Peace and Relief
We brought the blanket home and filmed us wrapping him up. It was pretty comical, and I wish I could find that video. We picked up our screaming son, rocked him a bit and put him in the swing (seatbelted in) and cranked it up to full speed.
He was asleep in no less than 60 seconds.
Things started to get better after that. We’d finally found the secret to making our child happy and mommy also got some happy pills from her OB at her 6 week check up.
Our first Family Blog is born
When Noah turned 4 months old, it was like someone took the old baby and replaced him with the new. He was happy, smiley, babbled nonstop and just a total joy to be around. He still had his reflux issues, but by this point he was more of a “happy spitter”. I was doing great and able to wean off my medication and our family started hitting it’s groove. I started “An Adventure in Parenting” as a way to share pictures and stories with our extended family. Also, I had great intentions (still do!) of printing out my blog and turning it into a family album.
I enjoyed blogging, but found it time consuming. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure any of our family even read it. I had friends that did, but they were friends from the internet forums I was active on so I could just post the pics and stories there.
The blog ebbed and flowed along for a few years.
Elizabeth is born
Elizabeth came along when Noah was 22 months old. Noah was the light of our life and an absolute joy to be around. We just instinctively knew he would be an amazing big brother and we were NOT disappointed. Elizabeth was a total doll from the moment she was born. She was a bit of a finicky eater, but like her brother she also had to deal with reflux. Hers was the “silent” kind, but it wasn’t med resistant like her brother. As long as she had her meds, she was a very happy baby. Slept through the night by 5 weeks old and loved to be cuddled.
Elizabeth glided into our family and it was perfect. We were very lucky and blessed to not have to deal with sibling rivalry (I think that’s because they were so close together, but who knows).
Back to the family blog?
I had good intentions of getting back into our family blog after Elizabeth was born, but I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for it. I would get behind and find that I was needing to upload tons of pics at one time and it just wasn’t worth the effort. So I let the family blog fall to the side and concentrated on other things. I learned how to sew, I worked at a Mother’s Day Out program and I enjoyed my family!
Budgets are a family affair
It was just a few months ago when our family dynamic made a huge shift. From pretty early in our marriage, I had taken care of our bills and budget and Colin had stayed out of it. He’d peak back in occasionally to get upset about something, but for the most part stayed blissfully unaware. I screwed a few things up though, so he took an in depth look and he was mad. With good reason, I was not doing a good job. I posted more about the process we took to do our budget together, but it was a bumpy road.
For the first time in our marriage I had someone actually holding me accountable to the budgeted amount of money we set aside for groceries! It was during this time I realized what a horrible shopper I was. I knew next to nothing about what was a good price for pretty much anything.
(to be continued)
I really love that you are blogging about your family life. It's nice to take a minute away from deal searching and getting to know a family, with everyday problems we all have and yet keep very positive aspects on life and continue to put God first! I can tell you are very caring and have a servants heart!
I'm glad you are enjoying reading our story! Thank you so much for the compliments. I try very hard to maintain a positive, faith driven attitude and it makes ALL the difference!
When others notice that in me, it is so gratifying. I have a lot to be thankful for, so it's not very hard!
Love those swaddled babies! <3