Sweet Sleep

Hi all!


So today was a busy busy BUSY day with a brand new (to me) baby. My little Aibek slept until I woke him up at 9:30. Yes, you read that right, I woke him up. At 9:30. But I guess he was due for some sleep since he didn’t actually get to bed until 3am the night before since we were traveling. So I woke him and shoved a bottle in his mouth so Sasha could pick us up at 9:45. He just wore his PJ’s all day long and nobody better give me any shit about it. I’m in survival mode for now. First, Sasha dropped us at the photo place to get pictures for his visa. We were shoved into this tiny little room with a bunch of Kazakh business men who were, of course, staring and talking about us. I mean, we do stand out so I don’t blame them. I heard them saying “kazakh” and “mama”. I think they got what we were doing there. But still no dirty looks so I was glad about that.

Little Sumo was a good boy, no crying at the stranger holding him and taking his photo. They printed it out and we were off to meet Janara at the notary office (while Carson ran across the street to the market for Coke and water and watched South Park in the car with Sasha). A few forms to fill out, some items that I needed to hand off, and then we were off to the doctor’s office to get him cleared to come home. As any doctor’s office, there was lots of sitting in the waiting room. He has snotty nose and maybe a little ear infection so we got some stuff for that. Then it was back home to drop some things off and we walked to the Ramstore mall down the block. We got some pizza at the food court, fed Aibek some lunch, got some groceries, and came back to the apartment to put him down for a nap. A super late one. But he hadn’t really been complaining all that much (but keep reading to the end). I JUST got him to sleep after a bit of crying and passed out from exhaustion myself and the phone rang in the bedroom. I don’t think I have ever jumped up so fast from the dead of sleep. Aibek might have slept until 9:30 but I was up at 5:30 after not even 3 hours of sleep and was so exhausted that I was limp. It was Janara calling and it turns out that the nurse forgot to weigh him and get his height and Sasha was coming to get us in 20 minutes so we could go back for it. So it was off with the comfy sleeping clothes, back on the boots and coats, wake Aibek up and bundle him back in the hated snowsuit, and back in the car to the doctor’s office for a 5 minute weigh and measure, then back in the car home. I was so tired and so pissed that he was going to get no nap at all, that as I was unlocking the door to our hallway, I violently bashed my thumb in the door (now dubbed The Door of Death) and my entire thumbnail immediately turned different shades of purple. And there were most definitely some colorful words exiting my mouth as well. Thank the lord for Carson because I ran into the apartment, grabbed the Aleve, she got Aibek settled and grabbed some ice and I was incapacitated for the next hour as I waited to see exactly how bad it was going to be and if we were going to have to figure out how to find a doctor to drill a hole in my fingernail to relieve the pressure. I was so pissed, amazingly pissed off. And tired- and I just wanted to be home in my own bed, with Peter and Rinat and be done here. But it stopped swelling after a bit and I calmed down and knew I was going to be OK. Not great, but no doctor at least.

By then it was dinnertime for the little man and so we fed him, ate something ourselves, and then tried out his first shower. He has a snotty nose and I was really wanting to #1 wash off all the dried snot, and #2 get him some steam to loosen it all up and clear it out. But no dice. He was not a fan. So I did what I could and washed off the dried snot and food as he cried and tried to get some water on his chapped little face and put lotion on it. Then we had to wait around for Sasha to bring by some packet for us to keep until Janara came for it the next morning. And, of course since the phone is in the bedroom, I didn’t want to put Aibek to sleep until he had called to say he was on his way. At about 8:30 he finally called, I got the package, and then I put Aibek to sleep.

I really thought he would be exhausted and just fall into bed. But I was wrong. So so wrong. He cried and cried and cried. I think partly the food is not agreeing with him and partly he wanted his comfy crib at the Baby House. I don’t blame him, I’m pretty excited to get back home myself. I tried everything to make him feel better and the only thing that worked was swinging him back and forth. But of course I can only do that for 5 minutes before my back goes into spasms so I would have to stop which would start him crying again. He was crying so hard it was making him cough, and then he would go ‘uh-bbb, uh-bbbbbbbbbbbb’ over and over again, and he had that hitch in his breathing that they get when they cry so hard. He just kept at it for a good hour and a half no matter what I did. It was sad and I knew he was so tired. I know it is against every adoption protocol, but finally at 10pm I decided to just let him cry. I think maybe I was just interfering in his self soothing and it was just better that I leave him alone. It was torturous and I felt bad for him but it worked. Eventually he just cried himself to sleep. I was right there and did what I could but exhaustion finally took over for us both. Sweet sweet sleep.

Sweet dreams! Love to all, -m