Chinese early potty training ISN'T a legend!

Zach and I have heard of this before we left for China but we didn't pay much attention to it. We were told that the Chinese people hold their babies' thighs apart in a sitting position over the toilet (or ground outside) and make a "shhhh" sound every few hours so they can go. So Caelyn was holding her poop for two days and kept crying, "ma ma ma." Turns out she was saying..."i need to go please hang my butt over the toilet!" She held it in so much it sent her body temperature way up as evidenced by her fever the first night. Then when she can no longer hold it in we had the poop-poop explosion. If you remember she was so distrissed by that fact that she cried like it's the end of the world.

We were told this kind of potty training can start as early as one month. Thus the Chinese invented the split pants (can be seen in her referral pictures...they stuck a diapter in for the photo...otherwise her bottom would just be open to the cool breeze). We were also told that the kids are potty trained so early when they can walk they can go on their own but they would still be too young to know how to pull their pants down. Thus split pants.

On day three we tried to hang her butt over the toilet a few times...she's gone pee and a little poop. But we have a new routine now. She goes pooping once a day in her diaper around 7am each morning. It's been very consistent for the last 3 days. She doesn't cry at all even though we didn't change her right away. She no longer cries during diaper change.

We feel like we were blessed with a baby who raises herself...we just assist with mixing formula and butt wiping. She's been so easy this past week. We hope she continues to be this way...especially on the 13-hour flight!

More videos of baby Caelyn

Our friend has helped confirm that the video clip come through and you are able to view it. Wonderful! Here are a few more...hope you enjoy them.

Daddy's First Big Milestone!

We are making strides in the department of infant care. Just 4 days ago we have never changed a diaper, mixed formula, bathe or fed a baby before. I at least have had some experience with holding my neice when she was an infant and watched my sister changed her diapers, mixed formula, and bathed her. Zach has almost zero experience with an infant. We did take an infant care class, however, at Cedars Sinai back in March.

Yesterday was a big milestone for daddy! Another mom in our group was having a really rough day with a wailing infant who is teething. So we decided to go get a Chinese style foot massage (it's really full body...not sure why it's called foot massage). Our appointment was planned around after Caelyn's feeding and diaper change. Well, she didn't wake up from her nap until I was walking out the door. Zach said he would be fine. And I was gone for 1.5 hour. When I came back Caelyn was fed, changed and playing with daddy and her toy bear in bed smiling. Wow! Is there such a thing as paternal instinct? cuz i think my hubby got a case of it.

Eleplant Lake Park Photos

June 28: Eleplant Lake Park

Zach says we now have a new way of tracking passage of time; how many poops we have cleaned. But we couldn't be happier. I guess in exchange for slaving over this little one we get endless amusement! And it is more than worth it. You may get a glimpse of what we are talking about if I'm sucessful in uploading the videos.

So far China has blocked viewing of blogs so we can submit our posts but can't view the result on the blog.

Today is our most fun day yet. I think we're beginning to get the hang of this parenting thing. Zach and I found our strengths and weaknesses and have been lucky that they compliment each other. I take the night shift and he takes the day shift. I get up between midnight to two (whenever she wakes up) for night feeding and diaper change while Zach sleeps. Zach carries her or push the stroller during the day. The the rest we take turn or team work like bathing, other feedings during the day, and fetch her toy.

Today our excursion was to visit a gorgeous park called the Eleplant Lake Park. It is inspired by the Taoist monks. There are Toaist temples within this area. Although it was incredibly hot and humid we managed to take in the beauty of the lush greenery, lake, and culture. And it is the first time our group got together to do something fun. And everyone is getting adjusted (or least headed in the right direction). We got a brand new stroller loan to us at the hotel to use during our stay and it has make ALL the difference in our experience. Caelyn is able to sleep in it and we are able to go more place without having to hold her in the carrier where everyone gets over-heated or sore arms.

We have had two dinners so far at local resturants here in Nanchang and we just love the food. We tried a local bakery too and it's just like "KEE WAI" at home!

Without further ado...here a video clip. If this works...I'll post more!

Video 1 ">"Watch Me Balance"

June 27: Relaxing day at Pedestrian Walkway

Caelyn woke up with many smiles this morning and played on our bed for a long while. She loves her stacking cup toy (I learned this from checking out other people's blog and it worked!). She's just learning how to roll over and enjoys some tummy time. She's been making a lot more eye contact with us today. I think she's beginning to recognize us.





The rest of the families went to visit Yugan today and we (and one other family) decided to stay around and relax. The Yugan trip is a bit over 2 hours ride one way...and frankly we're just too exhausted to go.





Instead we walked and checked out the pool area of the hotel. The panoramic view is quite something. Nanchang is still a relatively poor area and it's the big city...so Yugan is much more rural. After checking out the hotel facilities we enjoyed a stroll to the Pedestrian Walkway where there are miles of shops. That was really enjoyable. Overall we had the opportunity to take our time and soak in our experience. And most importantly it was a day of rest and relaxation.





A few very interesting facts we learned since we have been here is that the hotel we're staying at (Gloria Hotel) is a very popular hotel used for adoption. This week there are approximately 60-80 adoptive families staying at the hotel at any given time. So it is quite interesting to see babies EVERYWHERE! It was like a baby convention!!! Another equally interesting fact is Spanish people loves adopting Chinese babies! Most of the families we run into at the Buffet (which they open a whole second floor for breakfast buffet just to caters to adoptive families this whole week!), elevators and walks near the hotel...are mostly Spanish families!





Caelyn had her first doctor visit today and the doctor is giving her some meds to take to hopefully take care of her rashes.





Overall we are so in love with this little miracle it is indescribable. And she's already made us laugh so much with her goofiness! She's so much fun and easy going...you'll see what we mean when you meet her. The pictures don't tell half the story how super CUTE she is!!!!

June 26: Walmart Shopping Day

Yesterday was a very demanding day due to meeting our babies for the first time and then in the afternoon doing hours of paperwork/wait in line. But our wonderful China team, Sissi and Grace, said that the rest of the week will be resting, shopping, and sightseeing.

During our first night with Caelyn she has no problem falling esleep after her feeding/diaper change at 8pm. But all day I thought she felt a little warmer than normal (like I know what normal is). We asked a couple other folks in the group and they felt her forehead. They agreed that she might be running a bit of a fever. So finally we took her temperature at 12pm when she woke up for her midnight bottle we took her temperature. It was over 102.5 F...needless to say I went to knock on Sissi's door (China team stays with us in the same hotel floor and accessible 24 hours) and she came over. With her advisement (and what we already know but nervous to do) we gave Caelyn her first Cherry flavored Infant Tylenol. She liked it. I slept well the rest of the night because I felt safe having Sissi, Grace, and other families at our fingertips. But Zach was a nervous wreck and barely caught any zzz's the rest of the night.

She woke up at 6:30am and had her bottle and diaper change. Then we gave her first bath. It went fairly well and she enjoyed her stacking cup toy in the tub and didn't mind letting us wash her. Of course until we tilt her head back to wash her hair.

Breakfast buffet and dinners are included in the two weeks and everyone is on their own with lunch. So we went for our breakfast and the variety was impressive! I don't remember having a lot of ethnic Chinese food growing up (my family always cooked simple meals) but when I saw the variety....it was like running into an old best friend. It felt so familiar yet realized I haven't had most of this in the last decade or two. And if I did it was once in a blue moon. So my theory is our taste buds must also be influenced by genetic roadmaps. I was surprised that Zach was happy and eating and trying a variety of Chinese dishes. Maybe genetic roadmaps also transfer upon marriage.

Anyway, back to the highlight of the day. We went to Walmart (mostly Chinese brand products) and stock up on baby supplies. Caelyn seems a lot less happy today. She was starting to feel a little warm (so maybe a running a little fever) and grunt a lot. She has a lot of heat rashes and some bites all over her limps and face. As most of the babies did but Caelyn seems to have it worst. Since I held her a lot yesterday my arms were so sore and my legs felt shaking at breakfast so Zach was in charge of lugging our little sack of rice today. He used the carrier we brought with us. The slight problem is daddy runs hot and so does baby. And the weather is so warm and humid. Daddy was sweating profusely while baby's heat rash got more pink.

So we couldn't wait to get out of Walmart and get back to the hotel. Then our way to the bus...we can smell "poopoo." We were even more stressed trying to get home to change her and out of the heat. Caelyn was such a trooper. She was not happy but didn't cry much.

So the last two days Caelyn has had only two poopoo stain on her diaper. I didn't think that counts as her BM (bowel movement...can i say that in public? Sorry if I gross anyone out). So whe we opened her diaper this time...there's the real BM. Or so we thought.

So we started to use the wipes to clean...then the water fountain started so threw in a good diaper to catch the juice. It caught only some. So we thought, "OK, wew...let's just get her cleaned...that was close." As we proceed to clean...more poop came out. Yikes! In the meanwhile she's crying like crazy. We were so stressed and didn't know what to do at that point. So we threw in more wipes for layering effect. Zach and I just started to laugh uncontrollably...cuz we couldn't believe this is happening and we didn't know what to do! Then the poop didn't stop there...she went again! At that point we laughed so hard we could hardly beathe. I think it was better than crying.

So we though we couldn't use wipes anymore since the mountain was getting so high under her bottom and the changing pad was wet. We decided to wash her. Zach filled the sink with warm water and came back out get her. By the time we got to the sink and about to put her in...there's only an inch of water left. The sink stopper leaks!!! We looked at each other in great disbelieve and started laughing again like crazy. Now what???

Finally I just grabbed the baby tub and fill it with water and gave her a mini bath. After that things were beginning to go better. She stopped crying after we put her new diapers on. We were extremely exhausted by that point. So we all just collapsed onto the bed together.

New Discoveries about Caelyn (today and yesterday):

• she loves sucking on her index and middle finger at the same time when she's stressed to soothe herself, or when she's ready to sleep, or during the night. Her sucking can be very audible at times (like right now as I type...she just woke up from her nap)
• she doesn't like facing toward our chest. She insist forward facing so she can observe the world. And she does observes...you see her follow sounds and movements all day long.
• she's a healthy eater. First night we fed her rice porridge at dinner and she opened big and was so eager for the next bite.
• Zach finally figured out Caelyn smells like her formula!

Will post more pictures later or tomorrow. We didn't take any pictures today.

June 25: Gotcha Day

Our day started at 5am. We caught the flight to Jiangxi departing at 8am. Out of the 16 families in Group 115, there are 6 families adopting from Jiangxi province. Due to jetlag Zach and I didn't have any problems getting up at 5am.

The flight was only a little over one hour. As soon as we landed we headed to the hotel and had 15 minutes turn around time to head out the Civil Affairs Office to meet our babies. To add to the drama, Zach and I left our video camera on the plane and noticed it missing as we walked out of the airport towards our bus. Our wonderful China team guide immediately accompanied Zach back to the terminal to retrieve it. That certainly added to the already rushed and dramatic day (true for all 6 families since the bus couldn't leave)!

The orphanage director and her team was at the office waiting for us...and ironically, afer two years of waiting for our babies, we got to the Civil Affairs Office appointment 45 minutes late. Right as the bus pulls up to the Civil Affairs building our guide said, "it's on the 26th floor and there's no elevator." We all said, "What???" Turns out our lovely guide was frazzled and English isn't her first language. She corrected herself, "oh, sorry, I meant no air conditioning in the elevator!" We all let out a roaring laugh as we got up from our seats and headed towards parenthood.

Arriving on the 26th floor, we walked into a room full of different groups of people (others who are adopting through other agencies)...and our "Cermony" began. It was very chaotic and we all handed each other our cameras/camcorders when each of our names were call to recieve our baby (that was chaotic!). It was all a blur it happened so fast. In just less than a few minutes after arriving on floor 26th, we were all holding our babies!

None of the babies cried much at all during the hand off. Our Caelyn was calm and alert. She looks cuter than in the pictures (not sure how that's possible). She looked smaller than I expected but she weighs as much as I thought it would feel like holding a 20+ lbs baby. That didn't stop me from holding her most of the day as Zach was a little nervous about his inexperience with holding a child. Not that I have a lot either but thanks to my lovely neice, I had some practice. But by later in the day he was holding her, feeding her and playing with her.

Generally this was a very sucessful day. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

June 22-24: Travel

We arrived at the airport after dinner and met up with 5 (out of 16 families) other families who were flying on the same flight to get our babies. We all know each other fairly well so when we met up...it was a really exciting moment. Then our plane got delayed for 2 hours due to some volcano eruption in Russia. The delay caused an already late night red-eye to slide into the next morning. We were all tired. But once we finally took off the journey was pleasant and the 16 hours felt like only 10.

We lost a day due to passing the International Date line. Will gain it back on our way home.

On June 24th we arrived in the morning and were welcome by the China Team (our agency's team in China). It was one of the warmest welcome we've ever received and we enjoyed a nice bus ride back to our hotel. At the hotel we met up with all the other families and headed out to brunch (Dim Sum). Our agency director Norman went through the details of "Gotcha Day" which was scheduled to take place the next day.

In the afternoon, a few of us went for a foot massage Chinese style (foot flexology). That message end up being 70 minutes and worked the whole body! It was painful but in a good way.

That was the last evening Zach and I spent together as a single "couple." Sleep was shallow that night due to all the anticipation...but ah, at last. At long last.

Farewell and see you on the other side!

The day of departure has finally arrived. As we head out we are blowing cyber kisses and waiving cyber goodbyes to all of you. Next post we will be on Chinese soil.

It is an unbelievable feeling...we're filled with anticipation, anxiousness, and exhilaration. See you all soon!

T minus ONE!

Surprisingly I'm deeply calm and collected. Zach, on the other hand, is anxious, nervous...and working like crazy to try to wrap up at work. Everything for the trip is in good order and almost down to zipping up the bags. I thought we did a fantastic job packing and traveling light.

The weather will be very warm, humid and chances of some rain. Ah, just like Hawaii....not. But it will all still be good.

Families who recently returned from China have mentioned that the internet access in certain hotels may sometimes be slow. So don't worry if you don't see us post regularly...or we might post without uploading many pictures. We will do our best in keeping you updated.

For all the new friends and extended family members who recently joined our journey on this blog...you can select the older posts by clicking on "older posts" at the very bottom of this page (many scrolls all the way down). An alternative is to select older posts from "Blog Archive" on the right gray box. Hope you enjoy the ride with us....

G115 Beach Party!

The last two years we have been blessed with these wonderful friends (a.k.a. G115) to share our wait with. To faciliate our communication with one another, we set up a yahoo group where we share photos, links, files, and messages. We have had many get togethers over these months...the beach party was the latest of gatherings (and the one I happened to have a camera!). This was to celebrate that we got our referrals!

Counting down...9 more days!!

Everything after 3rd Call is pure excitement! Amy has a countdown calendar at work and Zach has Caelyn's pictures on his screen saver. And her pictures are all over the house! Papa and nana came to visit and bought Caelyn lots of new clothes!

Luggages have been pulled out from the closet and piles are laid all over the floor. The packing process has officially began!

We plan to have e-mail access and blogging access while in China. So please do leave us your comments (or e-mails) because we read each one of them!! Also this blog will be kept for Caelyn as one of her keepsakes (not sure how we would preserve it yet...) so she can read it when she's a bit more grown up. So your comments will mean so much!! Keep them coming!

3rd Call - China Itinerary!

We now have our itinerary!!

• June 22: leaving on a jet plane! (approx. 15 hours)
  
• June 23: cross international dateline and lose a day
  
• June 24: arrive Guangzhou (Guangdong province); Dim-Sum welcome brunch; staying at the China Hotel (5-star)
  
• June 25: leave on a jet plane to Nanchang (Jiangxi province) in the morning (1.5 hour flight); Gotcha Day in the afternoon (Caelyn in our arms!)
  
• June 26-29: paperwork, sightseeing, and play with Caelyn; staying at the Gloria Hotel (5-star)
  
• June 30: fly back to Guangzhou (Guangdong province); back to the China Hotel
  
• July 1-5: child's medical exam; pizza party; touring/sight-seeing; U.S. Consulate appt, and July 4th celebration
  
• July 6: Farewell party and home bound with child in tow!

Basically we will be in Nanchang (Jiangxi province) for a week and Guangzhou (Guangdong province) for a week. All rooms come with cribs!

By the way, once Caelyn is placed in our arms on Gotcha Day...she's ours to love and care for from that moment on.

The Road Less Traveled….

Many recent casual conversations have caused me to ponder more about the meaning of adoption. I’ve been immersed in this process for almost two years and every now and then it helps to look at life like through “fresh” lenses. We have so many friends (online and offline) that are adopting or have adopted that we forget adoption is still….....a road less traveled.

For some reason it was easier for Zach and me to warm up to the idea of adoption than most folks we have encountered. Perhaps it is because our family and friends are so supportive or perhaps it was somehow meant to be…....back when we were just pimpled teens we talked about spending forever together. Then it wasn’t long before we daydreamt about little Zach, little Amy, and little Caelyn. Yes, we thought someday we would like to adopt a baby from China, in addtion to having biological children, preferably when we were all grown up, married, and pimples cleared. And to be honest, we didn’t know then her name was to be Caelyn.

Even with that notion there were still many questions when it was truly time to put our dreams into action. How hard will this process be? Am I ok with not having a genetic connection to my child? Will she love me? Will she resist me when she grows up? Will the neighbors talk? Will she be healthy? How much will this process cost? What if a bond is not created? And so on and so forth.

After much soul searching…...more questions emerged…...Could this be our chance to do something extraordinary? We most likely will be able to provide this child with more opportunities and love than she otherwise would have, right? Isn’t the earth over populated…wouldn’t this be a great way to express how much we care about our environment? Isn’t the deepest and truest form of love all encompassing? Wouldn’t this be one of the greatest personal growth opportunities…...to find a higher self? Isn’t parenting more important than just giving birth? Wouldn’t this put a smile on God’s face?

The questions kept rolling out and each one was more inspiring than the last. We did not have to go far for answers. They were already there in our hearts.

Zach and I were surprised how united our hearts and spirits were in this pursuit. We never wavered or doubted our decision. We got frustrated, sad, angry, and catatonic because the wait got so long but no, we never wavered. She’s not even here yet but we have already grown a little…...a bit more courageous, a tat more patient, and tons more compassionate than we were before. Don’t get me wrong…....we still have a ways to go…...on this road less traveled.