Just like that, her first concert was over.

My job was to keep the baby out of the sun & pack the treats & spirits that would later become dinner.  Our girls waited patiently in line all day so we could slip in (to beautiful seats) just as it began.  Now I realize I swoon over the Indigo Girls in a way that even your sassiest lesbian doesn’t understand but if you could see them through my eyes, you’d surely get me.

They began the show with Love of Our Lives and ended with Galileo.  In the middle they sang old ones like Watershed and Romeo & Juliet.  I cried a few different times – just thinking about my life.  What a miracle that I still breathe.  What a miracle that I’ve been blessed with two amazing Indigo baby Girls that will leave me a lifetime of concert memories.  And there was this lovely moment when an old friend was leaning over me, looking at Glory, but spoke also of Gracie and it felt wonderful to have her thought of.  Aside from the hundreds of dragonfly’s all around us…

ARay was glowing, as were Julie & Emily.  And yes, we’re on a first name basis.  They don’t know it but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.  I watched each guitar switch with anticipation and they never let me down.  How could they?

We danced and sang our hearts out.  Believe it or not (said with sarcasm), I know every word.  It’s like a giant campfire with every wonderful person you’ve ever known.  How could that not be the best day of your life?  Cristy just looked at me (after insisting I couldn’t hold the baby with all my bouncing) and said I had pure joy on my face.  I did.  My heart couldn’t have been more full.  

It was Glory’s debut and she basked all over in it.  (she slept through the entire concert)  It was fun introducing her to the people we only see at this event.  They all know how long we’ve waited for her to be there with us.

Here we are, before the sun went down. 

Btw, did I tell you we’re leaving for San Diego to see them (& jbeeky) again on Sunday?

This is just a quick update on stats.  She had her first pediatrician appt yesterday and passed with flying colors!

Ht 19 3/4 – which means she grew an amazing 2 inches in 12 days.  (not sure if there’s a mistake in there somewhere) 25%

Wt 7lbs on the nose!  She gained 13oz since we left the hospital.  15%

Her eyes & ears are perfect and we’ve been cleared for vacation this very Friday.  I can hardly stand it, I’m so excited!  jbeeky, here we come!

I’ll update later about a more important milestone… her first Indigo Girls concert.  Stay tuned.

In some ways we’re aware of every single “first”.  First time at the park.  First farmers market.  First Mary Tebbs concert.  And in other ways it just feels so normal that we almost forget how new she is.  10 days today.  10.

The baby is still sleeping most of every day.  She’s literally awake for a total of 45 minutes a day.  But then, as the moon rises, she’s alert and ready to chat away.  She wakes up around 1am for about 1 1/2 hours.  And then again around 5 but quickly falls back to sleep.  We’re tired but I think we’re dealing with it well.  To tell you just how tired we are, we woke up early yesterday morning to watch the last hour or so of the Wimbl*don final.  Nadal won.  LAST year.  We watched the end of last year’s match because this years match wasn’t on until TODAY.  We got a good laugh out of it.  It’s funny how we were each rooting for a different player … Anyway, we’re tired.  The chair in the nursery has been amazing and I am now the biggest fan Ever of gliders.  I didn’t have one with Gracie and I imagine it would have worked wonders with her collic.  Who knows… 

So, happy 4th!  We spent last night at a new favorite restaurant with our best girls.  If you’re local, you must try Pago.  It’s in the 9th & 9th district and seriously delicious!  After dinner we skipped the fire works for good conversation and a couple of cocktails.  Perfection.  We bought some excitement (fountains, flowers, etc.) for later tonight and Yeager is dancing in his chair just waiting for the sun to land.  It’ll be G’s first show and hopefully just the first of many, many more.

I go back to work tomorrow – officially.  I feels very soon but it’s not like I have any healing to do. We don’t have maternity benefits where I work but, instead, they’ll let me bring her for a whole year.  That’s an amazing good trade on my part.  I can’t imagine dropping her off to strangers tomorrow morning.  Ugh.

Her first pediatrician appt is Tuesday morning and I’m so looking foward to it. I want our doctor to tell us she’s healthy.  I want to hear how much she weighs and how tall she is.  You always hope you’re doing everything right but I want to be sure.  It’s been a long time since either of us has had an infant.  And then, that night, she’ll witness her first Indigo Girl concert at R*d Butte.  I can hardly wait!  You know I’ll have plenty of photo’s to share!

Here are some photos from the weekend:

This is the baby of our family meeting the new baby of our family.  (& Yeager pulling faces…) 

Gazing at her uncle Matty.

Still napping sideways in her upstairs swing.  Probably not much longer…

Sweet dreams!

Because I’m still taking pictures and because some of you have warned me not to quit feeding all the deliciousness that is this new little baby, I’m gracing you with a few more before your weekend.

We finally found a new chair.  Thanks to KJ for being so bossy about what kind we buy.  We took her every advice.  Dutailer, Padded Arms, Recliner/Glider.  It’s magic and so far, it’s a hit.  We also put up Gracie’s old mobile and she loves it! 

The day after we found out our last wait wasn’t ours, we stopped at Pott*ry Barn for a little retail therapy.  Cristy found this mouse and we had it sitting on our crib, waiting for her.  When I smiled at it every day, I had no idea how it would be loved.  I’m pretty sure they’ll be best friends.  (although she looks a bit frightened in this photo)

It’ll be fun to watch her grow bigger than her new best friend.

Every day has been something new.  Today was my first full day back to work with her.  Because she sleeps all day, I figured I’d be better saving my time off for days that she’s awake.  She did great.  …if sleeping is great.  My work family adores her and it’s actually very sweet watching them fall in love.  Sleeping has been interesting.  She typically wakes up twice a night – one of us changes her and the other makes a bottle.  It’s exactly the teamwork I knew we’d have. 

I feel lucky.  Blessed.  Charmed.  Many times a day we just look at each other in awe…are we really here?  Did we really do it? 

Blissful.

Today is our first day home – alone. Cristy had to go back to work to save some vacay time for … vacation. G woke up for an hour early this morning then slept for almost 3 hours. I had plenty of time to get some things done that are typically always done around here. ie. dishes, laundry, vacuming, etc. As the days pass, I assume she’ll more & more awake and I’ll get less & less done. That’s just fine with me.

Right now she’s waking 2-3 times a night to eat. Last night we woke up around 4am and decided to turn on the tv. We ended up watching an hour of 9-5 with Dolly Parton while G slept on Cristy’s legs. It was funny to be laughing outloud in the middle of the night. I hope to never forget it.

We’re slowly introducing her to the world and, so far, she’s been a big hit. Yegs adores her. He has also loved all the wondeful things you’ve been saying about his video. He’s been asking me to check my stats so he knows who’s watching and what they’re saying. I think he thinks he’s famous. One funny thing… he forgot her name the other say and said, “hey, where’s…. um… Generous?” Glory/Generous … it’s all the same to him.

Her oldest cousin has loved every minute of her too. C overhead him talking about Gray the other day so I’m sure it’s bringing up some mixed emotions – for a lot of us – but it’s definitely a bright light after such a sad time in my family.

We’re supposed to go to San Diego next weekend but we’re waiting for the “go ahead” from her pediatrician on Tues. We’re looking forward to spending some good quality time with our best girls (& new Aunties) and also can’t wait to see jbeeky and her family. As long as she’s still healthy and doesn’t have any ear troubles, I think we’ll go.

Here are some newer photos of her. I’m not sure she’s growing yet but her facial expressions are changing and she’s locking eyes a lot more. She’s watching her mobile and responding to certain voices (& coughs) and I love that’s she’s recognizing us.

First bath at home…

Wearing her big sisters favorite tie-die preemie outfit…

Her favorite aunties…

Yegs showing her the ropes at her first park trip…

& lounging after a long day…

ooooh, I’m in heaven!

We decided not to tell Yegs that there was a possibility his sister would be home this weekend. After last Christmas, we realized it was too hard for him to experience the loss.

Last Sunday I heard him ask Cristy when she would be home. Cristy told him she was pretty sure she’d be here by the end of July. I cringed, knowing that may not happen.

But then she was here and we wanted to make it special. As you watch this video you’ll hear Cristy say (as I hid behind Glory’s closet door) “will you grab me a blanket out of the baby’s crib?” & that’s when he walks in and see’s her. Priceless. You’ll hear him say that as he drove up to the house he said, “nothing could make this day better unless the baby was here already” – or something like that. What you won’t see is the emotion over come him once the camera was off. He started crying and couldn’t wait to start making phone calls.

We took him to get his hair cut today. In Yeager fashion he said, “when we get another baby let’s get a black mixed with white so we can have a mexican.” Whatever color, he’s already ready for another one.

I’m not exactly sure where to start.  I suppose I’ll remind you that just over two weeks ago, we found out our birth mom changed her mind.  And as you remember, I was heart broken.  We both were.  But I guess Cristy got a call the following Monday (3 days later) saying we were matched again.  For those of you that know her the next part will not shock you at all.

Cristy held the news from me for over a week.  She wanted to wait as long as possible in case she changed her mind.  If she did, I would never know.  Her goal was to protect me for as long as possible.  By the following Monday night, she knew she had to tell me because our agency needed to make plans.  Small things like contracts and airfare.  You know, so we could pick up our baby that was to be BORN on Thursday afternoon!  That’s right, I found out just over two days before she would be born by scheduled c-section.

I was nervous like crazy.  I even wondered if I needed more time before diving in again.  But I could tell she felt good about it and that ended up feeling safe enough for me.  I told my co-workers (who would need to know because I had hoped not to be back to work for a while) and a friend.  That’s it.  My mom didn’t know.  My blog.  My brother – no one else.  If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t have to explain it to hardly anyone.

We didn’t know a whole lot.  This would be a closed adoption and, at that point, the birthmom didn’t want to meet us or see the baby.  She’s from the South and has two other children.  She’s 5′9″ with an athletic build.  She’s healthy and she’s having a girl – that’s all we knew. 

We arrived at the hospital Thursday around noon.  We were stuffing our faces as quickly as possible when a nurse peeked around the corner and said, “your baby is here” with the very sweetest look on her face.  We ran to the nursery just as the nurses brought her from the delivery room.  All gooky & looking like a blueberry with a full head of hair.  Perfect.  6 lbs 3oz and 17 3/4″.  Perfectly healthy.

Perfect.

Perfect.

We were able to be with her from that moment until we came home.  We had a lovely hospital room and amazing nurses.  Her birthmom had 48 hours to sign but had already decided not to see her, not to see us, not to get a wristband for access to the nursery and to get off the meds early enough to sign off at 24 hours.  You can imagine how we counted down every last minute.  Everyone kept saying how lucky we were that she signed a day early but we felt every single second.  At 3pm on Friday, they sent Cristy a text that said she was ours. 

We could hardly wait to get home and are so SO happy we decided to get the nursery together.  I can’t imagine how hard it would be otherwise.  There’s already so much we need to do and a zillion things we don’t have.  But we’re loving every minute of having her home.

Thanks for following our journey.  She is a dream come true.

And stay tuned for a post dedicated to Yeagers introduction.  I got it on film but need to figure out how to load it…

…and came home with a treasure!

Happy Birthday, baby girl!  (details to come… a couple of girls need a nap!)

xo.

So my cousin had that map on her blog and I thought it was so cool!  I wanted to add it to my sidebar but obviously didn’t figure out how to do it.  It still updates how many people mark it a day and I’ve had fun seeing where you’re all from.  I wish I could visit each one of you! 

This week has been insanely busy.  I worked about 13+ hours on Monday & Tuesday and I feel like I could collapse on my couch right now & not wake up until tomorrow morning.  We’ve been going through this crazy transition to find a new ED and because our last one was so amazing, it’s not as easy as we thought it would be.  But with every lunch, meeting and dinner, we’re getting closer and that means I’ll finally have a good night’s sleep! 

We also got our bedding for the nursery last weekend.  It came while Cristy was at the store so I quickly unwrapped it and set it all up while she was out.  It was so fun walking in there later and seeing her face.  It’s beautiful.  I will absolutely post a picture as soon as there’s a baby in there with it.  We’ve also been chair shopping.  I really had no idea how hard that would be.  We’ve got some really good advice.  Padded arms.  Glide.  Rock.  Recline.  We’ve found a couple but aren’t really sure we’re ready to spend $1800 on a nursery chair.  I think I’m doing something wrong.  Plus, I’m picky about fabric and ordering out can take up to 12 weeks.  I really don’t feel like we have that long to wait.  Anyway, we’re working on that too and I’m loving every minute of it. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us.  We have big hopes over the next month.

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