Jet-lag, Monsters, and Grief

  The kids have been hit by jet-lag fairly bad the last two days and it's manifesting itself in different ways for each of them.  Sky is seeing monsters all over her room whenever we put her to bed.  Even our old trick of giving her a Leapfrog book to listen to in bed isn't helping.  We've had to take her back to bed about five times each night.  D can usually come up with something to make the monsters go away better than I can- last night he walked her around the room looking at everything that she thought was a monster and talking about what it really was.  He told me later that he even had to open the small fridge that his step-mom keeps clay in.  We'll try that again tonight but since it worked last night, we'll probably have to come up with something new for tonight.
  Fire of course can't vocalize anything that's wrong in any way besides crying yet so he's doing a lot of that.  Last night he was up until almost midnight. At first we thought it was because his nap schedule was off and he just wasn't sleepy yet but as it got later, we realised that wasn't really the problem.  He would alternate between dozing on my shoulder and jerking himself around in my arms and when I cradled him across my chest, he would sob like he was in pain.  We ended up setting his pack'n'play up in the laundry room and letting him cry himself to sleep.  He was so tired by then that it only took about five minutes.  Shortly after he fell asleep, I realized what we were really dealing with.  It wasn't teething or an off-kilter sleep schedule, it was grief.  We went through the same thing shortly after he came to us.  Once again, everything is wrong.  He misses home and Ms. Florina and he's telling us that by making himself inconsolable.  We don't really like having to let him cry it out so hopefully he'll start feeling better about things soon.

Comments

  1. Hi Amber -
    I don't think I've had the opportunity to post a comment before now as I usually read your blog during my commute on my phone. But I happen to be at my computer with a few extra minutes in my day and wanted to say hello.

    I really enjoy reading your blog and hearing about your life in the Marshalls. We adopted our daughter in May 2011 and live in Minnesota. I find myself missing the islands terribly and even though our stay was in Majuro, your stories about Kwaj make me feel a little more connected.

    Our reality is that we probably won't return for a visit for at least a few more years so in the meantime, I'll continue to be a mostly silent reader. Thanks for sharing your stories!

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