7 Quick Takes Friday - #6

When I have time, I sure do enjoy doing the "7 Quick Takes" posts, so I can share things on my mind, or in my life (like, check out my little rolling man over here to the right ---->). And I like hearing from you, so please, comment if you have the urge. :) Don't forget to pop over to Jen's blog if you're interested in reading others' "quick takes".

1. First, I've been a cleaning/sorting fool this week. Maybe it has something to do with sleeping all night long for more than a week, but I've had a lot of energy for organizing, editing, and pitching unnecessary stuff from our home, and it's been nice. We took 8 or 10 bags of clothes to a home where needy Central Asians will be able to take what they can use, and I got rid of a lot of clutter in our home as well (extra dining room seat cushions, unnecessary toys, ballcaps, books, magazines, and a whole lot of trash). I sorted through some of the kids' clothes we have stashed away and kept only what we'll really potentially want to use again. Having moved five times in less than five years overseas, we had quite a bit of accumulation. It feels good to tackle some of it and pare it down.
   
   
2. I realized this week that I really like decorating with words around the home. Here are a few examples:
   (made this one last year)
   
   (brought this one with us overseas)
   That last one is one I've just cut and pinned (definitely not complete... I'm thinking of adding two little feet to one side); it's from Proverbs. I hope to sew it together soon... ya know, "when I find the time". I've lived this way for several years and am once again aware of how much I love to have inspiring words, visible in our home.
   
   
3. A few things converged this week and made me think more about nighttime sleep with an infant.
   
   It seems like it can be easy to look at parenting or nighttime sleep issues philosophically when you still have the option of "sleeping every time the baby sleeps", or being at home in your pajamas all day without anyone little looking up to you as their example or educator, or when your kids are maybe spaced every 3-4 years or more. But those who are homeschooling older kids, or those who have several little ones in a row often need to think a lot more practically and realistically, and it becomes much more necessary to do like the stewardess says, and "put your own oxygen mask on first, before helping the people around you". In those situations, it can be essential to thoughtfully evaluate and meet your own needs in order that you might better care for the people entrusted to your care.
   
   Or else you can end up burned out, spent, and utterly exhausted. (Amy wrote about this recently.) Motherhood on its own (with sleep!) is tiring enough, and at the same time has been one of God's best tools for sanctification in my own life. To take responsibility for loving and meeting the needs of our kids... to love them and serve them... but in order to "love others as we love ourselves", there's an underlying assumption that we "love ourselves"... we need to take care of the body God has given to each of us.
   
   
Please hear that I am not quibbling about whether or not to meet a baby's needs, but rather, that we need to think more carefully about what constitutes a "need". For my part, I'm a firm believer in regular, nighttime rest for everyone in the family (I think this is a "need"... for all of our health and particularly for mom's sanity), and so we strive for it as soon as it can be had without crying-it-out.

And if you're a young mom who has been made to feel that being intentional about pursuing nighttime sleep is somehow negative or impossible or wrong, I just want to encourage you that it is possible to do so gently, lovingly, and fruitfully, most of the time. And that there's nothing wrong with desiring that and working towards it. Hang in there and reach up for your oxygen mask.


4. We went to Chili's for our 10-year anniversary a couple weeks ago. :)Yes, Chili's. You see, we live overseas. Never in a million years would we go to Chili's for our 10-year anniversary if we lived in the States, but when you live abroad, strange things happen to you. Our tastebuds were up in arms, and demanded some delicious tortilla chips, salsa, honey chipotle tenders, and more. So we gave into our tastebuds, even if it doesn't sound like a very glamorous date. :)My husband spoiled me rotten- I'll spare you all the details, but he really went above and beyond and surprised me several times over. I love him so much. And we really enjoyed the chips and salsa, pared with a chance to do our anniversary examination tradition.
   
   
5. Crocheted a new hat for Moses. It looks pretty cute on him, wouldn't you say? :)




6. And I made an apron for Maranatha... it matches mine, but has a different edging detail so we can easily tell them apart. She was quite excited.
   


7. And I re-used some old jeans and a dress with missing buttons, and turned them into bibs and baby shoes:
   
   
   
I guess I've felt a bit crafty lately.

So that's my 7 Quick Takes for the week. Comments or thoughts to share?

Chronicling Babywise - Weeks 8 through (what are we up to now?) 14

Wow, I haven't blogged in a while, and I haven't written about Babywise with Moses in an even longer amount of time. Here's how our last couple months have gone.

Interruptions, Inconsistency, and the Return of the Growth Spurt
Basically, just about the time Moses would start to sleep 7-8 hours at night, something would happen to throw him off of it (the Call to Prayer & beating drums for Ramadan at 4am, vacation, and --most recently-- the three-month growth spurt). Each of those times, he would JUST hit the 7 or 8 hour mark at night between feedings and then the noises would wake him consistently, or the vacation lifestyle would make his feedings less than consistent, or the three month growth spurt made him more hungry and need to feed more often... and we'd be back to going 5-6 hours at night, with one nighttime feeding.

But now, we're there...
ANYWAY, this week, we finally have hit 7-8 hours at night consistently, and it is a breath of fresh air. He is by FAR the oldest child of mine to consistently sleep through the night, but really, when I read about those who are still regularly getting up with much, much older kids, I guess three months ain't so bad. :)


And as I've said before, it's all been with cheerfulness and contentment... no crying it out, no unmet needs. Joyful sleep for everyone, that's my motto! :)

So that's the basic update.

What I Learned
What I've learned this time around, with Moses, is twofold:
(1) that evaluation is KEY! When Moses was waking up every night at 4am, I kept thinking "what is WRONG?" Duh. It took me a couple weeks to figure out it was the every-morning-at-4am Call to Prayer (we live in Turkey). But something in my brain didn't connect the two until that time of evaluating what was happening. Maybe it's the post-pregnancy brain fog, LOL.

Then, when we got back from vacation, I thought "OK, NOW it's going to come together and he'll be sleeping through the night within a couple days now that I can be consistent again", but it DIDN'T happen! That pushed me again towards evaluation. I realized -- "OH, we're just now at the 3-month mark-- time for another growth spurt!" (Click here to read about nursing & growth spurts.) Instead of giving in to thinking, "this doesn't work" and letting it all go downhill, or throwing it out and thinking, "this won't work for him, I guess", I was able to intentionally push through that time and keep it steady each day, knowing that once the growth spurt was finished, we'd likely "get there." And that's the second thing I learned--

(2) that it's worth it to press on. For the first time, I felt a very small niggling of what some friends have communicated- "what if this doesn't work?" (because our four other children slept through the night at 5 & 1/2 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks, and I think 8 or 10 weeks)... but because we kept pressing on, evaluating what was happening, and being careful to get Moses the food he needs regularly during the day, he's still, despite inconsistency on my part and unavoidable environmental interruptions, sleeping through the night contentedly by 14 weeks. Not too bad.

And even with that, I was only getting up one time at night to feed, which, again, isn't too bad for a new little guy.

All that to say, it's been a slightly different experience for me, in a large part due to weird interruptions and the way life has gone these last few weeks. But I wouldn't change a thing. Even with it taking a little longer for him to go all night long, waking up one time wasn't so bad... he is so precious and pleasant, and ultimately, consistency and knowing what to expect is good for all of us. Life is not a scheduled experience for every human being, but even people in the remotest tribes have routines, and Babywise helps our family achieve a familiar, comforting routine, with consistent sleep for everyone.

Here's a recent picture... the absolutely genuine smiles on the kiddos' faces are due to the fact that my husband set the timer and then hurdled a side table and some floor pillows to get to the couch on time. :)
This is the last time I intend to write about our experience Babywise this go-round, unless something changes or happens worth writing about. I hope these (mostly) weekly write-ups have been helpful for any and everyone-- whether you're considering using Babywise for your baby, using it now and needing encouragement, or have always heard bad things about it and maybe can see now that it's not a rigid horrible system as some people describe it. Whatever the case, I've written these things out for encouragement and information, and I'm happy to dialogue via e-mail or in the comments box! Many blessings to you and your family!


[Here are links to this whole Babywise series: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Weeks 6 & 7, Weeks 8-14]