Sweet Dylan, the Littlest Ashton : Our first full day together

okay so I'm a good day behind on by blogging, but as you can imagine, finding the time (and the energy) is not easy!

Today is Wednesday, which means Na Na has been with me for 3 whole days! It's certainly been a lot of ups and downs so far, but she's doing her level best to train me on how she likes to be taken care of!

the first night with her, Judy and I struggled to feed her. No luck. She'd firmly push the bottle away, clamp her mouth shut and resisted like a champion. So we gave up and i figured it will be okay to miss a meal (well two meals as the nanny said she hadn't been able to give her a bottle earlier either) the next morning we had to be down stairs at 9:30 so i got up early in preparation of the long morning ahead. We tried again to feed her and she flat out refused. So when we went back to the civil affairs office, we asked the nanny and orphanage director what we were doing wrong? could they show us how to feed her? As it turns out we weren't doing anything wrong she just refused to eat. they had to resort to a force feed. (and yes that's as awful as it sounds) i sat down and held her in my arms and tried to hold her arms still. the nanny was on one side firmly holding Dylan's head and the other nanny on the other side and held her legs all while the director spoon fed her the formula. and by spoon fed i mean she'd have to squeeze Dylan's cheeks until she open her mouth, then she shoved in the food, half of which she spit right out. we did this for at least 45 minutes and got almost a bottles worth into her. it was awful! but she had warm food in her belly. Dylan's is amazingly resilient and no matter how much she cries, screams or fusses, she quickly calms down again. so once the drama (and trauma) were over she was quiet and sweet again.

When we had first walked into the office and Na Na saw the ladies she extended one arm out to them. The very clever director held back and ordered the nanny to move away. I was so worried that once she saw her old family she'd cry to have them back again, but nope she just clung to me and was totally fine. All the paperwork had been handled the day before so this day was the official registering of the adoption. They presented us with all her approved adoption paperwork, and then it was picture time. We stood up all together as they handed me all these signed, sealed, delivered forms. then they presented Dylan with the most amazing Ethnic Doll, they believe she's of mixed race (their words) and said part tribe and part Westerner. Of the tribe, Miao are the largest group in this region so they think she's Miao. Vicky was telling me by the structure of her eyes and forehead that she appears Westerner. I can't imagine that's the case as we have not seen one other Caucasian here (well other than one shop owner) Not that it matters at all, but the doll was stunningly dressed in traditional garb. then they gave her a pendant (which i really have to look at as I'm not sure it's for a necklace or not) I looked at Vicky in surprise and she said: I told you they'd give her nice gifts. really really nice gifts. i felt so crummy for having only given them chocolates and chewing gum! not at all a fair trade. But once again everyone there was lovely and gracious. Again they told me they knew Na Na was in good hands. and then they were gone.

When we got back to our room we happily settled in for a day of quiet and calm. I really wanted Na Na to have a quiet day to take in the craziness around her. We attempted bottle feeding, and this time i figured out if i put my finger in her mouth i could keep it open while Judy put the bottle in. Thankfully i had a collection of bottles and found the Playtex Nurser with the disposable liners worked perfectly. I would hold Na Na, with my finger tip keeping her mouth open and Judy would stand above us squeezing the formula into her mouth. Well at least we went from 4 to 2 people feeding her. It just got easier and easier from there. she happily took a nap (no pooppies yet) and was quite content to later just lay on be bed and look around. She's not at all like a typical toddler, all hands and mouth, exploring everything. she just lays there and looks around. she likes to roll over quite a bit and will push herself up on one hard. but once i put a Chinese language kids' channel on, she laid there and just chilled. Each feeding got easier and easier and finally after skypeing with Ba Ba we all collapsed for a good nights rest!