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Quick update to let you know I'm not dead... just seriously not into blogging at the moment. Second article has been published over at Flaimahmy...
On top of all of our Thanksgiving festivities, we're getting ready for our big Black Friday sale shopping too! I feel like I need 10 pairs of hands - hahahahaha!
Check out UdderMama's big Thanksgiving weekend sale starting today! All t-shirts are 40% off - yay!
I plan to get me a black Got My Size and a red Busy Mama myself :P
CG
Dear Bella,
The last year has been a roller coaster. However it is a roller coaster I waited nine months in line to ride in a park I waited 24 years to enter. Let me tell you it was worth the wait. I have cherished every moment from the 4 am feedings to the temper tantrums to the first time you said mama and the first steps. You have changed my life in so many ways and made what was a wonderful match in your father and I, an ideal combination in you. You are beautiful. When you smile it lights up the room. I never thought that I could always have a thought in the back of my head that tempered every other thought. That thought is of you. I am constantly wondering what you are doing, if you have eaten, napped, learned anything new. I wonder sometimes if you will have grown so much while I am at work that I won't recognize you when I go to pick you up. Then I remember that I would know you anywhere. I could pick you out of a crowed if I hadn't seen you for a hundred years. You are part of me and you always will be.
One year ago at this hour I had not yet held you in my arms. Your father and I were impatiently waiting for your arrival which was at 2:30 PM. We were wondering what you would look like, how you would act, weather you would be healthy. You looked perfect, you acted like an angel, barely making a noise for days and knock on wood you have always been healthy. When they put you in my arms a weight settled on my shoulders. But it was a weight that belonged, it seemed as if I had been built to carry that weight. It stabilized me, and gave me a new center of gravity...YOU. You were the new center of my world. Not just my world but your fathers as well. Today you are a mama's girl one day you will be a daddy's girl. And why not? No one on this earth loves you more then your dad except maybe me. Every parent feels that they love their child more than any other parent loves their child. I am sure the same will be true for you one day. But until then know that you have blessed our world and we love you from the bottom of our hearts. Happy birthday beautiful.
With Love
Your Mom
(and daddy too)
This evening.....
before his bath....
after stripping down...
and removing his diaper...
the Goose...
sauntered over ...
to the little potty....
and went.
Reason # 1,000,001 I LOVE THIS GOOSE.
And excuse me Gus, are you trying to tell me you'd like to be p-trained? That can be arranged. Oh yes.
ELMO: You know you look ridiculous right?
TILLS: Begging your pardon Elmo?
ELMO: I said you look ridic---- SMACK! KAPOW!
TILLS: What NOW Elmo! What NOW ! That's right you red furry monster. You stay down! They don't call me Mighty Girl for nothing.............Huh?.......
DOH! Er, Hi Mom.... Think cute and innocent thoughts think cute and innocent thoughts.....................
MOM: Oh Tillie, did Elmo fall down? Here let Mommy help.
TILLS: Hehehehehehehhheee....hook, line, and sinker.......
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On a side note: Are you guys as anxious as I am for this hair to really come in? Then we can graduate to barrettes and big girl bows! What a stunner--Haha! Get it? Pun intended.
Mickey and Mini are so excited that we are having a baby and they are also very curious about everything. Last weekend we were at HEB doing a little grocery shopping and as we were in the grocery store Mickey asked me, "Karen did you get a shot to make you pregnant?" Needless to say the man standing just behind me when Mickey asked the question nearly pee'd on himself when he heard the question.
My response to Mickey, "well....it's not exactly a "shot"...."
How else do you respond to a seven year old, in the grocery store when he asks you if you get a shot to get you pregnant?????
I think I am finally feeling the baby......and she is dancing....
Seven days, seven days until I no longer have a "monther" I have a "yearer". Seven days till I can say I have a one year old. Bryan has been saying it for weeks but I just cant bring myself to do it. I am not making her any older then she is. i got my baby center email yesterday that said she was 11 months week four; I wanted to cry.
Bryan and I are going to look at day cares tomorrow. We have had a sweet set up of family watching Bella the last 10 months or so. But sadly my sister in law and brother have decided to move to Oregon to be closer to her family so my familial loop has flown the coop. I am nervous. I have a list of questions in my head and I am starting to write some down so that I can take them with me. Is there a question that is absolutely imperative that I ask? Anything that maybe someone didn't think to ask and then regretted it? I have been to a few sites that give you lists of questions to ask but....is there ONE that really needs to be asked above all? Can anyone who has been through this help me?
I have sent all of the invitations out for Bella's party. We were going to keep it small just family but I got gung hoe because I had all of these picture cards and I wanted everyone to see how cute and big she is getting so I sent them to my "whole" family. I have gotten a ton of RSVP's and I have a small house in November. It is going to get crowded. 24 adults and 6 kids in a 1000 square foot house... yikes! We are doing it at 2:00pm so we are just doing snacks and cake and punch. We want to keep it short so that Bella doesn't get too over stimulated. It is ironic. I don't want her to be one but I am so excited to see her eat her cake and open her presents that the day just can't come fast enough for me, yet it can't come slow enough either. I cannot believe that it has been almost a year since the first day I held her in my arms. okay time to stop before the water works start.
I cannot believe how grown up she is getting. We were told that she is in about the 85th percentile for speech and understanding (by my biased mother in law who is a speech pathologist). she walks everywhere. She gets braver and braver everyday. Last night we took her to the gym day care while we worked out and she just walked everywhere the day care attendant had to chase her down a few times. She talks back and has attitude already. If you interrupt her when she is concentrating and say her name she will say "what" and give you that you made me loose my train of thought look. I just love watching her everyday. A whole year cannot have gone by already. I just met her it seems like yesterday. Well I guess what they say is true time flys when your having fun.
Here is one year pictures. I love the one of her in teh roses.
Ugh. So at 19 months old, Sera still co-sleeps with us. Since we're planning on her being our only child, we had always planned on being a "family bed" sort of family, letting her decide when she wanted to be on her own. (Trivia -- she has NEVER slept in her crib, not even for a nap!)
The problem is that Sera still nurses at night, sometimes up to three times a night. This wasn't a problem when she was little but now that she's older, bigger and more vocal, she tends to be more disruptive when she wants to nurse. Plus she is very particular about the position she nurses in and gets very annoyed if she is not allowed to nurse the way she wants to. Unfortunately, this means that I haven't gotten quality sleep in quite a long time.
Rather than train her to sleep in her own room, I decided to nightwean her. Completely weaning her is out of the question. She never had a stuffed animal lovey or comfort item or even sucked her thumb so I think it would be sort of mean to cut her off completely. But at this point, I think nightweaning is essential to get some more sleep as well as sanity back into my life.
I know that a lot of families swear by it but I decided a long time ago that the Ferber method isn't for us. Instead, I decided to try to use Dr. Jay Gordon's night weaning method. The Gordon method involves slowly cutting out night nursing by picking a time (for us, 10:30PM) to cut off nursing. After that, if the little one wakes, you can nurse them for a few minutes but make sure they're awake rather than drifting off at the boob, comforting them however you need to. As the method progresses, you cut out nursings and theoretically, the times to comfort should get shorter.
Theoretically.
One of the reasons that I decided that the Ferber method wasn't for us is because Seraphine is what you can call, uh, a very persistent crier. And by persistent, I mean crying to the point of making herself absolutely sick. I wasn't able to leave her with a babysitter for any more than an hour when she was a baby because she would cry the entire time. And not just the plaintive, where's my mommy? cry. No, she would scream at the top of her lungs, arching her back, threatening to throw herself out of the caregiver's arms and wailing to the point of throwing up.
Yikes.
I figured that since she's 19 months old now and is down to, at most, 2 nursings a night anyway, nightweaning shouldn't be so bad. Right?
Wrong.
On Friday night, we did our usual nurse to sleep at 9:30PM. She woke up around 11:00PM, wanting to nurse. I let her nurse and then popped her off before she went to sleep. I told her that she had to go to sleep without nursing but don't worry, Mommy was here, everything was okay and I'll rub her back and cuddle her all she wanted while she went to sleep.
The look she gave me was equivalent to, "Oh hell no!" in toddler.
Gordon's method warned that the baby will protest, which is to be expected. Gordon did NOT mention that the baby would actually stage a full scale riot.
But after fifteen minutes, after repeated struggles to get to the breast, she began to tantrum in earnest. She wailed, clawed at my shirt, arched her back when I tried to hold and comfort her, resisted any comforting touch that didn't involve taking out the boob and letting her latch. This continued for another half hour by which point, we were approaching midnight. Her screams were reaching a fevered pitch, completely hysterical.
Any breastfeeding mom knows that their body, like it or not, responds to their child when they want milk. She made it clear that she wanted her milk and my boobs were aching as if to say, "Oh just give it to her already!!" And so, I gave in.
Nightweaning attempt #1 -- fail.
And so have the previous nights gone. Optimistically, I thought that perhaps because the first night had gone so badly that maybe she'd get a clue and be more compliant for the next few nights. Of course, I was completely wrong and last night was possibly the worst of all. She cried in protest for a full hour, kicking and screaming before going completely catatonic and then snapping out of it to only scream and cry some more.
*sigh*
At this point, I'm really torn at what to do. I'll probably stop trying to nightwean at least for the next week and then try again next Friday. She's determined to keep her night time nursings and it is clear she will fight tooth and nail for it. I know I'm the parent and she has to learn disappointment sometime but at this time, I don't know that fighting over nighttime nursing is the way to do it.
Seen above Tills is modeling an outfit made by My Little Chubby Cheeks. Jumper by Marianne. Headband by my mom. The button on this headband is one from my very dear late Grandmother's collection--who Matilda was named after--so it's super special to me. This jumper is reversible and matches the print on the headband.
These two women can personalize and monogram about any piece of clothing your heart is hankering for! Come on. I know you know a baby or small child who needs an extraordinary gift this holiday season.
I was going to wait and post this photo when Marianne and my mom had pictures of their handmade goods on their website (I'll let you readers know when that happens!), but I could not keep it to myself. Precious! Adorable! Doesn't it make you want to slide down a rainbow and land in marshmallows? Or hug a Care Bear? Or ride on the back of a unicorn? It's simply that ooey gooey cute?!?
Then again. That could just be me.
