Sickness and BOYS!

So much for being a great blogger, huh?!

First of all, not long after the last post began the days of torturous migraines. Migraines have been a fairly new development for me in the last few years. I never had them before and then one day about 2 or 3 years ago I began getting these ridiculous headaches. They rose to a debilitating point last year and several have sent me to the hospital.

Being pregnant means there are limits to what I can take to manage the pain and side-effects. So all day on Thursday I just sat in our recliner, moving as little as possible. Trying to drink water. I took 3 steaming hot showers (steam helps), 2 baths, and finally some Excedrin Migraine. That evening we went out to dinner, and it did a world of good to get out of the house. I dealt with come-and-go headaches throughout the weekend but I was actually pretty proud of myself for managing through the pain without a lot of medication. Not that I am going to keep that up after baby is born or anything.

Sunday began the week-o-doctor trips. After a fairly typical Sunday morning, we picked Colt up from Bible class and he was suddenly very, very lethargic and snuggly. This is a boy who, no matter how tired he is, always has his head up checking people out and wants to be in-the-know. He's at a point now where he really doesn't nap anywhere except his bed (no more car, very rarely in Grandma or Mimi's arms at church, not even in bed with me). He's just busy and aware all the time. So my mama instinct began to tingle a little...something wasn't right.

My mom rocked him during church service because John and I were puppets in Children's Church. By the time she brought him to us an hour later, you could quite literally fry an egg off his body he was SO hot. It was astonishing how hot he was. Mama Instinct was now in overdrive and I hollered at John that we had to go right then. We raced to urgent care where his pediatrician is...only to find a major back up in a waiting room full of sick people (shocking, right?). The masks, the coughing, the piles of snotty kleenex, the feverish children...it was too much and Colt was beginning to be unresponsive, not able to keep his eyes open.

We went to another urgent care where our good friend, Kyle was working as a PA. We got right in and, as always, he took great care of us. Colt had a temp of 103! A little Motrin and Colt was feeling much better. He tested negative for all the flu (thank goodness) and negative for RSV. He got a breathing treatment and we went home. He's now been home all week, because the high fever lasted until Wednesday morning, then he broke out into a crazy rash. We saw his pediatrician on Wednesday who said it was a classic case of roseola. He's fine now, not even contagious, though still very polka-dotty! He also FINALLY has a tooth, and an ear infection so it's been a rough and painful week for the little man.

Tuesday was our BIG ultrasound! We were actually both pretty anxious about it, we both were up until about 1 a.m. the night before unable to sleep. We were excited, and part of me was very nervous because I knew it was about more than just the sex of the baby. They were checking to see if everything was working right, that the development was ok, and all major organs were there, and that there were no signs of birth defects at this point.

Once again, we had a friend in the medical field who took great care of us. Laura was our ultrasound tech and she found the baby right away and as soon as I could see the heart fluttering I started to relax. First sign that everything was ok. She said she usually looks at everything else and goes over the sex of the baby last. But, well, after about 5 seconds it was undeniable. Our little BOY was flashing his manhood all over the screen, proud as can be, and it was obvious he wanted us to know right away!

He was VERY active, moving all over the place, flipping and turning and kicking. The placenta is low-lying and forming a layer between my stomach and the baby so it will be a while before I can feel all that movement. He likes his hands up by his head, and likes to sit spread eagle as often as possible. We saw each and every beautiful, normal organ, a normal spine and head, all limbs accounted for.

We came home and told Colt he was going to have a baby brother, but he was much more interested in the cat. He's been practicing pulling up on the coffee table and pretty much that's what he wants to do all day, every day so baby news doesn't interest him much. He also is into clapping now and it is THE. CUTEST. THING. EVER.

So, Colt's going to have a baby brother. We're going to have two sons. We could not be more excited, it could not feel more perfect. Two little boys to fill our house with dirt and frogs and football helmets and sweaty clothes and cars and waterguns...what an adventure!

Housekeeping

Couple of housekeeping things...

First of all, I'm starting to feel a little more inspired to be a better blogger! Between being really busy at work, so tired in the evenings and wanting nothing more than to play with Colt I've really slacked off. I'm still obsessed with reading blogs, but I'm finally starting to feel like I can come to life back here again. Hopefully you guys have stuck around. I'm working on some plans for hopefully a new design, some new ideas for posts, etc.

Second, I wanted to just throw out there a few things about comments. I am a terrible commenter but this is not all my fault. A lot of times I read blogs on my phone or while I'm on a break at work. My work computer currently operates on a really old version of Internet Explorer. For some reason, this version does not allow me to comment in the new commenting style of blogger. So unless there is a separate window that comes up (old school, like it's been for ages) I can't comment while I'm at work. So then, I get home and busy and lost momentum to go back and comment. I also read most on my phone while falling asleep or when I first wake up...hard to comment on a phone.

Don't let that confuse you into thinking I'm not reading or thinking about you all! I read every one of the blogs on my links lists and more. Anytime a new blogger comments on my site, I immediately go to your site, get caught up, and add you! So hopefully in the near future I will be a better commenter, but right now it is truly out of my control.

Finally, if you comment on here and have a private blog, please know that I would love to follow you. There's a couple of you recently (fortheloveof_grace, I'm looking at you!) but I don't know how to send you a request. I'm not AS good about following private blogs every day (because they don't show up on my feed reader, and then I forget for a few days, blah blah) but I DO love to read along! So, once you comment, please just assume I'd like an invitation to your blog. My e-mail is on the sidebar so you can send it to me.

If you're reading and have never commented and I don't know about you, please come out of hiding so I can get to know you. Honestly, I LOVE reading new blogs! Especially as many of my favorites have become a lot like me and not writing as much. You can send me an e-mail if you don't want to comment...I won't think you're weird or anything I promise. I mean, I've gone out of my way to meet people from blogland in real life, I'm also pretty open with Facebook if you prefer to get to know me that way. Just friend me!

Ok...housekeeping out of the way. Also, sarah7181 sometime would you please send me an e-mail and tell me about yourself? I love that you leave comments but you don't have a blog (at least not on blogger). So let me know if there is somewhere I can follow you.

The End. Love you all!

Making it Official

Our wonderful judge, our incredible lawyer Rachel Stoddard Morris, and our official forever family on September 1st, 2009. A dream come true!

A few Gotcha Day Party Photos!

Gotcha Day! (pictures coming soon)

So I'll start off by saying pictures are coming! I left my camera with the few court pictures we have at home. Also, I did a very smart thing (in my humble opinion) and had a friend who is a fabulous photographer take pictures at Colt's party. I knew I wouldn't have time to take pictures and there would be something I would forget. So she came and snapped away all night. She said around 300 pictures were taken, she's editing and getting them ready and I'm so excited! All I had to worry about was talking to people and feeding Colt cake, and it was awesome to know I wasn't missing anything.

So....on to the day!

Court went very well. We were the last on the docket, because adoptions are private and confidential so we had to be the only ones in there. It's handled in family court, and our judge was just awesome. He smiled through the whole thing and seemed genuinely excited to be part of the process.

I only teared up a couple of times. First of all, there were a couple of tough guardianship cases ahead of us and it just made me think about kids in general and parents and how hard it is to to be a parent and to be a kid. Add in a lot of stressors they have that I don't have to think about, and I just felt for the kids involved and the guardians who were fighting for them.

I was weepy anyway, then as the judge asked us if we understood that from this day forward it would be like this child was born to us, that legally there would be no distinction, and did we understand? Did we vow to raise him as our own? Did we understand what that means?

It's just powerful and heavy and even though we've been operating under all that since the beginning, it was incredibly emotional to me to make this "final vow" of sorts.

It was also so awesome to have almost our entire family in court with us. The judge asked if they were ALL there for Colt's case and as they nodded and he said "wow". My mom and stepdad, my dad, my sister, John's mom and dad, and John's sister and brother-in-law all came and took up an entire row. I can't ever express to them how much it meant to have them there for such a simple ceremony, for taking time out of their day to be a part of it. It just meant more than any of them could ever know.

We missed my grandparents, both sets who couldn't make it, my aunt, and John's other sister who had to work. But we felt them in spirit.

Colt was SO good. He was sleepy toward the end, but you could never accuse him of being disruptive. He hardly made a sound and was just so good through an hour of boring legal procedures.

We asked the judge if we could take pictures with him, and he said yes but only on one condition: we had to send him a copy. He said he'd been handling adoptions for 14 years, and he has a book full of pictures of the families he's helped create. He said when he has down days (and in family court, there are lots of down days), he flips through THAT book to lift him up. I thought that was a wonderful sentiment.

It was just the perfect ceremony, and it was far more emotional than I imagined it would be.
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We all headed to Bricktown after court to have lunch together, then John and I took Colt to visit his work for a few moments. Colt was SPENT at this point so we went home for some naps and my dad and sister came over to play with him for a few hours.

Then it was party time!

In Oklahoma, you generally don't plan outdoor events unless you want to be disappointed. So when I planned a casual cookout at a park, I worried and worried about the weather every day until the time came. But it could not have been more perfect. Other than a slight breeze, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was around 75 degrees. It was perfect.

We had tons of family and friends come out and eat hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, chips, and a GIANT Gotcha Day cake. The only sad part was that there were so many people, I didn't get to spend a lot of time talking to everyone! But the pavilion was full of people who had supported and encouraged us and loved us every step of the way up until this day. That was what it was about, a chance for us to thank those who has held us up since long before we knew about Colt. To thank those who celebrated our perfect boy and who love him and love us.

We were overwhelmed at the support and everyone who came out. There were about 75 people, lots of kiddos who were patiently waiting for cake, and plenty of conversation.

My favorite part of the night was when my friend, Ashley, was helping serve cake, and had a plate near me and Colt. She was asking me something and before we knew it Colt had his hand in the icing and it was all over his face. Note to self: Colt loves icing. He's SO quick these days...nothing can be on his end of a table (hhhmmm, like sour cream or soda) before he's knocked it over or covered in it. We have some great cake pictures.

Anyway...it was an absolute perfect party, for a perfect boy, on a perfect day. I went to bed exhausted, sad it was over, but with a feeling of pure joy. We are so loved.
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I wish everyone could have a Gotcha Day! It's different than a birthday. It's a different celebration, a different feeling in the air. I also wish that everyone had the opportunity to stand before a judge and commit to raising their child with their full heart and resources. I mean, if we ALL did it...things might be different for kids out there, you know? We have to stand in front of someone and make a commitment to our spouse to get married...why shouldn't we have to stand in front of someone and make a commitment to our children to raise them?

I truly saw it as an opportunity and as an honor versus something we HAD to do and a burden placed only on adoptive families. It felt special.

It was a very special day.