Five Most Recent Entries
Remembering - April 03, 2006
10 Months - January 20, 2006
9 Months - December 16, 2005
7 Months - October 18, 2005
Six Months! - September 13, 2005


List All Archives

2 months 3 weeks May 31, 2005

So much happens in such a short amount of time with a little baby in the house!

The last twenty days since I wrote have been rather stressful. Benji seems to have a terrible sensitivity to dairy and possibly red dye #40. When I eat dairy or red dye he becomes gassy and inconsolable. At one point, he even had blood in his stool which was disconcerting to say the least.

Dealing with Benjamin when he is so extremely fussy is challenging. I find that I lose patience much more quickly than I would like. I try to remember that Benji isn't screaming because he wants to make me upset. He's actually screaming because his tummy hurts, but keeping that in mind doesn't always relieve the tension, so there have been a couple of times when I've had to set him down and leave the room. Thankfully, Jason has been more than willing to take over during these times regardless of whether or not he's losing sleep on a work night. Anyway, now that I think I've figured out which foods bother him, I'm optimistic that things will get a bit easier.

Benji spent his first whole day at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin on the 21st. He laughed several times for Grandma and Auntie Rachie while he was there. Jason and I were jealous, but we figured he was saving those precious little laughs for Auntie and Grandma because he knows who will spoil him most.

Jason and I stopped into a couple of antique stores while Benji was at the cabin and then had a nice dinner out at a local restaurant. We even got to rent a couple movies to watch after Benji went to bed. We laid the futon matress down on the floor in the livingroom and had a little slumber party.

Later that night we regretted staying up so late because our DSL internet connection went down and we were hosting the webpage I made for my parent's lake cabin. www.charmingcabin.com That meant Jason had to go into the office and transfer the webpage over to the server there, but somehow, during the transfer, the index file got deleted and I had to rewrite it at 1 a.m. Well, we got the page back up and were in bed by about 2 a.m. but Benji decided to get up for good at 5 a.m. so that made for a very tired and cranky mommy.

I didn't tolerate Benji's fussiness well at all that Sunday. I got so tense from his crying that I felt angry and aggressive, so I put him down and went and cried my eyes out on our bed. Jason took over for the rest of the day, but I still felt emotionally spent.

When Benji cries, I can't help feeling like I've got to fix whatever the problem is and if I can't fix it, I get very upset. It's taking me some time to be able to just sit hold him when he's inconsolable and I don't know what's wrong. I want to show him the same unconditional Love the Lord shows me when I'm inconsolable, so that he'll understand unconditional Love when he's old enough for us to share the gospel with him.

Benjamin had his 2 month appointment on the twenty-third. It surprised me how nervous I was for him to get his vaccinations. I brought a bottle (of breastmilk) along to give him after the shots and that calmed him down immediately. Benji actually cried more before the shots, but that didn't phase the doctor one bit. He gave us some good recommendations for Benji's tummy troubles while we were there.

We celebrated my step-dad Karl's Birthday last friday. Jason and I gave him two small purple sand cherry trees. We had dinner at a restaurant on a lake not far from here. It sure was noisy in that restaurant. I don't think anyone even noticed when Benji started to cry. The 11 month old baby at the table next to us was quite impressive with her big screams. I'll post some pictures of Papa Karl's birthday. Here's Benji eating his shirt while Papa holds him.

Here's a shot of the snickers cake I didn't eat because I was worried it would bother Benji's tummy...

Benji looking a little worried...

Taking a bottle from Auntie Rachie...

Jason and I stopped in at an antique store on our way into Fargo last Saturday. They had a table I was interested in, but since we were driving the civic wagon, there was no way we were going to get it in there. Plus, we would have been late for my cousin Alyssa's graduation party.

At the graduation party, Grandma and Great-Auntie Susie got lots of time to show off the baby. Unfortunately, Benji was a bit shy and cried whenever someone said hello. I did have a (couple) cupcake(s) while I was there though. That was fun!

Here's Benji contemplating Great-Auntie Susie's fruit salad...

After the graduation party, Jason and I went over to the mall to get Orange Julius's but they only had raspberry dairy-free smoothies and I wanted orange, so I got a lime slushy at Dairy Queen instead. Benji had fallen asleep in the car on the way over to the mall and he slept the entire time we were at the there. When he woke up he was hungry so we took him over to the hotel where my relatives were staying. Grandma got to play with him after he was done eating...

Benji and I let Daddy sleep in on Sunday. Then we took it easy the rest of the day. Benji took it really easy...

On Memorial Day, I got my turn to sleep in, then we brought Benji over to see Grandma and Grandpa at the cabin. Jason and I borrowed their van to go pick up that table we found at the antique store on the way into Fargo. The asking price for the table was $135 and I asked the dealer what kind of deal he could give me. He said he couldn't do any better than $125, so I asked him what price he would take if we bought the two chairs with it. We end up getting it for $140 with two chairs. I was thrilled and I think the antiques dealer was pretty satisfied too.

The table is solid oak and it's 45 inches diameter, so slightly larger than the average oak pedestal table. It's going to need to be stripped and repainted, but it should turn out great. Happy Mother's Day to me!

Jason went into Fargo Monday afternoon to see the new Star Wars movie with his brother and sister. I stayed home to clean for the company that was coming over today. Jason didn't get home until late but I had the house all cleaned up by that time.

Here are a couple of bonus pictures of Benji in case you just can't get enough.

That about covers the past twenty days. Just for kicks, take a look at this picture of the lilies-of-the-valley that grow beside our house.

Links
15 wk Ultrasound
23 wk Ultrasound
Nursery Pic
Dad's Baby Pic