[DominicsGirl]

I think what surprised me most was about parenting a newborn rather than the adoption itself. Our process happened very, very quickly like so many others. We were called on a Saturday night about a baby who had already been born and drove to New Jersey on Monday to meet him. Basically, I had no "prep" time to think about being a mother and it took me a couple months to get used to the idea after he was home. That was suprising, I suppose, because I guess I thought a switch would just be flipped and I would be a Mom.

For example, at the baby shower my friend's held for me at the beginning of January, I had placed Grayson down in a Pack N Play to sleep. As I'm talking to my friends, I hear a baby cry. It didn't register at all with me that it was mine!! My friend had to come over and say, "Isn't that Grayson?" I was so embarassed!!

One other thing that surprised me...the isolation. I felt very isolated from everyone. My DH works a lot of hours and even though he was home half the time with me for six weeks, it's all a blur now because of the sleep deprivation. Now I feel much better and am loving every minute of it!!