The wasp & the knee

A wasp stung me the other day.
I thought it was Jack pinching me, but when I looked back I saw this monster wasp laying on his sweet, little arm stinging me...and I was so grateful that it was me and not Jack.
It was one of those "I'm a mom" moments. I would so much rather take any amount of pain than to even think about anything hurting my son.
I think it was also God tapping my heart and reminding me I can't be selfish anymore. I think about the smallest things in astronomically big ways now that I'm a mom, because that's my job. It's my job to take care of my sweet, innocent baby boy.

I've known for a few years that I would have to get knee surgery. I think I've always pushed it in the way, way back of my mind because I don't want to think about it. I was actually scheduled to have it done the week after we found out I was pregnant with Jack. God had a better plan on that one :)

Long story short, I totalled my car when I was 16. I woke up after flipping it too many times with my legs hanging outside of my window. It was only by God's amazing grace that the only injury I had was a hairline fracture in my femur, and some very (very) stretched out knee ligaments. Well when you're 16 years old high school is everything (oh the LIST of things I wish I could tell 16 year old me. That's an entirely different post.) I played volleyball on that knee for another two years. Somewhere in that time frame I managed to not only tear my acl, but my pcl and LCL/PLS. Over time all the tears wore away until my ligaments had calcified. Basically, I've been walking around for 8 years on a knee with no ligaments.

How have I not known? No clue. I must have a crazy pain tolerance, because every doctor I've seen stares at me like I'm a medical freak. Anyways, due to postponing the surgery and putting on a few 50 pounds of baby weight, it's only worsened.

So here I am: 24 years old with advanced arthritis, a knee that will stop functioning within 5 years, and an almost-toddler who will be walking soon.

I'm terrified of surgery. I am.
I don't care about the rehab afterwards or all the work I have to put into it. I'm terrified of being under anesthesia for 7 hours having metal plates and cadaver ligaments installed in my body.

The worst part though? I'm absolutely heart broken that I can't give Jack 100% for awhile. When he stumbles, I won't be able to run to his side. When he wants me to pick him up, I won't be able to right away.

I'm not really even sure why I'm writing this post. I'm struggling with dealing with all of it. I feel like I'm being so dramatic sometimes because I am lucky enough to live in a time where there are these incredible, medical procedures that can (hopefully) buy my knee another 20 years. Then there are times when I'm holding Jack, about to put his sleeping body in his crib, and I just cry because for awhile, I won't be able to do that.

So I'm sure you're wondering what on earth the wasp has to do with any of this. Well, it happened a few days after I saw the doctor, and I honestly felt God laying his hands on me.
A little bit of pain for me was nothing to protect my son.

A little bit of pain for 9 months will be worth having a healthy leg to chase around my sweet boy for the rest of his life.

I'd like to just ask for some prayers if I can. :) Mostly for the people around me as I learn to heal. I'm so unbelievably grateful and thankful to not only have the most supportive, loving family, but to have married into one as well. Pray for their patience with me, because I know my heart is going to hurt a lot more than my body, and I cry a lot. (A LOT)
Pray for my amazing husband. He already does so much for us, and now he has to take on some more while I'm healing.
Pray for my baby. Pray he thrives (and I know he will, thanks to his incredible daddy, grandparents, aunts, and uncle) while I can't help him.
And if you wouldn't mind, pray for my heart to trust Jesus. I've never been very good at trusting, and He always brings me to obstacles that test that. (I hear you Lord!). His plan has never failed me, and has always been better than my own.

*9 months*

Jack William Mitchell

 

 

This sweet, cheeky, chatty boy turned 9 months old yesterday. I don't really even know where to start on how awesome this past month has been! All of these 9 months have been nothing short of amazing, but seeing Jack's personality start to really blossom has been the most incredible experience of my life. I sincerely mean that.

 

So before I start to get all teary-eyed and reminiscey, let me tell you what our curious, adventurous boy has been up to in the past month :)

 

 

 

Chatty Man

I feel like one day he woke up and decided it was time to be a toddler. He has the sweetest (and I mean cotton-candy-wrapped-in-extra-sugar-with-chocolate-sauce-all-over-sweet) little boy voice. He just talks and talks and talks all day long, never without a million different facial expressions to convey his point.

His "I didn't do it mom" face after tearing up a magazine

 

First Words

I've had handfuls of people ask me if I just melt when he says "Mama", and I do...but not the way I melt when he says "Dada". I always had a feeling he'd say Dada first. Every day when Andrew comes home, Jack is on his feet, listening for the key in the lock, and then a booming "DADA" bellows through the hall. He freaks.

Every. Time.

It's amazing.

So Andrew was giving him a goodbye hug before he went to work one day, and Jack literally stopped, looked straight into Andrew's eyes, and in that sugary-sweet voice says "Dada".

Tears everywhere. Best feeling ever.

Hangry

It's so much fun seeing which traits Jack has from both of us. He studies and analyzes everything and everyone. He will watch a bird fly from a tree hundreds of feet away, over our yard, and away from the house. He turns over toys, sticks his fingers in every crevice, scopes out everything before he decides how he feels about it. That's all Andrew.

He also will scream if I take a bite of his food before I feed him. You know that game where moms pretend like they're eating the food so that baby will want it too? Yeah. Never worked here. As I lifted that spoon towards my mouth OH if looks could kill. That's my boy! :) He also has a flare for drama (which I have absolutely no idea where that came from) when he's sleepy or hungry.

Alright that's me too.

ANYWAYS.... this boy loves his food! He is eating everything. We started finger foods a week ago because I was not getting food into his mouth fast enough for his liking. Beans, peas, scrambled eggs, chicken, pork, quinoa, oatmeal, banana pancakes, yogurt, cottage cheese, carrot crackers, green beans, blueberries, pineapple, mango, I mean you name it, he's eating it. I'm one proud mama.

But God bless Andrew Mitchell. Looks like he's stuck in a house of hangries. At least it's the easiest problem to solve.

 

Frozen cantaloupe is a big time favorite

Crawling/Speed crawling

Jack started army crawling and the world changed :)

He lugged his belly around for a good while, but now he is up and crawling like he's been doing it his whole life.

He's always been really efficient at getting around, whether it was rolling across the living room or spinning in circles on his belly. I don't know why I'm surprised that crawling is no different. The past week has brought on a confidence and speed that would blow your mind. (But seriously, it blows my mind.) I can turn away for one second, and I hear a high pitched squeal and giggle in the next room over because Jack has managed to speed crawl like lightning. And he's very proud of himself. :) He will rocket launch himself into the next room, wait for us to catch up, sit up, and then clap and giggle until we join in pride. Have I mentioned how awesome this kid is?
 

Clap/Wave/Dance

We worked on the waving thing for a long time. Every morning we walk Andrew to the door. We would both stand there waving our limp wrists to each other, eyes wide, murmuring "Buh bye!" as Jack would just look at us like we were crazy. It must have worked finally because now he waves whenever, at whoever or whatever!

Since he also is an accomplished little man that deserves to be praised for his achievements, he's figuring out how to clap. Right now it consists of him basically doing the chicken dance and flapping his arms in circles. Maybe once or twice his hands will actually smack each other, but we get the point. ;)

He started wiggling that cute little booty just a couple of days ago. He has always loved music. He'll stop what he's doing when he hears a song he likes and just listen. Now, he stops and starts doing that ever-so-cute baby bounce with that little booty. Andrew and I both sat in silence, huge geeked-out smiles plastered on our faces yesterday and just watched him groove to some Bruno Mars.

 

This is clapping.

 

Florida

I'll make this a short one because I hear a cute little boy squirm in the other room, waking from his nap.

We flew to Florida for our first vacation as a family a few weeks ago.

First flight: CHECK! and can I just say he ROCKED it! We actually had a couple behind us tell us as we were leaving that they didn't even know we had a baby with us. He's a boss.

First time at the beach: LOVED it. He's going to be a water baby. He loved the sand, the water, the outdoors. All of it. My sweet nature babe.

First fever: my worst nightmare. I have to say, the fact that we made it 8 1/2 months without so much as a runny nose was the biggest blessing ever. It was inevitable that this would come, and it honestly couldn't have happened at a better time. We were surrounded by Andrew's family and a beautiful beach, so we made it through. This little guy is a tough one. I'm absolutely positive it was much harder on me than it was on him.

Cutest beach babe

 

 

 

TEETH!!!!

Alright, so my mama friends that follow me on Instagram know how long I have been waiting for these puppies to make their arrival! I feel like Jack has been teething forever. Luckily he is the most laid back, chill child you will ever come across. However, that first tooth decided to cut through right as Jack was coming down with his bug. UGH. However, not surprisingly, he handled it all like a champ.

They're still taking their time popping all the way out, but two, little pearly-whites are sitting front and center on his bottom row of gums.

 

Hangin by the pool. He's way too cool.

 

 

So my not-so-little little man is hilarious, so curious, keeps us on our toes, loves windows, being upside-down, the outdoors, water, grocery stores, his dad, Gypsy, food, standing, working with dad (banging on his laptop), popsicles, music, paper, snuggles, curtains, giving kisses, and giggling nkj  k k mn

lmkl

^^^^

Well, there he is, sitting on my lap ready to type in his own words how awesome he is. :)

I'm sure I forgot a million things, but there it is in a nutshell.

Every day is sweeter than the last.

Every day is filled with more laughter, sleep (ahh), and adventure.

 

Life didn't really start until I met Andrew.

And now with Jack? It's just beginning. :)

XO,

B



To Sleep or Not To Sleep?

When I was pregnant I read ALL the books about it.
Seriously, all of them.
I didn't, however, venture into the after-pregnancy books because, well, I was still pregnant and figured I'd have time to read those when baby Jack came along! (Wrong.)

Anyways, I was told if there was one book I HAD to read, it was Babywise. So i bought it...
and in my bottom nighstand drawer it still sits.

And you know what? I'm so glad it is.

For those of you that don't know, Babywise is all about "sleep-training" I've heard it works wonders for some moms, and if that's you, that's awesome! I skimmed it here and there during the last few weeks of pregnancy, but it was all very orderly and scheduly and I was just sooo not into thinking about anything but nesting.

We chose to just listen to Jack's needs the first 5 months. When he was hungry, he ate; when he was tired, he slept...that sometimes meant in our arms, or (mostly) on the couch. It worked for us! Jack was sleeping through the night by 2 months and all was well.

Until 4 months. Suddenly, I was up 3-4 times a night feeding my boy. Where did this newborn come from?! Let me tell you, the first couple weeks of birth I was a machine. Up every hour to feed and snuggle, it didn't bother me because that's what you do as a mama! Once I got used to sleeping through the night though, it was a struggle to be perky/happy Becca every morning. I know a lot of other moms that were going through the same thing. One mom even told me she was happy Jack was sleeping through the night, but to get ready because they have a tendency to switch things up on us. I thought, not my kid! (yeah right)

So we started going a little crazy running on no sleep and longer days, but I have to admit..once you reach into that crib and hold that sweet boy, you forget it's 2:30 am. We finally went to Jack's 6 month Dr's appointment, and like usual, my pediatrician rocked my world. Give Jack a schedule, still listen to him, but give him some consistancy. And let him cry for a bit.

LET HIM CRY?! At this point Jack and I know each other. I know his fake cry from his real cry, his whining from his hungry chattering. However, I did not want my sweet, precious, new-to-this-world baby boy to think I abandoned him all alone in that big crib!

Well guess what? It took us 8 days. 8 long, teary (mostly on my part) days, but our sweet boy is sleeping through the night again like a CHAMP. We wake up all together, have breakfast together, he naps, lunch together, he naps, dinner together, and at 8:15 that boy is bathed, fed, and down until 7:30 am the next day.



 Seriously. My mind is blown.

Anyways...what was my point here?! Haha, oh yeah. Sleep training.
I would not change the way we did things AT ALL. I would never want to go back and give up those 3:30 and 5:00 AM snuggles so that I could get some sleep. Ever. I think Jack is the snuggliest baby by nature, but also because we nurtured that.

I know babies that were started on a schedule at 2 weeks old. Guess what? That baby slept through the night and continues too. But that baby doesn't snuggle constantly, is already very independent, and doesn't really reach for mom & dad. That works for that family! I just know my heart would have been broken if Jack didn't snuggle into me as much as he does. (I'm a SNUGGLER, people.)

Can you blame me?!

Each baby truly is different. You have to learn your own child, and learn to take advice from others with a grain of salt. I'm so happy we waited as long as we did to put Jack on schedule. However, now that we're on one, ohhhh boy is it amazing! We are both happier. The smiles I get from that boy after a nap...nothing can touch it.

This is his "morning is here!" face

I guess my point with this post is to let other mamas out there know, you're doing great!  It's hard figuring everything out all the time, and it's definitely a LOT of trial and error. If you're still having sleepless nights, don't forget...one day that sweet baby won't need you to rock them to sleep. It's not an easy job, but it's the BEST one. You'll make it through these restless nights, and I know (personally) I will be begging Jack to want to snuggle before bedtime. Until he's 16. Or 30. Whatever.