Our Daughter Lina

Last week was a big week for Lina and her parents.

On Tuesday, we had our first “get acquainted” session at Lina’s future daycare center. She did great and had fun playing with the toys. She was moderately interested in the other kids and a little bit jealous when Mama and Papa held or played with other kids. She was very well behaved but it was all too exciting for a nap, so she was extra tired and a little cranky in the evening.

Lina’s school has lots of cool toys that we don’t have at home. She liked this ball because she could pick it up with one hand.

On Wednesday, Lina woke up happy and we took her in for her full post-placement physical with Dr. Julia Bledsoe of the Center for Adoption Medicine at UW. She weighed in at 19 lbs. 7 oz. and measured 27 in. Her weight is 45th percentile (on the US charts!) and her height is in the 30s. Dr. Bledsoe was very pleased with Lina’s overall health and progress and had no worries at all. She said that Lina is the healthiest baby from China that she has seen in a long time! Lina took to Dr. Bledsoe immediately, and all through the exam she was her normal happy, babbly, bubbly self.

Then it was time for injections. Lina got three immunizations (HIB, pneumococcus, and influenza), which entailed a fair amount of wailing and (since I was holding her) looks of, “Why are you doing this to me, Papa?”. Then we headed down to the lab for a blood draw and the real fun began.

The technician and his assistant started getting nervous as soon as he began looking for a vein. They tried the right arm, then the left arm. Then back to the right. All her veins are well protected by her baby fat and hard to find. They’re not used to dealing with babies as, er, robust as Lina. After a failed attempt in her arm, they tried the back of her hand and finally had some success. Of course all this is happening with Lina screaming her little lungs out, me trying to hold her as steady as possible in as gentle a way as possible, and Stephanie standing back trying to be strong and not burst into tears herself. And then the flow stopped. They got enough for most of the tests, but not enough to run titers (to test the efficacy of her Chinese vaccinations). As Lina’s great grandma used to say, “Ay carumba.” We all agreed it was best to stop for the day and come back another day to try again another day.

The next day (Thursday) Lina had her first swimming lesson! She was a bit scared at first, but Stephanie was very patient with her and by the end she was splashing and having a little fun (not as much as she normally does in the bath).

Later that evening, Lina was extra cranky and felt warmer than usual–she had a 103 degree F fever. We were worried it might be related to the immunizations, so we called the nurse line at her doctor’s office. They recommended ibuprofen for the fever but weren’t concerned because it wasn’t very high and because we gave the “right” answers to all their other questions. Her fever went down pretty quickly, and was still down Friday morning when she woke up with a rash all over her body. Another phone call and then a trip down to the clinic and she was diagnosed with Roseola, which I guess lots of kids get (my dad remembers me getting it) and it’s not a big deal as long as the fever isn’t too high.

Then to finish off the week we had our first post-placement visit by our social worker that afternoon. It went very well and despite Lina’s rash she was back to 90% of her normal happy self, and our SW was very pleased with Lina’s interaction with us and her happy and engaged demeanor.

Saturday dawned with a happy baby and lessening rash. And two parents who wanted to go to the Seahawks playoff game–time for Lina’s first babysitter. Lina’s Omi came over and watched her while Stephanie and I went to the game. We knew she was in good hands, but we couldn’t help giving her useless instructions like how we mix the formula. Stephanie’s mom raised four kids and has nine grandkids–she doesn’t really need me to show her how to make a bottle. We knew Lina was in good hands and checked our phones often as we cheered the Seahawks on to victory.

Phew, what a week! And this Friday, Auntie Kerry is coming to visit. Besides all the usual Kerry goodness, she’s going to (conveniently, but not coincidentally) babysit Lina while Stephanie and I abuse our vocal chords in support of the (hopefully NFC champion) Seahawks.

Lina loves her baths.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 at 21:51 and is filed under lina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.