cali- day two [SAN DIEGO!]

Day two. We got up early and squoze in a little pew together during Sacrament meeting. We then drove down to Old San Diego and saw all the sites. We walked around the old town square and especially loved the building that used to be where people got married and it was painted pink. Then we headed down to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. It is soo great. A must see if you're in SD. I heard they get more referrals than any other visitors center! It's because their so awesome and they have the cutest girls doing the tours and they talk to the pictures. We watched the sweetest, most pleasant, lovely, and tear-jerking video before our tour about families that most definitely struck a cord in every chamber of my heart. They created an interactive tour telling the story of the Mormon Battalion and it is really, really wonderful. At the end they take your picture and then you can pan for gold. It's amazing. We loved it soo much and the Spirit was most certainly present. Then we made our way up the hill and saw some beautiful old houses. Jared made the most wonderful dinner for us with so much love. Then the young cups (couples) took a scroll down Scripps beach and got eaten by sand fleas. It was thoroughly disturbing. It was a lovely day spent in the company of many a loved one.

I know they will love this picture. I just like it.

Dan looks like a cologne model in this picture. Oh yeah.

Sister Wives :)

Jude loved Aunt Krissy's pearls, he was scootin his way around to get them.

Then he got a little tired...

Yes! Got it!

Jared didn't mind spending some time with his little nephew. :)))) "Don't tell anyone, but, I can't wait to get my hands on that BABY!!"

First time eating green beans! What's that? You'd like to see 15 pictures of the event, sure thing.

BEST PICTURE EVER!!

"Oh, Mom, what are you feeding me?"

Cutie.

Cutest Sister missionary. She thanked me for being so enthusiastic.

Look at that man! 

He loved to eat papa's hair.

No big deal, just panning for gold.

cali- day one.

We left in the wee hours of the morning and got to the airport just in time to pick Jared and Kris up from LAX. We then piled in the Big Olive and headed out for a long, squished trip from LA to San Diego. We stopped at the beach to stretch, enjoy the sand, and for Dan to.... surf! Yay. Happy husband. Mom, Jared, and Kris played with Jude on the beach, Dad and I took a walk down the beach and swam in the ocean and rode the waves. It was so much fun! We were hangin ten and kickin it with the surfers. We were part of the gang. :) I took Jude in the ocean for the first time. He was a little scared but it was a good experience overall. He got nice and sandy. Senor Sandy Pants?! That's one of his nicknames now compliments of his Daddio.

Senor Sandy Pants has had enough...

Shhh... shh...

Jude had an allergic reaction on Saturday. We don’t know what caused it. He ate carrots for the first time, spent about an hour outside with me while I trimmed the trees. I brought him in and we showered then he took a 35 minute nap. I was making pizza dough and he got some flour on him, around that time he got swollen eyes, splotches and hives all over his face and neck, an extremely runny nose, and sneezing. Weird… it’s like a mix of an allergic reaction and hay fever. It was the most miserable I have ever seen him look. It was so heartbreaking!  We don’t think it was the carrots because it was not a systemic reaction and it didn’t occur for about 3 hours after he ate them. We don’t think it was due to being outside because he’s outside all the time and I didn’t notice anything while showering or putting him to bed. And it couldn’t be the flour because he eats mixed grain cereal full of flour every morning! Unless he is only topically allergic to flour? But that doesn’t make sense either because he always gets cereal all over him. So we don’t know. We have to be extra careful now because we never know if he could have another reaction to whatever it was, and it’s usually worse the second time around.

Other than that little hiccup, he is sitting up all the time and goes from sitting up to stomach to back to stomach to sitting up all on his own, he can scrawl (scoot crawl) his way all over the place. He has even started to stand up on his knees and pull himself up on things, which usually ends to him falling back on his head. :( He keeps me on my toes. He loves bath time and loves to splash splash and kick kick. He loves the neighbors swing, as of today. He loves to be outside. And he looves his Daddy! Dan makes him laugh soo much. He hardly has to do anything. It is adorable and warms my heart to the sun.

Well, I have been getting up with Jude 3-4 times a night and it's not as easy as it used to be. He has always slept in our room with us so I just hoist him up on the bed and we're done. Now I have to walk across the house and I usually end up falling asleep on the floor with Jude next to me. Jude ends up in our bed by morning and Dan wakes up at 6:45 so Jude wakes up, too. He has never woken up this early and is always really tired. I want him to sleep in his crib so he can sleep longer and everyone can sleep better! I called my cousin and asked her advice... she said to let him cry it out and not feed him to sleep for naps or bedtime. She said it will be really hard and I have to let him cry and after three nights hopefully he will be out of the habit. I know he is not waking up out of hunger but habit. So here we go on our next attempt at peaceful sleep. He's woken up three times already tonight and it's only 7:30 PM! Not a great start. 

Oh sigh. Wish me luck. Again...

Happy National Breastfeeding Week!

You know I'm just thrilled to death about National Breastfeeding Week. I love breastfeeding. I'm an advocate and I think our society has given it a bad name and many mothers don't do it because of misconceptions and misinformation. The longer I breastfeed, the more reasons I find that I love it and that it is God's gift to mothers... to help us, because he knows how hard motherhood can be.

In follow-up to my last post, I am trying to get Jude on a better schedule- going to bed earlier and having more scheduled and lengthy naps (per his advice). Jude has always been nursed to sleep (except for when I worked) and I have always loved it. I put him to sleep in his crib or whatever we made to be his bed on our vacations, and then after about four hours he wakes up, I feed him, and he sleeps with us the rest of the night and feed him about two more times through the night. 

Now Jude is approaching eight months and I felt like he should be "sleeping through the night" (Which he does if I feed him right away he doesn't even wake up), and he should be able to fall asleep without me, and so on. So I battled with what I should do. Some nights I would put him right in bed with us, some nights I would try to rock him to sleep in his crib. It was inconsistent and it was me battling myself trying to figure out what I should do.

I let him cry again last night trying to get him to go to sleep at an earlier bedtime and not have to be nursed to sleep every time. I'm done. I felt sick and upset and distant and unnatural for the past two days. I would tell myself to just "stick it out" and "it's for his own good" and "it will get better." But he was horrified and hysterical and I do not feel the need to make him feel that way. I was looking up some articles and discussion boards online and what I already knew became as clear as day. He is only seven and a half months old. He has been on the earth shorter than he was in the womb! It's okay to baby him. He's my baby. He'll grow up fast enough and I'll look back on these days longingly. I am lucky enough to get to stay with him day and night so I am able to do this. He loves it more than anything. It brings him so much contentment and security laying there in my arms. I completely love getting to hold my baby so often and be his source of not only comfort and happiness, but unbeatable nutrition! I am still able to sleep well like this and do not feel sleep-deprived at all. I am thankful I have come to this conclusion. I always knew I wanted to breastfeed for as long as he wanted to, and know I feel confident and peaceful in also letting him breastfeed as often as he wants to. He will naturally grow out of it when he is ready. I feel content and peaceful since I came to this realization. I know it is best for us.

Happy baby, happy mama.

I am still working on an earlier bedtime, though. I'm shooting for 6:30 pm. Wish us luck!

so much new.

Introducing…

Student Doctor Daniel Mulder!

So proud. I am so proud his hard work, his desire, his enthusiasm, his smarts, his smile… I’m just proud of it all. He started at VCOM this past Monday. Monday and Tuesday were orientations. Tuesday they even invited Jude and I for the family orientation and BBQ/2016 Celebration! We were so excited to go support and be a small part of it all. Jude was the bell of the ball, let’s just say. We had lots of “ooohs” and “aaahs” comin’ our way. Everyone is so nice. Southern hospitality at it’s best down here. A lot of the students are from the Carolinas. VCOM is the most technologically advanced medical school there is. They have state of the art equipment and the most beautiful facilities, buildings, and campus. He studied all day yesterday... let it begin!

I have been mentally preparing myself to be a “single mom” and not expect anything out of him or spend any time with him. That way anything above that will be a pleasant surprise! It has been my first official week as a “stay-at-home mom.” GREATEST. I have already learned so much about life and done more on my own (in the past I've always had Dan by side reaching things I couldn't and finding our way around in the dark in a new town). But now I do it. And I'm learning how to pick things up on Craiglists in a neighboring town (a little scary, don't worry, I'm careful), find my around in the dark in a new town, reach things I usually couldn't, deal with bugs and dead mice in mouse traps (by deal with dead mice I mean let it sit in the trap all day until Dan gets home... that one was my limit), take out the trash and wheel it up the steep driveway, clean everything all by myself, help mow the lawn, try to dig a humongous hedge out the ground and accidentally break the shovel, go to Lowe's later that day to return the shovel and ten more things and by five other things holding my sweet little baby upright in those icky little cart chairs, pull out of the driveway in a raining frenzy trying to make it to the DMV and Dan's orientation on time and accidentally hit our mailbox with the car, hold Jude in one hand and try to sign my DMV documents in the other (some sweet, sweaty, dirty construction worker painter came up to me and offered to HOLD JUDE so I could finish... Is that the SWEETEST?!?! [I politely declined as I was finishing up]), order trash services and other like things without any husband input, the list goes on...  

My sweet baby is… words cannot express what he is to me. I adore being with him. My friend let me borrow her book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and I’ve realized how Jude is his proper amount of sleep! HELLO! He should be going to bed around 6:00-7:00pm, sleeping for at least 12 hours, and taking 2-3 two to four hour naps per day. WOAH! So now I’m feeling like neglectful mom and my life’s goal is to get him his sleep. (Just read this book. It is so good but it’s also a little intense about how important sleep is for growth and mood and everything else. But I know it’s true.) Due to all our insane-o travelling and living with my parents, Jude has slept in our room with us since birth. And in our bed with us from mid-night on. And I absolutely adore cuddling with him all night, but I think it’s time for him to sleep in his own bed… in his own room! (gasp) We started tonight. He cried on and off for 18 minutes and I couldn’t take it anymore so I went in and consoled him and fed him and loved him and my heart broke into at least 2,000 pieces when I saw his distraught little face and heard his little gasps of hysteria. Luckily he fell asleep well and now it’s been 2 hours and 15 minutes. Sweet thing. He probably doesn’t even know where he is in that room. But I truly think he has not been getting as much as sleep as he needs, especially on all our trips, so I’m going to try to be diligent in getting him on a better schedule- to bed earlier and 2-3 hearty naps a day.

He had potatoes today for the first time and was absolutely disgusting. Dry heaving and gagging with a look of loathing on his sweet face. I thought he would like those! So a few more days to try those then we’ll give him some carrots and sweet potatoes. He is bound to at least like one of those… I hope. Update- I gave him mixed grains this morning and he liked them... yay!

He liked the potatoes better raw. :)