Dedication

Hello everyone, well, on Sunday Karissa was formally dedicated to God at our church. It was a great service and everything went smoothly. The family who came to see was Karissa's great grandfather on my side, both of her grandfathers and grandmothers, her Aunt Traci and Uncle Ryan, her Aunt Melinda and Aunt Leah and both of her cousins Dylan and Hailey. Karissa didn't even cry when Pastor Duane held her to pray over her. Afterward, we had all the family up to our home and had a luncheon and that was a really nice time of visiting and hanging out. This was the first time Karissa was able to spend time with both of her cousins at the same time. We have lots of pictures that were taken of her dedication and later today I will get a slideshow posted so you all can see those pictures. Take care and thanks for reading.

Gaining

Karissa has continued to gain although it has slowed down some. She is up to 9lbs, 8 1/2oz. We got the results of her ultrasound and everything was negative. Praise the Lord. Tomorrow she is being dedicated to the Lord at our church. Even though we dedicated her when we knew we were having a baby, this is a formal way of showing others our intentions of wanting to raise a Godly daughter. Here are a couple more pictures from the past few days. The first is playing with her Aunt Melinda. The third is playing with her "Build A Bear Bunny" from Grammy (she loves her), and the fourth is her 4 month picture with her teddy bear.

Karissa update

I figured I would get on here and give an update on Karissa. After all her weight gains last week she stalled for a couple days and also seemed to get constipated from the iron in the formula. Megan had been trying to nurse but she wasn't getting much so for a whole night she gave Karissa milk she had been able to pump. This helped Karissa poop and she got a lot out in a couple days. The first day after going again, her weight dropped down to about 8 lbs, 9 ounces. That was Thursday night. Friday she went to A.I DuPont and we haven't gotten the result of her ultrasound yet but her VCUG test for urine reflux was negative. We are pretty sure the weight issue is all tied to Megan's milk; it just must not be nutritious enough. Karissa had a really rough time at AI and screamed the entire time they were doing the VCUG test. Suprisingly they didn't check her weight or any other vitals while she was there. We checked her weight Friday night and it was up to 8 lbs, 12 1/2 ounces so she was back to gaining. Last night we checked it and it was up to 9 lbs, 1 ounce so she's on her way again. Megan is now alternating between pumped breast milk and formula and still nursing before feedings as often as possible. God is sooo good and has watched over Karissa and us through all this and we thank Him. Thank you all again for your prayers. Here are a couple of pictures of Karissa laying on the hospital table in her gown waiting for her test to begin. This was while she was still happy.

A few of the Most Recent Pictures

Karissa

I'm sorry I'm always the one blogging but Megan never really gets any time. Well, we know that God works all things out for good but we saw that first hand this past week. Karissa had to go to formula on Wednesday and since then she has done nothing but gain weight. Last Tuesday night she weighed 7 lbs, 10 1/2 oz and last night (Monday) she weighed 8 lbs 10 1/2 oz. 1 lb in less than a week. Megan's milk has started to come back but Karissa still has to have a bottle of formula after nursing so I don't know how much the nursing is doing for her. As long as she is getting something I guess it's better than nothing. So far she hasn't seemed to have any problems with the formula thankfully. She goes to AI DuPont Children's Hospital on Friday to have tests done to make sure she has recovered from the infection and that nothing else is wrong. Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement.

Megan

Hello friends. The news doesn't seem to get better. On Sunday, Megan started complaining that she wasn't feeling well and by Monday afternoon when I got home from work she had a fever of over 103 and was having unbearable pain in her back. I called both of our mothers to see if they could come up and help out with Karissa since I needed sleep and Megan needed to rest. My mom said she could come up and Megan's mom said she needed to see the dr. I took her to the dr. around 4:00 and he checked her over and said she had a kidney infection. He put her on an antibiotic that she could take and still nurse. It's good she went when she did because the dr. said she could have become "septic" quickly. On Sunday night, Karissa started not nursing well and couldn't get full. That has continued ever since. Megan is starting to feel better but it is looking like the infection has started to dry up Megan's milk supply. Please pray that it will come back as the infection goes away. Also pray that Karissa won't lose weight through this and that the Lord will provide formula for us if we have to go to that. Thank you all

Update

We got the results of Karissa's urine test and she does have a mild grade infection (urinary tract infection). Her dr. put her on an antibiotic which she began Tuesday and will take for 10 days. We were worried she would hate it but she acted like she really liked it. Hopefully she doesn't start wanting that instead of milk. lol After the 10 days her dr. wants her to go to A.I. Dupont to have tests done to make sure there is nothing else wrong causing her to have this infection. While we are relieved to maybe have an answer to why she isn't gaining like she should, we are still worried about other problems. Please pray that she will be ok and that we will trust God to take care of her and bring her through all of this. We appreciate everyone's prayers.

Hello

Hello everyone, sorry it's been almost 2 weeks since we updated. Karissa had her 3 month check up on Thursday and it didn't go well. She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz so she only gained 13 ounces in a month. Her dr. said she fell farther away from the 5th percentile which is where she wants her to get to at least. Doc said she needed to take urine to check for a UTI which she said is the biggest reason for babies not gaining weight consistently. That meant that they had to put a catheter in her and that was the worst thing we have had to see her go through yet. It took them a few minutes to get it in her since she's so tiny. They finally did though and got some urine. We haven't heard the results. Doc said after she gets the results of that we will figure out where to go from there. Please pray for all 3 of us. We are very worried parents but are really trying to trust the Lord to take care of her. We are very frustrated because she has grown so much and is really looking very healthy. They also checked her length and head circumference and those were both closer to where doc wants them. She is now 20 3/4 inches long. Her 0-3 month clothes are too big but her newborn clothes don't fit over her head very easily. LOL. Poor thing has her daddy's big head. Well, there isn't much else to say. Til next time, God bless you all.

Please Pray

Hello everyone, not much is going on but we want to update regularily so that's why I'm here. Please pray that we don't get sick, especially Karissa. My parents stopped by Monday night and visited us and then Tuesday they were very sick and we just hope we don't get it, especially Karissa. We don't want to see her lose the progress she has gained the past few weeks. On a good note, Megan's sister Traci, her husband Ryan and our nephew Dylan came for a visit this past weekend. Dylan still loves his little cousin and Karissa seems to love Dylan more than anyone else as everytime she was around she gave him big smiles and laughs. Dylan still loved holding her and giving her hugs and kisses. Thankfully, he didn't give her any knuckle sandwiches. LOL We all enjoyed their visit and can't wait to go on vacation with them in April. Our teens are hosting a dinner and a movie event for the couples of our church and visitors next Friday night and we are asking that you pray that the Gospel will be heard through the movie. We will be showing Fireproof. Thanks for all your prayers and comments.

Growing Too Fast

Hello. We told you we would try to update more often so here I am since it's been just over a week. Our little girl is growing up too fast. No, she's not gaining weight too fast but she is growing up too fast. She seems to add new things all the time to the list of things she does. She hasn't rolled over in awhile like she was before though. One thing she does not like is tummy time. You can lay her down on her back on her mat and she will be fine for awhile but as soon as you turn her onto her tummy, she isn't happy. We tell her she needs to push herself up and get strong but she doesn't care. One other thing she doesn't like is sleeping in her own bed. lol We are trying to stop this but it's hard when Megan doesn't get much sleep already and I'm not there to help since I work overnight. I think it's so funny that Karissa likes the noises I make with my mouth because I have always made lots of noises with my mouth and Megan used to always get annoyed and tell me to stop so now I have to rub it in to Megan when Karissa likes them. We have discovered that Karissa enjoys her swing and will sleep in it and that has helped Megan get more things done around the house lately. We're wondering how long that will last because she seems to only like things briefly and then it stops working. I'm sorry if I've rambled all over the place--it's because it's late at night and I'm at work and tired. Thanks for the comments. Keep em coming!!

I actually have a few minutes!!!!

Hey everyone! So I've been wanting to do a blog for a long time now, just never have a chance. Karissa doesn't allow me to be on the computer a long time before she gets fussy. :) Yesterday we had her two month check-up. She gained enough weight to make the doctor happy even though it wasn't as much because of us running out of her supplement (see Dave's blog). She's now up to 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 in. long. I knew she was getting long because her pants were starting to become shorts! lol So she's been in newborn size which is good and today her outfit was even a 0-3 month size! She's definitely on the right track now. She did okay with her shots....her face got more red than I've ever seen!!!!! The doctor checked her all over and said she looks great. She's come alive so much in the past couple of months. As Dave mentioned, she smiles now with great big grins and sometimes makes a giggle sound when she smiles. During tummy time, she moves all around...pretty much from one end of the blanket to the other in only a few minutes. When Dave holds her and makes noises with his mouth, it is so cute to see her move her mouth to try to copy him. You also can't let anything get near her hands that you don't want her to grab because she'll grab onto stuff and not let go. So things are going really well....she's keeping me very busy, but we're having a great time. I put some pictures of her smile, where she starts tummy time, where she moves during tummy time, her 2 month picture, and of her and her cousin Hailey (it looks like she is saying "Not again Hailey" with her eyes because of Hailey crying). lol Thanks for the comments and hopefully, now that Karissa is doing better, we can get back to posting more frequently.

2 months

I can't believe it; Karissa is already 2 months old!! I don't think anyone is still reading our blog but I figured I would do one more post and see if we still have any visitors. Please let us know if you are still visiting so we know if we should continue to blog. Karissa has made great improvements since the last post. She is now about 6 lbs, 4 oz. The supplement we are adding to pumped milk is what we think is making the difference because we ran out last week and she hasn't gained much since then. It is very expensive and we have been waiting to find out if the insurance company will cover the cost. Thankfully her dr's office has been a lot of help and they got us 2 boxes for no cost that we are picking up today. If we need more after that we will have to pay for it ($150/box) and the insurance will reimburse us. HA HA we all know how that goes. Anyway, Karissa is doing lots of new things including smiling, holding her head up while on her stomach, rolling over, and she's laughed a few times in the past couple days. Our first time leaving her for a significant amount of time (well, to us) will be Saturday when we go to a teen activity and she stays with her Grammy. We will be gone for about 4 hours or so and Megan is already dreading it. I have been back to work for a few weeks now so I'm used to it. That doesn't mean I enjoy leaving but I have to obviously. Well, that's all I have for now. Again, please let us know if you still read this because we are considering stopping. C-ya

Christmas Pictures

Christmas Update

Hello friends and loved ones! Well, not a whole lot has changed since my last post. Karissa has only gained 1 1/2 ounces and is now at 5 lbs 3 oz. Everyone is getting concerned. Well, we have been concerned but we are more so now. The dr. has us adding a supplement to Megan's pumped milk which we are giving her 3 times a day after regular feedings to try to get her gaining. Also the dr. is going to check her urine for infections if we can ever get her to go in a bag without getting poo mixed in it. They also want Megan to stop all intake of dairy to see if that is bothering Karissa. The dr. said sometimes babies react to mom's intake of dairy and the only sign is they don't gain weight so that means we are having a really hard time finding meals to make for Megan. If any of you have recipes that would not include milk, cheese, cream, butter, etc and not a lot of ingredients that we would have to go out and buy please email them to thorpmegan@yahoo.com. Please continue to pray. This is real hard and frustrating to be dealing with and pray that we will just trust God to take care of Karissa and bring her through this time. Thank you all!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

4 weeks

I'm sorry everyone. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since one of us posted something. Things have been so hectic lately that we don't seem to be able to do anything but take care of Karissa!! I guess that's the way it is when you have a baby (girl especially). LOL Anyway, please keep lifting up prayers for her. She is only gaining very small bits of weight each time we go to the Dr. It is very frustrating because she seems to be nursing well. We have another Dr's visit on Monday and it is her 1 month wellness checkup. According to our scale she has lost a half ounce since the last visit and that puts her at 5 lbs, 1 1/2 oz; still about 6 oz short of her birth weight. We, of course, are hoping our scale is wrong. Please continue to pray for her and us. Thank you in advance. Have a very merry Christmas everyone!!!

2 weeks old!

Hey everyone! Can you believe Karissa is already 2 weeks old? It is all such a blur with everything that has been going on. I figured, I finally have a few minutes so I should do a new post. Just a warning for everyone in the Sussex County area - all the bad stuff people say about Beebe Medical Center is true. I didn't think it would be that hard with a baby, but the second time we had to go in, it was a stressful mess. We were admitted on the Friday after Thanksgiving as Dave said. We got there around 11am. It was after 7pm until they had the incubator working and if it weren't for Dave checking and realizing it wasn't warm and saying something to a nurse, who knows how much longer Karissa would have been laying there cold because the thing wasn't warm. Then on Saturday, all of the sudden she had a really low temperature reading. The nurse ended up borrowing one of the new thermometers from the labor/delivery floor because it turns out, the one they were using was replaced on the LD floor because it was inaccurate! Then on Sunday a nurse took her temperature using the wrong thermometer and argued with me about it when I pointed it out, called the doctor, made a big deal about it, and made me stress out even more when it wasn't right!!!! So on Monday we thought we would get discharged because the doctor said on Sunday morning we could go home when Karissa maintains her temperature for 24 hours. Monday rolls around and all of the sudden they make a big deal about the color of her dirty diapers. We found out this weekend after feeding Karissa milk that I pumped while in the hospital, that whatever I ate that caused her diapers to be like that, was fed to me at the hospital. I'm glad they didn't keep us longer when it was something at the hospital that was causing it!!! Not to mention, everytime they weighed her they did it differently and got way different numbers so there was really no way to tell if she was gaining or losing weight. Talk about stressful! I've never been so happy to be home! Since being home, it has been a roller coaster of emotions. Thankfully we have more people than we even know praying for us and for Karissa. For the past 24 hours, she has been eating better than ever! She's on a good schedule of every 2 hours and is eating longer so I'm hopeful when we go back to the doctor that she has gained enough weight and the doctor doesn't want us to go back to the hospital. But, in the event that Karissa has lost weight and we need to go back to the hospital, we are refusing to go to Beebe! lol Anyway, sorry for all my venting. Next time I post maybe all of the weight/temperature issues will be in the past!

Update

Well, a lot has happened since Karissa was born. As I said in the last post, we were taking her to the Dr every day since coming home. Well, it all hit a peak on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when her temperature was less than 96 rectally and her Bilirubin level was up to 20. Her Dr said she needed to go to the hospital and be put in an incubator to keep warm while she put on some weight and got her Bilirubin level down by being under a Billie light. So as much as we didn't want her back in the hospital we agreed with the Dr and took her to the hospital. We were there until this past Monday (3 long days). It did help and she was able to stay warm and start regulating her own temperature and her Bilirubin level came down. She actually lost weight while she was there but has been feeding better and has gained weight since she came home. She is definitely a trooper and fighter. We thank God for all He has done and for getting her through these tough days. Here are a few pictures of her on her first Thanksgiving and in the incubator at the hospital. Please continue to pray for her and we appreciate all your prayers already.

BABY!!!!!

I am writing this a couple days late because I was waiting for Megan to be able to post this but she doesn't have the time so I will update everyone. Our darling baby girl was born Saturday evening at 9:47 PM!!! Her name is Karissa Gabrielle Thorp. She weighed 5 lbs, 8 oz. and was 19 inches long. A tiny little girl!! Megan had a very quick and smooth delivery so we are very thankful for that. Since her birth, Karissa struggled to breastfeed and then got jaundice. We have been going to the dr every day to get the level checked. To compound the problem, her temperature won't stay up where it needs to be. Because of these things, we are having to go to the hospital to get the jaundice level checked and then to the dr to check weight and temp so being out all the time isn't helping things to get better. Karissa has started to feed much better since Megan's milk came in so hopefully that will help get everything where it needs to be. Please pray for her and us. Here are a few pictures of her and I have to say, she is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen!!!

Update

Hello everyone. Well, this morning Megan woke me up saying she thought her water had broke. She had called the DR and he said for her to wait an hour and see if it was still going heavy and if so, go to the hospital. It still was heavy so we left for the hospital around 11:30AM. After we got there and into an exam room they tested the fluid and said it was not amniotic fluid. They decided to check and see if she was dilated and she was 2 cm. She started having mild contractions shortly after we got there but the nurse said they weren't labor contractions. They said for Megan to walk around the hospital for an hour and drink lots of water and come back. We did that and nothing had changed so they called our DR and he said to send us home. There are still conflicting dates because they were saying Megan was 36 1/2 weeks (because of the ultrasound) but our original date says we are 38 weeks tomorrow. Because of that, they say she is not quite term so they wouldn't do anything to bring labor. We have now been home for a little more than an hour and she is having very painful contractions only a few minutes apart. I have a feeling we will be calling the DR shortly and heading back to the hospital possibly. Please pray!!