Fiona in January

Fiona in January

Monday, July 30, 2012

Baby Knives' Silver Screen Debut

A good friend of mine suggested that I start taking video, and not just photos, of Baby Knives and I'm so glad she did!  Even during these early days, when she's not doing too much, there are still those moments I'll always want to remember.  So check out a few of our videos from about 4 weeks to today!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Peace in the Nighttime

There are a few Bible verses that have been running through my head lately, mostly when I'm up in the wee hours of the morning feeding Baby Knives and settling her back to sleep.


I Corinthians 10:13 - No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.

On the surface, neither of these two passages really seem to have much to do with the unique stresses of spending 24/7 with a newborn baby, but they've really helped me gain a little perspective in the middle of the night when that baby monitor beeps and all I want to do is turn it off and pretend she isn't awake and needing attention so I can go back to sleep. 

(Note: we live in a small 2 bedroom apartment, so that wouldn't work anyway - we'd hear her without the monitor!)

My last post was about the roughest day we've had with Baby Knives since we brought her home.  Thankfully we haven't had another day like that - we've hit rough spots and her fussy time - now referred to as "the witching hour" in our house (6-10pm, in case you're wondering), but overall we've been able to keep her fed, dry and relatively happy.

Yesterday I had one of those milestone moments with her, she smiled at me!  No, not that half-smirk newborn gassy smile, but a real smile in reaction to me.  I was changing her diaper and blew a raspberry on her tummy, kissing her hands and talking to her - and she looked up, focused on me and gave me a big squinty-eyed smile!  We tried to replicate it when her daddy came home, but she was having none of it, giving him the, "I am not your trained monkey Daddy" stonefaced expression.

I can't wait til she smiles more and I can actually capture it on camera!  Until then, this is the closest I've gotten to getting her smile on camera:

Thursday, July 19, 2012

It was the worst of days...it was the WORST of days!

Yesterday was a really tough day.  Seriously, the worst day I've had in a long time and that includes the day I actually had a c-section after being in labor for almost an entire day.  It was a day where the realization that being a parent is a 24/7 job I am in no way prepared for slapped me across the face. 

Over the past month, Baby Knives has been a pretty mellow kid.  Not really fussy, only waking up to eat and then going back to sleep.  However, on Monday she turned one month old and apparently all of that was about to change as she decided to wreak havoc on her unsuspecting parents.

It was one of those days that I've honestly been dreading since we found out I was pregnant.  A day where no matter what we did, neither one of us could settle her down.  She would sleep for maybe 30 minutes at a time, then wake up fussy but not really hungry either.  It was a truly miserable day for all of us, plus my husband and I were already running on maybe 3 hours of sleep.

The day ended with me feeding her at about 10pm, rocking in the recliner in the living room, bawling my eyes out saying, "I love you so much sweetie, but I absolutely hate this!"  Thankfully after that she finally went down to sleep and my husband took the first "shift" with the monitor and I got to sleep for almost 4 continuous hours before swapping with him so he could get a few hours.

Today has been much better with her - for some reason she decided to completely change how she sleeps and wants to eat overnight and expecting us to keep up.  For the past month she's been perfectly happy eating about every 3 hours, sleeping most of the rest of the time in her swing with the white noise machine on.  Now she doesn't really like the swing during the day, but will sleep in it at night.  During the day she wants to be out on the couch in the living room snoozing in her boppy pillow for 2 hours or so at a time and only eating maybe every 4 hours, but much larger amounts.

Face. Palm.

This whole parenting an ever-changing newborn thing is wearing on me for sure.  And I know just as soon as we get used to this new phase with her, she'll grow and change all over again, more than likely putting us through the wringer.  So thankful for this guy and how awesome of a dad he is, I can't imagine trying to struggle through this on my own without him to lean (and sometimes sleep) on!


Friday, July 6, 2012

Baby Knives Update

Somehow our little girl is already almost 3 weeks old (as of Monday), how did that happen?  It's amazing how much daily life has changed without us noticing too much.  It's only when I stop and think that my life hasn't always revolved around feeding a baby every 3 hours and hoping her diaper yields the results we want without exploding that I feel a little overwhelmed at how much has changed.

Overall, we've been blessed with a pretty easy baby so far (knock on wood!), who only really fusses when she's hungry or needs a diaper change.  She is not a huge fan of her crib thus far, but will conk out for 3 hour stretches in her swing so score!  If anyone has any advice on how to eventually transfer a baby from a swing or bouncy seat into a crib, let me know...she'll eventually outgrow her little swing and we don't want to be screwed at that point.  For now we're investing in C batteries, I wish baby swings had adapters, it would save us a ton of money!

These days Baby Knives' favorite things are eating, sleeping in her swing and using up an extraordinary amount of diapers...thank you to everyone who gave us diapers as a gift!  She's a really snuggly little thing and I think once she's a little bigger she'll be happier sleeping on her stomach.  She's back up over her birth weight and we've been informed by her pediatrician that she's in the 95th percentile for height, weight, head size and awesomeness.  She's already trying to hold her head up by herself - yep, talk about advanced!

I start working again on Monday, thankfully my job allows me to work from home and I have the best boss ever (do I get brownie points for that...only if he reads this I guess!), so I'm hoping it'll be a pretty seamless transition working with Baby Knives hanging out with me all day.

In other news, our cutie of a niece, Layla, was born only a few weeks before Baby Knives and is now a month old - time is flying and I can't wait to get these two cousins together!