There's so much to say and write but I am barely coherent these days. It seems that, unlike Tall Girl, baby boy is more of a normal newborn. In that he doesn't sleep much and is pretty fussy.
I've tried to post several times in the past couple of weeks but just haven't had the perfect storm of energy, quiet and motivation.
I thought our time at the hospital was hard. It got even harder.
Imagine driving for hours and hours with a newborn, toddler, birthmom, way too much crap and 2 semi-conscious adults. The mister and I took turns sitting BETWEEN the car seats in the back and driving. The lucky passenger in the back of our small SUV had bags at their feet AND one in their lap. Oh the joys.
It got better when we stopped for the night and all five of us shared one hotel room. WTH was the mister thinking when he plopped down his credit card? I'm guessing it was "I can't drive 20 feet to the next motel and how bad could it really be?"
Bad. Very very bad. Toddler crying. Baby crying. No one sleeping. Great preparation for another long day in the car.
But the next day brought us HOME. What a relief! Tall Girl was happy to see her friends and neighbors and "MY PURPLE CAR". I was thrilled to see my very own shower and my very own bed.
As previously stated, our house is small. Very very small. I hope to write more about that time with Sydney but it was not the easiest of times. There was lots of deep breathing and counting down to her plane.
Then baby boy got sick. We saw our regular ped on the Friday we got home. Baby boy had a slight fever Sunday night which we all took very seriously. Meningitis was never completely ruled out so all the doctors were very cautious. The mister had to take him to the ER in the middle of the night. Then he was a bit better. On Tuesday, the fever came back and the on call doctor at our practice wanted us to bring him in. And she wanted us to see our ped the next day (Wednesday). Thursday he had his consult with the cardiologist.
What cardiologist you might be asking yourself? The one we needed to check out his small ASD (atrial septal defect). I always say "the only thing better than ER trips and lots of time at the regular pediatrician's is to throw a cardiology workup into the mix". Cause that doesn't add much stress, right?
And during this time Tall Girl started preschool, Sydney left to fly to her folks and we still weren't getting any sleep.
That Friday did not involve any doctors. Woo hoo!
I can't say the same about this week but there were only 2 appointments. One was his well baby check up. One I am far from being ready to talk about here because it's more complicated. But trust me there's a lot I'll need to talk about in a few months and this will be a good place to do just that.
I know this is really disjointed. I'm not quite covering what I wanted to cover but more spewing out a more factual update of what's happened since I last wrote.
There's still time for the emotional part, right? It's not like that's going anywhere. It's been a challenging transition for all of us. The mister and I are struggling to get through the day to day bits. Tall Girl is doing remarkably well but it's clear on days when it's just me and both kids that the attention shift is really hard on her. It's also been hard on Sydney. She's recovering from a c-section, worried about baby boy and his medical issues and having to transition back to home and to a new role with all of us. I think it's hard on Ms FoodNetwork as well. Until this week, she'd been pretty checked out from us.
But it's not all gloom and doom. Last weekend we went to TWO birthday parties! With both kids! The mister is back at work on MWF and I survived 3 of those already! This morning a dear friend from my RESOLVE group came over with her own second miracle baby and this afternoon awesome friends from our adoption community came for a playdate and brought Chinese.
We have so much love and support and we need that now (and will need it in the coming months). We are home and that feels great. A family of four. My son is sleeping a few feet away. Bliss.
