Late to bed, Early to rise makes a woman.....mean

Well, life has been keeping us busy and tired. 

We either both stay up till 11p when the nurse gets here or we take turns going to bed early.

Last night, Noah had been out of town overnight and I was pooped so I literally fell asleep at 7p and Noah took care of all of the boys. 

Thanks to that  I was able to accomplish what has till now alluded me. That is "early to bed, early to rise" I am speaking of. Wether or not I would be healthy, wealthy or wise is yet to be decided. But less like a morning mommy monster and more like a happy wife and mother is all I desire. Ok, not ALL I desire. I would like about 8 more hours of sleep, a maid, and a better physique... but ANYWAY. 

I DO know the necessity of that thing called discipline in all of life, but especially times like these when emotions run high, sleep runs low and time seems scarce. And the pesky thing about discipline is that it is unpleasant in of itself (i.e. getting up early, keeping to a schedule,etc) yet bears good fruit in the end. In that sense it's really an act of faith. I get up earlier (only, I don't) than my family hoping that the unpleasant act will produce a woman with a clearer mind and shorter fangs at 7 am. 

What can I say? I love my bed.

 And so do my three boys, gratefully. Oh, how I wish we had a king size bed to pile all of us in there comfortably. And, no, our children don't all sleep with us at night- most nights. I just love the early morning cuddling and the movie nights and the evening wrestling (with the kids!!! hey now! this is a G rated blog, friends). 

In this photo the boys are in the midst of teaching Shepherd how to sing with your nose plugged so that it sounds funny. He's almost got it.

And THIS beautiful picture is of Shepherd's FIRST EVER bottle of breast milk!!!! It was his very next feeding that he began breast feeding (don't worry. I didn't take pictures of that to post)... at 3 1/2 months old!!! We are soo happy. 

But on that note, please pray with us that Shepherd will continue to gain good weight on the breast milk. At this point, we are BFeeding during the day and fortifying breast milk bottles at night so he can get some extra calories. The general thought is just that he's not gaining as fast anymore simply because he was on such high calorie formula (26 k/cal) where as breast milk is anywhere from 17-20 k/cal. So it will be a rather large adjustment for his body, but were hoping he'll work it out in time and continue to gain, since his weight is so important for future surgeries. I would appreciate your prayer for his feeding though. It's tempting for me to be anxious in this area. It doesn't help that we weigh him DAILY so I know his weight down to the half oz each day. I am also used to counting EVER mL (1/30 of an oz) for every feed and adding them all up at the end of the day. With breast feeding there is a bit of mystery to it all and it can make me uneasy, yet I feel confident that it's the best thing for him on a number of levels. 

I also want to remember that if God made it possible for him to BF this late in the game than He'll make a way for him to benefit from it.

But just in case were not keeping up on Shep's progress well enough... he does have a 2 year old brother who will handle things.

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Yes, we are tired. But we are happy. 

Except at 6 am. Then I am just tired. And mean. Like a snake.

I kid you not this conversation took place at our dinner table the other day:

Noah: "Kids, you better watch out (as they were acting up)

 cause mommy is like a snake.

She's soooo sweet but if you back her into a corner... or make her feel threatened... she'll bite you."

Aslan: " Daddy, mommy doesn't look like a snake"

So true, both of them.

But prayerfully I will gain some will power and begin getting up at 6 so that I can be prepared to love the precious gifts God has given me and treat them like what they are... a privilege to serve, not a job to get up too early for.

p.s. In my defense, after the first hour post-waking I am generally very un-snake like.

Unless I get backed into a corner. 

But don't worry. Only people that are REALLY close to me get bitten, generally. So your safe.