Finishing up at the hospital...

Apparently in Istanbul they like to deliver the baby and send you home quickly. 19 hours after Nate was born they asked for their money and sent us out the door. The care at the hospital was great actually. We've never done this thing in the States, but we think it's quite different. Our doctor was with us for most of the 15 hours before the birth and stopped in to see us a few times the next morning. A nurse will even be visiting our home during the first week. Below are some more pics from the rest of our stay in the hospital.

Interesting enough, one of the two other families that live with us in our city was in Istanbul as well to have their second child. Sheryl gave birth to Ava just as we were entering the Labor & Delivery area around 6 in the morning. Needless to say, Sarah felt a little pressure to get Nate out so they could have the same birthday.

Sheryl and Sarah with their new babies. Sheryl had Ava about an
hour after arriving to the hospital. It took Sarah about 15.
That's okay, we're not bitter. Sheryl's first one was apparently a doozy.

The proud papas. Jack has already warned Nate not to
try anything funny with his daughter.

Grammy Iles showing off her second Nathan.

Meet Nate

He's finally arrived. At 1:58 pm eastern time Nathan Moore Umut Blan joined us. These are a few pictures. Both Mom and Dad are tired, so this one will be short. Nate is either not tired or sleeps with his eyes open just like his dad. Sarah did fantastic and once her body finally began to cooperate, she pushed him right out.

In the next few days, we'll write more about our experience and our new son.

At the hospital

Sarah hardly got any sleep last night. She had contractions all day and around 5 am they began to be about 3 minutes apart. We decided it was time to go. I grabbed the bag and called a taxi.

Unfortunately, that was almost 5 hours ago and we're still waiting. Her contractions have become more irregular and she's progressing slowly. Not slow enough to send her home, but not fast enough to get too excited.

Steve & Sarah Simpson...

As I was doing my weekly blog surfing today I stumbled upon a very fun web site (thanks to our brown friend, Shane Mathew). In honor of the recent Simpsons movie Burger King has sponsored a website where you can upload a picture and see what you would look like as a character on the Simpsons. After seeing the almost exact replica of me (big eyes, no hair, though the nose could be slightly bigger - okay alot), we were not as impressed with Sarah's character. After tweeking your "cartoonself" you have the opportunity to insert yourself into backgrounds from various places in Springfield. If your a Simpsons fan, it's worth the time.

Dohh!

I was very disappointed when I found out that if I wanted to watch the new Simpsons movie I had to watch it in Turkish. All animated movies in Turkey are dubbed into Turkish because all cartoons are obviously for children.

The other night Sarah and I went on one of our last dates before our little bundle of screaming joy arrives. We walked by a cinema and decided to see what was playing. Instead of "Simpsonlar" we saw a sign that read "The Simpsons." I quickly asked a guy if it was in English or Turkish and he said they were the only cinema showing it in English in the whole country. Wooohoo!

So after a nice meal and browsing through some stores we watched the Simpsons, not Simpsonlar.

Starbucks

Even if you're a hater of Starbucks you could appreciate the location of one of its 5 gazillon stores that we went to the other day. After eating at what was one of Turkey's best efforts at Mexican food (not bad, but your Mexican friends would not be impressed) we found a Starbucks situated right on the banks of the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus is the waterway that divides Istanbul and separates Europe and Asia. It was quite crowded outside on the deck, but as people left we slowly moved our way to the tables closest to the water. We enjoyed the cool evening, beautiful view, good company, and of course great coffee.

View of the boats and Asia at dusk.