Family Alive

Exasperations
It’s just been one of those days…
Last night, Analise fell asleep in my arms at 7:30. So I put her to bed, and didn’t go check on her until about 10:30 (we’ve stopped using the baby monitor). I found her half-sititng up, asleep, bed and pajamas soaking wet. The smell of sour milk gave it away… my poor baby had thrown up and I hadn’t even noticed. I feel like a lousy mom. I got her up and onto the changing table, and she unloaded all over me. Poor girl. Got her set up in bed on a mound of towels with Brian while I cleaned things up and started THE LAUNDRY PILE (including sheets, mattress pad, towels, crib bumpers and crib sheet – at 11pm at night, you realize how silly those pretty crib things are!). So the night was very restless, and poor Analise tried to throw up about every 3 hours. I gave her sips of water, but in the morning she awoke in a bright and cheerful mood, so I thought I’d nurse her for a minute or two. Bad idea… she fell asleep next to me, but threw it all up again 10 minutes later. Too much for her tummy. So now THE LAUNDRY PILE includes sheets, towels and pillowcases from our bed, as well as the featherbed cover. *sigh*
So the day has been spent snuggling a sleepy baby who doesn’t want to sleep by herself (which does mean I’ve gotten several little naps with her) and doing THE LAUNDRY PILE (that was supplemented by the laundry of the past week). Analise is in quite a good mood and hasn’t thrown up since this morning, thankfully.
To add to all this, I haven’t had time for a shower until just now (2:30pm), the toilet is leaking (adding numerous soaking wet towels to tHE LAUNDRY PILE), and we have a family picture tonight at 6pm. *sigh* All in all, though, it could be worse: Analise could still be throwing up, the toilet could have over flowed, my washer could be broken… the list goes on:) Counting my blessings!

Observations
I had a whole bunch of random thoughts this past weekend I thought I’d share – some funny, some sweet, some intriguing. Feel free to post your comments!

What a man I have…
Last thursday evening, Brian was at a computer science department bbq. Analise was out with Grandma Beverly, and I was at a sewing class. He shared with me later that as with most coversations, the topic turned to parenting, etc. Brian and the other two professors shared anecdotal stories about diapers, babies and kids. Brian rode home with two students, and on the way home, one of them said, “you just bubble over with love for your wife and daughter.” What a sweet compliment to know my husband’s love for Analise and I shows so much!

A little recognition goes a long way
This weekend Brian was home both days! WOOHOO! It was just wonderful to have someone share in the busyness of Analise. So as he was working on the laptop (see previous blog!), I put him in charge of Analise while I did things around the house that I’ve not been able to do all week. I got loads done! But after about 45 minutes, Brian came to find me with a slightly exasperated look on his face and a smiley Analise in his arms. “I don’t know how you get anything done all week!” he said! Ah, validation. I kissed him:) I finally feel like someone realizes that though I have a super good baby, she’s just busy enough to keep you from being able to get anything accomplished for more than about 10 minutes.

Later in the day, Brian changed a poopy diaper. (A little background: Brian changed the majority of the “blowout” poopy diapers until Analise was 6 months old, while I was working. While babies are breastfed, their poo hardly smells, and just looks like mustard. Since then, though, the job has been 95% mine. And in that time, Analise has started eating real food, which has made the poo quite a bit worse.) So after finding such a terrible, foul mess in the diaper, Brian kept repeating over and over how amazing I was for having to deal with them on a daily basis. All in the day’s work of a mom…

God loves a cheerful giver
In general, Brian and I are pretty diligent about tithing to God’s work, both through church and various ministries. Last fall, Brian made an online one-time donation to a ministry he’s been impressed with. Last month, we noticed a charge on our credit card statement to this ministry. Interesting, since we hadn’t given to them in several months. We looked at previous statements to find in amazement we’ve been giving to them monthly since last fall! Interesting! That has brought us to a minor dilemma. Shall we call them to cancel the monthly gift or not? It’s not exactly in our budget… though it appears that God has placed it in our budget. Brian’s a little confused as to how this fits into the “cheerful giver” category. Does “absent-minded giver” fit into that category? What would you do?