The Week after Christmas

What a whirlwind but I'm almost caught up to real time..meaning now. We're finally on the week after Christmas.

I'll break it down..

The week before Christmas..we hardly get any info. We get the birthmother's adoption application, it looks pretty clean. A counselor talked to her and she is fully on board with the adoption. She lives with her mother and she has a two year old daughter but she realizes she cannot parent another child. The Birthmother is due on Dec 22nd..and we hear nothing.

Dec 26th- the East Coast gets walloped by a huge snowstorm. Blizzard warning in Boston! We eventually get 18 inches.

Dec 27th- I get a snow day! My medical practice closes for the day. Essentially the whole city shut down in trying to recover from the storm.

However, J and I are anxious that we haven't heard a thing from the birthmother. Anxiety ridden thoughts fill our head.."Is she legitimate? Did the idea of gay parents freak her out? Did she decide to parent after all?"

So we decided to call our adoption agency. One of the other social workers informs us that the birthmother finally called that morning. The birthmom is going to the hospital to be induced! This could mean that she could deliver that day or tomorrow.

We're going to Georgia! My paternity leave starts on Tuesday!

The following day, we find out that the BM (birthmom) delivered a baby boy sometime Monday evening!!

We immediately start trying to book a flight down to Georgia but everything related to flying is CHAOS because of the snow storm. We finally book a flight on Thursday morning.

Dec 29th- We haven't received any medical updates about the baby! This is freaking J out and I'm trying to stay positive, but now J is making me anxious. According to our social worker, the hospital is being very tight with medical info.

We make a trip to the agency to sign more paperwork and hand over a big check! Finally the social worker from the Georgia adoption agency calls us from the hospital. Essentially, the baby boy looks healthy, 7lbs, Apgar score a 9 (out of 10). We're relieved but they can't locate the exact name of the attending pediatrician!! Sigh....I need to finish packing!

FYI..What is APGAR?

The very first test given to your newborn, the Apgar score occurs right after your baby's birth in the delivery or birthing room. The test was designed to quickly evaluate a newborn's physical condition after delivery and to determine any immediate need for extra medical or emergency care.
Although the Apgar score was developed in 1952 by an anesthesiologist named Virginia Apgar, you may have also heard it referred to as an acronym for: Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance, and Respiration.
The Apgar test is usually given to your baby twice: once at 1 minute after birth, and again at 5 minutes after birth. Rarely, if there are concerns about the baby's condition and the first two scores are low, the test may be scored for a third time at 10 minutes after birth.
Five factors are used to evaluate the baby's condition and each factor is scored on a scale of 0 to 2, with 2 being the best score:
activity and muscle tone
pulse (heart rate)
grimace response (medically known as "reflex irritability")
appearance (skin coloration)
respiration (breathing rate and effort)
Doctors, midwives, or nurses add these five factors together to calculate the Apgar score. Scores obtainable are between 10 and 0, with 10 being the highest possible score.

Taken from: http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_center/q_a/apgar.html