THE DUCOMMUNS

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We are the Ducommuns! There are 4 of us now-Craig, Laura, Zamara, and now Mahashavah, our 1 year old son. We adopted Zamara from Ethiopia in 2008. Our son is also from Ethiopia and we are hoping to bring him home soon. We live Flagstaff Arizona. We are so glad you found us. Take a look around and don't forget to leave us a message.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Stuff and things



Hi everyone!

Just wanted to post a few recent pix for you all. One is of Zamara wearing a sweater that my daughter's mother's sister's husband's mother made. It's very cute and has the cutest buttons ever. Each button is a sheep and there are little strings that look like sheep legs hanging from each button. The other pix are of our trip to Sedona today with Laura's sister Andrea. We've had a great time with Andrea. We'll miss her. Next up is my family coming for Thanksgiving. My mom, dad and both sisters will be here. It should be a whole big barrel of fun! After that we travel to Oregon to visit Laura's family.





Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Nighttime sleep issues

Hello everyone!  We have been very busy.  I begin work in 1 week.  I can't believe my 3 month maternity leave is coming to an end.  

Zamara has been working on cutting her 2 front teeth the last couple weeks. That has put her in quite a cranky mood lately.  She is the most cranky in the middle of the night.  Last night was one of the worst for us.  She woke up at 1:45am and kept us up and down until 4:30am crying.  We tried everything, Ibuprofen, diaper change, rocking her to sleep, singing, a small bottle, etc...nothing worked! At 4:30 Craig and I both decided to just let her "cry it out".  We closed her bedroom door, closed our door, turned off the baby monitor, put in earplugs, and went back to sleep!  We turned on the monitor briefly at 5:15am and all was quiet. We didn't turn on the monitor again until 7:30am.   She was awake and crying just slightly.  I went in and she seemed like the usual old Zamara. Smiling and happy (although a little extra tired all day) So I am guessing she slept for at least part of the time we had the monitor off.  

All of this may not seem like a big deal, but this was the FIRST time we have let her cry it out before.  To be honest, I cried a little bit last night too.  It was hard to just let her cry!  People have been encouraging us to do this when she doesn't want to sleep at night.  Up to this point, we just haven't been ready to do it yet.  Since she was adopted we worried that she really didn't know if we were going to come back or not.  At this point, though, she has bonded very well with us and I don't think we need to worry about that issue so much.  

Friends and family have encouraged us all day.  After Craig went into work today I went over to our friend Brian and Debbie's house for breakfast.  I told them the whole saga from the night before.  They were so encouraging that we did the right thing.  I cried a little bit before breakfast at their house too!

Hopefully tonight will be a good night.  If not, I feel like I may have a little more confidence to allow her to cry herself back to sleep.  

Well that is what has been going on lately.  Not too exciting for most people, but it has been a big deal to us.  

I hope everyone had a good halloween. We will be posting some more pictures soon.

Blessings,
Laura