The Napping Experiment

The past two weeks I have been doing some experimentation with the older two kids' nap time. I have tried being strict with the time. I thought maybe a strict routine would help them more consistently fall asleep. I was wrong and they needed lots of help falling asleep each day and each night.

Then I tried alternating the nap days with "lay-down" days. These are days when they are required to lay down on the couch and watch a 90 minute movie. If they get up the are sent to bed but if they stay on the couch and "rest" they don't have to take a nap that day. This still gives me some personal time in the middle of the day, and most of these days Levi would fall asleep on the couch and I would just move him to his bed.

After two weeks I have come to the conclusion that my almost 4-year old, Levi needs a nap almost every day. He can skip 1 or 2 a week max. However, Rachel (who just turned 2) may only need to nap 2 or 3 times a week. The plus side to this is that she is falling asleep faster and easier when she doesn't nap. She is also not crabby most evenings even without the nap.

I am a bit surprised by these findings. The four year old seems like the one who would be outgrowing naps. Rachel (up until recently) was my sleeper. She would sleep 12 hours at night and take 4 hour naps each day. I was pretty spoiled. I guess this just goes to show how different each kid really is. I am sharing this info because there may be a parent out there with the same frustrations I was going through and this might be helpful. And I just like to capture these moments for myself to look back on in the years to come.

Fall Festivities

This year we are taking it easy on the Fall activities. We have plenty of years to enjoy them and plan to do so when we don't have a newborn. However, we did get to Stony Creek Farms. They have all kinds of activities for the kids complete with the hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin. We went with friends and it turned out to be a perfect day!

Then we had to carve our pumpkins the following Monday. They didn't make it to Halloween, but they sure looked cool for a week or so.

Of course the big day is always a guessing game as to whether they will be in a good mood or whether they will put on their costumes or not. We had a fun day of preschool for Levi, then TorT at the town hall, then we hit up several houses on our street. Levi made it through about 1/2 of them and he began to melt down and ask to go home. Matt took him home and he fell asleep on the couch at about 7. I really thought he would LOVE TorT this year, but I was wrong. Maybe next year.

Rachel Turns 2

  

Last month Rachel turned the big 2. Only 11 days after her sister came into the world, we had a party for the new Big Sister. She really likes rainbows and will pick them out instantly when she sees one in a picture or on TV so I chose this as the theme for her party. This meant a rainbow cake that my sister, Samantha, graciously made for her, M&M cookies, skittles, colored Goldfish crackers and lots of colorful plates, napkins, etc. She had a great time and it seemed that everyone else did too.

My sister really helped me out by making Rachel's cake.

Rachel loves rainbows so this cake couldn't have been more perfect!

Rachel the two-year old is definitely a new challenge. She is a high emotions kid. This means exuberantly happy and dramatically sad all in the same minute. Maybe this is just what makes her a girl too :) She is increasing in her verbal communication to where most people can understand about half of what she says. I can understand almost all of what she says. Her latest phrase is "It not fair!" and "Check i dout!" (Check it out). She loves Lauren very much and LOVES to give her kisses...to the point of abuse sometimes. She is doing Mom's Day Out this year and after the first month, she doesn't cry or fuss when I leave. Considering her first month included a huge change at home, I am impressed. She also decided after Lauren came that she wanted to be a baby too...this meant she wanted to wear diapers. Thankfully, this was the only "baby" thing she wanted to imitate. In this past week she has started showing interest in the potty again. I hope this comes back quickly, but I am trying VERY HARD to let her lead. I am terrible at this parenting method. I want to truly let her give me the signs that she is ready, I don't want to push her into it. I jumped on it with her in August because she wanted to do it...then when Lauren came she changed her mind. I went with that too. It will come.

There is something about Rachel. Her laugh is so contagious. She is intense in all the great ways (and some of the bad ways too). Thankfully she is tough. She plays like one of the boys, but she can be dolled up like one of the girls. I hope that she is always able to find the balance with that. I just love her so much!

She tasted the icing and decided she was a big fan.

One month into the new norm...

So Lauren has now turned one month old. In these last four weeks I have started to learn who she is as a person (for now). Starting with her birth, I realize that she may take a while to warm up to ideas, but when she is ready she will come with all she has. She had no problems nursing and proved that by doing so right out of the gate and for about 30 minutes after that. She also has an amazing ability to block out the most ear piercing screams and screeches from her older siblings and just sleep. However, the mere creak of our mattress as I climb into bed at night will startle her wide awake.

She is such a good baby and I find myself marveling at the overflow of blessings I am experiencing in my life these days. When I envisioned my life as a young girl, I dreamed of having at least three kids...the number became more settled on 3 or 4 as I got older and by the time I met Matthew I had the number three as my ideal number. However, without sharing details, I wasn't even sure if I could have kids of my own. When he and I got married we knew it was a possibility that I may not be able to get pregnant. Not for sure, but a possibility. When we got pregnant with Levi I was shocked for a number of reasons. Mainly, because we were not trying to have kids. We had only been married for 8 months I wanted a little more time with my new husband. Plus, like I said, we didn't know if this was even possible. There are other factors in that time that made this a bittersweet discovery, but overall I was deeply overjoyed that I could even get pregnant.

Fast forward to 2011 and here we are three children and two miscarriages later. (I have never blogged about the miscarriages, but they happened in the fall of 2010. They were very early in the pregnancies and although they were painful, God did some very cool things during that time.) After having Lauren, I felt the dream was realized. I have this feeling of completeness with my family. I have lived long enough to know that life does NOT always go the way you think/hope it will. A lot of times, if you are following God, His plan is much better than the one you envisioned for yourself. But there are times, when His plan and your dream are one in the same. I kinda feel like this might be one of those times. I do not take for granted the blessing that I have in these three beautiful children.

Since Lauren has arrived I have experienced more contentment than ever in the early days of having a newborn. The journey of being a parent has been something I have trouble articulating. When Levi was born, I had no idea how to be a mother. I knew the basics of taking care of a newborn, but anyone can do that. Being a mother is so much more than that. As he grew, every victory he had, I took personally...every failure he had, I took personally. I was constantly looking to him for validation that I was a good mother. However, in that first year, you don't get a lot of feedback from your child. You get milestones reached and weight gained, and sleeping occurring. If these happen on time or early, you tend to pat yourself on the back. On the other hand, if they happen at a delayed pace or not the way you think they will, you beat yourself up. The grade you give yourself as a mother hangs on these markers. This is how it happened for me anyway. I was insecure and constantly compared myself to other mothers. With the second, I learned that some things are out of my control. I relaxed when she didn't do things exactly when I thought she should. I also didn't take it as personally when another child her age or younger accomplished something that she has little or no interest in doing. I stopped taking every little victory or defeat personally. I know I am a good mother. I am still growing and learning, but I know I am doing the best I can at this moment. I hope that I am better in a year than I am now. I know with time my patience will increase as my expectations decrease. I am learning that life is less about me and what I want and more about me and my family and what is best for us. God has a beautiful plan for each of us and I get to play a major part in the furtherance of three of His creations' journey. With the third, I am free from feeling my child needs to be the best or biggest or whatever. My children are such blessings to me and I just focus on loving them and being the mom that God made me to be. I am not there yet, but I have had some major changes since beginning this journey in March of 2007 (when I found out I was pregnant with Levi), and I look forward to the changes that lay ahead. 


Your reward for getting to the end of this post is pictures! Yay for you :)