A Two Week Old and a Passport

There are a lot of things that all new parents have to contend with when a new baby is introduced into the picture.  Add a foreign country into the mix, and the list of “new things” grows exponentially.  Take for example, registering the birth of said baby.  We started on that for Shiloh last week Monday, five days after she was born.  We happened to be downtown on a few other errands, and Dave suggested we pop into City Hall to see what we would need to bring back to register her birth.  Apparently, all we needed was Shiloh, a working pen to fill out some forms, £16 (about $25) and we received two copies of the “long” birth certificate and one copy of the “short” birth certificate.  Our next step involved getting Shiloh a passport.  We made an appointment for this past Wednesday at the U.S. Consulate General to obtain a copy of her social security card, register her birth overseas, and apply for her passport.  Before we could go to the consulate, though, we needed two passport pictures of her.  Off to the chemist’s (aka pharmacy) we went where they take the picture and were impressed to see that the person behind the counter knew enough about taking infant passport photos to lay Shiloh down on her back and put the camera right above her face so we didn’t have to try and hold her up.  With Dave holding down Shiloh’s hands and me holding a finger in her mouth to try and sooth her until the camera went *click*, we managed to get two good-enough passport photos to take with us to the consulate.  The next day was our consulate appointment.  It was my first time visiting a consulate, and the security was the first thing that made an impression on me.  In addition to the 13 foot iron gates surrounding the compound were also reinforced barricades in the motor vehicle entry way, reminding anyone who thought of trying to storm the gates that great harm would be incurred to their car.  We got buzzed into the guard’s box to declare any and all electronics (which meant I had to surrender the camera I was going to use to document Shiloh’s first passport experience), go through a metal detector and have ID badges hung around our necks.  As we exited the guard’s box and made our way up the pedestrian path to the Big Consulate Building, Dave told Shiloh “Inhale deeply, Shiloh.  This here’s ‘Merican air.”  We made sure to put our “business” faces on as we walked into the Big Consulate Building so as not to arise any suspicion that we were actually having a little fun with the fact that our two week old daughter was already applying for her first passport.  We were pleasantly surprised when we entered the Big Consulate Building that there was no line and they started to process our paperwork immediately.  About a half hour later, with fees paid and signatures signed and paper work secured to renew Dave’s passport, we went back down to the guard’s box to reclaim our electronics and turn in our ID badges and wait for our ride home.  In two to three weeks, we should have Shiloh’s passport in our possession and our little pixie girl will be well on her way to following in her parent’s world traveling footsteps.

Shiloh Maryellen Gebben

Part One: We have a daughter

Born October 30th at 3:15 pm local time, 6 lbs 3 oz, 19.6 inches.  We are simply over the moon with our little pixie girl (what some of the midwives started calling her because she is so little).  On Monday the 28^th, I was going about my business, knowing I still had a solid two weeks until the expected due date for our little one, when I started having contractions.  By Tuesday morning, the contractions were coming a little more quickly and my water broke, so we went into the hospital for an examination.  They confirmed the water broke, but realized that I had developed hypertension and was headed in the direction of pre-eclampsia.  Since the contractions were still not coming quickly enough together, I was not dilated, and the protective membrane that is the water had broken in the very early hours on Tuesday, the doctors scheduled me in for an inducement on Wednesday morning.  I felt devastated knowing that I would have to be induced and my plan for a natural delivery was being thrown out the window.  However, by the time we arrived at the hospital on Wednesday morning and they did one last examination before starting the inducement medication, it was discovered that overnight my cervix had dilated on its own to 3 or 4 cm.  All of my dread from the prior day about having to be induced fell away as my natural delivery plan started to come back together.  Around 9:30 am, Dave and I were walked into the delivery room and met our midwife, Jennifer from Scotland (how she referred to herself), who would be with us until Shiloh’s birth.  By 11:30, Jennifer told us that I would most likely still have to have an IV drip of inducement medication because I was not dilating quickly enough and the contractions were still too far apart.  She went on her lunch break and by the time she returned a half hour later, her substitute, who filled in while she was gone, informed Jennifer that my contractions had quickened to every three minutes and I was dilated to 6 or 7 centimeters.  In other words, the IV drip would not be needed because things had just sped up on their own.  As I was quite terrified about the possibility of inducement, that piece of news was such a blessing to know that I could do this labor thing on my own.  The next few hours are a blur, (although I do remember telling the doctor to shut up), and the next thing I knew I had a beautiful baby girl on my chest.  I won the prize of staying in the hospital for two more nights because my blood pressure was still staying too high.  That ended up being a blessing in disguise because the midwives were just one button push away when I needed them, especially for learning how to breastfeed (which I have since decided warrants a rocket science degree).  One of the nights I was so tired and Shiloh was having such a hard time latching on that I called the midwife who came into my room, sat with me in bed for a half hour, and showed me step by step how to start a baby breastfeeding.  All of the midwives were so helpful and so comforting, reminding me that feeling overwhelmed and overtired is completely normal and to be expected.  The community midwife who makes her daily stop at our house has also helped to answer questions of nervous first time parents and give us tips for how to settle Shiloh when she choose to scream from 1:30 am until 6:00 am.

Part Two: Her Name

Several people have asked us about her names.  In the Bible, Hannah goes to Shiloh to pray for a child when she is unable to conceive.  As a result, Hannah has Samuel.  In our journey to have a child, we thought it appropriate that if we had a daughter to name her after the place with special Biblical significance for getting pregnant (we are keeping the boy name a secret in case we have a boy in the future).  Her middle name, Maryellen, comes from three people.  My paternal grandmother and Dave’s maternal grandmother both were/are named Mary.  The second part, Ellen, comes from my best friend, Ellen Osborn, who passed away when I was in fourth grade.  So as a result, we have Shiloh Maryellen to love for the rest of eternity.

Part Three: Toby the Dog

Our sweet little ten pound 6 year old Yorkie mix, Toby, has been slowing adjusting to our new family member.  He now only vibrates and yips some of the time when she cries and has taken to licking her head when she nurses.  He gets quite agitated when her diaper is changed and she screams Bloody Mary, barking at us as if to say, “She’s in distress!  Help her!”  He has always been a very empathetic dog, as Dave reminds me whenever Toby freaks out, which probably explains why he gets so upset when Shiloh is upset.  Thankfully, Shiloh had 9 months in utero to get used to Toby’s bark so she doesn’t seem to mind it when he barks like an alarm now.

Part Four: Our Church Family

We could not have gotten through this past week without our church family at Newtonbreda Presbyterian Church.  They have brought us meals, visited us in the hospital, taken Dave to and from the hospital to visit me, taken the three of us home from the hospital, taken us out to coffee, and smothered us with love.  Our blessings are overflowing from this gracious group of people.

Shiloh, Dave, & Me when Shiloh was 24 hours old