Look How I've Grown

Hannah is 4 weeks old today. We thought it was time to take another picture with the stuffed monkey. Look how big she's getting! She is still REALLY hard to keep awake during feeding so if you're looking for something specific to pray for we'd appreciate it.

1 Week
4 Weeks

Doctor Visits for All (except Nathan)

Hannah and I both got to see the doctor today. Last night I noticed that my incision was kind of red and this morning it was bleeding a little. So I called the office when they opened and they were able to squeeze me in. I had a fluid collection in the middle of my incision. The doctor opened that and drained a LOT of fluid and blood out. She said there is no infection yet, but put me on a preventative antibiotic just in case. Please pray that no infection develops because if it does they have to reopen the entire incision and clean it out. I got back next Tuesday for her to check it again.

We enjoyed showing Hannah off to the doctors and nurses at our family practice office. Nathan and I have been going there for years and it's a small office so they all know us. In fact our doctor and her husband actually attend our church. OK off to the actual update. Today Hannah weighed 6lb 12oz which is what she weighed when we left the hospital. She is also a little jaundiced on her face and chest. Our doctor didn't seem overly concerned about either her weight or the jaundice, but will see Hannah again next week to check her again. In the mean time, we are going to feed every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night. We thought it was hard to wake Hannah to eat every 3 hours...every 2 hours in an even bigger challenge. We're making it work though.

Since it's almost Christmas I've been thinking about all they ways God has blessed us. He gave me an AMAZING husband who is truly my best friend. I am so thankful Nathan's been able to be home with me. He does a great job taking care of me and Hannah. And of course our special blessing of Hannah this year. I am still amazed at how God chose to fulfill our desire to start a family. Hannah is a miracle and we know He has a special plan for her life.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and enjoy spending time with family! Thanks for reading and especially for your prayers!

10 Days Old

I can't believe it's been 10 days since Hannah was born. We seem to be adjusting well to life at home. She still pretty much sleeps all the time and it's often a challenge to keep her awake during feedings. When she is awake she is usually a pretty happy girl. We are enjoying every minute with her! She still LOVES to be swaddled while she sleeps. And no one can swaddle as good as Daddy, I come close but Nathan is by far the master. =)

Yesterday, however was a rough day. She didn't nap well and then was too sleepy to eat well and the cycle continued until about midnight. She did really good during the middle of the night though. Decent feedings and went right to sleep. That meant I could catch a few hours of sleep. My body is definitely looking forward to getting more than 2 hours at a time though! Hopefully today will be a better day!

Saturday night I started running fever so I called the on-call doctor. She sent me to the ER so they could run tests. Everything came back normal and they said the keep an eye on the fever and call if any other symptoms developed. I don't usually run fever during the day, but it creeps up at night. Sure wish I knew what was going on. My surgery recovery is going well and I'm not in a lot of pain. The fever makes me feel awful though, freezing cold and achy all over.

We take Hannah to the doctor tomorrow for her first check up. Nathan and I LOVE our family practice doctor and she sees infants as well so we decided not to find a pediatrician. I plan to say something to her about my fever and see if she has any ideas. We're looking forward to seeing how much weight Hannah has gained and make sure everything else looks good. I'll probably post sometime tomorrow and let you know what we find out.

Prayer Requests:

That my fever will go away or they can figure out what's causing it.
That Hannah will sleep and eat better today.

Only 3 More Weeks

Wow! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone! I am so thankful to have been healthy and not have any major complications.

I went in for another check up yesterday and the doctor discovered our little girl is breech. Apparently she doesn't want to sit upside down. =) So, she's going to check again next Tuesday to see if she decided to flip over. If not, I'm going to head next door to the hospital where they can do an External Cephalic Version. Basically the doctor is going to try and turn her from the outside. If that doesn't work then I will be scheduled for a C-section at 39 weeks. Hopefully she will flip on her own of the doctor can get her to move. I'd rather NOT have to recover from a C-section.

Other than that things are going well. I have one week left to work. YEAH! I'm very ready to say goodbye to my cute but CRAZY class. I plan to spend this weekend finishing up things in the nursery. I'll post pictures once it's completed. And I'll write another update after my appointment on Tuesday.

Prayer Requests:

The baby will flip on her own or that the doctor can move her
Safe and healthy delivery


Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Unexpected Blessing

When Nathan and I decided to pursue adoption we did so because the doctors told us we had a VERY small chance of becoming pregnant naturally. They recommended procedures that involved lots of doctor manipulation. We did not have peace about going down that road so we chose adoption. However we saw no point in going back on birth control. We said if I ever got pregnant it would be because God wanted it to happen. We are excited to announce that God decided that a pregnancy IS in His plan for us! I am 14 weeks pregnant, due December 16. Everything looks great so far, the sonogram showed a good strong heart beat. I also had a first trimester screening for Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18 and all those results came back normal.

After finding out I was pregnant one of the first things we talked about was how we felt this affected our adoption process. Nathan and I both feel that God has still placed a desire in our hearts to be adoptive parents. We believe that God is in control of timing and don’t even feel a need to put ourselves on hold or anything. We realize this means we have the possibility of having 2 babies very close together. =) We know God will work our all those details though. I’m going to call our agency this week and let them know what’s going on. Once the baby is born we plan to create an additional page to add to our scrapbook.

Here are some things you can pray for:

• Healthy pregnancy
• Healthy baby
• God’s perfect timing on our adoption
• Continue to pray for our birth mother

Since this blog will no longer be solely focused on adoption I think I’m going to change the blog’s web address. So be on the look out in the next few days for a post giving the new address. You will want to make sure you update all your bookmarks to the new address once it is in place. We are still on an adoption journey, and this pregnancy is now a part of that journey.