As per her pediatrician in LA she has grown shorter and lighter since her 7th month update!
- Height: 25 inches
- Weight: 15 lbs 1 oz
She is a tiny baby for an 8 month old but that makes her all the more cute.
Ava is taking a short nap, so it’s post time for us *smile* We are both feeling a bit spaced out today because we haven’t slept much the last couple of days.
The trip to Taiwan was cool. Nobody fell sick while we were there, which was great. We had taken an umbrella stroller with us, which proved immensely useful while we were there, as Ava loved it, and we would take her for a walk in it when she got cranky,and she would fall asleep in it half of the time. The trip home was a little more interesting – 12 hours with a baby is not the easiest of tasks, but she was pretty good, slept on our shoulders for about 4-5 hours and then sat / played with us the remaining time. We took turns taking her around the plane and showing her stuff and she was happy. She is very curious and did great with all the new experiences. We were impressed with how well she is handling all these changes, new people, new place, new things around her and she’s just taking it all in.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that she is almost on the mark with all her milestones. She’s 8 months old and already crawling, she can sit without support, and has started babbling over the last couple of days. She hasn’t been introduced to many solids, but she loves anything new, we tried Gerber pear the other day, and after an initial face, she wolfed down the whole thing.
She is happy most of the time, but has a problem going to sleep. The first few days, she would cry inconsolably before going to sleep, for about 30 minutes to an hour, and no matter what we did, lay with her on the bed, walked with her, put her in the crib, it didn’t help. We had a few days where she slept more easily though, so hopefully we will figure it out together. We are all learning what makes each other tick, so we’re hoping to come to a happy compromise on the sleeping issue soon. Right now, she is still in jetlag mode, so she gets up every 15-20 minutes in the night, and we have to pat her to go to bed. Hopefully, she should be over the jetlag in a week or so. She is also teething and has a slight cold, so that doesn’t help with going to sleep either.
All in all, it’s going good. We are already noticing differences in her – she has started babbling since yesterday, and now smiles a very mischievous smile when she’s up to something naughty (like pulling our glasses!) She also loves to be held, which works well for us, as she is very warm and cuddly and like a little koala bear *smile*
Anyways, as I said, no sleep but it’s going good. We thought it would be a lot tougher. The main issues for us now are figuring out what foods work with her and getting her to sleep every night without crying. And helping her through the cold and teething and possible ear infection. After that, we can cross the next bridges.
Here are 22 photos of our journey. Use the arrow buttons to see more thumbnails and click on the thumbnails to see the larger image. More photos to come later…Enjoy!
Today we leave Taiwan and head back to Los Angeles. For Ava, this is the start of a new journey, a journey where she leaves her past behind, her memories of the nursery and the nannies, and starts a new life with us. It is time to say goodbye to Taiwan.
Taiwan is truly a wonderful country. It is so interesting to see the culture there, similar in a way to India, and yet unique in its own way. The people have been very nice and genuinely friendly. The entire experience starting with the taxi drivers, the hotel staff, and St. Lucy nursery staff has been truly wonderful. We seemed to fit in perfectly (except for the language) at least until we got Ava. After that we got quite a few stares but no one said any mean things. We will definitely take a vacation to Taiwan sometime in the future when our baby is able to appreciate the finer points of her birth country!
We were happy to see the nursery, it is brightly lit and looks nice. We were lucky to get a complete tour of the nursery. There were a bunch of kids in their cribs and some were playing on the foam thingy that they have for kids. There were about 8-9 nannies there, and the kids seem to really like them. The interpreter told us that the nannies are on three shifts, so there is always someone with the kids. She said there are currently about 40 kids totally there, but some of them are in the under 3-month room, which has its own set of nannies. Of course, being an institution, the kids cannot get the one on one they like and need, but we really think St. Lucy’s is good compared to other institutions. The kids get turns to be on the floor and get play time. There were toys like a walker near them, so I think they get some play time every day. At 8 months, Ava is on target with most of her milestones, she crawls and sits without support if we get her into position, and babbles.
Thank you St. Lucy nursery staff for taking care of our baby for the first 8 months of her life. Thank you Taiwan for giving us the opportunity to adopt one of your children.
The wait is over! The gotcha moment is something we will not forget for a long time. Wifey was in tears, hubby was relieved, and our baby extended her arms towards us. We were prepared for a wailing baby but Ava was just the sweetest baby ever! She came readily to us both, played with us for a while, slept on dadda’s shoulder, had her first bottle with us from mommy’s hands, and had her first diaper change with us…all in a couple of hours.
Our girl is a born adventurer. She totally loved the taxi ride back to the train station and absorbed all the new sights around her. The way she handled the wait at the train station and the train ride back, one would think that she has done this many times. Not even a tiny whimper from her until we reached the hotel.
After we reached the hotel we suddenly realized that we had no idea what the proportion of formula to water was! A little panic set in since the instructions on the box was in Chinese but we were able to get the hotel concierge to interpret the instructions for us. After that, we fed and changed her. We then took her to a wonderful Korean restaurant for dinner. Luckily, by this time hubby had mastered the art of eating with chopsticks since he had to keep the salmon dish a feet away from him so that Ava couldn’t get to the bowl while he was holding her and eating his dinner. Then it was sleep time and we were pleasantly surprised when our baby slept for 7 hours continuously.
We couldn’t ask for a better first day with Ava! We expect it to go downhill from here when the adjustment period begins but at the moment We are lovin’ it!
We reached Taipei two days ago, and are staying at the Caesar Park hotel. The staff has been very nice and helpful; they upgraded us to a suite and also allowed us to check in early. We reached the hotel at about 8 am, and were expecting to leave our bags at the hotel and roam around a bit, but they had a room ready, and so allowed us to check in. We were thrilled, as we got a chance to freshen up and relax a bit before exploring the city. The hotel staff also sent us the crib we had requested, so we are all set for Ava now!
We spent our first day at Taipei exploring the area around our hotel. We discovered a LOT of eating places, probably around twenty within one block of our hotel, coffee shops galore, including Starbucks, and several 7-11s and other convenience stores. There are also a couple of malls nearby. One of the little gems we discovered was something like a dollar store and everything there was NT$ 39. We bought a lot of little things from there, including a little stool for us to sit in the bath tub and bathe Ava. We also picked up a little card from Starbucks that allows us thirty days of unlimited wireless internet access in Taipei, for NT$500. The only problem with that is that there is just one point in our hotel room where the signal is strong enough that we can access the wireless network, so we have spent a good amount of time on a chair near the window of our room, surfing and checking our emails. *grin*
That evening, we visited Taipei 101, the current tallest building in the world, and got a complimentary roller coaster ride on the way there. Our cabbie obviously had grown up playing a lot of action video games, and he zigzagged through the maze of cars, scooters and people at warp speed. Wifey’s heart was in her mouth a few times on the journey, but before we knew it, we had reached our destination, safe and sound, and as soon as we paid the cabbie, he zoomed along for his next adventure.
We reached Taipei 101 just before dusk, and got a few pictures in daylight as well as after night fell. The view was awesome, and we enjoyed a quiet cup of coffee in the observation deck on the 89th floor. We also shopped a bit at a big grocery store in the plaza in the building, and hubby finally found the rice crackers that he had been looking for ever since we reached Taipei. We were finally done for the night and after dinner at the food court of the plaza, we took a cab ride home, though this driver was a lot less prone to reckless twists and turns on the road.
We started the next day off with breakfast at McDonalds, good old sausage egg Mcmuffins *smile*. We spent the morning exploring some more, and then went on a three hour tour of the city in the afternoon. We were very impressed with the beautiful architecture as well as the history of all the places we visited. We spent a good hour and a half at the Taipei museum, and decided that we have to get Ava here once she is older so that she can experience it too.
After a leisurely dinner at one of the hotel restaurants, we returned to our rooms to pack our travel bags for the trip to Tainan and make sure we had everything we needed. We then turned in, but one of us couldn’t really sleep and is currently up, updating our blog *smile*.
So, we finally, finally get to meet our daughter in about six hours. It is surreal! We have been looking at the crib and imagining Ava in there for the last couple of hours, and tonight, she will be with us. All these months and years, our daughter has been a distant, and then a not-so-distant dream, but in a few hours, she will become our reality and our future, and the thought is overwhelming (but in a good way, of course! *smile*)