Sickness and more Good News

Sara eating her toes

What? You gotta problem with that?

Thankfully the sickness has not been Sara. Her sisters have been fighting through sinus infections and viral infections this past week. Just a lot of high fever and coughing. Yuck, yuck, yuck. And even worse in the nighttime. But, neither Jennifer, Sara or I have picked it up. We have isolated them in their rooms (which Emma Grace especially hates) and washed hands and changed clothes so much I think Jennifer is considering moving into the laundry room.

Sara had a good check up this week with the pediatrician. We are free to begin introducing her into the rest of our world - grocery stores, libraries, shopping places, horse lessons, etc... The shout you hear Thursday morning was from me celebrating this fact. One of us will not need to always be home with Sara now. And Jennifer is just as happy to have her 3 girls out and about with her. I think she's crazy, but she's a mom. And while God gives moms these incredible powers to do amazing things, he also has made them a little nutty.

Funny story about moms and dads. This week Emma Grace has had high fever night and day and this causes her to throw up. So Jennifer has been sleeping on a mattress on her floor each night to make taking care of her easier. That leaves me on Sara duty. Well, Sara is still sleeping each night from around 10 to 7 in the morning. But usually we have to go in once or twice to plug and pat (paci). This is what I have been doing. So Friday night Emma Grace is doing better, Jennifer sleeps in our bed. We wake up Saturday morning and are drinking some coffee while all the girls are sleeping and I say - Man, Sara did great last night, didn't make a peep all night. To which Jennifer starts laughing, this kind of "men, what are we going to do with your whole gender type laugh". Apparently she woke up a few times and Jennifer had to get up and deal with her along with Abigail whose cough was getting worse that night. It seems as though with Jennifer back in the bed I kind of hit my auditory mute button. Ah, oh well. I slept great.

We have to wait a bit longer on places where she may be touched, but that is coming soon. She just won't be able to be held or have her hands touched. Jennifer saw a sign somewhere a few months ago that you put on a baby. It says - " I put my hands in my mouth, where have yours been?" Something like that. But the doc did say he lungs were strong enough now if she did get sick it wouldn't be an automatic trip to the hospital. Even with RSV, they would try to treat it at home first. That's encouraging. He also gave us the ok to go on vacation in a few months, so we can't wait to hit the beach!

Sara is eating about 6-7 fruits and tried her first veggie today - squash. She ate it well, no sign of not liking it. It helps to roll it in a little meal and fry it like that. She is eating about 2 tbls of food twice a day, along with her formula. She is almost 16 pounds. She is sitting up better and better, using her hands more and more and making more and more sounds. It's especially fun to see her laying on her back blowing spit bubbles at 2am.

Notice the drool. We really can feel a tooth about to come in, it won't be long.

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”
Psalm 66:1-4

Living Life and Having Fun!!

Check me out!

It has been a week and a half of God's grace in our home since coming home from the hospital. Things could not be going better. Sara is thriving and literally doing new things each day. We are continually amazed and have no one to thank more than our great gracious God!

Sara is starting to sit up more and more on her own. We still basically have to support her, but she not only is doing more on her own, but wants to. Just yesterday she doesn't just want to lay on the floor on in a bouncy seat, but be up and looking around. She is standing much stronger with us holding her hands. Her head is much steadier with little wobble. She is constantly interacting with all of us, smiling, laughing, looking, screaming, cooing, making new cute noises. She just discovered her feet yesterday and loves them. She can almost roll over from back to stomach. She does great with long stretches of tummy time. She is teething and drooling everywhere. She is eating prunes, plums, and apples now and loving it, wanting more. She is drinking 6-7oz of formula about 6 times a day and is over 15lbs now.

And best of all, are you ready for this........... she sleeps all night. Now you want to talk about the grace of God. His favor to us, not because we deserve it or have earned it, but His favor simply because He is gracious and it gives Him great glory. Certainly it is expressed ultimately through Christ and the cross dying for our sins, offering us the gift of salvation. But I would contend behind that we most see His grace in our family in Sara sleeping all night.

All sleeping sarcasm aside, this is just a weird thing for us. Neither of our girls ever did that, sometimes to this day. To put a child in her bed around 10 and not get her out till 7 is a genuine gift to us we are very thankful for. Every now and then we have to go pat her or reinsert her paci (plug and pat is what we call it), but for the most part we are in la la land all night. Now, if Jennifer and I would only go to bed instead of staying up enjoying spending some time together again around a bowl of popcorn and the idiot box we might actually get some rest.

The neurosurgeon is amazed at her progress. On the day of the surgery he told us he wanted to see us every two weeks. We find out later this is because he did not think she would be doing that well because of what he saw on the CT scans. Less than two weeks after the surgery he said that would not be necessary. He is amazed at her progress and how good she looks. IN fact, he held her and spun around to see if her eyes would track left to right, back and forth because there was nothing to focus on. And they did. She is seeing great, doing great. This is just very cool for us to enjoy. It's like our family has been recharged and reborn.

Her sisters are really getting a kick out of Sara, all the laughing and smiling. She is like a smile machine, look at her, say something and cha ching! SMILE. In fact, the other night Jennifer was bathing her and she was sitting her up to wash her back and she kind of slipped. So Jennifer instinctively said - whoop, kind of loud and high pitched. Sara just started giggling. Jennifer of course made the sound again - Sara busted out laughing again. All of this was while the rest of us were still at church Wednesday night and by the time we got home she was still in the tub, and the laugh fest was almost over. It is so neat to enjoy those little experiences of having a baby that we haven't really had the previous 8 months.

Thanks so much for your prayers, things are going great and we are soaking in all in. To the praise of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

"That you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever."
Psalm 48:13b-14


Hey mommy, you one funny lady


Tummy time!



Sitting Up

Hanging out in Dad's hammock

Standing!

Weird week in Louisiana, Saints win Super Bowl and Snowstorm