Catching Up....Our First Few Nights Home

I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to post an update.  Needless to say, things have been VERY different around this household.  The only time I have to do ANYTHING is when there's a nap in place.  And  those come and go very quickly.  Here's a re-cap of our last four days and three nights home.

Lets start with the plane ride - Not Good.  I've read so many great stories about a very easy trip/plane ride home.  Unfortunately, this was not us.  Let me just say this.  We spent an hour on a bus to the airport (this went well).  We spent three hours in the airport in Incheon (this went well too.  He even took a nap).  We spent 10.5 hours on a flight from Seoul to San Fran.  This, however, did not go so well.  He cried for about three hours straight.  Beginning from the time we took off.  I even tried the bottle as we took off hoping that this would help his little ears.  Didn't work.  Here's the good news.  (If I look REAL hard I can see the positive now.  At the time, I wanted to die).  Once we got through the three straight hours of crying he slept for about 5 hours and was pretty content for the next couple.  Then we land in San Fran.  Here we stood in line at immigration for two and a half hours!  Yes, I said two and a half.  Thank goodness we had a three and a half hour layover.  Otherwise we may have missed our flight home, and that would not have been good.  From there we were on the homestretch to San Diego.  By the time we made it home I was done.  Hadn't slept in two days and all I wanted to do was cry.  And cry.  It was such an emotionally draining day and I thought we'd never be home.  Good news.  We are home!!!!  Home never felt so good.  When we arrived in San Diego we had a group of friends and family waiting for us with welcome home signs for Maddyx.  We feel so lucky to have such amazing family and friends and I want to say how much we love you all.  You have been such a wonderful support system through all of this and we couldn't have done it without you.  Nor would we have wanted to.

There first couple of days home have been tough.  There's just no easy way around it.  These little babies are grieving, tired, scared and in such unfamiliar territory.  Maddyx cried constantly for the first two days.  It was very hard for all of us, but we knew this was coming.  Although we prepared ourselves for it, it didn't make it any easier.  The second night he cried until 3am.  We just stayed by his side, sometimes taking turns (sometimes you have to just walk away and recompose yourself) and just tried to give him what he needed.  You just don't know what they need and that is so hard.  On top of everything else Maddyx was going through, he was also dealing with some serious teething pain.  The MOLARS.  Yep, they're coming in and he just could not get comfortable.

Now the good news.  Last night when he refused to go to sleep in his room and had the typical breakdown about an hour or two into his bedtime (he'll fall asleep in his crib but only for a couple of hours), we decided to let him sleep with us, hoping that this would provide him some comfort and maybe let us get some much needed sleep.  After about an hour and a half of him wiggling around and kicking both of us (not intentionally, he just flops a lot) he finally fell asleep.  Until 8am!!!  Success!  We all got a full nights sleep.  From there, the day went great (this is today....and as you can see I'm actually blogging).  We have seen a whole new little boy today.  He is happy, he is laughing and he didn't really cry much at all.  He only whimpered a couple of times around nap time.  WE. HAVE. MADE. PROGRESS!  Such a great day.  And we needed it.  As I type (I am hiding in a corner of the living room where an unnamed baby cannot find me) Maddyx and Daddy are in the kitchen getting dinner together.  Everyone is happy.  I am so relieved.

I'm sorry this post is so long, but I've fallen behind and had (still have) a lot to share. I'll leave you with some fun pictures from our first few days home. Take note (again), Maddyx LOVES the camera and will pretty much stop dead in his tracks (or his crying) to pose for a picture. It's pretty hilarious.

Below is Maddyx's first time in his booster seat.  As you can see,  not so happy.  Not much made him happy the first couple of  days.  But watch how the pictures progress as he figures out he's on camera!