Jenn's Fall Preview

For the first 2.5 years of our marriage, Jamie and I led a couple's small group through our church. Due to scheduling conflicts among the members - and a little burnout - we took a break last semester. Since then, we've sort of been sitting on our fannies wondering, "Where should we serve next?" When I was pregnant with Micah, we went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and have since become extremely passionate about our own financial fitness and about sharing what we've learned with others. At different times, we've both said, "It would be fun to serve in THAT ministry," but I guess we were just waiting for the opportunity to fall into our laps (read: lazy). Well, this week it did. A leader from our church called and asked to meet with us about serving in the financial ministry. I am so proud to attend a church that values financial fitness so much - it is of huge importance in people's lives simply because it's the source of either much stress or much peace. So anyway...lots of opportunities to choose from in that area. We are super excited to see what God will do through us!

I kind of forgot over the last year that, in addition to being a mom, I'm also a lot of other things. And after a year of pouring myself 100% into my new family, some of my interests and passions that have laid dormant are waking up. Last week, I starting sewing again. The stars must have aligned just right because I made a complete baby tag blanket in 24 hours. I had so much fun...can't wait to make another one. This is not to say that my family is getting less of me; I've just figured out how to balance things better. So I'm probably stupid for considering having another child soon.

Speaking of children...I'm also helping this fall with MotherWise. My role is mainly organizational, which I used to be really good at before I had a baby ;-) Mainly I just love building relationships with other moms. Last week we had dinner with our neighbors and their two kids. My child was throwing his typical "mom and dad are trying to eat and can't give me 100% of their attention right now" tantrum and banging his toy against the table. If we had been eating with people who didn't have kids, I would have been totally embarrassed. But I wasn't, because I knew our friends understood.

So there's a little update on me (and not Micah this time ;-). He's still my most favorite baby ever though, in case you're wondering.

A Little Wisdom After Baby Wise

I've been wanting to write a post on Baby Wise for awhile now. In fact, I have a draft saved that I just scrapped. I was having trouble articulating what I wanted to communicate, but I just read my friend Nickie's blog, and she reminds me so much of myself during the early days of implementing Baby Wise.

First, I want to say that we had a lot of success with the Baby Wise principles. Micah goes down awake with little to no fussing. He takes two 1.5 hour naps and sleeps 11-12 hours at night. He's been doing that for months. We are so grateful!

However, it breaks my heart when I hear of moms who want so badly to rock their crying babies to sleep but fear that doing so will create a habit they can never break. I was that mom. Micah has always gone down great at night, but we struggled with naps. Different tips and tricks worked temporarily, but I eventually "caved" and rocked him. I felt like I was failing at Baby Wise at the time; I had visions of rocking my 5-year-old to sleep. But by 8 months, Micah indicated that he no longer wanted/needed to be rocked at nap time, so I started putting him down awake. He transitioned with no problems.

So here's my point: while I embrace many of the principles in Baby Wise, I think in some ways the book encourages independence between mom and baby too soon. Simply put, moms shouldn't feel guilty for wanting to hold, cuddle and rock their babies more than the book thinks is wise.

With the next one, I still plan to establish an eat-awake-sleep routine. I will still do all the tricks to make sure baby gets a full feeding, and I will wake baby up to eat if necessary. I think that alone - keeping Micah from having a long stretch of uninterrupted sleep during the day - helped him distinguish night from day. But I will also rock him/her to sleep if necessary and won't feel guilty about it. Now Micah is mobile and rarely wants to be held, let alone rocked. I miss the days when he would let me rock him, and I realize how quickly those days pass by.

A Peak at Micah-Life

Dad cannot wait to take me fishing!

Hamming for the camera...I'm used to it!

Climbing on some (probably) antique furniture at my great-grandparent's house

Much more interested in having my picture taken than eating!

Peek-a-boo!