Quick Update on Megan

Megan did great on the plane on Thursday, although when she got up she was a bit on the crabby side which means she's not feeling well. I was really concerned that it would be a very long and painful journey. But, she fell asleep at the airport as I was waiting for our flight...then woke up before we boarded...then fell back to sleep and slept the entire flight! Our layover was very short (as in we almost missed our flight!!!!) and she was pretty content on the short little 35 minute flight into SD. She's handled all the family events well...the next 2 days are pretty laid back, which is when she does the best.

I didn't bring the cable to upload photos while we're here...so you'll have to wait until I get back. I have the CUTEST video of her splashing in her bath on Saturday morning....she's never really been a splasher...but she is NOW! I'll upload it this weekend...

Poor baby girl

Yesterday...when the not feeling well started

Now THIS is tired! 5:30am this morning

My poor Megan is not feeling well. We don't know if it's a cold or new teeth coming in! Last night was really bad...and she was up at 4:30am...yes, you read the correctly! I did get her to go back to sleep for...wait for it....10 more minutes! (I think it took 30 minutes to get her to sleep those extra minutes!) We've got runny nose, watering eye and general fussy-ness. She had a fever last night, but that's gone today. She needs to get feeling better today...we leave tomorrow for SD to meet more family! We need the happy Megan back!

So...what's new???

This ducky tub makes bath time really cool!

Aren't I cute in my Kitty towel?

Look at me standing up...I'm such a big girl! (And yes, Mommy's legs are long!)

Well...just a few things. Megan giggles more for Dad than she does Mom for some reason, but Mom is the only one who can feed her "properly" (or so she thinks!). She will go to sleep for either of us, but right now I'm the one who is sleeping with her every night. She really only has night terrors for the first few hours she's asleep (like 7:30pm to 10pm), but does still thrash about. I swear, I move her over and before I know it, she's smashed right next to me again (and we're BOTH sweating!)! She LOVES to play peek-a-boo! She's doing better at sitting up. She has found her tongue...which we have been seeing a lot of lately (and we LOVE it)!

We are starting to enjoy our baths...in China, she wasn't too sure at all. But, then Mom & Dad didn't really like the bathtubs/sinks we had to use...they were entirely too slippery even with a towel in the bottom! But, the ducky tub...oh my gosh...she's big stuff in that! And loves it!!! We LOVE to stand...and we're getting better about rolling over. The tummy to back...EASY street...back to tummy...I mean who REALLY wants to lay on their tummy? (I think that's what she wonders as we try to make her roll on her tummy, besides what is she supposed to do with the arm anyway!)

Boy do we talk (aka scream!)...especially without the paci in her mouth. We've been limiting the paci to tired, sleeping and a bit on the crabby side. She's had barrettes in her hair, but they have so little to hang on to, they don't typically stay in long...or Mom has to consistently "re-install". Hopefully that won't last much longer! We need barrettes!!!!

Well, she turned 11 months old on Friday (yep, bad Mommy didn't get that posted! But late is better than never! Besides, it's not like we forgot...we didn't...). She has changed so much over the past almost 3 weeks...it's almost unbelievable that she is the same kid!

What a Special Present

Four years ago today, we said goodbye to our precious Ian. This birth week has been the most unique since we have just gotten home with Megan.

As a special present today, we got to hear Megan truly giggle for the very first time. So, here's the clip of her going crazy in her ExerSaucer and what about the game was so funny, I don't know, but she found something really funny about it.

It is so precious!!!! I had to share!

Being silly!

Today as I was working in Megan's closet, I found these sunglasses I forgot I had for her. She was in the Bjorn, so taking pictures was a bit difficult, but she just looked SO CUTE!

Photos

In our high chair at home...

We LOVE our Exersaucer!

The last few days have been pretty busy...but here's a few photos. We went to the doctor where they took lots of blood. He pretty much gave her a clean bill of health, pending the results of the blood tests. They'll test to determine if her immunizations given in China are truly effective or not. The ones that are, she won't need again. Hopefully most (if not all) won't be needed again! She now weighs over 15 lbs and is 26 inches long! That's progress!

Yes, we're home!

We've been so busy...we didn't get to post a final message from China, like I had wanted. But, Tuesday was insanely busy. We were trying to get the last minute shopping done...packing...etc. It was crazy. Megan did not sleep well that night at all. She was up way too much...and decided at 3am that it was time to wake up despite our best efforts to get her to sleep a bit longer. We had to leave the hotel at 7am, which we did. We got to the airport to find out our flight had been delayed to 11am. It would then arrive in Beijing at 2:15pm, which was not enough time for us to get our bags, re-check in for our international flight, and get to the terminal (which is quite a distance from the terminal we arrived at). So, our guide did some fancy foot work and we had to buy tickets for another airline. It wasn't too expensive, thank goodness, and resolved our having too much RMB (Chinese money) that we thought we had. The flight left a bit before our original flight was supposed to arrive, so we had to hurry to get checked in, through security and to our gate. They had just began boarding when we got there...so much for having extra time at the gate!!!

We made it to Beijing at about 12:30pm as we were supposed to. Megan was starving!!!! In China, you cannot carry on ANY liquids, gels or anything irregardless if they are for the baby or not. I had done some strategic packing and put an unopened jar of baby food right inside one of our checked bags so I could get it out when we got to Beijing. Megan scarfed it down while we were trying to get checked in to our international flight. So, we were good. They did allow us to keep some tynelol and mylacon for Megan on our international flight, but that's it. We THOUGHT we'd have an infant meal on the plane, but for some reason we did not. So, that's meant we had 5 bottles of formula, cheerios and fruit puffs for the entire flight. After several prayers that she would not starve on the plane, we made it to Chicago with her sleeping all but 2 hours of our flight! It was amazing!!!!! Of course, when we got to Chicago, no vendor in the airport sold baby food. We went and had dinner somewhere that had french fries so she could have a little something...and she ate LOTS and LOTS of cheerios and fruit puffs! When I asked about baby food, one of the vendors gave me a look like "what a bad mom, she didn't even bring baby food for her child!" I simply said, we just got in on an international flight and we could not have any liquids on the flight. I don't know that she believed me, but whatever.

Our flight from Chicago home was a 50 minutes delayed leaving because the plane we were taking was late coming in. Then there were storms in our area, we thought for sure we'd be diverted, but thank goodness we were not. And somehow they made up time such that we were only 15 minutes late! There was quite the gathering of friends waiting for us! Megan was famous (yet again!!!!). We were very exhausted, but it was so good to be home. Megan had the very last bottle on the way home from the airport, then ate a jar of bananas when we got home. She was quite hungry!!!

Sleep since we got home as been evasive. While Megan is already on our time zone, she has caught a cold and her nose is so stuffy she can barely breathe. Since she feels the need to have the paci, she can't breath though her mouth if the paci is in, so she sleeps in our arms, but once we lay her down, she lasts about 30 minutes and starts fussing. Consequently, last night I finally got her to sleep at 3am, left her on my chest, and basically slept leaning up against a stack of pillows. I made it until about 6:30am, then had to pass her off to dad. I was absolutely freezing! Dad got to sleep a little longer...then she took her normal naps today. Her afternoon nap she slept on her back on the bed for over an hour. So hopefully she'll sleep tonight. Her parents sure need more sleep!!!!

I have to upload photos from the camera...so there's no new ones right now. Check back in a few days...hopefully we'll have more time to get straight with the world and get them uploaded! Caring for baby, sleeping and keep the house somewhat organized is about all we're getting done right now! Heck, we're even forgetting to eat ourselves!

More photos

Chloe, Tessa, Ann, Leah, Zoe, Olivia, Megan & Rashan

Photos

Miss Hot Stuff loves to stand now

Yep, she's a purse girl!

Our new friend, Ann

The classic red couch photo

Big girl, now...sitting in the high chair!

Monday in Guangzhou

We had our medical check today. They simply look in her ears and mouth, make sure she responds to a squeaky toy, weigh her, measure her and check her over for scars. Megan was not too fond of any of this what-so-ever. Photos later. She does weigh 6.6 kg now which is over 13.2 lbs! We've put on a half of pound (or so we guess, since we really do not know where she started)! This is good news!!!

Today is very hot here...and we are very tired and ready to come home. Beyond ready to come home! We are leaving the room in a few minutes to take the classic red couch photos with our group of kids as well as entire group photo. The rest of the group is going on a dinner cruise, which we really want to go on, but considering our little Megan likes to go to sleep around 5:30 for the night, we didn't think it would be such a good idea. We had to go out last night late to get our laundry and she was a bear to get to sleep last night. I think it took over an hour...which is very unusual.

Well...we need to run...maybe I can blog more later, although I think I'm going to begin packing tonight. We already bought an extra suitcase for all our loot...so I need everything to find a home. Besides that's one step closer to coming home!!! Tuesday in our "swearing in" ceremony, described by our guide as an hour long with 59 minutes waiting and then we answer "yes" as a group. I still have a bit more shopping I need to do, but otherwise tomorrow will be hanging out at the hotel.

Snuggles with Megan

This morning Megan decided to snuggle with the elephant that plays a lullaby. This is yet another first.

She also had learned how to play peek-a-boo. I put the blanket over her face, said "where is Megan?", and she pulled the blanket off her face (and smiled, of course!). The problem with this is that when we are out and she's in the carrier, I cover her face when she's ready to go to sleep. Yesterday and this morning, she did try to pull the blanket off her face, but really only grabbed it and really didn't pull it off. So, we'll see.

It seems as though her true personality is coming out more and more everyday. And it's possible that her "cuteness" is really to get what she wants...the smiles come out and charm abounds. But, when we want something and mommy doesn't know what it is...man can we get fussy and mad! Oh my. And when she is hungry...LOOK OUT!!! She wants it NOW! She can put away the food, if she likes it. We did find out she's not too fond of pumpkin and not too crazy about a veggie mix of carrots, sweet potatoes and parsnip. But pears, oh boy, doe she love those. She almost ate an entire jar of pears after eating about a 1/4 jar of the veggie mix last night. The rice cereal here is in individual packets, and she is eating about a entire package every morning and still taking4 or sometimes 5 bottles a day plus cheerios or fruit puffs as snacks. We'll find out in the morning how much she weighs, surely she has gained weight.

We're going shopping today. Looking forward to it.

Saturday in Guangzhou

Mommy & a sleepy Megan at the Academy

Happy baby!

Completely tuckered out from playing with the stacking cups today!!

Okay...let's see...yesterday was pretty much a travel day. Our last day in Changsha, we did go to Hunan University to visit an Academy which some identify as the oldest institution of higher learning. It is 2100 years old...can you even imagine? It was pretty cool. They are a couple of really beautiful gardens there and we took some cute photos. Megan, as usual, was sleeping by the time we got to that part. I swear, our group thinks she sleeps too much...every time they see her, she's sleeping! She sleeps almost every time she's in the Bjorn. It doesn't usually take long either! Then she's awake in the room which prevents us from getting to nap when she naps (little stinker!!!)!

We arrived in Guangzhou about 7:30pm, which is way past Megan's bedtime. The new flight rules here mean no liquids, gels or anything in the carry on luggage. We were VERY short on time in the airport because it took longer to check in than the guide calculated (I think). Anyways, there was no time to get water for a bottle. We were able to get some inside the airport as we were running to our gate, but it was way hotter than we were comfortable giving her. So once we got on, we asked the attendant for cold water, and she didn't seem to understand. Or there wasn't enough cold water. So we tried blow on it, put in the open bottle under the air vent, etc. to cool it off. We were able to cool it off some and Megan didn't seem to mind that it was a bit hotter than usual. But, we couldn't take any baby food on the plane and she was really pretty hungry. It was a short flight (about an hour) so we were able to tide her over until we got to the Holiday Inn where we are staying. But it was probably 8:30pm before we could find the food and she got to eat. She was not crabby at all, though. She's such a good baby! She did fall asleep right away, though...and slept from 9pm to 3am without waking up (oh wait, she did have a bottle at 11pm). In fact, she did NOT move at all, she was simply exhausted.
Some firsts over yesterday and today....

• She rolled from tummy to back Friday morning
  
• As we were getting everything packed up, she turned from back to front (and about scared the crap out of us as we did not see her do it and she about rolled off the bed!).
• First airplane ride, of course. She did pretty good, but was quite withdrawn and quiet. We wondered if she was concerned we were going to leave her with someone else. Maybe she was grieving. Of course we'll never know.
• Grabbed my glasses for the first time.
• She's using her tongue...sticking it put some, of course we've been showing what to do!
  
• First french fry (She enjoyed sucking on that!)
• First time she's reached out for things rather than simply staring at them (last night it was the tag I took off the luggage and put on the bed--she grabbed it and was examining and tossing it to and fro).
• First time she really played with the stacking cups. I tried earlier, but she simply stared at them. I had tried putting one in each hand, but she had no idea what to do with them. But, today DH tried, he showed her how to bang them together, and she did it. In fact, she played for a good 30 minutes with those (that's a long time for a kid with no attention span!)
  
• She plays a mimic game that started Friday morning. I was holding her as we were waiting for our group in the lobby, and she starting moving her head side to side. So, I copied her. She was a little puzzled at first, but the started doing it again to see if I'd copy her. She loved the game. She even played it with one of the teens in our group.

Okay, I have a fuss-button right now..the naps today were too short...she's hungry and tired...Daddy's not any good right now..she thinks she's had enough Daddy time and simply wants Mom...gotta go...

Thursday in Changsha

I'm typing with one hand as Megan doesn't like to be put down at nap time. And silly me, I put her to sleep in my arms rather than the Bjorn so I could have both hands. Oh well. Megan (and us) slept better, but she still insists on going to bed at 5:30pm. Consequently, she was up to stay at 4:30am. Of course that doesn't count the several other times she woke up.

She woke up with a 100.3 degree fever, which is likely from teething...her bottom 2 are finally coming in. So the girls stayed at the hotel and DH went to the history museum.

Here are some photos...

Megan is sleepy...can you tell???


mommy & Megan

yummy carrots

Photos & Video

Lunch today! Happy baby!

This video was taken on Monday afternoon.

Bullet Points

Lovin' on Daddy VERY early this morning!

Someone being silly and wide awake at 5am!

We missed an entire day of posting, so here are a few highlights from Tuesday and Wednesday.

• We finalized the adoption paperwork on Tuesday and Megan officially--in the eyes of the Chinese government--is our child.
• We walked to a Friendship Store (a Government ran store so there is no bargaining). It was all high-end clothes and nothing we were looking for, so we walked back to the hotel.
  
• Megan did not sleep well at all. Well, let me rephrase that, she has frequently "night terrors" where while she is sleeping, she will cry out and thrash about. That means that Mom and Dad did not get much sleep. In fact, I just bit the bullet and put her in bed with me because every 45-60 minutes she would cry out and I would have to get up and pat her tummy or back, so I just gave up and put her in bed with me. Dad got far more sleep than Mom, but at 3am, Dad took over so Mom could sleep until about 5am.
  
• Megan finally fell in love with cheerios!
• She had baby food for the first time (with us, anyways)...I think it's carrots & apples..I know, quite the combo! She actually really loves it!
• We have cooled off her bottles to just warmer than room temp and she's good with it. Besides, she's much quicker at drinking it than when it was so hot.
• Megan is talking much more.
• She's strengthening her legs quite a bit now and loves to stand up now...and LOVES to bounce up and down!
• Her head is getting stronger and can sit better, if she wants to. Wanting to is the key!
• We noticed today that when a Chinese woman attempts to talk to her, she goes from the smiling, giggly self to a furrowed brow and serious expression.
• We took a taxi (yes, by ourself) to Wal-Mart. It was 2 story..and had some interesting things in it! We didn't stay too long, but we did need some more baby food and few "simple" toys for her (like a rattle).
• Wednesday we went to the Embroidery factory. Wow are they talented! There was a room of ladies working on different projects. Quite detailed work

Okay...that's the best I can think of with this tired brain...in fact, I'm punchy I'm so tired! And few photos from the last few days...

This is what happens when she rubs her face with this paci.
I guess the handle is quite flexible!

Our first Night

Megan actually slept pretty well last night. She finally fell asleep a little before 9pm and slept until about 3am. She had a small bottle, then slept for another hour. She wouldn't eat much cereal or congee (overcooked rice-like soup) this morning, but did take her bottle. She just now fell asleep in the baby carrier which is good since we have to leave in a few minutes to go finish up paperwork.

So...more photos when we get back this afternoon!!!

Megan photos

Megan with Orphanage Director

First Family Photo

Daddy is so cool!

Oh, and here's Mommy too!

Megan Day

What an exciting day!!! Megan was waiting for us when we got there. She was the only baby sitting in the area when we arrived, although 4 of the other babies were there in an adjacent room. We had to wait to go over to her until we were approved to do so. Boy was THAT hard! We probably waited 10-15 minutes until the final 2 babies arrived. I KNEW the minute we walked in it was her. I had no doubts. Once the remaining babies arrived, the group of 4 went first, then it was us. It brings tears to my eyes as I think about it. The video shows she is such a happy baby. This was her in the office. You can hear the other babies had a much more difficult time with the adjustment.





She is a paci girl. She was sucking on her fingers while we were watching her in the arms of the Director. Once they handed her to us and we were able to look at her, love on her and kiss her for a while, we pulled the paci out. She took it right away...and was happy as could be! She likes her bottles so hot they about burn our fingers, the director said "hot" 3 times (while I cannot understand Chinese, I knew what she was saying when I was listening to her).

Megan is SO laid back. She didn't care what kind of formula she had, how thick it was, what bottle she used, what bottle nipple she used, she didn't care whatsoever. She does not, however, have very good head control and is not the best at sitting up. I'm sure that will change soon, though as we begin to work with her more on the bed.

We are so blessed. I believe is the years of prayers of so many people...and especially the most recent prayers. Thank you so much to those who have prayed for us. Of course, we've only had her for a few hours, and tonight could be a completely different story, but I'm thinking she's just a content baby all the time!

A few thoughts...

In less than an hour, we are leaving to go to the Civil Affairs office to get Megan. We're simply waiting for time to pass at this point. I'm hoping we'll get to post something when we get back this afternoon, but I suspect it might simply by photos (which is probably what everyone is looking for aways!). I wanted to post a couple of thoughts....

First, our hotel here, The Dolton Hotel, is older than the hotel in Beijing, but really nice. It's one of two 5 star hotels in Changsha. The breakfast this morning was really good. It was so nice to see things we recognized..french toast, pastries and omelets to order plus the Chinese things we saw at the last hotel. The Beijing hotel room was so hot, it was never below 77 degrees. This room is a bit on the cooler side, more like 72. We are both a bit concerned about Megan staying as warm as she is used to. I think we can control the temperature in the room, but we're not really sure.

The weather is chilly and rainy here. I brought warmer clothes for Megan, but I'm concerned they won't be warm enough. We also brought mostly short sleeve shirts for us...so we'll be bundled up here as well, unless it warms up soon! (Guess I won't need my sandals here!)

It is still up in the air whether we will be going to Megan's orphanage or not. We plan on talking to Ashley sometime today about it. We are praying we get the chance, but I'm really not sure. Ashley is staying at the hotel on our floor tonight so that he can be available if we need assistance with the babies (need a doctor or have problems, etc.). He's been helping families for 10 years (but he looks like he's 20!) and is well versed in how to help with the transition. Pray that Megan transitions easily but pray that we can handle her transition (aka handle virtually no sleep and hearing constant crying). Pray that we know how to make her bottle the way she likes it and can understand what she wants.

Alright...leaving in about 30 minutes...so I need to make sure we've got everything we need as after we get Megan we will go to the "baby store" to find diapers, formula, baby food, etc. We won't likely be back to the hotel until mid afternoon.

Sunday in Changsha

We arrived this afternoon in Changsha at about 3:00pm. It's been SOOOO busy since then! We really like our guide, Ashley. He's so funny and his English is very good. They had us and the 2 other families that came from Beijing arrive at the airport at the same time as the 2 families who were in Shanghai for the past 2 days. So, we loaded up in our tour bus and headed to the hotel. The airport is in the country side, and it definitely looks different than Beijing. The houses are very different and even in the city, there just was not much traffic (although that could be because we came in on Sunday afternoon). Our hotel is absolutely delightful. A crib, baby bathtub and baby bowl and spoon were waiting for us in our room (talk about surreal!). We had a meeting about our paperwork and get the instructions about tomorrow (documents we need to bring, time we need to meet, what will likely happen, etc.). Then we ran down to one of the restaurants in the hotel for a quick dinner (Day 6 and I'm just about done with Chinese food!). We went back up to the hotel room to organize everything...we know where things are now...that's one less thing we have to worry about once we get Megan tomorrow (oh my gosh, TOMORROW!)

A few quick things...I'm feeling better, but definitely not feeling great. Of course a few truly good nights of rest would be helpful! I'm still averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep, and they are not consecutive. I'm one who needs a good 7-8 hours to feel rested, so I'm a bit foggy at various points during the day--in fact any point where we sit down for any length of time! DH slept better last night, hopefully he'll be able to sleep even more tonight! My head, though, is hurting almost constantly. Beijing was SSSOOOO dry, it was wreaking havoc on my sinuses...but it's much more humid here, so that might help a bit.

This still feels like a dream...but tomorrow...wow..tomorrow...in about 14 hours we will have Megan. Oh my goodness, the day is finally here!!!!

**** Other thing...there could be a snafu with Megan's passport on Friday. Apparently, the government just announced that Friday is a holiday and all offices are closed. So it could mean that we won't get the passport until Monday. While it does not change that we will leave Changsha on Friday, it could cause problems when we get to Guangzhou as we have an appointment at 10am on Monday, but if Ashley has to fly to Guangzhou with the passports, he won't be there by then. Please pray they "expedite" the process since it's the holiday so we can leave on Friday afternoon with her passport. Thanks.