The Well

At 7 weeks we finally made it to church and let me tell you, this momma needed it! I don't know if everyone is like this but I can acutely feel the absence of church and our small group community when I am removed from it. It is harder for me to stay focused on having faith and keeping God at the center of my life. I needed have this time to step back from our lives revolving around us and the baby and open myself to what God was needing me to hear.

The message was all about how we don't have to do anything but be present and open to God, he does the rest. It is not about what I am accomplishing on God's behalf, it's what he is accomplishing on mine. His glory is seen all around me regardless of what I am doing. He works independent of me to create blessings. Issac concluded with the message of God's love and faithfulness...You who is waiting, someone is taking care of you right now. All of it was just good to hear and it was so surreal being there worshipping with Rowan. She was there for worship for so many months just growing inside of me, a testament to God's creative powers. And now she was there in my arms as I sang songs of praise, for God is good to have blessed me with this precious child. All in all it was a pretty glorious Sunday.

Sleep

Before I had a baby, I had heard friends and co-workers discussing sleep techniques, sleep books and sleep schedules. It sounded like a pain in the butt and a big stress to many of them. I gathered bits and pieces of their conversations and remembered things that made sense to me. Now that Rowan is here, I can see why sleep is such a hot topic. I have thought a lot about everything from SIDS risks, to napping without sleep aids to getting a bedtime routine. Matthew and I decided for our family that a loose schedule would be best to try first. We understand the importance of structure for babies and the benefits it brings, but we did not want to be so rigid that our baby could not adapt well to something off the norm. We know once I go back to work that Rowan will have days she goes to grandma's, days to goes to Leslie's and days she stays home with me, so it is important for her to be flexible....if you can instill flexibility at this age.

Here is what we are usually successful with

-Sleeping on our back at nighttime in the pack in play
-Sleeping for one 6 hour stretch at night (skipping one feed basically)
-Taking good naps
-Waking for feeds in the middle of the night and going right back to sleep

Here are our usual struggles

-Napping in our crib
-Must be swaddled to stay asleep
-Often needs a binky to dose off for naps
-If she wakes up during naps, she needs help to go back to sleep

So as you can see, she does much better during the night than during the day. Naps are tricky for us. I can rock her to sleep no problem but if I lay her down she only stays asleep in her boppy or swing (something enclosed around her like a mimic to my arms). If I try to put her back to sleep in her crib, even if she is swaddled, she wakes about 30 min later max. Sometimes it is 5 min. She will not put herself back to sleep once she wakes, but if you pick her up and rock her again she is out.

I think the hardest part of the sleep issues is knowing at what ages things are appropriate. Some say cry it out at an age younger than Rowan, others say that is a ridiculous expectation. Some say don't use sleep aids like a binky or rocking or feeding to put the baby to sleep, even at a young age you can instill bad habits. What is a young age though? If I let her take a binky or rock her now at 8 weeks, will she be hooked to these devices? People caution against using them because if your kid wakes up on her own, she will need them to go back to sleep again. This makes sense but how many naps does she have to "fail" and cranky days do we have to go through just because I am trying to put her down to nap on her back and not in her boppy or without a binky? It's a tough choice. Take one for the team, and risk her throwing off her nighttime sleeping schedule because she is so over tired without knowing if there will be reward for all your efforts.....not sure I am on board with that. Pus, if the binky soothes her and the swaddle blanket makes her feel safe, who am I to say that is a bad thing? Am I going to deny her these things because I don't want her dependant on them?

And the whole nighttime routine....what about that? Some people say to start it right when they come home from the hospital, how does that even make sense. Do you pick a feed to be your bedtime feed? We tried to start a feed, change to pjs, read a book, say our prayers, go to bed routine this past week and the results were....two nights of sleepy baby who went down great, two nights of wide awake baby who still wanted to play and was up for the next hour, and one night of I won't even wake for my 9:00 feed because I cried two hours long during the witching period before this and wore myself out. What do I do with this? Keep trying? Wait til she is older to have a bedtime routine? This is the stuff that makes parenting not so easy and have you thinking, "What the heck am I doing?!"

Bottom line, like any parent, I want my kid to be a good sleeper. I feel like this should come more natural than it does. I do not want to stress myself out, read a million books all with different opinions and make all these rules that govern sleep. But maybe that is what it will all come to in the end. For now we are still figuring our way through it, going with our instincts and praying answers come easy. We are taking a little of everything and mixing in her personality to find something that works. We are also choosing to be thankful for the sleep she does get, knowing it could be much worse!

 

 



Dreher Visit

The same week that Matt's family came in town, the Drehers came as well. They roadtripped up here for a night and got in one last family visit before Adam started back to school. Besides Sutton and Rowan needed to meet each other! We had a pretty lazy weekend watching a lot of Olympics, going on walks and going to the pool. It was perfect. I love how well our families get along just hanging out, there is never any pressure when they come in town. Here are some pictures from the visit!



Love you friends!

Smiles for dad

First social smiles....6 weeks old!

Blessings

Have you ever had one of those moments where you are reflecting on your life and it hits you how incredibly blessed you are? I had an overwhelming wave of that hit me this week. One of the best things about God's blessings is that he uses everyday people to carry them out, sometimes without them even knowing.

Take for example our sister Leslie. She has been blessed to be able to stay at home with my niece Lynley. God provided a way for that to be possible and for her desire to be met. One could think that was the end of that blessing, done and over. Then Rowan enters the world and we make the decision for our family that I will continue to work after my leave is up. Leslie went ahead and offered to help watch Rowan when I go back to work. In doing this she took God's blessing and extended it to us. By God providing for her to stay at home, he not only blessed their family, he was preparing a blessing in advance for Rowan too. Now she gets to stay with family while I work and not day care.

Another way we have been blessed is through meals. Our friends have provided for us for these last six weeks and I have not made a big grocery store run or cooked a meal since we came home from the hospital. For someone who hates to cook, words can't describe how thankful I was to have that weight lifted off me. Every night I got to spend with my baby and husband without that stress was another blessing to add to our growing list. Especially after realizing that evening/dinner time would be Rowan's fussy time, I can't imagine trying to cook meals with her screaming in the background. So from our small group picking nights to support us, to work friends surprising us with last minute meals, to out of town friends visiting and bringing a frozen meal in a freezer pack, to friends with small kids and stresses of their own making us extras of what they are having that night, to friends making grocery runs for us, to still more friends who brought drinks, breakfast and take out dinners we have felt so loved by so many. I am blown away by the generosity and support that surrounds us and can feel God loving me through all these people. It is so true that when God has poured out his love to you, the natural response is to bless and love others in return. I look forward to opportunities that will allow me to return these blessings and allow others to feel this loved.

The last thoughts that crossed my mind were in light of my 6 week follow up appt with my midwife. As I walked into her office with my perfect, healthy, sleeping baby feeling back to my normal self in terms of my recovery, it did not slip my mind how blessed I was to have this be our story. As other friends struggle with difficult post pardum recoveries or have babies who are struggling with feeding or sleeping, the weight of this blessing sinks in deep. This awareness leads to prayer for all those friends and their children because once again, when you are filled God asks you to spill that abundance on others.

But no matter how much I pray for others or have opportunities to bless them, in the end I can never do enough to repay all which has been given to me. By that I am humbled. God is good. He works in ways to prepare a way for us far before we even realize there is a need. Thank you to all our friends and family who have allowed God to work through them to bless our lives. We are so grateful for all you have done for our family and we love you!

One Month Old

Disclaimer: I am going to attempt to record milestones, everyday life activites, and memories we have of Rowan each month. This is more for Matthew and I to remember and enjoy. This blog has turned into a memory book for us in a sense so somethings are written with family and friends who are reading in mind and others are for our own sake. It may bore you to read all of our bulletpoints monthly so just scroll through the cute pictures if that is the case.

Well here you are peanut, one month old in all your glory. I tried taking some pictures to capture the day but you were quite fussy and not wanting to be put down. I snuck in some before the cries came though. :)

Your little life...

-You sleep one long stretch when we first put you down for 6 hrs. Usually this is from 8-2 or 9-3. then you wake up again three hours later around 5 or 6. Then you proceed to grunt, squirm, toot and work on your morning poop. This is a very loud process and will probably get you evicted from our room very shortly. Your eyes are closed and you are not awake for this event but you keep mommy up with all that noise. So daddy ends up taking you to snuggle since he is getting up for work around this time anyway.

-Once you poop, somewhere around 7-8 am, you are awake and wanting to play. This is one of your awake periods of the day that you love to interact. Did you not get the memo, mom works nights for a reason? Boo early mornings! I am adjusting though because you are so cute and playful for this hour.

 Early monring blowouts

-Every morning we go on a mommy and Rowan walk in the baby bjorn. We make a lap around the neighborhood and you fall asleep for your morning nap at this point. You like to hang one arm out the side of the armhole but keep the other one tucked in under your chin. Then you faceplant into my chest and fall asleep when the weight of your neck becomes too much for you.

-You eat every 3-4 hrs during the day, I don't let you sleep longer than 4 hrs since I want you sleeping longer at night, but we don't structure your days much beyond that at this point. You naturally have set your own "schedule" of taking naps around the same time and you get fussy and ready for bed around the same time. We have just played off that.

-You still usually get fussy around dinner time but there have been nights recently where you haven't. It is very hit and miss how severe or frequent the fussiness is. I soak up the good nights and try to be patient with the bad ones. It is much easier to do that with your own kid than someone else's. You are just too cute for me to stay frustrated with for long. Plus your dad and I tag team well :)

-You still don't spit up with feedings, so amazing. You have a random time or two but nothing significant.


-Your hair is starting to grow in a lighter color. Right by your swirl at the top of your head, you can see the light brown hair emerge.

-Your goopy eyes are finally cleared for the most part. You had blocked tear ducts for the longest time and your eyes would get all crusty. You traded in one problem for another however, as baby acne broke out all over your poor face this past week.

-You get lint caught between your thumb and first finger all the time. There is a pocket where the two fingers web together that it gets stuck in. Sometimes the pieces on lint are huge, it cracks me up.

-You love love love bath time. It is so relaxing to you to be in that sling that you have pooped in there on occasion.

-You like your swing and vibrating seat but only for so long. You can sleep well in your swing but if you are awake you get bored in both after awhile.

-I have started pumping once a day every morning after you eat your morning feed. You have taken a bottle numerous times by now and have done great with them. You take about 4 oz by bottle. This makes me so happy because you will need to eat with one when I go back to work.

-You love to hold daddy's thumbs with both your hands close to your face as a method of self soothing.

-You took your first trip to the library and slept the whole time, we took that as a sign you approved.

-You love to be moving and upright. Swinging, walking, rocking and close to our face so you can stare at us. You calm quickly with a binky too, which we are fine with for now :)



We love you Rowan and love seeing you more awake and interactive with us. We are learning what you like and who you are and it is so fun to discover the person God made our firstborn to be!

A week with the Clarks

Matt's sister Kristen came into town with her husband and their two kids for a summer visit and to meet Rowan. Here are some highlights of their time here

LOTS of pool time. Hudson and Elizabeth and big enough to jump off the diving board now, Hudson mastered this without a floaty by the end of the week. What a big boy!

Rowan hung out poolside for twenty min long stretches, then went inside to cool off. This 100 degree heat was a killer and I couldn't get in the pool yet (6 weeks post pardum can't come fast enough!) so I was sweating it out with her. When we were outside we hung out on the covered swing in the shade.

We played with Nana and Papa's blocks building all sorts of castles.

We went to Deanna Rose and walked around one morning before it got too hot. Leslie and Lynley hung out during the days with us too, so it was all the cousins together!

This may be the cutest baby in a bathing suit I have ever seen. Topped off with the big dramatic derby-like hat she is sporting, I don't think I can handle it!

More fun at the pool celebrating all the August birthdays in the family. Here is Matthew and I's cheesecake his sisters made us....fabulous! 

Pictures with Nana and Papa and of all their kids.

We had so much fun with our cousins this week but it was tiring driving to Olathe every day to hang out. Rowan hasn't loved her carseat like I hear some babies do. She doesn't like being in that position when she is trying to poop or toot, which is most of the day. So I listened to her protest the whole 40 min drive out there most of the days we visited. It was not a relaxing way to start our day but once we were there she did fine and we enjoyed ourselves. I'm thankful she has cousins on one side of her family that are close in age to her. I never grew up with cousins close in age and always felt like I was missing out. Give her a few years and they will all being running around playing together. How fun :) Come visit again soon McElroy family, we love you!

Friends

Rowan has some pretty stellar friends. We thought we would throw out a blog post to support this claim and show some of their cuteness off!

Playing with Daisy after dinner that her parents so wonderfully prepared for us :)

Giving kisses

Meeting baby Declan a few days after he came home from the hospital. Look what a stylish pair these two make. Declan in his cute green monkey outfit and Rowan with her ruffly onsie and bow. Looking good kids!

Daisy's 2nd birthday party! Our quick 30 min trip to the park (since it was so freaking hot that day) was packed with cute kiddos. Here we are with Noah and his mommy.

And add in the birthday girl and her mom for a totally awesome and chaotic picture. Such is life these days for our small group :)



With our pal Sutton at the pool.

He can't decide what he thinks about this friendship yet...

And finally more of Noah and Daisy at Noah's first birthday party! Look at those cute baby boy toms he is rocking, so stylish.

How fun that all of Rowan's friends have summer birthdays. Lots of celebrating to be done in summers to come. Pierce, Blaine, Sutton, Declan, Daisy, Noah....and her own, bring on the ice cream cakes!