Letter from her Namesake

 Lucy has the honor of sharing her middle name with Josh's maternal grandmother.  Loraine is a wonderful woman of God and we look forward to sharing with Lucy as she grows all the reasons to be proud.  Loraine shared with us a letter to Lucy as she anticipates meeting her hopefully in the coming month.

 (3 weeks old)

Dear Little Lucy Loraine,

I am so anxious to meet you face to face.  I smile everytime I look at one of the pictures of you that Mommy and Daddy put on their blog.  You are so cute and your eyes are so big and bright!  I just want to kiss and hug you!

I trust you are growing and eating Mommie's good milk and staying away from any germs that seem to be around this time of year.

I am so proud to have you carrying on my name.  My heart was blessed and thrilled beyond measure when your daddy gave me a letter telling me!

Maybe when we come to GR in April grandpa Chuck & I will be able to see you.  You will soon be one month old.  WOW!

I love you dearly and so excited to meet you face to face!  We are still praying for you daily and your parents and siblings.  You have such a wonderful family to love and care for you.

I pray you can feel our great love for you!

Hugs and kisses,

Grandma Great Loraine

Trust

Before we left for Ann Arbor two and half weeks ago, some friends from school gave me a large tote filled with stuff to bring along. It had all sorts of fun stuff from snacks and drinks to gift cards, magazines, etc. One thing included was a large plastic cup with straw. Part of the design was the word Trust and the reference to Proverbs 3:5

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;" 

I was surprised to see that a big hospital like U of M did not give out great water bottles or something to all their postpartum patients (like in GR). So I carried that cup with me everywhere. Drinking water all the time you would rarely see my hands without it during those 10 days. 

We have been home just over a week now and I'm still filling that pink cup multiple times a day. More importantly though I'm reminded constantly of the words it references...Trust in the Lord!

I was ready to be home and understood some of the challenges it would hold just integrating back into life with the other three kids, school, laundry, Josh back at work, etc. I was however unprepared for others. Tuesday afternoon we had Lucy at the Pediatrician and she had lost a full half pound just since leaving the hospital. The Doctor was not terribly concerned but knowing the emphasis that the hospital was putting on her weight gain even for discharge, left us feeling like complete failures. Especially me  who is the one providing the food and calories. I started to believe the lies of inadequacy and wept as I held my little girl who had clearly lost that half pound...not noticeable until pointed out. She was scrawny! 

Start Wednesday morning I'm not feeling well; chills and body aches all day long. Knowing it wasn't the flu, how did I not think of it until after 5 o'clock when the doctor's office is closed...Mastitis. Here's where my amazing husband swooped in and did everything for two days. I barely had enough energy or emotion to do anything but hold and feed Lucy. After a shot of antibiotics I was feeling much better. 

Friday morning Lucy had a follow up at the cardiologist. Everything still looks great, we head back again in a month.  Good news was she had gained two ounces already since Tuesday. 

Challenges of this week come and gone I know there will be more to come. We "Trust in the Lord with all our hearts" and know that he is Good!

         

The kids both wanted printed pictures of them holding Lucy to bring to school

Oh yeah and throw into everything Max dumps the chocolate milk mix all over the floor. The way he said "uh-oh" was priceless :)

Welcome Home

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to be home. The culmination of the weeks stress and emotions was overwhelming and on top of that it was a bit of a challenge getting there. A two hour drive quickly turned into 3.5 hours. An accident on the highway had us exiting completely in order to reroute. Not what I was expecting for our first drive with Lucy. I was irritated beyond measure and Lucy's first feeding outside the hospital was in the back seat of Josh's car...which then made her less than thrilled to be put back in the car seat. The kids were so excited waiting for us to arrive. Josh's mom and friends had come over to decorate the basement with a bunch of welcome home stuff and had also coordinated with Jack and Ellie's teachers to have their whole class make cards. It was so sweet!

The hall is lined with cards from school friends...and paper snow flakes (Eleanor's favorite craft right now)

even the bassinet and Ellie's doll took part.

The "d" word

Well Lucy surprised us again.  We were prepared to leave tomorrow and planning as such, until rounds today at about 10 when the doctors informed us we were good to go...TO GO!  The belongings have been packed, Lucy was given her car-seat study, she is in a go-home outfit (we are going to have to dig out Eleanor's preemie clothes as she is swimming in newborn), and we are formally discharged.  

There is one little hiccup, my car is not starting (thanks to a week of inactivity and the cold weather).  Fear not, security is on their way for a jump start.  

No more papers to sign, no more vitals to examine, no more procedures to administer, we are out.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him all creatures here below.

Praise him above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen

 car seat test, she looks okay to me

A friend of mine has Glow Worms for all her kids. They are so old school...I remember them when I was a kid. Friends of ours just sent us a wonderful care package! Including, of course, a Glow Worm! I absolutely love it and I'm sure Lucy will too so long as her older sister doesn't steal it :)

Last check for vitals