First Doctor Appointment in the USA

This past Tuesday, Kristina had her first doctor's appointment with an International Adoption Pediatrician here in Southern California. We drove down to Long Beach (hour drive) to meet with Dr. Gary Feldman at Miller Children's Hospital. It turned into an all-day event as our appt. was at 1pm and we didn't get out of the office until just before 4pm.

Heck, the doctor's paperwork was a piece of cake compared to the paperwork for Ekaterinburg!

Kristina did so well behavior-wise considering her naptime is usually at 1pm. Dr. Feldman watched her play, interact with both JD and me, interact with him, dress herself, and Kristina also showed off for the doctor by asking to use the bathroom --- and successfully! (She does this by saying "PT, PT, PT" -- her version of "pee-sit" which is pee-pee in Russian. What do my Physical Therapy friends think of that?!!) Overall, she got above average ratings in self-care (which, as an OT, I am soooo proud!), gross motor, fine motor, and general development but lags behind in social skills, expressive language and language comprehension ~ none of which we are surprised given her living situation since she was born and the fact that she's just learning English now.

In the waiting room, Kristina is sporting a new way to wear her hat.

Dr. Feldman was in full agreement with our attachment plan of limiting Kristina's exposure and interactions to family and friends for the first 3 months (but he added 3-6 months...6 months???) He feels that our 5 weeks in Russia did assist with the transition and bonding and we agree. We do have a few things on the calendar (1. picnic hosted by our adoption agency, 2. a welcome home baby shower thrown by my dear friend, Laura, 3. the family vacation to the Caribbean....) but overall, we've kept things pretty calm and structured and she appears to be doing really well.

So our next steps will be to meet with our own Pediatrician hopefully in the next 2 weeks and then have a follow-up with Dr. Feldman in 3 months. At this time, he's not recommending any Early Intervention (i.e. through Regional Center) given she's only been here for 2 weeks and she's doing remarkably well. We'll re-assess in August.

Sitting with Dr. Feldman. Immediately afterwards, he said "go to Papa" and she did!

We had missed lunch (kinda reminded me of the Ekat days!) so next on the schedule was finding food. Nana and Grandpa Deary had driven down with us to Long Beach so the 5 of us went to McDonald's -- Kristina's first time! When in line, a lady was just enamored with Kristina and was asking me "where does she get the blonde hair" to which I replied "her father had the same blonde hair when he was her age" -- a complete truth. She next asked "oh, she has lots of teeth. Was the teething period difficult for you?" to which I replied "no, it was no problem." Whew...interrogation ended there!

This child doesn't need a Happy Meal to be happy...only a plastic cover to play with!

As it turns out, Kristina is a fan of the french fries but that's about it. Good thing we brought yougart -- her favorite!