Photo Dump: John Paul

I can't believe this little guy...
...is already 4 months old. Crazy.

He is such a happy little guy. And for at least a quarter of his life so far he has been an absolutely terrific sleeper (by our standards).

dozing off on his play mat

pictures of sleeping babies are my favorite

more sleeping!

He was sleeping through the night for a couple weeks (so amazing... so very, very amazing), then at about 3 months he went back to waking up once, sometime twice, each night. Not bad at all. And then for the last two weeks or so he has had a really hard time staying asleep. He has slept on his tummy since he was only a couple weeks old and he does not at all like to sleep on his back. Now he rolls over from tummy to back really easily and it is messing with his sleep in a major way. Sad day for Mama. I can't wait for him to figure out rolling back onto his tummy!

One of my favorite things this summer was snuggling and nursing John Paul in bed for an extra hour or so while Alex got up with the bigger boys in the mornings.

carefully propped on his side so he wouldn't wake up immediately

He loves his jumper:

And his grandpa:

He does not love his car seat (again with the being on his back, I think). He's not particularly interested in the pacifier, but it does occasionally help in the car.

are we there yet?

Life is good :)

When life is just kind of a pain...

I had such good intentions of blogging more regularly this summer. I have a whole series of posts brewing in which I plan to share the deep insights and life lessons I've been mulling over as I read the boys their favorite books over and over and over again. Liam's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. John Paul is already four months old. Michael is becoming such a big little boy. I have sooooo many pictures I've been meaning to post.

Shortly after Easter my SI joint alignment issue reared its ugly head again, and I saw the physical therapist for it in early June (I didn't mean to wait so long--I gave it a couple weeks to resolve with stretching, then when it didn't it took another 3 weeks before I could get an appointment. sigh.). And then two weeks ago I went back to my PT for some intense back pain. I was hoping it was just my alignment again, but the PT checked me over and informed me that I was perfectly aligned. This time the problem is an acute herniated disc. Well, rats.

This situation has been all-consuming for me. I already felt overwhelmed and frustrated with the residual sciatic pain and limited range of motion from my alignment issue. Now, of course, I wish it were only that. I thought I had a high tolerance for pain (I confess my natural labors are often more a source of pride for me than they should be!) but this experience has been totally humbling. A big part of why I haven't blogged much recently is that I can't think of anything to say that isn't chock-full of self pity (the other part is that I can't sit at the computer for more than a few minutes, and the kitchen counters are rarely clean/clear enough to to serve as a standing desk). I started this post with the title of "photo dump" and the intention of simply mentioning my back and then posting a bunch of pictures from the last month or so. And then when the explanation started to just flow out in more detail than I had planned, I spent the rest of the evening feeling sorry for myself all over again. There may be future reflections on what I've been learning about myself during this ordeal, and then again there may not. Maybe once I'm back to "normal" (whatever that is; my PT did promise she'd get me there) I'll have a little more perspective and can write something that isn't just whining.

ANYways, here are a couple pictures from our trip to South Dakota for church camp in June. More pictures coming very soon, I promise :)

John Paul Charles and Great Grandpa Chuck

really great Great Grandparents

it was not a particularly photogenic week for Liam...
this was his happiest face from all the family pictures we tried to take

these boys lover their grandparents!