October Update on Lili Plus Attachment and Bonding Part IV

We received Lili's October medical update, so like always, I'm sharing it with everyone.

On October 29th, at 5 months 29 days of age she weighed 14 lbs 8 ozs. and was 26 inches long.

She laughs, babbles, moves her hands toward things she wants, pulls the sheets off her face, already wants to turn over, sleeps with her pink blanket and her doll. She is very curious. She is presently enjoying complete health.

I was so happy to read that she sleeps with her pink blanket and doll since we had given these to her on our visit trip. Because incorporating all five senses can be very helpful in attachment and bonding, we slept with this blanket and doll for several weeks prior to our visit. We hoped this would help her to continue to remember us through sense of smell and also through touch. Our foster mom will give these items back to us when we go to pick Lili up and she will have those two familiar items in her new home. I also gave our foster mom the same Bath and Body scents that I'm currently using, so she'll be familiar with that scent as well.

To incorporate her hearing sense I had sent a tape player with a recording of me reading books to Lili. Her foster mom told me that she plays the tape for her every day when she lays her down for her nap and she falls asleep listening to the sound of my voice. While I like to believe that my voice is so soothing that she drifts off to sleep, I also realize that I could be boring her to sleep :-)

Her sense of sight is being exercised as we left pictures of our family in baby safe photo albums.

Her sense of taste will be taken care of by using the same bottles and formula when she comes home.

Obviously, we won't know how well this has worked until we bring her home, but many parents who have gone before have had great success with this approach. I'm optimistic that this will truly help her adjust more quickly and is creating a good environment for healthy attachment and bonding.