Eli's Blessing Day

My ENTIRE family (minus one brother, who's living in California) was able to come for Eli's blessing day, which was November 1st. It was a wonderful experience, and I felt very blessed to have all of them with me to celebrate such a special day with my own little family. For those who don't know my family, I'll list them off, left to right: Lemy (actually, he's a foreign exchange student from Taiwan living with my parents), Carla (mom), Christine (sister), Ariana (niece), David (dad), Daniel (brother), Hunter (nephew, in front of Daniel), Brent (brother), Grace (niece, in front), me, Eli, Ben, Austin (nephew), Phaedra (sister), Shannon (sister), Summer (niece), Zach (nephew), and Hayden (nephew). I have such a wonderful family!!

Ben was very prayerful before giving Elias his blessing. There were THREE baby blessings that Sunday, and Elias was the second one to be blessed. He started crying on the way up, but Ben was very patient and got him situated and calmed him down before he began the blessing. A member of the bishopric told us that he was very impressed with the way Ben handled it and it reminded him of our Heavenly Father's love and patience with us. My dad and brother were also able to be in the circle for the blessing. It was a beautiful blessing and I felt the Spirit very strongly that day. There were many neat experiences involving my family as well.

I couldn't resist... I bought a tuxedo for Elias for his blessing day. He looked so dang cute in it!! Doesn't he look like those guys who, after a wedding, throw off their ties and crash?

Reed... Elias Reed...

These weren't taken on the actual blessing day (since Elias threw up all over his little suit before I could even button up the vest!), but they were taken just a few days afterward.

Stylin'! Looks like a young James Bond!

Always a good sport...

My favorite pic... you can see his beautiful blue eyes.

Eli 0-2 months

Happy Halloween!

Elias went to his first-ever Halloween party dressed as a lovable skeleton!

More Eli (almost 6 weeks old)

Eli has decided he likes bath time now, thank goodness!

High five!!

Elias makes the funniest faces!

The Many Faces of Eli (almost 6 weeks old)

"Life is good..."

"What the heck???"

"Aren't I cute?"

"Yes, I know I'm cute!"

Trials and Blessings

Trials and Blessings

Trial: So, about 50 other people gave birth at the same time as I did. They are all up and going places and seem to be fine. I am not. My friends keep giving me odd looks like, "How come you aren't feeling better?", which I interpret as, "Wow, Merrilee, I didn't know you were such a wimp!" Well, last week I called my OBGYN and told her my symptoms (trust me, you don't want them listed here!) and that I was in an inordinate amount of pain. She told me, "It's perfectly normal. If you feel there's something wrong, go to the ER", which I interpreted as, "Wow, Merrilee, stop being such a wimp and wasting my time!" So, I just dealt with it. But...

Blessing: by Friday I was in so much pain, I called four people I trust: a nurse at the hospital, my sister (who's a nurse), my friend (who's in nursing school), and my mom, who's not a nurse, but gave birth to seven kids, and so deserves a medal of honor and an honorary nursing degree. They all told me my doctor was crazy and that my symptoms were definitely NOT normal. Yay for having great people to call!

Trial: So, I went in to the ER on Friday night. Ben and I did NOT want to bring Elias in to the ER (for obvious reasons), and so we weren't sure how I was supposed to get there (I was in too much pain to drive myself). So...

Blessing: thank goodness for visiting teachers!!! I called my visiting teacher, and even though it was a Friday night (and Date Night!), she dropped everything to take me to the ER while Ben stayed home with the baby. Which meant...

Trial: I had to pump. Any woman who has ever had to pump will realize why that is a trial. As if feeding your baby doesn't make you feel enough like a member of the bovine family. But luckily...

Blessing: Eli is not picky. He made some funny faces when he first took the bottle, but he took it nonetheless. So...

Trial: my VT, Andrea, took me to the ER, where the ER doctor took one look and prescribed an antibiotic shot before he even took a culture. Apparently, I have a pretty bad infection. So, the nurse comes in and tells me he is going to give me the most painful shot they have. Thanks for the pep talk. Thankfully...

Blessing: after childbirth, this was nothing! I almost laughed when he gave me the shot. I received two prescriptions for two different antibiotics and we were out of the ER after a stay of only ONE HOUR! Can anyone break that record? I've never been in and out so fast! So, Andrea took me to get my prescriptions, which means...

Trial: I cannot feed Eli for two weeks! :( That is the saddest part of the story to me. So, Ben and I bought formula. Elias gives me the SADDEST look sometimes when I feed him from the bottle (it breaks my heart). His little accusing eyes seem to say to me, "What IS this??? You're holding out on me!" It also means that midnight feedings double in time, since I feed Eli and then time to pump 'n' dump. What a waste! I just pray Eli will switch back after two weeks of eating from the bottle. However, I must say...

Blessing: I'm grateful to be feeling better (I could feel a difference by the next morning!). I'm grateful for modern medicine. I'm grateful for a WONDERFUL husband who gets to take turns feeding Eli (although I still take the night shift, since he has school). I'm grateful for an AMAZING VT- Thanks Andrea!! And lastly, I'm grateful that this was my trial. I know that so many people have it so much worse (for example, there was a sexual assault victim at the ER when I went- how terrible!), and I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to see how blessed I am!

P.S. I included a picture of Eli so people would actually look at this post. I know how it is! :)