We received the call from our agency that G's birthmother was going to be induced on April 24th, the day after Easter (April 21st). Her original due date was May 11th, but we did anticipate an early delivery/induction since her birth mother's blood pressure was being monitored. We called my mom shortly after we heard from our agency - she was the one coming to help us with C. We decided in order to maximize DH's 2-week paternity leave that he would work all day Wednesday and we would head out that evening since G was to be born out of state. Tuesday was C's birthday, and we ended up just doing a family celebration (we were planning to invite some close friends over for dinner before we got the call for the induction), but he was quite pleased with his dessert and the opportunity to blow out candles. :)
I cancelled piano lessons the rest of the week, and focused on packing during C's afternoon naps. On Wednesday, as planned, we left Northern VA and headed out. Fortunately, though out of state, it was only about 3 hours of driving. C slept after an hour into the trip so it was a quiet drive; time for us to pray for a healthy delivery and for baby girl's birth mother. We arrived at the hotel, met my mom (she had arrived earlier and had checked in and gotten our keys), so we didn't have to do much but get C up to the room and put him to bed.
Thursday morning, we had to be at the hospital pretty early, and we met with one of the local agencies social workers, and DH & I were able to meet G's birth mother. She was already in triage when we met her, and while it was a short conversation, words cannot describe the emotions I felt when I heard G's beautiful heartbeat over the fetal monitor. It was truly a blessing.
We returned to the family waiting room (my mom and C were there with us), and the social worker suggested we head out for the day and to keep checking with her on how things were progressing, so we ended up leaving to get to noon Mass at a local church. After Mass, we stopped to get lunch, then headed back to the hotel to put C down for his nap. C slept for a good part of the afternoon and we periodically checked on how G's birthmother was doing. Right before dinner, the agency SW called and said G's birthmother had stopped responding to texts, so she thought we needed to get over to the hospital. She said we probably had time to get dinner, so we ended up just eating at a restaurant at the hotel next to us, and after getting C back to the hotel with my mom, headed back to the hospital. We camped out in the family waiting room again, and waited to hear news. The nurses at the hospital were absolutely wonderful - they had worked with our agency before, and were so supportive of the process, and us as adoptive parents. A little while later, the birthmother's nurse eventually came in and said she really thought it would be a while longer, and suggested we head back to the hotel to get some sleep. (Like that was possible!!! :)) We took her advice, and headed back to the hotel. (I think it was around 9:00.) My mom had put C to bed, so I took a quick shower thinking I wouldn't have time to do so when we got the call that the timing was close. We tried to get to bed quietly, but C woke up, so we ended up with him in our bed for about an hour until he settled down. No sooner had DH gotten him back in the pack-n-play than we got the call from the nurse. She said to hurry - they weren't sure if I would be allowed into the delivery room as G was born. C woke up again in all the rush of our getting out the door, and we had to wake up my mom who had just fallen asleep, but we were out the door as fast as possible. Fortunately C went back to sleep on his own, shortly after we left. I'm pretty sure we broke a few speed limits on the way!, but we got to the hospital shortly after 11. We had to go through the ER - DH parked the car, I ran in and explained why we were there. DH came in as the aide was filling out my ID badge and he walked us up to the floor. The nurses greeted as and asked if we had brought a camera. We hadn't, but fortunately had our phones! They took me back and put me in scrubs and had me wait in the hall - they still weren't sure I would be allowed in the delivery room. Here I am looking snazzy outside the delivery room in my scrubs!
It felt like forever, so I ended up texting back and forth with my family - and DH standing just outside the door to pass the time. It turned out that I wasn't in the delivery room for her birth, but the nurse came to get me just minutes after . While DH and I had narrowed down names, we wanted to wait until we saw her to decide. As soon as I saw her sweet face, I knew she looked like a baby G! :)
The nurse let me trim her cord, and I just stood staring at her until we took her to the nursery where we met DH. She was just so tiny! We watched while she was checked over, and when they weighed her - 5 pounds exactly!! The nurse gave us a souvenir birth certificate which was sweet. Here she was all bundled up.
We fed her, took turns holding her, (continuing sending texts and photos with family!!) and then decided to head back to the hotel. We asked about having a room so that one of us could stay overnight with her, but they weren't able to give us one, at least not the first night. We decided to go back to get some more sleep and come back in the morning. We tried to time it so we'd only miss one feeding.
After catching a few more hours of sleep at the hotel, we woke up when C did and started getting ready for the day. During breakfast, one of my sisters texted and asked what her name was. Before DH or I could respond, my mom sent the family a message saying that if we didn't come up with a name, she was going to name baby girl! :)
To be continued...
.JPG)
