Thank You For Your Interesting Questions

I got an email today from the Med Center at the Embassy stating that Cora was due to come in for her 6 month vaccinations. 

I knew this.  I was hoping to ignore it though...until say 7 months.  Because is there anything worse than your child getting shots?  The first time we took Cora at two months, she smiled at me right before the shot as I held her and then they stuck her with the needle and her smile twisted into pain and a look of complete betrayal.  How could I let them do this to her?  I cried.  No joke.  Real, gulping tears. 

That's one part that sucks, but of course it also sucks that Cora is even more fussy, a little sick and crazed for 3 days to a week after as well. 

So I've been dreading month 6.  She was due last Thursday, but of course last week was when the miracle naps started stretching out and I did NOT want to mess with that.  So I thought, let me give her two weeks to get this nap thing firmly in place and then we'll go wreck her for a week.  Of course that's a joke now, so I guess I should take her.  But.  I HATE IT.

Back to the email.  I wrote back to the nurse or receptionist or whoever it was who sent me this blessed bit of news and I asked her to send me the shot schedule so I would know what Cora had to get this time.

She gladly obliged.

I read it and saw that one of the vaccinations (rotovirus) claimed that there were certain types of this vaccine that didn't require a 6 month shot.  I was hopeful that we could cut one out of the lineup.  I also just asked for confirmation that the shots were the same as what she got at 2 and 4 months.

This was my reply.  And keep in mind that there may or may not be some language confusion:

Yes, the same as 2 months shots are. There will be the oral Rotavirus as well we have RotaTeg vaccine.
Attached is VIS for Rotavirus and recommended immunization schedule sheet with footnotes, where you could find the statement below:
 2. If RotaTeq is used, administer a 3-dose series at ages 2, 4, and 6 months

Thanks for your interesting questions.

I was trying to understand the first part about Rotavirus and if she meant that now Cora had to take two Rotovirus vaccines, and just sort of scanning the email when I got to her sign off.  "Thanks for your interesting questions."

Now you and I know those were not that interesting of questions.  So I started laughing out loud.  Because either she is being sarcastic and busting my chops (well deserved no doubt) or it's just lost in translation.  Or I guess...maybe...she really did think they were interesting questions.  Which makes me think her day may be even less intellectually stimulating than mine.  In case this is true I will make sure to send her at least one interesting question a day.  I'm thinking tomorrow's will be, "Can Cora take all of her vaccine's orally instead of through the usual needle?"

Hmm.  Interesting.

Goodbye Sleeping Cora, it was Nice While it Lasted

I thought the sleep thing was, well not fixed per se, but moving in a positive direction.  We had three or four days of naps that lasted longer than 30 minutes.  She started going down without crying for 20 or 30 minutes - just talking or closing her eyes. 

And then.

You knew it was coming.  And then Sunday she only took one nap longer than 30 minutes.  Yesterday both naps were back to 30 minutes, and the second one involved crying for 25 minutes before falling asleep and then crying every five minutes between sleep spells for 20 more.

Why?  (shaking fist at the heavens)  WHY??

So fine, I'll zen it out today and try to accept and love and feel peace about the fact that I am back to a very grumpy baby who can't sleep and is miserable.  But what happens?  Everything else in life seems to have a cause and an effect.  If you do something one way, you can expect a certain result.  I followed the same pattern that worked for 4 days and got a different result on day 5.  It's crazy-town.  I live in crazy town.  I guess some might say I'm finally where I've always belonged.

This morning James was sharing a quote from the Paralympian (spelling?) who is here this week to do a speaker's tour for him.  He was inspired by it and he walked over to where I was sitting on the floor holding Cora and snapping my fingers and bobbing my head trying to get her to stop crying.  He said, "I bet I'm going to hear a lot of inspiring things this week."  I looked at him, looked back at Cora and my snapping, bobbing self... and my angry child and said, "Yeah, me too."

Cooking with Cora

I always wondered why my mom seemed so distracted all the time.  In fact, I used to wonder if she was getting Alzheimer's at the premature age of 40.  It seemed like all the time she would say things like, "I feel like I'm losing my mind."  or "What was it I was just doing?"

Turns out you just have to have a baby and then you can say goodbye to your mental capacity of yore.  I remember reading in the What to Expect book about how pregnancy makes you forget things.  I assume that is hormonal or physical in some way.  It never tells you that after you give birth you actually lose your mind completely and it has nothing to do with YOU.

I love pinterest.  Anyone who says they don't and has spent more than 10 minutes on it is lying.  Period.  I cook new recipes from pinterest on a weekly, even daily basis.  And so far I have had great success with them. 

I know there are websites dedicated to pinterest fails.  You see beautiful creations and then you make the same thing and it looks like poop.  Or at least not at all like the pretty pinterest picture. 

This week I had a cake fail.  Unfortunately I can't blame pinterest in any way.  I can only blame Cora.  And blame her I will - in fact I look forward to blaming her for many, many things to come.  I'm sure she is looking forward to the same.  I mean, blaming me for all her problems.  It should be mutually rewarding.

This is the cake I tried to make:

A delicious pecan pie-like cake that looked melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  Oh man, my moth is watering now just looking at this picture.

This is the cake I made:

If you think they look the same it's time for you to see your local eye doctor.  There is not one similarity between these two cakes.  In fact you can see the caramel (not) goo in mine is just pooping out all over the plate.  And looks and tastes nothing like caramel.  Just one difference worth noting.

Why such disparity?  I messed up every single part of this recipe.  Each stage of it.  I made the caramel crap, put it in the fridge only to discover that while trying to bounce Cora and put banana in her mouth I had somehow forgotten the 1/2 cup of cornstarch.  So I took the goo out of the fridge and mixed it in after the fact.  I'm sure the part where it all got cooked together wasn't important.  Clearly.

In making the cake I forgot to add something as well.  Perhaps that is because I was tryng to keep Cora from scratching her face off while screaming at me.

And finally you may notice that there are 3 layers in the top cake which I completely missed in making TWO cakes.  Which may or may not have impacted how long it needed to back and the density, and how much goo was in the cake.

Yup, a baby-fail.  Pinterest, I still believe in you.  You haven't failed me yet.  But as for cooking with Cora....FAIL.  I think James can now look forward to a lifetime of mediocre food.  And I can honestly say....I was a great cook.  I've tasted other people's food so I know this.

It may also be worth noting that when I finished assembling this cake, and after Sopo (our nanny) arrived I looked at it blankly and told her, "I want to punch that cake."  I wish I had.

Please let the 30 minute nap phase END

Today is the 6th month anniversary of Cora's life.  I'd like to say it's gone so fast, but honestly it feels more like a year to me. 

As a special half-birthday present to herself and to me, she decided to take two naps that were longer than 30 minutes.  TWO.  All I can say is that sleep (hers) is a miracle.  I felt like a princess in one of the old Disney movies.  I wanted to dance around the house singing in a very high falsetto voice as birds and woodland animals danced around me and landed on me smiling and chirping. 

Upon reflection, I'm glad that didn't happen.  I'm not a huge fan of birds or woodland animals and it would terrify me if they suddenly started landing on me and dancing around me.  But still.  You get the point...I was SO HAPPY.  Even now as I write I have a huge smile on my face. 

Most importantly Cora was happy too.  I could tell the sleep made a difference to her.  She could focus longer on toys she was playing with and she didn't cry or fuss as much.  She was a different child.

Sleep scoreboard: she slept for almost 13 hours last night (until 8am), and then she slept for an hour and 15 minutes this morning, an hour and a half after lunch, and a 30 minute topper at 4pm.  If she did this every day....I would LOVE being a stay at home mom.  No one understands how killer a 30 minute napper is if they haven't had one.  Ladies, you know who you are.

How did it happen?  I have some ideas.  And look, I KNOW all children are different.  I also know that this may not repeat itself again tomorrow, or ever.  But if it does, here's what I think went down...

Cry. It. Out.

I read recently that the baby's sleep brain is different for daytime and nighttime sleep.  So even if you trained the baby to sleep through the night it might not work for daytime.  I can confirm, it did not.

For some reason I had a much harder time embracing the CIO method for naps.  Whenever I let her do it for even a little bit it felt wrong and painful.  Her cry was miserable - I felt like she must be sick or in pain and I was ignoring her.  And sometimes she would cry, sleep for two minutes, wake up and cry again for a couple more minutes, sleep a couple and repeat for 20 minutes.  That was the longest I could do.

Yesterday I decided to do what Weissenbluth suggested and to put her down for an hour nap.  I also decided no more putting her down asleep.  I would read her a book, walk around and sing to her until she yawned and got sleepy, but not asleep at all.  Then, when I put her down, if she cried the whole hour so be it.  If she went to sleep and woke up and cried for the rest of the hour, so be it.  She was doing an hour in the crib. 

Scary.

So I did it.  And she cried during both naps for about 35 and 25 minutes respectively before she fell asleep.  One nap she did 45 minutes and the other one she did an hour.  She didn't wake up crying for once.

Today I was scared and geared up for 35 minutes of crying again.  This time for nap #1 I put her down and she cried for exactly 1 minute, then she slept.  She awoke once or twice around the 30 minute mark and cried, but only for 30 seconds each time with her eyes closed and back to sleep.  She slept for 1 hour 15. Nap #2 she didn't cry when I put her down. She played in her crib for 5 minutes and then fell asleep.  Same restless crying around 30 minutes, but went back quickly and slept for 1 hour 30 minutes. 

I know some people hate the cry it out method.  But all I can say is that I tried EVERYTHING with this child and so far, I am a firm believer in it working.  It worked for night sleep, and now I feel like it may work for daytime.  I think we gave her too much attention and she couldn't let herself sleep because she wanted our attention.  The only way to let her know we were making the break was to go cold turkey.  And when she was able to finally stop fighting the sleep I feel like it was a relief to her.

Again, I may have to take this all back tomorrow, but right now it feels right.  And for any other moms out there looking for options - you know your baby best - but it won't hurt to give this a try if you're at the breaking point.  If Cora can repeat this miracle and we start getting naps....well, there simply are no words.  Bring on the woodland animals.

Oh Bernadette

This post will be short and sweet and completely unrelated to Tbilisi.  Except by the long stretch that it is about life overseas in general.

James and I have a phone setup here through Magic Jack that allows us to have a U.S. phone number so that we can talk to friends and family back home....all for the low, low price of 29 dollars a year.  It's been pretty good so far. 

A couple of times we've lost a dial tone, but we just had to unplug and replug in the adaptor and all has returned to normal.  Last night however, we couldn't get the dial tone back and all the lights had gone out. 

I couldn't call (see above), and so I found the live chat function online, waited until they were open for business (around 8pm our time) and then began to explain and troubleshoot via a very slow chat. 

They were helpful and explained that the adaptor probably just wasn't good and that they would send us another.  In the beginning of the convo, I gave my name, and then again I gave it at the end as we were going through my address, etc.. for her to send the transformer.  I was trying to get off the chat after about 45 minutes of this fun, when I was surprised to read:

shauri: are we done?

Long pause

Bernadette: One moment please...

Bernadette: Thank you for waiting., I have already processed the AC adapter Order Number: TS37, shipping will take 2-4 working days.

shauri: thank you.

long pause....no response.

shauri: um, bye

long pause

Bernadette: You are most welcome. Thank you for your cooperation and patience. I hope I did an excellent job at addressing your concern. It was a pleasure to have assisted you Jeff. Is there anything else I may help you?

shauri: I would just say response time and possibly remembering who you are chatting with.  Otherwise you did great.  By the way, this is Shauri...not Jeff.

Less long pause
Bernadette: Sorry Shauri, I mistype :)

Yes Bernadette, yes you did.  But at least that smiley face makes me feel better.  Long pauses are now officially cleared up.

Best wishes Bernadette,

Jeff