For those of you who read my adoption experience overview, you’ll remember the extensive waiting periods I mentioned. Well, when you’re waiting for a full-term baby, you can distract yourself with little adventures, socializing, work, planning, etc. When you’re waiting for a preemie, you have no clue what to do. At this point, we don’t even make dinner plans without prefacing them with,

We’d love to, as long as baby Deuce is still cooking.

People don’t seem to mind too much, but it’s frustrating for a control freak like me. The medical risks are diminishing, the bags are packed, the nursery is almost ready, tentative plans are in place – and there’s nothing else I can do. When my hands are idle, my mind races. I’m desperately trying to concentrate on work and be as productive as I can for my teams, but I can’t sleep for thinking through proposals, wondering what the nurses will be like, trying to figure out a better plan for all of us to go to France, making sure I didn’t forget anything important…the list goes on.

Unfortunately, the only end to this stage is baby’s birth – which we still want to postpone as long as possible. In the meantime, I may go crazy. Just saying. But Deuce is holding tight for now. (I’m convinced it’s because we told everyone and got organized. Now he’ll wait until March like nothing ever happened.)

In the meantime, I turned my flurry on Tess. Today we made appointments for PT through May and went to the doctor for a check-up on her ear. Apparently, Tess has one ear prone to ear infections (clogged Eustachian tube) but not an infection right now. But we should go back in a few days, because she may have one then. Ear infections may be the most mystifying part of parenting to date. Mom at least sent me a list of idiot’s clues to ear infections – thank god. Tess’ tell seems to be not sleeping through the night – an unfortunate choice in my opinion, but not an indication of infection right now – just teething. Said teething inspired her to burst into tears the minute the doctor touched her. She would beam at me over his shoulder, but wouldn’t do anything but bawl for him. I felt bad for the man.

This delightful routine continued for the rest of the afternoon, with Tess howling at Natalie for hours. She wouldn’t sleep and wouldn’t eat and just looked miserable, so we expect another tooth or two any time now.

Inspired by her good health and a healthy dose of guilt, I followed the doctor’s advice and mom’s baby food health book to the letter and bought chicken livers. Yes, I’m serious. We sauteed and pureed them, then mixed the mash with a little oatmeal, chicken broth and broccoli. Dave and I tasted the cooked liver and were underwhelmed, so we weren’t sure what Tess would do. Tess inhaled hers, gurgling with delight – which carried more weight today than normal. Apparently, preemies need crazy amounts of iron and this is a great place to get it. Let’s just say Dave and I felt we had earned our parenting stripes today.