James is 5 weeks old!

Here is James at 5 weeks. I bought a little swing to use downstairs so I wouldn't have to carry my old bouncy seat up and down the stairs all the time. As you can tell it doesn't give great head support. I still love my old bouncy chair. It doesn't sing, vibrate, swing or need any batteries at all. The only thing that makes it a bouncy seat is your foot. You can see it in many of my pictures, I have had it for 16 years through all of my kids and it is still in great condition. Anyway, enough about my favorite baby seat. I wish that I could find another as great. I'm not sure if this one will be staying long.
I let all of the kids write on the cast this week. Jacob wrote an entire story about how he will always be bigger and stronger than James. I don't know who Jacob was trying to convince, James or himself. The girls wrote about their love for their baby brother. I hope that is more visible in the picture.
The foot is looking good. Now that the arch is correct, they are working on getting the foot to be able to flex and point. The red mark on his leg is from a sock and not the cast. He does have a roll of fat that in indented at the top of his thigh. I am told that the calf of the affected leg will be smaller than the good leg, but to me it looks like the club foot calf is bigger. We will have to see how that turns out. We will see the orthopedic surgeon this week to determine if James will need his tendon snipped and also how much longer he will have to wear a cast. I'm looking forward to being finished with the casting process, but I'm not looking forward to the boots.

James at four weeks old

James is getting to be a big boy. At four weeks he now weighs 11#7oz. He is very cute just look past the baby acne. That is always the worst time and I never want to take pictures of my babies not looking so good. That makes for strange baby books without any pictures taken for a few weeks. Babies change so much so I need to capture it on film.

The Club Foot Update

For those of you who didn't know, James was born with a club left foot. He has two first cousins with a club foot so we knew what we were seeing soon after James was born. We also knew that a series of casts would be used to straighten his foot. We hoped that he would not need surgery. What we didn't know was that after the foot is straightened, James will have to wear shoes with a bar the distance of his shoulders between them for about three months 24 hours a day! After that he will need to wear the shoes when he is sleeping. This is more of a hassle now and should cause him no problems in the future. The whole process is a pain at the moment and I am not looking forward to the three months of constant wearing of the brace. We must go to Children's Hospital once a week to have the casts changed and his foot manipulated and stretched before a new cast is applied. He has been making good progress and I am posting pictures of his foot. He had his first cast put on at five days old. There are pictures at birth and at two weeks, three weeks and four weeks. If you can see the cast is getting shaped with the foot pointed outward. They do this to over correct the club foot as the foot will want to return to its club position.

The Club Foot

His foot at birth and his first cast

Two weeks old

His foot already looked better after just one week in the cast.

Three weeks old

This is after the second cast.

Four weeks old

The cast on the top is the newest cast. Elizabeth and I wrote on the older cast just before we took it off. You can see that the toes are pointed out more on the newest cast. His foot is looking much better.

SUN!!!!!!!!!!

There has actually been sun this week. We are all doing all we can to absorb some vitamin D. From me hanging out outside, instead of inside; to some weirder extremes like, Jake, with his illness, taking naps on the porch.

Disaster strikes!

Jake is sick with strep throat (hope i spelled it right) and has been staying home lately. He is now using pills to get better, and we are all hoping they work faster.

chick magnet!

So with his AMAZING hair, James is a total chick magnet. All the girls in our ward LOVE to hold him, and pet his hair, and style it. My mom tries to keep the hands from getting the hair oily, but she has been known to pet his hair herself. He also is dressed in some of the cutest baby clothes you have ever seen. A total stud when he shows his dimples, everyone loves him.

Today was Sarah's birthday. Of course we had to go out dinner; Chinese food (my least favorite) But hey, my birthday is only 8 months away(and I know for a fact that my favorite food is one of Sarah's least favorite). So I didn't complain because, on my birthday I want to be the one to get to choose dinner.

It's a Party at the Miller's House!

Yep, it is always fun when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit! With the new baby James, it was nice for my mom to be able to take the week off as we all tried to help. Mom seemed to be grateful. We have been having tons of fun being with our grandparents. My Auntie Brooke and Uncle Kevin were here with cousin Trent earlier this week. It was fun for my little sisters to see how fun the baby will be when he is a bit older (The cute face entertained them for a while, but, when he sleeps and eats all day, they get a little bored). We also got to drive down to Ridge Field to celebrate our cousin Logan's first Birthday. We all had a bunch of fun.

James!!!!

Hi! This is Lauren! Since my mom has pretty much given up on this whole Blogging thing...... here's hoping I'll be a bit more successful. Well, the baby is finally here! He is Babyzilla as I like to call him. At 22 inches and weighing a grand total of 8 pounds 14 ounces, he is definitely our biggest baby yet! Elizabeth has been having a difficult time adjusting to life with a little baby taking up so much of mom's time. She refuses to leave my mom's side for anything, especially to go to Primary. Hannah loves James and is not quite understanding the concept of "being soft with baby". Sarah is over joyed that we finally have a boy and is always willing to hold him. I am the one that is really into holding the baby. If ever there is a time that the baby isn't being held, it doesn't take me long at all to find out and grab him. Though neither me, nor Jake want to have anything to do with the the dippers, Jacob definitely has a soft spot for his long awaited brother.