A lot to smile about:)

We've got good milk transfer and Lillian is overjoyed! 

Continuing on from the last post...

Monday, May 2 - Lillian gives me 2 good latches all day.  Much better than the weekend!  I am thankful for the progress.  I tried fiddling with the Supplemental Nursing System and the Medela contact nipple shield to see if that would encourage her along, but they just made things more difficult.  I ultimately got her to latch without the extra contraptions.  But I was willing to try anything to move her forward.  Turned out, less is more in this instance.

Tuesday, May 3 - A fabulous day for breastfeeding Lillian, even though it was a bad day for politics:(  We are 5 days post-PTT release and we had 6 good latches.  And I was even considering "quitting" just so I could get back to the myriad of tasks that have been pushed aside.  But the perseverance has paid off.  Lillian is figuring it out.  What a blessing!  We are so thankful for all the prayers.  They have been felt and the results are tangible.

I can transfer milk and I'm happy!

Wednesday, May 4 - The progress continues.  Lillian is latching and staying on for long feeds with lots of audible swallowing.  Now we just have to figure out how to balance weaning off of bottles and pumping and still make sure she is getting enough.  God is good!

Our Tongue Tied Baby

Our fifth baby was born with a posterior tongue tie and a top lip tie.   

This story may bless someone else so I will tell it here as we journey along...

Timeline>>

Friday, April 8, 2016 - Lillian Malama Ke Akua is born plump and beautiful at 6:30 in the evening.

Lillian was born with a Posterior Tongue Tie and a Top Lip Tie

12 hours later:  Her blood sugar is checked because of her high birth weight (8lb 10oz).  We are told we need to supplement with formula immediately or she could get brain damage.  My reaction was: What! Can't I just breastfeed some more?  She'll be fine, really.  I lost.  In the end she got about 6 oz of formula in the next 24 hours before her blood sugar stabilized and they let me go back to exclusive breastfeeding.

Sunday, April 10 - Yay, we're going home!  The doctor requested Lillian come see her 2 days after discharge to check her bilirubin numbers which were borderline.

Monday, April 11 - We've been seeing pinkish/orangeish discharge in her wet diapers (that's weird:/) and she is not pooping hardly at all. 

Tuesday, April 12 - In to the doctor for bilirubin check.  Her weight is also checked.  She's lost 10% of per birth weight already.  Doctor wants to see her again in 2 days to monitor her weight.  8-O  Mom's not happy.  I'm trying to keep my baby home and well and breastfed! What is going on?

Wednesday, April 13 - Mom is getting very anxious in the complete absence of poop diapers and only a couple wet diapers in the last 24 hours.  Mom reads info on the internet indicating that the discharge probably means Lillian is dehydrated! Mom begins pumping milk and bottle feeding that evening.

Within 24 hours:  Lillian has had 6 wet diapers and a few poop diapers.  Praise God!

Thursday, April 14  - We call a private lactation consultant to come do a home visit to figure out why Lillian isn't getting enough milk from mom.  I'm drinking fenugreek and eating oatmeal to try to increase my milk supply.  Maybe that's the problem??

Friday, April 15 - Awesome consultant from simplylactation.com comes over for a home visit.  Bad news:  After doing a pre and post breastfeeding weight check it is discovered that Lillian has transferred NO MILK at all.  8-O  Good News: I don't have a milk supply or latch on issue.  

Other news:  The consultant looks in her mouth and sees a posterior tongue tie (PTT) and a thick top lip tie.  She tells us that even though the tongue tie is not obvious to us it is probably keeping her from doing the proper "wave like" motion with her tongue that is required to pull milk out of mom.  

Let the round the clock pumping and bottle feeding begin!! While we figure out where to take her to get her ties released.

We did some fingerfeeding as well, as recommended by our lactation consultant.  But that takes a LOT longer.

We are drawing an immense amount of strength and perseverance from our friends and church family who are bringing us meals, sending us gifts, and PRAYING!  God is also sending us invaluable resources and direction through these same people.  Sugar Land Bible Church (slbc.org) - We love you!!!

Thursday, April 21 - We take Lillian to see a pediatric dentist about 45 minutes from our house.  She was on a list of recommended doctors for this kind of thing.  We get there and have a great experience with the staff - very friendly and attentive.  HOWEVER, the doctor determines that her PTT is not really that bad and a lot of times it doesn't really help to get it released.  Additionally, she determines that she is not comfortable attempting to release her tongue tie which is "way back there."  She does a halfway release of her lip tie - she says if we need more done we can come back at no charge.  She didn't want to cause too much trauma on her lip.  Ok?  I guess.  

30 minutes after arriving home from the doctor's office - The lactation consultant is over for a second visit so we can see how the procedure helps Lillian with transferring milk.  A pre and post breastfeeding weight check shows NO MILK TRANSFER has occurred.  The consultant was hesitant to say anything bad about the dentist's decision to not release the PTT.  She recommends a speech therapist so that Lillian can get oral motor therapy.  Maybe she just needs to be retrained.  

Saturday, April 23 - Lillian is recovering very well from her procedure and doesn't seem to be in any pain.  HOWEVER, there is still absolutely no improvement in milk transfer while breastfeeding.  

Sunday, April 24 - Some awesome friends, one of which is a retired dentist, really encourage us to get the PTT fixed.  It could cause speech issues down the road, we are told.  

Monday, April 25 - Calling around to find an oral surgeon or pedi dentist with extensive PTT experience proves to be a challenge.  In steps Dr. Ghaheri from drghaheri.com - a website given to us by a friend.  I emailed him to ask for a referral in the Houston area.  He emailed back within 30 minutes!  He's awesome!  He said his top choice was the Infant Dental Center in Corpus Christi.  The doc, Marilyn Brodeur, only does lip and tongue tie procedures and only sees patients under 1.  We couldn't have found a better candidate to do Lillian's PTT.  We get scheduled for 3 days later and are thrilled that she is only 3 hours away.  

Thursday, April 28 - We drive to Corpus as a family.  Mom and Lillian go see the doctor.  She is extremely efficient.  She releases Lillian's tongue tie and the rest of her lip tie with her laser in less than 2 minutes.  Lillian doesn't even bleed and calms down right away, just like the first procedure, which was also done with a laser.  The actual trauma for the baby during this procedure is pretty much non-existent.  It's so quick!  If you see someone as quick and efficient as Dr. Marilyn Brodeur:)

11pm - We're done driving home and I try latching her on for the first time post - PTT release.  She latches on and stays on for about 20 minutes.  I hear a little bit of swallowing.  Off to a great start.

Friday, April 29 - We have one of the best breastfeeding days since her diagnosis, considering that we've had a terrible time with latching on.  We have 2 or 3 sessions where she latches on for over 10 minutes and I hear some swallowing.  The PTT release worked! 

Saturday, April 30 - She latches on real well for her first feeding in the morning and repeats yesterday's performance.  And then things go down hill.  The rest of the day she refuses to latch on.  Lots of screaming and a frustrated mama.  She wins each round and gets her bottles without latching on. 

Sunday, May 1 - We battle it out during her first feeding in the morning.  Thirty minutes in I get a latch.  I hear a good deal of swallowing.  The process is exhausting.  Can I really keep this up?  And still pump and make bottles and then start all over again?  This is challenging and my family is suffering in my absence!  Let's press on!  We've come this far haven't we?  We are still waiting to be scheduled for her home visit with a speech therapist.  There is hope!

To be continued...

Creativity Comes From the Creator

In the movie Limitless, Bradley Cooper takes a little pill that gives him amazing clarity and the ability to do things he could never do before.  He instantly becomes hooked.  He came face to face with a version of himself he never knew existed, and he really liked it.

What do you think the version of yourself that God sees looks like?

You may need to take a break from reading this blog to think about that...

Really...

So, what does the version of yourself that God sees look like?

Have you imagined your potential?  The divine design.  The creativity that lies within you. 

How about those things that you may be responsible for fulfilling; things that only you can fulfill.

I've aspired to be a writer for so many years.  Blah blah blah.  My husband's been hearing my would-be writer musings forever.  So here is what has recently liberated me.  I don't have to try to be a writer.  I just have to get with the Creator.  I don't want that to sound trivial, as if it's my ticket to writer extraordinaire status. 

It's a paradigm shift.  If I've desired to be a writer for this long then it's probably a divine desire that was put there by the One who designed me.  And perhaps I've been shirking my responsibility all this time, using lame excuses, mostly centered around my own insecurities and temporary shortsightedness. 

I have to continually be yielded to the Source of all creativity, so that His ideas may flow through me to reach those that He intended to be reached by the things that I pen.  It is all intended to bring Him glory.

I'm grateful for those around me that pull me closer to what God has for me.  One of those people is author Karen Kingsbury.  I had the privilege of meeting her in 2010.  I asked her one question and was stunned by her answer.  I wanted to know how long it took her to write a book.  She told me anywhere from 48 hours to 3 weeks.  W-O-W.

I love how she explains her amazing gift on the FAQ section of her website (karenkingsbury.com).  She tells of how God drops the ideas in her head and from there she has the responsibility of writing it down.  What an amazing partnership.

See, I believe God has such purposes for all of us.  In your field of work, in your tasks as a homemaker, in your schoolwork, wherever it is that God has you. 

He can deposit in you all that you need, including creativity for the tasks that you face.

There is such FULLNESS in Jesus Christ... "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself..." Colossians 1:19

The End is Here

On November 30th we closed the doors to our business.  I played businesswoman for a little over three years and I close this chapter of my life saying that it was a great experience.  Even though we "went under" financially, the experience has grown me on so many fronts. 

I have to say that for most of my grown up years, even though I grew up in a Christian home, I could not comprehend God's love.  I remember flying to Rota, Spain when I was in the Navy, going on deployment, and I read an entire book on the flight.  It was a book about love.  The entire first chapter was the author trying to help the reader understand God's love for us.  The author had verses and even mantras that you could say to yourself in the mirror.  But yet I couldn't really relate.  It didn't feel personal. 

That was 10 years ago.

This year, God has revealed His love for me in astounding ways.  As children of God, when we grasp the extravagant love our Savior has for us, our whole life changes. 

Time and time again, He has shown up all throughout this year in ways that were absolutely and undeniably Him.  And to finish out the year, the Creator of the Universe showed up once again in such an amazing way.

It turns out that going out of business tends to drain you financially and as we closed the doors and cleaned out our space, our bank account got pretty cleaned out as well.  We owned a franchise and had been told that as long as we followed all the closing procedues the legal department would release us from our franchise agreement with just a minimal fee.  I had no idea what the fee would be but I figured I could work it out with them later.  The key word here is later.  I was ready to jump into Chriiiiiiistmaaaaas. 

Well, it turns out they weren't thinking along the same lines.  I got an email in mid-December stating that in order to be released from all the penalties that I should incur from breaking my franchise agreement, they would need to receive a certified check for $1000 by December 31, 2011.

Wo, wo, wo!  (If you haven't seen the Patty Cake Cats youtube video, you must! Then you'll understand my use of ...) Wo, wo wo!  I was not ready for that one. One thousand dollars in two weeks.  We didn't have that!  Panic set in.  And then my dear husband reminded me that I had just shared at church about God's favor and how we need to change the way we speak because He always has our back.

Then I was like, oh yeah.  That's right.  I went in my prayer closet(the bathroom this time) prayed(cried) about it, and completely and totally gave it to God.  I actually went from panic mode to not worrying.  I can do all things through Christ. 

Then, I reminded myself of the stone that Samuel set up.  Here's what it says in 1 Samuel 7 verse 12... "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up... and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us."

God had brought me this far in this life-changing journey and for that moment in time I ceased to believe that He would continue to help me.  Why would God leave me hanging at the very end?  Why would He leave me at all? 

He won't.

He never will.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Awesome song playing in the background - AWESOME SONG - "Always" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7L3m9jIcc

Ok, where was I.  That song has a way of grabbing me. 

$1000 that I didn't have.  Right.

Well a few days after I got the email that threw me into panic mode, we received an unexpected check in the mail for $181.00.  I was like, "Sweet:) Alright, 181 down 819 to go!"

Then another week passed, one week before my deadline, and I was starting to "figure something out."

My figurings were about to get the best of me when last Friday we got another unexpected check.  Guess how much it was for?  $823.

Ha!

Please, do not forget.  When you are a child of God, there are no coincidences.

This, my friends, is a picture of God's faithfulness.


"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:36

Conditions Permitting

We were driving back to my mom's house from the awesome Curves convention & training.  It's a two hour drive, so I had plenty of chances to see the speed limit signs, which kept bouncing around between 45, 55, & 65. 

What I like about these Jersey signs is that right below the big numbers is some fine print.  CONDITIONS PERMITTING.  As I was driving along I couldn't help but reflect on those two words.

Although the intent is to go 55 miles an hour on this road, conditions don't always allow for that.  The same goes for my life.  So I'm asking myself if I know when the CONDITIONS are telling me I need to slow down.  Being a mom to a 3 and 5 year old is definitely one of those conditions.  As I'm writing this blog, the conditions have already caused me to stop twice.  But stopping to tie my daughter's necklace and helping my husband find a nailcutter are important to me.  I don't want to run over my family because I am so focused on a goal: POST NEW BLOG.  By the same token, I don't want to run over any construction workers on the road!

I have to recount to you something I read in one of the books I'm currently reading.  The book is called Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God, by Mark Batterson. 

Two psychologists from Princeton University did an experiment that was inspired by the Bible story of the Good Samaritan.  In this story, a traveler is mugged and left for dead on the side of the road.  Several people walk past him, including a priest, but don't offer any help. Then came the Samaritan, who scooped the man up and took him to a safe place.

The setting for this experiment was a campus full of seminary students.  The seminarians picked for the experiment were first interviewed and asked why they wanted to go into ministry.  Most said they wanted to "help people."

Then, they were told to prepare a short sermon they would have to preach in a nearby building.  Half of them were told to prepare a sermon on the Good Samaritan, and the other half on other topics.  Then they were sent to give their sermons.  Along the way, an actor was strategically placed in an alley, portraying the traveler from the Bible story.  He was hurt, and groaning loud enough for passersby to hear. 

The researchers figured that those doing a sermon on the Good Samaritan would be more likely to stop than those that were preaching on other topics.  That wasn't the case.  The factor that was most prevalent was the final twist in the experiment.  Some of the seminarians were told, "You're late, you'd better hurry."  The others were told, "You're early, but why don't you start heading over there."

The results: Only 10% of those who were in a hurry stopped to help, versus 63% of those who were not in a hurry!  It didn't matter what their sermon topic was.  It only mattered if they thought the CONDITIONS were PERMITTING them to stop and help.

What an eye-opener!

"Hurry kills everything from compassion to creativity."- Mark Batterson

Here's a link to that book: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Goose-Chase-Adventure-Pursuing/dp/1590527194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288192573&sr=8-1

Live Long and Prosper!

Some topics are quite hard to grasp; to really wrap your mind around.  A few things I put in that category are heaven, the universe, and the human heart.  We know the heart mainly as an extremely vital organ.  Just 18 days after conception, the human heart begins its work.  In an average lifetime it will beat over 2 billion times, without ever pausing!

A good workout strengthens your heart and lungs, increases blood flow to your muscles, and ultimately helps your heart work more efficiently.  I definitely want to help my heart be more efficient!  I want to keep it pumping oxygen-rich blood throughout my body for a very long time!  "Please, how can I can help you?!" is what I'm thinking.  Well, if you asked your heart the same question, it would tell you, "Exercise, eat healthy, and stay away from things that make me work harder, like smoke, drugs, alcohol, anger, and bitterness." 

Well, ok, those last two I added in.  You won't find that listed in any mainstream publication.  But I would venture to say that "keeping your heart with all diligence" is just as important as those other recommendations, "for out of it spring the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

Did you know that the Proverbs were written by the wisest man who ever lived? Solomon wrote the Proverbs as a guideline to his sons for how they should live their life.  He was passing on what he thought was vitally important for a prosperous life. 

My favorite dictionary, Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, defines heart as "the chief part; the vital part; the vigorous or efficacious part."  When you see the word "heart" in the Bible, hundreds of times, this is what it is referring to, and this is what Solomon is referring to when he speaks of the heart throughout the Proverbs. 

As a side note:  Have you noticed how convenient it is that there are 31 chapters in Proverbs?  One for each day of the month.

Let us ponder what it means to keep our heart with all diligence.  The implications this proverb leaves us are many, both on a physical and spiritual level.

"My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you.  Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye.  Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 7:1-3

Fresh Air

Well, we can almost open our windows again and stop dipping into the college fund to pay the electric bill.  It's one of my favorite times of year.  I love the newness in the air when fall is beginning.  It's so refreshing!  It makes me want to find a big field, skip around with my arms wide open, eyes to the heavens, exclaiming, "Thank you Lord!"

This season also means that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  It makes me stop and count my blessings, literally.  Even with all the negative things going on in the world, and the economic forecasters claiming that things are only going to get worse,  "I lift up my eyes to the hills...

...where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." 
Psalms 121: 1,2