July 12

It’s been a bit of a sleepless night here in room 61823 of the VIP Tower of the Huitan Hotel. Melody went down at 7:30 last night but kept waking up crying. She did the same thing the night before too. Actually, she did the same thing at naptime yesterday as well, which is what led to her napping on Larry’s chest. It seemed like she just couldn’t get comfortable in bed. I kept thinking “what are we doing wrong?” These are the moments I realize how crazy it is that we are given so little information about our child during the adoption. If I were going to drop a 9 month old off with friends even for a few days, I’d have pages of things to share about her habits and needs. But nope. We get the baby and a few inaccurate notes about when and what she eats. So, around 2AM I was in bed praying for wisdom when she woke up again. I picked her up and she immediately fell back to sleep. It then occurred to me that maybe she was cold and it was the heat of our bodies that helped her sleep again. She was already dressed in a cotton one-piece outfit and socks, so I got out a footie sleeper and put it over top. I laid her back down and it worked! She slept like a rock the rest of the night! Unfortunately, Julie had already woken up and then ended up in our bed, so it was a little crowded the rest of the night. Right now, both girls are sleeping in our bed. Melody woke up a bit ago so I put her by Julie and covered her with the comforter. She seems happy. This girl likes to be WARM!



Another area we’re trying to figure out is feeding. When it comes to bottles there are so many variables: warm or room temp; straight formula or mixed with rice cereal; small, medium or large nipple hole; how often; etc, etc. I think we’ve settled the issue of temperature and the answer is warm! Today I’m trying straight formula without rice cereal, along with a medium sized hole cut in the nipple. We have to cut the nipple because Melody can’t suck a regular one with her cleft. With Julie, I brought special nipples, but I figured this would work out about as well and it does. I might still try the special nipples when we get home. Melody can also eat Cheerios, bananas and watermelon if we feed pieces to her with our fingers. She can’t quite do it herself yet. We tried giving her baby food yesterday, but she wanted nothing to do with the spoon, so this morning we started spoon lessons. I put a piece of watermelon in front of her until she opened her mouth and then I quickly slipped it onto the spoon and into her mouth. It worked! Here are the girls at breakfast:





After breakfast we went to the Hunan Province museum where we saw a 2000 year old corpse and many other relics from three ancient tombs. After the museum we headed to Martyr’s Park for a short walk. It felt like we were literally walking through a sauna. We then swung by McDonald’s for take-out and returned to the hotel.

Outside the museum:



In Martyr’s Park, in front of the memorial to those who fell fighting the Japanese:



Mommy and her big girl:



Back at the hotel, Julie helps out by feeding Mommy a French fry (unprompted!):



And by helping to hold Melody’s bottle (also unprompted!):



One other thing that I have wanted to write about is Melody’s comforting habit. Anytime she is hungry or tired, she puts her arm across her face and sucks on the upper part of it. It is really sweet to watch, but I wonder how she came up with it (as opposed to sucking fingers). Even in bed, she tries to get so she can reach her upper arm with her mouth. It will be interesting to see if she continues with it as she learns that food will come when she is hungry and that Mommy will be there for her when she is sleepy. I also wonder if this super mellow personality will persist or if there is a Hunan spicy girl in there waiting to come out. I guess we’ll find out in time. Either way, she is just so precious to me and I wouldn’t trade her for the world!

P.S. Thank you all for leaving comments and sending email. Every one means a lot to us and I am so happy to share this experience with you. I apologize if I am not able to respond to each of you. We are paying for internet service by the hour her in Changsha, so I barely have time to get the blog posts uploaded. I also can't view all your comments in one place because blogger is blocked here (I can get to the post screen but not the view screen). I hope to have better access in Guangzhou next week. Thanks for understanding!