We have locomotion

Enjoy.



A few pictures

Time seems to be a scarce commodity around our house these days with Mark teaching early morning Seminary, Anna being RS President, both of us working full time, and trying to find time to spend together as a family...not to mention the cooking, cleaning, and never ending laundry. :) It seems that blog updates haven't been making it to the top of my to-do list lately, but I've received some complaints that people want new pictures of Lillie, so here's a quick update. 

After a brief relapse during which she decided she couldn't make it through the night without a bottle, Lillie is back to (mostly) sleeping through the night again. She's also doing better with her day-time naps as long as we don't let her get over-tired. Here's an example of what we get to stare lovingly at when Lillers is napping. 

Lillie had her 4 month doctor visit a couple weeks ago. She weighed in at a respectable 14 lbs 3 oz and is now 24 inches tall. She's still right at the 50th percentile, which is great. The doctor gave us the okay to go ahead and start trying baby cereal and fruits and veggies to get her used to different tastes and eating from a spoon instead of a bottle. She's loving it! The picture below is her having her first meal of rice cereal. Since then, we've tried oatmeal, bananas, and sweet potatoes (waiting at least three days between new foods to watch for allergies, of course). She really seems to like everything she's tasted so far and gets so excited when she tries something new.

Mark and I recently attended the President's Ball with some friends from church and obtained this rare "family photo." We really need to get more pictures of the three of us together. Lil did pretty well during dinner, but got pretty upset when the dancing started (right around her bedtime). She and I ended up in the hall for about the last half hour that we were there so that Lillie could exercise her lungs without annoying all the people trying to have a good time. Eventually I swaddled her up and she fell asleep.

Lillie enjoys getting to spend time with her cousins during the day when we're both at work. Here's a picture of her being held by her cousin Tegan (with a little help from Tegan's mommy). Tegan is just a few months older than her. I'm so glad she has cousins on both sides of the family who are her age! It'll be so much fun when they're old enough to play together.

We're loving this warm weather we've been having! It's so nice to be able to leave home without a carseat cover and extra warm blankets. Lillie got to wear her first summer outfit a few days ago and show off her adorable chubby little legs. Here are a few pictures of her in her "very hungy caterpillar" outfit.

Coming soon: It looks like Lillie is working on her first tooth, so stay tuned for all the exciting details about that. :)

3 Months

Lillie is three months old now and is getting to be such a big girl! She started sleeping through the night (about 9 pm til 6 or 7 am) right around the time she turned 10 weeks old. We've really been enjoying our sleep! She's also been studying her hands a lot more lately and trying to figure out what she can do with them besides shove her fist into her mouth - although that's a lot of fun in itself.

Another fun thing is that she has discovered her voice. We often wake up in the morning to the sound of Lillie "talking" to the animals on her mobile. Too cute! Here's a video we took today of her having a conversation with her daddy. Enjoy!

Splish Splash

As predicted, Lillie finally lost her cord stump yesterday...so we got to have her very first bath last night. She did great! She seemed to really like the warm water (until the very end when she decided she was finished and started crying) and it was nice to finally be able to give her a proper cleaning.

Here's Lillie trying to decide what she thinks about this new experience.

All warm and snugly in her new pink hoodie towel after the bath...

Gratuitous shot of the new belly button. So much cuter than the old dried-out stump. :)

Three Weeks

Our sweet princess is three weeks old today! She's such a joy in our lives. She's been a very good baby for us so far. She's still waking up every three to four hours and has several long periods of being awake and alert throughout the day. We just love how she opens her eyes so wide and looks around at everything. She loves to stare up into our eyes. She's not big on crying, but prefers to grunt and squeak to make her needs known. Once in a while she will let loose with a few minutes of frantic crying if we take too long to get a bottle ready, but she's very easily consoled and usually stops as soon as we pick her up or once the bottle hits her lips.

Yesterday was Lillie's first doctor appointment. She's up to 7 lbs 10 oz already and still measuring at 20 1/2 inches. That puts her right in the fiftieth percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. So she's right on average for her age. The doctor says she is perfectly healthy and growing well. We had been a little concerned that she's still hanging on to her umbilical cord stump, but it's very quickly gotten much looser and is currently only hanging on by a tiny thread. We anticipate that we'll have a cordless baby by the end of the day and be able to give her a real bath for the very first time tonight or tomorrow.

Lillie

Lillian Grace was born Tuesday, November 17th at 9:50 am. She weighed 5 lbs, 12 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. We're both overjoyed to have her in our family, and are in awe of this sweet spirit that's been sent to live with us.

Our time in Columbus flew by. We couldn't believe how fast the time in the hospital went! We really appreciated the wonderful nurses who took care of Lillie when we weren't able to be there. They made our hospital experience very easy and memorable. We were also thankful for the hospital's bending of the rules to allow us to stay longer than the normal hour and a half they normally allow for visitors. They were very nice and friendly every time we came in, even putting us in our own room with Lillian and letting us stay as long as we wanted to during normal visiting hours. One of the best things that happened (other than meeting Lillian, of course) was that we got to briefly meet Lillie's birthmother, which was a wonderful experience and we're happy that we'll be able to share it with her someday.

We're so thankful to everyone who's been sending thoughts and prayers out for us. We really appreciate all of your love and concern for us. We love you all!

Our News

By now, I think most of you have heard our news...but I'll go ahead and tell the story again just in case anyone missed it. :)

About a week and a half ago (Wednesday, Nov 4 at about 10 am to be exact), Mark and I were both home from work. I had just gotten back from a doctor's appointment and Mark was home because he wasn't feeling well. Suddenly, the phone rang. Caller ID showed "LDS Family Services" which immediately piqued our interest, since they don't normally call us. Let alone on a Wednesday morning when we would normally be at work. So, Mark answered the phone. It was our case worker, Spencer. He wanted to know if he could drive up from Columbus to meet with us the next day while he was in the area. Thursday wasn't really very good for us since we were both working and I had a RS activity that evening that I felt I should attend (since I'm the new RS President and all). So, he asked if he could come over that afternoon. That worked much better for us, so we agreed. We spent the next 2 or 3 hours trying to keep busy and not wonder too much why he was driving all the way up from Columbus just to meet with us. After all, if he had a potential birthmother, wouldn't he just tell us on the phone? Anyway, 2:00 finally arrived and Spencer arrived shortly thereafter. We spent a few agonizing minutes making small talk and eventually he came to the reasons for his visit.

Reason # 1 - there was a new policy in place to visit with adoptive couples more often. ("Oh, that explains it" we thought to ourselves...as the hopefulness we had tried so hard to supress came crashing down)....But then he came to reason # 2.

Reason # 2 - Spencer had been meeting with a birthmother. He spent quite a while detailing her story. We listened with great interest as he told us about this anonymous woman who made some poor choices and is now trying to get her life back together and make things right. He told us about all the preparation she had done in choosing the right agency to place her baby with - even attending our church for several months to make sure she liked what was taught there. And how she decided that adoption is the right choice for her and the baby, but she wanted the adoption to be completely closed - no contact before or after the birth. Not even names or pictures. She wants to make a clean break and move forward with her life. This last part made me sad because I've always imagined we'd be able to send pictures and letters and have stories to tell our kids about the birthmothers who chose a better life for them. Then came the best part of his story - the baby was due in about 2 weeks. And we were chosen to be the baby's parents.

So, that's our news. A few days ago, we found out that the birthmom is scheduled to be induced on Monday evening (11/16), so we're expecting to have a baby sometime Tuesday (the gender will be a surprise since the birthmom didn't want to know if it's a boy or a girl). After the birth, there's a waiting period of 72 hours before the birthmom can sign the relinquishment papers. Mark and I are planning on leaving for Columbus Tuesday morning. We'll only be allowed to visit during visiting hours, and the normal rule is only 2 hours at a time, although we're hoping they might bend that rule for us. If the baby is born before Tuesday evening, the signing should take place on Friday, then we'll be able to bring baby home after that. We're both incredibly excited, but still cautious since there's still a chance she could change her mind. We really appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that are being sent out in our behalf. I'll be sure to post updates when I'm able to... So be on the look out for a birth announcement early next week! :)