M's new friend

Well Maryssa and I traveled down to VA to meet Maryssa's new friend Kensi. My high school friend Jane had her baby on Jan 4th, Maryssa's due date. Kensi was also a little peanut at 4lb 11oz and only 34 weeks like Maryssa. We have some stubborn girls already. Here's a couple pictures from their meeting.






























It looks like Kensi is smacking Maryssa, but she isn't.

So much to update...

Births, and holidays and a new job o my! Oh my is right. The last 5 weeks have been crazy. I'm sure you're wondering how our little bundle of joy is doing...well great! We went for a 5 week check up (the NICU really threw off the typical schedule) and Maryssa was up to 7lb 8oz from her brith weight of 5lb 2.5 oz. I'm pretty sure she's pretty close to 8lbs now. She's also starting to interact with us a little more. This morning she greeted me with a smile when I got her out of her crib; a first. I'm hoping to see that wonderful smile more in the weeks to come, but I'll take what I can get. We usually get two good 2 hour awake periods; one in the morning after she wakes up and another at night around 7:00. She loves her little play mat and watching her mobile in her lamb swing. I recently started reading books with her. She likes to look at the pages and will probably like to eat them soon. She's been a wonderful sleeper. I believe this is God's way of saying good job dealing with a rough pregnancy because sleep is one of my favorite things. At night she regularly sleeps 4 hours, and we get the occasional 5, 6, or 7 hour stretch. I haven't had the normal mommy sleep deprived zombie stage. I know, I'm blessed. Eric is great and gets up on the weekends for one of the feedings at night which allows me a full 8 hours.

While we're on the subject of Eric he is such a wonderful Daddy! He loves his little girl and she's already got him wrapped around her finger. If she fusses he's ready to rock her and loves giving her a bottle in the evenings after work. Work has also been a big change in our lives. Unfortunately, the economy took a toll on INPRO and Eric was not able to stay with his father's company. This was such a scary and upsetting time for us all. With a lot of prayer, and help from our wonderful friends and family, Eric was able to update his resume and get an interview with Bechtel within a few weeks. After just one interview, he was hired! God is great! Everything worked out well with Maryssa's birth because he didn't plan to start until two weeks later. Everything fit together well. So far Eric is still adjusting to being back with a big company but is enjoying it more every day.

Since I thought I had more time before Maryssa came, I decided to put my Christmas shopping off to keep me busy. Most of you know I'm usually done shopping by October, but I didn't want to be sitting around waiting for her to arrive and shopping is always a good distraction. This wonderful plan meant that I ended up shopping online while in the hospital bed! This worked out great because everything was delivered to my door and all I had to do was wrap it. Christmas was wonderful and even more precious having Maryssa with us. We celebrated at Eric's parents' house with all his family and with a little Bunco later in the evening. Then the next day we headed down to Richmond for our annual beach trip! Maryssa's early arrival allowed us to travel and I couldn't be more excited that we were able to go. While in Richmond, Maryssa met my crazy high school girl friends and evidently told Kensi that she could have Maryssa's due date. My friend Jane had her beautiful baby girl a few short weeks later and it landed on Maryssa's due date, January 4th. Little Kensington Anne (yes, they have the same middle name and may have shared a birthday if Maryssa had held on) and Maryssa are both high achievers:-) After spending time with the girls, we headed down to the beach. It was wonderful that Maryssa got to meet so much of her extended family. She was the center of attention and loved every minute of it. It was rare to see her in her seat or pack n play because someone always had her in their arms. What a wonderful loving family she has. Of course this meant there was a little adjustment to her swing and chair when we got home because mommy had things to get done. The weather at the beach was so cold this year, but I guess that's what we get for 6 great years of beautiful weather. That was ok of course since there is always shopping to do down there. The bait launcher made it's appearance of course, but didn't last through the week....the barrel snapped off. This means the boys spent their last day planning how to make it better, stronger and able to launch further instead of fishing.

Now we're back home and starting to settle into a schedule with a baby. Eric working, Brandie being a stay at home Mom and both of us coaching our club volleyball team. Each time we look at our baby girl, we remember how blessed we are to have her and the long journey it took for her to come to us. We love being parents!