Nate is on a campout with the young men from the youth group. No surprise there. He came home at about 2pm (?), spent a couple of hours getting things together, and then left. Meanwhile, his mom watched the baby and I worked. A little after 5pm, I wrapped up for the day. I chatted with my mother in law while warming up some sweet potatoes for baby girl. MIL left, baby ate. I reheated some broccoli cheese soup for my own dinner. Baby got fussy while I ate (typical selfish little thing :o). We had some playtime, then she got a bath. I nursed her.
She was in her bed, asleep, by 7:15. Excellent. All normal, except for Nate's absence.
I started to write a blog post but couldn't think of what to say. I decided to ponder it while I finished up a project for New Beginnings. Down to the craft room with a week-old episode of Wait, Wait to amuse me. Sewing away efficiently, on target to quickly finish and then get some other things done before bedtime.
Baby girl abruptly awoke, screaming. That's not totally abnormal -- she sometimes needs a little extra burp after bedtime. I dashed upstairs, squeezed her burbs out, and put her back down.
That's when things started to slide off kilter. Usually she goes right back down, no fuss, easy as can be. It's bliss. But not tonight. She was very fussy.
Diaper change. Rocking. Attempted to nurse again. More rocking. A couple of 5-minute crying sessions (sometimes she just wants to be left alone, and she will cry for 2-3 minutes and go back to sleep; it sounds awful and I certainly don't like it, but sometimes that's what she wants). Turns out she was only content and willing to sleep if I held her.
Groan.
Of course I want to hold her. I love to hold her! And since dad is gone camping, I was going to have her sleep in our bed when I went down for the night. I just wasn't prepared for that to happen at 8:30!
So I shut down things in the craft room, closed up the basement, cleared the pillows from our bed, and brought the baby into my room. Where she fussed for 0.2 seconds and then fell asleep. I didn't have high hopes that she would stay asleep, but I needed to get myself ready for bed, so I just prayed that she wouldn't get too upset while I was in the bathroom.
Uhhh.... she didn't. She just continued to sleep. In fact, she's been peacefully asleep for an hour now. I guess this whole week of telling her, "You're going to sleep in our bed on Friday when your dad is gone. Lots of mommy cuddles!" really went to her head. :o)
So I sneaked around the house for about 40 minutes, first getting myself ready for bed, then getting the kitchen cleaned up, then starting a to-do list for tomorrow. Nate will be gone most of the day so it will be an all-day mommy/daughter date. Awesome.
What does our typical Saturday look like these days? Glad you asked...
We do a whole lot of running around. In the olden days, before the baby (we call this time in our lives "BK"), we would run errands any time, whenever we needed. But baby girl is needy and has her own schedule, so now we have to work around her. Plus Nate is currently the main person in charge of the young men in the youth group, so there goes two evenings a week. And I'm working part time. So the TO DO items pile up during the week until, finally, it's Saturday.
There's pretty much always a Saturday (usually morning) grocery store trip. We're trying to do a good job of planning our meals a week at a time, and making sure there are lots of leftovers. (This is all part of a broader plan to eat healthier, smarter foods -- but that's probably a whole separate post.) On Fridays we make our list of meals and compare the recipes to the food in our cupboards. Saturday we squeeze in a grocery store trip, usually between baby's naps. Sometimes we start cooking through our meal list on Saturday, but sometimes it doesn't start until Sunday. Either way, we're usually polishing off the assorted leftovers by the next Friday and ready to start the cycle over.
(Side note: Lately, it seems like our lives are nothing but one continuous loop. Every day follows a similar schedule; every week is nearly identical to the one before and after. Sometimes I lose track of time -- when someone asks me about my weekend, I have to wonder if my memories are from the current weekend or the one before! It makes me feel like an old person. :o)
A couple of weeks ago I finally had enough time on Saturday to make bread again. I haven't made bread since BK. I was probably 8 months pregnant the last time I baked bread. It was liberating to pop a couple of loaves in the oven again.... but it didn't help that Nate consumed all of it in about 5 days. (No joke.)
Hmmm....
It's my bedtime. I think there was more that I wanted to say, but I have to stop now. This bright screen is totally giving me a headache. So, rather abruptly.... The End.
1 comment:
Alright all caught up. Cool renovations. cute videos. maddie was fussy, so I turned on those videos and put her infront of the screen and she was mesmorized. It was funny. good for you for going all whole wheat. After doing whole wheat pasta for so long, when I have white at someones house it seems slimy to me. that's great you're using quinoa. what else.... so much reading in one session it's hard to remember everyhtign now, but it was a nice read! sounds like you guys are doing great! that will be so excited when your mom moves closer! that's a great goal to blog more and to be so positive! It will be nice to know more of what's going on in your life now. You never blogged before! good for you! good goals! oh- question- you keep referring to "baby" and "daughter". Do you not want her name out in the public? If not, I need to know for my comments. I didn't know if that was habit or safety? Let let me know. I don't want to post or comment something you don't want me to.
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