This little beauty was hard to take in! She was so tiny and covered in all sorts of wires and gadgets. She looked so alone and so uncomfortable, although I have to say that our hospital was the best! Seriously, each baby in the NICU had their own room and was so well cared for. Each evening Papa would come down and spend it with our little girl. Honestly, he was attached from the first second he held her. He would hold her and pray over her each evening and patiently feed her and change her diapers all night.
That next day she got her first bath, and didn't exactly enjoy being stripped and then sponged bathed. But, oh that hair!!! It was so sweet and downy! As each hour went by and she improved they would be able to remove wires and began slowly increasing her feedings.
She reacted so well to each feeding that they were quickly able to increase it. She went from getting only 5oz a feeding to 20oz a feeding.
Each day was a new experience. Well, honestly each hour was a new experience. We were juggling the delicate balance of being "semi" parents and caring for our birth mama who was all alone. I tried my best to love her in tangible ways and be there to talk through each step with her. Although it was challenging to figure out how to do that, when at the end of the day we were the ones wanting to take this little girl home. Because of her major surgery, she couldn't really get out and about. She struggled with even walking down the hallway for the first few days.
By the grace of God, our birth mama was very open to us spending as much time as we could with sweet little Olive. She even gave us the ability to visit the NICU on our own. She desperately didn't want our little girl to be alone.
On Friday, July 10, I started to hear a lot of concern and longing in our birth mama's heart as she spent time with little Olive. She kept saying that she wasn't going to change her mind, but I knew she was struggling. Baby was supposed to be discharged on Saturday, and the agency was signing paperwork with her that same day. She hated the idea of having to stay at the hospital an additional day without baby. So on Saturday, she called me into her room and stated that she was not going to sign that day.
I was sick to my stomach.
She said that it was just to hard not to get to have that one night with the baby in the room.
Needless to say, our hearts were broken. It was such a delicate dance. I loved that our birth mama wanted to spend every second with our little girl and struggled with giving her up, because what an amazing testimony to tell our little girl, and yet how very difficult to endure.
Well, some final paper work had not come through yet on baby girl, so the NICU was unable to discharge her, and therefore one more night was spent in the NICU with daddy. Birth mama was heart broken but understood.
Sunday morning we were able to bath little one and spend some time with birth mama. Then the agency showed up and we sat for what seemed like an eternity waiting to hear the final news.
Then they walked in! "I have some good news! You guys are parents!" These magic words! What a flood of emotions!!!!
Ok, so random fact: our baby girl was born with 12 fingers. YES 12 fingers! Apparently this is a hereditary trait in her family. You can see in the picture below that it was attached to her pinky finger, but there wasn't any bone however there was a finger nail. It was rather peculiar. Once discharged we were able to have it removed. Her grandmother, mother, and sisters all had them.
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