The Choices God makes for me

So, I'm beginning to become a little anxious about the decisions that might be happening for me. 
First things first, I love my job, I work at Mercy Medical Center as an Health Care Access Rep and could not be more excited with it.  I enjoy the people I work with, the hours are beginning to complement my lifestyle, the pay is decent and bottom line, minus the gossip and drama sometimes, its STRESS FREE!!!!
About two or three weeks ago I was presented with an opportunity that could effect my life in a major way.  There was a job opening for a position that is in my field and in town!  There are lots of pros and CONS to this position and I've kind of struggled with knowing that right answers.  I've prayed about it and talked about it with my husband and I decided to submit my application to see where it took me.  Well, I'm scheduled for an interview tomorrow morning.  I have mixed emotions to be very honest with you.  I'm excited for the possible new journey, the pay is outstanding, benefits can't pass up, and the people I would work with are beyond AWESOME!!  However, it will open up the opportunity for my stress levels to be OUT OF THE ROOF, possible late nights sometimes, extra worry about things that are out of my control, and deadlines.  Now I understand that most jobs require deadlines, however that's one thing at Mercy that is pretty amazing, no deadlines.  In fact if I dont' get something done it WILL NOT be sitting waiting for me the next day.  Someone else helps me out and finishes it for me.  The anxious part comes from not wanting to leave a company that has treated me well.  I am usually the type of person that does not like quitting something, especially if there is nothing wrong, and that would be exactly what I will be doing. 
I just need to continue to pray and what god decides with was will be the best decision for me and my family.  Wish me luck to the next possible chapter in my (our) life.  I also need to remember that I no longer am making decisions for just myself, I have a FAMILY to think about!!!

Zumba, ZUMBA!!!!

So I went home from work last night (afternoon) and just felt like doing SOMETHING!  Bentley was being pretty good crawling around and exploring so I popped in my mom's work out video of Zumba to give it a try!!

Or should I say it gave ME a try?!?!?  Just 20 minutes and I was working up a sweat, breathing hard, and man o man did my legs BURN!!   But the music was great, the energy was amazing....even Mr. B got into the rhythm and joined me.  I felt fantastic afterwards and most importantly I feel Fantastic today!!!!  I have so much energy, I was excited to get out of bed and start my day and can't wait to get home and do some more. 

I have joined the Live Healthy Iowa ban and working hard for my team at work!  I WILL GET HEALTHY so that I can enjoy my son and get fit so I'm not so tired all the time! I joined Weight Watchers about a month ago and after much frustration, I am finally starting to see some (even minimal) results and it feels good.  I am finally seeing my hard work pay off.  I challenge you to start drinking water, that's been my most success in all this and has made me feel the greatest. 

MY LITTLE MAN IS A CHAMP

DRUM ROLL............NIGHT THREE....you heard me THREE that Bentley has fell asleep ON HIS OWN.......A week ago Curt and I began the challenge of getting Mr. Bentley to fall asleep on his own and by golly last night I laid him in his crib and he cried out for MAYBE 30 seconds and fell asleep on his own!   Better yet, he slept all night long with out waking up.  I slept so good I woke up late and was late for work this morning.  I am so proud of him and my husband and myself.  All it really took was one or two really bad nights of him crying and now its been amazing.  I know that he won't ALWAYS be this cooperative, but it has been amazing while he has. 

Thanks for following our sleep challenge and I keep you updated with any changes. 

Sleep Challenge

So I must say, we are on night 5 of our challenge to get Bentley to sleep through the night.  I am impressed with Curt and my ability to work together and communicate through this!  Bentley has not been in our bed for FOUR nights~ and even though he has woke up every single night I am have nothing to complain about.  Night two Curt came to the rescue and gained major points in the husband/father of the year award.  Bentley only took a 40 minute nap at daycare so I kept him up after I got home in hopes that he would be so tired that he would be more likely to put himself to sleep.  It worked, he fell asleep while drinking him bottle.  I put him to bed about 20 minutes later and he stayed asleep until 2 in the morning when he woke up.  I went in right away, forgetting about our plan because I was so tired, and gave him his pacifier.  Finally realizing what I needed to do I went back to be and left him to cry.  8 minutes went by and I went into console him and lay him back down.  He wasn't having it so I left him again this time, 15 minutes.  I couldn't handle it so I went into pat him on the butt, as long as I had my hand on him he was fine, shortly after Curt came in to relieve me because i had to be up in one hour he had his pillow and blanket and laid on the floor next to the crib with his hand on Bentley.  THIS WORKED! Curt said he stayed for about 5-10 minutes and was back in bed.  Bentley slept all the way into the morning around 7.  This was about how night three went as well.  Last night we gained courage and let him cry for 1 hour  and when I went into put his pacifier back in all it took was about three minutes and he slept till the morning.  So Far things are going well.  

MY GOAL: GET A ROUTINE BEDTIME

Night one:  FAIL  and i wouldn't say on my son's account but more on the mother's.  I had stated to my husband yesterday after being at the doctors, "no more bringing Bentley to bed with us, NO matter what".  Bentley went to bed on his own around 7:30 after his bath.  The poor thing was so tired he almost fell asleep to me brushing his hair.  So instead of giving him his bottle I took advantage of the situation and laid him down.  He was out within 5 minutes.  SUCCESS, until 10:30 when he woke up SCREAMING.  I was in bed already and my poor husband was just practicing what we had talked about, until I scram out the bedroom door and yell "you could at least comfort him for crying out loud!"  Remind you we had just talked about this before going to sleep that night.  So I decide after a few minutes of not being able to calm Bentley down that I too would try to ignore the screaming and go back to bed.  I woke up an hour later to him STILL screaming.  This time I was hott!  So i jump out of bed and yell some profanity (not real proud of this moment) and go and get my son.  Curt was so kindly sitting next to Bentley's crib TRYING to console him but nothing was working.  So Frustrated, I yell at curt to feed him and go back to bed.  This is such a shameful experience for me because clearly I was taking out my frustrations on him.  SO this story is not even close to being finished.  At 2:30 Bentley yet again wakes up with a blood curdle scream and I jump out of bed to his rescue.  (which remind you I decided that WE weren't going to do)  I try to console him and he acts tired and lays down but as soon as I lift my hand off he raises his head and is awake.  With regrets I reach in and grab him and he lays his head down on my shoulder.  I decide I'll go and sit with him in the chair to avoid taking him to the bed with me.  He lays with eyes wide awake and stares at me.  I look at the clock and realize i need to be up in 45 minutes so I tried to lay him back down and he yet again cried.  SO end result Bentley ended up in bed with us at 3:15.  Equals BIG FAILURE!!!   Here's to another night of madness!

Bring on the New Year!

A little late but I wanted to start this year off by wishing everyone a well and healthy year!

Bentley is turning 9 months old this month and I honestly am in shock. I do not understand where the time has gone because I honestly feel that we were just bringing him home. He has 7 full teeth and I looked last night and he is getting his fourth tooth on the bottom. He is primarily eating regular foods, what mom and dad, or GRANDMA BETTY, eats. LOL, my mom LOVES to feed him, she fed him his first beats about a month ago and it went down hill ever since. He sometimes refuses to eat purred foods because he likes to be able to chew. He started pulling himself up to things around New Years Day and he is getting stronger everyday. I watch him in amazement everyday when he plays because he learns something new to do with the same toy in a matter of minutes. He loves to explore and find the places he is NOT suppose to be in. Since my sister Angie is no longer watching him due to her maternity leave he has been going over to my good friend Chelsea's house and he is learning even more being around her two boys. He talks (babbles) more, seems more sociable or interacting more. I have fully enjoyed watching our baby grow these past nine months and can't wait for many more to come.

Curt and I are doing well. He is working in Ankeny and I am still at Mercy going between the Mercy West Lakes Hospital and the Main one. This has cause a little strain on our finances but we make it work. For the first time in awhile we went out with our friends to watch the Iowa Bowl game at Four Season's. I had the best time catching up with Amy, Lacey, Brett, Richard, and many more friends. It gets so difficult to make plans and go out. One for the money and two missing and being away from our son when we feel its our responsibility to be with him. But he did amazing on his first night away. In fact probably better than a normal night in our house.

So that's us in a nut shell and things that have been going on, I wish everyone a great year and hope they can all have good memories to share!