7/26 Photos

A Busy Week

As I said in my last post, we found out last week that Raul is fighting a few infections. His doctor that he saw in the ER has been checking in, and she is surprised at how well is doing. He takes his medicines well (other than the Atarax, which doesn't seem to be his favorite), and his wounds are actually starting to look a bit better. He has been eating a TON of baby food and yogurt! He would be happy to have someone sit and feed him yogurt all day! He has also started drinking out of his sippy cup again, which is great.

To the surprise of the doctors, he is feeling much better than he was last week at this time. He talked non-stop almost all day today, and spent a lot of time in his walker. We have to chase him around though as he is a mischevious almost two year old and likes to get into everything. And Teddy, our dog, was very sick over the weekend, so we are trying to keep Raul from bothering him, but neither of them are helping haha. Teddy seems to like Raul, and Raul definitely loves Teddy.

Raul has been much more mobile lately, and loves rolling around on the floor. He also likes it if you stand him up holding his hands and make him walk (basically push his feet in a walking movement), so I am hoping he will learn to walk before heading home to Romania. In CO he will get physical therapy, so hopefully that will help. He is also sort of crawling now. He can't tuck his knees under him in the normal fasion due to his blisters, but he drags his legs along and goes backwards, sideways, and a little bit forwards. He definitely has no problem getting where he wants to go!

Today I had my own procedure to remove a few moles, and apparently Raul was the life of the party in the waiting room with my mom. She said he "talked" (loudly!) the whole time, and was flirting with some of the little toddler girls. He was "talking" so loudly that the women at the desk were having trouble hearing their phones! He also got to eat some yogurt, his favorite, both in the waiting room and the cafeteria. Hopefully his behavior today is an indicator of how he will do waiting for appointments in CO!

Raul likes to be on the MOVE. He, and all his stuff, started on the blue blanket...

HOT weather in Boston

New toy from Granny

Playing

One day he fell asleep for his nap with his "lovey" on his head haha

Shirt from Kristen. It is a joke as when he was a baby we called him the "little smurf" because of all the blue skin medicine they used on him in Tutova!

Sleeping with his "lovey" and his yellow egg :)

Shirt from Granny

One Week

Raul has officially been in the U.S. one week today! He has become a yogurt monster, eating up to seven cups a day (and baby food fruits)! He is officially done with bottles, but will drink out of a sippy cup sometimes. He loves his toys, but he especially loves his "car" (walker) and our dog Teddy. He likes to chase Teddy in his walker. Just a couple days ago he started having a soft "lovey", and now he falls asleep with it under his head holding part in his hand while he sucks his thumb. He is also still partial to the yellow half of a stacking chicken.

His skin is starting to clear up a bit now that he is in A/C and his itching is under control with Zyrtec, Atarax, and Benadryl. However, he does have a couple areas of skin that had discharge making them look infected, so we took him to the doctor Tuesday night. They were able to culture the areas. and we are waiting on those results, but in the meantime he is taking Keflex. He slept almost all day yesterday, but today seemed to be feeling a lot better. He is still a bit cranky, but he was eating a lot again, more playful, and more mobile. The doctor he saw was very nice, and she is going to call us to check in on Raul in the next couple days, and will also call us when the culture results come in. I got a bunch of compliments from nurses and residents about my bandaging too :)

He is also calming down a bit when it comes to his baths. He still screams in the tub, but is fine during bandages, and even during the tub he has gotten a bit calmer. We have also found that he really likes going in the car in his carseat. He almost always falls asleep in it, and it definitely relaxes him. He has also been sleeping through the night the past few nights, which is great! Before that he would usually wake up at 3 and 6, and seemed to have some nightmares that left him quite upset, but for now that has all stopped. Overall he seems to be adjusting well. Only ten days until we head out to CO for his EB clinic appointment!

Pirate Boy

Raul's First Visitors

Raul had his first visitors today! First, in the morning, my grandma and grandpa came up from Cape Cod to see Raul. We had lunch while watching Raul zoom around in his walker and chase Teddy. He LOVES Teddy, and thinks he is hilarious. He gave lots of smiles and giggles, and didn't get sleepy until around one (he has been taking morning naps). He rested in his crib for a while, but didn't really sleep. We got him up a little before our second visitors were coming, fed him a yogurt, and played a little. Raul likes sitting outside on our porch with my mom watching the cars go by.

Around 5 our second visitors came. It was Kristen (one of my teammates from Romania), and her parents. He was a little cranky since he hadn't napped, but still gave them smiles and giggles. He showed off all his new skills to Kristen, and ate a yogurt from her as well. Kristen's parents liked getting the chance to meet Raul too.

Raul was much happier today than yesterday. He "talked" a lot more, and was more mobile. He spent a bunch of time in the walker, and also a bunch of time on the floor rolling around. He was very close to crawling! He doesn't tuck his knees under since they are sore, but he was able to sort of drag them behind him on the floor. He also is getting close to going from a push up position to sitting. Today he stood a lot by himself as well. He does this while in the walker, but stands on his own. He also stood in his crib holding the side.

He seems to have a bit of a cold (he has been coughing since we got him), and has been extremely itchy, though that has subsided a bit with the allergy medicines. He has a couple sore areas that are bothering him, but he doesn't seem to be in too much pain. I changed his bandages today without a bath, and he barely even whined. I do his bandages in front of the TV to distract him, and it seems to work, especially while sitting him up to wrap his abdomen!

Playing

Travel and Home

Yesterday was our long travel day, and Raul did really well! He didn't mind the planes, not even takeoff and landing, but was a little uncomfortable, especially on the first flight when he had to sit on my lap. Getting through Romanian Boarder Control was surprisingly easy! They just looked at all our papers, copied them in a back office, and okayed us. Raul was a trooper through all the new experiences: taxis, buses, trains, planes, cars. He made friends along the way on the planes, especially with the flight attendants. On the first flight they gave him a stuffed plane, then on the second they gave him a plane finger puppet, a little soft book, and an airplane patterned bib. We really liked the airline! The flight attendants on the second plane particularly loved Raul, and they checked on him every time they walked by, and talked to him a bunch. They also were curious to hear about his condition and his humanitarian parole.

On the long flight Raul lay in a wall bassinet for a little while so we could eat, then when he woke up fussy in there he came and laid on my chair with me for the rest of the flight. He slept almost the whole way, which was great. When we got to Boston they checked us at Boarder Control, then we had to go downstairs to a secondary inspection area to fill out a form for his parole. They were very nice to us, but not so nice to some of the other people who were down there for immigration troubles. Then we got our bag, and headed out.

My mom greeted us with a big colorful sign and flowers. She also had brought tea, like they get in Romania, in a sippy cup which Raul loved. He hadn't drunk much of anything yet, so we were happy to see him getting fluids finally. He has been eating pretty well, but he will have NOTHING to do with formula anymore. His favorites are strawberry yogurt and banana baby food. We ate our dinner then headed up to bed. My mom slept in my room with me and Raul so that I could get some sleep since it had been a few days since I'd really slept. She said he woke up at 3 then went back to sleep, and at 6 they left the room, but then ended up sleeping a bit more in my sister's room. At 8 he was up for the day. I got up at 11:30, and he was happy to see me :) .

At about 1 he fell asleept for his nap, and slept until 4. I let him wake up a little, and then tackled my first solo bath and bandage change for him. Obviously, he was NOT happy, but it went well. He only really freaked out in the bath, the rest of the time he only cried a little, so it was normal for him. Some of his blisters are in really tricky areas to bandage, but I finished the whole bath and bandage process in an hour, which is not bad at all, especially since I did it myself. At that time my mom got back home, and we brought Raul down to eat again.

Surprisingly, Raul seems to kind of like Teddy. He isn't scared of him, and actually even started petting him last night. He doesn't like when Teddy barks, but still isn't too bothered. Though at this point everything is so strange for him, a big hairy dog probably isn't much weirder! It is so great to finally have him here after this long process. The crib that has been waiting since we first thought we were bringing him home about two months ago is finally filled. Right now he is having a rest in his crib since the bandage process tired him out, and he is playing with his favorite new toy cell phone!

Travel Day!

Good morning!

Raul has a lot of sores/blisters right now. This is the bandages he arrived to us in, plus new ones on his hands as they were raw.

At the gate in Bucharest! One (BIG) step down: getting through Romanian Boarder Police!

Sleeping in the bassinet on the plane

Sleeping. You can see another baby in the back in a bassinet too.

Day four of only a few hours of sleep per night...

Raul started crying in the bassinet, so he spent the next four or so hours sleeping on my chair (Unfortunately I wasn't actually asleep, but I was watching/listening to movies)

First night in his new crib! (note: he seems to really like our dog Teddy, he was petting him and not scared at all!)

Okay, I'll admit, he is watching TV here. I had to leave the room for a few minutes, and I didn't want him to be scared of the silence, so I turned on a kids' show. He fell asleep a few minutes after this was taken.