(Maureen's Post)
Waking up earlier than usual took some adjusting today, but that's okay because we were going to visit James in the morning today. It was funny when we wallked into our visiting room because James wasn't there, but another baby was! Actually, the 10AM to 12PM slot is usually when Joan Mesker visits her son, Serik, but not today. I guess the message didn't get to the caregivers. Anyway, Serik was on his stomach and smiled when I talked to him, but then all of a sudden he started crying, as if to say, "Hey! You're speaking English, but I know you're not my Mommy!" So I picked him up from his crib and he kind of stopped crying, just wimpering a little bit. In the meantime, the caregivers were getting James ready, then they brought him to our room and handed him to Sean, along with a bottle. Then I gave Serik back to them. After all, Joan has court today in the afternoon and is probably preparing to go into the judge's chambers right now as I type this. Hopefully, Serik will no longer be in the hospital as of a few hours from now and will be with Joan where he belongs. The Baardsons also have court this afternoon and will hopefully also take custody of Eliana, their daughter, today.

We did have a nice visit today, mostly low-key after we did our baby exercises. James showed Inna how he plays the sit-up game, too. Thanks to Ronald and Rosario Villabroza for the "bee" suggestion. Their son, Jonas, is our godson and is only 3 months younger than James. They suggested a game where we buzz and hold our fingers like a bee is going to land on James. He thinks it's so great, especially as the "bee" gets closer. He laughs out loud every time! In fact, he just loves games involving anticipation, when he thinks that someone or something is going to "get" him. Plus he loves being thrown up in the air. This kid is definitely a thrill seeker, I tell you. Should I be worried? Now I'm getting visions of him asking permission to go skydiving when he's older!

We were paid a visit today by Dr. Victoria, who has been overseeing James' care since he's been in the Children's hospital since he was one week old. I had been under the assumption he was in the Maternity hospital longer than just a week, but apparently not so; he has been here pretty much all his life so far. Dr. Victoria went over all his medical diagnoses and treatments he has received up until now. We were aware of these and plan to have James thoroughly evaluated once we return home. She also told us that he, along with the other 4 babies that are being adopted this week and next, did get the chicken pox last December, all at the same time. We had our suspicions, as we saw chicken pox scars on his arms when we were changing him. Turns out he was the first one of the 5 babies to get it, too! Other than his other health conditions Dr. Victoria felt he was developing well. She wrote out his weight history for us, and it looks like I may have mis-weighed him yesterday. Not surprising, since he was wiggling around quite a bit when I put him on the scale yesterday, making the numbers go up and down. The most recent weight in his chart was on 2/04/07 and it was 7.8 kilos, which puts him at a little over 17 lbs. now! He gets a bottle when he wakes up, then every 4 hours thereafter. What he's been getting in his bottle is kefir, which is like a yogurt-like sour milk, mixed with cereal in his bottle. So you can only imagine how great we've been smelling when he used to spit up. I can't wait to put him on formula and rice cereal and give him Poly-Vi-Sol with Iron. I think because formula is so expensive they usually only feed it to the babies who are not developing well.

Speaking of spitting up, it didn't happen again today. We did the feed part of bottle/burp/feed more of bottle/burp/feed rest of bottle/burp thing this time, and I think we may have found our system for feeding him. I tell you, I was ready for it again, too, but to our pleasant surprise we did not need the cloth diaper (we're using as burp rag) today, other than for drool. So perhaps we're getting the hang of this parenting thing, after all! Oh, one more thing is that Dr. Victoria also said he gets a morning nap lasting about an hour, and an afternoon nap lasting from 1-2 hours, and that he usually sleeps through the night with no problem from 11PM to 7AM straight through. As much as I would like to believe that, I wonder just how well he'll be sleeping once he's with us and in a new environment. I can still dream, though...

Poor Sean still can't seem to shake this lower respiratory infection. He completed the antibiotic a couple of days ago, but still has some colorful, productive cough (sorry if that's TMI). However, he no longer has a fever, and that's a plus. At first Dr. Victoria was going to prescribe an antibiotic for him, but then she found out he had already taken the Z-pak and suggested a cough syrup (expectorant) instead while we let the antibiotic take effect. If we still insisted on an antibiotic she was going to prescribe Augmentin, even when we told her that Sean was allergic to penicillin. When we reminded her of Sean's allergy is when she decided to wait until tomorrow and see if his temp stays normal before prescribing another antibiotic. I know in the grand scheme of things that one day would not make a big difference, especially when he seems to already be getting a little better, but when you're so used to treating everything under the sun with antibiotics like in the U.S., it's hard not to continue to think that way. So we went to the pharmacy and picked up the cough medicine. Of course, me being the way I am I had to look it up when we got back to the apartment before I would let Sean take it, as it's not a drug I'm familiar with. I did a search and it's not available in the U.S., but I was able to find some info on it. I'm not going to get technical, but it's got a very interesting mechanism of action, not one I would expect from a simple cough syrup. After I felt assured that it wouldn't interact with the other meds Sean's already taking I gave it back to him. Heck, I even took some since I awoke with a cough today. No other symptoms, though, thank goodness.

So, we're staying in again today. I hope Sean gets better soon because I think I'm starting to feel a little stir-crazy being cooped up in the apartment. Of course, I could always go for a little walk, like I did yesterday. Tonight will probably be more episodes of "24," and perhaps we'll have some spaghetti with meat sauce, and maybe with some garlic bread but I have to see if Sean used up all our bread this morning when he made french toast. Otherwise, I'll be making a quick trip back to the Viola. At least I'll get more practice speaking Russian, since the ladies there don't speak any English.

That's today's post! Until next time, Paka!