Thursday, January 7, 2010

Hot and Cold

Jet has been home 8 months as of yesterday. He has had alot of changes in this time. Obviously! We knew this going in to adoption, especially of an older child.

One we had really not put too much thought to was the temperature changes and it's affect on his body. The obvious was there. Jet lived in a very warm climate, we have cold/winter-y weather for about 5 months of the year. We KNEW he would be cold and would need many layers of clothes. Jet came home at the perfect time to adjust the best one could. It was early May and we had summer to look forward to.

We could tell he was "warming" up to our weather when he was able to stop wearing a fleece hoodie. Outside. This past summer.

He has been at least cool to the touch this whole winter so far. Even with 2-3 layers on top.

The day after Christmas, the munchkins and I headed up to Minnesota's North Shore for a snowy vacation. We had no tv or internet where we were staying. We knew it was cold, we were only 1 hour from Canada! We bundled up and headed out.

By our third day, Jet was not quite up to his usual active energy level. He had asked me 2x for water to drink and said his mouth was dry. I can count on one hand how many times Jet has asked for something to eat or drink. Including these 2x.

After lunch, I happened to end up with my hand on Jet's head and realized he felt hot. His temp was almost 103*!

There was no other symptoms. Never was. I kept him in for a day and we started to think maybe dehydration or temp change.

It turns out it was just too much of a weather change. His poor little body was attempting to regulate itself to this wild change.

I mean in just less than 8 months, he went from 105* weather to 10* highs with -25 to -30* weather including wind chills!

Our kids are amazing if one really looks at all they endure when coming home to their forever families!

2 comments:

Kam said...

OMGosh! I would have thought after all of this time...his body would have pretty much adjusted. This is so interesting. Joel is cold a lot too. We always have a little white tshirt on him under his long sleeve one and he always has socks on...even to sleep. His skin is really dry right now too. We've always rubbed him down in lotion b/c they say it's good for bonding with a small child. But now we've moved on to the big guns...Aveeno! lol! His little cheeks are finally looking better. Such changes these sweet babies endure. To come from a hot and humid climate to cold and dry must be so hard on their little bodies! But like you, we thought coming home in a season other than Winter, would take care of it!

Oh my, this is too long! Sorry!
Love you~

rosemary said...

Thanks for sharing this. We're hoping to bring our son home soon, which means it will be a bad time of year for a toddler from Thailand to discover winter in VA. I have been so worried about how he would do with the weather change. This post was very interesting to me!! Prayers for Jet!