The Little Things

When you have a baby everything changes.

People tell you that all the time.

Especially when you have a teenager, and then announce that you're expecting.

People like to point out how crazy you are for starting over.

They especially find it crazy when I tell them that Cole will be

a freshman in college when Stella starts Kindergarten.

People also like to give lots of well-intentioned advice to pregnant women.

They tell you to sleep when the baby sleeps,

and that they grow up so fast (don't I know it!)

And they love to ask how it's going-

wondering if you're getting any sleep with a newborn in the house.

Wondering how Jim, a bachelor until his late 30's, is adjusting to parenthood.

But I wonder, why is it that people rarely share the real dirt about parenting.

Taking care of a baby is exhausting and frustrating sometimes.

Everyone who has done it remembers that- or maybe they don't.

Maybe, in an act of pure self-preservation, people's minds allow themselves to forget.

They forget the exhaustion, frustration, fear and pain that goes along with parenting an infant.

Instead, the mind remembers all of the wonderful little moments

that allow us to do it all over again, and miss it when it's gone.

Things like the snuggle naps....

We all love the snuggle naps at our house.

Also, things like first smiles.

Tiny fingers

And tiny toes.

We all remember the tiny yawns

and newborn milk breath

and the first giggles.

I want to preserve all of the memories.

Both amazing, and not so great.

I want to share them with Stella when she's bigger

and she asks me to tell her what it was like when she was a baby.

I like that I can share all of the everyday happenings with all of our friends and family

through the blog.

It forces me to take time each day to think about the little things.

Those little things that would otherwise get pushed to the back of my mind

and would likely be forgotten over time.

The Bennett "No Sleep Situation"

We're in a sleep funk at our house!

And Jim and I are walking around like zombies.

We were doing so good!

Just a few short weeks ago we had Stella sleeping

in her crib, with only one overnight feeding.

Sometimes she would go to sleep around 9 PM and sleep until 5 AM.

That's do-able.

And then ....

she got sick, and we moved her back into our room

and we can't seem to get our sleep back.

We have tried getting her back to her crib,

but she gets congested when we lay her

flat on her back.

I know we can prop the crib mattress up a little bit

but we tried that, and then I went in and found her slid

clear down in her crib and her head was covered

with a blanket.

I know you're not supposed to use a blanket in the crib

but I feel like she must be cold if I don't.

My rational self is completely gone now!

I think it's because I'm not getting any sleep.

The last 2 days at daycare she has been sleeping a lot.

Yesterday her daycare sheet told me that she slept from

9:30-11:15 (1 hour 45 minutes)

12:30-2:00 (1 1/2 hours)

2:35-3:10 (35 minutes)

3:30-4:15 (45 minutes)

Well, there's your problem!!!!

Yes, she is sleeping away her days at daycare and then

giving us fits at night.

Last night we finally got her to sleep about midnight.

Actually, to be more accurate, Jim got her to sleep about midnight.

I couldn't hang.

And I figured that I would have to get up to do her

overnight feeding, so I let him take the "early shift."

To compound our no-sleep problem,

Stella has come to expect some specific soothing techniques.

Jim used to get frustrated because he felt that he wasn't able to soothe

her quite like I could.

She likes to be snuggled up close, and she tucks her head into my neck.

That doesn't work so well with a Daddy who has whiskers.

So Jim started to do "the walk."

You know "the walk"

Every parent knows "the walk"

The thing that you try when nothing else soothes your sleepy child.

The next step after "the walk" is "the drive"

You know, this drive:

Well, we had never done "the walk" with Stella before

so she didn't know that "the walk" was an option.

Now "the walk" is all she wants.

I think that poor man walked about 5 miles with Stella last night,

and didn't ever make it out of our room.

I hate "the walk"

I can't do it.

My arm gets tired of holding her.

Plus I miss the snuggle time.

But she wants it, and fights sleep until she gets it.

So we're in a funk.

I hope tonight is better.

I miss this girl!

Fuzzi Bunz & Bum Genius & Rumparooz

Oh My!

We began our cloth diapering adventure last week,

and it went remarkably well.

I bought 4 diapers to start.

Just enough to give us an idea of the styles that we would like

and it was a good trial run.

So good, in fact, that I went today and bought some more.

Now we're working to phase out the remaining disposables that we have

and go cloth full time.

I didn't take the cloth-ies to daycare,

we just used them around the house.

And we only had one leak- on the first day.

I was a little gun-shy about using them at night,

but I gave it a shot and they held up without a leak.

Going cloth actually took quite a bit more research than I expected.

I found several websites to be quite helpful.

My favorite is the appropriately named All About Cloth Diapers

She does regular reviews and actually has quite a few helpful tips.

I honestly never thought that anything about diapering would excite me.

And yet, I found myself enjoying my trip to Circle Me today.

I'm sure the novelty will wear off

And after the 100th day of seeing this pile of laundry on my washer

I'll be less than thrilled.

But right now, I'm kind of digging it.

Random Thoughts Wednesday

Baby it's cold outside!

We have the JJ Cole Urban Bundle Me on Stella's car seat.

It kind of looks like a sleeping bag that attaches to her car seat

and she goes inside of it to keep her warm.

So normally Stella is able to stay pretty toasty in her car seat

without having to do any extra layers of clothing.

We just put her in there and throw a hat on her head and we're good to go.

These last couple of days, however, cause me to question whether we need to

provide an additional layer of warmth for our girl.

The "experts" say that you shouldn't put a coat on your infant in their

car seat because then you can't get the straps tight enough

in case of an accident.

So, we just continue on with our normal practice

and I keep her snow suit in the car just in case.

Looking at her here,

I'm not sure she would fit in the car seat

if I tried to put her in there while wearing the snow suit.

Stella is definitely interacting more with her toys these days.

A few weeks ago, it was mostly us holding up toys

and showing her how to use them,

making silly noises,

you know the drill...

Now she's got it down.

She's also becoming a little more mobile.

She hasn't taken that first roll over yet,

and she is doing a little scooting, though not on purpose.

But I did happen to catch her in this new pose the other day.

I don't usually strap her into her various seats,

but after I caught her like this I think I better start.

Occasionally she can get a little wild and get herself

scooted down in her seat. I'm sure I'll find her on the floor one of these days.

Cloth Diapers!!!!

I made the decision during my pregnancy that we were going to use cloth diapers.

I went to a couple of cloth diapering classes

and I did a lot of research.

I finally pulled the trigger on getting started.

Circle Me is the cloth diapering store in Lincoln

and they have a good selection of diapers and supplies.

I decided to start slow, with just a couple of different types of diapers

to see what works best for us before fully making the switch.

Here is what I ended up with after my first shopping trip.

I know it sounds crazy, but it was fun.
I really like a lot of things about the cloth diapers,

and the pros outweigh the cons for me.

We'll see if I'm still saying that after several months of the additional work.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be a familiar sight for me.

Today when we got home from daycare we were able to try them out for the first time.

Stella seemed to like them.

I think our little girl looks pretty cute in her new dipes!

March of Dimes Walk

You may notice a new addition to the sidebar on my blog

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Please consider supporting me in the March of Dimes Walk.

I am walking on my sister Carey's team- the Kubik Krusaders.

We are walking in honor of her daughters Kyley and Kyndal.

Kyley and Kyndal were born way too early, and sadly Kyndal was born an angel.

The March of Dimes works to prevent premature births.

As you may remember, Stella was also a preemie.

Here she is on her birth day.

And here she is 4 months later.

Please help so that all children can have these wonderful

rolls at 4 months!

Thanks for your support!

A Busy Day

Even though it is a snow day, we have managed to keep busy around our house.

Stella, in particular, has been very busy.

She folded some laundry.

Jammed on Cole's guitar.

Then she played on the keyboard for a while.

I guess she was writing a song, and working on the lyrics.

She chatted on the phone.

Looks like she got some bad news.

And she finished off the day by reading a book.

Hopefully all of you have managed to stay busy on the snow days as well.