Saturday, August 25, 2012

Bathroom faucet

Yeah! Our installation of a new bathroom faucet went smoothly and relatively quickly!!


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

TPR & 2 week checkup

D's birth parents signed the TPR last Wednesday, and the 96 hour waiting  period expired Sunday morning. We are happy and excited we get to raise D!!

D had his checkup yesterday and he's doing great - already up to 8 lbs. 11 oz!!

Napping

Napping is such hard work!


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A few pics

Meeting uncle Brian














Both our 'babies' are sleeping peacefully.

Toolie Insect

The three of us went for a walk at the Vander Veer Botanical Park and saw a toolie insect - it made us think of Chris' uncle Steve who makes toolie birds... on a much smaller scale however.

Discussion

Chris & D having a discussion... not sure what about!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Home

After 11 nights in a hotel room, 8 with a newborn, we're heading home! Well, almost - the big kids need food first.  :-)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Lucky!

Either I'm a complete failure at putting on D's diaper, he's a Houdini or he needs to move up a diaper size already ... I just got lucky that I didn't have to wake Chris up for help as I almost had my first blowout!

The diaper was barely on D's butt (I could see most of his butt), :) but it was hanging on enough that I got really lucky and didn't need a complete wardrobe change!

I'm hoping he needs to move up a size and isn't a Houdini or that spells trouble... I can't be that bad at diapering, can I???  ;)

Time for me to get some sleep!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

1 week checkup, a few pics


D had his one week checkup yesterday. It was a good checkup - he was born 7 lbs. 8.1 oz. and left the hospital at 7 lbs. 5 oz. He was 7 lbs. 7 oz. at his checkup and they want them to gain back their birth weight by the time they are two weeks old, so no problems there!

My cousin Andria was still at work when we went in for D's checkup, so we were able to see her office area after D's appointment. She asked us over for supper and we had sweet corn (very good after a week on restaurant meals) and Whitey's Ice Cream for a late dessert. We had fun visiting with her and her family!

This afternoon it's time for another bath. Andria loaned us her bathtub, so it will be much easier using that than the last bath we gave D in the hotel. We're planning on heading home Thursday, so his next bath will be at home!

Today we're probably just hanging out at the hotel. I'd like to go to a botanical garden that's in town, but not sure if we're going to make it. They provide supper Monday through Wednesday and tonight is Italian Night, so hopefully they are serving something that we both like. It was spaghettio's for lunch. We're doing some laundry here and Chris has some work he needs to finish.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Thinking about my next move...

"It's tough being me," D says. "I have to think about my next move...maybe a diaper blowout...hmmm we'll see...who knows what mischief I can come up with..."


Sunday, August 12, 2012

Hard

Sorry to those looking for an upbeat post - this definitely isn't one of those, so you might not want to keep reading.
Adoption is a hard road for all involved. Nothing specific happened today, these are just thoughts I've had for a while...
It's hard thinking that how we might become parents is through someone else's pain. Our joy - their grief.
It's hard to take care of a little one and not become attached, especially not knowing if he's going to come home with us or not. I mean, how do you not get attached to a cutie pie you're caring for??
It's hard watching birth parents with their little boy and seeing them struggle to say goodbye each time.  I wish circumstances were different for them.
Yes, I realize that would mean that we wouldn't be able to raise D, or any future adopted child, without someone else experiencing some kind of loss.
I know, we don't live in a perfect world, but a broken one. I just really wish it weren't broken right now and that none of us would have to suffer heartache and loss - under any circumstances.
We'd hoped to be coming home tomorrow either with D in tow or without him. Right now E&D still haven't signed TPR and won't until Wednesday some time... So, we're going to try and get D in for his one week checkup down here tomorrow.
Do we go home on Monday as originally planned (which was supposed to be the earliest date that TPR revocation would have been over)... do we stay until next Sunday when the new revocation period is done...
Ahhh... I wish I had some quick and easy answers right now and not so many doubts and fears, but I don't ...
Yes, I'm praying for peace, understanding, wisdom and patience, and thank you to those that are praying for us - we definitely need and appreciate it. I know Chris wishes I wasn't such a pessimist!
We're praying for our families and friends too, as we know this waiting period is hard on you too.
I'm sorry family and friends that we don't know what to tell you about our current situation.
My next post won't be such a downer, just needed to share some things on my heart right now.
And ok, I'm whining a bit, cause I do miss the comfort of our bed (hotel sheets just seem to not fit the beds very well), our kitties and the familiarity of home!

Friday, August 10, 2012

Discharged and more!


D was discharged into our care on Wednesday. 

At the hospital the day D was born.
We had a relatively uneventful evening back at the hotel. Nicole took the late night feeding while Chris did the next two in the morning. Chris had originally agreed to do the late night one because he thought beach volleyball was on, but then we realized it wasn't, so he decided to back out.

D has been a great little boy so far, so quiet and a good eater! Nicole has been praising the bottles we're using (Playtex VentAire) because they let so little air into D's tummy. Of course, nobody told Chris (kind of) so he thought he was a failure at burping. We also like the gDiapers we're using.
E & D were planning on signing the Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) on Thursday, but unfortunately for us, that didn't happen. They reassured us that they hadn't changed their minds about the adoption, and have rescheduled the meeting with their lawyer for Wednesday. It's definitely hard to wait for the TPR signing and the waiting period after that.




They stopped over on Thursday night for a little bit.  We had planned on staying in town with D until the TPR revocation period was over, but now that might be a lot longer than we had first hoped (if they sign on Wednesday, the revocation period would be over on Sunday, Aug. 19th), so plans might be changing as to how long we are down here. We hadn't wanted to bring D home until he was 'ours', but that's a long time to be in a hotel with limited resources with a newborn, equally hard if we have him home with us and they change their minds! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers - they are definitely appreciated!



In the car seat with my cute hat,
waiting to go back to the hotel.
Thursday night was a little rougher than Wednesday. Nicole did not get nearly as much sleep, so a nap was in order Friday afternoon. D also had his first stroller ride today. We walked around the Northpark Mall, the first "exercise" either of us has had this week. ;-)  He slept through the whole thing, but was ready to eat when we got back to the hotel.

Sorry it's been so long since we've updated, but like we said, somebody has been keeping us busy!  Here's a few recent pics.

Sorry also about the weird formatting -- still trying to get used to how this blog site works!
After my bath - all happy again!

All snuggled up in the sleep sack.







Tuesday, August 7, 2012

It's a boy!


Baby D was born yesterday morning! Here he is after his first bath. :-)

He's supposed to be eating, but he'd just rather sleep at the moment!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

DIY & Miscellaneous

Today's adventure was making some 'homemade' liquid hand soap. I'm almost out of the stuff we use in the kitchen, so I thought I'd try to make some to refill the container today. I had a bar of soap that was given to us a while ago, and thought this was the perfect use for it!

Yes, I'm sure my female pioneer ancestors are laughing at me 'making' soap after all the advances we've had, but I think it's fun! I probably won't ever make it from scratch like they would have had to though.
I had a companion while watching the Olympics on TV the other night. :) She was completely sprawled and content, until we started snapping photos, and then she opened her eyes and cackled at us to complain about the interruption.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary yesterday with supper out at the Texas Roadhouse and we went to the theater to see the new Total Recall movie. Neither one of us can believe that it's been 10 years already.

We also had to laugh, because we picked out the same exact anniversary cards for each other. They did have different designs and colors to them, but the wording was exactly the same!!

We also had some welcome rain again today. It wasn't much, but we'll take all we can get.


Thursday, August 2, 2012

'Homemade' Body Wash

Today I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a while -- make my own body wash. I've been reading online on different blogs about how to make your own liquid laundry detergent, liquid hand soap and body wash. I figure if I can save a few bucks with this stuff I have more money to spend on other things I'd rather spend money on! The thing that takes the longest is grating the soap for the recipes!

I've tried the laundry detergent recipe and I need to tweak it a little to compensate for our hard water. And I'd like to try a few different soap options too. Last time I used Fels Naptha as the base soap and will probably use lye soap next time and probably modify the recipe a bit. I did like the smell of the Fels Naptha soap, but have heard and read good things about lye soap, so I'll try that next. Due to our hard water, liquid soaps work better than dry, but they do take a little longer to make!

Today I made 'homemade' body wash. I wanted to make a small recipe to start with in case I didn't like it or the recipe didn't work well. So, I used 1 bar of  Dove Sensitive Skin Unscented Beauty Bar soap (grated), 2 cups water and 1 tsp. of glycerine.

The glycerin amount was less that the recipe called for (it said TBSP, not tsp). I've read recipes that didn't call for glycerine, so we'll see when I try it out tomorrow if I like it or not! The glycerine was the most expensive thing of all the ingredients but you're not using a lot, so it makes sense if the recipe calls for it. I let the soap solution sit for about 12 hours to thicken, and I know if I left it longer it would probably get thicker, but I liked the consistency I had now.

I also made some homemade baby wipes solution too, using Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Pure Castile Almond liquid soap, water and tea tree oil. Not keen on the tea tree oil smell, but it's a disinfectant and will keep the solution fresh longer. The Dr. Bronner's soap part smells yummy and feels soft though -- can't want to start using it!

Maybe I'll make some 'manly' body wash for Chris next... :)