Adjusting To Each Other

Last night Andrew woke Robert and I up around midnight. He was wide awake and was rolling around on top of us in bed and wouldn’t go back to sleep. We tried to get him comfortable enough to fall back to sleep. Since that wasn’t working Andrew and I got up and I gave him some warm milk, which he only took a few sips of and refused to eat or drink anything else. His diaper was dry and he seemed so wide awake like he was ready to start the day, even though Mama and Papa were ready to go back to bed. Since nothing else was working, Andrew and I spent some time in the living room looking out the window to the traffic below and FINALLY Andrew fell asleep in my arms. Robert and I have noticed that when Andrew is sleepy around his nap time he will find something hard to lay on like the hardwood floor or the laptop computer which was on the couch when Andrew decided to use it as a pillow. Fancy that! The bed in the bedroom of this apartment is softer and doesn’t have much support (really no support and the one support board caved in on me and Andrew the night before last to make matters even worse) so we think and are comparing what Andrew is used to sleeping on an inch and a half thickness of a mattress at the bottom of his crib in the orphanage. I laid Andrew down on the couch and covered him up all snugly and put a pillow along side of him so if he rolled over he’d be barricaded. I camped out on the floor next to the couch just in case he rolled over, I would feel the pillow hit me first to wake me up. All in all it was a rough night last night and we had to be up early to make our appointment for Andrew to get his medical exam done. Alla and Sasha were picking us up at 8:30am me, Andrew and Robert had to be washed, fed and clothed and ready to go. No problem. Getting up was easy, trying to feed him wasn’t. For some reason Andrew only ate half of a small cottage cheese container and a couple spoonfuls of cereal. He refused the banana and whatever else I tried to get him to eat. Very unlike him. He did snack on a few Cheerios though right before Alla & Sasha got here.



When we were taking Andrew in the car to the doctor’s office, he was quietly looking around checking out his surroundings. Alla could see he was getting sleepy so she jingled her keys to keep him awake for the exam. When we got the doctor’s office, we were in a long hallway with many people waiting to see the doctor. I guess Andrew could sense something was about to take place or he was just cranky because he was ready for his nap and Andrew started crying and crying for about 10 minutes. He would not calm down until after the doctor was finished doing the exam. I finally diverted his attention onto looking at the light and trying to touch it and he calmed down after that. Talk about a long 10 minutes or so. The doctor said he is healthy and that his lungs were clear. Obviously his lungs were clear. The doctor gave me a copy of the vaccinations that Andrew has already had went over the form with me. He also gave me a prescription for some nose drops to put in Andrew’s nose right before take off and landing in the plane for protection of his ears. After that he was fine, no problems and he fell asleep on my lap in the car coming home.



We went to feed him when we got home (since he woke up after being carried from the car to the apartment) and he only ate a few Cheerios again with a little juice, certainly not our little pumpkin that is used to eating much more. Maybe because of all of the changes going on today and lack of sleep and eating a lot in the last couple of days. Alla insists that he eat big many times during the day. Robert and I didn’t agree that he needed so much food, however, Alla got it down him somehow the last 2 days. Anyway, since Andrew wasn’t going to nap for us we all went out to get his picture taken for his visa. While we were waiting for them to develop we went to lunch at a Ukrainian Cafeteria. All three of us tried feeding Andrew and he was not accepting any food at all from any of us until we gave him a taste of the peach juice on his lip. Finally he drank a good portion of his juice and a bit of buckwheat. During our walk back to the apartment Andrew finally fell asleep in Daddy’s arms is now napping in the apartment.



Our first full day with Andrew I was amazed at how much he poops. On Saturday, Andrew had 4 full stinky diapers. Talk about initiation to Motherhood. Robert was amazed as much as I was. When I was a nanny for a 9 -22 month old I don’t remember so much poop all in one day before. We have to be thankful that it’s not the runny kind for sure and that he is pooping. Amazing! Yesterday, Robert and I discussed about keeping up with potty training him while it is still fresh in Andrew’s mind, so when Robert and Alla went out shopping, they came back with a plastic potty, similar to what Andrew was used to in the orphanage. When Andrew woke from his nap, Robert put him right on his pot and he pooped and tinkled. When Robert took Andrew off of his pot, instead of laying him down so I could put some Balmex on him he turned him upside down. “What are you doing”, I said. I took a hold of him and laid him down to get his diaper on and dressed for dinner. Robert was so excited about Andrew doing his business in his potty instead of the diaper, he took a hold of Andrew’s hands and showed him his droppings and cheered with Andrew with delight. Too Funny! It was amazing to see how happy Daddy was that Andrew was pooping in his pot because it was me who was changing his diapers.