A Baby!

I have been thinking of all the things I want to tell you as I sit feeding O. Then she is down to sleep and I sleep at night and do housework during the day! Busy Busy! Happy Happy! The house is clean! We are well fed! O is happy! The cats are brushed! The litterboxes are clean! I am up to date on Thank you notes! Life is good!

O has passed out of the "feels like a preemie" stage!!! Now she feels so much like a newborn baby!!! She still is probably more low tone and floppy than a typical newborn, but she is so much stronger! And a determined little lady! She now weighs about 7 lbs 5 oz. (weighed her on the scale from Grandma and Grandpa B the other day. She mostly sleeps at night and eats. She will sometimes go to bed early and sometimes late. We find that sometimes she is ready for a bath at 5 pm, but other days doing it at 7 seems to settle her down for sleep much better. We are following Montessori's advice (and Grandma Kate's wisdom!) and following the child! At this early point in her life every day is different. We just try to keep her rested, active during alert time, well fed and dry diapered! We are using Tushies diapers which are gel free. They are the closest to cloth. They are recommended by our doctor. We hope that the fact that she feels wetness and doesn't like it will help her potty train at an earlier age. We have dear friends raising a sweet little almost 2 year old with Ds who is in cloth. God Bless this amazing mother!!!!!

I am reading Road Map to Holland when ever I can squeeze in a few moments. I am addicted to reading, and so am always trying to sneak in a page or two out of the various books laying around the house! O will grow up in a house with much reading and many books littered around the house! Anyway, this book was written by a woman who had twins. One with Down syndrome. She writes about her experience in the NICU which is so healing to me! I had felt that what I was experiencing was just because I was an adoptive parent. But as I read her wonderful words, I realize that every parent feels this way! I also learned that we were brave to have spent the endless hours there. It was all worth it! By the time we came home with O we really knew her and she knew us!

Life with O is wonderful! Yes! I do understand the full impact of sleep deprivation! God bless all of you who raised multiple babies! Especially my brother and sister in law with 5 in 9 years! Amazing people! God bless you!!!!! O brings joy at every hour of the day! She is such a huge blessing and so amazing! We are so lucky to have been chosen to raise her! I pray that we will be worthy of this great privilege! God bless the birth mom! She called Daddy O to wish him a Happy Father's Day! O has so much of her birth mom in her! Sweetness and strength!