Yesterday late afternoon I got a call from the County asking if I would take a short term placement of a newborn male. We are focused on girls with medical issues in this household now, but I’ve always wanted to have the newborn experience and couldn’t until now because I was working. So since it was a short term placement (likely just through the holidays) I said yes, then called my husband to beg forgiveness. Ha!
My husband is a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital where the baby was. So I ran around the house and dug out the infant car seat and its inserts for newborns, got Sprout off the bus, and dragged her to Target for a few outfits, diapers, and formula. I then bribed her with a Happy Meal and played the Frozen soundtrack in the car on repeat. We swung by where my husband’s car was parked and dropped off an outfit and the car seat, and I came home with Sprout and tucked her into bed. Seth came home and woke me up an hour or so later, holding the baby in his arms. Squee!
He is teeny tiny. Just a bitsy little guy. He’s 5 days old now but is swimming in newborn clothes.
Part of the deal with our taking a newborn is that I am on full nighttime duty since I’m not working, and Seth works long hours at the hospital. So I slept in the twin bed that’s in the baby’s room, and was awakened about every 2 hours for food and a diaper change. Seth is a true professional at swaddling (he does it at work daily) and I suck at it, so I suspect the babe would have gone longer stretches if I’d been able to swaddle him properly. I’ll get better at it I’m sure.
Sometime around 4 am, baby woke up and I noticed he was ripe, so I started to change his diaper. Mid way through putting on a fresh one he became a pee fountain, so I had to strip him completely naked and wipe him down and rediaper him and put on a fresh outfit. Then while I was feeding him a few minutes later he pooped AGAIN. So three diapers and a pee fountain at 4 am were fun.
I’m currently sitting in my favorite chair while baby sleeps in the swing. I’m contemplating showering but that seems like it would take a lot of energy. I’m caffeinated. Thoroughly. But it’s not quite cutting it. And it’s only 10 am. It’s a good thing babies are so damn cute otherwise the species would have died out long ago!
We didn’t find out the baby’s first name until this morning and we still don’t know his last name. It’s crazy to me that children can be dropped off at our house and we sometimes don’t even know their names. As a good friend of mine said, that’s pretty dehumanizing. But sadly, that’s the system. At least this little baby will have as good a start as we can give him.
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