Dominic's First Football Saturday

Dominic and Alex

As Dominic was lucky enough to be born during the football season, he is now 5 days old and experiencing his first football Saturday!  To start out the morning, Dominic gave us his own present by sleeping 4 straight hours from 3am to 7am.  He might have slept longer, but I got up and made sure he could have his diaper changed and get a feeding in.  After that, we moved downstairs to watch pregame activities.  However, Dominic crashed right away, so I had the joy of cuddling with both Dominic and Alex for a little while which was really nice.

Big boy pants!

Since I'm a big Nebraska fan, it's a guarantee that we would be watching daddy's team at 12:30pm.  Not only that, Grandpa Bill and Grammy Mary sent out a great Husker outfit for Dominic, so he could show some team spirit!  However, the "0-3 Months" outfit was a bit big.  We slipped him into a rather roomie onesie and then brought the pants over just for fun...he might have to grow into those  :)

Once Dominic was all ready to go, we took some fun family pictures in our Nebraska gear before heading downstairs to feed Dominic and do a quick Skype with Andy's mom before the game.

Daddy and Dominic

Papa and Dominic

Is it time for food?

Feeding time!

Visits & Baby Health

Over the past few days, we've seen and heard so many great notes, texts, emails, voicemails, Facebook comments, blog comments, etc.  It is truly a great feeling to be inundated with so many wonderful messages!  Also, a fair number of people are excited to see Dominic!  I know... kind of crazy how people want to see an adorable baby   :)

While we'd love to be our typical planner selves and schedule visits for everyone that wants to come over, we're actually busy taking care of a baby!  So, we're going to be a bit lazy and ask everyone that wants to come visit to contact us.  We're still trying to figure out a general schedule for Dominic, but we may shoot for visits between 5 and 7pm during the weekdays.  On weekends, we'll figure those out as we go.  So send us a message if you want to come visit, and we can figure it out from there.

On an important note, our primary job as parents is to take good care of Dominic and make sure he stays healthy. A baby's immune system is practically non-existent and therefore extremely vulnerable in the first two months.  A simple cold in an adult typically remains a cold.  However, a cold in a baby can be much more harmful without an immune system to fight it.  Even after a hospital stay and his first pediatrician visit, Dominic has only had one vaccination (Hepatitis B), and he won't have any more until he reaches 2 months.  To help keep him happy and healthy, here are two rules we're setting for people that see him between now and that 2-month mark in January:

• Be up to date on your shots (Flu and whooping cough are the big ones - Tdap or a booster as needed for whooping cough)
• No colds!  If you're sick, feeling a cold coming on, or still recovering, please wait until you're 100%.

Home & Open Adoption

Just a brief update here to cover the past couple of days since our last post.  We've been home with Dominic for about 8 hours now.  After an evening full of Skype calls and visitors, I'm looking forward to our first night with Dominic.  Whether we sleep or not, I really appreciate that he will be here with us.  The past two days have been eventful, joyous, and traumatic.

After spending an extra day around the hospital in Tacoma, I think we've become even stronger proponents of open adoption.  As a group with myself, Andy, Carly, and Dominic, we were lucky to spend so much time together during Dominic's first two days.  There were so many firsts that we were all there to experience.  Whether it was his first diaper change or his first bath when he opened his beautiful eyes, I know that it was important for all of us to be together.  With an open adoption, all of us are now family for each other.

Andy and I really care for Carly because she is truly a wonderful person.  After Carly chose us to be the adoptive parents for her baby, we have gotten to know more about each other than some of our closest friends may know each of us.  Of course, that also made today extremely difficult.  We knew it would be tough for Carly when it came time to entrust little Jackson William (now Dominic Jackson) into our care.  However, just sitting here writing this is extremely difficult for me as I vividly remember how emotional that actually was.  I can honestly say that nothing I've experienced has ever been so heart wrenching in my life.

As I said, I'm an even stronger proponent of open adoption after today.  In closed adoptions, today would never have happened.  The adoptive parents in a closed adoption would never have met the birthmother or been given the chance to see the extent of love for the baby from the friends and family of the birthparents and even from the birthmother herself.  Instead, open adoptions provide the opportunity for everyone to stay involved and for babies like Dominic to receive love and attention from everyone that cares about him.  With open adoption, saying 'goodbye' at the hospital wasn't saying goodbye forever...it was merely saying goodbye for today and knowing that today's goodbye would become tomorrow's 'hello'.

Dominic Jackson Magee

We have permanently marked our calendars for November 12th.  The little boy that we will be adopting was born at 12:24pm!

A few hours ago, we announced his name to our immediate family and many of our friends.  Despite many of our friends ribbing us for "not knowing" his name in recent days, we actually didn't decide on the name of Dominic Jackson until minutes before seeing him for the first time in the hospital.  It was a close duel between Ethan and Dominic, but Dominic won out in the end.  It helped make the decision easier knowing that Carly and the birth father really liked the name Dominic as well.  The middle name of Jackson came from the name that Carly gave him: Jackson William.

There will be many more posts in the coming days, but here are a few more pictures of Dominic from tonight:

Lastly, I feel it is important to note that the adoption is still not finalized.  Legally, the earliest that any baby in Washington can be relinquished is 48 hours after the birth.  For Dominic, that would be Wednesday afternoon.  Everything still appears to be on track with the adoption plan, but I also don't want to take a presumptive tone as this is still Carly's decision to make.  As time and events move forward, we'll continue to share updates on our family's progress in the adoption process.

One More Day...

It's been a whirlwind of a weekend as I'm sitting here writing this post.  Ever since I left work on Friday morning and began my paternity leave, I've been running from one thing to the next with a bowling tournament on Friday and Saturday, watching Skyfall with Andy on Friday night, another excursion with friends on Saturday night, hearing wonderful things from our favorite Vancouver bowlers, and then today's final preparations around the house.  This has been an amazing weekend and I really find myself ready to become a father tomorrow.

Ever since Carly picked us, I haven't been too anxious or stressed.  I think my mindset was just to chill and roll with things which helped keep me from bouncing around with excitement.  (That definitely came in handy at work since I didn't mentally check out until I essentially walked out the door.)  However, I do have to say that my laid-back armor got a few cracks in it during our baby shower last Sunday.  Molly and Angie did an amazing job hosting the event.  We also had so many wonderful family and friends on hand supporting us that it really struck home for me.  The night afterwards, I was feeling rather sappy as I sorted through baby clothes, toys, blankets, and so many other adorable baby items.

Today, Andy and I really focused on our final preparations and it's been a sentimental day.  We cleaned, we organized, we washed baby clothes, and we assembled nearly everything.  Just looking around our room and the future baby room, it feels 'right' to see dedicated baby spaces and items.  One of the things we really like the most is our 'Baby Nook' which is a converted closet space in our bedroom.  After a little work, the fresh coat of paint has been bedazzled with some new forest friends.

Completed 'Baby Nook' in our bedroom complete with forest-themed wall decals

Looking forward to tomorrow, I'd recommend checking out our past post on Adoption Planning II if you have questions on what's next.  That post goes into detail and runs through the tentative hospital plan/schedule.  It's possible that we'll have an interim post on here while Andy and I spend most of the day waiting at a coffee shop before heading to the hospital later in the afternoon.  If not, then our next post will be much more baby-centric!