The Drowsy life, or “My nose hurts. Is it broken? Who broke my Nose?”

The title got you didn’t it. You need to know; you keep asking yourself “Is Kate’s Nose Broken? Who broke her nose?” Well it all started with the exhaustion- I was very tired earlier this week, as you may know if you read the last post. I woke up at 2:40 AM on Wednesday Morning, not because the baby was crying but because several areas of my body hurt, mostly joints- Ankles, Knees, a Hip and oddly my Nose. I took some pain medication; by the time it kicked in the baby was in need of assistance and so I rolled him back over and, pain free, returned to bed and to sleep.

Wednesday found me quite well rested- in fact I only took a short nap in the morning and I was able to run and do some other fun chores. But my nose hurt. It was odd, I am used to the leg pain- any change in weather will make my legs hurt, but my nose, that was just weird. Do you have any idea how much you move your nose during a day? I move mine a lot and each time it moved, it hurt. I wouldn’t mind the pain if there was magic associated with the nose movements. But sadly, no magic, just one hurt nose that moves too much.

Last night as I was getting ready for bed I asked Ken over and over again “Why does my nose hurt? Is it broken? Who broke my nose?" I was asking my self other questions "I don’t remember walking into any walls; do you think that if I walked into a wall or hit myself hard enough, I would forget that it happened? Who broke my nose?” I looked at myself in the mirror and my nose did look a little swollen, and it hurt- right on the bridge and down in the cartilage. Ken must have been saying a silent prayer that I would remember what happened or fall asleep, because that is exactly what happened.

The answer came to me in a flash! On Tuesday I tried to nap each time the baby napped, and before my second nap I tried to do a little reading. Well I was very tired, and for some reason I was holding the book above my head. I remember dropping the book on my head, I was sleepy enough that I gave up trying to read at that point and went to sleep. So my questions to Ken became more specific, “Can a book break my nose?” I don’t remember if he answered, I was asleep pretty soon after I asked. Ken must have a lot of faith.

So here I am, it is Thursday, my nose still hurts, but at least I know why. I don’t think it is really broken- but you never know it does hurt quite a bit. I think I might be the only person in the world who gets attacked by inanimate objects, but hey it is just that kind of week.

The Necessity of Sleep- an ode to napping

There are dishes to be done, counters to be wiped, laundry to wash and fold.
There are flowers that should be watered and miles that should be run, but all that’s been put on hold.

For today we sleep. Yes today we rest. Everything else can wait.
Sometimes you just need to care for yourself and leave all that's left to fate.

The dishes will be there tomorrow. The flowers could possibly die.
The treadmill can’t run away by itself, but I could easily cry.

I’ve seen late hours of the night and heard the early bird sing, just a little too often these days.
But that babies smile and the twinkle in his eyes gives me joy in so many ways.

And so the crumbs will stay on the counter- one more day, the laundry won’t mind the wait.
And my body will rest and my mind will be calm and I know my nap will be great!

_________________________________________________________________

After a week or more of waking to my babies cries several times during the night and then getting up and rolling him back over because he realized that he hates his stomach, I was exhausted. I had become so used getting enough sleep at night and being able to do my daily chores while the baby napped during the day, and it had been such a long time since I had taken a nap when he napped, that it hadn't even crossed my mind that I needed to make up for the hours of sleep I was now missing at night. And so the exhaustion set in, and I became crabby and tired and all the other things I don't like to be. I am sure Ken wondered who had tampered with his wife and turned her into the shrew that kept appearing each evening. But I think I have found a temporary fix for the problem, I can not force the baby to not roll over while he sleeps, and so until he gets used to his new skill and decides that it is OK to sleep on his tummy at night- like he does during the daytime naps.......

(? I don't know what the difference is- but daytime tummy sleep is fine, nighttime tummy sleep is bad ? see picture taken 20 minutes ago)

So, until I get my needed 7.5 hours of sleep at night, I will take naps during the day- this morning I got a 2.5 hour nap, it did wonders for my mental health, I am still not quite sure what day it is, but that is fine, after all that is what email and sticky note reminders from myself and my helpful husband are for. Oh, Yes, When I am sleepy, I tend to be slightly more poetic too. I hope you liked the poem.

The Necessity of Friends and Sunshine

Friends are necessary, old friends and new. Being able to reconnect and strengthen relationships with friends just makes me happy and I think we all know that Happiness is Necessary.

Sunshine is necessary. The baby was born at the very beginning of spring, the grass was green and the flowers were trying to bloom but someone forgot to tell the sun. For several weeks I would watch the news just to see if it was going to be warm enough to go outside, most days it wasn’t and when it was I would usually not remember that it was a warm day until it was to late to enjoy it. Luckily the Sun came back from Vacation and we go out and visit with him quite often. It is amazing what a little sunshine can do.

The Necessity of Scriptures and Learning

Scriptures are necessary. I feel better when I read them early in the day and they give me a little bit of structure because I try each week to finish the section of scriptures that will be discussed in Sunday School the next Sunday. If the Baby wakes up earlier than usual or if I sleep a little late, then he gets to read with me, I think he enjoys hearing my voice because he will sit quietly and reach out and touch the page, it is quite precious.

Learning is necessary, I feel like I have so much to learn, but I don’t feel horribly overwhelmed. I feel like if I put forth the effort I will be able to attain the knowledge I need. I try to read and search for things on the Internet, I ask lots of questions of other new moms; so far I have discovered I have a very unique, smart and fabulous baby.

I have also rediscovered that I like to learn, I love to find out new things I love to feel and see how new knowledge works its way into my life, making it better, helping me to help others. I have rediscovered my love of sociology and psychology as I have tried to learn why my Baby does what he does and how I can help him to learn to do what he needs to do- like nap! I am excited for the future and someday I know I will go back to school, that thought is quite exciting to me right now, I just know I can do it, as long as I remember that I love learning.

The Necessity of Prayer and Cuddling

Prayer is necessary. When we first brought the baby home it was needed almost every hour of the day and night. I was scared, I had no Idea what I was doing, my baby made noises, my baby didn’t make noise, my baby was hungry but my baby would not eat, I was afraid that my baby would never go to sleep and sometimes I was afraid that he would wake up and have needs that I wouldn’t be able to meet. And so I would pray, I would pray that I could be a good Mom and I would feel at peace- I still didn’t know how to be a good Mom but at least I knew that God knew I had that desire, and I knew that he had given me a feeling of peace, and I felt OK. I would pray that my baby would not have problems sleeping, that he would be safe while he slept, I prayed that he would nap during the day and eventually I prayed that he would sleep longer so that I could sleep longer too. Each individual prayer was not immediately answered. But looking back I can say they have been answered, by 3 months he was pretty good at taking short naps during the day and was sleeping 10-11 hours at night, of course there were always one or two little wake ups in the night but he was always able to go back to sleep. The new sleep prayer is that he will learn how to roll back over on his own so that I wont have to go into his room and flip him back over.

Cuddling is necessary, both with the Baby and with Ken. There is just something wonderful about a good cuddle. It says, I love you, you are special, and you mean the world to me. Who doesn’t need to hear those things every once and a while, and who wouldn’t love to hear then every day.

What is Necessary

Days go by in blurs around here. I have to write down the things I want to get done- that way when I realize that the day is passing me by I can look at my list and try to do something. I think Nap should be on that list more often than it is.

Mostly my list looks like this- Dishes, Laundry, clean Front Room, Read. Sometimes it has things on it like- Library, Costco, Gardens, Bills and yesterday it said Bake Pie.

The Baby doesn't need a written list. He is very good at doing what he needs to do each day, his list would look something like this; Eat, Smile, Rollover, Sleep, Rollover while I sleep, make cute noises, wet diaper, Smile, Eat, Rollover, make cute noises, Sleep…… he hardly ever misses anything on his list and sometimes he adds too it. (Like practicing dance moves while he sleeps)
There must be a purpose for the blurring of my days. I figure it has something to do with learning what is important, what is necessary for life to continue on as normal, as well as what is necessary for my sanity to remain intact. Over the next few days I am going to share some of the things I have learned.

But just to start- Hats are not Necessary, especially if they do this to the baby.

Consider the Lilies

The past few days I have been considering the lilies of my life. Last year I planted a lot of bulbs, it was somewhere between 50 and 75, Day Lilies and Gladiolas. I planted them because I wanted beautiful flowers, and sure enough, I got beautiful flowers. As the season ended and fall and winter set in I took comfort in the fact that deep within the ground, my little bulbs would split and prepare for the new year and sometime in the late spring or early summer I would see yet another, and hopefully larger, crop of beautiful flowers. Well the bad news came from the Home Owners Association that all of the flower beds needed to be regraded to help prevent water damage, and during the process all bulbs and plants not approved or originally planted by the HOA would be removed. So a month ago I tried my best to dig up my already growing flowers and transplant them into planters. Well it seems to have worked for many of the lilies, they started blooming this week and they make me smile. The verdict is still out on the poor gladiolas- they have turned brown, for some reason, I don't think that is a good sign.

So this week I have been loving my lilies, and because of them I have been singing the song "Consider the Lilies" to my self quite often. God has created so many beautiful things.

Thinking back on last year at this time, my beautiful flowers got me through many days, when life just wasn't working out the way I thought it should. I really felt like these flowers were a special gift to me from my heavenly father, telling me that I could help him make the world a little more beautiful, even if it wasn't quite the way I had wanted to help. You see, last year I was really questioning why I hadn't been blessed to have a baby, to help make the world more wonderful in that way.

I now know, and even somewhat understand, that it just wasn't time for me to start my garden of children. The perfect time to start that garden was this March, when this sweet little baby was born. As you can see he is definitely blooming and bringing joy and beauty into my life as never before. This sweet angel gives new meaning to the beautiful song I have been singing to myself, near the end it says "Consider the sweet tender children who must suffer on this earth, the pains of all of them he carried from the day of his birth. He clothes the lilies of the field, he feeds the lambs of his fold, and he will heal those who trust him, and make their hearts as gold". I believe this too be true, I know it is true, that I have a Savior, that just as he has created and loves and watches over this beautiful world and its beautiful flowers, he loves and watches over me and my dear husband and sweet little baby. In this life we all suffer, internally we feel emotional pain and anguish caused by our own actions or the actions of others, externally we feel physical pain from many sources. But our Savior knows and understands our pains, each and every one. I know that he can and will heal us if we seek to be healed and trust him and do what he asks us to do. I know because I have felt that healing. I want all those that I love to know this too. I am so thankful that I was given the chance to wait over a year past the time I had planned to start my family, because it gave me the opportunity to once again seek my Saviors help to heal my pain, he told me then that all would be OK, and WOW- Is it. Lets look at this sweet tender child one last time.

OK, Maybe two more times......

And I will end with one more lily, I hope that we all can find something beatiful in the world today, something that whispers to us just how much God loves us, something that helps us remeber what our Savior has done for us. Then I hope that we smile and say a prayer of thanks for that sweet blessing.