CJs Daddy

So far, I’m sticking with - “pretty darn well, thank you!”

Normally, I’d start with what’s going poorly, but I’m not sure I can say anything is quite that horrible. I will say that we’ve had a few rough bedtimes, maybe about half of them, she doesn’t quite fall asleep by the end of the bottle and isn’t sometimes ends up over tired. When this happens, she shows the lungs of a marathon running opera singer, that’s for sure. I have no clue how the Red Head handles this, but somehow CJ finds her way to slumber.

She woke up in the middle of the night crying the other night for the first time since we’ve had her - believe it or not. Half a bottle later, she was OK and slept for 6 more hours. Later in the next day, Mom-Mom surmised that she could be teething. Low and behold, by the next bed-time - we could see just a little bit of tooth #7. Good call, Mom-Mom!!! Secondary kudos goes to whomever invented teething tablets.

As you can imagine, the good and great far outweigh the bad. I’m so overjoyed to have this little blessing in my life, there’s just no way to explain it. For now, I’m not even going to try. Just know that she’s more than I ever imagined. I thought that once we brought her home, I’d be able to function properly. Now, I’m not so sure I’ll be able to function apart from her. I’m going to ease back into work around the middle of next week, so hopefully the anticipation of coming home to my family will get me through the day.

There are a couple of surprises. For the first few days, she was not particularly vocal, nor did she seem interested in walking with help as her foster mommy, N, suggested. However, toward the end of our time in Guatemala, her desire to walk has returned, and just this weekend, she’s been yammering away like gangbusters. It’s difficult to say how long it will take the yammering to develop into speech, as our words in return to her babble are quite different than she’s used to. But, the walking, oh the walking. We might very well be past the point of no return. Attachment practice suggests parents carry their children around in some kind of sling or pack as often as possible, even if such efforts delay walking. In other words, the attachment gains are more important than the first steps. We’ve already done some of that - I even vacuumed the house today with her strapped to my chest. But, she seem soooooo close to walking that even with lots of carrying, she may be taking her first unaided steps within a few weeks.

Co-sleeping is going about as well as expected. Although she does roll around a bit and wakes me up, I don’t really sleep any less as I’m used to getting up at least twice each night anyway. She goes to bed before 9, so we tend to go to bet around 10, which is way earlier than we’re used to. We’re not sure exactly how long we’ll be sticking with this - basically as long as we feel she needs it and as long as it seems to be best for her.

Yah, she still eats everything in sight. Love jello (thanks Z for the supply!), turkey, peas, green beans, rice, yogurt and noodles. She’ll let me give her a mid-day bottle now, and really ends up cheerful after doing so. Carmen loves books and her crazy blue guy (I’ll get a picture of him on the site soon). She’s also come to love barrel of monkeys, but I’m not sure she quite gets it other than they make a cool sound when you drop them back into the barrel. I still need to get video of her dancing, but here are a few clips to hold you over.

In the first, you get a good look at the hotel room, but check out her little feet toward the end of the vid right before mommy finds her over the bed.

In this second one, you see/hear her new favorite sound. Because she loves to eat, she’s a complete riot during dinner. I keep the video camera handy at meal time.

Posted on March 22nd, 2008 by CJs Daddy
Filed under: CJ