"She is made well!"

This is a quote from the Radiologist. Zaila has no physical abnormalities, so we are pretty sure she is allergic/sensitive to cow's milk. This makes a lot of sense because both Mesha and myself had a lot of trouble with cow's milk as babies and young children. So...Mesha is trying a dairy free diet and continue nursing. If this doesn't work out, then we try formula. We are definitely pleased that Zaila is "made well," but we have a difficult decision before us. We obviously want the best for our daughter (our opinion is that nursing is best), but living dairy free for a year may be a little more than we can handle. Pray wisdom for us in the first of many difficult decisions that parents have to make. We are so thankful for Zaila and feel blessed to be burdened with these type of decisions because it means we have a daughter to love and care about. We are totally head over heals about this pretty little girl! Thanks for all the prayers and all the support!

More Pics of my beautiful daughter!

This weekend was rough. It began on Saturday morning, when Mesha was desperately calling for me in our room. Zaila had thrown up all over herself. This was not the normal baby spit-up, but was full on throw up. We called the clinic and were quickly on our way to ready care at our clinic. They checked her out and sent us on to Children's Hospital for some tests. After a five hour stint at the hospital, where they wouldn't allow us to feed Zaila, we were on our way with the answers we wanted to here. It seemed that Zaila was fine. Then....Sunday night as we were getting ready to head up for bed, Zaila began projectile vomiting. It was even more stuff than Sat., so this morning we headed to the clinic again. Tomorrow brings more tests to make sure there isn't a physical problem with Zaila's system. Then, if that turns up fine, we move to allergies and sensitivities. We may be looking at feeding our daughter hyperallergenic formula, which is also known as liquid diamonds or liquid gold. Pray for us as we figure this stuff out.

Here's the pics:

This last one is Zaila with her cousin Andrew Good, who is twelve or thirteen weeks older than her. Quite a difference in size!

More Pics

Here are some more pictures of Zaila. Everyone is tired (except Zaila), but doing really well. My new favorite past time is ....watching Zaila. I could sit and just watch her all day long. It is so cool to be a dad! Here are some pictures that my sister-in-law Jen took of Zaila last Sunday at our neices birthday party. She is the daughter of a pastor, so these should surprise anyone.

The promised pics....more to come!

Zaila Jane Torkelson is here

Mesha delivered a healthy baby girl at 6:18pm tonight. She is 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. Her head circumference is 13 1/2 (inches or cm???? I think inches???) Anyway, she is amazing and (though, I know I am biased) she is the most beautiful baby girl I have seen. She has some blond and red hair. She was wide awake until like 10:45pm. Now she is sleeping peacefully in her mother's arms.

I don't think words have ever failed me before in my life. I am a talker and a writer, but this experience is one that words cannot express. The beauty and amazement of having a child is indescribable. I love someone I just met four hours ago more than I can tell you. I would die for her in an instant and I just met her. Amazing stuff. I'll keep posting. Thanks for all the prayers.

By the way, I'll try to post some pics tomorrow. I forgot the card reader. (Got everything together last week, but I forgot that. Duh)

Okay, everything is better now!

Mesha was dialated to a 5, so they broke her water. That's when all H.... broke loose! Not really, but it seemed like it for a couple of minutes. Mesha was very decisive at this point about an epidural (sp?). They put the epidural in and she is a new woman!!! She is now at a 6 and 90% effaced. We'll see what the next milestone is! Again, thanks for the prayers.

She's progressing

Mesha was at a 4 about a half hour ago. She is progressing nicely. Things are getting much more intense, with long contractions coming almost right on top of each other. She is doing awesome. What a champ! I am not sure how often I will be able to update, but I think it will be later afternoon or evening before baby actually comes. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes.

Here we go!!!

We are at the hopital and getting going. We came at 7:30am for a scheduled induction and they got things going at about 9am. Mesha is doing great. Her contractions are coming pretty regularly already. The doctor said that they will do Pitosin for about two hours and then break her water, if things are going as fast as he would like. He said delivery could be anywhere from 2pm to 10pm. Let's hope for the first!!! Pray that Mesha has strength and that it is not a super long labor. I have internet in the room, so I'll update whenever something is happening and I get a chance.

And...we're still waiting!

Nothing, yet! We are sick of waiting, but an end is in sight. We are guessing that our baby will be born sometime on Monday as Mesha will be induced. This has been an annoying week, but we are soooooo excited to meet our little one. Also, on the plus side. A group from our church has been on a Missions trip this week and they are returning Monday night. That means they will be able to see our baby when it is still only a couple days old! Got to keep our eyes on the blessings, not on the waiting!

Overdue and still waiting....

Not a big deal really to be overdue, just that I convinced myself that I would be overdue from the beginning until the last three visits to the doctor's office led us to believe we wouldn't have to wait that long. They all got so excited with the "progress" that I had made and stated things like "you for sure will not need to think about being overdue." Yesterday we scheduled for induction next Monday. I know, I know there are a lot of opinions about being induced and trust me, I have them too...but as a nurse working postpartum for a while I just am uncomfortable with being 2 weeks overdue (seen enough to sway me). So, now that we have the date, we are still trying not to get too pumped up since it is possible that I could get bumped off the schedule if they are busy. If you think of us and want to pray I would love to just go in on my own and not be induced...we are just dying to meet this little one!

On the other hand it makes me think about how God must feel about wanting his people to be with him, just as I feel about wanting this baby to be with us...pretty cool.

-Mesha