Infant Sleeping

I know it has been a (long) while since I last posted.  Life with four children is keeping me busy!  The baby is now 11 months old.  He is a wonderful child but seems to be permanently attached to me.  Most of the time I don’t mind it so much; I have learned to adjust my expectations of what gets done around the house and with schoolwork daily.  Every couple of weeks we go through nursing struggles and I have yet to figure out exactly what works.  I am grateful for a wonderful, understanding husband and three more children who go with the flow without complaint.  Posts will still be sporadic until we get into a more predictable schedule.

I just had to write about this news story I saw this evening on ABC World News Tonight.  The story online is a bit different than what was aired.  The online story discusses the effects of too little childhood sleep according to recent research.  The story that aired tonight mentioned children are more likely to be overweight with less than twelve hours of sleep and then went on to say that the parents are to blame because they hold their children to get them to sleep (and back to sleep after waking up).  The main focus of the aired story was that parents should not hold their children at night to get them to sleep because the child will depend on the parent holding him (or her) to get to sleep.  Children should be left to go to sleep on their own and should never sleep in the parents’ bed.  The story admitted that some children are “stubborn” and will cry and fuss when going to sleep but parents should be consistent and “they promise” that children will fall asleep on their own.  Grrrr!!

I have learned a lot with this latest baby (or maybe it is being a mother of four children).  I know that a child will reach his or her milestones (rolling over, crawling, standing up, walking, etc.) in his or her own time (unless there are medical problems).  I have not tried to force any milestones as I hear other mothers proudly say their six-month-old baby is “almost walking.”  I am attentive to our son’s needs and acknowledge his signs (he uses sign language for “eat” and knows “play” and “sleep” and is beginning to sign “book”).  He is happier when I acknowledge him signing “eat” and let him know what I need to do before he can eat (get some muffins and water for myself, go upstairs, change his diaper).  There are times where I know that he is too tired to eat and will encourage him to sleep while holding and rocking him, often with music playing.  He isn’t happy but I feel it is a wise decision at that time.

Where am I going with this?  (Sorry, it is late and I am rambling as I tend to do.)   My point is that all of our kids (except our second) wanted and needed to be held to sleep.  Our oldest child really worked herself up when we tried letting her cry it out.  My children don’t need us to go to sleep anymore (and haven’t for years!).  I don’t think they have ever asked for us to be with them to go to sleep (except for our oldest who wouldn’t go to sleep without us until our second child started sleeping in the same room - 2 years).  As a child I remember having my mom come and “rub my back” to get to sleep and sleeping with the hall light on.  It wasn’t nightly, but I think it was often.  I think that holding babies to go to sleep and letting them sleep in bed with you is not a cause for alarm, but it should be normal.  They are only little for a short time (relatively speaking - I know it seems like forever).  It has made all my children happier babies (which can only mean a happier mommy).  And I “promise” that your children will go to sleep by himself or herself eventually.  There aren’t many school age children (or toddlers) who still need to be rocked to sleep or rocked in the middle of the night.  Be encouraged that this really is a short time that they need so much attention and care and that there will be a day that they will sleep alone (or at least without you).

Living in a Different World

I know that my kids are growing up in a different world than I did.  Today we were reviewing our English lesson (Rod and Staff Book 3) and discussing how to give an oral description.  The directions for the assignment were to think of a person, place, or thing to describe and then observe it.  My oldest daughter (9 years old) chose a bottle-nosed dolphin.  She described it very well and I could tell that she did some research.  I reminded her of the directions and asked where they could go to observe dolphins.  The first (and most obvious) answer was “the beach.”  Every beach I have been to does not have dolphins close enough to the shore to observe which I pointed out and tried to get the girls to think of another place to go to observe dolphins (I was looking for the answer, “Sea World” or a zoo).  My daughter then said, “YouTube.”  I know that we are an electronic society now, but I hope I don’t live to see the day where that is the only way to “observe” dolphins.

Office Policy

My husband has started teaching classes in this new semester.  He has to explain his office fragrance-free office policy to students.  I love his sense of humor; one of his students quoted him on his blog, “Normal stinky is fine.  It’s artificial stinky that we want to watch out for.”  How true.

Victory is Ours!

We have been battling ants in our new house.  We have been here for three months and we are still battling them.  We went through this at our old house when we first moved in there.  Why do we have such an ant problem when we move in?  Do people not care if there are ants crawling all over their house?  Do they not see them?  Both houses we have moved into have been empty prior to our moving in.  I don’t know if this is part of the problem.

Round One:   Our ant invasion began over the weekend.  We have been baking in temperatures around 110 degrees for several days.  I’m not sure if some crumbs were left out or if the ants just wanted to cool off, but they started coming in the house.  I think I have repressed this experience because I can’t remember where they started coming in or how long ago it started.  :)  I do know that at one point, I think on Monday, that there was hardly anywhere in the house where we could walk without stepping on ants and I was in tears because they would not stop.  They were in the kitchen (crawling all over the counter coming in from behind the stove), in the master bathroom (circling the bathroom and the bedroom), in the laundry room, and in the kids’ bathroom (coming up from the toilet).  Now I am beginning to remember how it all started.  I did a load of laundry and saw a few coming out of the laundry room as I put the clothes in the dryer.  By morning the ants were everywhere.  After trying to kill the ants with Combat gel (which attracts them so they eat the poison and take it back to their nest) for a couple of days with no success (they have always gone away after a few hours) I was ready to surrender to the ants.  I was ready to let them take the house and I would find somewhere else for the kids and I to go.

Round Two:  After waking up for the second or third day with ants everywhere, my husband got out the “big guns” and sprayed poison (outside and in a couple of spots where they seemed to be coming in).  It really didn’t help that our neighbor has his trash cans right next to our house where the kitchen is (we have a zero lot line so the other side of our kitchen wall is our neighbor’s backyard). Thankfully the trash was picked up and the poison did its job and we don’t have an ant problem anymore (for this week!).  One thing that did seem to work well (after the poison was sprayed) was to put vinegar (messes up their sense of smell) on paper towels at the places where they were coming in and I also ground some black pepper (poisonous to ants) in one spot that was especially bad.

I am glad to be rid of the ants and I am continuing to be extra vigilant with the counters and floors to make sure the ants have no reason to invade again.

Humbled

As I was cleaning out my inbox of some Elizabeth Elliot devotionals, I read this one from a couple of days ago.

I was tempted this morning–no, not merely tempted, I actually did it–to pray, “Lord, I’ve been disobedient in many things, but I’ve been obedient in the ‘big’ things, haven’t I, Lord?”

“What would you call loving Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Is it a little thing?”

“Oh Lord, no.”

“And is it a little thing to love your neighbor as yourself?”

“It is a very big thing, Lord–especially when I try to include you-know-who.”

“These two things are all I require. Do them and you will have fulfilled all the law.”

Silence. So much for my self-righteousness.

“Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Even though we remind the kids of these, it was different to hear it in this way. I was very humbled to realize how I fail in these everyday.

You can find Elizabeth Elliot’s website here and sign up to receive a daily devotional here.

Holding On

Musings of a Sentimental Mom

My son is now three months old.  It seems like it was yesterday that he was born.  I have been trying to savor and enjoy this pregnancy and his newborn days.  Life has been moving very fast and I haven’t been able to enjoy it as much as I have wanted.  Maybe it has to do with moving two months ago.  We are mostly settled but there are still a few boxes left to unpack and other clutter that still needs to find a place in our new house.

I am noticing now that my son is three months old that his clothes are getting tight.  It is time to move on to the next size, but I’m not ready yet.  He has gotten too big too fast!  I make a mental note to start getting out the new size clothes each time I change him and stretch the onesie to snap it closed.   The onesies are holding up quite well right now, but it won’t be long before they won’t stretch enough and I will have to move up to the next size (there are already a few onesies that haven’t fit for a couple of weeks).  I sometimes wish that he could stay little forever.   I love how a newborn just curls up on your chest and makes cute little noises as he sleeps and stretches; I already miss those days.

I know that this seems like a trivial thing, changing clothing size, but it seems like a big deal to me right now.  Knowing that this could be our last child (although we said that after the last one), I have been trying to savor this time in my life.  I like knowing when I will be experiencing something for the last time because I can somehow try to make it last longer or remember it better.  Since the last few months have flown by, I haven’t been able to prepare myself for the inevitable–that my son is not going to stay little forever.

I want to hold on to how little my son is (actually, was).  Even though I’m not ready, I will get out the bigger clothes in the next few days and put away the newborn clothes maybe for the last time.  I will always remember the time when each of my children was small and curled up on my chest easily to sleep.   I am not ready to move on to the next size clothes and the next phase of my son’s life, but I know that God has great things in store for my son and our family as we enjoy watching him get bigger.

Art of the Day

I have customized my iGoogle page and added Art of the Day. I thought this would be a good way for the kids (and me) to see a piece of art everyday.

Here is today’s (8/1/07) Art of the Day:

and here is the text underneath:

Leonardo da Vinci:
document.write(aotd_picInfo);The Annunciation
tempera on panel, ca. 1474
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Send as e-card!

This last part I thought pretty funny–Send as an e-card. This would be a perfect way to “announce” a pregnancy to your spouse or family. Too bad this wasn’t around when I got pregnant.

New Dining Room Table

We finally got a new dining room table!  We have not had one for two years.  Our old one we got from KMart lasted about seven years and fell apart just before we moved.  In our old, smaller house, we didn’t have much room so we used a card table for the kids.  We intended to find a table to use, but never did.  Our new house has a nice sized dining room and one of our priorities was to get a new table.

We had a hard time finding something we liked.  There was one dining set that had a bench (something I thought would be very useful to crowd more people in at the table), but the chairs really looked awful.  We also went back and forth on getting a regular-sized table and a counter-height table.  We finally settled on a counter-height table that seats eight.  It is quite big (bigger than any table we have had so it seems huge) even without the leaf (which really only adds about 12 more inches).

I am looking forward to doing our schoolwork tomorrow for a couple of reasons.  First, there shouldn’t be any problems with shaking the table when working on handwriting. (Remember, we have been using a card table for the last two years!)  For that matter, there will be enough room at the table for everyone’s book to be able to be open and not overlap someone else’s book.  I am also looking forward to being able to reach papers and books while standing and rocking the baby.  I will be able to stand and read from a book set on the table if I want.

We are also looking forward to having meals together as a family again (everyone at the same table).

Enjoy Your Children

Rocks in My Dryer has asked for parenting advice for her What Works for Me Wednesday. I am a bit brain dead and can’t come up with anything without asking my husband for some help. He didn’t give me a topic but his answer made me think of what follows.

I am enjoying having a baby in the house again. Many times I am reminded of when the other three kids were young (it has been over 5 years since I have had a baby). The first bit of advice I give is not to take your children for granted; enjoy the age and stage they are in. I have been quite determined to enjoy this past pregnancy and this baby. I haven’t had much time to really enjoy it, but I find myself reflecting from time to time and really enjoying the moment and my new baby. I have to admit that when he is crying (especially when he is *still* hungry after marathon nursing for two or three hours) I do not enjoy those moments. But overall, I think I am enjoying being a mother much more this time around and I am more relaxed. When I had three little ones (all two years apart), it was much harder to *enjoy* them. I just wanted a break! It is hard having younger children. I think it is much easier to enjoy my little boy because the other kids are older now and much more self-sufficient.

Another piece of parenting advice I have is to breastfeed your infant as long and as much as you can. I am so thankful for the breastfeeding support group at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City! If it weren’t for them (especially the lactation consultants, Kris and Claudia) I wouldn’t be such a big supporter of breastfeeding. During the first month of breastfeeding my oldest daughter, I wanted to give up so many times; it was too hard to do and too painful. I stuck with it and learned so much that has gotten me through breastfeeding the other three. Although breastfeeding can be inconvenient at times and the baby needs to constantly be with you, it is worth it, in my opinion. It is free and always the right temperature. It is a small part of your life (though it can sometimes seem like it is forever!) that will benefit your child.

Take some time today to enjoy your children. All too soon they will be grown.

Chicken Pox Debate

Well, it seems official that there is a chicken pox outbreak.  There are three people (from separate circles) I know with kids who have it.  We want our kids to get the chicken pox rather than the vaccine and I would probably be trying to get the kids to catch it if it weren’t for the baby.  My oldest daughter is now nine and we want her to catch it soon before she gets much older.  It has been a few years since we have heard of kids with chicken pox.  I hope it comes around again before too long so the kids can get it (although I don’t look forward to the weeks at home trying to keep the kids from itching).