Introducing Jason!

My husband Kevin and I were pleased to welcome our second son Jason on April 2nd! He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long. Jason was full term, unlike our older son Keith who was 8 weeks premature. We've been learning about how full terms are different from preemies.

I've also learned a lot from adopting a second time. Keith's and Jason's birth moms have very different expectations about openness in the future. It's made me check my feelings about openness and re-orient my thinking about why I want it. I've always said that I'm working on maintaining a relationship with Keith's birth family for his benefit not mine. But when Jason's birth mom expressed reservations about seeing us, my concern was more about my feelings than Jason's future relationship with her.

I also learned how different hospitals can have very different policies and procedures when it comes to adoption. The hospital where Jason was born previously had a policy that adoptive parents could only be with a baby if the birth mom was present. Fortunately they changed that policy, but we faced the prospect of not getting to spend time with Jason before he was discharged because his birth mom wasn't comfortable seeing him.

In the coming weeks I plan to develop some of these thoughts in other posts, in the meantime I'm loving being a dad again.