Our 2007 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas, family and friends!

We pray you are enjoying the holidays and time with family and close friends.

The Christmas letters and pictures that so many of you have sent us are beautiful and it's wonderful to hear about what is going on in your lives!

2007 brought our family many wonderful experiences.

It was almost a year ago that we found out we were going to have a baby! Lisa continued teaching at SDSU as a lecturer in the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Department. A special bond was created with her students. They became personally involved and interested in every milestone, from the end of morning sickness and starting to "show", to finding out we were having a boy. The end of the semester brought welcome relief for Lisa as the baby continued to grow at a fast rate. Jeff has continued working at Horizon Christian Fellowhip overseeing transportation, serving the new home fellowship leaders and serving in pastoral care. Starting January 3rd, he will make a major shift and take a job at Overland Storage as a telesales representative. They specialize in providing data storage backup for huge companies like Girl Scouts of America. He will be a liason between the company and resellers. This is a great opportunity for him because it is a job in a field he is interested in (technology) at a great company. We are so excited!

We saw several friends and Jeff's sister get married and celebrated as many friends had babies! Check out The Baby Boom video.

We celebrated out first anniversary in July (Lisa was seven months pregnant!). When summer came, she spent much of her time bobbing around the swimming pool. Jeff turned 33 and three days after Lisa's 29th birthday on September 19th, Alexander Jack Newman arrived! Read this post to get the full story.

It's been a joy to watch him grow and change. He is three months old and we are amazed at how quickly he has developed. He loves to smile at us and definitely knows who we are. Nana Fitting was amazed to see him excitedly recognize Jeff when he came home while she babysat. He loves to play with his fingers and hands and tries to suck on them frequently! Alexander is also talking to us more and more with all those cute baby words and noises. At two and a half months he was 13lbs. 9oz. and 23 1/2 in. long. We're sure by now he's put on at least another pound!! He's outgrown most of his three month old clothing already; Jeff thinks he's going to be an athlete. His legs are very strong, which can sometimes make diaper-changing a creative experience. He enjoys looking at the books we read to him everyday and is very observant of his surroundings. Another blessing is that he has been sleeping nine hours at night for the last week! We feel very fortunate. We love him so much!

To see pictures from any of the events we went to this year, go to: http://jesusislord.albumpost.com/

To see three month old pictures of Alexander, go to: http://jesusislord.albumpost.com/2007-12-19Alexis3monthsold

We pray that you thoroughly enjoy the rest of the holidays this year and look forward to seeing you in 2008! Our love to you and your families!

God bless you,
Jeff, Lisa and Alexander Newman


Click here to see our Christmas Card Photos

The Baby Boom

Alexander Reads The Bible With Mommy

Almost Home - Song on the dobro by Tom Fitting

Papa Tom wrote and played a song on the dobro during Thanksgiving.

Lily will be walking soon

Alexander is growing so quickly!

Hi Everyone,

Alexander is growing so quickly!

He still grunts but is also talking to us and imitating noises we make. He loves to give Jeff big smiles when he's getting his diaper changed, although he doesn't always enjoy the diaper process! He loves to look at anything red and will be transfixed by it for minutes on end. He enjoys his mobile and also is taking a new interest in his play gym we have set up on the floor.

Alex used to fall asleep in the car but now just wants to be held so he doesn't enjoy his car seat anymore. But he LOVES to be held closely and be carried around in the Baby Bjorn. He and I (Lisa) dance around in it in the apartment all the time. Typically, he enjoys getting a bath although I think he wishes there was a way to move from the warm water to warm clothes instantly.

Within the last two weeks Alexander has seen a few different doctors for various issues I was concerned about but so far we have only received good news. The pediatric urologist confirmed that he does not have a hernia but there is a 50% chance that he could develop one until he is a year old so we are keeping an eye on him until the follow up visit in the spring. The pediatric opthamologist said his eyes look healthy but, to be sure, we will have a follow up visit with him in two months once Alex is older than 3 months, which is typically when eye-tracking issues resolve themselves.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement for Alex since he has been born. We love you!

Here is the link to pictures I posted recently.
Alex is 2 months old

blessings,
Lisa, Jeff and Alexander Jack

Alexander Jack Newman Smiling

Sleepless Nights

We have just crossed the threshold of the “2 week” mark in our little boy’s life. He’s a gem. We’ve had a few good nights and a few very challenging nights with him. I think last night I slept a total of 3 hours, maybe. These little ones really show you what’s in your heart at 4 in the morning when they cry and don’t want to go to sleep even though they’ve been fed and changed. Poor Daddy is awakened to my cries of “he needs another diaper change…” even though he just changed Alexander before he was fed. Babies poop and pee. That’s what they do. I think we should buy stock in diapers.

Jeff is diligently looking for work to provide a way for me to stay home and care for Alexander 100%. I’m not looking forward to the day he goes back to work for a couple of reasons: 1) I love having him around, 2) he’s a HUGE help with the baby and 3) I think Alexander is going to miss having Daddy talk to him while he’s getting his diaper changed. We have already seen God provide many different avenues for him to pursue in the way of work and I’m excited to see what kind of environment he’ll be in next.

Check out our photos from this week.

Alexander Jack Newman has arrived!

Hi Friends and Family,

We (Jeff & Lisa) are thrilled to share with you the miraculous news that our son has arrived and is home with us!

It has been a challenging but beautiful time for us as a family.

Wednesday the 19th Lisa went into labor with some more of the same contractions she's been having since she was put on bedrest. Rather than rushing to the hospital, she waited to see if the labor would stall as it had in the past. What happened instead was the labor progressed. In the late afternoon the contractions started coming more frequently and when Jeff came home from work he got busy being the coach (making dinner and counting contractions). Lisa called triage and they told her to wait until she had "toe-curling" pain for two hours before coming in (Lisa has decided in the future to trust her instincts instead!). After ten minutes of these new sensations, she decided it was time to go. Lisa was checked into the labor and delivery room at 8:30pm. When the broke the water it was evident that little Alex had a bowel movement and was under distress. Lisa dilated to 10cm in less than an hour (Praise God for the epidural!!!) and was told it was time to start practicing for the real deal. After two practice pushes, the doctors came in, vaccum in hand ready for action. Because the contractions were so strong and insistent on pushing him out, they felt it helpful to guide him out of his comfortable home. She had two contractions and then pushed a couple more times and out he came!

He was born at 11:48pm, weighed 8lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 3/4 in. long. Big boy.

Unfortunately, the meconium he swallowed had gotten into his lungs and was acting as a major irritant, which caused labored breathing. After we held him for a couple minutes, they whisked him off to the nursery to care for and monitor him. We saw him again almost 12 hours later and what a special moment it was!

Lisa also had some challenges and was put on antibiotics for a fever and stayed in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. Little Alex was placed in the NICU (special care nursery) to be placed on antibiotics until test results could confirm a possible infection. As it turned out, he was fine and just needed time to rest and let his little lungs absorb the misplaced fluids and meconium. The new family of three was able to spend their first night together Sunday evening in the NICU and it was a very treasured time as they'd waited many days to be together.

We brought him home on Monday and have been getting adjusted to life with a newborn. He is a little miracle and gift from God to us.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement during this first week of Alexander's life! We look forward to having you meet him when the time comes.

We love you.

Please check out pictures of little Alexander's journey into this world:

http://jesusislord.albumpost.com/2007-09-19-Alexander-Jack-Newman-Arrives

God bless you,
Jeff, Lisa and Alexander Newman

Waiting for my boy

Last night Jeff and I took an Infant CPR class. It was very informative and I would recommend it to any new parents, grandparents or anyone who will be caring for a child.

I've decided to stop procrastinating and attack the mountain of paperwork sitting on my desk. Since I don't have a baby to care for today, I might as well care for the needs of our family until he arrives. It's a blessing to even have paperwork to manage because of what it represents.

I also have a letter of recommendation to work on for one of my students from last semester who wishes to study abroad in Italy. The last student I wrote a recommendation for to go to Italy ended up having a wonderful experience there and both students remind me of myself when I was in college and wanting to study abroad. If you get the chance, do it!

There's an opportunity for me to help a current HSE student grow in her giftings, which I would be blessed to do. I learned so much about God last semester by helping my two Polish friends.

I'm glad Alexander is happy in the womb.

Sonogram of our little baby Newman

Here is a video of baby Alexander before we even knew his name.

We are really close to the birth of AJ (Alexander Jack Newman). Lisa has been having contractions off and on, but they are not strong enough to make the trip to the hospital.

It's Lisa's birthday today. We went to The Original Pancake House and had some tasty food. I am sure AJ will love pancakes. Lisa's parents are coming over shortly and we are going to go have some pizza.

We are not sure, but maybe AJ will come today. Lisa was hoping that he would have his own day. But, if he came today we would be okay with that.