Feeding

Now that Lillia’s sleep schedule is on track, Suzanne and I have been working on food. Lillia was bottle propped at the orphanage: formula thickened with rice cereal, served hot, 60 to 70 degrees Celsius. The temperature was the first thing to go. I couldn’t bring myself to serve up a bottle for my daughter that was as hot as a cup of jasmine tea. She did fine on a 40 degree bottle (body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius) and did not sweat nearly as much. The excessive heat was probably a function of food safety. If I lived in Guandong province I would boil the tap water as well.

We continue to add rice cereal to her formula, though the practice is not without its detractors. The addition of cereal makes each feeding more calorically dense, but the density is from additional carbohydrates rather than adding a balance of proteins and carbs and fats. Some say that this may lead to a propensity for obesity later in life. No evidence of that here in America.

Her caregivers from the orphanage told us that Lillia also could eat steamed rice and congi (or rice porridge), but this of course did not add much in the way of variety to her diet. And with a maximum of one caregiver per 10 babies, it is a good bet that Lillia did not get much practice at eating table food, but is quite talented in swinging around a bottle.

Suzanne was horrified by the flavor of the baby food that was served in jars to Lillia on the was back to the States, and resolved to make her own. She has cooked up sweet potatoes and carrots and apple sauce which she has frozen and cut into cubes, that we then thaw and heat and serve as needed. We try giving Lillia small amounts 2-3 times per day, prior to her bottle and she is getting better and better at taking food from a spoon and swallowing, rather than pushing the food out of her mouth with her tongue.

Our pediatrician, blessings be upon her, has told us that we can switch to milk and widen her diet when she turns one year old. We are looking forward to this, but will avoid the peanut butter and strawberry sandwiches with oyster sauce for now in our bid to avoid food allergies.

Meanwhile, we place our ears up to her tummy nightly to listen for the sound of those tight junctions tightening, closing down the spaces between the cells of her gut where errant proteins can wander by and cause problems with allergies.

More Pictures:

Lillia, lounging on the couch.

Is mommy's nose edible?

Sunscreen makes excellent mousse.

In front of her blanket knitted by our friend Sandy.

Lilia enjoys dressing like her toys.

Doctors, Sleep, and Hats

We love our pediatrician, who is very competent and caring and warm. Still, Lillia does not like going to the doctor. Certain things she deals with well: the waiting room with its toys and wide-open carpeting, the crinkly paper on the exam table. She is less impressed by ear-cleaning and aural examinations of any sort, and by hypodermic syringe-wielding nurses (a tough job) with their so-called “immunizations,” and especially by 25-guage “butterfly”-packing phlebotomists, tasked to collect the seven tubes of blood called for in all her tests. During that massacre, involving two phlebotomists, two parents enlisted as human restraints, and one amazingly strong and limber little girl who was not going to go down alone or without a fight, we got 4 of the 7 tubes in three attempts and called it a day. The Hep B test will have to wait until next time.

Lillia also is not overly fond of going to sleep. It interrupts her play. When we first adopted her in Guangzhou, we had a crib in our room of course, but opted to sleep with her between us in our bed to try to increase bonding. Of course she cried when we turned out the lights, and then cried for the next hour, screaming something about stupid gwailos and being unable to find her toys in the dark. After a few nights of this and a significant amount of hearing loss, mommy and daddy thought she might do better in her crib, and she did. This is, after all, how she went to sleep for the first 10 months of her life. Still we spent several hours pushing her around and around in her stroller, as this was a sure fire way to lull her to sleep when all else failed. Once we were half-way around the world, jet lag took its incredible toll but she eventually did come around, and started sleeping when it is dark and playing when it is light.

Once Lillia does go to sleep, she is down for the count. Currently she cries for about 60 seconds before sleeping when placed in her crib. I am not sure how long she will sleep if I let her because we always wake her up after 9-10 hours to give her her bottle and to make sure she is still breathing. The girl sleeps like a cat. We try to get her to take 2 naps during the day for 2 hours each with varying success.

Ah, and then there are hats. The most fiendish of clothing devices, hats, mommy and daddy say, are meant to protect her skin from the solar flare that is the Colorado sky. Lillia knows better, feeling they are, in fact, an affront to her personal freedom. They get ejected from the stroller approximately 17 times per hour when walking with mommy and daddy. It is a good thing her sunscreen is SPF 45.

Despite this list of dislikes, we are certain that Lillia is the happiest little girl on the planet, laughing and smiling constantly (well, almost constantly), winning new friends wherever she goes. She certainly makes us happy.

Some pictures:

Lillia with her fiercy-face expression. Suzanne calls Lillia her tiger-lily when she is in this mood. I think that Lillia simply has the heart of a lion.

Lillia with her Aunt Betsy and her Uncle Henry on Easter.

Lillia and me in front of Suzanne's beautiful garden berm.

We send our love to all.

Tom and Suzanne.

Denver

Tom here. A quick post as Lillia is attached to me by Snugli and does not seem to approve of this whole blogging thing and wants to push the computer keys herself anyway.

We stopped in Walnut Creek for a few days on the way back to Denver to visit my mother, my brothers Greg and Jack and Jack's family, and many friends who were among our cheering section. Left my power supply plugged in at the White Swan, took a bit of time to track down a new one and find the time to buy it, then was without an easy internet connection.

So now I am home and have even less time (wonder why?). But will post a blog entry and some photos.

---ahh, peace. She is now asleep.---

The oath taken at the US Consulate was a mass affair with dozens of families where we essentially declared that the information we had provided authorities was essentially correct to the best of our knowledge. Dutifully attested to by the several dozen families in the room, we were released to return to our hotels and travel back to the States. I understand now, given the utilitarian nature of the room, reminding one of a DMV more than anything else, why we were told we needn't dress for the event. No photos here. Cameras were not allowed for security reasons.

A picture of the bus next to ours that was taking us back to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong, then home. Funny, that bus color really isn't "Yale blue."

Starting our flight back to Hong Kong. Lillia got quite a bit of sleep during the 20 plus hours of travel, in lap seat comfort. Suzanne and I on the other hand, were very much available for Zombie duty. Lillia made friends at every step of the way. It is amazing how babies can start a conversation.

Lillia in a new sporting coat for rainy weather that my Mom, her new grandmother, had bought her for the deluge that California was experiencing on our trip back through the Bay Area.


Two pictures of dad and grandma catching a few winks. Lillia had major problems adjusting to the new sleeping schedule and was often up until 3 AM or later. Guanzhou is more than half-way around the world and the jet lag was fierce. Sleeping at night is still Lillia's biggest issue.

Suzanne and Lillia at Heather Farms in Walnut Creek on a rare sunny day.

Lillia, decked out for a life of sunshine and back in Denver, on her way to the Botanic Gardens with Mom and Dad.

I want to thank my mom and my brothers Jack (and his family) and Greg, for their help during our visit, and also I want to thank all of our friends who visited us while we passed through Walnut Creek.

Lillia is sleeping as I write this and with luck will sleep through the night. More later.

Tom