We survived our first night as parents to a three week old. It seems so surreal that two days ago we did not even know that our little girl was in existence and now here we are parents to a 3 year old, a one year old and a three week old. I am not going to lie getting three kids in a less than five months was a lot. It was a huge culture shock. When we started the adoption process we did not even consider a new born and here we are. Unlike when you have a child the old fashioned way we did not have 9 months to read, prepare and learn all about babies we just had less than a day.
I had been around my niece and nephews before so I knew how to do diapers and mix bottles but that was about it. We were given some books about caring for a baby but it was almost like we were reading a book on how to drive a car while driving down the highway.
The first few weeks with our little girl Rebecca sleeping in a bassinette next to our bed. Every little grunt and groan we were jumping to be sure she was ok, I cannot even begin to estimate how many times we got up and put our hand on her just to be sure she was still breathing. She was such a good baby we would put her down around 10 and she would sleep all night long and wake up at 7 or 8 in the morning. I thought people said newborns wake up every few hours? We actually called the pediatrician to make sure it was ok to let her sleep through the night. We were debating waking her up to feed and change her but the doctor said to let her sleep and be happy.
Now we are only a few days before our first Christmas as a family and we were looking forward to Christmas morning with the boys especially. Rebecca was not going to know what was happening but Steve was three and this was going to be his first real Christmas. He had celebrated Christmas before but he never got to keep any of the presents from his foster home.