Coming Home Day

A year ago today, we brought S home for the first time.

Stupidly, J and I decided to go to work for a half a day that day. I'm not exactly sure why, because we certainly weren't going to get any work done. It did give me a chance to talk to my HR department about time off, and grab a few things from my office. Around lunchtime we met at home, and J strapped the car seat into the car. Of course, he put it behind the driver's seat, and he has long legs, so that meant I was driving.

S's birthmom didn't have a going-home outfit for S, so we went through our small stash of baby clothes to find something cute. The only "cute" outfit we had was a 6-9 month size, and we (again stupidly) thought it would fit just fine on a not-quite 7-pound baby.

We headed to the hospital and waited for the social worker to arrive. We all headed up to the hospital room and started the process of getting S home. Her birthmom signed some papers. The nurse handed us all sorts of stuff. We put a ginormous sleeper on a tiny baby. J and the nurse negotiated getting S into her car seat. The nurse said we needed to make sure the angle of the seat was right, "or the baby can fall forward and suffocate". Great. S's birthmom and I exchanged panicked glances, and the nurse quietly recommended that someone ride in back with her.

S's birthmom, having already given us the greatest gift we could imagine, gave us a present. A present. Can you believe it? It was a beautiful figurine of a couple with a little baby. We were so, so touched.

We all took the elevator down together, and said our last goodbyes to S's birthmom and her mom. There were tears and promises to see each other soon.

We got into our car and headed home. S's giant hat kept slipping over her eyes, so J spent most of the drive uncovering them. We stopped for a bite at Sonic, and S got hungry. J gave her his first bottle there. I looked over and saw a car full of teenagers and realized how different our lives were at that moment.

We got home and realized we still didn't have a crib mattress. J left me alone in the living room with a newborn and headed to WalMart. He got a mattress, a bedding set, and every item of clothing that said newborn on it. I don't remember the rest of the night. Something about trying to put her in her crib, then bringing her into bed when that didn't work. J created a nest of blankets for her, and she slept for 4 or 5 hours.

And so began parenthood...