Thank you, Lord!

It is with HUGE relief and very thankful hearts that we report that our little Sophie passed all her tests with flying colors and seems to be doing so much better! Due to her failure to thrive diagnosis and lack of appetite/growth the past few months, she began undergoing testing over the last 10 days for a variety of things.

Sporting her hospital bracelet after some tests. Sweet girl didn't cry once, through all these appointments!

The Lord was very good to us in giving us real peace through the process, kind efficient doctors, and very quick test results each time. Thank you all for praying! To summarize, her blood tests and sweat test (for cystic fibrosis) are all normal/negative. The cyst on the back of her throat is benign (praise God!), but does need to be removed and that surgery is scheduled for June 5. The ENT, who looked at the cyst, also found an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics which we started last Friday. And ever since taking the meds, she has been finishing bottles and, drumroll please, has gained 11 oz in a week!!!! We think she may have had an underlying infection that the antibiotics have resolved. So now her body can use all those calories to add weight rather than fighting some nasty-ness going on!

But all this gallivanting, prodding and poking had her all tired out!

It is so good to see her a little more interested in her bottle and also to see the scale tipping 11 pounds now. And it's just good not to be worrying for her. Another very kind reassurance the Lord gave us this week was that she reached several milestones during all this testing:

She found her feet and now plays with them all the time

She started grabbing, batting and holding her toys

She rolled over from tummy to back (she sleeps on her stomach and is quite upset when she ends up on her back; that makes for fun nap times, let me tell you!)

Praising God for his grace in giving Sophie her health and allowing her growth to improve! And here's to a doctor-appointment-free month ahead!

Sick Day

This is what we were doing today...bed, Tylenol, doctor, more bed, more Tylenol, lots of liquids, and some snuggles and germ sharing thrown in for good measure. Poor Jack is suffering from some sort of viral thing, main symptom being a high fever. But he ate a bit of dinner tonight, so I think we're on the mend. Here's to hoping Sophie Girl doesn't catch it. But seeing as how they were "sleeping over" today, I have my doubts she's going to escape!

Four Months Old

Our sweet Sophia turned four months old on Monday. It seems she is really leaving the newborn stage and becoming an older baby. She hands out smiles liberally and loves anyone paying her attention. Jack likes to play near her now and offers her toys often. She loves watching him.



At her four month check yesterday she weighed in at 10.7 lbs, which is still not great, so we're trying to be proactive and are working with the doc to figure out what's going on with her appetite. She is 24 inches though which is good. And she is mostly meeting milestones still.



I still can't believe she's ours and rejoice in her every day. We are so thankful for you Sophia Joy!

Easter Sunday

It has been a very special Easter season this year. I think I made time to be quiet this week and reflect and worship. And Andre and I got to spend some good time in the evenings together. I didn't go out much either but stayed home a lot, by choice, which was good for all of us, I think.

Along with being quiet, I took some time in between keeping the children alive (ha!) to do some fun Easter decor/crafts I found on Pinterest (how did we live creative lives before Pinterest?!), which resulted in our mantle getting a wee makeover for Spring...






And our Easter table getting some love...




So that was fun. We really enjoyed our Easter Sunday today. We celebrated Jesus' resurrection at church this morning...


Started a tradition of Easter baskets with a chocolate bunny each...



Sophie looks like she's hiding her's from Jack...which is pretty much what she needed to do to keep his grubby paws off it!

Steve and Rach and little Wyn came for lunch along with our friend Vladimir. We missed Vera, his wife, as she was sick today and couldn't join us. The roast lamb, cooked by dear Hubby, was delish...

And the littlest cousins got a photo together...

Happy Easter all! We rejoice in and worship our Lord Jesus, who triumphed over sin and death and rose victorious!

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave!

"Hunting Mine Eggs"

We spent a fun morning with friends from church who very kindly hosted an Easter egg hunt at their home. They live not too far away, but the car ride got somewhat tedious as Jack spent the entire time saying, "Mommy, hunting mine eggs. Egg party. Fwends", over and over again. Yes, son. We know :)



Jack was BEYOND excited to spend time with his "fwends", as lots of his little buddies were there, including his cousins.


He gathered a basketful of eggs and immediately began to open them and eat the candy...lunch was a complete bust, of course, but I let it go, as he was having such fun and we made up for it at dinnertime with his favorite beef stew!


Sophia behaved beautifully and then went to sleep in the sling. How obliging of her!



Daddy spent the whole time supervising Jacko and they had a great time together, gathering eggs and discovering what was inside.


Thank you for hosting such a fun morning, Neff family! We loved our first Easter egg hunt!

Reminders

I find that in these busy days of seeing to little ones all day long, I need reminders to mark life's occasions; to surround myself with things that help me to remember. So I was thrilled to discover this beautiful poster as a free download on a blog recommended on Ann Voskamp's blog (trying to give credit where credit is due here!)

Jackie, over at Willow Wonder, designed this beautiful Easter artwork as a free download (in all sorts of lovely colors too) and I thought I'd share. LOVE this and it's now sitting on my mantle, reminding me of what this Holy Week is all about. I am so thankful for it!


LOVE her work, which you can see and purchase at her Etsy shop.

Little One

Three weeks ago

And yes, she is. Little that is. But before we address that, I just have to say, I LOVE this little girl! I cannot believe she's ours and cannot get enough cuddles and kisses and sniffs. Yes, I sniff her all the time and it's official, she smells like shortbread cookies. I know, I'm weird. But she DOES! She's just so yummy! Ok, enough of that.

Here's what's been going on: at her two month check, she wasn't gaining very well, so the doc upped her reflux meds and wanted her back at three months. At three months she had only gained 3 oz in two weeks. NOT good (they're supposed to gain around an ounce a day). She was officially labeled as "failure to thrive", which means she had dropped to below 2% on the growth curve.

By the way, to me "failure to thrive" sounded very much like "failure to mother". Anyway, I've had to work through that. Parenting seems to be a constant learning experience!

Anyhoo, the doc told me to put extra formula in her bottles and put her on a strict newborn schedule of feeding every three hours (even at night). Oh yes, that's been fun. I had got very used to my 8 hours of sleep and found it pretty rough going back again! But, it did the trick. Little girl gained 7 ounces in 6 days! Praise the Lord! My sweet Mum knew I was worried about Sophie, so she got us a digital baby scale so we could weigh her each week. So thankful for that! I weighed her yesterday and she had gained another 11 ounces in 11 days. Hooray!

So that's the scoop on our girlie. I haven't really wanted to broadcast the fact that she wasn't doing so well, as I was still working through my own feelings about it. And trying to field all the comments about how tiny she is! But I appreciate all the prayers from those of you who knew and would appreciate continued prayer for her as she hopefully continues to grow. I am so thankful though, that she is still reaching milestones just fine and that she is starting to look a little less pinched and hollow around her face. She is still sleeping ALOT during the day, which the doc says is normal as she is trying to conserve her calories for growth, not wasting them on awake time/playing.

And those sweet smiles and giggles keep coming, so that makes my heart happy. And she still smells like shortbread :)

Yesterday

Hosanna in the highest!

Happy Palm Sunday!