Crib Notes

It's hard to describe the emotions and irrational thoughts that go through your head when you learn that your child has to have surgery. The thought of my 3 year old son going "under" and the potential risks associated with the surgery and the general anesthetic was really unbearable for me. I saw my vulnerable child and my instinct to protect was more intense than ever.

It seems we hear a lot more about overweight children, but not often about the other end of the spectrum: underweight children. Just as many kids fall in the lower percentiles for weight as fall in the high percentiles for weight.

Just after my daughter Anna turned 3, we found out we were expecting. I was very nervous at first because 3 was a difficult age (difficult meaning TANTRUMS!), and I had no idea how I would handle a newborn added into the mix. Thankfully, we had a few months to adjust to the idea. Anna named her brother-to-be Llama Face and we eagerly prepared for his arrival.

As a parent of a new baby, I spent a lot of time and energy mastering nursing or bottle feeding. It was just as I felt that I had become a pro in this area that the pediatrician said it was time to think about introducing my baby to “solids”. For most children (and their parents!), this new adventure starts somewhere between 4 and 6 months. Here are a couple of ideas on how to master solid feeding and expand your child’s palette.

I’m one of those moms who had a lot of anxiety and worries prior to my oldest child starting kindergarten (read all about it in part 1 of this story).  I think I built it up in my mind so much that by contrast, the transition was a breeze.  In spite of all of my fears, I was very excited for my son Noah.  I certainly didn’t want him to pick up on my fears and be scared. 

My oldest son, Noah, is about to start kindergarten in just one week. Is he ready? Am I ready? I know I am certainly not the first mother to worry about this, and won’t be the last either. He went to preschool the past 2 years, but somehow this feels so different, and more scary to me.

As you can imagine, having a child with multiple food allergies is not easy. Mealtime, and food in general, are such a natural part of our day to day lives – food is a symbol of love and affection, it is part of how we socialize, and in many cases, we take food for granted. As a society here in America, we eat meals without thinking much about how each bite impacts our health and well-being.

It is much easier to help and give to others than to accept it. I struggle with this every day. Shortly after Garrett’s passing a very sweet lady contacted us from SIDS Resources. She was willing to offer her help and/or some direction for our recently found broken path. I was very skeptical about talking with someone because I believed I could handle this myself. I call it my independence but my husband calls it being stubborn.

It is beyond belief how your life can change in an instant. One moment you are seemingly going through the motions of your normal day and then within seconds things seem to stop and everything is different. That moment arrived when Garrett passed and we honestly were brought to our knees with such pain. You literally wonder how you will ever move forward.

In February of 2004 we had just moved into our dream home that we built and the old saying “new house new baby” held very true for us. We conceived the same month we moved in. We already had a 3 year old son, Nolan, who was kind, big hearted and the center of our world but we knew we wanted to add to our family.