Sunday, February 09, 2020

Bottles, Diapers and Formula, Oh My!

It was a fleeting thought. And certainly rhetorical. I didn't mean anything by it, I promise.

The thought: look at my precious baby nephew! How hard could it be to care for such a perfect angel?

Little did I know the universe was going to give me an answer.

Let's step back in time to last Monday at 5:00pm. Shira and I are standing in the baby aisle at CVS trying to figure out which formula to buy. Why are there so many choices? Earlier in the day we'd been asked if we would care for a newborn that may be coming into foster care. We said yes. Then at 4:30pm we'd gotten another call: it was official, the child was coming into care and would be dropped off at our home in an hour and a half. While we didn't know all the particulars of parenting a newborn, we were pretty sure formula was essential. So off to CVS we went.

Now it's 5:45pm. Our foster care placement arrives! I pepper the poor CPS worker with questions, which she can't possibly know the answer to. And just like that, we've got an itty bitty bundle of joy to take care of. I may be biased, but he's exactly as cute as my nephew. Two fine looking young men.

We have no choice but to jump right in! The first night goes OK. Though I would like to find the masochist who thought making baby clothes with 300 tiny snaps was a good idea and give him or her a stern talking to.

The past few days have been a blur of feeding, diapering, bottle washing and Amazon ordering. The boy is perfect. I mean, his idea of when and how much to sleep and eat doesn't typically align with my preferences. But we're in active negotiations on the subject and I'm confident he'll come around to seeing things my way.

Like all foster care scenarios, this is temporary. Especially this early on in the process, there's tons we don't know. But if you see us cruising around town with a baby, know that you're not out of the loop. We're just as surprised to be parents as you are. Or, by the time you see us this little angel may not be in our home.

My suggestion: be careful with the thoughts you send out in the universe. You may get more than you bargained for in terms of a response.

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