The reason I do what I do...

New baby news

No...not me...as far as I know. :)

My friend forever, Camille, had her baby boy! Camille and I met about 10 years ago, when we worked together, planned our weddings together 6 years ago and pick up where we left off no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other. She's since been divorced and is engaged to a wonderful new man, the baby's daddy.

After getting the call the other day saying that the baby was here, I immediately called hubby and told him to plan on watching B while I went to check out the new little one. I had just talked to Camille at 4-something the previous afternoon and there was nothing in the works, so it went pretty quickly for her. Baby Rayce was 7lb 4oz and 21 inches long. Holy cow, that is tiny! He just precious! Lots of hair and a double chin already. It's amazing how fast you forget that fresh baby feel....makes me kinda sad. :)

As soon as I walked into the hospital room, I saw somebody I recognized. For the first 5 minutes of my visit, we kept looking at each other with that "where do I know you from" look. He was from what seems like a previous life, though, and I couldn't quite place him. Apparently, it was the same way for him. :) Turns out we lived in the same dorm our first year of college and had a few mutual friends. Anywho, he's married to Camille's fiance's sister. Rather long convoluted line there. He and his wife had kids just about my girls' ages and are expecting again in December. Hopefully we'll be getting together sometime while Camille is on maternity leave and I can connect a few more dots with him. It's a bit irksome that I can't absolutely place him, ya know?

Mom & baby are doing wonderful and home adjusting well. I'm hoping to be able to visit very soon and go take a few pictures of the new little guy. He's just so sweet!

B says....

This morning, B got a juice box and came to snuggle in bed with me. After she climbed up, she turned the box around, looking at the box and said, "Let's see how it says...... drink it all and throw it in the garbage. Drink it all and don't squeeze it."

baby steps

Today my precious baby girl K is 10 months old. Where has the time gone? Here are some of her most recent accomplishments:

~Just yesterday, she started saying "up"
~Started saying "uh oh" (or sometimes "oh uh")
~Says bah-bye in context, albeit a bit delayed.
~Says aforementioned bah-bye in combination with waving
~Said DADA for the first time (of course, hubby wasn't home.)
~Continues to say mama, but generally only in a whining tone. :)
~Pulls up on ANYTHING in sight, including the not-so-steady washcloth drawer.
~She continues to show her incredible determination--you can NOT distract her, she'll crawl around, pull up, wiggle, climb over and possibly even scream in frustration, but can in no way be dissuaded from her goal.
~She has this insane ability to crane her neck around. She's continually turning her head what seems to be at a 180* angle, followed by twisting her entire body the same way. Crazy girl!

On Sunday, she hadn't slept well during the day and started whining during dinner. Pretty soon, there she was:


About 20 minutes later, she woke up. Almost instantly, she was reaching for the food on her tray and popping it into her mouth. It was too funny. Oh, and that's asparagus and corn. She eats pretty much anything other than banana (haven't figured that one out yet.) I try to feed her just about every time we eat as it seems to make her much happier. She's also getting to be quite competent at using a sippy cup.


In sleep news: we've been (a bit loosely) going by the NCSS, we're now on phase 2/phase 3. We put her down content and settled and rub her back until she goes to sleep. Then, for at least the first few wakeups during the night, we don't get her up, we just ask her to lie down and rub her back until she goes back down. Last night, she was down for the night (after a LONG fight) at 9:30 and slept until 2 when I went in and rubbed her back for about 2 minutes. Then she slept until 4. I nursed her that time since I was just about bursting. :) She had a hard time settling down, though, and ended up coming into bed with us at about 5, where she went back to sleep until almost 9. I was so proud of her! I'm not sure if I *needed* to go in at 2, since she was just grumbling. But I was up and in there before I really thought about it. Six and a half hours of sleep, though.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Oh, and she TOOK 2 STEPS on Sunday. AHHHHHH!!!! Look out, big sister, here she comes!


K, you are such a joy! Your smile lights up our world. B loves you SO much and what a blessing it is to see. Your big blue eyes are captivating. Grandpa Ron calls them your "sparklers." We love you so much, K, and are so very blessed to have you in our family.

"the deal"

Going back a couple months when I half-heartedly began running, roughly following the couch to 5k program. I really only ended up following the plan for week 1 and 2, and did those in 3 weeks instead of the prescribed 2. I have always had pretty much a hate-hate relationship with running. This time it was a bit different. No, I didn't enjoy the running. But I definitely enjoyed the result. I didn't lose much weight (3 pounds) but I lost 3.5 inches and about a size in just about a month. All of this by changing nothing other than going running for 20 minutes 2-3 times a week.

Having slacked off a bit on the running, I've noticed results the other way--my belly wasn't ever flat, but it's certainly less flat that it was. In an effort to help motivate myself as well as hubby, we came up with a deal.

~We each will run 3 times a week.

The reward/penalty section of the deal is still under discussion. :) Here was my suggestion: when I run my 3x and he doesn't, hubby would then take care of both girls while making (and cleaning up from) dinner. ALL while I enjoyed time to myself. Sounds fabulous to me! His suggestion is that when he meets his goal for the whole month, he gets to go buy himself a book. Seems like if he's gonna get what he wants (and really what I want in him running) I'm gonna have to change my part of that.

I'm still thinking. ;)

Monday was my first run, with 2 kids, no less. I made it, but barely. Huffing and puffing from pushing 75+ extra pounds of kid and stroller, wheeled or not. All in all, it went well. I stocked the girls up with snacks and toys and off we went. I figured out that if I kept the earpiece from the mp3 player in one ear, I could still hear the girls. Works for me!

Oh, and a really cool tool that I found to track my mileage and even a rough estimate of calories burned: gmaps pedometer. I live in a subdivision and I could track pretty much my EXACT route (from my front door.) Very fun!

another great contest

5 minutes for Mom is having another great contest for those of us with girls. They are giving away an precious little bit of adorable-ness from Tutu Fantasy. Go check them out. The girls (and their mommy) would just drool over pretty much all of them.

Uncertainty

There is so much uncertainty in life, so much to worry about. Life itself, even, is so uncertain. We don't know where we'll be tomorrow or the next day or the next. Our little family has been through quite a bit of a uncertainty in the last year, quite a bit of change.

It started with the much-anticipated birth of our precious baby girl, and continued on with hubby losing his job of 8 years just two weeks later. We've struggled through unemployment and the job search, financial insecurity and elation and hope in finding another job. Through it all, there have been constants.

Here is one of those:



Another one is sleeping away blissfully (for both of us) in her bed.

My precious hubby has been a HUGE constant. Despite the fact that most of this has affected him, who he is as a man and a provider, he has continued to be the steady, wonderful man that I am so in love with.

And then, most of all, there was this assurance:



Philippians 4:5-6

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Praise the LORD!!

How much would you pay?

For a 5 minute (or sometimes 10 minute) massage 4-5 times a day? While you lie in bed...... fighting with every fiber of your being not to go to sleep? Why fighting sleep, you ask. Because the person in question just happens to be 9 months old, and that's what 9 month olds do.

Having been there done that, I thought that surely I would manage the sleeping habits of my future children better than I did those of my first. Surely, I would. I promise. Ha! I fear that I have ruined a good thing.

Let's go back, say, 3 years. B was almost 4 months old. She slept fairly well for a baby...if she was in my arms....and had nursed to sleep. Otherwise, it was a FIGHT. This is how we spent many an hour, sometimes all in a row.

This was June 2004, Hubby had just spent 45 minutes BOUNCING B to sleep on the birthing ball. And that would only happen if the circumstances were JUST right--not too much noise, but not so quiet that Daddy's joints could be heard cracking as he bounced up and down, up and down, up and down. Her tummy had to be full, she had to have a bink, and generally we had to hold her hand down so that she wouldn't pull the bink out or startle herself awake by flailing about. All of this work for, say, 45 minutes of a nap. POSSIBLY, just possibly, up to 2 hours of sleep at night.

I'm not kidding. She took 45 minute naps. Then slept in 2 hours blocks all night long. Until she was 13 months old. It's amazing how little sleep you can live on.

Back to the present child. I vowed to do things differently. I still nursed to sleep and co-slept. But, I made it a point to try to put her down awake but drowsy. I remember at six weeks old, I could put her in the cosleeper with a full tummy and she could doze off. By herself. I was amazed. And totally proud of myself for my wonderful parenting.

Fast forward to now. OK, we'll take yesterday as an example:

Up for the morning at 8:15.

Ready for a snooze by 10:30. We head up to her room to rock and snuggle. After about 5 minutes of nursing, she's popping off and on, so I plug in the bink and rock. Once she's almost asleep, I ever so quietly and gently place her in her crib. The eyes pop open. I jiggled, sang, massaged, ignored, thought about swearing, jiggled some more.

She finally fell asleep at 11:15. It was without any help from me (I was in another ignoring stage), so I considered it a success. At noon she woke up seeming happy, so I got her up. 2pm--crabby, so we once again head up. This time she falls asleep nursing and transfers to her bed without any trouble for an hour of a nap. When she woke up, I snuggled her in the glider and we both fell asleep for 1/2 hour more.

6pm--totally crabby, but I'm making dinner, so I keep handing her toys/snacks to keep her happy until I have a minute. After dinner, she's wasted tired, so hubby takes her up for bed. He's gone for 1/2 hour. (I know that he rocks and snuggles her in the chair.) After the usual 45 minutes of sleep, she was awake again, and he went to take care of her. She went down again. Slept for an hour. Awake looking for Mommy and a snack. Nursed back to sleep--then back in her bed. That puts us at about 10pm or so. She woke up again at midnight at which point I admitted defeat and brought her in to bed with us to wake me up every 1-2 hours to eat.

Somehow, I've ruined a good sleeper.

I've been working on re-reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley and William Sears. My idea of getting her to go to sleep by herself is on the right track, I think. It's just a matter of taking the time and patience that it requires to go through with it.

So far today:

10 am nap--nursed and snuggled, then put in crib and rubbed her back until she was out--resulting in 45 minute nap.

2pm nap--nursed and snuggled. She fell asleep, then woke in her bed after 45 minutes. I went in a rubbed her back for 8 minutes until she was asleep again and she slept for another hour. *woohoo*

It's a shame the massage was wasted on her. I really could use a massage right now. *grin*

Now, for a trip down memory lane, since I went digging for old pictures. What mom can resist looking through all the baby pictures? *proud grin*

B at 4-5 months old (Man, she was a chub!)

OK, and on the how much would you pay train of thought...

Have you been over to 5 Minutes for Mom? They are having a great giveaway for Mother's Day. Go check them out!! They are giving away an Ipod and a Mei Tai Baby Carrier from All Natural Mommies. How fun is that?!

Last night I dreamed.....

****warning: Very EMOTIONAL. I still get goosebumps and cry just thinking about it. You may not want to read.****

That Hubby, B & I were all taking a bath. I had washed B's hair and turned around to rinse my hair out. When I was done, I looked over to say something to hubby and found that he and B had both fallen asleep. They were both underwater. I scooped B up and held her above me (much like you do a baby.) She just flopped, absolutely no movement of any sort. As it seems to happen in a dream, I opened my mouth to scream at hubby, but no sound whatsoever came out. I kicked him, then reached over and pulled his head above the water. He gasped in some air and stayed above the water, but continued to sleep. Panicking, I tried to remember what my CPR class years and years ago taught me about doing chest compressions on a 3 year old. I couldn't remember. I continued to scream at hubby to help me. He continued to be unresponsive, but breathing. In the dream-like fashion, I was all of a sudden out of the tub with B lying, listless, on the floor. The screaming in my head went on and on.

Then I woke up. Terrified.

K was snuggled up next to me, so I put my arm around my precious baby girl and cried over her. Waking up hubby without explanation, he held my hand above K's head. He offered to go check on B when I said that I had to make sure that she was alright. But, no, I had to see it with my own eyes, hear her sweet sleep breathing with my own ears.

Climbing into her bed with her, she nestled right into me briefly, then opened her eyes to look for light behind the curtain. "It's OK, B, it's still nigh-night time. I was just lonely for you." She looked back at me with a precious smile and said, "I was lonely for you too, Mommy. Nigh-Night."

Feeling reassured but still very unsettled and competely emotional, I had Hubby scoot over to make room for me on his side of the bed. He put arms around me and listened to me cry until I felt OK enough to get over to my side of the bed again.

Jesus Loves Me was my solace. I can't tell you the number of times that I sang that as I lay awake last night thanking God for every single day that I have with my precious, beautiful children.

So...what do you do...

...when both girls are sleeping in the car?

Do you drive around until they wake up? Leave the car in the garage and let them sleep, risking one of the waking the other, while you come inside and get on the computer? ...or while you coming inside and take a nap? :) Get them each out of their seats and *hope* that they'll go back to sleep once you get them into their own beds? Leave the car running while you dash inside to pack up hubby's ebay item that needs to be mailed out, then frantically try to make it to the post office before traffic becomes overwhelming?

Well, since hubby had sold a card on ebay, and I HAD told him that I would mail it today and then proceeded to totally forget about it, that's what I did. Of course, I couldn't find the bubble wrap, then I couldn't find the packing tape. I kept poking my head out into the garage to see if either of the girls were awake, worrying that I wouldn't make it down the street before rush hour hit and it would take me twice as long. Then, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to put B in a pullup, so she very well could be soaking her carseat. I *hate* having to wash carseats.