Yes, Jet Lag is Real!

Jet Lag? Well, I thought that I was good to go on the ‘no’ jet lag issue, due to my one night stay in Amsterdam, but this is obviously not the case. I slept only 1 hour the first night here, 3 hours the next 2 nights, and last night I got a whoppin’ 5 hours of sleep thanks to Tylenol PM. Ugh! Today, December 23rd, I was pooped after our visit and lunch so I decided to take a nap, expecting my normal hour or two, and woke up 6 hours later. Ugh - I am so screwed tonight. :)

**My computer finally let me upload more photos of my hotel, so look all the way to the bottom for photos of my room, the hallway, stairway, pool and Sauna sign; truly this is one of the nicest buildings that I have seen in town! Not the norm, and I feel right at home here! I am talking with the other single mom and it sounds like she is pretty homesick, she is stayig in an apartment and said that it is okay too, doesn't sound as cozy as it is here but it is less expensive which is a bonus. Personally,I would rather pay a bit more to have some human interaction and creature comforts. Neither of us have left our hotel/apartment yet to venture out, we plan to get together tomorrow between our visits to go out on the town, it is tough being here alone with all this moola, you don't feel as safe to venture out.

Today is Sunday, and we are able to see our little ones only once on Sundays, no complaining on my end though, at least I got to go once. Today all of the babies seemed a bit crabby and all they wanted to do was be held and suck their thumbs, they must also know that Sunday is technically a ‘rest day.’ I think I may have posted this, but just in case we have 2 couples from Belgium, 1 from France, another mom from the States and me – I am the newbie!

Z is a rolling machine, if I put her on her tummy, in less than 5 seconds she is on her back and then on her tummy again. You can tell that she really wants to crawl too. She is really trying to figure out how to get up on all fours, which is a tough feat when you have a prized toy in one hand. This can be a very dangerous task, today she took her first spill, she was trying to get up on all fours (w/ that toy in one hand) and one arm gave out and her mouth hit the floor, pretty hard too. Immediately she cried, not whaled, just a sweet cry (hopefully that is all she has in her ) and for the first time I was able to comfort her. Within about 2 minutes she was all better and just snuggled into my neck! I believe that she is also working on another tooth as she is the slobber queen and continually is sucking on her lower lip. I gave her a nook today, and she was in heaven, I am sure that she sucks on her lip to sooth herself as she doesn’t have anything else to really suck on. Poor kid, I am sure those teeth hurt. I have read that sucking is good for a child’s language skills, and since these babies are already drinking out of cups, yes normal cups – not bottles or even sippies, I want for her to be able to have the nook. I also believe that I will be continuing to feed her from a bottle for some time, if she will still take it, that is just a normal soothing activity for a baby. A cup? Man people! Smile. You should see the size of the spoons they eat with too, my heavens, they are the same size that adult men eat with. I don’t even eat with spoons this size. Good thing I brought some infant spoons of my own, if she will take it, this is what I will use to feed her. I did find out yesterday that as of tomorrow I will be able to start feeding and changing Z during my visits, so I visited the local market (grocery store) yesterday with Aina and bought some diapers, wipes, baby food & juice. I am going for anything with lots of vitamins; bananas, carrots, vegetables and chicken, etc. I also brought along a multi-vitamin for babies, it comes in a liquid form so I can put it in her juice or her porridge. Always thinking! Today Z was sucking her thumb, man was that ever cute! (random thought there) I also brought in some slip on booties with a little bear on one foot and a little bunny on the other, they have rattles in them. I want for her to start using her legs more to strengthen those muscles and this was a perfect idea to help her get motivated. When she was lying on her back and bringing her feet up in the sky and then using her arms to try to reach the little bunny. What a trick! It did motivate her to move those legs.

Tomorrow we meet with the director of just this baby house (I believe that is her title?) to get more particulars on Z’s health and her history at the baby house. I am really looking forward to learning more; I also want to see if they know what her birth name means, most names here have a meaning and I am hopeful to learn this tomorrow. I am still not 100% on her given name yet, her birth name is quite hard to pronounce, so even as a middle name it could be tricky. Hmmm.

Tidbits:

*The name that her birth mother or orphanage gave her is called her ‘birth name,’ and the name that I give her is called her ‘given name.’
*No brown water yet.
*They hang their laundry outside to dry in -30c weather. Crazy!
*The cars here are normal, you will see Saturn, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, etc. Some very nice!
*My Hotel has all of the normal alcohols: Kahlua, Rums, of course a bazillion Vodkas, wines, Heineken, Corona, Budweiser, etc.
*The weather has not been near as cold as it was that first day at the airport. Thank heavens. It still is about zero degrees, but it truly isn’t too bad. Bring a hat & mittens though.
*It is not polite to ask about a child’s ‘real parents.’ Please, if you are curious, and it is appropriate, ask about the ‘birth parents’ because both her birth and her adoptive parents are ‘real parents,’ both sets are real and important.

So far things that I am glad that I brought:

*Travel Alarm Clock
*Leatherman (used many times already – especially the scissors)
*Computer & Camera / Video Camera – no brainer
*Funnel (To put the water from the big jugs into small personal water bottles)
*Teething Toys
*3 ring Binder from LMI with information on Medical Info / Terminology
*Skype Headset – A MUST!!!! (I have spoken with my sister, mom and John in person already and it was such a treat!)
*Pad of paper and a pen (used a ton for several things)
*Permanent Marker (to mark on your ziploc bags full of money - you can then make notes as to when you gave what money to whom right on the bag too.)