Operation Hope Baby Play Date!!!!

My infertility journey was made more bearable by an amazing group of women that make up our Operation Hope group.  All of these women are dealing with some form of infertility and difficulty conceiving, some have been waiting many many years to adopt or save enough money to IVF, others are new and just seeing what info is out there, but we pride ourselves that we have such a wonderfully active a big group of women to share our joys and our lows with on this very uncertain roller coaster to motherhood.

In the 2 years since I have been part of this incredible group, we have had numerous success stories of babies conceived, born and adopted. Once you conceive, you must move to the "Mom" group once youare 12 weeks, so we don't get to see each other once you "cross-over" to the other group a whole lot.

So for this month's meeting, this past Tuesday evening, we decided to bring back together all of us, pregnant or not, and mommies with those hoping to be mommies soon!!!  And we had one great time!!! And of course I had my ever trusty camera out!!!

Every one was having such a great time catching up, and holding each other's miracles!!!

This cutie pie is Baylor, he is the beautiful baby born our past leader Michelle and her hubby.  He is almost 7 months now and so fun!!!  He loves to go camping with his Mommy and Daddy!

This little princess is Madeline, born to Ginna and her hubby Torey.  She was a successful IVF baby and true miracle.  She has casts on her little legs as she was born with bilateral clubbed feet, but the advancements in treating this have come such a long ways that she should have no lasting effects from this as a child, and will walk normally!!!  Praise the Lord!  She is 3 months old and sooooo sweet!!!  :)

And then the little but older crowd is on the floor, scooching away, as no one can crawl just yet!!!  In the front is my princess Chloe playing with her new friends Alexander and Anderson.

I just love this shot of Anderson, most beautiful blue eyes you have ever seen, and a smile that even captured Chloe's heart!!!

Here they are sitting and chatting about how hard of a day they have had!!!  :)

Here is the beautiful Ginna wither miracle Madeline!!!

This cutie is Trey, and he is almost 3 months old as well, born to our sweet Paula!!!

This is beautiful Rhonda, with her two little men, Anderson and Alexander...... these guys are fraternal twins from a very successful IVF, and she is one killer momma!!!  She keeps up with these two precious boys all day and she works the weekends as a neonatal nurse practitioner at our local children;s hospital. We consult her for medical advice often and she is just so wonderful to help all of us newbies out!!!

One of my favorite pictures of her little guys...... they are almost 7 months old and trying hard to crawl!!!

Here is Chloe playing with our new leader Jen's hair.  Jen is still waiting on her miracle, but she has the biggest heart!!!  She loves all of us, and keeps up with who is having what procedure when and who's due date is soon and who is in their 2 ww, and just serves with such a beautiful heart.  We can't wait to see the miracle the Lord will perform in the life of Jen and her hubby!!!

We decided to do a group shot of all the mommies that were there with their miracles.  I should note two very special people were not able to make it that night!!!  Tina and her precious Lily, almost 2 months old and Molly and her miracle Gracie almost 2 months as well were not able to be with us and we sure did miss them!!!

And this is a picture of all the expecting ladies of our group!!!!  We rejoice with them as they patiently await the birth of their miracle babies!!!  Two of these ladies are pregnant with twins!!!  and they range from 7 weeks to 23 weeks in this picture!!!

And then one last group shot of almost everyone that was there- I think 2 people had already left but we caught almost everyone in the pic.  I can not emphasize enough how wonderful it is to be a part of such an amazing group of women who love on and pray with each other.  I would have gone insane I think with out the support of these precious women, and you can see how many successes we have had and continue to have through the power of lifting one another up and sharing in their burdens!!  If you are local and are struggling to conceive and would like information on how to join up with our group, please contact me and let me know!!!  So So SOOOOOO thankful for all of you!!!!

One amazing July 4th!!!!

Well as promised in my last update, this is a special update about Chloe's first 4th of July and meeting Sweetness's family for the first time!!!   First let me start by saying that Sweetness' parents are deceased before I even met him, so I have not had any in-laws.  But his Aunt Joan and Uncle Bob stood in for them at our wedding and have served that role ever since, so I really do view them as my in-laws, and I love them dearly.

So this is the night they arrived, the day before July 4th, and Chloe took to them right away!!  I captured it all here as Aunt Joan sat in her room and helped her open the presents she brought for her.  This one was a wooden puzzle of animals- she loves it!

She says "Yeah- thanks for my puzzle, Uncle Bob!!"

I just love her expression here!

It had been a long day and they drove a long way, we all headed to bed not long after they arrived.  The next day on July 4th, we all headed over to my parents for a July 4th cookout!!

What a wonderful time everyone had!!  Chloe is all about her grandma these days!

Love this one of Mom with my baby girl- playing patty cake.

This is my beautiful Momma and her Chloe, just playing away as we all sat around and talked- but we stayed INSIDE- because it was 100 degrees out!

After a much needed and hard fought nap, I changed Chloe into more patriotic wear  (lol), and she was ready for some food!!  She is teething so bad these days, she constantly has her fingers like this and gnawing on them!!  I actually felt in her mouth yesterday and she has cut through her front top left tooth and the top front rigtth one is almost there too.

She kind of was passed around the table and everyone took turns playing with her, and then we had some fabulous food everyone had worked so hard to prepare.  There were at least 20 people there, and I didn't even take pictures of all of them!!

One of my favorites......sweet Aunt Joanie with Chloe (playing patty cake of course)

It was a beautiful day with both sides of my family together and the heat just zapped us all!!!
  So we headed home and got a good night's sleep, and then the next day we took them down to the beach.  Funny how tourists love the beach, but the natives never go there  :).

We went to eat at a swanky restaurant called Ocean's 31 which is right on the ocean, here is a view from our table.

   <3  Love  them!!  <3

I had our waiter take a picture of all of us, and this was the last time I felt decent until they left.  I ordered a crab cake sandwich, took 3 bites and got seriously sick.  It was soooo good, and Aunt Joan got the same thing and she loved it- but I am allergic to shellfish obviously.

So after about 20 mins I was in the restroom sick until everyone finished their meal, and then they took a walk on the beach, a short one due to the extreme heat- and we went home and I went to bed for the day.  Its unfortunate that it happened while they were here, but I know now not to eat shellfish or seafood anymore.  I thought I had a bad reaction about 20 years ago but it seemed foggy in my mind- so I thought I would try again- but never again.  This episode is not foggy in my mind at all!!!

Overall it was a lovely visit and we miss them terribly already.  I so wish we lived closer, but when Chloe gets old enough that she doesn't have to have HER crib to sleep decent, we will travel more.  I would have loved to have taken more pictures, but after I got sick with that crab cake, I was done for the next 48 hours really and they left early the next day!!  Good times and I will cherish their visit forever!!!

39 weeks old!!!

Yesterday was Sunday, and we know what that means....  Baby girl is another week older and (it seems) years smarter!!!  I think she really loves having her picture made, since I have had this camera in her face since she was born, she knows how to smile on cue and she makes some funny faces for Momma now.

So much has happened in the past week I need to share with you, so I will probably be doing a post a day this week so I don't get behind in sharing all the fun pictures we have to show you!!!

Sweetness' family came these last 4 days and met Chloe and brought her presents, and we took them around town, so I will be blogging all about that AND Chloe's first 4th of July!!!!

In the meantime- Chloe's stats are that she weighs in at 17.8 lbs, and she is soooo long!!!  She can wear 6-9m stuff depending on the length, if it goes all the way to her feet- she definitely needs 9 months!!!  My girl is going to be super tall I think!!!

She now claps her little hands all day long- which by the way is the cutest thing ever!!!  To see her little hands clapping together in shear delight makes my heart so happy!!!  She also has stopped that ear piercing screaming she used to do, and finally her sounds have evolved into the cutest little babbling and cooing again.

She is reaching the stage now where she is becoming a clingy Momma's girl- and I do not mind in the least!!!  She is going through a "Momma-stage" right now and Daddy (who is normally the fan favorite) will not do -- for this week anyway.  So we have been snuggling together and I'm loving every minute of it.  She started putting her little hands out for me to pick her up r hold her, and I am so happy!!!

She is also having an evolution of her normally amazing sleeping habits!!   She usually puts herself to sleep after we lay her in the crib with her light up seahorse and her "tagg-ie" blanket, but the last 7-8 nights, she will not go to sleep by herself. So I have been rocking her to sleep every night. 

I don't mind rocking her- in fact I love it, but I don't want to make it so that she will no longer be able to go to sleep by herself.  But we will just play it by ear, it may have been because we had company and she knew it and just wanted to stay up with her company  :)

Overall, this past week has been so fun, as we watch our amazing little peanut blossom into the sweetest little girl!!! Both Sweetness and I have ben on vacation for 5 straight days and we have got to spend some real quality time as a family!!  It has been over 100 degrees every day this past week, which has negated us going outside to swing or do the pool again.  It is just TOOO HOT to even breathe out there.  But the heat wave seem s to have broken today, with a high of ONLY 86, it feels so much more manageable!!!

Stay tuned for Chloe's first 4th of July in the next post!!!

New friends and new surroundings

One of our very favorite things to do with Chloe at this age is to take her swinging in the park.  She LOVES swinging!!!  So a couple days ago me and one of my former students, Tonya and her baby girl Sarah went to the park with our girls and let them play together and of course swing!!

Here is Miss Sarah- such a cutie pie....

Chloe was so tired when we went she was about to fall asleep in this swing because she could lay back all the way  LOL- but it was so fun!!

Then after we left those swings, we took the girls to the park area and let them interact a bit more.  Since Sarah is already 1 she is cruising all around and walking circles around Chloe. 

Chloe was trying to figure out how to walk like her and wanted to move so badly, she got frustrated!!

So Daddy tried to help her by letting her simulate walking and she seemed much happier than sitting down watching Sarah get to run all around!

And here is beautiful Sarah again, acting a bit shy, leaning on Mommy's legs!

Daddy was also along and he was throwing Chloe high up in the air and she just loved it and giggled and squealed!  I love how this picture turned out!

Then we took the girls over to another area of the park- it is a HUGE play park, and let them swing on a different type of swing since that seemed to be what they liked the most!

It was so hot out- Chloe was getting cranky, and wanted to go into some AC....

but not Sarah- she was sweating like crazy, but she wanted to swing for hours!!! LOL

So after all the swinging- the girls were so cute as they said goodbye to each other in their own baby way :)

Chloe kept trying to put her thumb in Sarah's eye??? go figure....

But it was so fun to have her interact with another child again after being home all day with her sitter and not really having a chance to interact with other kids, I think these outings are crucial for her social development.

Speaking of having her interact with more kids..... she will be getting PLENTY of it really soon.  Last Monday my sitter gave her 2 weeks notice, she is moving in with her son in NC so she wil be leaving us.  Remember she comes to our home to watch Chloe so Chloe has been having a lot of one one one attention for the past 2 months since she has been our sitter.

Well the past week since she told me I have been begging the Lord to open a door to a new place I felt comfortable leaving my girl..... She is so precious to me and I will not be leaving her just anywhere that is cheap or convenient to our house, it has to be the RIGHT place.

Well just 3 weeks ago I called the church day school I really want to put her in and she has been on their waiting list since April for a spot in their nursery, and they said they did not have anything and they thought it would be more like October or even November before a spot would open!!!  I was very discouraged.  So fast forward to today- Sweetness and I were just about to go looking at some DayCare centers and I looked at my phone and I had a message from the head of the church day school!!!

In God's divine providence, they have a baby that is moving unexpectedly and Chloe was next on the waiting list!!!!  I literally had tears in  my eyes as I told her how I have begged God as I lay awake at night to open a door like this!!!  She reassured me that He knows all our needs and He has been so faithful to us time and again, so why doubt Him now?

So we went there and got the packet of about 100 pages we have to fill out for her- but she will start on Monday July 16th and be in a nursery with 9 other little babies her age and have tons of interaction with other kids and I think its going to be so wonderful for her!  So while we are sad that she wont be at her home and crib anymore, I actually think this is better and best for her long term development socially and spiritually.  They sing songs and tell them bible stories at this school and she will be getting lessons about Jesus each and every day!!!  Her spiritual growth is just as important, if not more so than her academic growth- and she will get both here at the DaySchool!! 

We give the Praise to Him who has been so faithful to our family- and we look forward to what He has for our sweetest little girl at her new "school."  I will certainly keep you updated as to how she does in her new surroundings.....that's all for now- next up the fourth of July celebrations and Sweetness' family was here to celebrate with us- just have to download the pictures from my camera :)