Look at this!!! We have a baby!! This is our new little guy!! The newest member of our family. I am still kind of in shock that this all happened the way that it did! (And how fast it happened!) I finally got my little minon! :)
Our birth mom went into labor 2 weeks early. Her dad texted me Wednesday evening and said -"you'd better be ready!" (Which of course we were not at all ready!!) I hadn't set up the nursery, I hadn't washed any clothes, I hadn't even taken the stroller out of the box!! I realized after that fact that I had subconsciously been avoiding doing all those things. I think I was protecting myself "just in case" in didn't go through.
But it did. And it was quite the experience! I was a little worried that we weren't going to make it in time. I had to wait for my husband to get home from work, then we had to drive several hours to the hospital. And like I mentioned, I wasn't even packed! In fact, she went into labor on a Wednesday, and the following Saturday my friends had planned a baby shower for me! (I missed it obviously!!) Luckily, my work had thrown me a baby shower the day before. So I did have some baby things to try to grab for our suitcase!
Our birth mom had said we could be in the hospital room when she delivered. We got to the hospital around 12:30 am, and the birth mom arrived soon after. Because we checked in at the same time she did, there wasn't any additional security measures. (Some hospitals have you create a password because of privacy reasons. And then if you know the password, they will release private information about the patients.) But since we were there with her, my husband and I both got hospital wristbands. When the nurses checked her, our birth mom was already dilated to a 5. (around 1:00 am) She got her epidural around 3:00 am, and then she was much more comfortable. And since she was excited about the birth, she just wanted to chat. But since it was around 2:00 am, I was sooooo tired and just wanted to sleep!! But we made small talk through most of the night. My husband went out into the waiting room to take a nap on some of the chairs there. At 7:00 am, she was dilated to an 9. Just before 8:00 am, she was dilated to a 10. And it was go time!
It's kind of a funny story. They paged the doctor. He told the nurse to have her do a few practice pushes, and he would be back in about 15 minutes. He left to get in the elevator to go down to the 3rd floor. The nurse explained how to do a practice push, but when she went to check her, she exclaimed "DON'T PUSH!! DON'T PUSH!!!" The baby was crowning. They paged the doctor to come back. He had ridden the elevator down to the 3rd floor, then came right back up to the 5th floor!
I was all prepared to be an encouraging birth couch and cheerleader. But I didn't need to. One push and his head popped out, one more push and his body slid out. At 8:01 am, this little guy made his appearance. And he was here. It was so fast, it didn't even seem real. He started crying and peeing on the doctor. My husband got to cut the umbilical cord. And he got peed on as well! The little guy likes to mark his territory.
Like I said, it didn't feel real. So I wasn't overcome with emotion. It was kind of surreal. The birth mom held him, and later the nurses got him cleaned up. I was new, weird, and exciting. The birth mom said I could feed him for the first time. And that's when it hit me that this was real. And that's when I started tearing up. Holding this baby, and realizing that this was really happening.
As part of our home study process, I was required to attend an adoption orientation. We heard from several birth moms who shared their stories about how the experience they had placing their baby for adoption. One had told what made it a positive experience, and one shared what had made it a very negative experience. The overall take-away is that the birth moms just wanted to feel loved. And not just for what was in their uterus. They all said that the first day in the hospital was their time. It was the only time they would have with the baby, so speaking to us potential adoptive parents... they counseled us to let the birth moms have as much time as they needed to hold and bond with the baby. You can't say goodbye, until you have said hello. Now, not every mother will want to. But it should be up to them.
I really wanted this to be a positive experience for everyone involved. So I tried my best to let our birth mom know that whatever she wanted to do that first day, we would abide by. And that first 24 hours was quite a whirlwind! The baby needed to be fed every 2 hours, so we each rotated who would feed him. (And that way the others could try to get a little bit of sleep!!) (Not much though!)
Our hospital was nice and offered to let my husband and I use an available spare room next to our birth mom's room. So that was a benefit of having a smaller hospital. The down side of the smaller hospital was that they didn't do a lot of adoptions there. We had a lot of complications because this was a direct placement adoption, and not through an agency. I didn't have any agency paperwork to show the case worker. So I had to spend time trying to get in touch with our adoption lawyer and putting him in touch with this case worker, so we could prove this was a legal adoption. He had to type up a letter saying he was representing us, and that we were not using an agency. That part was complicated. And a lot of back and forth phone calls.
The hospital experience alone is just such a crazy thing. People are always coming in- needing to do one thing or another. Needing to do something with the baby, or needing our signatures on something. I honestly tried to go down to the cafeteria several times to get breakfast, then lunch, then dinner. It was 5:30 pm before I finally got away to go get some food. The birth mom got room service, but we didn't because we were the guests.
Even though they are ridiculously expensive, we purchased the newborn photos so that our birth mom could have pictures of her with the baby. I explained to the photographer that this was an adoption, and so we wanted pictures with both the birth mom and the adoptive mom. (as well as my husband.) The photographer agreed, because she knew we would be buying the package!
Everything was good for the first 24 hours. We were a team, all taking care of our new baby. He was born at 8:01 am on Thursday morning. And we were discharged on Friday afternoon. And that's when things changed.
The birth mom held the baby as the nurse pushed the wheelchair down to the lobby. My husband had pulled our car up to the front door, and waiting behind him was her dad in their car. She showed the baby to her family in the car. I took some pictures of her family with the baby, so I could sent them to her. Then it was time to split up. The time had come for us to get in our car, and her to get in her car. I had hugged her and thanked for the billioneth time. Then we put the baby in the car seat and put him in our car.
I looked back and our birth mom was sitting in the passenger seat of their car. And she was sobbing. And my heart broke. I literally felt like I was stealing her baby. I went back and opened her car door and hugged her and hugged her. We were both crying. I told her how I was sorry this was so hard. And I promised that this baby would always know how much she loved him, and that she could still see him. And I told her how wonderful she was- for being willing to do this. They drove away first, then we pulled away. I had my husband pull over in the parking lot. We immediately said a prayer for our birth mom. We asked that she would be able to feel our Savior's love and peace during this difficult time. We prayed and prayed that Heavenly Father would bless her with immediate comfort. This was such a huge event in her life. And we just wanted her to feel at peace.
We already had plans the next day to visit her at her house, because she wanted to get pictures with the rest of her family. (Because it was cold/flu season, kids weren't allowed in the hospital.) So my husband and I were at a hotel for the first night with the baby. And the next day when we visited her, she was doing much better. It was a positive experience. We just had a nice visit. All of her family members got to hold the baby, and we took pictures. It was really casual.
We stayed at the hotel for another night. Because in the state of Arizona, the birth mom cannot sign consent until 72 hours after birth. We weren't there when she signed. Our lawyer drove up and met with her. She signed the paperwork. (The birth dad had already been served his previously.) And that was it. We headed for home.
We finally got our little minion!! :)
