She eats incredibly well. If it’s a baby food meal, she eats 2-3 jars. If it’s cut up table food, she eats chicken, potatoes, carrots and noodles and loves them all. For breakfast she loves an entire packet of oatmeal, some banana and some cheerios. The drinking is the hardest part – and for me it is very depressing, and admittedly bothers me a great deal. We’ll get there, but it just makes me so sad. Based on what I saw at the baby house, they were given about 2 ounces (maybe it was 3) per meal… the lunch was always tea, I’m not sure what else they gave at times other than lunch. That means with 3 meals and one snack, she was offered about 8 ounces of liquid a day, maybe 12. Based on what I’ve been told, she should be drinking about 3-6 ounces of juice and 24-32 ounces of milk a day. That’s a total of 38 ounces of liquid and she was only ever offered 8 - 12 per day (or so, based on what I saw.) I’d say the first few days of her with us she MIGHT have had 8 ounces a day – and I offered many many many times. She’s just not used to it, and she doesn’t want it.
What this has meant is that getting her to drink is a challenge and I think it bothers me more than it bothers her. Since she is used to so little liquid she doesn’t even know she isn’t getting enough. She is drinking what she’s used to… and not much more, if at all. To her, thirsty is drinking a sip or two… anyway – this bothers me and I just have to work at her drinking more and figuring out how she knows she wants more? That’s hard when she’s used to so little, but we’re doing it little by little, even so far. She has very little output which is another way I know she just isn’t drinking enough. She produces no waste (wetness) and it just breaks my heart. This, by far, has affected me more than anything else! I was so upset about it last night (my cranky night) I just didn’t know how you can make a baby drink… that doesn’t really work… and I was frustrated. Anyway – hopefully it will come in time and perhaps my pediatrician at home will have ideas of how to increase her consumption. (I also can’t go from what’s she used to to the full amount all at once, I’m sure that would shock her system too.) Any other AP’s deal with this problem? How did you solve it?
On to more fun things… she now loves her bath!! Although we don’t have a tub, we stopped up the base of the shower and collected about 1-2 inches of water. As soon as I put my hand in it to show her the water and splash my hand, she was all in to that! We learned she doesn’t like the noise of the shower (we tried to add more water as it was cooling off) and she wasn’t happy about the shower being back on even though it wasn’t getting her wet. The hard part still is rinsing her hair, but I’m not sure there are many kids that like that! At least she likes her bath now – I can’t wait to get her in her tub at home – with bubbles!! That’ll be fun. Matthew loved his bath time when he was little. He would sit for an hour, easily – longer if I’d let him. Maybe she’ll be the same way once we get home.
One funny thing we’ve learned is that since she does not have a crib here in the apartment – when she gets up after her nap, she just gets up and climbs on my bed and plays with stuff in my room. She never cries out and let’s us know she is done with her nap. (This is the second thing that makes me a bit sad because I’m sure she just had to wait in her crib until she was gotten before, and not if she ‘cried out’. So, she just learned not to cry out.) I have also left her sound asleep in my room, and gone in to check on her and found her, sound asleep on my bed, with her blanket and pacifier, so it is definitely well planned. She is as quiet as a church mouse I tell ya, and quite sneaky! I have a lot of baby proofing to do when I get home… I wasn’t quite anticipating a 17-18 month old the minute I walked in… She’ll give me a run for my money from the word go – she is busy! I have a lot to clean up…
The time with her has gone fast and it is already Monday night and we leave Wednesday morning! We have things still to pack and it will be weird to say goodbye to this apartment. It served a purpose during a major time in my life! At the same time, now that we have her, I feel like, why am I still here? Why can’t I just get on the plane and go now? I got what I came for – so come on. It’s only a week or so left and we’ll be home. We do get more home sick as the days pass, that is for sure. I get so excited thinking about Maia meeting Matthew and her Grandpa as soon as we get home, I’m beside myself. Then on the weekend, she’ll get to meet her Uncle Bobby… she got to talk to him on the Skype last night! That was cool. She kept looking at the computer and wondering why it was talking to her. (That was cute!) In time she’ll meet the whole family, but I’m just over the top excited about the first few days home and all the excitement that will bring. Tick tock, tick tock. It can’t come fast enough now.
Let me just put a plug in for Skype. Talk over the internet to anyone, anywhere – it is AWESOME and free. Except we pay for dial-up time here… but that’s the same cost as the internet. If you have a high speed connection, then there is NO cost involved at all. And even my dial up rate here is cheaper than the calling plan in the states to call us here in Kaz. Highly recommended. There is a delay on the dial up side, but that’s a small price to pay. Great! The one thing we didn’t know if it would work over dial-up, and stupidly didn’t try it until now… and it does work… So we could have been talking to people at home much more often – so for those about to travel, it works, and it works on dial up. Enjoy!
Today we went with Masha to the Doner Café. It was great! It had a little play area for kids to play in. Maia sat in a highchair and ate cheerios and then I fed her some baby food. Her first restaurant experience! I gave her some Nan from my lunch and also bits of French fries and some chicken. After we were done eating, we went and played in the play area. There was a toy airplane she could ride in (cost: 50 tenge) and so we tried it out. Let’s hope she does better on the REAL airplanes we are about to travel on! She went down a couple of slides (with help) and played on a swing. She also had a big area to just WALK around in which she took advantage of… she strutted her stuff all over that play area and did a great job. She’ll be running away from me any day now… 
If we are at a hotel in Almaty, we should have high speed internet connection and surely be back online some. I will say my computer time has decreased since she’s arrived! Partially so that she won’t pull the phone cord out of the wall (it is held in the wall by a pin… any slight movement will pull it right out) and partially because when she’s asleep, I either have slept, or sat here just staring in to space doing nothing and wondering why I’m not asleep.
I went to the Iceberg for the last time today. That was a little sad… I looked around as we were leaving – good memories, that’s for sure.
6 comments:
I know it's hard but don't stress, eventually she will be drinking and doing all the things she was meant to do. Just love on her as much as possible and keep offering her the drinks she will eventually want more, it will just take time. She's obviously not dehydrated, just look at those cheeks and she seems happy, she won't go to college not drinking milk or juice or water. I promise. You are doing a great job.
I ditto Michelle. Don't worry. She looks happy and healthy. She will settle into a new routine with you soon enough. Keep in mind too that juice and milk are heavier then tea. You could always try 1/2 juice and 1/2 water. I'm sure your pediatrician will put your mind at ease, but until then don't worry. Enjoy your last 2 days there. It sounds like your next stop will be another adventure. Hight speed internet sounds like a big improvement! What a wonderful stage Maia is at. Although I had to laugh about her being busy. I can remember back to that crossover when you had to be careful of everything in their path and even outside of their path.
Yay Maia on walking like a big girl! I'm so impressed at how quick you learn things! You're one smart little girl, that's for sure.
I don't really have any words of advice on the drinking thing. I wonder if partly it's her preference as my experience with the same babyhouse is the kids get offered 60 oz a day approximately. But if she has always rejected fluids, perhaps they cut back on what they offered her rather than waste it. Just a thought. When Gigi is sick though, she also doesn't like to take fluids. The best way we've found is to put her in the nice warm bathtub of water with a sippy cup of warm milk or warm juice. She'll drink it then, even if she just rejected the very same thing pre-bath tub.
I can't wait till you come home too! Hope you are getting some good sleep and maybe with Nauryez winding down, you're neighbors will also wind down a little. :-)
Oops!! Sorry. I double pressed the submit button, so my comment showed up twice. I deleted it.
I agree with everyone who posted already - she is in a huge adjustment time and her system is off. Once you are home and there is a routine, she should catch on and drink fluids. Try not to stress!
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