First family photos

Here are the first family photos that we had done last month. Aidan was not amused and did not smile the entire time! I think he was freaked out by the camera. :)

Busy days

Wow, I can't believe I have forgotten to post on this blog for so long! We've been busy having fun with Aidan, working full time (both of us) and just trying to find enough time to sleep most days. Our "daycare" arrangement with Eric working from home on the mornings that I have to sleep after work is going well. I know that will change once Aidan starts taking less naps and gets louder, but for now it is working.

He is such a smiley guy! He loves to babble and try standing on our laps. He has very strong neck and leg muscles and is growing faster than we can keep clothes on him. (is now around 15-16 pounds and 3.5 months!!!). He just got over his first cold and is now dealing with some eczema on his face. He goes to see a new peds tomorrow morning to check on his skin and also get his 4- month shots.

We just bought him a convertible car seat today since he is quickly 0utgrowing his current carrier.

Mama better start putting on the muscles!! ;)

Enjoying our little guy

Wow! I can't believe we have been home since Sept. 18th already! It is going wayyy too fast!

We had a wonderful time in Georgia and couldn't be happier with the way things worked out. Did not get to meet the birthmom, but did speak to her on the phone and had a picture of her emailed to us that we can share with Aidan.

The week in Georgia was a blurr of late night feedings and restaurants. Aidan definitely likes to be up at night...sometimes all night! He must know that I work nights or something. ;)

We have had to adjust his formula several times d/t intolerance issues, but otherwise he is doing really well! Up to 9 lbs 8 oz and 22.5 inches long! (had his dr. appt. yesterday).

I am getting pretty good at taking his heavy stroller in and out of the trunk (wishing some days Eric could have my small car and I could steal his SUV) :)

The dogs like to sniff Aidan's head and lick him. The cats pretty much avoid him, but they do not avoid his things. Shadow's new bed is his pack n play and mrs. kitchen prefers his smaller bouncer. I guess they are kind of like kitty beds.

Aidan is a very smiley guy who loves to laugh and grab at toys hanging down from his bouncer toy bar. I know he's not supposed to be doing those things yet, but he really seems to be!

He really laughs when Eric pulls Aidan's pants up high and calls him "old man pants" :)

WE HAVE A SON!!!!!

Finally!!! We have a SON!!! :) I still can't believe it! We got the call on Wednesday, 9/2 about a baby that was born on 8/31/09 at 8:02am. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. He is healthy and beautiful! Eric and I will leave on Thursday, 9/10 to go get him in Georgia and will be back around Friday, 9/18. I will post a pic of Aidan Mathias...more pics to follow as they arrive from the wonderful care family in Georgia!

Adoption Agency Picnic

Eric and I went to our first picnic last night that is held by our homestudy agency here in Madison. We got to meet several families who have used the same agency we are using in Georgia, as well as a couple just beginning their application. It was great to hear their stories and imagine what our scenario will be like when we get chosen. Most of the couples were chosen within a week of their application, so we are a little different in that respect, but they said the agency is great and the care families that the infants are placed in after birth are really nice. Apparently we travel to the area of Georgia where the care family lives, so it could be anywhere. We then get a hotel room near the care family and stay for about a week.
Everyone's babies were sooo adorable and I can't wait for next year's picnic when we will have our little one to bring.

WE COULD BE CHOSEN REALLY SOON!!

Just got an update from our adoption agency...there are around 23 families in their waiting pool. Of those, 11 requested a girl (we are open to gender) and only three (including us) are childless. So, she said we have a very good chance of being chosen soon, and it looks like we will probably get a boy! I am soooo excited and can't wait for the call!!! :)

Month 1 of waiting

We have officially been waiting one month for the domestic adoption. Even though I have no idea how long this is going to take, it is nice to know that we are getting closer to "The Call". I started painting the nursery green, but am leaving the edging by the ceiling for Eric. I tried, but I am too sloppy and there is too much furniture still in the room to get the ladder just right. I got some really cute orange and white bedding, so am excited to see how that looks when the painting is done. All the nursery stuff is still in the basement right now. I really want to finish the room and put it all together and make it look "ready", but I'm sure we have more than enough time, and I don't want everything to get all dusty just sitting in there. I also picked out the artwork that I am putting in the room (just have to order it). I will attach a pic of the bedding and pics of the artwork. The green on the walls will be similar to the green on the zebra's nose. Oh yeah, and I am going to try inducing lactation again! This time, I am doing the regular (long) protocol which will yield a larger supply. I don't start pumping until right before we get the baby ( so will have to wait for the call) and I will also be using a Lact-Aid supplemental nurser with formula each time I nurse when we get the baby.

Back on track with domestic adoption

We decided to update our paperwork for the domestic adoption out of Georgia, and thanks to the homebuyers tax credit, we didn't have to wait longer to do it! I mailed in the updated lifebook on Tuesday and last Monday we had our homestudy visit with our social worker to get that updated for our new house.
Now, the waiting begins again.......But this time it's not so bad. I feel like we've been able to survive this past year of plan changes, so now we can just relax and wait for the call. In the meantime, there's the fence to finish putting up in the backyard. This weekend is staining and sanding. :\

One year ago today

Today, April 3rd, is the one year anniversary of when we first started waiting for the Ethiopian adoption to go through. Alot has changed since then, and part of me is sad that we took our names off the list, but I know that we will still have a family one day, however that is meant to happen for us. If we were still on the wait list, we would prob. not even have a referral yet. It is taking people about 13 months for one, then three months to travel after that. Knowing that their courts close sometime in August, and that we would have gotten a referral around May 3rd, there would be a very good chance that we would have had to wait through court closure, and out child would be about 6 months older than they were at referral time by the time we got them. So, maybe we were guided in the right direction when we changed our minds. I am eagerly awaiting the day that we have our money saved up again for the adoption in Georgia. Am also watching for infertility treatment studies that let you try free cycles. We almost got into a free IVF trial last year, but they had too many people. I guess we are just waiting to see what happens with our lives in the next year and will go where we are led. We are at the point now where we will have to re-do ALL the adoption paperwork again, including fingerprints, since they all expire around May. We are kind of starting all over again deciding between IVF and adoption. Crazy, I never thought that would happen. For now, though, we are going to enjoy our new house and get it ready for whatever happens in the future.

New House In Mazomanie!!

We put in an offer and the offer was accepted on a new house in Mazomanie!!! We are very excited and move in two weeks!!! ahhhh!!! Now we have to pack non-stop. The nice thing is that it is a spec house and is brand new. There is nothing we have to update or change, except to finish the basement eventually. We just bought all new stainless steel appliances for the kitchen, and will be taking our washer and dryer, so that is all covered. Now, time to buy curtains! (my least favorite thing to buy) ;)

What's New?....Um...Alot

After meeting with our financial advisor last week, Eric and I realized that we would be stupid not to try to buy a house with the deals that are out there right now. All we need to do is put the adoption on hold a year, and we will have our own home and not be renting anymore. So, that is what we decided to do. :)
We start looking at homes tomorrow (very excited) :) We are being very conservative and looking at a very low price range since Eric may have to take a pay and hour cut, so we want to make sure it will be affordable after that.
We are pretty much looking everywhere, so this may take awhile (depending on how much our real estate agent wants to drive us around). Tomorrow we are going to TRY to go to Roxburry, Sauk, Mazomaine, then Mt. Horeb. We'll see...he only has 1 1/2 hours with us. I think Mt. Horeb is the most appealing right now since we have friends that live out there, and my mom and stepdad live only 5-10 min. away. Hey, I gotta make sure someone is nearby to help me with lining the cupboards. I HATE doing it and always cut uneven and end up throwing it across the room in frustration.
Well, I'm trying to decide between sleep right now or enjoying the sun, so I'll sleep in the living room and have both. :)

Decided to stop inducing

After much thought this weekend, I decided to stop inducing lactation today. It was time for me to buy more domperidone and herbs, and I am having a hard time justifying spending that on just a few ml's of milk/day. I am currently making about 1.5ml's per pumping session, and I know it would slowly increase, but I think that money is better spent on the adoption expenses at this point. I do have 45ml's of milk in my freezer, so at least I was able to get something!

Lots of pumping, not as much milk

Well, it's been almost two weeks of using the pump now and I only get 1/2 ml each time. I keep waiting for it to increase, and I even tried eating oatmeal. Oatmeal is supposed to increase your supply. I maybe get 0.8 ml when I eat it, but that could be wishful thinking. I am going to keep this up until my meds run out in two weeks, then stop if I haven't made any more. It has been hard to pump at work since I get a half-hour for dinner, and 15 min of that time is spent pumping, with 5 min to clean up. Also, since I don't make that much milk, I can't let it go into the collection bottles since most of it is lost in the filter. So, I have to hold one side on with my arm while I take the other side off, leaving the shield against my skin. I then hold a plastic collection bottle under the shield to collect the drops. Then, I draw it up into a syringe. It is exhausting.
In the end, if I don't make more I will be left with a feeding and a half of my own milk for our baby. I guess that is better than nothing, but really wish I knew this wouldn't work so well before I spent all this money. Oh well, I learned my lesson. ;)

Milk Drops

Yay! I am getting milk drops with pumping. They started on Saturday, only one day after I started pumping. That is way sooner than I thought it would happen, and am sooo excited! :) Now, if only I had enough to save, but I know that will happen soon.
As for the comfort of pumping...IT HURTS! Apparently the soft fit shields that came with my pump are not for me. (I actually have bruises and an open wound on one side). Got a smaller hard plastic shield today to try, so we'll see.

NOOO!!!!

So, it is almost time for me to start using the new breast pump, and guess what? The battery it comes with doesn't work!!! I swear, this happens to me with everything. Last time, it was our dogs training collars and it took 9 weeks to get a new one. I seriously need this replaced and am hoping for a quick and smooth swap. Of course, I don't have the receipt since it was a gift, so I emailed them and will see what they say. Thank God I checked it out before switching to the herbs and waiting for the day that I had to start!

Lactation Induction

Ah, the wonderful world of hormones. As some of you know, I have decided to induce lactation so that I can breastfeed our baby when we get picked. It is something I always had in the back of my head, and have seen a few adoptive moms come though at work who have done it. I met with a doctor a month ago (not my doc since apparently only one or two docs in Dane cty have experience with this). This new doc just happens to be in Mt. Horeb, so not very close, but no too far, either. She had me start taking the pill, along with a drug called Domperidone. This drug increases Prolactin levels, while the pill helps build breast tissue. They basically do the same thing that pregnant women's bodies do.
The best results come with taking this combo for 5-6 months, but since we could get a call any day, I elected the accelerated protocol. With this way, I only take the pill for 30-60 days with the Dom, then take just the dom and add herbs Fenugreek and blessed thistle. I also start pumping every three hours at that point. I am going to try to give the pill 60 days, then start pumping. My wonderful mother-in-law bought me a pump for christmas, and I ordered the herbs already, so I am all set. I got the new Medela freestyle handheld pump that is cordless. This will be very helpful as I will be lugging it back and forth to work every night.
Apparently, most women on this protocol produce half, if not more, of the milk supply their baby will need. Then, they supplement with formula during or after breastfeeding. (if during, you use a Lactina, which is a bottle hung around your chest with a tube taped to your nipple. The baby sucks and gets breastmilk and formula at the same time).
I am nervous and excited to see how this works. I will also be freezing any milk I start getting to thaw and use when the baby gets here.

OFFICIALLY WAITING, AGAIN!!!

Yay! Our lifebook is done, the 10 copies of it are sent in, and we are officially waiting again as of today. Whew! Glad that is all over! :) The past few months have really seemed to drag on, but I think with the holidays and everything, we had other things that had to get done and the lifebook had to be put to the side for awhile. We had gotten a test copy done at Office Max a few weeks ago, but all our captions had gotten moved over and were hiding under the pictures. Eric had to re-format, but then we had christmas stuff to do. Last week, he took the new version to Office Depot, where the copies came out dark and red-tinted. We went back the next day and had them re-do, and while they still don't look as good as the Office Max version, we have no desire to pay to have all new copies done at this point. Last night, I put all 10 copies into report binders, and then I mailed them off today.
What's next??? Well, now we wait to be chosen by a birth mom. Unlike Ethiopia, we have no idea when this will happen. It could be two weeks, it could be a year. However, most people end up getting chosen within 4-6 months.
Thanks to Eric's sister, we now have more baby supplies and clothes! She gave us all her daughters old baby clothes she has grown out of, as well as a jumper, a bouncer, a baby glider and a playmat. Now we have boy and girl clothes through almost their first year.
I have decided to paint the nursery light yellow. I really liked the fisher price flutterbye dreams items and ended up finding everything in that line (which was discontinued) except for the highchair (we already have one from Eric's sister). That line is a light yellow with blue birds and primary color butterflies. Our crib bedding (if we use it) is also primary colors.
I am still getting used to my full-time night shifts at work, but keep telling myself it's for a good cause. :) I was going to be scheduled Mon-Fri nights, but my managed decided to change it to Sun-Thurs nights, so now I will have the full weekend off to do things during the day. This week I only work 4 nights so she can switch me to my new schedule next week. I just bought new curtains last night to help block the light out of our room. The sun sets brightly in our window, which is so not cool while sleeping. ;)