Due date

Thanks, y'all, for your gracious comments on my recent post.

It is so strange thinking that today is the date I anticipated for many months, the date I expected to meet our precious daughter, Naomi. Instead, she turns 7 weeks old today. You may recall that I, too, was born 7 weeks early, so that has added an interesting piece to our story. Naomi is doing well, growing as she should, and usually living up to the meaning of her name which is "sweet and pleasant." In case you're wondering, she was named after Eric's late grandmother. Her middle name, Danielle, is in honor of my dad, Daniel--who continues to inspire us all with how well he is doing. (He is still getting regular tests and treatments and is responding amazingly to all of it.)

We've had a lot of support from friends and family, for which we are most grateful. After being here for 6 weeks with our children (What an amazing gift!), my parents stayed an additional week to help us all adjust. Shortly after their departure, Eric's parents came to help for 10 days. And now we begin the next chapter in our lives of being home as a family of 5 (or 6, if you count our dog!)

I hope to post again soon, but I wanted to check in on this significant day. Blessings!

Returning

Well, friends, I didn't set out to abandon this blog for so long, but it has been a wild ride the last couple of months. I'd made some mentions awhile ago about complications with my pregnancy, and posted a short update in February that I'd been hospitalized. But of course there was so much more than that.

After such a long absence, though, I'm not really sure how to jump back in. Some of you whom I know more personally are aware of the specific details of what happened, but I'm guessing some of you are curious about the particulars. Feel free to ask questions, and I can respond either on here or privately via email.

The gist is that after having some fairly heavy bleeding, I was flown by hospital plane up to Mayo, where I was on inpatient bedrest for 2 1/2 weeks. I was scheduled in mid-March for a C-section and additional surgery, but due to another heavy bleeding incident on February 29, the doctors decided the risk was greater to me at that point than to the baby, so I was rushed into the operating room. It seems fitting that Leap Day is Naomi's birthday, because everything else with this pregnancy and birth was so unusual.

Because Naomi was born seven weeks early, she was in the NICU for 3 1/2 weeks. We were all well cared for, for which we are very grateful, but it was obviously quite difficult being away from home and our children for so long. Mayo is about 4 hours from where we live, so the logistics were quite challenging!

We've been home now for a couple weeks, and are so glad to be here together again and doing well. We praise the Lord for His hand of protection!

There is so much more I could say, but I've said much of it already in other venues, so I feel a little "dry" at the moment. As I said earlier, if you have questions about our experience, feel free to ask. I do hope to start posting again soon, albeit less frequently than before. (Notice how my posting regularity decreased when Natalie was born?!)

Blessings!