Weight check & answered prayer....

Yesterday Elise had her 2nd visit to the doctor so her weight could be checked... The doc wanted to be sure she had reached at least her birth weight (8# 14oz) by 2 weeks, as she had left the hospital weighing in at 8# even. Elise's current weight is........... (baby placed on Biggest Loser scale while Alison Sweeney prepares to announce the results)

9# 6oz!

So we're doing well :) Granted, I personally can't take credit for the majority of that weight gain, as nursing has left much to be desired. That is, until a few days ago... which leads me to the second part of this post entitled "answered prayer."

Tuesday night I broke down in major tears because I simply couldn't nurse Elise - PERIOD. It wasn't working. We had been feeding her mostly bottles (formula or milk I had pumped) and I was thinking it would be too late to get her to successfully breastfeed after being used to bottles for so long. For 11 days I couldn't meet my child's needs, and as a new mom that definitely hurts. You enter into motherhood knowing it's going to be a tough road, you won't know what you're doing, you'll experience heartache, etc etc.... But I didn't expect to encounter such insurmountable obstacles as feeding my own baby. I thought at least SOMETHING must come naturally, right????

Wrong.

So all my frustration & sadness culminated on Tuesday night, and I had no idea what to do. I had nothing to say to God, not because I was mad at him, but because I didn't even know how to pray about such a difficult situation. (I'm glad the feelings are still fresh in my mind - I don't want to forget how miserable I felt in order that I can be reminded of how much God loves me and came through in this storm of mine.) Anyway, with absolutely no idea what to even ask of God, I just tried to lay the situation at his feet and move on. This whole difficulty probably sounds like no big deal to most of you, but like I said, it's an innate desire as a woman to want to provide for your own baby.... and not being able to was HORRIBLE.

"When does this story start improving? I'm losing interest."

Okay, so Wednesday morning I called a former neighbor of ours who is a labor & delivery nurse as well as a lactation counselor. She invited me to her house right away to help me work on the nursing issues. I showed up with Elise, and in a matter of 30 seconds Deb had her latched on without having to use ANY of the hospital-issued accoutrements (i.e. shields, feeding tubes, etc) that I had been struggling with for the previous 11 days. I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe my body was actually able to feed my child so easily.

I returned to Deb's house for the next feeding so I could do a test run all by myself, and again: flabbergasted. It worked!

We took a step back in the following 36 hours, as the pain built and built and was too excrutiating to deal with. I went back to Deb's for a 3rd (and hopefully final) time yesterday after Elise's appointment, and figured out we just a little tweaking to do before nursing became pain free.

I can't tell you how awesome our God is that he would hear my cry (Ps 143:1) and come running to my rescue so quickly. It's an unfortunate sign of my weak faith that I didn't expect that from him to begin with, but nevertheless, I was and am so in awe of this wonderful MIRACLE he's performed in my life. Again, most of you think I'm nuts for even worrying about such an issue, but to me it was a hopeless situation that turned out to be abounding with hope. God deserves so much praise!

Thank you for praying for me over the past couple weeks, and for continued prayer that breastfeeding will remain successful. Peter and I are both exhausted (as expected) but so thrilled to have this little girl in our lives. She is a huge blessing.

You are now dismissed from the reading of my novel to view some lovely pictures of our baby girl :)

Elise at her FIRST appoinment (1 week old, June 12)

Peter's reaction to an awfully loud explosion in Elise's diaper

Hanging out at Sweetwater

Alicia & Toby looking oh-so-natural with a baby :)

A family outing to Edinburgh Outlet Mall

Does it get any cuter?

Our precious puppies sound asleep on the deck

Is this the Ralph Lauren family? Or the Chapman family? Yes, we coordinated. So sue me.

AGHHHH! I love it! Daddy & his little girl :)

Momma and Elise

Four generations