Cathcing up... photos from GA!

I haven't blogged a lot recently because I like to keep things chronological and I haven't had much time to post my photos from our recent trip to Georgia. We visited my grandparents (Mom's parents), her sisters Liz and Cathy and Cathy's husband Bruce. It was a great trip. A little hectic with keeping two little ones under control but a really, really nice time watching four generations interact.

Well, my AWESOME cousin Melissa and her husband Nick stopped by our house for the night Friday after spending the week at Myrtle Beach (they live near Atlanta). She has a great Myspace page and taught me lots of stuff (if you want to see my page, click here). My new favorite website is www.slide.com which allows you to make slideshows from your pictures instead of posting them each individually here on blogger. I LOVE IT! So anyway, here are the photos from our trip which I've wanted to get on here for weeks now. Aunt Cathy, I'll be mailing you pictures soon and please tell Grandma and Grandpa that I'll send them and Aunt Liz some too. Love you all!

My "To-Do" List

After reading my friend Ellen's blog post about what she wanted to accomplish before her third baby is born, I thought that's what I need to do also. Definitely NOT have a third child (I'm barely scraping by these days as it is!) but type up a to-do list. I think I'm so busy because I never write anything down and just keep everything in my head causing myself to feel half crazy all the time. Does anyone out there sympathize with me?! Anyway here goes...

1. Keep up with the kitchen dishes on a DAILY basis. (like Flylady has been telling me for years!)
2. Wake up at 6:00am DAILY no matter what time I went to bed or what happens through the night so I have that time to myself for Bible study.
3. Keep up with my Bible study. (Philip and I just started a new year of BSF and we are studying the book of Matthew. This week's lesson asked us to read the ENTIRE book of Matthew so I'm already behind. Thankfully from here on out, we'll studying only one chapter a week.)
4. Begin work on my October MOPS newsletter.
5. Mail my list of guests to my Premier Designs Jewelry consultant.
6. Finish washing the clothes we bought on consignment, pack away the kids' small clothes, and reorganize their closet and dresser.
7. Exercise 3 times a week (at least! now, it's about once maybe!) by either walking, working out with my Denise Austin video or using the Orbitrek.
8. Creating a meal menu.

That's enough for now. I'm already beginning to feel overwhelmed. Matthew, I'm getting off the computer now, exercising with Philip (i.e. trying not to trip over him while I exercise), taking a shower and getting us all ready for church before you come home! See you soon, sweetie.

Please Remember Kellie and Paul

Matthew's cousin Paul's wife Kellie lost her mom today. Yesterday Paulette collasped and the doctors first thought it was a heart attack. After examining her, it was discovered that she had had a cerebral hemmorage. She remained on life support throughout the night, but sometime early this morning her heart stopped.

Please keep Paul, Kellie, her dad, her sister and the rest of the family in your prayers. I took the below picture last year at Paul and Kellie's wedding shower. This past July, they celebrated their first anniversary.

Prayers for Mom

For those of you who live near us and see Mom from time to time, she looks good and seems good. However, it's the times you don't see that would tell you she still needs our prayers. It's now been 16 months since Mom's ileostomy reversal. Her body has come a very long way, but she is still dealing with side effects of all it has been through. A good day would mean going to the bathroom 3 or 4 times for 15 minutes each and no pain. A bad day would mean going 8 or 9 times sometimes for as long as an hour with a much pain due to having eaten something that she didn't know would affect her in such a bad way.

Aside from the physical aspect, this all takes a large toll on her emotionally and there are days when she wonders how she could live the rest of her life like this. That's obviously hard on us too as none of us know when her body will be as recovered as it will get. I tell her all the time that she has come so far and regained the ability to go and do pretty much everything she wants to these days. I'm not in her shoes so I can only encourage and remind her that I'm not going anywhere. And to think positively. She told me today that sometimes she thinks her address should be 275 A (meaning her bathroom; 275 is my parents' house number). I told her her address could be Spartanburg Regional Hospital.

Please do remember to lift my mom up in prayer whenever you think about her. If this is the way her life will be until she leaves this world for Heaven, I pray God will help her come to a place of contentment with it. Mom has so much to offer others (which can still be done around bathroom visits!) including lots of Nana-time for years to come with Philip, Braewyn and their new cousin (he's due in just two months!). Also remember my Dad in your prayers who gets the brunt of Mom's frustration when having a bad day. I pray as I have before that God would give him extra patience, compassion and the right words to say to Mom.

Father Knows Best

I first want to thank Jessie and Alison for their words of encouragement as I rattled off our current dilemma of Braewyn's difficulty in sleeping soundly at night. I agree with you, Jessie, that it's important to find out why a baby is crying at night, and I am SO excited to announce that we have!!

Friday night, I had a MOPS steering retreat from 6pm until midnight. It was definitely what I needed as that day at noon, Matthew came home for lunch and I said, "I can't talk to you because if I talk, I'll cry." He could tell it was serious as he asked what he could do around the house while I was gone. Anyway, God blessed me so much just by talking with my girlfriends about how things were going and getting us all excited about the upcoming MOPS year (it's going to be good!!).

Meanwhile at home, Matthew bathed and dressed the kids for bed. He put Braewyn down in the bassinet in the office in her pajamas and swaddled in a blanket. He swaddles really well and she was like a little pig in a blanket! That was at 9:15pm.

I got home at 12:20am, Matthew and I talked about our evenings and went to bed a little after 1:00am. I check the kids before going to bed myself and Braewyn was still snuggly swaddled. I woke up after 6:00am and the girl was still asleep!! PRAISE GOD! I actually went back to sleep. Philip woke us up at 7:00am and that's when I found a smiling, still swaddled bundle in the bassinet. Her problem was not liking the freedom of movement provided in the sleep sacks.

Now that Braewyn slept just as good last night (9:10pm until 6:50am), I'm convinced that the swaddle is our answer to prayer! Matthew is a wonderful Daddy always, but this was an especially great move on his part. Since she will (Lord-willing) sleep so good through the night, I hope to be able to put her to bed by 9:00pm and then still pump around 10:30 or 11:00pm to stock up the milk supply since MOPS and BSF are beginning soon.

God is good... all the time!!

And it gets worse...

(Read the below post first so this will make sense.)

Is there such a thing as night colic? Braewyn may have invented it. So tonight (yes, it's 6:08am and I'm blogging), Philip was in bed at 9:30pm and Braewyn in her crib at 10:05pm. Maybe they are overly tired by going to bed too late; one of those nights, we went to dinner with my parents while Matthew had a softball game and then we met him at the grocery store to return home at 8:45pm.

I'm in bed at 11:45pm after blogging the below post (yes, I know I'm not getting enough rest myself). At 1:49am, I wake up to Braewyn talking/crying in her crib. We let her go for 15 minutes and she's up to pretty hard crying. I go in with the pacifier. No luck. Mylicon gas drops and then the pacifier. No luck. I pick her up and walk her around the livingroom. While Philip was an infant, I never really got the whole idea behind some people up all night walking the floors with their babies. The idea is now making sense. As long as I was bouncing her and walking, Braewyn would settle down. I even tried to sit in our rocking chair and she began crying again. After more walking, I then tried to feed her. She ate a little and seemed to calm down. Praise the Lord, I finally laid her back in the crib with pacifier and she seemed to be sleeping! Back to bed for me around 2:30am.

Flash forward to 5:08am. More crying from Braewyn. Again wait 10 minutes but she gets louder. I get up to rescue Philip by removing his crying sister from their room. He doesn't seem to hear her. Back in the livingroom for more walking. I also change her diaper and switch her to a lighter weight sleep sack (maybe she was hot). Try to feed her but she's really not interested this time. Finally into the office in her bassinet she goes. I go back to bed to hear faint screaming for 10 more minutes and I had even left the bassinet on vibrate.

Now I'm in the office myself (obviously) and Braewyn finally seems to be asleep. I turned the bassinet's vibrator back on and gave her the pacifier. She got quiet and will possibly sleep for another hour. I've got to get a nap today as we are having our final MOPS steering team retreat/planning session for the upcoming year this evening from 6pm until midnight.

Hope you have a great day. And I'm still interested in any and all tips, suggestions, words of sympathy you might have.

What's in store for us tonight?

Well, my last post said Braewyn and Philip were sleeping soundly in their new shared room. That was at 9:30pm on Tuesday night. Around 12:30am that night, I heard Braewyn begin softly crying over the baby monitor. I had put her to sleep in a gown and swaddled her legs in a blanket. I peeked in to check on her and saw the blanket had come loose. Why didn't I put her to bed in a sleep sack? I tried to give her the pacifier (sometimes she takes it, sometimes she hates it) with no luck. I then picked her up, took her to the living room, put her in a sleep sack (if you don't know, it's like a sleeping bag that zips up the front with arms), and tried to rock her a little to settle her down. A characteristic we've noticed about Braewyn, when tired she reaches an uncontrollable state with loud screeching crying. Horrible! I even tried to nurse her to sleep but she was still screaming with her mouth on me. Next attempt, the bouncy seat on vibrate, but again no success. After 45 minutes of nothing soothing her, I laid her in the bassinet which has now been in the office (our third bedroom) for several weeks and closed the door. She cried for about 20 more minutes before going to sleep. I was so stressed out that after laying back in bed for a few minutes, I returned to the living room and watched an episode of "Hogan Knows Best" (reality show about Hulk Hogan & family) on VH1. I fell asleep just after 2:00am. Woke around 6:15am to Braewyn's crying. That time she ate well and we started our day VERY sluggishly.

That brings us to last night. Home from church around 8:00pm. Matthew dressed Philip for bed while I bathed Braewyn. Prayers with Philip and he was in bed around 8:45pm. I fed Braewyn and she was in the crib around 9:20pm. Quiet at last. At 4:00am, she begins to cry. We enter "cry-it-out" mode. After 20 minutes, I silently walk into their room to make sure she's not stuck in the crib slats or something. Nope, the little girl was laying smack in the middle of her crib. After another length of crying with each minute going by hoping and praying she would go to sleep, I enter the room again and try to give her the paci. By now, she is to her screeching state and poor Philip sits up and says, "Mommy, is it wake up time?" Still dark outside, I say, "No, sweety, not yet. Go back to sleep." He's my angel at the moment and lays down without a word. I scoop Braewyn up and proceed to the livingroom.

I go ahead and try to feed her. She latches right on and eats away steadily. Well, there you go, if the girl's hungry she's gonna let us know. I changed her diaper which was pretty wet, finished feeding her, and now had my happy yet sleepy sweet baby Braewyn back. I laid her back in the crib without even a pacifier and she was content. She slept until 8:00am.

This is where is gets hard having two children... not comparing and doing things with one just because it worked the first time. I need to go to bed now as it's Russian Roulette as it when I'll be awoken. I'd love advice from readers about your bedtime experiences. Are there children who just begin one day sleeping through the night without having to go through this cry-it-out period? Maybe Braewyn is still in need of an extra feeding at night (although she was sleeping from 10pm until 6am for a week a while back!). What can I do about my feelings of guilt for throwing this screaming banshe into Philip's up 'til now peaceful bedroom? I want to create in Braewyn the great sleeping habits we helped foster in Philip. I just want to avoid any unnecessary stress in the meantime. Thanks for "listening."

Back in Blog World!

Yes, we're all still alive and kicking. Much to update about but not much time to do so. Matthew, the kids and I got home today from visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Diemer (Mom's parents), Aunt Cathy (Hey Aunt Cathy! Here's a new post just for you!) and Liz (Mom's sisters), and Bruce (Cathy's husband) over the weekend. We left Thursday after Matthew got off work so it was a nice 5 day visit. We had a really great time together and I really enjoyed watching Philip run through their house and yard where I have so many memories from my own childhood. Of course, everyone loved holding and cuddling Braewyn and miraculously, Grandma, Grandpa and Liz never heard her much during the night! She decided to give Matthew and I a run for our money in the parenting department during the visit but thankfully Philip didn't seem to mind too much (the four of us were sleeping in one room!).

That brings me to our latest news... Braewyn has officially moved into Philip's room. It's now "the kids' room"! Earlier this evening as I was getting them ready for bed both were screaming at the top of their lungs due to exhaustion (Philip never took at nap today and yes, we were in the car for 6 hours!). Currently all is quiet on the home front but we'll see what the remainder of the night holds.

Also, Braewyn was dedicated last Sunday at church. (I will add pics later. Wanted to include one of her and this one I took recently is just too cute.) It was a sweet time for our family and I'll post a separate blog about that. I feel so blessed to have my wonderful husband and two sweet children. I do cherish this stage in Braewyn's life and know it will go so fast. She can't talk back and is not yet blatantly disobeying, but yet I still enjoy the toddler stage moreso and look forward to that time in her life. Yes, Philip knows very well what happens when he doesn't listen to Mommy and Daddy ("Get a pop!") but nothing is better than interacting with him and watching him run and play!