Reflections

I first wanted to share this video. It's beautiful, and incredibly encouraging. Sometimes I wonder the significance of what I'm doing. I wonder if I'm doing enough, or doing something wrong. I've been thinking a lot about what has worked well so far raising Adara. I'm realizing that reading books, articles, and talking to others only helps so much, and we ultimately need to do what works best for our family. For instance:

I'm not good at letting my baby cry. If she's fussy, I try to figure out why and how to fix it. I wear her in my sling a lot, and she's almost always happy when she's right next to me. Unless she hungry....

Most of the time, I love feeding my baby. She loves to eat, and loves to cuddle. We had a couple of days after she got her tooth where I had to teach her not to bite. Biting is terrible, and when she bit me I thought about quitting right then. She's a lot better now, and loves to nurse for nourishment and comfort...

Adara nurses even as she's asleep. She sleeps next to me so that we can both get sleep throughout the night. She falls asleep by 8 pm, and "sleep eats" throughout the night until sometime around 6 am (except today it is after 8am, and all is quiet). We both wake up feeling rested. It's so nice not having to get up in the middle of the night. She'll eventually sleep in her own bed, but I'm in no hurry.

We've established a "sort of" schedule. She usually takes at least two naps: one in the morning, and one in the middle of the day. If her middle of the day nap is short, then she needs another later in the afternoon. If she takes a long afternoon nap, she can usually be fine until we start her bedtime routine around 7 pm...

Her bedtime routine is almost always the same. I give her a bath, then pajamas, read a book, Alex and I pray with her, then I sing while walking/bouncing around until she is mostly asleep. I then lay down with her and she nurses the rest of the way to sleep. Sometimes I fall asleep with her, and sometimes I get up again and go to bed a little later in the evening. I still feed her whenever I think she's hungry...

I'm pretty sure she's going through her 6 month growth spurt right now. She's often kind of fussy, and seems to want to eat/sleep even more than usual. It's kind of neat to think about her hitting another milestone...

In two weeks, she'll be half a year old! Motherhood has definitely been a crazy learning experience. I didn't realize how much I didn't know until I had a child of my own. I didn't realize how selfish I was with my time and body until I had to share with my daughter. As she continues to grow, I ask God daily for His grace to be the kind of mother He's created me to be, with each challenge and exciting milestone.