Oh, how I love my baby girl!

Naomi is a terrible sleeper. She will fall asleep on her own initially, which is great, but she absolutely refuses to stay asleep for any decent length of time. We have been working on this... especially the fact that lately, she has decided to wake up for a 3-hour period only a couple hours after bedtime, meaning that she really doesn't go down for the night until around midnight, which has been absolutely awful.

The past 3 nights have been much better. And tonight, as she woke up briefly around 9:30 and started fussing, I ran in to see if our good luck would continue. I popped her pacifier back in and wrapped her blanket around her, and she rolled over lazily onto her side and closed her eyes. But as I stood there looking at my beautiful sleepy baby, all I wanted to do was pick her up and snuggle her close. I stood there, hearing all of the warnings in my mind that I've heard from a thousand people... about how important it is to get Naomi on a good sleeping schedule now while she is young; about how I shouldn't do anything to lose any headway I gain with her sleeping habits; about how sometimes, as a mom, I'll have to be tough (that one usually comes from the moms/doctors who favor the whole "let your baby cry themselves to sleep" method, which I am not a fan of)... and then I remembered one more thing that I'd heard from a thousand moms: Your children will grow up way too fast, and you will yearn for the days when they were tiny babies.

So I picked my baby girl up and snuggled her good. And as I put her in the big bed beside me, she smiled at me behind her pacifier and put her hands on my cheeks, and I knew I had made the right decision.

My Favorite Time of Day

I am NOT a morning person. I never have been. I wish I never had to get out of bed before 11 AM. But I don't live in a fantasy world, I live in the real world, where I have a job and responsibilities, so I have to get up at 6:30 each day instead. And although I still dread the moment my alarm goes off every morning, I have realized that I actually really enjoy the half hour block of time right after I wake up in the morning.

I used to wake up and give myself an hour and a half to shower, do my hair and makeup, and get ready for work. That usually didn't include breakfast... breakfast was a slim fast that I would drink as I drove to school. But when I got pregnant, I had to change my morning schedule. To reduce the effects of morning sickness, I had to set aside a half hour block every morning so that I could lay in bed and nibble on graham crackers, cheerios, or some other dry food. Jacob is still asleep during this time, so I get to lay in bed and cuddle with my husband for a half hour every morning. I love it! I don't worry about anything--I have zero stress for that half hour. I usually feel pretty good, because I haven't gotten out of bed or even sat up yet. I just lay in bed, eat food, and snuggle my husband. And he usually snuggles me back, even if he's asleep when he does it. What could be better than that? :)