Teething Purgatory

Some moms have a really hard time with breast feeding, others struggle with their kiddo's not sleeping well through the night. The bane of my existence came when baby girl started teething. And when I say "bane of my existence," it may sound all cute and euphemistic, but it has been a real nightmare. 

She was sleeping okay through the night up until the teething came. Now one of two things happens: 

• It literally takes 3 hours of her screaming and us trying not to loose our marbles for her to finally get to sleep, or
•  She goes to sleep just fine, but then she wakes up 3 times in the night, and the third time she just doesn't go back to sleep after 4 am... Yeah, not very nice.

                                                            

I called my Mom for encouragement today and here are a few things she said.

1. Babies change so much all the time. If you're in survival mode right now, that's OKAY. This stage is not going to last forever. That makes me feel better. I am in survival mode, and it's nice to know that it's an acceptable place to be for the moment.

2. "The reward for being a grandparent is not killing your children." She said she wanted to kill all of her kids at one time or another (except for me, of course ;). This makes me feel slightly better, knowing that I'm not alone in sometimes feeling so frustrated and DONE with my crazy baby.

3. Prayer always helps. When you're at the end of your rope God will help. This actually happened last night. It was a take-3-hours-to-put-baby-to-sleep kind of night, and when I finally laid her in her crib at 12:30 am I prayed very sincerely that God would let me have a good night's sleep. Baby girl didn't wake up until 8:30. I know it was an answer to my prayers. 

Sometimes when I pray for a good night's sleep (and this is the sincere kind, not just a repetitious night time prayer) God says no. But I don't get mad at Him. He knows best. I need to develop patience and endurance, and that is only achieved by being stretched to my limits, and even a little beyond. 

I need to remember that there are seasons of life. Just as the weather changes from Summer, to Fall, to Winter, to Spring, my life will change from childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, to changing diapers and dealing with a teething baby, to sending her off to school, to watching my grand babies grow up. This season of life is wonderful and terrible, as is every other season in life. I need to appreciate the good and deal with the bad. 

As Elder Worthlin said, "Come what may, and love it!"

The Joy of Doing Nothing


Here's a very honest post from yours truly.

So... being a new mother is weird. I spend so much time on the couch feeding my baby, and holding a sleepy baby that it's like, what else do I do? So I pull out my phone and check Facebook and Pinterest. And then I realize, hey I've been on Pinterest for two hours. Ugh.

I don't think this problem is exclusive to me or other moms though. Anyone can spend all their time glued to their phone. 

Lately (meaning the last few days) I have been allowing myself to not "do" anything (at least while I'm holding my baby girl). I sit and let my brain wander and think for itself rather than let FB or Pinterest think for me. It's been pretty cool. You wanna know what you think about when you don't have to think about anything? Then don't do anything. Be still and let your mind go.

I remember several years ago at Christmas time my brother and his wife were visiting. They are pretty darn amazing, just FYI. I wanted to make a holly leaf for some project, and I decided to look pictures up on the internet to see what holly leafs looked like. My brother said NO! Don't look up pictures, make it up yourself. Did I mention that he's an artist? That little lesson has stuck with me. --Let my creative brain create something for itself, instead of copying something that's already been done." 

I thought about this lesson today as I envisioned cute Christmas pictures we could take this year. What did I do? I went on Pinterest and didn't find what I was looking for. Silly me, I should just plan it out in my mind and then execute it. No Pinterest required.

With so many distractions I can and will not be able to hear the still small voice of the Spirit unless I unplug frequently. Probably every day. Definitely every day. Here's part of a talk that Elder Packer gave in 1979!! entitled "Prayers and Answers":

Many years ago John Burroughs, a naturalist, one summer evening was walking through a crowded park. Above the sounds of city life he heard the song of a bird.

He stopped and listened! Those with him had not heard it. He looked around. No one else had noticed it.

It bothered him that everyone should miss something so beautiful.

He took a coin from his pocket and flipped it into the air. It struck the pavement with a ring, no louder than the song of the bird. Everyone turned; they could hear that!

It is difficult to separate from all the sounds of city traffic the song of a bird. But you can hear it. You can hear it plainly if you train yourself to listen for it.

It is difficult to separate from the confusion of life that quiet voice of inspiration. Unless you attune yourself, you will miss it.

Answers to prayers come in a quiet way. The scriptures describe that voice of inspiration as a still, small voice.

If you really try, you can learn to respond to that voice.

Gosh I love General Conference. 


          


When I say "do nothing" of course I don't really mean it. I mean having a still mind. Being reverent and able to be spiritually sensitive. That's not nothing! That's quite a lot of something, if you ask me. If we are always doing thing with our brains, such as:

wake up - check FB
get ready & go to work - work all day
OR stay home with baby and check Pinterest 20 times
drive home/wash dishes - listen to audible
come home - watch TV while you eat dinner
put baby to sleep - watch a movie or sit on the couch with your spouse while each of you play whatever stupid games you are addicted to on your phone
right before bed - read 10 verses of scriptures and pray as you fall asleep

Ouch. This kind of hurts my heart because of how familiar it sounds. 
If I- and we- keep doing this how do we expect the Spirit to EVER speak to us or influence us? Or perhaps the Spirit is speaking to us, but how can we listen and understand when we don't give it the time of day?

Okay, while I'm on this topic, I mentioned being reverent earlier. I've seen several pins on Pinterest about how to cutely teach your children about how to be reverent. They're all pretty much the same:

Your mouth is closed and quiet
Your arms are folded, or whatever
Your feet are still
Your eyes are attentive on the speaker or closed for prayers
blah blah blah

I'm sorry I don't mean blah blah blah. These things really are good and important. BUT What about our minds? I think to be truly reverent the most important attribute to have is a still mind. You can look like the most reverent kid in church and be SO NOT reverent. 

I'm not trying to preach. Okay, maybe I am, But not just to you, to me too. I need to be better. I need to be still. I need to unplug more often. Because I want to be spiritually sensitive. And creative. And more present for when my daughter grows older and realizes that I'm not paying attention to her. And more productive. And healthier. 

I feel like blogging is "that thing that everyone does," once you get married or have a baby, or of course if you're just awesome and have cool stuff to say. I'm not sure I'll be in the latter category, and I don't want to be cliche or anything, but I decided long ago that if I want to do or like something even if it's popular, I can, because I want to, not just because it's "the thing" to do. I used to refuse to like anything that was popular, like I was too cool for it. It was probably just an unconscious manifestation of my family's inability to pour money into the latest fads. (Okay, probably too many commas, run on sentences, and off topic thoughts, but who's counting?) 

Man I wish I was as funny as Ree Drummond.

Anyways, here's why I'm starting this blog:

1. I am a new mom (of 3 weeks, yay hooray!) and I want to use my time productively, instead of sitting on the couch watching DWTS all day.

2. This one's serious. I have a problem. I do not often articulate myself well verbally. My husband, Joe, is excellent at this, and I often find myself stuttering or trying to come up with the right words to express my thoughts and feelings, but frequently fall short. This frustrates me, so I figure writing my thoughts will give me time to think and express myself the way I want. I hope this will be a cathartic experience, as many other bloggers attest.

3. As I was listening to General Conference this past week, a few talks touched my heart and inspired me to write my feelings, which I plan to do here.

4. Am I really writing a boring list of why I’m going to start blogging? Sigh… we’re off to a pretty exciting start!

So yeah, basically I want to write about anything and everything that interests me: religious, non-religious, practical baby stuff, and just me. Stay tuned.