BETO, ALLY, & ALIYAH: Eating, Visitors, Baths, Poopies, Did I Mention Eating???

So I haven't updated in a while. I didn't really have much to say at first, but now that I look back on the past three weeks, I guess indeed, there was lots to report! Oh well, I will have to do some catching up! :)

Aliyah will be three weeks old tomorrow! Yay! What a big girl she is now! :) Ha! We've had a wonderful time so far, full of lots of new, fun, and not-so-fun things!

We had lots of special guests this month! My parents were here for her birth. My dad left on October 9th. He had a very busy month ahead of him, and had to get back to all of that! My mom stayed on until the 18th. And Melanie came from the 14th - 18th. TODAY, a very special guest arrives. Beto's mom is coming to visit!!! This will be her VERY FIRST time visiting us here in the States. We are thrilled, to say the least! After many years of trying to get a visa to come to the US, she finally was granted one! Praise God! Beto has always been so sad that his parents have never been able to come up to see and experience our life. There has been so many things that we wish they could've been apart of and shared with us. We are so grateful that she will be able to come share in the joy of our baby girl!

Anyway, so THREE WEEKS OLD. I had so much help those first two weeks...which I am SO extremely thankful for! It gave me the proper amount of time to rest up, and recover well! The Lord must've known exactly the amount of time I was going to need in order to feel myself again! By the time Mom and Mel left, I was feeling back to myself, and totally recovered! Feels great! :)

Our little Aliyah...she is such a joy! She has, for the most part, remained a very good baby! This will explain things a little better....

She loves to eat. Probably more than anyone I've ever known. She eats and eats and eats. And eats and eats. Did I mention she eats? She takes eating VERY seriously. She'll let you know she's hungry by opening her mouth up really really wide, like a little birdie. She turns her head from side to side, mouth WIDE open! (She was born doing this!!) She'll do this for a couple minutes. If we haven't hurried and started to feed her, she'll burst into tears! What must be going through her tiny, precious little head at that moment?! :) Ha! It is SO funny to watch!

Perhaps... "What is wrong with these people?!" "Feed me!!!!!" "Have they forgotten about me entirely?!?!" "Oh no, they indeed have forgotten!"

Aliyah, Sweetheart... we will NEVER forget you, ever, especially in your state of hunger! :) Although sometimes we take a couple minutes to get your bottle prepared, we really, truly, have not forgotten about you! We promise!! :)

So she's a great baby, but cries when she's hungry and has to wait for more than a minute or two. LOL!

This was just a little bit after she was born...starving, and letting us know with that little mouth of hers! :)

Ha ha! Another picture of our little bird!

So hungry!

Oh, we made her wait too long! :)

Maybe I could eat Daddy's finger in the mean time?

Better yet...I better just learn to hold my own bottle! These people can't be trusted!

(Holding her own bottle at two weeks old).

On to the not-so-fun things...Poopies. I wish this was a fun thing to report! I wish I had a story like, oh, the other day, her poop was so big and messy it went all the way up her back and dirtied her onesie and her whole outfit. No, nothing like that. :( Unfortunately, she's been struggling a bit in the poopy department. For a little more than a week now, my baby girl's been constipated. I wish I could at least relate, or share in her suffering. I have never once in my life been constipated, and have no idea what it feels like. It looks like it's awful though! :( The Dr. says it's just a normal thing that happens to some newborns, and there's not much to do about it. Of course, me being me, I waited until today to actually call the Dr. I've done everything under the sun, on my own (no Dr. consent) to try to get things going! Nothing has worked though. And of course, not to my surprise at all, the Dr. wasn't much more of a help. All he suggested, I had already done. So, if you think of her, PRAY FOR HER POOPY SITUATION! :) Hopefully, next time I update, there'll be a better story to report.

So once again, she's a great baby, but she does cry a little sometimes when she has to go, but her body doesn't cooperate. Being stopped up is NO fun for anyone!

We hope your tummy feels better soon baby girl! :(

Did I mention she LOOOOVES to eat? Oh yes, I think I did.

Baths.... Aliyah had her first bath at 11 days old! Her chord fell off at 8 days old, but we didn't seem to have the time to bath her until a few days after! Poor thing! :) She was a little stinky pot and definitely ready to be cleaned up! (Don't get me wrong, I had sponge bathed her with a wash cloth everyday... But that's not the same as getting a nice good soapy bath!!!)

Uh, she hated it. How could I have ever been so cruel to think up such a cruel thing to do to my baby girl?!

Haha...again, Aliyah, YOU NEED TO GET BATHED BABY! So I'm sorry you hate it, but you just have to get used to it! :) Mommy loves you, regardless of what you think in those moments! :)

Why have you forsaken me???

See, it's not SO BAD! We had a couple seconds of silence...

But then she remembered she hated it.... :)

So thirdly, she's an excellent baby, but she cries when she gets bathed.

SLEEPING DEPARTMENT! What an angel of a sleeper she has been! The past week, she has been up and awake a lot more than before...but still sleeps for a good chunk of the day. At nights, she sleeps SO well! I get up once to feed her and change her, but she hardly even opens her eyes. She basically sleeps the whole night through, just grunts and stirs (and again, like any other time, if I take toooooo long, cries) when she's ready to eat.

She's growing everyday. Last Thursday we had her two-week appointment. She already weighed 7 lb 9 oz!!!!! (She was 6 lb when we left the hospital). So she had gained SO much already! Wasn't too shocking, I suppose, since I'm she would and could eat a cow, if I would allow it.

I guess that's all. Aliyah, darling, you're precious! We love you so much and are so glad to have you along for the ride on our roller coaster life! There's lots ahead for the three of us...we're just so glad that you're with us!!!! xo

Just a few more to enjoy...