Life as 3

Man, I thought I would blog more than I have. We found Facebook was our main means of communicating while on the road, but definitely wanted to add some thoughts here.

Katie, is awesome. She sleep and eats well, good natured, she only fusses if something needs attention. We are learning the ropes on some of the special care required for black babies, such as Vaseline on the body to moisturize her skin or she gets dry really quick, and on her face she gets little pimples if she isn't moisturized enough. She has a few there now as we are still trying to figure that out the best. Their hair gets brittle if it isn't cared for so right now we are using baby oil on it to keep it curly and soft, apparently you can use pink oil when they get a bit older. She came to us with a slight sinus thing and with the trip, stress of getting to know her parents etc it got quite a bit stuffy the last little while. We hit the saline drops and snot sucker device hard and added a slight incline on the mattress and a humidifier plus some herbal remedies and today she is doing quite a bit better.

She is just about 6 weeks old. She was born Feb 13 2009.

I had bronchitis for a week or so before we got the call and hadn't gotten to a doctor yet, so it set in REALLLL good while we were in the States. Today marks day 8 on antibiotics and I think we are turning the bend. After weeks of coughing my ribs are sooo sore, it has made it hard to even hold her at times, and burping her has been impossible. She isn't an easy burp-er, something she will have to work on to be a true Burtis(LOL)! Along with the lung stuff I got an ear infection ,and since I am deaf in one ear already, resulted in me having about 10-15% hearing, NOT fun in a plane nor trying to hear your wife or newborn. As a result Cara has had to shoulder a lot more than we planned, and she has done awesome, I knew she would be a good mommy and she has proven me right :)!




Katie was in cradle care for the 20 odd days before we got her, an she was well cared, for. We have been diligent in working on attachment, not letting anyone else feed or comfort her, and we have only let others hold her when she is fully awake or fully asleep. It has been nice to be able to bless our family and friends with being able to do that. With Julia, from China, we won't be able to do that as the attachment work will need to be much more focused and intentional. She is seeking mom out with her eyes now and looking longingly into them, cuddling in, it is great. Due to my coughing etc I have not had as much holding time or feeding time with her, so we still have a ways to go.

We have been blessed by friends who have cleaned up the house for us, brought us hot suppers, been very thoughtful not to invade, have(mostly) understood our attachment rituals and their need, and have been SOOOO excited, prayed for us tons and celebrated greatly with us.