The adventure continues....

The Adventures of Addybell will be continuing as Two Pitts in a Pod, now not only chronically the adventures of Miss Addy but the adventures of Miss Addy and her baby brodder Tyler!

Things have been a bit hectic here the past week with a virus. But thanks to AMAZING friends who were able to help out in a pinch, we were able to get through it! We think we are all healthy now and are home doing well.

Since it was a beautiful day out today, we decided to take a walk to the fair. Addy enjoyed petting the "big ponys" (draft horses) and was able to see some baby animals too! She was also very fond of the gravel on the ground. Tyler was with but took a nice nappy in the stroller while we walked around.

Addy is getting very imaginitive lately! A few days ago she came to me pointing to her arm with a story about a bumble bee.... "bumbobee ouwie, bumbobee ouwie (while pointing to a scar on her arm), bumbobee where go? bumbobee outside (while pointing out the door), bumbobee where go? bumbobee all done, bumbo bee ouwie." Where she comes up with this stuff I don't know but who knew a 19 month old could have such an imaginiation. She's also started blaming the cats for things and joking around some. What a cutie.

Tyler is getting big already! He just hit 8 pounds! And is getting chubby cheeks! He is just the cutest little guy.

I'll try to get some pics up in the next couple days!

Single stroller converted to double!

How cute is this! We decided to go for a walk this evening and not knowing if Addy would stay in the stroller I decided to stick them both in it and see how long it would last.
So here is before the walk....And after... Sleep little kids!

Busy weekend full of pictures!

We had a fun weekend! It sure is nice having time off in the summer!

We went to a pool party and Addy wore her new "FLOTIES" which were amazing! When we were in Alabama she loved swimming but didn't want to be held onto. So I got her some of these wings which are specifically for 1-3 year olds (not like the big plastic ones for 3-5 year olds) and they worked great. She could float around and they kept her upright perfectly! She is such a fish! Our little friend Nora (not pictured due to inability to get a picture of everyones faces) turned 1! So we went to her birthday party. Here is Tyler and Miles the only two guys of the group! Delany, Sophia, and Addy playing nicely with a toy (this was as close to anyone actually looking at the camera as I could get)!

A little town near us had their local fair so a friend and I took Addy to the fair where they had PONY RIDES (which Addy LOVED) and a petting zoo!

Feeding the deer was Addys favorite at the petting zoo. They were crazy and all 10 would come and try to eat out of your hand at once!

Baby Buffalo

Baby Camel

Addy loves "Hoding" her baby "broder tyyylr" and read him her Elmo book!

Things are going well as we continue to settle into life as a family of 4! A few things that we think we have figured out, if you are alone and getting out of the car, Addy always goes in first and comes out last (to prevent running away while dealing with Tyler); always bring extra snacks for Addy incase you need to feed the baby quick before you leave somewhere; have extra patience! Things are still a little hectic but going well overall. Addy is doing great! She is transitioning very well to being a big sister. She is still of course her wild independent curious self but takes time to be gentle with Tyler and love him up too!

Rows!

Well Shawna convinced me that I could do corn rows... boy was she wrong! I am going to need much more practice! Here is our first attempt....

6 rows across the top, finger coils in the back

Playing Peek-a-Boo with the camera!

Settling in!

Well things here are going well! Addy is a great big sister and trying to be very helpful. Tyler is a pretty easy baby so far, basically just eats and sleeps! We have had a few visitors stopping by to meet him and are ready for more! Just give us a ring! Here are a few pics from the past few days home.

Mommy and her babes!
What a good sister, practicing feeding her baby!
Our first playdate home! Addy was excited to see all of her little friends.

HOME!!!

Well we made it home! Addy was not doing well in the car so once she was getting sleepy we decided it would be best to keep driving. She was still up most of the night but the driving was more tolerable. So after over 20 hours in the car, numerous stops, and way too much Elmo, we are home!

We are going to get settled in over the next day or two and then will be ready for visitors!

A few notes on adoption, attachment, and loss....

People may not realize that even babys mourn the loss of their birthmother. Think about it this way... When a baby is born it naturally appears to know who its mother is. When it crys the baby is naturally soothed by its mother, when the baby is hungry it is typically breastfed by its mother. The baby lived inside of her for 9 months and knows the mothers sounds, voice, routine, motion, and scent. When the baby is born, the 9 months in the womb has taught the baby who will be caring for and loving them.

With adoption, this dynamic changes. We, the adoptive family, take the baby from everything that it has known for the past 9 months. New sounds, voices, scents. New atmosphere. The baby doesn't understand this and still longs for that natural mother that it knew for those 9 months.

So what do we do about this? We love the baby with all of our heart and help it learn who we are. That we are his parents and will soothe him, feed him, care for him, and love him. Some baby's attach very quickly while others need more time to adjust to the new transition.

So somethings we may do...

• We will be the only ones feeding him
• We may take him away from you (if you are holding him) when he is crying so that we are the ones comforting him
• If many people are over, we may not let everyone hold him and may keep him with us depending on how he is doing

Please do not feel offended if we take him away from you. These are things we did with Addy as well and worked out well for her to learn who we were and to attach to us. So we will see how our little man does and go from there!

Update #10

WE PASSED ICPC!!! So we are clear to start heading back home! We will hopefully be meeting with our birthmom in the morning for a little while and then will start the drive home. We plan to stay overnight a couple times to make the drive a little more tolerable for the little ones. So hopefully home Mondayish.

It has been an amazing, stressful, and wonderful journey down here with a lot of ups and downs but definitely worth it!

Can't wait for you all to meet our new little guy!

Finally more pictures!

Our happy little family! What a good helper!

Leaving the hospital!!!

A morning on the gulf coast! Addy and Tylers first trip to the ocean!

CHALLENGE!!! New Name Needed!

So since the title of our blog is The Adventures of Addybell, we need to revamp it a bit to add in our new addition. We will keep the web address the same (www.addybell.blogspot.com) to keep it easy for everyone to keep finding but will be re-title-ing and revamping it a little bit.

So the challenge is to come up with a fun or clever title! Any ideas? We are looking for suggestions! Anything welcome! Please email them to me or post them as a comment (be sure to include your name).

he's ours!

As of 1235 today he is ours! We still have to wait for the birth father registry to clear (30 days) but we dont anticipate any issues with that! So now we continue to wait for clearance from the state. Our stuff has been sent to MN so once they ok us, we will be on our way back!

Update #9

Sorry the updates are slow coming!

We were dismissed from the hospital yesterday! And are now living at the hotel. Things are going well. There is a tiny possibility that we would clear ICPC to come home on Friday but Monday or Tuesday is looking more likely.

Addy loves the baby and is very excited about him. She is starting to have a hard time being all cooped up in the hotel but now that we are all together again, hopefully we can start going out to do things to keep her busy. We did have our first family outing today to Macaroni Grill and then to Target and the mall. Went fairly well!

Hopefully will get more pictures on here soon (I know I have said that for a few posts now, just havent gotten around to it yet!)!

Tomorrow at 1235 is when he will be ours forever so please say extra prayers that everything goes smoothly for the next 24 hours! Thank you!

Update #8

Things continue to go well here!

Last night we went out to eat at a fun restaurant and ate on the deck overlooking the bay. We even saw an alligator in the wild (I'll post the picture later)! SO cool. Then we headed out and watched the fireworks from the back of our van. The seats fold down funny so that you can sit in the seat and hang your legs out the rear door with the door up, pretty cool! Addy enjoyed the "sky sky".

Today we stopped for a quick visit with the babe, then off to drop Jareds dad off at the airport, we will miss the extra set of hands! The next week here will be a little more challenging now! Living out of a hotel room with two kids, one being a very busy toddler, will definitely keep us hopping!

I am staying at the hospital tonight and Jared is at the hotel with miss Addy. She is SO cute. She already loves her "brodder" and asks about him and gets very excited when we say we are going to see him and is sad when we have to leave. She even attempted to help feed him his bottle and after I asked if she was my little helper she kept repeating, "helping helping". So cute, just melts my heart. I think she will be a GREAT big sister!

We talked to the birthmom this morning and gave her the day with the baby. She was dismissed this afternoon. When she called and told me that they were letting her go home I felt a deep sadness for her. I can't explain it, but it made me sad to know that she wouldn't be helping caring for him anymore and that she would be starting more of the grieving process. I felt sad for our baby who is experiencing a great loss without even knowing it right now. She is an amazingly strong women and we are SO blessed to have met and spent time with her and her family. We plan to get together again with her and her family before we leave town and plan on having an open relationship as we move forward. It has been the most amazing journey so far and we can't wait to continue it.

More pics will be posted tomorrow sometime! I havent had a chance to download them.

The rest of the pics!

Addy had to point out all of his features and after seeing his feet had to take her shoe off to compare them... The other shoe then came off a few seconds later!

First family photo Baby sleeping SHHH

One Day old

Proud Daddy!

First picture with Mommy!

What an amazing journey so far. Keep praying that everything goes smoothly.

Update #7:The Great Unveiling!

We wanted to wait until the birthmom signed her papers until posting pictures... She was able to sign them today which is sooner than we thought! She still legally has 5 days to revoke her signature but she seems very committed to her adoption plan.

SO.....Here he is! Unfortunately I am having internet issues and could only get one picture uploaded but hopefully will get more up later.

I got to spend the night last night at the hospital with him. He is a good eater! And sleeps really well too! Seems like a pretty content little baby, not much fussing or crying at all. I spent some time today with our birthmom as well who is amazing. Even brought Addy up to meet her.

Addy got to meet her little brother today and was very excited about the "baby sleeping, baby sleeping" and got to hold him, kiss him, and pointout all of his features (nose, ears, toes, etc). Supercute pictures of that hopefully to be uploaded later!

If all goes well with ICPC (legal papers to cross state lines) then we should be able to leave Friday. Still unsure when they will dismiss him, probably Monday but maybe sooner. The birthmom also should be dismissed on Monday or Tuesday.

Update #6

We got to meet with our birth mom for a while and get to know her. She is an amazing wonderful sweet lady! She seems very sure of her decision to make an adoption plan. We love her already! We also got to meet the baby who is SO CUTE! He was born at 815 last night, weighing in at 6lbs 3oz and 18 1/2 inches long. And the name......

Ji'Robert Tyler (will be Pittman). It was very important for the birthmom to name him and she was ok with us adding a name. It was a big honor that she even put the name we picked on the birthcertificate. We will call him Tyler which has special meaning for us. Jared had a little brother who died a few days after birth so we are honoring him and using his name for our little boy. When we go to court we do have the opportunity to change the names but don't think we will and will forsure keep Ji'Robert in his name since it is important to his birthmom and an important part of his history.

So the runner up names, in case any of you were wondering: Bryton, Jesse, Aaron, Mason, Avery. We thought we would wait to make sure he looked like a Tyler prior to going to the back up names!

The birth mom will most likely sign in the next day or two and the baby will be dismissed from the hospital on Monday into our custody. The birthmom will probably be dismissed Monday or Tuesday.

Once she signs her papers we will post pictures. But for now.... Here we are at the pier on the bay and at a good seafood restaurant (I ate chicken!).

Update #5

Its a BOY!!! He was born last night around 8:20ish and is between 5-6 pounds, don't have a lot of details yet, but hopefully will be able to meet him and his birthmom late this afternoon. We will keep you posted as we hear more!

Update #4

Going to do a c-section tonight! We should be able to meet the birthmom and baby tomorrow sometime!

We met with the attorney/agency that is helping us at this end and he was super nice and very helpful. Did a ton more paperwork and are just waiting now!

Update #3

No update! Still waiting, still in labor.

Today we went shopping, drove around town for a while, went to eat and Jared is very proud of himself for winning a bunny for Addy out of one of those crane games!

Stay posted!

Update #2

No baby yet! Birth mom is still in labor, they may do a c-section later. We are being kept up to date by the attorney down here. He did call and was asking about names etc so it does sound like she is very committed to her adoption plan but nothing is for sure. And so we wait!

We will keep you posted!

Update #1

We made it to Alabama today! We left at 430pm yesterday and ended up driving through the night instead of our original plan of stopping in Missouri (Addy was sleeping so we thought we better keep going). So we got in today at about noon. It was a long drive but Addy was amazingly good. Yay for minivans with DVDs! Granted we listed to Elmo most of the way so are a little Elmo'd out!

The lawyer called us right after we got to Alabama and said that our birthmom went into labor this morning. We have been getting updates but it sounds like things are going very slowly so hopefully the little guy is born tonight sometime and that all goes well for the birthmom. We did have a conference call with her before we left MN and she sounds very sweet and nice. The lawyer thinks that she is sure of her decision to do an adoption plan but things can always change so we are being hopeful and trying to stay positive. This is a very scary thought for us but we know that she needs to do what is best for her and the baby and follow her heart.

The current plan is that we will meet the birthmom after the baby is born, so most likely tomorrow sometime. She will spend some time with the baby alone since the hospital is really her time with him.

Jared's dad is on his way and should be here in about an hour so it will be nice to have an extra set of hands to help with Addy while we meet the birthmom, do paperwork, etc.

We will keep you all updated! Please say prayers that all goes well for the birth, for peace for the birthmother in her decision to do an adoption plan, and for us to be patient and not stressed!