Friday, December 30, 2005
You Can Leave Now
Susanna is now well aware that climbing up on a chair and playing with stuff on the kitchen counter is not something she is allowed to do. She regularly climbs up to the counter and as soon as she sees me looking at her, says "Sidown pease. Dadu." (Sit down, please.... thank you.), which she has now heard me say numerous times. Well yesterday, she got a little more obnoxious... I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day when I heard a chair start to move across the floor in the kitchen. Now I've lived long enough to know that chairs don't move on their own (unless there's an earthquake or something), and I've observed my daughter long enough to know that moving chairs means trouble. So I walked into the kitchen and of course, Susanna was in the process of moving a chair over to the counter. She took one look at me, smiled as innocently as possible and said, "Bye-bye, Mommy!";-)
Friday, December 23, 2005
Cookies Are GOOD, Too
Susanna discovered a couple weeks ago that if she pulls a chair up to any counter, dresser, desk, etc., she can climb up and reach the things on top. The other morning, I was in the living room working on something and she wandered into the kitchen. I was pretty focused on what I was doing, so it took me a few minutes to realize that she was being very quiet. Which, as any mother can attest, almost always means the kid is up to no good. So I quickly hurried to the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was that a plate of Christmas cookies that had previously been on the counter was no longer there. The next thing I observed was that one of the drawers below the counter where the cookies had been was pulled out (hmmm... somebody used that as a step up). And then I saw Susanna, sitting on the floor with the plate which was now empty (it had only had two cookies left on it, so at least it wasn't a full plate!), holding the last quarter of a cookie in her hand. She looked up at me, grinned like all was as it should be, and said in her best Cookie Monster voice "Nummy Cookies, Mommy! Nummy Cookies!":-)
Susanna discovered a couple weeks ago that if she pulls a chair up to any counter, dresser, desk, etc., she can climb up and reach the things on top. The other morning, I was in the living room working on something and she wandered into the kitchen. I was pretty focused on what I was doing, so it took me a few minutes to realize that she was being very quiet. Which, as any mother can attest, almost always means the kid is up to no good. So I quickly hurried to the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was that a plate of Christmas cookies that had previously been on the counter was no longer there. The next thing I observed was that one of the drawers below the counter where the cookies had been was pulled out (hmmm... somebody used that as a step up). And then I saw Susanna, sitting on the floor with the plate which was now empty (it had only had two cookies left on it, so at least it wasn't a full plate!), holding the last quarter of a cookie in her hand. She looked up at me, grinned like all was as it should be, and said in her best Cookie Monster voice "Nummy Cookies, Mommy! Nummy Cookies!":-)
Sleep is GOOD
Well, I got that Christmas wish... and a week early at that! After getting progressively worse to the point that I thought I was going insane from sleep deprivation and frustration with this kid who was waking up every hour, I noticed one day that when Jacob was napping, if he started to wake up, he would suck on his fingers and put himself back to sleep...and it suddenly occurred to me that things had only started getting difficult at night when we had started using blanket sleepers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with that type of garment, it's basically a fleece bag with arms that is supposed to keep a baby warm without the risk of a blanket getting caught over their face and suffocating them. Nice, only they're a one-size fits all kinda thing so the arms are really long and cver Jacob's hands. Great, I thought, that will keep his hands warm. And, as it turns out, keep his fingers from getting to his mouth. Hence the constant waking and inability to go back to sleep. The first night we stopped using the blanket sleeper, he slept four hours straight. And the next night he was up to five, and then six, and as of last Sunday, has been doing 8 hour stretches! Now that starts between midnight and 1 am, so we're still working on the early part of the night, but hey, if I can have seven hours of uninterrupted slumber afterwards, I don't mind being up real late!:-) And needless to say, no more blanket sleepers for us! He may be cold but at least he's got a sane mother!:-) (and we just tuck his mattress now, so he's not even cold, for those who were momentarily worried.)
Well, I got that Christmas wish... and a week early at that! After getting progressively worse to the point that I thought I was going insane from sleep deprivation and frustration with this kid who was waking up every hour, I noticed one day that when Jacob was napping, if he started to wake up, he would suck on his fingers and put himself back to sleep...and it suddenly occurred to me that things had only started getting difficult at night when we had started using blanket sleepers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with that type of garment, it's basically a fleece bag with arms that is supposed to keep a baby warm without the risk of a blanket getting caught over their face and suffocating them. Nice, only they're a one-size fits all kinda thing so the arms are really long and cver Jacob's hands. Great, I thought, that will keep his hands warm. And, as it turns out, keep his fingers from getting to his mouth. Hence the constant waking and inability to go back to sleep. The first night we stopped using the blanket sleeper, he slept four hours straight. And the next night he was up to five, and then six, and as of last Sunday, has been doing 8 hour stretches! Now that starts between midnight and 1 am, so we're still working on the early part of the night, but hey, if I can have seven hours of uninterrupted slumber afterwards, I don't mind being up real late!:-) And needless to say, no more blanket sleepers for us! He may be cold but at least he's got a sane mother!:-) (and we just tuck his mattress now, so he's not even cold, for those who were momentarily worried.)
Friday, December 09, 2005
All I Want For Christmas Is A Good Night's Sleep!
Yes, yes, I know my previous entry was all about not focusing on the negative... and it's still true! But I would also still like to be able to sleep for longer than a couple hours at a time - for some reason, Jacob seems to be ignoring the idea that as babies grow ( and with them, their stomachs), they gradually sleep for longer stretches at a time. He has decided this week that actually, shorter stretches are more ideal... so the newborn who was sleeping 3-4 hours at a time is, as the first month draws to a close, now sleeping only 1.5-2 hours. At night only, of course. During the day, he is sometimes content to go more than 4 hours. Now I would be happy to feed him every 1.5 hours during the day if he would sleep 4.5 hours at night! But no... this kiddo is a night owl. And his mother, who is most decidedly NOT a night owl, is exhausted! Every night I find it harder and harder to get up, and every night I get more and more frustrated. Which brings me to something I've been wanting to post on for almost 2 weeks now.
If there is one thing that having two kids is teaching me, it is that I am not capable of getting through the day on my own. Or even the first 15 minutes of the day. Or, for that matter, even the waking moment. Sure, there were times even before I had any kids that I recognized my limitations and need for God's gracious help in a situation. But now I am constantly being forced to come to terms with the fact that I can't even handle something as simple as taking a shower or eating a bowl of cereal without His grace and strength. I am consistently needing to ask God for the strength just to get the next load in the laundry or dinner on the table. Or to get up out of bed and feed our crying baby when it is the last thing I want to do. I had been thinking about this after reading Psalm 33:13-22 :
"The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.*
Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield.
For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you."
The same day I read that passage, I came across this helpful post by Kristin Chesemore about acknowledging God in even the most mundane moments of life. She says it so well (with the help of Charles Bridges) that I won't bother to try to summarize her thoughts - go read for yourself!
"Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." (Psalm 34:5)
And now I need to go check the mail... yes, I realize that it's almost 10:30 at night and the mail has probably been there all day... so I'm a little behind on my daily tasks...:-)
*in my case, when I don't have a chance for undistracted devotions for days or weeks on end... see another helpful post from Kristin and her link to Donald Whitney's article for thoughts on devotions and the young mother - I found these to be very freeing! By the way, since I am lately linking to it quite frequently, may I take this opportunity to highly recommend Girl Talk, a blog by Carolyn Mahaney and her 3 adult daughters. There is a tonne of great stuff to be found there!
If there is one thing that having two kids is teaching me, it is that I am not capable of getting through the day on my own. Or even the first 15 minutes of the day. Or, for that matter, even the waking moment. Sure, there were times even before I had any kids that I recognized my limitations and need for God's gracious help in a situation. But now I am constantly being forced to come to terms with the fact that I can't even handle something as simple as taking a shower or eating a bowl of cereal without His grace and strength. I am consistently needing to ask God for the strength just to get the next load in the laundry or dinner on the table. Or to get up out of bed and feed our crying baby when it is the last thing I want to do. I had been thinking about this after reading Psalm 33:13-22 :
"The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.*
Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield.
For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you."
The same day I read that passage, I came across this helpful post by Kristin Chesemore about acknowledging God in even the most mundane moments of life. She says it so well (with the help of Charles Bridges) that I won't bother to try to summarize her thoughts - go read for yourself!
"Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." (Psalm 34:5)
And now I need to go check the mail... yes, I realize that it's almost 10:30 at night and the mail has probably been there all day... so I'm a little behind on my daily tasks...:-)
*in my case, when I don't have a chance for undistracted devotions for days or weeks on end... see another helpful post from Kristin and her link to Donald Whitney's article for thoughts on devotions and the young mother - I found these to be very freeing! By the way, since I am lately linking to it quite frequently, may I take this opportunity to highly recommend Girl Talk, a blog by Carolyn Mahaney and her 3 adult daughters. There is a tonne of great stuff to be found there!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
futurepastorswife has asked for an explanation of my comment in the previous entry about two kids being more than twice as busy as one... the reason it seems like more than just double the workload is that not only do you have the separate needs of two individual children to meet, you also have carry out those and other responsibilities in such a way that, well, both kids end up alive and well at the end of the day. I can't just up and go to the bathroom like I used to be able to do, leaving Susanna to play by herself for a minute - now I have to make sure before I go anywhere that Jacob is in a place where she can't sit on him, bite him or otherwise torment him while I'm out of the room. And that goes for anything I do that involves moving out of eyesight. And sometimes it's impossible to meet the needs of both kids at once - human beings were only given one set of hands! Add to that the sleep deprivation that comes with having a newborn (and the fact that my toddler only takes one nap a day, so I have to choose between sleeping then or taking care of the myriad of other responsibilities that are calling my name... and sleep almost always wins out against cleaning or cooking duties!), and caring for a toddler who is in to everything and regularly testing the limits becomes very hard to do in a patient and gracious manner... my temper flares up a lot more easily these days, and I've had to apologize more than once to Susanna for disciplining her in anger rather than in love...
All that said, I am not here to complain about the responsibilities I've been given to care for these two precious children... I was talking with another young mother of two in the nursing room at church yesterday about how easy it is to dwell on thoughts of "if I can just make it through this stage...": "If I can just make it till he sleeps through the night...", "If I can just get these kids out of diapers...", "If I can just survive their teenage years..." (we're not there yet, but that day will be here before we know it!). But not only do you end up despairing because every stage of life and childrearing has its specific difficulties (they sleep through the night only to want to be entertained all day long) - the day will never come (until heaven) when you will ever stop wishing away some hardship! - you also end up focusing so much on the negative aspects of the stage you're in and miss all the joys of that same stage... If all I ever think about right now is getting a full night's sleep, it will be hard for me to enjoy these precious weeks of having a child so helpless and needy that all he wants to do is be held and fed and stare at our faces - they learn to do a few things on their own and suddenly your lap is not quite the inviting place it used to be! Or for this other mother, it's that she doesn't ever get to sit in on the sermon because her son doesn't do well in the nursery (and we have so many small kids at our church that the nursery workers can't spend the whole service trying to quiet one screaming child while the others wreak havoc on each other!), but as she commented, Sunday morning in the nursing room is the one time of the week that she can give her second child an hour of her undivided attention, and those opportunities are few and far between with multiple small kids in the house! So her husband takes sermon notes for her and her son gets some special mommy time.
All that to say that yes, two kids is busy, busy, busy... but I wouldn't trade these two little gifts for all the "me time" in the world! May we always seek God's grace to be thankful for all the small blessings He gives us even in the midst of difficult circumstances, because not only does He deserve all our thanks, but a thankful and joyful attitude can make even the most trying days of life easier to bear!
I have more that I want to say about things I've been learning over the past few days, things that I might not be learning if life weren't so busy and sleep so rare, but I'll save it for the next post because this one is getting long.
All that said, I am not here to complain about the responsibilities I've been given to care for these two precious children... I was talking with another young mother of two in the nursing room at church yesterday about how easy it is to dwell on thoughts of "if I can just make it through this stage...": "If I can just make it till he sleeps through the night...", "If I can just get these kids out of diapers...", "If I can just survive their teenage years..." (we're not there yet, but that day will be here before we know it!). But not only do you end up despairing because every stage of life and childrearing has its specific difficulties (they sleep through the night only to want to be entertained all day long) - the day will never come (until heaven) when you will ever stop wishing away some hardship! - you also end up focusing so much on the negative aspects of the stage you're in and miss all the joys of that same stage... If all I ever think about right now is getting a full night's sleep, it will be hard for me to enjoy these precious weeks of having a child so helpless and needy that all he wants to do is be held and fed and stare at our faces - they learn to do a few things on their own and suddenly your lap is not quite the inviting place it used to be! Or for this other mother, it's that she doesn't ever get to sit in on the sermon because her son doesn't do well in the nursery (and we have so many small kids at our church that the nursery workers can't spend the whole service trying to quiet one screaming child while the others wreak havoc on each other!), but as she commented, Sunday morning in the nursing room is the one time of the week that she can give her second child an hour of her undivided attention, and those opportunities are few and far between with multiple small kids in the house! So her husband takes sermon notes for her and her son gets some special mommy time.
All that to say that yes, two kids is busy, busy, busy... but I wouldn't trade these two little gifts for all the "me time" in the world! May we always seek God's grace to be thankful for all the small blessings He gives us even in the midst of difficult circumstances, because not only does He deserve all our thanks, but a thankful and joyful attitude can make even the most trying days of life easier to bear!
I have more that I want to say about things I've been learning over the past few days, things that I might not be learning if life weren't so busy and sleep so rare, but I'll save it for the next post because this one is getting long.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Well, today is the first relatively productive day I've had in about two and a half weeks, so I think it's time I sat down and did a little blogging, seeing as the kitchen floor is clean, the laundry is done (until the next time Jacob chooses to projectile vomit all over our bed), two batches of Christmas cookies are ready for the freezer (with a few left out for pre-Christmas munching, of course!), Susanna is freshly bathed and fast asleep in her bed and Jacob is lying in my lap, contentedly staring up at the black-and-white tile pattern on the ceiling... I can think of plenty more things that need to be done, but tomorrow is another day, and I'm not supposed to overwork myself until the doctor gives me the okay:-)
So long-story-short, I ended up having to be induced (and judging by the 5 hours it took for the pitocin to actually get things going, I'm not sure this kiddo was planning an exit anytime soon anyway), but that aside, things went as I had hoped - no epidural this time (I'm not against other people having them, if that's their thing, but I had really been wanting to go without the drugs this time), water broke on its own, so the doctor didn't have to use the hook, and once things got going, Jacob only took a little more than 3 hours to enter the world... my first thought upon seeing him was that he looks like his sister, which everyone else has commented on, too (with no prompting from me:-)), so I'm guessing it's true... many thanks to my mother and mother-in-law, who were there the whole time for support, and especially to my wonderful husband, who, despite his aching arms, spent hours massaging my back, thereby making the pain bearable (or more so, anyway:-))! This was definitely a different experience than labour with Susanna - I had to have an epidural with her, and so there wasn't really anything for Nathan or the parents to do other than sit and be spectators and bring me the occasional popsicle from the hospital freezer. And I have to say, it was nice to be able to stand up and move around shortly afterward, since I could actually feel my legs this time. Anyway, I'm not going to get off on any anti-drug rant - I'll admit that I have a high pain tolerance (and even at that, it was darn painful!) - but I would like to say that if you can do without the pain meds, it's an incredible experience!
I would also like to say that it looks like God has chosen to bless us with another calm, content, relatively easy baby... I was guessing that after an easy first baby, we were about to get a wild child, but I actually think Jacob is more laid back than his sister... we've taken to c
alling him Goat Boy (affectionately, of course), because he rarely ever cries at full throttle (for the first few days, we weren't even sure he knew how!:-))... he just kind of bleats like a little goat when he's not happy. Susanna loves him to bits, which is great, and also means that we are constantly having to pull her away from him and explain that while it is nice that she wants to kiss her little brother, he doesn't like having her face constantly shoved into him... ;-) she is not quite the perfect older sister, though... yesterday, Nathan turned around to find her chomping on his little leg - left a nice little ring of welts (fortunately, she didn't break the skin)... needless to say, that one got her a sound spanking!
Anyway, maybe I'll be up to more frequent blogging soon... though 2 kids is definitely more than twice as busy as one and I've got a few Christmas projects to get done (only 23 more days!)... at least now you know I'm still alive...
So long-story-short, I ended up having to be induced (and judging by the 5 hours it took for the pitocin to actually get things going, I'm not sure this kiddo was planning an exit anytime soon anyway), but that aside, things went as I had hoped - no epidural this time (I'm not against other people having them, if that's their thing, but I had really been wanting to go without the drugs this time), water broke on its own, so the doctor didn't have to use the hook, and once things got going, Jacob only took a little more than 3 hours to enter the world... my first thought upon seeing him was that he looks like his sister, which everyone else has commented on, too (with no prompting from me:-)), so I'm guessing it's true... many thanks to my mother and mother-in-law, who were there the whole time for support, and especially to my wonderful husband, who, despite his aching arms, spent hours massaging my back, thereby making the pain bearable (or more so, anyway:-))! This was definitely a different experience than labour with Susanna - I had to have an epidural with her, and so there wasn't really anything for Nathan or the parents to do other than sit and be spectators and bring me the occasional popsicle from the hospital freezer. And I have to say, it was nice to be able to stand up and move around shortly afterward, since I could actually feel my legs this time. Anyway, I'm not going to get off on any anti-drug rant - I'll admit that I have a high pain tolerance (and even at that, it was darn painful!) - but I would like to say that if you can do without the pain meds, it's an incredible experience!
I would also like to say that it looks like God has chosen to bless us with another calm, content, relatively easy baby... I was guessing that after an easy first baby, we were about to get a wild child, but I actually think Jacob is more laid back than his sister... we've taken to c
alling him Goat Boy (affectionately, of course), because he rarely ever cries at full throttle (for the first few days, we weren't even sure he knew how!:-))... he just kind of bleats like a little goat when he's not happy. Susanna loves him to bits, which is great, and also means that we are constantly having to pull her away from him and explain that while it is nice that she wants to kiss her little brother, he doesn't like having her face constantly shoved into him... ;-) she is not quite the perfect older sister, though... yesterday, Nathan turned around to find her chomping on his little leg - left a nice little ring of welts (fortunately, she didn't break the skin)... needless to say, that one got her a sound spanking!Anyway, maybe I'll be up to more frequent blogging soon... though 2 kids is definitely more than twice as busy as one and I've got a few Christmas projects to get done (only 23 more days!)... at least now you know I'm still alive...
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