I have not posted as much with enough info since Sabrina's birth but since I'm still the one that does the cooking, cleaning, shopping... It's a bit more difficult for me to always stop when something pops into my mind. Guess at this point I better get used to it and learn to prioritize better. Well, we JUST had our first scare. We have gotten pretty good at recognizing her cries, hungry, poop/pee in diaper, annoyed and wants to be held... but she was crying like hysterical crying about and hour after I had fed her. She was feeling warm and just screaming, we were both freaking out, nothing would calm her down. Bobby had her while I was eating so I took her so he could eat. I looked down and noticed the cord clamp was gone ran to the pack n play and it was in there. Well it was no shock it came off but they kept telling us 2 - 4 weeks so with the crying the Daddy freaking out insued. We called the hospital where she was born and talk to the pediatric nurse on staff, She told us not to worry some babies have theirs fall off early and to just not worry and check it for puss. Well while Bobby was talking to them I was preparing a bottle, I fed her and right when I put the bottle in her mouth she went to sleep. We looked at each other and felt a tad bit silly. She slept really well last night and only had one feeding, I tried to feed her once and she took about 1% of the bottle so I could not sleep all night thinking is she ok. Guess we need to get used to this. We just started reading this book Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo, M.A. and Robert Bucknam, M.D. and it has received a ton of praise from people that have read it. It teaches you to get your baby on a schedule and keep it on one. To the point that your baby sleeps through the night. WHAT, I've always been told to feed your baby even throughout the night. There are several theories people use, 1. the scheduling where they schedule each feeding and try to stay on that same schedule, 2. the "baby knows best" method where when the baby cries weather it's hungry or not you feed the baby, (I don't like that at all). There are a variety of these two that have been mixed and matched to make an aggressive and and passive version of the two in a sort of mix. But this book supposedly had a great solution and I think I'm going to like it. After seeing some other kids that have a rough time during infancy and then later on in the toddler years. I will post more on the book as I read it, and give an objective opinion on what I think and if it will help us and Sabrina. I am hoping it is a vital solution to a happy child. Gregg...

I can't wait to get our little Girl with us finally. I am SO tired and not even from her. Running around all day back and forth around Cali can tire a person out. I felt like we did nothing yesterday. We barely spent any time with her trying to get the the hotel room ready, with her pack and play, her rocker chair. This way when we bring her back today it's all about her not unpacking, or going to get supplies, nothing. Just taking care of our Sabrina. I am still so grateful and happy that everyone is so supportive and family is so happy.

Except for a few minor things this has been the best experience. I don't even care about the minor things at this point, I am happy she is healthy and well, she responds to us very well, she is a good sleeper and just so adorable.

Now just can't wait to actually get her HOME, to her room and our family will be complete when we get the boys home to meet their girl. And yes, We miss our boys so much right now too. I even miss our house and I am not that fond of it at this point.

I can't BELIEVE it, Sabrina is FINALLY born. We could not leave to go watch her be born because the Mother started going into labor and called us at 9:18 pm and we could not take the Boys (Ripley and Chase) to the pet hotel because they stop taking in pets at 9pm. We are so excited. It's kinda hard to concentrate, we have a long drive, a lot of work and tons of surprises I am sure. The mother sent us a message this morning saying she is just a Doll.

Here is part of the message from the Mother last night:
Your new daughter was born 4/18 at 11:15 pm last night. I have finally
been transfered down to my room after they had to monitor my blood
pressure for last few hours. Im in room 1045 and she is just a doll.
Hope you get here safely and see you soon.

I cannot WAIT to hold her, I can deal with the crying, the long nights and anything else as long as she's healthy and well and we bring her home. This is the BEST day (until #2 is born, HA then we will have TWO best days).

Again, this is SO exciting, so spectacular

Gregg....

Yes I've been neglectful of you my Blog, I'm Sorry

Ok, I've been spending the last couple of weeks on about.com taking these courses on writing that I singed up for almost 2 years ago but never went through, so now that I may get a little time off I want to start studying up so that maybe I can get some short stories written and published in journals. I'll try. But, more important NEWS. The mother is getting along fine right now. We did have some due date flip flop issues which just made the WHOLE wait game worse. Everyone says be patient, and for the most part I really believe we are, but when ALL you want is that little one in your arms, in your home, with you, for you to love, to protect to shower and spoil with all the things you possibly can (before they become teenagers and bankrupt you) it's HARD. Everyone gets upset because I have not gotten all excited and out of control yet but it is because until she's in our home, not there waiting to cross state lines, or driving, not till she is in HER home, will I be happy. I mean I know, I KNOW when I hold her my heart will just melt away, I'll succumb to being the Dad that spoils, I spoil the nieces and nephews, so why not. But yes, it's still difficult to sit and wait. Last couple of weeks we noticed we were doing a bunch of nervous cleaning and we read somewhere this weekend that a lot of expecting mothers do that, that was pretty funny. Now to get back to cleaning up, yes We are cleaning again, just in case she calls in the next couple of days before our usual weekend cleaning. I think Bobby is going to finally win a battle, he wanted to get a cleaning service after she was born and I thought what a waste, buuuuttttt maybe for a little while.

The Deal Has Be Done

Well we talked to a birth mother that called the agency yesterday and she is 8 months pregnant (due Next MONTH!). She is fully insured, wants nothing, she is 29, has 2 daughters (they are both very pretty) the father up and left her a few months back and she has been thinking about what to do, 3 family friends offered to adopt the baby and all 3 fell through. She kept saying to us she just wants to know it's going to a good safe home. She said when she called the agency told them her story, they asked her some questions and then sent her a packet with 50 birthmom letters in it. she said first she looked at the pictures of all 50 letters. then she read bits of most. she narrowed it down to 3 and we were one of those 3. She said she thought about it some more and she knew after reading our letter and seeing out website again that we were the ones. She told her whole family and said she was worried about them not approving the "gay" thing and wanted to know if she should choose one of the other couples but they all said NO, your first instinct was right, stick with that. Then she had her 7 yr old look at the pictures (she has explained the whole thing to her already) look at the pictures and asked her, do you think they will be good daddies for the baby, she said yes, then she said the 7 yr old read our whole letter and said YES they are perfect for the baby. We thought that was perfect, it sealed the whole thing.

We are so excited, we cannot believe this is happening. It is so wonderful. The mother is so worried that she does not want to change her mind she does not want to hold the baby afterwards, she wants it to go straight to us and if possible no contact afterwards. I kinda did not like that, I want her to KNOW her sisters, to see them and be part of their lives, so does Bobby, we also wanted more to send her pictures of the baby as it grows and so on, she says no. So we will wait and see.

I cannot wait to be a Father. Now we just have to get to number 2. We have not had a long wait, we went on the books with our agency just 3 weeks ago. they told us we were very popular and a lot of inquiries were asked about us. So we hope the second time around its the same. I am planning on when the baby is 8 months old starting this again.

we'll see.
G....

Adoption Update

Well we have one heck of A week. We went live on the books at our agency 2 weeks ago today. We didn't expect much and plus you have to wait till the end of the month reports go out to see if any of your flyers went out to Birth Mothers. Well I took Monday and Tuesday for my B-Day and early Monday morning we got a call from a BM wanting to adopt out her 1 yr old. I guess she had been struggling with what to do and finally decided adoption was the best. She was very calm and relaxed and did not seem to a single worry or fear (usually the BM is nervous, you two are nervous also and calm each other down somehow. This chick was sprouting out laws and plans and how she wanted to come here to AZ for the adoption, we kept saying no, we want to come there. If we do the adoption in CA then both of our names go on the birth certificate so then we do not have to worry about the whole someone has to apply for legal guardian status and keep that updated every 6 months. We decided not to get attached at all, it seemed to flaky. We both insisted she call our agency and she kept making excuses not to, then said oh I called them but no one was there (it was 7am her time), so she called some of the east coast offices just to speak with someone and she says no one was there either. Well seemed fishy so we let it go, I called our agency as we are suppose to if a BM contacts us and not the agency, the person at the agency agreed it sounded fishy and I think she did not want us to get involved with it but just did not come right out and say it. I emailed the BM the next night since we had not heard from anyone told her we were still interested if she is and to keep us posted. She wrote back thing were still a go she just needed to legally make sure the father could not do anything to intervene. Who knows what that Drama is all about, sounded like the father does not know he has a kid and she's not gonna tell him, just adopt the kid out. Another day goes by and she sends this very cryptic message pretty much saying if we stick with her we had better be ready for a bumpy ride, and how she was sick of the whole process and she should just go to Canada or France to adopt her son out. FREEAAKKK, so Bobby wrote her back saying we were probably not the best match for her, and that was that. boo hoo

Today the agency called and pretty much said they didn't want to talk about her she is a special situation and they do not know how they are gonna handle her situation, but, another mother was looking at us and 2 other couples. She is 8 months along, had a sonogram at 5 months and everything was fine healthy baby, no drugs no smoking no drinking, AWESOME all the things we want. The father had left her recently and she has a 9 month old with him and she has one other kid. So she was nervous to call so she talked to the agency first and is going to call us sometime. We cannot wait, Guess if this one works out Bobby will of been right, he said it was gonna be a girl.

He is very excited, i'm holding off until we actually match with her. Heck if I can restrain, I'm holding off until we are on our way home with her.

G....