Finally Some Pictures!

Here is a picture of daddy dressing K. It is quite an event to watch and I think daddy gets more enjoyment out of it than K does.
The little baby gowns are perfect for going over the top of K's brace. We like this little baby in a bag.

K is sending a hello wave to all her many admirers. I know there are quite a few out there because she has a wardrobe to prove it. Kat, we got your dresses and she will definitely be one stylin' baby! Maybe she will be able to wear one of them for your wedding! Can't wait for you to meet her. Things are going well here, but it seems like everything is happening at one time. The semester is wrapping up for me so there are finals to make and classes to plan. K is growing so fast and Nate and I just want to freeze her like this. Guess we will have to do that through the millions of pictures:) Hope all of you are having a great weekend.

Snuggle Time

This is my favorite thing to do with K. She likes to get Eskimo kisses and I love giving them. I think you can plainly see that she enjoys it almost as much as I do.
I love being a mom. I think that is all I can really say about that one:)

Update

We had a good report yesterday at the Shriner's Hospital. K's harness is doing its job and her hip is getting better. This is the first time that we have gone to the hospital and not had some bad news so it was a breath of fresh air. She will probably be in the harness for the next five weeks, but I will not have to take her back to the hospital for two weeks. Thank you all for your prayers. We greatly appreciate them and we know God is in control. Please continue to pray for us and K. K's hip needs to continue to progress. We need to continue to find strength through our Savior Jesus Christ.

It has been very tough for us to continue to have one surprise problem after another each time we go to the doctor. It has been challenging to understand Romans 8:28 throughout the past few months. I am confident that we will see one day how God has worked through this situation in more ways than we can imagine. We have literally had visits to this site from all over the world. So, who knows how God will touch people's lives through K.

K & Her Friends

We thought it was an appropriate time to introduce all of you to some of K's best friends.


Mr Fan and Mr Mirror are most definitely K's best friends. She looks for them whenever she gets a chance. She will watch them for hours on end and be amused by them when she is often not happy with anything else.


These are some of the other friends that K has made in her three months. When I got home today she was in her swing and making noises to herself. I went in to talk to her and she was having a great time. She was all smiles and she was very happy when I let one of her stuffed animals swing with her. She smiled more each time I put one on the swing and this is what we ended up with. Needless to say, we had to get the camera. Christa and Amy came and we all had a great time getting K to smile for pictures with some of her closest friends. We hope you enjoy.

We go tomorrow for K to have another ultrasound done on her hips to see if the brace is doing its job. We have to be there at 10:30. Hopefully the day will go much smoother than it did last week.

Let the Good Times Roll

K is definitely feeling better now. I think she has almost gotten back to her normal self. The brace doesn't bother nearly as much as it did at the beginning. She smiles and coos and just looks adorable. Mr. Fan is very precious to her and we enjoy watching her discover the world around her.
This was taken before K went to Shriner's last week. As you can see, she is very alert when the flash goes off on the camera. Almost looks scared, doesn't she:) Those big eyes are so funny when she has been startled by something. She is definitely growing on us. I don't think we will send her back to the store. She's a keeper.

Fun Times

K and daddy are having a great time talking to each other. Look at those chubby cheeks!!!
K stops to pose for a picture. Doesn't she look absolutely excited? This is probably the first time K has ever played horsey. I'm sure it won't be the last. We are doing better, but we appreciate all of the prayers! More pictures are definitely going to be coming.

A Few Pictures

K was in a much better mood today than she had been. I think she is getting used to the harness and for that reason she is more chipper. We have been dressing her in the gown type outfits so the pavlic harness is not in the way.

Sleep

I am glad to say that K slept through the night for the most part last night. She was fussy around 4AM again, but she never fully awoke. This is a blessing because it shows us that she can sleep through the night for the most part in her harness. We are still tired, Christa more than I, but this is a step back to our normal baby life. Thank you for all of your prayers. We do seem to be dealing with the harness thing a little better. It still makes things tough, but we are adjusting to life with it and cannot wait to get rid of it.

Sorry there have been no pictures the past couple days. It has been crazy and K has been for the most part fussy and not very photogenic. She is not as happy of a baby in her harness as she is without it. I guess that is to be expected. We will try to get some pics up as soon as we get a chance (which will probably be tonight).

K's Harness

I copied the picture and following paragraph from a couple websites that describe the harness K has to wear.

The Pavlik Harness was first introduced by Arnold Pavlik, a Czech orthopedic surgeon, who first described it in the 1950’s. Since then, it has become standard treatment for hip dysplasia in infants. The harness consists of a shoulder harness attached to foot stirrups that keep the hips in the position of flexion and abduction, while allowing for a certain degree of movement within the "safe zone". This allows the femoral head (ball) to move within limits of safety within the acetabulum (cup), thus molding and deepening the acetabulum with growth. At birth, the harness is usually worn full-time for 6 weeks when the hip stabilizes, followed by another 6 weeks of weaning.

The Day's Thoughts

Well, so far K has not had too much of a problem with her harness. It does not seem to bother her as much as it bothers us. It is tougher to change her diapers and tough to figure out what she is going to wear because it must be big enough to go over her harness. Today she slept a lot according to Aunt Amy. She must have been wiped out from her long day yesterday and her lack of sleep last night. She woke us up around 4am this morning which is very abnormal for K. She has been sleeping through the night since she was somewhere around six weeks old so this was a big change for Christa and me.

Christa and I are doing a little better today. It is tough to watch our young daughter go through what she is going through and know we can do little about it. It is also tough to be optimistic when it seems like every time we turn around there is something else wrong that causes K to need medical attention. I don't know that I have ever been so discouraged/angry/disappointed/heartbroken...etc in my life. I know what she is going through is not that big in comparison to things that many others go through, yet that is little consolation in light of the fact that those others are not my kid and I have not felt the pain for them like I do for K (not because I don't care, but there is something about the child being your own kid). She is such a beautiful baby and it is hard to understand why this is the situation she has to endure.

God does have a purpose, but in the midst of pain it is not easy to see that purpose or understand it. Christa and I hurt more than K does from this situation and we keep waiting for a reprieve. I know He will use this situation, but it takes much strength, faith, and endurance to get to the point where we can see the situation used. Paul stated, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." I have to keep reminding myself that this is the same for me. My strength cannot come from myself or those around me, but only from Christ Jesus. Paul endured personally much more than I and he stated "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." What a perspective to have in approaching life. I pray that Christa and I can know this more fully and have this perspective more fully through this whole situation.

One last thing, we have decided to use the Shriner's Hospital for K's surgeries and other medical needs that arise. They have been very good to us and it appears that I will be getting to know them fairly well over the next month or so. They help many kids each year and we are confident that K will receive great care from them. We have also decided to not go to Northside this Friday in light of this decision.

Tough Day

K, Aunt Amy, and I went to the Shriner's Hospital today. K had an ultrasound done on her hips and it was determined that her right hip is not out of socket, but it is not sitting right in the hip socket. There are some technical words they used, but they did not make much sense. To fix this problem, they informed me that K needs to wear a harness for the next four to six weeks. Needless to say I was disappointed.

My imagination was running wild. I could envision K in a contraption much like what Forrest Gump had to wear, but for her hips rather than her legs. When they brought the harness in, it was not as bad looking as what I had in mind. It is a fabric harness that holds her legs in a position with her knees bent and her hips pressed into her hip sockets. If you hold her upright, it looks like she is squatting.

This is a very tough pill for us to swallow. It is more than disappointing. It is heartbreaking for Christa and me. K has to wear this harness 24 hours a day. We will not be able to give her a real bath until she is out of the harness. I don't know exactly how we are to change the t-shirt she wears under it. If we take her out of the harness, the four to six weeks will start over. The doctor said they can help us change it when we take her back each week when we go to have the progress on her hip checked.

So for the next four to six weeks K will be in a harness that goes over her shoulders and holds her feet. We will have to spend a day each week going to the hospital, getting an ultrasound on her hips, and meeting with the doctors to hear how things are progressing.

Please keep K and us in your prayers. This is very tough. We are supposed to go to the surgeon at Northside Friday. I am now wondering whether or not we should even go.

One last thing that needs to be said now. K, Christa, and I cannot be more thankful to have Aunt Amy here with us. She is a great help and I don't know what we would be doing without her. I have said it a couple times to her just today, but once again in a more public venue I must say "THANK YOU AMY!"

Snuggle Time

This little angel is the most precious thing to Nate and myself. What a gift from God! Look at her little hand. She is grasping my finger, which she is doing more and more now. I could have put her down for her nap, but I felt that she must have mommy time. She is getting closer to laughing and we found her to be very ticklish today. She seems to be especially ticklish around the ribs.
Daddy and K are having a heart-to-heart conversation. You can see her chubby little cheeks in this picture. As you can see, K is holding onto his finger. Everything about her is beautiful. Nate and Amy will be taking her to Greenville to get an ultrasound tomorrow so please pray. God has blessed us so much and I am thankful for that.

Making us Laugh

K was introduced to her bumbo toady. She was very unhappy that mommy had not come home yet to feed her. She started letting us know how unhappy she was, so I pulled out her bumbo to see if that would make her happy for a short time until mommy got home. To add to the distraction, I put in a Baby Einstein video for her to watch. At first she just looked around as you can see in the picture above.

Then she looked at Twinkie who is not visible in the picture above. She did not seem to interested in the video, but was satisfied with her seat.

Then she saw pictures on the TV that looked like this. She became captivated.

This was K for a few minutes until mommy made it home and walked in to see this beautiful site. We all had a good laugh.

Sleeping Beauty

After a hard day of playing with Momma G, K feels that she should get some shut-eye. Isn't she the most beautiful little girl that you have ever seen? I'm not biased in any way whatsoever:) Told ya'll more pictures were coming.

The Joys of Babies

K enjoys hanging out with her Poppa G on the front porch. This weekend was perfect weather for just sitting outside and relaxing. K seemed to enjoy the breeze on her face.
Well, we tried to take an Easter picture with K and her first Easter bunny, but as you can see she was not interested in photography at that moment. I promise she did look adorable. We will try again later.
This is my favorite time as a mommy. Sometimes K just likes to be put on the changing table so she is higher up. We have very good talks about life and I must say she smiles quite often during those times. I wish I could capture these moments forever so that I could look back on how amazing all of it is. This was also the day that K went to Sam's for the first time. The people at the store thought she was adorable, but I was not surprised by that. Of course, she is. She's my daughter:) K goes for an ultrasound on Tuesday for her hips to make sure they are in the sockets correctly and Friday we will be going back to Northside to meet with the first surgeon. Hopefully, we will learn more about what we need to do. Please pray for us.

Baby Dedication Easter Sunday

K was dedicated to God today on Easter Sunday. We thought it would be an appropriate time and it was a blessing to have Nate's parents here. We wanted to share this time with our church family as well. God has richly blessed us with a beautiful baby girl.
This is some of K's easter outfit. The sandals were too big and we had a hard time getting her to wear her sweater. Let's just say we wanted to keep her pleasant for at least a little while. The bib was for protection, but we just left it on.

K is such a joy in our lives. It is hard to express how much we love this little girl. Sometimes we struggle with the future, but when she smiles and looks at us with those beautiful blue eyes it is amazing how those struggles seem so far away. We are thankful for her and we can't wait to see what the future has in store for her. Her little outfit says "It's all about me." How appropriate is that:)

headder image

Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail

As a literature teacher, I felt that this outfit was perfect for an English teacher's little girl. K wears it so well. This is her "I find you interesting" look. Those blue eyes can just melt anyone's heart. I love being a mom and I know her daddy loves being a dad. When you have such a beautiful little girl, it is hard not to look at her all of the time. God has given us an angel and I thank Him every day for this blessing. We hope that all of you will get to meet her someday. She is a joy and a treasure.

More Indiana Pics

Uncle Nate took time to enjoy the tent we made upstairs for C. He is smiling in this picture, but he really did fall asleep in the tent. I guess he just played too hard. C told us scarey stories in the tent and it was a lot of fun. He definitely kept us busy this break.
Uncle James holds K as she takes time to just enjoy the nice weather outside. Uncle James could get her to smile every time. I think it is because he reminds her of daddy.
Here is a reason why Uncle Nate fell asleep in the tent. C kept him running around after robots and other bad guys. Just when you thought he had settled down he gets his second wind. It was wonderful to just play around with him because we only get to talk to him on the phone. It just isn't the same thing. We are blessed with a wonderful family and I can't wait for the time when K can run around and play with her cousin. I am not rushing it, but I know that it will be a lot of fun.

Indiana Adventure

K is having a hard time getting dressed today. We went to Indiana on Sunday night (drove through the night) and arrived in Indiana on Monday morning. Momma G got to watch her while mommy and daddy tried to catch up on the sleep. K was fine on the way up, but the way back was a totally different matter.
Here is K and her younger cousin. There are only two months between them and so we know that they will have lots of fun growing up together. Slumber parties and pedicures are definitely in the future. K started to suck on M's sleeve, but M didn't seem to have a problem with it.
This is K's Aunt Chris and Great Grandma. K behaved very well for this visit. She even let Aunt Chris and several others know what it feels like to be baptized with spitup. She does do that very well.
This is a pictures of the three cousins. M and C are brother and sister. C definitely loves his little sister and his little cousin. As you can see, K didn't enjoy this photo session. M doesn't care and C had a problem paying attention with a screaming baby in his ear. We spent most of the time with Nate's brother James and his wife Amy. It got very confusing at times to have two little babies in one household. K slept through the night all of the nights that we were there and we are very thankful for that. We enjoyed our time in Indiana, but it definitely wore us out. The trip back was a little on the painful side because K screamed a lot of the time. She hates being in the car seat for a long period of time and when we took her out and let her stretch she was fine. Needless to say, mommy just wants to fly every where now:) We are looking forward to Sunday because K will be dedicated on that day. Don't worry. We will have lots of pictures to commemorate the occassion.

First Easter Egg Hunt

K shows off her Easter egg hunting apparel. We had an Easter egg hunt at the church last Saturday and she got to find an egg along with the other kids. Mommy ate it so she could appreciate it later:)
She is getting to where she likes to sit on the couch and look out at everybody. Sometimes that is the only things that calms her down. She is a social butterfly for sure.

Stay Tuned Folks

As many of you know, we are in Indiana visiting Nate's family. As a result, the blog has not received any new pictures. Fear not. There will be many cute pictures arriving shortly. Some with cousins and some with brothers and sisters. We have not forgotten our jobs as parents and so the bragging will begin when we get home. K did very well up here and I hope she will do alright in the car ride home tomorrow. We will have to stop quite a bit, which will drive daddy crazy, but I am glad that we were able to spend this time with his family. K will be dedicated this Sunday, on Easter, so we will have pictures of that to share with you as well. Please keep us in prayer as we will be going to the surgeon at Northside on Friday. We will find out more information and hopefully we will be able to decide what we want to do next. It is frightening, but we know that God is in control. Happy Easter to each and everyone of you!

Comments

For some reason the comments section of our blog was not working right. A setting got changed somehow, but now it is fixed. Christa and I were wondering why no one was saying anything anymore. So, feel free to comment away.

Daddy's Little Girl

So, K has me wrapped around her finger. She has not been able to see me much this week because I would either be at school, doing school work, or working. Tonight I finally got to hang out with her for a little bit. I was able to spend my first quality time with her during tummy time. Oh I missed spending quality time with her. Here are a few pictures of daddy's little princess.

Hi...My Name is Adorable

Not the cutest face, but the hat is just too cute. It was the hat that we were going to bring her home from the hospital in. As you can see, it is still too big for her.
K snuggles with her Pooh blanket. Notice the tongue. She enjoys sticking it out in almost every picture and she has learned to blow bubbles. Lots of slobber now.
K enjoys her new toy that was given to her by one of the teachers. She loves the eyes and it is the coolest toy. It plays classical music, numbers, colors, and several other cool things. My childhood must have been so boring without all of these stimulating toys:) (Just kidding mom)


Before and after. All I can say is that the picture on the left is my baby, but she has definitely gotten cuter with age. Guess that changes when you hit 26. How sad:)

Lazy Day For Mom and K

Here are my girls on the other end of the coutch from me while I slave away trying to get a research paper done. I guess if I did not procrastinate so much I would be able to snooze as well. I cannot wait until I am done with my masters. Only somewhere around two years left at this pace. Oh, and K laughed this morning for the first time when she was awake. So Cool!!!