7 weeks...Are you kidding me?

It seems like yesterday we were leaving the NICU with our 1 week old baby boy. Although a lot of that time was spent a blur, so have these last 7 weeks. Seriously. I have blinked a few times and here we are.
He is the greatest little bundle of joy! He does my heart good. Ya know?

Our little man is starting to focus more (if there isn't a bright light distracting him), he's smiling from ear to ear, and wrapping his momma around his tiny little finger. He does great holding up his head. It's incredible to me. He loves to sleep snuggled on his daddy's chest while they sit on the couch. He loves the sound of our heart beats. I'm convinced of that. He most definitely will be a tummy sleeper which scares me just a tad-bit...ok, how about a WHOLE lot. We have the angel care monitor but, well, there is still some slight apprehension on my part. I have tested it and it does work but...I'm not fully trusting it just yet. So, for now, he will continue to sleep on his back waving his hands around (yes-he does that when he sleeps). I have even caught him with his arms and hands straight up next to his face. Quite cute if I do say so myself. I have a picture to prove it! See...

I told you!

At his last ped. appt., on Jan. 18th, he was in the 50th percentile for his weight and 65th percentile for his height. He weighed in at 10.5 lbs. and was 22.5 in. long. Can u say, "GROWING BOY?"

All in all he is a great baby. He sleeps very well. We try to keep him awake from about 6pm until his last feeding around 11. He typically falls asleep around 10:30pm...

His Great Aunt got him this swing and he LOVES it!

These are just a few Bear updates. I will do my best to stay 

more on top of this blog esp. since the majority of it will be all about him! 

That is one sweet face right there! 

The 'What-Ifs' of life...

This was taken from one of my devotions...I can certainly relate. Can you? 

Generally, I consider myself a person of great faith but recently after doing some self reflection I realized my faith may not be quite as strong as I thought. In fact I actually have what I have coined as the “what-if syndrome.”

It seems I ask God a lot of questions about the things I believe He calls me to do.

What if I fail?
What if they don’t listen?
What if it doesn’t work out according to my plan?
What if this...?
What if that …?

All of my “what ifs” cause a delay in my obedience which is in fact disobedience.

When God says move, my faith needs to activate and cause me to move immediately. If God says I am healed, I should embrace that and walk in my healing. If God says, start that business, I should trust that the provisions to make that happen will come.

Whatever He speaks is already done. Yet, many times I try to analyze the situation and control every step of the process. However, my Christian experience reminds me that we are never in control; it’s all in God’s hand.

So why do we continue to stress, worry, fret, etc over our situations? It’s time to let it go and give it completely to God. Trust and believe and walk in faith knowing He always has us covered.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

To me, both of those statements say the exact same thing and both of them require me (and you) to get rid of the “what-if” syndrome.

Do you realize how much we could accomplish if we REALLY operated in faith? Fear would have to flee and peace would overcome us – no matter what our physical eyes saw in front of us.

My “what ifs” have held me back long enough … I’m ready to cover my eyes and just walk wherever God tells me to go. Won’t you join me? We’ve tried to do it without faith, let’s try something new for a change. Let’s truly activate our faith and apply it to EVERY situation in our lives. I guarantee the outcome will be completely different. We have nothing to lose, and EVERYTHING to gain.

1st ENT visit!

We were up bright and early on the 30th of December 2010. We are always up bright and early but this particular day required us to get dressed and head out the door VERY early. Thankfully, school was still out and so the traffic was minimal and we arrived at Children's in 50 mins. We had breakfast at the little deli inside of the office building and prayed for a great visit!

Bear slept and slept...until it was time for him to be poked and prodded AGAIN. Bless his little heart, he has been put through the ringer and I hate it for him.

Dr. Sipp is who Bear will be seeing from here on out. He was absolutely WONDERFUL! He had a positive outlook on the situation and had nothing but great things to say...considering.
He did say that there were 3 different cases of microtia (small ear): mild, moderate and extreme. Bear has a moderate case (grade 2). What makes Bear even that much more special is that he has it in both ears-bilateral- versus unilateral which is more common.

We loved the fact that Dr. Sipp was very candid with us about Bear's future and potential surgeries that could follow if we so choose to have his external ear reconstructed.
Trey made mention that we were people of faith and Dr. Sipp looked at us and said, "I am a man of faith but you are people of GREAT faith!"
That's exactly what we want people to say when they come into contact with us. We want Jesus to radiate through our family no matter what we face!

We met with the audiologist and she scheduled us for his ABR hearing test on the 25th of January. So, we ask that you begin praying now for the outcome of that test and that Bear sleeps for 3 hours during the test. It is making me nervous just thinking about it. If he doesn't sleep the entire time then the test can not be considered accurate and we would have to schedule another visit to try again. Ugh. Not fun.

Once Bear completes the test then Dr. Sipp will fit him for hearing aids. He will have to wear a head band with the hearing aids attached to it until he is 5. From there they will fit him with bone-conductive hearing aids.
The head band will have the bone-conductive hearing aids as well, it's just that when he gets old enough they will attach to his skull and he won't have to wear the head band any longer.
By the way, my husband can do a much better job describing all of this. As his momma, all I want to do is just give him my undivided attention and love on him ALL.THE.TIME. He deserves it.

Someone asked me if I was concerned about the expense of what may lie ahead. My answer? NOPE. Trey and I will do whatever it takes to see that Bear gets the best from this life. Now that I am a parent there is nothing that my child will lack esp. when it comes to his ability to hear and speak. I'm reminded that God will never give us more than we can handle and every time I look at my love bug's face...I believe it!

He is our angel baby and is beautiful in soooooooo many ways. We.Are.Blessed. PERIOD!
Every time you see this sweet little face please say a prayer for him. We are believing that God is going to do something great through Bear and that Bear will grow up with an amazing testimony!

Bear's 1st Christmas!

This Christmas brought on a whole new meaning to me and Trey. We obviously kept it real and informed Bear what the real meaning of Christmas is all about.

It was just the three of us Christmas morning. Our own schedule. Ummm....well, I should say, Bear's schedule! :)  And it was centered around two most precious gifts I have ever received-the birth of my Savior and the birth of my little miracle, my son! Who needed any presents when I already had all I needed?!?!

Before Bear ripped his presents open his daddy read the Christmas Story to all of us. It was beautiful to me! I know it will be the start of many memorable Christmas' to come!
Unfortunately, I'm not real sure how much Bear heard, he fell asleep shortly into the story. In his defense, I know he wasn't bored because he even fell asleep during the unveiling of his presents. Who does that?!?!? ;)

After we opened his presents it was about time for him to eat. So, Christmas was short lived....until we headed to Gigi & Poppa's!

Trey and I exchanged gifts long before Christmas. I gave him a new GPS & a Norelco shaver-both were super cheap & I never left my house to buy them!!!
Trey SURPRISED me this year (I'm not the surprising type)! During the laboring of our son, my sister-in-law had been taking pictures with her camera...not realizing that it wasn't her new one, she ended up giving us her old camera and Trey went and bought a lens for it. In MY defense, I would have realized it had I not been breathing in between contractions! ;) lol I also got a FlipMino-LOVE it! Once again, got to love deals on the internet a week before Christmas!
Anyways, it was great and I am loving using both of them. Pictures and videos are priceless and I can't wait till Bear can enjoy them!
I do need to get another lens to take close up pictures. It's driving me crazy that I can't get close up's of my "love bug!"
Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!

There's nothing sweeter than my 2 boys!

Daddy Bear (with Bear's hat that his "Mo" gave to him) and Baby Bear about to read the Christmas Story!

Mak and Tripp lovin' on their cousin!

3 generations of Sheneman men!

For the record, I am his mom regardless of there not being any pictures of us. :( I will definitely makeup for that...

Christmas at Gigi and Poppa's was GREAT! Gigi and Poppa got him lots of clothes and toys!

Overall, it was a blessed day! I only hope next Christmas my family will be able to enjoy what we enjoyed this Christmas!

In His Great Love,
Jenni