From Newborn Adoption: The First Week:

6. Protect the baby during travel.

Many new parents choose to keep their new babies at home. They drive the baby home from the hospital with care, and then they do not bring the baby back out of the house except for required well visits. Most parents would never dream of traveling with a new baby.

If a baby joins your family through adoption, then you... more

From Newborn Adoption: The First Week:

5. Work out health insurance issues.

Health insurance coverage can be a little murky during an adopted baby’s first week of life. While you, as the adoptive parents, have physical custody, the placing mother retains her legal parental rights in many states. That raises the question of whether or not your health insurance will cover a baby who is in your care but... more

From Newborn Adoption: The First Week:

4. Anticipate sleep difficulties.

When I say anticipate sleep difficulties, I am not talking about the baby’s problems with sleep: I am talking about yours! This was something that I did not see coming. Yes, I knew that I would lose sleep by taking care of a baby throughout the night, but I did not understand the added issues that... more

From Newborn Adoption: The First Week:

3. Prepare yourself for limited hospital information.

One frustration of mine during my son’s first few days of life was the limited amount of information that I received from the hospital. I later talked to several “new mother” friends about their experiences while staying in the hospital. The nurses talked to them about numerous issues, including feeding the baby,... more

From Newborn Adoption: The First Week:

2. Coordinate consistent feedings.

A newborn baby’s digestive system can be a delicate thing, so you want to keep the feedings as consistent as possible. Unfortunately, feeding an adopted baby exclusively with breast milk is not an option for most adoptive parents, so you will want to choose the best formula for your baby.

A good place to start is to find... more

From Newborn Adoption: The First Week:

1. Provide the baby with lots of time to rest.

When a woman gives birth to a baby, she is physically exhausted. She has not slept very well in weeks because she has to use the bathroom every couple of hours throughout the night. Then, she goes through labor and delivery, which is quite an ordeal on a woman physically. So, after the baby is born, she is tired... more

The first week of parenting a newborn baby is a bizarre mixture of excitement, stress, and sheer exhaustion for most parents, whether biological or adoptive. While many aspects of the first week are the same for all new parents, there are some differences when a baby joins your family through adoption. This series is to discuss those differences.

One big difference is that, in many states, you will not yet know if this baby will be your forever child. In many states, even though a... more

Many people who want to adopt a newborn baby will match with a placing mother, who will become the child's birthmother. This can be done through an adoption agency or through a private (non-agency) avenue, such as a facilitator or adoption attorney. Private adoptions tend to be a little less expensive, but you might need to take on the responsibility of networking to locate a placing mother.

If you decide to match with a placing mother, you need to decide whether you want a closed,... more

After the birthparents’ parental rights terminated, the agency held an adoption ceremony for our new family. We invited family and friends to celebrate with us at the adoption agency. The agency provided a cake with our son’s full name on it. They also gave our son a blue teddy bear with angel’s wings to commemorate the event.

In addition to the agency director, the social worker who had counseled the birthmother was there to celebrate along with us. The social worker had been in the delivery room with Nicholas... more

I parented my son for 10 days before I knew that he would really be my forever child. I hoped that he would be, but his birthparents’ parental rights would not terminate until 10 days after they signed the relinquishment papers. While this child was not mine on paper, he was already mine in my heart. I simply could not refuse to love this little baby simply because of legalities.

I threw myself into parenthood, and I loved it. It was an exhausting time, both physically and mentally. It was hard to wake up at 3:00 a.m.... more