Babies at 5 Months

Now all my babies at five months. I love doing this, so I am sorry if I am boring you. Actually, I really do not care if I am boring you. You are the one checking out my blog when you probably should be doing something better with your precious time!! :-) I am one to talk because I probably read yours earlier today. Anyway......

Yes, Wyatt was unfortunate looking as a baby. I told you so, Erin, who always says he was not.

Danae 3 1/2 Months

Anxiety

I wanted to share something I read from a friends blog post. It was amazing the timing of when I read it and all that was happening with Danae. It basically has become an almost daily reading for me!

I have been stressing about finances, whether Danae's eye will need to be worked on again, and also just the stuff of daily life. What a wonderful reminder this is. Thanks Megan!

I hope it blesses some of you as well.


“Some of you are perplexed with a multitude of anxieties about your life.
You do not know what to do.
One plan was suggested, and for a time it seemed the best action.
But now you have doubts. You are bewildered and you cannot see Providence’s clue.
You are lost in a maze...

You have tried various ways and methods to escape your present difficulty.
But you have been disappointed and are distracted.
Your thoughts have no order; they drag you in opposite directions.
The currents meet and twist as if you were in a whirlpool.

My perplexed friend, remember the children of Israel at the Red Sea.
The sea was before them, rocks were on either side,
and the cruel Egyptians roared in the rear. Imitate Israel’s actions.
‘Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which He will accomplish for you today’ (Ex. 14.13)
You reply, ‘I cannot be quiet. I am agitated, perturbed, perplexed, tossed, and distracted.
What shall I do?’

‘In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul’ (Ps. 94.19)
Turn your eyes to the deep things of God.
Cease from an anxious consideration of seen things, which are temporary,
and gaze by faith on things that are eternal.

Remember your way is ordered by a higher power than your will and choice.
The eternal God has fixed your every step.
All things are fixed by the Father’s hand.
He who loved us from before the foundations of the world
has immutably determined every step of our pilgrimage.

It is a blessed thing,
after you have been muddling and meddling with your anxieties,
to throw your burdens on the Lord and leave them there.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon | Beside Still Waters

Another Eye Update

I took Danae to the Dr. again yesterday morning. Everything looks good and she is off all of the medication. Praise God.

The only thing now is that part of the abcess is still there. He is hoping it goes away all on its own, but if it does not, it may need to be removed. If not it would be there forever I guess. You can see the remains of it in the picture above.

The abcess is still hard, but there is nothing "wrong" with it except not wanting her to live with it there the rest of her life. I am praying God heals it and nothing invasive will have to happen. He will be watching this as well as keeping an eye on her sight over the next couple years. He does not think her sight would have been affected, but wants to make sure.

If you look closely you can see her left eye is shaped different than her right. In the grand scheme of life this is not a big deal, but I am hoping this also gets better as her eye continues to heal and she gets older.

Danae continues to be the PERFECT baby and I am so grateful she is in our life. I am grateful for God's protection of her over the past month and trust he will continue to heal her.

Surgery

Danae had surgery this morning to open up her left tear duct and remove a cyst in her left nostril that had apparently been there since birth. (She has had trouble breathing through that side since she first came out. It was finally found that was the problem.) The surgery went well and it seems as though this will fix the problems.

Thankfully she had no adverse reactions to putting her to sleep. Her opthamologist says we still have a long road ahead to make sure this fixes everything, so many Dr. visits are still going to be a part of my life. Please pray that God continues to heal these two areas, that the process would be over sooner rather than later, and that there would not large amounts of scar tissue in her nose where they cut out the cyst. Please also pray that a cold she picked up a few days ago would clear quickly, and now that the cyst is gone, the cold would leave so she could see what it was like to breathe free and clear!

I am praising God for protecting my baby and trust He will continue to heal her little nose and eye. Thank you for all of your prayers for her!

We Are Home!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Danae and I. I am sure most of my readers know what happened, so if you do not, you can email me and I will explain the whole thing.

Here is an update for those who do not know. The infection in the eye is gone. By God's grace is never made it to her optic nerve (they were worried at first) and as far as they know did not affect her sight. Although the actual infection is gone, her eye is still swollen and there is a place in her nose that is also swollen. Because of that, we are being sent to a surgeon specialist to find out if this will need to be surgically drained.

The Dr.'s do not think that the cysts are anything but fluid, so long term damage will be none. This I am thankful for. Please be praying that the Dr.'s are correct, it is just fluid in these parts, and that whatever needs to be done to fix it will be safe and effective.

Our hospital stay was as good as a hospital stay could be. There was lack of sleep, annoying things to be done constantly like vital signs, and lots of sticking my poor baby to get iv fluids in her. They must have stuck her 10 times at least during the stay. It was aweful. She had 3 collapsed veins during the stay, so they had to keep redoing the iv. It was difficult for me to see her in pain and being fooled with so much, but God and the best mother and grandmother in the world helped me through it. My mom helped me to realize that this was a great opportunity to get some reading, praying and thinking done. I was able to listen to worship music, read a great biography, and pray lots while I was there. It was a great way to pass the time!

Thank you to everyone who stepped up and helped me and my family. Thank you Tammy for being the best friend ever and organizing everything. Thanks Rachel and Tara for cleaning my house! And thanks to all who helped with my kids (Rachel, Rebekah, Amy, Erin, JJ, Janelle, Dad, Elyse. Did I miss someone?) I was telling mom that it amazes me how people rally around each other in time of need. It was awesome to see the local church in action!

Please continue to pray for us as the ordeal is not over. Things to be praying for are:

The infection stays away

Finances

Wisdom for all her Dr.'s

Rest for Danae and I

And most important protection for my baby girl in whatever needs to happen.

Last, thank you to my mom for being the most amazing person that I know. Thank you for sitting in the room with me for all those days. For holding Danae and comforting her when it was too hard for me to watch. For the many lunches and dinners you got me so I did not have to eat the food there. And mostly for being there for me. Just knowing you were there, or coming soon, helped me to get through this ordeal and I am sure it helped the baby girl too! If it were not for the fact I was her food source, I truly believe you would be her favorite person. :-) I love you!

Update on Eye

Here is a picture of her eye today. She seems to be able to open it more. We are still dealing with the pain and not sleeping, but thankfully mom spent the night last night so I could get some rest. Tomorrow we have her follow-up appointment and I am praying all is ok.

Torture

Danae had to have a cyst removed from her eye. It was there due to a blocked lacrimal gland. Here is the very sad picture. It was a horrible ordeal and Danae AND Mommy are traumatized for life.

5 Week Old Danae

More to come, but blogger is really slow right now.

Crazy Life

I thought I would give an update on my new, crazier life.

First, Danae is a wonderful baby. I have been known to say that the newborn stage is not my favorite stage of life for my children, but she has made me realize why people actually like newborns. She is a little clingy, but I can deal with that. She eats great, sleeps great, and is very consolable when she is upset about something. I have really been enjoying her and she has made it easy for me to fall in love with her.

Second, my other children. Kayla has been amazing. I had worked a lot with her before Danae came on some different things, but I feel like she has grown up even in the past three weeks. She is doing laundry and helping me clean. One morning Anniston woke up early and she got her up, took her down and made her breakfast, and cleaned up when they were done. She continually amazes me and even says she likes helping me....sometimes.

Wyatt has been incredibly sweet and good about a new baby in our life. He loves her very much and actually tries to kiss and hold her a little too much.

Anniston, well, oh my. That is really all I have to say about her. Anything that comes to mind about how she may be acting, it is probably true.

Ok, so here are some things I have learned since having a baby.

1. My kids think I am deaf. Every time she even starts to cry everyone starts yelling "the baby is crying, the baby is crying!". Annie just runs around yelling random stuff with them. I have tried to explain that Mommy has ears and can hear things too.

2. 20 month olds and 3 years olds can figure out quickly what they can do while there is a baby nursing. They have realized that is the time to put diaper rash medicine all over the playroom, put toilet paper around the entire upstairs, bite each other, go on a walk outside by themselves, eat lots of cookies, and fill many cups full of ice cubes and then pour them all over the kitchen floor. Apparently, it is fun to slide on the floor on cold ice.

3. Planning to leave the house takes 24 hours.

4. Everyone always needs me at the same time. I may incorporate a new rule. Only one child can say "Mommy" at a time. And, the other children have to wait at least 10 minutes to say the word Mommy again. I don't know why this has become worse since the baby came.

5. You do not have to change diapers as much as people think. They really can make it a long time. It saves time and money. Actually, running around naked works great.

6. Spanking is much harder when you have to nurse so much. What I really need is a giant paddle that I can reach all of downstairs from my chair in the living room.

And finally, I have learned that I can love a fourth child as much as my other three. I have learned that one more little face to kiss is amazing and watching my children love her is amazing. I have found that no matter how crazy my day, and how stressed out I get, I realize more and more each day that I am doing exactly what I should be doing. Loving and training four of the coolest, most adorable, hilarious, wild children.

They make me laugh, they make me cry and they scare me to death, but what an awesome job I have. I did not think I had the strength to handle one more, but God is helping me to not only handle it, but realize that the scary expectation of four children was harder than actually having them. If I only had trusted Him months ago, it could have saved me a lot of stress leading up to having Danae. One day I will learn.

Oh, gotta run. Thankfully Kayla and Wyatt just informed me that Danae is crying......






"We often speak of the birth of the child as a matter of course
...of no great moment but to the parents and relations.

But indeed the birth of a child,
whether in a palace or a workhouse,
is an event of more real importance than the
temporal concerns of an entire kingdom!

When a child is born, an immortal soul is born.

To have the charge of such beings,
to form their minds in their tender years,
to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
and at last to present them to Him,
enables us to say,

'Here am I, and the children Thou hast given me'

--- oh what a blessing!"
John Newton

Baby Girl Is Here

Below are a couple of pictures of our newest addition. Better pictures and more information will come, but this is all I have time for right now!