So good and so bad that I actually threw up...a true story

Before I tell this story, I want you to know that I do not dislike nurses.  In every profession there are great ones and not so great ones.  I have friends who are nurses.  And honestly, without Sandi (our delivery nurse), I'm pretty sure Jack would never have been born.  Now for a bit more background information....before my kids were born, I was terrified of newborns.  I was not one of those people who wanted to cuddle the new baby or hold the baby at the baby shower.  We didn't have little kids in our family and I hadn't babysat in many years so babies completely freaked me out.  I was so scared that we would get to the hospital and Lily's birth mom and the nurses would think I was inadequate and that they were never going to let me take her home.  I shared this fear with our adoption worker and she said that everyone was going to be helpful and understand that it was a stressful situation.  Lily's birth mom was amazing....the nurses were not.
We arrived at the hospital at 9:00 pm.  It was past visiting hours but no one cared as everyone was awaiting our arrival.  We met our daughter, held her, fed her and then decided to leave for the night.  They didn't have an extra room for us and Lily was rooming with her birth mom so we couldn't stay at the hospital overnight.  It was hard to leave our baby girl, but we could tell she was in great hands with her birth mom.  It had been a stressful, wonderful day.  We had no idea what would happen next.
When we arrived the next day we were immediately approached by the nurses and were told that we could not take Lily off of the ward.  It wasn't what they said, but how they said it.  We knew that they were concerned with our arrangement.  We had custody papers signed that said that we were the ones who would make medical decisions for Lily, but we were completely ignored by all hospital staff.  One nice nurse secretly told us that they were afraid to talk to us in case our adoption was illegal and they ended up being involved.  We had two options...we could stay in the birth mom's room (a very shy woman who had just given birth the day before and to whom we were complete strangers) or we could sit with our newborn in the drafty, noisy and bright waiting room.  We were uncomfortable in both so we went back and forth between in search of some comfort.  Lily was a needy baby and would not stay asleep if she was put down.  I of course took this to mean that I was unable to put her to sleep or comfort her, which made me worried, which she detected and became upset.  No one at the hospital would talk to us so we had no idea if we were allowed to dress her in our own clothes, how much to feed her, or how to bath a baby at all.  The nice nurse secretly took us into the back of the nurses' station to show us a video on bathing and let us stay in there for some privacy before we were kicked out by other nursing staff.  When the nurses came to check on her we had to take her back to her birth mom's room and they would talk to her and completely ignore us.  We were discharged by the doctor but were told we couldn't leave until the hospital social worker spoke with us.  They kept Lily and her birth mom admitted another day so a meeting could be set up with the social worker who didn't work on the weekend.
After an exhausting, exhilarating, wonderful, terrifying day, we decided to stop at Shopper's Drug mart on the way back to our hotel. Standing in the baby aisle, I suddenly became so overwhelmed by the day and by all the different baby stuff.  I ran to the counter and asked where the bathroom was.  You could tell that the bathroom wasn't for customers but they let me in anyway.  I think they knew I was going to throw up.
While I shared my lunch with the Shopper's Drug mart toilet, my darling husband picked out the cutest Winnie the Pooh diapers (I love Winnie the Pooh).  We stocked up on formula, wipes, bottles, etc and headed back to the hotel.
The next morning the social worker came to see us.  She apologized for our treatment, spoke with Lily's birth mom about her decision, and then tuned in some nurses for our treatment.  Suddenly everyone was our friend and everyone wanted to teach us how to feed her and bath her and how to put her in the car seat.  It was so hard not to tell them to go to hell, but it was information that would help Lily over the next few days, so we smiled and nodded instead.  It was finally time to go and the nurses did their final assessment on Lily.  Guess what...her temperature was up and they would need to check her again in two hours.  Again, we were stuck in the hospital.  Lily's birth mom desperately wanted to get back to her family, but they wouldn't discharge her until Lily was ready to go.  She missed the plane back to Nunavut and was stuck for another day.
Finally all was well and the four of us took the elevator down to the lobby.  We hugged Lily's birth mom and drove off....back to the hotel because it was too late in the day to drive home.  Scott headed to Toys R Us to purchase more stuff...babies need a ton of stuff, and I sat in the hotel room cuddling my daughter....still pretty scared of newborns but with definite improvement.

What I learned....when they threatened to call Social Services on us we should have said to go ahead.  Of course we were afraid that our baby was going to end up in the "system" but in hindsight, they probably could have helped us. And we weren't doing anything wrong.
Highlight of the weekend...beside of course becoming a mother and calling my family with the news, I thoroughly enjoyed calling my work to leave a message.  Because a prior adoption attempt had failed, we were really shy about telling anyone about this prospective adoption.  My work had no idea.  This was my message, "Hi, it's Lindsay calling.  I am calling to announce the birth of Lily.  I won't be at work on Monday....or for the next year.  I'll call you when we get home."  How fun!!
Meeting Lily and becoming her mother was absolutely amazing.  Nothing could have ruined that for me...no matter how hard they tried!!