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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Happy New Year (almost a month late)!

Hello friends! Thanks for the sweet comments about the birth of our second little miracle. Anna is doing great and will (already!) be two months old on Monday. She is a very sweet baby and is a joy to have in our family. We are thrilled that she is here, and that we have two beautiful daughters after such a long season of waiting.

Anna has a sweet personality, loves to be held and talked to, and loves to eat! She's a little butterball and is much chunkier than Lily was at this age. Fortunately Anna and I got off to a great start with breastfeeding and it is still going smoothly. Lily is adjusting well and enjoys being a big sister. She pretty much does her own thing most of the time, but she likes to help and occasionally asks to hold Anna or just stops by to hold her hand or give her a kiss. Having two girls is super sweet! I look forward to watching them grow together and form a special bond as sisters over the years.

Adjusting to two children 26 months apart has been a challenge for me as a stay-at-home mom. I LOVE being at home with my girls; it's just been a matter of trying to find (and being flexible with) an ever-changing new routine. Things are settling down now that we are two months in, though, and Anna has a pretty decent sleeping pattern. We have moved out of the zombie parent stage and are now just your average tired parents. :) Both girls are actually napping right now and my hubby is running errands. It still comes as a nice surprise when I have a bit of "free" time. I'm happy to be able to dust off the laptop and update the old blog this afternoon!

We had a busy but joyful holiday season and were fortunate to have our families come to us this time since we weren't keen on traveling with a newborn. Anna got to meet all of her immediate aunts, uncles, and cousins even though she hasn't made her first trip home to Louisiana just yet.

You might remember that I was diagnosed with melanoma last spring, right after we found out we were expecting Anna, and that I had surgery on my right arm last June. Just as an update, I had my 6-month checkup in December, which included a chest x-ray -- common after a melanoma diagnosis since it can spread to the lungs. My x-ray showed some spots on the right lung, so I had a follow-up CT scan earlier this month to check those out. Yesterday I heard that the spots are benign (thankfully!), but that they want to do an ultrasound of a suspicious-looking lymph node under my right arm. (Hopefully it's just due to the fact that I'm breastfeeding, but they are very thorough at this hospital and I'm glad!) I'll be scheduling that pretty soon. It's all still pretty standard and routine, but I continue to deal with this melanoma almost a full year later and am hoping to soon get the all-clear. I often remind people -- YOU! -- to keep a close eye on anything unusual on your skin and see your dermatologist for regular checkups. It's always better to catch these things early, and I'm so fortunate that it happened that way for me!

January always brings feelings of starting over, and I'm feeling that in many ways as we start 2013. We're settling into a new home with a new baby this January. And yesterday was my birthday, so I'm starting off a new year in that regard as well. Thirty-six years old, and life is looking so much different from how it looked just a few short years ago. We're sometimes stressed, oftentimes overwhelmed, but always, always THANKFUL and deeply JOYFUL for the gifts we've been given.

I wish you all a happy and healthy new year, and continue to pray specifically for those who are continuing along on the infertility journey. Please drop me a line, send an email, or leave a comment and let me know what's new with all of you!

Here are some family pics we had taken in early December to use for our Christmas cards. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year -- even though it's almost February! :)

8 comments:

Shannon said...

Your two girls are just beautiful. I'm so happy you're all doing well!

Happy (belated) birthday!

Rebecca said...

Hello there sweet friend! I'm so happy to see that you are settling in as a mama of two precious girls!

Good news about the spots on the lungs...I hope the u/s of the lymph nodes turns out well too. Keep us posted.

The holiday pics are so sweet! Love Anna's little grin! She looks a lot like Lily's newborn pic in your sidebar :).

Glad you stopped in to update us, and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!

XOXO

Aubrey said...

Glad to see you blogging again! My blog has been rather neglected lately as well now that I have two kids. :) Melanoma is very scary and I'm glad your docs are watching you so closely. I'm somewhat of a sunscreen Nazi for this very reason. Anna is adorable!

Jenn said...

Been missing your posts! Glad to hear your beautiful family is doing well. May God continue to bless each of you! Much love!!

Renovation GIrl said...

Glad to see your post and that all is well. What a beautiful family!!

Joy@WDDCH said...

Yay, so glad to see an update! We will be praying about the lymph nodes. I can only imagine how unnerving all that can be but glad to hear how thorough the hospital is being. Can never be too cautious in that regard!

Anna is just beautiful!!! I hope you post more pics soon. There is quite an adjustment after adding a new little one. It seems to take me longer than 2 months; way to go Mama!!!

tourism said...

sooooooo nice

Jessica said...

I love seeing the updates on God's amazing miracles! Continuing to share in God's joy with you all!
Jessica