Saying Goodbye

Brent had to say goodbye to his dad last Thursday when sickness ended up taking his life. He had been ill for a very long time, but he always seemed to overcome it and get better. This time was different, and it kind of shocked us. We stayed in Unionville with Brent's mom until Sunday evening. The outpouring of support we received has been amazing, so we wanted to thank you all. We have been receiving cards by the stack full everyday from new friends, old friends, our new church family, our old church family, old co-workers, new co-workers, and on and on it goes. We were blessed to have many of you come to either the visitation or funeral. Thank you for the miles you drove to be near Brent and the rest of our family during this hard time. It was moving to see how many people loved Raymond and his family. We counted over 580 people at the visitation and the funeral was very large as well. So thank you to anyone who called, sent a card, brought food, made the trip to Unionville or just said a prayer. We appreciate you all.

Did you know...

I don't have too much to post right now, so I guess that's my excuse for not posting anything at all. Life with a newborn is a lot of fun, but it's not like she's doing funny or monumental things that I feel I need to write about. Ella is doing everything babies should do...eating, sleeping, pooping, crying, so I guess she's normal. We are having lots of fun holding her and getting to know her.
I titled this post "Did you know" because until today I didn't realize how confusing some things still are for Gracie. For instance, the first time Gracie saw me nursing I knew it disturbed her and she didn't like it, but she has accepted it. She told me a few days ago that she still thought babies were supposed to drink from bottles, but she didn't challenge what I was doing. However, today we had to go to Hannibal for my check-up and we stopped at Sutherlands for Brent to check out a few things. Ella wanted to eat so the girls all stayed in the van. Gracie just said, "Well, I guess Ella wants more of that milk from your stomach." Apparently she thinks it's coming from a straw in my stomach up to the baby's mouth! Isn't that a funny visual?! So, did you know that milk comes from the mommy's stomach? Me either! :-)

Gracie and Ella

Gracie is doing so well with her new role as big sister. Sometimes you wouldn't even know things have changed. She has this knack for ignoring Ella until it's convenient for her to acknowledge her, and that's fine with me at this point. Today I told Gracie I was going to take the dog out and she needed to listen for Ella to cry. When I came back inside Gracie was telling Ella, "It's ok. I'm your big sister." It was really sweet! We are sure trying to give Gracie equal time and attention, but it's definitely not the same as before. Luckily, I think Gracie was "ready" for the transition.
Ella is continuing to be a good baby. She is not sleeping well at night as we are still trying to work on nursing. She likes to fall asleep and not get a full belly, so then she wakes up an hour later wanting more. I've tried stripping her clothes off so she'll wake up, tickling her feet, tickling her chin, and yesterday the pediatrician said to tap the back of her head. No luck yet, but I guess it's a work in progress. Tomorrow I am going to try to get some pictures burned to a cd so that I can start putting pictures on the blog.

We're Home

Sunday was a wonderful day as we were able to bring our new bundle of joy home. Despite the sleet/hail combination that we ran into on the way home, we had a safe trip home. Eleanor (Ella) Paige Doolin was born at 7:43 a.m. on February 1st and weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce by the time the doctors rounded up. She was only 18 inches long. Obviously, I was way off on how much I thought she would weigh! Guess I get to lose the extra weight myself since Ella didn't do it for me. She is beautiful, of course, and has a head of dark hair. That was such a fun surprise. I think she looks an awful lot like her big sister, Gracie. Speaking of Gracie, she is doing very well so far. Saturday she reached a turning point and wanted to hold Ella for the first time and love on her. We can see already that she will be very protective. Thank you to all who were praying for a safe delivery. Things went so well. In fact Brent likes to say it was a breeze! :-) I keep teasing him about that since he's not the one healing from surgery. Anyway, we definitely will be working on getting some pictures of the Doolin girls on the blog soon. Now that we have 2 precious girls to show off, we really need to get to work on the pictures.