Thursday, March 31, 2011

Trip 1, Day3 and 4

Day 3, Visit #2
Yesterday we visited Sweet Pea for the 2nd time. I was pleased because I could tell she recognized me when she saw me. She smiled right away. She was dressed in a white jumper type thing that had green and orange birds on it and underneath-- a neon yellow shirt of course!  It is funny how the kids are dressed. No concern for matching, boys get dressed in pink, girls get dressed in (obviously boy clothes) blue. There were 2 other families there yesterday to see their children. A couple from Texas, there to see their little girl and a couple we were actually introduced to us pre-trip by Amy (thank you Amy) who are also on their 2nd trip and we just now found out- they passed court today for their little boy (Congratulations "O" family!!) The visitor room was hopping! We put out a blanket on the floor for Sweet Pea and sat her down. We wanted to see how mobile she was and she surprised us! Not only can she roll back and forth, she can crawl!!! We never expected that. I know  you're thinking, she's 9 months old, of course she can crawl. But due to the developmental delays we expect to see and the fact that she probably never or at least rarely gets time on the floor to do as she pleases, we would not have been surprised if she couldn't crawl. With some effort, she was able to get up to a sitting position also. We had a great time playing with her for a couple of hours. She likes her rattles and everything goes straight into her mouth! We also had an opportunity to see her eat. They brought her afternoon snack into the room. I was holding her on my lap and the caregiver fed her milk that had some cereal type stuff in it-- with a glass tea cup! The caregiver held a bowl under her chin and tipped the cup up to her mouth. Now you're asking "Can a 9 month old drink from a tea cup?" The answer is "NO!!" Just as much dribbled down into the bowl as into the baby. It was sad how quickly she tried to drink all she could- before it was taken away. I was more than a little upset- this is no way to feed a baby. Babies should be held and fed with a bottle by their loving mother, not by someone who needs to get it done quickly because she has 9 more to feed. I had to blink back a few tears and just know I will be able to change this for her. I have read the children eat everything in sight when they are adopted. The older ones (and I only mean 2-3 years old and up) will hoard food in their cheeks or in their rooms until they come to realize the food will always be there and they can have as much as they want.
When we bring Sweet Pea home, I plan to bottle feed her. I know, even in the USA they wean from the bottle by 1 year old. I have 2 reasons. First, it is good for bonding and attachment. Holding her in my arms and feeding her will provide time for us to make eye contact and for her to realize I will meet her needs. Until this point in her life, adults are just caregivers and no one of them is any more important to her than any other one. I want to be the important one (alright, and maybe Joe too :). Second, formula is a good way to get more nutrition into her. She is a little small now, but I guarantee she will be on par with her age group in the US by Christmas. I have read blogs from several other IA (internationally adopted) kids. They sprout up and out, several inches and several pounds very quickly with proper nutrition and love.
Sweet Pea also had a runny nose. She does not like having it wiped!! She seemed to be feeling ok though and we had fun playing with her.
After returning to the Vlad Inn, Joe and I had a bowl of Borscht (love it!) in the hotel restaurant. They have a great bread basket too- some sort of pumpernickel-ish rolls with pieces of walnuts, this sliced brown bread that is sour and a little bitter (I know that sounds odd- but it's great) and then of course--the white roll (haven't tried those yet, can get that at home). There were 3 parties going on last night. It was really loud. I think one was a first birthday party. They had a clown and someone dressed up in some sort of animal costume. We then returned to our room and passed out (from exhaustion, not alcohol).

Day 4, visit #3
Today we saw Sweet Pea again. She was a little fussy. She obviously was not feeling to good. Still had her runny nose and a little bit of a cough. She  also felt like she had a bit of a fever. She did pretty well though considering. I tried to hold her in my arms facing me (like you would if you were feeding with a bottle) and rock her a bit. But she just looked up at me and I could tell she was thinking "What are you doing lady??" She wasn't having it. She was dressed ok today, t-shirt, red turtleneck, yellow dress thing, yellow tights, socks over her tights. No new revelations today. We kept it kind of low key since she didn't seem to feel well. We were by ourselves today, no other families. We have a puffy, plastic book- it's made for babies and you can put pictures in it. We filled it with pictures of Joe and I. No, not because we are vain, we plan to leave it with her for the next 2-3 months so she can look at it and remember us. Anyway, I showed it to her today to get her used to having it and associating it with us. She was quite interested in it. It's the only book (and we brought several) that she actually looked at. The others went straight to her mouth. This one she looked at - and THEN tasted it. I thought that seemed like a good sign, she looked us and hopefully recognized us in the pictures.
We spoke with our IA Doc this am and we were very pleased. She said you can never say a referral has "no risk" for problems, but Sweet Pea is very "low risk" for problems based on the pictures we sent her and the information we gathered for her. This is good news and based on the time we have spent with Sweet Pea, it is exactly as we expected to hear. Yiippee!
On a side note, Clarisse arrived in Florida today with Mark, Amy and Meghan. Hope you have lots of fun Clarisse! Thanks to Mark and Amy for taking her with them! And thanks to Heather for driving her to the airport to meet them. And while we are at it, thanks to Kami and Randy for watching the rest of our zoo. We really appreciate all of the help everyone has given us! 

2 comments:

  1. I will be following your journey with excitement. It’s amazing! I am so happy for you both and the little Sweet Pea too! Continue to keep us updated and post pics often. KEEP BLOGGING

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  2. Yeah! Happy for an update! Glad you choose to use an IA doc, while they can't see everything, it's a great reassurance!

    Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

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