Rock-A-Bye Baby

When I was pregnant with Sam, I asked Steve if he'd build me a cradle.

He said that if I gathered all the supplies, he'd build it. He thought that'd be the end of that. Oh ye of little faith . . .

Many frustrating months, a few tears and another baby later, the cradle is finally finished. And yay!! Leah still fits!

We figure she's so small that we can still get a good month or two of use out of it.

I love the little key that fits in the side to keep it from swinging. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Sam doesn't make off with it and banish it forever to the black hole of my house.

It took a lot more time than either of us anticipated, but Steve did a great job! Leah thinks so, too.

Battle of the Button Pushers

The Ocean Wonders Aquarium is my favorite baby toy. We lay Leah down in bed and turn it on. She immediately rolls over to see the soft, soothing lights and bubbles. And then she goes to SLEEP.

It also comes with a remote control button. It's a good idea to keep it in your nightstand drawer or another convenient-from-bed location. So if you're ever lying in bed, and the baby (who still sleeps in your room) rolls and kicks the button on the toy and turns on the soft, soothing music and lights, you can push your remote button without ever having to get out of bed. If she happens to do this ALL NIGHT LONG, you can continue to sleep with the remote in your hand playing Battle of the Button Pushers every few minutes ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

Also, when you drag your tired body out of bed in the morning, try to remember that there is an off switch on the back of the toy so that you can kick yourself . . .

. . . as you yawn ALL DAY LONG.

It's a good thing she's cute.

For my birthday, which is today, we were going to go see a movie tonight (a rare occurrence), but not after the night I just had. I'd never be able to stay awake.

Anna Is a Champ

Anna is my hero.

The other night, she was holding the baby when Leah started to vomit. I'm not talking about a little spit-up. I'm talking about what seemed like a gallon. It was probably only about half a bottle's worth, but when it's spewing out all over the place, it sure seems like a lot more.

Anna was an absolute champ. She didn't even flinch, just kept calmly holding the baby and soothing her while she puked over and over again all over Anna's entire front. She's 15 years old and handled it better than most adults would! Leah agrees; she layed her head back down without crying a bit and went right back to sleep as soon as the puking stopped.

Nursing and Hypothyroidism

I've always loved nursing my babies. It's free, it's easily portable, it doesn't require refrigeration, it forces you to sit down and rest a few times a day, it promotes excellent bonding time, it's something only I can do, etc. And the baby always looks so sweet and happy while she's nursing.

I never had any trouble nursing until Sam. He was doing fine, and then sometime between 2 and 4 months, he quit thriving. The poor little guy was a skeleton, but since all of my babies have been on the small side, and I was so used to the way he looked, I didn't realize how horribly skinny he was.

He was my 5th baby, and I'd never had any trouble nursing before. So even though he was a fussy, difficult baby who always wanted to nurse, it never occurred to me that he might not be getting enough to eat. My mom and Liz even teamed up and called together to stage a sort of intervention. They both told me over and over that he looked sickly, and it made me so mad. I insisted that he was just skinny like Anna was.

Poor Skinny Sam

When I took him to the doctor a week later for his 4 month checkup, I found out he only weighed 10 pounds and had fallen quite a ways below the growth chart. I started supplementing him, and he immediately turned into a completely different baby - happy and thriving. Apparently, when your thyroid is messed up, your body might not produce enough milk. Good to know! It broke my heart to realize that I'd been starving him. I felt terrible, especially when I looked back at pictures and could see how skinny he was.

Look at his ribs! How could I have possibly missed that?!

Needless to say, we've been watching Leah closely. She's just over 3 months old now. She's small, but all my kids have been, and she hasn't seemed overly hungry. I've been drinking plenty of water and taking breastfeeding supplements. So far, so good, right?

But for the past couple of days, she's been really fussy, so I took her to the doctor just to be sure. It turns out that she's starting to fall on the growth chart. For the past month, she's only been gaining about 1/4 pound per week (half what she should). I was hoping that by testing it every few weeks, we could keep my thyroid in check, and I could nurse my last baby for more than a few months. It makes me sad, but a happy healthy baby is much more important. We're going to nip this in the bud and see if we can catch her up to this chubbo. And I refuse to be sad about it! Sniff.

Leah's Blessing

We had an awesome day on Sunday. It was Leah's blessing day, and we were so happy to be able to bless her in California with most of our family there. She's the last grandbaby on Steve's side of the family and named for his mom, so it was especially nice that she could be there.

I love her beautiful dress.

I love that Steve sincerely enjoyed ironing her beautiful dress.

It warmed my heart to see him take pleasure in such a sweet and simple thing for his last daughter. With our oldest child already 15, we've learned to try to appreciate and savor the quick, tender moments. That's not always easy to do, especially at 3 a.m., but at least we try.

Steve gave her a very sweet blessing that I had to concentrate hard to hear because Leah cried the whole time. Nana (Martha) took the blessing down in shorthand that she learned way back in the olden days. In the circle were Daddy Steve, Grandpa Steve, Uncle Steve, Dave, Brad, Scott, Chris, and Erin Butler. Later, Steve (Daddy Steve) and Brad were laughing about how high they were bouncing her to try and soothe her. They had her lifted up to almost head level, 5-6 feet above the floor, and her feet were higher than her head. Of course, no one else could see that because she was inside the circle they made around her. Steve wanted to pause in the blessing to direct them to bring her down a little, especially the feet end. That must have been a powerful distraction for him, but he soldiered through without a hitch.

We had all the family over to my mom's house afterwards for dinner and were able to get some beautiful pictures of Leah with her cousin, Will, in their blessing outfits.

Sam calls them Weah and Weahll.

The best part is that the whole family from both sides was in the same place at the same time, so we didn't have to run ourselves ragged trying to see everyone. It was my favorite day of this whole Christmas season!