Doctor Week Done

On Tuesday, we spent the morning at Payton Manning Children's Hospital at the international adoption clinic. We saw an infectious disease doctor and a medical geneticist. They were both thorough and kind. We were there for a whopping 2 hours and 40 minutes when all was said and done!

The Doctors both thought Sophia looked pretty healthy. There were no red flags at all. She is a bit on the wimpy side, both in size and muscle tone, but nothing major. We kind of knew that already. She's 18 pounds already, so we're kind of proud of her! We learned more about the cleft formation and other issues that can be related, but there is no indication that any of these are present at this point. It's good to know what to look for as we go forward, though.

The worst part of this appointment came at the end...THE BLOOD DRAW! I don't know why the people in the lab can't be a little more efficient with their use of my child's blood. Did they really need 6 separate tubes? Come on! Couldn't they test the same blood for everything? This was traumatic for everyone involved, including the phlebotomist, as she commented at the end, "That caused pain in my hernia!" I held her body with all my strength, and the lady held her arms straight. When the right arm only produced 3 viles, we had to try the left arm. The vein was mildly elusive, so there was definitely some rooting around to get it. I never want to do that again. Although I'd do it 20 times over if I never have to fly from Asia to Chicago with a 1 year old.

As if the blood wasn't enough, we also get to collect stool samples over the next couple of days! Fun. I love being a mother.

On Thursday, it was on to the Craniofacial Plastic Surgeon. Dr. Sadove is the best there is! He was very nice and gave us a pretty realistic picture of what we're looking at to fix Sophia's lip. She will probably have a surgery in late March that will repair the cleft. Then when she gets a little older (like 6 perhaps) she might have another to fix it up just so. She will also need orthodontic work at some point, but all that comes later too.

The big downer of this appointment was the daunting tasks the doctor assigned to us (especially Sophia) over the next month before she gets surgery. We have to try to eliminate the bottle in her life and get her to stop sucking her thumb. Apparently both of these don't work well post-op. Oh torture! She loves her 4 bottles she gets every day and her thumb is the perfect sleep aid for a little one still getting her bearings.

We started the cup today. There was screaming. She prefers a cup without a cover to the sippy-cup variety, so there was also some mess. You can pray for us. It's so hard to withhold something I know she loves and is really not hurting her right now. We also need her to get her fluids. I'm trying to talk David into waiting with the thumb until after we've adjusted to the cup...one thing at a time! We only have a month though, so we may not have that luxury.

He also threw in that it would be helpful for her to be walking. Apparently crawling is complicated with 2 splinted arms (they have to be splinted so she doesn't touch her healing lip.) We have a lot to do. I should go to bed.

Other than these visits, Sophia has had a pretty normal week. She is eating table food regularly (and more neatly!). She had her first pizza and really likes mangoes (she is her mother's daughter!) She wasn't sleeping through the night regularly for a while, but now is again. We'll see how long that lasts.

The rest of the Roux clan is doing alright. I'm perpetually tired and David is now the designated breakfast cooker. He makes a mean omelet. Marcus prayed tonight that Sophia would be good tomorrow, which made me chuckle. She had a bit of a crabby day and he has very little tolerance for crying. He has earplugs handy at night. Lauren is Sophia's joy ( and consequently, mine!) When she comes after Sophia, Sophia crawls frantically to me, and buries her face in my lap and laughs! I should get that on video.