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For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: I Samuel 1:27

This is the verse we used on Lorena's birth announcements. It is a familiar verse to us as we also used it on Jeremy's birth announcements. There was a time that we thought Janita would be an only child and Jeremy was an answer to many prayers. We considered him to be our extra blessing. So we named him Jeremy Cornelius Samuel. Samuel because of the meaning "asked of God". Then when he was born we got our hopes up and we were hoping for an other child close in age with Jeremy. We prayed faithfully that the Lord would bless us with an other child. And now the Lord has blessed us with Lorena Ariel Samille. Samille also means "asked of God". Lorena is truly a child of many prayers. The meaning of the name Lorena is "crowned with laurel" (to honor with marks of distinction). She sure got marks of distinction in the hospitals. However we did not choose this name for the meaning but because it combines both her parents names together. Her 1st middle name "Ariel" we choose as we wanted to name her after my (Rena's) father Arie but we choose Ariel also because of the nice meaning "Lioness of God". As for the birth announcements they are all made now but I still need to get the envellopes ready to mail them out.

Lorena requires a lot of care but we are so glad that she is doing so well. We are still sleeping at different times. Lodewyk sleeps from 7 or 8 PM to 2 AM and then takes care of Lorena for her 2AM and 5AM feeds. I never get to bed until after midnight and skip one time pumping and get up around 6 AM to start the new day. Somehow I am not able to fit naps into the day. I always start the day with pumping double long (20 minutes) to make up for the one time I missed and then at 8 AM, I start feeding her a bottle. This schedule works nice so we can both get enough sleep to keep functioning. It however leaves little room for a social life as we can not do anything in the evenings this way. I don't really mind as I am a real homebody anyways but there was one time this past week that I felt really bad about this as Janita did not only play the piano at the talent show at her school but she actually played the music piece she composed herself. I felt so bad that neither of us could be there to cheer her on. Normally we would make this a family outing. Janita did very well as she got many nice comments and reactions after her performance.

Jeremy has gotten over his cold nicely and we are all very thankful that no one else got this cold. Jeremy did miss not being closely around Lorena but we are so glad that Lorena did not get this cold. Jeremy did give us a good scare on Thursday afternoon when he came to complain to us that he was not feeling well and that he also could not feel his hand when he moved it. We right away understood what was happening even if this is the 1st time for him to get a numb hand, we knew a migraine head ache was coming on as Lodewyk also gets this were 1/2 of his body starts to go numb before a migraine attack hits. Sure enough, Jeremy got a bad migraine head ache and even though we gave him Tylenol as soon as we found out he still was in such pain that he started to throw up. Poor little guy, he was wiped out for the night and still feeling terrible the next day too. It seems so young to me to be only 9 years old and suffering from migraine head aches already. I will have to take him to the doctor once and see if anything can be done for this.

On Thursday March 6th the Homecare nurse came again, she has been coming every Thursday since we came home with Lorena. She put a new and smaller Duaderm on Lorena's foot. The wound is pretty much closed over now and looking so good. Lorena was still growing as she weighed 3860 grams but she grew less then the week before. She had gained an average of 30 grams per day the previous week but just 15 grams a day last week. The weight gain was still enough for the dietician to agree that I could try nursing Lorena 3 times a day instead of bottle feeding. This went well the fist day but the last few days have been more difficult. Sometimes she is extremely restless and does not drink well. I have been very stressed the last few days, so much so that I can hardly turn my neck it is so sore. What has been stressing me, is when Lorena has these crying spells and nothing seems to work to calm her down. I know she is hurting as she stretches and kicks and pinches my finger really hard like in ICU. I think it must be gasses or something in her stomach, yet there is this constant fear nagging me "what if there is something wrong inside of her?" or "how will I know if something goes wrong inside and will we get her to the hospital in time?". It is nerve wrecking when she cries and cries and we can not calm her for a stretch of time. Sometimes I wonder how did she endure all of what she went through in her 1st weeks of life and hardly cry and now she is screaming/crying full lungs sometimes for just gasses or is it something else? Sometimes she is sleeping so nice and peacefully and suddenly out of no where she starts to cry like this. I wonder is it gasses, bad dreams or perhaps memories of the ICU days......oh if only babies could speak.

We were very excited this past week to find out that the new Super Store they started building last year, just a few blocks from us, opened its doors. What a wonderful timing. We always shopped for groceries at the Country Hills Super Store which is still a 20 min. drive one way. Now it is only a 3 minute drive to Super Store and right close to Janita's bus stop. It is great that in this busy time Super Store came to us rather then us driving 40 min for doing groceries. This is very helpful to us. Today we already picked up our 1st prescription there, the medication to help me to continue to have enough breast milk for Lorena.

We heard this week that when babies get oxygen for a longer period of time then eye problems will develop. But then I also heard that it is only when they are on a lot of oxygen. Lorena is currently on very little oxygen but still this is cause for worry and so we will ask the doctor when we see her next week. I thought the appointment with the doctor was this week but it is not until next week Thursday. Instead we went for an appointment today, Tuesday March 11, to get a kidney & bladder ultrasound done. We will not hear about these results until next week. Lorena is getting lots of pictures taken...mom does all the outside pictures and the Ultra sound people keep taking her inside pictures. Lorena's little body is sure being looked at inside and out and inch by inch. We are very thankful for living in a country with such good healthcare. In the hallway on the way to getting this ultrasound done we bumped into doctor Eccles, the surgeon who we have an appointment with next Thursday. She told us the results of the spinal cord ultrasound last week. We were so happy and thankful to hear that everything is fine with her spinal cord & tailbone. Each test somehow makes us worry at what the test results are. Now we will be waiting for the results of today's ultrasound again. After the ultrasound it was already 30 minutes past Lorena's feeding time and so we went back to the very familiar waiting room in the ICU department. Lodewyk fed Lorena a bottle while I went into a little side room were a breast pump is available for use. This is a nice set up and easy for us so I don't have to pack and take the pump and supplies with me. This week the pump we bought through ebay came in so we could return the rental pump.

Over all Lorena is doing fairly well even if she is starting to cry more often. We are glad that at least I have made a start in nursing her and hope and pray that the weight gain next Thursday will be good enough for me to continue to do so. With nursing things should have gotten easier but instead it is a little more work now, as Lorena does not drink as much as I would pump so now I still need to pump after being done nursing her. Sometimes she also does not drink enough at all so we still add a part bottle after nursing. Still being able to nurse at all seems like progress to me. Progress is slower then we would like but the Lord must be teaching us the meaning of patience.

Love Lodewyk, Rena, Janita, Jeremy & a baby kiss from Lorena

Jeremy is so glad to be over that cold, so that he can hold his baby sister again.


	Lorena's Kidney & Bladder Ultrasound
	March 11, 2008 Dear family & Friends, For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: I Samuel 1:27 This is the verse we used on Lorena's birth announcements. It is a familiar verse to us as we also used it on Jeremy's birth announcements. There was a time that we thought Janita would be an only child and Jeremy was an answer to many prayers. We considered him to be our extra blessing. So we named him Jeremy Cornelius Samuel. Samuel because of the meaning "asked of God". Then when he was born we got our hopes up and we were hoping for an other child close in age with Jeremy. We prayed faithfully that the Lord would bless us with an other child. And now the Lord has blessed us with Lorena Ariel Samille. Samille also means "asked of God". Lorena is truly a child of many prayers. The meaning of the name Lorena is "crowned with laurel" (to honor with marks of distinction). She sure got marks of distinction in the hospitals. However we did not choose this name for the meaning but because it combines both her parents names together. Her 1st middle name "Ariel" we choose as we wanted to name her after my (Rena's) father Arie but we choose Ariel also because of the nice meaning "Lioness of God". As for the birth announcements they are all made now but I still need to get the envellopes ready to mail them out. Lorena requires a lot of care but we are so glad that she is doing so well. We are still sleeping at different times. Lodewyk sleeps from 7 or 8 PM to 2 AM and then takes care of Lorena for her 2AM and 5AM feeds. I never get to bed until after midnight and skip one time pumping and get up around 6 AM to start the new day. Somehow I am not able to fit naps into the day. I always start the day with pumping double long (20 minutes) to make up for the one time I missed and then at 8 AM, I start feeding her a bottle. This schedule works nice so we can both get enough sleep to keep functioning. It however leaves little room for a social life as we can not do anything in the evenings this way. I don't really mind as I am a real homebody anyways but there was one time this past week that I felt really bad about this as Janita did not only play the piano at the talent show at her school but she actually played the music piece she composed herself. I felt so bad that neither of us could be there to cheer her on. Normally we would make this a family outing. Janita did very well as she got many nice comments and reactions after her performance. Jeremy has gotten over his cold nicely and we are all very thankful that no one else got this cold. Jeremy did miss not being closely around Lorena but we are so glad that Lorena did not get this cold. Jeremy did give us a good scare on Thursday afternoon when he came to complain to us that he was not feeling well and that he also could not feel his hand when he moved it. We right away understood what was happening even if this is the 1st time for him to get a numb hand, we knew a migraine head ache was coming on as Lodewyk also gets this were 1/2 of his body starts to go numb before a migraine attack hits. Sure enough, Jeremy got a bad migraine head ache and even though we gave him Tylenol as soon as we found out he still was in such pain that he started to throw up. Poor little guy, he was wiped out for the night and still feeling terrible the next day too. It seems so young to me to be only 9 years old and suffering from migraine head aches already. I will have to take him to the doctor once and see if anything can be done for this. On Thursday March 6th the Homecare nurse came again, she has been coming every Thursday since we came home with Lorena. She put a new and smaller Duaderm on Lorena's foot. The wound is pretty much closed over now and looking so good. Lorena was still growing as she weighed 3860 grams but she grew less then the week before. She had gained an average of 30 grams per day the previous week but just 15 grams a day last week. The weight gain was still enough for the dietician to agree that I could try nursing Lorena 3 times a day instead of bottle feeding. This went well the fist day but the last few days have been more difficult. Sometimes she is extremely restless and does not drink well. I have been very stressed the last few days, so much so that I can hardly turn my neck it is so sore. What has been stressing me, is when Lorena has these crying spells and nothing seems to work to calm her down. I know she is hurting as she stretches and kicks and pinches my finger really hard like in ICU. I think it must be gasses or something in her stomach, yet there is this constant fear nagging me "what if there is something wrong inside of her?" or "how will I know if something goes wrong inside and will we get her to the hospital in time?". It is nerve wrecking when she cries and cries and we can not calm her for a stretch of time. Sometimes I wonder how did she endure all of what she went through in her 1st weeks of life and hardly cry and now she is screaming/crying full lungs sometimes for just gasses or is it something else? Sometimes she is sleeping so nice and peacefully and suddenly out of no where she starts to cry like this. I wonder is it gasses, bad dreams or perhaps memories of the ICU days......oh if only babies could speak. We were very excited this past week to find out that the new Super Store they started building last year, just a few blocks from us, opened its doors. What a wonderful timing. We always shopped for groceries at the Country Hills Super Store which is still a 20 min. drive one way. Now it is only a 3 minute drive to Super Store and right close to Janita's bus stop. It is great that in this busy time Super Store came to us rather then us driving 40 min for doing groceries. This is very helpful to us. Today we already picked up our 1st prescription there, the medication to help me to continue to have enough breast milk for Lorena. We heard this week that when babies get oxygen for a longer period of time then eye problems will develop. But then I also heard that it is only when they are on a lot of oxygen. Lorena is currently on very little oxygen but still this is cause for worry and so we will ask the doctor when we see her next week. I thought the appointment with the doctor was this week but it is not until next week Thursday. Instead we went for an appointment today, Tuesday March 11, to get a kidney & bladder ultrasound done. We will not hear about these results until next week. Lorena is getting lots of pictures taken...mom does all the outside pictures and the Ultra sound people keep taking her inside pictures. Lorena's little body is sure being looked at inside and out and inch by inch. We are very thankful for living in a country with such good healthcare. In the hallway on the way to getting this ultrasound done we bumped into doctor Eccles, the surgeon who we have an appointment with next Thursday. She told us the results of the spinal cord ultrasound last week. We were so happy and thankful to hear that everything is fine with her spinal cord & tailbone. Each test somehow makes us worry at what the test results are. Now we will be waiting for the results of today's ultrasound again. After the ultrasound it was already 30 minutes past Lorena's feeding time and so we went back to the very familiar waiting room in the ICU department. Lodewyk fed Lorena a bottle while I went into a little side room were a breast pump is available for use. This is a nice set up and easy for us so I don't have to pack and take the pump and supplies with me. This week the pump we bought through ebay came in so we could return the rental pump. Over all Lorena is doing fairly well even if she is starting to cry more often. We are glad that at least I have made a start in nursing her and hope and pray that the weight gain next Thursday will be good enough for me to continue to do so. With nursing things should have gotten easier but instead it is a little more work now, as Lorena does not drink as much as I would pump so now I still need to pump after being done nursing her. Sometimes she also does not drink enough at all so we still add a part bottle after nursing. Still being able to nurse at all seems like progress to me. Progress is slower then we would like but the Lord must be teaching us the meaning of patience. Love Lodewyk, Rena, Janita, Jeremy & a baby kiss from Lorena Just being a happy girl. Lorena with the homecare nurse who comes every Thursday. It was neat to hear that she was also born in Holland. Getting weighed again. Lorena weighed 3860 grams last Thursday. Holding on to mommy's finger............ ................and just a snoozing away. Sweet, sweet baby! So much to look at. Why look at the camera? I am not sure if I should be sad or happy! Boy, it is tiering to be a baby! Lorena getting a kidney & bladder ultrasound. Go ahead I am a pro at this! They have done so many ultrasounds on me already. Time to get dressed again. Yip, it's just me and my dad. Okay, ready to go! Back at the Intensive care waiting room were mommy went to the pumping room while daddy fed the bottle. I love my daddy soooo much!!!!!! Daddy helps with every thing from bottle feeding to changing diapers. Yes, we set up a diaper changing station on the kitchen table too. Jeremy is so glad to be over that cold, so that he can hold his baby sister again.