The even BIGGER adjustment
Wow! I cannot believe Chase is almost 4 months old. He was sleeping through the night at about 7 weeks (7:30pm-6am) and this time around, I was able to educate myself even more with a couple of good books that helped me through the process. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and Babywise are my two resources that has helped Chase (By God’s Grace) become completely scheduled and super content! He is definitely a third child. He sits in his bouncey chair or on his playmat and plays while I do things around the house or tend to the other two. I am so excited to have three. The kids are absolutely amazing and have shown no signs of jealousy and I thank God for that! He began to giggle last week when we were on a roadtrip to AZ to go to Uncle Matt’s graduation and I was so excited he did it for Daddy first! He smiles all the time at us and my time with him is precious, usually after he wakes up from a nap, he nurses and then after I change his diaper, he and I have special bonding time together every time!! I sit and talk to him and he smiles and kicks his legs around and tries to touch my face with his precious little hands. He coos and talks to me which keeps me truly entertained. I always thought… been there done that.. but it is truly brand new with each child and just a precious as if it were your first. I tickle and kiss him to death, I just love him so much. I truly feel like we still need one more to complete our family. Dakota and I joke about it with Daddy all the time…. we need another little girwl in our family Daddy. Zach would love to adopt but I would love to have another of our own minus the awful pregnancy. Post pardon has been great, I have been loosing baby weight quickly and gaining sleep quickly. Now we are at a crossroads of what we should do with little Chase. He has been in our room the whole time and we are ready to make the move, but moving Dakota and Hudson together would mean Hudson waking up Dakota too early and putting the baby in with Hudson would get him up even earlier so we continue to contemplate what to do…. I had a couple of scary moments this past week. I got him a little lovey blankie because it relaxes him when I put him down to sleep, he holds it close to his face as he falls asleep but this past week I went in when he was crying harder than usual and he had it over his face. As I quickly moved the blanket off him and picked him up to calm him down, he was incredibly hard to calm, he was so freaked out because he was having such a hard time breathing. SO SCARY! I just think how fragile life is and how I am so thankful he did not suffocate. My other two- this never happened. I always read about SIDS but always still kept blankets in the crib. Well now I know that I cannot do that with Chase. Every day I have with these kids is a gift and I was truly reminded of that after this happened. This transition has been such a blessing. This was the transition I was most fearful about- balancing three. God blessed my heart and mind as he helped me acclimate by giving me an amazing family to pull me through the adjustment. Dakota is the biggest helper and best buddy for Hudson as they entertain each other when I am busy with Chase and she loves her little brother and reads and sings and talks to him all the time. Hudson just in the past weeks will go over to Chase and rub his head sweetly when no one is looking. He is really starting to not be so intimidated by Chase and know that he needs love and attention too. They will both calm Chase down when I am cooking dinner. Daddy is most helpful in caring for the older ones or taking Chase when he is fussy. He is such an intricate part of caring for all three. He got 3 weeks off from work when we brought him home and that was such a help and blessing. Now that he is back to work, he cares for all three of them often so that I can get out of the house or bless another mommy with planning a baby shower or just go get a pedicure. I am definitely much more at home than I used to be, but oddly enough- God has given me even more grace to deal with the isolation. Not having family around makes life lonely- I can’t just run to parents or sisters house to just get out and I don’t have others to enjoy Chase, Hudson and Dakota with Zach and I. I would say I was able to bounce back much quicker with this third and have enjoyed this one the most with no complications or nursing hangups.
What an amazing gift- thank you Lord for easing my fears and anxiety about how will I handle this. I guess I have handled it well because God is putting new things on my plate in a few months. Dakota will begin school at Northridge Community, a private Christian School were she will go to school 3 days a week and I will home school her 2 days a week. When I found out she made it in after the family interview and her kindergarten test, I had such mixed emotions. I felt like I would be loosing my little helper and poor Hudson would not know what to do with himself without her around and I am gaining the load and blessing of being a home school mommy. I already feel like I have a heavy load just trying to take care of the three, but now here we go. I will be crying that first day I take her to school and maybe even a few days after! She even says.. Mommy you are going to miss me when I go to school, but its okay I will be back..
Dakota and Hudson are best buds and love to play together. I am trying to teach them to work through sharing and arguing on their own. I felt so convicted that I did not have “playtime” with Dakota and so I started to use Hudson’s therapy sessions to have some one-on-one time with her twice a week and that has been going great. It helps me to stop doing work around the house and just be with her. As a stay-at-home mommy I would always justify not “playing” with the kids and now I feel much more balanced. For a while I would ready a book anytime Hudson brought it to me no matter what I was in the middle of. I realized that just being at home with them did not give me the time I needed with each of them because I make myself so busy with life. I am also still working on great patience and realized the reason I loose my patience with them is my lack of consistency with first time obedience. Hudson has definitely been a struggle with his strong will and when he is disciplined it usually escalates the situation so we have learned that each child needs different disciplinary measures for sure. I press on trying to get wisdom on how to best handle each little bundle of joy and just feel blessed God gave them to us.
