More Christmas pictures

Some pictures from Christmas morning.

Zay's favorite chair

This is Isaiah's favorite place to sit. He thinks it was built just for him. He also thinks he should take everything out and spread it all over the kitchen. Luckily he can't open the door by himself yet. I'm getting pretty good at getting things from the fridge super fast so that he doesn't have a chance to get in, but one misstep and this is what you end up with!

Christmas Eve

Jerel and Isaiah made cookies on Christmas Eve. Well, actually I made the cookie dough, rolled it, and cut it and then Jerel baked & frosted (the easy part). Jerel had great fun watching me try to let Zay help cut out the cookies. It didn't really work. Zay just grabbed hunks of dough and poked his fingers through the shapes and such. Jerel thought it was funny not because of what Zay was doing, but because my frustration made it apparent I had expected it to work out much better. Oh well. Once we got to the frosting & eating part, Zay knew just what to do!

Because we just had a baby we called off all of our Thanksgiving and Christmas travel plans and spent this one with just the four of us. It was definitely quieter than usual--My extended family has 22 people (11 kids) and Jerel's has 25 people (15 kids) so we're used to pretty noisy holidays!

Our tender-hearted baby girl

At her first doctor appointment at 5 days our pediatrician noticed a heart murmur. She scheduled another appointment for a week later to see if the murmur was still there or if it had resolved on its own. Apparently it's common for babies to have them and then they just go away. But hers was still there so she had us meet with a pediatric cardiologist for an ultrasound. The appointment was on Friday so we sent Isaiah over to his favorite babysitter (his only babysitter) and headed to the hospital for her appointment.

The cardiologist said it sounded like a hole in her heart and then took us in for the ultrasound where he found she has six holes in her heart. Two of them are "patent ductus arteriosus" which are arteries left over from the fetal stage. All babies have them but in most babies they close on their own by two weeks of age. Eliza's are still open and these two (of the six) seemed to be the most concerning to the cardiologist. Even so, it doesn't seem to be anything too serious. He said only about 1/3 of these ever require treatment (surgery) and he felt confident hers would resolve on their own.

The other four holes are called "ventricular septal defect" which is a hole in the wall between the heart's two pumping chambers. These ones he said are relatively common and generally resolve on their own in the first 2 or 3 years of life; if they don't then they have to do open-heart surgery.

Luckily for us none of her holes seem to be very serious. The cardiologist wants us to come back in six months to make sure the two PDA type defects have resolved on their own. But other than that there seems to be nothing to worry about.

Best big brother

Isaiah is such a good big brother. He's always so interested in Eliza and what she is doing. Whenever I put her in the changing table for a diaper change and/or clothing change, he drags in a chair from the kitchen so that he can watch. He spends most of the time trying to force her binky in her mouth and seems completely bewildered when she doesn't want it...he loves his so much that I think he just can't comprehend anyone refusing one. In fact, sometimes when she cries he even takes his out of his mouth and tries to give it to her. His is huge, of course, and would choke her, but it's nice of him to be willing to sacrifice for her!

Zay also likes to copy whatever Eliza is doing. If she is sucking on two fingers, he will take out his binky and suck on his fingers instead. And the other day he was drinking his sippy cup of milk while I was nursing her. He put his cup down and was sort of swatting at his back. I couldn't figure out what he was doing or if something was stuck on his back or something. Then he made this funny noise and smiled and I realized he was pretending to burp himself, including making fake burping sounds.

Anyway, here his is helping me get her ready for church. He even watches her while I run around getting the things I forgot to get for her (I think there may be some eye-poking going on while I'm not watching, but I figure it's good for their bonding). Then when we're done he throws away her diaper and puts her dirty clothes on top of the dryer for me (well, he can't quite reach, but he walks them to the dryer and reaches them as high as he can). He's a great brother and I'm happy he loves her so much already.

Cutie pie

This is how Eliza was sleeping this morning, all curled up. It only she'd sleep so soundly at night...but she's getting better about that. The first week or so was horrible. You may think I'm exaggerating, but it was bad enough that Jerel agreed to the use of a bassinet, which is strictly against his personal belief system. Fortunately a friend let me borrow one and that has helped. She still eats twice a night, but once she drops the night feedings we'll put her back in her own room so that Jerel and I can get some sleep.