My goodness! I can't believe it's here already!! Our little girl is 3 months old and growing like a weed! We are absolutely enjoying every moment as her personality shows itself more and more each day. Her smiles and the occasional laugh (yeah! she hit that this past month!!) make playing really that... playing (instead of making fools of ourselves goofing around and getting not a ton of response other than a furrowed brow). She's starting to really see things around her and is curious to all that is going on. We've been trying to hold off on purchasing a ton until garage sale season because we know we can get a ton more for our money, but we've had to go ahead and pick up a few things. One was a bumbo, which has been so much fun for her and I!! She's been pretty good at using her head for a bit now but not so much on her core strength so the bumbo has really allowed her to hang out while I do whatever needs doing but still look around. 
She's also staring to show signs of wanting to roll over back to front; not sure if it's close to happening or not, but she's been getting her hips and shoulder blade off the floor in the effort. She was notorious for moving around her crib when she was to be sleeping - so m
uch so we'd find her with her face smashed into the bars, sound asleep... a complete 180 from where we laid her down!! It was quite comical! But we had to get her to stop going that far because she was waking up in understandable discomfort, so we thought about getting one of those wedges but yes, we are cheap and didn't want to spend the money. So I got creative one day and used a couple of hand weights we had laying around and a towel and created one! All I did was take the towel and folded it in half hotdog style, then at one end put a weight and rolled it up a few times, then repeated that at the other end -
leaving a space just large enough for her to lay in. So far it's worked great!! I did put a couple of stitches around the weights so she can't push them to where they come undone.
Anyway, She's still sleeping really well at night and is doing pretty well at getting herself back so sleep when it calls for it. We feel like doing a modified Baby Wise has really helped get her there. The core of what we've done has been just getting her into a routine. Regular intervals of feeding through the day, waking her if needed even, and a steady and predictable routine to go to sleep. We made ours simple and quick because we knew we'd like to have more kids and knew we couldn't be spending a ton of time putting a kiddo down when there were others to worry about. It didn't make sense to be spending hours just getting the kids to sleep each night!! So ours just is to go in, get her into her sleep sack and rock her for a few minutes. We sing Jesus Loves Me to her while we rock and usually by the end of the song (we sing a few verses) she's droopy eyed and ready for bed! We lay her down awake but drowsy and
she's usually good to go! Asleep within 10 minutes or less.
Every night, singing that song with my baby girl in my arms has been so much more than just putting my child to sleep. I didn't expect that. Well, I expected it to be a bonding time and special, but not the change it would invoke in me. Long story short, I haven't had the highest view of myself for a long time now, always seeing flaws. Oh sure, I've been more comfortable with myself as time as gone on, but Satan has certainly used it as a foothold in my life. He's stepped it up especially after the birth, you know, stretch marks and all that jazz. I've fought it, logically knowing that my body was how it is supposed to be after giving birth, but my heart wasn't really affected. A couple of nights ago, I was singing to Liz and the words of a song that I have sung since I was a young child finally started to sink in...
Jesus loves me, this I know
for the Bible tells me so
little ones to him belong
they are weak but He is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me!, Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
the bible tells me so!
Jesus love me this I know
As
He loved so long ago
taking children on His knee
saying "let them come to me"
Yes, Jesus loves me!, Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
the bible tells me so!
Jesus love me still today
walking with me on my way
wanting as a friend to give
life and love to all who live
Yes, Jesus loves me!, Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
the bible tells me so!
I finally am starting to see myself through His eyes - a creation of God, molded and formed with great thought and love, beautiful, in whom He used to bring into this family another creation, beautifully molded and formed with great thought and love and that the resulting marks and shape of my body are just the evidence
of that miracle - the fingerprints of the Master Creator. A God who is so much bigger than I can ever fathom but yet so personal and close with His creation. Not only does this begin to heal the self-inflicted scars on my heart, it also reminds me of our responsibility and wonderful gift we have been given... to impart what we've learned to Liz, and any other kiddos we have. My prayer is that she can learn from mommy, not only the basics of life but how to love herself and see herself through His eyes, not letting anyone or anything tell her otherwise. May I be transparent to her so that we both can grow, knowing and living
in the love and peace of our Saviour.
We have made that promise, to ourselves, to our daughter, to our God, and to our Church, to raise her as best we can with the guidance of God in Him. (the picture is from the dedication service at our church, Traders Point Christian Church on Sunday February 28, 2010. Both our parents attended)
