We Have Elias!!!

We have Elias!!! We have been hanging out with Alemu , Israel and Emily all day. Our embassy appointment got rescheduled to tomorrow (Tues) because the consulate just didn’t show up. All we had planned today was the embassy meeting and we didn’t find out in enough time to do what was on the schedule for tomorrow (shopping and lunch). So we have just been hanging around the hotel and then we all went to HH to visit Elias’ special mothers (nannies) and see his bed. Right now Brian, Emily, Alemu , Israel and Elias are all on our huge bed watching t.v. Alemu is feeding the baby. Both of the boys are so good with him and love to sit next to him and touch him. They always look at me when he starts crying (which is OFTEN) with an expression like “what are you going to do? Hurry up and do something.”

Our first meeting did not go as we had hoped – or I guess I should say as we expected. I definitely had expectations. Everyone says Elias is so happy and content and just loves to be held and cuddled. Almaz told us via e-mail that we should have no problem picking him up. In the afternoon we did our paperwork before going over to HH. Almaz said she was so glad Elias was our first child because he needs a lot of attention. She also said she had no reservations about him coming right back to the hotel with us. We walked over to HH. It was an emotional short walk. We first took pictures and video for the other two families since both of them were picking up older sibling sets and the kids were so excited to see their parents. We were all teary-eyed watching those meetings. Almaz then took us up stairs. We hear this baby crying and walk up the stairs and there in the hallway is Elias screaming his head off. The nanny said it was his bath time but she knew we were coming so she put him in a Johnny jump up and he hated it. So we see him but Almaz takes him and says she wants to calm him down first. We just stood there watching him scream and her try to calm him. We went downstairs and the crying continued. She tried to have 3 different special mothers soothe him and none of them could. She of course said he has never been like this J. We hung in there but it was tough. I think I remember holding him briefly but he was still screaming and she took him away.

The uncontrollable crying went on for an hour and a half. In this time she had me try EVERYTHING. We bathed him, changed him, tried to feed him, walked him, bounced him around, tried a pacifier, put him in a bouncy seat, etc. Finally one of his special mothers was able to get him to take a nap.. I am sure he was exhausted after such a long time of crying so hard. The poor baby was choking and coughing. He just seemed so upset. At one point Almaz looked at me and said, “it sure is strange how they know something is changing because he has been off all day.”

I carried the sleeping Elias downstairs in his bouncy seat. Almaz had us sit there and wait for him to wake up so we were the ones he saw when he woke. In the meantime we played and held other babies in the room. Elias looked so peaceful – not at all the baby we met. When he woke up he did so smiling. He giggled and played with us. However, it didn’t last. We ended up trying to put him in the moby wrap. He really liked that. He still didn’t go more than 15 minutes without crying but he wasn’t inconsolable anymore. Everyone else left unbeknownst to us while we were inside with Elias. It was kind of nice because it gave us some one on one time to talk to Almaz about him. We were sitting around talking and I still had him in the moby wrap. She said, “I am so glad to see how you are handling this. You are calm and not acting scared. Many experienced parents would have been so overwhelmed they would have been crying too. You guys are doing great and Besu definitely has the right parents.” Although I hadn’t cried there certainly were moments amidst the screaming where it took everything I had to hold back. (Right now he is screaming. Poor guy is not doing well.)

He is obviously teething. Drooling everywhere, biting on everything. The second best thing we brought is the discovery toys teether. He loves it! We have the regular teething ring frozen (yes we have a fridge and freezer) and he won’t have anything to do with it. The red one that we picked up from Mom G just days before we left has been a life saver. In addition to getting his first tooth we found out last night he has dual ear infections. Shawn (one of the other moms here) is a doctor. She checked out his ears for me and gave us the news. Now I am not trying to make fun of my child but he has the MOST lopsided head you will ever see. It looks like a giant egg sitting diagonally on his neck. The reason I tell you this is because Shawn said with his head shape he will be more prone to ear infections than most. He also has a cough and a nose that is constantly running (but at least it’s clear). This could be a separate cold or an effect of the ear infections. Shawn gave us an antibiotic that she thinks will work better than the one we brought.

We are very in love. Despte the screaming he felt like ours the second we saw him. He is wonderful!