I am sitting here, plinking this
out with one hand while rocking Bella in the other. See, she went to bed at 9, so she is up for her 11:00 feeding. She will be up again for her 3:00 feeding, and possibly her 5:00 feeding, and then she’ll for sure be up for the day by 6:30. Take that times ten months, and you’ll understand why I’ve contracted strep throat (twice), a sinus infection, bronchitis, and just generally have lost my mind. *sigh* Yesterday, I caught myself leaving out letters of words as I was writing. Impressive.
And yet, I’m sitting here looking at her perfect little pouty, sleeping lips, and wanting to kiss them. Yes, sir. That’s MY baby.
Bub and I decorated Christmas cookies together.
He loved it! He really dumped on the sprinkles, but I didn’t mind. And sure, our frosting was pink and mint green, but we didn’t care.
We had a blast anyway.
And then?
Then we ate them. :)

The Christmas card outtakes, that is. What a circus to take pictures of your kids!
I even stacked the deck in my favor: I had good lighting, and a nice backdrop. Both kids were fed and not tired.
And still, this is what we got…

"I don't really know what you want me to do, Mom."



"I'm losing interest, Ma..."

"Okay, I'm willing to give it another shot, Mom."

"It's *kind of* fun to hold Belle."


"But I'd rather play with her zipper."

"I'm starting to get tired of this again, Mama."


And there goes Belle. Don't worry. She was okay.

Good one of Bub, but now Belle's crying.

Maybe if we just take an individual picture of each kid...


And now we are *behind* the backdrop.




I give up.
Actually, I didn’t give up. I managed to get just enough good shots to put together a decent Christmas card. *wipes brow* Whew!
We welcomed a baby girl to our family last month. Please welcome Belle!
And so, I’m the mother to a newborn again. She’s cuddly and snuggly, and she wakes me up at all hours of the night.
This morning at 4:45 a.m., she decided she wasn’t ready to go back to sleep. I thought her grunts were waking up her daddy, and I was afraid her “Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!”s were going to turn into crying and wake up Bub, so Belle and I took a little field trip downstairs for a while.
I changed her diaper. She didn’t really want to eat. I cuddled her and ate a granola bar. This nursing thing? It’s giving me one heck of an appetite. All I want to do is eat, eat, eat. I put her up on my shoulder and pat, pat, patted her back. I hummed a little “Both Sides Now” in her ear. Finally I felt her head get heavy and rest on my shoulder.
I went to the mirror to see if her eyes were closed. I wasn’t prepared for the image that greeted me: Me, with dark circles beneath my eyes and hair all over the place. Spitup on my old t-shirt. Me holding her, with her funny, fuzzy hair in a full on spike, rather than its normal state of mohawk. I laughed a little to myself. These are the first days of motherhood.
I will sleep again. Eventually.
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