Time Flies When Your Wired on caffeine...

It's already been a month since I was laying in a bed with complete paralysis in one leg and feeling like my life was a dream and that I was going to have to wake-up at any moment and go through all the pain again. Thankfully after a few hours the dream-like state wore off and it clicked in that I was now the parent of two amazing children, an always entertaining 18-month old girl and a brand-new little boy to get to know. Now, a month later, I'm not really sure if I ever woke-up from the dream. It feels like I went straight from being in the hospital with a one-day-old baby to being at home with a one-month-old baby with nothing in between. I know a lot has happened in the past four or so weeks, but I have amazingly few memories of that time, well, not really, but it takes a lot to find them in the deep recesses of my mind and pull them into the forefront. Thankfully we've taken a ton of pictures (although not nearly as many as we did with Sydney) and they make the memories a little easier to come by. We've been doing pretty good around here since my Mom left just over a week ago, but I know that my coffee budget has double, even with my Mom leaving and there only being two people instead of three drinking it. I never used to have a cup of coffee each morning, and when I did have one, it generally wasn't for the caffeine, but for the warmth and relaxation. Well, times have changed. Without at least one good cup of coffee in the morning I don't function. My brain is mush until about a half hour after that first cup when the caffeine kicks in, before that, Sydney, Noah and I lay in bed and watch cartoons. It continually amazes me how many times a young child can watch the same episode of JoJo's Circus or Little Einsteins or The Doodlebops and either not remember it or not care that it's a repeat. I guess Sydney is still to young to really understand that they make new episodes of most shows at least once a week (if it's a weekly show, not daily) during the season and that even daily shows get new episode all the time, but well, I guess the Disney Network is cutting back on some expenses at the preschoolers expense. Who better to cut back on than the little people who don't realize that they're being jipped. I guess it's a smart business move, but one thing they aren't considering is all the parents who have to sit and watch the shows with their kids and can recite each episode word for word after seeing it for the hundredth time. Wow, that was a pretty long bunny trail and now I'm going to have to go back and read what I was writing before I started my rantings so that I know what to write about again....

Right... how caffeine is a life saver... well, I think you pretty much get the point - I don't function without my coffee. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next time I get pregnant... I'm sure I'll be even more addicted to coffee by that time and well, if you read any of my blogs while I was pregnant, you might remember that you're not supposed to have caffeine while pregnant (one of God's meanest rules - when you're the most tired you can't have what will help you out) so ya, it's gonna be a rough week or so of morning sickness, being even more tired that normal and withdrawal.

On to a more happy topic.... while my Mom was here she was amazed at how well Sydney went to bed. I must say, I'm truly blessed with how easy she is to put to bed. The most complicated part is chasing her down and pulling her out of her ballpit while she's in a fit of laughter thinking that she's the smartest person to ever live by escaping my grasp while I try to put her pajamas on or her taking three hours to give her goodnight kisses. So things go pretty easily. We have a pretty good routine down, we go get changed, brush our teeth, give goodnight kisses to Daddy and Noah (and who ever else happens to be over, so if you're over around 8pm when she's going to bed, be prepared to get kissed, by Sydney of course), go read out bible and pray and then go to bed. There's no complaining, crying or anything. Just one, two, three and it's done. So my Mom asked me what I thought the reason was that she was so easy to put to bed. She had seen me reading "On Becoming Babywise" (which I started using with Sydney when she was around 4 months old) and asked if I thought that it was the reason everything was so easy, or what, and my response was something along the lines of "ya, it probably has a lot to do with following those principles, but I think it might also have to do with her personality and well, that we're just lucky." Then a couple days ago I was looking through a few things and found a notebook that I was given at Sydney's baby shower that was filled with wisdom and advice from the women who attended. It just so happens that the first page said this...

This baby will both lay it's head down and sleep, for the Lord shall be it's praise, and it's safe dwelling place. Ps. 3, Prov. 3
Make a practice of proclaiming a blessing from God's word each morning over this child. It is bread of life. Patty Yandell

So there you have it. The reason why Sydney is such a good sleeper. Even before she was born God's word was spoken over her to be a good sleeper. A huge thank-you to Patty for proclaiming this over Sydney - I'm ever grateful. But a even bigger thanks goes to God for hearing and answering this prayer/proclamation. So I have nothing to do with it (my head is deflating as I type) and I am now looking up Patty's phone number to get her to speak this over Noah as well.

It very interesting as I continued to look in to the different advice that I was given, so many women included something along the lines of "get lots of rest now" or "sleep when the baby sleeps", but well, sure I did do a lot of that, but more than that, the first page of the notebook set the pace for my and Sydney's lives... getting good sleep. So sure, all new moms should get as much sleep as possible before the baby arrives, and should try and sleep when the baby sleeps after (next to impossible on the second or subsequent baby), but speak God's word over your child and you'll get life long results rather than a few more minutes of sleep during the early months of your child's life. So that's now my advice to all new mom's - claim God's power, not sleeps.

Well, I'm off to get ready to go to sleep, both babies are actually sleeping, although Noah will be waking up at any moment to eat. Have a great night!