I hope that whatever you are doing tonight, you have a happy and healthy New Year!!
Bottoms up everyone!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Happy New Year!!
Bryan and I are officially the lamest people this New Year's eve! (although we've never been big NYE fans...get dressed up to pay $$$ to go to an over-crowded bar and then fight for a cab back home. No thank you!) But this year is lamer than ever....and I'm not ashamed of it one bit! Nolan and I went for a run, we met some friends for an early dinner, and now we are relaxing on the couch while the little guy sleeps. I have no plans to be awake at midnight and that's just fine by me!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
"Wait until he's 6 months..."
When Nolan was 2 months old, I was talking to a friend at a wedding who has a 2 year old and another one the same age as Nolan. She said something to me that I distinctly remember.
I remember thinking that I couldn't possibly love him more than I currently did...but she was right. For us, it happened closer to 5 months and has just continued from there. Don't get me wrong, I have ALWAYS loved my son but over the past two months I've often found myself getting teary eyed not from frustration or lack of sleep, but from the overwhelming amount of love I have for him. Yes, this is when we sleep trained him so that cut a lot of the stress I was feeling down so I was less sleep deprived making me able to enjoy life more. But its also when he started interacting more and he became so much fun! Now instead of smiling just for the heck of it, he smiles when he sees my face. Instead of aimlessly batting for a toy, he actually plays with things (his favorites activities include ripping the pages out of magazines and watching his stuffed animals fall off the book shelf). Instead of just lying on the floor, he crawls (yes, he started crawling at 6 months and 1 week!) to give me a hug or to meet Bryan at the back door after work. He melts my heart on a daily basis.
Everyone always says the first 6 weeks are the toughest with a baby. I think we were lucky that Nolan wasn't too difficult at the beginning. For us, months 3 and 4 were the hardest. I often questioned whether I was cut out to be a stay at home mom. Heck, I questioned whether I was even cut out to be a mom at all! I had feelings of "why did we do this??" and "what were we thinking having a baby?!?" which of course made me feel guilty and even worse than I already felt. But the past two months, I can not imagine my life any different. I am truly blessed that Bryan's career allows me to stay at home with Nolan because I couldn't imagine missing a single smile on his little face. We still have our rough days (and nights) where he's overly fussy, clingly, and won't nap (like right now when his 4th...yes 4th!! tooth is trying to break through), but I am better able to handle them because they are the exception, not the norm from a few months ago.
Everyone also says that things, good and bad, are just a phase and will change soon. While you know that to be true, when you're in the midst of a bad phase you feel like it will never end. I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel because no one could tell me how long that tunnel was. Those two months were like being on a treadmill that never stops, each step making you more and more exhausted. I dreaded the days because nap time was such a struggle and I dreaded the nights because I never knew if I'd get to sleep for 1 hour or 4 hours before Nolan woke up. Dr. Ferber and Dr. Weissbluth were my sleep training saviors. These two men deserve a blog post of their own because they are that brilliant!
I had been meaning to write this post for some time as my friend's comment kept popping into my head. Now that Nolan is one day away from being 7 months old, I can only imagine that my love for him is going to continue to grow each and every day.
"Just wait until he is 6 months old...you will fall so much more in love with him."
I remember thinking that I couldn't possibly love him more than I currently did...but she was right. For us, it happened closer to 5 months and has just continued from there. Don't get me wrong, I have ALWAYS loved my son but over the past two months I've often found myself getting teary eyed not from frustration or lack of sleep, but from the overwhelming amount of love I have for him. Yes, this is when we sleep trained him so that cut a lot of the stress I was feeling down so I was less sleep deprived making me able to enjoy life more. But its also when he started interacting more and he became so much fun! Now instead of smiling just for the heck of it, he smiles when he sees my face. Instead of aimlessly batting for a toy, he actually plays with things (his favorites activities include ripping the pages out of magazines and watching his stuffed animals fall off the book shelf). Instead of just lying on the floor, he crawls (yes, he started crawling at 6 months and 1 week!) to give me a hug or to meet Bryan at the back door after work. He melts my heart on a daily basis.
Everyone always says the first 6 weeks are the toughest with a baby. I think we were lucky that Nolan wasn't too difficult at the beginning. For us, months 3 and 4 were the hardest. I often questioned whether I was cut out to be a stay at home mom. Heck, I questioned whether I was even cut out to be a mom at all! I had feelings of "why did we do this??" and "what were we thinking having a baby?!?" which of course made me feel guilty and even worse than I already felt. But the past two months, I can not imagine my life any different. I am truly blessed that Bryan's career allows me to stay at home with Nolan because I couldn't imagine missing a single smile on his little face. We still have our rough days (and nights) where he's overly fussy, clingly, and won't nap (like right now when his 4th...yes 4th!! tooth is trying to break through), but I am better able to handle them because they are the exception, not the norm from a few months ago.
Everyone also says that things, good and bad, are just a phase and will change soon. While you know that to be true, when you're in the midst of a bad phase you feel like it will never end. I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel because no one could tell me how long that tunnel was. Those two months were like being on a treadmill that never stops, each step making you more and more exhausted. I dreaded the days because nap time was such a struggle and I dreaded the nights because I never knew if I'd get to sleep for 1 hour or 4 hours before Nolan woke up. Dr. Ferber and Dr. Weissbluth were my sleep training saviors. These two men deserve a blog post of their own because they are that brilliant!
I had been meaning to write this post for some time as my friend's comment kept popping into my head. Now that Nolan is one day away from being 7 months old, I can only imagine that my love for him is going to continue to grow each and every day.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Its never to late to be thankful!
While we typically think of Thanksgiving as the day to be thankful, since I'm a few weeks late with this blog post, I figure today is just as good to be thankful! This year, my family decided to head down to Bend, OR a cute resort town where Mt. Bachelor is located. While it was a little different than our Thanksgiving last year that we spent in Zion (Nolan was 13 weeks old in my belly then), we had a fun time hiking around, relaxing, and spending family time together.
Bend was great and we are hoping to get back down there this winter to do some skiing at Bachelor. For the end of November, the mountain looked like it was doing pretty well and there were already lots of skiers out enjoying the snow.
We also learned a lot about traveling with a baby at this age that will affect some of our plans for the next couple months. He's definitely not as portable as he was a few months ago! While we don't plan on putting our lives on hold, we are rethinking some trips we were planning. His sleep (and ours!) is just too important right now and we found its the first thing to go when you travel at this age. Luckily we are all back on track and sleeping well...until our next trip on Friday.
What I'm most thankful for!
First hike in his big boy backpack!
Hiking is hard work!
My little bear in the snow
Bend was great and we are hoping to get back down there this winter to do some skiing at Bachelor. For the end of November, the mountain looked like it was doing pretty well and there were already lots of skiers out enjoying the snow.
We also learned a lot about traveling with a baby at this age that will affect some of our plans for the next couple months. He's definitely not as portable as he was a few months ago! While we don't plan on putting our lives on hold, we are rethinking some trips we were planning. His sleep (and ours!) is just too important right now and we found its the first thing to go when you travel at this age. Luckily we are all back on track and sleeping well...until our next trip on Friday.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Blog Abandonment
I apologize for my lack of blogging the past 2 weeks. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I go through phases of blog abandonment. But I always come back!
This most recent break can only be blamed on one thing. No, not a lack of sleep or being too busy. I blame it on The Hunger Games. I recently decided to pick up my much neglected Kindle (funny I haven't touched it in 6 months!) and read a non-baby book. I was searching Amazon for a book to read and saw The Hunger Games. I had no idea what it was about but I knew I had heard good things about it. Let's just say that I was hooked from page one. Luckily the three book series is a fast read because I was using as many of Nolan's nap times to read as I could get away with and not let my house completely fall apart!
Last night I finished book three and I'll admit I was slightly disappointed with it, but I always do this with books I love....the ending just never seems good enough for me. Now that I'm done, I promise to make a blog return because I have lots to talk about. Our Thanksgiving trip, Nolan's first tooth, 6 month old stats...the list goes on!
See you soon :)
Last night I finished book three and I'll admit I was slightly disappointed with it, but I always do this with books I love....the ending just never seems good enough for me. Now that I'm done, I promise to make a blog return because I have lots to talk about. Our Thanksgiving trip, Nolan's first tooth, 6 month old stats...the list goes on!
See you soon :)
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