Random thoughts

"Rub, don't pat" is said about 30 times/day to Brianna. She loves her sister. But she pats hard!

Emma's gotten the idea that the baby is ok, but 'gentle' isn't in her dictionary. She's gotten much better though.

Micah's pretty standoffish with me now, but he's being good in general. He'll come around :)

Kristopher's been doing well but gets super hyper when he's excited about the baby- which doesn't work so well!

The recovery from a c-section is harder than I remember it. Or maybe it's those 3 more kids I have now than I did after my last c-section?

"Kisses on her knees" is a great rule when you have kids with sniffly noses.

Showers don't take as long when there's a newborn screaming through them.

Screaming is good exercise for the lungs. It shouldn't be immediately stopped EVERY time!

Immediate gratification is necessary when you're 2 weeks old. And I love that my kids all want her to have it too.

Babies with good tone and 'independent' nursing are pretty portable when eating! What a lifesaver :)

Lynae doesn't like her bassinet. I'm convinced. We lay her down- she wakes up. Even if she was in a limp sleep before that. She sleeps great on my couch pillows, tho, but only when she's either on my lap or right next to me. I don't like her sleeping on them otherwise.

The swing is fine if she's asleep, but she's not figured out that it's fun to be in the swing awake. That will be a milestone!

There's nothing quite as sweet as watching your kids snuggle with each other and send one another kisses.

I wonder why this baby has hiccups at least 3-4 times/day. Doesn't seem my other two got them nearly as often!

Kids can have just as much fun with 20 toys between the 4 of them as they can with 40. I have some big bags set aside for a garage sale soon. Less is more. More time to play because you don't have to CLEAN UP all the toys.

When a child loves empty bins, filling them is pointless. They just get dumped. Why do we have those bins in the playroom anyway? Maybe time for re-allocating.

Why do we have a TV in the playroom when 1- we don't have cable, 2- we don't have a digital converter box for that set, 3- the built in VCR died about 9 years ago, 4- the DVD/VCR that used to be with it was moved to our room when ours died... so there's NOTHING you can watch on it!

We might call it a "guest room" but when it stores the kids' weekly clothes bins, the diaper 'pantry' where I store extra boxes of diapers, the BIG bookshelf with all the paper-page books on the top 5 feet of it and toys with many pieces are stored on the bottom 3 feet of it, the spare parts to the wheelchairs, Emma's pony walker... need I go on? There is a queen size bed in there and a nightstand though. So guests DO sleep there. It's just... a bit... crowded.

September is a good time to have a baby. At least I think so. Yes, it was HOT during my pregnancy, but now that I'm recovering it's still too hot to really want to be outside much. This is a good thing! It is the only thing keeping me inside and not out and about. And by the time that it starts cooling off here I should be ready to go for those wonderful long walks and playing at the park and those fun things that fall-temperatures bring back to Florida.

A 5 yr old that doesn't get enough sleep is much like having 2 more 3 yr olds.

A mommy and a daddy that don't get enough sleep doesn't help the situation either! :)

Why do babies sleep great during the day- even laying in the playpen or somewhere 'still', but as soon as I lay in my bed she is AWAKE and wanting to be held?