Our photographer was in town last week so we had her snap some pictures of Lily in her blessing dress. Both her dress and her little booties were made by my Grandma S. It is so special to me that she was able to wear something made just for her by her great grandma, I can't wait till she is old enough to under how special it truly is. I can't decide which pictures I like the best so you'll have to scroll through lots of them or just close the post because there are lots of pictures and no more words :)

 

 

Big thanks to Grandma & Granddad H for letting us use their house for pictures! Now the hard part which one do I print for my wall??

Blessing

Yesterday was a wonderful day in our family. Lilian was given a name and a blessing by the her Dad. It was such a wonderful thing to listen as he used the priesthood to bless our sweet Lily.

Lily was fortunate enough to have 3 great-grandpas, 2 grandpas and 2 loving uncles with her. Our bishop, bishop Dodd and friend in the ward Travis Parry also stood in on the blessing. Lily was blessed to be supported by her family and be a support to her family, to remember she is a daughter of God and to have an eternal family someday along with other wonderful blessings.
Afterwards granddad and grandma H let us have a brunch at their house since no way we would all fit in our apartment. We were able to snap a few pictures also. My dad had to leave after the blessing to return to their ward to fulfill his calling but I was able to snap a quick picture of him and Lily before church started. 

 
                                   

Miles, Mike, Grandpa S. Mark w/ Lily, Opa, Granddad and Grandpa H.

 Lily & her Great Aunt Karen, she really is great!

 

 All the Nash cousins

 Such amazing women to help support Lily as she grows

 4 generations on my moms side

 Marks side of the family

 Above and below 4 generation with Marks parents and their parents.

 I love our little family.

 Cousin Maxine, how can you not love this little face!

Cuddles with great grandma.

 

We feel so blessed in our lives! 

4 weeks

Lily is 4 weeks old today. She is growing and changing. 

She loves to interact with Noah. 

And he loves to take care of her and snuggle her when she will cooperate 

They got matching jammies for Christmas and Noah loves when they match 

Lily is getting good at holding her head up and following people by turning her head 

We love our little girl!

And just because, we got out & enjoyed the weather this week in their cute aviator hats from great grandma S.

Silver linings

Immediately after delivering Lily my blood pressure became elevated. 3 1/2 weeks later and after many, way to many, doctor visits I am still fighting it along with other symptoms. It didn't take long before we realized this was more than high blood pressure, official diagnosis post partum preeclampsia. Never heard of it, probably for a good reason as it's pretty uncommon. One statistic I read stated only about 600 cases a year are reported in the US. I was watched for preeclampsia the entire pregnancy because I had it with Noah this time I had no symptoms until right after delivery. The risks are all the same, the biggest being seizures and/or stroke. I am on medications that have kept my diastolic aka the bottom number under 120, in a normal person this should be 90 or below. I am on limited activity, basically I have to sit on the couch I can do a few things but not much or my numbers go up which is very bad. I hate being dependent on others and I have been forced too. Mark has been a rock star during all of this, doing pretty much everything. Our parents, siblings and grandparents have been such a huge support also. I can't drive due to seizure risk being high, I never realized how much I drive until it wasn't an option anymore. The symptoms will go away with time, for now I have to be something I was not raised to be a couch potato and focus on staying calm.

How can there be silver linings in this? 

1- I never had plans to breastfeed so having to take these medications and not being able to care for Lily all the time hasn't changed how we live to much (except Mark is exhausted).

2- it's influenza season and it has officially been declared epidemic in our state so as one of best friends pointed out my complications are making me stay home. She knows I struggle to stay at home, I go stir crazy really fast, now I am forced to stay home (or at families houses) for the most part to avoid blood pressure spikes. Also since anxiety raises your blood pressure and I have anxiety in big crowds I have avoided crowds without feeling sad which is good as they usually contain lots of germs.

3- Mark got to stay home an extra week because my doctor said he couldn't leave. The symptoms and risks make is so I can't be alone for to long and the no driving thing makes life hard alone.

Tomorrow Mark goes back to work and Noah, Lily and I are going to be living with  parents while he is gone. We are so thankful that both our parents live close by and don't mind extra bodies at their houses for a while or mind driving us around. Hopefully this resolves soon but for now I am trying to focus on the silver linings and be thankful for the most amazing family. 

I will update the blog with Lily/Noah as soon as my body lets me but for now I'll just share a few picture. 

Noah got wrapped up like theChristmas   tree does for storage, he thought it was pretty funny.

Lily loves her cousins. 

We got brave and got fresh air yesterday, it was amazing! 

Noah insists they wear ther matching jammies, if one of them has them on the other must also. The above picture happened because he wanted a picture with his baby Lilian. He loves her a little! 

3 weeks old

Lily's had her 3 week checkup today.

She is 8lbs 9oz and 21.5in long, right where she should be. The swollen area on her head has gone down, it's a bruise from delivery, her dr said sometimes the swelling can last up to a year because it's so big and such a large amount of blood for the body to reabsorb. Eventually she'll need an xray of her skull just to check it out and make sure it's all okay but it's not urgent. 

Noah still loves his sister, he told the receptionist at the dr today that "being a big brother is hard because it takes lots of time" 

He has transitioned really well just moments of wanting someone to play with him which is pretty normal for him. 

He loves helping take care of her and when she is upset he can usually calm her down by talking to her and rubbing her cheek it's pretty adorable.