The last 3 nights, he hasn’t slept through, not even close. The first night he went to sleep around 7:30pm then woke up at 12:45am then 4:30am. The second night he went to sleep around 7pm then woke at 10:30pm, 1:30am and then 5am and last night was the worst he went to sleep around 7pm again, woke at 9pm, 12:45am, 3:15am and then again at 6:30. My eyes feel like someone has squeezed lemon into them, clear eyes just aint doing it, and feeling like a zombie is putting it very lightly.

Each time River man woke, i gave it a few minutes and hoped he would go back to sleep, but he didn’t, so off i’d go and give him a feed. River’s feeds over the last couple of weeks have reduced in time, now it usually only takes me about 15mins to feed him, which is awesome, but the past 3 days forget about it, it’s taken at least half an hour each feed, last night i literally shut my eyes and fell asleep whilst feeding him.

I’m hoping and praying to all the mummy gods out there that this is a growth spurt and it will finish up soon. Besides the fact that i keep putting the milk in the cupboard and i’m not sure what day it is, River man has been such a great sleeper so far and i hate to think that he’s going to start going backwards.

Anyone else out there have a great sleeper that all of a sudden decided they wanted to wake 50 million times a night? Was it a growth spurt? or did they go backwards?

I’m awake…what you gonna do about it!

There is something wonderful about growth when we see it happening before us. I don’t mean that the sprouting of a seed or the lifting of a mountain is perceivable. It’s the simple turning of a leaf in our lives as we encounter a paradigm shift or a revelation of concept we hadn’t quite understood before. It’s the spurt of height we gain in that moment of realization that life before has been forever altered through an ever-so-slight adjustment of space between the present, the now, and the path into the future.

We may not know it, at least not to consciously think about it, but we live for those moments. These are times when we feel like conquerors sitting in high places reveling in the rubble now laying at our feet as we emulate the phoenix rising from the ash. Revel in it, oh mighty being of humanity! Never forget that your potential and your power is always present. The tiny steps of a baby, the ever-possible explosions of discovery, continue throughout our lives, as they are the stuff of which we’re made. As small as each step seems amid our addictive, fast-paced societies, each are in reality magnificent leaps forward as we stretch and grow to new levels of understanding. Never discredit this power, this genius within you to learn and excel and expand.

There is something wonderful about growth when we see it happening before us. Watch for it. Plan for it. Hope for it. Dream of your tomorrows and the wonder they hold as you reach in slow motion for the coveted brass ring. It is within you to grab it and take it away with you to wherever your heart desires. Think not otherwise. If you doubt, all you need to do is look at your past and how far you’ve come already. If your path isn’t taking you where you want to go, change it. Now! Instantly… in the blink of an eye… Why?

Because you can!

As an infant you never doubted that you would walk. As a child, your progress happened because you were driven to excel – to ride a bike, to get an “A”, to reach the next grade in school, to dance, to sing, to get married, to have children, to achieve whatever you have thus far. So, dismiss doubt like a stubborn child to go and sit in the corner until her attitude is progressive. YOU are the master of your destiny. YOU are in control. Breathe deeply in the universe of your mind where there are no limitations and exhale with the furry of the wind, telling the world, “I am here to conquer you as I was born to do.” The waters of negativity will part before you. They must. Eons ago you were given dominion over the earth by your Creator. You only need to claim it and move forward towards the next miraculous expression of growth.

Blessings in your journey, Most Eloquent Being!

~Aliya Saige

Related articles

• What should I do when I grow up? (aliyasaige.wordpress.com)
• Celebrating a growth spurt! (chrysalisjourney.wordpress.com)
• Introducing a new story (aliyasaige.wordpress.com)
• Coming Clean (lisagobrien.com)

Reans

 
 
Spirit of Prophecy Bulletin

SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by MARSHA BURNS:

Prepare for a growth spurt as you, My beloved, take another leap forward in spiritual maturity. I have led you daily, as if holding your hand, by giving you instructions on how to navigate your life and circumstances. And, many of you have followed My word and made corrections that cause you to grow up. In you I am well pleased. You are in a time of moving forward quickly as you accept and apply My message of truth and wisdom, says the Lord.

Ephesians 4:11-15 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-

One may have read the Spirit of Prophecy Bulletin for today.  One may have been encouraged.  Thank You Jesus!

One may have entered one’s prayer closet at 3:30 AM.  One may have praised the Lord with song, confessed one’s sins, thanked the Lord and prayed for the sick.

One may have prayed for a passage of scripture for today’s blog.  One may have been led to Jeremiah 19.  Thank You Jesus!

One may have logged onto the website to pray for outstanding prayer requests.  Thank You Jesus for answering each prayer request according to Your perfect will.  Amen.

As I fed her last night for the ten millionth time, I came across a forum post that said parents whose baby’s have hit a growth spurt should definitely check out this book called The Wonder Weeks. I knew about the physical growth spurts and I knew that was probably why she has been so fussy the past couple days, but I did not know that during certain weeks of their lives, babies experience huge mental leaps. These leaps are preceded by periods of abnormal fussiness and clinginess (which explained why I couldn’t put her down to run to the bathroom real quick without coming back to a red-faced, howling baby after just a few minutes). After a leap, the baby suddenly develops new skills. The problem is that while the baby is going through these mental changes, it’s just a little too much for her to cope with. She craves a constant – her mommy or daddy – while she undergoes these drastic changes.

At 12 weeks old the wonder week can last for one to seven days. We are on day four. Now I know that I can, and probably should, expect her to be fussy until Thursday. If she gets over it quicker, that’s awesome, but it’s best to expect the worst and hope for the best. Now I know that I basically need to just hold her and cuddle her and love her through this rough time. I also know to expect another one of these leaps when she’s around 15 weeks old. Evidently, that one can last a couple weeks, but I’ll know it’s coming and it will be easier to deal with it because I’ll be prepared.

Last week I was able to get things done around the house and the yard while she slept in the mornings. It felt awesome to finally be contributing to the household again. I felt the postpartum blues washing away. This week I haven’t been able to do anything. As soon as I set her down she starts crying. I began to feel like there was something wrong with me. Maybe I do have that postpartum depression. I felt like I couldn’t cope with the constant crying. I started to feel so overwhelmed that every little thing around the house stressed me out to no end. I saw cobwebs in the corners, dust on the ceiling fan, weeds cropping up around the mailbox, a bathtub that needed scrubbed, and the list goes on. The more I sat in the house, the more my stress level rose. One day as I sat on the couch feeding her, I watched a clump of dog fur swirl around the kitchen floor. The light streaming in from the window illuminated that one patch of the floor and the breeze hit it just right. Time seemed to slow down as I watched it go around and around, clumping and separating, sending little pieces of fur flying into the air to settle on the kitchen counter and cabinets. And there was nothing I could do about it at that moment. I had to sit there and feed her. Joe walked through the door a few minutes later and I felt as if I would have a nervous breakdown because the breeze from the door blew the clump out of my sight. I couldn’t clean if I couldn’t see it. What if it settled on the stovetop and I didn’t notice it until dinner had already been cooked? What if the individual hairs ended up in our food? I feared I had reached a whole new level of crazy.

It’s no wonder I mourned my vacuum. I thought that if I could just run that vacuum through my house, all of the world’s problems would be solved. The reality was that I felt out of control because Amelia felt out of control. Every morning I’d wake up with these grand plans: Today I will wash the dishes and do a load of laundry. I’ll even fold it and put it away. Maybe I’ll even hunt down my sewing kit and sew up the hole in the foot of Amelia’s pajamas. These probably do not seem like “grand plans” to anyone who does not have an infant. I realize this. But, now that I know that I can expect another fussy period around 15 weeks, I know not to make grand plans. I know that while she is going through her wonder weeks I will have to take things one minute at a time. If I get stuff done, great. If I don’t, it’s not the end of the world. There is a reason – a good reason. I am helping my child reach her mental and physical milestones. Comforting her and being there for her while she goes through the rough times is far more important than scheduling appointments or cleaning or doing yard work. I certainly won’t neglect those things, but I will prioritize and make sure that my child comes first.

Thank you, authors of The Wonder Weeks. And thank you, person who posted on that forum. I feel sane this morning. I feel ready to face the day.

Day #158 Milk Bottle 100objects (Photo credit: edtechie99)

cabbages (Photo credit: bgblogging)

Ten days after giving birth to our second son, my husband and I are bathing our three year old. A bottle of milk awaits him in his room. To lure him out of the bath my husband says “common B, the milk is waiting”. “Yes, I am ready” I catch my brain responding. The milk, if you catch the drift, is me. As I and the rest of my brain distantly observe this unexpected brain reaction, I am shocked to discover that some part of me assumed a new identity and perceives itself as food. And only ten days into this new gig! Check out that eager beaver! For god’s sake there’s a reason why probation period is 3 months, not to mention it took me exactly one year before I got used to My new job!

As one to always be concerned with social conventions, that got me thinking. What is the proper food behavioural etiquette? What’s the protocol, what does one do as food? It should be easy, after all, I was food once before, three years ago but two babies later I can’t remember. Do you just shut up and look tasty? I realized I am pretty clear on the don’ts but not so much on the do’s. Here is what I came up with. As food:

1. Thou shall not leave home without your master.

2. If thou leaves home without your master, thou should be consumed immediately before leaving home. And don’t leave for longer than a 1/2 an hour, since thy consumer is probably having a growth spurt, otherwise why are you being eaten every hour.

3.If thy consumer is 10 days old, thou shall not leave home. At all. Period.

4. Thou shall spend most of the time looking indecent and terrorized by the thought of the neighbourhood children dropping by to meet your consumer.

5. Thou shall form a unique connection with other foods, specifically cabbage leaves, and constantly be reminded of the sentence, is that a cabbage leaf in your bra or are you just happy to see me and hope that the neighbours who came to greet you earlier are not reminded of the same sentence.

Any other milks out there?

This sweet little pain in the butt baby girl had us up at 3:30 this morning. Really?! 3:30?!

I think maybe tiny hiney is going through a growth spurt. Normally, this kid is a sleeping machine. She would go to bed at eight-ish in the evening, and we would have to wake her up at six to get ready for daycare. Now, she’s in bed around seven thirty and wakes up anywhere between midnight and three-ish in the morning. It’s killing me after getting used to getting at least nine hours of uninterrupted sleep every night! I guess I’ve been spoiled. By my 16-week-old.

Please tell me this doesn’t last long!

Just like most of you I never really knew why some of the little babies I see in the super market or mall were wearing bright colorful helmets with their peach fuzz sticking out the top until now. They all have flat or misshapen heads too and to be honest with you it is becoming more and more common. Why you ask? Most Pediatricians and Orthotist’s relate this uprise in the need of cranial reshaping helmets to the new SIDS movement that recommends all babies sleep on their backs to try to avoid Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

So to understand all of this better I educated myself. I researched ways to avoid it, treat it and prevent it from getting worse. This is where tummy time comes into play and becomes incredibly important since 99% of your little ones day is spent laying on the back of their head. From birth to 1 year they compare a babies head to a water balloon. If you lay a water balloon on a table eventually the side it is laying on will spread out at the sides and go flat underneath. The same thing goes for your child’s head.

So why don’t all babies have flat heads? It kind of depends on the baby, in our case it wasn’t that he didn’t like tummy time because he didn’t mind it. Our situation was because he had an early growth spurt. Asa was born at 8lbs 2oz & 21 inches long. By 2 months old he was 10lbs 5oz and 25 inches long! So what does growing have to do with a flat head? When the body is growing the it needs lots of rest to recover just like when you work out you need rest for the muscles to recover, the same hoes when you’re growing. In Asa’s case he was sleeping from 9pm to 6:30am without waking up to eat at 1 month old and it was all because he was so tired from growing so quickly. Therefore because he was spending 9.5 hours a night flat on his back at such a young age when his head was still so soft it began to flatten out.

Which leads us to today, he is 4 months old, 16lbs 4 oz, 28 inches long and still sleeping through the night. Thankfully we brought up our concerns back at his 2 month appointment. We caught it early since they don’t start treatment until 4 months of age to give them time to build neck strength. While we waited for his first fitting we tried lots of things to prevent it from getting worse during the hours he was awake. Some of the suggested strategies we tried are the following:
1. Sitting him up in his Bumbo, high chair or exersaucer to keep him up right and off his head.

2. When we put him down for naps we put him in his swing or bouncer and alternated the sides he slept on to keep things evened out. (unfortunately he is a back sleeper and comes by it honestly since dad and I both are too so somehow he always ended up back on his back.)

3. When we put him in the car seat or crib we would put toys on one side so he would turn his head to look and play with them and then the next time we would alternate sides. We do this when he is on the play mat too by laying something that make noise on one side and then the other to make him turn to that side of his head.

In Asa’s case he was diagnosed with Brachycephaly which is one of 3 types of flat head syndrome or Hydrocephalus. Below are the 3 types for comparison in case you are concerned with your child:

Brachycephaly is called the “short head syndrome” because when the head should be the same width from side to side & from front to back instead it is wider from side to side causing bumps or bulges behind the ears as the back of the head pushes forward and makes the ears pop out off the sides of the head. The cranial reshaping helmet will fix this by applying gentle pressure to the sides and problem areas of his head in order to push the sides back in and the back of the head outward until the side to side and the front to back measurements are the same. It will be worn 23 hours a day until after the first 5 days which are the transition days to slowly ease him into it and in most cases worn for 3 to 4 months depending on how consistent they wear it and how early they get them into a helmet or treatment to fix it. The helmets are made from soft foam for the inside & hard plastic on the outside to ensure comfort. They are slowly broken into their helmet over a period of 5 days before in it the full recommended 23 hours a day. Day 1 one hour on one hour off and not to be worn during naps or night time, day 2 two hours on 1 hour off and to be worn during naps or night time, day 3 four hours on 1 hour off, day 4 eight hours on one hour off & day 5 twenty three hours. This is done in order to acclimate the baby as well as prevent any skin problems.

Once in the helmet full time we will have frequent fitting appointments to tighten in specific areas and track the progress. In order to know where they want the measurements to be after the helmet vs. where they are before they take a scan of the babies head to determine the measurements. Over the next 3 to 4 months in the helmet several scans will be taken to measure the progress.

In most cases it is harder on the parent then the child. They don’t even notice it is there after a while. The first 5 days are not easy for you or baby but eventually they will become accustom to wearing it and it will not even phase them. The best part is they will never remember having to wear it and they will have a perfect and beautiful head as the out come. So for those of you who were wondering if their baby would need a helmet I hope this helps either ease your mind or realize its time to take action!

How long must we wait for a body to grow into itself before taking control of its growth spurt?

None of us will really know what 70 will look like if we keep sewing strands of botox into skin to see how dead we can really become.

All I notice is their skinny. Their flat bellies and I compare it to my folded one. I want to notice the strength of her laugh and the way she can lift my imagination into something far more colorful just by looking at me. All I notice is the starvation in her teeth and the way her hair looks ready to run away from her scalp due to lack of iron and oil. I want to notice her brain smeared against me from all her questions and contemplations and yes, I did know koalas weren’t bears but when you told me, it felt new. All I notice is that thick red scar by her shoulder and the way she shakes when her voice moves to past tense. I want to notice her strength found in each blink and breath. All I notice is her bones, jutting out like bamboo. All I notice is her shirt untucked and wrinkled. All I notice is her tattoo misspelled and infected. All I notice is her missing tooth, the roots revealing her real hair color, the way in which her eye contact droops downward. All I notice is the ways in which I notice her.

Everything is shaved. Razors practice manners when getting too close to the delicate parts. Aren’t you curious how long it could get? Why are some places permitted to grow tangled, while others must be silenced beneath smooth? I search for stubble; impatience never allows it to arrive. I used to use a battery-operated razor, moved to plastic when I preferred blood to be lifted out of legs too. Never waxed or plucked or lazer’d. A lover hisses at the stain of smell left on her sleeve. She questions the intent of my deodorant. I tell her I forget sometimes. My fear of cancer overrides the waft of fake flowers beneath my sweat.

You want to pull on this, I ask.
You want to suck out the juice of my day, I taunt.

Smooth is meant for sidewalks and orange juice and butter when it melts against charred bread. This body of mine is hairy and I am looking for a lover who has a fondness for itch and wool.

Bodies are being purchased in more ways than one. Envy is an instrument we use like a hammer to chisel ourselves into something better.

STOP……maybe we are all OK just like this…..

But I’ve got lots of this to do:

and the only sleep that tinyperson has gotten is like this:

and as you may imagine, this kind of sleep only lasts for about 10 minutes (as it is not that comfortable).

So, please let tinyperson sleep for more than 10 minutes today, or else I’ll refuse any further growth spurts and it will be your fault that I have a 24 inch 18 year old.