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.