I keep thinking of this little bit of information and haven't really found a place to put it. I really think it would be helpful information for those adopting smaller kids, toddlers and babies - the size you can hold and walk around with.

When we were at the orphanage on the first trip to visit V, another family from our agency (I'll call them J&DL) was with us visiting their daughter-to-be (yes, they're still waiting too). Their baby girl just cried and cried because they were honestly strangers to her. The baby wasn't dealing well with that. So, like any other American mother, DL was holding her and bouncing her and patting her bottom. Wouldn't that be your first instinct of comforting a crying baby? It would be mine.

Our Region coordinator came out and told her, "hold her close and press your cheek tightly to hers". She quieted down a bit. Still sort of whimpering, but not the all out frantic cry. After the baby calmed down, our RC told DL that she has observed that American mommies try to soothe their babies-to-be with this bouncing and bottom patting and it doesn't work with these babies because that is not how they are soothed. They do the firm hold and pressing the cheek thing instead.

I don't know why, but this really made an impact on me. Such a small thing, but so important. And who would have ever thought twice about it?! I am so glad that our RC thought to "help" us in this way. Of course it seemed a bit of the babushka bossiness in the moment, but what a true help! I thought back to our plane trip home with D when she was 11 months old. If I had of known this one small thing, could it have helped me calm her on the flight? Of course I was bouncing her and patting her bottom all the way across the Atlantic! I was obviously overstimulating her and making matters worse!

Maybe this is a regional thing which applies only to our region in Russia. Maybe bouncing and patting a baby on the bottom is a regional thing right here in the USA, distinct to the south, or even Texas. But if my sharing this can help just one new Mommy - even if just to give her another choice in her arsenal of calming techniques on the flight home - it's worth my sharing. Don't you think? Who'd-a-thunk-it?

till later . . .