Five Years Old

My baby girl turned 5 years old yesterday. I can't believe the time has gone so quickly. It seems like just yesterday Mike was calling us to tell us that Tiffany had gone into labor and was already at the hospital so we had better get there quick! She was so beautiful. A perfect complexion. Deep blue eyes that were wide open instead of the sleepy newborn daze. A headful of strawberry blonde hair. 10 fingers and 10 toes. LONG legs and gigantic feet. She never did fit into those newborn diapers or newborn clothes people showered us with! Unlike most newborns, she didn't sleep all day. She needed constant stimulation. I cursed all those dispensers of advice that told me to sleep when the baby sleeps. My baby didn't sleep! Little did we know that this was a sign of things to come! She seemed to take in everything from the very start even though all my books said she couldn't see more than a few inches. By a week old she was entranced with the ceiling fan and studied her pacifier with the intensity of a PhD thesis. Yet more signs of what lay ahead! She was stubborn, oh so stubborn and her personality has only grown stronger and more interesting as she has grown. We had some friends who used to joke about Hannah being a "super genius baby" because she just seemed to know everything. Speaking before most kids were saying even their first words. Conjugating verbs correctly before her peers were putting 2 words together. Little did we know how right they would be. Sarah and Jason, you guys called it for sure.

She's had many struggles as she grown, but now when I look at my beautiful, precious little girl I'm so proud of the young lady she's become. I don't know what I would ever do without her. I thank God every single night for bringing us together with Tiffany and Mike and making us parents of this absolutely amazing little girl.

I leave you know with a multitude of pictures of my baby girl from each year of her life! Enjoy!

Irritated

So today I got my telephone bill for last month and on it was a charge from the hospital where I stayed two nights in October. The charge was apparently for the fact that I HAD a TV and a telephone in my room. Not for the fact that I used them, but for the fact that they were there. When I called to inquire about the charge I was informed that if I didn't want these services then I needed to opt out of them when I was admitted. Seriously? I was supposed to know this? This is the 3 rd hospital that I've been admitted to over the course of my lifetime (not counting when I was born) and Hannah's been admitted to two different hospitals from that and this is the first time we've ever been charged for TV or local telephone access. How was I supposed to know I needed to opt out? And really, what kind of cold hearted business makes people confined to a bed (or who's children are confined to a hospital bed) pay for TV? That's just mean. What else is a kid supposed to do when they aren't allowed to get up and move around? A parent can only handle reading them so many books. I can only imagine if we had been charged for TV and phone service when Hannah was in the hospital for 2 weeks as in infant. Our cell phones didn't get coverage in her room and even if they did we weren't supposed to have them on because they supposedly affected some medical machinery, but yet we had hundreds of people wanting to know how Hannah was and if they could come visit. Then there was us, brand new parents, sick with worry for our only child, stuck inside the hospital for 2 weeks. In fact, we weren't just stuck inside the hospital, but stuck inside her room because Hannah was in isolation and wasn't allowed out of the room and anyone who entered had to gown up before coming in. It was just too big of a pain to leave the room. So, what did we do? We watched TV. Of course we read books and talked to each other and the nurses and our occasional visitor, but mostly we watched a lot of cable TV. What would our bill have been for that privilege if we had been in Kent County Hospital instead of the hospital we were at? I'll tell you. It would have been $300 just for the privilege of having the TV in our room. If you can't tell, I'm a little fired up by this bill. In the hospital they charge you for every little thing and for some things I can deal with it. For example, I wasn't allowed to take my own doctor prescribed prescription medication which I brought with me and had already paid for. Instead I had to take the same medication given to me by the hospital pharmacy and administered by a nurse and pay for it again and pay for the nurse to give it to me (or tell me I'd already had it and I couldn't have it that day when I HAD NOT already taken it and by golly she wasn't going to stop me from taking it!, but that's another story). That I can deal with. But paying for TV in my room. That is just too much. If they don't want to foot the bill for having TV at their hospital then don't put TVs in the rooms, but don't make people choose whether or not to have it in their rooms or make them pay for it when they didn't even know it was something they had to pay for. GRRR. . . . .

To update everyone on Hannah's stay in Indiana, she's still having a blast and apparently she managed to sweet talk Mamaw and Papaw out of not just one, but two pillow pets. She received both of the ones she's been coveting-the purple unicorn and the dog. Now I don't see what all the fuss about Pillow Pets is. They are cute enough, but not really any cuter than any other stuffed animal. Still, they are all the rage within the preschool and early elementary school set and Hannah is no exception. She's been asking for these pillow pets pathetically ever since they first appeared on the scene this summer. I absolutely refused to pay $20 for a poor quality stuffed animal with a Velcro strap around it's belly, but not Mamaw apparently. Apparently Mamaw already had purchased the unicorn and then later in the visit took Hannah to Walmart and allowed her to buy the dog. So much for my firm stand against Pillow Pets. It must be something to do with grandmas though because I happen to know that in a neatly wrapped box sitting in our basement are those exact same two Pillow Pets from Mindy (Pap's girlfriend of many years and Hannah's pseudo Nana). It looks like we'll have 4 pillow pets in the house soon! I wonder if she'll want the duplicates or if she'll want to trade in the extras for yet two different animals?

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!