With all the exciting homeschool activities going on around here, sometimes the everyday occurrences are overlooked. I'm sure the novelty of school will wear off soon...
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| Fiona Fawning |
Lula is now 10 weeks old and still qualifies as my easiest baby ever.
She fills our hearts with joy with her sweet smiles and little coos. Her brothers and
sisters adore her and I constantly hear, "Can I hold the baby?" and "No,
I'M holdin' Lula!" Can you guess who that is? Yes, Daniel "holds" Lula several times a day and is very attentive. I feel sorry for her future boyfriends-if Daniel lets her have any.
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| My Baby Holding My Baby |
Lula is the most undemanding baby with the simplest needs. I'm used
to needing to nurse and rock and pace and snuggle a baby to sleep. Lula
still won't nurse-her only need is to NOT nurse. So all I have to
do is feed her a bottle of pumped breast milk, swaddle her, and put her
in her crib. She falls asleep on her own and sleeps all night long. She has been waking up once every night needing a bottle, but really-that's not bad considering the five or more times I was up at night with Ian as a baby. I
have been co-sleeping and night-nursing for ten straight years and I
tell you, this bottle-feeding, crib-sleeping feels wrong. But this is what works for her and I have to accept it... although Mark and I still insist to each other that we are holding the sleeping baby and the other one has to go
(fill in the blank with a child's need). Because all she does is eat and sleep and hardly burns any calories, she is growing huge quickly! At ten weeks old, she is already wearing the 3-6 months size of clothes.
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| Left unattended for a moment on the footstool, she falls asleep. |
She is so easy going. I pack her (and her bottles) up for all our adventures. She bumped along for corn and blueberry picking and hiking too. I have mourned, and still do mourn, the loss of a normal breastfeeding relationship, but having the ability to just pull a bottle out of my pack and keep walking has been a refreshing change. Needing to pump at regular intervals forces me to not be gone from our home for longer than four (or so) hours. And I really don't mind. I've spent a few years marathoning on the road and this life style is not good for our family. I need to be here, not taking my kids to one mindless activity to the next.
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| God's Little Lesson: Life is Beautiful (that's what her shirt says) |
I feel like God has packaged up the perfect life lesson in this precious little girl. She is a reward for taking
a huge step of faith and her personality forces me to stop. slow down. and focus on what truly matters. It is easy to leave her in her head-flattening device (the baby seat) and get things, done, done, done. It is hard to put those things aside and remember to give thanks for all of life's precious moments.
