First Hair Cut--Before

My boy got his first haircut.  And I cried.  I didn’t understand crying over a haircut.  Its just hair.  And then I got HIS hair cut.  In a matter of minutes, he went from my baby to a BOY.   I had her leave most of his hair on top–I have spent too many hours pushing that back as he nurses; I’m not ready for it to be cut.  I got it cut at the barber shop on base.  She wanted him to set by himself  in the chair!  HAHA.  He did really well.  I had to hold his head still a couple times.   They gave him his first sucker–orange–and he LOVED that.

First Hair Cut--After

Jim’s parents were visiting earlier in the month.  We spent one week here and then went over to the Big Island for a week.  We had such a wonderful time both weeks.  I did a trip report, posted photos and the link to the rest of the photos on our family blog, if you want to check it out.

If you’re the praying type, I’d appreciate your prayers.  This deployment is doing a number on me.  Mostly I’m doing okay with it mentally but I’m WAY tired and quickly approaching burn out.  And, mentally, I have my moments.  Jim’s leave getting pushed back six weeks was really my tipping point.  On the plus side, we’re half-way done!!!

I’m not sure I’ve talked about it here but we’ve had “issues” with Ben and eating.  He has been taking solids for months now but wouldn’t swallow anything.  I met with the hospital’s feeding team about a month ago.  They strongly suspect, based esp. on the history of all the horrible troubles we had with latching, that its simply a matter of training the mouth and tongue muscles on how to swallow.  With latching, I’d finally get him on well and then, the next nursing session, it would be like he’d completely forgotten how to do it.  So they instructed me to do a positive reinforcement food (they got him to swallow chocolate pudding, so chocolate pudding it is!) every day to help with the training, in addition to continue offering a variety of other food.  Its working!!  He will generally swallow most any foods, asssuming he’s hungry and the food is in really small pieces.  He loves foods with strong flavors–lime yogurt, pepperoni, taco meat, chili, etc.  He doesn’t do well with drinking yet.  He is better with an open-faced cup than a sippy or straw cup.  But, like nursing, its like he forgets how to do it.  After several attempts, he’ll swallow but then has to start again the next time.  But we’re working on it.  I don’t mind if he skips a traditional sippy but it’d be awafully handy if I could get him to take a straw cup at least, especially considering his delight in dumping cups!!

One year ago right at this time, I was desperately wishing that, on the way to the hospital, I hadn’t told Jim that I didn’t like the way 26 looks so I hoped Ben would hold out and not come until after midnight.  LOL  Hours in to total back labor and I was hurting something fierce.  If anything would possibly disuade me from birthing another child, its the thought of another 24+ hours of total back labor.  But, in the end, I’m a mother and I’d do every second of that pain again in order to have my son.

So, we’re back from Indiana.  And we’re pretty well adjusted back to life here.  I feel like we’re in a good spot right now.  I’m not hearing from Jim much (he calls about every 10 days, we IM every few days) still and we’d love to hear more.  But life is good right now.  If I could get a handle on keeping my house fairly straightened, I’d say life is really good.  I’m by no means a perfectionist in the housekeeping department (as anyone who has ever been in one of our places knows!!) but, man, it just never ends!!

And, with that, I hear both of my kids awake.  So I shall cut this short, go put them back to bed and head there myself.  More tomorrow, I promise.

Trying to choose a border for Elizabeth’s bedroom.  You can see her bedspread & the cork board I already ordered for her here:

Bedroom Pictures

The two borders I’m debating between:

Border #1

Border #2

I love the more vintage look of #2 but I’m thinking the shades in #1 would better match her bedspread.

I think I’ve pretty much decided on this one for Ben’s room.

(Links fixed!)

We’re so glad you’re here.

Benjamin James
January 27, 2008 at 9:47am
19 1/4″ long and 7lb 9oz

Welcoming Ben–the story of his birth
A few pictures

Contractions are around five minutes apart and have been for over an hour. They started getting regular about 4 hours ago. I need to pack a couple things and then we’ll be heading to the hospital!!

I’d appreciate prayers for:
E’s night tonight–It’ll be our first apart all night. The in-laws are here and I know they’ll be attentive to her at night. Still, I worry.
A safe delivery–I’m going for a VBAC which, I know, is safer than a repeat C/S. But after E’s delivery, I worry.
For me to handle labor well–I’m doing well so far but who knows how much longer I can handle this. 90% of the pain is back labor.
And a quick labor & delivery!!