Natalie's First Surgery

Natalie after surgery

Natalie before surgery
I know that it has been a long time since my last post and lots has happened. We made an unexpected trip to South Dakota because my Dad was ill, but he is doing much better. I think that he is almost back to "normal". Jeremy's mom, dad, grandpa and grandma came to visit.
The latest thing was that we just returned from a trip to Seattle where Natalie had her first surgery on July 17th. The Dr. did a great job with the repair, but she looks very different. Jeremy and I thought that she was the cutest baby before surgery so it was difficult for us to see the dramatic change. She handled the situation much better than we did. She was in the hospital for less than 24 hours which was amazing to me. While we were in Seattle, Jeremy's brother and his wife and son came to visit. It was a few days after Natalie's surgery and she was feeling much better so we did some sight seeing.

Snow in April?:(

Can you believe it?...We are getting snow in April. Well, I guess it is Alaska. We took Natalie outside to enjoy the snow for a little while since we kept her cooped up all winter because she was so tiny. I think that she liked it.

Happy Easter

We had a very nice Easter. My sister was here visiting for 10 days. She came in the weekend before Easter. We went shopping and got Natalie a fancy dress. It was her first time seeing Natalie so that was very exciting.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Where does the time go?

I am not sure where the days and weeks go. We are so busy working, spending time with Natalie and trying to keep up with the day to day chores that there is little time to update the blog. I am back at work. I miss Natalie all day, every day, but it is kind of nice to be see adults during the day. Cindy, Jeremy's mom, came up for 2 weeks at the end of January and my mom was here the first week of February. Our daycare provider had a baby and needed some well deserved time off after giving birth to a 10lb 13 oz baby. While our moms were here they did all the cooking and cleaning as well as taking care of Natalie. It was quite exhausting once Jeremy and I had to get back into the routine of doing everything. So Thank You moms, all of your help was greatly appreciated.
Natalie got a feeding tube put in in the middle of January. As I have written in many of my other postings, feeding and weight gain have been some of Natalie's biggest issues. The feeding tube has seemed to help. When we left the hospital after the tube on Jan. 18th she was 7lb 1 oz and as of Feb. 15th she was 7lb 15 oz. Natalie is also sleeping through the night now which is great. She is also quite the talker. She coos a lot and it is the cutest thing. We are not sure when her first repair will be, we just need to keep working on the weight gain, in the meantime we are just loving our sweet little angel.

Happy New Year

I know that it has been a long time since my last post and I told you all I would keep you updated through the blog, but free time is hard to find these days. We have been quite busy. We recently went down to Portland and Seattle to decide the plan of attack for Natalie's treatment. The first step is getting her to put on weight which continues to be a struggle. I bet that we all wish that we had trouble putting on weight, especially during the holiday season:) She is currently 6lb 3.4oz. She continues to gain, but the progress is slow.
We recently celebrated our first Christmas as a family of three. Natalie was not quite into the whole gift opening stuff yet, but she had lots of gifts to open.
I will be going back to work on Monday which I am not looking forward to. It does not seem like I have had three months off. I am sure that every mother feels the same way when it is time to go back to work.

Natalie Is Home!

Grandpa Mark and Natalie




Wow, it has been a while since I last updated our blog. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Natalie finally made it home on November 7th after 32 days in the hospital. It is great to have her home, but was quite an adjustment. We are still adjusting to the parenthood thing. I never realized how hard this was going to be, but Jeremy and I both love being parents. We would not trade Natalie for the world, not even at 3:00 in the morning:) My parents came to visit for about 2 weeks. It was sad to see them go. Then Jeremy's parents came for a week. It was also sad to see them go. It was also scary once Jeremy's parents left because then we knew we were really on our own because there would be no family coming to visit for a while.
When I took Natalie to the Dr. on Monday she was 5 pounds 4 ounces. She continues to gain weight and grow. You can really tell in her cheeks and chin. Feeding continues to go well.