getting serious

Today is the start of a new plan. As you know, I've been trying to figure Roman out sleep wise. :) As you also my know (if you know me well enough), i have a difficult time, how do you say, following through? being consistent?. So pray I will be just that, consistent, for Romans sake.

I've been reading a book called "the no cry sleep solution" and came up with a game plan for Romans napping. My main concern with his napping is that he's only been napping for 1/2's at a time, and I don't think he's getting well rested. I rock him to sleep, which i totally don't mind doing at all, however, the second i put him in his crib he's instantly awake. SO! Here's what we're trying. For the next week to 10 days I'm going rock him to sleep the INSTANT i see signs of drowsiness. When he seems to be in a deeper state of sleep (after maybe 15 mins or so) i will put him in his crib and pat his cute little but to keep him from waking. When it's safe to stop doing that I'll leave the room and do whatever for a little while, checking on him often. The moment he starts stirring or seems to be waking up, BOOM. I'll pick him up and start rocking him again. The goal is to never let him fully come out of his sleep. When he's back into a deep sleep, down he goes in his crib again. etc, etc...

According to this book, this should help him stay asleep on his own after a while. And as you can see, it's kind of a big undertaking for me. :) I will be needing to focus a lot of my attention on Roman for the next week or so. I talked to Jeff, and he's okay with it. I warned him that this is going to require a lot of my attention, but if we are to do this whole sleeping thing without the crying (which I'm very much against for us after doing lots of reading on it), it's going to require a longer, more detailed approach. If you could keep this in your prayers, i would greatly appreciate it! Pray (specifically) that I would keep my stamina for this process and that roman would be responsive in a good way. Also pray for Jeff and I, that I wouldn't get too wrapped up in this process and forget my duties to him as a wife. Like i said, it may only take a few days, but it could also take 10 or more.

So far, as of his first nap this morning, Roman has been sleeping for 2 hours, and I've had to intervene 3 times for 15 minutes each. So, already he's sleeping longer. I'll let you know how the rest of the week goes. :)

Wives, be submissive to your husband....

I've been reading colossians lately, but have been really sidetracked to read 1st Peter, specifically chapter 3.

"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your own husband that, if any of them do not believe the word, they my be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, (2) when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. (3) Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. (4) Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. (5)For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, (6) like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. Your are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear."

The last week or so, I have been really challenged by the Lord in regards to being submissive to MY husband. When I asked Jeff if he thought I was doing a good job, he said yes. I knew different. Between reading Nancy Wilson's "The Fruit of Her Hands" (which i think EVERY married or engaged woman should read!!!!), and watching a video online (which i will post the link at the end) by Mark Driscoll on marriage and women, I've come to realize there are some big areas of my life i need to change. I'm tempted to re-read 'The Fruit of Her Hands' and this time write everything that comes to mind down.

Lately, though, I've been convicted specifically about what submission looks like. I am Jeff's helper. My job is to help him with things. If he needs my advice or opinion, I give it and leave the ultimate decision up to him. The curses that Eve received as a result of eating the fruit is 1. childbearing will be painful (this i knew) and 2. women will want to dominate over the men. They will have a really difficult time submitting to the head of the household. (this i did NOT know! but it makes perfect sense). Learning this has been a great joy. It's removed a heavy burden off of my shoulders. Together we watched the 'marriage and men' video by Mark Driscoll and it was amazing! It really helped me realize what God calls married men to do for the home, wife, children. Again, burden gone. Praise our God!! I cannot stress enough how much i think married couples should watch these videos!

I've also been learning that my duties as a homemaker bring pleasure to God; as long as I do them with a cheerful heart/mind/attitude, etc... So, today, i was 'joyfully' dusting the blinds.....as joyful as you can get while doing that. Pretty sure the whole time i was saying 'Lord, please fill my heart with joy...' over and over and over. :) But seriously, working hard in the home not only brings happiness to my God, but also to my husband. And i want to please both.

I'm learning to focus on God more than myself or Jeff or Roman. Now, you may say, well duh!, but this is actually a difficult thing to do. Keeping God the focus of my day is quite hard when Roman doesn't nap well, i have a dirty home to clean, dinner to figure out, run here and there.... it's easy to get caught up in the day. But I'm going to take things slower from now on, and just learn who and how and what God wants me to be and act and do. I'm really pumped!

There is SO much more that I've learned, but my brain is going a bazillion miles a minute i cant get my thoughts in order. If you'd like to chat w/ me more about it though, let me know! I'd LOVE to! :)

Here's that link: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-women
and here's the one about men and marriage: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-men

SO GOOD! WATCH THEM BOTH!!!

oh grandma!

I've decided i have the greatest family in the world. They are hilarious! Tonight was even more confirmation of that very fact.

My grandma sarah turned the big 7-0 on easter. We had a family gathering at my aunts house in ankeny last sunday to celebrate easter as well as her bday. My aunt anne has 3 kids, my aunt kas has 3 kids, my mom has 4 kids and i have 1 kid....there were a lot of kids there. So all in all, i think the total was brought to about 20 that were there. well, tonight my grandpa irv took all of us that were there last sunday out to Fuji! It was delicious! :) thanks gramps!!

While waiting for our hibachi table, roman and i walk over to where my grandma, mom and aunts are standing (by the bar) to chat. My grandma (who never drinks alcohol) had a rum and coke in her hand...oooh, about 1/2 gone. it was her first of the evening. My mom has roman and i'm just standing next to my grandma and she proceeds to tell me (completely out of the blue) that my "bosom's are quite large since having roman!" WHAT!!!!! oh man. i didnt say anything. In fact, i tried to pretend she didn't say anything either, but my mom felt the need to jump in and say (kind of loud) 'she's lactating!' or something to that affect....thanks mom. :)

We're sitting, now, at our table enjoying the food that was prepared in front of us. My dear grandma is now on her 2nd rum and coke. I believe the last time she 'drank too much' was when she was 21...

Her 2nd glass wasn't even 1/2 gone when she ordered a third and then said, "oh man, i'm going to get loaded tonight!!!" hahahahahahahahaha! are you kidding me?! my grandma said this. i laughed soooo much! now, while i may have had 1 too many ONE TIME in my life, and definitely do not condone this type of behavior, this situation was absolutely hilarious to me. I have never seen, nor heard, my grandma talk or act like this! dang, it was funny. i love you grandma!

well, here are some photos of Rome.

i'm kind of a big deal...

his chubby little legs stuck straight out in his bumbo!

my little stud

dad and rome reading 'b is for bear'...one of his favorites!

roman 'reading' his photo book. he loves this thing!

it's bib eatin' time!

this is what he does with everything now! i love it!

out for a stroll w/ meme!

alright, so i love having the privilege of staying home and being a housewife and mother. i seriously cannot ask for more...well...i can, but i wont. :)

Jeff is almost done with classes! woot woot! he has a pretty bad case of senioritis. if you know how jeff usually is with his studies, this is quite comical. but i dont necessarily think it's all senioritis. this happens, or has happened every spring semester that i can remember. He's got a month or so left of class and all of a sudden he's skipping a class here, not doing the homework for a class there, and not really studying much..or, trying to study. it's hilarious! i absolutely love it cause i am like that all the time! He's pretty pumped to be done with school. and so are roman and i! there is a great opportunity for an internship too! it involves him kind of co-owning a personal training studio with his current boss. there are far more details than i would like to cover in this blog, so if you want to know them, just call him :). I hope he will soon be able to breath easier. The weather is awesome, it's almost summer (well, sort of) and in the fall jeff only has that internship to finish then he's DONE FOREVER!!! So amazing.

Roman is huge (as if no one knew). But seriously, huge. since his 4 month appointment 2 WEEKS AGO, i'm pretty sure he's gained 2 pounds....or at least 1. we're going to need to bump him up to his 'big kid' carseat prolly this month. He's so much fun too. he's talking so much now, and really interacts with you. seeing as how the weather is awesome pretty much the rest of the week, the 3 of us are going to go on a walk tomorrow, and then Rome and I will go on one the rest of the days w/o daddy (cause dad is a hard worker...thanks dad!!). I also think i've figured out a temporary solution to Roman's sleeping...just hold him. haha! But really, if I hold him for a while before i attempt to put him down...totally sleeps for another hour in his crib. and as far as bedtimes go...i had the brilliant idea of taking him, duh, upstairs where we all sleep and lay with him until he falls alseep! it really doesnt take long at all, and the best part? no crying. Except when he woke up last night around 10pm (went to sleep at 8) hungary. now, jeff and i did not expect him to be hungary because he had already had dinner just a couple hours prior. oh my goodness. saddest crying ever. So, i tried feeding him, but just pumped, so i was a little dry i guess. I made jeff run, yes run, downstairs to get the milk i just pumped...about 3 oz. he chugged it, and was still hungary. so jeff ran downstairs again, and defrosted another 3 oz. this time i looked at the clock to see how fast he would down it. yep, 2 minutes. and then it's like he never woke up. he instantly fell back asleep. i was, and still am, baffled! i really do think his teeth are bugging him. He hasn't been sleeping well lately at all...but then again, he did poop this morning! :) makes a momma proud.

this will be a short post, i'm done thinking for the day!

oh yeah...orange crush soda has 83 grams of sugar in a 20 oz. wish i would have known that before i drank it.

a video uploading fool!

we think he may be teething....

never again...

so, in light of roman's cat napping lately, i've been doing a lot of reading, and even called his doctor for some thoughts. his nurse called me back and i explained what a 'typical' day would be like, and she said to try the following, and to be consistant: do whatever it is you do before bed, ie. nursing, reading, etc. and put him to bed drowsy, but awake. (i already knew and have been doing this). If he starts to cry, let him for no longer than 10 minutes (we would let him fuss, but not very long and once he got really upset, we'd go in and soothe him, but we wouldn't pick him up out of his crib). ugh....do i REALLY need to try this?!?!! after 10 minutes if he's kind of just whining, let him go a little longer and see what happens. But if he's totally screaming, obviously, pick him up and calm him down, however long that takes, and once he's calm, lay him back down again. I guess the goal is to have him wear himself out. I was against this from the start, and the results only prove my point, but i thought i'd give it a shot anyway.

Needless to say, I will NEVER do that again. never. never. never.

I put roman down, and instantly he started crying. So, i went out to my car, (jeff was in the house w/ him) and called my friend, talked to her for 10 minutes and when i came back in....whoa. Roman was SO hysterical. He was sobbing, practically inconsolable. it was the absolute saddest thing i have ever heard in my life. and i'm sure it did nothing for roman except make him wonder why no one was coming to his aid. I would rather stick with what we have been doing, than hear him cry like that ever again. it was past the 'i'm really tired' cry and on to almost a scared cry. i'm mad at myself for not coming in the house sooner to soothe him. but i've learned a valuable lesson, and now i know (even more so) why i was opposed to this method from the beginning.

I need to find more time to blog. it seems like every time i get to it, i have a million things to get off my brain!

for starters, roman is a stinker! :) he thinks it is totally fine to sleep horribly sporadically and for 20 minutes at a time. 40 if i'm lucky. i've done a lot of reading on why this could be happening; a calcium deficiency (hmm), that's just the way he is, yadda yadda. But what i think it really comes down to is i'm not consistent with anything. woops. i have trouble keeping a routine for myself, let alone someone elses. i thought it wouldn't be very hard, but it's proving to be a little on the tricky side. in a word, discipline. yikes. So, starting tomorrow i'm going to write down a new routine for us, and i'm going to stick to it, no matter how much it takes. at least until we get it down. what i want to accomplish more than anything is for Roman to be able to put himself to sleep and STAY asleep for at LEAST an hour. say a little prayer that he transitions easy enough.

on another note. I feel like God is really challenging me. i'm reading a great book called 'the fruit of her hands' by nancy wilson. A friend is loaning it to me, and i'm learning so much! The jist of it is about what it looks like to be a Godly wife, mother, and woman. oh! so good! i highly recommend it to any woman! Right now i'm reading about what it looks like to respect my husband the way God has commanded. It's a real challenge because it's forcing me to think w/ logic, which i rarely do, rather than w/ my emotions, which i always do. good stuff! i feel like i'm growing a lot.

okay, so i cannot remember any of the other 'million' things i was going to blog about, cause it's been a few hours since i started this...had to run to the grocery store. WHICH by the way, why in the WORLD is fareway sooooo busy at all times during the day. seriously! there is never a slow time there. so stressful! anywho! see ya!

this ones for you, erika