a journey in motherhood

Three Wednesdays a month I go to a group called Mom to Mom. Elliot gets babysat by my mom and it’s a time where moms just get together and fellowship. Some weeks we have a speaker, sometimes we do a craft, and other times we meet with our table group offsite for a playdate. It’s been a great time getting to know other moms better, as well as learning about myself. We’re reading a book called “Fresh Brewed Life” and it’s really been good for me to read - It’s about being a Godly woman and ‘awake’ to life. One thing it inspired (hopefully not the only thing) is that I now have a cup of decaf each morning while I read my bible.  Each week we eat breakfast together and we each bring a part of the breakfast - I was pretty proud of myself - when it was my turn to bring an egg dish I basically made one up and it was yummy!

For halloween we dressed Elliot up as Tigger. He was super cute - but for fun during the day I threw together a Charlie Brown costume for him too - and I think it was adorable. In the morning I met my mom2mom group downtown Glendora and went trickertreating from shop to shop - of course mom and dad get to eat all the candy! In the evening we had dinner at my moms house with my brother, SIL and cousing Natania - afterwards we went to grandparents and great grandparents homes to show of the costumes - next year it will be more fun when he understands what is going on - but it was fun for us this year to see him all dressed up.

I went to Whole Foods Market in Pasadena and bought tons of food to make for Elliot

Prunes, green beans, peas, butternut squash, acorn squash, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potato, yams, mango, appricots, bananas, spinach, and apples. It took a few days and help from my mom and my aunt to get it all cooked and pureed - but my food processor worked wonders and now I have a freezer full of homemade babyfood.

While that saves me lots of money - I made so much we had to buy a bigger refrigerator to fit it all in! I love it though - it’s a side by side and it makes me feel like a millionaire

Elliot is not super into eating - he doesn’t really open his mouth and eat a whole lot - but it’s just learning right now - I’m sure that will come. His favorite food so far seems to be butternut squash and he hates oatmeal and rice cereal - though that has to do w/ the texture of them - lumpy since they were homemade.

here he is after his thanksgiving meal:

but here he is after his first taste of oatmeal:

I read some great books on sleep - NOT on parenting styles and I feel so much more educated on Elliot’s sleep needs.  It took some time to get him to nap longer than 30 minutes, but most days he takes 2 to 3 naps that last at least 1.5 hours or more. It’s nice for me to get things done around the house while he sleeps so I can play with him while he’s awake. He goes down to bed at 7:00 p.m. Charlie and I both participate in his bedtime routine - giving him a bath, then Charlie puts his jammies on while I clean up the bath then Charlie reads a bible story, finally I feed him and into bed he goes. Most nights he wakes up once to nurse then wakes again at 7:00 a.m.

What I hate about sleep is the outside pressure. It feels like the whole world judges your parenting on how your child sleeps thru the night - it’s probably the most common question I get “is he sleeping thru the night?” and I feel like I have to justify his one waking and i hate it. It’s perfectly normal for a breastfed baby to wake once at night and need to eat - even more than once is normal. But the social pressure to have them sleep thru w/out waking is a nag.

see if anyone even notices….

motherhood is obviously a much more demanding job than the last one…

since writing in here so much has happened…

i quit my job at the city and am now an official stay-at-home-mom

elliot is now 6 months old - weighs 17 lbs and is 27.5 inches long.

he has been sitting up on his own for over a month now - it’s my favorite milestone, and I think learnign to crawl is comming soon, he’s getting more mobile every day.

we’re now on a pretty regular routine, though it’s flexible. Two to three hour naps a day - many of them lasting one to two hours - this has given me lots of time to get housework and such done. He’s down to bed after a bath and biblestory at seven each night.

I still love being mommy so much!

Just a couple weeks ago we began feeding him solids - I made all of his food myself and froze it in ice cubes. so far he’s had apples, prunes, squash, yams, turkey, sweet potato, and green beans. We started w/ oatmeal cereal but he HATED it. He’s still not super interested in eating, but it will come.

we’re still deciding on what to get him for christmas - he really needs some toys for older infants - I started working one homemade blocks today. I’ve been saving small various sized cardboard boxes since before he was born - I cover them in contact paper and then decorate them. He’s going to love them in a few months when he can stack them and plow them over.

I’ve been working on a photo album too - it’s kinda a cross between a photo album and a scrap book - something reasonable and not too demanding to do, but still cute and creative.

Elliot was dedicated last SUnday -it was an awesome day, after chuch everyone came to my mom’s house for lunch and we had a time of prayer for Elliot - it was very meaningful.

Grandpa and Grandma prestrud came for his dedication and for thanksgiving - it was so fun to have them here. Elliot is blessed with an incredible family!

well I’ll posts some pics and see if I can’t write some more soon!

here is a pic of our family on Thanksgiving.