We are home. An update by the wife, since my husband has gone nutty.

So it has been a few days home now and I have a few people in particular who keep pestering me about an update.  I made Jason take Sophie in for her lab work so my arms are free for a few minutes so I thought I would catch you all up.

I will start at the beginning and you can fast forward to what ever you are interested in.

The flight home:
The flight home was very long as we knew it would be.  Sophie and Ella both did very well considering the lack of sleep and disruption of any sleep they were attempting to get.  On both flights we were given bulkhead seating with a bassinet, so that was nice.  Sophie only spent about two hours in each.  The rest of the seven hour and nine hour flights she was climbing up and down me and all over me.  But, she did not scream or cry like I feared she may.  She did really, really well.  She kept busy charming any and every one who would walk by and stop to say hello. 

Arriving home:
We finally arrived at our destination a day after travels began.  We were greeted by our wonderful family and friends at the airport with balloons, posters, hugs, and well wishes.  It was so nice to have those there with us who have walked along beside us in this journey and have showered us in their prayers for months and months on end.  Seeing all their smiling faces when we arrived was wonderful.

Settling in:
Other than Sophie still being on ET time, life is going well as a family of seven.  Sophie is relaxing more and more each day and will crawl away from me to play with toys on the floor and will even allow Daddy to hold her for short periods of time.  She is sleeping next to me in a co-sleeper at night and wakes often to check to see if I am still there.  She will crawl into bed with me and snuggle for a bit and then I can shift her back into her co sleeper.  If only we can get over the 2 to 4 AM party with mom each night, the days would be so much nicer.  I love my Sophie dearly, but I would rather not spend so much one on one time together at that time of the night.  She has the option of taking naps during the day to recover from our late night play dates, me, not so much. 

Sophie eats like a champ.  All baby food, yogurt, cheerios, wagon wheels, puffs, noodles, rice, bread, this girl will chew it up and eat it all.  Its like she has been doing it for years!  Not to mention the bottles she is inhaling.  No trouble at all transitioning to American food and formula.

Doctoring:
We had a new patient check up yesterday to look over her medical files and form a plan of attack for life in America.  We have decided to repeat all vaccinations.  We are also running a battery of tests (via blood work) to check for all sorts of things that are typically done at newborn screenings.  And the joy of stool collection to check for parasites and the like. 

Our pediatrician says she does not feel that Sophie should have a doc band.  She said if we were a new patient just moved here from Ohio she wouldn't recommend it, nor would she since I am a worried mother of a baby who laid a lot in an orphanage crib.  She said the side was "not that flat" and should round out in that area now that she is upright and more mobile. 

It was obvious at the time of check out form the orphanage that Sophie had had chicken pox recently.  Her medical file indicated that she had them in March.  She has lots of scars all over her body that we hope will fade with time and Mederma.

She weighed in at 18.1 lbs., and developmentally was right on track.  She mimics our facial cues, crawls, pulls up, picks items up with a two finger pincer grip, self feeds, babbles, claps, waves.  The only thing she was lacking was teeth.  She only has four right now.  But then, there is a range for that too.  Our pediatrician would like to see her again in two weeks for her one year well visit and we can go over lab results at that time too.  Our doctor was thrilled at her overall well being. 

Siblings:
The three big kids really love their new baby sister.  They are constantly bringing toys over to her, asking to hold her on their laps, and checking where she is.  Luke is still trying to find his place in this new family setup.  Sophie has only been home for four days, so it will take time for his little heart and mind to process that he has not been replaced.  Mommy's arms are now very busy with someone else and this is a BIG change for my snuggle bug.  Wearing Sophie on my back still allows me to hold my 38 lb 3 year old.  I tried to talk to Luke about Sophie last night and he informed me that he loved her, but he was crabby because he was not getting enough sleep.  You and I both buddy!