Wiggle and Giggle

There are two things I forgot to blog about in the last post:

1 - We had our 2nd post-placement visit with the social worker Monday. It was a new social worker, as we found out that our previous one no longer works there (and she was the owner of the company!!) We really liked the first social worker.... she was a cool lady. The new one is nice, though, and will get the job done just as well (we hope). We have one more visit next month and then go to court the following month to finalize the adoption.

2 - The birthmother has begun contact again... she responded last week to an email I sent a month ago. She said her phone was turned off. She texted me yesterday several times giving me her new number and asking about Mercer. She said, too, that she got me a mother's day card but hasn't sent it yet. WOW. I didn't expect that from her! I had a "we're thinking of you" card to send her around that time, but didn't send it either.

There have been so many wonderful moments shared with little Mercer this week:
*He has been checking out his hands. He'll hold his arms up and stare at his fingers. Sometimes, he'll move his fingers around and watch them wiggle. He's fascinated for a few minutes then promptly sticks his whole fist in his mouth.

*Tuesday, Mercer giggled. !*HE GIGGLED*! It was so cute. I wish I could remember what I was doing to make him laugh out loud... but I can't.It melts your heart, though, and we can't wait to hear more and more of it!

*He continues to smile, coo, and gurgle. He's a happy happy little guy.

Wednesday, Mercer & I went to lunch on the square with a couple of neighbors. The little 6 month old boy who lives on the next street was being held up on the table (standing up). I stood Mercer next to him & he looks slightly taller. The baby, Jackson, was premature and neither of his parents are tall -- he checks in somewhere around 5% on the growth charts compared to babies his age. Mercer checked in at 75% on both height and weight at his last doctor's visit - so he is a little bit on the big side. Wednesday, I came to the realization that we'd no longer be getting baby Jackson's hand-me-downs anymore. Oh well. We "had" such a well-dressed baby for a short while! : - )

One of the things discussed at lunch was "am I stimulating / working on Mercer's development enough?" So, he and I did a baby & mommy yoga workout that night. I like it because the dvd works on development & strenghtening of his stomach, neck, and back muscles and also incorporates some massage for his arms, legs, and even stomach area (to aid in digestion & gas). Some of the exercises for the moms actually uses the baby as weight for some leg and arm exercises and others you lay the baby on the ground & do things over him (like downward dog yoga pose)... which makes me a little nervous b/c I'm such a clutz!

Yesterday, it rained almost all day -- but that made for good baby-sleeping weather. He spent a couple of hours in this pack-and-play. We've been laying him on the short side (2' long) because we have toys and stuff on the other half. It looks like laying him this way is coming to an end too. We'll have to clean the stuff out & lay him long-ways in it from now on. He's wearing my *favorite* pants (khaki with turtles all over). I love them so much so that I bought them in 2 sizes. (the 2nd pair was on an ultra cheap clearance)

Now onto today: I signed up for a week's worth of free classes in this thing called Stroller Strides. It's fitness for mothers where you take your baby / exercises are designed around the stroller. Lunges, jogging, etc. They also use exercise bands to do arm work and do ab work too. I went for the first time this morning and it was actually a pretty good workout. I'm definitely checking it out some next week as my free week continues -- and will consider getting a 3 month membership b/c I really liked the instructor. (Got to lose this pregnancy weight, wink wink!)

I know this is a long blog, but there's one FINAL thing I wanted to mention. Some of the kids on our street & the next street over were running a lemonade stand as a fund-raiser this afternoon. A little boy, Gavin, has Cystic Fibrosis and they're raising money for CF research. This is actually something close to my & Todd's heart - as we found out that we were both carriers of CF when we were going through fertility stuff. If we were to have conceived a child together... we would've had a 25% chance of having a child with the disease. (There was a 50% chance that the child would be a carrier and pass it on to their children and 25% chance that the child would be unaffected.) I was talking to Gavin's mom Nikki (who's also an architect!) and she was telling me that 1 in 30 adults is a carrier. Two carriers (like us) is where these scary odds come about. Because of the likleyhood, insurance companies conduct testing for females who are in the child-bearing stage of their life. It's HIGHLY recommended to get tested if you're of child-bearing age. (FYI -- if you & your partner are both carriers -- it is still possible to have children without the disease through Pre-Genetic Determination where they look at the cells under a microscope / implant the healthy embryos during invitro fertilization (IVF). Fascinating stuff -- and AMAZING research is being done.) If anyone's interested -- I can tell you more, as I was completely blown away by the science of it and technologies now available. I'd really encourage you to go to this site & donate a few bucks. Five bucks. Ten bucks. More bucks if you can... whatever you're able to do -- in support of the CF fund-raiser that "Team Gavin" is working on. http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/NicoleBartlett4670

Ok. I'll go for now.