April, Come she will...

Song reference anyone? A few things have gone on in April 1) Jacob is now 6 months old, he can sit up, he plays with toys with much enthusiasm, and he is sleep trained (i.e. we can put him down when he's tired, but still awake, and he can put himself to sleep without a big fight). In the last week, he has begun staying up 2 to 3 hours at a time during the day, so he's sleeping more than just 45 minutes at a time... can I get an "Amen"? He is so happy to be alive, to see/hear/play with Therese and John Paul, to nurse (and chat while nursing), and to play with Daddy. What a joy!

2) David will soon become the "Young Adult Minister" for OLQH, which means he will no longer be doing high school youth, but will be working with 18 to 39 year olds, and also married couples. He will also be helping with couples who are struggling. Be on the look out for some great things in this area!!

3) One of my closest friends Dori Place had a baby shower. Their story to parenthood is long with a lot of sorry and broken hearts, including 7 miscarriages, fertility craziness, etc. I am overjoyed to say that their baby boy will be born somewhere around June 9th! I was also able to be with our other friends from college - Karen and Cathy who are both expecting as well. Ok, you can say it, isn't it odd that I am the only one not pregnant in the group... pretty ironic.

4) My precious cousin Sye Broussard married the fabulous, loving, and beautiful Jackie Dove from Houma. almost everyone in our extended family came in, which hasn't happened since our wedding in 07. I got some great shots of it...

See? Aren't they great? Why didn't they hire me?

Mercy

What a great feast. The Sunday after Easter is set aside to celebrate God's unfathomable mercy in that His Son Jesus, gave His life in such a manner that His blood and water "gushed forth for souls." Interested in learning more? May you know and truly experience God's ocean of mercy in your life today. Thanks for to God!

John Paul or Jacob?

Apart from the hat, and the blue eyes, Jacob is looking a lot like his older brother. A lot of people say, and rightly so, that Jacob doesn't really look like the other two. Jacob is looking like John Paul's baby pictures for sure.

Answer - these are both John Paul. Crazy, huh?

ALLELUIA~

In the Catholic church, the use of the word is not used in liturgy or prayers for the reason that Lent is a time of fasting, penitent prayer, and almsgiving... not rejoicing. So when Easter Morning comes I am shouting it in my house- don't know if that goes on in your house, but I get super excited... so here's a few shots of our Easter! Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son's Life, Death, and RESURRECTION!

By the way... Jacob is sitting up.

Jacob's story

So, Jacob. I'll recap how quickly it all came and went (in hindsight, of course). Sunday morning, 6am, Jacob woke up with a fever. Mama medicated and nursed him back to sleep. Nothing else all day long, except for the traffic jam on the way home from Baton Rouge that was so bad, Jacob was out of his carseat and hanging out with mama in the back seat for over an hour before going back into his seat. Sunday night before bed, 9ish, Jacob was so stopped up that he cannot breathe, so he was bulbed multiple times before settling down. All night long, position shifts= wake up's = nose bulbing = broken hearted crying = nursing = sleep. By 5 am the barking cough began. 7:48, 7:51, 7:56, 7:59, phone calls to the pediatrician to see if they would pick up before their office hours. 9am, saw Adrienne Breaux, our friend and pediatrician who observed heavy retraction (his sternum would dip down to his spine for difficulty breathing) and said, "Let's go ahead and admit him (Kate begins crying) to get ahead of this. I want to get him on oxygen (lots of crying by Kate) to help him breathe better and do a chest x-ray.) (Kate grabbing tissues) This was a first for me, so I asked dumb questions like "Do I bring toys?" and "Do I bring a pack-n-play?" and "what do I do when I get there?" We got all checked into Woman's by walking in and sitting down with some sweet lady who had faxed orders from Adrienne. I imagine it was at this point that 2 things happened 1) I noticed that Therese had put on John Paul's "James the train" underwear OVER her bloomers leaving them in plain view as she pranced around the waiting area between me and Jacob at one end to her daddy at desk on the other end of the room 2)I lost my favorite brown cardigan. Sigh. The next part I will fly through because it was awful. 5 sticks for an IV, but little Buddha had very...ahem... round arms, legs, and feet, and 3 different people were unable to get a "good stick" so I looked my sweet baby in the eye all 5 times so that he wouldn't feel alone and wiped the tears away when he wasn't looking. The rest was cake! The staff at Woman's treat us like hotel guests. Someone even drove to Wal-mart to get Jacob the baby food he liked. I had, in a twenty four hour period, 4 different cups of Starbucks, 2 muffins, 1 poundcake slice, chick-fil-a, 6 visitors, uncountable phone calls and texts. Jacob received many breathing treatments, and they never stuck him again because I promised to nurse him every hour to get him more fluids. They used their super sucker to get the snot out. And by Wednesday morning at 11, David was bringing us home. Jacob is fine. I counted 2 coughs all night long last night, and everybody's bout with this virus (all different, of course, based on age and weight, although David was more sick than Therese or me) is pretty much done. It has given us a ton of family time, and I feel like we're sliding into Holy week like home run with the bases loaded on a full count. Thank you Lord! I will confess here that my Lenten penance of no sugar in my coffee went on hiatus while I was there. In the end, the diagnosis was croup. I specifically remember 2 weeks ago saying to David, "Isn't it great that nobody's been sick this season?" How Jacob slept the entire stay (so you can guess how I slept)

Here's Jacob now