Yummy, Sweet Potatoes!

Here is a sweet video of Suzie eating her sweet potatoes. She has become such a good little eater. She doesn't care for the rice cereal, but seems to really enjoy her vegetables. She is getting faster at eating and is now taking 1/2 a jar twice a day. She looks like such a big girl in her high chair! Also, her new favorite thing to do is to blow raspberries. You can see her blowing a couple of them in the video. Click here to see the video on You Tube.

A Day in the Life of Suzie

This is Suzie’s schedule on a day we are home all day:

8:30am Wake up & eat
9:00am Play time!
10:00am Nap time
12:00pm Wake up & eat
12:30pm Hang out with mommy while I get things done
1:30pm Go for a walk and take a nap
3:30pm Wake up & eat
4:00pm Bath and play time
5:00pm Nap time!
7:00pm Wake up and eat
7:30pm Special Daddy time
8:30pm Bed time
10:30pm Last feeding
11:00pm Down for the night

Wouldn’t it be nice if she really stuck to this schedule? She usually takes one or two really good naps every day, and two shorter naps. So she’ll wake up earlier than she’s supposed to and we have to try to get her to go back to sleep or put on Baby Einstein for her. She loves Baby Einstein! Also, ever since she started rolling, she squirms right out of her swaddle and wakes up earlier in the morning than she is supposed to. Silly girl. Sometimes I bring her into bed with me and she'll go back to sleep. When she gets good sleep, she is just as happy as can be:)

Just how many days a week are we home all day to stick to this wonderful schedule? Not many! Here is the list of all the other things we have on our plate that throw off our day:

-Physical Therapy (every Wednesday at 10:30am—we go to Valencia)
-Occupational Therapy (every Friday at 9:45am—she comes to us)
-Child Development (every Tuesday at 1:00pm—she comes to us)
-RSV Shot (once a month in Pasadena)
-Pediatrician Visit (once a month in Pasadena)
-Pulmonary Specialist (once ever three weeks in Pasadena)
-Ophthalmologist (once every two months in Pasadena)
-Neurosurgeon (once every two to three months in Pasadena)
-Hunting Hospital Follow up (once every several months)
-Visit Auntie Deece in Palmdale (every other week)
-Visit Auntie Joy in Valencia (once a week)
-Run errands with Mommy (once a week)
-Bible Study (every other week)
-Random events like Weddings, baby showers, Juniors events, getting together with friends etc. (once a week)

So you can see, we are rarely home all day for Suzie to have her perfect little schedule. I do my best to stay home when I can or put her down for a nap if we are at someone’s home. We have to be careful that she isn’t around anyone who is sick, but it is good for her to be around other people and to not be too sheltered so we can build up her immune system even in a small way.

Her new thing is to cry as soon as she sees her therapist. She doesn't want to work at all! But if I hold her for the first part of it, we can usually get her to calm down a little. She is doing great with the therapy. Her right side is still very tight. Still not sure if this is neurological or just muscular. But the Lord knows, and we pray every day for her continual development and for us to trust Him and be grateful to Him no matter what happens.

Here are our most recent family pictures (courtesy of Kim Small:)

Pray for the Nelsons

Our friend Victoria sent us the following email this morning. Our hearts go out to them as they endure this very long and painful trial with their sweet daughter, Moriah. Please join us in praying that God would heal Moriah if He wills. Pray for strength and encouragement for Justin and Victoria, that they would cling to God, honor Him, be a light to those around them, and through His Holy Spirit, would be able to experience joy even in this time.

Here is the email Victoria sent:

A while back, our family friend, Gina, emailed me about doing a prayer vigil for Moriah. After Moriah almost stopped breathing this morning, I really felt led to do this now.

Please join me in purposeful prayer this weekend in praying for my little girl. In whichever way you feel led, let us lift Moriah up to the Lord together, and pray for the source of this infection to be found, and for it to be resolved. For guidance and wisdom for the Nurses and Doctors...if any other tests need to be done or repeated...that they would know what to do to help Moriah get better.

In Jesus' name I pray for my daughter to be healed, and that this infection would be done - once and for all.

Email, text, call anyone you think would join us in this. Thank you all so much for your love and support. Will continue to update.

Love,
Victoria
www.momentswithmoriah.blogspot.com

Happy 8 Month Birthday!

Suzie is eight months old today, five months adjusted. Her appointment on Monday was so good! She did cry when I undressed her to get weighed, but since she didn't need any shots, I was able to get her to calm down fairly quickly. Our doctor recommended we do have her get the RSV shot next month since the cold and flu season hit late this year. She also suggested we wait another month before taking her to church. This was a little sad, since we really look forward to being able to go to church as a family. But we really haven't had to limit her activities all that much, so we are very thankful for that.

One fun new thing is that we get to start her on solid foods! The past few days we have been giving her rice cereal with her morning feeding. She always has a puzzled look on her face and it seems like her little tongue pushes out everything I try to put in her mouth. She doesn't quite know what to make of it. She must be eating more than I think though because she will only take about half of what she normally eats from her bottle. If she does well with the cereal for the next week, we will add a veggie and then a fruit. Everything else looked great! She is growing and developing so nicely and we praise God.

Here are her 8 month stats (percentiles are for her adjusted age of 5 months old):
Weight: 13 lbs. 6 oz (16th percentile)
Height: 25.5 inches (55th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.3 inches (29th percentile)

She's still not quite on the charts for her actual age, but she's getting closer! All of the sudden she looks SO big to us! Since we have a portable crib for her, she is starting to fill it up. And her feet now hang off her swing. She is starting to wear 3-6 month clothes, but still in a lot of 0-3 month stuff as well. Since her torso is long and her legs are short, she is able to wear 0-3 month pants and sleepers but needs 3-6 month onesies.

Lately, Suzie has become quite a momma's girl. Sometimes she does okay with other people. But her new thing is to get really fussy when someone else tries to hold her. The other day she was in such a sweet mood. Then her therapist came over and the minute she touched her she became quite fussy. She struggled the whole time the therapist was here and the minute she left, Suzie went back to her sweet smiley mood. Her past several therapy sessions were a bit of a struggle. When we went to my sister's house yesterday, she was a mess for part of the time and very sweet for half of the time. The same thing happened last night when Kyle's sister was here. I have had a few friends over and it's the same story. Sometimes she stops crying as soon as I hold her, and other times she doesn't stop until we are alone. Sigh. I am thankful my little girl loves me, but at the same time, I hope she outgrows this phase quickly!

Thank you all for your prayers for Suzie and also for the funding for her therapy. They did end up cutting the budget for her services, but thankfully they are going to continue the program. They are going to be stricter on what children actually need and no new children will be accepted to the program until a current child leaves. So we made it in just in time! Her hours may end up being cut back a little, but she will continue to receive this much needed therapy, so we are so thankful to God for his mercy.

Well, this post ended up being very long! Thanks for following our sweet girl and for continuing to pray for us!

The Good Samaritan

Yesterday, I was reminded of the parable of the good Samaritan. The world rarely sees such generosity from people as is demonstrated by the man in this parable. He goes above and beyond common charity by paying a great amount to help a man he doesn't even know, who would consider him an enemy. Yesterday, my family was touched by such generosity.

Yesterday, Suzie had her check up with the pediatrician. When Kyle was going to run out earlier in the day, he found that our car battery had died. We figured I had just left the door open and so we got a jump start and everything seemed fine. When I arrived at the doctor's office in Pasadena, I found that the door locks wouldn't work. I tried to start the car and it had died again. I had no idea what to do, so I called Kyle as Suzie and I headed in to see the doctor. Kyle called me back a few minutes later and said he got a hold of a dear man from Grace who worked about a block away from where we were. Agop was excited for the opportunity to help out as he delights in serving the Lord. Though he hardly knew us, he had shown us so much kindness when Suzie was in the hospital, and Kyle knew his heart would delight in ministering to us again. I called Agop as soon as our appointment was over and he showed up about 3 minutes later with a huge smile on his face. He gave me a jump start and told me to follow him to a gas station right down the street. When we got there, he spoke with the attendant who told him he wanted to charge the battery for a half an hour to see if the battery or alternator that needed to be replaced. Agop brought me back to the dry cleaners where he works, told me to sit down, brought me an ice cold iced tea, and said he would take care of checking on the car for me. Suzie was quite content there (once I stripped her down to her diaper because it was very a very warm day!) So we sat there and I thanked God for showing us his kindness through Agop. Agop went back to work and said he would run over there and check it out for me in a half an hour. He said that if the car needed to stay for a while, he would loan me his car to drive back to Santa Clarita. But his thoughtfulness does not end there. An hour later, he came driving up to the cleaners in our car. He had paid for the battery replacement and would not allow me to pay him back. He simply said, "Praise the Lord!" And praise God we did. We were so humbled by his example of love and I was reminded of how much God loves and cares for us. I hope this story blesses your soul, and encourages you, as it did us, to be generous and lavishly pour out Christ's love on others.

Shot Day

So Friday was the dreaded shot day. Suzie's new thing is to freak out every time we go to the doctor's office. Whether she is getting a shot or not, she now starts screaming as soon as I get her undressed to get weighed. It is very sad. So after they got all her vitals, I walked her up and down the halls in the office until she calmed down. The doctor decided to give her the shot while I was holding her to see if it helped at all. She did scream initially and cried for a few minutes, but I held her tightly and paced the halls again and she calmed down much quicker than the last time. Yay! I was so relieved. She will have to get her nine month vaccines next month (crazy!) so we'll see how that goes. We go to the doctor again on Monday and she will decide whether or not Suzie will have to get another RSV shot next month, or if she can be done. I kinda hope this was her last one, but they said cold and flu season started late this year so it might go a little longer. So we of course want whatever is best for our little one. We'll post her 8 month (5 month adjusted) stats next week. For now, here are our most recent pictures of our precious Sue.

This is one of my favorite outfits!

Big blue eyes!

Suzie loves to play with her jungle tunnel that Mema and Poppi got her for Christmas!


She does the funniest things with her mouth

Sitting up like a big girl

She loves her tummy time:)

I caught her mid roll!

One More

Videos for Mom and Dad S.

Here are a couple of videos of our Suzie we posted for Mom and Dad Sanderson. They don't get to see their granddaughter on a consistent basis, so we need to do a better job of getting videos to them. Unfortunately, Suzie is very camera shy. She will be laughing, smiling, gabbing, and moving all around and then when we pull out the video camera, she just stares at it. She's a smart cookie! So these videos will probably only be interesting to our family:)

Hooray!

As of this past Tuesday, Suzie is officially off of oxygen! She really should have been off about 2 1/2 months ago, but her first pediatrician didn't refer her to a pulmonary specialist so we had to wait until January to see someone. She is doing great, eating better than ever, and we are all enjoying not having to use it every time she eats. Praise the Lord!

Thank You Kim Small!

We have been wanting to get professional pictures of our little Suzie for a while now, but I have been very reluctant to take her into a crowded mall. Then last week, our good friend, Kim, came to to babysit Suzie for a couple of hours. She captured the most wonderful pictures of Suzie for us! I couldn't help but post them all because they are all so good. Thank you Kim!