Bundle of Blue

With Plumb's "Blink" playing softly in the background and my husband, my dog and the new addition napping on this chilly afternoon, I have a few minutes to write about said new addition.

Two-week old Baby Z came on Friday to stay for a while. I don't know much of his story. The social workers who dropped him off didn't know either, since his actual social worker was in court with a different case and couldn't make it. I'm hoping to find out more from her on Monday. Part of the "fun" of foster care is the ever-unpeeling onion of information about the cases. I'm cautious to even share what I know because it's so spotty and pieced together from different sources, so I don't know what's accurate. Here is what I think is ok to tell you.

He is in foster care, as opposed to the non-custodial respite status of Baby F. That means he is in state custody and is covered by Medicare (or Medicaid, I can't remember which) and we can apply for WIC to buy his formula.

We don't know how long we'll have him, but if he's still with us May 4, he will go into respite with another family since I have to go do two weeks of Reserve time. Remember, babies under six weeks have to stay at home. After that two weeks, if he's still not home with his family, he'll come back to us.

Though I don't know much about his first two weeks of life, here's what I know about him. He is FEISTY! It'll be interesting to see if he's this way naturally or as a survival mechanism, and if he changes the more stable he becomes. He's little; I don't know his birth stats, but they said he was early. He's a busy little guy. Even when he's sleeping, he's twitching and squeaking. He has the best little pouty lip that usually comes out right after a gassy smile. He's scrawny, but strong and very alert to what's going on.

And he's stinking adorable!

Since he's a little darker than we are, I think we'll get a different response in public than we did with Baby F. I've already seen questions in people's eyes, but so far everyone just says he's really cute. I  can only say "Thank you," though I'm thinking, "but I obviously had nothing to do with that!"

I've been experiencing a mix of confidence in my baby skills, thanks to Baby F, 9 nie-neps and years of babysitting, and some minor almost freak-outs, thanks to him being different from all those babies. I have a great community- a village, if you will- of advice-givers to keep me from fully freaking out, so I'm thankful for them. It's fun to post a question on Facebook and see all the various responses I get. It  shows me that there's no one perfect way and no major way I'm gonna mess him up.

In Baby F news, I watched her for the last half of the week as her mom was in a class. It was fun having her here. She's smiling alot and sleeping so much better, a real joy that little one. She had just gone down for a nap when Z came, but her mom came to get her early so we took a picture of them together. She's happy she isn't the smallest one around anymore!

So, what have you been up to this weekend?