Day 2

The second day of visiting had us seeing how she eats (the cleft doesn't affect it at all), seeing some of the exercises they do with her to help her muscle development, and then all about the doctors in the morning.  We first had her Russian doctor go over her entire medical file with us. Nothing alarming was mentioned.  She is very tiny (6.3kg last month's weigh-in) but she has progressed in a way that they are happy with.  She has had all of her vaccinations in the proper timeline and she has had ultrasounds of the brain, heart, joints, etc every six months to ensure no development of problems.  The Canadian designated medical doctor was very thorough in his explanations of her examination.  She seemed to get a kick out of his stethoscope and was very pleasant during the whole thing.  Other than the cleft, (which does not impede eating and shouldn't impede speech, it really  is just the roof of the mouth) the concern is her size and muscle development.  They keep calling it her physical delay.  And her psychological delay is because she doesn't have the one-on-one interaction or contact that is required for a kid to flourish.

The best part was that she was more relaxed with us today.  Not as many self soothing motions and she was way more vocal.

The child psychologist talked with us for a bit too.  She explained about her behaviour, which is calm, good at showing emotion, and rocks or pets the side of her head to self soothe.  She spoke a lot about the things we learned from the Russian training and how extra scheduled and vigilant we should be for the first bit.  We should always talk aloud about what we are doing so she is completely used to our voices.  She said Dania should get music a few times a week, I told her how I sing and dance and play piano, and the woman laughed and said Dania will definitely enjoy being in that environment.  She also said to encourage physical movement, like gymnastics, dance, etc, in order to keep her muscles growing.

Honestly, considering that she is in an institution that currently houses 65 kids, the medical attention that every child receives is impressive.  The files are very thorough and the doctor is there everyday.

Her case file showed us more about her parents.  There is really no medical history, just what they told the hospital before they left her there.  She was never breastfed and has never known a family life.  She lived at the hospital for 6 months, and then was transferred to the orphanage.  Her parents terminated their rights almost immediately.  No other family members seem to want anymore of this woman's kids.  All five children have been given away.  Stop having kids, already!  She is 37, the father is 34, as of this year.  Five Russian  families have showed interest in her but, more than likely, opted for a younger, healthier child.  Remember, she has to have been shown no interest for 6 months before she could go on the international register.

We walked around with her today.  Played with lots of toys.  She crawled about for us and really seemed more comfortable.

Now, starting tomorrow, they were going to start playing with her nap times and try to reduce her to one, so we were told this could be difficult tomorrow! LOL!

yup, me with my giant pupils

she loves to lean in and bump noses