Christmas Letter 2008

2008 was especially blessed as we welcomed Shiloh Elizabeth Tripolino to join our family on Monday, August 4. My heart is overflowing with joy as I recall pregnancy, the preparation, and Shiloh's birth. It hardly seems like a year has gone by since we announced to our families Christmas 2007, that we were having a baby. Now we are celebrating Christ's birth holding our own precious bundle of joy, and learning more and more about our relationship with God as we fall more in love with our own child.

Shiloh was born after 12 hours of labor (what a blessing for a short labor!), assisted by the coaching of her daddy and the watchful care of a midwife at Allen Memorial Hospital in Waterloo, Iowa. We made it to the hospital just two hours before she was born at 12:42 in the afternoon (and later marveled that we only skipped one meal due to labor!!). We practiced relaxation, good nutrition, and worked hard to educate ourselves during pregnancy in order to bring our first child into the world in the safest way possible, and without any medication. What a blessing it was that Shiloh came without complications and medicine-free! Weighing in at 7 lbs., 11 oz. and 21", Shiloh was the perfect size to cuddle with from the beginning. We are bursting with thankful hearts that God has entrusted this gift of Shiloh's life to us, to care for and love. Wow!!

Since her grand entry into the world, Shiloh has been extremely loved and showered with cards, gifts, visitors, and friends and family to care for her and her parents. We can never thank you all enough for your kindness and generosity. For details and pictures of Shiloh's life, read our past entries in the blog archive the right (or just by scrolling down) and on Shiloh's babysite. (We no longer update her website but there are lots of good pictures of her first moments!)

We have come to the realization that most people just want to hear and know about Shiloh these days, but the following is for those who wonder what Chris and Erin were up to in 2008 besides loving and devoting our time to Shiloh and preparing for her :)

• We took a whirlwind of a trip to New York City-seeing in one day what most sane people enjoy over a few days to a week! Erin followed this by a quick trip to Connecticut to visit friends.
• Chris "retired" from the Waterloo airport. While we miss the flight benefits, Chris now spends his days working full-time at St. John Lutheran leading the contemporary worship service, young adult and mens ministry.
• Erin greatly enjoyed 10 weeks of maternity leave and returned to Early Head Start, thankful for the blessing of co-workers and the new duty of coordinating Waterloo's program for pregnant and parenting teenagers-Young Parents Together.
• We attempt to still give love and attention to Edmund and Lucy who collectively seem to have destroyed more Christmas ornaments than we can count! Luckily, they often manage to entertain themselves as you can see...
  

Since I'm not printing this out, I haven't been paying attention to how long it is, and I'm a huge fan of 1 page or less when it comes to Christmas letters. So that being said, I suppose I should wrap this up and wish you much joy and happiness this Christmas. May you be blessed as you reflect on Christ coming into the world as a helpless baby and rejoice on the gift Christ is in our lives. We love you and are so thankful for the gift you are in our lives!
Love,
Chris, Erin, Shiloh, Lucy and Edmund

P.S. Add this page to your bookmarks and check back often!! Also check out pictures of Shiloh by clicking here or at the Picasa website link (to the right). We attempt to update every month or so and share all the wonderful things Shiloh is up to!

The miracle

In high school youth group we talked once about miracles. I'll always remember Brett saying that he thought the human hand was one of the most miraculous things ever. At the time I thought that was insightful, and since then I've been intrigued by all the intricate, loving, sinful, caring, daily, thoughtful, hateful, practical, necessary, and frivolous things our hands do. But I never knew how amazing a baby's hands could be.

I could never begin to describe her hands adequately. It's as if she has come alive and truly become a person with the use of her hands. We marveled the first time Shiloh managed to take out her "binkie" and then shove it right back in, which now seems so long ago. My heart melts when she rubs her tired eyes; it seems so grown-up. She studies her hands and then successfully uses them to grab objects and is now proficient in her hand/mouth coordination. She reaches for toys and pages of books. She holds onto toys and grasps fingers. More amazingly, she strokes my hands or soft blanket, taking it all in. I love how she folds her hands, rubs them together, lines up her fingers. And while her hands are doing all of these things regularly, I most often see her hands in her mouth! Sometimes just the thumb, but usually several fingers! She's such a joy! I worked hard to get some good pictures....but honestly most of them were without her hand! She moves so quickly, which amazes us as well, but here are a few pictures I managed to capture.




Sorry for the long wait for a new blog post from us....I'm finding it increasingly difficult to balance this full-time-working-mommy-wife-Ewalu board member-getting ready to lead a new Bible study-attempting at healthy/wholesome/organic/from scratch cooking-who manages to dust her house once every four months (yes, it has finally been dusted post-Shiloh!), and still check my email, facebook, and blog?!!? I'll do my best, but if there are long periods of "silence" know we're super busy and attempting to just "BE" every once in awhile. We do occassionally manage to find a few hours to be together-just the three of us-and those hours are so precious. We would welcome your prayers for us as we attempt to fit into these new roles and both feel pretty stressed out at work too! Thanks for loving us and sharing in our lives!

Our little pumpkin

Just thought we'd share some of our Halloween pics from yesterday......



Wow! She is such a joy. I can hardly wait to get home each night from work and I've never looked forward to weekends so much!




While I'm at it, here are a few videos from the recent past. As Shiloh is quickly approaching the 3 month mark we're enjoying her increased interaction with the world. Shiloh is really grabbing at toys now (and clothes and whatever else is in the way). She's batting at toys as well which you can see in the video. She has also managed to take her pacifier out and put it back in a few times. We're enjoying her gurgling noises and the ever increasing smiles. Enjoy!

The life of a 2-month-old

Wow! Isn't she cute!? As the photo says, Shiloh spent her first (and second and third) day with our friend Robyn this week. Robyn is caring for her on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays while both Mom and Dad are at work. It is such a blessing to know that Shiloh is in such wonderful hands while we are serving others at our jobs. Then Dad stays home with Shiloh on Thursdays and Fridays, and attempts to get some work done at home while she naps. He works enough weekend and night hours that this should work out for now! I managed to survive the first week as well, but as soon as I got home on Monday I just held Shiloh and cried. I really missed her and often wonder why I am called to be at work while SOOO many of my friends are called to stay at home with their kids, at least part-time. But being back at work reminded me of the great many gifts and passions I have to share with parents and children in poverty. I'm even going to be taking over the coordination of the teen parent program I work with. So for now, as this work at Head Start and with the Young Parents Together program is still calling me, I am just extremely thankful for the wonderful care Shiloh receives that allows me to continue doing God's work in those areas. And how awesome that Robyn took pictures so we could all enjoy that great first day of being apart!

Other news for this 2-month-old includes her first roll. The night we came back from Nashville, Shiloh apparently had enough energy built up from sleeping in that carseat all day that she rolled over from her tummy to her back! She has yet to do it again....that time will come for sure!

Shiloh also had her first shot. We decided to do some vaccinations now, but spread them out, and wait until she's older for others. This all seemed like a good idea until I had to watch her get poked and then scream! But we've done a lot of research and prayer and feel like this is the best decision for us and Shiloh. So instead of getting several shots at a time, we'll take her in almost monthly to get one or two shots so her little body doesn't get overloaded with aluminum and lots of other scary things! This vaccination business was one of the hardest decisions to make!

And onto happier things.....Here is Shiloh hanging out with her friends Eden (our friends Emily and Seth's daughter) and Parker (our friends Katie and Kyle's son). And here with Hannah and Elijah (our friends Sarah and Kevin's kiddos). Look's like Parker's big bro Toby is in the background too. It's Wartburg's homecoming weekend, so several college friends were able to get together and play with our babies. There are a lot of babies......




And somewhat out of order, but important just the same, Shiloh's Aunt Laura made a brief appearance in Iowa, so we had a chance to go see her for a couple hours last Sunday. That's all for now, be sure to check out the photo album for some more great pics! Have a wonderful week and I'll do my best even with the crazy hectic life of a working Mom to keep you updated!

Road trip

Day 1-Traveled the 5 or so hours to Kansas City, with a lovely detour in Gilbert, IA to visit my roomie and her daughter Eden!!!!

Day 2-The excitement continues in Kansas City....Chris attends the contemporary worship leaders conference and has a wonderful experience until I show up to pick him up....Shiloh and I had spent the day enjoying each other in the hotel:


and then at a park:

However, upon leaving the park to pick up Chris, I find a note left by animal control that there may be a kitten under my hood. Unable to get the hood open due to a broken lever, I go to pick up Chris anyway. To make this long story short (ask Chris for the lengthened version), Chris opens the hood and finds not one but two kittens, chases them, hands one over to the police woman (animal control closes at 4:30?), grabs the other kitten, gets chomped, we go to urgent care (they "don't do animal bites"), get directed to the emergency room, get a tetanus shot, get antibiotics, and show up hours late to our dinner date with Chris Cook. Yay for dinner with Chris Cook at Winstead's!! (By this time we forgot about the camera...)

Day 3-Chris spends the morning at the conference, we meet St. John staff for lunch, spend 5 minutes in Pottery Barn for Kids (one of my new favorite places?!), and then drive the 10 hour drive to Nashville. Shiloh did amazingly well, just got fussy for the last hour or so. Chris joined the bachelor party while we went to bed!

Day 4-We head out to "the farm" for Craig and Bethany's wedding preparations and rehearsal. It was breathtakingly beautiful....and I wondered who had let them use this place for their wedding. "Oh this is Michael W. Smith's farm", they replied matter-of-factly. What?!?!?! Yeah, they know him personally as he founded the church they go to, and he let them use his beautiful barn, and farm for the wedding. Here are a few pics that don't even begin to do it justice....

















Day 5-The wedding day! We stopped by Babies R Us before heading out to the farm today since we didn't need to be out there until noon. It was a productive stop as far as purchases are concerned. Chris also got a taste as to how hard Shiloh really sucks. She managed to latch onto his arm while we were browsing. He mentioned that it hurt (I reminded him of my trials the first few weeks of nursing!) and I recommended he break the latch. Instead he let her keep going and this is what happened:

A genuine hickey.....It's starting to go away now, 4 days later.....

The wedding was gorgeous, the party fun, and amazingly enough we managed to capture a picture of the hickey, but not of the bride and groom! But here is a little family pic we took under the willow tree where the ceremony took place (it's a little grainy, sorry):
Day 6-We attended a small church service at Bethany and Craig's church, enjoying once again the presence of Michael W. Smith and his wife, and then headed home to Iowa. Shiloh continued to amaze us with her patience in her car seat and we enjoyed our big trip as a little family. Thanks for reading!

8 States in 8 weeks

1. Iowa
2. Minnesota
3. Wisconsin
4. Missouri
5. Kansas
6. Kentucky
7. Tennessee
8. Illinois

Wow....that's quite a record for such a little tyke. If we keep this rate of traveling up, Shiloh will be just over one and have visited every State (and won't remember any of it!). Plan on celebrating her 1st birthday in Hawaii......

This recent trip has brought us to Kansas City for a contemporary worship leaders conference for Chris. Shiloh and I are hanging out in the hotel room, just not mustering up enough energy or desire to go shopping, even with great stores all around us. We saw a park on the way to drop Chris off this morning and I think we'll go there a little later to get out and enjoy the beautiful day. In the meantime, I'm blogging....

Later this week will take us to Nashville for Craig Woelber's wedding. It will be Shiloh's fourth wedding?! It's a good thing she's so agreeable!

Developmentally, we're really noticing how much Shiloh looks like a baby now instead of a newborn. Of course she's getting cuter every day! Her neck continues to get stronger and stronger, and her smiles bigger and bigger. I'm having trouble capturing either very well on video or camera, this is the best I've got for now. Shiloh has been blessing us with fairly consistent 7-8 hour chunks of sleep at night-wow! We're really thankful for this! She is focusing more intently, and will look at herself in a mirror for several minutes. Shiloh is batting objects hanging above her, but I believe it is still accidental most of the time.

Be sure to check out the Picasa link to the right for some new pics.

Look for upcoming posts with:
Pictures from our trip
A review of my favorite baby things!

6 weeks ago I just delivered a baby....

Wow...what a crazy ride this has been! It's 12:41, so in one minute we celebrate Shiloh's 6 week anniversary of her birth! What an amazing blessing she is! I thank God daily for the gift of being her mother.

Shiloh continues developing into a more beautiful and interactive baby. I took a short video of her cooing and grinning, actions that are increasing daily. It's from a funny angle, but she's still super cute!


Wow-it is so cool to see her smile and be privileged enough to see her happy. We get a kick out of her facial expressions that sometimes seem to confuse her as much as they confuse us!


Shiloh has responded very nicely to her new bedtime routine. She's not consistent with how many hours she sleeps at a time, usually between 4 & 6, but I'll take either gladly because she goes back to sleep after eating! First of all, naps are taken during the day and I keep things bright and somewhat noisy. Then, we begin each night with a bath, that Shiloh enjoys now! Bath time is followed by a massage in her dark bedroom, (which sometimes is calming and other times just seems to aggravate her), pajamas and swaddling, all while the lullabies are playing. Then I'll nurse her, call Dad in for prayers and a blessing, and kiss her extremely kissable head and leave her, sometimes asleep and sometimes awake. Only once in almost 2 weeks have we had to go back and help her fall asleep and that was the night we tried speed up the routine and skipped the bath. We learned our lesson that night! I keep the lights off when I go to nurse her at night as well, now that she can manage to stay awake long enough to eat, and she has done exceptionally well with falling back asleep. Yay for bedtime routines! This was something I looked forward to long before Shiloh was born. Here's a clip from one of Shiloh's recent baths!


I'm back swimming 2-3 mornings a week. It feels great to have just a little while to spend on taking care of myself and getting my body back to a somewhat "normal" state. I'm learning each day how to become more selfless (it took some effort to automatically wipe the spit-up off Shiloh's face before myself!) and how to love this child. I never thought about how I would need to learn to love Shiloh. Of course I loved her from the start, but I didn't know her six weeks ago, even now, I've only known her six weeks. As we're building a relationship, though, and learning about each other, I fall in love with her more each day-a deeper love that I've never had before.

There are a few more pictures posted (the picture-taking frenzy has slowed down a little bit!) on the picasa website (the link is to the right of this post). If anyone is interested, you can order pictures through snapfish or walgreens right from our link.

Time to clean the bathroom during the remaining minutes of Shiloh's nap. Until next time....

First month adventures

I cannot believe that the first month is gone already!! I'm holding my precious little burrito, all swaddled up and sleeping, in awe at how big she is and how different she looks from the babe at the hospital. Shiloh still spends most of her time sleeping, eating, and getting her diaper changed, but her alert periods are increasing in length and in fun. Chris and I are thrilled at the chance to make eye contact, make faces (that Shiloh sometimes even copies), read books, sing songs, and give Shiloh the opportunity to track us or high contrast pictures with her eyes. We also enjoy short periods of tummy time when Shiloh is alert. Check out the video on that!
Eating and sleeping are going well, for the most part. The last few nights have gone well as Shiloh has (in this order) eaten, fallen asleep for 3-5 hours, and repeated. She's sleeping in her crib and will fall asleep on her own sometimes too. So whereas we are definitely still tired, we really can't complain.

In addition to Shiloh's hard work of just being a baby and growing, we have forced her to be a social butterfly and attend several events in this first short month of her life. She is quite agreeable and allows anyone and everyone to experience the joy of holding her, which makes it pretty easy to bring her along (at this age, we're told!).

• Aug. 4-14-A flurry of visitors and blessings poured out on our family. Thanks to everyone who visited, brought gifts and food, etc. Wow!!
• Aug. 15, 16-Caitlin Young and Seth Wait's rehearsal dinner and wedding in Cedar Falls was Shiloh's first big event. Caitlin was in serious competition with Shiloh for the most sought after girl at the wedding!
• Aug. 17-22-Shiloh was seen alone only when she was sleeping in her crib at night. She was constantly being held and enjoyed by her visiting Grandpa Tim and Grandma Deb and Aunts Laura and Stephanie from Wyoming. Shiloh had visits as well visits from Great Aunt Bobbie from Colorado and her Cedar Falls grandparents Gigi and Papa and Aunt Noelle (well, Noelle doesn't ever get to actually hold Shiloh by the time everyone else is done...) not to mention some other friends from the area that week! Oh, Great Aunt Judi and Uncle Mike from Denver, IA stopped by that week too.
  
• Aug. 22-23-Shiloh hits three states in one day (Iowa, Minnesota & Wisconsin) and has her first overnight experience in Amery, Wisconsin for my cousin Ana Meyer and Peter Eliason's wedding at Camp Wapogasset. Shiloh was again a hit among relatives, meeting aunts, uncles, and cousins from her Grandpa Tim's side of the family.
• Aug. 24-Shiloh is baptized at St. John Lutheran in Cedar Falls. It was a beautiful day and we were overjoyed to present Shiloh to the Lord and have her be received as a child of God. She looked beautiful in my family baptismal gown and was surrounded (both in proximity and prayers) by wonderful family and friends to celebrate God's goodness. Shiloh had the privilege of being held later that day by her Great Grandma and Grandpa Ho (Tripolino) and Grandma Worthington. What a special day!
  
• Aug. 30-Shiloh attends her 3rd wedding in her short life, that of Kelly Gossling and Ben Kuennen in St. Lucas, Iowa. Chris and I actually get to hold our daughter throughout the entire event :o)
• Sept. 1-Shiloh meets many of our neighbors at a neighborhood picnic. Shiloh spreads joy once again as she is passed around among the neighbors
• Sept. 2-Shiloh ventures into Amish country with Mom and her godmother Jacque. It was quite the experience (if I had time, a blog in and of itself), but a good experience, complete with Shiloh's godfather Jesse joining us for lunch.
• Sept. 3-Nothing but stay at home??????? That's the plan!
  

The first weeks at home

I'm back!! Shiloh is a week and a half old already!! The week has just flown by and has been filled with countless visitors, countless feedings and countless moments of joy. (Notice I didn't mention anything about countless hours of sleep...I think we can count those!). Shiloh is such a blessing.

First of all, thank you all for your prayers and for all the great posts on our guestbook. They are so fun to read!

I see that Chris has been doing a great job of updating pictures and narrating the events. (We will be adding a link soon to a new picture page since we've about filled this website up!) I really don't have much to add to the birth story. Chris was an amazing coach, I never could have done it without him! He also had some important jobs he failed to mention. It was Dad's job to cut the cord and announce the sex. He of course did great with both tasks, although we were both very surprised that our baby was a girl! We were so pleased with the care of our midwife during and after delivery. It was definitely an intense experience! The most difficult part for me has been the postpartum recovery. Each day I'm feeling better, though.

Shiloh was welcomed at church on Sunday with a huge cheer. It was so strange to walk to church last week pregnant and this week holding a baby!

We had Shiloh's 1 week check Monday with Dr. Kontos. She is gaining weight and looking very healthy.

Breastfeeding has been a challenge but we're getting used to each other and learning together. I have great support from the lactation consultants at Allen and went to a support group on Friday there as well. It's such a miracle that I can make what she needs! I'm still at the point that I get excited for diaper changes because it means that all of our hard work is paying off and she is getting the nourishment she needs!

The worst thing in life for Shiloh has been getting those diaper changes and even more so changing clothes or getting a sponge bath. She just screams and screams and gets so upset! But it seems as if she might be accepting the fact that these things are going to happen on a fairly regular basis and the diaper/dirty outfit change in the middle of the night last night was quite uneventful. We started her on cloth diapers this week and absolutely love using them! Shiloh seems to respond much better to the soft diapers and she also tells us sooner that she needs a diaper change!

I often have moments of just looking at Shiloh and wondering how she started out so small, grew inside of me, and then managed to come out. It is the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. I love her facial expressions and could (and do) watch her for hours. She is so amazingly beautiful!

I want to hang on to these moments forever, keeping her so small and precious. But then I get a smile from her and get so excited for the day when it's a real smile and not just a reflex. Just yesterday Shiloh started focusing on someone's eyes intently-I love it! I'm excited to see what she'll look like and who she will be. We're both so excited to teach her and grow with her and read lots and lots of books to her!

More soon!

Daddy entry #2 (still from the hospital)

've been thinking that I didn't give all the information I could have about the day yesterday and figured those of you who are checking the site as we keep adding pictures might appreciate a bit more info as well :)

For those of you who are coming here for the first time, see our last journal entry as we welcomed Shiloh into the world. Also, if you hadn't noticed, please view our photo album (click on the thumbnail below) to see some great shots of Shiloh.

So, back to the update....
Yesterday was a crazy ride! Erin started having a few "serious" contractions Sunday night (Erin was so hungry, but Dad was trying to make sure she took it easy and slept well so she got toast instead of pizza). "Real labor" started around midnight and Erin tried to sleep through what she could. I knew by 3am that we were starting the real thing and by 6 Erin was sure and called her work to let them know she wouldn't be in. We labored for a while at home, keeping track of length and frequency of contractions, practicing our Bradley-style relaxation and coaching and by 10:30 Erin knew we needed to get to the hospital, so I stepped on the gas and we made it pretty quick. After we were finally admitted (we were a bit miffed about how we had done everything to "pre-register" and it still seemed to take forever to get us in) Erin was already dilated to a 7 or 8 and by 12:42 Erin pushed Shiloh into what is going to be an exciting and blessed life. Erin was a champ in the whole thing. She was able to stay relaxed and respond to my coaching throughout the whole labor, she was in tune with the baby and listened and adjusted to the midwife and the nursing staff and gave birth with no medication or intervention. She was able to walk and get in to the tub soon afterwards and we're expecting a speedy recovery. We definitely recommend the Bradley Method and if anyone's looking for instructors, we fully endorse ours and can give more information for any interested parties :)

After things settled down last night, Shiloh got some good rest and we finally got a little time to sleep. She's nursing pretty well and seems very mellow. So add that to being a gorgeous little gal and you've got about the most perfect little daughter I could imagine.

Our whole experience-pregnancy, labor, hospital, delivery, and everything else has gone so well. We couldn't have hoped for a better delivery experience. Thanks again for all of your support and prayers. Hope you can all meet Shiloh soon!

We Welcome A Perfect Little Girl Into The World!!

Well, this is the first official daddy entry and I'm overjoyed to be able to make it. Today at 12:42pm Erin gave birth to Shiloh Elizabeth Tripolino. Shiloh weighs 7lb, 11.4oz and is 20.5 inches long. She was rated a 10 for her color, etc (a perfect score!) and has been nursing well, and crying and is just so sweet and soft and beautiful. We are overjoyed and will be excited to share more pictures and video and hugs and armfuls of this bundle of Joy. Shiloh Elizabeth means "gift of God consecrated to God." That is what she is-a true and abundant blessing. We'll keep you all posted. Thanks so much for your prayers and for all that you've done to take care of the Tripolino family.

Gratefully,
Chris, Erin, and Shiloh