Micah is 3!

3 months that is! Today our baby has officially crossed into the 3 month zone, and I still find myself in awe that he has been here for 3 months already. On one hand, it feels like we just got home from the hospital, and on the other hand, it feels like I cannot even remember life without him. The greatest joy (and also the saddest thing) of mommyhood is watching your baby turn into a little man with every passing day.

Last week, he woke up one day and it was just like he said to himself "today is the day I will start cooing." He just started really cooing all the time, and everyday since then, he has cooed and cooed and talked, and sang all day, and Leon and I are completely mesmerized by him (not that we weren't already).




Then just yesterday, we had a big diaper blowout in the car on the way to the lake, and I had to change his diaper in the front seat of the car, which was pretty awkward. And when I didn't have enough space to change his clothes without bending his neck weirdly against the seat, I just stood him up, leaned him against the back of the seat, and he just stood there while I changed his clothes.

He is now eating rice cereal like a champ (which according to pediatricians today, he shouldn't start that until 6 months now....but I cheated because he was so big, just to see how he would handle it, and it was a breeze!), and can hold his own bottle for a little while...

oops, I mean this bottle....

He sits really well all by himself in his bumbo seat,

we just switched the baby swing out for the exersaucer, which he loves,

and he constantly chews on his fingers now that he has discovered them.

All in all, I would say he is probably the best 3 month old anyone could have ever ask for! :) So today, on September 4, 2010, I want to wish my cute precious amazing baby boy a very happy 3 month birthday!!! We love you, Micah!

Focus is everything

I sit here, trying to get some work done this Monday morning, after having been awakened by a crying baby at 5am, with no relief until he just went back to sleep at 8. I am tired, I am frustrated, and I am wishing I had the luxury of going back to sleep for a while. But unfortunately, I don't.

As I stumble my way through this enigma called parenting, I am starting to realize that focus is everything. When I stumble my tired body into Micah's room in the middle of the night, I have a choice...I can choose to be focused on how ridiculous it is that my sleeping-through-the-night 2 1/2 month old is waking up, or I can choose to use this as an opportunity to hug and cuddle my super-active-baby-who-never-wants-to-be-cuddled.

I think that also applies to all aspects of our lives. Do we see rush-hour traffic, or a chance to be quiet in our own thoughts? Financial struggles, or a lesson in how to better manage money? Fighting with our spouse, or an opportunity for greater closeness?


As I learned this lesson myself this morning, I encourage everyone to focus on the positive of our lives.

Cord Drama Documented

Most of you know that we had some crazy drama with Micah's umbilical cord. If not, you can read all about it here...

I realized I never did a follow up to that, but we do have a video of the day Micah's cord finally came off, so here it is:

Vote for Micah's Nursery!

Some of you have seen our video of how we decorated Micah's room:




We wanted to create something abstract, artsy, and just not your standard baby blue nursery. Our fabric choice has been criticized, colors made fun of, and no one really pictured it like we did until they saw the finished product.

We recently emailed our nursery to the webmaster of a baby decor website, and they decided to put us up on their site for parents to look at and get ideas from. There is also a contest as to who gets the highest ratings. I am not sure what the prize is, but of course I want to win just for bragging rights :) ...so visit our page on the site at http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/abstract-modern-nursery-design.html and add a comment and give us a good rating!

Sleeping patterns

Helping a newborn sleep through the night is always a topic of conversation among parents. Babies are all different, so it is hard to say when they should start sleeping through the night or how we can help them do that. But I know Micah has it in him to sleep at least 5 hours at night. He did it the second day he was home from the hospital, it just happened to be at 2:00 in the afternoon. So in an effort to re-arrange his schedule to where he sleeps those 5 hours at night, we have been making sure we wake him up every 3 hours during the day so he gets all his feedings in and will hopefully sleep more at night. It is working, but it is definitely not the easiest thing to do! Sometimes the little man just doesn't want to wake up....it does provide good entertainment, but it does not make things easy on us! Check out this adorable video of our little man.... 

 


Any tips out there from you parents will be welcomed with open arms. But until then, we will keep doing what we are doing, because it seems to be working! Now he is going between 4-5 hours every night...yay!!! Now if we could just get to 8 hours, I might get myself a good night's sleep!

A month feels like a day...

How can it be possible that our baby boy is already a month old?! Even he can't believe it!

 

It seems like only yesterday that we were in the hospital just getting to know our little man, and on the 4th of July, he had his 1 month birthday! I am completely dumbfounded at how fast time has flown, but have been loving every minute!

Leon and I recently reconnected with an old friend who loves deep, personal conversations as much as we do. After she recovered from the initial shock of seeing us with a baby, she asked us a great question that I think bears repeating...what was the most surprising thing about having a baby for us?

Leon's response was that he was surprised at how close it was bringing the two of us together. We always hear how marriage gets strained with children, and I think we were expecting that to happen from the very beginning, but in our case, at least so far, it has done nothing but bring us closer together. Not only do we have this amazing child to care for, but watching each other become parents has only increased our love for one another. We are still focused on our marriage first and foremost, and then being parents to Micah. And the fact that Micah wasn't an instant wedge in between us, surprised Leon....even to the point where he coined my new favorite saying of all time: "I'd sell a kid on eBay before I let it ruin my marriage!" :)

My answer to the question was that I was most surprised by how much I loved it. I felt like everyone had only told me the downsides to having a newborn..."get ready to be exhausted," "plan on staying home for 3 months," "expect your marriage to be strained," etc.... I heard it all, from bad personal experiences, to warnings about colic, fussiness, marital problems, sleepless nights and more. Because of what everyone was telling me, I was expecting it to be completely draining, and while I am tired, and even leaving the house is more difficult than it used to be, I think that I over-prepared for the worst, and am now surprised at how amazing it is!

**So I was just curious...for all you parents out there, think back to when you first had a baby (some may have to think back further than others!). What was the most surprising thing for you? I am always interested in hearing other people's thoughts, so if you have time, comment on this post and tell us what was most surprising for you!

Change in perspective

It's amazing how much a baby changes things! Before Micah came into our lives, Leon and I were looking at change as a bad thing. We loved our life, we loved each other, and we didn't want a baby ruining any of that. 


But now that the little man has come, and we have learned that loving him while still loving each other is easier than we thought, we have come to embrace a little bit of change, both in our relationship and in our personal lives. One of the biggest changes that Micah has brought to my life is my perspective on God.

Leon and I have been through a lot of ups and downs during our first year of marriage, and a lot of the downs had to do with negative experiences in church, and with pastors in our lives. I will spare everyone the details of these negative experiences, but suffice it to say that our experiences left us a little sour on church and church leaders. Ok, "a little sour" is an understatement....we were hurt, and we were pissed, even to the point where we didn't want anything to do with church people. (Sorry, but I made a commitment to be honest, no matter how terrible my thoughts were).

Getting over those feelings toward church has proven to be a trick for us. We just want to see more people who are authentically living life for Jesus, instead of people who just talk a good talk from principles they learned in Seminary, and they are not living a life like Christ modeled for us at all. 

I had thought until now that I was just frustrated with the church. But as I dig deeper into those feelings, I am starting to realize that I wasn't just upset with the church, but with God too. I felt like we had been abandoned by Him, that He was missing, and that He shouldn't have allowed certain things to happen to us when we were trying to serve Him with our whole hearts. 

I let those feelings go on a lot longer than I should have, and it is just now, when I look at my baby boy, and I cannot help but see the beauty and glory of God's everyday miracles in His sweet little face, and small little fingers and toes, that I am starting to see God for who He truly is again. When Micah's eyes start focusing on us more and more each day. When he smiles, even though he doesn't know what he is doing yet. When he stops crying when he hears my voice or Leon's voice....All these sweet little precious moments in time that I will treasure forever would never have been possible if God hadn't randomly decided to bless us with this incredible baby boy. He was formed out of 2 cells, and grew to this amazing, perfectly healthy boy that we now get to hold and cuddle. God was not absent in our lives, instead, He was preparing the way for us to be able to love and provide for this amazing baby boy who deserves the whole world, and He was making us into the kinds of parents He knew we needed to be for Micah.


I would like to say I am completely over my recent lapse in judgment when it comes to God, but I am not out of the woodwork just yet. But with every passing day, and every little glance from my almost 1 month old, my heart melts more and more, and God shows Himself to me over and over again in the eyes of His precious creation Micah. And I am starting to fall in love with my Father again because of my baby boy! What an awesome God we have who will not give up on us but who will bless us and bless us and relentlessly pursue us until we simply cannot resist His ultimate love!

Sleeping Micah

Of course I think my son is adorable...I mean, I am his mother, and by that definition alone, I am bound to think he's amazing; but besides that fact, the truth is that he truly is completely adorable! :) I have been taking pictures ad nauseam since we got home from the hospital, and since he is less than a month old and all he really does is sleep at this point, the majority of those pictures happen to be of him sleeping. I can't help it, I just think he is so cute when he sleeps!

There is nothing more peaceful than when I watch my baby boy sleep. Sometimes he smiles, sometimes he punches the air, and sometimes he even laughs. I started thinking about how peaceful he is and how much trust he puts in us to take care of him. Regardless of the kind of parents Leon and I will be, Micah has no choice but to trust that we will take good care of him and will act in his best interest.

I think that same trust my baby boy puts in me can teach me so much about how I need to trust my Heavenly Father. The only difference is that I am fooled by the illusion that I have control over my own life, but I will inevitably mess things up for myself. I think if I spent more time just trusting God to take care of me and lead me, and less time fighting against Him, I may just sleep as peacefully as my sweet baby boy! And the good thing is that God won't ever mess things up for us.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

Micah's birth day

I finally got the video of Micah's birth day finished and up on YouTube, after only 3 weeks. I think it speaks for itself, so feel free to click here to watch it if you are interested.