Stepping Aside...(Now updated)

Was suprisingly easier than I expected. I'll write as much as I can now, and try to finish on my lunch break today. I need to take a little time, because some of this post may become evidence in court. Here's a quick summary:

1. 6 1/2 hours at children's hospital in New Orleans. 12 hours from when we left the house, until we got home.

We arrived at noon and left at 6:15!! The 1:30 appointment didn't happen til after 2! For the cleft team appointments, it was scheduled at 2:30, we were taken to a room about 4, and saw the last of the 6 doctors/specialists at 6 pm!

2. 6 1/2 hours, L and I alone with bio mom. Social worker could not make it, but bio mom did.

Trusty OCS will always make sure mom has transportation to the doctor visits, however, us foster parents must provide our own! If you cannot get her own ride to the appointments, can she really properly care for him?

3. 4 surgeries, 3 major, one very minor.
1. cleft lip repair
2. cleft palette repair
3. hypospadia(sp?)--sorry everyone, you'll have to google it. I don't discuss baby N's privates here, mine maybe, but not his. It's urology related.
4. Tubes in ears


4. 7 doctors/specialists seen yesterday, 2 others we need to see or get reports from before surgery.
1. plastic surgeon
2. speech therapist
3. Audiologist
4. Ear, Nose, and Throat
5. Geneticist
6. Dentist
7. Urologist

The plastic surgeon is waiting for reports for his prior geneticist and cardiologist(for heart murmur). Surgeon will not operate if geneticist determines he has a genetic defect that will kill him in a couple of years, although this has been ruled out by his prior geneticist.

5. One very cranky baby, his mom and lots of baby equipment to lug around.

Can I blame baby N? Of course not, I was cranky too after that long day.

The bio mom, all I can say for now, is that we respected each other, and we let her be mommy and involved for the doctor visits. Social worker says not to be surprised if she accuses us of saying something we didn't.

6. 3-4 times circling St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans until we found the alley the hospital was on.
The street sign was only on one side of the road. The city is still fairly deserted..Oh wait, they were all at children's hospital!

7. 10,000 parenting tips from bio mom.

Baby oil for cradle cap
Bibs for drooling
He needs a pacifier
Baby N likes...
His sisters are like him because...
Do you have ___ at your house? I can bring it for you.

8. 100 reasons why social services took her boy and it wasn't her fault.

Lies, it's all lies they told about me!

Will finish updating later. Before you all freak out, bio mom behaved fairly well yesterday and seems to like us much more than the other foster mom.

Coming up, a placement call we almost received and whether or not we should pursue it?

I guess you all want to hear about the placement call? I teased you a little. We didn't get the call, baby N's former foster mom did, and refered our social worker to call us. She said she thought about it, knew we'd say yes, and didn't want us to be overwhelmed with baby N. She was placed with a family though. The placement:

A premie baby girl, straight out of the hospital!

At least now I know my chances are good of getting one from the hospital. I think that was God's way of telling us to wait.

We hope to have the first surgery scheduled in 4-6 weeks assuming the plastic surgeon gets the reports from the other doctors he needed.

Baby N's birth weight--4 lbs 9 oz
Baby N's weight now(7 mos) -- 18 lbs 8 oz

A big boy huh?

What next? I have something special I'd like to share, so if I've known you a while(on my blogroll or comment/email me often), send me an email...

I finally caught a picture of my baby N smiling!!! And with the cleft, it's a more adorable smile than a normal baby. You have to email me. I'm not smart enough to find most of your email addresses on your blogs.

Now, enough about me, time to caught up on my reading and commenting so ya'll don't think I desserted you.

Sorry to leave you hanging, but love the response I got from it. I had about 10 minutes to post, so I did a summary so I wouldn't forget anything, so I could fill ya'll in later.