Today we made a break-through in our role as Katie's parents. When we got to the baby house this afternoon, Erken met us there and asked the staff if we (the Dresslers and us) would be allowed to start feeding the babies today. They agreed so Jen and Sarah were allowed to go to the girl's rooms almost as soon as we got there today (the Jesse and Kevin had to wait out in the lobby until the babies were done being fed).When I (Sarah) got to Katie's room, she was lying on her back in one of the large playpens in the main play room. They told me to pick her up and a photographer took her picture for her passport and then I was ushered over to the couch where they feed the babies. As soon as I picked Katie up, I noticed that there was a major difference in how she usually feels when we get her, she was not wearing a diaper and her little pants and shirt were soaked through. When I asked if I could put on her diaper before I fed her, they looked at me strangely but allowed me to do it anyway. It was so fun to be able to put her diaper on her for the very first time ever! After she was changed, they brought over a bowl of mashed up russet potatoes and ground meat and I started to feed her. She gobbled it right up even though they told me that she was not very good at eating yet because she had just started on solids. There was also a bowl of broth that I would give her sips of off the spoon in-between bites of potatoes and meat. There were two other babies being fed in the same manner while I was sitting there and it was a good thing because I was able to watch their caregivers feed them and see how they are usually fed. After Katie finished about half of the bowl of food, she indicated that she was done and her caregiver indicated to me that she wanted her bottle. As soon as I picked it up, Katie went crazy and drained it in about five minutes. The bottles here are like medium sized Coke bottles (the old glass type) with a large rubber nipple on it, so hopefully she will take to the American bottles that we brought for her. When she was finally done eating, I put on some of the clothes that we have provided for her and then headed downstairs to see Daddy.
It was much cooler today so we actually set our blanket in the sun and had fun playing with Katie. Today she enjoyed her photo album for a while but mostly she really liked the handle of the backpack and the water bottle that we now keep in the backpack just for her. It was a lot of fun.
When Dinara came to get us and tell us that it was time for us to go back inside, she also told us that we would be allowed to take pictures of Katie's crib and her room. We were really excited and then found out that she only meant that Sarah could go up to her room. It is so strange that they don't really let the men do anything when it comes to taking care of the babies. We were able to get pictures of her crib, sleeping room, playing room and the bathing/changing room, the only stipulation that we had was that we were not allowed to get any other children in the photos. We were told that there are about 10-12 kids in her group but we have only seen 4-6 at a time during the two times that we have been to her room. We are hoping that we will be able to feed and change Katie from now until we get to pick her up for good on the 23rd of June but we will see if that will happen.