What a difference two weeks home makes

We've now been home from China for sixteen days and between having Maisie attached to me like velcro 24/7 and my ongoing recovery, finding the time to blog has been virtually impossible. First, healthwise Maisie and Eammon are both doing well. They finished all their antibiotics and are fully recovered. I on the other hand have started my fourth course of antibiotics and steroids and have to go in to the lab tomorrow for more blood tests as my blood work from Monday showed an elevated liver count so they're running some liver tests and also testing for exposure to Hep A, B & C. But then I've already completed 3 rounds of antibiotics, so that could be the cause of the elevated liver count and hopefully that's the case. And before you ask, no I didn't get the Hep shots before going to China. I almost have my voice back, hard to believe that I've sounded sick for so long but I really have been on the mend.

Since being home we've been so well taken care of by our great friends. Groceries were furnished upon our arrival home and full meals have been dropped off every few days, all of which have been wonderful and truly appreciated. Other than cooking up some eggs and bacon on two nights I haven't cooked since returning from China. Of the items that I made and froze before travel, we've only had the shepherd's pie so the freezer remains full. In fact Monday was the first time I even ventured into a grocery store since being home and that was just for milk, OJ and ice cream. We have awesome friends and we thank them all. This past Saturday Julie and Kacey came over with dinner and probably because Julie pretended to ignore Maisie, little Miss allowed her to hold her for quite a while as they all fed the ducks in the back yard, it was very cute.

So, what's been happening on the Maisie front? Every day she makes huge strides and she's conquered almost all of her demons. She does so well in the car seat and it's the only place other than my chest where she'll fall asleep so I've been doing quite a bit of driving around. Unfortunately she wakes if the car is stationary for too long so it's not like I can catch a catnap in the car too...Oh well. She does OK in the stroller, again as long as it's moving and at a good clip. Same for shopping carts, if I linger too long she wants out and fast. Her high chair is my savior as I put her in it, can then make a bottle, wheel her into the bathroom, give her the bottle as I quickly shower and then wheel her into the bedroom feeding her some Cheerios allowing me time to get dressed, again quickly but at least I can get that done in the morning.

OK sleeping, Maisie still will not get into or sleep in either the crib or the pack-n-play. She sleeps almost exclusively on my chest and has just started to allow me to slide her onto the bed next to me once she's asleep. Previously she'd wake and scream every time I tried to move her, so this is a nice change especially since it allows my very sore lungs a chance to breathe a little easier. I will say though that she is not an early riser and I hope that this pattern continues. I generally go to bed with her between 7 and 8 PM and though she'll wake briefly during the night, sometimes needing a quick bottle, she'll sleep till around 8am. The fact that I have to get into bed with her so early and remain there has its good and bad points. For the good, I am getting more rest and I need that especially since girlfriend here does NOT nap and being sick, rest is good. In addition, once she is asleep, though I can't leave the bed, I can watch television and chat on the phone and it doesn't disturb her at all. The bad side is getting into bed so early doesn't allow me to get anything done in the evening and doesn't allow me any time to myself without her attached to me, but hopefully we'll conquer the crib and sleep soon.

Our entire time in China and up until about five days ago Maisie would only take a bottle and the bottle had to contain formula, no soup, no water, just formula but luckily she doesn't care what brand it is, or the temperature. If I brought any food or utensil near her, she would clamp her mouth tight and shake her head making it impossible to get anything into her. But then I was eating a chocolate covered candy cane and she wanted some so I figured why not. Wouldn't you know it, little Miss M loves chocolate and mint! She took some little bites and though she didn't force it out of her mouth, she really had difficulty moving it back towards her throat. She then allowed me to give her some Cheerios and Gerber Fruit Puffs and really after just two days she was efficiently moving everything back in her mouth and actually eating! She still wouldn't allow any utensils near her mouth until Monday when I was eating Spumoni and girlfriend here decided that ice cream on a spoon was allowed. I probably gave her about ten spoons of ice cream amounting to maybe half a teaspoon total, but just that she allowed me to come near her with a spoon was a step in the right direction. I've since tried some baby food, apple sauce and veggies; string beans, peas, corn, carrots & lima beans and she'll put them into her mouth and spit them out so we'll have to work on getting her to eat things other than chocolate, mint, ice cream and cereal. We have our first appointment with the pediatrician on the 19th so hopefully she'll give me some ideas as to what to feed her.

Everyday I've been getting Maisie out and whenever possible interacting with other children as each time she's with other kids she becomes more adventurous and outgoing. Since coming home we've had a couple of play dates with LiLi which are always fun. In addition we've played with Emily, Kacey, Liza and Ruby George, daughter of our travel mates Becky & Booker. Last Friday we attended a FCC playgroup and we're looking forward to the playgroup again this Friday. We've met numerous friends for lunch in restaurants and though Miss M has limited patience for the highchairs, she's done well. We've also taken a number of strolls around the neighborhood as well as many, many visits to Tar*jay even when not shopping it's been a good place to walk around.

Maisie is cruising and just yesterday took a couple of steps pushing her Princess Ride-On Car so hopefully she'll be walking soon. When we first met Maisie she had no pincer grip, she would flick at things with all four of her fingers and could sort of hold on to larger items but now she has an excellent pincer grip and can pick-up everything and is able to feed herself the Cheerios and fruit puffs. She also loves to hold on to her snack trap and feed herself the Cheerios. She's forever taking off her shoes, socks and pants. I'm not at all impressed with this though as I can't tell you how many times I put her shoes on day after day. Also she's usually jailing in her pants and shoes all seem too big on her so getting them off isn't too difficult. In just one week she'll be 15 months old and most of her clothing is 9 months except for sleepers with feet attached which are 12 months because she needs the length from her shoulders to her toes. Her feet are tiny and even in the Robeez, she's wearing 0-6 month size. I bought her some size 3 squeaky shoes whilst in China and she walks right out of them even when I tighten them as much as I can. Today I bought her a cute pair of Baby Gap leopard print tennies in size 2 and hopefully these will stay on her feet. I need to take more pictures of Miss M but as she's been attached to me almost constantly, I haven't had much opportunity but now that she'll do things without having a death grip on my shirt collar, I'll have to pull out the camera and start using it more. Also as you can see from the picture of her eating a Cheerio, she's a much happier baby and much more outgoing than when we met her and even when we first arrived home.

I've spent so little time online lately but I want to congratulate everyone who received their referral this month, some great bloggy friends received theirs as well as both of my August dtc Secret Pals and I'm so happy for them. I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading but while I can read, I can't always comment. But to all my bloggy buddies, please know that I'm still following along and love reading all that is happening and hopefully soon I'll be caught up and able to have a free hand so to type a comment or two.

Thank you too for all the wonderful emails checking on us, making sure that we're all doing OK and still breathing. I'll try to post more often and with piccies so that all our friends will know what's happening and that we are all doing OK. Now it's time to snuggle down next to Miss M and get some sleep, night!!