I think that Ebin’s colic MIGHT be resolving. It may be too soon to say, but we have had 3 great days in a row. He is like a completely different baby. He is back to taking naps again on a regular schedule. He is eating on a schedule and even sleeping in his room! He is happy, and smiley, and coo’s and it’s seriously like I have been given a new baby! I’m beyond excited!
The winning combination that keeps him happy is swinging in his swing at a high speed with his white noise teddy bear (it sounds like a heart beating in utero) volume turned up. Perfection.
IF I have spoken too soon and the colic returns, it sure was nice to have a happy and scheduled baby for 3 days.
Please take a moment today and in the following days to reflect on the things that you are grateful for. If you are like me, I’m sure that you can say, that even through hardships there are true blessings in each of our lives. We should not only use Thanksgiving Day to reflect on these blessings but every day.
… how’s that hymn go …
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done
Happy Gobble Gobble (you girls out there remember Gobble Gobble?!)
I really hate to use this blog as a sounding board for me to complain. Afterall, I’m not the first new mother that ever lived on this planet and complaints do no one any good. BUT, this is my blog and right now my life consist of living and learning with a new baby. So, from time to time I am going to complain about my hardships.
I have a MUCH deeper appreciation for parenting now that I have become a parent myself. I always ‘knew’ that being a mom was a hard job .. but knowing and experiencing it are two totally different things. Totally different.
Ebin has colic. He has the one thing I forgot to pray about before he was born. I would pray ‘God please let my baby be developmentally on par’ .. so far, he is. I would pray ‘God please let my delivery go smoothly and take away my fear’ .. I had a c-section with no fear and recovered beautifully. ‘God please let my baby be cute’ .. ok that one is kind of vain, but we ALL want a pretty baby admit it or not. It never crossed my mind to ask for a content baby. Because let me tell you, at this phase in his life, Ebin is everything BUT content. He is inconsolable a lot of the time and it’s very frustrating not knowing how to help him feel better. His pediatrician has him on some medicine that will hopefully help his stomach/digestive track feel better. But, until we find the right combo of meds we are looking at at least a few more weeks of tearful afternoons and nights.
I am comforted in the fact that colic normally stops around 4 months. He’s 6 weeks now, so I’m almost halfway there.
There are moments in the day when he is calm. In those moments I see a sweet personality. He’s become more alert and he smiles and baby talks and watches people like no-body’s business. Those are the moments that get me through the crying, fitful, and inconsolable times and I am so grateful for those moments.
Ok, so I’m sure all of you watch The Tyra Banks Show! Really I know a lot of ya’ll don’t, but someone must because it’s still on the air.
Anyway, I was watching the other day and it was about women who work as women of the night. Like porn stars, call girls, escorts, strippers, all the different facets of that, um, profession. And basically they were all on this Tyra panel and they discussed who was morally better than the other person .. when CLEARLY they are all a little morally off.
So while they were all arguing, Trya was trying to ’smooth things over’ with all the girls and she said:
“I’ve really come to believe that God doesn’t judge us! I don’t think He’s looking down thinking ‘oh no girl, that’s wrong!’ I’m sure He’s not happy, but He doesn’t judge us. We as human’s judge people, but God doesn’t judge us”
I didn’t think that transitioning the baby from the bassinet in our room to the crib in his room would be very difficult. What’s the big deal right? Just put him in his room when all parties are ready, right? Well, like a lot of things dealing with motherhood, I had no idea how hard this would be.
The last week or so have been hard. He’s a month old now and I’m going back to work soon, so I’ve had increasing pressure on myself to get him on a schedule. Ebs been really noisy in his sleep. I don’t really get it. He sleeps very soundly from 9 ish to 3 ish. Then the rest of the night he’s ready to party .. and not in a good way. He grunts, moans, and fusses until I just loose it and pick him up and cradle him in our bed, which I KNOW creates a HORRIBLE habit!! So, we decided before I could make this habit concrete it was time to transisition him to his room.
The first attempt ** began with a daytime nap in his room. I figured that’s the best way for us to get used to not being so close in proximity, and for him to get used to his bed. Over the span of a 2 hour nap he woke up about every 20 minutes. I’m not sure if the bed just felt funny to him or what, but he wasn’t having it.
Second attempt was at night time. He was sound asleep when I put him in his bed. I put on a lullaby cd. 20 minutes later he woke up and started fussing. Hmmm, seems like a trend.
Third attempt and I think things might be getting better. He slept the first part of the night in his bed. But the second part of the night he fussed so we fell asleep on the couch after I nursed him.
I’m thinking this transition is going to continue to take some work on my part. I’m sure in a week or two Ebs will be used to his new bed and be sleeping well (I hope). For now, I’m sleeping pretty good minus Ebin. I feel a little bad saying that, but it’s nice to have my room back!
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** Here’s a pic of the first time I laid him down for a nap
Ebin just turned one month old. During his first month he has really come into his own. As he sleeps a little less during the day I am able to see more and more of his little personality. Most of what I see I love, I mean come on, he’s presh!! But every once in awhile a little wild hair flairs up in him, and I can be certain he is going to be head-strong (I deserve it, right mom?)
Exhibit A
Ebin likes to sleep with his hands outside his blankets. When they are covered up he gets claustrophobic! But, lately he hasn’t been sleeping well, so my friend Kristen suggested wrapping him in a full-on swaddle .. arms tucked in and all. She said this creates a womb-like atmosphere that is comforting to infants. I did that and it did the trick. He slept for nearly 5 hours that night! BUT, when Ebin woke up he realized he was in a straight jacket which freaked him out!! He went thru great lengths to get himself out of this ‘comforting swaddle.’ Notice his arm is coming out of his collar (this picture was taken while he was baby cussing me) .. poor little guy was desperate to be free.
This is just one of the many fits that he has thrown. He knows EXACTLY what he wants, and if he doesn’t get it, he’s going to throw a fit until it’s right.
What can I say .. I am part Irish and I think he’s inherited my temper.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending ‘Ladies Day’ at my friend Wendy’s church. It was a great time of bible study, food, and fellowship.
The speaker was Casandra Martin. She’a written several women’s bible studies. The theme of the weekend was ‘Believe, Belong, Be Changed.’ The bible study was about the woman at the well outside the city of Samaria. The speaker had a great way of re-telling this story in a different perspective than I had ever heard. She focused on the first phrase of the story that explained that Jesus HAD to stop thru Samaria. He didn’t actually HAVE to stop .. you see, the Jews and Samarian’s hated each other and Jews always went around the city to avoid the Samarians. But Jesus HAD to go thru the city to meet her. He knew that she needed Him and He sought her out. The speaker reminded us of how we as Christian’s belong to Him and He is always waiting to be with us.
This morning I was watching The Today Show. They had a segment about Billy Graham. He is by far the most influential evangelist of our time, and today turns 90 years old.
I perked up while the segment was running. I am always curious to see how the ‘unbeleiving world’ will portray such a strong Christian. I was really impressed with the story, and thought it was very informative. It talked about how Billy Graham has shared Christ with more people than anyone else (that they know of) to date. They said that he has been a Spiritual Adviser for many Presidents dating back to Truman.
The most interesting part of the entire segment to me was when they discussed Graham’s political views. Did you know that Billy Graham is a registered Democrat? I was very surprised to hear that. Living in ‘the Bible belt’ and being surrounding by harsh conservatives, I’ve heard during this election that there was ‘no way a God fearing Christian could be a Democrat.’ I think those types of comments are ridiculous! Hearing that Billy Graham is a registered Democrat really de-bunks a lot of those closed minded views that sometimes we are surrounded with.
I’m pretty sure my feelings about this election are like a lot of other Americans. Anticipation.
It seems like the candidates have been campaigning f-o-r-e-v-e-r! I was SO ready for election day to get here so that we would finally know who would be the next President. I’ve been saying for at least 2 years that the next President would be a Democrat. I said this simply because of the state of the country. Over the last few years people have become increasingly unhappy with Bush, and you could just tell it was inevitable, the next Mr. President would be a democrat.
Still, I’ve watched as much or more election coverage over the last 3-4 months then I ever thought I would. I have really enjoyed listening to both candidates. I enjoyed hearing what really makes them tick, and listening to them go at it at each debate. It was a real roller coaster.
I can honestly say that I was not surprised at all with the outcome. It became pretty apparent over the last few weeks how much momentum Obama was gaining. It’s hard to say where the country will go from here. Obama has a lot of messes to clean up, and a lot of promises to fulfill and only time will tell how good of a President he will be.
With all that being said here are the two things I will always remember about the final outcome:
Witnessing history – No matter what political affiliation you have, you CAN NOT deny that last night we all witnessed history. If you had asked our Founding Father’s if we would ever have an African American President, I’m sure you would have been shunned. I think electing an African American President is a testament to how far our country has come and how we have finally begun to break some racial barriers. This is going to be in the history books, and we LIVED it!
McCain’s Grace – I was truly impressed with the grace, dignity, and humble-ness that McCain showed during his exit speech (I say ‘exit’ bc I know there is a word for his speech, but I have new mommy brain and can’t think of the right word right now, maybe I’ll remember come 4 am this coming morning) I was also very touched that he stood up and said that it’s time to back Obama bc he is going to be the next President, and as Americans we are to stand behind our President. What grace.
So let’s all put our prayer’s towards Barack Obama. He is going to be our President come January and he will certainly need The Lord’s help to turn this country around.
“Makes Jesus your Lord proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of fools. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government.” 1 Peter 2:13-17 (The Message Translation)
“Be a good citizen. All governments are under God. Insofar as there is peace and order, it’s God’s order. So live responsibly as a citizen.” Romans 13:1 (The Message Translation)
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:14 (New International Version)
I love, love, LOVE when God sends little things my way to encourage me. His encouragements are always at the perfect time and always exactly what needs to be heard/said/read.
Here is a verse that really encouraged me today!
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you go through the fires of oppression, you will not be burned up, the flames will not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2
Jason and I were invited to a wine tasting and auction benefitting Wings Cancer Foundation here in Memphis. We were invited to go earlier in the week, and we jumped at the chance to get out of the house for a few hours without the baby. My sister watched the baby, thanks again Leah, and we headed off for a nice evening out.
Here’s some pics:
I will say, I did miss the baby while we were gone. All my friends said I would ‘understand one day’ and now I do
Halloween was fun this year. I really can’t remember the last time I did something half-way enjoyable for Halloween. It’s been a long time, that’s for sure!
This year my mom, dad, brother, sister, and brother-in-law came over for awhile to take pics of Ebin in his first Halloween costume. Then we went to trunk-or-treating at Jason’s church (which was organized by my sister-in-law Misty, good job Misty!)
It was our first major outing with Ebin and it went well. Here’s some pics!
