Glorious March

This has been a fabulous month so far. Many things have taken place that have just lifted my spirits and made life that much better. Don't get me wrong, I know that despite trials and difficulty, I always have reason to be thankful. It's just that this month the good things in life have been piled on my plate. I'm experiencing a new desire to tackle things I've been putting off or just haven't had the energy to dive into.  Let me share some the good stuff this month that has helped me feel revived and inspired.

1. My Mom's visit. It's hard to live away from your parents, especially once you have children. I don't like when months (or even weeks) have gone by and I haven't been able to share the most important things in my life with two people who I use to share everything with. Needless to say, I love seeing Parker and Graham with my parents, and my momma was able to come for 10 days at the beginning of this month. We all had a great time and Mom was a huge help with the boys.  These three are great pals.

2. Warm weather. Give me a break, I'm from Florida where the 60's are considered cold. Being cooped up inside for months with endless snow is not fun for me. I crave sun all winter, so this week when it decided to appear and bring the temperature into the 70's a few times, I was elated. Vitamin D is a good thing. Here's the boys enjoying the first day of spring warmth. It only got to 52 degrees this day, but we were out playing in the sunshine anyway.

3. Brotherly Love. I chose to have my first two kids pretty darn close together in my opinion. The past 6 months have been full of questions relating to the intelligence of that crazy move. I know some choose to pop 'em out back to back, but I wasn't ready to even think about another baby until Parker was 15 months. We found out we were expecting baby Dunn #2 the next month. This week I was able to see the first benefits of that decision. I always wanted my children to have a close sibling to play and share life with. This week, the boys took their first bath together and when it was time for me to get Graham out, Parker protested with, "Don't take him out, I want him to stay and keep playing with me." I loved hearing that. In amongst the future scuffles they will have, I will cherish the moments where they enjoy one another.

4. Sleep. I've saved the best for last. I started to have issues sleeping when I was about 6 months pregnant. Blah Blah Blah-so does every other pregnant woman. I was prepared for a few months of sleep training where I'd be waking up through the night to feed baby Graham. I expected him to be like his brother and slowly reduce feedings at night until he was sleeping 10-12 hours straight by a few months. Well, that is not how the story went. To make a very long story short, Graham was diagnosed with severe acid reflux at 2 months. Yay for me. I could handle the constant spewage (yes, I know that's disgusting), but I couldn't deal with waking up every 30 minutes to an hour every night to comfort a hurting (and screaming) baby. I was beyond tired every day. I lived with 3-5 hours of sleep for 6 months and it wore on me. I tried everything under the sun to get a few hours of consecutive sleep. I was not able to be myself and I didn't like it. Last week it was like something snapped. We had Graham prayed for at church, he was finally old enough to begin Prevacid, and I felt that he was old enough to fuss it out in the middle of the night instead of me rescuing him. (If you're thinking I should have tried that earlier...don't. I tried and it ended in Graham screaming, which made the reflux worse, and me feeling like a horrible mother.) I don't really care to know which worked, I am just thankful to God and modern medicine that he has been sleeping at least 10 hours straight every night this week. I feel like me again. Here's my precious boy peacefully at sleep and not hurting from that heinous reflux.

No matter what you are going through, do your best to be thankful for the blessings in your life! What have you been doing to enjoy the spring?