5 Months Old!

Yes, I recognize that Kinley is now actually 5 1/2 months old, but I wanted to keep track of Kinley's growth and progress as of 5 months!

This was a busy month with our Spring Break trip!  Here's a couple highlights:

*3/16 - Standing up without assistance.  It's so cute, any time I pull her from lying down to sitting up, she straightens her legs and pops up to a standing position!

*Kinley loves to hear herself babble.  Especially when we're in the car, she'll stare out the window and make such precious noises.  Here's a little peak at her "talking" (p.s. Trent is driving, I'm in the passenger seat filming!)

*4/11 - Kinley stopped being swaddled.  Since Kinley was born, we've been using the miracle blanket...this thing is truly a miracle!!! 

(Side Note: I've avoided talking at all about sleep on the blog because isn't it one of those things you DON'T discuss?!  Especially if you have a good sleeper?  Well I'm risking doing a bad thing by talking about it...the truth is, I have had a great sleeper!  But without the miracle blanket, this little lady is giving us a run for our money, so I'll share = )

So with the miracle blanket, Kinley was a ridiculous sleeper.  Literally we'd wrap her up, give her a kiss and she'd fall asleep.  For naptimes, at nighttime, after middle of the night feedings...she was a breeze.  But in the last month there were more and more nights where Kinley would break out of the swaddle.  So we decided to quit swaddling cold turkey!  Sleep has been quite the different story since then, some great days, some days of crying, some days of crying through her whole naps, and some nights of 2 hours to get her to bed (like tonight!), lots of reading and trying different sleep-training strategies, and lots of second guessing myself.  It seems like the nap schedules are all wacky now, and whether or not she'll go down quickly at night is anyone's guess.  I've also got the hunch that she's beginning to understand what to do to get my attention (like screaming her head off).  Basically, good sleep is still a work in progress! 

Here's some pictures of Kinley at 5 months:

A Thankful Heart

This is the Gift I received today....

Seriously God?!  You bless me in the midst of my doubt!

Let me back up and explain...

Thanks to many showers and many sweet friends, we were stocked with diapers for quite a while, I'm so thankful for that because on our tight budget, we hadn't exactly found a way to budget in diapers and they can be expensive!  I literally had purchased one small package of newborn diapers shortly after Kinley was born, but other than that we had been set for quite some time. 

It must have been about a month-and-a-half ago that I was literally on my LAST diaper.  That morning Kinley and I planned to spend time with a little playgroup consisting of 3 other new moms and then we were going to head to the store to purchase our first big stash.  While spending time with these amazing moms, one mentioned she had a stash of #2 diapers she coudn't use and offered them to me...wow, God provided literally at the exact right moment!

But should I really be surprised?

Fast forward a bit.  We've now bought a couple small packages of diapers and have managed to just take it out of our grocery budget.  Not a huge deal, but I find that when money gets tight, I get stressed and seem to want to hold even tighter to what we do have.  

I find myself thinking how luxurious it would be not to have to worry about how to stretch money, or get to buy a grocery item that isn't necessary, like maybe some fancy cheese, the healthy cereal that costs $1 more than everything else, or maybe a bottle of wine!  I sometimes will even throw myself a little stress pity party...how gross is that?!  I believe these things will fill me in some small way, or satisfy just a bit.  Oh my sinful heart!  It's in these moments that I realize I'm not truly believing that Christ alone is enough.  God allows these situations because they are actually opportunities to PRAISE HIM and TRUST HIM as the great provider.  So I'm missing the WHOLE point when I look inward, hold tighter and allow stress to overtake my thoughts.

This brings us up to last night.  Trent went out and purchased a big box of #2 diapers because we were down to our final few diapers, and I had him just pull money from our grocery budget.  I knew we'd just have to find some way to make our grocery money stretch...maybe a few cereal dinners or something.  

This morning Kinley and I are hanging out with this same mom's group and ANOTHER one of the moms mentions as we're leaving....

"Hey, I've got a bunch of #2 Diapers I'd love to give to you"

Isn't God good?!  He is our great provider.  Always.  In different and creative ways.  And always in ways that should bring the focus of our praise back to Him. 

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.  Of how much more value are you than the birds!"  Luke 12:22-24