Thank You

I am very sorry to admit it, but I have not written even one single thank you note to anybody for anything that they have done for Elliott or for the rest of our family.

There are lots of reasons for this, but the main reason is that I simply haven't had the time.  I am in the middle of fighting a long hard battle to have a successful breastfeeding relationship with my second born.  This basically means that I stay in bed most of the day - feed Elliott, pump, supplement, repeat.  To add insult to injury, Elliott is not the charmingly perfect sleeper that my firstborn was (and still is) - he generally needs to be walked or nursed to sleep.  After which, once he finally falls asleep, he immediately poops and then wakes up during a diaper change and then... feed, pump, supplement, repeat.  We are all short on sleep.

The good news is that this (so far) seems to be working - every day things are an itty bitty teeny tiny bit better than the day before.  And if I can have a month of hell now in exchange for a year of being able to breastfeed, I'll take it and be glad.

Anyhow, this battle wouldn't have even been possible without the help and love and support of all of our friends and family.  It is a full time job for me with nothing left over.  Eventually I do plan to write thank you notes to everyone, but in the meantime please know that I haven't stopped thinking of and being grateful for the kindness that everyone has shown us!

For all of the baby shower gifts - we love them.  Elliott is so handsome and clean in his new clothes and washed with his new baby soap.  Thank you.

For all of the hand me downs that we received - I have no idea how we would have survived without them.  Elliott has plenty of BOY clothes now!  Although, we are still waiting for him to grow into his newborn sized outfits, so most of the clothes are untried.  Dressing my little guy as a boy makes me feel much less guilty about putting him in a pink carseat, too!  So thank you.

For all the meals - it is hard to put into words how much we appreciate the meals.  We've been fed healthy, hearty food almost every day since Elliott was born.  Considering that I am full time involved in feeding Elliott, and Jan is full time involved in chasing after hurricane Nory, this means that Dan would have been left to feed us all in addition to taking care of me and the house and the kids.  Thank you so much Abby for organizing this, and thank you to everyone who has brought us food.

For the people who have helped with Nory - to those of you who have come by to spend a morning or afternoon with our delightful and busy 2 year old, giving Dan a chance to spend some time with Elliott - this is a treasure.  And a special thanks to Jan, Elliott and Nory's grandma, who flew out from Wisconsin to help us.  I have no idea how we would have survived without this help - I certainly wouldn't have been able to spend so much time with Elliott and probably would have had to give up on breastfeeding.

When we lived in Santa Barbara, we only knew a small handful of people when Nory was born.  The difference now is astounding.  I feel very confident that we are in the right place and that moving back was a good decision for our family!  Thank you, everyone.  We love you.  Our hearts are filled with gratitude.  And eventually I hope that some of it spills onto paper and makes its way into your mail box.  I'm only sorry this didn't happen sooner.