It's official

I'm officially a stay-at-home-mom! I'm off of my FMLA leave and my work at E***** is O-V-E-R! YAY!!!!!! All those months during my pregnancy that I absolutely hated going to work finally paid off. God blessed me in a HUGE way upon exiting. I can't really go into detail because that was part of the deal, but let me just say it was a huge blessing. I am so relieved to be done with that place. God gave me a lot of favor while I was there, but the past year was miserable. But had I quit back in December or before, God couldn't have blessed me like he did. The COO was so gracious to me and even told me I could come back any time, even part time if I wanted to.

Most of all, I'm thrilled to be staying home with Evan. I'm beginning to see it paying off already. He knows who I am and he smiles when he sees me. Most importantly, he's very comforted by me and he feels safe. I'm so happy I get to witness all his milestones instead of some daycare worker. I have lots of fun things planned for us to do this summer, starting with swimming lessons at the Y! I can't believe they have swimming lessons for 6 month olds, but they do! I am so excited about that! We're also going to join some mom groups and arrange some playdates. We'll have lots of days with Nana, lunches with Auntie and Daddy, and meetups with Auntie Gwen and Addison on Fridays.

I can't believe this is my life. All those years I prayed for a husband. All those years I waited and waited. All those years I struggled, hurt, cried and was lonely. I'm so glad those years are behind me. God was right when He told me he had someone for me. I just had no idea I would be this happy. Thank you God, You are truly faithful and good.

Evan's First Easter

He wasn't in the mood for pics and he spit up all over his original Easter outfit in the nursery!



Giving bunny kisses

On the Up and Up

Evan is 11 weeks old and doing phenominal. He's slept through the night for the past 3 nights, he is happy, he's smiling and cooing SO often now and God has healed his tummy problems. On top of that, God healed his tear duct that caused his right eye to run constantly and the pink birthmark on his nose is fading fast! All those things aren't coincidence or happenstance...God touched my baby!

I look at that little baby boy and I'm so overwhelmed with love that it hurts. I almost can't stand it. Some nights I almost can't bear to put him to bed because I just don't want to be away from him. He is so incredibly cute and his little personality is too. I look at him and wonder how God could bless me with something so wonderful. God is such a wonderful, loving God.

Thank you Lord, for sending YOUR beloved Son to die for our sins. And most importantly, to be risen up on this Easter. Thank you Jesus...we remember You today.

My New Favorite Verse

I've been praying this over Evan every night and it's working beautifully. He slept from 8:30 pm until 5 am last night! Woohoo!!!

When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you shall lie down and your sleep shall be sweet.
Proverbs 3:24

I Get To

Sometimes in life you dread doing certain things. For the past year, I dreaded going to my job everyday. Pastor Davis preached a sermon a while back called, "I Get To". He talked about how people dread doing things, namely going to church. He was talking about how we should change our perspective about things and choose to think about them like, "I GET to go to church. I GET to go to work. I GET to clean the house." Because after all, we have the freedom to go to church, we have jobs to go to and houses to clean. Many people in the world don't have any of those luxuries.

Fortunately, there's not anything in my life that I dread doing. But I was reminded of this sermon a few weeks ago when I was up at 3 am feeding Evan. I wasn't dreading it or anything, but the thought crossed my mind, "I GET to feed my baby at 3 am. Lots of people want babies but don't have babies. I am so fortunate that I have a baby to feed...even if it is at 3 am."

But I am human and occasionally little thoughts of dread try to enter my mind. I don't love all of the things that I have to do sometimes, but that's when I have to remind myself that I GET to do those things.

Fortunately I don't have to go back to my job any more because if I did, I'm sure I'd still really be struggling with that one. :)

Our child's unique qualities...

• Half the time, he sleeps with his eyes half open and moving. You swear he's looking at you but he's really asleep!
• If we're holding him while he's trying to cat nap, he insists on nuzzling his head between your chest and arm and completely burying it face down. We wonder how in the world he breathes like that!
• His hair doesn't lay flat to his head. It sticks up. Period. That makes the faux mo easy. :)

2 Month Update

Evan's doing better than ever. As my mom pointed out, he's like a different baby. Changing his formula to soy was the first big help along with lots of prayer and him getting older and a more mature digestive system. The most exciting thing is him smiling and starting to coo. It's SO cute and sweet. He's still not all smiles yet but he consistently smiles when we lay him on his changing table. He looks up at these shadow boxes on the wall with some stuffed animals in them and instantly lights up. Steve discovered that he loves when "Clyde" the monkey comes down and gives him kisses. I think Evan lives for that! Even when he's crying, you can get Clyde down and he starts smiling and cooing through his cries.

Evan made eye contact and smiled at me for the first time this week too. What an exciting pleasure! Of course I teared up. He's smiled before, but this time, there was no question that that smile was for Mommy. :)

He's sleeping really good lately too. He's gone 6-7 hours without eating in the middle of the night a few times. Unfortunately I'm still getting up because we put him to bed so early (7-8ish). But I'd rather do that and spend time with Steve and just continue to getting up. The thing I'm most proud of is that since he's been 5 weeks old, he's been consistently putting himself to sleep every night. We just lay him in his crib, turn on his crib toy and he falls asleep on his own. Sometimes he lays in there an hour with no toys on or anything before he falls asleep and doesn't make a peep. It's amazing!

Mom Tip of the Day

Rent Sex and the City on DVD, and reminisce about the days when you were single and the biggest problem you had was whether the "He" of the moment was going to call. Let the romance of your youth seduce you.

Then remember that, despite your freedom, all you really wanted was to fall in love and have beautiful babies.

Small victories

This week I:

1. Took Evan to the grocery store with me...whew!
2. Cut his fingernails without cutting his any of his fingers...woohoo!
3. Had Evan asleep for his nap and dinner ready the minute Steve got home from work...prob won't ever happen simultaneously again.
4. Joined the Y to get in shape...so ready!
5. Finally ordered my wedding pictures...I'm only 8 months late.
6. Ordered a few prints of Evan and actually put them in frames...everyone who knows me is in shock now. :)

Now...I still have to finish the thank you cards and order birth announcements now that my son is 2 months old! Ugh, I'm terrible.

I caved...but not any more ;(

I wasn't quite ready to give up breastfeeding altogether so I had convinced myself that I could just breastfeed him once a day. It seemed like a good idea. But now I'm 99% certain that, as strange as it sounds, my milk bothers Evan's tummy. It's CRAZY to think that my own baby wouldn't be able to tolerate my milk, but I think that's the case. It's just too ironic that once I stopped giving him breastmilk altogether and started giving him soy, I could tell a huge difference in his gas/tummy issues. I don't know if it was something I was eating or what, but he acts so much happier now. I'm still kinda sad about having to give it up, but it's easier knowing his tummy is so much happier.