Sleep is a wondeful thing

Yes, last night had two back-to-back sessions of over 2 hours solid sleep, very nice, very wonderful. Keeping the little monkey awake more during the day seems to be working. Renée is spending lots of time playing with him after diaper changes while he's awake and looking all around. At night he seems to wake up the most, he loves to look at the light and shadows. He stares wide-eyed and rolls his head around, then seems to stare right at me, then suddenly lids come down...then maybe open again. Quite a little show. he does a double sneeze, he gets hiccups after he eats, and he likes to kick his skinny legs out long and straight.

We put him back in the sling last night after dinner and took a little walk in the humid twighlight along the canal behind the hotel. We saw a toad and crickets jumping across the path and fireflies lighting up the banks. He didn't see any of this of course, cocooned away deep in his sling. But he seems to like being all squashed up in there.

This hotel living is not bad, really, but we are both ready to go home and see our family and friends...and have them help us too! Although he has been so good. Only last night after his 10pm feeding, at about 11 he had a little episode, seemed to be very uncomfortable and unhappy...took a little more formula and settled down and slept solidly, as did we, until 2:30 which was so nice...then slept again until 6am.

Thankfully it hasn't been terribly hot here as they tell us it usually is....perhaps we can go out again today. Got my work done early this morning, though I have so much left to do...and 4 possible new jobs came up yesterday. Saying yes to everything, sort it out later.

Sleep? What's that?

He's probably the most quiet perfect baby that ever was, but still he eats every 2 to 4 hours and takes 30 to 60 minutes to do it including the bottle making and burping and changing, so I'm starting to get used to operating in a perpetual state of semi-consciousness.

Here were his feeding times over the past 24 hours or so starting with last night:
6:30pm
9:30pm
12:30am
3:30am
5:30am
7:45am
(here we went to breakfast in the hotel lobby which we've been doing every morning, then came back and crashed out, all three of us)
10:40am
1:30pm
4:20pm
7:00pm
10:35pm (that's right now)

We've kept him awake more today after feedings and changings, unswaddling him and playing with him. He really seems to enjoy just looking around. And this afternoon he slept on my chest for an hour or so, his naked belly on my bare chest, laying sideways, feet draped off my ribs, both of us sleeping soundly. Very, very wonderful.

Right now I'm pretty tired, but he and Renée have been sleeping hard and now he's filling up so I'm hoping for a few good hours before the next feeding.

Tired? You bet. Worth it? You bet. Okay, here we go...on into the night...

Hanging out in Texas with little Ethan Elliott

First thing I did when we arrived at the Marriott Residence Inn on South University in Fort Worth was to set up our technology infrastructure: an airport express hooked up to the hotel's wired high-speed internet access to create a local wireless network for each of our laptops; the iPod in a base on the microwave and plugged into little speakers sitting on top of the fridge; a battery charger for the video camera. Renée is all set up on the kitchen counter and I have a workspace on a small desk tucked in the corner, with a hard drive on the floor containing my video project I'm working on for one of my clients. I even had to go to Albertson's and buy 3 plug adapters that turned the 2 socket plugs into 6 sockets because we have so much stuff to plug in...computers, network device, cell phones, hard drive, chargers, iPod...crazy, but now we have a fully functional office and communications center.

But who cares about all that. Day before yesterday we brought little Ethan Elliot home. Before that we spent some wonderful amazing time in the hospital with our birthmother, but since this blog is about being a father, I'll cover the adoption part of things elsewhere. Suffice it to say that we are both incredibly happy and tired parents learning as we go and discovering this amazing little creature.

Although Renée is doing most of the changing an feeding, I'm doing a good amount myself and I feel like I'm getting reasonably good at making up the bottle, feeding and burping him, and changing his diaper. We are really lucky because he is so calm and easy going...he cries a little when he is hungry or when we are changing him but he stops very quickly once he is either being fed or is swaddled back up.

So far being a new dad is great. I worry about my work, I've been over on the computer, doing my conference calls, editing, etc...worry about money...but I'm so excited about being his dad and thinking about all the things we are going to do together, all the things I get to teach him.

Since he's been here, we've been making more modifcations to our living space...I replaced all the 100 watt bulbs with 40 or 60 watts; the office loaned us an office chair that doesn't really rock but it does swivel which isn't half-bad...and we've been keeping the place dark and playing lots of soft music...Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Nina Simeone. It's actually quite nice in here, although it really helps to get out. Just had a soup and sandwich dinner at a place called Panera's across the highway (there's a bicycle/walking path that goes under so you don't have to cross it) and we had a nice stroll along the rather stanky-looking river. Beautiful warm evening, sky streaked with clouds, folks riding and roller blading on the path and Elliott tucked into his little sling over my shoulder. Feeling very tired, but life is good.

Anticipation

Only days, maybe hours to go now. Our birthmother is due next week, but it could happen anytime. After 5 months of this strange wonderful journey called domestic open adoption, we may soon get to meet our new son.