Hola Senior

Saul and I are now Seniors at Liberty University Online. We finished these last courses (with much help from my mama taking care of Abraham while we worked on projects) and we have started another 2 classes. Liberty is on the quarter system, so we take 2 classes a quarter, 4 a semester, for a full work load! We take classes year-round, and we are hoping to be finished by the end of August of 2011. Possibly sooner, possibly later. Part of us wants to take it easier and take just one class a qaurter, and another part of us just wants to finish and be done!! :) How nice it will be when we ARE done. Sigh.

We got back a couple days ago from my cousin's/wonderful sister in Christ/one of my best friend's college graduation from Fresno State. She is going on to receive her teaching credentials, and it is so funny to see her do that because we would play "school" so often when we were young. I have always seen her as a teacher, and now she will professionally be one. :) She makes me smile. Her graduation party was so fun! There was dancing, and Saul and I actually got to dance. In high school we LOVED dancing together - not only at school dances, but we would go dancing at shows, or concerts, or on our own. Same in college - we would take ipod speakers and find an empty field and dance our hearts out! I miss that. Well it was hard for me to dance the way I wanted to while I was pregnant, and since Abraham has been born we haven't thought to go dancing. We loved dancing at the party! Our moves were a little rusty... hahahaha. Saul and I are planning on going dancing very soon! :)

While we were there, Abraham slept okay in his crib for the first 3 or 4 hours, and then would wake up crying. Because we were staying with my auntie and uncle, I didn't want to wake everyone up from his crying. We brought Abraham to sleep with us while we were there and when we got back home, he slept great back in his crib!

The Time is Now! :/

I talked to lactation consultants. We took Abraham to the pediatrician.

He was only eating 15-20 ounces of formula a day, and nursing at night with me. What the lactation consultant and our pediatrician said was that Abraham was stocking up on milk at night (nursing much more than I realized while I slept) and not wanting to eat during the day. I guess it makes sense - with so many fun things to do and discover during the day, who would want to stop and eat ?? So what they told us is that Abraham just isn't that hungry during the day because he eats so much at night. The solution? Time for the crib. Ahhhhh!!! I wasn't ready for it - was Abraham? The advice of our pediatrician: "Just do it." He thought I was foolish for co-sleeping. But after our experience of co-sleeping, it has worked so well for us (at least for the first 6 months) that we want to do it again with our next child. (Which won't be for many years to come.) There are also so many articles and statistics that prove that co-sleeping is SO beneficial for the child. The only down-side that I have ever read about (and now experienced) is when children becomes aware and mobile that they nurse because they can.

So! Abraham is officially in his crib. The first night was definitely the hardest. After talking with friends and family I thought I was prepared. Definitely NOT. Ohhh it was so sad and so hard to hear him cry. But the advice of my sister-in-law echoed in my head. "He is learning to self-soothe himself - this is an ability that he will have for the rest of his life." That first night he woke up 5 or 6 times. The longest he cried was about an hour... :( The second night he woke up 4 times, and the longest he cried was about 20 minutes. The third night he woke up 4 times as well, but went to sleep really easy and the longest he cried was about 15 minutes. The schedule he has been at for the last couple days is going to bed at 9 pm, waking up at 12 and putting himself to sleep in about 10 minutes of fussing, waking up a 3 am and I nurse him, waking up at 7 am and I nurse him, and then waking up at 10 am for the day. In a little while I will stop nursing his at 3 am and let him soothe himself. It's nice that he sleeps in so much. Now that he is in his crib, it gives me the freedom to have some of the morning to do what I want to do. This transition to the crib I dreaded since he was born, but now that he has done it I am so relieved and actually like it better this way now. We'll see how he does on our trip to Fresno this weekend... it will be his first time sleeping in his portable crib! :/

First Mother's Day

I remember last May of 2009 Saul woke me up singing a song he thought up, "You're a mother to be..." To be honest, I wasn't too excited about this Mother's day because as restaurant people know - Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for restaurants. Saul had to work, and my expectations for the day were very minimal. I was so surprised what the day turned out to be!

Saul woke me up and told me to put my hiking boots on. Oh man, I didn't feel like going on a hike first thing in the morning on Mother's Day of all days... He got Abraham ready while I got ready. We drove for a couple minutes and parked. And then I saw what he had done. In a beautiful field of grasses and wildflowers he had set up a table with breakfast and flowers! I love romantic things like this! I just love acts of kindness that take thought and planning. It makes me feel so loved when he surprises me like this. :)

After breakfast, Saul went to work and Abraham and I went to my parents' house for a Mother's Day get together with family. My parents, sister, grandparents, auntie, uncle, and cousins were there. I love family celebrations. Later in the evening Saul and I went to dinner at a restauraunt we hadn't tried before - Gordon's in San Clemente. The whole day was a lot of fun; I wish Saul hadn't had to work, but the day totally exceeded my expectations 10 times over.

Rolling Round & Round

Abraham has been able to roll from his back onto his belly for quite some time now... probably since he was about 4 1/2 months old. This past week he has been both turning in circles on his belly, and then flipping over from his belly onto his back again!

He's still kind-of slow about it, but he's beginning to understand that he can move himself to get someplace. I set his giraffe (his favorite toy - it winds up and plays a song) on the other side of his floor blanket, and he was able to roll from back to belly to his back and finally to his belly again to reach it. He's growing up SO fast!