three feet tall. Not to be outdone ExxonMobil sends us another basket, three feet tall by three feet wide, which included a massive bear. Healthy competition is good, but we will be eating chocolate for the next three years.

I am still behind on blogging and photos, I'll keep trying to catch up. More to come........