Hallelujah Call

I named the calls I get for babies 'Hallelujah Calls' because on my old purple flip phone that I loved so much, the matchers numbers came up with the Hallelujah Chorus as the ringtone. I have since retired my beloved flip phone and no longer have the ringtone, but the excitement with each call is still the same.

Today I got a call for a baby. He was born premature, but healthy. He's a little 4lb peanut just like Baby 3. His family is having legal struggles that are preventing them from parenting him permanently. He has a relative resource that is raising his siblings. She wants him as well, but she needs time to decide if she can make the changes to her family that would need to happen before adding a new baby. The county does not think handing relative resource another baby is a good idea, but it will all depend on the resource and the judge in the end. I'm not ready to call him Baby 11 for that reason, but we're ready if he needs us.

The plan is for court at the end of the week and discharge from the NICU next week. I have to wait until court happens and the parents are informed of the removal before I can go see him. I'm hoping they go to court on Friday and inform the family of the plan right then so that we can visit all weekend and be super familiar with his care by discharge next week.

In the mean time, I have to:

• Get preemie clothes down from the attic and wash them
• Buy a visit bag and notebook
• Buy newborn diapers
• Wash the bottles
• Wash the bassinet sheets for our room
• Set up Pack'n'Play in the living room with the bassinet insert
• Find my boppy pillow
• Set up crib in Baby 4's room (I don't actually have to do that now, but it'll be good for Baby 4 to have time to prepare and for the caseworker to see our long term set up.)
• Breathe

I'm fighting the urge to go out and buy every tiny cute boy thing I can. Little babies don't need tons of stuff, With all this time to prep, though, it's going to be a challenge. (Edit: between starting and finishing this post, I bought 2 onesies with little ties on them, a crocheted hat with matching pacifier clip, and socks that look like footballs on Etsy- So I'm pretty much doing awesome with this whole 'babies don't need stuff' point)

A week has never felt longer.