My Daily Blessings: A Mother's Journal: Life Now....

My August memory verse from my Sunday school class was so perfect for all the anxiety I've experienced lately:

Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged,

for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

It's been a week. Oh, how a person forgets what it's like to have a newborn baby around. A blessing, yes, but wowzers...... Jed had a few little sponge baths. He likes them.

Evangeline is having a hard time adjusting to school this year. It's been a real change for her to go to school without me. She cries about every morning. Last week it seemed to help if she took her little locket with our pictures inside. She says she looks at it all day. The other day she came home telling me that she missed me all day and that she had some tears coming out of her eyes. She told me that she played hopscotch all by herself and thought of me until Layla came over to play with her. It makes me so sad to know she is having a rough time. I hope she comes around soon. I'm sure the second she gets to school she is fine, but it isn't easy seeing her cry every morning as I send her off.

Here is a card she made me one day after school....

"I hope that you are having a great day. I meow you."

"I miss you at school. Are you doing ok? Are you, are you, are you, because I miss you a lot and a lot and a lot. I meow you so much."

"From Evangeline"

When she does get home from school she is a boundless fount of energy. She has had enough sitting still all day long. I miss her all day too, and I'm always so excited for her to get home.

This little fella isn't quite sure what to think about life outside of the womb.

He likes to be held constantly, which we are more than willing to do. Although, it does make for plenty of sleepless hours at night for mommy and daddy. Evangeline clams that his first words were "whaaaa" and "ouch". He screams bloody-murder when he gets his diaper changed....and this kid's got some pipes. Evangeline has been woken up a few times by his crying in the wee hours. Sometimes she gets so stressed out that she covers her ears and starts shouting "lalalalala". This makes for a stressed mother.....especially in the middle of the night.

I can't get over how much he is already changing. He is over a week old. That does not seem possible. Last week was such a blur, I hardly remember it. I feel like I haven't even had a chance to process the fact that I have a second child and he is already growing so fast. It's almost more than I can emotionally handle and I've had many tears over it all. These blessed hormones!!!

Evangeline is quite taken with Jed and her role as big sister. She loves him and I find her trying to comfort him when he is in his crib or swing and is fussing.

There will be tons of pictures of my little newborn coming. I can't help myself.

I'm already so grateful they have each other.

We've had lots of friends and family come by....

Here's Papa holding Jed for the first time....

Lots of love and yummy food. My friend Jenn Smitley arranged for different people from our church family to bring us dinners on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays for 2 weeks, which has been so awesome. In between we've had other good friends and family feeding us well. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

This was Evangeline at about 6:00PM last Friday evening. She was absolutely exhausted. We ended up carrying her to bed in her clothing. As I was nursing Jed at 1:30 in the morning she stumbled out of her room and said, "good morning, Mommy". I had to tell her it was still the middle of the night. Thankfully she was able to go back to sleep. Between little Jed and school, this past week has done a number on all of us.

Mom came to stay for a few days and help out after Kyle had to return to work. It was awesome to have her here. Evangeline got extra attention and I got some extra help around the house and with the babes. I was very thankful for her help, company, and moral support last Friday.... While Evangeline was at school, I had scheduled an appointment with the lactation consultant at Union because I was suffering some severe discomfort with Jed's latch. After just a second with the consultants they determined that not only did I have mastitis, but Jed has a lip tie. They sent me right over for an appointment with Dr. Hammonds to treat the mastitis, and sorted out everything with my insurance to get my breast pump. They were amazing. I have had several positive experiences with lactation consultants both in Carbondale and at Union. They are such a help. We will be discussing Jed's lip tie with our family doctor on Friday.

Here's a funny little nursing story...Evangeline has been very observant about all things baby. One of the first times she witnessed me nursing Jed, she very seriously said, "He's going to have to have a bottle at Ammie's, I hate to say it." I thought this was so funny. Peggy just cracked up when I told her.

Evangeline and Grandma spent about 2 hours doing some chalk drawings on the pavement, and coloring rocks last Saturday morning. The below picture is a drawing Evangeline did of my mom's dog, Macey.