Oh boy, Christmas!

Somehow, (I'm not sure how) December has already started and Christmas is 5 days away... ? Where did December go? I'm pretty sure that last I looked it was still November. I mean, crap, I still vividly remember Halloween and I know it wasn't that long ago. So I guess it's almost christmas. I'm very excited for this year because it has brought with it a lot of fun things. Two of these things being our baby boy and our new house. I know Bentley is still small, but I still look forward to watching him interact with his new things. Joel and I are very happy to be in our own home now. Especially since we can now envision to an extent, what our future holidays will look like.

With the joys of Christmas also comes the stress of Christmas. I don't think it's going to get any easier trying to juggle families. Joel and I LOVE our families SO much! It's important to us that our children know their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Neither of us has a desire to move away or to have to travel long distances to be able to see any of them. But with being so close to everyone comes the challenge of balancing time. Unfortunately I have not quite mastered this skill. I try very hard to spend time with family. I hope they know that and can see my struggle to make ends meet. I love you all! With my mistakes come learning and hopefully a lot less sadness. I'm trying my best.

It's strange now that I have Bentley to see that Christmas doesn't hold as much magic as it used to  for me. When the roles switch and you become Santa and the parent... it's a little sad. I know what all the presents are and did all the shopping. There's less excitement waiting for it all. It makes me a little sad. I'm sure once our baby gets old enough to be excited about it that I'll be more excited to see him enjoy everything. I still look forward to going to my parents house. There's still mystery and magic there.

And a new year is about to begin... 2011.. I'm sure it'll be here before I can catch up!

My journey

Today my baby boy is 3 months old! I can't believe how quickly it has gone. One day I was in the hospital having a baby and the next day it's 3 months later. Pfew! It's been amazing being a mommy though. Bentley is such a good baby! He's so happy and smiles all the time. In the past week he has started trying to laugh. It's like I have this new mission in life... make him laugh. I love his little giggle and it seems like it comes and goes so quickly that I have to keep trying. Hence the new life mission... I remember when I was younger and I would watch people with babies. They would go crazy and make all these silly faces and basically do things that would generally be embarrasing. And I would think "No way, I'm never gonna do that." And now- here I am going gaga over this kid doing anything necessary to get that laugh. Your heart just melts a little more for them when they laugh. (I'm certain mine is all droopy and melty)

It's getting easier to function on less sleep. And it's not even that I get less sleep, it's that I get to wake up 2-5 times a night and stay awake for 10-30min each time. It really kills the whole REM sleep. But like I said, I'm getting better at functioning. I realized that continuing my prenatal pills is a very important part of my daily routine. Without it I'm completely lethargic. Bentley has also started coo-ing. Oh I love it! He just looks at you like he's saying things you're supposed to be understanding. Like his little gibber jabber makes sense.

Joel is having fun with him too. He says the funniest things sometimes. You know the person you marry and their norms... this is new. Like when we bought his first suit. (Button up white shirt, suit pants and a clip on tie) Joel gets him dressed and comes out of Bentley's room saying "Isn't he CUTE?" And of course I can't react and be like "did you honestly just say cute?" because then he'll realize what he's said and never do it again. So I smile to myself and enjoy watching a father with his son. Some things you just can't put into words. Love my little family. Joel is such a trooper too! He's currently working full time, going to school full time and coming home to a brand new baby and house. So many things that require his attention. Only a week left until he is done with this semester of school. He looks forward to the break! As do I! I missed my husband.

Tired

I remember the first time Bentley slept 5 hours at night instead of his consistent 4. We were so excited that this was a sign of him sleeping more. Since that day, I have crossed my fingers that he would start sleeping through the night. No such luck of course, but we have been pretty lucky with as much sleep as we get. One night, Bentley slept 7 straight hours. Of course, that night Joel and I had stayed up talking instead of going to sleep so we still didn't get to enjoy the 7 hours. Bentley is doing pretty well though. He usually sleeps 5 to 6 hours after we first lay him down at night. (after feeding him and finally getting him back to sleep he will usually only sleep another 1.5-2 hours so I tend to not count that) Last night I wasn't so lucky though. We laid Bentley down around 11:30pm and he woke up at 2, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 6:30, and 7:30. From 7:30am until 9 I laid in bed with him trying to get him to go back to sleep... I failed. Sooooo tired. Most nights, I get up once (to feed baby) and then go back to bed. Last night was rough after getting used to his normal schedule. I'm still crossing my fingers that he'll start sleeping through the night. Oh how much I would like that!!

October

I can't believe October is almost over. It seems like the time between July and September stretched on forever and ever waiting for our baby boy and now here it is almost November and the time just zipped by!! September and October have been busy months for us. With the arrival of Bentley and packing up our apartment to move into the house we were buying... The lack of sleep was not well timed. But the exciting news is that Joel and I are now home owners. We love love love it! We signed the papers on October 11th and got our keys 2 days later. Now we've finally gotten everything moved into the house... just not unpacked. Our kitchen is coming together. We had to buy a fridge and have been lucky enough to be getting a new stove/oven as well (apparently they are called a "range" when you buy both in one unit.. the technical things). Now I have a project for the kitchen I am hoping to get done soon. It's really fun to have your own home and to be able to do whatever you want to it. Didn't realize how much I was going to enjoy that part until I had ideas that I could actually try out. Bentley's room is closest to being done. So a little about our home. It's 1,942 sqft. and has 4 bedrooms, 2 bath rooms, a bonus room, living room, family room, kitchen/ dining room and a utility room. We love how close we are to family. Joel and I really enjoy being able to visit and spend time with them.

Bentley is growing up so quickly now. He's smiling and starting to look around a lot more. He follows movement and turns his head to watch you. He hasn't quite caught on to us calling his name yet but he seems to be getting close to understanding that much. It's fun to watch Joel interact with him. One time he called me into the living room and held Bentley's hand up (which was in a fist with his thumb between his middle and ring finger) and said "He's got my nose" with a big grin :) I love being a stay at home mom.

Learning

Life is good. Baby boy has been acting a little upset the past couple days. I think I ate something bad because I was on the verge of throwing up for a while there and he was having a hard time settling down. Poor guy. We're doing a lot better now though. He slept pretty good last night (which I am SO grateful for!). Somehow, my day is consumed by taking care of baby. Nothing else seems to get done. Eventually I am going to learn how to get back into the flow of things. It probably doesn't help that baby is only 3 weeks old. He's starting to get into a schedule though. We go to bed between 10 and 11, wake up between 1 and 2, wake up around 6, get up between 8 and 9, stay awake until 11 and then... the rest of the day isn't a schedule yet. But it's nice to have something regular. Most days i don't even make it out of my pajamas. Hopefully life will become more normal as baby gets older. That's all for now.

Baby boy

Well our baby boy is now 2 weeks old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone already. People tell you it goes by fast but somehow this is just way too fast. Some of his newborn outfits are already too short for him. His little legs have to be bent in order to fit into them. He is such a long baby too. At 2 weeks he is already 7lbs 2oz and over 21inches long. Joel and I have decided that he is gonna be tall and skinny like his momma. When he was one week old we got some pictures of him taken by our cousin Sarah Zwygart who does photography for a living. Beautiful photos! 

Joel has always said to me that all babies look alike and they're all ugly. I think his opinion changed when we had Bentley because I hear Joel quietly telling him how cute he is and that he's a beautiful baby. I'm sure he'll never admit to it. But I love observing Joel as a father. There is so much love for this little being. He said to me the other day, "I like when he holds my finger." It made me smile. Currently he sleeps 3-4 hours at a time in the night. We really like that. If we go to bed at 10, he usually wakes up between 1 and 2 and then right around 6. So it's nice for Joel because he only wakes up once in the middle of the night and then at 6 he has to get up for work anyways. Momma loves being home with baby. Couldn't be anything more important in the world. We're enjoying our little boy.

 

Where do I start..?

It's amazing how much has taken place in our lives the past couple weeks. Currently I am working on writing my birth story. Most of the stuff I post on here is for me because I am terrible at keeping a journal. I just want to be able to document the things of our lives and not worry about our computer dying  (like my previous one had). I lost a lot of pictures and journals. Plus, it's fun to share with other people. :) Will update soon.