Lily is Home

We were finally able to bring Lily home from the hospital after nine days of care. She came home on Christmas Eve and we were so happy to have her with us. So far she is a good baby that sleeps and eats a lot. She lets anyone hold her and her sisters just love the opportunity as well as her older cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. She has been surrounded by many loving hands since the moment she was born, so we feel very blessed.

Both of her surgeries went very well and we felt like she was always in very good hands. We now have the task of giving her good home and good medical care. She will need occupational and physical therapy for her lower extremities. She will also need to go to a spina bifida clinic on a regular basis where she will receive care from urology, neurosurgery and orthopedics. We are trying to care for her surgery sites by keeping pressure off of her back and keeping the other sites dry. We also have to empty her bladder every four hours in the day with a catheter. Despite her obvious disability in her legs and feet, she looks and feels like all of my other babies. She will need some extra watch care. But we are loving her and enjoying her and truly grateful that we have her in our family.

Thank you for your interest in her and in us. We have felt blessed by your prayers and I know that I would not have the strength and sense of capability that I do without those prayers.

Getting to know her big sisters

Anna and Eryn finally took the opportunity to hold their little sister yesterday. It was so fun. They both seemed very excited to be able to get closer to her.

Lily received her shunt on Sunday morning. The bandage on her head is covering one of her little incisions. She is doing very well and now we are just waiting for her breathing to stabilize (hopefully by tomorrow) so she can come home with us.

Lily Day 5

Mommy & Lily update

Mommy was discharged from the hospital Friday night and is recovering well. Mahalo to each of you who commented on the blog, sent emails, called, visited, sent flowers, and continued praying.

Lily is beautiful, sweet and very patient. Her dear nurses are remarkable and keep commenting on how wonderful she is to be with. Lily had the surgery on her spinal defect Tuesday evening and specialists are monitoring (tests galore) any swelling of her head or back to determine whether a shunt is needed. The shunt operation is likely to happen this weekend.

We hope to bring her home before Christmas!

Announcing baby Lily Ruth Kongaika

Lily Ruth Kongaika
Born @ 8:29am
6 lbs and 15 oz
18 1/2 inches

Happy 7th Birthday Anna

These are all of her Utah cousins lined up here with her at Jungle Jim's.

I can't believe I am the mother of a seven year old. Time really does fly. It seems like just yesterday when she was born and our eyes met for the first time. I felt such a deep connection to her immediately. That became such a great blessing for me, too because she was such a difficult baby. That deep mother/daughter connection really allowed me to love her unconditionally despite all of the screaming (on her part). =) She is so grown up these days. All of that is past and she has become a sweet, smart, helpful girl. We are lucky to have her strong and bright spirit in our family. Above are some pictures from our celebrations.

SNOW!

This was Joseph's first experience with snow. He was a little shocked, I think. Luckily he had his pacifiers to keep him company. =) There's also a youtube video you can click on if you scroll all the way to the bottom that shows him kind of wandering around trying to figure it all out.

A Warm Winter Day

The weather has been pretty mild since we got here, but Saturday was almost warm. =) It was crazy. Our kids played outside almost all day and some even took off their shoes. Above Anna and Eryn are playing with their cousins out in the backyard. They pulled out lots of blankets and had a great big picnic. Today on the other hand it is snowing, finally. I will post some of those pictures later.

Baby Lily has a Birthday!

I am excited to announce that Lily finally has a birthday picked out. I am set to go in for a c-section on Monday the 15th of December. Joel and I were able to meet with my new doctor here and get a tour of the facilities earlier in the week and we both felt great about everything. It is nice to finally see things falling into place for the birth of our baby and I am so grateful to have a date to plan for.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. =)