KC: I’m just saying, I’ve always dated geeks. I’m used to the lack of romance.

RB: (holding up an onion ring) “Look sir, droids!”

KC: Yep.

Sometimes the only way to make Sophie calm down is for me to hold her. She loves being in the sling and held tightly to my chest. You can feel her little body relax and the crying is replaced with baby snores. This is hard because it feels like some days I never get to put her down. That’s tiring for me.

Then I remind myself that it won’t be long before Sophie doesn’t want to be held. She’ll want to walk on her own and run around everywhere. She’s going to want her own big-girl seat and not sit in Mommy’s lap to read. She’ll want to put on her own shoes even if they end up on the wrong feet. This time where I’m the only thing that comforts her is so short. I’ll never have it back.

That’s when I kiss my baby’s fuzzy head, tears fall down my face and I thank God for this precious little one.

Quick off-subject note to begin. If you have a colicky baby, try a sling. I think Sophie may be part marsupial. She loves hanging in this little pouch. It kinda reminds me of being pregnant. Now I can use both hands around the house!

OK, on to the real subject matter. Ben and I are both big readers. We’ve both learned to read when we were three and have loved books for years. Even before Sophie’s arrival we began stockpiling books. Right now we have a lot of Little Golden books and board books. (She also has a total of 4 children’s Bibles.) She’s actually pretty set for the first couple of years. I would like to get some more Berenstain Bears but the baby / toddler section is good.

Now I’ve been thinking about the books that I read when I really learned to read on my own. Books like the Ramona, Little House, Baby Sitter’s Club, All-of-a-Kind Family, Anne of Green Gables and Narnia series were on my shelves. I loved The Westing Game and all of the Lila Fenwick books. Little Women is my favorite book of all time. I can recite A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. I loved anything by Judy Blume.

What do you remember reading? Are there any “young adult” books that you still read today? Can you give me any suggestions for Sophie’s bookshelves?

Ben and I made a deal before the baby arrived. We would strive to make Date Night a priority in this marriage. It’s difficult and we’ve only had one “real” date so far. I would like to do something a little different from dinner-and-a-movie. All of my creative juices are just flowing to different thought processes right now. Like how to make my daughter poop regularly without going into diarrhea mode. Any creative date suggestions?

SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! THE WHOLE NIGHT! 9:00 PM TO 5:00 AM!

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!

Sophie is now 2 months old. These last two months have been insane. First we had the surprise of getting Sophie here 6 weeks early. One day before she came home, I developed an unknown sickness that luckily passed quickly. (This has come back to haunt me.  More on that after I get tests tomorrow.)  Ben missed so much work that he’s had to put in some Saturdays to catch up. Last month, Sophie began getting fussier and fussier. She started pooping only once a week and always had horrific gas. I understand now why mothers embarrass their kids later on in life. It’s because while walking down the Walmart frozen section, the baby farts so loud that an old women turns and looks at you in disgust. This gives mothers the perfect right to lick their finger, walk up to you in front of the entire band and wipe off a speck of sandwich ensuring that half of the flute line, all of the saxophones and the symphonic band director will tease you for weeks about saving part of your lunch for later.

The doctor first suggested that we switch Sophie from breastmilk to a sensitive formula. We did and it made a little bit of progress. She could sleep better but her diapers still didn’t look right. Then her fourth newborn screening came back abnormal. Actually, the third and the fourth came back abnormal. Sophie doesn’t digest milk sugars correctly. We switched her to soy formula and that has made a HUGE difference. Did you know that babies can poop every day? Sometimes three times a day? Just like other humans? WEIRD.

So now Sophie should be just hunky dory. Right? WRONG. That child cries nearly all day. She sleeps, eats and then cries. I rarely see her without her mouth wide open and screaming. If she’s quiet, that means she’s asleep or has her mouth plugged up with a bottle. Even then she’s cried around her bottle just to let me know how horrible life is at two months. Sometimes she’ll cry and I’ll just sit down and cry with her. It’s hard when she wants her Mommy so badly and I want mine, too. She’s been a charmer in front of everyone else and no one will believe the hard time I have every day except for my husband. She’s slowly showing her true colors in front of him. She let my mother and my sister catch a glimpse today. She sleeps for about 4 hours at a stretch during the night but will only sleep for maybe an hour during the day. Today she stayed up from 9:00 AM until 9:00 PM. We’ll see how well she sleeps tonight.

I’ll be sure to write again soon about the wonderful things in my life. God truly has blessed me and I need to acknowledge that. As always, please pray for our small family.