It's a Girl!

Much has happened since July 5th when I last posted, but really the only important thing to mention is that we are now the proud parents of a healthy little girl! :)

Hannah Rose Spontak was born on July 6, 2006 at 5:14 am. She weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long! She's so big she can't wear newborn diapers and doesn't fit into many of the newborn clothes we bought for her! We are all home and settling in nicely. Ok, now that we've got the important stuff out of the way I can give you the details.

On Wednesday, the day before Hannah's scheduled arrival, I spoke with Tiffany about the game plan for the next morning. We ironed out all the kinks and both felt quite comfortable with what we had decided. Then, at around 11:00 pm on that same night we got a phone call from Mike saying that Tiffany's contractions had started speeding up and she was in the hospital already and just might have the baby that night! So, we changed out of our pj's, loaded a few last minute items into the car and headed off to the hospital. Right about the time we were pulling into the hospital parking garage we got a call from Tiffany saying that Mike had it all wrong. She was in the hospital, but they had given her medicine to stop her contractions and were still planning on having the cesarean Thursday at 8:00 am just like we had discussed earlier that day. Since we were already there, we went up to the room and visited with her for awhile. We left around 3:00 am for the hotel and planned to be back at the hospital at 8:00 the next morning.

Thursday we arrived at the hospital at 8:05 am to find Tiffany just coming out of anethesia. Apparently an over eager intern had jumped the gun and thought that Tiffany's water was about to break so they rushed her into the OR around 5 am and Miss Hannah was delivered at 5:14 am. Tiffany had still not got to meet Hannah when we arrived as she was just coming out of her anethesia. At around 9:00 am they rolled Hannah in and we got a brief glimpse of her as we were shuffled out of the room. The following 6 hours took quite a toll on us as we waited and waited to be allowed to visit with Hannah and Tiffany. A steady stream of Tiffany's family members (she's from a large Clodfelter-esk type of family!) paraded in and out of the room all day and each time the door opened we would crane our necks to catch a peek at our little one. Finally at 3:00 pm Tiffany's mother came out sniffling and thanked us profusely for being so patient and for giving Tiffany and the family the time they needed to spend with Hannah alone. She said she knew how hard it must be for us waiting, but that they were exceptionally thankful. She brought us back into the room and we finally got to see our little one for the first time. She was absolutely perfect! She had a cute pudgy face and a full head of long, dark brown hair. We visited with Tiffany, Hannah, Mike, and Tiffany's family and friends for the rest of the day and shared in taking care of Hannah with Tiffany in between the times when the doctors and nurses came to take her away for tests. We finally headed back to our hotel around 1:00 am since we were not allowed to stay at the hospital.

On Friday we arrived at the hospital around 9:00 am. We gave Tiffany time to get her doctors' visits in, sleep in, and get a much needed shower and some breakfast. We spent all day with Hannah and again shared in taking care of her with Tiffany. Tiffany told us that she wanted us to be able to invite our family to come and visit at the hospital, so Heather and Tina came to visit as well as Mom and Tom. Everyone held Hannah except for Auntie Heather, but we'll break her in soon enough! Friday night was Mike's last time to spend with Hannah and he asked to be able to spend the majority of the night with her, so we headed for the hotel at about 10:30 pm to give he and Tiffany their final night together with Hannah.

Saturday morning we arrived at the hospital at around 8:00 am. Hannah had her pictures taken professionally by a friend of Tiffany's family who offered to give us free 8 x 10's of our favorite and also gave us permission to copy and print as many as we wanted for friends and family. She waived all copyrights to the pictures. We can't wait to see them! At around 11:00 Kyle and I went to lunch to give Tiffany time to spend with Hannah again. At 12:00 our adoption counselor met with us and we signed our portion of the paperwork. Then she went to see Tiffany for her to sign the papers. We had no idea how long to expect it to take for her to sign and were still a bit nervous thinking, "What if she changes her mind?" While we waited, we met with the pediatrician and the nurses to get final instructions for taking Hannah home. Then we just hung out and waited anxiously for our counselor to return to tell us that she had signed and to tell us when we could go back to the room. At about 1:30, our counselor appeared to say that Tiffany had signed all of her papers and that she still wanted a few minutes alone with Hannah to say goodbye before she was discharged. A nurse would come and tell us when we could return to the room. At around 2:15, Tiffany sent for us and we were able to see her one last time before we all left the hospital. Both Tiffany and I (and Tiffany's mom) cried when we said good-bye, but in the end Tiffany was smiling when the nurse wheeled her out because she was confident that she had made the right decision. After Tiffany was discharged the nurse came back to discharge Hannah. She did a car seat check and then we were free to go. It was hard to believe that they were actually going to let us drive away with her! Everything felt like a dream. I rode in the back seat with Hannah and Kyle drove about 5 miles under the speed limit the entire way home!

Now after spending our first 24 hours alone with Hannah it still feels as if we are living in a dream world. It will take some time to get used to this parenting thing, but we are definitely enjoying ourselves and our precious new addition.

PS, for those who are curious about the significance of Hannah's name, read 1 Samuel ch 1-2 about Hannah's infertility and her willingness to place her first born son Samuel in an open adoption with the priest Eli.

More updates will be forth coming as we settle into a routine and have some more time to breath! Thank you all for your prayers and support. We truly appreciate everything!