We're feeling better

We're all doing somewhat better. Henry is playing and laughing. He's still congested but he hasn't really had a fever since Tuesday. He continues to be very difficult to feed. Hopefully we can make the Monday morning meeting with ECI so I can start getting help from them. My mother is out of the hospital but she is taking longer to bounce back due to still being exhausted from our time in Vietnam and she has frail lungs.

We're all sick

We have all been sick since this past weekend. On Saturday we took my mother to the emergency room, they ended up checking her into the hospital. When they heard she had been in Southeast Asia for several months and had respitory problems they initially isolated her thinking she had SARS. Then they finally determined it was pneumonia.

Meanwhile Henry started getting sick on Saturday evening. I tried to call his pediatrician--they are supposed to have a phone line that is always answered. I never could get through and just waited until Monday morning to take him when their office opened. On Sunday his temperature was up to 104.7, but I was able to keep it down with Tylenol and Motrin.

The pediatrician said the fever is the body's natural way of fighting illness. She didn't like the idea of keeping a fever down for prolonged amounts of time, she said it prevents the body from doing its business. The children's center had told me another child there had RSV so he was checked for that. She said he had just whatever virus is "going around". She gave us some cough syrup and a prescription for amoxycillin.

I went to the doctor right after to get antibiotics. I wasn't feeling horrible but I was coming down with whatever Henry had, and I wanted to keep myself in functioning health. I usually don't take medicine and rarely go to the doctor but now a priority is to keep me able to take care of Henry.

Henry's fever was down for over a day, though he was still congested. I went back to work on Wednesday and took him to the children's center. Then at noon they called me and said I needed to pick him up because he was sick. He had awakened from the nap and couldn't breathe well. That happens before--when he lays down for long periods of time the mucus seems to collect in his nose and then he doesn't know how to breathe. My remedy at home has been to give him a bath and the warm water seems to clear him up.

I hadn't been happy with the pediatrician's diagnosis, so I ended up taking him to my doctor. We had an appointment for 3 (it was noon at the time) but I went on to the office and they let us in immediately. The PA I saw showed me how to clear Henry by irrigating his nose, they gave him a shot of antibiotics, and ordered a chest x ray.

It turns out he has walking pneumonia. He is on a different antibiotic and seems to be doing better. Now that I know how to irrigate his nose I am able to relieve him of that problem (though of course he doesn't like it while it's being done). I was very happy with the way the second doctor's office let us in immediately and went into action right away.

So I guess I will just start taking him to my clinic (which is right around the corner from the library) rather than the pediatrician who is actually in another town.

He seems to be doing better today. I take him back to the doctor tomorrow and if he isn't noticeably improved he will have to be put in the hospital.

Meanwhile my cat Sugarbabe has been relegated to the outdoors for the time being. In the photo she sits on the shelf outside my kitchen window and tries to get inside.

Christmas Party at the Children's Center

Today was the Christmas party (or maybe they call it a Seasonal Celebration) over at the Children's Center. I didn't go in the room where they were eating so that I wouldn't disturb him.
I gave the camera to one of the caregivers and they took the pictures. It was great to see him eating, even if it was chocolate cupcakes.

Souvenirs from Vietnam

I've done a lot of traveling and I usually bring back many many souvenirs. When I went to Thailand back in 2003 I brought back enough to open a small store, and in fact I drew some suspicion when I had a three day layover in Tokyo on my way home. Even though I left most of my luggage in storage at Narita, when I got on the plane bound for home I think they thought I was trying to smuggle something illegal because I had so much stuff. They inspected me with a fine tooth comb.

This time I didn't bring back as much. Of course the greatest thing I brought back is Henry.
Here he poses with Barney. One of the creators of Barney got her master's at the university where I work. The university has had a push over the past year or two to hit up alumni who have "made good", and we are currently hoping to get some "Barney money" for my part of the library--the teacher education collection and the children's collection.
Here is an authentic Vietnamese water puppet that I bought for $25 in Hanoi. It is the real thing--its blunted fingers denote many performances. The thing is around the size of a newborn baby and I think it would make a good stand in for the infant in a creche scene.

These are mere replicas of water puppets that I bought in HCMC for $2.50 each. They are only around six inches tall but they do remind me of one of my favorite scenes from both performances--the husband and wife gathering fish and frogs in the water, fighting either with themselves or with a fox.
I bought this wooden image in Siem Reap. It is a replica of one of the king's faces that adorn (in the hundreds) one of the temples at Angkor Wat. I bargained the vendor down to three dollars for this item, which is around a foot tall.
I don't drink alcohol, but I felt I couldn't leave without a bottle of the famous Vietnamese snake wine--I wouldn't drink it even if I did partake of spirits. I bought this bottle for just five dollars (and could have got it for less if I had wanted to bargain) and I've seen it for sale through US vendors for much much higher. It really creeps me out--thankfully the vendor wrapped it in newspaper but I was still fearful of the bottle breaking in my luggage on the way home. And I wasn't entirely sure it was legal to bring back. Most of the online commentary said it was legal but a few people said theirs had been confiscated.
My mother was anxious to have one of these wooden images of a woman in a conical hat. In the last day or two we were in Hanoi I bought one. They are everywhere.
These palm leaf baseball hats are supposedly only available in Vietnam. I bought two and my mother bought two--we rationalized that four would fit in a suitcase as well as one would.

This hat is the one I will most likely wear, a squared off baseball cap with the flag.
The green hat on the upper right is a Vietnamese army hat that I have added to my collection. I used to have a huge rack with twenty or more hats in the room that is now Henry's. My collection is now reduced to these few that will fit in my room. The top hat is from Venice, the hat directly beneath it is from Guatemala, the dark brown cap to the left of that is from Peru, as is the multicolor cap below it. The black hat is a children's bobby hat from England--I couldn't find the real thing.
I found this puzzle at a grocery store in Hanoi. I thougth it would come in useful in a few years when I show Henry the Vietnamese alphabet. Or maybe he can use it for show and tell (if they still do that in school).
My mother bought this story quilt in Laos, and it is hanging in Henry's room. We could have gotten one without the English narration of what I think is a well known story, but since we don't know the story I got the captioned version. They sold these in Thailand too, they are handicraft of some hill tribe that I think is spread around Southeast Asia.
Lastly is this lacuqered cover of a Tintin book. Tintin is a series of what we now call graphic novels by a Belgian writer who goes by the pseudonym Herge (from his initials, his name is Georges Remi).

Life at the Children's Center

Henry seems to be settling in to life at the campus children's center. They take photos of him during the day and pass them on to me, such as the one above.

I am concerned that he is not eating as well as he was before. Food that he used to gobble up like oatmeal or cream of wheat is not interesting to him anymore. I can usually get him to eat two or three bites of something that I consider nutritional, but that is all. He will grudgingly eat cereal-like food that is similar to Cheerios. Gerber puts out the finger food carrots, sweet potatoes, corn, apples, and pineapples.

He will still take milk or formula from a bottle. He will take only one or two sips from a cup, not enough in my opinion to get any real benefit. I have started feeding him Pediasure at night just to get the added vitamins in him. Friends tell me babies go through cycles of not wanting to eat much, but I am not wanting him to lose the weight he has gained.

ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) will evaluate him this coming Monday to see if we qualify for their services. If I can get help from them there will be a nutritionist, physical therapist, etc. They will help him with walking and feeding himself and will also advise me on what I need to be doing. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will qualify for the assistance.

A Visit from Kevin

Henry seems to have adjusted fairly well to the children's learning center on campus. I drop him off at 7:45. He cries but they are in the midst of feeding them breakfast so he is immediately thrust into that activity. I think there are around 12 in his age range--older infants. The focus now seems to be to get him to feed himself, to walk, and to socialize with the other children.

I have contacted the local office of ECI, Early Childhood Intervention. They are supposed to come out this coming week and evaluate Henry for their services. There is some debate over which county will be responsible for us since I live in one county and work in another county, and the county where I work is where he will receive most of the care. They will advise me on feeding--Henry seems to be getting more and more picky about eating and I am concerned about him maintaining his improvements. They will also help him in walking and talking and whatever other areas he might need help.
This weekend Henry had a visit from one of his companions from the orphanage who luckily happens to live very close to us. Kevin was adopted by Bau and we got to know each other while in HCMC, along with Gary and Sue (http://www.macklisfamily.blogspot.com/) who adopted Sara. Kevin is very outgoing and curious, sometimes Henry just sat and watched him as he raced around the room. Hopefully they will grow up to be good friends.
Today I had to dress Henry up in warm clothes while I rummaged around in the barn and the storage room for the Christmas decorations. I don't think he was too happy with wearing the hat, but we are on the edge of the prairie and the wind is cold and relentless here. I have been cautioned by numerous people to cover his head when we are out in the wind.

Finding a Routine

Today is my first day back at work and Henry's first full day at the children's center. They give him breakfast there, but I ended up having to feed him some hot cereal before we left home anyway because he was so hungry, and it's a 25 minute drive to the campus.

He cried when I dropped him off, but at least he was in a high chair and they were putting food in front of him as some distraction. Then I called around 11 (when they put them down for a nap) and I went over there at 1:30. I didn't let him see me but I did look around the corner at him and I spoke with the caregivers. They seemed to think he was doing fine. I don't think he was eating as much as they wanted--he is going to have to learn to feed himself like they expect. They did give him two bottles which is hungrily took.
Here is my somewhat haphazard photo of the mirror looking into the back seat. This is the view I have as I drive to work--note the expansive countryside. I rarely pass any traffic except in the small town I pass through halfway to work. Henry also watched me from that mirror--I guess with an hour a day in the car we will become very accustomed to looking at each other by way of that mirror.