Judah…..with Pictures!!!

Alright, so there is no way that under “normal” circumstances that I’d have ever gone this long without posting a ton of pics of our newest, sweet, little man, but these are far from “normal” circumstances.

We have TONS of things to share about Geli, about Judah, about our family, about many other things; but…….it all requires energy and time….and those are two things that we seem to be running short on these days.

I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures to Flickr and will direct any of you (Mum C – this is for you specifically) there for cuteness overload. You can click the link or click on any of the pics…I’ve not edited any of them….just threw them up, sorry! It’s that whole lack of time/energy thing……….

Judah is a doll. A GIANT doll, but a doll, nonetheless.

He was 22 inches long at birth, and weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds 15 ounces. He managed to lose almost a pound and went down to 9lbs 1 oz, but as of Tuesday (day 5 of life for him) he was back up to 9 pounds 11 ounces and my midwife is coming by this morning and figures that he’ll be back up to his birthweight by today. Apparently I’m feeding him straight cream….lovely!

He had a bit of jaundice, but I think that’s because he was quite tongue tied at birth. We had a pediatrician at Women’s come at look at him and he was able to clip his tongue and that made nursing MUCH easier…..and the jaundice is fading quite quickly.

For whatever reason, his latch on my left side has been a bit funky and I’m in a little bit of pain, but it’s getting better now…..

He doesn’t cry often, but when he does, he has a HUGE scream, which is so different from Siah. I figure as the baby of 5 kids that being able to make yourself heard and understood is not necessarily a bad thing.

He’s currently sleeping from feeding to feeding through the night, except for the first night home when he was awake and/or feeding from 3am to 6am….and then Siah woke up at 6am….to say that was a rough day as far as sleep deprivation would be putting it mildly.

I’ll try to find some time to type up the birth story for anyone interested. Things were so far from what we had thought or planned and yet in spite of it all….it was a lovely, amazing beautiful birth that I will forever remember as quiet, peaceful and a calm moment in the middle of all this chaos and pain and confusion……it was the calm within a storm and even though I was so worried that it would be a horrid experience, it was anything but….. It was absolutely lovely!

I don’t have as many pics of his first few days as I’d like but in the grand scheme of things…….it’s okay. It is what it is, and we’re carrying on.

I have good moments, and sad moments and better moments and its all okay! Everyday brings us all closer to the day when we’ll be reunited as a family and for that we are thankful. We are all struggling through this in our own ways, but we are being carried throughout this and we know and sense this. Peace that defies common sense within the swirling chaos. It’s an amazing thing!

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I’ll try to get up more.

Thank you to everyone for your understanding at this time.

I know that Jon’s mentioned a few times about not visiting if you’re feeling sick and I’m gonna take a minute to be really clear and blunt….

Normally, when someone is sick or when you have a baby it’s customary for everyone to want to come and see and congratulate or to visit and cheer you up when you’re not feeling well……and in this case, we are asking you all to do the exact opposite.

If you are feeling even the slightest bit “off” or have a cold or cough or you think that you might not be feeling well or EVEN…..if you have been in close contact with your child or partner who’s been sick or you’ve visited your mother who’s had a cold or a fellow employee has been sick…..please PLEASE!!!!!! Don’t come and visit us at the hospital or at home….

Send your love, send your prayers, but please don’t share your illness.

Angelica has NO way…absolutely no way of fighting infection or illness of any kind. So, if someone who is just starting to feel off, but still feels fine visits her, she can’t fight off whatever you have……..and could get very sick.

The same goes for us….if you come around us (the rest of the family) and we get sick, then none of us can go in and visit her…..and just being honest…..that would be very, VERY, VERY hard on all of us.

So please, we’re asking that unless you are perfectly healthy and know that you’ve not been in contact with anyone who is sick, to please stay away until you are certain that you are not able to spread any illness to any of us.

This is not a forever thing. This is a right now….for the next month or two, kinda thing………her counts are the lowest they are going to be over this whole process right now and so we’d like to make things as easy for us as possible and staying healthy is a HUGE one.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter…..we appreciate your prayers and love and thank you for working with us in this.

I know it defies every “normal” thing that we want to do at times like this, but….it’s only just a season. And to everyone who has mentioned that they haven’t come because they’ve not been feeling well……THANK YOU! Honestly, we thank you more for not coming. It’s HUGE to us that you care so much that you’d put our health before your desires to comfort and love.

Angelica has already had her bone marrow biopsy and is just now (at 12:30ish) getting the chemo meds. We’d love if you’d stand with us that the meds would do thier job and kill the cancer cells, but that she’d be strong physically and not get massively sick as a result of the chemo……we believe in miracles and expect to see great things come out of all of this.

We don’t believe that “God only gives what you can handle” as that implies that God did this to her and to us…..but we do believe that even though bad things might happen, that He is there with us and that we will see good things in the middle of all of this….and we have…..

Your love and support has spoken so much to us through our short time on this road and we know that we have “family” all over the world standing with us, loving, praying, supporting us and carrying us through those times when we feel tired, exhausted and overwhelmed…..to know that we have such a solid support base under us is AMAZING!

In the middle of the tears, and the laughter and the pain and the joy……we can feel the strength of love and it carries us and lifts us up………

Thanks for being a part of this!