I seem to have a few minutes during my lunch break today, so figured I'd do a quick update. Life has been in overdrive since even before the arrival of little baby CR, and in all honesty, I can say our rockets are starting to burn out. Not to be too negative, but we had assumed that having survived the infancy of one very challenging child, we would be pros at the second. Not a chance. We now have a very challenging 3 year old, plus a challenging infant, with different needs and commitments, so in fact our workload has doubled. Being a professional is of little worth when time, energy and ability remain constant. Also, subsisting on 5 hours of sleep a night, sometimes more, sometimes less, for 4 months now, has a profound effect on cognitive abilities and reasoning, so we're operating in a constant stupor. On top of family life, we also make an effort at gainful employment and have somehow not been fired yet. Needless to say, we are tired.
With that out of the way, everyone is still alive, which seems to meet that bare threshold for success. We've been back in Russia for 2.5 months now, and everyone has a story to share. CR, like his sister, has a milk intolerance and reflux which we seem to just now have under control. For several weeks he was eating less and less, dry retching, and basically plateaued on the growth charts. We eventually found a local medication that helped, though it was not readily available in the city. I would take mile long walks visiting pharmacy after pharmacy, buying up whatever I could find, with only one out of ten even carrying it. For now, that challenge is resolved, as I bought lots of it during a recent trip to Moscow. Now, CR is still fussy and doesn't eat well, but he poops and smiles a lot, so we'll count that as a win.
C has been attending a Russian kindergarten, which, while stressful and hated at first, seems to have grown on her. She loves going to school every morning, playing, singing, and dancing, and has become quite adept at speaking Russian. She still speaks like a 3 year old, but I'm certain she'll be fluent by the time we leave.
S has been studying Russian at a local university, taking the bus to and from every day, She can carry on full conversations now, and I couldn't be prouder. Way to go!
I have been working, working more, and then working even more. Lots of work travel in between working, and lots of late nights in the office. This with the backdrop of the current dysfunction back in the US makes for an exciting game of which position do we or don't we support on any given day. Both fulfilling and soul crushing at the same time, which leads to the limit of what I'm permitted to write.
M
(Oh, Spring was a great day!)
1 comment:
Yikes! I had not thought of the impact the new administration would have on your job. Good luck with that. We just watched an episode of a TV show that nailed new baby sleep deprivation. We could laugh because we will never have to deal with that again. Hopefully you are on the slow upswing from bottoming out. Huzzah Shannon, for being able to carry on a conversation in Russian. I am so impressed! Hope it's a good week guys!
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