Background Check on Luke Timothy Malone

...or "Baby Lukey Dukey" as Rebekah called him this evening as he giggled at her and followed her every movement!

So, anyone who knows Luke knows he is an interesting study. However, most of you reading this blog, do NOT know Luke, so here goes!

He was born 4/17 of this year at a whopping 9lb 1oz after being induced 4 days late! I was all about the epidural and am so thankful for it! I should have known then that he was a lump, as Josh affectionately dubbed him.

While in utero, Luke's kidney's kept measuring too big essentially and it wasn't until RIGHT before we came to Scotland a month ago, that we finally got the all-clear there.

He also became jaundiced and developed the worst baby acne I have ever seen and pretty bad heat rash from me overswaddling him.

He would NOT sleep out of arms so, I resorted to my mom :), then I resorted to his car seat. Finally, frustrated with buckling him in only to have him awaken, I swaddled the crud out of him. Hence the heat rash. :)

Luke nursed well for a while, then started arching a lot and screaming. He developed very bad thrush (yeast infection of the mouth) which he transferred to me while nursing. Thanks. :) Since he wasn't nursing well and since we were really wanting to be able to give him a bottle, I began pumping furiously. Luke started to prefer the bottle, so I pumped more! Then, I wasn't keeping up with what he was eating and I started to panic. Then, I thought- hey, maybe all his fussiness and grunting and arching is ME! So, I convinced myself it was time for formula. I quit nursing at 9 weeks and all was well until right after I quit aching from pain. That little guy started doing the same darn thing on the bottle, too! Luke was refusing feeds after LONG periods of time, but we had moved to TX and didn't have a dr. So, I used a family dr and he FINALLY prescribed a reflux med that worked wonders! the formula, tho, only worsened his already-present struggle with constipation. We oscillated between various semi-natural laxatives, only to have him bleed when we got here. That has finally been resolved.

While at Josh's parents' house in July, we thought Luke began to miraculously sleep thru the night- only to discover we just couldn't hear him! Regardless, he got used to not feeding, just wanted the paci put in- over and over and over!!!!! We have gone back and forth on this, with Josh taking 99% of the burden of paci replacement at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, etc....

We moved to Scotland and somehow (Benadryl) little man managed to sleep most of all the flights (there were 3) and still be on track once we got here, sleeping thru the night with only one paci debacle. We were pumped, only to have the paci replacement begin again and again, with Josh taking 100% of the burden due to my selfishness and the fact that we have neighbors.

Luke has ALWAYS taken long naps- until last week. Out of nowhere he decided to cut 2 or 3 hr naps in half- very confusing! He used to sleep 2-3 hrs in the am and in the afternoon, with an evening catnap, too, adding up to about 5 or 6 hrs worth of naps. Crazy, I know. Anyway, even if he did awaken in the "middle" of a nap, he would usually go back to sleep after a few minutes.

Well, he decided last week that he was done with that! He still goes down without a peep (PTL), but cut down to anywhere from 1 hour-2 hrs. I was extremely frustrated and stressed with this change- change is always hard for me. I didn't know what to do and this coincided with Josh going to school and me feeling like I was making bad choices. Anyway, after many tears (mine or Luke's you may be wondering?), the Lord blessed me greatly. You see, Luke has been hard for me from day 1, from eating to sleeping to health concerns. I tearfully went before the Lord and begged for wisdom. All I could do was cry- I am attributing a lot of this to delayed stress from 2 recent moves and many extremely painful good-byes.

Regardless, I kept thinking about Rebekah. She is my little buddy- my constant source of joy and delight. I keep wanting to fastforward Luke to her age, w/o losing any time with her. Impossible on many fronts. Then, I think the Lord graciously brought to mind my first year with Rebekah. Many of you know that I would have given her back if I could have. Yikes...I have had post partum to some degree with both of my babies, which has been the source of many tears and much guilt. Rebekah was not a good napper (read that a short napper) and for a whole year, I left her in her crib to cry it out (chat it out for her :)) regardless of the fact that she simply didn't need that amount of sleep. I have often wished I could redeem that time. This last year has been precious, to say the least, as I have simply treasured her for who she is and not for what anyone says she should be.

You're seeing where I'm going with this...Luke is his own little man. He is not one bit Rebekah and that is exactly what I prayed for- he would be his own little person and not in his sister's shadows. I realized the Lord was giving me a glimpse into what mothering him should look like- treasure Luke for Luke and not compare or attempt to make him someone he is not. So, I grabbed my baby as he was pitifully crying and just held him. He of course calmed down and grinned at me. Then, he giggled the entire time he took his bottle. Thank you, Lord.

Coincidentally (or not?) I found a sleep book here at the flat the owners left behind. I had sworn off parenting books, especially sleep books, since my misapplication with Rebekah. Out of desperation, I flipped thru it and it was super-helpful! Essentially, it suggests his night has been bad for several reasons- too much sleep during the day (re-pacifying to encourage longer naps) and not enough solids are contributing to poor night habits. (Plus him needing his paci). So, we are working on those things and it has been amazing. Not perfect, mind you, but little man has been sweet as can be even with less daytime sleep (granted as I'm typing this, he's into his 2nd hour of a nap:)) and as I have been studying him, so many wonderful things have been so obvious:

He's my son. I have a son! Not a baby that makes my life stressful, but a son!
He LOVES all of us so passionately.
He has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh, expecially at his sister.
He is a sweet snuggler.

Plus, the same day as my meltdown, a sweet new friend (let's call her Kate :)) called at JUST the time I needed a friend and I realized that maybe I do have people here who might possibly like me. Thanks, Kate!

Thanks for "listening," everybody- felt good to process a lot of that!