Present Day

Ok, so enough of the past! Let's focus on NOW!!! I am currently the mom to the most amazing, loving, smart 2 year old ever ( I know all parents say that so I don't feel bad)!

It's Official!

June 22, 2009, we offiically became a family of 3!!!
The adoption was finialized by Judge Carmichael. It was a nasty, rainy day, but we didn't care! We had been waiting for years to become parents and although we had been Teagan's "Mommy and Daddy" for over 3 monthes, this little piece of paper meant much more.

We had planned on going to lunch and celebrating our big day, but with the rain and nastiness outside, we ended up just going home. We do, however, still celebrate the day we officially got to change Teagan's name from "infant girl H..." to Teagan Janette Murray.

Home at Last

We made it home on April 2, 2009! I guess that is where our true journey starts!
We had many visitors the first days being home. We had family, friends, co-workers. Everyone was so excited for us and our little girl!
We had made arrangements with our adoption agency to come to finalize the homestudy and post placement visit. So, in addition to a newborn, lack of sleep, and constant visitors, I had to make sure my house was in tip top shape! We had to put up safety gates (seems crazy for a newborn I know), get a first aid kit, and stress about all the new questions they ask!
*Our homestudy was started April 28, 2008. They are only good for 1 year and then you have to pay to get it renewed, so we were anxious to get the follow up done before April 28, 2009*

Teagan was a pretty mellow baby. She ate, slept, and pooped on a regular schedule. Sleeping wasn't an issue for me since I was off work so I did the overnights and Matt would do the feeding when he was up for work so I could get a few hours straight! I am so blessed to have been off work for 14weeks with her! We got so much bonding in and I was also able to get her on some sort of a schedule

NICU Stay

Teagan stayed in the NICU for 2 weeks! Although she was physically bigger than most babies at 32 wks, her lungs were only at the 32 wk level. She required oxygen and also the "glow light" for a few days to help her liver pass the jaundice out. She was on feeding tubes because her suck, swallow, breath reflex was not strong and she would quit breathing on me when we fed her! It was scary to see my little baby girl hooked up to so many things. BUT, she was a little fighter, she pulled all the wires off her, pulled the feeding tubes out every few hours, and pulled the IVs out of her! Thank God the NICU she was in was smaller and she was one of 2 babies in there! The nurses catered to her nonstop! They said she was fiesty and they have no idea how right they were! While in the NICU, the nurses taught me how to bath her, feed her, change her clothes, and just be comfortable with a newborn! I had not had a chance to go to any new parent classes and it'd been a while since I had a NEW baby around! I am thankful for them for teaching me so much! I had to also be certified in CPR, and since she was coming home on a monitor, I had to be trained on how to take care of her if it went off! It was very overwhelming to go through alone. When Matt came up on the weekend, I would leave the hospital for a few hrs so he could be taught by the nurses on how to do everything too! I didn't want to look like I was superior "teaching" him, plus, I think he enjoyed the one on one time with his little princess!

The doctors slowly weined her off oxygen. Since we had such a long drive home, she had to pass the carseat test and prove she could keep her levels up before they would discharge her. Most NICU babies have to pass only 20 minutes, Teagan had to sit in hers for over an hour! But, I would rather be safe than sorry!

Finally, on April 1st, we were allowed to take her home!!! My mom and Matt made the trip back up to get us! I had been staying by myself during the week so Matt didn't burn all his time off just sitting in the hospital. He came up around 6pm and we got discharged from the hospital at 7!!! The first night out of the hospital, we stayed at my grandmas in Ft. Wayne so we weren't driving at night!

Hospital

We left our house around midnight and made it to Ft Wayne a little before 3am...a normal 3.5hr trip took less than 3 for this speedy, nervous mom! We made it to labor/delivery and settled in with R and her momma!

*Sidenote: R had told us all her previous pregnancies were super quick. Under 6 hrs, so we were so scared we wouldn't make it in time!

14hours after her initial call to us, and at 12:15 pm Wednesday morning, March 18, 2009, Teagan Janette made her entrance into the world! She was 8 weeks early and the delivery room was completely FULL of a team of doctors and nurses just for our little princess! Not going to lie, I was SUPER scared! Teagan weighed 5lb10oz and was 19.5in....pretty big for a premie, but she was wisked to the NICU anyway!

Another life changing call!

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in the Murray house, but for whatever reason, Matt and I decided to stay home for St. Patty's Day 2009! It was a Tuesday, and I was off work all day. I spent the day cleaning and even got to organize the baby's room a little. That night, we decided to take some baby stuff out of the boxes and put things together (we'd been putting it off in case R changed her mind...I couldn't thnk of looking at everything put together without a baby). We got the stroller put together, the base and carseat all arranged, and then Matt decided to go to bed.





Around 9p.m., R called my cell! I KNEW something was up! She and I usually just text! I answered and said "What's wrong???" She told me she was at the hospital because she'd been having contractions, but they hadput her on meds to make it stop. She was just 32 weeks so she said, don't worry, I will call you if you need to drive up! YEah right!! This lady was not waiting!!!!


I immediately ran upstairs, threw the bedroom door open, and woke Matt! I said, "Get packed, R is in labor, and we are going!!!"





I threw what little baby stuff I had in a suitcase (my baby shower was scheduled for a few weeks later and we didn't have a TON of stuff for newborns). I packed myself some shorts, shirts, and a swimsuit...seriously??? I mean who goes to have a baby and packs a swimsuit??? I guess I thought I would swim at the hotel, I'm insane!!! LOL I loaded the car while Matt wondered if we should wait. I decided we needed to leave and if we had to, we could turn around in Indy if it was truely a false alarm. On the way out to the garage, R called and said they couldn't stop the contractions and to head up...little did she know, we were going to anyway!

The Pregnancy

Because of the cancer, R was considered high risk, which meant multiple OB appointments per month and multiple ultrasounds. The birthdad initially took her to the appointments, but after the first few months, he decided it wasn't his responsiblity anymore since she had decided to place the baby with us.

Because this young woman was carrying our baby, we decided to make the trip every other week to take her to the appointments, shopping, and to lunch! It was purely selfish I'm sure! We got to hear the heartbeat, meet the doctors, see the ultrasounds, and bond with this AMAZING lady!! I'm not sure how many other adoptive parents get the opportunity to do it and we cherished every minute!

R's pregnancy was pretty smooth. She was gaining weight normally, doing the prenatal care, and eating right. I got to feel the baby move a few times during our day trips. She and I became friends fast through countless texts, jokes, etc. I am so happy that my daughter has her DNA! She is truely a sweet, caring, strong woman!