How we spent July...

Victoria is doing beautifully! She is growing so quickly and is a very happy baby in general. At her four week check up, we discovered that she had breast milk jaundice and, in addition, was not gaining enough weight. Breast milk Jaundice is very rare and occurs when a baby is unable to process bilirubin on only breast milk. Tori was very jaundice, anemic and her liver had become inflamed from having elevated bilirubin levels for a prolonged period of time. All of this information was obtained after we had to have FOUR VIALS of blood taken from her tiny little body. I know that these trials are minimal on the great scale of health problems babies encounter, but it was tough to watch my baby go through that. We had to put her on formula exclusively for about 10 days, returning to the hospital to have more blood drawn over and over again. During that time, in order to keep up my milk supply, I had to feed her and then pump milk. This process consumed our days, and although I pumped as much as I possibly could, my milk supply started to decrease. Victoria gained 8 oz. after only 3 days on the formula and her bilirubin levels went down significantly! This was such an answer to prayer and we were so grateful as she continued to thrive on the formula. When we were able to return to breastfeeding, however, we embarked on an emotional roller coaster of tears from Victoria and her distraught Mommy... She refused to latch on and would literally scream and scream at the breast. We tried so hard and I pumped as much as I could. We visited a lactation consultant and discovered that she is tongue tied, which increases the difficulty of latching on properly. After many tears and prayers, we let go of the dream of breastfeeding and decided to bottle feed with formula and pumped breast milk. Although this decision was excruciating for me, Matt and I both felt it was best for our family... Isaac and Daphne were somewhat neglected during all this drama, and I was happy to be able to parent all 3 children and not just spend all 24 hours of my day trying to feed only one of them! We are so blessed that Victoria is gaining weight, cooing and smiling- God's plans are not always the same as my own, but He is faithful and has blessed us immensely. So, Victoria's most recent weight at 6 1/2 weeks was 10 lbs. 11 oz. and she is now 8 weeks old. I'll post some 8 week pics soon...
These are some random pics taken of Victoria between 4 and 7 weeks of age. Here we have what I like to call "Lost in Space" :)
Here is a beautiful half smile from the side...
And the tail end of a smile....
Complete Relaxation in Daddy's Lap...
Precious, Precious Girl!

Daphne's 4th Birthday!

Four years ago, Daphne burst into our family with a dramatic and memorable flair. Needless to say, she continues to add drama and color to our lives! We are so thankful that God sent her to our family- we can't imagine life without her. We decided to take her to a local water park, which was great fun. We haven't had too many outings this summer- we have mostly stayed home with the baby. For this occasion, Victoria stayed with Nanny so that we could all go swimming together! They had a great time!
I didn't get a very good picture, but Daphne wanted pink cupcakes with pink frosting and pink sprinkles on top, so here they are. Pinkalicious!
Here she is in her new dress up clothes from GigGi and her new "Fancy Nancy" ballet slippers!
On Sunday, we had a party with Matt's Family. Daphne's hair is in a bun with a gerber daisy clipped to her head and a My Little Pony tiara over that (just in case you were wondering!):

Daphne requested a cake with a mommy kitty on it and a baby kitty on top of the mommy kitty's head, with pink and vanilla frosting. She was content, however, with this lovely Hello Kitty cake that Nanny found!
Here she is opening a toy pony that goes with her new doll! She was so excited when she realized what was inside that she literally picked up two other wrapped gifts and threw them over her head in order to unwrap the pony box. I think she liked it!
Daphne is enjoying her delicious Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, courtesy of Nanny and Papa:
This is a picture from the water park that got uploaded in an odd spot!
Happy Birthday, Daphne!

Victoria's Blessing Day

We had a big shin-dig on July 6 to celebrate Victoria's birth and blessing. Matt was able to bless her at our church with lots of family and friends in attendance. Tori squirmed quite a bit during the blessing, but other than that she was very happy! Here we are all together outside the church building...

This is Matt's meternal grandmother "Granny Great" with little Victoria. We were so glad that she was able to make it!

Matt's Mom "Nanny" holding the baby...

Red, White & Hunter

Although I have very few pictures- we actually had a really fun 4th of July! We went to our hometown parade in the morning, which the children really enjoyed. We then went to a family Independence Day Party followed by a spectacular homemade semi-legal fireworks show produced by Matt and David... I spent most of that day either nursing or pumping milk for the baby ( to be explained later) so we didn't have a whole lot of time to take pics....

2 weeks old 2 weeks ago

Relaxation! Many of you know how much I cherish my nightly bath (which has become more like a weekly treat if I'm lucky). Anyhow, it appears that my daughter enjoys her nightly soak in the tub as much as her mother... she is so relaxed and happy in her little bath.

All of these pictures were taken when our little baby was 2 weeks old, which means the pics are two weeks old as well. Here are a few cute shots of Victoria with her brother and sister...

Feeding the Ducks

We went to the park for our weekly family night last week. The kids had so much fun and there were so many ducks, swans, geese, and of course, sea gulls. Daohne was so excited whenever the duck of her choice (usually a baby duck or a wounded one) actually got the piece of bread that she threw to it.

Victoria seemed to enjoy the park, even if you can't tell from her face in this pic...