I couldn't journal pictures of Ruger because of the Foster Care rules of publicly displaying his face. But since his adoption is less than a week away, I am getting ready here and just won't publish this until after. So here we go!
Ruger is 7 days old here. This is me at the hospital with him right before I took him home.
When I brought him home, he was asleep and I didn't want to take him out of the car seat. So we just let him sleep (it was killing the boys!). At one point I found this Goldfish bag, that Hyrum had put together at school, next to Ruger's head. Hyrum informed me that it was a gift for Ruger from him. I really loved this because I was concerned how he would take having a possible brother in the house that was younger than him. I even bought this cat outfit for Ruger to come home in specifically for Hyrum. I told Hyrum that it was like a gift from him to Ruger (because Hyrum loves cats so much). It worked and he loved Ruger!
This is day 2 of Ruger being home with us. I took this picture to try and get his scowl. Ruger seriously was the perfect infant. So mild and not fussy at all. But he had this constant scowl on his face and it cracked us up because it didn't fit his personality at all. We joked that he must have been doing this in the womb for quite some time because he had this permanent indention between his eyes and the ones you can see below his lips for months!
I think this was about day 3 of Ruger being home with us. Everyday, Levi would come home from school and have to hold him right away. My favorite memory of Levi with Ruger when we first got him was Levi coming home from school and telling me, "Mom, I had such a hard time concentrating in school. I kept thinking of Ruger." Levi has loved Ruger from the VERY beginning. Seriously, out of all of us, he has amazed me the most. It would be natural for me to love Ruger right away. Mother's instincts. But Levi from the second he saw him was obsessed with this sweet baby boy. I caught him falling asleep with him on the couch many a times. He would be so disappointed if Ruger wasn't awake yet and couldn't hold him before going to school.
Ruger's first bath.
Not long after Ruger was placed in our hearts, we noticed that at certain times, only half of his face would turn red. Then we started noticing that the side that was red; that eye would not open all the way. We undressed him and sure enough this straight line ran all the way down to his stomach. It was the weirdest thing. We soon found out he has Harlequin Syndrome. It is an effect of damage to his nervous system. But as I am writing this, he is almost a year old now and hasn't had an episode for months!
One of the rare pictures I have of Brigham with Ruger...and of course, he is just photo bombing! It took months for Brigham to physically hold Ruger willingly. It wasn't that he didn't like him. He would smile at him all the time and comment how cute he was but he never wanted to hold him. I don't know if it was just that he isn't a "baby person" or if he didn't want to get attached in case Ruger didn't stay with us or if he was afraid of breaking him. I really don't know but I do know that everything changed after Brigham, Ruger, and I went to Oklahoma this last summer to visit my side of the family. I think that him seeing how naturally my family accepted Ruger as one of their own made it real to him.
Ruger found his hand!
This was the first time Ruger met Daddy's side of the family. It was so incredibly sweet to get to witness, for the first time, a member of our extended family love on Ruger the way they did. Holly and the girls, especially, just loved on him so much.
At about 3 weeks old, Ruger was hospitalized for Pyloric Stenosis. It is not fun seeing your baby poked and prodded like this as well as not being fed (in preparation for surgery) but the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City is such a great place. They took amazing care of him.
His social worker, Necha, came up to check in on him. Later we got another social worker, when she moved, and both are great but I sure did appreciate having Necha to work with. She has such a sweet soul.
Ruger's first Christmas with his presents.
Mine and David's 13 wedding anniversary. By this time, Daddy was hooked! It took David longer for him to feel completely comfortable with Ruger. I was always dead exhausted when the older boys would wake up in the middle of the night after having them. But with Ruger, probably because my body didn't give birth to him and because I wasn't dealing with Post Partum Depression, I would seriously here him waking up and I would jump out of bed with excitement. No joke. He truly made me so happy from the moment I saw him. Men, naturally act differently. I decided to substitute for a person at the toll booth during Christmas when David was off of work. I think it was like 4 midnight shifts in a row that David was left with Ruger. After those 4 nights, David has never been the same. And NOW, he completely spoils him and thus Daddy is Ruger's favorite parent now.
Ruger is about 1 month old in this picture.
