The miracle of good naps

Ever since Aiden came home from the hospital a little over five months ago we have struggled to get him into a good nap routine during the day. He is a champion sleeper at night. Within the first two months he had developed the routine of sleeping ten plus hours at night. When he first started extending his night sleeping I was a little worried that he was going too long between feeds. I needed to nurse him at night more frequently than he awoke to feed. We both adjusted and I was surprised at how well he slept at night with no effort on my part.

Being just like his dad Aiden knew that when it is dark outside it is time to sleep, and to stay asleep until it gets light again. Right now he wants to go down for the night by 6pm. With the long dark nights upon us he will happily sleep for between eleven and twelve hours during the night. Yet daytime naps continued to be a struggle.

No matter how tired he got, Aiden just would not stay asleep during daylight hours. Every day was another battle to get him to nap for more than fifteen or twenty minutes. I always lost. He would take four naps but together they would add up to little more than an hour of sleep.

Then at the beginning of last week it changed. Rob and I had been doing some spiritual spring cleaning. We decided not only to unplug the cable (which we had only connected for the teenagers who stayed with us last school year) but we also removed it altogether. Along with the TV went to home theater system that had survived from Rob's bachelor days. His extensive DVD movie collection went too. We removed the world from our home and it resulted in a miracle.

We are now half way through our second week of the miracle of good naps. Our little boy now has a one hour nap after breakfast then a two hour nap before lunch. Later in the afternoon he will have another one hour nap. That's four hours of daytime naps. And he still sleeps all night long.

Finally I can get caught up on chores. Finally I can once again feel organised. Once again my darling husband can come home to dinner on the table and other delights like freshly made cookies. My son is happy. My husband is happy. I feel so blessed.

I am at peace now that I have order again. I am calm now that the distractions are gone. We are more together as a couple and as a family. I am reinvigorated with an energy I haven't felt in a long time.

The Lord is so good to us. He is patient and merciful. He was willing to wait for us. Then once we were ready to do whatever He required, He met us and transformed us.

Rob and I have agreed that from this point on we have to be a lot more careful about what we allow in our home. We have a responsibility to protect our son (and any other children if the Lord so blesses us) and guard his heart until he is old enough to guard it himself.

Dedication and staying spiritually clean

Last Sunday we had our official "Baby Dedication." We took Aiden forward during church and dedicated to raising him to know and grow in the Lord. The Pastor then prayed over us, asking the Lord to provide us with grace and wisdom to raise Aiden. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the blessing of a first born son, and to vow to raise him to be a godly man. Rob's family came to church to be there for the dedication and to celebrate with us after at home.

In the process of preparing for this special dedication Rob and I have also been discussing some of the ways we need to put this into practice. Keeping our lives and our home spiritually clean is one of those important ways. As we discussed it further we realised that this is a task that takes constant vigilance and determination. We are parents who are also sinners. As sinners we often sin and fall short of the Lord's perfect will for us. We make mistakes, and sometimes we let a little bit of the world creep into our home. In this day and age it has become so easy to allow worldliness into our lives without even noticing.

We realised that we need to spiritually spring clean our home on a regular basis. We want our home to be an oasis of peace and purity, but it won't stay that way unless we guard it. We need to evaluate everything that has already made it into our home and decide if it is worthy of staying here. We also need to evaluate everything that comes our way and decide if it is worthy of being allowed into our home in the first place. And those items that are no longer welcome, they go straight into the trash. If it isn't worthy for us it won't be worthy for anyone else.

This principle is true for our individual lives as well as our home and family in general. What I allow into my life will affect my heart. Focusing on keeping a pure heart involves different details for each of us, but the principle that holds true of keeping the Lord at the center is always the same. Anything, no matter how good, that distracts me from keeping the Lord first, my husband second and my parenting third is something that is keeping me from being spiritually clean.

Although there are many things I'd like to spend time blogging about, my time is precious and there just isn't enough to spare to blog as often as I want to. Life with an almost five month old who is learning to become mobile keeps my days fully packed just trying to keep up with household chores. Nap times are for showering, time with the Lord and chores I can't do when Aiden is awake. Evening and weekend hours are for my husband (and family time) with Sunday set aside as our Lord's Day, where we shut ourselves off from the world (no internet, no dvds, no stores or restuarants etc) and just go to church and spend time together.

In saying all of this I need to finish as my son needs me.

Mashed Banana Delight!

Last Saturday we hit two new milestones for Aiden. In the morning he managed to stay sitting upright for several seconds at a time without support. He was very cute trying to stay up before slowly leaning over on himself. How quickly the time seems to be going now that he is sitting up.

Then after several weeks of watching us intently every time we eat, and fussing even after a full 6oz bottle we decided to try him with some mashed banana as his first solid food. Not only did he take to it straight away, in less than a week he has started to realise that the food is on the way and gets so excited. He leans forward into the spoon eager to get the food, and fusses when I take the spoon away to put more food on it. He is so eager to eat he gets a lot of it over his face. Mashed banana has been a delight for our almost five month old. This weekend we will introduce sweet potato for a new taste and texture and see how much he likes that one too.

The most interesting outcome of introducing banana to Aiden's diet is that he is finally becoming more predictable in his daytime naps. Until this week he rarely slept during the day for more than 30 minutes. Now we are getting at least one 2 hour nap and another almost 2 hour nap. This wasn't the reason we added food to Aiden's diet, but it sure is a nice bonus. And he still sleeps 11 hours every night too, so now his sleep patterns are about as perfect as we could ever hope for.

We have such an easy contented little boy it makes parenting him a real pleasure. What a blessing and a joy it is to be Aiden's Mamma.

An Epiphany

Last week I had an epiphany moment. I had fallen into the first time new mother trap of pushing my husband down the priority list. I hadn't intended to neglect Rob, in fact I thought I was doing a fairly good job of paying attention to him. I knew that looking after Aiden's needs had been very time consuming, especially the first couple of months, but we were finally turning a corner with an established routine and more time to get "stuff" done.

So last week I finally had reached a point of having enough time to get bored of always having "mommy hair." Right now my hair is almost half way down my back in length. I like my hair being this long. Rob likes my hair this long. I don't want to cut it into a more practical "mommy do," so most of the time it gets twisted up in a hair clip. It is the minimum effort, out of the baby's way look. Four months into this I had enough of doing the same thing every day for the sake of easiness. Then one day last week I decided to actually style my hair. When Rob got home he immediately noticed and smiled at me. He commented several times at how pretty my hair looked. The next day I again styled my hair, then just before Rob got home I managed to put on a little lipstick. Again my husband's reaction was one of pleasure at the sight of his put together wife. It was then that I realised just how much it ministered to my husband when I make just a little effort to look good for him. He had never complained during my four months of the grungy new mom look, but I knew right at that moment not taking just 5 minutes to prepare myself for his arrival home I was telling him that he was not as important to me as our son was.

My goal now is make sure Rob never again slips on the priority list. Fixing my hair and applying a little lipstick, wearing clean feminine clothes (rather than yoga pants and a baggy t-shirt) and preparing for Rob coming home from work takes only a few minutes. It only takes a few minutes, but how much nicer must it be for Rob when he doesn't come home to a frazzled looking, spit-up covered wife. It is a small, but important way that I can say "I love you and you are important to me" to my husband each and every day.

Sorry there isn't any pictures yet. I'll try to take some in the next few days and get them posted.

First Cold and other developments

This week Aiden had his first head cold. Fortunately it was very mild. We took Aiden to Rob's office on Friday so Rob could show him off. I had to wait in the reception area, as Rob works for a company that sometimes does work on Defense Contracts. They have a big sign that states in big red letters "No Foreign Nationals." Since I am still just a permanent resident I couldn't go any further than the security desk. We think it was this visit to the office that infected Aiden, even though Rob didn't let anyone actually touch him.

So Aiden and I have had a very laid back week, with lots of snuggles and longer than usual naps. He is already becoming more independent from me. He plays on his own for over half an hour at a time, amusing himself with a ring of teething toys and a see through rattle. He no longer needs Mamma for constant amusement. It is a small step forward compared to all that he will accomplish by his first birthday, but shows just how short the time is when Aiden will be happy to snuggle on his Mamma's lap. He is sitting with support, and can move around the floor in circles using his arms and hips. He doesn't like being on his belly so hands and feet crawling is probably not going to be his thing. Rob scooted on his bum as a baby and we think Aiden is going to be the same way. He is also working on rolling over from his back to his belly, although I'm not sure what he'll do once he succeeds, probably cry for Mamma.

I am still filled with awe each and every day as I watch this little person called Aiden. He is such a sweet natured child who finds himself almost as amusing as his Dad does. He loves to chat, and giggles for no apparent reason, much to the amusement of his parents. It is such a privilege to be trusted with the nurture and raising of this precious child. I know I am greatly blessed to be his Mamma, and I hope and pray that we receive a whole quiverful just like him.

The joy of motherhood

I am so blessed with a sweet natured baby, yet he is so time consuming I can't believe how quickly the time is passing by. The last month has seen a few changes for both of us.

The first one is a sad one for me. Aiden has stopped nursing and is now bottle fed with formula milk. From about six weeks old Rob and I had several conversations about the possibility of Aiden being Lactose Intolerant. He had most of the symptoms, except weight loss. Instead his weight gain was very slow, especially considering his healthy 8lb 7oz birth weight. It all came to a head on Thursday evening when Rob came home to Aiden screaming in pain yet again. It had been building up for several days, but he had reached a point where he would not sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time during the day, and would wake up screaming, obviously uncomfortable. I started to do some online research and found that Aiden's symptoms matched all the criteria for Lactose Overload. We decided to try formula for a few days to give his body an opportunity to get some relief, meanwhile I expressed to keep up my milk supply. It was during the week that I was expressing and storing my milk that we realised the problem was my milk. It had no fat in it. No matter how much milk I expressed there was only ever a weak, watery milk coming out. After speaking to Rob's aunt I discovered this was not normal, that expressed milk should have some rich fat, that if left standing with separate to the top. In the weeks leading up to this Aiden and I had already instinctively tried feeding from only one side per feeding and then block feeding for several hours on one side only. It never worked. Aiden was always hungry, and with no fat to slow down the digestive process, he was also always in pain from the lactose fermenting in his intestines. Now that we have switched permanently to formula milk Aiden is no longer screaming, and is finally gaining weight that is more in line with his size. I miss nursing him, but I'm also aware that to continue would have continued to keep my son in pain and with a constant hunger.

A happier change is the amount of interaction we are now having with Aiden. He loves to sit on my lap and sing nursery rhymes with me. It is so sweet to here him try to sing just like his Mamma. He is spending more time sitting up and lifting up his head when we put him down on his tummy. I know it won't be too much longer until he starts trying to crawl. He changes so much each day, that I try to just soak in these baby days. I know they will pass too quickly. I waited so long to become a mother that I want to make the most of each and every day.

We continue to work on Aiden's daytime sleep patterns. He is such a good sleeper at night, still sleeping 9-10 hours every night. Most of his daytime naps don't last much past half an hour. I usually will only get one longer nap out of him (which is what he is doing right now) and so have to try and squeeze in as many chores as I can during that time which can last from only an hour all the way up to two and a half hours. The longer naps are a true rarity, in which I might even get to enjoy a few sips of coffee before he wakens up.

My favourite part of the day is always when Rob comes home. As I here the door I always tell Aiden that "Daddy's home" which is always replied to with a huge smile. I love that our son enjoys his daddy's return home as much as I do. It is a joy to watch the two of them together reconnecting at the end of the day while I finish getting dinner on the table. Rob interacts with Aiden in a very different way than I do and it really blesses my heart to see Aiden have the balance of both parents investing in his life and development.

I can hear Aiden begin to stir from his nap, so I will finish and get this posted before I go and see to him.

Single Income Living, a new category of post.

I have decided to start a new category of post here on my blog. As a family living on a single income in South Florida, where the cost of living is expensive, every penny counts. While neither Rob nor I thought we had an extravagant lifestyle, we are still finding ways to cut our expenses. I thought I would share some of them here on the blog.

Today I want to share my latest experiment. I made my own liquid laundry detergent. I was very surprised at just how easy it was. I got the recipe from the Duggars website (since I don't know how to directly link here is the web address - http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html )and used Ivory soap, which was very easy to grate on a manual cheese grater. I made 10 gallons for about 60 cents. The one thing I did notice is that this laundry detergent does NOT froth the same way commercial detergents do, but it actually cleans BETTER. Both Rob and I are very impressed at how well it has worked, and how much money it will save us. $12 used to buy 1 gallon of detergent, but $12 in supplies will yield 20 batches of 10 gallons each.

I don't think we will ever purchase commercial laundry detergent ever again.