Please watch this clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqUDdxm-qSA

This just about had me choked up!

Here's another little girl named Maddy who just got some wheels!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBcrancs_g&NR=1

Pictures at last!

I love the look on her face, especially the pursed lips!

Just hanging out.
Lisa drops in to see Maddy.

First day of Kindergarten.
Here we are!
Waiting for her name tag.
Coloring before class begins
Day 2

First bath in baby tub. That silly cord hung on for 4 weeks exactly.
Nice and clean
Grandpa holds Maddy for the first time (Welcome Home from that LONG trip!)
Aunties Emmie and Lorraine see Baby Madeline for the first time.

Gramma holds Maddy at long last.

T-shirt dress all the way from Yellowstone. Thanks Gramma! Second trip to church
Olivia is tickled pink with Maddy.Kisses from big sissy.

Tuckered out. Look at her hands all folded!
Carli holds baby at Gramma's.

Day 4 (today!)

Ooops...

...forgot the pictures. I'm so tired, I just may skip it until tomorrow. Will you hang on til then?? :)

Here you go, Aunt Pam!

My Uncle RB passed on a message to me through Glen that according to Aunt Pam, I'm woefully behind on my blogging. This is true, I notice. I'm not sure where that time has gone, but it has, and quickly. So here's a brief update and a couple pictures. Please excuse the randomness of my comments. My brain seems rather fried at the moment.

Carli is enjoying kindergarten and riding the school bus, but I haven't been able to pull a whole lot of details out of her to pass on to you. She told me today that she made four new friends. I've been working Bible lessons (a little more in depth than just a Bible story before bed), and she seems to really enjoy that, especially learning a hymn. When she's playing around the house, she loves to make up songs that sound half-way sensible. The individual thoughts are good, anyway, but when you put them all together, it starts to get a little silly.

Olivia is growing and talking more and more. Wish you could here her sing and coo over Maddy. I was worried about how she'd do with Carli leaving every morning, but she entertains herself quite nicely. It's really not been a huge change for her since Carli is a notorious "sleeper-inner"--Livy always had a couple hours to herself anyway.

Madeline is five weeks old today--hardly seems possible. Last week was particularly busy for the little gal: church, lab work, four doctor appointments and a birthday party! :) We saw the endocrinologist, neurologist, immunologist and pulmonologist, and we had good visits all the way around. She's had her calcium carbonate dosage reduced, her shunt and back are healing well, and she has a sleep study scheduled to see if we can get her off oxygen. The immunologist was especially helpful, since I didn't know what all to expect regarding Maddy's immune system. Her numbers look relatively decent, though her leukocytes are a bit low. We'll continue to monitor these, but for now, they aren't low enough to put her on an antibiotic, so that's encouraging. We do have to be particularly careful that she doesn't get PCP (pneumonia), the flu would be especially rough if she got that with the low immune system. We may be staying in more than usual this winter. Other than that, not much to report--she's growing and changing everyday, I think! Oh, and First Steps is coming tomorrow for her initial evaluation. I know a couple of the developmental therapists, so I'm hoping to be assigned one of them.

Well, I'm tired even though it's not quite 10 p.m. Maybe I'll take a cat nap before Maddy wakes up again.

Love you all...thank you for your continued prayers and support. We feel so loved and spoiled--we were blessed by a collection from another SS class, three meals coming in this week, one invitation to dinner, and someone to take Olivia to play for a while, and a huge box of clothes coming in the mail any day (thanks, Mom!). Like I said--spoiled rotten!

The long awaited picture post

Getting ready for the final discharge approval

Granny drove us home
Olivia holds Maddy for the first time.
Proud big sister
Shopping trip

Lots of love from big sisters

Visit from Jed and Alyssa
Melanie meets Maddy for the first time

Cousins and their babies (please excuse my post partum belly bulge!)

Brianna's getting so big
Little man Daniel
The two youngest Satterfield grandbabiesBest place to sleep

Well, we've been home for almost a week and are settling in nicely. Thankfully, my mom was here to help with the transition from the routine of the hospital to the relative chaos of being home with three little ones.

Maddy is doing well. Her monitor has been blessedly quiet except for when the leads are going bad. There has been a few times when her oxygen hasn't been on (by mistake), and no alarms. I'm hoping that when she goes for her first evaluation that we can take it off. She sleeps a lot, but when she is awake, she seems so much more observant and mature than before. She likes to cuddle. While she doesn't cry a lot, when she does, I can snuggle with her for a while and she goes right to sleep.

On Sunday, we took Maddy to church for the first time, and we were almost literally mobbed by people wanting to peek at the baby. She was welcomed or mentioned from the platform not less than 6 times between the morning and evening services that I attended, and I think several more in the first morning service as well. She's a well-prayed for baby, both at our church and in many other churches and homes across America, and I know that God is going to use her and her story for His glory. It's so wonderful to have the support of family and friends and people we don't even know. The choir sang "Somebody's praying me through" on Sunday, and I am well aware of how apropos that song is right now. Quite a few somebodies are feeding us well, too, and we're eternally grateful for that. It seems like all I have time for at the moment is feeding, cathing/changing, taking care of the oxygen and monitor issues, rocking the baby and then keeping the house clean and laundry caught up, and the older girls bathed, dressed and combed and happy, so to have meals is a wonderful help.

On Monday night, we had Jordan, Kayla, Brianna and Daniel; Uncle RB, Auntie Pam and Emily; Melanie, Shawn, Ethan, Landon and Morgan; and Mom and Dad all here for a visit. It was so much fun to catch up with every one and to pass our babies around. Too short, but fun. Jordan and Kayla were on their way through from South Dakota and were able to spend the night. Their new baby, Daniel, is only two weeks older than Madeline, but since he was almost two pounds heavier and a couple inches longer than her, he seems like such a big baby. A perfect armful and so adorable. I found a picture of Olivia when she was a newborn that bears a little resemblance of Daniel. So cute!

In other news, Carli is learning to read. We've been spelling and sounding out words at the supper table, but this last week, she really took off. Granny helped her at first with the foam bath tub letters and then the Leap Frog fridge alphabet. Granny would make a word, like "cat," help her sound it out, and then change the first letter, etc. Now Carli is doing it all on her own, both spelling words on her own and reading words we put up for her. I'm so proud of her. She starts kindergarden next Wednesday, and she was tickled to get her new backpack. Unfortunately for Mommy, the school supply list only included the backpack and a folder (besides the wipes, tissues, etc), so I'm not getting to do the back-to-school shopping that I've always wanted to do. I guess I'll have to stick to the clothes. She's excited to ride the bus, for all of five minutes or so, but it will be a big help, since getting Maddy in and out of the back seat car bed without tripping over tank cords or dropping her is a real piece of work.

Thanks for bearing with me while I settled into a routine (are we really there yet??) here at home! Continue to pray that Madeline will grow strong and healthy!

Longer update later.

WE'RE HOME!

Thanks for praying! Don't stop.