Our Impossible Adoption Story
If you're looking for the unbelievable account of how "impossible" became "done" in 5 business days, start here.
Good Reads
I Read All The Major Books On Baby Sleep {Ava Neyer}
Keep the room warm, but not too warm. Swaddle the baby tightly, but not too tightly. Put them on their back to sleep, but don’t let them be on their backs too long or they will be developmentally delayed. Give them a pacifier to reduce SIDS. Be careful about pacifiers because they can cause nursing problems and stop your baby from sleeping soundly. If your baby sleeps too soundly, they’ll die of SIDS.
When My Children Act Out In Public {The Gospel Coalition}
Before I had children, I didn’t realize how much I desired and yearned for affirmation from others. God has used my boys as mirrors, reflecting back to me the pride and selfishness I didn’t know were hiding in the deepest crevices of my heart. Situations like the “catapult incident” provide the opportunity for me to recognize, acknowledge, and remove the idols.
Ship My Pants {KMart}
Vote For Me!
I’m shameless and I don’t care who knows it.
Babble is running a Best Of Blogs contest-that’s-not-a-contest-wink-wink. It’s not a contest ’cause I don’t actually win anything. It is a contest because the favorites get posts published. And published would be cool.
They have it all divided up into different categories, and there are submission forms to fill out for nominating posts. I’ve already done all that for you. I know, I know …
Since it’s not really a contest, there are no winners generated by popular vote, but the more Likes and Tweets and +1’s and Pins and comments on a post, the more attention it’s going to get, honestly, from the editors who will choose what gets published.
Here’s how you spread the love:
- Click on the links below for the posts you liked. (If you haven’t read them, or don’t remember, you can type the name of the post into the Search box at the bottom of the sidebar, or follow the link from Babble back here to the specific post.)
. - On the Babble page, click on as many of the social networking icons as you care to, to share the post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest. You can also leave a Comment on the page via Facebook.
Enough talk, on to the clicking. I picked five of my favorites. Pick your favorite, click on them all, share your favorite few, whatever. Thank you in advance for each and every click:
In the Giving Birth category
Labor Fail, Part 2
Then I started to wonder if I direct my bowel movements properly in normal circumstances. They said it every time, and after several rounds of this, part of me wanted to shout back, “I freaking get it! I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying! This is just how I poo!”
In the Giving Birth category
I Want To Remember Our First Moment Alone
I want to remember the serene stillness of that quiet, dark hospital room, and the intoxicating feeling of your warm, new skin finally pressed against mine – … like you were perfectly at home somewhere you’d never really been, perfectly trusting someone you’d never really known.
In the Those First Twelve Weeks category
The Day I Almost Died
I stood there and surveyed the scene briefly. Dead minivan. Murderous sidewalk, and I had locked myself and my four-week-old infant son out of the house in twelve degree weather.
.
In the Those First Twelve Weeks category
Twas Yesterday Morning
Twas yesterday morning and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The socks were all flung in the corner with care, In hopes that I wouldn’t get mad they were there.
.
In the Those First Twelve Weeks category
Will You Love Me?
But early in the mornings, as Husband gently closes the door behind him and the sun starts to paint the sky blue between the bedroom blinds, I watch my little man sleep, inches from my face, and I whisper, “Do you love me? Will you love me?”
Thanks a bunch for any and all of your Likes and Tweets and Pins and all the rest!
Mommy Eyes
Everyone knows about the back-of-the-head eye(s) that you get as a mommy. We’ve all experienced our own mother’s rear vision at times. But no one tells you that your normal eyes change too, that looking forward and looking out become totally new experiences.
The Meatball is four months old, and I’ve just started reading the news again. (Because where I used to get up in the morning and have coffee and/or cereal, and flip through the news on my phone, I now get up in the morning and stare at my baby, change a diaper, and try to scarf down some kind of food while he’s content to sit in his bouncy seat.)
I tried a couple of times before now, but just couldn’t do it. It’s all bad news – on the apps, the websites, the talk radio – and I just wasn’t interested. A new baby has a way of making a person less cynical, and it seemed like that’s all the news outlets wanted from me.
Maybe the untimely death of a loved one has a concurrent way of crash-landing a person back into reality. I don’t know, but I started reading the news again recently and I was not prepared to be a mama in the big, bad world.
Terrorism has hit this country before. I was a college freshman in September, 2001, and I remember every detail about that morning. I remember the conversations I had that day, and the thoughts I was unsure about giving voice to. Who did this? What was the agenda? Would we go to war? Were we at war? How would the nation respond to military action? How would this affect W.’s presidency? The economy? I looked at angles and considered implications …
When I think about Boston, the first thing that always comes to mind is that one of the victims was an eight-year-old boy. Read more…
Four Month Outtakes
He was four months last Wednesday. At the doctor’s office on Thursday, he weighed in at 14 lb, 11 oz, and stretched to 26.5″ – that puts him in the 50th and almost 95th percentiles, respectively. He’s a long, skinny baby. But a perfectly healthy one. He’s right on track with all the developmental milestones – brings hands together, talks a lot, reaches for things (to put in his mouth), etc.
“(Has become zombie)” is in reference to his rabid taste for human flesh (Don’t get bare skin anywhere near this kid. You will walk away with a drooly finger or a hickey on your shoulder.), and his new favorite sound: grunting.
I can’t believe it’s been four months. In some ways it feels like it’s been much longer. (Or maybe the last four months have been long. 2013 has gotten off to a weird start, the more I think about it.) It’s crazy to think that it was about a year ago that we found out he was on his way finally.
Good Reads
An Adoption Story: The McMurtrey Family {Small Fry}
Little did we know, at the time we started filling out the paperwork, our soon to be little boy was fighting for his life on the abortion table in Atlanta, GA.
Circumcision Changes Penis Bacteria Ecosystem, May Explain Lower HIV Risk {HuffPost}
“It’s dramatic,” study researcher Lance Price, a genetic epidemiologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C, said in a statement. “From an ecological perspective, it’s like rolling back a rock and seeing the ecosystem change.”
Not a Fan of Nursing in Public? Suck On This. {One Tree, Not Two}
I’d like to insert a reminder here which is less of a side-note, and more like the point of this post. In this country, you do not have the right to not be offended. Being offended is a fancy way of saying that you can’t handle your own feelings. Nowhere in the world are you guaranteed a Personal Emotions Liason who will make sure you don’t have to look at something which you consider unpleasant. If you are the one who is offended, then you are also the one who is responsible for becoming un-offended. Nobody is going to babysit your feelings in that regard.
Real Beauty Sketches {Dove}
Spits and Wiggles 