First Shot Over...

Isabelle went to the doctor again today and she is now 8 pounds, 1 ounch...whoo hoo! She also got her first two shots. She didn't like it at all...neither did I. You have to hold down thier little hands and they give you that look...you know the look...the how-could-you-let-this-happen look? It was painful. But I have to say that she got over that faster than when the doctor put the tongue depresser in her mouth....she cried forever over that one!

The Gift of Service

If you have ever read the Gary Chapman book, The Five Love Languages, you might be familiar with your love language. My primary language is Time Spent. Lucky for me, Conrad is also Time Spent. But my mom is acts of service. I never realized how great is it to have a mom who's love language is acts of service. My mom has been great since Isabelle has been born. She comes and visits us on the weekend and watches the baby so we can get several consecutive hours of sleep...how great is that?? And when the baby was born she came and helped out. AND, Isabelle and I are traveling to India by ourselves so my mom is buying a ticket and going with us, just so she can help us with the travel! Thanks Oma...we love you!

Milk Stupor

Okay, I am working on scrapbook pages and taking some really funny pictures of the little one. Here is one of my favorites. i call it the Milk Stupor

Strong Willed Child?

We are wondering if we will have the strong willed child? Only six weeks and we have seen some hilarious display of will. We have even had discussions about whether or not babies display willfullness so early. But if this little girl doesn't want to be moved and you move her, she grunts loudly until you leave her alone. My husband asked where she got that from...I'll never tell, and don't ask my mother.

Six Weeks on Tuesday

We can't believe that we've had our little girl for six weeks. She truly has changed our lives. Everyone says "Your life will change." Like it's a big revelation or something... But who says you want your life to stay the same? If I did, I guess I wouldn't have gotten married, or had a child. Change is good.

Isabelle is growing like a weed and doing well. For all of you interested (because it did provoke quite the controversy in the past blog..the whole family bed idea), Isabelle is sleeping soundly in her cradle. What I really want is a flexible child. I'm not really concerned in having a "routined" child since we don't really want a "routine" life. So we are trying to teach her to fall asleep where ever we lay her. And so far, she does great at the couch, the cradle, the floor, the Pack N Play...but not the crib yet. Still working on that! But Momma is sleeping better without Isabelle in bed!

Anyway, last weekend we went to my parents for another baby dedication. When you are a PK, or a grand PK, you get two of things like this! It was very good and we believe Isabelle will be blessed from the blessing of her grandfather!

I'd better go, I have to watch Anthony Bourde eat durian on TV...ick...it's like a train wreck...I can't tear my eyes away. Rachel and Mark...are you indulging in this treat?

Update on Project Sleeping Beauty

I thought I would update you on Project Sleeping Beauty. As we speak our sweet little Isabelle is sleeping (maybe not SO soundly, but sleeping none the less) in her crib upstairs. Of course, this is a success, so it's easy to share.

Sunday night we tried the cradle and she cried a solid 20 heart wrenching minutes. We couldn't take it. We both cried for half of those. We picked her up and decided to try again later. We fortified ourselves with re reading the chapter on crying in Baby Wise and decided to try in the daytime again.



So today, as she got sleepy and fussy for her first nap, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would bring peace and restful sleep to her and headed upstairs. I clicked on the baby moniters and reassured myself by skimming Babywise again. I showered through the first 15 minutes of the crying (and that helped!) It's not a total success as she wakes every five or so minutes for 30 or 45 seconds of crying before falling back asleep! We are keeping on tho! Hopefully well on our way to forming healthy sleeping habits and contented baby!

Isabelle's Dedication

Yesterday we had Isabelle's Dedication in church. My mom, dad (otherwise known as Oma and Opa), Aunt Brenda, Aunt Sheila, Papaw Clynis were all able to make it down for the service. After church about 20 friends and relatives came over for lunch and cake to celebrate with us.

It was an amazing service as our pastor spoke a blessing over Isabelle and over us as her parents. If you've spent much time with my family, we believe strongly in the power of speaking blessing over people, but particularly over children or your own children, and it was powerful.


On another note, we choose to dress Isabelle in a christening dress, even though our church isn't of the christening tradition. I found this darling little white dress and a little bonnet called a heritage hankerchief bonnet. You can take out one or two stitches and it becomes a hankerchief that she can carry on her wedding day as her "something old." Cool, huh? And my good friend, Kirsten Drummond knitted her this BEAUTIFUL white blanket that we wrapped her in on her dedication day. Thanks Kir...we LOVE this blanket!

Sleeping Beauty

When Isabelle first came home we wanted to instill those good sleeping habits right up front. Such good intentions! After several nights of jumping up at every grunt, we succombed to the need for 45 minutes of consecutive sleep and put her in bed with us....ROOKIE MISTAKE! At present, she won't have anything to do with her cradle.

Add to this colossial blunder the fact that she is the first grandchild and so far hasn't spent much time out of someone's arms. Everytime I tell my husband, please just let her cry there for a few minutes he'll say, "but she's so small..." Oh compassionate heart! :) So, Conrad goes back to work next week and I am planning on implementing Project Sleeping Beauty. I am skipping the cradle and we are moving directly up to the crib, baby monitors and all.

Do any of you vet's have advice for me? I'm reading Baby Wise as fast as I can, in between feedings and pumping and washing baby clothes and bottles....well, you get the picture.

She's Growing!

We had the Welcome Home nurse come by yesterday morning..it's a program offered by the hospital where a nurse comes and checks things out a couple of weeks after you are home. And since we don't have a doctors appointment for a month we were anxious to see how much weight she has gained...and we are happy to report that she is now a 6 pound 4 ounce baby, that's 2 pounds bigger than when we left the hospital! Yeah!


On another note, I finally finished her room. I waited till she was born to order the final letters, since I kept having nightmares that she was going to be a boy..which would have been fine, except for the closet full of little pink clothes!! :)

Visit from Abi Da

Conrad's brother, Hubert came from NJ to visit Isabelle for the first time. In Conrad's family each of the brothers have a nickname. Huberts is Abi (which is apparently a short form of Hubert). Conrad's is Mamu (which means the littlest guy, since he's the youngest of four brothers. Ironically he's about six inches taller than all of his brothers) For "Uncle" they tack on the word "Da." So Isabelle will call Uncle Hubert Abi Da. He loves her and Conrad loved introducing his brother to her. He is the first Micheal to meet Isabelle. Of course, Conrad's mom is dying to meet the fourth Michael grandchild. She called the other day to see how the baby was doing and told Conrad that she was dreaming about holding her.


I think it's so important for Conrad's side of the family to see Isabelle while she is small. Although Conrad can't go yet with work etc., Isabelle and I are planning a trip to India while I am still on maternity leave. It will be so good to meet the family members that I haven't yet met and, of course, to introduce our sweet Isabelle. I understand it's customary to throw a big party when a baby is born. When our neice Alana was born they had 250 people over for a big catered party to celebrate...now that's a birthday party!

Do You Read Our Blog?

I have heard that many people read our blog on a regular basis. Isabelle got a great package from my Aunt Becky in California with a teeny tiny pink shirt that says, "My first San Diego T-shirt"...and she told me that she loves reading our blog. Who knew!? So if you are one of the ones that read our blog regularly, drop us a note on the the site to let US know how YOU are doing!?




On another note, we went to my cousin Joe's housewarming this weekend. My other grandfather, Clynis got to hold Isabelle for the first time. And she got to meet many other new family members for the first time from the Stallard side...Great Uncle and Aunt Steve and Kathy...cousin Joe. Isabelle also got to meet "her" dog Aslan for the first time.