One Week Later

'For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find'

We've made it a whole week as a family of 8! Mini-Man joined us a week ago yesterday afternoon. Jared and I are a little sleep-deprived, so things are still kind of blur at the moment, but we're making it! God is so gracious and so good! 

There was a moment when we thought that things just were not going to work. It was Friday morning. Mini-man had been with us for 4 days, and the nights were truly just hard. He was noisy...not really crying the whole time, mainly just grunting and not settling down or sleeping soundly at all. Jared was coming off his second night of baby duty, and his quote was, "I'm done. We can not function like this." He and I sat down at the kitchen counter and had a long, honest chat. We came up with a set of goals, things that needed to happen before he went back to work. I actually wrote them down. Most of the goals had to do with Mini-Man's sleeping and eating, things that were truly out of our hands. I mean, we can't make the baby sleep or take a bottle in less than an hour. That was a tough conversation for me to have. I knew Jared was right; we were really struggling. At the same time, though, I just truly believed that God wanted Mini-Man in our family for longer than just 4 days. He had been so faithful up to this point. Jared and I looked over the list and agreed that we'd call DHR on Tuesday (today) if things weren't getting better. 

Would you believe that that very night Mini-Man slept soundly from 10-ish to 4:30, waking only to eat around 1:30? He did the same thing the next night and the next. He continues to do so, and in fact is now stretching his nights til 5:00. He's also taking his bottles in 30 mins or less. I remember lying there in bed Friday night, well Saturday morning, singing praises in my heart so overcome with the fact that God hears us and sees us. It was yet another confirmation that yes, Mini-Man is here with us by God's sovereign design.

And oh, God was gracious enough to let me and a sweet friend see Mini-Man's first smile this morning in our co-op's parking lot. I know some folks say that all smiles at this stage are just gas. I choose to disagree. :-)