As I said in my last pseudo-post, Jeff returned to work on July 12th. I still have a handful of weeks of FMLA left before returning to work half-time for an additional 8 weeks. I have to say I feel very disconnected from friends and family here after being gone so long. I guess my ability to compartmentalize and focus on one specific thing at a time has worked against me. I'm slowly starting to mesh the different parts of my life back together but it's taking time.
Of course, first priority is Grace... but while we were gone our fridge seemingly went on the fritz. Andrew had emailed Jeff saying while the freezer was fine, the upper refrigerator was no longer cooling very well. This seemed odd to me but after talking with the guys at ApplianceSmart, I guess these things happen this way... gradually. With Grace in her new car seat - which she doesn't mind but doesn't love - I stood in the entry way of the store trying to call for a service appointment. When I spoke to the Whirlpool lady, she asked if I'd cleaned the coils. Thinking it was a completely closed system, we dismissed that option immediately. To our surprise, there's a removable panel on the front beneath the freezer drawer covering the intake area. When Jeff removed this he found a blanket made of dust and dog hair - while gross, it was good news to us as once it was cleared, the fridge returned to normal working condition! Now we know.
But, back to Grace. She's doing really, really well! The first few nights home were a little off schedule but that's to be expected. She'd been sleeping through the night in Majuro pretty consistently for the last week or so and we were still enjoying long "naps"... however, they started in the wee hours of the morning and lasted until noonish. Pretty quickly she shifted to a 10 pm to about 6 am schedule. We are very fortunate.
She's been getting bigger and nearly out of her 0-3 month clothes. I had to get a few new sleepers while in Hawaii but knew that I had a bunch of clothes waiting for me here so I held off on most of the cute clothes shopping. I have to say, I'm a lover of the romper! What a great little item. Cuter than a onesie but just as convenient! She's now fitting nicely into the 3-6 month clothes... Carter's brand is great and seems to hold up well in the washing/drying - little shrinkage. Old Navy clothes are also great but, as Jen warned me, they shrink quite a bit so we're getting 6-9 month sizes there to accommodate shrinkage.
The days have been pretty full considering we only returned a week ago. We've had visits from a few friends, Grace's new siblings and her niece :) The day we arrived, Andrew and Sam returned to visit a bit and seemed pretty taken with her. Andrew has always been so good with kids - his nieces just love him! Grace seemed to like him too giving him her biggest happy screech while being held inches from his face. It's the same screech she has before she starts crying so you need to be looking at her to determine with what emotion she's delivering it.
A side note about the house/dogs... both are in great working order and we can't thank Andrew and Sam enough for watching things while we were gone. I don't think it was too much of an inconvenience as it's closer to work and sort of gave them their own place until moving into their new apartment... well, with the exception of the couple times Jet decided he wasn't going to wait to go outside to do his business. Sorry guys! I appreciate so much that you took such good care of the furry ones while we were gone - I didn't have one worry about them for one minute other than missing them!
Sarah and Lorilai drove into town on Friday afternoon with Sarah's nieces in tow. They wanted to stop to meet Grace before Sarah drove them home. Sarah had obviously been preparing Lorilai to meet Grace because Lorilai clearly understood this was "Auntie Grace"... not that she knows what exactly an auntie is but that'll come later. She patted her head and squished her cheeks together to give her a kiss... "my baby" was the phrase we kept hearing from her. At one point she didn't like that grandpa was holding "my baby" but Sarah explained it was okay for Grace's daddy to hold her. That seemed to be acceptable.
Lorilai is getting so big and it's really fun to hear her chatter away. She's very verbal - into that full sentence stage. She turns 3 in a couple weeks and we'll be heading down to Pipestone for the party. We'll see how it goes with Grace and a big party situation. Probably we'll limit who should be holding her and, if she's getting overwhelmed, maybe take off for less stimulating surroundings. It seems weird to be concerned about that after being passed around and loved by all in Majuro but we have to remember that things are different here - sights, smells, sounds... the consistency of Jeff and I is important when everything else around her has changed.
That said, we've gone to a few Twins games and she's done really well. It helps a lot that we are in the Legends Club and able to get up from our seats and go into the climate controlled area where there are relatively few people strolling around. They have tables and chairs inside and we can hang out with a lot of elbow room and still watch the game. It's been crazy hot here - actually worse than Majuro - so we've been careful to make sure she's eating and sleeping and being cooled when needed. I think she's doing better than we are with the heat!
The last couple days have been more low key. I found a pediatrician at the same clinic Jeff and I go to who has experience with internationally adopted kids. While she's never treated a child from the Marshall Islands - not many have - she has treated many children from other places. Our first visit was yesterday. While generally very healthy, seems Grace has a slight ear infection. She's been pretty drippy and fussy the past two days so we figured something was up. Because of the congestion (which she's had off and on since we met her) and the beginnings of an ear infection, she prescribed an antibiotic. I'm pretty careful about what drugs I use and am definitely not on the 'antibiotics for everything' bandwagon, however, I feel pretty good about using them this time. Since we've had her, she's had some congestion off and on... I hope the antibiotics will kick the crud out of her system once and for all and we can get a fresh start.
Because she's sick now, the doctor wants us to wait until next week before updating her immunizations and running blood work. Little Grace is going to be one unhappy camper with her next visit but I think I'm prepared. She'll fuss and probably scream from the needle pokes but that'll pass. What I really am hoping for is that she doesn't have any of those side effects from the shots - fever, irritation, etc. If we can avoid that, I'll be grateful.
As for development - she's growing well and at 14 lbs 3 oz is in the 73th percentile for weight. She's 24" long, 52nd percentile... slightly longer than her last measurement but I still contend that how babies are measured for length varies so much that we can only compare like methods. Overall, she's doing really well on all fronts.
She's not been doing much tummy time so I'm going to be putting that into the daily schedule (such as it is). She's grabbing things and putting them in her mouth - seems to love the cloth diapers we use as burping cloths (somehow I've taken to calling them "drop cloths" but it works just as well... maybe a bit more appropriate of a name). She's cooing a ton and really testing her voice at full volume. She's even on the verge of an actual belly laugh. I cannot wait for that! I think it's the best sound in the world. As she has done since we first met, she's loves standing on our legs with us holding her around the middle - her legs are so strong for such a little one. I'm thinking this might mean she'll be up and mobile pretty early. No rolling over yet but seems to get the "lift legs to gain leverage" thing and maybe that means she's close? We'll see.
So today is a little less hot and I have a few errands to run... dog food is low and I really need to run by Target to pick up some thank you cards and get them sent out. I'm not great at sending thank you notes as my mom will tell you - but I simply have to get better! For those of you who graced us with gifts before we left, I'm sure you understand why I waited until now to write them. But they will get out this week :)
As for blog posts, I think things will come a little less frequently but I plan to continue them for a while. There are more pictures to post and milestones to brag about. But since our trip is over, if you decide to stop reading, I understand. Thanks for following along on our journey so far. The comments both on and off line have really been great and we appreciate all the good wishes.
Until next time...
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