Finally, Big Sis Gets Her Day!

After a long night practicing feeding, swaddling, and holding baby (doll), Anastasia finally takes a break.

Finally, she gets to hold and help feed the real deal, little brother Josiah.

What a great helper Anastasia will be. Josiah, you're one lucky brother.

More Watchful Eyes...

The teddy bears stand watch like the guards of Buckingham Palace.

Watchful Eyes

The nursing staff at North Suburban Hospital is top notch. Their attention to all of the babies that come into their supervision is amazing to say the least; careful, nurturing, and downright loving. You thought your Mom had eyes in the back of her head...just try lowering your heartrate or reducing your oxygen saturation below 90 on their watch. Not gonna happen, little mister, or miss.

Thank you, Carol, Shanda, Amanda, Kathy, Trish, and all of the other nurses who were attending our precious Josiah. Your helpful advice and professionalism is truely appreciated.

Whatdya say?

Josiah passed his hearing test with near crystal clear precision. While he wasn't too thrilled about the ear muffs, he managed to stay still for the audiologist long enough to get a passing grade.

Forgive the lack of technical details here, but basically, they placed one sensor on his octive nerve, one on his forehead to measure brain activity, and one grounding wire on his shoulder. Then, covering his ears with super-cool headphones, they played different sounds and measured his auditory brainstem response to the sounds.
Good job, Josiah!

Bath-time!

As Tanya documents Josiah's first bath, Carol, his nurse, instructs Jenn in the fine art of baby-washing.

Poor Josiah, one minute he's so warm and cozy in his swaddling cloth, and the next...surrounded by women with washcloths!

Even though the water was warm, he still is not a big fan.

Don't worry, bath-time is lots of fun! As soon as we can, we'll replace the shock and sterile bathmat with laughter and a rubber-ducky.

There, now that wasn't so bad!

Ah, a loving hand can help you though anything.

Hey, that's my brother!!!

With Aunt Gloria/ Grandma's help, big sister, Anastasia, peers through the nursery window at little brother, Josiah. We're all eagerly awaiting the day when Anastasia can finally give her brother a big hug.

Anastasia deserves a lot of credit for being patient while Josiah recovers and grows up enough to leave the nursery. Being the big brain behind the name, she's got to be overflowing with excitement.

Not only has she helped pick out a name for her brother, she's already inspected his new digs in Highlands Ranch and selected several awesome outfits for him to wear, in and out of the nursery.

It'll be lots of fun watching these two hang out and grow up together; up north, down south, or anywhere in between.

Bring on the O2

What's better than a breath of fresh air?

At 35 weeks old, it's a breath of supplemental oxygen from a nasal canula and a firm grip on Dad's finger.

Josiah has been steadily weening himself from the tube and will soon be breathing the good stuff. The altitude is just a little much for his premie lung power. Another week or so and he'll breathing Denver's air, probably wishing he was back on the O2's.

Let's Eat!

How many adoring parents does it take to get a little boy to eat? Let's see...




Whew! I gotta rest...he says! Everyday he get's a little bigger portion of formula but still, being a little early and new to this whole, suck...swallow...breathe thing, he's not quite ready for the whole enchilada.

He's been doing pretty good getting down between 20-40 ml from bottle feedings, then taking in the rest with the help of his fancy eating machine (the nasogastric tube). He gets lots of love and cuddles during his feedings, to which he responds, with those big beautiful peepers..."blink blink...I'm a cutie."

Reflection on Open Adoption

"One day while I was hanging out with one of my friends the topic of our parents came up. My friend always knew that I was adopted through open adoption but we had never discussed it. I guess on this particular day he was feeling rather brave and launched into a slew of question, like do I see my birthmom, and, how often. You could tell that he was relieved that I felt so comfortable talking with him about it. Then he asked me, between my adoptive parents and my birthpartents which did I feel were my "REAL" parents. I was sort of surprised by what seemed should be the obvious answer. I told him, hey, they're both my "REAL" parents."

~Young Man. adopted through Open Adoption

Happy Birthday, Josiah! May 13th, 2008

Josiah John was happily born into the world today! He's a healthy 6 lbs, 18 inches - 5 weeks early! Tanya, Birthmom, is recovering and doing ok. Thank goodness for modern medicine and pharmaceuticals. Jenn and Kevin are excited to be parents so soon. (Evidenced by the expression on Kevin's face below.)

We've all been hanging out with Josiah in the hosipital while he transitions from the cozy warmth of Tanya's tummy, to the cozy warmth of the hospital baby warmer and oxygen tent. (his first tent!) He is needing just a little bit more time to get his lungs adjusted to the new surroundings. Just as soon as he's ready he'll be snuggling up with his sister, Anastasia, birthmom Tanya, adopting mom Jenn, and adopting dad Kevin.

It may be another week with the security and capable monitoring of the North Suburban Hospital nursing staff. Then, he'll be able to go to his new home with Jenn and Kevin to begin his first year.