Oh December...

It' a good thing Ainsley's been a pretty easy going baby. As I mentioned earlier, December was a pretty challenging month for us. We spent a lot of time at home and a lot of time trying to make our sweet Sadie Beth as comfortable as possible in the midst of her surgery recovery. We were exhausted and to be honest - discouraged. After the initial recovery stage, I think the stress of having a new sister, having lots of people around, and feeling like crud really caused her to fall apart for awhile. We struggled with finding the line between being comforting and understanding of all the change/discomfort and figuring out how to lovingly discipline her for behavior that was completely out of line - while not going overboard because of all the stress. She also starting having night-terrors (or whatever you might want to call them), where she would wake up between 9-11pm just as mad as a hornet. She would scream and cry and hit and kick and flail and growl (literally). There were times where she was awake during them and times where I don't think she was. Usually they lasted about an hour, sometimes more. It was scary and emotional - nobody likes to see their babies in that state. All that to say....praise God for his faithfulness to bring us through such a trying time! And even in the midst of all that, we still had some pretty sweet moments during this Christmas season....

Still scowling...but notice it is starting to diminish a little. And we started getting teeny smiles here and there.

Oh the bottle - Ainsley will take a bottle a little better than Sadie Beth at this point, but it is definitely a love/hate relationship. Can I just take this moment to mention how "unhelpful" most people are when talking about getting your baby to take a bottle? Most of the time, the Mamas I've encountered are just looking for a little sympathy. They've probably heard all the "advice" in the world on it. Please don't make a mom feel guilty for her baby not taking a bottle...she probably really wants the baby to take one as well. It means freedom. Unfortunately, some moms don't pump well and have to make sure they can keep their milk supply up (which means not doing too many bottles if they don't pump well). Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Our sweet Ainsley - she continues to sleep in her carseat like a champ! This makes it so much easier for Sadie Beth and I to continue doing all our fun weekday activities - like playing at the Ark, All About Kids, Storytime at the library, playdates with friends, and of course - the "red ball" store. (Target). Doesn't she look miserable? Poor thing. Note to self: for all future Balzer children, start training them early to like ice cream, pudding, jello, etc. in case they need their tonsils out at 2 years old. 2 year old logical reasoning leaves much to be desired - hence, she at pbjs the entire time she was recovering which isn't the softest food I can think of.

But we knew our sweet girl was still in there somewhere...every once in awhile we would still get a few of these to keep us going. I'm so glad my girls will grow up with a sister close in age. They won't realize what a blessing that is for a very long time I'm sure, but I am so excited to see more of this...

What a serious girl. She takes her "swing time very seriously. That green whale leaves a lot to contemplate.

And just in case you were wondering if they are truly related.....Sadie Beth just a few days old......and Ainsley just over a month old....

Sometimes I can't get over how much they resemble each other and then other times I don't see it nearly as much.

Daddy brought Sadie Beth a balloon home from work one day. A coworker didn't want it. She was tickled to have it, but would get SOOO frustarted when it wouldn't cooperate with her. :)

I think we spent 3/4 of the month in our pj's....perfect attire for wintertime.

This sleeper is the only piece of clothing I've bought for Ainsley, and it was 75% off at Meijer. So, it's one of my favorites.

oh dear....poor Ainsley. (I think I say that at least once a day)

You can start to see as the month goes on Sadie Beth starts looking a little more like herself. And on a side note - she got down to about 24 lbs after the surgery. We were at the doctor a few days ago - 27 lbs! My girl's been catching up!

Each day I think Ainsley is starting to grow on Sadie Beth a little bit. After the initial time of infatuation wore off, she wasn't so sure for awhile. She knew she loved her sister, but not so much sharing Mommy. She is handling that SO much better now and even is starting to enjoy Ainsley a bit here and there.

Cultivating a love for Sesame Street is important in the Balzer home - so Sadie Beth is starting Ainsley out early. Ainsley, meet Elmo and Cookie.

Sadie Beth loves watching Sid The Science Kid on PBS. It is a pretty great show. Here she was recording her "obser-gations" in her "science journal," or so she says.

"Mommy, Ainsley's touching me!" (she really did say it). Boy that starts early.

Finally, a picture of Sadie Beth's "big girl" bed made up nice. I fell in LOVE with this bedding set and was so excited I found it used for a ridiculously cheap price. Sadie Beth calls it her "happy flower cozy big girl bed." Now I'm just looking for another used quilt so I can have a matching set for Ainsley.

The End