No Sleep for these New Parents - Day 23

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Wow, what a day, or night should I say!!! We put Izaak to bed as scheduled! At 11pm, I gave him his bottle which he drank half of and then started screaming. It took about 20 minutes to calm him and get him back to sleep. We went to bed a little later than we wanted, about 1am, then the fun began! At 3:30am, Izaak woke screaming. We tried to ride it out, but nope, we had to pick him up. He cried and cried and cried. He had been developing a cold, runny/snotty nose, cough, etc. We did what we could and bounced him back to sleep. An hour later, more screaming, which went on every other hour. When he woke at 6am, I tried giving him his bottle, but he wasn’t taking it, just crying. Finally after settling down, he let me feed him while holding him. He drank the whole bottle, which is a first outside of the crib. So we got two more hours of sleep and then he was awake for good.

We went through our normal morning schedule; half awake I might add. To our surprise, we got our first poopy diaper. After opening this little package, we both understood why he was so uncomfortable last night. Poor guy spit out a solid turd the size of a baseball – no joke! Regardless, we were happy that his plumbing was working and he seemed much happier after that.

We decided to head back to the grocery store since Mike had to quickly grab the bare necessities last night. The store is about 3 blocks away. It’s a nice walk with tree-lined streets and fountains along the way. Izaak fell asleep in the grocery store. I must add that the carrier is working out wonderfully. If he has trouble falling asleep, I just strap him in and usually within 10 minutes he’s out (except for the past 2 days when it takes forever to get him to sleep). It’s really the only option since there aren’t any rocking chairs here and I tire quickly just holding him and bouncing. We got back in time for his lunch, which didn’t go down so good. I tried a box of rice cereal from home, but he isn’t very fond of it. Carrots didn’t even help. This is the second time he made a fuss with this cereal, so I’m going back to the oatmeal cereal that he loves.

Izaak was back to his good ol’ self after his nap with smiles, giggles and more. We were feeling a little refreshed ourselves since we grabbed a nap too. We were surprised with a second poopy diaper this afternoon. I know this sounds silly, but we really were starting to worry since we’ve had him for 4 days and nothing! We are actually relieved to get the stinky ones! We decided to venture out for another walk to see what’s around the apartment. We walked for about 30 minutes and decided to grab some dinner. Izaak had fallen asleep in the carrier so we were feeling lucky. Our first dinner out went smoothly. Izaak slept through the ordering and waiting then spent the other half of our meal drinking is sippy cup and playing with his toys. Dinner couldn’t have went any better, though I think I ate a little faster than I should have.

Mike grabbed an “ice cream cone” on the way back to the apartment. Fresh ice cream in Kazakhstan is not like ice cream at home. It’s more like crystallized sugary milk that went a little sour – yum! Cereal with egg yolk and playtime for Izaak when we returned. Now we are just trying to get him to sleep. A runny nose is keeping him awake, but we are both trying our best. We’re ready for a quiet evening with maybe a movie and a full night’s sleep. Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, we decided to wash clothes today. We have this really fancy digital washing machine. Of course, it’s not in English so we weren’t sure where to put the powder or which buttons to push. Mike spent about 15 minutes trying to decipher the words on the washer with his translator book and then got frustrated and did an internet search. The internet was of no use to us on this one. Not sure what he ended up doing to get the laundry going, but it’s spinning and became quite the excitement for Mike and Izaak. The both were sitting in the floor watching the laundry spin. The things that will fascinate my boys!

Well, Mike’s 3rd attempt in putting Izaak to bed has just ended with him doing walking laps around the living room (Izaak walking and Mike holding his hands). This might just be another sleepless night for all of us! ~ A