A Biblical view of Civil (Dis)obedience Is America worth celebrating? If you are looking for ways to use sourdough starter or discard, this banana bread is bomb! Weird things Americans do... A vaccine debate FINALLY happened... A haunting film about "virtual school" made by a teen... It's time for the church to sing... ... Read more
Growing // I weighed Diletta at two months on our home scale and she was 15 pounds, 3 ounces. I have been meaning to weigh her again but haven't gotten around to it. I am guessing she is around 18 pounds. Eating // Eating is going much better with far less puking. I started sitting her upright after feeding when projectile vomiting became a daily occurrence and that seems to have cured the problem. Sometimes D eats so quickly I wonder if she has gotten enough, but the size of her thighs ensures me that everything is fine. Wearing // Right before she turned three months old, we moved Diletta into 9-month clothing and Size 3 diapers. Doing // Diletta is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT and I am a new woman because of it. She usually goes down around 10 pm and sleeps until about 6:30-7:30 am. She has even slept until 8 am a handful of times. She also discovered her right thumb about three weeks ago and now puts herself down for naps. She still sleeps a lot during the day, but her other activities include tummy time, being held by her sisters, and, most recently, sitting in her infant chair. Loving // Diletta now loves the bathtub, but she only gets bathed about once a week because mama is busy. She also adores her right thumb. Sometimes she'll pull off from nursing to put her thumb in her mouth and I have to remind her that milk is better than a finger. Tolerating// Diletta now tolerates the car seat. She doesn't usually cry when during car rides unless her older sisters bother her or start fiddling with her buckles. Loathing // I'm not sure that she loathes it, but she definitely doesn't enjoy tummy time. I also think she has mild left torticollis, and I have been working on stretches at home. I think she gives up easily during tummy time because her neck is tight. I am hoping to take her the chiropractor in the next week or two. Milestones // In June, we traveled to Texas where Diletta got to meet my entire family and her cousin, Georgia. They are just three weeks apart in age. Diletta giggled for the first time when she met my dad. It was the cutest thing ever, and I caught it on camera... and then all the data on my phone got deleted and I lost the video. So sad! And, of course, sleeping through the night and self-soothing with her thumb are huge milestones as well -- for baby and mom! ... Read more
Squeak. The sound of newborn life. I want to bottle it up. Plaster it into my memory. Etch it onto my heart. The soft skin. The cheeks that fit into my hand. The puckered lips with the little blister from working so hard for mama’s milk. The hiccups. High-pitched and constant after every single feeding. They shake your eight-pound body but seem to bother you not. The hair on your head that curls with sweat as you lie against my body. Our hearts beating together as they have since you were 22 days in the womb. Squeak. We go to bed at night and I pray for a stretch of sleep. Maybe three hours? Four by the grace of God? You wake me up as you softly moan for milk at the 3 am hour. I clutch your warm body next to mine in the darkness and give you life, even as you give me life. The mornings are slow and full of spit-up and cuddles. I finally plod into the kitchen for a bagel at 10 am. Milk stains visible on my shirt, bags under my eyes, fading veins on my legs from the weight of carrying you. But I see them not. Because I don’t have time to look in the mirror. I haven’t worn make-up in weeks. Instead, I stare into your eyes and the way you look back at me makes me feel more beautiful than mascara or lipstick ever could. Squeak. Someday you’ll probably be taller than me, but right now you fit into the crook of my arm. Your body drapes perfectly over my bosom. You love the gentle pat of my hand on your back. You cross your hands, and sometimes your ankles, as you nurse. It looks comically infantile and geriatric at the same time. Like you could be a baby or an old man. The circle of life. Your womb knees, as we lovingly call them, fold into the shape they held for so many months. A reminder of where you lived before we welcomed you into our home of bassinets and burp cloths and bottles. But as I change your diaper, you kick and kick again. Those little legs unfurl with the promise of life ahead. The walking, running, leaping life of a little girl. The legs that will carry you into womanhood. The future will hold joys and trials, but for now, you care not. You drift off to sleep in my arms yet again. Squeak. I want to freeze every sound, every touch as if my brain could serve as an eternal scrapbook of these newborn days. But I know I am forgetting already, even as I remember. *Photos by Happily Hirst Photography ... Read more