I do not know how parents who sleep on different floors of the house do it!
My latest favorite picture:
Monday, August 16, 2010
Missing her...
It is 11 p.m. and I am in our room. Allen is asleep. I am not (obviously.) I tend to get second winds late at night these days, which stinks because 5 am (Lorelei's average first feeding) comes rather early, and this morning it took an hour to get her back to sleep. Anyway, my daughter has been sleeping in her own room for a little over a week now. Maybe it was not the greatest idea to keep our baby in our room for five months. It seems that most parents do it for like 6-12 weeks. But it felt right for us. And even though the habit was harder for me to break than her, I would do it again with subsequent children. It is just such a beautiful experience. And I must say, I miss her. I miss leaning over and hearing her sigh or feeling her breathe. I miss snuggling with her after Allen left for work, or being able to just lean over and pick her up to feed. I liked having her in our room and she was never a bother to me (well until she started waking up 3-4 times a night again...that was no fun.) Now, I have the static of a monitor keeping me company, and in order to lay my hand on her back and feel it rise and fall, I need to walk across my house. It is storming tonight, and I wanted to bring her back in here to sleep, (in case she got scared,) and then I admitted that she probably has no idea it is thundering outside or what that means or that she could be afraid of it someday. So there she sleeps.
I do not know how parents who sleep on different floors of the house do it!
My latest favorite picture:
I do not know how parents who sleep on different floors of the house do it!
My latest favorite picture:
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Re-Decorating
I have always loved to decorate. When I was a child, my bedrooms were always covered with posters (normally Beauty and the Beast and Audrey Hepburn- not much in my interests have changed.) When my college roommate of three semesters and I moved into our little studio apartment (as in ONE room + a bathroom,) we took hours getting movie posters and calendars and pictures of old movie actresses up. I made big collages of photos of my friends and (now) husband. I framed my bed with cards and letters. I hung artwork drawn by the kids I babysat on the walls.
While that type of decorating definitely had personality and was very appropriate for that time in my life, once I got my own home I decided I needed to start decorating a bit more like a "grown up" and a bit less like a college student. Unfortunately, I always had one major downfall: I seem to have a tendency to be majorly cluttered. Allen's and my first home (a tiny rented townhouse) had lovely pictures on the walls, but every surface was covered in knick knacks, figurines, mementos from our wedding and just...random crap! But it worked for us because we did not intend to stay there too long.
We moved in November of last year to our first home of our own, a place we intend to stay in for another several years, and I was excited to decorate...but was also about 4 months pregnant! This meant that the nursery was beautiful finished, while the rest of the rooms followed the same pattern every other place I have ever lived; lots of random stuff covering every surface.
For a while, I was content with this. We were on a budget, I tried to achieve some sort of "order" to my clutter, and if anything, my home was full of memories. But now that I am a stay home mom, I sometimes get choked with the clutter. It is just SO much to keep tidy and to keep out of reach of small children who come to visit (and soon our small child who will be mobile before we know it.) Additionally, I kept being a little bit jealous of my friends who had really cohesive rooms in their houses which looked like something out of a Real Simple magazine. Their rooms were not just full of family pictures and knick knacks; they had art and simplicity and flowers and themes. I wanted that.
However, there was still a problem; I am still on a budget (like MAJOR) and have a little one around keeping me from concentrated decorating time. So, I gave myself a good long week, and I enlisted the help of one of my best friends (Justine) and my mother. Justine has one of those apartments that I described above. She has an incredible gift for taking a bunch of random things from the dollar store or your kitchen cabinets (like for instance, a wine glass, a mirror, a candle and a couple of silk flowers,) and creating something really artistic. I knew she would be able to look at my limited resources and create something beautiful. My mom is extremely good at organizing, speed cleaning and keeping my daughter happy. The three of us made a great team.
So, here is what we did:
Budget: $20. Seriously. This is what I had to spend on decor. We spent another 20 printing some pictures and buying nails, but that does not count. For the alloted $20 we bought (at the Dollar Tree):
-1 hand towel
-3 bunches of fake roses/greenery
-2 four feet strands of fake ivy
-2 packs of votives (four total)
-3 small baskets
-2 magnetic dry erase boards (one was a weekly calendar, one was normal)
-One pack of shells
-3 bunches of plastic grapes
-1 mesh wire letter tray
-1 bottle of water (because shopping makes you thirsty!)
Here are some of the items from home that we used:
-a bunch of mismatched vases
-little glass beads
-silk roses I had laying around the house
-about a gazillion pictures and frames
-some gold lacy cloth stuff
-some greeting cards
-big books to pile things on
-a large wall shelf (actually more like 5 shelves joined together) which we took got from a pile of "trash" on the side of the road in my parents' development.
(BEST TIP EVER: Go for a walk around a nice neighborhood the night before trash day. You will be shocked at what people throw out! Lorelei also has a gorgeous wooden dollhouse as a result of this.)
Here are the rooms we tackled:
EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE
(3 bedrooms, 1 hall bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen.)
Anyway, it may not make sense, but these items together created quite a beautiful decor for our home! Our rooms have "color palates" (sort of) and not every single surface is covered with a million things, but I still feel like my memories and creativity are being preserved. I will post pictures and details on what we did to each room when we are done; but for now, I am going to bed in my "new-to-me" bedroom!
While that type of decorating definitely had personality and was very appropriate for that time in my life, once I got my own home I decided I needed to start decorating a bit more like a "grown up" and a bit less like a college student. Unfortunately, I always had one major downfall: I seem to have a tendency to be majorly cluttered. Allen's and my first home (a tiny rented townhouse) had lovely pictures on the walls, but every surface was covered in knick knacks, figurines, mementos from our wedding and just...random crap! But it worked for us because we did not intend to stay there too long.
We moved in November of last year to our first home of our own, a place we intend to stay in for another several years, and I was excited to decorate...but was also about 4 months pregnant! This meant that the nursery was beautiful finished, while the rest of the rooms followed the same pattern every other place I have ever lived; lots of random stuff covering every surface.
For a while, I was content with this. We were on a budget, I tried to achieve some sort of "order" to my clutter, and if anything, my home was full of memories. But now that I am a stay home mom, I sometimes get choked with the clutter. It is just SO much to keep tidy and to keep out of reach of small children who come to visit (and soon our small child who will be mobile before we know it.) Additionally, I kept being a little bit jealous of my friends who had really cohesive rooms in their houses which looked like something out of a Real Simple magazine. Their rooms were not just full of family pictures and knick knacks; they had art and simplicity and flowers and themes. I wanted that.
However, there was still a problem; I am still on a budget (like MAJOR) and have a little one around keeping me from concentrated decorating time. So, I gave myself a good long week, and I enlisted the help of one of my best friends (Justine) and my mother. Justine has one of those apartments that I described above. She has an incredible gift for taking a bunch of random things from the dollar store or your kitchen cabinets (like for instance, a wine glass, a mirror, a candle and a couple of silk flowers,) and creating something really artistic. I knew she would be able to look at my limited resources and create something beautiful. My mom is extremely good at organizing, speed cleaning and keeping my daughter happy. The three of us made a great team.
So, here is what we did:
Budget: $20. Seriously. This is what I had to spend on decor. We spent another 20 printing some pictures and buying nails, but that does not count. For the alloted $20 we bought (at the Dollar Tree):
-1 hand towel
-3 bunches of fake roses/greenery
-2 four feet strands of fake ivy
-2 packs of votives (four total)
-3 small baskets
-2 magnetic dry erase boards (one was a weekly calendar, one was normal)
-One pack of shells
-3 bunches of plastic grapes
-1 mesh wire letter tray
-1 bottle of water (because shopping makes you thirsty!)
Here are some of the items from home that we used:
-a bunch of mismatched vases
-little glass beads
-silk roses I had laying around the house
-about a gazillion pictures and frames
-some gold lacy cloth stuff
-some greeting cards
-big books to pile things on
-a large wall shelf (actually more like 5 shelves joined together) which we took got from a pile of "trash" on the side of the road in my parents' development.
(BEST TIP EVER: Go for a walk around a nice neighborhood the night before trash day. You will be shocked at what people throw out! Lorelei also has a gorgeous wooden dollhouse as a result of this.)
Here are the rooms we tackled:
EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE
(3 bedrooms, 1 hall bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen.)
Anyway, it may not make sense, but these items together created quite a beautiful decor for our home! Our rooms have "color palates" (sort of) and not every single surface is covered with a million things, but I still feel like my memories and creativity are being preserved. I will post pictures and details on what we did to each room when we are done; but for now, I am going to bed in my "new-to-me" bedroom!
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Beautiful Lorelei
I love this sequence from the beach house...
She is just so precious! I thank God for my girl :-)
She is just so precious! I thank God for my girl :-)
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Steam of Consciousness
One of my favorite bloggers (www.kellehampton.com- bookmark this and read it. It is good for the heart. Seriously I am not kidding!) frequently does these posts of randominity. So I am going to try it because I do not have the energy to think up a creative, topical post. Now of course, Kelle's are filled with gorgeous photography, but whatever. Here I go.
We are at the beach. Lorelei and I are currently in a beautiful beach house with my mom, dad, brother (+ 1 friend) and sister (+1 friend) and two obnoxious dogs. Allen will be joining us tomorrow. I love being surrounded by family and feel a bit less lonely and overwhelmed than I do most days. I am still getting used to the Stay at Home Mom thing.
So for the past three weeks, I have been super congested and stuffy. For two of those three weeks, I felt like I had been hit with a truck and had to even take it easy around the house. I thought it was my less-than-great immune system responding to my new lack of sleep (and yes, we are still partying at 4 am. on a regular basis,) but then my husband and child started showing the same systems. Yes, I gave my daughter her first cold. Except she has this pathetic little cough to go with it, and it breaks my heart to hear her little congested breaths. And let me tell you, the only thing that is worse than shooting salt water from a high pressure can into your nasal cavaties only to have it burn down the back of your throat, is to do the same to your almost-five-month-old. Ugh. It makes me feel awful.
Tonight while walking on the streets than ran off the boardwalk, we wandered into what looked like a bookstore. But it was so much more than a bookstore; it just kept going and going with box and toys and dress up clothes and puppets and one of the best children's sections I had ever seen. We bought Lorelei two books: Madeline and Pat the Bunny. I wanted to buy her the whole store. I want my daughter to read (or hear me read) every book she could ever want and every book I have ever loved. I find that our reading list is a little much for a baby right now. We are more likely to be found reading poetry (everything from Shakespeare to Shel Silverstein,) than little baby books (though I LOVE Sandra Boynton,) but I am sure my days of "see the dog. The dog barks. Bark, dog, bark" are coming. And side note, but I think I would love to be a children's book author. I mean seriously, I have read a lot of childrens' books and while some are pure genius (see link above,) some are like a bunch of random nouns strewn together with embellished stick figures. And people get paid for that? Sign me up!
And speaking of paying for things, does anyone have this toy? Sophie the Giraffe is apparently nicknamed "baby crack" because it is the most addictive (but beneficial, unlike crack) baby chew toy out there. I am missing something though...it is a giraffe, and a strange one at that, which cost eighteen dollars. And if I pay this $18, my daughter is going to stick it in her mouth and nom on it all day. Worth the cost? I also have this sound machine on our wish list, to aide in our transition from our room to The Crib. Yeah. That hasn't happened yet either.
Anyway, I will leave you, my two or three faithful readers, with a couple of pics, and am going to go try Grottos Pizza again and see if I like it this year.
We are at the beach. Lorelei and I are currently in a beautiful beach house with my mom, dad, brother (+ 1 friend) and sister (+1 friend) and two obnoxious dogs. Allen will be joining us tomorrow. I love being surrounded by family and feel a bit less lonely and overwhelmed than I do most days. I am still getting used to the Stay at Home Mom thing.
So for the past three weeks, I have been super congested and stuffy. For two of those three weeks, I felt like I had been hit with a truck and had to even take it easy around the house. I thought it was my less-than-great immune system responding to my new lack of sleep (and yes, we are still partying at 4 am. on a regular basis,) but then my husband and child started showing the same systems. Yes, I gave my daughter her first cold. Except she has this pathetic little cough to go with it, and it breaks my heart to hear her little congested breaths. And let me tell you, the only thing that is worse than shooting salt water from a high pressure can into your nasal cavaties only to have it burn down the back of your throat, is to do the same to your almost-five-month-old. Ugh. It makes me feel awful.
Tonight while walking on the streets than ran off the boardwalk, we wandered into what looked like a bookstore. But it was so much more than a bookstore; it just kept going and going with box and toys and dress up clothes and puppets and one of the best children's sections I had ever seen. We bought Lorelei two books: Madeline and Pat the Bunny. I wanted to buy her the whole store. I want my daughter to read (or hear me read) every book she could ever want and every book I have ever loved. I find that our reading list is a little much for a baby right now. We are more likely to be found reading poetry (everything from Shakespeare to Shel Silverstein,) than little baby books (though I LOVE Sandra Boynton,) but I am sure my days of "see the dog. The dog barks. Bark, dog, bark" are coming. And side note, but I think I would love to be a children's book author. I mean seriously, I have read a lot of childrens' books and while some are pure genius (see link above,) some are like a bunch of random nouns strewn together with embellished stick figures. And people get paid for that? Sign me up!
And speaking of paying for things, does anyone have this toy? Sophie the Giraffe is apparently nicknamed "baby crack" because it is the most addictive (but beneficial, unlike crack) baby chew toy out there. I am missing something though...it is a giraffe, and a strange one at that, which cost eighteen dollars. And if I pay this $18, my daughter is going to stick it in her mouth and nom on it all day. Worth the cost? I also have this sound machine on our wish list, to aide in our transition from our room to The Crib. Yeah. That hasn't happened yet either.
Anyway, I will leave you, my two or three faithful readers, with a couple of pics, and am going to go try Grottos Pizza again and see if I like it this year.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
So I guess I should update...
We did not make it through the night.
Her motion monitor went off like 6 or 7 times between 12am and 1am. I do not think she actually stopped breathing or anything; I think that she was in a deep sleep and the sensitivity was not high enough, but after waking up from that thing so many times, I put her back in our room so I could sleep for more than a few minutes. And then she wanted to eat at 1, 4 and 7. Maybe I will wait until this growth spurt is over to try again...or maybe we will adjust the sensitivity and try again tonight.
Needless to say she would not nap in her crib today either. Two attempts, each one hour long, and she cried and cried (interspersed with me going in and comforting her, putting her almost to sleep.) And after each time, I brought her out and put her in the swing so I could work a little, and she fell asleep almost immediately and slept for an hour each time. Little stinker.
Her motion monitor went off like 6 or 7 times between 12am and 1am. I do not think she actually stopped breathing or anything; I think that she was in a deep sleep and the sensitivity was not high enough, but after waking up from that thing so many times, I put her back in our room so I could sleep for more than a few minutes. And then she wanted to eat at 1, 4 and 7. Maybe I will wait until this growth spurt is over to try again...or maybe we will adjust the sensitivity and try again tonight.
Needless to say she would not nap in her crib today either. Two attempts, each one hour long, and she cried and cried (interspersed with me going in and comforting her, putting her almost to sleep.) And after each time, I brought her out and put her in the swing so I could work a little, and she fell asleep almost immediately and slept for an hour each time. Little stinker.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
She is in her crib...
I was totally not looking forward to this night. In fact, it was not supposed to happen until she is six months old. But this week has been a rough one, and friends that I trust have encouraged me to try to put Lorelei in her crib, in her own room tonight.
Friends, this is tough on me! I have not slept more than a few feet away from my little girl since she was born, and I LOVED that. Co-sleeping makes it so easy for middle of the night feedings, side nursing and just bonding with my baby. I loved leaning over to feel her breathe at night. I loved pulling her into bed with me to snuggle when Allen left for work. I loved that if she did randomly wake up a bit early wanting to nurse, I could just lay there with her and we could both fall back asleep after. But I am starting to think it is time.
A woman who I trust from my church, who happens to be a pediatric nurse with six children, said that it is time to move the baby from your room when you are losing sleep because of her being there rather than gaining it. It is not a matter of a specific time or age; just when you know that you need to look out for your own health too. This past week, Lorelei is going through some sort of growth spurt or something, and also has started moving and rolling and waking up in her sleep, thus waking me up. Now please do not think that I am saying I do not want my daughter to wake me up if she is hungry. I would (and have) wake up every hour or so if she needed me. But I do not think I am helping anyone by waking up in anxiety because I heard her move into a position that made me nervous. Nor am I learning to discern her hunger cry from a random "I just woke up" cry if I am jumping to get her the second I hear her. Both of our sleep schedules have been a mess this week, and if this can help both of us get some sleep, I am willing to try. If she keeps waking up in the middle of the night needing to feed and it is inconvenient to have her down the hall, I will move her back temporarily.
So in the meantime, I have an awesome monitor that detects motion (and sounds an alarm if it does not detect motion for like 20 seconds.) She seems to be sleeping peacefully (on her side like her momma,) and has been in bed for about an hour and a half so far. But oh how I will miss her tonight. After I put her to bed, she cried a bit and I went back in to put her pacifier back in her mouth. She grabbed my hand and pulled it to her face, hugging it like she would a doll or teddy bear. When she was a newborn, if someone else was holding her and she started crying, I would place my hand on her cheek and she would stop, because she sensed momma was there. Now that trick does not quite fool her anymore, but apparently my touch on her cheek still comforts her. I love that.
Praying for both of us to sleep well tonight!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
One whole month...
That is how long it has been since I have last blogged! And what a month of blessing.
I could start with the excuses; shortly after my last post, our AC broke and we endured too many days of a heatwave before packing up to stay with my parents. And using their internet makes me remember the days of dialup ten years ago, so a blog post was just not feasible. We were too busy trying to keep my little tinker cool and happy and still on some semblance of a schedule. But the coolest thing is how people cared for us through this time. When our AC broke, I posted something on facebook asking for some help staying cool, and several people volunteered fans for us. Allen's parents loaned us a window unit that kept Lorelei safe from overheating during her naps and at night. And finally, when it just got to be too much, my parents opened their entire home for us and fed us for a whole five days. It helped us buy some time to find a repair man and save the money for it, and when it was all said and done, it was not nearly as bad as we thought!
And then we went on Lorelei's first vacation to Allen's family cabin in the mountains. It was another huge blessing because it was through the generocity of family members and friends helping us out with travel and cooking our meals during the trip, we were able to take a vacation we otherwise could not afford. What a gift to have a few days in a beautiful place with family all around.
And now we are back home and life goes on.
Lorelei is four months and one week old. She is learning and growing every day, and still very much the light of my life. Some stats:
-She is still quite the peanut; only in the 15th percentile for weight, yet the 35th for height.
-When she is in the mood to (and only then) she will roll back and forth from belly to back. She rolls so much that I had to stop swaddling her in her woombie at night because she can flop on her face and stretch out like she is doing a back bend.
-She is eating about six times a day and taking about 3-4 mini naps a day. I would love to turn that into two legit naps. Working on that.
-She started laughing. And has done it approximately three times since the very first time two weeks ago. It is glorious.
-She is in a huge "everything in the mouth" phase; anything she can hold onto she instantly will start to nom on. Her new trick is taking her pacifier out of her mouth so she can chew on the wrong end of it. Or she will take a dive at my face and try to suck on my nose (ew) or my mouth or whatever she can get to.
-She is interested in toys now to some degree. Her favorite is a pink elephant named Effie and a little stuffed doll-thing we call Pea. And by favorite, I mean that she seems to like to nom on them a bit more intently than her other toys.
-She still will not take a bottle. She still screams like a banshee almost every time we try. I had to go through a 7 hour training about a half hour from my house and my mom had to bring her to me twice so I could nurse her in the parking lot. Spoiled much? I am going to start her on a sippy cup (hopefully) this month and in two months we start solids!
Speaking of training, I am working part-time from home. I have a couple of meetings and trainings away from home, and besides the one really long one, it is actually quite a nice arrangement. I love setting my own hours and scheduling around Lorelei's needs, but at the same time, I also love having something to do that reflects my skills. It is a huge blessing!
Other than that, we are living life and loving each other. I am so thankful for my family and all of those who cared for us during the past few months. And every day is beautiful because I get to spend it with my sweet girl. God is kind to me.
I could start with the excuses; shortly after my last post, our AC broke and we endured too many days of a heatwave before packing up to stay with my parents. And using their internet makes me remember the days of dialup ten years ago, so a blog post was just not feasible. We were too busy trying to keep my little tinker cool and happy and still on some semblance of a schedule. But the coolest thing is how people cared for us through this time. When our AC broke, I posted something on facebook asking for some help staying cool, and several people volunteered fans for us. Allen's parents loaned us a window unit that kept Lorelei safe from overheating during her naps and at night. And finally, when it just got to be too much, my parents opened their entire home for us and fed us for a whole five days. It helped us buy some time to find a repair man and save the money for it, and when it was all said and done, it was not nearly as bad as we thought!
And then we went on Lorelei's first vacation to Allen's family cabin in the mountains. It was another huge blessing because it was through the generocity of family members and friends helping us out with travel and cooking our meals during the trip, we were able to take a vacation we otherwise could not afford. What a gift to have a few days in a beautiful place with family all around.
And now we are back home and life goes on.
Lorelei is four months and one week old. She is learning and growing every day, and still very much the light of my life. Some stats:
-She is still quite the peanut; only in the 15th percentile for weight, yet the 35th for height.
-When she is in the mood to (and only then) she will roll back and forth from belly to back. She rolls so much that I had to stop swaddling her in her woombie at night because she can flop on her face and stretch out like she is doing a back bend.
-She is eating about six times a day and taking about 3-4 mini naps a day. I would love to turn that into two legit naps. Working on that.
-She started laughing. And has done it approximately three times since the very first time two weeks ago. It is glorious.
-She is in a huge "everything in the mouth" phase; anything she can hold onto she instantly will start to nom on. Her new trick is taking her pacifier out of her mouth so she can chew on the wrong end of it. Or she will take a dive at my face and try to suck on my nose (ew) or my mouth or whatever she can get to.
-She is interested in toys now to some degree. Her favorite is a pink elephant named Effie and a little stuffed doll-thing we call Pea. And by favorite, I mean that she seems to like to nom on them a bit more intently than her other toys.
-She still will not take a bottle. She still screams like a banshee almost every time we try. I had to go through a 7 hour training about a half hour from my house and my mom had to bring her to me twice so I could nurse her in the parking lot. Spoiled much? I am going to start her on a sippy cup (hopefully) this month and in two months we start solids!
Speaking of training, I am working part-time from home. I have a couple of meetings and trainings away from home, and besides the one really long one, it is actually quite a nice arrangement. I love setting my own hours and scheduling around Lorelei's needs, but at the same time, I also love having something to do that reflects my skills. It is a huge blessing!
Other than that, we are living life and loving each other. I am so thankful for my family and all of those who cared for us during the past few months. And every day is beautiful because I get to spend it with my sweet girl. God is kind to me.
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