Pictures

Our friend Holly took these beautiful pics. Enjoy!

Just testing out blogging from my phone. Abby is over 9 pounds now. Almost to Mackenzie's birth weight.

pics. Finally

Focusing on the Blessing

Abigail has eczema on her eyelids. She has also developed reflux and is on some new meds for that. In reading about what I can do to help her I am about to embark on a few weeks of serious diet elimination. Taking out milk, soy, wheat and eggs. I have been going without milk for more than a week and I am a big milk drinker. It has been easy to get discouraged in the face of readjusting my life in this way, but I am thankful I have options and help. A few truths I cling to is that this too shall pass, and that all is permissible, but not necessarily beneficial. I can choose to eat any of these things whenever I want. I just have to be prepared to reap the problems- screaming baby with eczema all over.

Other than the things above Abby is doing great. She is over 8 and 1/2 pounds. She has had some alarms on the monitor, but we are noting that most of them are false alarms. I took a bunch of pics and will try to get them uploaded quickly.

Samantha and Mackenzie are doing great.

Please pray that I will be able to handle the changes in my diet with ease. Also that I will get enough rest daily. Pray for Jeff- he has to deal with me going through this big change in routine. Thank you for your prayers.

Catching up

Sorry it has taken so long for a good update. We are all doing well and have made it through a few busy weeks. I will try to give you the highlights of the past few weeks.

Several weeks ago I started calling our alarm company. We didn't have it turned on because we didn't have a code from the past owner of our home. I called for three weeks and never got a return call with the help we needed. During that third week on Wednesday and Thursday Abby had horrible nights. I got about 3 hours of sleep each night. On Friday it was worse, but I had Jeff to help me. Abby cried from 10 pm to 4 am. God used this in a strange way. At 3 am Jeff and I were in the living room with Abby and we heard a person trying to come in our front door. Not trying to break in just trying to walk in. It was a really drunk young man who had our house confused with the house of a friend of his in our neighborhood. He wouldn't go away and we called the cops. The man stayed in front of our home, even laying down in the front yard. He was asleep on the front porch by the time the police got here. Jeff listened to the whole conversation between the police and the young man. He was a polite man just lost and drunk. So, I called the alarm company on Monday morning and let them know about what happened. The praise is that within 5 minutes our alarm was up and functional. God used Abby to keep both Jeff and I awake. It was very likely that I would have been up alone on any given night feeding at 3 am. Thank you Jesus for keeping us both up.

The next week's drama is centered around our dog, Precious. She is a small curious dog and she likes to escape. I figured out she was missing about 10 am one morning and we had to pick Samantha up at noon that day. I loaded up Mackenzie and Abby and we started driving the neighborhood looking for Precious. As we came back down our street a neighbor had someone out trimming trees. I asked the lady if she had seen our dog and she directed us to a neighbor. We got Precious back, but the drama had only begun. The lady trimming trees told us that our neighbor had tried to give her Precious. So after picking up Samantha I went to the neighbor's house and asked her about what the lady had said. It was true. She felt we were neglectful because Precious had gotten out several times. To say the least I was shocked. We found the hole in out fence Precious escaped out of and fixed it. Each time Precious has gotten out it has been by different means. We have fixed it each time, but our neighbor didn't know this. All in all we have Precious back and our fence is a little more secure.

The next development was Abby's diaper rash that ended up being strep, and the impentigo on her eyelids. She has had medicine for both and everything is clearing up nicely.

I blog in my head a lot. One of the things I have been meaning to blog about deals with my attitude. When I am tired I mentally tell my self what is 'supposed to' happen. Well, as I figured out one night in the middle of the night- the 'supposed to's will kill you. It kills the spirit really quickly to start comparing and setting up expectations that have no basis in truth. So I have been working on keeping myself present in the right now and leave the 'supposed to's to someone else. My only 'supposed to's are to love Jesus, seek Him, love others, and share God's love.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our family. Please pray for Jeff and I to learn to deal with our parenting in a godly way. Too often lately we are tired and get frustrated way too easily. Pray for Samantha that she will learn to look to God for all her wisdom and not look at what the world tells us. Pray for Mackenzie to have better listening ears when it comes to instructions from Jeff and I. Pray for Abby- her development is behind. It may be normal for her, but it is still disheartening to me sometimes. We are just now barely getting a smile and a coo from her. Pray that I will also not get caught up in what she is 'supposed to' be doing.

We are really grateful for all of our loved ones, and for all of the love poured out to us.

Long time no post

So sorry for not posting sooner. Things have been busy here. Abby is growing like crazy and it is wonderful to see. Samantha started 1st grade, and Mackenzie is having fun getting Mommy mostly alone a lot of the time.

Here is a picture of Abby. She is 7 pounds 8.5 ounces today.

From Wordless wednesday

Growing and Growing

Abigail is growing so good. As of yesterday she weighed 5 pounds 7 ounces! I have added some pics over on the gallery on the right, but will post a couple here.

In this picture you can see her heart monitor band. It is a soft foamy band holding two electrode things that measure her heart rate and her breathing. She doesn't seem to mind it much.

In this picture you can see how we weigh Abby each day. She sits in a little basket while being weighed on a food scale.

The last picture here is to give a little scale of comparison on her size for those of you still wondering how big she actually is. Below are a couple of diapers and a deck of cards. The bigger diaper is still only a preemie size diaper. The smaller diaper is what she used in the hospital for quite a while. She was in the preemie size for a little while before we came home.

I spoke with our pediatrician yesterday and found out that it is okay for us to have adult visitors. We are not supposed to take Abby to church until after RSV season. RSV is a lung disease that could cause her serious problems so we will be taking it seriously. The only part I don't like about this is that RSV season is from October to April. So Jeff and I will be taking turns going to church.

We are so blessed and God has taken such good care of Abigail that it is hard for me to look at not going out much until next Spring. But I also don't want to take risks when I don't have to.

So if you want to visit just call me and we can set up a time. We will try to keep it to one visitor a day for a while, just so we don't wear Abby out.

Praise: We have been told Abby doesn't need the fortifier in her bottles and that we can start working on nursing every feeding. We also don't have to go in for weight checks at the doctor any more because Abby is growing so good. (She has gained almost half a pound in the last 4 days.)

Thank you again for your prayers. Pray for Jeff as he returns to a normal work schedule. The tired really hits him about 3pm. Pray that I get rest when I can. Pray that I will keep my mind and emotions in line with God's Word.