First hospital visit and last day in Kras

Yesterday, Nikolay wasn't feeling well. He was very hot when he woke up, so I have him baby tylenol, which seemed to help. By the afternoon, he was inconsolable. The coordinator and translator came over and they also thought he should see a doctor, so they had one come to the hotel. She examined him, but thought that he should go to an ENT and also to have his stomach checked out. The ENT gave him nose drops and told me to wipe him down with spirits if he gets a fever. We left there and went to the children's clinic to have his stomach looked at. After they examined him, they wanted to xray his belly, which was awful b/c he screamed bloody murder. They looked at the xray and said there was something wrong with his bowels and that he would have to stay overnight. That was like getting kicked in the stomach b/c there hospitals are not like what we have. They even kept apologizing for the poor conditions when they found out I was American. I told them that I didn't want to stay overnight, if possible, so they arranged for a barium xray to make sure there was no blockage. I was there for about 4 hours waiting for the barium to make its way through Nikolay's body. He was really good there and loved interacting with the little girl in the room. He would scream and shake his hands to get her attention and clap when she would turn around. About 3 hours into this I was exhausted, and the woman with the little girl asked me in Russian if it was time for him to go to sleep. I knew what she was saying and just shook my head yes. He did finally fall asleep and they came in around 10:30pm to take the xray. It turns out that everything was OK and it was an intestinal problem b/c of change in diet from the orphanage. They told me to just feed him formula and cereal until I get home. They thought the fruit in particular caused too much gas. The barium stuff seemed to clean out his system, which was good!

The upside of all this is that he definitely knows now how I am and feels safe with me. He was screaming when they took the xray and would turn his head and look at me. As soon as they were done and I held him he would stop crying and put his head on my shoulder.

He slept well last night, but woke up at 5am starving since he hadn't eaten since 2pm the day before, so he had a bottle and a half and slept then until 9am. He had two more bottle this am and felt back asleep around 11:30 and 2 hours later is still sleeping.

We have finished packing for tomorrow and have one last appt at the passport office--had a bit of a stressful day on friday. They needed my passport to get Nikolay's and asked for my immigration sheet. I didn't think I need it b/c I had never needed it before and had thrown out--not good! Luckily, the hotel had made a copy when I checked in, so that was a BIG relief! It is amazing that no one tells you that you need these tiny little pieces of paper, especially when you are carry so many other important documents. I just hope that will be the last hiccup before I get home. It is really feeling close now--we fly out very early tomorrow and will be in Moscow Tues, Wed, Thurs and then leave friday morning for JFK! Cannot wait to get home and for everyone to seem him! He is a very happy and playful baby.