8 weeks already?

I have been a very neglectful blogging mother. I guess I can't even call myself a blogging mother when almost two months lapse between posts. I didn't even post to announce the arrival of another cousin, Mr. Nathaniel Robert Buker, who made his appearance June 28 -- 3 days before his scheduled c-section and 10 days before his due date! Here's a photo of Jenni's boys -- William, Jonathan, and new Nathan. When we went to visit, Jonathan kept telling us that "thems babies match." It was so precious.


Motherhood has been quite the rollercoaster, which I knew it would be. Most days consist of just trying to make it through. Now that Aly is awake a lot more, I do my best to keep her entertained. We'll go from bouncy chair to tummy time to this awesome animal tunnel to swing to just walking around and looking at stuff. I wish I could take her for walks during the day, but it's too darn hot!

I took Aly to a company picnic to show her off, and I was asked what surprised me most about motherhood. I didn't have an answer at the time. After the picnic, I went to visit Melissa, who used to work with me at Goodwill, and she asked the same question. After some thought, I came up with an answer.

What surprised me most was the overwhelming emotion that comes over me when my baby is hurt. While we were in Massachusetts for Nathan's arrival, Jonathan was showing Aly a toy. He is always so gentle with her, but on this occasion he flipped the toy out, and the hard plastic hit her in the forehead. Without thinking, I said, "Don't hit her!" and she immediately started to cry. Jonathan went running to his room and cried too. I couldn't go console him and tell him she was fine because I was also crying! I couldn't control it. Aly stopped crying after 30 seconds, but I cried for 5 minutes. I just went into the bathroom for privacy and let it all out. A few days later, Aly had her 1-month checkup and had to get a shot. The shot went in, she screamed bloody murder, and I almost lost it again. I guess it's a good thing Jonathan had accidentally hit her, or I would have lost it in the doctor's office. It is so hard to see your baby in pain, and I had no idea how hard until now. I hear it never gets any easier.

One of my favorite things about being a mommie is seeing my baby happy. She has started smiling and cooing a lot more over the past week, and it just melts my heart. She woke up at 5:30am the other morning bright eyed and bushy tailed, and she was smiling and cooing at everything. I told her she's lucky she's so darn cute, because I sure didn't want to be awake that early!

People often ask me how Aly is sleeping, so I'll touch on that too. Her pattern has been to take a nap around 7pm and then stay up till 2am. When she finally goes to sleep, she gives me a good 5 or 6 hours. She wakes to eat, then sleeps another 2 or 3 hours depending on the first stretch. Since I return to work in 3 weeks, I'm trying to adjust her schedule so that she goes to bed at a more reasonable hour. For two nights, I was successful and she went to sleep just before 10. She wasn't pleased with me screwing with her schedule though, and she got back at me the following night by staunchly refusing to sleep. I finally got her to give me a 45-minute stretch in her swing, then she was awake for 45 minutes, then she gave me the best gift ever: 7 hours and 45 minutes of sleep all at once!! I told her she made me so happy. I wonder if she'll continue with such long stretches or go back to 5-hour stretches. Only time will tell.

Speaking of sleep, it's 3am and she is asleep and I am not. What is wrong with this picture? Goodnight, moon!