I knew the day would come eventually when I’d be sick, but my first priority would still be taking care of the neediest member of the family. That day is today. I’m not horribly ill or anything, but definitely under the weather. The kind of thing that usually clears up quickly with a good night’s sleep and many cups of tea. I’ve got the tea part down anyway.
Today I am…
hearing: the trash and recycling trucks compacting their loads and rumbling down the street; soft doggie snores; baby’s rhythmic suck-suck-swallow
seeing: smudges on my glasses from little exploring fingers; Mochi-dog’s new Cindy Crawford-esque facial wart; softly falling snow (a rarity this winter)
feeling: a dull ache behind my eyes and nasal drip; little fingers pulling, tugging, grasping my hair
tasting: lots of fluids – orange juice, tea (ginger green and chai), and water
smelling: not much!
I love dressing little man. It’s so much more fun picking out his clothes than mine these days. There may be a multitude of clothes for baby girls, but I am loving little boy things… like argyle sweaters.
One of my favorite blogs, Adventures in Babywearing, introduced me to Small Style, a weekly link-up at Mama Loves Papa. I finally started following Mama Loves Papa and now I’m participating in my first Small Style.
I especially love picking out his church clothes. Thankfully, we have good children’s consignment shops around here so I can afford to indulge in oh so cute sweaters, cargo pants, and baby shoes. I love baby clothes that are miniature versions of man clothes!
Now that little man is sitting well on his own, these photos should be easier to take in future! (I took these a few weeks ago, just before he’d mastered that skill.)
On Sam this week:
Sweater – Old Navy (consignment)
Shirt – Andrew Fezza (consignment)
Pants – Gymboree (consignment)
Shoes – Teeny Toes (consignment)
I don’t remember where I first heard the idea of recording a day’s events at different life stages for your child, but it stuck with me. A couple weeks ago, I finally did it. If you’ve ever wondered what fills the hours of a stay-at-home mom’s day, here’s the answer. Or at least an answer.
Note: I chose to record our day as bedtime to bedtime since the nighttime hours so inform the daytime hours at this stage. We start on a Tuesday night.
8:00 pm – Jeff takes Sam up to the nursery to get him ready for bed.
8:18 pm – Lights are out and we rock as Sam eats before sleep.
8:50 pm – Baby falls asleep and I lay him down in his crib. I go downstairs to serve up dinner (baked ziti) and we eat in the living room while catching up on the latest episode of Downton Abbey. We take a break in the middle for some tea and to let the puppies out.
10:30 pm – I switch laundry (we need fresh bath towels in the morning!) and tidy up the downstairs and kitchen, finish sorting mail, etc.
11:25 pm – We head up to bed and read aloud together.
11:43 pm – Sam wakes up to eat only a page into Jeff’s reading. This timing has become a regular pattern as of late. I read and (slowly) respond to email on my iPod Touch as he nurses in the dark.
12:15 am – Baby is done eating. I put him back in bed, transfer the towels to the dryer, and put myself to bed.
1:45 am – Sam is up again and I’ve only been asleep a little while… not sure how long, but I remember seeing 1:00 am. I pick him up (he’s again rolled onto his belly) and start feeding him only to realize I was too groggy to do math (and I didn’t check my iPod tracking app like usual) and he probably wasn’t hungry again so soon. Normally I would have tried the paci first. Oops.
2:04 am – I’m able to pull him off and it’s back to bed for both of us. This time I try rolling him onto his belly to start out in hopes that it might make a difference.
2:20 am – I hear him again over the monitor but it’s not sustained. Maybe he found his fingers!
4:34 am – Sam again. Try (new, 6 month) paci and he takes it. Once convinced he’s actually back to sleep and keeping the paci, I visit the bathroom and then go to the basement to bring up towels. Back in bed by 4:48.
5:36 am – This time he seems legitimatly hungry. He nurses and I catch up on Facebook.
9:15 am – I wake up to baby noise. I’ve hit snooze in my sleep on my 8:30 alarm several times (nothing new here). He quiets down, and I drift off again until 9:40 at which time I shower and get dressed for the day.
10:20 am – Sam’s awake again, but making happy noises. I quietly check on him and decide I have time for a quick bowl of cereal before getting him up.
10:30 am – I’m greeted with big smiles and laughs. I’m pretty sure he’s got a dirty diaper (finally! after three days!) so we attend to that first rather than eating first like usual. After airing out a bit and some play on the changing table, he’s starts to lose it. Time to eat! I check Facebook and email while he eats.
12:00 pm – Downstairs at last. We watch the doggies play outside for a bit then it’s time for some solo playtime (for baby) and laundry (for me).
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1:00 pm – Laundry is sorted and the first load is in. By now I have a hungry and tired baby on my hands. He eats for about 35 minutes and is still awake. When it’s clear he’s not going to immediately fall asleep, we gather up a few books and head up to the nursery to get a fresh diaper and start the nap routine.
2:00 pm – Books finished. We rock together, Sam with his head on my chest. I sing a lullaby then start his CD of sleepytime music while shh, shh, shhhhhing in his ear. After 20 minutes of this, along with some of his “grinding”, he is glazed over and nearly asleep. Then I hear and feel him filling his diaper. Experience has taught me to wait for more. Experience proves right again. Just as I think he’s done and I’m debating changing him (at the risk of waking him and starting the process over), he conks out hard. I set him in the crib and carefully roll him to his belly. I leave the music going on repeat for insurance.
2:45 pm – Back to the laundry and it’s lunch time for me (though I did snag an orange earlier).
3:15 pm – As I’m sitting down to eat lunch and read my Bible, I spill half my water glass over my notebook, iPod, and phone in an attempt to pick up my phone to check a voicemail message. Nice.
4:15 pm – Sam wakes up happy (not usually the case after naps) from a long nap, maybe the longest he’s taken in his crib. Diaper change. He’s happy so I let him play while I stuff diapers.
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5:15 pm – Time to nurse. I check email, Facebook, blogs, and read my book.
6:00 pm – His gourmet meal finished, we have some playtime together then feed the dogs, switch more laundry, finish up some odds and ends, and then work on sitting and grasping skills.
6:50 pm – Jeff gets home after his weekly racquetball game. Sam is always excited to see his daddy! We all enjoy some time just hanging out together.
7:30 pm – We have a quick meal of leftover ziti before the kiddo melts down. I realize part of his fussiness is hunger so he has a quick 15 minute snack before getting ready for his bath and bed.
8:00 pm – Bath time! I get Sam ready while Jeff gets his bath ready. After the bath and lotion starts the nightly bedtime routine: sleepytime CD, diaper change, pjs, and a book. Daddy says goodnight and it’s time to turn out the light and nurse.
9:08 pm – Sleep comes after eating for about 20 minutes. Goodnight, sweet baby.
Our plans for the day shifted at the last minute so I am just now getting to posting my thankful list I’d planned for today. I’d also planned other posts for earlier this week, which obviously didn’t happen, but I really wanted to get this one up.
I’ve felt more tired than usual this week. I think that’s due to an increase in outside the house and people activity at the end of last week and over the weekend. This introvert is missing her quiet ‘me time.’ I’m looking forward to a little recharge time over the coming weekend.
Today (and this month) I am thankful for…
- a healthy, happy baby
- hot showers on cold mornings
- a new friend
- high quality children’s consignment shops in our area
- the mild winter thus far (though I would like it to really snow sometime!)
- friends who keep me accountable and pray for me
- stories that transport me to other times and other places
- old friends who keep in touch over the years and miles that separate us
- God’s control over the future of this nation
- the time every evening when my husband walks in the door
- a night out with MOPS ladies (without the baby!)
- quick answers to prayer
- a baby that likes to snuggle
What are you thankful for these days?
The weekend before Thanksgiving was a child dedication service at our church. What does that mean? Well, we don’t baptize babies at our church because we practice believer’s baptism, but we do have the option to dedicate them to God in front of the congregation. However, it’s primarily an act on the part of the parents to publicly give thanks for God’s gift of life and acknowledge the accountability that comes with that gift. It is we the parents who are dedicating ourselves to be faithful stewards of the child God has entrusted to us and to endeavor to raise our child in such a way that brings honor and glory to God.
As our pastor says, there is no blessing spoken or guarantee given that these kids will grow up to be “healthy, wealthy, and wise” or even that they will enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls. We can only pray and do our best to teach and point them to our gracious, loving Heavenly Father, and ask our church family to come along side us and support us on the journey.
My parents had planned a quick weekend trip out to see us (okay, mostly to see their grandbaby) before we even knew a dedication was planned. We were all pretty excited about God’s providence. Then my mom got strep throat the week before their trip. It was a game-time decision, but they ultimately decided not to make the trip. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed out.
This particular Sunday, we brought Sam along with three other families, all of whom we know and two of which we are close friends. It was extra special to be up there with friends from our small community within our larger church community.
After Pastor Wayne introduced all the families and explained the purpose of the dedication, much as I have just done, he asked all of us parents a series of questions. I transcribed these questions from the service video mainly to remind us to what we have committed ourselves.
Have you put your faith in the person of Jesus Christ, that He is who He claimed to be and that He died as your substitute for sin and that it is the merit of His righteousness alone that brings you into fellowship with God the Father?
Have you willingly made a commitment to the purpose of glorifying God in all areas of life including personal conduct, public conversation, and the priority of establishing and maintaining a Christian home?
Do you publicly commit yourselves as parents to raise each of your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, realizing your responsibility to be faithful stewards of the life that God has entrusted to you, and as part of fulfilling the commitment, do you promise to live before the children a life that has been transformed by the gospel of grace and to share the truth of the gospel with them so they might come to know Jesus Christ as their personal savior, and to be diligent in both formal and informal settings to teach them their responsibility to love God whole-heartedly?
Those are some big commitments, huh? That’s why I’m so thankful for the final question, posed not to us, but to the church body:
Do you, the family of faith, commit yourself to model the Christian life before these children and to pray for and support these families that they might indeed fulfill their God-given responsibilities?
We feel the blessings of a church community keenly because, among other reasons, we don’t have family in town. It is God who gives us the strength to parent our children, and He uses others to build us up and help us in the journey.
Since the kids won’t remember the event, each of them receives a New Testament as a reminder of what happened this day.
Sam receiving his New Testament from Pastor Wayne
Most everyone says that Sam is “little Jeff.”
Well, I’ve pulled out the baby pictures and converted to B&W so as to not give away any obviously defining characteristics. You be the judge…
Parent A:
Parent B:
Sam:
What’s your vote? Parent A? Parent B? Or a little of both?
