When You're Parenting Alone By Accident

I knew this was going to be hard for me.

I've been anticipating being a Mom for as long as I can remember- long before I hit adulthood I would find parenting articles fascinating. I studied my cousins and my sister as they experienced it themselves. I soaked up all the information I could with the hopes of one day putting it all to practice. Along with all the information (useful or not) in my head, I've also always had a strong maternal instinct. If I see a baby or a child in distress all I want to do is pick them up and comfort them, and if they are happy all I want to do is snuggle them. I have always happily offered to babysit for friends and family, assuring them that I don't get stressed out by a crying baby, and yes please go have fun with your husband while I do laps around your kitchen island until he falls asleep.

So I knew this was going to be a hard one for me. I knew that I would have the tendency to take over and to do everything myself, and we would be in danger of Chris being a bystander to his own son's childhood.

It scared the crap out of me.

Elliott: Five Months

Five months and almost 20 pounds of love!! He just weighed in the day before he turned five months at 19 lbs, 13 oz, and he's 26.5 inches long. No surprise that he's still in the 95th percentile! This boy is just the happiest little guy we've ever seen! You barely have to look at him and he smiles at you- both family and strangers alike. We often pray that his personality would always light up the room as it does now, and that he would shine the light of Jesus everywhere he goes. We are so in love with him, it just blows us away. Life just wouldn't be nearly as joyful without him!

Flipping Babies and God's Help

A few weeks ago, Elliott rolled for the first time. He was really sleepy and so I had put him on his tummy in his crib in the hopes that he would fall asleep on his own. He grunted a little in protest, and wiggled around while I went into other room to fold some of the endless laundry an infant brings. All of a sudden I realized that he had stopped fussing. I excitedly crept back towards his room hoping to find him asleep (or almost asleep) but instead found him happily laying on his back!

Chris and I were so disappointed that we missed it, and so later that day we put him on his tummy on the living room floor in the hopes of seeing his second roll. He really doesn't mind being on his tummy, but after a few minutes, he started to grunt and fuss. Chris went to flip him over but I stopped him - he was never going to roll over if we turned him the moment he got frustrated! Then he started to get more upset - near crying, but not quite. Again Chris went to flip him over and again I stopped him- asking him to wait just another minute. I was hoping the frustration of being on his tummy would get him to finally do something about it.