Gram

September 29, 1912-August 25, 2006

5 years ago today my Gram passed away. I remember so many details leading up to that day, and I remember that day so well. I think about her almost daily. I wish she had met Shane, and now Elsa. I feel like Shane is missing a part of me. She was such a huge part of my life and I am so thankful for that. I know my mom will be as much apart of Elsa's life as Gram was of mine. She impacted a lot of people.

This passage was read at her funeral.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to captives

And freedom to prisoners;

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

To grant those who mourn in

Zion,

Giving them a garland instead of

ashes,

The oil of gladness instead of

mourning,

The mantle of praise instead of a

spirit of fainting.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He

may be glorified."

Isaiah 61:1-3

I miss her, but I am so thankful that she is in heaven praising God, that she is in no pain, and that she's able to dance and sing. I praise God for that. This is not our home.

Month 2

Happy 2 months to Elsa!

She is smiling and talking all the time. It's so fun to get her up in the morning. She wakes up so happy, even though she's hungry. She smiles and smiles, eats, smiles, gets her diaper changed, smiles, and then we play on her mobile gym for a while and have great conversation.

Her stats at her 2 month appointment were:

87% length

27% head

63% weight

She received 3 shots in her legs and was as perfect as a 2 month old patient could be. One little squeak and one tear. The doctor was very impressed, which is always encouraging. I love being a mommy.

My cousin, Alison, was baptized this past weekend and I wanted to say how excited I am. What an amazing decision. Alison, I love you so much!

My sister in law and brother in law received their next orders and we are excited that they will be closer!

We recently found out that we will be heading up to Cape Cod to visit family at the end of September. Elsa's first plane ride. We're excited to see family and for Aunt L to meet Elsa.

Last week Shane, David and I drove up to Charlottesville, VA for the day to meet our new niece, Kate. The whole way home Elsa was talking about how jealous she was of Kate's full head of hair.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Will climbs all over Matt. He doesn't care if he's awake or asleep, busy or not.

Elsa and Kate.

We all went on a walk in Monticello Park after breakfast. It was beautiful!

I asked Will to lay down on the floor next to Elsa and he accidentally laid on her arm, so she was a little upset...Whoops.

Thanks for having us Matt and Becca! It was great to see everyone!

We caught Elsa smiling, so here it is. It's not the biggest smile we've seen out of her, but it's a good one.

One of my mom's friends has a mother that knits, and she has knit Elsa some really cute sweaters, booties and hats that will fit her come winter time. She recently sent this hat in the next picture. So sweet! Even though it's 100 degrees outside, I still had to go ahead and snap a picture of her with it on. I'll be printing this off and sending it to her soon.

We've had so much fun with her. We both have taken her out on jogs in her jogging stroller. I try to go most mornings before it gets too hot. I don't know if I've ever been so excited about Fall. She usually stays awake most of the time and kicks and throws her arms in the air.

'Til next time...

Shh, don't tell the doctors...

I've been trying for the past couple weeks to get Elsa to sleep in her crib (on her back) for her naps during the day, but she doesn't seem to like it. She'll sleep in her boppy, on the couch, in her swing, on her play mat, in her infant seat, on our bed, but not in her crib. She could be dead asleep and I put her in her crib and she is wide-eyed the instant she hits the mattress. Well, today, I tried again, and I let her scream for 10 minutes hoping that she would eventually stop and fall back asleep. Nope. So I went in, rocked her for a little while and then put her back in on her tummy (shame on me), and she's been asleep ever since. It may be because she's on her tummy, OR because she was up every 2 hours eating last night and is exhausted. Not too sure. :) I'm so proud of our little girl. She's growing up so fast.

I told Shane this morning that I didn't really get any sleep because she was eating every 2 hours (she's been sleeping 5 hours at a time at night since she was 2 or 3 weeks old) and he looked at her and said, "Well, she must be growing because she looks older and bigger than she did when we put her to bed last night." Silly daddy.

Some visitors and Daddy's SUNDAY off!

First of all, congratulations to Matt and Becca on their new daughter, Kate, making her appearance on July 10th! Will is now a big brother!

We've had quite a few visitors in the last few weeks. I think I missed a few with the camera, but here are the ones that I caught. We are so blessed to have so many people in our lives that love us, and love Elsa.

Josh came to visit a few weeks ago for the day. He drove in from Wilmington and brought Elsa some reading material.

Tim comes in every couple weeks. He used to come to see us, but I think we are chopped liver now that Elsa is here.

Uncle David stops in every now and then. I'm pretty sure Elsa is smiling in this picture.

Matt comes over every now and then on Wednesday nights, so he tries to give Elsa a squeeze before he and Shane wander off to hang out. Elsa and I stay behind to watch So You Think You Can Dance.

Aunt Lauren came over one night a couple weeks ago and cooked dinner and made cookies for us so that I could go workout at the gym for a little while. It was a wonderful treat, and know that you are welcome to do that anytime!

One night Tim wanted to feed Elsa, so I warmed up a bottle and gave it to him to give to her...it wasn't the most snuggley way to feed her, but by the end of the meal, he had a good handle on it. I just got the initial picture. He's learning...:)

Uncle Garin drove through town on his way back home from being in Mobile for 2 months. Even though it was a short visit, it was great to see him and we are glad he got to meet Elsa. Elsa is looking forward to meeting her Aunt Lauren too!

Last weekend we made a day trip up to Charlotte to see Pawpaw and Grannie. It was so relaxing. Shane bush hogged all day and I was able to read some and ride on the tractor with him and get some sun. Grannie and Pawpaw were on baby duty in between feedings. Grannie gave her a bath and played on her floor gym, and Pawpaw was the expert burper for the day.

Yesterday Shane had his first SUNDAY OFF since Elsa was born. It was wonderful! We went to church for the first time in 6 weeks. We had really missed it. Our favorite band was leading worship, which was quite a treat. Elsa slept through worship, but when Pastor Tyler got up to preach, she woke up, so Shane grabbed her and listened to the rest of the service from the kids area in the back. He introduced himself and Elsa to the Nursery staff and they look forward to keeping her in weeks to come. He said they were so sweet and would feel comfortable leaving Elsa with them. What a blessing. After church we went and grabbed some Mexican for alunch at a place we had been wanting to try out. THen we came home and watched the USA get beat by Japan in the World Cup finals/took naps. After that we had our first trip to the pool! It was so much fun. Elsa seemed to like it...she didn't cry. Here are a few pictures of her in her adorable bathing suit.

The other day Elsa fell asleep on my chest, but I had some stuff I wanted to get done. I slid her off of me while I slipped off the couch and this is how she slept for the next 2 hours. So sweet.

She's been enjoying her floor gym. The other day I put some rings in her hands and she grabbed them and held onto them for a while. She's been smiling a lot more in the past few days, but we haven't caught a good one on camera yet...it'll come.

And here Elsa is just chilling watching TV. We started her at a young age...whoops.

Happy 1 month!

Happy 1 month to our little girl!

Being a month old is tough. Here is a summary of Elsa's first month...

She sleeps...

She poops...

She runs errands with mommy and daddy...and sleeps...

She's met some aunts and uncles (but hasn't met them all!)...

She's met her cousins...

She's been bathed...

played some Banana Grahams...and fell asleep in the middle of the game...

Chilled out...

And takes naps on daddy...

and Mommy...

and Grandpa...

and Uncle Tim...

She sleeps a lot. We've had so much fun. It's so worth the sleep deprivation!

Elsa Amy Kirkpatrick

Elsa Amy finally arrived last week! She was born at 11:52am on June 1st. She was 7lb 7 oz and 20 inches long. Pretty much exactly what the doctors predicted, and what the "average" baby is. Pretty neat.

I know all of y'all don't care about the details of the labor and delivery, BUT here it is if you wanted to know.

The days leading up to the delivery weren't so great. I started having contractions On the 29th. The pain was mostly in my back, so Shane was constantly heating up a sock of rice and massaging my back with it...it felt great, but not good enough. The poor guy did all he could to make me as comfortable as possible, but nothing worked. We ended up going to the hospital Monday afternoon when my contractions were 5 minutes apart. When we got their they said I was 1 1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced (same as my doc appointment the week before), so they had me walk around for an hour, rechecked me (no change), and sent me home and told me to come back when I was in so much pain that I couldn't walk or talk for an hour.

So, I waited. I was so exhausted from not sleeping Sunday and Monday night and was getting anxious about getting overly tired. I prayed that it would get bad quickly or that I would get some sleep before everything started to happen. That prayer was answered by me not having strong contractions all day Tuesday. It was discouraging that I was taking a step backwards, but it was great to sleep all day. That evening I asked my my mom and her friend to come over. Her friend is a labor and delivery nurse, so I was able to ask her a lot of questions. I still wasn't feeling too bad. An hour after they left I had a good long hour of back-wrenching contractions. I had heard that back labor was the worst...well, I don't know any different, but it was AWFUL! Shane and I headed to the hospital around 12:20am. We got there and I was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced, so I got to stay! I ended up asking for an epidural. I was in so much pain and was exhausted from the contractions...and let me tell you, that epidural was amazing. It took effect in minutes. They gave it to me around 3:30am and 5 minutes later told me I was having a contraction and I felt nothing. My back had never felt so good.

At 11am the nurse said it was time to push. The doctor doesn't come in until the head starts to crown, so she asked Shane for help. He was asked to hold one of my legs up since they were both lead weights from the epidural. Shane did so wonderful. A couple hours before then he started to get anxious and got really quiet, but when the nurse asked for his help, he did what she asked and ended up watching the whole miracle happen.

All of the nurses were wonderful. They all said I was one of their easiest patients, so that was neat to hear. It was so wonderful to have no complications and we are so thankful. Mrs. K, Meghan, my mom, Sarah, and my cousin Lauren were waiting in the waiting room all morning and were able to see Elsa minutes after she was born. The grandpas were able to meet her a few days later on the weekend since they were both out of town the day of her birth. We had a few friends visit the hospital, and are going to see Matt, Becca, Will, Konomi and Grayson next weekend.

God's timing is perfect for sure. When I got to the hospital, my favorite doctor from the OB practice was on call, and around 7:30am, she left and my 2nd favorite doctor was on call and he is the one that delivered little Elsa (there are 6 doctors in the practice). If I had stayed on Monday it would have been one of my least favorite doctors. As hard as it was to be in pain for so long, it was worth it. I forgot what kind of pain I was in once I got the meds and I was all smiles throughout the whole thing...and even now. I haven't felt exhausted yet. I take a 10-20 minute nap every other day or so, and Elsa is so wonderful. She rarely cries. She just cries when she's dirty or hungry. Not too bad. I would cry too. She's been nursing great and is gaining weight. We actually went to the doctor on Wednesday because her belly button looked funny to me (it ended up being fine) and they weighed her at 7 lb 11oz (already over her birth weight). She left the hospital at 7 lb and it's normal to be back up the birth weight by the 2 week appointment. It was encouraging to see that she is growing strong. I guess what comes in eating a lot is pooping a lot...she is going through 15 diapers a day right now. 5 -7 wet diapers and 2-5 poopy diapers is considered normal. Well, little sweet Elsa poops 8-9 times a day and pees 7 or so (at least for the past 5 days). I would let her sit in it for a bit, but she lets me know right away. This little girl doesn't like to be dirty.

I'll write about last weekend's visit with the grandparents next time. Too much has happened the last 9 days, it's stressing me out to write about it all right now.

Come meet/visit Elsa whenever you can! She would love to snuggle!

Memorial Day

Thank you to our family members who serve our country. Thinking of you all on Memorial Day.

Michael (Navy)

Garin (Coast Guard)

Eli (Army)

And any grandparents that may have (All I know is Grandpa Puffer).

We are all very thankful!