Good Girl

I have to say that Nadia always seems to be very well behaved in church. She never makes a peep, and she usually sleeps through the sermon (pastors might not like it if adults do that, but they certainly don't mind if babies do!). I have been "church shopping" lately. I thought I'd keep going to the same church as although we live farther away in terms of miles, it still takes about 25 minutes to get to church as it has the past 4 years since we are traveling on an Interstate highway most of the way now. Well we decided it would be better if we went to a church closer to home. Part of the reason is that we are both spending a lot more time on the road traveling to school than we did the past 4 years. Additionally, if we keep going to the same church, I doubt we'll meet anyone who lives less than 30 minutes away from us. I would like to make some friends who live closer than that. I also think I'll be more involved if we lived closer. Of course this has been a very hard decision to make as I love the church I've been a member of the past 4 years. I've really enjoyed singing in the choir, playing in the handbell choir, playing my flute regularly, and participating in ladies Bible study. They also have a wonderful pastor, a great library that is continually stocked with new books that I enjoy reading, and I completely agree with the church's doctrinal statement. I also was really touched at how people prayed so fervently during the IVF process and pregnancy. I've never in my life had so many people at church praying for me, and their prayers were answered!!! So in the past two months I've visited 3 different churches (3 different denominations actually). One was only 1.1 miles from our home. Let me tell you that was a big plus, but in the end I don't think I'll pick that church although I might have Nadia go to AWANA there on Wednesday nights when she is old enough as I don't see a reason to take her to AWANA at the church I think I'll join since it's farther away. So probably this next Sunday will be my last going to the church I've been going to since July 2004. We have our Christmas concert at the 8:00 and 10:45 services. I am playing two flute solos and also playing a couple of songs with the handbell choir. It's going to be emotional for me I am sure. I was a bit emotional last week when we went there as everyone loves to see Nadia when we go there. As one choir member said to me,"She's our baby." Although people at these other churches tell me how well behaved she is and how cute she is, they don't have the attachment to her that the folks at my church do since they prayed for her for so long.

Last night Nadia woke up every 4 hours instead of every 2 hours which was appreciated. She cried when I put her down after nursing her each time which she usually doesn't do, but altogether she didn't cry very much last night. I did let her get up for the day at 5:55am though which is earlier than I'd like. Yesterday and today her first nap was over an hour (closer to 90 minutes) so maybe we have finally broken the 45 minute nap barrier? We shall see. I was going to go to an early service this morning, but since her nap was twice as long as I expected it to be and I didn't want to wake her, I went to a later service. That was probably a good thing as the roads were snow covered this morning.

Nadia LOVES to stand, and she will stand for quite a long period of time these days. The people around me at church this morning were amazed at how long she stood on my lap during church. Sometimes she laughs she is so happy to be standing (not at church though, thankfully). She supports her weight very well. She also is getting closer to sitting without assistance. She can hold her own for a few seconds now, and she's using her hands a lot more to hold toys in her bouncer and gym. She hasn't been rolling over or cooing as much lately; we really miss the cooing! She still laughs when Mommy eats her belly or cheeks. :-)