A Routine!!

Things are going much better in our household. Jenni Lin has been sleeping through the night again the last 2 nights. She is sleeping from 9:00PM to 7:00am and then lays down for a 2 hour nap in the morning and about a 1 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon. We finally have her on Soy Formula which has help with her congestion. We tried doing regular formula the other day and she got all congested again so we think there is probably a sensitivity to the Milk-based formula. She is eating some solid foods but wants what Rich and I eat and not baby food. I think the baby food is too bland or something. She doesn't seem to like anything too sweet and when she is done she is done! I could learn to eat better if I followed her eating pattern..stop when you are full! I was able to go to work for about 4 hours on Saturday and she did great with daddy. Today is daddy's first day back to work after 3 weeks. I will really miss having him here. We make such a great team and he is so good about changing diapers and taking her to the toilet and everything else that comes with parenting. She did get set back a little bit on the potty training when she was sick but we are again working on it. She will go if we take her to the toilet on a regular basis but I have to admit we haven't been as diligent as we were in China. She still likes me to be in her eye sight at all times and in the evenings she loves to snuggle with me on the couch.

Terri

Wednesday

Sleep is still an issue but seems to slowly be getting better. It is a comfort knowing that alot of the other babies from our travel group are having the same issue getting on USA time. We tried really hard to not let Jenni sleep so much today in hopes of getting her to sleep through the night tonight. We don't mind her waking up to take a bottle or a diaper change but when she refuses to go back to sleep and wants to stay up for 3 hours is what is hard at 2:00am in the morning. Today we went and visited some friends and family and kept her going all day. She seems to be feeling much better and actually had a day without vomiting. We gave her a very small amount of solid food and she was able to keep it down. She occasionally has raspy breathing and a cough but it is much better. She is responding well to family and friends and we are having so much fun being parents. She loves to give big kisses and we must remember to give her a fingernail trim tomorrow as she loves to grab your face and lips and her fingernails are sharp! We went and bought her a walker and johnny jumper today as she just can't seem to sit still her legs are strong and she wants to stand all the time. Well, I hear her coughing on the baby monitor so I should go up and check on her. So much for her sleeping through the night!!

Hugs
Terri

Busy day!

Today was a busy day. Jenni did pretty well last night. She slept from 7:30 to 12:15am and then was up until 3:30am and then slept until 9:45am. I am still not sleeping very well. I sleep with 1 ear open still so worried about my sick little girl. She now has starting vomiting several times a day. Usually right after trying to eat something solid. She also HATES the soy formula. We decided to keep her on the regular formula just for a couple more days until she is over her cough otherwise she just won't eat at all. She actually lost a little weight since China so we are more concerned with her keeping her strength up to fight the croup off. We are just so waiting for our little angel to start feeling better soon so we can all enjoy each other more! We were able to get out of the house today for quite awhile which Jenni seemed to enjoy. I went to work and was able to get about 2 1/2 hours of work done while Rich and Jenni took a nap in our waiting area (office was closed today)and then we went and visited my boss's wife and Jenni just loved Kim and wanted her to hold her and kept kissing her (open mouth!)she also loved watching Kim's children playing and entertaining her. We then ran a couple of errands. Jenni is getting more use to the car seat and actually fell asleep in it several times today. She still initially cries but if I sit in the back seat with her she will settle down. We are struggling to get into a routine and I am so happy Rich is off work right now as Jenni wants me to hold her all the time which I enjoy but it makes it impossible to get anything done around the house. Rich is such a good daddy and he definitely loves his little girl. He often goes in to check on her sleeping. She is such beauty and when you go and get her when she wakes up the smile she gives you is just so worth everything we went through to finally bring her home. She has some of Rich's traits which cracks me up. She hates having her feet covered with a blanket at night and actually has her legs and feet moving constantly (which Rich does also). She loves the cat and cat loves her. The cat is constantly checking on her and will come and get me if she hears her fussing. Vern, our dog, tolerates her really well and today actually came over to play with both Jenni and I on the floor. Vern is getting older and normally doesn't like to play much anymore but he seemed to be having fun with Jenni and Jenni trys so hard to be "gentle" with the dog but it is just so tempting to pull on those ears she just can't help herself. Thanks to all of my family and friends for being patient with us on returning phone calls and emails. Sometimes it is just easier for me to blog than return everyone's phone calls and emails right now as the only time I find time right now to call anyone is usually after 9:00pm at night and most people are going to bed at that time. Hopefully within a few days we can get into a better routine and Jenni will be more secure with me putting her down so I can get our daily tasks done.

Terri

Jenni is feeling better!

Well, we did have another long night last night. Not only is Jenni still on Hong Kong time but everytime she would go to sleep she would only stay asleep for about an hour to two hours and then when awake she would only stay awake for about an 1 hour and start getting very fussy and need to sleep again. On Sunday morning she was refusing to eat or take any formula. She also seemed to really struggle to breathe. So now we were really worried. We called the Dr. and he suggested to take her to the ER. Rich and I struggled with this as she had been through so much already. In the last two weeks she went from a orphanage, 2 hotel rooms, several airplane flights and now a new home. All I could think about was how the poor thing would have to sit in the ER for hours and then have strange people poking and proding her. We decided to wait until she woke up from her nap and see how she was feeling. If still no bottle than we would take her in. When she woke up from her nap her breathing seemed less labored and she took a full bottle so we decided to wait it out until Monday when she could get into the Dr. She did pretty well Sunday afternoon than once again was very sick in the middle of the night. We did two hot steamy showers which seem to help her breathing and used the humidifer. Rich and I took turns staying up with her and finally at 7:00am, I went into the nursery to find daddy and baby sleeping side by side on the double bed sound asleep. It was too cute. I wish I would have taken a picture but after only 2 hours of sleep I couldn't even muster the engery to find the camera to take the picture. We did go to the Dr. this afternoon and yes it is croup and also they think she has an allergy to the new formula that we had to change her to in China. They put her on steriods and antibiotics and had us change her to a soy based formula. She is now sleeping and her breathing is sooooo much better!! We are hopeful that she will have a good sleep tonight without waking up to cough so much. She did really pretty well at the Dr. she is normally so shy about letting other people hold her and she went to one of my favorite nurses, Shannon and even let Shannon take her to the back without me to show her off to all of Dr's and nurses. She even let our family dr and friend, Dr. Woodruff, hold her. It is almost like she knew they were going to try and help her. She got a little fussy when the P.A. tried to listen to her breathing but otherwise did pretty good considering she didn't feel very well. We are hopeful to start getting into a better routine tomorrow and I need to go into to work for a few hours so hopefully her anxiety of me being out of her sight will be less if she is feeling better. She loves her daddy and calls for him in the night but if I am in the room she prefers me to hold her. I truly think some of this is insecurity is from being in a new home again and being sick. Rich has been trying to give her all of her bottles, change her diapers and get her out of the crib when she awakes to help with the bonding between the two of them but she still gets fussy with him. I know she is struggling with the changes in life and is probably grieving for her nannies. She often will say Na Na and we wonder if this is what she called her nanny. The bonding between all three of us is getting better with each day!

Terri

Can't Sleep!!

So it is 1:00AM on Sunday morning and I can not sleep. I guess my time clock is all off. I am also really worried about poor little Jenni. She has had a cough since Wednesday and today she is much worse. I spoke with our family Dr. and he said I could start her on the antibiotics I already have but it may be viral. I did some checking around and it sounds like she has croup. She has very raspy breathing and coughing so hard that she throws up. So now I can't sleep as I am listening to her breathing. Please pray that God puts his healing touch on her. The good news is she has no fever but being the new parents we are we are both probably more worried than we need to be. But she won't take any water and no solid food right now. Bottles only. So I am hoping she won't get dehydrated. I am going to put some pictures up from our traditional "red couch photos". They are too funny. Imagine trying to 12 "puppies" to sit still in one position for 12 families to get photos. Than 1 baby would cry and then it would get contagious and they would all cry. Jenni is in the light pink silk dress with her pearl bracelet on. The pictures are from my friend Lisa as we haven't had a chance yet to download the rest of our pictures. We are hoping to do a journal entry that has almost all of our photos but we first need to get in a routine with the baby and then I can take the time to do that.

We are home!!!

Hello, Everyone!! We have made it home safe and sound. The flight was very long and baby Jenni was not a happy camper. She cried almost the entire flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco. She was running a fever and we think she has a respiratory infection. So this was not the best time to fly for her. We would have posted earlier but Rich starting feeling sick on Wednesday with a cold and then I started having sinus issues and Jenni started coughing alot. So the last two days in Guangzhou we were not feeling too well. Jenni wasn't sleeping well and neither was Rich or I. So we were just too tired to even get on the computer. Jenni is now a legal citizen of the U.S. once we got to San Francisco and according to the U.S. Consulate and China we have legally completed the adoption procedure. However, we will probably still do th legal adoption paperwork for our state. Jenni has been doing pretty well with jet lag. Rich and I are also doing fine. I just wanted to put in a special thanks to our adoption agency, CCAI. The reps were wonderful!! Jason and Kathy stayed with us the whole entire time. I already miss the other families we were there with. We all got to know each other so well and I even got to where I could tell which baby was the one crying just by the sound of their cry.

Thanks again to my friends and family that help make this journey go well for us. There were many things that I was stressing about as far as home and work. But everyone pulled together and I came home to a clean house and food stocked. It was just awesome. I intend to keep this blog going for awhile so we can update with pictures for everyone.

The above pictures are of Jenni helping daddy pick out what pearls she wanted and then Jenni sleeping after shopping. She would put her back and sleep. It looked so uncomfortable but she would sleep like that for long periods of time.

Hugs!
Terri

Typhoon in Hong Kong

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are ok. Apparently there is a typhoon that hit Hong Kong. We are in Guangzhou so beside just having rain we are fine. Just been camped out in the hotel room. Ordering Papa John's pizza and enjoying playing with Jenni. We do our traditional "red couch photo" this afternoon with all of the babies. That is done here in the hotel so we won't need to go out. We do have a flight that leaves Hong Kong on Friday so hopefully by then the airport will be up and running ok. It is bad enough being stranded in an USA airport let alone a foreign one but we will be with at least one other family so we won't be alone. We will try and let everyone know if our flight still leaves on time.

Terri