Friday - Day 8 - Sick Baby (ies)

Hola Everybody!

Last night went okay. The baby was fidgeting all night long and didn't sleep to well. She developed a cough yesterday ( I guess too much sight seeing). So she was kind of coughing all night and would wake up for a quick second. She actually only woke up twice to be picked up during the night. Each time was for only about 15 minutes.

The night was long, but not unbearable.

She awoke around 5:00 for her 7:00am feeding. Both Linda and I got up, I prepared the bottle, while Linda tried her best to soothe a hungary baby. (See previous post.)

As soon as Linda gave her the bottle, Amelia calmed down and started pigging out. That's when I made my move...
I made a bee line right towards my pillow.

After the feeding and noticing that the baby's cough was still kind of there, Linda felt we should just take it easy today instead of more sight seeing. So we shut the alarm off and decided to stay in bed as long as possible today.

At precisely 8:00 the phone rings and we were all still sound asleep which is an absolute rarity, but given the long night, I'm not gonna justify it. It felt goooood!

Anyway, it was the Orphanage director wanting to know if she could come by and discuss some of our final steps. Linda had to ask her to come around 9:30 or the woman was coming right then. Linda thought the woman said in her broken english, that she wanted to come by around breakfast time.

So Linda rushed into the shower while I woke up James. The baby woke up when the phone rang. We rushed around cleaning our hotel room, trying to make it look like we are the Stepford family. I ordered lots of fruit and danishes and coffee has any gracious host would do.

We actually were ready and waiting for Raquel. She showed up at 9:30 on the dot. She came in and saw the table settings and was a little embarassed that we didn't eat yet. At which point the food arrived, and Raquel was ready to go stand in the hallway while I ate my breakfast. The ettiquet here is a little different than at home. We have noticed little things through out the week. Anyway, Raquel meant that she wanted to come after we had eaten our breakfast.

So it was a little awkward.

She took the baby and insisted that I sat down to eat while she had my baby sitting on the couch. So we all felt a little funny now. Needless to say, James and I sat at the table while Linda sat with her and the baby on the couch.

It was at this point she noticed that baby had this cough. She started acting like the worried grandma. She immediately wanted us to bring the baby by the orphanage today to see the pediatrician that had been taking care of Amelia since day 1.
Which made Linda very happy. So Raquel got up to leave and told us that she would call within the hour to tell us what time to go to the orphanage.

Well, our translator called several hours later and said that the doctor was very busy today and that if the baby sounded the same way tomorrow than we should go to see the doctor.

The baby had a slight fever this morning. But after giving her infant motrin, she was okay.

At this point Linda needed some James time and he wanted to take her to the trails behind the hotel. So they left.

My first solo flight.

Ooooh, it was nerve wracking. It was lunch time for the baby. Every thing went smoothly. Yet I was still a little freaked. I was counting the seconds until everybody returned. Which they didn't. I get a call about 45 minutes later to come down to the poolside restaurant. Linda and James were hanging out having some sodas and were thinking about having a pizza.

Okay, so my first solo flight consisted of hanging out in the room stuffing her little face. Which really is a piece of cake, because she is like a little baby bird. She sits with her mouth wide open waiting for the next spoonful of soup.

Now I had to clean her up, pack up the 8 million things that accompany a baby whenever you leave the house (even if it is to just go outside to get the mail) and go meet them for pizza. (Like I was going to pass that up)

So I get her into the stroller and we stroll (hence the name) down the hall to the elevators. All the while she is enjoying the scenery. In the elevator I break out the video camera and decide to film the walk from the elevators to the pool.

I see my family sitting there drinking their sodas, enjoying the day. As soon as I get to them, I noticed it is a little cold. Linda also realizes that it is chilly and notices that the baby has no socks, pants or a sweater on. Also the onesy that she had on was not even snapped, so the baby's belly is all exposed.

Okay, so my first solo excursion went a little askew. At least I had 17 diapers and a few hundred wipes, you know, just in case there was a catastrophic diarhea explosion.


I did remember to throw a blanket on top of her though, so it isn't like she was a little babsicle.


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As we were leaving to take James to the playground, the other couple came over. We wound up hanging out until almost 5:00. But during this time, my poor little Jimmy D was starting to act a little wierd. He wanted to sit on my lap while we were talking with other adults. Usually as soon as Linda or I am distracted he is looking for a way to get out of dodge.

Turns out he had a fever.

We came back to the room, Linda gave him some motrin. He laid down and has been sleeping since 5:30 without dinner. So hopefully he'll be okay in the morning.

Amelia also is supposed to eat food at 5:00 and a bottle at 7:00 but instead ate a huge dinner at 6:00 which ended up combining with her 7:00 bottle. She immediately passed out and has been sleeping ever since. Which means she will be up around ten for her next bottle.

We think Amelia might be teething, she had all the classic signs today. Slight fever, soft stool, and was chewing on her pacifier like a rabid dog. We think we noticed some white spot on her gums.

I say "think" because at this age, it is all conjecture anyway. I like when they hit that age and tell you what hurts.

- - - - - -

So the orphanage lady told us the judge has our paper work and if all goes well, we could be leaving here by Tuesday. But you never know. It still may wind up being Thursday which means that we will be in Colombia until at least Tuesday of the following week. That would make our trip 3 and a half weeks and that would not be fun.

If it is Tuesday, we will probably be allowed to come home a day earlier than planned. We will have to see what costs more, the changing of the airline reservations or one more night in Colombia.

- - - - - -

Observation 8?) If you sit in front of a laptop with Amelia on your lap, listening to itunes. Amelia dances back and forth.

Observation 9) Amelia gets comfort out of rocking herself back and forth, just like when my little sister, Rachel was a baby and now her daughter Paige. So already, Amelia is picking up family traits.

Love to all.

P.S. Still haven't gotten the camera cable to upload pictures.