Saturday, June 09, 2007

She slept through the night. Hallelujah!

I know we've only been home 7 nights and it can take weeks to get sleeping straightened out but knowing that hasn't made us less tired so we're so thankful that Alyson slept all night last night :-)
Well technically she woke at 2:30 with a bit of a cry/whimper but before my feet even hit the floor to go get her she had soothed herself. Our first few nights home when she woke up one of us would go get her and sleep with her in the big bed in her room. Then the night before last Michael was able to leave her in her crib but sit next to it and rub her head until she fell back to sleep. Maybe that helped her put herself back to sleep last night.
Alyson had her first peds appointment, immunizations and a chest x-ray this week. The peds appointment went pretty well, she has a very nice Nurse Practitioner for her primary care manager. We decided to start all her immunizations over again even though we got somewhat of a shot record from China so she got 6 shots and that went about as well as one could expect. The real nightmare was the chest x-ray. She screamed and trembled like I've never seen before. She was clearly traumatized by the room. She kept looking around and screaming as if she was looking for a way out. When she couldn't find one, she shut her eyes and started twitching. I thought she was going to have a seizure or pass out. I picked her up off the table and told the tech to open the door. I just had a feeling she needed to see the way out. As soon as he opened the door she started to melt in my arms and relax, still screaming but her body relaxed. I told them I couldn't put her through anymore so we'd have to skip the rest of the x-rays for now and I walked her out. She was almost immediately better when we got in the hallway, I hadn't even stopped to get her clothes back on, I just wanted to get her out of there.
That was rough but she recovered quickly. I on the other hand cried for 20 minutes then was frustrated and angry for hours. Clearly the x-ray techs at the base don't work with children very often and have no clue that when a mom and child have a fragile bond, the mom shouldn't be the one to restrain the child for a procedure. I should have been there to comfort her but a tech should have been the one holding her arms up.
We survived that and have our next challenge next week, her first cardiology appointment, an echo, and an ekg. That should be fun for all ;-)

I have more updates and pictures for this post but Little A just woke from her nap so I gotta go! I'll try again tonight after she goes to bed.

1 comment:

Eileen said...

Welcome home! I really enjoyed following your journey in China.

A fellow mom of a Kunming Allison :-)

Eileen