Skip to main content

Parenting So Far

I wrote the post below after our first few days with our little one and forgot to post!
Mommy brain is a real thing, y'all. And just over 2 weeks in now its even worse!

I'll post more about how things are going sometime this week :)

11/25/2015
Well, we've got our first weekend and our first two week days in the books.
And I'm happy to report that we're all still alive!

Our sweet girl had a pretty good first night with us, only waking once for a bottle then going right back to sleep. The first full day we had her, Friday, I was off so I spent the day with her so we could start working on getting her on some sort of a nap schedule and so that we could get to know each other and start the bonding process. I also got her enrolled at a new daycare.

She pretty easily went down for a morning nap the first day, the afternoon nap was rougher, but it eventually happened. That second night she slept through the night and woke up in a good mood just babbling away in her crib.

The second full day we had her she went down for her morning nap easily, again, then we decided to go do some shopping. She did great in the stroller and was pleasant until it got close to afternoon nap time. We headed down to my in-laws house so they could meet her. She was Cranky, yes, with a capital C, Cranky. She put up a good fight but eventually went down for a short afternoon nap. After dinner and playtime she went to bed easily and slept through the night again, yay!

Sunday morning was an early one because we were serving at church, but she once again awoke in a good mood and she came with us to serve. She did great until it was time for breakfast. After eating some of her baby oatmeal she was ready to go to the church nursery. I got a great report, she napped like a champ and then drank almost her whole bottle for the nursery worker! After getting home and having lunch we played for a while and then she finally took an afternoon nap with less fighting. That night she went to be well, but she woke up around midnight. She drank a bottle and went back to sleep easily.

Monday when she woke up we got ready and went to daycare & work. Today was visitation day. And it was a rough day. Our poor girl had 4 hours of visitation and it put her whole day out of whack. She didn't nap at all after her visits so she was exhausted when we got home. She went to bed almost a whole hour earlier than normal.

After waking up at 3am for a bottle she fell back asleep until around 6:30am so we got ready for daycare and work. When I went to pick her up today her teacher said she only slept for 30 minutes the WHOLE day. Dang. Her normal schedule should be two 1-2 hour naps. So once again we had an exhausted baby who went to bed a full hour before her bedtime.

She has been a great baby so far, despite the sleep troubles. The only other issue we've had so far is trouble eating. She is doing fairly well taking baby food from a spoon, but the bottle is a whole other issue. She fights taking the bottle with all her might, rolling and turning away, unless she has just woken up. The only bottle feeds we've had without fights are ones when she has just woken up; first thing in the morning, after morning nap, getting up from afternoon nap, even in the middle of the night. She will take a bottle before bed, but there is still some fighting.

It's all worth it though.
The crying.
The screaming.
The fighting.
The waking up in the middle of the night.

It is all worth it because of the smiles, the giggles, the babble, the laughing.
Parenting is hard, foster parenting adds a different dimension to the difficulty.
This baby is not my blood, she will most likely only be in my home for a short amount of time, but I already love her like she is my own. Though I know it will be hard when the time comes for her to make the next steps in her sweet little life it's all worth it.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Next Step: IUI

We've reached the point of taking yet another "next step" in our infertility journey. Today is day 3 of cycle 14 in month 16. Sixteen. Sixteen months. We have been trying, clearly unsuccessfully, for almost a year and a half. It has been an incredibly emotional 16 months. So many things have happened in the time that this one thing is not. My grandmother died almost 10 months ago. My mother shattered her shoulder and had surgery for replacement. My husband had an emergency appendectomy. Work reduced my hours and pushed me to part time. We got the most adorable puppy in November. We celebrated our 2nd and 3rd wedding anniversaries. We've celebrated with many friends as they got engaged and married. We have countless friends who have gotten pregnant and had their babies. Most importantly we've grown closer to each other as husband and wife & have learned better ways to communicate. We've also learned many things that are not effective when it comes t...

Busyness

Y'all. Life is busy. Caring for an on-the-move 9 month old and a special needs 5 month old is, well, busy. Yep, you read that right. We currently have a 9 month old AND a 5 month old. Two infants. Approximately 4 months apart in age. We are just that crazy. There is so much I wish I could say here. So many stories and cute things I want to share. SO many pictures of adorable smiles and videos of sweet laughter that I can't share with you all. It's been almost three months since my last update and so much has happened in the time that has passed. It's amazing how much life can happen in what feels like such a short time, but also how slow time can move when waiting for specific dates. Sometimes it's as though life is passing me by, like I'm standing on the sidelines while everyone else is moving forward. As foster parents it can feel like we are living two separate lives. The one that everyone knows about and sees, and one that is secretive and hidden to...

In Faith: Keeping the Empty Crib

Cycle 13 Month 15 Cycle day who cares Still waiting to ovulate 1st cycle on new medication For my birthday this year I got to go to the REs office and have yet another ultrasound of my uterus and ovaries. Yep, once again I had an ultrasound and didn't leave with pictures of a tiny growing baby. And it was on my 28th birthday. Happy Birthday to me! We came up with a new plan at the office this time. Clomid was making me feel like a crazy person--like emotional, off my rocker, wanting to strangle people crazy--so he started me on a new medication. This time we are going with a fairly new drug. Well, it's not a new drug per-se, but its off-label usage for fertility is fairly new. This medication is made to help treat breast cancer in patients with tumors that respond to estrogen therapy, and oddly enough they found that it causes a strong ovulatory response, so they started using it in women like me with ovulation issues. This drug is called Femara/Letrozole. I took 5mg for ...