Endless

Right now I'm attempting to feed a baby with hiccups that seem endless! She's hungry and frustrated that she can't seem to latch on and eat because of these annoying things that cause her whole little body to contract in rhythm with her little-squeaky-toy noises. And it got me thinking...
So many things in our lives seem to be endless:
Traffic jams
The line at the post office
The amount of time it takes my husband to take a shower
my daughters appetite

So often I get wrapped up in the daily rituals that forget that God has blessed with and am surrounded by endless family!
The last week has been an overflow of reassurance and checking-ins of this wonderful family of mine, and I must admit it couldn't have come at a better time as I have been homesick for conversation with sisters, skyline chili, and my dad.

Family isn't just blood, (praise the lord) that is something that was instilled in us as children, there is no step, there's brothers and sisters, if you love em, their family!



Family is video games on snow days and made up songs. Jumping through windows,

sneaking out of the house at 3 am to go half a block for ice cream, learning to drive on a dirt track,

Fighting one day and baking cookies together the next, shadow puppet shows on bedroom ceilings,

birthday parties (dirty-bingo) secret santa, and hand me downs!


These girls don't share a drop of blood in common with anyone I do but they're just as much family as the people I've shared a home with!




He'll be family someday!


And this lovely lady, who with another couple from our church took time out of their crazy busy schedules to make and bring us an amazing dinner last night.


These past few days of family has been a much needed reality check, the texts from sisters and the phone calls from so many others was so refreshing, it made me feel not so very far away, it proved to be a slight that this lack of sleep accompanied by my lack of desire to change out of three day old spit up crusted sweats surely won't be endless!

And right now the grey clouds are rolling in, and the thundering is almost a constant melody and the inevitable rain urges me to leave you with this reminder:

Fasten those diapers tight: or you daddies may catch a pop up shower!

Ode to six weeks

Our girl is now six weeks old,
we've past the precautionary don't-take-her-out phase.
She's getting colored flecks in her eyes, some days they look green, others brown
so we continue the waiting game to see who she'll look more like...
I've been cleared to resume normal life,
easing my way back into exercising and daily activities.
I'm told that my scar will take upwards of nine months to a year to fully heal :(
(The newly developing electric shocks behind it I'm told are normal-nerves regenerating)
Addiston sadly has developed her first cold.

We took her out Saturday afternoon, we had newly engaged friends visiting from England/South Africa (It was lovely to see them, and they were so understanding of our new baby-ness!) We went downtown and out to the hard rock cafe for lunch. Saturday evening we had a group of friends over for dinner and throughout the night she woke up multiple time with the sniffles. Her eyes are all watery and she is so congested is sounds as if she has swallowed a broken rattle, and it's stuck there behind her little nose. Not to mention she sounds like a old man weezing when she's trying to sleep :( She looks up at me with these sad confused eyes, like why can't I breathe and why can't you make me better? And it breaks my heart every single time!

I feel so bad for her that I've barely put her down for more than an hour in the last two days, except to sleep at night. She breathes better when she's at an angle and when she's against me so I just hold her. Yeah yeah I know you're not suppose to hold them 24/7, but she's sick and she's my baby so back off!

The doctor said we are doing everything we can and that unless she spikes a fever we should just continue to do as we are. I thought it might be allergies to the cats but the doc assured me that children can't develop allergies this young because her immune system isn't in place enough, in order to be allergic to something. So I guess we're keeping the cats, for now ;)

On another note (unrelated to children) right now I'm grateful:
-for friends who step out and let you know that they are going through the same thing you are and they also are unsure as to how to deal yet are willing to be there as a sounding board and comfort if you need them! Thanks dear!
-for finding articles in the New York times that I think are important and interesting and when I share them with my husband he says, "I bought that guys book for us to read" -yeah for being on the same page!

Oh and I love it when her little toes poke out of the blanket my grandma made her...

Here we go...

Wow so it seems like time has flown by since our little miracle arrived! She will be six weeks old tomorrow and I can't beleive how much she has grown and changed already.



She's in a pretty consistent routine now, waking up between seven and eight and staying awake and playful till eleven and noon. she usually naps off and on throughout the afternoon till daddy gets home and she wakes up again to play with him! She gets her bath at nine then eats and goes to bed. (evening routine is a must and a miracle) It only took 3 days of routine for her to get it and now our evening are much more predictable! She knows that right after her bath she gets fed and if we take to long putting lotion and her nightgown on she starts to fuss till she gets food, it's almost comical! But the bedtime routine has been a wonderful addition to her schedule and makes putting her to sleep much easier!

The newest introduction to her routine came in the middle of the night tuesday, when Jared fed her, her first bottle.



I appreciate my longer than three hour stretch of sleep but to be honest I felt a little heartbroken that she didn't need me for something, while at the same time liberated because woah is it stressful being tethered to her 24/7!

In other news: a tip to other parents out there, don't place the diaper genie next to the hamper... your husband will mistake one for the other in the middle of the night and you will be cleaning diaper gel out of your washer and dryer for weeks to come!


She started making all sorts of new noises this week, ooo and ahh are now in her vocabulary and I swear she said yeah the other day, it was accompanied by a head-nod!

One month

Better late than never...

Her one month photo shoot...

Random stories of the babe!

So this past weekend we traveled to my hometown... more on that another time!

On the way back we had to stop so I could feed Addiston. After she had her fill a diaper change was in order. We were parked in the side lot of a truck stop, further out than either of us decided was worth walking into, in the smoldering heat, so Jared had the genius idea to change her in the car. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but the car was PACKED!

My super intelligent husband said "we can change her on your lap," him from the front seat, me from the back. I was to do the balancing, he was doing the dirty work... so we unfolded the changing pad, whipped out the diapers, wipes and dove into our endeavor.

Things were going well, we had her wiped and were were sealing the final sticky in the pampers, when we heard the squishy sound of the need for yet another diaper change.

We whipped out the second batch of supplies, and began our task. we had the diaper off, and Jared wiped her down and as we were puling the diaper up to seal it, squirt....a fresh batch into her second clean diaper.

New supplies were retrieved, she was once again being wiped down when again, squirt...
you guessed it, out in the open through the air, all over her, down my leg, in all of our hands, and splattered on the back of the drivers seat! (Jared was smart enough to duck and cover using his seat as a shield)

The wipes were frantically grabbed for and the car and baby were cleaned in record time. Once things were in order, yet another diaper was dispersed and put into place.

5 diapers, and half a package of wipes later the car and baby were clean, Jared and I slightly traumatized, and contagiously laughing at our horrible decision as parents to attempt to change our 3 week old baby on my lap in the back of a car!


And more recently,
Addiston was eating this morning, when she was done she proceeded to pull her head back as far as possible while still sucking-I'm convinced in an attempt to rip my boob right off my body, (nursing mom's you know how painful this is!) and making a high pitch chipmunk sound.

Well today my boob decided to retaliate to her abuse!

When she finally popped her head off milk sprayed out like a super soaker water gun, spraying her right in the face, mainly the nose.

This happened for a good 5 to 10 seconds till I realized the milk was coming from me, (not her drooling/spitting up) and I covered myself with the burp cloth.

I had no idea this was possible but it happened, she was unfazed, barely noticing what had happened; and I have to admit I was slightly proud that my body decided it was time for revenge!