The Day After The Day Before

Have you ever hated those self-satisfied, know-it-all new parents that proffer all kinds of unsolicited advice to everyone based upon their extremely limited, days-old experience? No? Well, read on. You will soon.

We thought that this “parenting thing” was supposed to be a challenge. Particularly this “adoptive parenting thing”. You know how it is supposed to go, you bring your previously instituationalized bundle-of-joy home for the first time, you put your child to bed for the first time, and then she…sleeps the whole night long. For close to 12 hours! Is parenting always this complex? Must the parents always stay quiet in order to let the little one sleep peacefully? Have we been misled? Okay, enough hyperbole for the moment.

We had been worried that there was significant opportunity for sleep disruptions given all of the changes in her life. Fortunately for all of us, there was no need to worry. Having missed her afternoon naptime and having literally run her poor (but oh-so-devoted new) parents quite silly (quite an achievement if you know how silly they were to begin with), Miss Zoe Yerkezhan was finally tired enough for bed. She went out like a light in her doting Mother’s arms and, once placed in her crib, surrendered to the arms of Morpheus for the entire night. A deep sleep, in spite of someone ringing our very loud, musical Mozart doorbell at 2:00 am and the concrete blower at the construction site across the street operating at full bore throughout the night. Thankfully!

Today has been much more decidely low key than the exciting heights reached the day before. With no need to go absolutely anywhere, we did not venture beyond the grounds of our apartment complex. The requisite learning of all of our mutual likes and dislikes is now occurring. And the significant period of adjustment for all of us has begun.

Zoe started the new day as she ended the day before – charging around our apartment at full throttle. Easily outpacing her elders. She skipped her morning nap, but decided that the scheduled afternoon time slot needed to be strictly adhered to. As did Sara, who managed to catch up on her sleep while her little charge re-charged her batteries. Apparently new Mothers do not manage to sleep through very loud, musical Mozart doorbells at 2:00 am and concrete blowers at the construction site across the street operating throughout the night.

And that is basically it for our primary activities. We may decide to remain “apartment bound” for the next few days. Such is our new state of parenthood. Hopefully we will have some more thrillling pictures to post over the coming days and several more witty pieces to author, but much of that depends upon how well the time with our little Zoe progresses. And how much time she permits us to maintaining such “outside interests”.

Consequently, we are not quite ready to write the “Compendium on Successful Modern Parenting” just yet. But there will surely be ample time to come to hate our current new-parent smugness. Who knows how long that will really take to wear off? Maybe a second full night of sleep would give us an indication. We promise to keep you posted.

Thank you to everyone for their kind comments and messages on yesterday’s outcome. They are always and continue to be greatly appreciated by us on this somewhat lonely side of the World. These contacts certainly maintain our overwhelming feeling of connection to everyone. If only Zoe permitted us time to answer them all directly.

She is obsessed with every little speck of dirt on the floor. Luckily she is learning to pick it up and give it to one of us rather than putting it directly in her mouth. Here she is insisting that someone take it.
We did manage a half hour on the playground. Our weather is not nearly as warm as it had been over Nauryz weekend so we dutifully bundled Zoe a layer or two beyond what we thought was appropriate. She is a little girl used to sweating, after all. We made up for it inside the apartment where, by the end of the day, she was down to a single onesie and loving it.


Addendum to Post: Apparently all things come to pass. Tonight, after 36 hours, we rejoiced in our first mutual movement, so to speak (when could we ever post news like this to the World, ever again). But it did not come easily – requiring considerable effort on the part of our little one. Fortunately, her parents demonstrated that the five degrees that they possess between were not earned for naught – they eventually decided to let nature take its course. Apparently some experiential learning is required in this department. But does this sort of thing happen every week? Have we mentioned, previously, that we might not be entirely ready to publish that “Compendium on Successful Modern Parenting” just yet?