Abraham: 1 Month

Oh goodness sweet son.  You are a month old already.

You still don't like to sleep without being snuggled in someone's arms, but you will occasionally sleep in your co-sleeper for an hour or two to start out the night.  Otherwise nighttime sleeping is not your strong suit.  You are more of the hang out with mom all night type. 

I think  you are one of the most beautiful babies I have ever laid eyes upon.  Your birthmom agrees.  So do lots of random strangers. 

We call you our little cocoa bean.  You are so tiny!  You are tipping the scales at just over 8 lbs. and you still wear newborn sized clothing. 

You coo, try to smile, and hold your poop for days so that you can explode all over yourself and anything else within range.

We adore you. 

It's Working

** Upon editing this post I realized I managed to use the word boobie and vag in the same post.  So sorry.  My husband and mom are certainly horrified. **

I get lots of questions about Abraham and his/our situation with him.  Some from strangers, most from those I love.  I really don't mind answering them for the most part. 

There's only been a few that put me on edge. 


"Why did you adopt when you have two of your own?" 

It's a really well intentioned question and obviously a curiosity.  But please, oh please, oh please don't word it that way once he's old enough to hear and understand.  My insides want to scream, "HE IS MY OWN!!!"  But I usually politely respond about why we chose to adopt.  I'm very non-confrontational when speaking instead of typing.


"Why did his mom give him up?"

Sigh.  I'm his mom.  I really, truly am.  Yes, he also has a birthmom, but even she refers to me as his mom and always has.  And again, when he can understand particularly, please don't refer to anyone but me as his mom.  And I struggle with the rest of the wording too because it makes it sound like he was unwanted.  He wasn't.  Unplanned?  Yes.  Unwanted?  No. 

On a side note with these questions.  I'm just not quite sure why strangers ask me them.  Certainly they are just curious, but they are pretty personal questions!  I've never walked up to a woman with multiple children and asked her whether they were the result of birth control failure.  Or if she pushed them out her vag.  Or some other grossly inappropriate small talk for the aisle of Target.  Oh well.

This post deviated from where it was headed. 

What I really wanted to say is, sweet little Abraham was born 3 weeks ago.  How did that happen??? 

He weighs in at 7 lbs. 9.5 oz as of Monday afternoon at the doctor.  Little peanut.

That means he's gained almost a whole pound since birth.  Over a pound from his weight when we left the hospital.  And what's he grown on? 

Boobie milk!  100%!

He hasn't had to have a single drop of formula or anything from a bottle since the day he was born.

This is so huge for me.  Huge.  It's something I wanted so badly for him.  I logged many hours nursing and hooked to a pump to make it happen, and it did.  Praise Jesus.

And for those curious, Annie weaned while we were gone.  She attempted nursing a few times when we got back, but couldn't remember how and went on with life.  She decided that she is all done being a baby though.  She potty trained herself (no joke) and requested to move into her big bed in Evelyn's room. 

Baby Brother

I can't quite explain how strange it was to go 15 days without my girlies.  Add to that the weirdness of having a brand new baby brother for them that they didn't get to meet until he was almost 2 weeks old.  There's a lot of things about adoption that are just different, and an adjustment, but beautiful at the same time.  Time away from them was hard, but time to sit and snuggle a newbie all day and nap whenever I needed to?  Hard to pass up. 

Their arrival home was pretty fun though.

There is some serious baby brother love up in here.

Evelyn is infatuated.  Completely and utterly head over heals for this little guy. 


She talks about him all day long.  When we are out in public she makes sure everyone knows he's her baby brother.  Adorbs.

Annabelle is aware of him.  She's ok with him.  She finds him interesting and kind of cute.  But she is much more concerned about the fact that mommy is back.  And any attempts that mommy tries to make to leave her side are somewhat disastrous.  It's improving a little though. 

Some Squishy Goodness for Ya'll

We've been in the south for a week and a half and it's creeping in...ya'll.

 I can't believe this little man is a week old.

And I can't believe how many hush puppies I've eaten.  Or how dumb founded locals are with my exuberance for them.

Sweet little Abraham is growing and growing.  He loves snuggling with his daddy and grabs a hold of his shirt even in his sleep.

 

Now, by growing and growing I mean maybe nearing 7 lbs.  He's wearing newborn sized pj's in that picture and clearly having some troubles filling them out.

 

I couldn't resist seeing how cute he would look in his newborn cloth diapers.  He only has 2 that will actually fit his twiggy legs though, so it's back to disposables for another week or two.


























We miss our girls fiercely, but cuddling this little guy makes it a whole lot easier.

Our New Littlest Love

Abraham Christopher came screaming into the world on Wednesday, June 20th at 11:35 a.m. 

He weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. - not too bad for a 38 week baby!

I'm in scrubs because he was born by c-section and K asked me to be the one to go into surgery with her.

Once he checked out and was shown to have great Apgars (9 and 9), we got to go out into the hallway to meet daddy for the first time.

He did not like being poked and prodded in the nursery.

But all was made better when he got to nurse for the first time.

On Thursday, June 21st his birthmom, K, signed away her rights.  She was incredibly strong.  She told me she cried out all her tears the night before and loved the decision she made for him.  She always referred to us as his mom and dad and told me she now understood why he was born.

And just like that, we had a son.

It won't all be finalized until December, but he's not going anywhere! 

We are madly in love with him.

Ridiculously exhausted, but head over heals for this little man!

His sisters call him A-bee-ham.

We call him ours.

In The Home Stretch

It feels pretty surreal right now that we are less that a week from meeting our son.

I will be busy, and kind of hard to reach over the next week, so here's the plan and what to expect from us.

Sunday will be crazy.  My parents are coming down to pick up the girls and take them back to Iowa for our time down in Louisiana.  I will be spending the day getting them all packed and ready to go, washing all our laundry, getting the house spotless and ready to sit empty for a few weeks, and getting ourselves packed.

Monday morning we will hit the road.  We will be traveling through lots of rural nothingness, so I have no idea how in touch I will be able to be.  We will drive all.day.long., then stay overnight somewhere along the way.

Tuesday morning we will finish the trip off and get settled into our temporary home.  Tuesday evening we get to have dinner with K.  I'm very excited about that part.

Wednesday is baby day!  Not sure yet on time of delivery, but I we will be at the hospital all day.  We will have our own room at the hospital, and will stay there for a couple nights until he is released.  I will be desperate to show you all pictures, but won't be able to until after papers have been signed, so you will have to patient with me.

We will then get to hang out in Louisiana until all our cross-statelines paperwork is finished so that we can legally take him out of the state.  That will cue the beginning of the long journey back home.  A trip that will take considerably longer than the trip down since we will have a 2 week old in tow.  Let's just hope he's a good rider.

I'm not sure what kind of internet connection I will have available, so I'm not sure how updated I will be able to keep the blog.  I will try to post pictures and updates to Facebook and Instagram (embehrens626) whenever I'm able though.

The Wait Is Almost Over

We found out yesterday that little man either needs to decide to make his entrance soon, or else he will be given an eviction notice on the 20th!  That means that, at most, we only have a week and a half left of this wait!  Hallelujah!

That also means that he has defied the odds in ways neither we, the doctors, or K thought he could or would.  He will technically be considered full term if he waits that long. 

This little guy has had so many people praying for him, I can only see it as a work of God that he will get to stay in so long.