Broken pen

I woke up this morning after a long night in bed with a fussy, teething baby (poor boy is getting 3 at once) and walked into the living room to see my favorite pen...on the floor...in pieces!  Now you may think I am silly to have a favorite pen, but this thing is amazing.  It makes my handwriting so much prettier, my drawings more accurate,  and signing checks a little more fun.  And there it was in pieces.  My initial sleep deprived self took this act of destruction personally.  Who would do such a thing as disassemble my pen and toss it about like so?  Who would be so reckless to leave the evidence everywhere?  I examined the scene a little more closely and came to the conclusion that the dog was not the culprit this time (no teeth marks).  Now since the cat doesn't have thumbs nor a care for disassembling anything she is off the hook. And my husband, well let's just say he is low on the suspect list.  So that leaves one set of hands fully capable to disassemble many things, and they have multiple times.  
Baby SMoore did it!  I know it! Now did he do this maliciously?  Should I be upset about it?  No, not at all.  These pieces of my favorite pen are a result of a little boy exploring.  He was simply curious about the contraption that momma left with in his reach.  He disassembled it, examined it, and learned.  This is just a preview of what's to come.  My boy has an engineer's mind and I will care for it, encourage it, and develop it. 

Next time your kids get into something take a moment and think: are they learning? are they exploring? 

Back from my hiatious

Sorry guys!
I've been selfish and we have a lot to catch up on!
We moved to California, we lived in our RV, our little guy is almost 1, and I am starting to work on a couple projects/tasks God gave me years ago.

This blog post is to explain why I've been distant (we'll cover the other things at a later date).

Becoming a new mom is tough, moving across country is tough, living in an RV is tough, working your butt off and still struggling to buy groceries is tough.... all that at once is a test on ones limits and to be honest embarassing.  I didn't want to share with you in the moment what was going on.  I wanted to have my act together,  I wanted the pretty pictures,  and I wanted something positive to say.

But things are better and I am excited to share with you.  I am ready to reflect on those hard moments and see the lessons I learned.  For example, I will never be upset to do laundry in my own home again, especially since it won't require 14 quarters each load.

So get ready for lots of catching up posts, a few diy, and more.  Get ready for lots of photos too!!!

Forgive me for my distance and for feeling like I had to have it all together for you.  I'll stay real and keep it raw because we all have ups and downs!

Unconditional Love

The first thing I think I learned as a new mom was unconditional love.  There was  something indescribable when they put that baby in my hands and left me for the night with him.  I examined him, hugged him, kissed him, and snuggled him; I breathed in all his baby smells and knew no matter what, I would love him.  I know, as his mother, I will always maintain that love , even in times I might not like what he is doing... I will always love him. 
Becoming a mother and more understanding unconditional love, has helped me understand God's love for me. Unconditional,  willing to go the distance,  and fiercely gentle.  I understand why God watches me, "hugs" me, and breathes me in as much as possible.  Why He wants to give me riches in heaven and why he wants to spend eternity with me.  Unconditional love.  God might not always like what I am doing, but He will always love me.

Virtues of a Mom

A virtue is a characteristic of a person which supports individual moral excellence and collective well being.
As a new mom I have gained and/or strengthened many virtues. These virtues vary from woman to woman and are influenced by many different things. I feel this picture really expresses my virtues and plan to talk about them over the next few days; with personal stories of how these were revealed to me.

Back or Belly or Side?

Baby SMoore is a belly sleeper through and through... On rare occasion he will take a 5 minute nap on his back, but then he wiggles himself awake.

I know "don't let them sleep on their tummy!!!". I understand the risk of SIDS and trust me I check this boy every 10 minutes. However, here's the deal... We tried back sleeping, we tried swaddling, we tried it all; and the conclusion was that he is like mommy and daddy. He is a tummy sleeper. And now that he can lift his head and move it around (which he does multiple times during a nap) I don't feel 'as' worried.  Here is the other "no no", he sleeps in our bed at night. What can I say, we are risk takers, but really, it makes my life easier!  With him in bed with me I can check him throughout the night without getting up, nurse more frequently with ease, and the morning snuggles are the best.  I know eventually we will need to move him into his own bed, but for now this works for us.  Everyone is a lot happier and less sleep deprived in the morning. 
We have a tummy sleeping snuggle bug and I will soak it all in while I can.  What are you? A tummy sleeper? Side sleeper? Back sleeper? Leave me a comment below.

Mama!

My little baby SMoore is growing up so much! He is 101 days old today and I can hardly believe it. I adore him so much!  We have officially strolled out of newborn phase and into infant.  I say this because he can control his neck really well, has begun rolling tummy to back, can pull his toy to his mouth, and has said mama. That's right... He says mama!  I don't expect you to believe me because I don't have it on video yet, but it usually comes out when he is super tired and desperate to nurse to sleep.
It breaks my heart to hear his little crying mama sound, but I embrace every moment he needs me. I know time is fleeting and soon enough he will not need me nearly as much.  Already he is becoming more independent; more able to self soothe.  I love seeing him mature, but remember to stay in the moment and soak in all the snuggles I can.
Make sure you live in the moment today and reflect on what's bright. Take every snuggle you can get from your kids or grandkids.

*
Sorry I hadn't been on top of my blog during the newborn stage; I worked full time and well, had a newborn. I plan to go back and cover what I missed. I have notes and drafts... Just need to date them and post them.  So keep checking in.

Debut of Baby SMoore

April 8, 2013
The day my life changed once more. I obtained a new title and discovered a new love.

*warning this is the birth story... may get graphic*

3:50 am - I woke up like I usually do and had to pee.  Went to the bathroom,  sat down, a shppsh... a gush of water. This immediately pulled me out of my sleepy state.  I looked down and saw the plug and meconium (not good)
3:55 am - I tell Jonathan (who had only been aslerp for 1.5 hrs) that I thought my water broke and I needed to call the DR. 
4:00 am I finally get through all the automated stuff and explain to the nurse what had happened.   Right as she asked if I was sure my water broke, another gush came... "yep, it broke".  She says she will page my DR/midwife
4:05 am My midwife calls me back. Itell her about my water and the meconium.  She tells me to try to go back to sleep after timing my contractions, but to call her if I can't feel the baby move.  She says, "you are going to have a baby today!"

So Jon helps me keep track of my contractions.  They start to become more painful and are every 2 minutes on the dot.  After a half hour I hadn't felt baby smoore,  so I called my midwife back.  Around 4:30am she said to come on in.

4:30am we loaded up the car and hit the road, because our new delivery hospital was about 40minutes away. 
Since the hospital wasn't truly open when we got there we had to enter the emergency area. They explained how to get to labor and delivery and before we know it I am on the elevator... that is when it hit me! "We are going to become parents today".
About 5:30am we were checked in and waiting in our room for the nurse.
The rest of the details are a little eh on time because it all happened so fast.
Shift change happened at 6:00am so I don't really recall my original nurse, but I did get checked and my water had indeed broken and I was already dialated 2 and effaced about 20%.  My contractions were still 2minutes apart, and getting stronger!  A few hours pass and I had met the nurse who would help deliver baby SMoore.  Her name was Stacey and she was awesome! My midwife had come checked on me and said it eould be a long day.  Stacey checked me again around 10am because I kept having the urge to push!  I was 10cm and ready to go!!!!

My midwife came, the on call pediatrician came, and we were ready to go!  I pushed a few times and my midwife said wait you aren't full dialated, yet.... you are only 6cm.   Boy was that disappointing.   So she told me to get into the shower and try to relax.  Around 1pm they gave me an iv with a little bit of medicine to help me relax to allow my body to dialate.  This required me to stay in bed and on my side.  My contractions were still every 2 minutes,  but they lasted about a minute and were very intense.  My midwife checked me at 1:30pm and I was really 10cm now!  Time to push she said!  The whole team came back (my midwife, my 2 nurses, blood nurse bc diabetes, pediatrician,  and baby nurse because of the meconium)

I was so happy to be pushing knowing contractions would end! I pushed and pushed and pushed.  I think it only took maybe 4 rounds of pushing (was about 20 minutes) and our baby SMoore had arrived! 

We were so full of joy! The baby cried right away, peed on me, and then started nursing.  The pediatrician actually left because all was well.  Then we looked.... it was a BOY!