A Family of Three

July 23, 2010, my heart was in my throat as we said goodbye to Isaac's birth family and drove away from the hospital as a family of three. Today, he's sitting in his high chair, gobbling up fajita meat, pointing at Cody and saying "Gog." How in the world did we get from there to here so quickly?!

Because Isaac joined our family in such a whirlwind-ish manner, I never sat down and recorded all the details that made his birth and hospital stay so unforgettable. This post gives the nuts and bolts, but doesn't even begin to describe what it was really like.

Now seems the perfect time.

(Disclaimer: this walk down memory lane is very, very long. It was fun for me to write, but probably not as fun for you to read, so if you don't make it all the way through, I completely understand.)

I remember:

* pulling into the hospital parking lot and seeing Lexie's parents walking outside. They were holding hands and everything about them said, "Whatever this day brings, we will get through it together."

* rounding the corner into Lexie's room and seeing her standing there in her dressing gown, looking much, much more pregnant than she had just a few days before.

* Jonathan making lots and lots of trips to the coffee machine.

* Lexie's blue lips and violent shivers from the epidural. I felt helpless and awkward and so sorry that she was uncomfortable.

* every inch of the waiting room.

* ordering pizza to share with Lexie's parents and grandparents. Labor had slowed and we weren't sure when the little guy was going to come out. Turns out we ate as Lexie was having her emergency c-section.

* losing my appetite and getting a sick feeling in my stomach as I watched the clock. The doctor had said the c-section would take 20 minutes. Why had it already been 40?

* walking to the nurse's station to ask for an update. They stopped talking when I approached. They told me that the baby was "out," but they seemed reserved and told me no more.

* the sinking feeling when the nurse came in and said there were complications and the baby was in the NICU. When I asked if he was all right, she hesitated and said, "I will let the doctor explain."

* pacing the hallway in the NICU as the nurses tried for 45 minutes to find a vein they could use to replenish his fluids. The huge wave of relief when their "one last try" actually worked.

* seeing another family with blankets and pillows camped out in the NICU waiting room. It looked like they were old pros. My heart broke for them.

* the nurse asking me what formula we were planning to give him. Uhhhh. Hadn't thought about that. She recommended Enfamil or Similac. I said, if it's all the same, how about Enfamil since we have coupons for it at home.

* a nurse stopping by to admire Isaac and asking me his name. There is something special about the first time you tell your child's name to someone. It's real now. He's here and he has this name that we gave him.

* holding my son (my son!) until midnight and making the very difficult decision to go home and get some sleep while he was being extremely well cared for by the NICU nurses.

* stopping at Cub foods on the way to the hospital (what else is open at 5:30 in the morning?) and wondering, what do you get for the woman who has just spent an entire day in unspeakable pain, birthing your child?

* Lexie, in her wheelchair, holding Isaac for the first time. I knew right then that I not only loved him, but her too.

* waiting and waiting and waiting for Isaac to pee for the first time. He waited until the very end of the "normal range" they gave us.

* thinking that the hospital should use better fabric softener for their baby blankets.

* having to request a pacifier. (I thought they just gave you those greenish newborn ones...) The nurse brought out a Nuk brand pacifier, still in it's plastic and cardboard packaging from the store. We've been single-handedly supporting that company ever since.

* wondering whether we should refer to the baby as "Isaac" (the name we chose for him) or "Jacob" (the name Lexie gave him). We couldn't decide, so Isaac was "him," "the baby," "the little guy," etc. for three days. =)

* one time in particular when Lexie and I were alone in the hospital room for awhile. That was a special hour for me; I felt like I was really beginning to get to know her.

* driving alone to the hospital one morning (Jonathan went back to work so he could save his time off for when we were home) and pulling over on a dirt road between two corn fields because I felt like I was going to throw up. Even though I felt like I was coping well with the stress and excitement, my body gave me away.

* trying to go out to eat somewhere during Isaac's last night in the hospital. We wanted to give Lexie some time alone with him before he spent the night with us. However, it was late, and the only places open were bars that didn't serve food! We ended up sitting in a dark parking lot eating McDonald's and killing time.

* sitting down in the room the hospital let us use on Isaac's last night, looking at him all swaddled up and asleep in his bassinet, and wondering.... now what? We mostly just stared at him.

* "waking up" (only I don't think I was ever asleep) every 10 minutes or so to make sure the swaddle hadn't come loose and suffocated him.

* Jonathan and I waking up the next morning with the same heavy feeling in the pit of our stomach. Time for Isaac to go home. Our happiest day was going to be one of Lexie's saddest.

* going to Target because we forgot to bring clothes to take the baby home in!! It suddenly occurred to me that he can't go in the car seat swaddled and I don't think he should just wear the diaper and cotton shirts he's lived in for the past three days... I felt like such an idiot.

* tears, tears, and more tears as Lexie said good-bye and left the hospital. It was as heartbreaking as we had imagined. How could we take Isaac away from the one person who had loved and taken care of him for over 9 months?

* how Isaac's eyes grew ten sizes larger as we brought him into the great outdoors for the first time and loaded him into the car. He had this look on his face like "What. The. Hell."

* saying to Jonathan as we drove home, "So. There's a baby in our car..."