Motherhood

Life with three kids.
So far it's so very different from the life we knew when we had just two.  At first it wasn't hard at all because we had my parents here to help with the house, the baby and the kids. Then after that Sterling's parents came to help with the house, the baby and the kids. But then they went home. And I received two callings at church that would make my life a bit busier (Gospel Doctrine co-teacher and Enrichment Leader for Relief Society).

Athena has not been too bad about sleeping at night. Now she even does great...letting me sleep except when she needs to eat every two hours or so. But I have more than just one child waking me at night...Tiberias. Poor Tiberias has what I would call sever anxiety. He is constantly worried that mom and dad are going to leave him. At night when we put him to bed he asks "Are you staying here all night?" We have to reassure him that we wont leave while he is sleeping. And if he forgets to ask us "Are you staying here all night?" before we close his door to a crack he will freak out and exit his room crying and saying "Are you going to leave?!"

Then at some point in the night he wakes up and leaves his bedroom crying and yelling "Mom?! Dad?! Are you here?!"

For a while we would take him back to his bed every night, trying to calm him down and get him settled back in bed. But eventually we started letting him come into our room and sleep on our floor and that's now what we do every night. But does that convince him to be comfortable and sleep the rest of the night? No! He wakes up asking "mom? dad? Are you still here?" a couple times atleast.

He does take a nap in the middle of the day...unless his dad is home during that time. For some reason he does not fall asleep during nap time if Sterling is home! But he usually naps for me. Right now he's sleeping. He sleeps two hours each afternoon. That's before Lachoneus gets out of school for the day. That's when  I work on my gospel doctrine lesson or catch up on cleaning, watch a show or read.

I do have a one month old baby though...and she likes being held a lot. Some days she does very well to sleep and be content all morning but some days she thinks she needs to held even to sleep. If you put her down she wakes up.

I love having a daughter! She's adorable!  And Saturday...a few days ago...she laughed for the first time! I was holding her at the stake center during Women's Conference. She was sleeping and I guess dreaming. She started laughing and it was the cutest thing I have ever heard! Seriousely!

I have three amazing kids.  All three are adorable!  Lachoneus is so smart! He is doing great at reading and math! He makes me so proud! He is also very well behaved but I've almost always felt that way about him. He is more of a calm child and always has been.
Tiberias is the opposite of that...my little ball of energy. He loves to dance! Wants to play sports and be big like Luke and go to school. He is so social and likes to talk to people...even if his social desire leans more towards socializing with adults than other kids.

And Athena...she hasnt been on earth long enough for me to have a list of things I love about her but she is so sweet! Such a good baby and I am crazy about her.

And of course, Sterling is my partner and support in parenthood. He is a wonderful father and an amazing husband too. He just had a birthday and celebrated him on Sunday.
I love being his best friend and his wife. Life together is wonderful even if it's sometimes hard.