February is Here

Hello All:

Well January is officially over and that means a few things. Isaac is full swing into his classes for the spring semester and I head back to work next week. It has been a short month, but an eventful one.
It seems like just yesterday we were sleeping through New Years Eve. Yep, at the beginning of the New Year we were sleeping, but who can blame us, RuthAnne was only 5 weeks old, and sporadically sleeping through the night. We got a call from Isaac's mother that his cousin Chris would be headed down to their house for a visit on New Years Day. [He and his wife (Rivka) and son (Gabrielle) live in Michigan] We had plans to be down in Quincy for a youth group meeting that night, but they were going to be down mid day, so we figured we could swing up and see them. Well New England weather has a good way of messing up plans. We had a snow storm, and so they were traveling a lot slower than anticipated. We were able to see them, which was nice, but only for a few minutes before we had to leave to head to Quincy. It was nice to meet them because up until this point I had never met anyone from their family. I hope to meet more soon ;) So off we headed for Quincy for youth group. That went well, we got to stay for the whole meeting because Isaac didn't have to work.
The next week Isaac started 3 weeks of training for the supervisor job that he has had since November. He works the mid-night shift (so from 11p-4a) but the training was during the twilight shift (5p-10:30p) so for the first week he went to the training and then he went to work. Because he was working 12 hours and sleeping the other hours of the day, I spent a few days up with my parents. The next two weeks (as planned) he didn't work his normal shift. It was nice to have him home at night, even though RuthAnne pretty much sleeps through, just the thought of having support even if he doesn't do anything is nice.
RuthAnne had a very eventful month also. She was at the doctors almost every week. We were having a hard time finding a formula that she will keep down, or keep in. Most of the normal formulas caused her to throw up, the soy based one gave her extreme diarrhea and a rash. So now she is on a lactose-free one. We think it is working, but she did go for her 2 month checkup this week and so I am ignoring anything weird (in terms of spitting up) until at least tomorrow (Saturday). She had an appointment with the Endocrinologist this month and the doctor said that the levels of the hormone were too high when they took blood a month ago, so he wanted to check again because she had gained some weight since then. She was great. This is the 3rd time they have taken blood, the 2nd time here. She didn't even cry. I was making her smile, and she did look at the nurses, and she did tense up when they put the needle in, but she didn't cry. The test came back fine. When she went for her 2 month checkup she had to get 3 shots. She was fine, then they put the first shot in and she started to cry. But as soon as the nurse was done with the 3rd she stopped. I hope she stays this good with needles.
Classes started for Isaac last week so he has had one full week of classes. He is taking Greek 2, Church History 2 and Theology 2. Last semester he took 5 classes, he is only taking 3 so that he can have a little more free time. Well, not really free time. The plan is that I am going back to work next week and we will take turns taking care of RuthAnne. So I won't work when Isaac is in classes or sleeping, and he will take care of her when I am working. I wish I didn't have to go back to work, but I am glad we don't have to put her in daycare.

I would like to do something that I wanted to do when RuthAnne was first born but didn't because everyone had already told of her arrival and so I figured it would be a waste of time, or that people wouldn't care. BUT from emails, letters, notes, and calls we have gotten I realize that I do have to spell things out (literally). So to clarify things, and just to let you know where we got her name, here you are:
Our daughter's name is RuthAnne Elizabeth Woodward.
Yes, RuthAnne (all one name with a capital 'A', and an 'e' on the end). One of my favorite biblical names is Ruth (mostly because of the meaning, companion) We choose RuthAnne because we did not want her, by default, to become a Ruthie. (If she chooses that, then it is up to her, but we didn't want it to be a default name)
Elizabeth, is my middle name, and my middle name came from my Great-Grandmother.
So now you know how we picked our daughter's name. And I know that she will fight for the rest of her life, as I have with the 'h' in my name, but it is a small price to pay for such a beautiful name, if I do say so myself.
And people have pointed out that it is a long name, but it is only 2 letters longer than mine, and as my mom pointed out, all her names have the same number of letters.


I think I may have to start writing more frequent updates if they continue to be this long. We will see how next month's letter goes.
I hope I remembered everything.

Hope things are going well with you and yours.