It's the little things that make my day

Yesterday was so very hard that today has seemed like a gift. Yesterday all I wanted to do was take a nap, but Ian was either eating or fussing all day long. He doesn't really cry, but would squirm and grunt and frown and be super restless. We had already had a rough night and I lkept telling him I just needed one hour to recharge. But it wasn't going to happen. He never slept for more than 15 minutes at a time.

Finally at 3:30 yesterday afternoon he fell asleep on my chest and we napped on the couch for two hours or so. I felt like a new person. And then last night he and I learned how to nurse while I stayed lying in bed which is its own special gift of relaxation at 3am. And then this morning he woke up, ate and then slept in the Boppy from 8:30 until almost noon! I got so much done! It was like he wrapped up that nap and put a bow on it for me.

And THEN! He woke up, ate, watched eat my sandwich in peace and we both went upstairs for a two hour nap this afternoon. Best. Baby. Ever!

He's currently asleep on my desk between me and the keyboard. And if I'm lucky, he'll sleep for good chunks of time tonight.

He has been such an exceptionally good baby thus far but him having a hard time yesterday was tough on us both. And it made me appreciate when you're trying to console someone else you can't get anything done yourself. So I'm just happy we're both feeling better today.

I even had time this evening to scan some old photos I managed to con from my aunt for the week. This one is my mother's favorite family portrait of theirs. Maybe I'll make a family portrait for us like this.

Living Out Loud volume 11: Tis the gift to be simple

Did you know that there are some people who have already finished their Christmas shopping? If you are one of those people, I don't know if you can hear me frowning at you, but I'm doing it as hard as I can right now. I've actually wondered how the economy will affect what people buy for the holidays and how they celebrate. I watch a fair amount of daytime TV these days (also having discovered there is nothing good on at 4am, no matter how many channels you get) and there are a ton of Wal-Mart commercials talking about how your holiday spending dollars go further there. It's made me think a lot too about what kinds of gifts we give and receive and their significance.

In that vein, I'm curious what gifts have made an impression on you in your life. What is the best or worst present you've given or received? How important do you think gift giving is for holidays or birthdays? Have some of you stopped giving anniversary, birthday or holiday gifts and has that worked well? My husband bought me a lawn edger for my birthday one year and it remains one of my favorite birthday gifts to date. I still have and use the anniversary gifts Jeremy gave me all those years ago. Unfortunately, I also have a container of about half of my Christmas gifts from last year that has gone untouched for nearly 12 months, which makes me wonder if that was the best use of those funds or if something else would have been better. So for this month's Living Out Loud project, I'd like you to tell us how you stand on gifts and which ones have really stood out for you.

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each question above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I'm just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org.

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, December 6th (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

As far as I'm concerned, your participation in these projects is all the present I need. It makes me ridiculously happy more than any themed sweater could. Can't wait to hear what you have to say!

First day on our own

I had high hopes of starting on Ian's birth story installments today, but it's 11pm already so that's gonna have to wait. Today was my first day "on my own" with the baby as Rich went back into the office today. I started my day solo about 1am as Ian couldn't decide if he wanted to nurse or rage against the Man and Establishment so was combining the two. I took him downstairs to the recliner and we slept relatively well there (with a few breaks for nursing) until a little after 8. I actually thought I had dreamed Rich coming downstairs to tell me goodbye.

Shortly after that, my aunt called to report a Patient First that had H1N1 flu shots in stock, so the boy and I packed up and headed that way. I haven't had the flu in I can't even remember how long, but with the boy being possibly at risk I figured my flu shot could do a double duty for us both via breast milk.

That excursion led us to discover that Ian's diaper bag and babyhawk carrier were still in Rich's car, so we had to head to the office to retrieve that. But then I had to pee and then the boy had to eat and then next thing you know it was lunch time so we all went out for Mexican. After a brief trip to retrieve my breast pump, I headed over to my OB's office to show off the product of all our hard work. Ian was a big hit with Dr. D and all the nurses and it was nice to have a bit of a celebration over a job well done.

The best part of my day, though, has to be the three hours I convinced Ian to nap with me this evening. He and I cuddled in the bed while he made adorable cooing noises. I used the iPhone to record those adorable noises for posterity so that when he's a teenager I can just buy a baby doll and have it play this on infinite loop.

Ian sleeping (MP3)

I also woke up at one point and noticed our hands next to each other, each with our thumbs tucked in. Forgive the low light photo but I was using a cell phone camera in the relative dark of our bedroom.

It was a nice way to finish off the day.