Recovery Mode

Welcome, Maya, to the United States of America!

It was a long journey, but we made it home. :) Maya was quite the little trooper... I think she handled the flights better than Mom and Dad. Of course, she had a bassinet. ...I sure could have used one!
People keep asking me to post more photos, so here are a few from the trip home!
The 'Welcome' photo speaks for itself. :) The photo of Maya and I in the airport terminal is when we disembarked in Los Angeles. Maya's first step into the USA! Sooo incredibly happy to be in the US again! Very travel-weary though, after 33:40 hours of our journey.
The photo of Maya and I looking a little less frumpled :) was taken in our hotel room prior to our flight home from LA on Sunday morning. Maya was looking particularly adorable in her pink dress and little white sweater. The cute factor, btw, is very helpful when dealing with security personnel and immigration officials in all airports in all countries. :))
The photo of Ajay with Maya was taken in an airport restaurant where we ate breakfast in LA before embarking on our last leg of our journey home. This was Maya's first restaurant experience.. though she seemed oblivious to everything except her cheerios and Aj's bottle of Coke.
The following photo was a nice document of Maya's feelings about her first car seat experience!
Krista and Shannon, two little girls who live next door, decorated our house for us! It was so sweet and such a nice way to welcome Maya to her new home!
So now, 3 days later, we find ourselves in recovery mode. Maya has had some reaction to the travel and trauma she has been through. Her digestive system is just not functioning well, and she is horribly congested. We took her to the pediatrician yesterday, and she rec'd several vaccinations. I had no idea how traumatic that is for babies!! She cried all the way home (30 minutes). She then became sick from the shots - and has been running a temp of ~104 all day today. Btw - she only weighed in at 12 1/2 lbs. She is now on a hi-caloric diet.
We have been officially broken in as new parents!! In the past several hours, I have been vomited on, peed on, had many drippy nose wipes on various parts of my body, been chewed on, sneezed on, cried on, and intensely snuggled.
And I love every minute of it, as does Aj!! :) Of course, it would be better if Maya was healthy and we had managed to get more than 4 hours of sleep over the past 2 nights combined (not saying we enjoy parenting a sick baby - yipes)... but we expected and looked forward to this for a very long time!

Happy things:
* Aj figuring out that if you occasionally suck on the ears of a baby while a plane is descending, it clears the ears. Yes, sounds bizarre - but he figured that out from his scuba diving training. AND IT WORKED!!!!! Just a quick suck in on each side every now and then. I would not have believed it, but she started crying once and he did it - and she immediately turned into smiley happy baby.
* Maya turning, reaching out and whining to me when the pediatrician approached her yesterday. What a great sign that she is attaching well! Much better than expected.. even the doctor was shocked.
* Maya's crazy curly hair that I have no idea what to do with but do NOT want to cut! Looking for hair accessories is high on my list of things to do.
* Maya and our dog, Tasha, seem to be getting along so far. Tasha isn't sure what to think, and is a little put-out, but she rather enjoys the constant falling cheerios from the hi-chair. :)
* Watching Aj being an absolutely amazing dad! Yes, she is already a daddy's girl.
* Baby snuggles :)
* Being HOME together!!