grandma's galore

well, yesterday was marley's baptism and it went really well. she was great. wide eyed during the water, but no hollering. except for the moment she started grunting, she was very quiet. =) all the close family was there, though we were missing a few from my side...she looked beautiful and very girly in a precious dress that great grandma jones got in puerto rico. thank you to everyone who thought of her and helped make the occaission special. here are some pictures of the pretty girl.

all things ridiculous...and cute

well, here are some funny pictures of marley, and some that are just cute...she is a month old, almost five weeks now actually. i can't believe it's been that long and at the same time not forever....she is a wonderful happy buddha baby...and she makes some great faces...her

grandma is in town again,a nd will hopefully be moving up here for the summer. i'm having marley work her magic on her to help convince her that ohio is a great place to summer...uncle kirby will be here on saturday and we are all super excited. twice in one year my whole family will be together! and sunday, of course, is the big baptism...all is well in marley land.

st patty's day

a couple of pictures...and a brief update. ben had the past two days off, so we enjoyed some quality family time. for once we didn't have a mile long list of places and appointments that we had to do. we bought marley a swing (one of the motorized ones, not an outside one) and she hated it at first. great, there goes some money, but upon further reflection she likes it just fine...yesterday we went to a park, and then had some outside time on the farm. the weather's been great the past couple of days...she also got to meet one of her other great grandma's the other day...and i do believe it was love at first sight. at least for my grandma. she comes over everyday for a bit of her baby time...marley also got to meet her grandma becky.

on sunday march 29th at 1045am marley mae will be baptized. the service will be at first lutheran in bellefontaine. we will have some sort of reception afterwards, though nothing big or fancy. all are welcome. if you plan on coming, please let ben or i know so we will have plenty of refreshments.

smooth sailing....

well, this has been a good week. actually a great week. my first solo at home (when ben is at work) and i think i managed pretty well. minus the personal hygiene. =) that has to wait until ben gets home and can take over. marley is a very happy baby and very easy going, so far. she's a little buddha.
we went for another check up yesterday to see if she had caught up weight wise. she has. she's gained almost a pound in one week! she went from 7 pounds 9 ounces to 8 pounds 8 ounces. yea! no more worries about feeding. the doctor says she looks great and we don't need to go back again until she is 8 weeks old for her shots.
the jeep got a bit of a wearing in yesterday. after marley's doctor's appointment and before myne, she got hungry. so i fed her in the backseat of the jeep. well as she was feeding, she pooped. this happens pretty regularly. and i thought, all cockily, hey i can change a diaper in the backseat of a car. so off went the old dirty diaper and before i could get the new one on, marley is just peeing everywhere! and then it turned out she wasn't done pooping yet. so i am frantically holding napkins to her butt, trying to keep the poop off of her, me and the car. i gave up on the pee. that just went everywhere. she loves to pee as soon as the diaper is off (thank god she's not a boy), but apparently i am the only one she likes to poop on. c'est la vie. i'm washable. she had on the cutest outfit from my grandma too, but we had to switch to a nightie after the incident.
my doctor's appointment went great. i have the green light for everything except for lifting anything heavier than marley. which means omar is defintntly out of the question. =)
we also met with the pastor that is doing the baptism yesterday. he is a chatty cathy. the bishop will be in town that sunday and i think a bell choir will also be playing. not sure about a reception afterwards yet. it will happen somewhere...
i also got to have my first beer in over nine months yesterday. a stella artois. it was pretty wonderful. (and yes it is perfectly safe to have a beer while breastfeeding. the timing is what is important... and the quanity) so yesterday was a big day and marley slept so well last night. she was just happy as can be during all the different outings...
more pictures soon...

just some more photos....

let's see, we have marley enjoying some tummy time, on her back, yawning in my mom's arms, with one set of her great grandparents (she is lucky enough to have four great grand parents!), and with me, ben and sue.

the pink parade begins...

as i feared, the onslaught of pink and girly has begun...what i do not want to admit is how cute it all is...we have gotten some really adorable presents, thank you to everyone. i promise thank you notes will arrive before marley is 18.
the first week home has flown by, of course we had my mom here to make life so much easier. she took care of ben and i and our menagerie, so we could focus on marley. i don't know what i would have done without her. she left this morning, and it was probably one of the hardest good byes we've had. in a perfect world, i would live near my family. they would be a drive away, instead of a plane ride away. hopefully some day soon that will happen. my mom is really amazing, and so happy to be a grandma.
marley went to the doctor on friday and she is doing well. she's a bit of a lazy eater, so we have had to regiment a feeding schedule and wake her to make sure she is getting enough nutrition. she seems to be eating a lot more now, which is good. perhaps all the drugs just took awhile to get out of her system. we go back on friday to check her weight gain. i talked to the docto about my spinal headache while we were there, and it looks like it will take a couple of weeks to go away. or i could get a spinal blood patch, but after all those failed epidurals, i just don't have it in me to have another shot in the spine. they are gradually getting better. enough about me, marley's the real star. she is such a happy baby. and so beautiful. here are more pictures of her...we have a picture of her after a bath with me, in her bear suit coming home from the hospital, me her and her daddy, her wide awake, and then three generations of strong women....