Dino Days!

Well I am back...although not a single baby picture in this one (we were hanging out in the shade). We went to Prosser the week after Tessa was born for their Dino Days. They have these Dino statues all over the town. At Dino days you help build their new one for the year.

We missed all the festivities (although I am not sure how much we missed) but the kids loved climbing on the Dinos. I love this age we are at where my kids generally enjoy the journey. Lee and I thought it was a little lame (especially the part where the Dino park is next door to a horribly smelly sewage plant) but the kids had fun, we got out of the house, and we were together. Can't beat that!

Annie liked these little riding horses. She was pretty impressed that she could climb up herself!

Please note there is a big lake in the middle of this park that people were FISHING AT....remember the part about the sewage plant....YUCK!

Some kids never grow up :)

All in all a beautiful lovely day out. We got a little extra sunshine for the little one and by Monday we had cleared out the Jaundice...can't beat that!

Tessa comes home!

Thursday morning we got to take our little lady home. You cannot imagine the glee from her older brother and sister when they got the news. It had been a long 5 days and we were all ready to begin some kind of new normal. Keaton has probably asked to hold her 18 times a day. Savannah seems smitten but has thrown about 18 fits a day....I guess normal is harder for some then others.
Savannah not so sure about this new baby. Although she did want to be close :)

Keaton was not ready to give her up anytime soon. She still is a bit yellow. We are hoping she can fight it off on her own and we will not have to do any more light treatments!

Savannah decided to get in on the action. She does like to hold the baby although she wants to do it alone. The baby seems to be almost as big as her :)We are thrilled with this little baby and we are all doing well! YAHOO!!!
P.S. Click here for a cute video of Keaton singing to her.

Sunbathing Beauty

Little Tessa graduated to a private room with her own sunbathing beach! She has all her tubes and monitors removed and is now just getting all those dang Billirubin's to get out. We were hoping with all the fluids she would get to bypass the whole jaundice thing but....no. She has been a champ and has taken it with little complaint. We are hoping she gets to go home tomorrow. We were also hoping for yesterday and the day before though...so....don't hold your breath.

If you are nursing sensitive you might want to quit reading now :) I wanted to record this experience though. If you know me very well you know I am passionate about breastfeeding. I nursed Keaton for a year while I worked 45 hours a week by pumping while at work. I nursed Savannah for 16 mos. I really believe in not only the health benefits but I can never get over paying for something that I can get better for free. NOW having said that I understand there are cases where it doesn't work out ; everyone need's to do what works and is right for them.
When Tessa was sent to the NICU one of my immediate worries was about nursing. I had a bit of time so I looked on the Internet and saw little hope of picking up nursing after her stomach was stretched with formula and her getting used to that "easy" source of food. I prayed and I prayed that it would work out but if not that I would be o.k. with it and I could figure out a way to pay for formula in an already tight budget. Each time I visited her I prayed while I sat there with my hand on her. I couldn't even hold her for a day and they didn't get me a pump for almost a day. I woke up Monday about 2 am (after about an hour of sleep) and began praying again to ease my worries. I felt like I should go down there RIGHT THEN and see her. I put on some slippers and headed down to the NICU. I sat by her bed and talked to her. Her nurse came and asked if I wanted to hold her. DID I EVER! I rocked her, kissed her little head, and sang quietly to her. She hummed softly and I finally felt PEACE. It would all be o.k. I climbed back in bed and finally slept. I knew my Heavenly Father knew I needed that....Tessa was fine. He was worried about ME.
The nurse said the next day I could try to nurse her. I then had the thought to contact 2 sisters I knew from my childhood. They both mentioned they had NICU babies. I e-mailed them asking about nursing. They gave me great hope! I know we are nowhere near out of the woods but so far it is looking great. She is a natural nurser and seems to prefer it to the bottle. Maybe this seems like a trivial thing to many. Once again though it makes me feel such comfort to know where I can find peace. To know that Heavenly Father KNOWS me and wants to answer my little prayers. He has answered many prayers for our little gal over the last few month's. It hardly seems like I should ask for more.....but I do...and he hears...and answers.