Four Weeks In
Welcome to the brain dump of the last four weeks! Ready to dive in?
Edith is four weeks old (she will be one month old in just 2 days!). Four weeks have flown by, and I feel like we have come a long way in just those few weeks.
Israel is doing much better with Edith! He has had a few hard nights, including one giant meltdown (while we had company, of course) and I think that the transition of Edith + some other things he has going on led to that. I've had to rock him to sleep a few times, and we're letting Israel take the lead on making sure that he feels secure and loved. I know we've been home with Israel over a year, but attachment is a lifelong process and we want Israel to always know that his place in our home is secure and that we want to meet his needs immediately.
In general, Israel doesn't pay too much attention to Edith most of the day, but does want to reach out and touch her sometimes. We let him "pet" her and have to remind him to "gentle touch" because he gets really excited.
Will and I have been knee deep in schoolwork. He just finished a 30 page paper and is working on another one! I started my fall grad school classes a week after Edith was born. It has been very different from my summer classes, because it is much harder to utilize my time on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Israel is at school. Between taking a shower, nursing, pumping, and getting Edith to sleep... sometimes it seems like I only get a good 2-3 hours of work in my whole day! I've been submitting less than quality work, but just trusting that the whole faithfulness not excellence mentality will pay off again.
The other day a friend was trying to encourage me to slow down with school. Will and I are both confident that this is the season to just get it done. I would much rather finish it in one year and be able to move on than drag out my MSW. It is hard but it will be worth it.
Other life events have included hosting my friend Stacy and her 3 kids (two of which lived at Hananh's Hope with Israel!). It was a great visit! I'm also selling a bunch of stuff at our local consignment sale this week, and it feels really good to purge some junk! I went to the sale yesterday to shop and ended up being really overwhelmed. I've been searching for the perfect double stroller to fit in our car trunk and haven't found one. My friend Beth is letting me borrow a stroller until I can find something out. That has been a huge worry for me: how do I transport two babies? This week at church I wore Edith in the moby wrap and pushed Israel in the umbrella stroller.
My husband is a college pastor, and our college ministry EngageJSU has really taken off this fall! I was able to go to the first service of the semester and it was incredible to see the sanctuary filled! We've had 5 baptisms this fall and several students have accepted the gospel. This has been so exciting! We're thrilled that the Lord is showing our ministry favor and excited that our students have really invested in the ministry. If you want to get excited with us, look at #engageJSU on twitter to see what our students are saying!
We've had meals delivered 3 times a week, and will until next Wednesday! That has been a HUGE help, especially in the early days when it physically hurt me to stand to cook. I feel like I'm barely accomplishing things some days, so having meals delivered by our friends has been so helpful.
Speaking of physical recovery, I am finally starting to look and feel like myself. I forgot that my feet had bones in them, I've been looking at cankles so long! I can finally wear one of my wedding bands again after months of being too swollen. Nursing is going really well and I'm really thankful that Edith and I are having that experience.
Edith is definitely not on a schedule yet. I nurse her when she wants and she sleeps off and on without me paying attention to the time. Second child? Yes. She's still sleeping in our room in a pack and play at night.
So, when people say "how are you doing it?" I want to laugh. We're making it! Some things are being let go (like the cleanliness of my house), my participation in our college ministry, etc. We also cut our cable so we won't get trapped into watching TV at night and can prioritize our time as a couple. Will takes Israel on a walk/run every day and that has been so helpful. I couldn't imagine doing this season without Will!
Please keep praying for us during this busy season. God is faithful!
Edith is four weeks old (she will be one month old in just 2 days!). Four weeks have flown by, and I feel like we have come a long way in just those few weeks.
Israel is doing much better with Edith! He has had a few hard nights, including one giant meltdown (while we had company, of course) and I think that the transition of Edith + some other things he has going on led to that. I've had to rock him to sleep a few times, and we're letting Israel take the lead on making sure that he feels secure and loved. I know we've been home with Israel over a year, but attachment is a lifelong process and we want Israel to always know that his place in our home is secure and that we want to meet his needs immediately.
In general, Israel doesn't pay too much attention to Edith most of the day, but does want to reach out and touch her sometimes. We let him "pet" her and have to remind him to "gentle touch" because he gets really excited.
Will and I have been knee deep in schoolwork. He just finished a 30 page paper and is working on another one! I started my fall grad school classes a week after Edith was born. It has been very different from my summer classes, because it is much harder to utilize my time on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Israel is at school. Between taking a shower, nursing, pumping, and getting Edith to sleep... sometimes it seems like I only get a good 2-3 hours of work in my whole day! I've been submitting less than quality work, but just trusting that the whole faithfulness not excellence mentality will pay off again.
The other day a friend was trying to encourage me to slow down with school. Will and I are both confident that this is the season to just get it done. I would much rather finish it in one year and be able to move on than drag out my MSW. It is hard but it will be worth it.
Other life events have included hosting my friend Stacy and her 3 kids (two of which lived at Hananh's Hope with Israel!). It was a great visit! I'm also selling a bunch of stuff at our local consignment sale this week, and it feels really good to purge some junk! I went to the sale yesterday to shop and ended up being really overwhelmed. I've been searching for the perfect double stroller to fit in our car trunk and haven't found one. My friend Beth is letting me borrow a stroller until I can find something out. That has been a huge worry for me: how do I transport two babies? This week at church I wore Edith in the moby wrap and pushed Israel in the umbrella stroller.
My husband is a college pastor, and our college ministry EngageJSU has really taken off this fall! I was able to go to the first service of the semester and it was incredible to see the sanctuary filled! We've had 5 baptisms this fall and several students have accepted the gospel. This has been so exciting! We're thrilled that the Lord is showing our ministry favor and excited that our students have really invested in the ministry. If you want to get excited with us, look at #engageJSU on twitter to see what our students are saying!
We've had meals delivered 3 times a week, and will until next Wednesday! That has been a HUGE help, especially in the early days when it physically hurt me to stand to cook. I feel like I'm barely accomplishing things some days, so having meals delivered by our friends has been so helpful.
Speaking of physical recovery, I am finally starting to look and feel like myself. I forgot that my feet had bones in them, I've been looking at cankles so long! I can finally wear one of my wedding bands again after months of being too swollen. Nursing is going really well and I'm really thankful that Edith and I are having that experience.
Edith is definitely not on a schedule yet. I nurse her when she wants and she sleeps off and on without me paying attention to the time. Second child? Yes. She's still sleeping in our room in a pack and play at night.
So, when people say "how are you doing it?" I want to laugh. We're making it! Some things are being let go (like the cleanliness of my house), my participation in our college ministry, etc. We also cut our cable so we won't get trapped into watching TV at night and can prioritize our time as a couple. Will takes Israel on a walk/run every day and that has been so helpful. I couldn't imagine doing this season without Will!
Please keep praying for us during this busy season. God is faithful!
I don't know if I've ever commented, but I so enjoy your blog! We were a featured family awhile ago and brought our baby girl home in March. We have a bio daughter (3 years) and adopted our baby girl who has down syndrome so I am with you on the special needs/adoption/biological child combination although we did ours the other way around :) I'm commenting to give a recommendation on a double stroller in case it's helpful. I did a ton of research and ended up buying the Britax double B-Agile and I've been so happy with it. It's pretty middle of the road price wise - definitely not the cheapest, but definitely not the most expensive - at $300. It's a side-by-side, so I'm not sure if you need narrower for your trunk, but it folds pretty small and can still fit through most standard doors. It's really light-weight for being a double and it has a pretty easy fold. It's also really easy to maneuver with one hand which has been awesome. The thing I like the most about it though is that you can access the storage through zippered "windows" on the front as well as the side and the back. Silly thing to like about it, but I'm an over-packer even on walks so it's important to me! :) Anyway, there's my plug! I hope it's helpful from one mama of two babies to another! I watched a lot of reviews from Baby Gizmo on youtube and that was super helpful as she covers every nook and cranny of the things she is reviewing. Here's the one for the B-Agile double: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8jM07kLgpo Good luck!
ReplyDeleteKelsey, thanks for commenting and for the stroller recommendation! I'll look that up!!
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