Adjusting to Being at Home

We have been in adjustment mode since we got home on Thursday and we are all still out of whack. Every morning for the last two days, I have woken up and had my cup of coffee and said to myself, "I'm over the jet lag". And then by the late afternoon, I'm totally crashed out on the couch somewhere. I have mainly been playing with J Ro and then sleeping during the day whenever she sleeps. At night, I haven't been tired at all so after we put J Ro in her crib, I have been banging around the house trying to organize all of the stuff from our trip, catching up on e-mail, and checking in on the little one. R has tried to stay awake during the day and then totally crashes at night. It has been hard to put ourselves back on DC time but hopefully by Monday, we'll be more adjusted. We think it could take another week to be fully adjusted to the DC time zone.

Jennifer Rose has handled the adjustment well. She was so tired after not sleeping much on the flight to DC that she slept a lot right when we got home. Now we're trying to balance letting her sleep/eat whenever she wants with getting her on a DC-time zone-based schedule. So far, the "whenever she wants" camp is winning since we know that Jennifer is still on a different time zone just like we are. But hopefully each day we can get Jennifer more on a regular schedule.

Our pediatrician appointment on Friday went well but we felt so bad for J Ro since she had to get two vaccinations and had to have blood drawn. She was very unhappy about that and made quite a lot of noise in the doctor's office (I didn't know she could produce such a loud cry!). We had to hold her down while they were giving her the shots/drawing blood and we felt so bad. R was almost crying. But the good thing is that the doctor said Jennifer appears to be really healthy. The doctor looked in her ears and says they look good - no ear infection or sign of fluid. She said that she appears to have gotten good nutrition and seems to have really good developmental progress. The doctor had us take her off the Chinese formula (we were doing a combination of Chinese formula with US formula) and go with the Similac. She also gave us some suggestions on what other foods to start feeding her as she gets interested in solid foods. Hopefully after the shots and blood work, J Ro will be willing to set foot in that office again.

Today, we took Jennifer in the stroller around Georgetown. It was a beautiful day and it was so nice being home with her. R also took her with her when she got her nails done at the Four Seasons George Salon. Everyone there thought she was so cute and I can tell she's going to get a lot of attention wherever we go. Everything is still so new for us that it is taking us more time to do the basic stuff. When we were getting ready for our outing to Georgetown, we took our new stroller out of the box and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to fold it up so we could put it in the car. We are also still getting used to all the stuff we need to bring with us when we go out with the baby. After we got to downtown Georgetown, I had to return home because we forgot the diaper bag. And when we do pack the diaper bag, we're still figuring out the right balance between taking way too much stuff and forgetting essential items. Still, we have been enjoying being home with J Ro and even figuring this stuff out has an element of fun to it.

Now that we are back home, I have still been enjoying taking photos of the little one (no video so far but hopefully I'll do that later). I hve attached a few that I took Friday -- in the doctors office and then at home (note: I took the doctors office photos before she got the shots so she still looks happy). I know I'm biased but I just think both R and J Ro look beautiful in these photos. Ok - I will sign off now and find out what R is up to. She just put the baby back to sleep after feeding her -- so we have some moments of peace before the next wake up call.

J.