Santa! Santa!

Christmas morning, I asked Christopher if he wanted to go see what Santa left him and this was his beautiful face. I just happened to catch it on camera at the right moment. Every time I would say, "Santa, Santa!" He would burst out laughing.

He always looks so different to me in pictures. He has so many different expressions and 1 minute he looks like a little baby and the next a big boy. We sure do love him!

The Sunday before Christmas, we got together with my college friends. Christopher loved being around all the other children and the best was that he got to see Santa again. He loves to pull on his beard and climb all over him. Santa made a special trip to the party to see all the children and brought a gift for everyone.

Later after Santa got to relax, Christopher was still so excited, that he dropped his drawers for him. It was hilarious! My friends turned the Christmas party into a mini surprise baby shower for Christopher. So he got double the gifts.

It seems as if Christopher is always fighting off some type of bug. When we got home on Christmas night, he woke up from a short nap with a 104.2 fever. Here we go again! We are back on breathing treatments and throwing up due to snot is once again a daily activity in our lives. How does a baby who mostly stays home get all these bugs? We are off to the doctor in the morning. What will the diagnosis be this time?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Sick, sick, sick!

It started out rather slowly. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Christopher finished eating his dinner and started coughing. He then proceeded to throw up his dinner. I assumed he got choked and didn't think much else of it. He took his night time bottle and then went to bed.

The next morning, he started coughing again & threw up after his morning bottle. By mid morning, he had thrown up 2 more times. We called the pediatricians office and started the pedialyte for 12 hours. He slept most of the day and was listless but kept the pedialyte down.

During the night, he spiked a 103 fever and was up most of the night. We made an appt and went to the ped the next morning. Christopher acted happy and was all smiles for his doctor. She said it was probably viral and would run it's course. I asked about the flu and she said, "Oh, he doesn't have the flu, he is too happy for the flu. But we will swab him if you would like."

Well, guess what? He had the FLU and tested positive for both strains A & B. The office was impressed, they had not seen that yet this season. We were house bound on Thanksgiving and by that point I was not feeling too well. Our Thanksgiving dinner, consisted of chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream.

By Friday, Christopher had spiked another 103.5 temp during the night and was getting Tylenol and Advil every 3 hours to keep the temp down. He was absolutely miserable and the coughing/throwing up episodes were happening at least twice a day and once during the night. He could not be laid down flat or he would start coughing which would result in throwing up in a matter of seconds. It didn't matter if he was awake or asleep. The throwing up was the worst, I cannot tell you how many times I had him practically upside down, trying to help him get it up and watching him gasp for air and turn blue. He scared me so many times.

Saturday, he woke up and his breathing had changed. He was wheezing pretty good and the throwing up continued. Thankfully, our ped is open half days on Saturday. He got a respiratory treatment in the office and then we got admitted to the hospital.

We spent Saturday and most of Sunday on the pediatric unit, where he got IV fluids and fought fluctuating 103.7 temp for 12 hours. Once we would get it down it would then shoot back up. Christopher hates any medicine. So, between taking meds every 3 hours, throwing up every couple of hours, resp treatments every 4 hours, vitals every 4 hours, lab draws, general crying and listlessness, there was no sleep - in a nutshell it was horrible and terrifying. There truely is nothing worse than a sick baby.

In the hospital, he still managed to find some play time after the fever was down.

Sick as a dog but still playing.

We changed our follow-up ped/hospital admission appt from Wed to Tues. due to another night of 103 + temps and a bout of bronchospasms that lasted about 20 mins the night before. Finally we got on an antibiotic and had our first night of 4 hours of sleep that night. They were afraid that after 7 days of fever that something else was starting to brew.

10 days later and finally life is getting somewhat back to normal. Christopher lost about 3 lbs during his illness but is almost back to eating the amt. he was before.

His 8th tooth also broke through during the whole flu fiasco and I never even noticed. I am sure it only made the fever worse.

Our new playtime activity, respiratory treatments.

We finally have our tree up and somewhat have the house decorated. I have done most of my shopping over the internet during the last week, and I hope to be done soon. Christopher is doing so much better and I hope that this is it for awhile. He has fought one infection after another since August and we are all so ready for a healthy baby.

Christmas photos up next!!!

Ear Tubes

Christopher got ear tubes today. We were there at 6 am but he didn't have the actual procedure done until 8:10 am. We had to delay the surgery cause the lovely nurse who did our pre registration told me I could give him a bottle up until 3 am. I asked twice and clarified, "Up to 3 am, he can have a bottle?" "Yes." I asked again and she wrote it on the pre op paperwork. Bottle til 3 am. WRONG! Only clear fluids til 3 am, which I knew was right but once again, I asked her TWICE. Oh, well!

The actual procedure lasted 10 min. I got my first real feeling of mommy panic when they said that the doctor would come and talk to us. About 10 bad case scenarios went flying through my brain in a 20 sec time period. But he did well, both ears had fluid in them and were drained. He was extremely fussy afterwards and broke out in a rash from the Atropine, so we were there for a little bit longer observing him. Any time he has had anything invasive done, he gets really pale and looks hypotensive, which freaks me out. He has some bloody drainage from the right ear, which is the one that was sooo bad in Vietnam. We came home and all 3 of us slept for 3 hours. Christopher was out of it. Hopefully, we will all start sleeping through the night now and there will be no more pulling and clawing at his ears. He is a real trooper and such a sweetie.

Our little Gun Slinger

"Enough with the pictures lady, don't make me call the posse!"

Christopher layed back after a long day on the range and let mommie collect the candy.

October Happenings

Halloween Preview

We took Christopher to the park the other day. He was more interested in the little girl swinging beside him than anything. But, mommie and daddy had fun.

He has been doing better, today was the last day of ANOTHER antibiotic. We have an ENT consult on Friday and the possibility of tubes look good. Hopefully, we can get him healthy before the winter season begins.

He is definetely getting bigger and the clothes he was wearing in VN are almost too short for him. He is not a great eater and cannot stand the canned fruits and hates rice cereal and oatmeal. Vegetables are ok, but still not too happy with the canned baby food overall.

Screams bloody murder most of the time. Meal time is fun! He much prefers table food, which I can't say I blame him.

Princess Leia?

Time to put the bouncy seat away. A couple of weeks ago, I came into the room and saw him completely leaned forward putting his head underneath the toy bar and laughing.

Sleepers

Sweet, sweet! I had to go get the camera.
What is it about sleepers and babies that is sooo cute? I just love to see Christopher in his sleeper at night and his cuteness just overwhelms me. We are currently working on sitting up. He is getting stronger everyday and is so close to sitting up all on his own.

He has been sleeping through the night for the last 2 weeks and it has been great for everyone.

Happy Baby!

His new thing is sticking his tongue out. Yesterday it was out of his mouth about 80% of the time. We are still working on the night time feedings, hopefully once he feels better we will get it all sorted out. We are back to the ped today for another shot. He definitely feels better but is still digging at his ears. I love his smile, his whole face lights up & if you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of some of his 6 teeth!

Night time is the Enemy for the Ears!

Well, the past few nights have been hell. Christopher has been up every 2 hours screaming and unable to console, he will only sleep for 15-30 min naps after spending at least 30 min to get him down. He claws at his ears so bad that they are bleeding inside and is truely MISERABLE at night. After a round of antibiotics in VN & 10 days of Amoxicillian here, we were back at the pediatrician Saturday morning. He still has fluid in the left ear and the right ear is "a mess" to quote the doctor. So, 1 IM shot of Rocephin and I pray we are on the way to a healthy baby. Tuesday, we go back in for another shot of Rocephin and Thursday we have our first official new baby appt at the ped, even though we will have been there 3 times already by then. I was so glad that he got the shot and we are being more aggressive. He is just miserable at night and Firday night was the worst. Ater the appt and shot, he napped on his own for two 1 1/2 hour naps and went down easily tonight. We just want him to get healthy and well. Still he is such a sweet and happy baby during the day, he plays and and greets us with many smiles. He weighed in at 16.5 lbs today which is a 2.5 lb gain since VN. Hopefully, we are on the road to recovery.

Daddy and Christopher taking a break from fighting sleep & crying in the house. Charlie is checking them out.

Christopher in his new used bumbo from Ebay!

Sniffing each other out at their daily meet and greet.

Trying out my elephant chair.

In 1 week, Christopher has developed 2 bald spots. One at the back of his head and the other just on top. When he wakes up from naps he will have little baby hairs on his face. Kinda sad to see his sweet baby hair go.

Trying Cereal

The spoon is a teething toy, right?

He is not too sure about the cereal but will take a big bite into the spoon and hold on soo tight. We are managing to get a few bites down and enjoying them despite the unhappy face in the pics. Every day brings more consistency and we are SLOWLY getting on a schedule and feeling better around here.

We are home!

We arrived home on Saturday morning, it was all a blur. The flights went really well and we had bulk head seating with a bassinet on the long flight from Taipei to Seattle. We got stuck in immigration in Seattle with 1 slow poke processing paperwork and almost missed our plan home to Atl, but we made it. We had a 7 hour layover in Taipei and for anyone going, I strongly suggest looking for the Hello Kitty nursery rooms. My sister and I camped out in the nursery for the majority of our layover. The room consisted of 2 changing stations, sink, free diapers, purified water system, 2 couches, nursing station with couch and lots of Chinese people obsessed with Hello Kitty peeking into the room. It was great and we took over the room and relaxed and spread out. I guess they are not familiar with nurseries as several people came in just to take pictures.
We went to the pediatrician today and like we suspected, Christopher has an ear infection. I also went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with an ear infection too. We are both on antibiotics for 10 days. Christopher has also broken out with some severe exema on his face and we got some steroid cream for his face. He has not been sleeping well and is back to the every other hour of waking up during the night. We are reliving the early Vietnam days but thank God we are home. He is currently on the couch and has been in a sleeping coma for the last 8 hours getting some much needed sleep. He just doesn't feel good and has been through sooo much. Even sick, he has the best personality and is so sweet and giving smiles. More pictures coming soon. The house is a wreck and we don't know if we are coming or going. The good news is he gained a pound and weighed in a 15 lbs!

The power went out in the hotel yesterday for half the day. We still had lights but no air and the elevator wasn't working. The weather hasn't been too bad here and it has rained for the last few days, but as soon as that air stops blowing, You feel it! Here is a pic of the power line outside our hotel. How they ever figure out which line goes where, I will never know. They are all just a jumbled mess.

There are bikes everywhere and the men will just sprawl across them and sleep.

Chicken anyone?

There are now 8 families here with babies, the oldest being a 1 year old. We have overrun the place. My sister and I are shopping til we drop and fall in bed at night. Christopher is such a good baby and puts up with us dragging him all over the city . He loves his Aunt Cathy and she is teaching us both lots of songs. Rubber Ducky is one of his favorites and we sing it all day long. Much better than me singing Madonna to him when I run out of songs. We have 2 more days here and are making the most of them, but are so ready to come home. We are dreading the airport journey and are hoping the time passes quickly. We will arrive home this weekend and cannot wait to see our loved ones faces!

Another shopping day

I love to get some kisses!

Another shopping day in Vietnam! Lots of walking today. We went to a local market here that was overwhelming, but we didn't buy a thing. We were quite the attraction though and were surrounded by friendly Vietnamese women just wanting to touch Christopher and see him. They are very supportive of adoption and love to see the babies. Everywhere we go, the people are happy and smiling at us and telling us how beautiful he is and asking about him.

I love snuggle time after my baths!

Sorry for the lack of posts. It seems that I have caught Christopher's bug and now can really sympathize with his apparent misery of the last week. After several nights of limited sleep and q 2 hour feedings, it was all I could do to get thru the day. We went through a 2 day rough patch of Christopher refusing feeding anything over 1 - 1 1/2 ounce but we have now seen the light. Last night he ate and kept down 5 oz and slept for 4 hours, then ate 4 oz and slept for another 4 hours. This is huge. We have turned a corner He is off antibiotics and obviously feels better. He has more smiles and laughter and is beginning to really snuggle in. We have seen a complete turn around and are so grateful to God for Christopher. He is a fighter and such a sweet little boy.

Yesterday was a big day! We got our final US approval and we are officially a family! It was an unexpected phone call to rush to the Embassy for our 2nd INS interview. We sped over in a taxi and expect to get Christopher's visa tonight at our celebration dinner.

However, we will be in Vietnam until the end of the month. There are no available return flights so we will just explore and enjoy our time in our son's birth country. There is plenty of shopping to do and sites to see.

I got an aromatheraphy a massage (75 min), manicure and pedicure the other day. All for the low price of $24.00. The massage was great! She painted my toes first and put a flower on EACH toe nail. When it got time to do my fingernails, I asked for no flower. Well, guess what I got? A flower on each fingernail. I like to call them, hooker nails. Notice them in the above photo.

One of our favorite places to eat.

My Aunt Cathy

Random photos

Catholic Cathedral 1 block from hotel. We were going to go to mass on Sunday, but the entire day, I thought it was Saturday. Jet lag sux.

Local Bride sweating her butt off at museum photo shoot

Hoan Kiem Lake--->

Party of 5! The traffic here is crazy. There are NO rules and you drive whereever there is space. Horns honk every second, literally. There is almost always 2-3 people on the motorbikes or they are carrying something. We saw one carrying a flat screen TV. Crossing the street is very scary. You just have to go for it and pray you don't get hit.