Grow Baby Grow

Well, my photos aren't uploading so sorry about that. Alice won't eat very much at all, so we took her to the doctor today to see if we could get her tested for anything that might prevent her from wanting to eat. It is pretty common for babies from orphanages to have stomach parasites, so they are checking for that as well as other blood-related things. We couldn't have her checked out for OI (brittle bone disease) yet because that requires a skin test done by a specialist, but we did get the referral for that. They also did x-rays to document the extent of the damage so far. Nathan got to sit in the technician's booth and told us how crazy her arm looked inside (no kidding!)
As much as I want to know for certain, I think I'll wait a couple of weeks before making the OI appointment because I'm waiting to find out more from the orphanage. We are supposed to be getting a little book from Sandra that mentions the name of a medication that was given to Alice early on, and I'd like to be able to pass that info along. In the meantime, while we wait for results on the screenings, the doctor told us we should make every bite count. Instead of feeding her things like Cheerios, we should fill her up with full fat Greek yogurt, noodles cooked in oil, eggs, meats, etc. My wonderful friends have been making us dinner, and tonight we had taco salad so I made a mixture of the meat, beans, cut up bits of avocado, and sour cream for Alice to eat. She had a few bites of that and ate a few bites of the brownie dessert too. At night, she has been drinking a lot of formula (sometimes 3 eight-ounce bottles! At about 2oz every 2 hours, this makes for a very long night.) She hasn't been too picky about what goes into the bottles, so I have replaced one of those with Pediasure - which is supposed to be all the nutrition that a toddler needs. Still, she hasn't gained very much since we got her. Today she weighed 16 lbs, 11oz - if she truly does have OI she will be small in stature no matter what we do, but she will grow... Just very slowly.
As far as adjustment goes, Alice seems to be doing much better at home. She's getting used to taking naps, but the night time sleeping needs improvement. Nathan, Jamie, and Evelyn think she is pretty funny and will laugh at all the cute sounds she makes. She still doesn't like it when she cannot see us both. Phil is going to try and go to work for a few hours tomorrow and I'll take the kids to the park or something to distract her. Car rides are also going a bit more smoothly. Today she barely made a peep, and actually slept on the way home from the doctors office (I would too after all that waiting and testing!) Evelyn has been doing alright as well, although she has thrown a couple of tantrums when she couldn't have what she wanted. The trouble is, as cute as she is, I now see that she is a big girl and needs to be treated as such... Sigh, isn't that the way it is whenever you bring a new baby home? I remember bringing Evelyn home and taking one look at Jamie (who had been my darling little baby the day before) and essentially telling him similar things about how he needed to be more responsible now that he was a big brother. I honestly couldn't believe how big Evelyn looked when we got home - I thought she must have grown about a foot and gained 10 lbs, but I think when we look at our kids we don't always see them the same way as other people do. Being away made me take a good look at her again, and oh my - she is not a baby anymore! I know in time she will step up and act like the big girl she is - expectation is one thing, but acceptance is another and it won't be easy at first. I feel fortunate to have seen it happen before and can say that I have confidence that it will with Evelyn too.