Fussy Feet (Bonding Day 3)

If Alia could speak I think she would say, "I just want to be held!"

When we arrived today she was HUNGRY, but we had about 1/2 hour to wait for her bottle. We tried to distract her with a little tummy time (she doesn't seem to mind it - Luca hated it), some books and a little massage and stretching. Thanks for the reassurance on the stiffness and suggestions for exercises. I recall reading about it, but wanted to be sure. My brain is still a little foggy.

She didn't cry for the bottle, however, she looked very concerned and distracted. When it arrived, Scott fed her and it was gone in 5 minutes flat - no exaggeration - a full Kazakh sized bottle in 5 minutes.

After the bottle, I thought she would play for a while. Perhaps we wore her out with the stretching and massage. She just wanted to be held and walked and swayed (I am trying to remember the 5 S's from Happiest Baby on the Block). She fell asleep, then woke up when I tried to give her to Scott. We repeated this all over again with the same results. Finally, Scott got her back to sleep and she laid on me and slept so hard. And, that was about it. Oh - we did hear a new noise today. She giggles and makes a very subdued fuss noise. Today, she made more of a conversational sound. It was pretty cool. I was echoing her yesterday. I wonder if she was doing a little echoing of her own today.

We play music while we are there. A colleague of Scott's gave us a lot of classical music before we left. Bach seems to be appreciated. I have my Nano as well. We listen to Baby Einstein, Elizabeth Mitchell (if you haven't heard her, please check her out - awesome!) and Cowboy Junkies today - mellow music for a mellow day.

When we arrive on the hospital grounds my pulse starts racing and I get nervous. It is the funniest thing . . . I just get so excited to see her. When we leave her in her crib (she cried yesterday and today), I want to throw up. I get into this post-visit funk.

To remedy that we went out by ourselves today! We survived! It was only a trip to the Next Store (supermarket or "pick-up store"), but it felt good. When I was paying, the check-out woman said something to me in Russian - "Nyet Russki" I said. She said, "Oh" but continued speaking to me in Russian. The total was about 3000 Tenge and I gave her 4000. It seemed to have to do with that. I wonder if she wanted me to pay closer to 3000. I didn't have that anyway.

I believe I successfully located lotion. I wrote it out in Russian before we left. I also believe I found conditioner. I surreptiously opened the bottle and squeezed a little out. I didn't want to get busted by the grocery store "police".

We are confused about whether our bonding has officially started. Our in-country team in Almaty seemed to think that we would not start officially bonding until Tuesday because of the Constitution Day holiday. However, we signed the intention to adopt papers on Friday. So, it seems that we are on Day 3. I would love that. Things would be AHEAD of schedule! Should I even say that out loud for fear of tempting fate?!