Rex - Seven Weeks Home

Today marks seven weeks home and nine weeks out of the orphanage for Rex. The main event of these last 14 days has been Rex’s successful palate repair on 9/12. The surgeon did a beautiful job and Rex had a very easy recovery. Rex also had tubes placed into his ears and a hearing test is scheduled for 10/15, so we will finally find out if and/or how much our little guy can hear. Our main concern/struggle now that we are home from the hospital is to keep Rex hydrated on soupy and liquid foods without allowing any utensils into his mouth for ten days as well as to keep him happy wearing arm restraints for a week.

Waking up in PACU:

We are doing lots and lots of sensory activities with Rex, including bouncing on an exercise ball, moving him in a sheet swing (both of which he loves), therapeutic brushing, deep tissue massage, joint compressions, etc. We have also introduced a visual language board which we hope will eventually help Rex communicate his needs to us. For now he is beginning to sign a little bit (this morning he signed music over and over when the songs from his toy stopped) and he has added the word neh (no) to his spoken repertoire that previously only consisted of his Southern hi. We continue to work on fine and gross motor skills as well. Rex now climbs our fourteen stairs on all fours (even in arm restraints); he can push buttons with an isolated index finger or thumb, and he can put a fork loaded with food into his mouth unassisted. It was bad timing for the latter skill as he learned it only a few days before his surgery and now we cannot allow him to self-feed for a while.

Rex loves to play with doors. When a door closes, he needs our help to re-open it, so he comes to where we are, takes our hands and leads us to the door. Then he places our hands directly on the door handle to indicate that he would like it to be opened. He understands very well what needs to be done and I love that he now purposefully seeks out our assistance. He is also using the same method now to ask us to get certain toys for him or to follow routines that he recognizes at home. For example, in the evening when we go upstairs, he indicates to Craig that it’s time for daddy to go into the shower by touching the shower door. Rex is also very determined to reach things on the countertops in the kitchen, so my solution has been to keep the edges clear. Well, he has decided to outsmart me and is now using tools to swipe for things he wants. Also, when he wants to get to objects on the floor from which we are trying to keep him, he sweetly takes our hands and walks us a few steps away, then lets go of our hands and tries to run past us. The little guy definitely has strategies!

We (or I should say Craig) have also discovered that Rex has a heightened sensitivity to light which explains why he was not able to nap in his orphanage room with a southeastern exposure nor in our home which is flooded with natural light. He sleeps great at night, but he just couldn’t keep asleep during the day. In an act of creative parenting, we have set up a little cot for two in our walk-in closet where one of us naps with Rex now every day. It’s pitch black in there and he gets easily a 90 minute nap each afternoon now if not more. Guess who else is happy to get some daily post-lunch rest?

We are all waiting for October 3 to roll around, so we can celebrate sister’s official joining of our family. We are just so excited for her homecoming!