For those of you who don't already know, sometimes I get a little germophobic. I admit it is nonsensical, but there are just some things I have issues with. For example, I can sleep on a hotel bed. I can spend the night at someone's house. But, I cannot bring myself to buy a used mattress. It grosses me out. Here's a few fast facts for you, to feed my own fears.

Mattress: Buy a new one after 10 years because mattresses are impossible to clean. A 10-year-old mattress can have 10 million dust mites. An old mattress actually feels heavier because it is full of dust mites and their droppings.

Pillow: Throw it out after three years, but wash or dry clean twice a year. In the average used pillow, a British study found 1 million fungus spores, including species normally found in bread mold and shower walls.

Why so much thought on this topic? We just bought this beautiful trundle bed for our guests and future children:



We are in need of some mattresses, but don't have much money with which to buy them. Many people offer them for cheap or free on Craigslist, but I just can't do it.

What is one of your eccentricities?

My son turned 5 months old yesterday and I am 3 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight. Yahoo!!

My mother reached her pre-pregnancy weight just 6 weeks after giving birth (without exercising, might I add). So imagine my disappointment when I had an extra 12 lbs when James was 6 weeks old. On the opposite end of the scale, one of the moms in the mom and infant group I belong to was so psyched to just put on a pair of pre-preg jeans & zip them up when her child was 10 months old. Everyone in the group acted like this was an extraordinary accomplishment.

So here I am, excited that I've lost 9 lbs in 3.5 months. Sounds a little crazy maybe, but for a breastfeeding mom it is both difficult and dangerous to lose weight quickly. My friend Michelle has been a great help, as she is my Holy Yoga partner. My husband is indespinsable because he is my walking partner. Thanks to a challenge from Chase, today I started my 6 week journey to being able to do one hundred consecutive pushups. Who knows how buff I'll be 6 weeks from now.

http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/2008/07/giveaway-12-bumgenius-30-diapers.html

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.




My husband bought me a piano for our anniversary! Isn't he wonderful?

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

The scripture continues on to explain what love is and isn't, and then ends with verse 13 "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Throughout my relationship with Jesus, I've been on a quest to understand this and live it out. What is love? How do I love God? How do I love my brothers and sisters in Christ? How do I love total strangers? What the world says is love is usually either purely emotion, mere lust or some self-serving connection to someone.

Father God, I pray that you will continue to teach me what love is, and that I will be obedient to seek it out and live it out in my daily life. AMEN.

Today I specifically prayed for a divine appointment from God: that I would be given the opportunity to share Jesus with a specific person. Within an hour, this person began to ask me questions about God. My impulse was to bypass the conversation.

Why?

Romans 7:19 says, "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

*I did end up sharing the gospel with this person. But I'm still distraught about my sinfulness. And so greatful for "abundant mercy [which] blot[s] out my transgressions" (Psalms 51:1).

So, I never actually watched the Indiana Jones movies before I got to college. And then I only watched the first and third movies to appease my dearest hubby, who insisted I must see them. Tonight, for the first time, I viewed Temple of Doom (the worst of the trilogy...wait make that a quartet now?)

I caught an easter egg that Toby has never caught before!! I want to go party at Club Obi Wan w/ Indy, as long as that whiny blonde chick isn't around. Do you think Yoda might be there?

I knew from my 15th week of pregnancy that James was a mover & a shaker. But I had never heard the term "high need child" so I certainly didn't expect to have one. James is 4 months old now. He still cries to be held constantly, nurses 10 to 15 times in any given 24 hour period, and is sometimes completely inconsolable.

Many people (with good intentions) have given me advice on how to deal with these 'problems'. "Put him down and let him cry," they tell me. "He's getting spoiled." "Don't feed him so much--make him wait longer." What these advice givers do not understand is that they are, subtly, telling me that I'm not doing the right things, that James would be different if I just (fill-in-the-blank).

After letting my son scream for an hour straight, depriving him of food when he needed to eat and feeling like a complete failure as a parent, I've discovered info & research by Dr. Sears that shows how this style of 'parenting' is completely wrong, especially for my high need kid.

Here are some of the many attributes of James (and other high need babies):

1. In demand of constant attention
High need children want and need attention, and they will not be ignored. This is not a child you can leave in the crib to fuss for a few moments to see if he/she might go back to sleep he/she wants attention. If the child wants you to hold him/her, he/she won’t be put off by books, toys, or someone else’s attention. You will find that this child has no compunctions against letting these demands be known, for he/she will let you know quite loudly.

2. In need of physical contact very often
High need children, especially as babies, need a lot of physical contact. This may manifest as fussing when they are put down, needing to eat often and long, refusing to go to sleep, or any combination of the three. High need children will often sleep better in bed with their parents so that they can maintain contact all night long.

3. Unpredictable
High need children constantly surprise you with new things that seem to be designed to drive you mad. What comforted them yesterday may not work today. Their sleep patterns may vary drastically from week to week. It’s sort of like a daily poker game: you never know what you’re going to draw from one day to the next.

4. Constantly feeding, especially nursing
High need children don’t generally fit into the 2 1/2 to 3 hour feeding routine into which most babies fall. Most want to be latched on seemingly forever. Some of this relates to their need for close physical contact; nursing fills that need quite nicely. They may also have a need for sucking (which is a normal baby need) beyond what they get from eating. If they don’t like pacifiers, they may turn you into a human pacifier, employing “comfort sucking” rather than real eating.

When I read these things (plus how to listen to my instinct to care for James) I began to weep aloud. FINALLY, someone understands. Someone out there knows what it is like to cry along with your child, to feel crazy because what works one day doesn't work the next. To affirm to me that I'm a good mother because I love & nurture my son, and not harrass me about putting James on a rigid schedule.

Some people may think, "My child wasn't/isn't like the behavior you're describing because I (fill-in-the-blank)." I disagree with that thinking, especially on a theological level. Didn't God form me from my mother's womb? Was I a blank slate that became the way I am solely due to environment? Of course not--I was predestined to be who I am. And so was James.

Disagree with me if you will, but I plan to continue 'spoiling' James w/ affection until he's so 'spoiled' that he believes his Mommy will always be there for him, loving him endlessly.