Joshua for President??

This is Jessie’s husband posting for her. I thought this was too good not to share!

Lactose Intolerant? Mother’s Day Reflections & Adoption update

Joshua has been gassy and spitting up the past week. However, last night he spit up so much I had to change him and his bassinett 3 times - one of those times was PROJECTILE spit up - it woke me up!

Our social worker mentioned African American babies have a greater tendency to be lactose intolerant. So, I have some lactose free formula. I just fed him 2.5 ounces of it, and he didn’t seem to mind it. I will have to see if this decreases the spit up, gassiness, and overall unhappiness. I have got to remember to talk to the doctor on Friday.

Joshua was with Donald’s Aunt Delaina all day yesterday! They said that he was good and they had fun babysitting him. Aunt Delaina offered to take him the WHOLE next weekend (even overnight on Saturday) so we can pack and get ready for our move on May 21st! What a BIG blessing! Also, Donald’s friend Becky offered to still take Josh on Thursday even though Donald doesn’t have class, so that should help as well. I didn’t get as much done yesterday as I wanted…except, I took a HUGE nap. I packed probably half of the nursery stuff that we aren’t really using (big clothes, the crib stuff, and decorations). I am not sure why we set up the crib since he’d be little enough to use the bassinett until we moved. I guess we set it up so we could feel like it was really happening.

Oh, yea! It’s mother’s day! Donald got me 2 charms for my italian charm bracelet, one says “Joshua”, the other says “Arden”. Mother’s day the past few years has been so hard for me.

Now that I’m a mom, it just feels like a normal day. I have been praying off and on for everyone going through infertility today; it’s a rough day to go through. Looking back, infertility is such a dark and cavernous pain. What makes it worse is that people don’t understand how bad it is, people seem to try and talk you out of how bad you’re feeling. They say things like “Just relax” or “Other people have too many kids that they can’t afford” or “You’re lucky you haven’t had a bunch of miscarriages” or “Well, you just have a lot more money without kids.” I guess people that have cancer or difficult life circumstances go through the same barrage of ignorant comments, it just seems more poignant when you’re in the middle of the infertility roller coaster.

I think the best thing to say is, “I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do?” That will keep you out of trouble in a lot of hurtful life cases.

On the adoption front, our social worker came over on Wednesday. We have 1 more meeting with her on May 23rd in our new house. She said that one other couple that she works with is having their finalization on May 28th as well, a little bi-racial African American girl named Emre. I think that is a cool name! It will be fun to have another couple there. Our social worker mentioned that the other family is in the middle of moving as well; they’re even putting off their move by a couple weeks until the adoption is finalized. Everybody has been paid, the “advertisements” for the biodad are in the paper, the only thing to do is show up on May 28th and get it finalized.

Keep checking Joshua’s Flickr page (there is a link on the upper right hand corner) We will put all the pictures there. It’s in order of most recent to oldest.

Formula or the Nipple?

Man, if you don’t want to read about babies or kid stuff, you may not want to read my blog anymore! That is all that’s on my brain. I dream about Joshua, I see him when I close my eyes, I can even smell him sometimes! This is a trip!

Well, in the world of too much information, Josh had a HUGE poop in his diaper early this morning. Yellow, rotten, cottage cheese type stuff. It was awesome! He also peed all over the wall! (Dad missed that, but he was very proud!) We have a little boy in our house!

We tried the powdered formula again but with a different nipple (a longer and skinnier one) and he’s done alright with the powdered stuff. Donald did get me signed up on Enfamil to get coupons and stuff since he seems to like it the best.

I like this parent stuff. It’s fun! Tiring, but a lot of fun.

Whole new respect

Man, I give kudos to all you moms that BIRTHED your babies first and then had to care for them! I am tuckered out and I didn’t even have to push this little one out! Wow…

…I was up with Joshua all night, Donald slept on this super fantastic cot. The nurse was laughing at how Donald was out and just snoring away. Donald is a pro at swaddling though, so that’s his job for now. Last night I was up at 11pm, 2am, 5am, and Donald got up to do the 8am feeding. Last night Joshua was on my shoulder after I was burping him and he turned his head to look at me, it was so cool! And then last night while I was giving him his bottle, he turned his whole head so he could look at me better! I just love this little guy, I can’t believe it. I am tired but I am so happy at the same time. I think it’s finally sinking in. Can’t wait for these first sets of papers to get signed today!

At the hospital

Dad is holding little Joshua. He is the most adorable baby in the whole world!

Got to meet birthmom’s friend Katy that brought birthmom to the hospital & stayed through delivery. The birthmom didn’t want to meet us or exchange information, but we exchanged information with her. We’re going to email her photos of the baby and us and if sometime in the future the birthmom decides she wants to look at them, she can.

Katy shared with us what has been going on with birthmom. I guess birthmom was crying this morning and was having a hard time, but still wanted to go through with the adoption. When he was born, the doctor held Joshua up, and birthmom told him, “I am not doing this because I don’t love you, I’m doing this because I love you.” Katy shared that the birthmom has no interest in changing her mind, she wants to give us the baby, and is prepared to sign any and all documents. That made us feel a lot better. We told Katy to please tell the birthmom how brave she is, how courageous she is, and how much we appreciate what she’s done for us. We’re going to write the birth mom a letter and give it to Susan (our social worker) and the birthmom can decide if she wants to read it sometime in the future. It was neat how excited Katy was for us, and she was happy we were adopting the baby, it was a great experience.

Birthmom wanted to go home right away today, but she couldn’t relinquish the baby to us until 12 hours after birth. So, our social worker is going to meet with birthmom tomorrow to have her sign the relinquishment paperwork. For now, we are caring for Joshua with a signed Power of Attorney; his birthmom is giving us ability to make all health decisions and keep him in our care until she signs the papers tomorrow. I guess the dad’s parental rights will need to be terminated at court in 2 - 3 months. Donald and I were talking about it and we think we’ll have Joshua baptized at our new church after we move and after the adoption is finalized.

It feels wonderful, it’s nuts that we are this baby’s PARENTS. We aren’t babysitting, we aren’t keeping him for a while, but he is OURS. What a beautiful gift we’ve been given!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

Joshua Arden Salsbury

7 pounds, 19 inches, and more beautiful than we could have imagined! Lots more pictures here!

Good News/Bad News

Talked to our social worker on Thursday. We were not picked by the two birth families (one baby was born on 12.26.07 and one was due 02.04.08) However, our social worker told us that she will let a birthmom in Nebraska know about us. We’ll see!

On the home front, everything is done. We didn’t have our realtor do photos on Friday, but he should take them sometime this week and get it back up on the market. We just have some cleaning to do and a little rearranging but that is it.

Found another attorney to help us with our mom’s estate stuff, so that was a good feeling to finally get some help on that. Hopefully, that will be resolved within the next couple of weeks. Today is just a laid back day, working on laundry and the cross stitch for my nephew. He hasn’t been born yet but should be anytime!

It will be fun being an aunt I think. Hubby was in Target a couple weeks ago and he was trying to convince me to buy our nephew a Star Wars Lego Set that is meant for an 8-10 year old. I advised Hubby that his nephew will not be able to play with a Star Wars lego set right out of the womb. Hubby said “well, I will give a lot of supervision!” Well, I’m sure.

Joshua for President??

Lactose Intolerant? Mother’s Day Reflections & Adoption update

Formula or the Nipple?

Whole new respect

At the hospital

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Good News/Bad News

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