2 months (almost a week late)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, my Friends!!!  We have so much to be Thankful for this year!!!  Also, total props to you Moms that have been keeping up with your blogging…I don’t know how you do it!  Of course, it doesn’t help that instead of life pausing a bit as I get to used to motherhood, my life has been just as busy if not busier than normal.  We are trying our damnedest to get Family Promise open ASAP.  We were hoping by the end of January, but now we’re having to put off hiring our director until after a meeting with the board who owns our day center and that’s not happening until Dec. 5th.  It’s been an intense amount of work lately with no end in sight at the moment.  Onto Sweet Little A’s update:

How old:  9w3d

Height and weight:  As of Nov. 18th, she was 9.6lbs and 21 1/4 inches which put her in the 9th percentile for both.  Percentile for height stayed the same but weight went up 6 points so that was good.  She’s officially off the preemie formula (YAY!!!!)!  She also got her immunizations at this appt and it was awful!   She cried so hard and real BIG tears for the first time ever.  Luckily, the only reaction she seemed to have from them was sleeping a lot.

Nicknames:  Oh so many, peanut, pumpkin, pumpk, puddin’, puddin’ pop, monkey pie, tootsi pop, Annie

Sleep:  A is a pretty great sleeper still.  She usually gets up some time in-between 2-4 and then again in-between 6-8.  I really can’t complain.   Sometimes she’s really restless in her rock and play so then we pull her in bed with us to snuggle until she falls asleep.  Her owlet monitor has been a huge peace of mind for us.  We love it and I don’t even want to know the basket case I would be without it!   She has started to be alert for much longer periods of time these last few weeks.  The time is just flying by!

Eating:  You would never know our peanut was in the NICU for feeding issues!  She eats like a champ now.  She drinks 3 oz every 3-4 hours most of the time.  For awhile in the evening, she was cluster feeding.  Now we give her rice cereal usual between 9-10pm and then another 2-3 oz. of formula before she goes to bed.  She was waking up in the night, having a bottle and then fussing for another hour before we’d try more formula.  The rice cereal stops that from happening and since my Mom had me on rice cereal at 3 days old, I really don’t worry about it.  She loves it and eats from a spoon better than the 8 mo old I have in daycare!  She is still spitting up but since it doesn’t seem to cause her any pain and she’s still gaining weight, the Dr. isn’t worried about it.

Milestones:  The night before she turned 8 weeks, A rolled front to back and does it consistently anytime we put her on her tummy.  Her neck is getting very strong and she frequently bops it up which makes burping a bit more difficult.  Her eyes/head follow who is speaking and she’s starting to smile more and more.  She’s a pretty serious girl but those smiles are getting much more frequent (unless you pull the camera/phone out and then it rarely comes out….stinker!).  She is also starting to follow our food to our mouth already!  I told her she better hope she gets her teeth early since she’s so interested in our food already.  Crazy girl!

Loves:  Cuddling…so much cuddling, her bottles and rice cereal, her nuk, gripping our fingers and Mama’s hair already.

Dislikes:  Getting dressed and undressed, getting poopy diapers changed, getting in her carseat.  She’s fine once she’s in and we’re moving but despises getting those straps tightened.

How’s Mommy doing:  Honestly, I’m doing great!  I wish I had more time to just snuggle and cuddle with her and I really wish I could be a SAHM without a bunch of extra children, but it’s just not possible right now.  I love being with her and wish I didn’t have to put her down to do things like clean the house and such, lol.  I’m very thankful that everything i do is very family oriented!  Nobody in Young Living, Family Promise or my professional women’s group I attend minds one bit if I bring A with.  In fact, if I don’t, I tend to get some dirty looks, lol.  The other night my Sister and I walked in our hometown parade for Family Promise and I had at least half a dozen if not a dozen people yell out asking about her and where she was, lol.  My favorite thing to hear from people is that they had been praying for us and they’re so thankful we finally have our baby.  It’s an amazing thing to realize how many people paid attention to your story when you didn’t even know they were!

How’s Daddy doing:  J is wrapped around Annabelle’s teeny tiny little finger!  He interacts and chats with her often and every time she gets upset, he pretends it’s about the Packers awful season they’re having and it’s quite cute and funny.  He heads back to work tomorrow and I don’t think any of us are ready for him to go.  Many week nights, he got up with her every time so I could get sleep to work.  It’s rare for me to be the only one to get up.  We’ll have to figure out a new schedule now.  He’ll probably get up with her during the more middle of the night feeding and I will do the closer to morning feeding and then probably just stay  up, maybe even work out, lol.  He has had a few panic/meltdowns about our financial situation and the loan we had to take out to pay fees and I totally get it.  It’s scary to add yet another monthly payment.  And we have another 2000-4000 left to pay in attorney fees before we finalize.  However, just since she’s been born, people have sent us about $2200 to go towards her adoption fees and the day after his big meltdown, a couple in our small group who has also adopted sent us $500 and 2 days later, another couple in our small group sent us $500.  I told him God would provide and God quickly proved me right.  The support from others is amazing!  We have a long way to go to get that loan paid off, but I’m working on selling as much unnecessary stuff as I can.  Unfortunately, November is not an ideal time to sell a camper or motorcycle in WI.

Alright, I think that is most of our updates or at least the most my brain will hold at the moment.  I’m sure as soon as I hit publish I’ll think of something else.  Oh, like the fact that I’m officially too old to stay up all night long.  My Sister and I always do Black Friday shopping, it’s our bonding time and we actually did it without sleeping this year…I’m still trying to make up for that sleep and unfortunately, have to head back to work tomorrow, lol.  Alright ladies, I am sending you all love and good thoughts and wishing you a very Merry and Happy Holiday Season!!!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Ahhh, I almost forgot pictures!!!!  Here you go:

My nephew’s going away dinner before heading to basic

Heading out to Thanksgiving Eve service where we gave our testimony about our journey to A.

A’s first hibachi experience!

My Sis and I!

Thanksgiving Day because my niece took some family pics of us that we will hopefully be able to use for Christmas cards!

The Insanity That Is My Life!

First off, it’s:

Thank you to all those who have adopted, are in the process of adopting or have somehow supported adoption in any way!  
Guys, I’m sorry I’ve been MIA lately!  The week of the court date was pure craziness.  

Monday, work and then a YL leadership meeting where A had a blow out and then As I was trying to change her peed all over her changing mat sobthen I had to pick her up to wipe it all from and she peed on me!!!  Totally should have had Grandma come into the bathroom with us because that was a 2 person job, lol.  Also, on the way to the meeting (about 30 min or so away), I decided I would put on praise and worship and just pray about the court date the following day.  Well, the first song on was “Good, Good Father”, a song that we used to sing with L all the time and one of our favorites.  I started crying, then it was “I Stand”, another favorite and the crying turned to bawling and so it contained all the way to my meeting.  By the time I got there I was a mess and everyone thought something had happened with the court date.  Nope, I was just a nervous wreck.  By this point, we had heard that BD was awake and BM was planning to bring him with her to the hearing.

Tuesday morning, I was a bundle of butterflies.  My SIL came over to watch the daycare kids because we had a post placement visit with our SW at 10 and the other SW was at the court house for the hearing at 10:30.  Our visit where we shelled out a big ol’ payment was over by 10:30 and our SW said she would call us as soon as she heard anything.  At this point, we still weren’t sure if the judge would accept BD’s testimony because of being in a coma the week before but at 11am, we got the call that it was done and both parents had signed!!!!  If we’re fb friends, you can watch the video of us getting the call because my SIL caught it on video.  If we’re not and you want to be, just email me, pdot95@gmail.com.  The rest of the day was a blur of calling and texting people to let them know and doing a FB live for our announcement.  The response was amazing and we feel so blessed and loved by the village we have surrounding us and Annabelle!!!!  Tuesday  was, of course, also Election Day and the day just did not end as we’d hoped.  Starting that night, I’d wake up from about 2-4am with my mind just going a million miles a minute thinking until fb statuses that I knew I wouldn’t post because of my hate of confrontation and also owning 2 businesses.  I finally started using peace and calming oil in my diffuser a few nights ago and have been sleeping much better.

Wednesday I think I just had work.  Thursday, I had work and then a vendor event at a chiropractor office for YL.  I have Friday’s off but on top of everything else, I had spent the week preparing for “Taste of Homelessness” event for Family Promise where people came for a chili cook off, games, and movie and then slept in their cars to experience homelessness.  We didn’t stay overnight this time because of A but we’re there all evening.  Unfortunately, we didn’t raise the money or have the turn out we should have for all the advertising we did.  It was still fun though and lots of people got to meet A!

Saturday, we had a birthday party for my neighbor and dear friend’s 4 yr old and then A and Inwent to church for the evening to set up and run the Orphan and at risk children table for Orphan Sunday.  It was a long day and I was pooped by the end of it.

Sunday we got up and headed to my hometown for church and my baby shower that was also being held at the church ( you can’t beat a free room!).  My niece was my photographer for the day so once I get her SD card from her, I will post pics.  Here is her room as I’m trying to get things organized though:

And because I have left you moth many A pictures lately, here are a couple (okay, more like several) to last you until her 2 month update:

MPB….

You might want to start sending me job posts for health/phy ed teachers.  Preferably in the middle to high school age range!!!! 😏

BEST DAY EVER!!!!!

TPR has officially occurred!!!!  Birth parents cannot change their minds now.  Finalization will occur in about 5 months and that’s when her birth certificate will change to the name we gave her and to our names as the parents.  I will write more later but seriously, I just have all the feelings right now!!!!

Now…get out and vote those of you in the US and please don’t make me figure out what country I’m going to move to when finalization happens!!!! 😉

Update

Okay, I debated on whether I was going to say anything or not before we have more information, but we can use all the prayers and positive thoughts that we can get.

We got word shortly after my last post that Birth Dad is in the ICU in a coma.  We have no idea what happened but the social worker did confirm it with his mom and she told her that it’s not looking good.

Now, I would never, ever wish for someone to die and especially not A’s Birth Dad because we want her to be able to have a relationship with him someday.  However, if this is God’s will, I do pray that it happens before Tuesday because then his signing is obviously a mute point.  If he’s still in the coma, we have no idea what is going to happen come Tuesday so please keep our little family and A’s birth parents in your prayers!

Thank you Friends!!!

Killin’ Me

Guys…It’s killin’ me not being able to post first pics on Facebook right now!!!  1 week (fingers crossed) until we can finally announce!!!