James and Claire

We woke up this morning and called the NICU to verify that James' sleep study had gone well. He passed with no issues and was on target for an afternoon release. Technically, the hospital discharges the babies to the adoption agency, who then turns them over to us. So we needed a Gladney representative present for James' release. Meredith, a Gladney rep from Fort Worth, is in Austin this week for a seminar, so we were going to wait until 5:00 so Meredith could come over after her seminar was done for the day.

Christy and I were so impressed with the Z Tejas brunch...we decided to try the lunch out today. My eyes were immediately drawn to the 5-cheese macaroni with chicken. I asked the waiter if it was good, and he said with all seriousness 'It's good, but only if you are feeling gluttonous'. I said 'Perfect. That is exactly how I feel'. I finished the whole thing easily. The waiter was impressed. Christy got a really good salad. I don't eat many salads, but I tried hers and I would consider ordering it in the future.

At about 2:00, Dr. Diven called and started the conversation by asking 'You ready to take your boy home?'. On the phone, he indicated that Claire is probably 7-10 days behind James. Christy and I talked last night about how to handle this. We were thinking that maybe we would all go home and I would come get Claire when she is ready....but once we both saw Claire today, we knew we did not want her just lingering in the NICU with out at least one of her parents here. So the plan remains that Christy will take James home when the interstate paperwork is done (in a day or two) and I will wait here for Claire.

In the afternoon, we headed to Target to get some last minute baby supplies. While Christy went in, I stayed out in the parking lot and installed the car seat and cleaned out a month's worth of trash that had piled up. The trash of course, is all attributable to Mamaw, as Christy and I would never leave trash in a car.

Finally, it was time to go get James. We headed over to the hospital. We paid Claire a lot of attention, and we feel so sad that she has to stay in the NICU. It was a really cool feeling when they unhooked all of the wires and cut the bracelet off of James and handed him to Christy. Meredith arrived right on queue and we signed a few more papers. When it came time for release, we loaded James into his car seat, said goodbye to Claire, and headed towards the car. One of the nice nurses, a guy named Danny, who shared many conversations about Austin food with us over the last few weeks, carried James out to the curb for us. We loaded him in, and drove away with our son.

Christy then told me that she was craving Pappasito's. So I dropped them off and headed off to pick up some enchiladas. We ate it in the room while keeping an eye on the homerun derby. After a few minutes, we finished watching 'The Other Boleyn Sister' (which we had started yesterday). The only good thing that I learned from this is that I care just as little about Anne Boleyn's sister as I do about Anne Boleyn. I was worried that I might care slighly less about one or the other...but no...it is confirmed that I care exactly NONE about either of them.

As I was catching up on e-mails and work, Christy just sat and cuddled with James for a couple of hours. We are both so excited to finally have James 'unplugged'.

It's funny how the mere thought of having two infants makes the reality of having one seem much easier. Even though James is here, it seems very simple because there is only one of him.

Yesterday's question was a fake. I threw it in so you could tell the difference. Nobody sent me a question, so there is not one today.

Little James is sleeping at my feet as I write. We are going to be good friends.