Velcro baby

Maia's second day with us has been a bit difficult. She is definetly having the toughest transition out of all the babies. It's nice to see the other babies playing, laughing and eating. We're just having to wait a bit more for our turn. She continues to cry, whimper and nap in my arms (or the carrier) all day. She is a "velcro baby" because I cannot put her down. If I even loosen my grip on her she cries. She is still very scared and sad. She did finally have her 3rd bottle Tuesday at around 4pm. Soon after, she was screaming and arching her back. We knew immediately she had a tummy ache and we brought her to the hotel doctor. Although the technique was something out of a bad war movie from the 1940's, the end result was what we had hoped. She feels a little better and even ate another bottle at around 9pm. She wouldn't let me put her in her crib so she slept with me on my rock hard twin bed. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. It is about 4am here and I think I'm up for the day. It was so nice to hear her little sucking noises in her sleep :)

The breakfast buffet here is awesome and yesterday I mastered the art of eating an omlet while standing up holding a crying baby. The coffee here is so GOOD! It's very STRONG. I may need to smuggle some back. The rest of the food is so different. Even the soda tastes different. We will go to a nice restaurant when Maia is feeling better. We did order room service last night and it was delicious. The fettuccini alfredo tasted like, well, fettuccini alfredo! It was a nice surprise. Mom...WE NEED CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS!!!

Maia is really so sweet and we feel so bad for her. The lady who registered our adoption kept saying "sweet baby, sweet baby". I really think we will see her true personality in the next 2-3 days. I hope so because my arms are killing me! :) Keith is being great about having all our paperwork in order and he packs a mean diaper bag. He actually got to hold her yesterday and took her for a walk without me. She saw the elevator lady and actually held on to Keith instead of going to her. This is an accomplishment because she of course prefers Chinese faces. We saw a Chinese woman in the hallway and Maia screamed and reached for her. I guess she looks like one of her nannies. Our guide, Grace (Chinese) was holding Maia and trying to calm her down and Maia freaked out and reached for me to take her back. She's coming around!!

I wish we had more pictures of her, but she's just so upset that taking pictures is not first on the agenda. We do have a couple though. I'll post them in another post so I don't lose this novel I just wrote.


One more thing...When she sleeps, she sucks her index finger and clutches a wash cloth. Keith was folding a bath towel and she was making noise and reaching for it. That reminded me that I read somwhere that some orphanages give the babies wash cloths as a security item. We quickly got one from the bathroom and she grabbed it, put it to her mouth and completely relaxed. So, we now bring "washie" or 'wa wa" wherever we go.