Yeah, I'm an Anime Nerd

I love Anime! I thought it was about time for a blog post about something other than babies. ;) I know some of you reading this might be like "huh? What is Anime?". If you've never heard of Anime it stands for Japanese Animation. They are basically cartoons, but usually the animation is far superior to typical american cartoons. Also the content is normally much deeper and more mature that the cartoons most people are used to. By mature I don't mean like the Simpsons or Family Guy or the like. I guess some Anime can be like that, but that's not the type of Anime I watch. (I hate the Simpsons or anything like it, just FYI.) What I mean by mature is that the content can be much too scary or sad or complicated for young kids. Most Anime's advise viewers be over the age of 14 or in their older teens at least.

Before Pacific Rim there was Gundam!!

I think around 13 or 14 is about the age when my brother and I started watching Anime. Toonami on Cartoon Network all the way! All of the shows on Toonami were censored for young teens. I remember if there was blood in the original scene then it was colored out so you couldn't see it. Any curse words like hell or damn were normally substituted with heck or darn. I can't remember if the first anime I watched was Dragon Ball Z or Gundam Wing.  I loved them both!

I used to act out my own stories of Dragon Ball Z on my trampoline.

A couple more of my favorites growing up were Outlaw Star and G Gundam. I specifically remember thinking the show Sailor Moon was lame and such a girl show. I would always roll my eyes and change the channel whenever it came on. I thought the show Hamtaro was cute and liked to watch it when I caught it on. All of the shows I watched growing up were dubbed, but now if I watch an Anime it's hard for me to watch it dubbed. I always choose subtitled over dubbed episodes. The american voice actors never seem to be able to sound anything but lame compared to the Japanese voice actors. The only Anime I will watch dubbed are the shows I watched as a kid. I remember whenever my dad was around while Scott and I were watching Gundam Wing he would always make fun of it and make up his own dialogue for the characters. Haha!

Seriously, it's a show about Hamsters.

I'm very careful with the Anime I choose to watch. There's a lot of Anime that has content I don't want to see. Anime has such a variety of shows that the content can range anywhere from PG to unrated. I'm very leery when starting a new anime. It takes me some time to really get into one too. It's like a good book, but once I get hooked it's hard to not read the next chapter and in this case watch the next episode. Normally, the only way I start a new anime is if Sam tells me I might like it. He has great judgement in what I will like to watch.

The show is named after the main character. Naruto Uzumaki.

A few of years ago Sam said he thought I would like watching an Anime called Naruto. I watched a few episodes as he watched it, but only here and there. Gradually I became more interested and before I knew it I was hooked. I told Sam he couldn't watch any more episodes without me. :) Even as I write this I'm watching old episodes that I missed when we first started watching Naruto.

The show is about Ninjas. Need I say more?? It's awesome. It has great character development and the story will keep you guessing about what's going to happen next. It will keep you laughing with it's silliness, but then also be quite serious at other times and cause you to think deeply about life and the choices you make.

We watched the entire first series and started on the next series called Naruto Shippuden, but didn't get too far. Then we took a break for a couple years. (you know, had a baby and all that jazz.) Just a few months ago we got back into it. We watch a couple episodes together almost every night. We love it.

They get a little older and cooler in the second series.

The other night we were talking about our favorite characters in the show. I've always been torn between Kakashi Hatake and Shikamaru Nara. I mean Kakashi has a Ninja Pug named Pakkun, that's pretty hard to beat in my book.

Kakashi & Pakkun

In a recent episode I realized that Shikamaru is my favorite character. Shikamaru hadn't been in an episode in a while and when his character was highlighted on an episode, I was like "yay! Shikamaru!" I started to wonder why Shikamaru was my favorite character. I mean he's a cool character, but there are lots of cool characters in the show.

Shikamaru

I started to consider Shikamaru's personality and characteristics. He can be seen as a lazy Ninja because he doesn't do anything that is unnecessary. He doesn't care to do something just because someone else thinks he should. He also doesn't care much about what others think of him. All the superficial cares of those around him don't mean anything to him. His catchphrase is "what a drag." or "What a pain." But that doesn't mean that he won't do what is needed to protect his friends or village. He is very protective of his friends and will do anything for those close to him. He is extremely intelligent and is known for his great strategic mind. He sees straight through the enemy's attempts to deceive him. I really like his quiet confidence. His confidence doesn't come off cocky. He is aware of his strengths, but doesn't gloat. He is a very steady guy and stays calm in stressful situations when everyone else is freaking out. Because of that he doesn't show many emotions, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have them. A lot of times it seems like it would be too much trouble to him to try to explain his feelings so he doesn't waste his time trying.

I admire all of Shikamaru's characteristics and after thinking through it, I figured out why. Everything I just explained about Shikamaru also explains my husband almost to a tee. :D Sam also happens to be my favorite person.

So basically I married a Ninja. WIN!!

We love Fall

I took a bunch of pictures of Jane outside the other day and looking back at them I love them all! I'm not sure how they all turned out so well, but I figured they deserved their own blog post. Also I haven't been blogging about Jane much at all since I got pregnant with the new baby. I can't let Jane lose all the attention before this baby is even born! ;)

Looking like a little model here.

She's growing up so fast! She's holding her little Mario action figure here. She loves him and will give him kisses. I'm already passing on my love of Nintendo. :) She likes most things around that size though. My mom set up my old dollhouse in Jane's room at her house and there are several little babies that go with it and she'll carry them around too, kiss them and call them baby. She will call Mario baby at times.

She came and laid down on my leg

Jane has become so affectionate. She loves to give kisses and hugs. She will give me a hug almost every time I ask for one. It's the best! Just yesterday, when she was running around outside she stopped, looked at me and came over to give me a hug and then she went back to running around the yard. She repeated this several times. I have to be honest though. She is a toddler and we are trying to learn not to hit or bite or pull hair, but the hugs make all of it worth it and she'll learn one day!

The lighting was so great on this beautiful afternoon

Walking is now second nature for Jane. She is now on to running! I try to keep her from running too much on concrete because I don't want her to skin her knees. She's already had a couple skinned knees just from loosing her balance when she wasn't quiet the pro walker she is now. It makes me so sad to see any kind of scratch on her. I try to remember all my skinned knees and scratches from exploring when I was young. They never bothered me growing up. I would take bumps and bruises over not exploring! :)

Inspecting a tree

Jane has already acted like she was going to climb a tree or two. I already have a monkey on my hands indoors! She tries to climb everything! I think she can climb up on every chair in the house now. She has learned there are things she is not allowed to climb on. Like the coffee table and the subwoofer. She is obedient when she realizes I'm serious and I stay consistent. It's amazing how much obedience is about the parent staying consistent and strong.

So much love

I love that Jane likes to sit in my lap while we're outside. We'll watch the cars go by or the planes in the sky. I will make bird noises with grass and Jane will pull up a piece of grass and put it to her mouth and try to imitate the sound. It's so cute!

Giving me a kiss

Her kisses are so sweet. She will get close to my face and make kissing noises with her mouth several times. She will give Sam kisses goodnight. It melts my heart! :) She sometimes tries to kiss the characters in a book. It's so fun.

Watching the busy world around her

She decided to lie down in the grass and watch the world go by for a minute. About a month ago Jane started to fall asleep on her own for her naps without me even trying to get her to go down. We would just be sitting on the couch and she would just fall asleep in my arms or right next to me. I guess it was around the same time I stopped nursing her. Strangely enough, sleeping seems to have gotten better all around for Jane since she stopped nursing. Some days I have to remind her she needs to nap so she can feel better and keep playing. She takes her naps on the couch now while I work. It works out great for us.

Serious face

Silly face!

Well, I need to wrap up this up. Jane is growing up so fast and is making this pregnancy go by so fast! I can't believe I'm almost halfway through already! I'll leave you with a few more pictures from our fun day outside! We are loving the beautiful fall weather and are enjoying the outdoors as much as we can.

Riding on mom's back is so fun!

Love these hugs

And those smiles

Got a nice pose on this one

Love this girl so much!!

Baby #2 weeks 10-17

Searching for a health care provider for your pregnancy is not an easy task! There are so many choices. Because of the enormity of choice, it becomes hard to find someone in the multitudes that will be right for you and your pregnancy. It's important to find someone who you are confident in and comfortable with so they can help enable you to have the birth you want. For me, I would like to have a natural birth with no pain medication. That's the birth I was blessed to have with Jane, after a bit of suspense and a transfer to the hospital that is. I would like to have that again, minus the suspense and a transfer to the hospital. ;)

The first choice I had to make was whether to have a home or hospital birth. If money was not a factor I would choose a home birth over a hospital birth. Because I had a birth center bill and a hospital bill with Jane, I ended up paying to have two babies and obviously, I only had one... The reason for this is health insurance companies do not list birth centers or midwives who provide home birth services as in network providers on their insurance. Which is ridiculous to me, because home birth is much less expensive and a safe option, but I digress. I won't be convincing any insurance companies that home birth should be in network...

Someone asked me why I didn't choose to go back to the birth center I went to with Jane. One reason is because where I was living at the time I was pregnant with Jane was much closer than it is to Kingwood. It's quite a drive from my house now. I don't want to make that kind of drive while in labor. The other reason is my insurance changed and it is now too expensive for us.

Because I didn't want to pay for two births again, I started to lean towards a hospital birth. Then I would be assured I wouldn't be transferred to the hospital since I would already be there! I talked to a few people who are supportive of natural birth about natural hospital births. Some were midwives, others doulas and some who have just had babies of their own. (I don't really have any experience, because the doctors didn't have a chance to do anything to me since Jane was born almost as soon as we arrived.) Pretty much everyone I talked to told me how hard it is to have a birth in a hospital without them pushing some intervention on you and that it's a fight to have the birth you want. It was disappointing to hear.

So I was back to square one and I wasn't sure what to do. My mom then told me she felt that I should contact a midwife that was referred to me by a couple of friends back when I was pregnant with Jane. I took my mom's advice and got in touch with Sallie. The reason I didn't contact this particular midwife when I was pregnant with Jane was because the house I lived in at the time wasn't close to a hospital. Also, I wouldn't have felt comfortable giving birth in that rental house.

From the first phone call with Sallie I could tell she was going to be a great midwife for me. I'm not much of a chatty phone person, but Sallie and I ended up talking for about an hour. She had lots of insights to my labor with Jane and ideas that we could have tried to help things along and not end up in the hospital. Of course, I'll never know if it would have changed anything. I learned a lot through my first labor experience and everything worked out in the end, but it was good to hear how much knowledge she has and how many natural ideas she has for helping labor progress.

The only thing that would have held me back from choosing Sallie as my midwife was the possibility having to pay for two births again if some complication should happen to arise. What gave me peace about choosing Sallie is the ministry she's done and continues to do. She has been going to abortion clinics for about 30 years and convincing women not to have abortions and choose life instead. The reason she became a midwife was so she could offer her services free of charge to women considering abortions and give them another option. One day she would like to go to villages around the world and teach women to be midwives and give them the ability to deliver babies safely. So even if I end up being transferred to a hospital for some reason, I know that at least some of my money will be going to someone I respect and can enable her to continue with her ministry.

That pretty much wraps up my search for health care provider for my pregnancy. I am very happy with my choice. She's been calming, encouraging and informative each appointment I've had with her. I feel that my baby and I are in good hands.

Little bitty bump. 14 Weeks.

As far as my pregnancy is going so far, everything is great! Baby's heart rate is healthy and he/she is already very active. I've been feeling kicks for the past week or so now. A lot earlier than with Jane. I didn't feel Jane until almost 19 or 20 weeks. The baby's heart rate is slower than Jane's was which might indicate that it's a boy, but of course, you never know! Similar to last time I don't have many cravings, but I always love a good burger! I do feel like I have more food aversions though, but I'm doing my best to eat healthy!

First item bought specifically for Baby #2

Second trimester is always my favorite! I love the feeling of little baby kicks. 17 weeks seems to be the time when I start feeling a lot better.  We'll be finding out whether we're having a girl or a boy in just a couple weeks. :)

My Babies. :)

Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 

Baby #2 Weeks 5-9

When I was pregnant with Jane I hadn't started my blog yet. So I blogged about my pregnancy experience after it was all over. I'm glad that I did. It's fun to go back and read it now that I'm pregnant with my second. This time I will get to blog throughout my pregnancy. I'm looking forward to it!

Let's start at the beginning! I decided it was time to take a test when I went to the Astros game with my company on July 1st. The burger I ordered was way overdone and charred. I ate about half of it then let it sit in front of me. I couldn't even stand the smell of it! I had to wrap it up, so the smell would stop bothering me. A couple of other symptoms were that I was exhausted almost everyday and I was wanting to snack all the time! Oh and of course the obvious, I was late. (This might be TMI, but I only had two periods between having Jane and getting pregnant again. I could get used to that!)

I took a home pregnancy test on July 3rd and it was positive! The same dark blue positive line that I got with Jane. I was so happy! I thought I would be more relaxed waiting for the results than I was last time, but I felt the same nervous excitement that I did last time. I told Jane first. :) Of course she had no idea what I was saying, but when I told her she was going to be a big sister, she gave me a big grin! I'll take it as a good sign. :) I told Sam at lunch time, he smiled and said "Yay!" It's the same for us as last time, we need to get that confirmation from the doctor before we can truly let go and really celebrate!

We discussed whether we would tell anyone before the doctor's appointment. We decided that we had to tell my mom so that she could watch Jane for us. My mom can't keep a secret from my dad, so I told him too. I showed my mom a picture of this shirt and let her read it and figure it out.

She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "What?! Really?" Then she gave me a hug and said to Jane, "You're going to be a big sister!" I showed the same picture to my dad and he studied it for a while... looked at me suspiciously then looked down at the picture again. He said, "huh? Oh my... Already?" They are both excited to have another grandbaby to love on. :)

The shirt is even cuter with a toddler in it!
Just a little harder to read.

I wanted to keep Baby #2 a surprise from most people until I had an ultrasound picture, but then morning sickness hit me like a ton of bricks! I was about 6 weeks and I felt terrible, almost not able to function, way worse than last time. So I figured if I saw anyone I wouldn't be able to act like I felt ok. So pretty much anyone I saw during the time my morning sickness started and before I announced it, I went ahead and told. I made sure that they knew not to spread it around quite yet so we could still let everyone know ourselves. Feeling pretty bad is also the reason why I haven't been very active on my blog.

Scott and Anna had the best reaction so far. I showed them the shirt I got for Jane and they jumped up and said, "YES! I knew it!!" and gave me a big hug. Apparently they had both suspected a baby would be on the way soon. Anna's sister has a daughter 4 months older than Jane and is pregnant with her second which will probably be about 4 months older than my second baby. :D Anna had a hunch our kids might be the same distance apart again. She was right! Scott and I have a sort of twin telepathy thing even though we're not twins. So somehow he knew too. :) We are pretty much Irish Twins.

I am feeling much better than the first week my morning sickness started. (I think I was writing this segment around 8 weeks.) I realized I really needed more sleep. So I'm going to bed earlier, sleeping in longer and taking naps when I can. My morning sickness is still hard to manage and I am eating snacks and drinking water constantly to keep it at bay, but at least I can function like normal for the most part!

I had my first appointment on July 27th with a doctor I hadn't seen before, but had good reviews on the internet. (I had to get a new OB/GYN because I had new insurance.) I was not a fan of her's at all. For one thing, obviously, I'm pregnant and also drinking water all the time so I don't throw up. So I needed to pee pretty badly once she finally came into her office to meet with me. We talked a little while about my first pregnancy. I told her I was considering a home birth and she quickly responded saying,  "Oh, I wouldn't." In a tone that said to me, "You're crazy for considering that." She continued with, "No one in the medical industry would advise a home birth, they are just too unpredictable." I also told her I would like a natural birth and she said, "You can labor anyway you want, but there is nothing wrong with an epidural." She went on to tell me that she had epidurals with both her pregnancies and she loved them. I felt like she was already trying to talk me into one! (I don't think there is anything wrong with someone getting an epidural, I just would like to avoid one personally.) She also said I had to have an IV and she would induce me at 41 weeks no matter what, if I hadn't already gone into labor. I really seemed like just another pregnant lady to her. Like I would just be another statistic and she wouldn't give my pregnancy an individual touch at all.

After we finished our chat she said, "Ok, let's go do your ultrasound." I was like, "Uhhh, is it alright if I go to the bathroom first?" She said, "After your ultrasound." I then assured her I wasn't sure if I could even make it through the ultrasound. She replied, "Well, let's see if I can see it from the top then we'll let you go." UGGG! Really??? You won't let me go to the bathroom? Are you my mother?? If this is any indication of further care, I do not want you to be my doctor for the rest of my pregnancy and labor! (I didn't say that but those were my thoughts.) I mean I know she was trying to avoid a vaginal ultrasound, but I would rather have been given the choice. I would have chosen the vaginal ultrasound just so I could go to the bathroom first and not be afraid of peeing my pants.

When we did get to the ultrasound the doctor started moving the doppler around on my belly and said, "If you look real close you can see the arms and legs starting to grow." I did see them, it was so cool. Then she said, "There's a strong heartbeat!" "Yay!" I thought, along with "I still really have to pee..." She followed with, "Yeah, that's what I tell everybody, you're the proud parent of a blob with a heartbeat." I wanted to say, "No, that's my baby not just a blob, thank you." But I let it go. Then she said, "Wow, your bladder is really full! I'm impressed!" NO, REALLY?? Did you think I was lying??

I'm really glad I didn't see her with my first baby. She would have taken all the joy out of seeing my baby for the first time. The second time around I knew what to look for on the ultrasound and wouldn't let her steal the specialness of my little bitty baby. Also, she didn't try to listen to the heartbeat, which I thought was strange and a little disappointing. Anyway, after all of that, it almost goes without saying, I would be looking for a new provider for my next appointment. (By the way if you live in Kingwood and want to know who this doctor is, shoot me a message and I'll tell you.)

We did decide to announce on Facebook the weekend after my appointment. I'm always so relieved once everybody knows. I don't like keeping such a big secret. Here's that ultrasound picture!

Little blurry baby. :)

Anyone have any suggestions for books about a new baby or being a big sister? I know Jane won't understand much of it, but I also know that kids can pick up on a lot more than we realize.

Next, I began my search for either a midwife or a doctor that was supportive of natural birth. I was also trying to decide whether to have a home or hospital birth. I will expand on that in my next post.

John 16:33

"These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Here comes Baby #2!!

Just in case you missed the announcement on Facebook, you might like to know that we are expecting baby #2!! :D We are elated! Jane is going to love having a sibling and I think she's going to be an awesome big sister.

Early morning just found out pic!

With that said, if you haven't already read my blog, 10 Things TO Say to a Pregnant Lady, maybe you should go check it out. ;) Haha, but seriously, I will be trying hard to be the same person pregnant that I am when I'm not pregnant. That way you won't have to worry so much about what you say to me. I don't want to let the hormones get the best of me this time around. So I'm gonna say it right now, (and I might regret this, but here goes) call me out if I'm not being loving or maybe if I'm being a little too honest to the point of being harsh. Those were two things that I had trouble with last pregnancy. It might be something else this time, but I want to be aware of my shortcomings so I can work on them and be a light and imitate God as a dear child. (Eph. 5:1)

Oh and just in case you were wondering, we were not "trying", but we were not preventing having a baby. So it wasn't a surprise, but it also wasn't planned. I feel like people have to have it one way or the other. We are still believing that God knows what he's doing when he blesses us with more children.

We are praising Him for this new life. We know our little bitty baby is in God's hands. He has a plan for this pregnancy, no matter what happens. Please join us in prayer as we ask God to help our little baby to grow strong and healthy. That he/she would be ready to meet the world on his/her birthday, whenever that may be.

Baby #2! 8 weeks along. I could see the little leg and arm beginnings!
I'm not sure how everyone else seems to have great, clear ultrasound
pictures. I never seem to...

Let me get a couple other questions that everybody usually has out of the way. I'm about 10 weeks along, so still pretty early! Baby #2's due date is March 9th, 2016. I'm kinda doubting since I already had one baby come exactly on their due date that it will happen again. (little stat for ya, only 5% of babies are born on their due date) This baby has three chances to be born on a family member's birthday, because the baby's due date is pretty close to Sam's birthday, February 23rd, his brother Travis's birthday, March 5th and my mom's birthday March 2nd. Oh and if you were wondering, Jane will be around a year and 9 months older than Baby #2.

Yes, we plan to find out the gender. No, we won't have a gender reveal party. If you know us, then you know we're not the kind of couple to do that sort of thing. Just a regular old ultrasound tech telling you "it's a girl!" or "it's a boy!" is exciting enough for us. Don't get me wrong, I think those parties are cute, they're just not our thing. If I'm doing the math right, we should be able to find out the gender sometime in October.

Next question everybody has is do you want a boy or a girl?? Well, I feel like I can honestly say that I'm neutral this time around. I think it would be super fun for Jane to have a little sister that is so close in age, but I also think it would be very cool to have a boy next and have one and one. Either way I'm excited!

I think that covers the basic questions most people have. Let me know if you have a question for me that you think everyone might like to know too.

Ephesians 5:1-4

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. 

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

A Baseball Fan is Made

Jane went to her first baseball game this past weekend. We went to go see the Sugar Land Skeeters play. It was a lot of fun and Jane did great! It was the first time I let her stay out past her bedtime. (no, she didn't sleep later than normal the next day... darn!) My parents, grandparents and my brother and sister-in-law were all great at helping Sam and me keep Jane entertained. It was such a fun family outing. It was really cool because my parents got us all tickets on the front row and they were part of the "Insperity Club" which is like the minor league equivalent to the Diamond Club that the Astros have. A buffet was included with the tickets, along with unlimited popcorn, sodas and ice cream all game long. Needless to say, I stuffed myself and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Hope you enjoy the pictures from the night!

Great View. I liked their Texas screen in the outfield.

Go Skeeters!!

The opposing team's on deck circle was right in front of our seats. Pretty cool! This player's last name was Molina. He also plays catcher. Sam asked him if he was related to the other Molinas and he responded and said no. At least he talked to us!

Hey! Those are some pretty ladies that I love. :)

More good looking people that I love! 

Oh hey look it's us!

Mom, are there anymore sweet potato fries?

I think everybody had a turn holding and entertaining Jane.

Hey Papa, will you share your popcorn with me?

It was great to be on the front row so Jane could run around in front of our seats. 

So you hold the bat like this?

Watching the game with Pappaw.

Double teamed!

I just love this picture. Jane has such a great time with Uncle Scott and Aunt Anna.

I think I like you!

Jane really seemed to enjoy herself and she didn't really get fussy even after her bedtime.

Daddy's girl

You think they look alike?? ;)

I'm so tall!

Jane loved the mascot Swatson! She would smile and wave at him every time she spotted him. 

I will bang on Uncle Scott's head to show my excitement!

It was a fun game. Skeeters lost to the Blue Crabs, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for taking us Mom and Dad!

The one about sleep

I'm pretty sure every mom blog has an entry about sleep and how they helped their baby sleep through the night. Well, here's mine.

Anyone who knows Jane, probably knows she has never been a good sleeper. She gave me 2 weeks after she was born where she would be awake for less than an hour and then sleep for three hours with no resistance. It was wonderful and exactly what I needed to recover from labor. As soon as she was 2 weeks old sleep became an issue. I guess she realized there was a world around her that she needed to experience! Also, 2 1/2 weeks old is when she had her first fever and we stayed in the hospital for a couple days. I'm not sure if that contributed to the problem or not.

Early newborn sleep was awesome

Up until a month and a half ago, I would start Jane in her crib about 9pm after about 45 minutes of nursing/rocking. (I know, I know... sleep crutches) and depending on the night she would wake up 45 min-2 hours later. I would nurse her back to sleep and put her back in her crib. Sometime during the night I would give up on the crib and bring her to the Rock and Play next to our bed. The next time she woke up I would put her in bed with me and co-sleep.

Although not ideal, this sleep program actually worked for us for a long time. I got enough sleep even though Jane would wake up about 4-5 times at night, but only because she went right back to sleep after I would reassure or nurse her. Co-sleeping only worked for us because Sam was fine with it too.

When Jane was between 10-11 months old, things got really difficult. She started fighting sleep like never before and she started waking up every hour at night. The real kicker was that when I put her in bed with me to co-sleep she would not go right back to sleep and would start fussing. I thought "Ok, this is really starting to be a problem!" Sam knew it too. He told me it might be time to try cry it out.

Now this was very hard for me to swallow. Both of us had been against doing cry it out and sleep up until this point hadn't really been a big issue for either of us. Basically Jane forced us to try cry it out. Nothing else I tried worked and none of us were sleeping much any more and we were all getting cranky. It was a last resort! Sam could tell it was wearing on me. The night we decided cry it out needed to happen, I cried. It was really hard.

One thing that made it especially hard was that I had always been so adamantly against cry it out. I had to wrap my mind around why it was ok for us to start now. I am still against crying it out for a young baby. I realized it was ok for Jane because she had started to wake up and cry because she didn't want to sleep. I could tell it was not a scared or hungry cry. She was just trying to get her way. I was able to realize this because during the day she had started to throw little temper tantrums when I prevented her from doing what she wanted.

It will be ok, I promise!

The first night Jane cried for about 50 minutes. Sam and I sat on the couch together waiting for her to settle down. Finally she did! She slept about 5 hours straight that first night! Instant results! The next night was better, especially because I had set up my video monitor and I could watch and make sure she was fine and starting to lie down. She cried about 20 minutes off and on and she slept 9 hours straight!! Amazing! I thought to myself, "Why didn't I do this a month ago!"

After the first two nights she would only fuss a couple of minutes and sleep at least 5 hours before waking up. A few days later I started letting her fuss and let her put herself back to sleep when she woke up around 1-2am. After about a week she stopped waking up then and started only waking up around 4-5am.

About 2-3 weeks into our new sleep schedule, I would put Jane down in her crib awake at 8:30pm (after about 10 minutes of nursing/rocking) and she would go to sleep with no fussing and she slept 9 hours straight most nights! Usually, I would nurse her when she woke up around 4-5am, put her back in her crib and she would sleep a couple more hours.

Jane has stayed pretty consistent with this sleep schedule ever since. There are still nights where she will put up a small fight every now and then, but for the most part it's wonderful!

Jane has finally turned into a good sleeper! Hallelujah! I have my nights back. It's a beautiful thing. I can blog or watch a movie with Sam or maybe even play a video game! I love my daughter so much, but a few hours to myself at night helps me be a better mother and more attentive to her when she is awake.

Sleep, sweet, sweet sleep!

There you have it. That's our sleep story. It's different for everyone. Us mothers all need to put less pressure on ourselves and our babies about sleep. If you have a sleep routine that works for you and everybody is happy then don't worry about it. If sleep is an issue and what you're doing doesn't seem to be working then try something else! Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work either, just keep trying. Your baby will sleep one day! Did I mention that she wakes up happy too?

I love when my kid is happy!

Psalm 4:7-8

You have put gladness in my heart,

More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.

I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;

For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.