Two Weeks

In two weeks, Mark’s parents will be moving to Indiana from Texas. It seems like we’ve been talking about their retirement for years! We’re all looking forward to having them close by and watching them enjoy retirement.

The last weekend in April they were here for a house hunting trip. We searched high and low until they found the perfect home!

We were able to find the house, negotiate a deal, and celebrate in 3 short days.

We also enjoyed a lot of family time during their trip. Both Grandma and Raelyn are looking forward to more of this…

We can’t wait to say, “Welcome Home!”

Triple Threat

Late last week, Raelyn developed a cough and then wheezing. On Thursday night she coughed throughout the night and Mark or I went to check on her every 1/2 hour because she sounded miserable. She, however, slept through all that wheezing and coughing.

Mark took her to the pediatrician’s office on Friday morning before work. I was at my desk when I received this text photo:

There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your baby helpless and not being able to do anything! The doctor diagnosed her with Strep Throat, an Ear Infection, and Bronchiolitis. She prescribed an antibiotic and albuterol breathing treatments.

Mark took Raelyn home and started her on the every 4 hour schedule. When I came home that evening I cried as she screamed through most of the treatment.

Raelyn is a trooper though. The whole weekend wasn’t all crying & screaming. I’ve figured out that if I play her music (very loudly) to help drown out the noise of the machine she stays calm. It also helps to not use the straps and just hold the mask to her face.

Thankfully we had a lot of  fun during playtime and on Sunday afternoon took a stroll around the neighborhood.

 This morning we headed back to the doctor to check her breathing. He determined we need to stay on the treatments until the wheezing is gone, which might take another week or two. At least she headed to his office in style.

Please pray her lungs heal quickly. My tender mommy heart can’t handle hearing my baby struggle to breath.

4 Months

Raelyn's stats at 4 months:

• Weight: 13 lbs even (38%)
• Height: 24.5 inches (60%)
• Head Circumference: 15.5 in (12%)

You might remember that after her 2  month check up Raelyn had some growing to do. Well, she’s catching up. Just look at her height! Dr. Rob was impressed with the roundness of her head and let me know that we did a good job with tummy time. I give credit to Miss Denise, Raelyn’s daycare teacher. With Mark’s daily reminder she made sure Raelyn received plenty of tummy time. :)

To celebrate Raelyn’s 4th month I got her a “Jenny jump up.” Mark set it up and she’s enjoying spending a bit of time each day in her new jumping seat.

Raelyn has become a little chatter box and often we’ll hear her in the morning just talking to herself (or maybe she’s talking to her toys).  She has also taken to putting her thumb or whole hand in her mouth. Sometimes she even tries to suck her thumb and her pacifier at once. Oh, and her tongue! She is often sticking it out or making little clicking noises with it.  Raelyn has figured out that she can grab a toy and put it in her mouth too. We’re wondering if she’ll be an early teether. She sure is a drooler!

She’s growing, growing, growing! She’s wearing a few 3 month outfits still, but is about to graduate to 6 month size.

This weekend we’re going to venture beyond the world of formula. Rice cereal, here we come! I’m sure we’ll have some fun photos & video of our new adventure with food.

Here’s our little birdie at 4 months old. Can you handle her cuteness?!? (I know, another scratch just in time for the monthly photo.)

Talking Baby

Raelyn’s official 4 month post is coming soon. Until then, enjoy her latest video.

Little Mama

This past Sunday, we were invited to a birthday dinner at Matt & Ashli’s home to celebrate the two May birthday’s. (Matt’s and mine) While we were there, Rachelle kept Raelyn entertained and made sure her toys were well organized. Ashli was holding Raelyn when Rachelle said, “No mama.” Then she pointed at me and said, “Dat’s her mama.” She wanted to make sure the right mama was holding the right baby. :)

Upon Rachelle’s bedtime, she looked at Raelyn and said, “My baby." Then she tried to her pick her up. I couldn’t resist letting Rachelle hold her baby cousin with a little bit of my help.

 

I think we’re already seeing some of Rachelle's “mommy instincts” coming out.

Raelyn Loves Bath Time!

We’re Official

April 15, 2010 will be remembered as finalization day. We’ve been a family since January 9, 2010, but finalization day means we’re recognized as a family by law. The judge declared: “Raelyn Grace Repko shall, for all intents and purposes, be considered their natural child and shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges.”

We saw other families go into court before us and met another family going into court behind us. We were all there for the same reason. It was “Adoption Day.” It’s most likely the happiest day in court each month.

 Mark and I were sworn in and promised to “tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” We each had to sit in the witness stand box and answer a few questions. The judge asked Mark if he thought we were financially secure enough to raise a child. Mark answered yes and then the judge chuckled and said, “Are you sure? Girls are expensive. I should know, I have daughters!” haha After the judge granted the adoption and signed all the documents, we took this photo. He is a kind man and congratulated us multiple times.

We declared the day, “Family Day.” We packed up a picnic lunch and headed to the IMA grounds. We had a beautiful day and just enjoyed being together.

Raelyn is such a special little girl. She will always know that she grew in my heart and from my prayers. Oh so many prayers…

3 Months

Raelyn’s newest milestone is giggling. Oh, it’s so much fun to see that wide-mouthed smile and then hear a little giggle escape! Like the typical first time parents, now that we know she’s capable of giggling we are constantly trying to get her to do it.

She loves to hear daddy sing her the ABC song. As soon as Mark starts with “A” she just stares at his mouth as he sings each letter. Mark is convinced she’ll be singing along with him any day now. 

Raelyn definitely has moments when she only wants to be in mommy’s arms. I must admit that I don’t mind those moments. There’s just something about knowing no one else quite has the mommy touch. She is constantly melting my heart when she looks into my eyes or reaches up to touch my cheek. I’m trying to breathe in her babyness (I just made up a word) as much as possible.

Her appetite has suddenly taken off. One day she was  barely taking 5 ounces per feeding and the next she was guzzling down 7 ounces per feeding. She’s been consistently taking 6-7 ounces now for several days. Along with the increase in formula we’ve enjoyed longer night time sleeping. She’s sleeping about 10-11 hours through the night now. Her favorite bedtime songs for mommy to sing are “You are my Sunshine”, “Jesus Loves Me”, and the chorus of “Oh How I Love Jesus”. She sleeps better knowing that mommy & daddy love her, Jesus loves her, and that we love Jesus.

Raelyn has a new friend, Sophie the giraffe. She loves to carry her around under her arm. She surprised us (and probably herself) when she figured out how to make Sophie squeak. Raelyn has also started holding Sophie in her hands and manipulating her enough to get the ears into her mouth.

There’s no doubt that Raelyn has brought us much joy in the past 3 months! We look forward to each new day with anticipation, knowing that she’s going to amaze us in one way or another. What an awesome gift we’ve been given. We sure do love our Raelyn Grace!

Rolling Over

Raelyn has been practicing rolling from her tummy to her back. Sometimes she does it immediately but we never seem to catch those on video. Here, Mark is coaxing her to roll onto her back and almost gives up when she starts to fuss. But then…

I love that at the end she looks pleased with herself. 

Easter 2010

Raelyn’s first Easter was a special one. We woke up and got ready for her first Easter church service.

Romans 1:4-5
And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

When we returned home we saw that the Easter Bunny had delivered a few goodies in the basket that  Aunt Jenny specially made for Raelyn.

Raelyn thought the basket was so pretty that she should take a seat in it. ;)

Then we headed off to Uncle Jason & Aunt Jenny’s house for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Avery made sure to find a few eggs for Raelyn. :)

 

Highlight of the week

We have all been stuck in the house sick this week. When the sun came out and on Wednesday we decided to take our first family walk around the neighborhood. It felt good to get out! Sheba was especially pleased with our early evening activity.

2 Months

Raelyn's stats at 2 months:

• Weight: 9lb 15oz (31%)
• Height: 21.5 inches (23%)
• Head Circumference: 14 1/4 in (4%)

So, we have some work to do. She started on acid reflux medicine (Axid) last Friday and we can already see that her appetite is picking back up. We're hoping we won't have anymore eating issues and she'll grow a lot between now and her next appointment at 4 months. Dr. Rob also said she has a little flat spot from looking to the right too much so we have to rearrange her toys and position her differently in her crib to make her look to her left more often. This also means longer tummy time sessions (even if she gets mad at mama).

After Raelyn's 2 month check-up she came home and took a nap. Which is when she scratched her face for the first time! Just in time for her 2 month photos. :(

Here are some fun facts about Raelyn at 2 months old:

• She gives mommy & daddy big smiles.
• She's happiest in the morning.
• Her hair is growing and thickening in the front.
• She's good at watching objects. (Mommy moves toys from left to right.)
• She can't grab and hold toys yet, but she reaches for them.
• She likes to sit in her bouncey seat and bat her toys with her hands.
• She is starting to use her voice for more than just crying.
• Some of her newborn sized clothes are almost too small/short.
  

Handmade by Auntie Peeper

For church today, we dressed Raelyn in her first handmade outfit. This dress, hat, and babylegs combo  are compliments of Auntie Peeper’s sewing skills.

A Simple Moment

Hanging out in Mommy & Daddy's bed on a Friday morning.

LOVE.

Crying. Screaming. Bawling.

Let's be real here, ok? Parenthood is not all rainbows and puppy dogs. I mean, it's 99% wonderful and exciting and heartwarming moments. But that other 1%? Wow. It's rough. Really rough. Makes you want to rip out your hair kind of rough. It's ok to admit that, right?

Early this week can be categorized in that 1%. It included screaming and not much sleeping. I'm not going to complain too much because Raelyn is a good sleeper and we have "had it easy" for the most part. On Tuesday night (night 2 of the screaming saga) I endured 5 hours of basically non-stop screaming. It started around 9pm and I tried all the normal soothing techniques: swaddling, shushing, side position, pacifier sucking, walking, rocking, swinging, bouncing, letting her lay there screaming, feeding, diapering, praying, and then started all over again. In the end I was crying right along with her. I was exhausted. I went from the basement up to her room and the screaming continued. Mark came into her room and took over while I went to bed and bawled myself to sleep. How is it that during the 1% we get to feel like failures? We all three woke up exhausted!

Raelyn sleeping at 5 days old

Wednesday I needed a low-key day. A day of napping and resting. I allowed Raelyn to stay awake 1.5 to 2 hours (per Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) and then back to bed for napping. She took LONG naps and gave me NO sass about being in the crib. She went right to sleep. Amazing! (She usually cries and I end up pacing with her until she is super drowsy.)

During her afternoon awake period we pulled down her book: 100 Ways to Know God Loves Me! I looked at the Table of Contents and decided it would be appropriate to read "He gives me rest." It said that it's good to work and when the work is done it's time to rest. It said that even God rested after he created the world. It instructed us to read Matthew 11: 25-28. As I read aloud verse 28 I began to cry. Verse 28 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I sat in the rocker with Raelyn and prayed, asking God to give us rest and reminded him that we are weary and burdened with sleeplessness. I thanked Him for promising us rest. And then I thanked Him in advance for delivering us rest. Raelyn and I had our first real bible study session together and it's one of her "firsts" that I will cherish forever.

Wednesday turned out to be the low-key day that I needed. As a treat to me, Mark stayed home and worked super hard on the bathroom renovation and got it into shape so that I could relax in a bubble bath that night. I told him that it was the best gift he could have given me that day. Raelyn didn't sleep through the night but when she woke at 3am, she feed and went right back to the crib where she didn't scream and babbled herself to sleep. It was a sweet sound to hear over the monitor.

I'm sure we'll have more nights that fit in the 1%. For now I'm going to rest easy knowing that when we go to the Lord in prayer he will give us rest and I'm going to enjoy the 99%.

Raelyn's 1st Scrapbook Pages

I finally started working on scrapbook pages for Raelyn. Fitting in 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there I was able to complete her first two pages. I'm hoping these will motivate me to create a few more!

1 Month

Yikes, month one went by way too fast!

Here are Raelyn's stats at 1 month old:

• Weight: 8 lb 8 oz
  
• Height: 20.75 inches
  
• Head circumference: 14 inches
  

At her 1 month appointment with Dr. Rob she was grouchy. Probably because she was naked and impatiently waiting for the doctor. Dr. Rob suggested we change formula to Similac Sensitive to help with her gassy issues. Other than that, she is perfect and healthy! The rest of the day she spent screaming and trying to avoid sleep. It was a rough one and she was not too happy with mommy trying to take her 1 month photos!!

Week 3: Baby Shower

On January 24th, we headed up to Lowell for the afternoon to introduce Raelyn to family & friends at her baby shower. My family traditionally hosts baby showers a few weeks after the baby comes home. It was a good thing that Raelyn wasn't another 5 days late!

Raelyn was able to meet many family members that day and they all had a chance to give her some lovin'. We are blessed to be loved by so many!

Grandma & Papa John were happy to have all their grandkids in one place!

Mom & Dad w/their kids and newest grandbaby.

Four Generations.

Great Grandma Fultz w/her newest great grandchild.

Raelyn Grace: A birth & adoption story

How can it already have been four weeks? I've written this post in my mind a hundred times. I've put off writing it wondering if I could do justice to this most precious day, the day our beautiful Raelyn entered the world and took over our hearts.

Mark and I had been ready and waiting for weeks. We were beginning to wonder if she would ever arrive. Although her due date was January 4th, we were all certain she would be a December baby. The end of 2009 arrived and we were proven wrong. Her due date also came and went. Still no baby. Each day seemed to pass so slowly.

I went with Kim, our birth mom, to her 40 week check-up on Wednesday, January 6th. The midwife hooked her up to monitors for a non stress test to track the baby's heart rate and Kim's contractions. It was wonderful to listen to her heartbeat for almost an hour. I felt such a strong connection with the baby as I sat there listening. Everything was normal so the midwife refused to discuss an induction. She said we needed to wait for another week. The local forecast showed a major snowstorm coming in the next day and we all joked that she would arrive in the middle of it. Nope.

Friday night we sat in the basement watching a movie and talked about becoming parents. We had stopped trying to guess when she would arrive. When we headed up to bed, I grabbed the house phone and took it with us. I had been sleeping with my cell phone next to my head for weeks but this was the first night I took the home phone to the bedroom.

At 5:01 am on Saturday the home phone rang. I sat straight up in bed and said, "This is it." I just knew. One, no one calls at at that hour. Two, no one really calls us on that phone. I answered, "Hello?" I heard, "Is this Stephanie? This is Katie from the agency. Kim is at the hospital. She's dilated to 7 so the baby could come soon. Try to get there as quickly as possible." I'm not sure that we've ever gotten ready and the car packed so quickly! On our way to Methodist we called our parents and siblings. We knew they wouldn't mind the early call with the news that our baby was on her way.

It was strange. We had dreamed of this moment for so long that it barely felt real. We arrived at the hospital, pulled in to the parking garage, and then floated to the information desk asking for directions to Labor & Delivery. The walk from the information desk to L&D seemed like it took forever! When we got off the elevator, we heard "Are you Stephanie? And you're Mark?" I'm sure we looked a bit confused as this young man we didn't know was talking to us. "I'm Kim's best friend. She asked me to wait for you guys to arrive." He walked us to the nurse's station where a nurse smiled and it seemed was expecting us. She explained that they were moving Kim into a delivery room and that the anesthesiologist would be giving her an epidural soon. She told us they would come and get us after the epidural and we could go into the room. So, off we went to the waiting area with Kim's best friend, Dale. We sat chatting with him about his landscaping business for what seemed forever. I went back to the nurse's station and the nurse said they had not forgotten us. There was a delay with the epidural. Apparently there were several women the anesthesiologist needed to see that morning. I rejoined Mark & Dale and we waited some more.
After several more minutes, we saw a different nurse poking her head around the corner. We stood and briskly walked toward her. She said, "Are you Mark & Stephanie?" "Yes." "Let me take you to Kim's room, the baby is here!" Mark and I looked at each other wondering what had just happened. How had the baby been born while we were just sitting out there waiting?

Raelyn Grace was born Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 5:53 am.

We walked into the room and it didn't matter. Kim was fine. The baby was perfect & healthy. Kim handed the baby to me and I whispered, "Hi Raelyn, I'm your mommy."

Everything after that is a blur. We watched as the nurses weighed her and gave her a bath.

We called our families. Mark changed her first diaper and I fed her the first bottle.

Kim told us about Raelyn's birth and the reason why we weren't in the room. She had to wait awhile for the anesthesiologist to get to her room. When he arrived, he was about to give her the epidural when she felt the baby coming. She stood up and Raelyn landed on the bed. As Kim was telling us the story, the nurse interjected "I've never seen anything like it in 13 years!"

We moved out of L&D and settled in with Kim and Raelyn. The three of us took turns holding Raelyn, feeding her, and changing her diapers. We laughed at our "modern family" as we were all texting friends and posting pictures of Raelyn on Facebook. We spent most of the day & evening at the hospital and left Kim and Raelyn late in the evening. It was strange to leave the hospital that evening without our new baby. All I could think about was getting back there the next morning. I couldn't get enough of Raelyn. I wanted to drink in every moment!

On Sunday the social worker & attorney met with Kim privately and she signed relinquishment papers. Then we met with the attorney and signed the necessary legal documents that would be filed at the courthouse the next day stating that we are responsible for Raelyn. When we returned to Kim's hospital room she had been crying but said to us, "Congratulations guys, you're officially parents." It was one of those moments when your heart beats up into your throat. It's so hard to celebrate when you are mourning for someone else. Especially someone whom you care about and who wants to celebrate your happiness. Love is a strange thing. We spent the remainder of the day much like we spent Saturday: taking turns holding, feeding, and changing Raelyn. Mark went home and I stayed the night at the hospital.

Monday we were scheduled to take Raelyn home. The pediatrician saw her early in the morning and determined her fit for release. Again, we were excited to be heading home to start a new journey with our little girl but we were also sad as we thought about Kim leaving the hospital by herself. The four of us have a bond that can never be broken. We talked that morning about our hopes & dreams for Raelyn, about our hopes & prayers for Kim. Kim told us over and over how she was so glad that we were the parents she chose for Raelyn. We all cried together. I don't think I'll ever be able to accurately explain the feelings we felt this day. How our hearts were filled with joy and sorrow at the same time. How we wish that we could somehow "save" Kim from her circumstances but instead she "saved" us from ours. Love is a funny thing. We thought that we were opening our hearts to one thing and instead God blessed us with so much more. We loaded Raelyn into her car seat and were released from the hospital around 1pm on a very cold & windy January 11th.

We went home filled with the joy & happiness only first time parents experience. We thought we were prepared but how could we have ever known this kind of amazing love was waiting.

Raelyn's story has only just begun. Our little girl is gonna do big things in this world.

Psalm 126:3 "The Lord had done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." (NIV)