Auntie Tami comes to visit!

Last weekend we were able to spend some time with Tami! She drove down from NorCal to hang out with her littlest niece. Though it was a quick visit, it was wonderful to be with family all the same. We didn't do much...just sat around and spent time together. It was lovely! I'm pretty sure that Kaylee is in love with her Auntie Tami (see picture below!) Thanks for coming, Tam! It was so fun!

7 Hour Miracle

When you put a baby down to bed at 7pm and enjoy a quiet night with your husband, it's great.

When you fall asleep at 10:30pm expecting to start your normal middle of the night wakings, it's alright.

But when you wake up at 5:30am to a singing baby and realize you've had more sleep than you have in a looong time, it's a MIRACLE!

Hooray for Babywise! Hooray for support groups and message boards! But most of all, Praise the Lord for this beautiful little baby!

Blessed by Silence

Here I am! Reporting to you from Day 2 of the helmet adventure. I have been reading (as I find time) through the Psalms and today was Psalm 94. Let me give some background first...

The first night of Kaylee's helmet being on (Wednesday night) she woke up once an hour. I checked on her each time to make sure that everything was okay with the helmet adjustments. I could only imagine the discomfort the poor little girl was experiencing. Then for the rest of the day (Thursday) she did not nap...at all! Okay, I am exaggerating, she DID take a 20 minute nap in my arms at about 3pm when I had declared defeat. Nick and I are strong believers in the concepts of Babywise which states that you can have a peaceful baby sleeping through the night by 6-8weeks of age. We implemented BW as soon as we got home from the hospital and lo and behold our angel slept through the night at 7 weeks! Praise the Lord! Since then, she's been doing alright with it. I have not wanted to be so strict with a schedule that we couldn't do anything, and she kept up the sleeping through the night, so all was well. Then she turned 4months old. Kaylee started waking up 2, 3, and sometimes 4 times per night and her naps started becoming few and far between. So what do I do? Get discouraged and practically throw out the problem solving concepts of the book I once swore by. Thinking back I'm saying to myself "Jeanne-Marie, is this how you are going to be as a mom? Give up when it gets tough?" Ugh! So anyway, back to yesterday...

I joined about four different "support groups" online for other mom's who are going through their kids wearing helmets, along with trying to implement the concepts from Babywise. I posted my "letter of defeat" and this morning was greeted with TONS of support, encouragement and advice from lots of other Mommy's. What I was most surprised about was my miraculous renewed energy and stamina to take on the day. It is a testimony to prayer, because last night, my final cry out to the Lord was "renew me, restore me, give me patience for tomorrow."

So I come to you this morning, not with a baby girl that is suddenly sleeping or on her schedule, but a realization that God's promises are true and in my first "feelings of failure" as a mom, this is what He tells us in His word:

Unless the Lord had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave. I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
Psalm 94:17-19

And now I sit here typing this, because Kaylee, after crying it out for an hour, is finally asleep. Praise God for the silence, if only for a quick moment.

Happy Helmets!

Today we went to pick up Kaylee's DOC Band! All in all, I would have to say that it was a successful trip with tons of answers to prayer. Mostly, we were praying that the transition from no helmet to helmet 23 hours a day would go smoothly. Some babies tend to have a rough time adjusting to life inside the helmet and we were praying for this to NOT be the case with Kaylee. During our appointment, they brought in the band and put in on Kaylee. Then they left us for about 30 minutes to see how she would adjust to it and also to be able to see where they needed to make any adjustments. After about an hour of going back and forth with directions on caring for it, for Kaylee and some fitting adjustments, we were on our way home. Our sweet little pumpkin fell asleep with the band on in the car on the way home. When we got home, it was just back to life as normal. Right now, she is fast asleep and hasn't made a peep since I put her down. Praise God for this even tempered little angel!

So now, it's just taking care of Kaylee and her helmet with a bath every night and continuous monitoring of skin irritations or "red spots" on her head. If all goes well, we should be done right around the New Year. If all goes even better than that, we could possibly have it taken off sooner!

For more details on what Plagiocephaly is, if you are really curious, visit http://www.cranialtech.com/ and check it out. Oh, and just for fun, we are taking suggestions on how we should decorate it. Leave a comment with your ideas! And as always, thank you for all your love, support and encouragement. It means the world to us!