When Are You Going to Get Pregnant Again?

We were on our way to an errand earlier when Rachel said that she wanted a little sister. Then she asked "When are you going to get pregnant again?" I told her it was a little too soon still and that, even if I did get pregnant again, it may not be a sister. It could be a little brother.

She said "Or it could be a sister AND a brother."

And if that's true, may the Lord have mercy on us.

Anticipation Worse Than Reality

James has been in Arizona for a conference and gets back home late tonight. He left on Monday afternoon, and I was just dreading him being gone. It was the first time he'd be gone since Ben was born, and I wasn't sure how things would play out and if I'd be pulling all my hair out by the time he got back.

As with most things, the anticipation was much worse than the reality. Dinner on Monday night was a little much, since Rachel was doing her patented traveling-around-the-room-and-seeming-to-find-it-an-impossibility-to-keep-her-behind-planted-on-her-seat routine. Turning this way and that, kicking her chair (until I told her to stop), kicking her table (because I hadn't told her not to kick that, until I did), etc. Sometimes she about drives me nuts with behavior issues like that. I'm not sure where she gets such a high level of energy (certainly not from me) but hope that it's something that mellows out a little as she gets older. Or now would be good, too.

But other than that, bedtime has gone pretty well both nights; the house isn't too much of a mess; I've managed to mostly keep up with the dishes; I've been able to run errands and go to my Tuesday morning women's Bible study; and it really hasn't been miserable. Except for Monday night, when Ben had some trouble sleeping and his fussiness kept waking me up. But even then, he and I had that nice interlude at 1:30 in the morning, which helped.

And last night I actually slept from probably about 12:15 am until 6:45 this morning, and I don't remember waking up once during that time. I felt *so* much better than yesterday. It's amazing what one night of good sleep, even if it's a bit short, can do for my energy level and attitude.

I do miss James and how helpful he is, though, so while I'm happy that things have gone pretty well in his absence, I'm looking forward to his return and having him here with us again.

Sweet Sleep, Ye Still Elude Me

 

We've been letting Ben get himself back to sleep for the last couple of weeks.  On most nights, he wakes up a few times, fusses for a couple of minutes in a minor way, then quiets down and goes back to sleep on his own.  While it's good that he's getting himself back to sleep, the fact that he's still waking and fussing is waking me up, and I don't fall back asleep that quickly in general.  So this is totally kicking my butt.

The past 3 nights in particular have been rough, and my right eye had already started to twitch probably 4 days ago from tiredness, so Twitchy is still going strong.  Last night, I went to sleep at about 11:45, and Ben woke me up at 1:30.  I let him cry for a minute, but it started to get stronger and I could tell he wasn't going back to sleep easily on his own.  I figured his ibuprofen had probably worn off and his teeth were bothering him.

I went in to give him more medicine and a diaper change, then I took him over to the rocker hoping he'd lay against me and be lulled mostly back to sleep.  Instead, he put his forehead against mine, eyes wide open, and looked at me.  Much like the picture above, but not so crazed-looking.  I'd done that with him from the time he was a couple of months old, and he'd done it back a few times, but I would guess it's been at least 6 or 7 weeks since we last did that.

It was really sweet that he just did it out of the blue, and we sat like that for a minute or two, just looking at each other and enjoying the time.  Then I decided I needed to get him sleepy again or we'd never get any rest, so I nursed him and put him back to bed.  He promptly faceplanted and fell, presumably, right back to sleep.

If only I could do the same.

Movement and Sound

Ben's been a little Tigger for some time now, getting some serious air as he bounces along down the hallway.  But today he actually did some crawling.

He's also doing a lot of mimicking and Lori thinks that we can call it "dada" for his first word.  If you don't count the absolutely pitch perfect and chipper "Hi" he said more than a month ago that still kinda gives me chills of the freaked-out kind.