Splish Splash

As predicted, Lillie finally lost her cord stump yesterday...so we got to have her very first bath last night. She did great! She seemed to really like the warm water (until the very end when she decided she was finished and started crying) and it was nice to finally be able to give her a proper cleaning.

Here's Lillie trying to decide what she thinks about this new experience.

All warm and snugly in her new pink hoodie towel after the bath...

Gratuitous shot of the new belly button. So much cuter than the old dried-out stump. :)

Three Weeks

Our sweet princess is three weeks old today! She's such a joy in our lives. She's been a very good baby for us so far. She's still waking up every three to four hours and has several long periods of being awake and alert throughout the day. We just love how she opens her eyes so wide and looks around at everything. She loves to stare up into our eyes. She's not big on crying, but prefers to grunt and squeak to make her needs known. Once in a while she will let loose with a few minutes of frantic crying if we take too long to get a bottle ready, but she's very easily consoled and usually stops as soon as we pick her up or once the bottle hits her lips.

Yesterday was Lillie's first doctor appointment. She's up to 7 lbs 10 oz already and still measuring at 20 1/2 inches. That puts her right in the fiftieth percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. So she's right on average for her age. The doctor says she is perfectly healthy and growing well. We had been a little concerned that she's still hanging on to her umbilical cord stump, but it's very quickly gotten much looser and is currently only hanging on by a tiny thread. We anticipate that we'll have a cordless baby by the end of the day and be able to give her a real bath for the very first time tonight or tomorrow.

Lillie

Lillian Grace was born Tuesday, November 17th at 9:50 am. She weighed 5 lbs, 12 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. We're both overjoyed to have her in our family, and are in awe of this sweet spirit that's been sent to live with us.

Our time in Columbus flew by. We couldn't believe how fast the time in the hospital went! We really appreciated the wonderful nurses who took care of Lillie when we weren't able to be there. They made our hospital experience very easy and memorable. We were also thankful for the hospital's bending of the rules to allow us to stay longer than the normal hour and a half they normally allow for visitors. They were very nice and friendly every time we came in, even putting us in our own room with Lillian and letting us stay as long as we wanted to during normal visiting hours. One of the best things that happened (other than meeting Lillian, of course) was that we got to briefly meet Lillie's birthmother, which was a wonderful experience and we're happy that we'll be able to share it with her someday.

We're so thankful to everyone who's been sending thoughts and prayers out for us. We really appreciate all of your love and concern for us. We love you all!

Our News

By now, I think most of you have heard our news...but I'll go ahead and tell the story again just in case anyone missed it. :)

About a week and a half ago (Wednesday, Nov 4 at about 10 am to be exact), Mark and I were both home from work. I had just gotten back from a doctor's appointment and Mark was home because he wasn't feeling well. Suddenly, the phone rang. Caller ID showed "LDS Family Services" which immediately piqued our interest, since they don't normally call us. Let alone on a Wednesday morning when we would normally be at work. So, Mark answered the phone. It was our case worker, Spencer. He wanted to know if he could drive up from Columbus to meet with us the next day while he was in the area. Thursday wasn't really very good for us since we were both working and I had a RS activity that evening that I felt I should attend (since I'm the new RS President and all). So, he asked if he could come over that afternoon. That worked much better for us, so we agreed. We spent the next 2 or 3 hours trying to keep busy and not wonder too much why he was driving all the way up from Columbus just to meet with us. After all, if he had a potential birthmother, wouldn't he just tell us on the phone? Anyway, 2:00 finally arrived and Spencer arrived shortly thereafter. We spent a few agonizing minutes making small talk and eventually he came to the reasons for his visit.

Reason # 1 - there was a new policy in place to visit with adoptive couples more often. ("Oh, that explains it" we thought to ourselves...as the hopefulness we had tried so hard to supress came crashing down)....But then he came to reason # 2.

Reason # 2 - Spencer had been meeting with a birthmother. He spent quite a while detailing her story. We listened with great interest as he told us about this anonymous woman who made some poor choices and is now trying to get her life back together and make things right. He told us about all the preparation she had done in choosing the right agency to place her baby with - even attending our church for several months to make sure she liked what was taught there. And how she decided that adoption is the right choice for her and the baby, but she wanted the adoption to be completely closed - no contact before or after the birth. Not even names or pictures. She wants to make a clean break and move forward with her life. This last part made me sad because I've always imagined we'd be able to send pictures and letters and have stories to tell our kids about the birthmothers who chose a better life for them. Then came the best part of his story - the baby was due in about 2 weeks. And we were chosen to be the baby's parents.

So, that's our news. A few days ago, we found out that the birthmom is scheduled to be induced on Monday evening (11/16), so we're expecting to have a baby sometime Tuesday (the gender will be a surprise since the birthmom didn't want to know if it's a boy or a girl). After the birth, there's a waiting period of 72 hours before the birthmom can sign the relinquishment papers. Mark and I are planning on leaving for Columbus Tuesday morning. We'll only be allowed to visit during visiting hours, and the normal rule is only 2 hours at a time, although we're hoping they might bend that rule for us. If the baby is born before Tuesday evening, the signing should take place on Friday, then we'll be able to bring baby home after that. We're both incredibly excited, but still cautious since there's still a chance she could change her mind. We really appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that are being sent out in our behalf. I'll be sure to post updates when I'm able to... So be on the look out for a birth announcement early next week! :)

Fall Pictures

Okay, so we finally took some new pictures of us. Mark and I went to the Garden Center on Halloween with Rachel & John and we took turns taking pictures of each other, then went out to dinner. We had a great time! I'm very happy to finally have some more recent pictures to add to our adoption profile. Here are some of the better pictures... You'll notice that most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees, which was a little disappointing, but Rachel had the great idea to have us sit in a pile of red leaves since there weren't any in the background. She's so smart :). The leaves were a little wet since it had rained all morning, but they do make for a pretty picture.

Baby things

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was planning to make a bunny blankie for Lance's new baby. You see, Lance has a thing for rabbits, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate something rabbity into my gift to the baby. Unfortunately, the bunny blankie idea didn't work out the way I wanted it to. So I frogged the whole thing and started over. Instead of making a bunny blankie, I decided to make a bunny AND a blankie. Here's a picture of the two of them together.

Baby Shiloh is also going to be the proud recipient of the strawberry hat/sweater combo shown at the bottom of my "Projects" post. And in case anyone was wondering, the purple and pink and white blanket in that same post (with the filet hearts) went to Tegan, who was born the end of July and is our newest niece on Mark's side of the family.

My latest project (other than Shiloh's blanket & bunny) is a brown & pink & white baby blanket, since I'm all out of girly blankies at the moment. No, there are not currently any more babies on the way that I'm aware of... I just like to be prepared. :)

Baby Shiloh has arrived!

I'm happy to announce the birth of my beautiful new niece, Shiloh Marie, who was born Saturday, September 5th around 12:30 in the afternoon. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 13 oz and was 20 inches long. The proud parents, Lance & Michelle, are doing great. Shiloh is the first grandbaby for my parents and everyone is so excited to have her here. Mark and I just can't wait to meet her this weekend!!