Blessing Day

 On August 4th we had Bellana's baby blessing!  We were so happy that a lot of family was able to be there.  Here is a great picture of three generations: mine and Nathan's moms, me, and Bellana.  I wish Nathan had been in this picture, too, but we didn't think about it at the time.

 Dad was on hand to look dashing and to take pictures.

 So, of course, they were mostly of the cute grandkids.

What a goomba!

 Nathan laughed about how we were so early for church that week when we were just barely on time or late every other Sunday.  I guess it helps to have an audience.  It also helps to have Grandma do Annalee's hair.

 Steven, Mom, and Dad drove down that morning to be there, then drove back home after Sacrament meeting.  It's a 5 hour drive each way--crazy!  But we really appreciated them coming.

Here (in the background) is the only picture of Cammy, our 13 year old niece.  She and her sister Cassy were traveling with Nathan's mom to stay for a week with Frammie and Pa in Oregon.  (You can kind of see Cassy in the background of the picture of Steven above.)  Also attending the blessing was Tara, Nathan's sister, who FLEW in from Utah, having bought her ticket months before.  What an aunt!  But do we have a picture of her either?  Sadly, no.  All I can say is that I was in charge of baby, not pictures!

 Mom made sure to get lots of snuggle time with Bellana.  I think this is my favorite picture from that day.

I got a sleepy baby.

Na na na na naaaaaa na!

 We took pictures of her in the dress at home, trying to avoid a repeat of Vander's blessing.  (I didn't have time for pics of him before we left but swore I would take them later.  By the time "later" came, he didn't fit in his blessing outfit anymore.) 

Because of all her reflux, I was pretty sure she would blurp on the dress at some point, but she never did!  The following pictures show off the front and back of the dress.

When we were ready to leave, most of us drove to the church and Nathan walked there with Bellana in the stroller so we wouldn't have to take her out of her dress to put her in the car seat.  Dad and I saved seats for everyone else.  Suddenly, I saw a band of awesomeness filling the first row of the cultural hall overflow.  Nathan's cousins had come!  They were sitting there with 9 of their 11 children and boy, was it a sight!  Even Nathan's Aunt Marie and Uncle Jim were there with them.  (But no picture--boo!)

What does a mom do after the dad takes the baby from her arms and goes to the front of the chapel to give the blessing?  Well, this mom grabs a pen and paper and tries to write down every word so that my child will be able to look back on her blessing when she's older and see what her earthly and heavenly parents wanted for her.  This isn't a direct quote, of course, but the blessing went something like this:

After declaring the priesthood by which he was blessing her and giving her her name, Nathan said,

"Bellana, we bless you to be strong and healthy in mind, spirit, and your physical body.  We bless you that the health problems you now have will resolve shortly.

"Follow the example of your siblings and be an example to others as you follow the Gospel.

"We bless you to discover the talents and gifts your Heavenly Father has given you.  We bless you to be charitable and helpful to others and bring a smile to their faces.

"We bless you that you will find a young man who is worthy to hold the priesthood, and to make right decisions in this life."  And then he ended the blessing.

He spoke the words slowly, with care, as they were given to him in the moment.  When he said the words "health problems" my heart thrilled within me.  My thoughts traveled faster than his words and I thought, "Is he going to heal her?  That is something I hadn't thought of!"  And suddenly he had pronounced the words.  It was hard concentrate on writing after that.  It had never occurred to me that she might be healed of her reflux. 

 For those who don't know, by the time Bellana had her first doctor's appointment (a few days out of the hospital) it was obvious that she had reflux.  She was spitting up like crazy.  It was shooting all over in either a soaking splash of watery liquid or a gurgling splat of curdled white.  In my hormonal, sleepless state it was not uncommon for me to cry while I changed her outfit 4 times in a row and went through 3 bibs and 6 burp cloths.  I was also changing my clothes a lot and having to do laundry every other day because she went through her entire selection of clothes and 40 burp clothes in 2 days.  Yet, I didn't mind the wetness and the laundry so much.  I could have put up with that.  It was her wailing right after she did it, the horrible cry of hunger because now her belly was empty again, and so was my milk.  So I'd feed her again and we'd go through the whole scenario another time.  Feeding so much gave me an even bigger milk supply and made her reflux worse.  The worst part, though, was that no matter how much I'd burp her, as soon as I'd lay her down she would clear her throat--growl in her throat--because stomach acid was burning her.  Oh, how I understood that pain!  It was the awful torture I had gone through in much of my pregnancy and I felt so bad for her!  It would never resolve on its own; she needed someone to pick her up and burp her again.  But often the burps wouldn't come and I was left holding her upright for hours so she wouldn't cry.  We inclined her mattress but it didn't solve the problem.  The doctor told us there was nothing we could do, that she would outgrow it eventually, maybe as long as 7 months.  He said that they used to prescribe meds for the babies but found that they really weren't effective, so he told us to just hang in there.

Easier said than done.  Hanging in there definitely stunk.  And now Nathan was blessing her to be healed from all that?  I was ecstatic!  And yet, what did "resolve shortly" mean, exactly?  Are "seven months" short?  I decided to just be grateful and try not to think about it.

One week.

By the next Sunday she was a normal, sometimes-spitting-up baby, just like my other two had been.  Sure, she still spits up a little more than they did, but it's nothing like it was.  And the pain and burning when we lay her down is gone.  Six weeks of it getting worse and worse, and then within one week it was fine.  She was truly healed by the power of the Jesus Christ, through His priesthood.  It wasn't cancer.  It wasn't open-heart surgery.  But it was real and it was my baby suffering.  I am so grateful for that blessing.  Glory to the Father and the Son!