Day 9 – April 23, 2009

We arrive home today! We land in Miami at 7:40 a.m. exhausted. Megan slept about 2/3 of the flight, I didn’t even close my eyes, and my mother slept a little bit. Flying halfway across the world with a baby is hardly a picnic, though of course it is totally worth it. We take the elevator down to baggage claim with a woman who keeps muttering for us to hurry on to the elevator and then proceeds to keep pressing the open door button instead of the 1st floor button. We finally descend to the first floor and walk to the baggage carousel where we meet Daddy! How exciting! All goes well until we get home where Megan screams whenever Daddy gets too close. Poor Daddy is so upset.

Megan’s brothers, Andrew (9) and Julian (6) have an early release day at school today and arrive home shortly after noon. They are so excited to see her. I am practically comatose at the time, after have been sleep deprived for a couple of days, but I can see that they are enjoying their introduction. They fetch board books and toys and sit on the bed reading to her and playing with her. Meanwhile, Daddy is still eliciting screams from Megan when he gets within 10 feet of her. He does give her a quick bath, but I wouldn’t say she is exactly pleased.

Today is Megan’s day to get acquainted with her family, her house, her room and her toys. She is very mommy focused, but that is probably to be expected given that I have been her security blanket during this past week of life altering events. She particularly enjoys being pushed on a ride on toy by Julian all over the downstairs. I ask Julian who he thinks will get tired first, him or Megan. He says Megan, but I think it is a tie. They keep it up for quite a while.

Daddy makes congee in the rice cooker. Very impressive! Megan eats a little but still prefers her formula. David does some investigative work on the computer and learns that on the English language versions of the Asian rice cookers, the congee setting is called porridge. Now, we have a reason to use that setting. We spend most of the day trying to make Megan feel comfortable. My mother and I nap on and off, trying to feel human again, and of course there are piles of laundry awaiting me. David did do some while I was away, but laundry is one of those things which multiplies by itself. Megan isn’t too happy about sleeping in her crib. She does for a little while but then starts screaming. Julian, who is camping out in Megan’s room in a sleeping bag next to her crib, says his ears hurt and returns to his room. Megan continues to scream, and David fixes her a bottle which she promptly throws up all over herself and me. We get both of us cleaned up and then let her sleep in bed with us. I was trying to avoid doing this as I really want her to get used to sleeping in her crib; however, we realize that what she needs most right now is to feel secure. She sleeps peacefully the rest of the night next to me.