He's Here!

Mr and Mrs H are proud to announce the arrival of Baby H!

I can't believe it! We got here at 3:41 am on the 29th. 6#13 oz, 20 inches long. He arrived at 9:54 am. He was delivered by the anthologist! MC went from 6cm to "omg he's here, he's here I have to push!"

"You can't push you're at 6"

"NO HE'S HERE - I HAVE TO PUSH"

"you can't...."

I'm looking down there, I gulp (and gag a little...i mean ewwwww) and sure enough...He was here! He shot outta there like a canon after a tiny quarter of push.

I was all teary and sniffling..It was disgusting and awesome at the same time! He was covered in the stuff (which I'm too tired to think of). They had a hard time getting it all off him. MC didn't want to see him right away...she was in a lot of pain. They did the initial assessment, I cut the cord, i went to get the fathers....stepped out of the room for 3 secs and then had to get into fight with an old lady nurse/gatekeeper to get back in there. She was misinformed about how MC wanted to see him. I got back in with Mr H. The birthfather had gone to the restroom. The old lady had taken off with the bassinette so the anesthesiologist wrapped him up tight, scooped him off, and sprinted down the hall to the other side of the birthing center to our room where further assessments were made.

I'm in love...it wasn't instant. It was weird at first. I'm looking at this baby looking at me looking at him! It's 135 am now and they've got him in the nursery doing a bath and his 2nd 8 hour assessment.

Everything is going great with the birthparents. It's been very, very special. Sweet and heart wrenchingly wonderful.

Whirlwind

At 1o pm Wed night MC called. she sounded slightly hysterical to me. She was crying a little. They couldn't decided if she was in labor or not. One nurse would tell her she was, the next one would say she wasn't. I asked if we should come to her. I reminded her it's a 10 hour drive for us. She said she didn't know. they were supposed to check her in 10 mins and she'd let us know.

Talk about a long 1o minutes. She didn't call back. I looked at Mr H. He looked at me. I said "should we just go?" He said, "yup." We told the teenagers, we called the pound. At 10:47 pm we were on the road.

We didn't hear from her all through the night.

We got to her town and got checked into our hotel.

I texted her. She replied she'd gotten sent home at 345 am. They'd gotten the contractions to stop (she had been at a minute and a half). The pain was from the baby being in position and ready to go. She's dilated to 2cm. Baby is fine. They moved her due date from 0ct 18 to Oct 12.

I told her we were in town. she apologized for not having the baby! She was shocked (and relieved) that we were there. She said she had to get some sleep. That the medicine was kicking her butt. We said we needed to sleep, too, after our drive.

She ended up sleeping through her appointment with her lawyer about TPR.

We ended up going out for supper with her and the birthfather. We really like them. They are good people. They are smart. And funny. They just haven't had much of a chance in life. We made plans to take MC to her ultrasound the following day and to run some errands with her. B, the birthfather, asked that if they induced her could we pick him up from work so he could be there. Of course, we could do that. He then preceded to make sure that we could get from her apt to the hospital; from the hospital to his work; and back to the hospital.

The next morning MC ended going to the doctor early so we didn't need to take her to the appointment. She's no more dilated. He told her to walk, walk, walk. We decided to head home. We were very glad we went even though we didn't really need to be there. It gave us more time with our baby's parents. That alone made the trip worthwhile. MC thanked us for being there and "for being so supportive". That made me sad...if our little trip down there was supportive...poor girl.

We then made the long trip home. I'm excited for the baby to arrive. I would, however, appreciate a little down time before the next long drive!

On the Move

MC (the birthmom) texted and said she was in pain, had been since last night, and "felt weird". I called her right away. She said her grandma was going to take her to the hospital. This was at noon. At 130 I texted to ask what was happening. She was waiting to be sent to the maternity ward. Once you reach a certain point (in the pregnancy) they won't see you in the ER. After another hour and a half she'd finally made it into the computer system and the triage area. She was able to get an ultrasound around 430. The baby is up to 6# something. She's up to 2 cm dilated. They've moved the due date up to Oct 12.

830pm...she just called. She's still in pain. The nurse said they're just waiting for lab results. MC said "results of what? you haven't done anything!" Turns out the no one has done a urine or blood draw. The nurse said "it's been hours!" Supposedly, they're "rushing" the results now (that they've performed the tests).

Physically, we're ready to go! Mentally....not sure. It's a good long drive from here. I'm a planner and HATE not knowing!

Hopefully, MC will get some relief and some answers soon. I think we're going to have a baby sooner than later!!

Since then

It's been a week since we met the birthparents. It's been a relatively calm week. One text for money - all of which was reasonable and expected. She REALLY does not like our lawyer. So she is preferring to go through me. Anything to keep her calm and happy.

Her FB statuses (stati?) have been more and more upbeat as the weeks go by. That gladdens my heart (my cynical, fearful, excited heart).

She had some tests two weeks ago. They never got back to her with the results. I wonder how much of that is because she's a Medi.caid patient? There are two hospitals where she's giving birth. She's now being seen at the "better" one. I had to laugh though because the hospital overlooks a cemetery. If that's not incentive to get well and go home I don't know what would be! Anyway, they called her in yesterday because they'd forgotten to run one test. She's now officially in her 9th month. She was measuring small but the dr said at this point that can change from big to small daily. She's scheduled for an ultrasound on Friday. She says the doctor said "if you make it that long" GULP! Mr H and I have some serious shit getting to get done this weekend!!

The Meeting

Big sigh of relief. It went well.

However, it didn't start well. At 630 am (while we were still 5 hours away) We got a text saying the birthfather was going to be there, too. Which is fine. BUT really? you didn't know this before 630 am of the day we're meeting?

So we continue to drive. Then an hour before we get there we get another text saying they're going shopping and it'll be another couple of hours. We were glad to have the extra time to rest but we both got the feeling that it was going to get cancelled altogether. I HATE what infertility and the adoption process does to a person. you just think negative all the time. At least we do.

When finally got the call that they were back and we headed over. Her apt is cute. She was very anxious to show it too us. I got a hug from her. Mr H got a handshake. The four of us ended up talking for 2.5 hours. We've made breakfast and some sight seeing plans with them for in the morning.

Mr H and I located the hospital and we stopped at a half dozen hotels to find one that will work for us for a week or 2 stay.

There were still some contradictory things that were said but I think some of it comes from pregnancy brain and I think most of the rest is from her being hormonal and working herself up into a state of total pissed off and then not remembering what she's said.

We both feel a lot better now that we've met.

Hopefully the rest of the wait will be much much better!