Our Family – Page 121 – Andelin Adventures

“I Love to See the Temple

I’ll go inside someday

I’ll covenant with my Father

I’ll promise to obey….”

I Love to See the Temple, Children’s Songbook pg 95

Today, I went with my parents to the San Diego Temple. There we met my Grandma Shirley, to be with her as she went through to receive her endowment.

It was so awesome to be there with her while she attended the temple for the very first time. I remember when she was baptized, looking forward to the day she would go through the temple, and hoping I could go with her. Grandma had called earlier this week to say that she was going through the San Diego Temple on Wednesday. I felt so sad that she would be going through the temple RIGHT BEFORE I would be in Southern California. But then I guess my dad called her up and talked her into switching her appointment to Friday, so I could come too. 🙂 I am, however, a bit bummed that I totally forgot to take my camera with me. I had wanted to get a picture of all of us with Grandma out front of the temple, but I had left it in my other bag and didn’t think about it until we were almost there.

Now we need to do the work required to be able to have her sealed to her parents, and to Grandpa Denzel, and then have dad and Uncle Frank sealed to them. And once again, I hope I can be there. 🙂

Gaining

Kyle went back to work Monday, so I’ve been flying solo for the past few days. It hasn’t been so difficult, since Kyle helps get the older two ready and off to school before going to work, then he is home again in the evenings (I so could not have handled him working the two jobs at this point…) Lydia has been looking to me like her cheeks are a bit fuller. I have pretty much just been expressing milk after each feeding, then when it’s time to feed Lydia again I add two ounces of formula to whatever I had expressed and that’s what she gets. So this morning I took her to Valerie’s for a weight check. Of course that made me nervous. I mean I’ve been looking at her thinking her cheeks are looking a bit fuller but then I was afraid that I was only thinking that because I was wanting so bad for her to be gaining weight. I was afraid to put her on the scale only to find out that she’s still not gaining. But I took her anyways, and we waited our turn and when we put her on the scale we found that she has actually gained 12 ounces! So she went from 6 pounds even last week to 6lb 12 oz today! I’m so glad. Of course I’m still sad that I’m not making enough milk to feed her, that I had to supplement with formula to get her to that. But it’s better for her to be gaining weight, than it is for me to struggle and be unhappy because I can’t provide enough milk for her and watch her suffer with hunger. So I’ll just deal with it and try to stop beating myself up over that! 🙂

Two Weeks

Lydia is two weeks old today. I took her over to Valerie’s this morning for a check up. And she looks great! Aside from her weight… I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since we’ve been struggling with feedings and that means that of course there were going to be issues with weight gain.

This past week I would try nursing Lydia when I wasn’t very sore but that would end up just breaking open that scab, which meant that it needed to start healing all over again. So I decided that I had better just play it safe and not try to nurse on it until it has healed completely. So I have just been expressing my milk and giving it to Lydia in a bottle. 🙁

She weighed in this morning at 6 pounds even. That means she lost at least 1 pound and 4 ounces over the past 2 weeks. That’s a LOT! Valerie told me to start adding formula to my breast milk to help get her some more calories. And she want’s me to increase the fat in my diet so that my milk will have a higher fat content. So we’ll try that out and weigh her again next week.

Mother’s Day

Today has been a really lousy day for me. Kyle took the kids yesterday, to Laurel’s house for Lars’ birthday party. He left me home with Lydia so that I could maybe get some rest since, overdoing it this week I wasn’t feeling very well. I expected him to be home with the kids maybe around dinner time. However that’s not what happened. I got a text on my phone from Laurel at 8:30 saying that the kids have been fed, but Kyle is not feeling well and she was letting him nap. Then about 11pm she called to tell me that Kyle just looks miserable and she’s not letting them come home. She said that she will put the kids to bed and make sure that none of them escape, and they would take them to church with them and that way Kyle could get some rest, and I could just take care of Lydia and get some rest.

So I spent the weekend totally and completely alone. Saturday night I had a horrible fever, and was just dripping with sweat I HAD to take a shower to rinse off, but that just made me feel like I was freezing. Every time Lydia woke up to eat I just laid in bed not wanting to move. Then when I finally made myself get up to go take care of her my legs just felt like they didn’t want to hold me up. When I got word that Kyle wasn’t coming home I had to go let Chewy out in the backyard so the poor dog could pee, and I had to let Jango in for the night, and since I was up and in the kitchen I decided to get the tylenol and take it to my room with me.

Sunday was the same. I spent most of the day in bed sleeping, until Lydia cried to let me know she was hungry. I was consistently taking tylenol every 4 hours to keep the fever down and I don’t think I actually got up just for the sake of getting up until 4 in the afternoon. After church my visiting teachers stopped by to drop off the Mother’s day treat that our ward passed out, and when they found out that I was sick and my family wasn’t home they offered to bring me a plate of some dinner. I didn’t actually hear anything from Kyle until after 6 and he just asked how I was doing.

Kyle wasn’t feeling well either. He spent the day at Laurel’s house just sleeping, and Laurel and Roine took the kids to church with them. After church Laurel’s family were planning on going over to Karen’s house to spend some time with her since she didn’t want to spend mother’s day all alone. And when she found out that Kyle and the kids were in town she got so excited and they all went over to her house. They didn’t leave there until late, and they finally got home about 10pm. Of course by the time they got home all the kids were sleeping and Kyle just brought them in and carried them to their beds. So I didn’t even get to see most of them. Tyra was awake and came in to say goodnight. Kyle brought me a pile of cards that they had made for me while at cousins house, and that was it for mother’s day this year. I was just so sad to be left alone and mostly ignored all weekend. 🙁

Tyra’s 7th birthday

Yesterday was Tyra’s birthday! But she ended up spending the afternoon being naughty, and I wasn’t planning on doing cake a presents yesterday because she was supposed to have Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts ended up being cancelled but by then it was too late to make a cake. So this afternoon I got up and cleaned some of the kitchen and made a cake. I really feel like I over did it though and my body is now saying ‘what were you thinking!’

We didn’t do anything fancy this year, I just made a chocolate praline cake and she got a present from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy, which she loved. And on Friday’s we’ve been letting the kids stay up late to watch a movie of MY choice. Debby and Jeff decided to come out this evening as well so they got to see Lydia, join us for the birthday celebrations and they spent the evening watching the Neverending Story with us. Happy Birthday Tyra!