Introducing...

Well friends, it's over, or at least the thirty days that is. Unfortunately, there's still quite a bit left to do for the adoption... we're basically at the point most adoptive families are when they leave the hospital. Our situation was just delayed. But the good news (for us) is that both birth parents have agreed, either by signing or abstaining, to relinquish parental rights. Sooooo, the moment you've all been waiting for, introducing Garrison Carter

Meeting the little man for the first time.

He's already a month old, so we need to get caught up in a hurry, but I didn't want you to miss out on his early days of sweetness. 

Getting scrubbed in for the first time. We had no idea what to expect and
three minutes of scrubbing was excruciating slow.

Getting our gown/smock/cover things on. After day two I was a pro and could get
in one of those bad boys in under a minute.

Lifting back the isolette cover and seeing him… cue some serious ugly cry!

Hi sweet baby!

So how about a one month update because that's all the photos I have of his first few days. The NICU staff were serious about phones/cameras/laptops etc, and we got special permission this one time for someone to take photos. I'm not sure if I'll do monthly updates regularly, but it seems like an organized way to move from day 11 to five weeks rather quickly. 

Name: Garrison Carter

Hi there!

Nicknames: I hate real nicknames, like Sam for Samuel or Ben for Benjamin... I didn't even know Garrison had a shortened version when I chose the name (his name is another story entirely), but rest assured I will NEVER call him by that nickname. The nicknames we use are Bubba (this was what my favorite nurse called him and it kind of stuck with me, but she said it very sweetly, almost like Buh-puh), Buddy (our name for him when he had no name) and more recently: Little Butt, Chunker, Little Man.

Who you calling handsome?

Stats: 6.6 lbs and 19 inches.

I don't have anything official as his appointment with the pediatrician isn't until tomorrow, but last week, when he was actually one month old, I used the very accurate weigh us and subtract me method and he came in at a whopping 6.6 lbs. Slow your roll dude or we can't call you Little Butt any longer. He'd also grown two inches to 19 inches, which explains his eviction from premie clothes last week. I'm just hoping he reaches a plateau here for a while. A- I need to build up arm strength for carrying him in the car seat (uhhh, is that a gestational thing? Does carrying a baby in your uterus make you strong because gah, I can't imagine when he weighs twenty pounds. I'm going to need a pulley system.) and B- I have cute newborn clothes... can we like wear them more than once, please? He's currently able to rock Carter's brand newborn size. All other brands seem to be 6 months ahead (I'm looking at you Gerber) so umm, that's confusing. But also kind of nice as I'll still be able to dress him in "newborn" four to five pounds from now. We haven't ventured over to cloth diapers yet as I don't have a full stock and he's supposed to be eight pounds. We did upgrade to the newborn size in disposable diapers on Monday, mostly because we ran out of premies, but he doesn't seem to mind the extra room. 

Being a month old us tough

Likes: Food. Homeboy can eat. Which is shocking as the NICU days were plagued with nurses trying to help me feed him and eventually just finishing bottles for me. I would have sworn this would be our biggest issue, but Little Man LOVES to eat. He's been on four different formulas in his short life plus breastmilk and he's a fan of it ALL! He's currently enjoying the top shelf Alimentum as it appears Little Man has refined tastes (aka, dairy allergies). It supposedly tastes awful, and I believe it as it smells terrible, but he doesn't seem to mind a bit. He's taking about 3 oz every 3 hours these days. 

Gimme the good stuff, ma!

He's also a really big fan of baths. He enjoys baths in the sink, but he LOVES getting in the big bath with mommy. He loves to float on his back and snuggle on my chest. 

His first bath out of the hospital in the bathroom sink.
(Hotel staff LOVED us… oh, yes, we'll need 10 towels for
just the two of us, hmm, yes that's right.

Dislikes: Hiccoughs (or hiccups, whichever). Which who can blame him? I was plagued by hiccoughs growing up and hated them, so I can really sympathize. He gets hiccoughs after almost every meal, which is kind of out of control if you ask me. I've tried to tell him about some of my tried and true remedies, but he hasn't mastered the 'hold your breath and swallow three times' trick that I keep telling him about. We did discover gripe water recently which helps about 75% of the time… better than nothing.

No more hiccups!

Reflux. Again, I can't really fault him for this one. I've had heartburn all of two times in my life, both of which were caused by an antibiotic I was taking for fertility treatments. Both times I was pretty sure I was dying of a heart attack, so I can only imagine how awful it is to have this problem plague you all the time.

Wahhhhhhhhh

He's also hates to be cold. Like HATES it. While he loves to take baths, that whole, get out and get dried off part is miserable. He's found a new octave for screaming for that special occasion. Which also means he hates to be naked, just in general. You can imagine how interesting his newborn photo shoot was.

I think he has a flair for the dramatic… just like his mama.

Undecided about: Pacifiers. Some times he loves that paci so much it looks like he's going to devour it. (Nom nom, gimme.) Other times, he scrunches his little forehead, squishes his little nose and spits that thing out like I'm trying to poison him.

Providing a bit of comfort as we snuggle.

Sterling/Everest. I don't know if he's really undecided so much as just he hasn't noticed them yet. Which is pretty funny as both of them are superglued to me throughout the day. I think it's safe to say that they both missed me a good bit while I was in Florida and that both are now feeling a good bit of jealousy. Sterling is often right up next to me, sometimes half way in my lap. Everest often attempts to join us in the rocking chair at night. Thus far though, he pays them no mind.

Post bottle family snuggle time.

Looking forward to: EVERYTHING. Every. Single. Thing. But if you make me choose just one thing,  I'd have to say baby showers. I've got a couple of showers coming up over the next few weeks and I'm really excited because A- a baby shower, for ME?!?! Get out of here! and B- I get to show off my baby to my friends and family!

Hi mom! I'm a month old already! Don't blink!

This month has obviously been pretty special and over the top awesome for the Greavus. Little Man got to get rid of his isolette, feeding tube, and various sensors, which I'm sure he's thankful for. He also became a multi-state traveler, which seems like a pretty big achievement for the first three weeks of life. He also has the honor of making us the happiest people alive, which also seems like a pretty big deal for someone so young.

Deep thinking during his one month photos.

I think we're all still a little shocked. Our life definitely just got twisted upside down in the best way possible. We're still feeling all the feels and trying to figure out where and what those emotions are, but I can definitely say this: we're just SO thankful. It didn't have to turn out this way. Adoptions fail or fall through all the time. There were absolutely no guarantees when we started the adoption process last September and still none when we said yes to this case a few weeks ago. We're one super duper blessed little family of THREE!