We left Ethiopia with tears in our eyes, but this time, with Lulu-B not only in our hearts but actually with us.
Lufthansa was a great flight; Lulu slept just like a baby in her business class bassinet, everyone was sweet and kind and the food was delicious. I love the bassinet; what a brilliant idea. And a changing table in the bathroom for babies. Duh. what are the US airlines thinking? Babies dont fly? Dont have dirty diapers? i have no idea, but they aren't thinking of actual people traveling.
And Frankfurt was a dream the second time. The terminal we went into on the way home was calm, quiet and lovely. Lulu powered through her diapers into her onesies, just as someone said she would. I was so glad I had my 6 or 7 ziplock baggie outfits with diapers and schmata's to lay down on the different changing tables. Thanks to my mom and sister who packed them, with their help, it was fairly easy to keep her somewhat clean.
We made it to NY in one piece, and had a wonderful time at the NY relatives, but she did have a hard time adjusting a second time when we got home. She had adjustments in NY when we went into a different room for the first time. She really had not seen much of the world and everything was and continues to be a trip. The trip from NY to SF was a drag, but luckily, we did that on a differnt day and our jet lag wasnt so bad. i missed the bassinet and so did Lulu-B.
I havent posted for a while because I had a very long post about the Toukoul Guest House that didnt make it back from MDH's computer. The whole thing put me off writing. Add that to being home with the B, in a new house, not quite unpacked. And then our friends here in town got the word to go pick up her daughter (YEAH!), and I wished we had had the pictures downloaded so we could send them back to our new friends in Ethiopia. I miss them all. We were truly sad to leave our daughter's beautiful country, and that is so very true.
We had an initial doc appointment the week we got home. Ms. B has some delay the doctor said, but she also suggested that we wait three weeks and see how much she adjusts. Smart plan. The B also tagged along with me to see our fabulous acupuncturist a few days after that and almost all of our worries got cut in half. The Doc had said that she has some leftover infant instinctual responses, reflexes that were quite pronounced, mostly a morro shake, and said a bit of orphanage delay. Also, Ms. B is very tight in her muscles, or tonic. The pediatrician said most of the babies she had seen from Ethiopia have overly relaxed muscles, but the B had an opposite response, she is super tight, tonic. Switch to the acupuncturist and he declared her to have a liver-lung block, or to be tonic, and did a very gentle baby treatment on her. Her symptoms of breathing hard dropped in half and her muscles have begun to unwind a bit and the white at the corner of the eyes has gotten less pronounced. We have an appointment to see a cranial person because her snorting or "cold" has not fully abated. The cold symptoms are mostly gone, but she snorts and is phlegmy all the time. I hope that the "cold" dissipates with a little help from the cranial sacral experts. I can hardly wait until Tuesday.
She sings all the time, and loves the sound of her voice. She is getting to be a restless sleeper and is starting to really prefer me to all others, which is good. I wish she wasnt becoming a restless sleeper, but she is working really hard on crawling and is getting to be an expert roller. She rolls and wakes herself up, and then doesnt know what to do with herself! The crawling, she can only really move backward, but she cant stop moving, she is so excited about moving her muscles. She LOVES her brother and just fell in love with his dragon poster.
She likes most people that she meets, but she takes each meeting very seriously. I think fewer is better, so I am staying home more than i will in a few months. She just had a bit of a fit, but I think it is just the trying to crawl thing. She is obsessed. I got her, stuck at the bottom of her crib, half asleep, half happy, half cranky. Crazy girl trying to crawl.
When we got home, our friends showered us with love and food. For two weeks we had people drop by with dinner. They figured it out on a schedule. Such an amazing treat and such an easy landing.
New house, new baby, new life. It feels really, really good.
2 comments:
So delighted to read about all of your happiness!
Thank you so much. It is a bit scary. She is afraid of being left and not picked up; last night she had a fit, but she needed to sleep. Hard for her, but easy enough to understand.
Post a Comment