A new morning....

Things are a lot different for us now! We spent our first night with Mercer. Amy, the social worker brought him to us at the hotel last night. She spent a couple of hours with us going through what has happened so far in his first couple of days, showing us what formula he uses & how to prepare it, how to change his diaper / clean his umbilical cord / take care of his little you-know-what b/c he was circumsized (sp?) yesterday.... and doing the paperwork requrired for us to take temporary possession of him during this period of time until things are finalized. What a job she has -- working all hours of the day / night. We were so grateful that she came to us so late (9ish CO time). I think by 11:30 -- Todd & I were "officially" on our own.



She said he was such a good baby... and he was. She was such a pro when he needed something, she could attend to him & keep him happy. I don't know that Todd & I are doing as good a job so far... but it's 5:15 here and he seems to be doing ok. He's not sleeping as solidly as we thought he would -- he wants to be comforted a lot throughout the night (and - heck - would you blame him?!) We laid him down once we were all settled in and we thought he would crash for a couple of hours, but he woke pretty quickly afterwards. We got up and fed him (he's on a 3hr schedule per Amy) and Todd took a turn sleeping while I held and comforted Mercer. After I got pretty sleepy, I laid him back down to see he would snooze a little, but he was a little fussy / Todd got up with him. All I know is a couple of hours later, I woke up and Todd has fed him, changed him, and re-swaddled him! I was so impressed... he's a pro at this already!



Here's one pic taken last night. We'll update with more today. We'll try to get an up-close shot w/ all of us. We are going to meet Danielle, the birth mother at some point today. (We thought the birth mother's name was Jenny, but that was someone at the agency....boy - Sunday afternoon and Monday getting here was so frantic and crazy, we mis-understood the name / we wanted to clear it up w/ those we had told her name to.)



We talked to so many people over the past day & a half and we are so thankful for all the love...so much love... that we've received from everyone. It is such a great feeling getting all of this encouragement and support. We have been bowled over. Seriously.



I have started something new: cry a little bit off and on b/c I'm happy. Not bawling, but tears welling up (and sometimes a little more) when I think about this gift.... when I read an email or listen to a voice mail.... when talking with some of you on the phone.... when looking down at Mercer's tiny little peaceful little face. I had never done that before until we got that call from Amy Sunday morning. thank you.



Candice



ps...Mercer is asleep in my left arm now as I'm typing. I'll need to check with Todd later to see if that's how he made it through those couple of hours while I was asleep. I'm afraid I'm going to spoil him right from the start, but oh how I hate to see his little face scrunch up and hear this little tiny but piercing high-pitch wimper! I'm already whipped, aren't I?