Big Girls

My beautiful daughter and niece! Could it get any better than that? The past two months have been the hardest months of our lives, but we are so grateful for our little girl. She is such a blessing to us! Sometimes it's hard to see through the screaming, but she will get through that.

The other day I was talking to a friend and saying how Ian always cried when he was a baby too and didn't like to sleep. I also said that he still doesn't sleep very well. And my friend pointed out that at least he doesn't cry that much anymore!! That made me laugh, and also realize that Mary will be like a real person in a few months (a little less crying, and a lot more interaction). Thanks for that encouraging thought Dee!

One of Ian's friends from college is going through a terrible time right now. His daughter is about a month younger than Mary and she is really sick. We read about his daughter (on their blog) and it just breaks our hearts for them. If you're the type to do so, pray for Justin, Kristen, and Kara. They don't think she will live to see her first birthday, but Justin and Kristen have such a God centered perspective on it all. They know he has a plan for their daughter and that he loves their daughter more than they do. It's sad (an understatement), but encouraging to read their blog because of the way they glorify God in their lives. He's first, despite the dark circumstances that surround their lives right now. They've asked people to pray for wisdom in decision-making and parenting, and a peace beyond understanding in their hearts as they seek after God. We pray for mercy Lord.

Thinking about them made me cry and talk to God more today. While I was praying for them an old song came to my mind. It's called Be Near and it's by Shane Barnard. The lyrics go like this:
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
It's a beautiful song, and it reminded me what's really important: not the safety of our family, or the abundance of our finances, a big house, or any of those things. God's nearness is our good. That's what we want above all else. The Lubbers' family will seek Him!

8 weeks today!

Mary is 8 weeks old today. The past week with her has been great. It's like we have a new little girl (who is milk free!). She had a rough night last night, but besides that she's been great. Tonight Ian and I are going to watch the varsity soccer team whoop up on Loveland. Some of Ian's players got moved up so we're excited to see them play (possibly)! Or warm the bench (probably). I took a video of Mary for those of you who don't get to see her live and in person. At least you can see her moving! She has the hiccups so she's not the happiest girl in the world, but she's still cute!

All figured out!

Well it's been a rough couple days in the Lubber's household. This weekend with Mary was one of the fussiest (is that word made up?) of all time, and she really looked like she was in pain. So I checked all the foods that I've eaten and it turns out that the soy burgers I eat have milk in them, and so does the taco seasoning I used Saturday night!!! This is just dumb, who puts milk in soy burgers?!?

Anyway, we went to the doctor to see what we could do and we've got her on a ridiculously expensive, but hypoallergenic, formula for the next week to see if that makes the blood in her stool go away. If so, then we know it's the milk allergy. Since it can take up to two weeks for the milk protein to get out of my system, we're waiting until late next week to try mixing some breast milk in with the new formula and seeing how she reacts.

I really think that this protein thing is the problem though, forget the tests. The rash on Mary's face is going away, and she isn't squirming when we feed her. The doctor will confirm it next week, but it just seems like this is what it is to me. We'll see if she's less fussy today! So far so good. Here are some pics, i can't resist ;) Check out her outfit in that pic with Ian sleeping. It's very J. Crew. We did go to Miami after all.These next two are from a little photo session we did with Brooklynn. Brooklynn is so cute with Mary. I need to get a video of the two of them because Brookynn just holds her and when we take Mary away she throws a fit. Then when I put Mary down for a nap Brooklynn kept saying, "baby, baby" and walking back to Mary's room. We had to barricade her because she'd just push the door open and walk right in. But it was really cute when we let her go in because she kept shushing us and whispering "baby, baby." She loves her cousin!

Why God gave us Mary:

The other day I was reading in Psalms and Psalm 105:19 says, "Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph's character." Joseph went through a lot of crap in life, but he wouldn't have been who he was, or had the faith that he did without going through all that stuff. Not that having a baby is anywhere near as hard as what he went through, but it reminded me that in order to grow, we have to go through hard things. For example, if you want to play soccer, you have to practice a lot to be good right? So if you want to have patience, you need opportunities to practice having patience. I think this is one of the big reasons that God gave us a fussy baby.

Another reason I think is because I was really judgmental before I had Mary. I still can be, but seeing how hard it can be and seeing how quickly some of the things I was SO adamant about before I had her just crumble when she's screaming, I've learned that I have no room to judge. And if I can't judge someone for simple things like that, why judge at all???

OK, enough of that. Here are some pictures:

1 month check-up

Mary had her one month check up on Wednesday and we found out that she has an allergy. We don't know what she's allergic to, but we know she's allergic to something and we can't do a test to find out what it is until she's three months old. So right now we're assuming it's dairy and cutting that out of my diet. Fun stuff. This post was really just so I could put up some new pictures.
I put a hat on her cause it's fall outside finally! This is how I found her when I got her out of the car:
And here are some cute ones that I took today: