Change In Plans

Jeff is the one with the news....he is now employed by Wilbur Ellis. Jeff has been working at Green Valley since he moved to MI eight years ago. For the most part he has enjoyed his work and those he worked with and has a lot of respect for the owners. One down side of that job was the dreaded season of early spring to early summer. During that time he would leave the house at 5 and not return until 11. During the not as busy season he was still responsible to open and close the office which didn't leave a lot of room for flexibility. We know there are many that don't have jobs at this time and we were thankful he had a job. When the offer from Wilbur Ellis came, he was SHOCKED! He had never thought of working for another company so it was a little stressful around here as we weighed the pros and cons of a new job. The biggest positive being more time at home. The location Jeff is now working at doesn't do custom application (spreading and spraying). That means no CRAZY long hours for weeks on end. Jeff's responsibility is strictly sales. For those of you that know him well, you know how much he enjoys going out, meeting people and getting to know them. While Jeff was doing sales at GV, he also had to keep everything in-line at the plant. Now he has one focal point. The location he's working out of is a bit longer of a drive, however, he doesn't have to be there. His office is his truck.

Jeff has been a totally different person over the past few weeks. He is much more happy and much less stressed. He has had breakfast with the girls on numerous occasions, been able to bring Miya to preschool several times, and been home before suppers even started (oops). We are definitely not in a routine yet and have some logistical kinks to work out. We also know that the spring will still be a busy time for him, but are hopeful that he'll be home more then last year.

We are very thankful that God has given this new opportunity to Jeff to provide for his family and be home a little more too.

Naughty Melanie

Here's a couple videos that show what a little stinker Melanie is. Not many people believe that she can be naughty since she's so quiet most of the time. Not the case. I had a long video of her with the cupcake, I'll keep trying to upload it along with some more of her taking toys away from big sisters. As for the lucky charm video....as soon as I shut the camera off she started crying!! She no longer get to eat lucky charms for breakfast cause she only eats the marshmallows and that's not enough to keep her growing tummy full. She is almost up to the 10th percentile on the 'corrected age' growth chart. She weighs 19lbs 11oz so she still gets to stay in her infant car seat (ugggh that thing is heavy). She also gets to stay on formula (and bottles) for most of her milk. We can try giving her whole milk in a sippy cup spiked with Carnation Instant Breakfast for added calories and taste :) I will try to post again very soon with some very exciting news....no we're NOT preggo.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Then and Now-Coming Home

One year ago today we were able to take a 5 pound Melanie home from the hospital. She stayed there for 76 days gaining strength, developing, and growing big while we traveled back and forth to visit her, hold her, and take care of her. Praying that someday she'd be well enough to come home. That day finally came, you could get all your nutrition from a bottle and could breath on your own! We were soooo excited to have Melanie at home, and very nervous about doing everything without a nurse and dr. to answer all of our questions. Those first couple months home with her are a blur. There were failed attempts at nursing every 3 hours which lead to feedings and pumping every 3 hours. Dr. check ups, and trying to keep two other little girlys happy. It was GREAT having Melanie at home with us, but I so desperately needed some sleep. God was watching over our sleep deprived family for sure. So many of you helped with more meals, and offers to watch Miya and Jayden. I will forever be thankful to all of those helping hands.

Last night Melanie allowed me to revisit those nights from a year ago. She has been battling a cough the past couple days and has not been sleeping well. Last night, she was crying so I got her out of bed thinking I'd let her play for awhile. She decided to lay her head on my shoulder. So I laid down on the couch and she repositioned herself on my chest and fell asleep. I remember sooo many hours of holding this dear one on my chest in the hospital praying for her strength, her health, and her future. This continued when she came home too, just with a little more napping while I held her as the other girls napped in the afternoon.

So thank you Melanie, for letting mommy hold you as you slept last night and thank God for all he has blessed you with. And in true Melanie fashion, after a 10min nap on mom you woke up and played for awhile. You kept coming back to mom's lap for a 5 min head rest, and then you'd go off and play again. The night was great, memories of the past, thoughts of who you've become to this day, and prayers for the future. We love you to pieces Melanie Grace and can't imagine this house without your cuddles, giggles, and crazy smiles.



18 pounds 9 ounces...still on the growth chart. YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!! She is in full snow gear as we tried to go sledding today. Since she wouldn't keep her mittens on she had to sit in the van...where she then fell asleep! Guess she wasn't' too heartbroken.

Then and Now-Diapers

The picture at the end of this post may be considered a little much from some, but I thought the comparison was amazing. I honestly cannot believe she was ever that SMALL!! Everybody always told us "you'll forgot how small she really was". I thought they were crazy. How could I forget what a 2lb 2oz baby felt like...I'm the crazy one. I forgot! I think back to those first diaper changes and remember thinking I would break her, or pull out a tube, or cut off her ventilator. I was so scared. Scared to be her mom and do the things that mom's naturally do without even thinking. Pretty sure I let Jeff take charge of the first several care times. He was the one that had to encourage me to do it the first time, the one telling me everything would be okay. God has definitely given him a tremendous gift in being such a great encourager. I'm so thankful to have him beside me through thick and thin. As for little Mel, even though she just hit the growth chart she sure has grown a ton and we praise God everyday for the health and strength He's blessed her with.

Every 3 hours little Mel had her diaper changed. This was something that I actually looked forward to because it meant that we could touch her more, lift her up, and get a check on how those internal organs were operating. We would have to record the weight of her diapers (yes) and the nurses and drs. would keep an eye them. No weight in the diaper for a few in a row and tests would be ordered. Consistent weight = happy nurses, happy parents, and most of all happy baby! In the beginning diaper changes were very scary, but once we got the hang of it they were very comforting since that was the only time we could hold our littlest girl. It helped us get through the next 3 hours.

These are the same diapers!!! Yes, the diaper in the pict above is folded over because it was too big!!

She DID IT!!!!

Yaayyyy!!!!!!!!! Melanie is now on the growth chart!!! I took her in to the Dr. tonight to make sure her cough was "just a cough" before we leave for Iowa tomorrow morning. We had good news all around. It is just a cough, her chest sounds normal which means I was one of those run-to-the-dr-with-a-little-cough moms (a little embarrassing I have to admit), but now I will have peace of mind for the next week. The other good news-Melanie weighed in at a whopping 18lbs 3.5oz which put her in the 5th percentile!! We have been oh so diligent trying to get her weight up, ice cream, licking chocolate off the spatula, mac-n-cheese, suckers, cookies and some high calorie milk!! Since it's working I guess we'll have to keep spoiling her a bit and see if we can make double digits in the percentile chart!!

Here are some pictures and a video of Melanie's friends from the NICU neighborhood. **side note-I typed this before uploading the pictures...well they didn't upload so I put them all together in one video. I'm going to leave the picture descriptions below since I can't add that many words in the video***

Here is a picture of Melanie with Dr. Gelfand, her primary doctor in the NICU. He is an amazing dr and we will forever be grateful for all he did for Melanie. He is the one who came up with the idea to insert a tube into her lung to drain the 'stuff' inside. He then had to persuade the rest of the Dr.s and then perform the procedure!! We know all things happen of God's will alone. We also know that Melanie would have had a lot of problems with her lungs if that procedure wasn't done and thank God that Dr. Gelfand was Melanie's primary Dr.

Here is a picture of Melanie's favorite weekend night nurse-Kelly We went back to the Hospital after the NICU reunion to say 'hi' to anyone that was working. So glad we could see Kelly and get a picture with her.

And then there's ONE of the other favorite weekend day nurses-Jane. Jane was the nurse taking care of Melanie right after she was born. We will always have a special bond with her because she walked us through the hardest weekend of our lives (and some more after that too). We tried to get a picture of all the kiddos with her....maybe next year they'll cooperate :)

Melanie's friends from Nursery 1. These kiddos are so strong. They each had their own struggles in the NICU and continue to fight their own different trials each day. We praise God that He has sustained all of these little ones and are thankful for all of the blessings He has given them along the way. Brady and Paige and Levi.

The parents from nursery 1. We will forever be thankful for the help and encouragement from these 4 parents. They walked us through the ups and downs of the NICU and provided lots of needed laughter during the good times. We love you guys!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Late Pictures

We have been without our camera for about a month now and it's driving me CRAZY!! Hoping it will be here before we leave next week for Christmas in Iowa. I found and discovered our old camera works so I'll try to take some pictures and videos of the craziness at the Westra household. Little Melanie is into EVERYTHING!! For now, here is a quick little collage of my attempt at a one year picture for Melanie. After two days of trying, I gave up and went to Target for her pictures thinking then I could focus on getting her to smile....WRONG. The little stinker has become quite stingy with her smiles as of lately. I also put some pictures of her enjoying her birthday cake. That was her first taste of sweets (aside from a crumb of cookie a couple times). She LOVED it!! She now gets to eat birthday cake and ice cream everyday....seriously. I've been told to add fat to her diet in every way possible. Some examples they gave me: when giving her mac n cheese use whole milk and real butter (she's never had mac n cheese). Add butter, oil, and dips whenever possible. Hagen Daz ice cream every night (460 calories per scoop vs 200calories of regular ice cream), etc. I'm not ready to set her up on this kind of diet just yet. We are changing what she eats and offering her more sweets. She also is quickly learning she can have a high-calorie bottle of milk whenever she wants....even twice during the wee hours of the morning if she so chooses :( but I'm not adding butter, oil, and dips to everything just yet. We'll see how her next weight check goes.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Then and Now - Hands and Feet

While creating Melanie's one year video, I couldn't figure out how to compare pictures from then to now and still have it flow. So over the next couple months I'll be creating "Then and Now" posts. I'm going to try to keep them in order from when the original picture was taken. However, I'm already struggling with that since I can't find the first diaper (size) she wore. We seem to have misplaced (given away) ALL that we had. Jeff LOVED giving them away when people visited. So, if any of you still have one, I would love to borrow it for a picture. (Just let me know vie e-mail jeffwestra11@yahoo.com thanks)

"Then...and Now..." Hands and Feet
Melanie was born on October 31, Jeff's birthday is November 1. So last year his birthday was spent in the hospital with not a lot of focus. The wonderful weekend nurses found out it was his birthday and gave him the best birthday gift possible at that time... his first card from Melanie. Thanks Nurse Jane for such a special memory! Little stinker didn't want to co-operate with her feet for even a second...little different then a year ago.








Also, let me know if you have a request of something you'd like to see side by side and I'll do my best to get a picture of it.