China: The Aftermath

So here it is, a week from the day we departed China.
Marcie is sleeping in the pack n play in our bedroom.
Casey is (in theory) napping at school.
Jason is at work, "bringing home the bacon."
And I'm supposed to be studying, but am unable to resist the temptation to blog.

I've begun wondering if I can get away with blogging Marcie's first few years instead of actually making her a baby book. Is that awful of me? It's just that I don't want to lose fragmented information, which I fear will be unintentionally flushed from my brain periodically. Like, for instance, the fact that she is the best eater ever. Today she ate room temperature baby food macaroni and cheese. And she liked it. I don't even think I'd eat that warmed up. And I know Casey wouldn't. So today it was mac n' cheese, pears, and prunes for lunch. Yesterday it was peas and chicken noodle and pruns for lunch. The day before that was pears and prunes and green beans. And she loves sweet potatoes (which I eliminated to help ensure she'd continue to poop).

Which brings me to the topic of poop. If you are faint-hearted-- or you just don't want to know anything more about Marcie's bowel movements-- skip this paragraph. She is pooping twice a day now. And she isn't straining anymore. I think this is because she is getting prunes and other foods which help-- like peas and peaches. But her baby poop is the most grown-up baby poop I've ever seen. It's what I expected Casey's poop to look like when he was 18 months old-- and didn't look like until after he was 3 (of course that could just be because it took him that to toilet train and when he was going in his diaper it was getting mashed by the weight of his body-- yes, I know, gross). Anyway, it's soft enough. But not at all runny. This makes cleaning her up incredibly easy, so I'm not complaining. And for all I know, Casey was the unusual one. So there you have it.

Anyway, here we are, a week back home. This week was ridiculously hectic for me. Casey started a new school schedule and a new speech therapy schedule. On top of adjusting to a new sister and re-adjusting to his life at home with us (instead of his fun grandparents). Plus, I was going back to school, two weeks into the school year and two weeks behind in the reading for two of my three classes. And then there was Marcie adjusting to the new schedule we were imposing on her. And of course, Marcie, Jason and I were adjusting to the fifteen-hour time difference. So that's a lot to handle in one week's time!

I'm proud to report, though, that Jason has Casey back on his regular bedtime routine; Marcie, Jason and I are all adjusted to Pacific Time; we have figured out Casey's speech and school schedule (and next week we add in the occupational therapy!); and I was able to catch up in my classes. So all is relatively right in the world. That's not to say I'm running on full steam. I'm exhausted. But I imagine I will feel exhausted for, oh, the next 18 years or so.

On Wednesday Marcie visited the doctor. I do have a photo of her in his office, with the lab slip for her blood work and urine sample. But it's on my camera, and darnit if Sprint won't let me e-mail it to myself without paying for their dumb Sprint vision for $5 a month. I hesitate to sign up and try to cancel because my customer service experience with Sprint has left much to be desired (read: I've not had a single positive customer service interaction with them since switching to Sprint from Verizon and wish I had not done so). That's an issue for another post. So you'll just have to imagine how cute Marcie looked.

The good news is that Marcie checks out with a clean bill of health! She is enormous-- 29.5 inches long (that's the 95th percentile), 21 lbs and 5 ounces (that's the 80th percentile), and her head is in the 75th percentile. And that's on the American charts-- she's off the charts in China! In fact, she is around 2/3 of Casey's weight, and less than 10 inches shorter, even though she's three years younger. I imagine she'll thin out as she crawls more and learns to walk.

They did a TB test, which I'm taking her back to have read today. And they sent us to Pomerado Hospital for her lab work (where they draw the blood and send it to Children's Hospital). Before leaving the pediatrician's office, they also "bagged her." That means they cleaned her privates with iodine and stuck (literally stuck-- with an adhesive) a bag to cover the area so that she'd pee into it so they could run a urine sample. I have no idea what all the urine test is testing, or what the blood work is testing. We asked them to check for lead because we'd noticed peeling paint in the orphanage photos (which I plan to scan and post at some point in time in the near future, right after I write thank yous). Anyway, they were amazing at Pomerado-- it was a totally different experience from when Casey was 10 months old and so sick and we had to have blood drawn. And Marcie, though she cried, handled it like a real champ. I'm glad it was the lab techs who removed the adhesive bag, though.

We also don't know which immunization Marcie is missing. They didn't translate the immunization record for us in China, but our agency said if we fax it to them, they will have the translation department look at it, so that's good news.

I also ran into glitches because they said we have to pay out of pocket for Marcie since she's not a newborn and not yet on our insurance. This is odd because our insurance company claims to cover post-placement pre-adoptive children, and they give us 30 days after placement to report the adoption. So I don't understand how they can claim we have an uncovered child-- particularly because we can prove we only received her a couple weeks ago. And I ran into this issue not just with our pediatrician's office, but also with the lab at Children's Hospital, which actually called me at home because they wanted to know who was going to pay for this lab work the doctor had ordered. How crazy is that? The US government won't let you adopt a child unless you promise to medically care for them, but no one wants to touch the child because they don't want to get stuck with the bill either. So dumb. It's a child. Just take care of her and worry about the financial details later. . .

So that was the big excitement for the week. The doctor's visit, I mean-- not the pooping.
I'm hopeful that next week will go even more smoothly, now that we are settled into a routine. I have been getting exercise (for those of you who dared challenge me to figure out how!). Marcie and I walk for 45-50 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Casey is at speech. And Mondays and Fridays, I'm walking Casey to school in the mornings. What I need to figure out now (for the walk to school) is what to do with Casey. It's too far for him to walk the whole way. And Marcie is about 20% of my body weight, and carrying her on my stomach is a bit much for me up the hills. It was fine for this morning, but as she gets heavier, it won't be a good long-term approach. Jason is a fan of the tandem strollers, but I'm not sold on that idea. Still, Marcie is a little too slouchy to be in an umbrella stroller that doesn't have a bar on it (the McClaren's don't have the bar). If a side-by-side umbrella had a bar, at least she could hold herself up/forward. Or maybe the solution is a side-by-side (ridiculously expensive) jogger. But how do any of these maneuver in stores? Any thoughts?

Oh, and by the way, I don't really plan to blog instead of a baby book. But given the time constraints on my life, for now, at least I'm recording the details so I can put them into the book later on. . . it's a start.

P.S. While I'm at it, so I don't forget, everyone has had a different nickname for Casey. Jason's mom calls him chow-choo-pay (that's the pronunciation). Jason't dad calls him sour pickle. Jason calls him monkey. I call him boo and bubba. I just don't want to forget that detail as the nicknames subside. And for the record, I've taken to calling Marcie pumpkin pie. No idea why, it's just what comes out of my mouth.