Discharged

On Friday, Josiah was discharged from the hospital. We went in around 10:00 am to meet up with Heather Hess and Heather Bert and went through the motions and all the necessary checks and permissions to release Josiah from Einstein's care. All I could think about was getting him home! We wheeled him out to the receiving area (also the common smoking area . . . nice) and everyone hugged each other and said goodbye. We buckled the kitle guy into his car seat and headed home.

It was surreal driving home with a baby. After 7+ years of hoping and praying for a child, it was almost too much to wrap my mind around. I never drove so slowly. It easily took us an hour and a half to get home from Einstein, but I there was something inside me that just wanted to be sure that he would be safe. It's like the inner "daddy" that was trappend repressed inside me finally came out and manifested itself in really slow driving.

Once safely at home, we brought him in and just marveled at this wonderful creature!

Hospital visits

Amy and I went back to the hospital Wednesday and Thursday to visit with Patricia and hold the little guy. She lit up when she saw us, which was nice. She had been taking notes for us, so when the doctors came around to report on his progress, she's notate everything so that she could pass the news along to us. I thought that was really nice!

It really struck me that Patricia had no one. She came to the hospital alone and would leave alone without her baby. Her strength was unfathomable to me, and my respect for her is immense. She has a great attitude toward the whole situation, affirming our role as "Mom and Dad" and referring to herself as "Mommy #2".

At one point, Yvonne (Josiah's birth father) showed up to see the baby. We were all surprised to see him, but it was great to meet him and see the resemblance. I have this great picture of him holding Josiah, looking at him for the first time. His head is cocked to the side as if amazed by the similarity. He's not as excited about the adoption plan, but he's willing to move forward because he knows it's in the best interest of everyone involved.

At one point, Patricia went out for a cigarette and came back with bags full of presents! She had bought us balloons, a teddy bear, chocolate cigars, a wall hanging, basketball, and a tree ornament for Amy. We were blown away by her generosity! We insisted that she didn't need to give us anything (in fact, she was giving us more than we could ever imagine!) But she wanted us to have the whole birth experience, complete with gifts. What an amazing woman!

"The Call"

It was just after Midnight. I had just taken an Ambien and was just settling down to watch an episode of "Traffic Wars" when my cell phone rang. 

"No Called ID" -- My heart began to pound.

I pickup up the phone.

"This is Einstein labor and delivery, is this Dave?"

"Yes, Ma'am" I replied.

"Just wanted to let you know that Patricia has gone into labor."

"Great! We'll be there in 20 minutes!!" I squealed.

"Come on..." you could just hear the grin on the other end of the line.

I bounded up the stairs and woke Amy, and told her that we got the call. I pulled the car around and began warming it up. It was bitter cold, and the freezing rain had caked the car with ice. I scraped while amy dressed, and we were out the door in record time.

It was a miserable drive to Einstein; the roads were coated with freezing rain and black ice, and the salt & ice mixture was piled between the treadmarks on the road. We arrived at the hospital, parked in the garage, and briskly walked in to labor and delivery. 

There on the guerney was Patricia, and they had just placed Josiah on the infant table to check him out. They were deciding what time to write on the birth certificate, and they decided on 1:26 am. We stood just inside the doorway watching everything. A crew of nurses cleaned him up, footprinted him, weighed him (7lbs, 8oz) and washed his hair before he was wheeled up to the nursery for the night. Anothert team tended to Patricia, who delivered the baby without epidural or any drugs!

We spent the next 4-5 hours talking with her about how she feels, how her experience at this hospitl compares with other hospitals that she delivered at. It was a great time!

We left around 4:30 am and were home by 5:30. I had to upload some photos, so I went to bed at 6:00 am. I guesss it'll be par for the course with a newborn, eh?

A Charmed Day

Drawing on the inspiration that we recieve from Cibby & Meredith as well as Bob & Jen, we felt much better about our level of preparation today. We had mentioned IKEA around the table with Cibby & Meredith last night, and they encouraged us to look for a glider there...

So we headed out this monrning, making a quick stop at Pier 1. We found these hip litttle curtains called "African Sunrise" that really punch up the color in the living room. At Ikea, we really didn't find anythuing of interest (except their sweeding meatballs) so after doing the mandatory IKEA trek, we headed back to the car. Problem was, we only had two curtains, and we needed 4. The woman at Pier 1 in Montgomeryville said something about more curtains at the Newtown store, so we snapped the GPS into place and headed to Newtown!

The drive to Newtown reallly was a lovely drive! And the store wasn't hard to find. We walked right in and found two more curtains to complete our set. Let's hope they work, right?

Fast forward through the drive home: we hung the curtains while watching "Jon & Kate plus 8" and they really looked amazing! The curtains, that is. Really punched up the color in the room and gave it a personality.

No calls from Patricia yet, so we pulled the ugly pink & white tiled off the backsplsh of the sink; we think we're going to install some nice tin as a backsplash. should be slick!

I would love it if she calls tolnight. I got my phone right next to me (gotta hold it since there are no pockets in my pj's

it's gotta be soon... right?

Not one of our better days...

We got up early so that we could work on some projects around the house. My Dad came over with the radiator cover that he designed and built, and it looks great! We just needed to prime and paint it, and we're good to go. It's a nice addition to the nursery.

Next we installed the window in the master bathroom, and it went in nicely. It punched up the room a bit more with the Carribean/beach house theme...

After My dad left, we drove all over looking for a chair to rock the baby to sleep. We just couldn't find one that we were happy with at any of the stores, so we were bummed. (although we did manage to have a nice Subway sandwich, so at least that was nice.)

We had decided not to go to church tonight; I knew there would be a lot of awkward congratulations and questions that I just wasn't ready to deal with. Emotionally, we've both been really struggling with depression and despair; feeling like this adoption is never going to happen. and we figured we'd only bring a lot of people down at church since we were inconsolable at this point

Cibbey had texted me earlier in the afternoon about dinner tonight, and we figured we really needed to "get outta dodge." We headed over there around 7:00 and caught up with the daily Ethan news. It was a great time that we desperately needed to feel human again. the food was great, too! Highly reccommend the Banana Chreme Cheesesake...deliciouso

No news...

Heather called yesterday with an update; Patricia is doing fine, (for which we are very thankful) and the baby is looking healthy! A-OK the doctors say. Heather & Claire passed along that we were thinking of her, and she seemed to appreciate that. We're just hour to hour and minute to minute waiting for the phone to ring.

Heather must have called from her cell phone, because when it came up on my phone's caller ID, it rang and displayed an unknown 267 number. My heart stopped. I was sure this was the call, and for a brief moment, I couldn't breathe! It was nice to get the update, but I almost had a heart attack thinking it was Patricia...

Going crazy waiting...

I'm having a REALLY hard time waiting for the 15th to come. (baby's due date) I just keep looking at my cell phone waiting for it to ring. every time Lizanne or anyone calls, I jump, thinking that this might be "the call."

I have a weird feeling about this...like Patricia had her baby, decided to keep him, and boarded a bus for God knows where. We just haven't been getting any word from anyone, and I'm going crazy waiting for the call.

I know I'm just paranoid...but I'm really ready for this baby! and I can't wait to meet him!

Discrimination

With the arrival of the baby just around the corner, Amy went to the folks at Jefferson to get the details on her maternity leave. But because she hasn't been there a year, she's not entitled to any! They offered her 5 days and whatever vacation time she's accrued (which is only about 2 1/2 weeks). The benefits person actually told us that if we were pregnant, we'd get 6-8 weeks for medical leave. Nice...