christmas time

Here are some of pictures arouond Christmas time with the baby and the Cronin Christmas hosted at Stade III house. Rock you doesn't like me right now and is failing some of the pics I am trying to upload. I am currently still working on the video I took at the Stade's family christmas, the videos are too long to upload straight, and I haven't been able to figure out how to edit them.

Reflection

Christmas time just past and New Years is around the corner. It makes you think. I come back to the arrival of Christ. Joseph fell asleep and an angel appeared to him and he was first told about Jesus. The name Jesus means "Lord saves us" and as described in Matthew 1:21b "for he will save his people from their sins". I think how far away I am from being sin free. I want to strive to be so more perfect then I am. So more holy then I am truly. Recently I have been looking at people I know. There is a woman who is always happy, always giving. Where does she get the ability to stay so happy? To be always giving of herself? I think to myself that maybe I would be that giving if I had more time for myself. Maybe I would be more happy if.... I know that only Jesus is the one who could give us true happiness, can give us a never emptying bucket to give to others. How have I grown, that I haven't been overflowing yet? Instead I sit there and talk behind people's back about my disagreements. I stop helping people when I don't feels its mutual. Why help them, I got more to do.

Last October I have given my life to Christ for 9 years. I remember when I first devoted myself that I thought, wow 5 years, wow 7 years. You guys most be so close to God. You guys must be so holy. But I'm not there. I realize that it is something I constantly will strive for, something I will always try to accomplish but will fall short. As Paul said, "The law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:14-15)

I'm so thirsty for more of God.


I’m so thirsty, I can feel it
Burning through the furthest corners of my soul
Deep desire, can’t describe this
Nameless urge that drives me somewhere
Though I don’t know where to go

Seems I’ve heard about a River from someone who’s been
And they tell me once you reach it, oh, you’ll never thirst again
So I have to find the River, somehow my life depends on the River
Holy River, I’m so thirsty

Other waters I’ve been drinkin’
But they always leave me empty like before
Satisfaction, all I’m askin’
Could I really feel this thirsty if there weren’t something more?

And I’ve heard about a River from someone who’s been
And they tell me once you reach it, oh, you’ll never thirst again
So I have to find the River, somehow my life depends on the River
Holy River, I’m so thirsty

I’m on the shore now of the wildest River
And I kneel and beg for mercy from the sky
But no one answers, I’ve gotta take my chances
‘Cause something deep inside me’s cryin’
"This is why you are alive!"

So I plunge into the River with all that I am
Praying this will be the River where I’ll never thirst again
I’m abandoned to the River
And now my life depends on the River
Holy River, I’m so thirsty

Listen to Thirsty by Chris Rice


I heard about the day You went away
You said You had to go prepare a place
And even though Ive never seen Your face
I'm missin You
I lie awake tonight and I watch the sky
And I wish it didn't have to be so high
Cause I'm belonging on the other side
And I'm missin You

Cause somewhere behind those stars
Is Someone who belongs to me
And I know in my deepest heart
Theres a place for You until I find the place You made for me
But still I'm missin You

I dream about Your promise to return
And I wake up hangin on Your every word
But for now my feet are planted here on earth
So I'm missin You
And even while they say that I'm a fool
I know you see me waiting here for You
Oh, and prayin that somehow You ll get here soon
Cause I'm missin You

Cause somewhere behind those stars
Is Someone who belongs to me
And I know in my deepest heart
Theres a place for You until I find the place You made for me
But still I'm missin You
Oh, I'm missin You
Lord, I'm missin You

Listen to Missing You by Chris Rice

a little more

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. For about the last 2 months I have been getting sick on and off. Today I woke up with my 3rd cold. It's just starting so it's mild but I am so sick of getting sick. I'm starting to think that it has something to do with me getting sleep. Last night I had about 6-7 hours interupted sleep (due to the baby, of course) and the night before about 3-4 hours interupted sleep. I guess in the next 3 days I have off of work inbetween christmas, christmas eve, wrapping presents, going to the grochery store, making christmas breakfast for about 10 people, cleaning my house, and much more I should take a nap so I stop getting sick. Oh well.....

Besides that baby Nelly just turned 5 months wednesday. Russell and I wanted to get a cake and celebrate, but despite the best of intentions we never got around to it. But we still sang her happy birthday. she is getting so big. She is absolutely adorable!--have I said that before. : )

A little bit on the book corner

I finished 2 books a little bit ago.
'A death in the family' ****
it was a darling book mainly from the view of a little 7 year old boy. The author does a great way of demonstrating how children think and process life and death. It was the last book the Agee wrote and was still in its editing format. It doesn't really seem to have an ending, but it is still left very complete by way of the authors talent.

'mommy guilt' *****
The primary reason I give this book 5 stars is because I highly recommend it to men and women alike. When I would read parts to Russell he would always comment how it should also be called 'daddy's guilt'. Raising a child comes with its fair share of feelings--however you might describe them and to be able to process them so that you are an effective parent is the key. I can't say that I go along now with no guilt but I can say it has given me a stepping stone to help deal with somethings I was feeling and identify them. It's a mixture of a book and a workbook with several research topics it brings up to give you perspective.

free rice

Try this website out!

It will improve your vocabulary and you can feed the hungry at the same time.

Free Rice

my eye.......ugh

Well here is a little update. By sunday it got worse so I went back to the doctors and they said I have subconjunctival hemorrhage and blepharitis. Which basically means I'm bleeding in my eye and my eyelids are inflammed because of infection. It's not contagious at all. I never had viral conjuctivitis, it was a misdiagnosis. But my eye still looks bad. It looks like someone hit me in my eye.

Keep me in prayer. I've looked it up and the blepharitis says it can recure. And the hemorrhage can take 2 weeks to clear up.....ugh!

I have the eye from the hunched back of Norte Dame

Yep. Yesterday I fouond out I have viral conguctivitis at the urgent care. And today despite introducing medication my eye looks like the eye of the hunched back of Norte Dame. I hope it gets better soon. My eye is almost completely swollen shut and i can't see that well out of it. I hope my alignment isn't off with only seeing through my right eye. It's contagious so I bought all sorts of purell and chlorox wipes yesterday....I can't give it to the baby. Which is pretty hard because my eye seems to tear every 5 minutes. So every 5 minutes I wipe it with a tissue and put on more purell.

So pray for my eye :( I don't want to feel like a freak very long.

Silly new mom worries

I know I'm a new mom and that I shouldn't worry, but no matter how much you tell yourself you just keep on worrying. Well let me back up and tell you....about several weeks ago she was rolling over. That morning I put her on her stomach for "tummy time" and she rolled over almost immediately. She did it 4 times in a row before I gave up that morning of getting any "tummy time" in. But since then she hasn't done it once. Not once. And when the doctor asked about her turning over at her doctors appointment I explained that she had but she doesn't anymore. The doctor didn't seem worried about it. But it made me worry about it just a little more. So recently I've been thinking that maybe I am not giving her enough "tunny time", so this morning I had her on her stomach 3 times before noon. Making sure that she was plenty upset before I rolled her over. Maybe I was previously stopping to early. Maybe she just wasn't rolling over because she knew she could just cry and I would pick her up. But nothing. So I started showing her. (I know I'm weird.) I started showing her to lift up her arm above her head, so that her arm doesn't get stuck. Then she has to swing her legs over to get the momentum to turn over. After several repetitive instructions.....nothing. The baby just looked at me and smiled.

I know when I ask people they all just give me a generalization....of they turn over at about 4 months, they sit up at about 4 months, they start crawling at about 6 months. But my baby isn't turning over anymore, and she isn't sitting up by herself and she's 4 months. So I looked at Nicky's blog where the only milestone of Emily's close to mine is where she is only starting to rock on her hands and knees at 9 months. Well that gives Penelope plenty of time to do that. No problem. I'm a cool headed mom again.

funny ha ha

just something i thought was funny, and I feel is very true.

Little Nelly not so little

Little Nelly had her 4 month check up yesterday, where she turned exactly 4 months.
She weighed in at 14 lbs 8 ozs (75th percentile) and 26 1/2 inches long (over 100th percentile). Her head circumference was 44 inches (above 95th percentile). But our little munchkin has an ear infection. So pray that she gets better soon.

Books I want to read

I added two books I want to read to my book corner at the bottom of the page.

The Pillars of the Earth by K. Follett
"In the quest to build the greatest Gothic cathedral ever known, a struggle between good and evil erupts—turning church against state and brother against brother (oprah.com)." It's suppose to be a drama, a thriller, a romance, a suspense, and hold you are the edge of your chair.


Love in the time of Cholera by G. G. Marquez
"In the late 1800s, in a Caribbean port city, a young telegraph operator named Florentino Ariza falls deliriously in love with Fermina Daza, a beautiful student. In this magnificent story, García Márquez beautifully and unflinchingly explores the nature of love in all its guises—small and large, passionate and serene. Love can ravage its host like a disease, but it can also persevere through the bleakest decades and survive the effects of time itself. (oprah.com)"

If anyone wants to read them with me, let me know. I'm still itching to start that internet book club.

Waaaaaaah!

I'm sad. I just had to dump almost 6 - 5 oz bottles of pumped breastmilk because I didn't bag it and freeze it quick enough. All that hard work.....

: (

picture people pics

picture people pics.....try to say that 10 times fast.

Here are our nov 2007 family portraits

The DaVinci Code

I just finished reading, actually listening, to the Da Vinci Code. I know I'm a little behind the popular rush to read it--but I didn't want to read it just because everyone else was. I did recently rent it from the library to listen during my commute to work. I think it is going to start a new habit. It really did help distract me during the time of sitting in the parking lot of the 405. Sadly I finished the book in about a week of work (which is only 3 days). I think that says a lot about my commute. It's a good thing that I got more then one audio book on CD.

Anyways, I really did like the book. It was a great mystery--I recommended it to Russell and now he's listening to it during his commute. (It's taking him a little longer to get through the whole thing. He doesn't have as far to go.) It was very suspenseful. I do have to say that I have one major problem with the story line. Sophia Neveu and Robert Langdon are pretty much the main characters. Sophia Neveu is a cytologist who works for the French FBI. Rober Langdon is a teacher who has studied the idea of the hidden holy grail. Through out the whole book it is Robert Langdon not Sophia Neveu who deciphers all the labyrinthine puzzles. Isn't it Sophia Neveu's career to uncode codes? Whats up with a women being completely helpless?

Also because there was so much rave during the time this book surface, I'll discuss this topic. First I want to state, this book is a fictional book. Again I repeat fictional. If we do just entertain the idea, but I don't believe it is true. The holy grail is out there and there is a secret group that broke off from the church to protect it. Lets just step outside the box of our ideas for a split second. Why would Jesus be any less God if He had a wife and a child? Could this all be something totally blown out of proportion? And lets just say that in the Da Vinci's Last Supper painting there is a women to the right hand of Jesus instead of one of His disciples. Where would the other disciple be? Why isn't there then 14 people? I probably don't know enough about this to make any kind of an argument either way. It all just seems like there was too much work up about some rumors and a painting.

But I do like the fictional book.

****
I give it 4 stars.




If you want to comment on this book, feel free. Also if you are interested in starting a internet book club let me know.

Pictures of the Little Nelly

Here are some recent pictures of little Nelly and family that everyone has been requesting. Here are pictures of events including Russell's birthday bash, The Big Horse ranch to go to the corn crop maze and other acitivities, and halloween.



Create Your Own

Sleep and clean in the mommy world?

I'll be short and sweet on this thing. But I just want to say it, because I don't get it. In the book I'm reading it talks about "Mommy Guilt". It states you need to sleep when the baby sleeps--and that is okay. But then I also hear from people that you got to clean your house when the baby sleeps, because when else can you do it. If you don't vacuum when the babies awake and you don't vacuum when the babies asleep, when do you? I get it. I'm tired. I want to sleep. But I also want my house to be clean. And since I started working spending one night staying up to the crack of dawn isn't working. So when do I clean? When she is awake I want to spend time with her because I'm away from her for 3 full days a week. But I do vacuum when she's awake because it's easier to find time to just put her in the swing and vacuum real quick then to get her asleep enough and hope it doesn't wake her up.

So to all the mommy's out there. I don't want to hear both. I want to hear the answer--which one is it?

My Day, His Way

My Day, His Way
By C. Hopson

I love this book and highly recommend it. I actually went to a woman's retreat where C. Hopson was the speaker and she is very good. This book is a easy read with only 139 pages. This book would work very well for a guided devotional; after each chapter it has a small poem, scriptures, and questions to get you thinking. It is very inspiring to live with God in mind in even the simple activities of your life. All together it reminds us to get up everyday and tell ourselves to live each day saying, "God I'm available if you want me to show someone your love today." I like how through out the book she is letting love be the primary point. Hopson also shows how when the opportunity arises not to be afraid but minister to the people and tell them the truth of Gods direction in saying, "God cared so much about you that He brought me here to share His love with you".

I give this book 5 stars.

*****


Small exert...


Change my Eyesight, Lord

Oh Lord, sometimes I'm into self,
and what feels good to me,
And I admit that my own plans
are all I really see.

I guess I didn't spend the time
today, with you, in prayer,
So I would be in tune with what
you had for me to share.

I wonder who the Susan's were
who never saw the light,
And never felt your loving touch
because of my poor sight.

Forgive me for my selfish days,
and give me a new view.
I want to change my eyesight Lord.
Please help me see like you.

Book Corner

I started a new page element at the bottom of the page called "Book Corner". It is where I will list books that I am currently reading and books that I have finished. At the finish of the book I'll write a critics review. Maybe I can get enough people interested that I can start a whole new blog for this and we can start a Internet book club. Maybe we can even talk about a book as we read it. But that is just a thought. For right now it is just a "one man" (or woman) group. And I wont bore you with all the stuff while I'm reading just when I'm finished. : )

Ambers in the Southland

Well believe it or not I didn't realize how bad all the fires were in our surrounding area until this morning. I have worked through the weekend, and working 12 houir shifts and living 30 miles from work I can loose touch with the rest of life. This morning when I came down stairs I smelt fumes....I kept thinking it smelled like a camp fire. Right before Nicky stopped by I turned on the tv to realize how bad the fires had gotten. Even though there are no ones that are directly by us I realized when I went to get take a shower there was a film of ashes at the bottom of my bathtub. (There is a window in my shower.) Here are some pictures from nasa that were taken today one at 11:35 am and the other at 2:50. Just a little over 3 hours, you can all tell how it is growing so quickly.


How to protect your family against all the smoke

How to save water for the firefighters

Happy Birthday Papi!

I just wanted to say before my weekend got to busy....Happy birthday to my husband, Russell. He is turning 31 on Monday but our close family will be celebrating it tomorrow. I hope you get everything you want this year. (If you are a close family or friend and would like to come to Russell's birthday event, let me know. It involves dinner and birthday cake.)

Also tomorrow is our little one's 3 month old birthday. Happy birthday Little Nelly. We love you!

Precious Eden

Baby Eden was born on Saturday, October 13th at 3:46 pm. She was a darling little girl and brought a smile to everyone she was around. She did pass away October 15th at about 4 am, but she was able to experience three days with her family and loved ones. So until they meet again, Jesus will be babysitting little Eden for them.

Update

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, beside being busy with having a brand new baby! My internet has been down and I finally got it back up. Some updates: I just started work and am going tomorrow for my 4th day (start of my 2nd week of work). So far I haven't had any problems but I have been spending the whole day of work braging about how cute my little girl is (new pictures to come soon). Also one of my cats, Princess, just had abdominal surgery today to take a sample of her bowels to see if the reason she isn't feeling so well is lymphoma. We should get her back tomorrow after spending 4 days in the vet. I hope it comes back with a good report and that she is cancer free.

Also! Just as a reminder Alexis is due soon and if she doesn't go into labor before will be having a little Eden on Saturday by C-section. We are all still praying and expecting a fully healed baby with one of the large Anderson heads. Prayer and encouragement go your way, Alexis. I pray that strength and faith go to your whole family.

Booby wins!

Well I just want to announce that booby finally wined. We are still giving her medicine for the thrush (hopefully ending on Tuesday). So whether this rejecting of breastfeeding was due to the mouth infection or nipple confusion or a combination, we successfully feed 2 days without needing to give her the bottle. Her hardest feeding is around 6 pm and was the last one to struggle with.

She also slept through the night on Saturday. She finished feeding at 10 pm and didn't wake up till 6:30 in the morning. However she didn't do it again last night.
:( Maybe she do it again soon.

Some sad news: Russell wasn't able to get the job promotion. Later during a physical for the company he found out that the company has a policy stating that no one with diabetes can work in that job in a fear of the person blacking out at the wheel. Despite argument of no risk of Russell with non-insulin dependent (type II) blacking out he couldn't change their mind. : ( Oh well, I guess it wasn't God's will.

One-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater

For my little girl:

Well I saw the thing coming out of the sky

It had one long horn and one big eye

I commenced to shakin' and I said oo-wee

It looks like a purple people eater to me

It was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater

One-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater

One-eye one-horned flying purple people eater

Sure looks good to me




For those who don't know we have been giving little Nelly Gentian Violet for her trush. Gentian Violet dies everything purple. Everything! (That is the dark purple stained on the side of her lip.) And we are starting round 3 of meds to get rid of the trush.

Also her 2 month check up today. She weighed in at 12 lbs exactly and 24 inches long!

my new look

Well I wanted a wash and go type of do. So I thought I would try a perm, but lets just say that didn't work out very well. So I went short, what do you think?




See the update of the whole family.

M & M family, can't say we aren't sweet lovers!

Check out the one of Russ

And the one of the whole family

Come on and do your own! It's fun.

Woohoo!

Russell just got a new job/ job promotion. He was able to move around in his company he works for to get a better paying job that has room to move up the corporate ladder. Hopefully down the road he will make enough where I can stop working as much. I love you Papi!

he he he

What do you think? Does it look like me?

Click on me





By the way I got a perm in my hair. What do you think?

Make your own M&M character

Totally the 1st child!

I just couldn't help myself. I put Penelope in this outfit and she was soooo adorable. She is totally the 1st child that gets all the random pictures and attention. And I am totally the new mother that gets to brag about her on my blog!

Big Bouncing Baby Boy

A big bouncing baby boy was born today, September 8th, at around 11:30 am EST. Colton Thomas Payne was born 10 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long via C-section. Here is a beautiful picture of the little boy.

the stork is coming....

The Stork is visiting the Payne family (my husband, Russell, cousin). Keep Nicole, who probably is in labor right now, in prayer for a smooth labor. I will announce as soon as I hear of little boy Colton and when he has made his appearance to his new parents Kyle and Nicole.

Booby in the lead :)

Well Penelope's thrush is not gone...nope it isn't gone after ALL that we have done and over a 7 day treatment with Nystatin. So Doctor mom is giving her Gentian Violet (an old remedy). So tonight (Thursday night) we are doing day 2 of treatment. I really hope it helps her. But I have been able to breast feed her again, a little. Today, however, she has been a little fussy. So pray that it gets better soon.

more baby pics

Here are what everyone is really checking my blog for....pics of the baby. Isn't she sooo cute!

B & B continued...

In the previous post I mentioned that a side effect of the baby having thrush is that she has pain during latching on and can be rather fussy and pulls off frequently. The problem is that we haven't been able to do a single feeding today without having to end the feeding with just giving her my pumped breast milk in a bottle. I find it hard to give myself the excuse to cause her more pain just so that I can feed her by the breast instead of the bottle. So starting tonight I plan on giving her the bottle of my milk instead of the breast. I'm a little worried about that, first I am scared that it will be hard for me to feed her and pump to maintain my supply every three hours by myself. It was quiet hard when I was only doing it once a day to start my supply. So depending on how long this might have to go on I'm worried about drying out. The other problem is that she might have additional reasons for not wanting me. She might have nipple confusion--where they realize it is easier to feed off a bottle and don't want to work at expressing milk from the breast. If that is the case there isn't going to be any turning back. This will be the last time that I would have naturally breastfeed my little girl. I really tried to do everything right, at the right time, so it saddens me to think this--that she might not want mommy anymore.

In it all, I can't excuse myself to cause her pain because of my set backs. Her being feed is not about me; it's about her. She needs what is best for her, and she needs to be as comfortable as possible. She doesn't need me to give her more pain due to my insecurities. Plus I think of two very encouraging sayings. One: Worry is just a payment for a debt you do not owe. And the Second: The opposite of worry is prayer. So, God knows my heart. He knows what is best. I'll let Him handle it, because He surely can.

Just Say No

Well in the grand scheam of things I am really blessed to have such a great little daughter. However in looking back at everything I have had a little bit of a problem that seems to be coming up consistently. During my labor I had internal monitoring. Basically they attached a probe to her head to monitor her heart rate and my contractions. The reason they did this was that they were not getting accurate contractions on the monitor. Though it did help in looking closer at her because I had meconium in my water (when my water broke there was evidence that she pooped inside). She was born on a Thursday night and I was discharged on Saturday with her from the hospital. By Monday I had noticed a bump on the back side of her head, about the size of a big pimple on my face. And I scheduled a normal wellness doctors appointment for Wednesday. By Wednesday, right before the doctors appointment, I noticed the bump developed a white head. The doctor ruled that it was an abcess infection. And we started on 10 days of Keflex (Cephalosporin) antibiotics three times a day. We also had to apply hot compresses to the area for 10 minutes every 3-4 hours. This got a little tiring especially in the middle of the night. She did really well and the infection cleared up without her ever developing a fever, or getting really sick.

However, about two weeks after finishing the antibiotics I noticed she was getting white patches on the inside of her cheeks. This is thrush, kind of like a yeast infection that is inside the mouth from antibiotics that kill both the bad bacteria and the good bacteria. I called her Pediatrician and she recommended that I just keep an eye on it for a couple of days and see if it goes away on its own before we get started on more medicine. This is where I became a bad mom. : ( The thing is as a nurse, I should have known better. The white spots stayed the same. I looked at her tounge, her gums, the roof of her mouth. But I didn't see the same white spots. I did start noticing the roof of her mouth started getting generally whiter. She did seem gassier. And near the end she was starting to get really fussy nursing. Oh, and this whole time she has had a horrible diaper rash that dispite everything I could think of was not going away (bathing her almost every day, giving her naked time, putting tons of diaper cream on, changing diaper very frequently). However, I let it go for a whole week before a friend recommended I read a site called www.kellymom.com. Where I read the symptoms of thrush with a baby: diaper rash that does not respond to typical rash ointments; creamy white patches that cannot be wiped off on the inside of the mouth, along the inside of the gums, inside of the cheeks, roof of mouth, throat, or tongue; a shiny or "mother of pearl" look on the inside of the mouth
breast refusal, pulling off breast, or a reluctance to nurse due to mouth soreness
repeated clicking during nursing; excessive gassiness due to the yeast's invasion of the gut. She had all the symptoms except the clcking during nursing. At this point I looked at my daughter who was whimpering during her sleep due to the discomfort and felt horrible. She looked like such a pretty healthy little girl, I really didn't want to admit she was sick with yet something else.

So now we have 4 different treatments we are giving her bottom, have her in cloth diapers at night, and giving her hydrogen peroxide mixture and nystatin swabs in her mouth. Oh and plus I got to treat my nipples with cream, and steralize every thing that goes in her mouth every day to not spread the infection. Bottom line just say no to internal monitoring if it is not completely necessary. I know I am sure going to next time. Only 3-5% of the population develop an infection like Penelope did from the monitor, but this is way too frustrating. Don't do it unless it is required, ,just say no.

My sis

I first want to say that I am very proud of my sister, Cherrella, who is going to be taking a expensive leap of faith in extending her education. She is starting Monday at Woodbury University. Woodbury University was founded in 1884 and is located in Burbank, Ca. Her major is in Architecture and she minoring in Art History. The University has one of the only accredited Architecture programs in the area. The school emphasises that area so much that 2/3 of the students major in Art or Architecture.

Cherrella is also going to be turning a year older on August 29th. Happy Birthday!

everyone's doing it

At the g diaper yahoo group most got together and posted their location on a map. Take a look....http://www.frappr.com/gdiapers

One Month Old!

Penelope is going to be one month old tomorrow! Wow, time really went fast. She has grown so much from the first day at the hospital. Here are, of course, some more cute picutres of her. And so far so good with the bottle and breast combination. I'm not going to say there is definatly going to be any problems until we have made it to one week. But no problems thus far.

Baba & booby

Today is the day that I have been looking forward to for a while. But right now I'm starting to regret that it is here. At our breastfeeding class the lactation consultant said the best time to introduce the bottle is 4 weeks old. I am planning on pumping breast milk and having that fed to her in a bottle when I go back to work. There are two problem sometimes when you incorporate breast and bottle. The first one is "nipple confusion" this is when the baby prefers the bottle because it is easier to retrieve milk out of then the breast. The other is when they won't take the bottle at all. The later problem is usually when it is introduced with an older baby. So my risk is that when I introducing the bottle tonight she won't want me any more. :( I never really felt like I was bonding with the breastfeeding. Partly I think because she always falls asleep while I'm trying to feed her. But when I think these might be the last day her and I can do this together, I'm sad. It was going to be nice to not be on a 3 hour time clock with feedings, but I hope we can still have these bonding moments.

everyone loves her

We had a couple of wonderful visits for Aunt Corky (Penelope's Great Aunt from Russell's maternal side of the family) and Grandpa Darty and "Grandma Lama" (Penelope's Great grandparents from Jennifer's paternal side). Here are some of the pictures of the visit.

0

Above are pictures with Grandma Pat, Aunt Corky, Matthew, and Granna.

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Above are pictures with Grandma Lama, and Grandpa Darty.

rub dub

Rub dub for the babies first bath. Thought I show of the adorable pictures we have of her during this special time.

Oh, and thank you all for your prayers. Her little infection is healed and she is doing all better. :) Plus, the latest doctors appointment she weighed in at 8 lbs 13 ozs at 2 weeks old. Which is great considering her birth weight is 7 lbs 15 oz.

our little angel

Above is some more pictures of our little girl. We are all doing pretty well, the latching on breastfeeding is doing fine. We are learning how to deal with some of her sleep habits. She only wants to sleep in bed next to us. And her feeding schedule to make sure she is getting enough to eat. If everyone can keep her in prayer. She has developed a little infection on her head where they attached the fetal monitoring during the labor. She is currently on oral antibiotics and we are putting warm compresses to hopefully drain the infection. Right now she seems to be fighting it. But if she develops a fever we are going to have to take her to the hospital for IV antibiotics. Pray that this infection gets healed quickly.