Some pictures of our ONE MONTH OLD baby boy

C turned one month old on Friday! It's been a long, long month in one way and in another, it still seems unreal that we have a newborn baby boy in our house!


Here are some pix:

Lovin' his vibrating bouncy seat (that Mommy put together all by herself!)

Hanging out with Daddy on Friday while mommy went to Target and spent gift cards on this, and this and this and this and this! We're going to have fun!

P.S According to C's bio-mom, as close as she could calculate, today is his actual due date.

Gearing up for Gustav

Wow, what an eventful few days it has been!

We are in the upper portion of where the flooding is predicted to begin come Tuesday or Wednesday. There have been reports of anywhere between 4-12 inches of rain anticipated. It is predicted to rain every day of this next week until Saturday. Hubby is right now mowing real quick because it will be a long time before he gets another chance and the grass will be out of control.

During hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our little city was a haven for evacuees and our Church is gearing up to minister again to the evacuees. Our denomination's national encampment is 10 minutes from the church, and that is the base of service for our church members. There are already 100+ evacuees at the camp. We will feed them one hot meal per day and sandwiches, etc the rest of the time. There is also the work of cleaning and maintenance. It is a huge job and our church members have shown themselves to be faithful to serve in the past and have already mobilized for this hurricane as well.

The National Guard is using our Activity Center as a place to shower and rest. It is looking to be a very busy, and wet week for us here in East Texas!

Not knowing what to expect, we have gathered our own personal supplies as much as we can. We do anticipate losing power from the winds. With Rita we had up to 75 mph winds. All we can do is hunker down and see what happens.

With having a newborn, I can't be out at the camp this time. But hubby has already been helping to organize things.

Our Senior Pastor's daughter just began Texas A&M at Galveston and they are still reporting that classes will meet on Monday and students are expected to be there! He is right now driving her down there. If things do get bad, they'll bus the students to the main A&M campus in central Texas.

So anyway, we're glued to The Weather Channel and Fox News watching and waiting.

Keep all the people in our region in your prayers!

C's FIRST (play)DATE

On Thursday our good friends Jessy, Randy, Marina and brand new baby Cara came to visit! It was great to see them after such a long time.

C and Cara had a blast hanging out and sleeping in their mommy's arms and had an afternoon snack with their Gerber bottles. Cara had a nice '08 frozen milk-bank breast milk and C had a lovely bottle of Similac Advance! Right before our friends had to leave, the two cuddled on the couch for a minute, but C wasn't too happy about it. I guess he still thinks girls have cooties! I can't believe he hasn't outgrown that phase yet!

Bathing Cutie

Hooray for Sleepy Wrap!!!!

It's here, it's here! Our Sleepy Wrap has arrived!!

I tore into it like Christmas morning!

Oh wow, look! A cute little carrying pouch, that is a surprise!

And after just one false "tie", got it a little too loose the first time - wah lah! C is asleep in the SLEEPY WRAP!!

I just picked him up out of the bassinette and slid him right in the pouch and he never woke up!

I'm lovin' my Sleepy Wrap already!!

It's very snuggly and no pressure anywear. Kind of like wearing a too tight t-shirt, the feel of it. If I had on a black T, especially a long sleeve one, it would even look quite nice to go out and about in!

I've got to stop by the baby boutique before picking D up from school and I'm going to wear it in and tell the owner she's GOT to start carrying them! This shop has just recently made an obscene amount of money off our shower, specifically from monogrammed burp cloths. Maybe she'll cut me a deal on another one, maybe in red!

P.S. I'm typing with two hands and C is still sleeping like a baby :O)

Update: I just washed my face, brushed my teeth, put on my contacts and make-up and went to the potty! All while holding C. I love it! Ok, off to pick D up from school, I wish I didn't have to take C out of the pouch and put him in the carseat!

Sandy, I think it would be easy to carry a child up to 25-ish pounds in it. There are 3 different "holds" the way I have C is the newborn/preemie hold. Here is a link to the older child hold.

Preparing the nursery

One of the drawbacks of a surprise adoption is that there is no time to prepare! We are just now getting things together for C's nursery. Of course he's been sleeping in a bassinette in our room since he came home. So it's not mandatory that the nursery be hurried, but we're ready to get things organized and find a place for all this stuff that a little one accumulates!!



So, here are a few pics as we wade our way through!

We really liked the baby bed we had with D, so we got C one just like it in Cherry along with the matching changing table. We looked into a more transitional crib, but they all go into a full bed and we couldn't find one with a drop down side which I need since I'm short. This goes into a toddler bed, and D stayed in her's as a toddler bed till she turned 5 and got her big girl furniture. Hubby wants C to have bunk beds when he gets older.

Since C can't get out and about much yet, Hubby went and bought the Chest/Dresser all by himself. That was brave of me, wasn't it? Hubby has been having much more imput in C's room than he did with D's or Vika's. So, I let him choose. I think he did well! It was just delivered right before I had to go pick D up from school.

We still have alot more cleaning up to do. I have to go through all those totes and divide things up into what we'll keep, what will go in D's memory box since most likely we won't reuse alot of it now., and what we'll give away (Kim K. & Deb, you'll have a box coming if you want it!) It's been a little emotional for me to go through all that stuff.

Here is a glimpse of C's bedding. It arrived yesterday afternoon. I really like it. It is by Cocalo and the fabrics and textures are really nice. I don't know how much will come across in the picture.

P.S. TXMOM2B, here is a link to the nursery we had prepared for Viktoria. We had all the pieces in white. We loved this set. It is so sturdy and versatile. The side goes up and down really smoothly and it worked great for D coming home at 11 months until she was 5! We couldn't find a dresser or glider in the cherry, so we bought this seperate dresser that will work for him his whole life. Then we already had the upholstered rocking chair that matches perfectly and we didn't even plan it.

Random Post and Answers to Questions

I've been meaning to post this for some time, but the time I have to actually sit down and post is short these days! So I may continue to add to it bit by bit.

I thought I'd answer some of the questions that have been asked in the comments and share some random thoughts I've had concerning this Surprise Domestic Private Adoption.

• What happens now with your Russian Adoption? Are you still going forward with Russia since your agency is now accredited? Per our agency's guidelines, if we pursue another adoption or become pregnant, the Russian Adoption goes on hold, unless we decide to cease the process. Then we must wait one year from C's birth if we wish to carry on. We have asked to be placed on hold, since we are completely paid for the Russian Adoption (other than the final travel and Russia side of things). However, it is most likely that we will not continue. At this point we can't see ourselves with 3 children. But, who knows, we may decide to continue and adopt an older girl between the ages of D and C.


• Will this be an open adoption? I guess you'd call it semi-open. Before C was born, in speaking with the birthparents, I asked them how much openness they wanted in this adoption. We decided together that we will send pictures each year on C's birthday. There is also the open possiblity to meet together once a year in a neutral location.
  
• Wow, D's hair is getting so long! I know this is not adoption related, but I wanted to share about this too. The pictures on the blog don't do D's hair justice. She really has golden strands throughout her hair, it is very Barbie like. Anyhow, she's been wanting to cut it, but we are growing it out long enough to donate it to Locks of Love. It has to be 10 inches of healthy hair before it can be donated. We're nearly there. She'll get a cute bob once it grows long enough. Let me say here, Flintstones Chewable vitamins help it grow faster than the Princess ones! I don't know what brand the Princess ones were, but once we ran out of those and bought Flintstones, it's like wham-o that hair (and her nails) have sprouted! My step-mother has been battling cancer and chemo and lost her hair. When D saw how Granny lost her hair, she wanted to help a child who loses her own hair to have beautiful hair like she has.


• How were you treated at the hospitals? It was amazing the respect and entitlement we received at the both hospitals. Here in our small town, before the lawyer went back to get the preliminary signatures of the birthparents (in the paperwork for us to take C to the other state to go to the neo-natal), the nurse held my hand and C's little tiny hand and prayed over us that all would go well. They let us stay with C in the baby nursery all night the first night he was born. They educated us on newborn things and I think were excited to be part of such a miracle. In the big hospital Neo-natal, the doctors and nurses were great. They saw how dedicated we were to C by being there whenever we were allowed to be there and when we left, the doctors and nurses hugged us and told us how happy they were that C is going to such a good home. They even took C to the well-baby nursery and took his newborn pictures since he didn't get any. They don't usually do that in the Neo-natal unit.

Now for some of my random thoughts.

1. I remember how Debbie struggled over making their birthparent profile just right. I have thought afterward of me walking into that labor/delivery room and standing there before the birthmom in the bed, having contractions, to my right and the birthdad in a chair to my left. I stood before them and gave an impromptu, oral profile in about 10-15 minutes time! It was sur-real! The pictures I showed them were straight out of my wallet! But it was also a sweet time and a precious memory as the birthdad got out his wallet and showed me a picture of them at their wedding and a picture of their older son. I think the doctor had already told them some about us before I arrived. I remember telling them about us building this new house and how I felt guilty leaving that back bedroom just tan while D's room was being painted pink and fancy. Now we know why! It was meant for a boy and I just didn't know it.


2. I've thought of lots of things leading up to C's birth that were in a way preparation that I didn't realize at the time.

• A few months ago, when we were still in the mobile home, hubby came in to the living room and said, "you know, if we ever do have a boy, how about C_ _ _ for a name?" I thought it was a "different" name, but what the heck, we're not having a boy anyhow - so sure, yeah, it's fine. Then when I followed the nurses into the baby nursery to weigh and do all that newborn stuff to C, I looked at him real up close and thought, "yep, he looks just like a C!" Right then I knew that was his name! There was no further thought to it!


• Remember how I did that online thing for the free Parenting magazine ? I had to watch a bunch of Johnson & Johnson commercials in order to "win" it. I remember thinking, it didn't apply to me, any of it but oh well, it was worth the little bit of time for the free magazines! I can't tell you how many times what I watched in those video/commercials has come back to me in caring for C!!

Ok, I've got to run for now. I've got more, but maybe I'll post it later. C is beckoning me through the baby monitor. And I've missed my napping opportunity, uh-oh!

Oh yeah, here's a pic!