Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas this past week.  My parents and brother came to visit from Vegas and we had a good time just hanging around together. 

Michala is 6 weeks old today… I can’t believe it!  She is growing so fast and gets more entertaining every day.  She’s starting to smile and make cute baby sounds.  Hopefully she’ll discover her hands soon so that she stops hitting herself in the head…though it is funny to watch.  She still pretty much just eats, sleeps, and poops but she is starting to be awake more and take in her surroundings.  She loves to look at anything with lights with the ceiling fan being her favorite. 

We are finally getting into a routine and that’s allowing us to get some sleep at night.  Some nights are still a struggle when Michala wants to stay up for 2 hours eating and hanging out, but we’re getting there. 

I had a job interview for a position in my old department at SuperValu last week.  It went well (I think)  so we’ll see what happens with that.  The earliest I’ll probably hear anything will be the middle of January.  It’s certainly not the ideal situation since I’ll have to have someone else watch Michala, but we’ll make it work out if we have to.  God has provided for us every step of the way and I doubt He’ll stop now :)

We love you all and hope that you have a wonderful New Year!  I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us…

Below are some pictures from our weekend with family.  Oh, and I created a “group room” on Snapfish so that you can see all our pictures (the link is at the top of this page).  You do have to have a snapfish account to log in and see everything.  You can also upload your own pictures if you want. 

4 Weeks!

That’s right, our little girl is now over one month old.  The time has flown by!  She is getting longer and certainly has more fat rolls and chubby cheeks than she used to. 

Michala caught a cold and had a stuffy nose and cough for a little over a week which resulted in her making lots of funny noises.  Thankfully, she never ran a fever and seems to be feeling much better.  I too was sick last week.  I ran a fever for a few days and felt like a train wreck.  The doctor finally decided I might have mastitis and gave me antibiotics.  I am feeling much better…

These videos are Michala with a cold.  Hilarious!

Michala has now had 3 physical therapy sessions for her “feeding difficulties ".”  While she’s not nursing completely unhindered, she is doing much better.  I have been able to use a shield to get her to latch on correctly so at least I’m not tied to a pump all the time.  We will just have to keep practicing… 

Christmas is on Thursday.  My brother is driving up on Wednesday from Vegas and my parents are flying in on Friday night.  We’ll celebrate together on Saturday, but Tim and I will also go to Christmas Eve service at church.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  Thanks for being such a blessing to us! 

Liz, Tim, & Michala

Life

There’s not much going on in the Grissom house these days.  Everything revolves around Michala, of course!, and not much else gets done.  She does nothing but eat, sleep, poop, and cry and yet those simple tasks seem to take up my entire day.  Our sweet baby wants to be held most of the time, so I am having to learn to accomplish things one handed which can be entertaining at best.

Michala had another checkup yesterday.  She is officially 8 lb 7 oz and 22 inches long.  So she’s packed on just over a pound and is starting to get chubby cheeks and a little “Buda belly.”  I’ll have her porked up in no time!

Thanks to Kathy Bettger for making Michala this beautiful quilt.  You can tell how much she likes it.

Benny & Sully are adjusting to their lower statures on the Grissom totem pole; though not happily sometimes.  Poor Benny hasn’t been on a walk since before the baby was born.  He probably thinks his life is over…  You can always tell when Sully wants attention because he’ll follow you around making sure to always be under your feet making sure that you trip at least once before you finally bend down to pick him up and pet him.  Who knew that cats can be so needy?

Tim’s office Christmas party was last night and became my first outing without Michala (thanks to Jim and Carolyn for babysitting).  The theme was Vegas night so we got to gamble and eat food all night.  We then got to bid on prizes with our winnings.  Thankfully Tim was able to buy an extra day off.  Thanks to all the co-workers who chipped in “money” when the bidding war got totally out of hand.  It was entertaining, but seriously, 5000 “dollars” for a day off?  I’m just thankful that I get to have him at home an extra day!

Thanksgiving! (amongst other things)

Sorry for the delay in getting this updated.  I had plans to get things going this week, but Michala had other plans for me. 

Michala’s first week was fun, but really stressful.  Nursing has been a little challenging.  Tim and I went in to visit the lactation consultants at the hospital every day to see if we could makes things go more easily.  They were always able to get her latched on right away (but of course it didn’t work that way at home!).  Then the night before Thanksgiving, she completely forgot how to latch on.  Michala cried off and on for 5 hours because she was hungry and I was crying because she was so upset.  I’ve never heard a baby cry herself horse before.  It was horrible.  We were finally able to get her to take a bottle after I had pumped.  Again we went into the lactation office (yes, on Thanksgiving morning) and they figured out that she uses her tongue backwards.  Not sure how that happens, but what it means is that she pushes things out of her mouth instead of sucking it in thus not allowing her to latch on correctly.  So I’ve been pumping and then giving her bottles.  While that’s inconvenient for me (I feel like a dairy cow), it’s been great for allowing others (mainly Tim) to feed her and help me out. 

This week has been TONS better than last week.  Michala and I are finally getting into some sort of routine and I get to at least count on a shower every day…  Some days are better than others, but overall things are going well. 

We were finally able to get an appointment with a physical therapist yesterday to help work her jaw & tongue muscles and teach her to use them correctly.  We have a bunch of exercises to do with her several times a day now and hopefully she’ll get back to breastfeeding soon. 

We are enjoying our baby.  She’s a great source of entertainment.  She’s constantly making funny faces and noises.  Who knew that so much noise could come out of something so small.

Michala still has her nights and days mixed up, but everyday gets a little better.  She’s usually only getting me up twice a night now.  However, I’m also having to wake up every 2 or 3 hours to pump so that I can stay ahead of her and that usually translates to me waking up every hour or so.  It’s great when she eats, gets changed, and then goes right back to sleep, but that doesn’t always happen.  Sometimes she takes an hour or so to get back to sleep which is no fun.  During the day I try to wake her every two hours or so so that she isn’t just sleeping for the entire day…which she would gladly do.  Tim helps me out at night when I need him, but for the most part I try to just let him sleep.  I get to sleep in a bit most mornings after he goes to work.  

My parents came to town to help with Michala the day she was born.  They were a great help and took good care of us.  I don’t know how people adjust to having a baby all by themselves…  I’d forget to eat if someone didn’t remind me.

Below are some pictures of our Thanksgiving together.  My brother, Brian, got to come visit for a few days and these are the pictures that he took of the day.  Mom cooked an awesome meal and I didn’t have to help clean up any of it; how awesome is that!  I think Thanksgiving should go that way every year :)

 

 

 

Here is a video of our sweet baby.  I’ll try to be better at updating the blog on a more regular basis…