Luke Day

Hmm, somehow I missed a picture of the director.  I don't know if this was the driver, or someone else from the orphanage.  We'd waited and waited in the hotel lobby, and when my guide excused herself to use the powder room, they finally arrived.  I knew it was them, and they knew it was me, but since we lacked a common language, the director took off down a hallway to a little alcove with a couple tables and chairs.  The guy in the picture gestured for me to follow, and I grabbed my stuff and my guide's umbrella and she caught up with us just as we were moving the party to this space with a little more privacy.  

And here he is.  Not at all sure what to think about me.  

Hot, sick, overwhelmed, scared.  My guide got some paperwork from the director, and asked and wrote answers to the questions that I actually remembered to bring.  Luke mostly cried.  He'd settle for a bit and then freak out again.  I'll have to show you a picture of the huge marble lobby so you can imagine his shrieks echoing while we waited for the elevator to go up to our room.  

We got upstairs, and I decided to see if a bath would distract him for a bit.  It did.  He liked the water, and he really liked banging on the side of the tub because of the noise it made.  Here again, I'm wishing Paul was with us, because I could have had him bring the camera in and take a couple pictures.  

I was glad to have the baby tub from the hotel, as he's not very stable sitting.  Even in the baby tub, I had to scootch him up a few times.  The guide had been doing some paperwork while I bathed him, and I guess she called her boss, because another guide, the supervisor, came to check on us.  She reminded me to dress him warmly, despite the fact that it was in the 80s here yesterday.  Supervising guide left, and our guide came in and asked to get his footprint.  So bathtime was over.  My apologies to housekeeping for the pink washcloth.  

Oh, and if you look at the picture with the footprint again, you'll see that the hotel actually has an iphone charger they loan out.  Whew!  It's hard to feel cut off from everybody when you're alone.  Now, at least I can fight with the patchy wi fi and hopefully get this posted and check my email.  It was on when I started this post, but it's off now.  

Clean baby.  He was scratching in the tub.  He's got some kind of rash, so I put some anti itch cream on that, and cleaned his ookie belly button.  

We're going to need to get him into Early Intervention as soon as we get home.  I don't know how much of his delay are organic and how much are environmental, but the reality of what we're dealing with is sobering.  

I've been thinking he'd be close to where Gogo was developmentally, when we had him.  Luke is just a little older than Gogo is, and my lil trio of toe headed temporaries was delayed.  I was wrong.  

This little guy stays put when you set him down.  I haven't seen him crawl, roll over, or even change positions on his own.  Some of it could be "shutting down" because he's freaked out, of course, but my mommy radar is sounding really loudly.

After a couple of hours mostly spent screaming, he fell asleep for a few minutes in my arms.  I think I got a picture on my phone.  When he woke up, it was like he'd mellowed out a little bit, and I was able to get him to interact with a toy somewhat.  If I put it in his hand, he'd move his arm up and down to hear the rings clack together.  But he doesn't reach for things.  He needs to learn to play with toys.  

The bib kept him entertained for several minutes before I even put it on him.  I put it in his lap, and he kept touching it with the back of his fingers, liking the noise his fingernails made.  

Suddenly, I'm not feeling so great.  I'm going back to bed for a bit.  I still have 1.5 hours before the alarm goes off.  Prayers please.