Poop

(Warning: this post is not for the faint of heart. If you are not even a little curious about our babies' poop you should stop reading immediately.)


I've been trying to think about what to post. Not only do we not have a lot of time, but I feel as if the sorts of things that we're doing and thinking about are not blog worthy. Just to prove it to you, I thought I'd dedicate a post to the topic we're most focused on these days.

Poop.

Inspecting the contents of diapers seems to me a bit like reading tea leaves. Not only can it be used to predict future events, but there's lots of interpretation involved. Some of the interpretive debates we have run along these lines: is it diarrhea? Is it watery?

Brent says 'No'.

I say 'Of course it's diarrhea! Duh!'


So we inspect further and discuss. Also, if Brent changes a diaper that I don't see for myself, I want a full report: Was it dirty? What kind of poop? Is it more solid than the last? Like how much exactly? What precisely was the consistency? And, I must confess, one time I wasn't totally satisfied with his report (remember, we tend to disagree on our interpretations), and so I went and found the diaper to check it out for myself...


Please, please, those of you who are parents, tell me this is normal parental behavior. Or have I turned into some kind of deviant?


Before you decide that I'm a freak, let me just give you a little context here. We gave both Evelyn and Jesse oatmeal about 3 days ago. They both ate it with great gusto. But it had a very different effect on each of them. Evelyn had diarrhea for 2 days straight (and I'm talking like 1-2 diapers per hour with a significant number of these being blowouts) and Jess had nothing (nada, no delivery). (Hopefully, they'll forgive me one day for broadcasting this information.) So, of course, we're concerned right? I mean, they were both clearly unhappy and not feeling well--though for slightly different reasons. Now, in her case, we're worried about her getting dehydrated, so looking for any signs of improvement; in his case, we were just worried about how long it might go on.

So, those of you out there that have been clamoring for more posts, wanting to know what's going on...that's it, that's the poop.


In case you're curious, here's what I believe the "tea leaves" prophesy: 

Evelyn is reaching solid ground. 

Jess is going to work it out.

And here are some pics for Jess and Evie's adoring public (Oh, and don't worry I've not gone so far as to document any bowel movements in photos.)

Anybody in there?

I know I'm the one laughing here,
but it's only because she was clowning around!

Baby-Zilla comin' to get you!

At last a breeze...

Makhabbat and her daughter stopped by for a visit. It was clear the kids enjoyed hearing a little Russian spoken to them. 

Poor Jesse, he's been a little fussy. Especially unhappy when his sis takes his toys. 

Hey! Wanna get me outta here?

It is regarded as bad parenting to take a baby out of the house
(even in the heat of summer) without a hat. Here we are, all ready for a walk. 

What are you doing down there, mom? 

The boy loves his toys!

Helping Dad with work...

Family Aniversary: 1 week together

The sorts of questions that occupy our minds these days:

• Why is it so important that I be standing? Why can't I sit so long as I hold and rock baby in exactly the same way?

• Why does going to sleep always involve crying beforehand?

• How does a baby make so much doo-doo from formula and few Tbs of cereal?

• How do they make all these amazing diaper colors out of white formula?

• If the babies get a feeding roughly every 3 hours, and they need to go to bed at, say, 8:30pm, then at what time do we need to give the first feeding of the day so that we get the last feeding around 8:30? And, more importantly, how do we get them to wake up at that time and to be ready for that feeding?

• Why is he crying?

• Where are those teeth Jess keeps going on about?

• Is this normal?

• Are they breathing?

So, what else can I report about this first week?

• Jess has been fussing and crying a LOT these last few days. He was little Mr. Happy Charmer Man at the hospital, but now that we have him home he's putting us through our paces--making us earn our keep. We don't know if it's teething (some of it must have to do with that) or the cereal we've been trying to give him. One thing is clear, however, he's much better on the days that we don't give him the rice cereal.

• Evie is easy-peasy, not much of a fusser. Well, except when she's tired and it's time to go to sleep (and a lot of this is pretend fussing). The bright side of pretend fussing: its nice to hear her express herself so much after so much silence.

• Jess crawled today!!! Real live, bonafide, opposing limbs, crawling. Should we be happy or chagrined? I mean, seriously, he already had us on the run!

• Evie is the SLEEP MASTER. Last night, for example, she slept 9 hours and so far today has taken two 3 hour naps.

• Evie is also the POOP MASTER. I won't expound on that.

• Evie is into solids, likes the rice cereal, and oatmeal too. Not so much the cauliflower.

• With the twins in our room we've become very light sleepers. Or, in any case, our way of sleeping is weird. I seem to wake up at the slightest fuss. And even when we don't come fully awake, in some subliminal way we seem to hear all kinds of stuff. Often we find ourselves both sitting up in bed and saying "what, what, what??? who is it?" only to realize they're just fussing a little and not waking up. One night I literally woke up standing next to Jess's bed with him in my arms. That freaked me out a bit... I'm not even totally sure why I picked him up. He was awake, but not upset and in fact went back to sleep pretty easily. I also dream strange dreams, I often dream people are in the room talking to me.

• The weather has become pretty hot (mid to high 90s) and this place isn't air conditioned. This has been a challenge. We sleep with the fan on and windows open but then the mosquitoes come in and suck on me... Last night I shut all the windows, but then we all woke up stifling hot. So, I decided to make peace with the fact that I have to sleep with Deet on my skin (Brent did a better job of sealing the screens, so we'll see if Deet is essential after tonight.)

The good news, at this point, is that the twins are on a similar schedule. We make sure to feed them at (roughly) the same time and that seems to put everything else in synch: they fall asleep within about 30 minutes of each other and wake within about 10 minutes of each other. The only thing that's a bit tricky so far is that we can't really allow them to fuss at all. Sometimes, especially with Evie, it's clear they're sleepy and just about to fall asleep, but are still sort of whining. If we could just let them fuss, they'd probably fall asleep in 2 minutes, but in that two minutes the one will have managed to wake the other up. Or, if one wakes up and fusses a bit and falls back to sleep, still, s/he's managed to wake the other in the meantime. (Not sure what we're going to do about that when we get home...we don't have any more bedrooms.)

Their eating habits are different, though. She's a very enthusiastic eater. She usually finishes her bottle, and has taken to the solids pretty well. Jess hasn't taken to solids yet and is finicky about the bottle, will only use the latex (not silicon) nipple and needs it to be very fast flowing. He's distracted more easily and squirms around all the time while he's eating. So, for the first few day while we were figuring all this out, he ate very little. These differences make it a bit hard to keep track of who ate exactly what and when, so I had Brent make me an excel spread sheet with columns marking the hours of the day, and places to record formula, solids, sleep, etc. Now, I can figure out how much they each have eaten per day and when. I also mark when they sleep. I print out a new sheet each day. Ahhhhhh order. Next, we'll create some scatter plots and curve fitting in order to determine the most likely times of day for long naps correlated with the amount of food that typically precedes such naps. Think this will be informative? Probably will just introduce more mysteries.

As our blog silence these last days indicates, we have had our hands full! We have free time during nap times, but if I get on the web during that time, it's to google things like: "introducing solids", "teething symptoms", "feeding schedule", "green poop", etc.. Also, because getting pictures from camera to computer to blog takes so long, it's hard for me to find the blocks of time necessary for doing that. I just downloaded Google's Picasa and am trying to learn my way around it. Once I do, hopefully, it will make it easier to manage and upload pictures.

So, this first week together has been good--but also exhausting. Sometimes Brent and I will look at each other at the end of a day, wipe the sweat off our brows and say "man, is this hard work"! Still, I'm so grateful for this time during which we can focus entirely on the twins. Not only is it good for our bonding as a family, but also for Brent and me as we learn the ropes as parents. Maybe by the end of our time here in Kokshetau we'll be able to have some kind of routine in place.

OK, folks that's the news from the front lines here in Kokshetau. I'm going to try now to embed a slide show from Picasa. It's the best way I can think of to give you lots of pictures with less of a time commitment on my part. Let's see how this works.

Cleaning her plate...

Don't knock my pink ride, it's all I got!

 

Skyping with the Harts, Jesse is into it!

Scary Diaper!

We now have two cribs!

Kickin' back, drinkin' my bottle...

First Things

The last few days have been full of firsts. When we brought the babies home from the hospital it was their first time out of doors, first time in a carrier, first time in a car. Everything is new for them--and much of it for us too.

Here's a sampling:

Goodbye to the nurses...

Hello to the party!

This is the first evening at the cottage and Evelyn and Jess's first Fourth of July BBQ.
We now have a total of 7 American families here in Kokshetau (not everyone is pictured).
So, we had quite a crowd for the July 4th/Dylan B-day/Court Day BBQ.

Playing before bed the first night.

First sleep at home. We only have one crib right now so they are sleeping together--it's not perfect, (see pic to the right) but it works. (We'll get the second crib from another family who's going home tomorrow.)

First Bath

Evie really enjoyed the bath... So did Jess. In fact, when we were toweling him dry we must have hit the "off" button, because he just went lights out, couldn't even get him to eat. But then he must have turned over at 4 in the morning and hit the "on" button ...

Here's our first shot at solids. Evie didn't even want to have a spoon in her mouth. But, this evening (two days later) she ate almost a half of a serving all by herself. Jess is a little slower to take to the stuff, but he will eat several bites...

Well, speaking of firsts, we're going to have to be up first thing in the morning. (Even though they can go about 6-7 hours at night that only gets us to about 4-4:30am.) Fortunately, Brent is still jet lagged, so he doesn't yet feel to bad being up that early so he stays up with them while I go back to sleep. Then he takes a long nap in the afternoon and I take my solo turn with them. We need to work on finding some kind of schedule. These last few days it's like we all look at each other and say "what comes next?"

Family of Four

This is us coming back with babies after court. O happy day!

Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. We're resting here on our bed with our two beautiful, tired, squirmy, wide-eyed babies next to us--enjoying the hilarious antics they're coming up with to avoid sleep (Evie doing some very forced, but very cute, giggle--at what exactly we don't know). They seem to feel as we do; they don't want to miss a moment of this happy happy day, which is now drawing to a close. But today is just beginning for you all--Happy Independence Day!

So, the custody hearing went off without a hitch. It involved lots of nerves and waiting, and the judge was a very stern woman, but she decided in our favor without much deliberation, and we happily went off to the infant ward to see (and bring home) our new son and daughter! Our housemates Doug and Janet had been planning a party for the Fourth, which is also their son Dylan's birthday, and, of course, they knew we would have something to celebrate too. All the adopting families in town came and brought something to eat and drink. Our Kazakh friend, Makhabbat, outdid us all and brought three traditional Kazhak musicians with their dhombras!

What better welcome for the twins than to be serenaded by Kazhak girls at a big birthday party!

We all had a great time, and Jesse didn't miss out on anything (Evie, though she tried with all her might to stay awake, finally just passed out). This has been an amazing and blissful day, better than we can express.

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights!

Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his host!

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars!

Praise him, you highest heavens,

and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for he commanded and they were created.

He established them for ever and ever;

he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.

Praise the Lord from the earth,

you sea monsters and all deeps,

fire and hail, snow and frost,

stormy wind fulfilling his command!

Mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars!

Wild animals and all cattle,

creeping things and flying birds!

Kings of the earth and all peoples,

princes and all rulers of the earth!

Young men and women alike,

old and young together!

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

for his name alone is exalted;

his glory is above earth and heaven.

He has raised up a horn for his people,

praise for all his faithful,

for the people of Israel who are close to him.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 148 (NRSV)

Wednesday, Thursday, Courtday

The court date is just around the corner. The day after the day after tomorrow.

I must admit, I feel a bit apprehensive about it. Our coordinators here preface all discussion of the final leg of our journey with: "If all goes well at court...", or "If the decision is favorable..." Until this point, I've been inclined to think of the court hearing as a mere formality. I mean, we've completed the loads of required paperwork, we were invited by the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education to come here and meet these children, we've traveled across the world, completed the requisite bonding period, visited the babies every day for almost 6 weeks. How could court be anything other than a formality at this point? Even so, it's increasingly clear that the folks working with us on this side don't think of it that way. Recent news that three families (in another region) were just turned down at their court hearing doesn't make me rest easier.

So, I appeal to the prayers among you yet again...

Brent gets on the plane today (Tuesday) at 1 in the afternoon to return to Kazakhstan. He'll arrive in Kokshetau at noon on Thursday. He's got quite a grueling trip in front of him, poor guy. Of course, being a bit prone to worry, I'm fretting about the possibility of delays and/or flight cancellations. As it stands he's arriving less than 24 hours before our court date.The last bit of news relating to adoption logistics has to do with our return dates. We just found out that we are not going to get to come home as soon as we were hoping. Since our court date was scheduled earlier than initially forecast, we expected that we'd also get to come home sooner. So, we were thinking we'd complete the appeal period on the 19th, travel to Almaty on the 22nd, leave Almaty the 29th. As it turns out, we don't get to leave Kokshetau till the 29th, and won't leave Almaty till the 2nd. But let's look on the bright side here. What this means is that I'll get on a plane to return home exactly 70 days from the date I left Saint Louis--and 70 is a pretty number. In all seriousness, though, so long as we leave with these children in our arms, I'll count 10 weeks in Kazakhstan worth every single second.

And that brings us back to the topic of our court date. Lord, in your mercy... hear our prayer.

Highlights from Sunday

Chomp!

Even if a girl can't go outside, she can still wear a bonnet right?

Highlights from Monday

    We're seeing lots of smiles these days, lots of eye contact (!)--and lots of drool.

It's not that I'm cheap--there are two of these teethers.
But they always both want what the other has, so this worked best.

I love all the hands and feet in this picture.

Highlights from Tuesday

He watches my lips very carefully when I talk to him.
Here, I'm saying "mamamamamama"--working on that one while dadadada is away.

Evie laughed out loud for the first time today--I was tickling her.

Goodnight everyone. Have a good day.

Another Week in Review: taking in some culture

Warning: This post excessively long and the number of pictures included demonstrates an absolute lack of restraint on the author's part.

You wouldn't know it from the dull posts I've written these past few days, but we've actually had a pretty interesting week. Makhabbat, our housemates' interpreter, took us to several events around town this week: a soccer game, a graduation, and a concert. I thought I'd use the Sunday, week-in-review post, to tell you a little about it.

The Soccer Match

Last Sunday, we went to a soccer game: Kokshetau vs. Kostanai. The home team scored a goal at the last minute to even up the score... the crowd went wild! Final score: 1-1. The stadium isn't too terribly large, it was almost full--where we were sitting was about the only place where there were any empty seats left. There was a small marching band in the bleachers near us. Apparently, Kokshetau is a pretty poor team. Still, it was fun to be there.

Here's the band.
That's "Dougdad" and Dylan in the picture--our housemates.
Dylan ended up getting to play that drum a little.

American cheering section.

The Graduation Event

The following night, we attended a celebration honoring the city's high school graduates. The event was held in the soccer stadium and was quite the extravagant affair. The ceremony involved a recognition of the top 16 students by name and the awarding of flowers and a certificate. There was a number of student dance performances, a knowledge torch that was passed from teacher to student to the theme of Chariots of Fire, a choreographed waltz to the song "A Summer Place", a release of a bunch of balloons, and, finally, the event was concluded with a fireworks display.

As you can see from the pictures below, the students get completely decked out for this event. The dress for girls was much like a Prom here in the states (maybe even a bit more glamourous), the boys don't wear tuxedos, but they too are in fine form. It will be fun to show Evelyn and Jesse one day what the teenagers here dress and look like...(not a whole lot different from the way teenagers look here at a formal.)

Her sash says "Class of 2008".
All the graduates (boys &girls) were wearing these

These guys were very friendly and figured out pretty quickly that I was American (I think it was my saying in English "hold still so I can take a picture" that clued them in). They were pretty excited about this and immediately introduced themselves and asked where we were from in the US. Most students take English in school so the younger generation typically has some (though not a lot) of English.

See kids on cellphones? Teens are same the world around!

The three ladies in the picture are mom, Makhabbat (a local translator and a newfound friend) and her daughter. The boy is a graduate (and honors student) from the Turkish Lyceum here in town.

The girl pictured here is in traditional Kazakh costume. We were told that this would be the sort of dress a women might wear at her wedding (if she were going to have a traditional wedding) though the bride could choose any color she prefers.

The Concert

Then on Wednesday, we went to a concert featuring popular Russian and Kazakh music from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. The concert was held in the performance center in town, which is a pretty nice place. In fact, it looks pretty new. It's not a huge concert hall, but then again, it's not a huge city. In any case, the concert itself was really interesting. The performance involved a fairly decent sized orchestra and a variety soloists. Some of the songs were sung in Kazakh, but the majority were in Russian. The only difference I could really discern in style as we moved through the decades was that the later numbers were more upbeat and gave greater place to the electric guitars in the band. Still, there was really nothing like a Rock-n-Roll influence here. Very different from the popular music here in the US in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Here are a few pictures:

This was one of the Kazakh numbers.

This is the encore song--all the performers on stage.

Saturday Afternoon Visit

As always, the main event of every day and every week is the time with our little ones, so I have to review the last visit as well.

What's most different about afternoon visits is that Jess and Evie are not as active during this time of day--or, rather, their active period is shorter-lived. Not only are they more mellow, but it also feels as if we spend the bulk of our time waiting for their bottles to show up. I don't know what's going on in their feeding schedule, but it's very clear that about 4o minutes after we show up, these two are really looking for their mid-afternoon feeding. But they don't bring the bottles till near the end of our time together (roughly 30-40 minutes after they seem to begin wanting them). By the time the bottles do arrive, Jess and Evelyn are pretty much at the end of their rope. It's a bit hard. These little guys are telling me in the clearest possible terms what they need and want and I can't do a thing for them, but just wait along with them... Well, that and do what I can to make the wait easier.

What all this means is that we spend much less time playing and more time with me finding various ways of holding, comforting, distracting them till the bottles come. It forces me to think up different things to do (different ways to hold them, just for variety's sake). Saturday turned out to be pretty great, though. I laid on my back and put them on my chest and enjoyed lots of face to face time with them. Jess, in particular, seemed to find plenty of new and interesting objects to play with during this activity:

I decided that, in the end, it'd be best to leave off the picture where he managed
to fit three fingers into my right nostril. (Such a picture does exist, but it's just too unbecoming and unprofessional.)

Although the active period is shorter in duration, Jess and Evie still manage to have plenty of fun.

My smiley boy!

This outfit is a hand-me-down from my cousins Ellie and Lucy.

The little man can travel...

I don't know why she was doing this, but she did it several times. So funny!
I think she's trying to look to see what's going on down there with the feet--
why don't they move her forward when she wants them to.

Those headstands sort of mess up your hair!

By the time the bottles showed up, there was no way I was going to make either Jess or Evelyn wait one second more. So I fed them simultaneously. (It's not that I can't do this, it is rather that I try to snuggle with each of them while they eat. Not really easy to do this with both at once.)


P.S. I'm experiencing connectivity difficulties again so may be behind in posts and emailing for the next few days...