My Beautiful Boy!

So, last week I got Justice’s 6 month (or more accurately 6 1/2 month) photos taken by my dear friend Jacki Balfour – the same friend who gave me all the great sleeping advice from my earlier post.    She did a fabulous job and there were tons of great shots.  Here are just a few for you to enjoy!

Surprise Date Night!

On Saturday, Joe surprised me by planning a date night for just the two of us!  He planned for my mom & sister to babysit Justice and then bought me these goodies…

He got me a new mug, because he lost mine – haha – and then he filled it with milk to go with my chocolate covered almonds, which we then smuggled into the theatre where we watched a matinee of ”Prince Caspian”.  After that, we went out for supper to a restaurant called Joey’s Grill & Lounge, which we previously knew as Joey Tomato’s in Calgary.  There’s one particular meal I just LOVE at this restaurant and we weren’t sure if it was the same restaurant or not, but it was – yay!  I should’ve taken a picture of my meal, but basically, I always get the Club Med which is a fabulous chicken burger with a garlic aeoli sauce, accompanied by a big bowl of skinny fries.  What makes it really great though is that I always ask for a side dish of the garlic aeoli sauce and I dip my fries in it – soooooo good!  Here are some pictures of me and my hunny – I love this guy!!

Turning Over A New Leaf!

For several months now, Justice’s schedule has been to eat approximately every 3 hours and he’d have 4 naps during the day, going to bed usually around 9:30 or 10 pm, with his last feeding of the day being around 9 pm.  This suited us well enough, as we go to bed around 10, and he’d usually only eat again at 2 am and then 6 am, and then he’d sleep again until 8 or 9 am.  But then things went south and he started wanting to eat at 12 am, 3 am, 6 am, etc.!  Plus, he’d wake up in between those feedings, sometimes with what appeared to be gas pains or constipation, and then we’d have to rock him back to sleep.  It is important to note that we have ALWAYS rocked him to sleep, with only the very rare occassion being that he would fall asleep on his own when laid in his crib.  We also depended heavily on the swing and sometimes I would nurse him to sleep, just because it was the easiest thing to do.  However, I knew that things needed to change, because neither myself or Justice were getting very good sleeps at night, plus his naps during the day were often a battle as well, mostly lastly only 1/2 an hour, with a few long ones when we were lucky.  After a few enlightening conversations with my dear friend Jacki Balfour who has a 2 year old girl, Ellie, and an 8 1/2 month old boy Joshua (just 2 months older than Justice), I decided to try a few things that she suggested and made some rather radical changes this last weekend to the way we do things!

Due to a previous conversation with Jacki, I had already eliminated Justice’s 4th nap of the day, giving him more awake time in the evenings before bed, hoping this would help him sleep better.  He had done well with this change, but it wasn’t really making any difference in the night.  Several people also mentioned that he’d probably sleep better once we started on solids, but after almost 3 weeks of eating solids, I still wasn’t noticing a change.  Jacki then suggested that Justice probably wasn’t hungry during the night, but that he probably just enjoyed the comfort of being nursed back to sleep, and she encouraged me to try and eliminate one or both of his night time feedings.  She also strongly encouraged me to try putting him to bed earlier (she puts Josh to bed at 7:30 pm).  So, I decided to try some of these suggestions, but I came to the realization that nothing was likely to change unless we also weaned Justice from his need to be rocked to sleep.  Yikes!!!

So, despite some of the controversy surrounding the “cry-it-out-method” made popular by Dr. Ferber, we decided to try it this last Friday night.  I was fully expecting an all-out war, but by some miracle of God, when we laid Justice down for the night around 8:30 pm, he went to sleep on his own almost immediately.  But I knew it wouldn’t be quite that simple.  At about 11 pm, he woke up and he wanted what he usually gets at this time – “the boob” (sorry if that’s somewhat vulgar) – and when he didn’t get it, he got ANGRY!!  We let him cry, going in to him at 5, 10, then 15 minute intervals to reassure him that we were there and we loved him, but we didn’t pick him up.  After maybe 40 minutes total, Joe then went to rock him to sleep, as this was a suggestion of Dr. Ferber if you are trying to eliminate a feeding.  After Justice fell asleep, he slept all the way until 5 am!!!  At this point, I got up and nursed him and he went back to sleep for a couple more hours.  As far as we were concerned, that was a pretty successful first night.

That day (this is Saturday now), we put him down for his first nap of the day and he slept for 2 hours!!!!  He NEVER does that!!  And he barely cried at all – he just went to sleep on his own with no rocking.  For his second nap, same thing – he went to sleep on his own and slept for 2 hours again!  We then decided to also eliminate his 3rd nap and to aim for an 8 pm bedtime.  My mom was baby-sitting, so I think she put him down around 8:30 pm and she said he barely whimpered and then fell asleep.  When Joe and I got home from our date, he cried a couple times before 10:30 pm, but he mostly just needed his soother put back in.  And then he slept all the way through until 5 am!!!  PRAISE JESUS!!! 

On Sunday, for his first nap, he probably could’ve slept longer, but after 2 hours, we woke him up, since we needed to keep a certain schedule to fit with our day at the house of prayer.  For his second nap, it was only just over an hour, but still, he was falling asleep on his own for them, which is a huge victory for us!  This has also simultaneously removed our dependence on the swing, which is fabulous!  Then Sunday night, he went to bed again at 8:30 pm (still aiming for 8 pm, but we seem to be having trouble making it), and woke up around 12 am, at which point I needed to let him cry for about 15-20 minutes until he fell asleep again, and then he woke up again at 4 am, and cried for less than 15 minutes before falling asleep until 7 am!  WOOHOO!!  NO feedings or rocking during the night!!!

So, here’s our new plan/schedule that I am attempting to follow.  Wake up at 7 am every morning and feed him breakfast (combo of solids & breastmilk).  Nap at 9 am – hopefully for 1 1/2 to 2 hours long.  Feed him lunch at 11 am (combo of solids & breastmilk).  Nap at 1 pm – hopefully another 1 1/2 to 2 hours long.  Feed him “1st supper” at 3 pm (combo of solids & breastmilk).  No more naps.  Feed him “2nd supper” at 7 pm (just breastmilk).  Go to bed at 8 pm and hopefully he sleeps until 7 am.  This is a pretty drastic change from how we were doing things before!  He will now eat with 4 hours between feedings instead of 3 (but probably getting a lot more than what he used to) and only 4 meals a day (down from 6-7)!  Yikes!!  But, so far, so good!  It seems he is actually adjusting really well to all these changes.

Feel free to pray that things continue to go well in the eating and sleeping departments – it’s really only been 3 days since we started all this.  Once I feel that he has really settled into this new routine and that he is doing good with falling asleep on his own and falling back asleep when he wakes up, then our next thing to tackle will be to wean him from his swaddle!  I can’t say I’m looking forward to that very much, but I’m hoping that these changes will help make that change easier. 

So, for those of you who have actually made it to the end of this blog post – thanks for reading!!    This is probably terribly boring for some people, but this is beyond exciting for me and if you got this far, then I hope you are rejoicing with me! 

Happy 6 months Justice!

Well, again this post is a little late, but Justice turned 6 months just over a week ago.  This is quite a milestone, as he is now half a year old, but this also means my maternity leave is half over!    Yet, it has been a very fun month, as he has been developing many new skills!

One of my favorite things that he would do is tap his left foot on the floor, either while on his back or on his tummy, and it totally seemed like he was tapping in rhythm, which is one of the reasons why I say I think he’ll be a drummer!  We have also graduated him to the big tub, because he would kick so vigorously in his infant tub that he would hurt himself and start crying.  So now that he has all the room in the world to kick and splash to his heart’s content, bathtime has become an even more drenching experience, as he sprays water ALL over the bathroom and whoever is bathing him!

As for his toys that we hang above him in his bouncy chair, a couple months ago he started to actually notice their existence, which then progressed to reaching out to touch them, but this month he rips them down from their velcro fasteners without a moment’s hesitation or swats at them like a boxer with a punching bag – lol. 

A funny new discovery this month was when Justice learned to grab onto his legs as well as his nether regions during diaper change time!  We now need to be on the ball with cleaning him before he gets his hands down there!  And on the subject of messy things, he is still a spitting, drooling, bubble-blowing MACHINE!  We go through bibs and cloths like there’s no tomorrow!  Yet, for all his drooling and chewing on everything, there have been no new teeth.  A cute thing though is that he will chew on his bottom lip – so adorable!

The greatest advancement has been his new tricks while on his tummy – like pivoting on his tummy by pulling himself around with his arms.  His favorite thing though is lifting his arms and legs in the air and balancing on his tummy – kinda looks like he’s skydiving – lol.  And then, since he almost always rolls over onto his tummy whenever we lay him on the floor, if he has happened to eat recently, we get lots of burps out of him, some farts, and often a good puke!  He’s also trying to lift his bum up in the air, but the funniest thing has been what appear to be his first attempts at crawling.  He thrashes his body around, looking like a fish out water, flopping around, but not getting anywhere fast – ha!  It’s quite amusing to watch!

And while he makes us laugh often, getting him to laugh isn’t as easy.  He’ll laugh for us sometimes, but we really have to work for it.  Some of the things he likes though are when we sing silly nonsense songs, when we toss him in the air, when we make a new sound he hasn’t heard before, and he’s had a couple giggling fits simply from watching me dry my hair with a towel, or if I shake a blanket in front of him.  This fascination with fabric also applies in the area of touch, as he loves to scratch different types of fabric, as if he’s discovering their texture by scratching them.

Lastly, he has advanced in his abilities to cause bodily harm – biting (those 2 little teeth are razor sharp!!!), pinching, hitting, kicking, scratching – you name it!  I’m pretty sure he’s quite oblivious to the fact that he’s causing someone else pain, and it’s hard to know if scolding him is pointless at this point, since I don’t think he understands what he’s doing. 

So, that concludes my summary of Justice’s 6th month of life – it’s been quite the adventure and is getting more fun all the time!

Compassion Focus: Ana Lucia

Last month I told you part of our story of being Compassion sponsors and this month, I’d like to introduce you to another of our Compassion children, Ana Lucia.  I believe it was in 2003 and I was working in a church in Calgary where Compassion advocates came monthly to share about their ministry and give people the opportunity to sponsor a child.  I remember that I was having a time of personal devotions and I was seeking the Lord on areas of my life that He wanted to put His finger on.  For several months, I had been thinking about sponsoring a child, but I kept procrastinating, since I was living on a very limited income and who knows what other excuses I was making.  Well, as I was talking to the Lord, He reminded me of this desire and revealed to me that this was something He wanted me to do and that I was being disobedient by continually putting it off.  I knew that I needed to just take the step of faith and sponsor a child, regardless of my fears or doubts, and trust that God would provide for my needs, even as I provided for the needs of this young boy or girl.

The very next time Compassion came to our church, I went to their table and looked at all the beautiful faces they had displayed and there was one little girl who immediately grabbed my heart.  In that moment, I became the sponsor to Ana Lucia, an adorable 6 year old who lives in Guatemala.  Her family & friends call her Lucy and she has 7 siblings!  She’s also an auntie and has two nieces!  Almost immediately I received my first letter from Ana Lucia with a colorful drawing and she expressed how happy she was to have me as her sponsor.  Since then I have received many more letters and drawings as she would tell me about how much she loved the student center and learning about Jesus, as well as everything she was learning in school.  She would ask me how she could pray for me and would tell us how we could pray for her and her family.  In 2005, her town was impacted by hurricane Stan, which caused landslides and affected their food supplies.  Thankfully she was okay and I was glad to know that our sponsorship was helping to provide for her and her family’s needs after the disaster.  In 2007, we discovered that her mother had even become involved as a youth leader in their church, which was really special to us to know that even her family members were being impacted by the church’s ministry to them.  She is now 10 years old and entering into 5th grade and her letters are filled with her love for Jesus.

Compassion International ministers to over a million children in 25 of the world’s poorest countries through its Child Development Sponsorship Program. With the support of sponsors, Compassion is reaching through the hands of local churches to release children from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty.  Compassion International invented child sponsorship and it has proven to be a successful child development strategy. This ministry hinges upon the relationship between the sponsor and child. That relationship goes both ways. Sponsors correspond with their sponsored children and support Compassion’s ministry to children for $32 (USD)/ $35 (CDN) every month. Sponsors also receive letters from their sponsored children, watching them grow toward physical and spiritual maturity. Sponsorship is a relationship that transforms both sponsors and children.

If you are reading this and you’ve been thinking about sponsoring a child, I encourage you to take that leap of faith and consider sponsoring one of these children, who have been waiting over 6 months for a sponsor.  Every child Compassion ministers to needs a sponsor and at the moment there are thousands who do not have one. These children need words of encouragement and Compassion needs the cost of their care sponsored so that the ministry can continue to expand.  My husband and I don’t even think twice about the money that comes out of our bank account every month – it is worth every penny to see how the lives of 3 amazing children are being changed!  If it means we go without cable television or some of the other luxuries available to us, that is a very small price to pay for the rewards of being a sponsor.

If you already sponsor a child with Compassion, then perhaps you’d like to consider blogging about your own experience and become an advocate for needy children in your own sphere of influence on the internet.  If you don’t have a blog, share your story in the comments here & maybe give a word of encouragement to those who are thinking of sponsoring a child.