Jetlag

(click for more photos)

Izaak didn’t sleep well last night. We put him to down in his crib around 11pm, he woke at 3:30am, 4:30am and finally 5:30am. Mike and I took turns getting up, but I knew I wouldn’t get him back to sleep since he was wide eyed and squirmy after his bottle, so I stayed up with him. He seemed uncomfortable, so I rolled him on a big yoga/exercise ball. He really enjoyed this and within 10 minutes we had figured out what all the fuss was about – yep, poopy time. All was well after a diaper change. We played with some of his toys, all new and fascinating to him. I wanted to see how my plants were doing so we took a stroll around the yard. The plants look great, but unfortunately the weeds look just as healthy. Got a lot of work ahead of me! Casey got a good sniff of Izaak during our walk. She is so curious about him. She even got a little lick on his foot and hand, which didn’t seem to bother him. Mike got up about 3 hours later, just in time to take over. I was getting extremely tired, so I went down for a nap.

Mike had the responsibility of feeding Izaak his morning cereal. I knew this would be his first time at it, but hoped the high chair would help. I didn’t give him any direction, just went straight to bed. This is a recount from my mom. She said that they got the chair out, hooked on the tray, loaded it with toys and put Izaak in. He wasn’t thrilled at first but the toys seemed to help. Mike realized that the toys might be a bit much so he instructed my mom to “move all the toys” and left one in Izaak’s hand. Dad wrapped him in his big red bib and commenced feeding him cereal with egg yolk and baby food. Izaak hasn’t been getting baby food during the morning feeding, but Mike didn’t know better so Izaak got a little bit of everything. Didn’t seem to matter because it all went down without too much fuss. Now, I would have loved to seen this feeding. Mike stood up behind him and shoveled it in baby house style. He soon realized this wasn’t necessary once he got some apples in Izaak started opening his mouth. After the meal was done to make sure I didn’t flip out from the mess, Mike called in the dogs to clean the floor. To his surprise there was no mess! Good job honey!

Mike headed to bed for his jetlag nap for the day. Now it was my turn for playtime and putting Izaak down for his afternoon nap. I decided this was a good time to call in Grandma. She happily hopped in and took over during playtime, even tried to put him down for his nap, but it was a no go. I came in to attempt naptime and still no luck, so in Grandma came again. She must have done a great job of wearing her grandson out because he slept for 4 hours! I took advantage of this time to eat some lunch and start unpacking. I at least got things out of the suitcases, but have a lot of laundry and sorting to do.

We woke Izaak for dinner. It was my turn at the high chair. I have to say, feeding him in the high chair is SOOOO much easier and cleaner than trying to hold and feed the squirmy bugger. We spent most of the night introducing the dogs to Izaak. Abby really hasn’t been interested in him. She just seems bothered that he’s here. She reacted much the same way when we got Casey. She started warming up to him once he tugged her ear and fell on her a few times. He even got a few kisses and Abby can be quite stingy with her kisses. Casey was a bit more playful. She is just amazed by him and wants to cover him with kisses and roll all over him. We just have to keep a close eye on all of them when they are in the same space.

I guess Izaak had jetlag too because he fell asleep in my mom’s arms at 7pm. We had wanted to feed him one more time before putting him down but he was just too tired, so we put him to bed early. I took another nap just in case he decided to wake up in the middle of the night. Mike gave him his last bottle at 9:30pm and we called it an evening.

So, it’s been a full month since we left home to pick up our son. What an amazing month!!! I spoke with my friend Shelly last night who was amazed at how quickly we have figured things out as parents. I have to say that I’m quite proud of both of us. I know we have a lot to learn and it will change daily, but for now we are all doing well. We still have a lot to do and a lot to catch up on. Babyproofing the house, unpacking, looking through a month’s worth of bills and trying to get back to a normal life. We’re still amazed that Izaak is home. Our time in Kazakhstan went by so fast! Our journey to get our son has come to an end. Now we begin our journey as parents. ~ A