Odds and almost ends

After posting the Dumpty post, it was brought to my attention that her face was never shown. Well, that was largely because I was trying to show Jesstine's affection toward her. Jesstine is very good about kissing Dumpty's face so all you see is her backside. Here is the best picture of Jesstine with Dumpty when she was a few days old. I have posted before about Jesstine's love for Elmo. It has somewhat subsided, but before it had, I gave in to the commercialism! I bought her a cute little outfit with an Elmo shirt and jeans. It was inexpensive and the jeans can be used for a lot of other things. I had to take a picture because she was just so cute! Finally, I have taken quite a few pictures this week of Jesstine. I hope you were all able to see the Hop on Pop post. I took the pictures and wanted to post Jesstine and all of her cuteness in that shirt. It is kind of tight, so I don't know how long she will be wearing it. It just happened that I got a great enough montage of pictures to create my own interpretation of an excerpt from the book. I hope you enjoyed it. So that brings us to the almost ends. I snapped a picture of nothing but her legs as seen through her excersaucer. I am sure I speak for MANY women when I say, I would KILL to get by with thighs like this! They are so cute! I wish that thighs of this magnitude were cute when one is my age!

Enjoy the pictures and feel free to leave a comment or two! It has been quiet on the comment board! It would be nice to know if I'm just another mom admiring her baby's cuteness or if there really are others following her cuteness as well! (For those of you without a google/blogspot account, you can post as anonymous so you don't have to sign in or anything!)

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Hop On Pop

Here is our interpretation of an exerpt from the Dr. Seuss classic, Hop on Pop, of course starring none other than Jesstine Jonelle! (This is ESPECIALLY for Aunt Ola. It was her favorite book as a child!)

Hop on Pop


by Dr. Seuss

HOP

POP

I like to hop.

I like to hop

on top of Pop.

STOP

You must not

hop on Pop.
*especially while the weather is on (check the TV in the background)*

THE END

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Updates

Just wanted to update you on a couple of things! I got a call from my friend that I asked for prayers about in an earlier post. She had been catching up on our blog and wanted to check on Jesstine today (how sweet of her)! She is doing well. She is feeling some of the normal affects of pregnancy plus some that come with a pregnancy after losing a child (or in her case, two). I hope that I was supportive enough on the phone for her. I was SOOOO happy she called. Please continue to pray for her. She really wants this baby! We had a lesson in church this week (it was baby dedication day which Jesstine missed) about Hannah. For those of you who don't know, Hannah was one of two wives married to the same man (in the Bible). The other wife had a child and was seen in society as a success. Hannah, despite being the favorite wife, had no children and couldn't bear children. She prayed and poured her heart out to God asking for a child. She promised God that she would give her child to His service if He would just give her a child! God answered her prayer and she had a son. When her son, Samuel, was 4, she took him to the temple and gave her son to the High Priest, Eli. Samuel later became one of the major prophets in the Old Testament. I have been where my friend is and I know how much she wants a child. Please pray that God will answer her prayer with a healthy baby and that the baby will stay put until she is healthy enough to be born. Thanks!

Now, for the update you all want. Today was a rough RSV day. At one point Jesstine coughed so much that she threw up all over Daddy and herself! I felt so bad for her. She just sat there afterwards looking at us and wondering what had happened. She also seems to be enamored with her breathing treatments! Stephen jokes that she is addicted to them. Perhaps it is because they really do make her feel better if only for an hour or two. Tonight, she had a bottle and played a little. Then she all of the sudden got fussy. I couldn't find any way to get her settled down. So, I fed her some oatmeal. She still seemed unsettled. It was close to bedtime so we were trying to hold off on her last treatment so that it was as close to bed time as possible. It seems to be more effective for her to sleep better at night. I decided I wouldn't wait. I sat her down and she did her treatment and even blew raspberries and laughed a couple of times during it. Then she was as happy as can be. She really is a trooper. Her appetite has been a little off, but she still is eating enough. She doesn't seem to notice anything is wrong most of the time. Of course, that is until she coughs and turns all red! When she is well, she gradually gets fussy when she is tired. Now, it is just a sudden fuss and nothing satisfies her until she is put in bed and goes to sleep. Please also continue to pray for our little one! She is a precious gift from God! We want her to be healthy and not have to go to the hospital.

We hope all of you are doing well!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Teeth, Half Birthday, Valentines Day, and RSV Day!

A LOT has happened since our last posts. There was so much, I separated these into two! You can enjoy double the Jesstine!

First, Jesstine got her first tooth last Saturday. It had just started to poke through! I check everyday. We were lucky, she didn't really fuss too much. She just seemed to want to CHEW on everything! Here we are a week later, and her second one came in right next to it! Here is my attempt to prove that she has teeth. It didn't go over too well! If you want to find out, wash your hands and then stick your finger on her bottom front gums! She will quickly show you her teeth!!!

Secondly, Valentine's Day has always been a sad holiday for me. I know it is supposed to be about love and all of that. It happens to be the day that my Grandpa died when I was 4 1/2 years old. He was such a great person in my life! He has some part in shaping who I am today. So I always spend part of the day remembering all I can about him! I think this year was a little different. I came into it with a little more optimism. I guess having a little one will do that to you. Especially one as cute as Jesstine! It is also her half birthday (6 months for those of you who are confused). She will never be 1/2 of a year old again! Hehe. I am glad it fell on Valentine's Day, because I can showcase her special outfit for Valentine's Day AND her 6 month picture! I couldn't decide which she would wear, so the day before she wore the one in the first picture! Today, she was DADDY'S girl, so she wore her daddy shirt. This is also her 6 month picture. We hope to get professional ones done soon, but read the next part of the post after the pictures.

In case you can't see, the shirt says "My Heart Belongs To Mommy." Which was true yesterday!

I always TRY to get as much of the chair (and my butt print for that matter) in these pictures as possible, so you can see just how much she is growing. Check out those pants too! I saw those and couldn't pass them up! (They have little embroidered hearts on them). Oh, and I told Stephen he could pick out the shirt she wore today and this is the one he chose (it was between this and one that says my heart belongs to daddy.)

And last, but certainly not least, Jesstine started to cough and had a stuffy nose on Wednesday. I stayed home from work so that I could take her to the doctor that morning. He thought she had a sinus infection that was starting to settle in her chest, so he gave her an antibiotic. On Thursday, we stayed home and she seemed to be coughing more and it was sounding more constricted. Friday, it was the same story only slightly worse. Today, we woke up at 6:00 to her having a coughing fit that woke her so much she couldn't get back to sleep. I decided that since she wasn't getting better, I needed to take her in. Luckily, her doctor was one of the doctors working this morning. RSV is rampant here! He said he had 4 kids come in with these symptoms yesterday and 2 ended up testing positive for RSV. So, he swabbed her. (Her shirt was true to her feelings once again. She wasn't comforted by Mommy after the annoying swab in her nose. Daddy was the one that calmed her!) We waited. Sure enough, RSV. It is a virus so there isn't much we can do about it. It is just a bad cold. It is really bad for babies 6 months and under as well as for elderly people. Because her cough was sounding so bad, he put her on breathing treatments. We had to traipse across town to find her a mask (they have paci attachments for breathing machines, but she doesn't take a paci for more than a few seconds). We finally found one, gave her a treatment and she sounded better in about 10 mins. We are SO thankful that there have been medical advances to help her through this. There are so many kids who are not caught quickly enough and end up in the hospital. She gets to stay home and heal while playing with Mommy and Daddy! She doesn't even seem too fazed by it. She just plays like normal only with a cough that gags her and causes her to lose her breath every once in a while.

The mask is supposed to look like a little fish. You can't tell from the picture, but it is quite cute! She does a great job of sitting still. I just have to keep her from pulling on the tubing!

I know I said that was it, but I wanted to close with a thank you. I know you all follow this blog to watch Jesstine grow and check up on a very loved girl! My posts as of late have not been quite so upbeat. I thank you though for checking in on us and praying for those that I posted about. I still have not heard from my friend about her pregnancy. I am hoping that no news is good news. And thanks for the prayers for Baby Cora. It was a hard day for me when I found out about her passing. It brought back all of the pain that I went through with Babe B. All I could do was think of her poor parents and how they TOO would have to experience that pain. If you are interested, they are building a playground at their church in Cora's name. Go to the earlier post and find their site. You can donate using a paypal account or just using your credit card (it still goes through paypal and is secure).

As always, we hope that all of you are doing well!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

P.S. I have tried to format this several times, but it will not work! I guess it is too long!

Introducing, Babe B. Dumpty!

Dumpty is a pillow doll that Stephen and his brother had when they were little boys. (Sorry if the term doll is too girly, but this post is about Jesstine, so it is being called a doll!) When Seth's kids were both born, Sandra located a company that started making them and selling them again. So, she made it her mission to get one for each of her grandchildren. When we discovered we were pregnant with Babe B., Sandra quickly purchased a Baby Dumpty for her (yellow because we didn't know she was a girl until she was born). Dumpty kind of became a place holder for Babe B. until she got her. We found Dumpty in Babe B.'s car seat and many other interesting places that we thought Babe B. would soon inhabit. When Babe B. died, Dumpty quickly became a stand in. I didn't let Dumpty go. She slept in our bed. I took her to Babe B.'s funeral even. We quickly decided that since Dumpty would likely have been passed down to the next baby by Babe B., we would re-name her Babe B. Dumpty (instead of Baby Dumpty) and she would be our next child's first stuffed toy. It would also help us to talk to our children about their sister who is already in Heaven. Dumpty was there through my whole pregnancy. She was a belly wedge for a little while. She even went on my first trip out of the US (on our cruise). She even made friends with the concierge (see earlier posts). Well, when Jesstine came along, we quickly introduced her to Dumpty. She really didn't seem to notice at first. This week, I re-introduced them. As you can see by the pictures, it was a big success!

She quickly took Dumpty into a bear hug and kissed her. She loves to play with Dumpty's hair (of which she only has two left, she had three to begin with) and she has been studying Dumpty's face wondering why she can't wrap her fingers around the eyes as well. Her you are seeing a loving, tooth filled kiss!

I know you aren't supposed to put thinks in a baby's crib until they are 12 months old. I only do it with things that I know she won't suffocate with and during the day when I can keep a close eye on her. She was refusing to take her afternoon nap, so Dumpty came to the rescue and I quickly found her like this! You can't see her face, but she is actually asleep. Note: No, we do not lay her in her bed diagonally. She is always in a different position when we find her! Sometimes with her head at the opposite end of the bed.

And last, but certainly not least, here she is after her nap. She has both of her buddies right next to her and is a happy, rested baby thanks to their help!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

With Jesus

Baby Cora is with Jesus now. Please continiue to pray for her family as this is one of the hardest things anyone ever has to endure here on Earth. I just found out and don't know much, so check the website given on the first post about Cora.

Another Prayer Request

Yup, another one! I know how powerful prayer is though! I figure it sure can't help to use every avenue I know of to ask people to pray with me! This one is another that hits so close to home.

I have a very dear friend that I met last summer (2007). I met her through Agape'Care Cradle, the organization that helped us in many ways with Babe B.'s arrangements and such. Last summer we were asked to give an interview about Agape'Care Cradle just two months after losing Babe B. While we were there, we met this couple and I could tell just by looking at the woman that we would get a long very well. (I actually remember seeing her at Babe B.'s funeral and wondering who she was. There were a LOT of people there and I was not in the frame of mind to recognize some of them!) As we were waiting outside for our interview, we struck up a conversation. Through the course of it, we talked about our babies (who were the reason we were there). She had a little girl in March and was actually due in July. Babe B. was born on her due date. We kept in touch after that day and we really hit it off. Our husbands even seemed to have a lot in common. She was such a blessing when I needed one the most. I didn't have anyone that I really knew that I could talk to about the feelings and emotions I was experiencing through the loss of my child. She knew exactly what I was going through. Even through the midst of her own grief, she was there for ME! Someone she hardly knew! She was such a key component to my healing. (You never fully heal from the loss of a child. You just heal enough to get you through each day. This is especially true at the very beginning.) Later that year, we both discovered that we were expecting again! Even better we were only days apart! We had prayed for this since the day we met! Stephen and I went on a cruise in March when my friend and I were about 16-17 weeks along in our pregnancies. When we were delayed in Memphis, I was able to read my email for the first time in a week. We got an email saying she had just found out she was having a boy! By the time we got home there was an urgent message on my phone from her. She had gone into premature labor at 17 weeks and lost Thomas. I was heartbroken! Not nearly as much as she and her family, but I was still shocked and heartbroken. How could this happen to her two times in a row? I supported her the best I could without being a constant reminder of what she didn't get to have. She was very supportive when Jesstine was finally here! She really has a special place in her heart for Jesstine. In October, she called me and told me that she was expecting again! The amazing thing was they were given very little hope of conceiving on their own and without serious infertility treatments. We were so overjoyed and started praying fervently that this pregnancy would go to term or at least to a point where the baby would make it! I have been following up with her for the last several months. She had a procedure done to tie her cervix up at about 14 weeks so that she would decrease the chance of the same thing happening again.

Okay, so my whole point of telling you this is because I have GREATLY concerned! We have been keeping in contact every few weeks. She has pretty much stayed in bed except for going to doctors appointments and getting up to go to the bathroom and such. I have been meaning to bring Jesstine over to say hello and to give her some joy while she is stuck in bed. I called twice this week and have not heard back. I am just so worried! I feel like if something were seriously wrong, she would have called and told me. Yet, if she was still in the midst of it all, it may take a while and be well after the fact before I heard from her again. I am hoping that she reached a point where the doctor just said, "Okay, we are getting close and we just want to monitor you VERY closely, so we are putting you in the hospital to make sure we get this baby here." Regardless, I would appreciate it if you would pray for this special person and her unborn (or born for all I know) child. As I mentioned, she was so supportive and such a gift to me! I want so much for her to finally have that little child she desires so much! I want so much for her to never have to go through the tremendous heart break of losing a child ever again, especially this, her third child in a row! Please pray that God will send his love and surround her with it. Pray that he will protect her and her unborn child until they reach a point where the child WILL survive if born early! Ideally, we would like for her to reach term, but if that isn't in the cards we will understand! I will have to understand no matter what the outcome. If you know of anyone you can ask to pray on her behalf, please do! You don't know her, but we are all God's children. She is such a wonderful person as you can see from my description above. I have not used her name because I have not been given permission to do so. Just pray for Lacie's friend who is having a complicated pregnancy! Thank you SO much!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Baby Cora

A lot of you who read my blog are already a part of the online prayer group that I am a part of. If you aren't this will all be news to you.

I have seen the power of prayer working so many times in our little group. It has seen victories over illnesses, healing or temporary relief of chronic problems, and many other things. We have also seen our fair share of bad outcomes come our way and are able to help people heal through our prayers. That is why I lift this little child up and charge you with praying for her even though I don't know her.

As many of you know, we lost a child. When you lose a child you become a part of a club per say. It isn't necessarily a club that you want to belong to, but you do. This club is made up with people who have lost a child as well. No matter the circumstances, you all have something in common and you all have felt the same grief. Each time I hear of a child who is sick with a terminal illness or a child that has died (again no matter the circumstances), I relive my own pain of losing Babe B.

That is why I ask you to pray for this family even though I don't know them. This baby is just a few months older than Jesstine. It pains me to think of what this family is going through at the moment. Please pray for their understanding of what the doctors are telling them. Please pray for them as they try to remain strong for this little baby. Pray that God will heal this child and she will resume a normal life following this great ordeal. You will know as much as I do if you go to their blog at: http://themcclenahans.blogspot.com/.

Thank you so much!
In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

More from the Mammarazzi!

As promised, here is the video of Jesstine rolling!

We were getting ready to go for a walk one warm day. I dressed her in her purple fleece outfit. She was so cute and the hood framed her face perfectly. I had to take a picture.

Lately, she has been outgrowing a lot of her clothes, so I have been taking a lot of pictures. This particular day, she was so happy! Every picture I took she had this huge smile! It is the one that melts my heart! This is one of the few where she didn't have her hands in the way of her mouth.

Before Jesstine was born, we found a rare gem. We call Stephen's mom Grandmom. This outfit was one that we found at Penny's and it says: I Love Grandmom. Most stuff says Grandma. Once again, a lot of her clothes are getting too small, so we had to take a photo op. to get a picture of her in this.

Okay, so I recently discovered that clothes that say "6 Months" almost always mean 3-6 months. So, I bought these last two shirt/rompers with the intention of her wearing them this spring. They are already almost too small! So since it is cold, I put her tights on her and let her wear them. This particular day, the Shockers played and won! We all were wearing our WSU gear. It made the victory sweeter (besides the fact that they have been losing a lot lately)! We will have to work on getting the family Shockers picture up. She also was able to get a photo opportunity with her cousins, Noah and Ian that same day. Priceless!


Okay, so you are probably thinking that this is a conflict of interests. WSU AND KU? Well, there are a few reasons she has a KU outfit too! First being that I was a KU fan before I became a WSU student. I have kind of carried that with me. Second is that there is a man at church who really wanted her to have a KU outfit. He was unable to pick one out for her before she was born. So he handed us some money and said, "Get her a KU outfit." We found this and it was girly. Thirdly, she had a KU outfit in a 0-3 month size from another friend that she wore for a special occasion (my last appointment with the doctor who delivered her)! You see, the doctor that delivered her is a KU grad and VERY interested in KU sports. He was in attendance at the NCAA Championships last year. He holds a special place in our hearts. He was with us through my first pregnancy with Babe B. and he was there through Jesstine's obviously. I guess you could say that this is partly a tribute to him for putting up with me in a very anxious pregnancy! He was always so understanding and didn't think twice when I was concerned. He always said, "Let's just take a look and see that she is okay!" Thanks Dr. Depew! This picture is partially for you!

Once again, thanks for sharing in the memories of our joy, Jesstine! She is so special and I know many of you appreciate the updates. Some of you just can't get enough of her pretty little face (neither can I)! Well, enjoy and as always, we hope you are doing well!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

Rolls, rolls and family pictures!

Well, Jesstine is just growing so fast! She is so chubby! She has more and more rolls developing on her legs each day! It is so cute! We had some great news this week. She graduated from physical therapy this week! Her therapist was phenomenal to work with! She had nothing but praise about working with us. She was so happy to have worked with Jesstine and thought she was SO cute! (She was right!!!!) Just today we hit a major milestone we have been working toward for quite a while. She rolled over consistently several times! She has rolled a couple of times before, but that was a few weeks ago. Her therapist said that she has not mastered it until she can do it consistently in one direction! She rolled several times from her tummy to her back today! And of course she doesn't like being on her tummy much (at least when I am around) so she is happy about being able to get off of her tummy on her own as well! I hope to add video of that for you very soon! We also had a new family photo taken at church today. Jesstine was of course dressed to the nines as usual! She was sporting her pink and brown scottie dog dress with a hint of argyle. She was also wearing her pink and brown mary janes that were given to us by a family that we know through one of the elders at church! She was SO cute. It was a great opportunity also for us to get a photo with Jesstine's friend, Kara. Kara is a girl who was in Stephen's Sunday school class not too long ago. She LOVES Jesstine so much! Jesstine is quite fond of her as well! Since Kara's mom, Johnna, was taking the photos, she was happy to take one of Kara and Jesstine as well!

We hope that all of you are doing well. Enjoy these photos and I hope to add the video in a post very soon!

God Bless!

Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine

Happy Family!

Kara and Jesstine

P.S. This is Jesstine's typical look when she gets tired. She is not really responsive when she is like this. Doesn't she just LOOK tired?