the hospital meeting

On Tuesday, September 8th at 11:00 am we arrived at the hospital in great anticipation as we were about to meet J and her baby boy. It was also our 13th wedding anniversary, sort of an epic kind of anniversary!

Our agency worker was late so we were going bonkers, just a bundle of nerves! She finally arrived and we headed to J's room. J looked amazing after just having given birth! We all hugged, asked about the labor, and then turned our eyes to the baby. He was stunning. We were immediately taken with him. Both D and I spend a great deal of time holding him but made sure that we passed him back to J often. We talked about naming him with J (I'll post about that later). We had a special blanket that we brought for J to sleep with while in the hospital so it would smell like her when we used it later for the baby. And following an excellent idea from Heather at Production Not Reproduction we brought two stuffed elephants which both sat in the baby's hospital bassinet. If J did indeed decide to place baby then we would give one of the elephants to her giving her something that was close to him to hold when she was missing him and the other would stay with the baby. We chose elephants because of the saying that "elephants never forget" and she would never be forgotten in ours and the baby's life. We also talked about fun stuff too and ended up watching a couple of episodes of America's Next Top Model, a show we discovered that both J and I were fans of.

D and I left for a late lunch giving J some time alone with baby and to rest. When we returned to her room she had arranged for the professional photographer in the hospital to take pictures of all of us. Our agency pays for J to receive a set of pictures so we eagerly agreed. The pictures turned out stunning and were priceless. We would have beautiful photos of baby and his birthmom in which her love for him shone brightly. D and I purchased the CD of all 62 pictures so we have copyright to print all the pictures for J, and the price was good too!

During our time with J she made many comments of how comfortable she was seeing us with baby and especially enjoyed seeing D holding him saying "that looks so good!" She talked about the relinquishment and that she really felt this was the right thing for her to do at this time in her life. We left the hospital that night feeling many emotions. Sadness for J and her placing the baby for adoption and also happiness for us at the opportunity to parent this beautiful baby boy. Very bittersweet.