Today was the big day. Mike arrived back from the states this morning at about 5 am. I’d had a wonderful send off last night shopping and dining with my new friend Kristin (also adopting from the states) and Russian friends, Sveta and Sonya. It’s a long story how we know Sveta and Sonya. They are college students studying English and were a wonderful source of enjoyment as well as practical help navigating a foreign city. It’s been a long time since I met such sensitive, sweet girls who are barely into their 20s.
Anyway, onto today. Mike was very tired and so it was arranged that we would go to the baby home in the afternoon. Mike slept through the morning and I quietly crept out to breakfast and then back to bed for a while. It seemed a bit awkward knowing we were entitled to have Helena, and yet not having her, being afraid of having her and also knowing Mike needed his sleep after a very long international haul. Around 1 pm, we began making the room baby ready and deciding what she would wear. We decided on a simple footed sleeper and the small snowsuit – yes, Mo, the one you bought! We went down to meet our coordinator and driver at 2:30, bearing more gifts for various players in this ballet.
We took our last drive to the baby home, I was actually a bit sad because I have become so accustomed to this routine and also attached to the caregivers. When we arrived, Helena was awake and in the main play area with two of her caregivers. All the other babies were asleep which made it nice to spend time saying goodbye and taking pictures of the caregivers with Helena. However, I also missed saying goodbye to them. I’m glad I took so many pictures and video clips on previous days! A comment was translated that Helena looked so much like Michael and he once again told them that he had not been to Russia previously. I’m not sure they knew that he was denying the possibility that no, it was not possible he was Helena’s biological father. Here we are always saying things that no one understands and no one is the wiser. We then said our final thanks, I hugged the caregivers, did some more crying and we carried Helena to the car. She looked around and was very still as we began the trip and then she drifted off to sleep as we entered the city.
We successfully transferred her to the crib in our hotel room without waking her and I must say I was feeling like a fairly accomplished new mother. She stayed asleep for about 10 minutes while I took it all in and Mike went over to the Aeroflot office to purchase tickets for our trip to Moscow on Monday. The nap ended when I chose to open up my chewable vitamins and the noise startled her. She cried, I picked her up and she was all smiles and ready to play. Mike arrived back soon after and we played for a while and then we decided to go to dinner downstairs in the hotel’s restaurant, mainly because it is close and has a high chair. Helena ate a large jar of baby food, nibbled on bread and drank from a sippy cup and dinner was more successful than I anticipated. I was glad I’d bought a very large bib and also that we’d fed her several times at the orphanage.
We took a trek to the market after dinner and then decided to give her a bath in the shower. I know that makes a lot of sense. I sat in the bottom of the shower and put a small amount of warm water in it and washed her off. She wasn’t too upset by it but it certainly wasn’t a play bath. I can’t wait till we have a bathtub. She has very dry skin, especially her legs and we think it’s because they hose her down after sitting on the potty multiple times a day. So we lubed her up with some baby lotion. Now she is sleeping soundly in the crib and Mike is snoring next to me. She wasn’t much into being held as it seemed to stimulate her. We put her in the crib, turned out the lights and put on some soft music on the laptop. She lay down and fussed a bit but stayed laying down. I only needed to rub her back a bit and and reassure her vocally and she went to sleep after about 15 minutes which I think is a world record for any of my three children to date. I have mixed feelings about wanting to rock her and give her all that safety and reassurance vs. having her be low maintenance at bedtime.
It is now Sunday evening and we haven't yet posted about Saturday. We'll get this up and work on adding Sunday's events to the blog later.
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