Still Visiting!

October 21, 2006
Well, the caregivers and the doctor did not do a very good job at answering very many questions! That was a bummer… at least we have a few more days to try to get some more answers. They have relinquishment papers, we have been told, but they know nothing about the birth mother. They should at least have a name. Someone had to sign the papers. So we are going to keep trying. We don’t need to know for us, but someday Alex is going to want to know as much as possible.

Today we also took the big flash for the camera. We were getting tired of the dark pictures! It was perfect, who cares how many batteries it uses! Today we got pictures of him doing his chin-ups! There is always something on the desk that he can not have, camera, accordion, etc. so he tries to get them by pulling himself up. So anyways today we put some of his favorite toys up there and sure enough, up he went! With supervision this time! He is really strong!

He discovered if he cries we will respond. Except he would fake cry, and then look at us to see what we would do. It was the funniest thing yet!! We nearly died of laughter!!! He is such a mess! After a few minutes, it got annoying, so we decided to ignore it. Then he did it every time we would actually take out his snacks… so then we would not give him the snack. He stopped it after a while. He is so funny!

October 22, 2006
We decided today we would take a bottle of formula, just a 4 oz one though and give it to him so he wouldn’t be starving!!! Well, I had decided the other day to buy a certain kind of formula in the store, I could read the label, and it said “soy.” Today when I went to get the stuff, they had moved it, and they didn’t have that kind. So I bought a “lactose free” one. Hopefully he is ok with it. He was still trying the faker cry stuff today a little. But we ignored it. It really is so funny. When I pulled out the bottle of milk, he went nuts! He started smacking his lips, a lot more than when he sees the snacks. He was bouncing up and down and then crawled as fast as possible across the room to me. It was the most pitiful display of hunger we have seen from him yet! He thinks he is starving, but what they tell us, is that if they don’t eat it now, they don’t get any when they are hungry, so they eat as fast as they can when they can. He started fussing, because he wanted it so badly! We put him in my lap and made him lay back and relax, which he can not do. He is afraid he won’t get the bottle, he has to make sure he can see it until he gets it in his mouth! Then he sucked like crazy, then I realized I had not changed the nipple on it, and it was a “slow” one. He didn’t seem to care, he just wanted to drink it. It was so sweet, he was so noisy, and we kept saying he sounded like a little piggy! Jerry was wondering if it was normal. He had his little hands made into fists so tight… we kept trying to get him to relax, but this bottle drinking is serious business! But when he was laying there he was just a helpless little baby! When the bottle was emptied he started to cry, we felt bad that we didn’t have more, but we didn’t want to get in trouble with the doctor or anything. He was actually crying, because it was empty. So we held him and then distracted him and he was fine after that. We actually got an extra half and hour with him this morning, because the other family isn’t able to visit on Sunday for some reason. It was nice… he was not trying to get out the door and get food. We had so much fun giving him the bottle that we will do it in the afternoon too! He certainly enjoyed the bottle too! Then we spent time examining a chair… Alex went chair surfing… as you can see in the photo. He hasn’t quite figured out the chairs yet. But he likes them.

We took a bottle again, and do you know that kid instantly crawled toward my bag that I had it in earlier, he was trying to look in there, and was smacking his lips again. He remembers things, especially when it deals with food! We made him wait a while because the water was too hot still. I hadn’t perfected how much heat is lost from the microwave to the babyhouse in a bottle yet. Jerry had to distract him while I got the bottle ready. Then when he heard me shaking that crazy bottle, he went crazy again, laughing and crawling so fast to get to me! Again, he just laid there and drank it down… I put the “fast” nipple on it, but I think I will go back to the slow, because he drinks it so fast and then it is gone and he actually cries, because there is no more. The faster we can distract him after wards the better.

Today we got to go in his group room again! Jerry with the video camera and I with my camera. When we went in, one little girl was crying and crying and crying! I felt so bad. I wanted to pick her up and comfort her. Her little eyes were all red and big tears were coming down her cheeks! She was standing up in the play pen holding on to the bars and just sobbing! Maybe she was hungry. I reminded them that we would take 2 babies! It didn’t do any good. A single caregiver was there and she was feeding another child. He was sitting in a chair and she was sitting in front of him shoveling the food in! All the other babies were in the play area, which consisted of the playpens and some furniture blocking them in. Most of the babies had been sleeping, and had to be woken up so we could come in and see. There was about 10 babies in there, all about the same age as Alex. We went through that room into the bedroom, we counted 14 beds. We don’t know if there is a baby for each one. We put Alex in his bed so we could take a picture of him in it. Alex was all smiles! It was as if he was so happy to show us his bed and stuff. Plus he was going to get to eat, soon. Did I mention, this kid loves to eat?! We were so relieved to have been able to go in again and get pictures. They aren’t perfect pictures, but they are pictures!!