Monday, December 15, 2014

Mary, Did You Know?



I love Christmas music. Some are silly and fun and catchy, others are very meaningful and make me ponder the true meaning of this season. One of the latter ones is "Mary, Did You Know?". During this Advent season, as I snuggle my 4 month old son, I keep pondering the words to that song: 

Mary did you know that your baby boy will some day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you
.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb


Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I AM.

I tear up every time I hear that song. I feel like now that I have a child, I can relate to Mary in a different way than I ever have before. I cannot imagine, knowing about the role her son would play in the future, the emotions that she went through. I'm sure she went through all the normal "mom" emotions---unconditional love, awe, wonder. I'm sure she stared at her newborn son, consumed by amazement that He was God Incarnate. I'm sure she stared at him wondering if he knew who he was as a baby. I can imagine her anguish when he cried, not knowing exactly what he was crying about, and probably crying with him. I can imagine the immense joy of seeing his first smile and hearing his first laugh. I can imagine how proud she was when he conquered new milestones--sitting up and reaching for things and saying "momma" for the first time. 

I am sure she was flooded with gratefulness and utterly humbled that God chose to bestow this amazing gift to her, but yet it was probably also such a burden. It's hard enough to be a parent, but to be a parent to a PERFECT child, the Son of God? He never had to be disciplined because he never sinned. I imagine she probably felt resentment every now and then towards her other children because they WERE sinners and had to be disciplined. Wow. Talk about a tall order. 

One other thing that makes me tear up every time I think about, is the pain she must have went through when he was being tortured and whipped and beaten and crucified. FOR ME. As a mother, your heart physically hurts when your child is in pain. To watch your son go through that, knowing that was the plan all along; knowing He had to go through it to fulfill the prophecies and the new covenant; knowing that it was the right thing. I figure that didn't make it any easier. She was still his mother and I cannot imagine the excruciating pain that must have caused her.

The Christmas Story has taken on an entirely new meaning for me this year. And it makes me even more amazed and thankful to my God that He allowed His son to go through all of that for me. To save ME--an unperfect, sinful human being. 


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Holt: 4 Months




"Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation."--C. Everett Koop

What a great reminder. And how true! AND…how is my baby already 4 months old? What a joy he is!  He is such a wonderful fit for our family. I am so thankful and humbled by how the Lord created him just for us.

*Milk allergy update: Holt has responded extremely well to me going dairy free! It has taken us this whole month for it to completely get out of both of our systems, but he is feeling so much better! Thank you to those who have been praying for us. The good news is he should grow out of this between 6 months and 1 year--although I'm guessing it will be closer to the 1 year mark since his sensitivity seems to be somewhat severe.

*Thanksgiving: We celebrated Holt's first Thanksgiving and it was a blast! You can read all about that here

Weight: 11 lbs 9 oz (3rd percentile)--he has lost about 3 oz. since our last visit. The pediatrician doesn't seem worried because he is continuing to sleep well at night and be on target developmentally too. We are just going to do everything we can to ensure he is getting the proper nutrition.
Height: 25.5 inches (85th percentile)

Milestones: *he holds his head up pretty much all the time now *he found his toes and loves to grab and chew on them *he talks to us all the time *he laughs every now and then *standing is still his favorite--the kid can seriously stand for 10 minutes at a time *he can see at longer distances---he can recognize us across the room and has started to look out the window in the car *his pincher grasp is improving--he can pick up toys and bring them to his mouth


Sleep: Oh man. This has been somewhat up and down this month. He HAS slept through the night several times (yay!)--I'm talking 8:30PM-7AM. That. Is. Glorious. Let me tell you! However, he will do that a couple nights in a row, and then bam! The next night, he wakes up around 5:00AM or so. We had a particularly rough week and a half around Thanksgiving because he had a pretty bad cold, which made it to where he couldn't breathe very well, and his reflux was acting up pretty bad so he wasn't eating as well. Both of these combined made it rough for the sleep department. He still takes 3 naps a day, although some are only 30-45 minutes, but all in all he does great.

Favorite Things: *his toes *his fists *music *talking and interacting with us *looking at lights and out the window *cuddling *shower time

Feeding: This has been up and down this month too. Since we left to go to Miami and I was gone from him, I had to pump to keep up my supply. However, even doing that your supply still gets a little low. It's been tough on me to get it back up to where it was--especially because when he had the cold and his reflux acted up, he refused to eat. I was having to supplement with formula because I knew he was hungry and he felt like he had been losing weight. It was so hard! Thankfully, at the tail end of being sick he hit a growth spurt (he ate every 1-2 hours during the day for about 2 days straight). I think the result of that helped my supply increase and get back to normal because ever since then we haven't seemed to have as many problems. It's been a rough couple of months between the milk allergy and my supply dropping, but hopefully we are on the upswing now!

practicing sitting up in the Bumbo

loving that fist!

yeah, this was one of THOSE days

His cousins, Caroline and Olivia, absolutely adore him! 

ready for church

Holt's first Thanksgiving

So thankful to be married to him :)

He LOVED his Aunt Hannah!

…and cousin Will (the last boy in my family born 20 years ago)

such a BIG boy!

75 degree weather in November? yes please!

Thanksgiving family photo

Found our toes!