3 months old...a wee bit late

We are still waiting on our stinking internet to be installed. Nate has internet on his phone though, so I'm using it (he might shoot me for blogging with his precious mega bites...especially since I'm about to upload a picture...haha). But there are grandparents out there who cannot wait any longer! Here is our little girl at 3 months old, just the cutest thing, right?!

Note: the object in the above picture is not as large as it appears. Big girl has the cloth diapers on which make her lower half exponentially larger. I wish I could post a few more pictures...but if I use up all of Nate's internet, I will lose blogging privileges. This little girl has been through LOTS of changes the past month. She went from sleeping 8-9 hours at night in America to sleeping between 2 and 3. After her one month check-up she was put on Zantac for her acid reflux. It was working beautifully until the day before we left to come to Tanzania. Funny how things work, eh? Anyway, even after upping her dosage, she was miserable. When I say miserable, I mean was eating, sleeping, or crying 24/7. Lots of times crying while she was eating and sleeping. Poor baby. She wasn't the only one in tears. In the absence of a good pediatrician, I became one. I researched online and decided to switch her to a different medicine. We started her on Prevacid 3 days ago and she is back to her happy self. Smiles and coos. Love it. If I was really bold, I would upload a video of the coos and sweet sounds. But I'm not that bold (you are welcome, Nathan).

What else is j-money up to these days?
-She loves her big sister Zoe and follows her around the room with her eyes.
-She is finally on a schedule. Baby Wise is the bomb! We did it with Zoe and now with Jillian...it makes for one happy and rested baby. A few days of a little crying is worth it all!
-After a looooong few weeks, she is extending her nighttime sleep. It's taking a while to get there, but I have confidence we will be back to sleeping through the night soon!
-She loves attention. I tend to think it's because of the extreme amount of spoiling that went on while we were in the States. She does not like to be alone. She's a social butterfly--that makes 2 (3 if you count Nate).
-She has a little bald spot on the back of her head where she lays.
-She is eating every 3.5-4 hours.
-She has a bit of a temper...I don't believe I have ever heard another baby that can scream at the pitch that she hits several times a day.\

Love her so much!
More posts to come as soon as we get internet (don't hold your breath...)

saying goodbye to target and diet coke...

Pardon my hunched-over kind of look here...it was raining and we were trying to snap the picture before the battery died in my camera...

Today was my farewell trip to target...I celebrated the occasion with a big diet coke...two of my favorite things about America. We are leaving Saturday night so I needed one last trip. As we were walking in, Nate asked, "What do we need here?" I said "Nothing, but believe me...I'll walk out with something." It's like a disease or some sort of ploy by Target...I don't know...I always walk in needing nothing and end up spending waaay too much money. Today was no exception--over $100! Nate just shook his head and rolled his eyes. Bless his heart...he may not understand it, but he accepts the "disease." I try to make him feel better by explaining that with my REDcard, I get 5% off every.single.thing I buy. He loves a good bargain.

The trip was more symbolic than anything else. Target and diet coke may be two of the things I miss while I'm in Tanzania, but it's something much bigger that I'm letting go of...it's comfort. There is nothing better than a quick trip up to Target that turns into the entire shopping experience (right, ladies?) And nothing better than a cold diet coke right out of the can to quench my thirst (right, Sarah?)  But to me they are symbols of my "american dream"...the one I have to abandon to live in Africa. The much larger sacrifices are family & friends. My girls only seeing their grandparents and aunts and uncles every few years and me not being there to see some of the most precious babies ever enter this world (Campbell, Courtland, Lyla Rae, and more to come!) It requires me to die to myself every day in an attempt to remember His glory is worth far more than my comfort. It's not an easy thing to do and most days I fall far short. 

We head out Saturday night at 9:30. Please pray for our families as we say goodbye. And please pray for the 2-day trip from Atlanta, to London, to Nairobi, and finally to Dar with our two girls. And lastly, please pray that in the words of my BFF Jenny, I will remember that "Jesus is so worth it!" 

We have been showered with love, encouragement, and prayers over the past 6 months and we love, love, love each and every one of you. With the hope of better internet than when we left, you will hear from us soon!!

JP is two months!

Where has the time gone? I'll probably say that every month from now on...Here is our precious baby girl...

If you notice on her little legs, she has two hot pink band-aids (which were later ripped off by her big sister when I wasn't paying attention!) Kind of a bummer to have all those shots on your 2-month birthday! But she was a trooper and cried for just a minute. She is now ready to head back to Tanzania. We are currently waiting on her passport to arrive in the mail, and then we will book our tickets and be heading out pretty quickly after that. So her grandparents are taking EVERY opportunity to love on her and Zoe...

What is Jillian doing at 2 months old?
-She loves to smile, especially when she is getting attention from someone who is about to pick her up!
-She loves to be held and snuggle
-She still is loving to eat...about every 2.5-3 hours.
-She is sleeping 7-8 hours every.single.night...way to go baby girl!! Mommy is so grateful for her sleep at night.
-She is taking a 3-hour nap in the middle of the day at the same time as her big sister. Could I ask for more?! It's wonderful to sit down and eat my lunch and get a few things done--or maybe a quick nap??
-She loves Zoe...and Zoe is absolutely in love with Jillian. If Jillian is crying, Zoe will rock her, pat her, give her a pacifier and make "shhh" noises like Mommy and Daddy do to calm her down.
-She is taking a pacifier here and there. She doesn't love it, but will take it occasionally when she is tired.
-She has graduated to size 1 diapers, but is still in mostly newborn clothing.
-She has THE most precious little cooing noises
-She has a bit of a temper. When she is ready to eat, she is ready! And if she is not so happy, she certainly lets you know!!
-She can roll from her tummy to her back--mostly out of anger, not so much on purpose.

Love her so much!

our baby moon

Thanks to our super parents, we got away for a weekend to spend some time together without the kiddos before we head back to Tanzania in a few weeks. We spent 1 night and 2 days in Helen (which is where we spent our 1-year anniversary!) Here is a little flashback from 2008....

And flash forward almost 5 years...

Still so in love with my best friend...even more so!! We had a great time even though it rained the.entire.time. But we didn't let the rain keep us down. We continued our tradition of putt-putt...

We rented some movies and stayed in that night and it was so much fun!! Our hotel room was fabulous with a beautiful view of the river (that we heard raging all weekend). Thanks so my wonderful husband for planning the trip!!

(Don't let this picture fool you...it was pouring)

a month!

Our little jilli bug is already a month old...cannot believe it! The month has just flown by and we have been so busy taking care of things and visiting with family before we get ready to head back in about a month. Nate's grandparents and cousin Anna visited and then my grandparents and my aunt and uncle came up for the weekend! We felt really blessed that our grandparents drove all the way from Illinois and Florida to see us! (More pictures to come from family visits!)

What is jillian up to this month?
-She has been sleeping in pretty long stretches at night to give her mommy some rest!
-She has been SUPER fussy since we brought her home from the hospital. Finally, at her 1 month check-up we found out why...she has reflux--poor baby. The doctor gave her some medicine and we have already noticed such an improvement. We are all so.so.so glad she is feeling better and much happier!
-She has been giving us sweet smiles. Love those SO much.
-She is still in newborn diapers and clothes. Such a tiny little girl.
-She loves, loves, loves to eat. We were so strict with getting Zoe on a schedule, but we are waiting until we get back to Tanzania with Jillian, because it will be such a change for us all.
-She loves being held and rocked by her grandparents...and they love it just as much.
-She has been doing A LOT of shopping to get our crate ready to send ahead.
-She is getting a lot of love from her big sister!!

Here are a few pictures from our first month as a family of four:

we're back...and we've added one more!

I know...it's been quite a while since I've updated the blog! I just have been having so much fun with family and friends during our time here in the states. A friend told me a few weeks ago she was going to delete my blog from her list if I didn't update it soon...so then I knew it had been too long!

I can't start back with anything other than this precious little one...

She's adorable, no?! Jillian Naye was born Friday, March 22nd at 1:37 am. We went in for a scheduled induction on Wednesday night (apparently both my babies just weren't into the idea of leaving my belly). I just had a feeling my labor would go quickly, since Zoe came quite rapidly after they began the induction. No such luck. The first medicine they gave me did next to nothing (that was the first 12 hours). By Thursday morning I had only dilated like 1 cm, so my doctor broke my water and started pitocin. I immediately started having close, strong contractions. So (ugh) they took me off the pitocin to see if my body would continue contractions on it's own. Again, no such luck. Labor stopped all together. So then we waited pretty much the entire day with nothing happening until my doctor came back at the end of the day...only to tell the nurses to start pitocin again. (Of course!) Again, the contractions started pretty quickly and I had them through the night. By about 11 pm, I was exhausted. I was only dilated 2 or 3 cm and I hadn't slept in 24 hours, or eaten in 24 hours, and the pain was pretty unbearable. I finally asked for an epidural and wow! I didn't have any drugs with Zoe so I had no idea what it would be like. It was almost instant relief and I was finally able to rest. Nate said I got a little loopy, but I think it was just exhaustion. It only took about 2 more hours to dilate fully and the nurse told me Jillian was ready to enter the world! The doctor came in and told me there was a woman in the next room who was also ready, but didn't have an epidural...so I was quite happy to wait for her--I understood all too well! Our sweet girl was born at 1:37 am. 7 pounds, 5 ounces and 20 inches long. Instant love. 

Zoe came that morning to meet her new baby sister...

Every time I look at Nate and my two beautiful girls, I am in awe of how good our God is! We are absolutely loving being a family of four! Thank you all for your sweet encouragement and prayers! You have blessed us so much!

getting ready...

We're at less than 4 weeks until we hop on that plane...and I do mean hop! We will surely have a little pep in our step--at least at the beginning. It will take us 2 days to get back to Atlanta (about 9 hours to London, where we will spend the night and then another 10 hours to Atlanta the next day). We are happy to be staying the night in London. It will help us (and Zoe hopefully) to adjust a little to the time difference. We took the same flight when we went home last year for vacation. Nate ate so much McDonalds in London, he was sick for like a week when we finally got home. He said he will be more careful this time (we shall see!)

We have been spending the past several weeks starting to pack stuff away into boxes. We figured a little at a time would be better than everything all at the end. However, something put a halt on our progress...

Yeah...if you didn't see on Facebook, Nate broke his finger close to his hand, so he has had a cast on for a few weeks now. He was playing volleyball and somehow (not-so-gracefully) fell into the wall and broke his finger with his own elbow. Not many people have done that, eh? Anyway, he has been a really good sport about it. In fact, he wasn't planning on teaching at the University this semester since school just started and we will be leaving in a few weeks. But the director of the program loves Nate (and knows how qualified he is to teach) so he has asked him to teach an "intensive course" before we leave. So he is teaching basketball practicals twice a week and theory once a week. So proud of him! This picture was on his first day of class this semester. Except--oh!--nobody told the students they had classes so nobody showed up. TIA. They started the next day and have been going strong ever since. They frequently ask Nate to lengthen class so they can stay and learn more. 

Back to packing...he is still able to do lots even with his cast. Zoe loves to help by pulling things out of the boxes we have already packed. Yesterday we tackled our bedroom closets. Nate found the pile of clothes he had bought in the market to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro last year with our friend Chris. He was modeling for us...

Zoe thought it was really funny when Nate had on the hat, it quickly became not so funny when we put the hat on her...

She looks like the the mean elf that brings the kids to Santa on "A Christmas Story," right??