November 21, 2011 Part 2

That night was insane.  Jesse was scrambling to get the car seat installed.  I began washing everything we had received already.  At around ten in the evening, my cousin texted me with go out on your porch.  I went out there to find a huge basket full of goodies.  My cousins who live an hour away rushed up to the store and bought us a ton of things for Emily.  I was so touched.  Another friend dropped off the bassinet for us to borrow.  It was such an amazing night.

Tuesday was rough.  I knew I had to go into work, but all I could think about was getting to Grand Rapids to see our daughter.  My sub came to school that day.  Bless her heart. It was such an insane day, she looked like a deer in headlights.  I had no time to prepare anything for her and I know I was so scattered.  I just kept saying, "Don't worry.  My teaching partner will help you!"

That day I had a publishing party with my students and parents.  I knew I had to share the news with them, but I was terrified.  I didn't know if they would be upset...I didn't care if they were, but I just didn't know what to expect.  So, I told them that we were chosen and that our baby was due December 8th, but we had no control over the due date and our daughter was born the night before.  When I said those words, the whole room gasped.  It was amazing.  I somehow held it together.  Parents were so supportive and caring.  A few parents rushed home to get me some essentials that I would need.  I have the best job ever!!

I called Dawn after the school day ended.  We weren't sure what the plan was.  Were we rushing up there that night?  Would we wait til Wednesday?  What?  What?  What?  Well, Dawn said the birth grandmother wanted to say good-bye to Emily and she was coming up after work on Tuesday and Theresa still hadn't been discharged.  We had set up a time to meet at the hospital on Wednesday at 1pm.

Tuesday night a couple really good friends, Adelaide and Stacie, came over to help get things organized.  They helped me finish get all the clothes ready, set up her room and just celebrate that our baby girl was born.  Another friend, who is a car seat engineer, Kimmy, came over to inspect the car seat and make sure we did it right.  I crashed on the couch as everyone was helping get things organized.

Wednesday morning was insane.  I got up and got ready.  Jess went out to run a few errands, so I passed the time cleaning the house.  Finally we left at about 9:30.  That drive was the LONGEST drive of my life.  I was on pins and needles.  I was so nervous.  I was afraid.  How would our daughter respond to us?  Would I be a terrible mother?  I had all these thoughts running through my brain, so I tried to silence them by reading, but nothing quite settled me.

We got there a little early and waited and waited and waited for Linda, the pregnancy counselor to arrive.  She, of course, was about 20 minutes late and when she walked in, she proceeded to tell us that never in her 23 years of doing this had she experienced this...the hospital was not going to release the baby to us because they had an adoption go bad recently and all the paperwork didn't have identifying information on it since it was a closed adoption.  The hospital worker had their lawyer in on it.  I was thinking, "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!"  But, she said sign these papers and hopefully it will all go through.

All I could think was, "Can anything run smoothly for us in this process????"

We finally got up to see our little girl and she was an angel.  I immediately bent down to kiss her and the nurse handed her to me.  I had a smile the size of Texas.  All my fears faded as I held her for the first time.  She was our baby girl.  I was mesmerized!  Watching Jesse hold her was very emotional.  He never held a baby and seeing him hold Emily made it more real...this was happening.

We spent the whole day sitting with her and kissing her and holding her and loving her.  We also had to do some training things before she was allowed to leave with us.  So, I was all about getting our list crossed off!  We sat there all day.  We didn't leave at all. But, by 8ish, we were getting hungry.  So, we kissed our baby and told the nurses we'd be back in the morning.

We went to grab something to eat and then crashed at my cousin's house.  (She lived 10 minutes from the hospital.)  I texted Dawn about what the deal was with Emily being allowed to leave with us.  She called me back at 10 to talk.  I was so impressed.  She told us that everything was all set and when Emily was ready to go home, she would be going home with us!!!

I didn't sleep well that night.  All I could think about was Emily at the hospital and us not being there.  Morning couldn't come fast enough.  And when it did, I couldn't get to the hospital fast enough!!  When we got there, the doctor asked us where we stayed for the night and if we had any questions.  We were both very impressed with how nice he was.  He said they were running behind with the rounds, but they'd begin soon.  We went in and loved on our girl for awhile.  We learned from the day before and went down to grab some turkey to eat before the docs did the rounds.

When we came back, they told us that Emily would not be going home that day.  Her umbilical cord was a little inflamed and they wanted to make sure it wasn't infected.  They wanted to watch her breathing a little more and make sure she was eating extremely well.  He said the earliest would be tomorrow, Saturday at the latest!  As the doctor walked away, the nurse said she would do everything in her power to get her home on Friday, the next day.

We stayed with Emily until 2ish and then decided to come home for Thanksgiving dinner, get some clothes and head back up.  It was hard leaving her, but I knew she was in good hands.