Ellie's Belated 4th Birthday Party

With Serafina's arrival taking place the weekend of Ellie's birthday, we put off celebrations until everyone was home together. Ellie was a trooper and didn't complain even once. She is such a wonderful little girl who has a very big heart, especially when it comes to her sisters. It was a joy to celebrate her birth this past weekend and to watch her face light up with all the attention put on her.

Here are some of the highlights from her family party:

Even opening the cards was a thrill for Ellie

The "strawberry shortcake" (or a white cake with strawberry filling :-)

The excitement of the gifts was almost too much

Gotta love the face of a happy birthday girl!

Home at Last

It seems forever ago we were impatiently waiting for our littlest girl to arrive. She is now 8 days old and doing wonderfully, despite the crazy labor that brought about her arrival and the strange disease (Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia, or NAIT) she was born with, not to mention the way that disease was discovered.

Warning: Detailed Labor Story that may be boring to some and too much information for others.



Labor:
I was induced Saturday December 4th at about 9am. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but being 2 weeks late, I felt I had pushed things as long as I would be permitted to wait. The Pitocin took immediate effect even at the lowest levels, but our little girl wasn't liking it, so the nurse had to continually shut off the Pitocin drip and see if the contractions would continue. After a number of hours back and forth with Pitocin, the midwife suggested we break my water and see what happens. This seemed to be the trick, but at 7cm things stopped progressing.

The next several hours are fuzzy to me, mostly because the pain was intense and I was exhausted. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I mentally gave up. Despite my own weakness, God pushed me further and used those around me to give me the strength I lacked. Allen was an amazing comfort during what would be my most difficult labor of the 4. And Judy Bufford was a lifesaver, as Allen needed to be with me more and more, she was able to support him and to be extra support for me during the truly trying moments (including a pillow when I couldn't sit up anymore, and my cold cloth provider when things got really rough :-) ). By this point it was the first hours of the next day and everyone was tired. I was 9cm and still only 85-90% effaced (which for those that don't know is the key to being able to get that baby out).

Realizing that I may not at this point have the energy to push, I decided that at the slightest twinge of a "need" to push, I was going to try now and not wait for 10cm and 100% effacement. After some of the most insane pushing I have done, and for way longer than I have been used to in the past (I have been blessed before to not have very long in the pushing phase) we were able to welcome Serafina Faith into this world. Despite her low heart rates throughout labor and very low heart rates during the last hour, she was strong, healthy and alert when she finally joined us.




Labor story over.




Once she was here we moved to the Postpartum room and tried to get some much needed sleep between feedings. We did the normal after-baby-arrived-family-visits and the typical nurse checking-in visits. During the first few baby checks Serafina was consistently cool, despite the efforts we were making to bring her up to 98.6. They checked her blood sugar, and found she was at normal, but her heart rate was also low at times (as it had been during labor).

Suspecting these were signs of an infection they took some small blood samples. The first would be cultured for 48 hours to see if anything turned up in the infectious category. The second sample was to check her white blood cell counts to see if they were up in an effort to fight off something in her system. Shortly after the second sample was processed they found something very unexpected, perfectly normal red and white blood cell counts, but off the charts low platelet counts. Her cultures were still processing, but this new news was concerning.

We would now journey with her to the NICU, where she would ultimately stay for the next 5 1/2 days. Once there, the nurses set to work placing two IVs and a few sensors to monitor heart rate, oxygen levels, and other needed facts. During that night they would begin two antibiotics and a platelet transfusion. Then, in the next days they would monitor her platelet counts, ultimately diagnosing her with Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia or NAIT. The platelets given to her Sunday evening (the 5th, her birthday) would be enough to combat the bad antigens and allow her own immune system to take over in destroying these unwanted antigens that were eating up her platelets.

She came home Friday late morning, 6 days after being born, and is doing wonderfully. She is eating well, sleeping well (for a newborn :-) ) and per her doctor visit this morning, is gaining weight well. The doctors have informed us that she should never have this problem again, now that we have overcome it. Since the ultrasound done on her head showed no signs of brain bleed (the leading concern with NAIT), she should be a normal kiddo from here on out.

Lesson Learned:

What does all this mean? For me it has been an incredible reminder that God is in control and He is the provider of ALL things, including strength and health. This past week was filled with weakness, and lack of health, but now we sit at home, physically well and spiritually stronger. God got us through this tough week and now we can look back and see His hand in each moment. God is good all the time, even in moments where we find ourselves asking, "When?" or "How?" or "Why?" He is good!

Still...

...waiting. Maybe she will come today...

Now we Need a Date

So we think we finally have the name for this little girl. We are waiting for her to come before we announce it (mostly because we have changed our minds SO MANY times on her name, that we don't want to commit prematurely :-).

So now all we need is to figure out her birth-date. Any one want to suggest a day? My preference would be today, mostly because it isn't tomorrow :-)

She is due the 20th, but who knows!

Lizzie Loves to Organize

Lizzie has always loved to organize. At 1 she would spend what seemed like hours straightening my kitchen towels. Now she does things like making her sister's bed because she just can't handle the way Ellie does it (we are working on this, since she needs to be ok with her sister's ways of doing certain things, but funny none the less). Over the summer we spent our Saturday mornings at the local Saturday market where my sister (Melissa) and her roomie (Bethany) sold folding memory books. After watching these lovely ladies set up and reset up their display each week, she began to duplicate it in her playing:


Of course she used Gracie's toys, since we wouldn't want to have our own toys for sale :-)

Note: If you are interested Melissa and Bethany have been hard at work for the holiday season and are not only preparing their books, but some wonderful baskets filled with a variety of things based on theme (Christmas, Dora, baby boy or girl, gingerbread fun, etc). They will be at a number of bazaars and even the Thornton's Treeland in the next month or 2.

A Little Behind

Yeah, I know, it has been far too long since I last posted here. Soon enough we will be posting pictures of our latest pink wearing kiddo, so I thought I better get caught up a bit before she comes and I get behind again :-)

The following are some pictures of Lizzie and Ellie's bunk-bed (thanks Brewsters). I girlified it with some paint, fabric and fake flowers. It was a fun project, and although it doesn't look nearly this nice regularly, it was still worth the work.

We need a Name Still

So I realized that I haven't given enough info to help with getting some good baby girl names. We want a name that will flow well with the 3 older girls names. Here are their names:

Elizabeth Blair (means: consecrated to God)
Eliana Joy (means: God has answered with Joy)
Malina Grace (means: Tower of Grace or Raspberry Grace if you go with the Russian :-)

Since they all are 3 syllables, that would be the easiest way to make them all 4 flow well. And since the older 2 both have "E-l-i" at the start of their names, we thought it might be fun to have the younger 2 have "M"s. Though, we are flexible, so any baby girl names, that seem to fit well along side her big sisters' names, would be great. What are your favorites??? Oh, and meaning is still a must.

Names

So we are still struggling to come up with a name for this little girl. We are thinking an "M" name, with hopefully 3 syllables. That goes well with a single syllable middle name. Originally we were thinking a Hebrew name, but can't seem to find one, so as long as it has a great meaning. Any ideas? :-)

Pain Worse than Death

I have felt a lot of pain over the last several years. The pain of giving birth, of gallstones, and of kidney stones (yeah, I know, there must be a joke there somewhere, but I can't seem to find it). I have also suffered pain that cuts deeper than any surgeons tool can reach...the pain brought on by losing a loved one. In each moment of pain, I can remember thinking things like, "Nothing could hurt worse than this" or "I just can't get through... it hurts too much". And inevitably God would get me through it and eventually show me that there are worse types of pain.

It has now been just over 9 months since I lost my mom to cancer, and that pain is still present, still aching and tugging at me. Just after she went to be with the LORD, I thought, "Surely there is nothing more painful than losing someone close to you to such an awful disease." Well, I was wrong. There is a pain that exists in this world that has the ability to go far deeper than that of loss through death. It is the pain of sin. Sin can damage the very depths of your soul, whether it is your own sin or that of someone you love. It can paralyze you, unable to move forward or backward. If it is your own sin it can poison every part of your person, creating other sins along the way, like a disease of the soul. If it is the sin of another it can bring about a grief that cannot be matched or "out done" except by One.

As I have begun to feel this strange and yet familiar pain, I have seen the destruction and agony in the lives of others as well. I have seen what it is to look on a person who is suffering the pain of another's choices. It is an ugly pain. A heavy pain. The pain of an ungodly act causing a godly pain. I cannot begin to describe this awful suffering, and yet I know that it is minuscule compared to that which Our Savior suffered for us. If one sin can hurt so deeply, how much more so the sins of the world. The pain He endured for us is unfathomable. It is more than any of us would be able to handle, and that is why it had to be Him. It could only be Christ who bore that unspeakably heavy burden. I am so grateful He did, and so humbled that He loved me enough to endure such pain for each one of my agony inducing sins.

''Father,

Thank You. I am so overwhelmed at what You have done for me. To send Your Son, knowing what He would experience and how deeply He would suffer. All so that people like me, who can and do cause such great suffering, might have life. If it were me I would have said forget it and let those pain-inflictors suffer their own fates. Yet, another reason I am so thankful that You are in control and not me. Thank You for loving me so deeply that You would give so much for me. I am humbled, and honored to be Yours."

Always quotable Ellie

After already going to bed (knowing that Steph had made cookie dough), Ellie comes out and says:

"Mommy, would you be willing to make cookie dough for us for dessert after breakfast in the morning?"