Seven Quick Takes Friday

1. Bonus Room Re-Do

We acquired some new-to-us used office furniture and revamped the Bonus Room, a project about which I'm very pleased (click here).

2. Sewing Again

Inspired by attending Mary's third sewing lesson, I sewed the same pattern of skirt Mary is working on for her sister Margaret. I haven't sewed in years!

3. Sunday

Sunday breakfast: toast, applesauce quick bread, strawberries, eggs, bacon

When our firstborn was four years old, I doubt we would have let him sleep during Mass, instead trying to teach him the right sit-stand-and-kneel movements, and maybe even the replies.

Fast asleep during Mass

With our Number Four child, my big goal is to get him to nap during Mass. Mass is at 12:30, so I tell him that the way he can have a cookie off the coffee cart after Mass is by laying his head on the pew. The little guy doesn't realize his kryptonite is laying his head still: within a couple of minutes, the previous Wiggle Worm is staring silently into space and soon after sound asleep for the duration of the Mass. (Meanwhile, #1 is serving the altar, #2 likes to sit alone in the front pew, #3 is five years old and sits next to me, and Chris has #5 toddler in the stroller outside.)

4. Learning by Rote: Friend or Foe?

I shared a few thoughts (click here).

5. St. Valentine's Day

Candies and cards ready for the morning

Waffles, pigs in a blanket, strawberries with chocolate

Click here to read an excerpt on St. Valentine's Day by Mary Reed Newland.

6. Better Sleep

We're in the process of night weaning Thomas at 18 months old. Some parents will scoff that that's ridiculously late, and some people will protest a parent weaning a child at all. Anyway, here we are, preparing for Thomas' little sibling.

The first night, he woke 12 times, but the next night only three times, and on the third night his first of two wakings wasn't until 3:30 a.m., which basically feels like a miracle.

Simultaneously, over the last two weeks, I've been able to shift Thomas' solitary nap from morning to the ideal post-lunch time. For at least half a year, Thomas has napped 10:00 to noon, and then not at all until his 7:00 p.m. bedtime, which was one super long stretch. Now he is going down for nap at noon and sleeping two to three hours! Then he is awake happily for four to five more manageable hours before his bedtime.

It is certainly more difficult to have a toddler awake during my entire school morning, but the trade off of having him napping and his four-year-old brother in Quiet Time simultaneously is like a dream come true.

7. Switching Care Providers

This week I interviewed a midwifery practice twelve minutes from my house and that delivers at the hospital two minutes from my house. They really seemed as ideal as a hospital-based midwifery practice can be, and the hospital is certified as a Baby Friendly Hospital, which means things like delayed weighing in order to accommodate skin-to-skin contact for the first hour, there doesn't exist a Nursery, the baby is in Mama's room 24/7, and no supplementation with a nipple will ever be offered: if supplementation is required, the hospital will obtain a pediatrician's order, and then supplement by cup or blunt syringe.

Switching to this provider will in prudence be better for my family overall, rather than my driving 70 miles to my prenatal appointments (which can be a couple of hours each way if traffic is bad), and further to deliver. At least, that's what I think for now.

This journey of risking out of home birth due to my health no longer being the lowest risk required is an emotional one, but I remind myself regularly of the more important things in life.


For more 7 Quick Takes Friday, check out This Ain't the Lyceum.