Our First Weekend with Elizabeth

Okay, now that I have some more time, I wanted to share some of the information about Elizabeth's weekend in the hospital.

Jessica was induced on Thursday and gave birth to a beautiful, healthy little girl at 11:40 PM that night (only a few more minutes and her birthday would have been March 14th!). Shawn and I were able to visit with the baby (who Jessica decided to give the name we all chose, Elizabeth Lorelei) about a half hour after she was born. I was so nervous walking into that delivery room. Were Jessica and the baby okay? What would Elizabeth look like? Would we love her right away?

The second I saw her little face in Jessica's arms, I fell instantly in love with her. It also didn't hurt that she was also the prettiest, sweetest little baby I had ever seen. Shawn and I instantly felt connected to this tiny person who had only been an idea up until now. We got to hold her and see her be cleaned up and snap about a million pictures. Here are some. Me and Lizzie...

Shawn and Lizzie...

Getting cleaned up...

Resting and relaxing...

Of course, the truth was that this baby, as much as we loved her, was not yet our daughter. The laws in Ohio state that the earliest placement can occur is 72 hours after birth, which meant that Monday morning would be the day. We also wanted to be sure to give Jessica and her family time to enjoy their new addition and to be able to make a decision without feeling like we were hovering over them the whole time. We ended up leaving the hospital around 2:00 AM and groggily, but happily driving home.

The next day, Jessica invited us to come visit Elizabeth for a few hours. We talked more about the details of the adoption and that the baby would need to stay until Monday, though Jessica could leave earlier if she wanted to. At first, Jessica planned to stay in the hospital with the baby the entire weekend, which we thought would be great. But when we came out to visit on Saturday morning, Jessica let us know she had decided to be discharged and asked if we would be willing to stay with Elizabeth. The hospital offered us a room and we agreed to stay with her for the next two nights. Some more pictures of us with Elizabeth...

Shawn and Lizzie making grumpy faces...

Elizabeth enjoying a delicious bottle of hospital formula...

Lizzie sleeping in her plastic bassinet...

Me and smiley Lizzie...

Saturday night we decided to have Elizabeth sleep in our room with us so we could spend some time getting to know her. Neither of us got much sleep as we kept listening to her every movement. When she did get up to be fed, we couldn't get her to settle down and go back to sleep because we couldn't do a proper swaddle. Eventually the nurse stuck her head in the door to help and we were all able to get some much needed ZZZ's.

On Sunday evening, Jessica stopped by to visit us for a few hours. It felt odd that only a day ago, she was the one was taking care of Lizzie and we were the ones visiting. But now the roles were reversed. The whole time Shawn and I were bonding with this little sweetheart, we knew in our hearts that none of this was final and that Lizzie might not be coming home with us.

On Monday, which was also St. Patrick's Day, Jessica and her family came in to sign her papers, Shawn and I signed our papers, and just like that, Elizabeth was our daughter. Jessica reserved the hospital chapel so that we could do a short entrustment ceremony. She asked a family friend to say some touching words. By the end of it, I was crying all over the place. Here's a picture of Elizabeth all dressed to go home...

The whole weekend was filled with a lot of anxiety on our side, but we both know that whatever pain we were experiencing that Jessica and her family were going through something so much more difficult. I won't even attempt to talk about how hard this must have been for them because I have no idea what a loss like that is like. Shawn and I are so incredibly grateful to them, not just for allowing Elizabeth to become part of our family, but for also allowing us to share in her first days of life.

Jessica is going to come to visit in April and we are all looking forward to seeing her then. As always, please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

-- Lisa