1 Month

I'm a little behind on writing this since Little Pirate is 6 weeks old today, but here is our one month post! This may be pretty boring to most people, but it's all the little things I want to remember about my baby boy. He's changing every day and I don't want to forget a thing.

It really is hard to believe that time is passing by so quickly. It has been so much fun to watch Little Pirate grow and develop. He is, naturally, awake a lot more lately. During that awake time he loves to give us lots of smiles while we just sit there and talk to him. It definitely melts your heart and makes the 4:00 am feedings all worthwhile.

Two weeks ago Little Pirate had to go to the doctor for his first "sick visit". He'd been having some grey colored stools that just did not seem natural at all. Our doctor at first thought this might be due to bile being backed up in his system. We had to take him to have some blood drawn to check his bilirubin levels, which all turned out to be normal. Thanks goodness! The next thought was thought he probably had an ulcer (which isn't uncommon for babies) and the discolored stools was from bleeding. We started him on some Axid and everything has become normal since then.

On Saturday I took him in to be seen again for his spitting up. (Yes, our doctor is open on Saturday's. Yes, he's awesome. No, I'm not biased because I work there and he's my boss.) ;) We ended up switching his formula again, so I'm hoping this one will work a little better. We first started him out on Enfamil Newborn, then went to Enfamil Gentlease, and now we're trying Enfamil A.R. It is a heavier formula, which has caused him to sleep a little bit longer during the night. I'm not complaining! :)

Little Pirate's skin tone continues to get darker and darker. He's African American and Caucasian, so right now he has that gorgeous olive color. But I've been told that the more he's out in the sun, he'll probably continue to get darker until he's about 18 months or 2 years old. We'll see what he's looking like after his first summer out in the sun!

It's been a lot of fun taking Little Pirate out places with us. We're a social couple and we like to go places. We don't spend a ton of time at home. We don't plan on having a baby slow us down much, within reason of course. Within the first few weeks so many people would ask us, "Oh, is this his first time out??" and we'd just tell them no, that'd he'd already been plenty of places before.

I wish I could give this blog credit, but I don't remember where I saw it... But one time I read a blog where a mom was talking about this same thing. She said that they never stayed at home or skipped out on something simply because they had a child now. She believed that as a result of that, her child was a lot more social and had a flourishing vocabulary. I hope to see the same things for our Little Pirate.

As a mom I've seen myself become emotional over some of the silliest things as my baby boy grows up...like moving into size 1 diapers, certain little onesies already being too small, and all the other little things to come with time. Parenthood is such an incredible journey and I feel so blessed that the hubs and I were handpicked to be Little Pirate's parents.

His first balloon!

His pirate themed baby shower! I plan on blogging about this as well. I have a bit of catching up to do on here.

My sleepy boys.

One of Little Pirate's adoring cousin.

About to get his heel pricked to test his bilirubin levels.

He is adored by many people!

Sitting like a big boy in his Bumbo! He can hold his head up for several minutes at a time, so we like putting him in that seat every once and a while.

Dressed and ready for his first wedding in his bowtie and suspenders onesie!

Playing at the park with some friends!

And now for his one month professional pictures by our great friend at Jenny White Photography...

Puzzle Update

I promise, promise that a puzzle update is coming soon! It's just been a little hard to work on with this cute little face around now. :) But we do still have a few hundred pieces left and definitely need to sell them, so please don't forget about us!

Thankfully, we are so close to our $30,000 goal that all we need to do is finish the puzzle and we will have all of our money together. But the puzzle must be completed. So keep spreading our name around and we will work hard on keeping you updated on everything. Thank you!!

In other news, let me just say... Being a Mommy is SO amazing! I can't believe the hubs and I were chosen to be Little Pirate's parents. We are beyond blessed and love him more than words could ever express.

Two Weeks Old

Confession: I used to be one of those people who never understood it when mom's would say stuff like, "I can't believe my baby's 6 months old!" I mean, you were there for the whole six months, right? It's not like you were away for half of it.

But here I am. As we drove to the doctors office on Monday for Little Pirate's checkup I was saying, "I can't believe my baby's two weeks old!!" So yes, I'm one of them now. But really, how did two weeks go by so fast??

In these wonderful two weeks we've had so much fun. Baths, outings, naps together, tummy time, rolling over. Yes, rolling over! My two week old can roll over from his tummy to his back. He's definitely going to keep us on our toes. And I know we'll love every second of it!

He LOVES being on his tummy! Passed out asleep.

2 week checkup

First trip to Target!

Wide eyed

We have happy moments and some very fussy moments. :)

He has little sideburns already! hehe!

Just saying a little prayer.

First time in a highchair at my parents house. He looks so teeny tiny in it!

First real bath. Yeah, he hated it. haha!

Our best friends son helping the hubs carry Little Pirate out of a restaurant. As we were walking by we heard someone say, "Aww, look at that big brother helping carry his little brother!" It's so true for them. They will be best buddies.

The boys just hanging out.

Enjoying a nap on his tummy on the Boppy pillow.

The rolling over wonder!

Scentsy Fundraiser

I don't know why I never put this on here, but hey, better late than never! We still have a week left on our Scentsy fundraiser and the product will be shipped straight to you. So get to shopping! ;)

We're having a Scentsy fundraiser during the entire month of August! We will get 20% of all sales and if the total goes over $2000, we will get 25%. All you have to do to contribute is go to the website and place a Scentsy order for yourself! On the left of the screen is a box that says Vanessa and Mike's Adoption. Click on "Buy from Party" next to that and start shopping! Thank you!

https://lyndzpea.scentsy.us/Home

PS - I promise that I'll have a puzzle update soon. We've been a little (happily) preoccupied to devote much time to it, but we are catching up. Please continue to tell people you know about it. Thank you!

A Little of This, A Little of That... (Part 2)

Sooo, where was I?? haha!

Our first night as a family of 3 was wonderful. We had very little sleep, but it was still wonderful. I couldn't believe we had a teeny tiny little baby waking us up.

And as a side note...I know they say sleep when the baby sleeps. But they don't warn you that you'll want to look at baby with every squeak, wiggle, or tiny sound he makes! But anyway, moving on... :)

The next day we met B, Little Pirate's birthmom. She came into our hospital room with two of her friends. Strangely enough, the first thing that happened when she walked in the room was she looked at me and said, "Huh. You look different than your pictures." (meaning the ones from our profile book). I had no idea what to say to that!! I'm sorry? Thank you? My bad?? Yeah, I was at a loss. So I just mustered out an "Oh." followed by an awkward laugh.

But things were fine beyond that. She only stayed in our room for about five minutes. She and each of her friends held him and took a few pictures. We felt very confident about the entire process, so we told her that if she wanted to spend some time with him in her room, we were fine with that. We told her to just let the nurses know and they would come get him from our room and bring him to hers. She seemed very appreciative of this and said that her grandparents would be there later that evening and would love to meet him and take pictures. We, again, told her that of course that was fine with us and to just let the nurses know.

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Later that evening a nurse did come in our room and very nervously said, "Umm...the birthmom said she was wanting to see the baby...?" We assured her that it was fine and she took Little Pirate to B's room.

About 20 minutes later there was another knock on our door. It was B's grandparents wanting to meet us. Definitely did not see that coming! That shocked us a little. But it was a wonderful experience. They simply wanted to meet us themselves and talk to us for a few minutes.

They told us about how they raised B and how they are pretty much also raising the two children she has. The grandpa got choked up several times talking to us about how difficult this is for them, but that they know this is best. He told us that he himself is adopted, so he knows the blessing this process can be.

He also told us that he never got to meet her third child, which was the first one she placed for adoption. He was in Brazil on a mission trip when it was born. He said that the family never sends pictures to them either, so they don't really know anything about the child. Besides raising Little Pirate in a strong Christian home, his only other request was that we send pictures. We guaranteed him that we would.

After talking for a little bit he asked if he could pray with us. Umm...wow! We definitely didn't see it coming that we would meet them, but then we really didn't see it coming that he would want to pray with us. It was just so cool. He teared up through most of it and had a hard time getting his words out, but what he did say was just wonderful. We were so happy that we got to meet them.

A few minutes later B brought Little Pirate back to our room with her two children in tow. She wanted us to meet them as well. I couldn't help but stare at them and think about how they were my son's siblings. What an interesting world adoption makes.

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On Wednesday afternoon B came into our room to say goodbye to us before she was discharged from the hospital. This was the first time I saw her show any emotion. She began to tear up a little. She gave us both hugs and asked that we please keep in touch. And then she walked out the door. She left the hospital with her son in our arms. Wow. What an overwhelming feeling.

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All in all, it was a wonderful experience. It was so nice to be able to be at the hospital and have our own room with Little Pirate. I apologize to anyone who wanted to come visit and wasn't able to. We had very few visitors since B was in and out of our room, sometimes without any notice. It was just a little bit of an awkward situation, so it was better to keep it as simple as possible.

But anyway...adoption is an incredible process. I feel so blessed to be a part of this.

And now for my favorite little tidbit from all of this...

We have had Little Pirate's real name picked out for at least a year. It's the only boy name the hubs and I have ever agreed on. Well, when we got to the hospital we found out B's first and last name for the first time. Turns out that the meaning of Little Pirate's name just so happens to be a form of B's last name (hope that makes sense).

I could not believe it when I saw her last name. What a way for God to show us that He absolutely handpicked this child and situation for us. And also, what a way for her to always be a part of Little Pirate. So happy that I serve this mighty and wonderful God.

Headed home as a family of three!

A Little of This, A Little of That...

This may be an extremely random blogpost, but I just have so many things that I want to write down and remember from this week. So I'm just going to write them out as they come to me. It may not all be coherent and it's probably going to be very long, but it's things that are important to me. So here we go...

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First and foremost, here's the story of how all this came to be.

As most people know, on July 20th we were matched with a birthmom (whom I will refer to as B). She was due with a baby boy on August 7th. We were thrilled, of course, and worked very quickly to get a nursery completely put together.

However, a week and a half later, starting on August 1st, our agency lost contact with B. They called, texted, went by her apartment, etc, but never seemed to be able to get ahold of her. They remained positive until the morning of August 8th, the day after her due date.


I emailed our agency worker that morning pretty much asking her opinion on the situation. She sent this back to me: "I don't think we are going to hear from her right now. Always possible she could take baby home and try to parent and then call, but no way of knowing. We will start showing your book again this week. I'm sorry Vanessa."


I was devastated, naturally, and spent the day at work trying to deal with all the emotions of needing to move on. However, around 5:00 that evening, as I was headed home from work, I got a call from our agency worker. The first thing she said was, "Guess who I'm texting with right now?"


Yes, that's right, B had suddenly made contact again, after an entire week of silence. She had not had the baby yet and assured our agency worker that she still wanted to go through with the adoption plan. And her reason for the silence? Simply because she didn't have access to a phone over the last week.


Going from the information from the morning to the information in the evening was enough to make it a crazy and exciting day. But it was just the beginning! At 11:20pm I got an email from our agency worker that said, "B is going to the hospital. She is contracting. I will call you when I know more...just FYI!!" Then just 30 minutes later the agency worker was calling me. I answered the phone and she said, "We have a baby! Would you like to come meet me at the hospital??"


Talk about a whirlwind of emotions! So we scrambled to grab our hospital bags that had already been packed for a week and made the quick drive to the hospital. We sat in the waiting room for about half an hour while our agency worker took care of details with B. Then we were taken back for me to get a hospital bracelet that allowed me to take care of Little Pirate while we stayed there.


The first time we saw Little Pirate was when the nurses took us back to the nursery where he was getting cleaned up. Funny thing though...they showed us into the room where he was, along with three other babies. We didn't know which one he was at first! haha! But we quickly figured it out and got to watch him get his first bath, first shot, and just about everything else.


Once that was over we got to take him back to our hospital room where I fed him his first bottle. It was such a wonderful time!


But this is getting way too long now and I'm not even done. haha! So I'll have to break this up into two parts. I'll end with some pictures and continue the story later.

Hanging out in the waiting room.

Our first sight of him!

First feeding

First family photo around 2:00am.

Newborn Photo Shoot

Yesterday we had Little Pirate's first photo shoot with Jenny White Photography. Not only is she an amazing photographer, but she is also a great friend of ours. I've watched her take pictures of all of our friends kiddos for years and it was so much fun to have our turn!

Enjoy the photos and if you're in her area, check out her work. Like I said, she's great!!

(Oh, and for those curious that don't know us personally, you will see his name spelled out in blocks in a picture. I just won't ever type it out on the blog so that it doesn't show up on internet searches, or anything like that.)

Just a little explanation for this one... This is a necklace that the hubs bought me (from here) for my birthday this year. It was inspired by women dealing with infertility and based off of the verse Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."