One of the things I, conveniently, had forgotten about pregnancy was the dreadful insomnia. When My Sweets is sleeping I lay awake unable to sleep, when he is awake I can barely keep my eyes open. This too shall pass but I am just now remembering my previous pregnancy clearly. I have to say that a healthy baby is one of the greatest blessings I have received but it still brings back memories. Memories of sitting through NSTs galore and memorizing magazines on my OBs waiting room wall. I worried so much with baby number one. Do I feel the baby move as much today? Did I sleep on the wrong side last night? Did that have caffeine in it? So much worry.
After it all was said and done I remember taking in my little wrinkly peaches leg folds and yawn creases. I remember the huge relief that this baby was so healthy and here. He was and still is my baby that God has gifted me, entrusted to me. To raise and protect until the end of my days. It is these thoughts that probably have contributed to my insomnia this go around. Not thoughts of worry this time but enormous thoughts of gratitude.
This week has been exhausting and still I lay awake sometimes staring at him. Thanking God for giving me the opportunity of such a great love. Thanking God for loving me that much.
Category Archives: my sweets
Kid’s Cowboy Party Idea!
My little man turned one this week and I had so much fun planning his party. We were creative with the cowboy theme and turned some old cardboard boxes into an “outlaw city” that the kids loved. We also started up the fire pit for Smores that were a huge hit. I made almost fifty packages and had only one left post party! The men folk had a friendly apple bobbin’ competition that brought lots of laughs and our dime store mustaches were a bigger hit than I thought they would be. It just goes to show you that you do not have to spend a ton to make big memories.
Do you have any great Birthday party tips or ideas? I would love to hear them!
One Week of Pictures
Day 5
It Is Approaching
That dreaded date for many Moms. Or maybe just me. I am not excited for the month come when I say good bye to my cuddly little first born baby and enter into toddlerdom. Don’t get me wrong I am grateful beyond words to have a healthy, happy and joyous little one growing in leaps and bounds everyday. It is not that. It is that with everyday that pass he slides farther from my ability to relate to him and closer into the “maleverse”. Only approaching one year and he actually giggles at his own burps? Oh how I know what the years ahead of me hold. Challenges in relating to his quirky maleness and struggles teaching him how to princely admire the fairer sex.
My husband eagerly bids his time. The days of a lifelong playmate approach. He already smiles coolly as we pass the sporting section at Target. With each shortened nursing session and every wiggle to climb from my lap I am reminded how quickly it goes.
BABIES DON’T KEEP
Mother, oh Mother,
come shake out your cloth,
empty the dustpan,
poison the moth,
hang out the washing
and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house
is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery,
blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little
Boy Blue (lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done
and there’s nothing for stew
and out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
but I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing
will wait till tomorrow,
for Children grow up,
as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep……
~Author Unknown ~
One Week of Pictures
Day four. Silly baby.
One Week of Pictures
Day 2
Cowboy
Childhood…
Enter Motherhood
My son is almost a year old now and today was the first time I felt like a Mom. Don’t get me wrong, I love Motherhood. It is the antithesis of where I believed I would end up. But it fits. Just fits my being.
I love being a Mom. I love the late night nursing sessions, the creative play and learning-oh so much-about myself. Even through all these transitions I have never felt Mom-ish. Well, not completely.
Today involved a Doctor’s appointment and trip to the pharmacy. That is it. Not a big deal right? Wrong! When I arrived home I collapsed in bed for a power nap out of sheer exhaustion.
My doctor’s appointment was nothing amazing. I spent it deflecting squeals and screams of delight while attempting to nurse and answering personal medical questions from the beginning of time. No big deal. You learn to juggle eventually. It was the trip to the pharmacy that awoke my epiphany. Apparently everyone on this base has a medicine need and we waited for two hours to reach the counter. (Luckily they had Giada on the big screen or I would have counted tiles to avoid stares) My Sweets decided he would pick today to transition into squirmy screech monkey that did not want the stroller or Momma’s grasp. He also preferred to eat his milk as if I was a two-way drive through.There I sat for two hours wrestling my baby to keep him from crawling on the dirty floor. Nursing with very little discretion by the end out of sheer exhaustion and apologizing profusely to everyone seated around me that My Sweets tried to take down.
After receiving my medication and piling us back into the car I caught a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror. Flush and glistening from the ordeal and could not help but laugh. This is my life now? But I still rock hot shades and killer boots? My little one fell asleep on the ride home and I carried him inside to bed. He rested his little head on my shoulder and gave the sweetest sigh. Yep, this is my life and I am so blessed to have ended up here.
What is the exact moment you realized you were officially a parent? Please share you stories in the comments!
Five Vauable Life Lessons I Learned from Breastfeeding
When I was pregnant I made up my mind to try to breastfeed. Read all the recommendations handed over by my doctor and was assured I would take to it after a while. But still I had heard so many negative things about the effort (pain, physical changes, pain) that I was compelled to set a goal of one year at least to try to give my Sweets the healthiest start. Since I am person that thrives with goals I knew this would aid me.
The stories of pain and loss of identity as a separate entity set my nerves for my first feeding sessions. I was intimidated by the notion I might mess up and make my baby less inclined to take to nursing. So much literature out there to read before giving birth and so little energy set me up for a mind jumble mess near the end of month nine. The normal rush of ideas of failure popping into a Mother to be’s brain did not help either. But I have to say from the first moment that wrinkly little peach of a baby took to me I have never since doubted the gift of nursing. I have learned so many simple truths that can be applied to life in general simply by nursing. Still am awe-struck at how far we have come in the blink of an eye.
1. Relax you know what you are doing. So many times we get jumbled by the would a/could a/should a voices that we dull out our own voice. You have great instincts as a parent already sometimes it is best just to listen them instead of others.
2. It gets messy, it is okay. Like forgetting your nursing pads at a day long briefing messy. Don’t worry there will never be a mess so big you can’t clean up. ( and hey people will forget too, eventually )
3. The quiet moments make it worth while. In my younger days I would have found this statement dull as dishwater but today I am a changed woman. Gasp darn I say a matured woman who fully appreciates that beauty of life in the quiet moments. Soft breathing and warm cuddling moments make it ALL worth while.
4. Sometimes you fail. It is okay. I have had crying nights or nursing strikes galore. Well, at least a few and will say it is fine. The bad days do not last if you push through. Just keep trying.
5. No one is perfect. I haven’t met one person yet who has surpassed all of life’s struggles or woes. And I have not met anyone without flaw. So while you feel alone in your down days remember you are not. We have all been there and gotten through. You will too.
