Mack's story

Mack Atwood

December 30, 2013

Born @ 1901

9 lbs 21.5 in

Mack's story begins back in January 2013 when we first met with our adoption attorney. The months following that meeting were filled with all the necessary paperwork to start the adoption process. Fast forward to the beginning of October. This is when we found out that there was a birth mother who had read our profile and chose us to adopt her baby that was due in December! We were thrilled when we got that phone call and couldn't believe that we were finally close to having a family.

The next few weeks/months were filled with trying to prepare for this baby and doing lots of baby shopping. We were initially told that the baby's due date was December 20th, but there was a chance he would come early so we were very anxious the entire month of December. And we thought for sure that we would have a baby before Christmas. Well, December 20th came and went and so did Christmas. My anxiety level was at its max! Each day that passed felt like 5 years. 

On the morning of December 30th, which was a Monday, I got up and decided to go get my nails done to help me relax. I was about half way there when Dylan called me and told me to turn around because the birth mom was in labor!! I may have screamed a little in my car! I started calling my family and preparing them to start driving down to California. By the time I got home Dylan had told me that it was a false alarm and apparently she got sent back home. Noooo!! Major bummer! We were both bummed out so we decided to have a lunch date and we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and then saw a movie. The movie got out at about 6:50 pm and as we were walking to our car we got a phone call from our attorney saying she went back to the hospital and it was real this time!! Woo hoo! We ran home and got all of our baby things and started to drive down to LA. We knew there were two hospitals she could possibly deliver at so we went to the one our attorney told us she was at. When we got there we went straight up to the Labor and Delivery Unit and asked around to figure out where the birth mom was. But....come to find out she wasn't there. We had the Charge nurse calling pretty much every unit trying to find where she was cause we thought for sure she would be there. After we learned she wasn't there I figured it was another false alarm and she got sent home again. So needless to say I wasn't in the happiest mood. It was just too much up and down for me emotionally so I was done for the night and ready to go home. We get back to the car and Dylan was very adamant that we go to the other hospital to see if she was there. I just wanted to go home and was not in the mood anymore to go on this wild goose chase. But Dylan was driving so we ended up at the other hospital at about 9:15 pm. I told him I didn't think she was there and it was a waste of time and I almost didn't get out of the car. But good thing I did :)

We got to the unit and started asking questions and found out that the birth mother was there!! Hallelujah! We found her! A few minutes later we found out that the baby had already been born. Such a crazy feeling. Our baby boy was here!!!!! We were dying to get our hands on him. Unfortunately the Social Worker wasn't there and the nursery didn't have any information about us so it was an uphill battle to try and see the baby that night. We sat and waited for over two hours till they finally allowed us to see him through the nursery window. My heart just melted when I saw him for the first time. He was perfect in every way. It was torture for us to leave the hospital that night without holding our baby. It was extremely frustrating to be honest. But we drove home and we were told that the SW would be there in the morning by 9 am so the next morning we got up super early and got to the hospital by 7:45 am. The day shift nurses were super nice and let us look at him through the window for about an hour before the SW got there. It was such a sweet and special hour. We just watched every move he made and couldn't get over the fact that we were starring at our son. 9 am came and the SW finally let us in the nursery to hold him. We were both grinning from ear to ear and just anxious as could be. They set us up in a little corner of the nursery to have some privacy and then the nurse brought him over to us. She placed him in my arms and it was just the most wonderful feeling ever. I get emotional just thinking about it. After a while Dylan took a turn holding him and it was so special to see my boys together. For the rest of the morning and afternoon we took turns holding him and just loving him. He was surprisingly very awake and alert the whole morning. He kept starring at us and just looking around. We sat there for about five or so hours without moving. We were taking it all in and just couldn't believe he was all ours. Later that afternoon Dylan's Dad came to see him (his mom was visiting the other exciting new babies) and my parents drove in from Vegas to see him. It was fun to have them all there to experience this moment with us.  We were hoping to bring him home this day but unfortunately we couldn't. His arm was injured a little during the delivery and they wanted to watch him another night to make sure everything was going to be ok. And because they didn't have a room for us we weren't allowed to stay over night so we stayed as late as we could before they made us leave. It was also New Years Eve so we had a mini celebration with him before we left. Leaving him there was so hard. I hated it but the next morning we got up super early again and got there about 20 minutes before visiting hours began. We took turns again holding him and going through all the discharge stuff. By about 2 pm the doctor came and said he was good to go. As soon as the doctor said 'discharge', Mack got the biggest grin on his face. I know babies this young don't smile on their own but I'd like to think that it wasn't a coincidence. He was excited to finally go home! It was fun getting him dressed in his cute little outfit and put him in his car seat. Then the nurse walked us out to our car and we were out of there! The hospital he was born at is about 45 minutes away from our house so we had a little drive a head of us. It was just so fun being in the car next to my baby and driving home as a family of three.

This whole experience has been so wonderful and amazing. It was a long and difficult process for us at times but all in all it was great. Mack is our child and it's amazing to feel that he was meant to be apart of our family. It feels like he's always been here and we just love him so much. We are incredibly grateful to Mack's birth mom for her selflessness and courage to choose adoption. She never wanted to meet us so I've never been able to express my gratitude towards her in person but she will always be someone very special to us. We just feel so humbled that she wanted us to raise and love this baby boy.

Watching his baby boy through the window before we could hold him

My favorite picture. I love seeing Dylan look so happy.

Mack's first New Years kiss

I'm going home!!!

 Wondering where the name Mack came from?  Well my dad has a firetruck that is a Mack truck. A few months ago I noticed it says Mack everyone on it and told Dylan that I like that name. So when we found out that we were having a baby boy, Mack was the name we loved for him. And his middle name he shares with his Grandpa and is a family name on Dylan's dads side of the family.