Benjamin has been making a lot of progress in a number of different areas. We feel like the bonding is going well. He wants to be with us all of the time and is much more hesitant to go to strangers than he was when we first brought him home. One of the toughest areas that we were having trouble with was the sleep. When we were in Taiwan, he slept long hours and took really long naps (we now know he was probably shutting down) but when we got home...things changed.
The first night we were home, we put him in his bed in his room (that he shares with Bryce). In the middle of the night Bryce told us that he was very restless and moving around a lot which bothered Bryce. The next night, he was crying at night and keeping Bryce up, so we decided we needed to change. At that point we moved him to our room.
He had spent most of his life in a pack-n-play, so we thought he might like to sleep in there. So, we put it in our room, but he would not get in it. He was very fearful and acted terrified when it was time to go to bed. The first few nights Nanette would have to hold him and lay with him until he fell asleep, then we would transfer him to the pack-n-play in our room. The only way he would go to sleep was by laying on Nanette. That went on for a week or so. We were concerned about Benjamin being in the pack-n-play because he was too big for it and unable to stretch out. So we put him on a crib mattress on the floor in our room. Still the same routine of rocking and laying in our bed and then transferring to the bed on the floor.
After a few weeks, we were able to progress from laying in our bed to Nanette laying beside the crib mattress on the floor until he went to sleep to where she would lay on our bed while he was in his. This went on for about a month. We did not even try outright napping in his bed at first because of the fear exhibited and it was not worth the fight. Nanette would leave a little early to pick Bryce and Elise from school and he would always fall asleep in the car for 30-45 minutes. After about 6 weeks we started on the weekends to let him nap in his bed and he would do it if we laid with him. One night about 8 weeks home, Benjamin slept in his room for the first time at night!! Then on the weekend, we had a "party" in Bryce and Benjamin's room with Elise on the blow up mattress. Benjamin has been in his room since then!! What a milestone for us! Praise the Lord that things are going so smoothly!! This is just one clear example of how he has progressed over the weeks. This past Sunday, we left him for the first time in child care for church and he did fantastic! We are blessed to have his teacher, Jennifer Christy, be one of Scott's co-workers so he has met her several times and knows her. We are so proud of him and how well he is transitioning!
The main question people are asking us is how his English coming. We feel like he understands most of what we say and he tries to communicate with us using words and hand motions. There are times when we can't understand him and he will demonstrate what he he saying so we are communicating very well. It is so cute how he almost acts out what happened as he is talking! He is also learning his ABC's, numbers, and colors, for we are working on it every day. We both feel like he is learning very quickly!
Bryce and Elise are doing wonderful and still dote over him. They argue about who gets to sit by him, etc. They are still surpassing our expectations on how well they have enjoyed having a younger sibling! Christmas has been a really fun time for our family with explaining about Jesus's birthday and Christmas trees, ornaments, decorations, etc. We are anticipating the next few weeks to continue to be fun with seeing things with "new" eyes!
