4 Cats and a Baby

We're Moving...

2011-01-21T20:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not physically moving but this blog is!

As I mentioned a while ago, we're going semi privet. So, what does this mean for everyone who reads my blog?

First off, you'll have to start reading it at its new location... http://4catsandababy.com/ yes, thats right, now it has its own domain name!

Secondly some of my posts will become password protected. What this means is if you want to read a password protected post you'll need to know the password! If you would like the password please send an e-mail to 4catsandababy@gmail.com . I will be sending out the password this Sunday, the 23rd. However, if its after the 23rd and you still want the password don't fret!

Now, as I said, not ALL posts will become password protected... so if you want to keep on lurking on my blog or simply don't want the password then thats okay. The posts that will become protected are ones that are heavy on the family/eirik photographs and things of a personal nature. There are lots of blogs i'd love to post, however since this is such a public forum I really don't feel comfortable doing it. All of my posts from blogger are imported to the new wordpress location and are viewable.

I have to add here that the only reason I have made the move from Blogger to WordPress is the fact I have the option to password protect individual posts. With blogger I have the option to make the entire blog privet but no ability to only make specific posts privet.

I'd like to send a HUGE thank you out to Michelle for taking the time to send me information on how to move my blog from Blogger to WordPress! Thanks!!

So thats it folks... starting tomorrow look for updates at our new home!

What is Eirik Up To?

2011-01-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

What has Eirik been up to recently you ask? Lets look, shall we!

He's been helping me in the kitchen putting dishes away! Sort of...

He's been reading books! He loves either The Hungry Caterpillar or this Animal Sounds book. He actually hunts through the box of books to find them!

He is really enjoying "walking" around the house by pushing this fun toy! He can't maneuver it very well though so he ends up stuck on something rather quickly...

He's been chilling in the Boba Organic Baby Carrier I got on black friday! its SUPER comfortable for the back carry! It also means mommy can get stuff done!

He's also discovered a new favorite food... Lasagna!

he REALLY loves lasagna!

A first i'm glad I missed...

2011-01-19T13:04:00.000-05:00

Tuesday nights I have to work late, which is always hard on me. It means I don't really see Eirik all day because by the time I get home he's either in bed or about to go to bed. Whats a working mom to do? Last night however I walked in the door and my husband had a very concerned look on ihs face. He was holding Eirik, who looked exhausted, but it was bedtime so that was nothing new.

"He's been throwing up"

I cringed. I'll confess here... I can handle poop, blood, snot and spit up. But vomit? I can't do vomit. The smell makes me gag and hearing someone else throw up? Better grab me a bucket!

"well, how long has he been throwing up?" I asked, hoping that maybe it was just once and that was all.

"Well, he threw up all over me, then in the bath, then over his changing table, then again when I was rocking him." I cringed.

"well, lets just keep an eye on him and see how he does" I said, crossing my fingers that the throwing up was over. Poor little guy was exhausted and not happy... he was trying to eat and he wanted to but every time he got going he started to cough and gag so finally I just rocked him until he fell asleep.

And then I smelled it. That smell... my husband had left everything that was thrown up on upstairs in the laundry basket. I grabbed everything and threw it in the wash, knowing that the smell would only linger if it didn't get washed ASAP.

The good news is that there was no more throwing up that night... he slept really well actually... he only woke up twice: 1:30 and 4:30. I however was up every 2 hours to check on him.I 99% sure that the throwing up was caused by some old milk... I left him some from the freezer but it was right at the 6 month mark. I figured if it was bad he wouldn't drink it, but I guess thats not the case. In the future i'll have to make sure to inspect the milk better before leaving it for him!

The Milk Memos

2011-01-17T19:35:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you guys are sick of me reviewing things and are going "why can't you just put updates of Eirik up already?!" Well, it wasn't my plan to read a good book that I wanted to share with all of you!

I ran into Borders the other week to grab some books for Eirik (you have to love coupons plus borders bucks!) and of course had to make a stop in the clearance bin. Who doesn't love clearance books? Well, this book caught my eye so after skimming the back I decided "What the heck, for a few bucks it looks interesting". What did I pick up? The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies-and How You Can, Too.

I WISH I had read this book 6 months ago when I went back to work. I really do! I HIGHLY recommend this to ANY mom who is pumping at work. It covers everything... all those fun work situations such as how to tell your boss you need to pump, how to find a place to pump, how to make your pumping experience more comfortable, how often you should be pumping, etc. The book is written by two women who work for IBM and pumped at work. They had a pumping room and started a journal which all the mothers wrote in. The book is half informative half reprintings of the journal they wrote in! So you get to hear little funny stories and side comments while learning all about the joys of pumping at work.

The book also goes into details about general baby care... how to find a good daycare or nanny, different methods for sleep training, how much milk you should be producing and feeding your baby a day, what to do if your baby suddenly refuses the bottle... There is a chapter on issues such as clogged ducts, mastitis, and leaking. It even discusses mommy guilt!

I think what I really like about this book is it doesn't force one opinion on you. It goes over EVERYTHING. While the book is about pumping at work, it says in there quite plainly that if you need to supplement with formula that's okay too! It talks about moms from every angle... those who love breastfeeding and pumping, those who do it because they feel they should, and those that are in between. It was a nice easy read as I have to admit some of the stuff I skimmed over (like the chapter on business trips while pumping).

So, since this post is all about pumping at work, i'll share a few tips that I have learned!

1. Some people will be uncomfortable with you pumping. Some people you will say the word "breastmilk" to and they will put their hands up and go "enough said". (Yes, i had a guy do this to me). Some people will give you looks as you walk with your bag towards wherever you pump. Take it in stride and know that you are now covered by the law!

2. Get a hands free pumping bra! You can apparently make one out of a sports bra, but I purchased one on amazon and I LOVE it. It has been worth every penny! Instead of spending my pumping session listening to the sound of my pump I read. It helps me relax and therefore helps me produce more milk. =)

3. Get a support system! You may be the only one pumping at your job. I found a wonderful message board through IVillage with other women who are amazingly supportive! They are there to answer questions about my pump, low supply, tricks to boost supply, etc. There are many times when I have gone there to ask questions about storing or scheduling pumps!

Tomorrow I promise we will be back to our regularly scheduled Eirik updates. =)

More Fun With Baby Led Solids!

2011-01-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

I realized I haven't done a food update in a while, so here goes!

Part of hte reason is becuase Eirik now just eats pretty much whatever we do! He is now eating 3 meals a day... though how much he actually eats varies day to day. A typical day is something like this:

Breakfast:

Cereal or baby puffs - yes, i am aware this is not the BEST thing to be giving him but my husband gives him breakfast and its easy. I'm going to try and start switching this up soon... but we buy the natural puffs.

Lunch:

Whole wheat toast with either hummus or soft cheese (laughing cow flavored cheeses). A fruit of vegetable. Today he had blueberries... he LOVED them.

Dinner:

Whatever we are eating. For example last night he had a baked potato with a bit of cheese, peas and homemade refried beans (my husband makes AMAZING beans).

For a while I was sort of nervous about the whole baby led solids thing. Eirik didn't really eat much... sure, he would play with the food but actual eating? Nah, not really interested. I would read about how other babies were demolishing jars of baby food and here mine was picking at a piece of toast! Then all of a sudden he went from picking at food to shoveling it in... litteraly! It was almost overnight! I also did a little research on how much nutrition babies get from solid food in their first year of life and this helped ease my fears a lot. At 1 year only 10 - 25% of their nutrition comes from solid food... which means he really doesn't need to be eating all that much food at all right now!

I try and buy healthier foods now that Eirik eats more of what we do. There are certain foods that I make sure to try and buy organic, but not always. We don't give him a lot of heavily processed food and he doesn't get anything really sugary (we haven't given him juice yet). Its really hard sometimes... I want to get him fresh and organic foods but in all honesty I am on a pretty tight budget right now. I do my research however and know which foods its better to buy organic and which foods it doesn't matter.

Tonight we had a fun food experiment. We went out for dinner. I realized it had been a long time since we'd gone out anywhere... with the chaos of the holidays it seemed that we never had time... Every weekend was filled with one thing or another. So this evening I thought would be the perfect opportunity to get out of the house for a few hours. I settled on the mall... lots of food options and no one to stare at us if Eirik started to screech (his newest trick). My husband and I both decided on Chipotle. I LOVE Chipotle and I honestly don't feel guilty eating their food because they are so dedicated to buying natural and organic food. I hadn't bought any food for Eirik because he really doesn't NEED to eat dinner at this stage. But, he was looking interested, so I figured what the heck. Well, apparently I have a Chipotle addict on my hands! I gave him some of my rice and beans and he kept opening his mouth for more! My husband was shocked he liked it because everything is very well seasoned. I then pointed out this is the child who loves hummus. Enough said.

I realized today that I have never had to make or buy baby food. Time AND money saved! Another pro for baby led solids!

And now, a fun picture of Eirik covered in Puffs. No one warned me these things stick to EVERYTHING.

Adventures in Home Fertility Testing!

2011-01-13T20:42:00.000-05:00

As requested yesterday my Mic, here is a full review of the First Response Fertility Test for Women!

First let me state the only reason I performed this experiment is because I had the test laying around and I was suffering from POS (peeing on a stick) withdrawal. After spending 18 months peeing on pregnancy tests and ovulation sticks it was weird to suddenly... not be doing that! And I'm a science geek.. so I'm always up for a good experiment!

Let me just give you a little background on myself. I have borderline high FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). In Janurary of 2009 when I finally made it to the fertility specialist they of course ran a slew of tests on me. What came back was that my FSH was eleveated at 11.7. Thats not extremely high, but considering my age as well as my low antral follicle count it was a slight concern for my doctor.

But I guess I am getting ahead of myself here. Why do we care about FSH? ready for a small biology lesson? FSH initiates follicle growth! Those antral (aka small) follicles are rescued from cell death by FSH. Your FSH peaks on day 3 (hence why whe you go to a fertility specialist they always insist on that lovely day 3 testing. Its when your hormones do all those wonderful thigns to prepare your body for ovulation!).. Cause and effect! Normally all those small antral follicles will produce enough of a hormone called Inhibin B that will lower the FSH levels after this peak. Once a follicle matures is scretres estradoil which will cause an LH surge (this is what is measured by those lovely ovulation predictor kits!). In the second half of your period (the luteal phase) there is a transition of what hormones are playing a major role in your body. The levels of progesterone and estrogene decrease and therefore the FSH slowly increases... and then the whole cycle will start again after ovulation. Confused yet?

So why is high FSH bad? Well, high FSH is a sign of Menopause and poor ovarian reserve, both of which will affect your fertility. This is why FSH is considered one of the key tests of a woman's fertility. In other words if your FSH is high it means your body is trying to compensate for an absence of follicle response. But how high is too high? That honestly depends on what test is run. Like any diagnostic testing, the range is dependent upon the specific test kit that was used. Typically however anything under 10 is considered great and anything over 15 is considered bad. That middle area is a gray zone which varies from test to test.

Now, on to the fun part... the actual test! I read the directions last night becuase I knew there was no way I would remember them at 6am this morning. Unlike pregnancy and ovulation kits which tell you your result in a matter of minutes the fertility test requires you to wait a whopping 30 minutes before reading! It is also very clear that you should use it on the 3rd day of bleeding (remember that FSH surge should occur today!) and to make sure that you use first morning urine (or at least haven't peed in the last 4 hours). I have to say the test itself looks almost identical to their pregnancy test... in fact if it didn't say "fertility test for women" on the actual stick I would have thought it was a pregnancy test! Even that little pink control line looks the same!

So I peed on the stick and then went off to get myself ready for work. I showed, ate breakfast, fed the cats, and made my lunch. On a side note it was odd to pee on a stick and not feel tugs of anxiety as I waited for that second line to appear!

So, result time! According to the instructions if your FSH levels are normal then you should either see no second line or a second line that is lighter then the control line. If your FSH levels are abnormal you will see a line that is as dark or darker then the control line. My result?

If you're staring at that going "well... it may be darker... or maybe the same color... but i'm not sure" then you've got the same result as me! Yes, I honestly can not tell if the line is darker or not. I held it up to the light, I tried looking at it from different angles, and each time I seemed to think either yes or no on the darker than answer. Personally if I hadn't already had my FSH tested this test would have been close enough to a "high" result to make me seek a doctor for bloodwork.

Overall my opinion? Don't waste your money. This test only tests your FSH levels which is just a very small part of the big picture of fertility. There are many other hormones that need to be tested as well as other diagnostic tests that need to be performed and this doesn't even take into account male fertility. The directions on the test say "if this comes up negative keep trying before seeing a doctor". You could be trying and then come to find out you have PCOS or a blocked tube and because a little stick said to keep trying you did!

Personally I feel that if you are concerned about your fertility for any reason you should speak up to your doctor. I know a lot of women are intimidated by the whole "you should wait a year" and honestly a lot of doctors brush off patients concerns. However if you've ever had "strange" cycles or "something seems off" keep trying until you find a doctor who will listen. I had doctor after doctor brush aside my concerns with a simple "you're young". I was told over and over again that I shouldn't worry even though I had a history of abnormal periods. And don't go to an OB/GYN... go to a fertility specialist. I had OB/GYN run hormone tests on me on the WRONG day of my cycle. It doesn't do any good to test your FSH levels on day 13!

I recommend that every women should read the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health. This book is wonderful even if you have no intention of getting pregnant! It will explain to you how your body works and what all those hormones do. I, a biology major in college, learned a lot that I didn't know while reading this book!

So, in a nutshell, don't waste your money. If however you buy a box of first response pregnancy tests and you get a free fertility test then what the hell, give it a whirl! If nothing else you'll have fun squinting at the lines trying to decipher your result!

Welcome Back

2011-01-12T13:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my period decided to return. Wonderful! It of course make its appearance at work with absolutely NO warning. No spotting, no cramping, nothing. One minute everything was hunky dorey and the next I was making a beeline for the bathroom, feminine product in hand. Thank god for black pants!

I guess I should be happy... its held off for almost 10 months, which is pretty nice. I know a lot of people who breastfeed get their period back by about 6 months. I have to admit 10 months of no bleeding and cramps has been WONDERFUL. But I have no idea what to expect now. I'm guessing it will take a few months for things to figure themselves out so i'll have a few wonky cycles. We'll see...

It also means my "fertility" has returned. I use that term in " " because I know my fertility sucked to begin with so I'm not taking much stock in suddenly being a fertile person. We are using preventative measures to not get pregnant, but sometimes I feel like these are just a waste of money considering how long it took to get pregnant the first time around. Then again, I do know a few people who have recently become pregnant who tried a long time for number 1... so maybe it is best to keep using preventative measures!

But, as an amusing experiment, i am going to test my fertility at home. How may you ask? The last time I picked up some pregnancy tests they came with a free fertility test! Apparently they now sell a stick that you pee on and it tells you if your hormone levels are high. I already know my hormone levels are high so it should be interesting to see what this little test tells me. I read the directions and it says to pee on a stick (of course you do, you always end up having to pee on a stick!) on the third day of bleeding with your first morning urine. So, tomorrow morning we'll try that little experiment and see what happens! Stay tuned for updates...

More Adventures In Cloth Diapers!

2011-01-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

For Christmas Eirik got some new diapers! Its been a while since I've done a diaper review... mostly because its been a while since I've gotten new diapers! So, here are the latest additions to our stash. =)

First up are Charlie Banana Diapers!

These diapers called to me because of the ADORABLE prints. In the cloth diaper world I've found its hard to find really cute boy prints. Its either solids or cute girl prints! These are a one size pocket diaper, which means they fit theoretically babies from birth to potty training. These diapers are very much in the shape and style of a fuzzibunz diaper... in fact their inserts are exactly the same size! There are some differences however. I've noticed that these are a bit trimmer and also the pocket for stuffing is in the front rather then the back. The idea for this is that baby poop goes up the back, not to the front, therefore you don't get poopy hands while removing the insert. I am sort of torn on the front stuff. I like it because it means that I don't have to worry about the insert hanging out the back (I have this issue sometimes) I do get wet hands when I have to remove the insert of the wet diapers because well, all the pee is right in the front so its SOAKED. Honestly however thats my only real complaint with the diaper! It fits Eirik wonderfully and has a super soft fleece inside! And come on, aren't those prints cute?! I wish it was summer so that I could let him run around in his diaper!

Next up I have EcoBumz!

These were purchased because they were a really great deal. I'll admit, i'm a sucker for a deal on fluff! These diapers are an all in one diaper which means no stuffing required... just wash and put on baby! No prep needed! They are organic as well, for those who are interested in that sort of thing. These are a 2 sized diaper... they have size 1 from 7 - 20lbs and then a size 2 from 20 - 35lbs. The inside of these diapers is a bamboo valour which honestly feels silky soft... its amazing. The outside is "recycled polyester
polyurethane laminate" to quote the webpage. These diapers are sold with hook and loop aplix or snaps. After being very dissapointed with some of my hook and loop diapers I opted for the snaps. In hindsight I sort of wish I had gone for hook and loop. My biggest negative on this dispaer is I am not thrilled with the way they fit because of how they snap. They fit him okay, but I'm just not 100% thrilled. I have no complaints other then that! We haven't had any leaks with these diapers and the inside is so super soft!

Now for the Blueberry diapers!

I've been eyeing these diapers for a while. Swaddlebees and Blueberry always get rave reviews, but I honestly couldn't justify spending a lot on new diapers since he had so many. But when they had a sale on their clearance diapers I HAD to act! I purchased 3 Blueberry One size pocket diapers! They again are one size so they fit from 10 - 35lbs. The diaper pictured is one of their one size delux, but I also purchased 2 of their one size minky. The minky ones are INSANELY soft on the outside. I have never actually wanted to cuddle with a diaper until I felt these! The inside of the diapers are actually just as soft as they are linked with a super soft fleece! Normally these diapers come with inserts however since I purchased the diapers as seconds on clearance they had no inserts included... so I am cheating and using Flip inserts instead. They fit perfectly and so far no leaks! I really am in love with these diapers. They fit well and are super soft and cute both inside and out! My only minor complaint is that they give Eirik a HUGE fluffy butt. They are not trim at all... but they are so adorable I really don't care! I have no fear that these diapers will fit him for quite a while with no worries! I also am very impressed with their hook and loop closure so far! They seem like they will hold up well over the numerous wash cycles!

Lastly we have econobums

These I got on black friday as part of a surprise cloth diaper bundle. For X number of dollars I would get at least 2 diapers plus one diaper accessory. It honestly wasn't something I would have purchased myself. I have done the whole "cover with insert" thing. I have the flip diaper, which while I am okay with it is not my go to diaper anymore. Honestly we used this once to try it out and since then it has been put aside to use as our backup diaper. This option is really great for those who are looking to cloth diaper on a tight budget! But i'll be perfectly honest in saying that the cover looks and feels cheap. Honestly we never used the prefold that it came with, we used a flip insert because the cover is the same size as a flip cover. Again, this isn't a diaper I would purchase myself at this point, but when I first started using cloth and was on a tighter budget I would have considered it.

A final note on cost. The idea behind the econobum diaper is that you can do cloth without spending a fourtine. The price of cloth diapers can be overwhelming! I know when I did the math at how much it would cost to fill my stash with new pocket diapers I was hit with sticker shock! Pocket diapers run about 16 - 20 dollars each new for many of the popular brands.. but many are even more then that! (I am dying to try rump a rooz diapers but I can't bring myself to spend that much on a diaper yet!) Even though I KNEW in the long run I would save money thinking of spending that much money up front was daunting for me. I've built my stash up slowly hunting for deals online. Websites such as mamabargins, babyhalfoff, oliviaplace, ecobabybuys, and zulily have all had amazing diaper sales! I'm sure other sites have had good deals too, but these are sites i've purchased them from. Also companies will do specials on diapers which are considered "seconds" or when they discontinue a style. Right now BumGenius is having a huge clearance deal on their sized all in one diapers which has me tempted to buy a few! Instead of spending 16 - 20 dollars on a diaper you can get a steal for as low as 9 or 10 dollars... which is the EXACT same price as the econobums. And thats if you insist on buying new diapers... used diapers can be found online by either purchasing or trading!

Before I end this insanely long post, I want to talk about diaper sprayers. I could spend an entire post talking about these, but i'll condense it down to a few sentences. The poop factor is what everyone says when talking about cloth "EWW POOP!" Until Eirik was 6 months old I didn't worry about poop because breastfed babies poop is water soluble. But once he started on solids suddenly I had to deal with the poop issue. Enter, the diaper sprayer! This is a WONDERFUL device. I simply turn it on, spray, and the poop goes into the toilet and gets flushed away! I will confess here that it took a few tries for me to get the sprayer adjusted to the correct pressure and figure out the best way to hold said diaper over the toilet... but I honestly can't imagine dealing with the poop any other way. I don't think with a diaper sprayer there is a large difference between brands. I'm honestly not 100% sure what brand mine is!

Laser Pointers - Fun For the Family!

2011-01-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

So last night Eirik was a grump... he didn't do well with his second nap and by about 6pm both my husband and I were at our wits end to keep him happy. He had reached that point where no matter what we did, he would yell. Sometimes I almost miss the days when he would just cry... the yelling and screetching is more ear peircing! Anyway... I got the idea that we should let hte cats amuse him! I mean, come on, the cats will get exercise and attention and everyone will be happy! So I pulled out... the laser pointer!

Any cat owner will tell you that cats LOVE this thing. Even the cat that HATES toys will go insane for the laser pointer. ALL my cats love it, but the 2 of them go absolutely crazy. The one cat even knows what it looks like and starts getting excited when he sees the pointer in my hand. So I pull it out and instantly Eirik ls giggling as the cats chase the little red dot around the floor. My cats don't hold back when chasing this thing... they will leap up walls and sometimes do interesting jumps to try and get it!

After a while of this Eirik decided to crawl in and join the fun.

Note the orange blur on the left side of the picture. That is Sebastian running away from Eirik. Yes, he's still petrified of the baby... he's an odd cat. Anyway... at first I thought Eirik was going after the cats. He LOVES the cats. But no... I quickly realized I was mistaken...

Yes, he too wanted to chase the little red dot! At this point I was about dying of laughter. Sadly the battery in the laser pointer died shortly after this... thankfully it was bath time just about anyway.

So, if you have cats, a baby, and a laser pointer, you now have a new way to entertain your grumpy child!

Hugs and Kisses!

2011-01-08T09:36:00.000-05:00

There are lots of rewarding moments being a parent... that first time they smile at you, the first laugh, when you come in the room and they crawl over to you as fast as they can... and now I can add hugs and kisses to that list!

The kisses actually started a few weeks ago. I noticed that sometimes when I would hold him he would open his mouth and bring his face up to mine and "kiss" me. Its really too cute! But now we've started to hug as well! The other night I was sitting on the floor with him and he crawled into my lap, pulled himself up to standing and wrapped his arms around my neck, laying his head on my shoulder. To say my heart melted would be an understatement.

Eirik is not a really cuddly baby... he wants to move and do his own thing a lot of the time. The only time he really wants to cuddle is when I put him to bed. The rest of the time he takes his few seconds of cuddle time and then he's off again, recharged and ready to play. Even when I breastfeed he is squirming away, kicking at me or tugging on my clothing.

I'm loving this new cuddly side.

Clapping, Teething, and Sleeping Oh My!

2011-01-05T21:46:00.001-05:00

First off, clapping has been captured on video!! Please excuse my husbands lack of enthusiasm... he thought I was taking a picture and he hates having his picture taken.

We are doing another round of MAJOR teething. I thought Christmas was bad... oy... this is worse. The whining and fussing and general grumpiness!! Eirik has also discovered screaming... so needless to say things have been fun around here. Anything that could be gnawed on is... i'm SO ready for these top two teeth to make an appearance!

Sleeping well... its better.... thats for sure. If for no other reason that now I make my husband get up with him if its only been 1 or 2 hours since I fed him. I'm not night weaning him per say (another topic for another time!)... but i'm getting him used to not being nursed back to sleep every time he wakes up. Mommy is tired!! But, overall, I think we're still doing better then before. Right now we're struggling with an early wake up but I think that's due to a very damp diaper so we're going back to changing him somewhere between midnight and 2am when he wakes up to eat to see if that helps.

He is now exclusively in his crib. To say this was a tough move for me is an understatement... I was NOT ready to move him but he obviously was. He sleeps better and longer now... and I have to admit after the first few nerve wrecking nights so do I. This weekend I even officially took down the cosleeper after realizing that it had been weeks since he actually slept in it. He was either in his own crib or sleeping in the middle of the bed between my husband and I. It was sad for me to do so, because it was yet another sign that my baby is growing up. Of course if he ever wants to come back into bed with us, or starts not sleeping well in his crib, i'll gladly move him back in. But for now the arrangement works for us.

And finally a few pictures! I FINALLY got a picture of the two bottom teeth! Sort of... look closely and you'll see teeth!! That's his "please let me eat mom" look...

Need a great way to entertain your child? Get a box and a cat! The cat will sit in the box and the baby will have a blast trying to close the box up with said cat inside.

After the baby gets bored of this (or the cat runs away), take the cat out of the box and put the baby in!

If that fails, pull out the Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube!

9 Month Favorite Things!

2011-01-03T20:56:00.000-05:00

Interested in what Eirik loves at the moment? =)

My cats - still a hit! Though not as much as before. I think some of the novelty of them is wearing off!

The piano - he still loves to play it... now he walks up and down it playing the keys. Its cute because he can't see what he's doing.

Mozart Magic Cube - I picked this up at a consignment sale a few months ago. It was a great price and i'd heard wonderful things about it. Well, at first Eirik really wasn't sure about it. He didn't really get how it worked so he'd try and roll it around on the floor and then get bored with it. Well, he finally figured out how it works at now its a HUGE hit. Its the toy that I pull out when I need 15 minutes to do dishes or just take a mental mommy break. It will easily occupy him for that long... longer then ANY other toy we have.

Fisher Price Rumble and Learn Drive - He got this for christmas after my friend commented how every time he was at her house he loved the one she had. He really does enjoy it! It doesn't hold his attention quite as long as the mozart cube, but its a good second place. It was the one toy on Christmas that he went for ASAP!

The bath - he LOVES bathtime. He loves splashing as much as he can and soaking everything near by. He also loves trying to stand in the bathtub. We're working on curbing that one....

Books - he is REALLY getting into books now! He likes to be read too, but also enjoys looking at them alone. He is trying to turn pages but doesn't quite have the fine motor skills for it yet... but he likes to grab a whole book and flip it back and forth and back and forth. There are a few books he can turn the pages on.

Anything he can push/pull up on - if he can pull up and push something, he loves it. Boxes, laundry baskets, coffee tables, etc.

Paper - yes, he loves paper... its fun! He loves to tear it, and then tries to eat it too.

Plastic plates - i don't get this one... but he loves those round plastic plates... he likes to hold them, flip them over and over, and then smack them into his leg...... have i mentioned I have an odd child?

New Year, New Tricks!

2011-01-02T10:38:00.001-05:00

So to ring in the new year Eirik decided to start clapping! Yesterday morning he and I were playing and all of a sudden he just started to clap his hands together, grinning while he did it! Of course I was thrilled to bits and promptly took him upstairs to share the news with my husband! I tried in vain to get him to clap again... the little stinker refused. But then my husband casually decided to go "oh, well, I saw him do it last night". I told him that in my book he just did it for the first time, last night didn't count.

No video yet of this new trick because he absolutely refuses to clap when I try and get him too... and when he does start clapping he stops as soon as he sees the camera! He was however doing it more this morning too... so hopefully soon video will be taken!

In the meantime you'll have to settle of video of him pushing a box into the christmas tree. Don't worry, he didn't topple the tree!!

And now I must go because he has decided that he only needed a 45minute nap this morning. Its going to be a long day!

New Years Resolutions

2011-01-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Every year I try and come up with at least one resolution... something big that I really want to stick to and something that will honestly affect my life in a positive way. I never go for the whole "i'm going to loose weight" or "i'm going to get out of debt" or something vague like that... I go for a real goal with a realistic endpoint. Last years goal was to keep an accurate budget for the entire year... and overall I did pretty good! I slipped up a bit (especially when I was on maternity leave!) but overall I kept track of almost every penny spent. I realized where I am spending too much and it made me take an honest look at my earnings and what is being wasted. It was very shocking to me during the first few months to realize just how much money I was wasting on things like buying coffee or eating lunch out! Its very easy to justify buying that coffee because "its only 2 dollars" but a few times a week over a month really ads up!

This year one of my resolutions is to eat more locally grown produce. Last year a friend of mine did a food share co-op with a farm near her and after seeing what she was getting I decided this year I was going to investigate doing one as well! I have found a few farms in the area and priced it out and for a 24 week food share it will only cost you 34 dollars a week... and for that you get an assortment of fruits and vegetables, eggs, and fresh bread every week. To say I am excited about this is an understatement! My mom always used to grow fresh fruits and vegetables in the garden and I can honestly say no store bought tomato ever compared to one fresh from my moms garden. I'm so excited about fresh produce this summer and fall!

I am also going to continue with tracking my money better and make myself a real budget and stick to it seriously. Last year I decided I would just observe, but this year I am going to actually be proactive! The reason I wanted to track money for a year is because over the year my expenses changed so I can get an accurate idea of how much money I need for what bills at what time of the year.

2011 is shaping up to be a big year for me. My husband and I are planning on putting our house on the market in April or May which is nerve wrecking to say the least! We both agree that now we have Eirik we need to move to a more family friendly area. I also need to move closer to potential job opportunities, as where I am located now is really not great for the market I am trying to get in to. The housing market in our area is not good... thankfully we didn't suffer too badly with the housing bust, however the area is not stellar and there are a lot of houses for sale in the area. We're really going to have to do some work on the house to make it shine to potential buyers.

All in all, I'm excited to see what 2011 throws at me!

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T22:33:00.000-05:00

Goodbye 2010. You were a wonderful year... a year that I got to meet my little man and watch him change from a tiny infant (well, tiny to me!) into an active, happy, and amazing little guy. Motherhood has been an experience that has been so much more amazing then I ever dreamed. The simple act of a smile is enough to make my day go from bad to good and even the most exhausting sleepless night is made okay by the act of a few babbling noises that string together to sound something like mama or hi. It is so amazing to me to watch him each day discover new things... the way he sits and is truly amazed by something as simple as a plastic plate or a hairbrush, the look on his face when he tries new foods and discovers he likes them, the grin on his face when he finally accomplishes something he has been trying to do. These moments I will never forget. I would never say that things have been easy, but motherhood is the most rewarding experience I have ever had.

I don't want to say this too loudly...

2010-12-31T11:59:00.000-05:00

but i'm getting SLEEP!! OH MY GOD SLEEP!!

The first night I swore it was a fluke. He went down at 6:30, woke up at 8:30, then didn't wake up again till after 11! Then again at 4... then not again until 7! It was a fluke... it HAD to be a fluke. Then the next night was the same... up at 8:30, then 11, then 5, then 6:30 (I woke him up when I got up for work), then he went back to sleep until 7:30. At this point I was getting hopeful... excited almost! But surely, surely there would not be a third night in a row.

But there was!!

Thats right folks, for 3 nights in a row i've only had to get up twice! 11ish and 4ish. He's also been sleeping in his bed ALL night! I get up and feed him and put him back to bed! Sometimes if he wakes up and fusses my husband goes in to rock him back to sleep... but that typically only takes about 10 minutes.

What changed? NOTHING! I have NO idea why now all of a sudden he's sleeping! But he is... and I have to say I feel like a new person! This morning when my alarm went off at 6am I was not in a half asleep stupor hitting the snooze button for almost an hour. I actually got out of bed... had a showre... and didn't feel the strong urge to drink coffee!

PLEASE let this trend continue! PLEASE!!!

9 Months!

2010-12-29T19:41:00.000-05:00

Somehow my little man has turned 9 months old! How did that happen again and where is the pause button???

As I was sitting this evening putting Eirik to bed, I noticed that slowly he has been loosing that infant look and it is being replaced by a toddler look... my baby is growing up!

I have to try and weigh and measure him this weekend. I know that he's getting sort of snug in some of his 12 - 18 month clothes depending on the brand. In one piece things and some sleepers he's in the 18 - 24month however in pants and shirts he's still in 12 - 18 months most of the time.I've been slowly moving over his wardrobe as thing gets snug, especially since for Christmas he got a bunch of 18 - 24 month clothes!

Nothing big in the way of new skills this month. He's a speed crawler now and has discovered... the stairs. We try and keep him distracted from them but if we aren't paying attention he makes a beeline for them! He hasn't figured out how to climb them... yet. He cruises on anything he can pull up on and will push objects around the room! He's not standing on his own yet though so I think i've got a little longer before he figures out walking. On the talking front i'm 99% sure we're saying dada and knowing its dada so in my mind thats his first official word. There are times when he's seen my husband and gone "dada". However he also just generally babbles dadadada... This month we've been getting mamama and bababa babbelings too! He also says something that sounds like kitty sometimes... i'm thinking that may be word number 2!

On the food front we're sort of in a weird place. I think he wants to eat food but he gets frustrated trying to eat it. We're doing the self led solids so he's always been finger fed which is okay, however he still doesn't have a great pincher grasp. For example tonight he was trying to eat peas and while he wanted to eat them he had issues getting them in his mouth so he gave up. He gets frustrated easily when he's tired so dinner is typically his worst meal of the day because he has no patience to eat the food. At this point I'm pretty much giving him just about everything, even some foods on the "no" list because we have no family history of allergies and so far he's not shown any signs of allergies. We haven't done anything peanut yet, no shellfish, and no citrus. But pretty much whatever we eat for dinner he eats too!

He's still very much a boob man though. I'm still pumping twice a day at work which is covering what he takes in a day and still allows me a little extra usually. I did have a large supply drop about a month ago because my body is attempting to figure itself out. I had a few really low output days and even now i've rebounded i'm not pumping as much as I was before. I had thought about stopping pumping at a year but now i'm considering going longer but just pumping once a day. But, that's a more in depth post for another day.

Sleep? yea... about that sleep thing... we have our good nights and our bad nights... and then we have our "mommy is going to go get a hotel room and sleep all day instead of going to work" nights (no, i haven't really done this). I have to admit that things have gotten better. He is in a pretty good nap routine at the moment and is typically taking 2 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps! We also have a great bedtime routine now... we are starting bedtime at 6:30 and I would say about 90% of the time there is no fight getting him to sleep. He has a bath, a story, he eats, and then we'll rock until he's asleep. After that its hit or miss as to when he wakes up again. On good nights we are up 4 times a night total, on bad nights its 6 or 7 however most of those are early in the night. Some nights he sleeps in his crib, some nights its our bed, but most nights its a combo. Honestly we go with whatever works. We put him in his crib to start and the typically after 11 he's in bed with us and then sometimes at 4 or 5 am if he doesn't resettle and trys to play we move him back to his crib.

I really can't believe how quickly he's growing up and changing. Each day he seems to do something new, even if its just something as simple as figure out a toy!

I guess now I had better start thinking about his birthday! I'm not quite ready to do that yet...

Let The Biting Begin...

2010-12-26T18:59:00.000-05:00

Its official, Eirik has started to bite me. Until now I think he would, but it wasn't enough that I noticed. Well, the top two teeth are on their way in and the biting is out of control! I had hoped maybe he wouldn't be a biter... so much for that dream! Thankfully so far he hasn't actually hurt me too badly. I am doing the unlatch and a stern NO when he bites in hopes he will quickly realize that biting is NOT okay. He gets a very upset look on his face when I do this... he doesn't cry but you can see him processing. Here's hoping he gets the hint soon!!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T20:15:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas today! If you don't celebrate Christmas I hope you enjoyed whatever it is you did instead. =)

Before we get to what I know you all want to see, cute pictures, I'm just going to take a moment to reflect.

It was Christmas day 2007 when my husband and I for the first time tried to have a baby. It was that special night that you suddenly go "no more preventing". At the time I had dreams in my mid of being pregnant by spring and having a baby by Christmas of 2008. Well, as we know that isn't the way life played out and it wasn't until the middle of 2009 that I actually became pregnant. Today watching Eirik enjoy his first Christmas brought back memories of so long ago. It made me remember just how far I've come. The road I traveled to get here was emotionally exhausting and draining. This Christmas I am so thankful for my little man. His smiles make my roughest days better and seeing the simple joy he gets out of things brings a smile to my face.

And now, on to the pictures.

He quickly discovered gifts that were for him! Note the cat keeping a close eye on things.

Showing daddy the gift he made. Its an ornament with a handprint in the middle!

My cats as usual enjoyed the empty boxes

Big Christmas Smiles!

My parents sent him a chocolate santa clause. His first taste of chocolate!

To say he liked it would be an understatement....

At the end of the day however he was quite an exhausted little man...

Overall I think he found the entire experience quite overwhelming. My father in law, his girlfriend, and my brother came over and at first he was not a happy little guy. While he did enjoy his new toys (we tried to limit ourself but of course my brother and father in law got him toys so we're going to have to reorganize the toys a bit) it was all a lot for him to take in. He didn't nap well either today which made things more difficult. Those top 2 teeth are on their way in (I think they may have actually cut through) so he was a grumpy little man from that too.

Mommy had a good Christmas however! She got a new wii game (on my list of things to do after this!) DVDs, kitchen stuff, LOTS of yummy things to eat and drink, and a Kindle! Needless to say I am now surfing the web trying to find things to read. Anyone have any good advice??

So, as I said before, I hope you all had a wonderful day! I am now off to eat another Christmas cookie and play with my Wii!

Some Thoughts On The Internet

2010-12-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

This is a topic i've been sort of kicking around for a while, but its come up on quite a few blogs I follow so I think i'm going to address it here at last.

How public is too public?

I am very aware that my blog is currently able to be read by anyone. And honestly that doesn't bother me too much... nothing I post on here is that shocking. I post a few opinions but typically my updates are limited to how Eirik is doing and what new things he is doing.

The older Eirik gets however the more I have begun to think about what I should be posting in a public forum. Does the whole world really need access to pictures of my son? I love sharing them, but I don't know who is looking at them. This subject is one that became in the front of my mind a few months ago. On facebook there was a huge outcry because a grown man with weird fetishes as his likes was joining cloth diaper sites. Because of this a lot of cloth diaper sites took down any public photos in their group because there was concern over who was looking at them.

I'm sort of torn. On the one hand I really want to leave parts of this blog public but on the other I think I need the option to protect some things starting next year. The problem here is that blogger will not let me just protect some posts and not others... it seems I have to make the entire blog privet. Of course that is an option, however i have no issues with having blogs concerning baby items I find useful and cloth diaper reviews public. In fact I have been toying around with starting another blog that was dedicated to cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and whatnot.

So be prepared my followers for some changes next year.

Its Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-20T20:20:00.000-05:00

Ah Christmas... only a few short days away! This year has been exceptionally hectic for me, trying to squeeze everything in during Eirik's naps or when my husband is home! Where as before I could just do my christmas shopping after work without a care in the world this year I had to plan in advance on days when I could stay out a little later. Needless to say a lot more shopping was done online this year! Baking too proved to be more time consuming then planned. I didn't get all the cookies I wanted made because I simply ran out of time. Some may think i'm a little insane to try and bake cookies, but I really do enjoy baking and its an easy gift for my husbands students.

This weekend we finally got the house completely decorated and the tree purchased. I love live trees. I would really love to go cut one down but due to time constraints we instead went down the road and purchased one. Maybe next year! Eirik has completely ignored the tree much to my relief. I had images of him trying to pull it over. No, he still thinks that the cats and the coffee table are much more interesting!

Of course after we got the tree up I had to dress Eirik up and take some photos of him under it. Sadly the camera battery died only minutes after I got him in place and of course all the batteries need to be charged... but I did get a few cute ones.

Now off to finish writing Christmas cards and MAYBE start wrapping gifts. I haven't wrapped a single one yet!

You Never Know Their History

2010-12-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended a Christmas party that was thrown by a friend of mine from college. There were a few of us from college there and the rest of the guests at the party where her new boyfriends friends. Needless to say most of the night was spent with the small group of college friends catching up and laughing about college days. The one girl that I talked to quite a bit I didn't know that well in college. We had probably met once or twice in passing at my friends house, but it wasn't really until after graduation at a previous party that I started talking to her more.

I try not to be nosey about children when talking to people, especially since you never now their history. However as we were talking she made a comment about saving up her vacation at work for when they have a baby. At this point the topic of kids was fair game. She had asked about Eirik and said how cute he was so casually I asked her if she and her husband were thinking of having a baby soon.

Before long it all came out... they had been trying but she has endo and was told my her doctor that they had almost no chance of getting pregnant on their own and she had been doing clomid and it wasn't working so now she was seeing a fertility specialist but the insurance didn't kick in. I sat there and nodded at her in complete understanding and slowly over the course of the night we ended up talking more about infertility then anything else. I got the distinct feeling that everyone else in her life had it easy when it came to having babies and she had no one to really talk to about her struggles that understood. She talked about how she wasn't going to anymore baby showers because it was too painful and about how everywhere she went she saw pregnant women.

As we talked I told her about our struggles, my issues, and my miscarriage. It was the first time I've really sat down with someone I didn't know well and talked about this. Most people whom I have talked with about infertility I knew well... they are people who know my story and my history. But here was someone who I really didn't know all that well. I tried to give her hope... I told her stories of women I knew who had gotten pregnant using various fertility treatments.

I got a message on facebook this morning from her saying to keep in touch.

I think last night we went from acquantances who knew each other through a mutual friend to actual friends.

An Early Christmas Gift...

2010-12-18T22:09:00.000-05:00

With one week to go until Christmas and a week and a half until Eirik turns 9 months old it seems my period has returned. Maybe. I think.

Last week I noticed my milk supply had dipped majorly. Typically I was getting about 16 - 20oz a day out of 2 pumps however last week I was only getting about 12oz a day out of 2 pumps... that's just enough to cover Eirik for the next day and have nothing in the freezer. I freaked. First thought was a parts issue so I purchased new tubing. But then the cramps started. Now I have to add here i've had on and off weird cramps for months and nothing happened. However this time the cramps and the supply drop made me go "hummm".

Then this morning, spotting... and more cramping. We'll see if this turns into a full blown period of if its just spotting.

I did not miss my period. I did not miss insane cramps and ridiculously heavy bleeding. I did not miss needing to take 800mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours for the first 2 days of my period. I did not miss pads and other feminine articles and wearing black clothes just in case of leakage (yes, I am prone to this thanks to the heavy bleeding).

Merry Christmas to me!

Surprise 9 Month Appointment

2010-12-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

So today Eirik had a doctors appointment. It was supposed to be a follow up visit from when he was there 2 weeks ago for a sick visit. Well apparently since its so close to 9 months they just decided to go ahead and do all his 9 month appointment stuff while he was there! Now usually I wouldn't mind, but I wasn't there today. My husband took Eirik. In fact I had specifically taken off on the date we scheduled his 9 month appointment for so I could be there!

So, since my husband took him it means I don't have his length but I do have his weight: 21.6lbs! He has really slowed down in growth since he started becoming more mobile. I guess that makes sense, he's burning all those calories moving around EVERYWHERE! He's still in the 75 - 90th%. I'll have to pull out the tape measure and try and see if I can guess how long he is. I think he must be pretty long because a lot of his 12 - 18 month sleepers are starting to fit him perfectly and a few pairs of pants are even too short!

Apparently the little man got 1 shot and a vision test. I had no idea they did a vision test at 9 months! My husband said they attached electrodes to his head and made him watch a monitor with images on. The score is 1 - 5 and he got a 3, which apparently is good.

The doctor of course tried to give my husband advice about sleep... doing the cry it out method to get him to self sooth and moving him to his crib at night. While neither my husband or I are interested in doing cry it out we are going to try leaving him in his room at night. The reason for this is because we THINK its too overstimulating being in our room at night. Eirik has been having this awake period between 1 and 3 am. He'll fall back asleep but the second we put him in our bed he's wide awake again. Last night I played asleep while he had a conversation with the cat. Yes, he sat up, looked at the cat, took out his pacifier, and started talking and laughing to her. Then he decided that mommy and daddy made great climbing obstacles. After spending 2 hours rotating rocking him and me nursing him only to have him fall asleep and wake right back up again we put him in his own bed... and he slept for 3 hours.

I have to confess here I am not ready for him to be in his own room. I love having him next to me at night. But, it seems that maybe Eirik is in his own way trying to say he is ready. We're going to experiment and see how it goes. I've learned parenthood is a series of experiments... trying things until you find something that works. and sometimes what you want to do and what actually works are 2 different things!

Finally here are a few pictures from the past few days!

Enjoying Pasta! Not sure how much he ate... but he enjoyed himself!

Helping me fold diapers! I thought maybe putting it on his head would distract him... nope! He ignored it!

Standing holding onto my pants!

A Graduate Again!

2010-12-13T20:15:00.000-05:00

This post is a step away from mommy stuff for a moment and focus on... me!

In late 2007 I began trying to get pregnant. I was stressed and frazzled and trying to think of something to take my mind off of things... I had been toying around with the idea of going back to school and doing an online program but I hadn't found one that I liked. Then suddenly I came across a program that was perfect for me! It required no GRE's, was online, and would give me a masters degree in Biotechnology. I had an undergrad degree in Biology but quickly realized that to get anywhere I would need a masters degree. I applied for the program and was accepted to begin Fall 2008.

And now, 2 1/2 years later, I am officially done. That's right, tonight I made my last message board posting. I will admit that its been challenging at times. There have been classes I truly enjoyed and other classes that honestly I barely made it through. While i took most of my classes online I did spent my first semester doing a horrible commute (1 hour each way 2 nights a week after work) so that I didn't have to delay starting my classes.

I was concerned for a while about what would happen if I got pregnant while taking these classes and how difficult it would be to complete the courses with an infant. I have to say that these past 2 semesters, balancing new motherhood, work, and classes has been trying and difficult. I have found myself forced to choose between time with Eirik and doing homework or reading. I'm glad that I am done now, when Eirik is 9 months old, as opposed to when he's older. The older he gets and the more he's awake in the day the more difficult the balancing act is.

The funny part is that now I've accomplished this I find myself seriously questing my professional aspirations. almost 3 years ago when I decided I wanted to persue a masters degree I thought I knew what I wanted. Now after having Eirik I'm not so sure. Either way I'm proud to have accomplished this feat of getting my masters degree!

Reverse Cycling

2010-12-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

Eirik has reverse cycled... after weeks of trying different tricks to get him to sleep and analyzing his sleeping patterns and responses to comforting this is the conclusion I have come to.

To those who don't know, this basiaclly means that since he's away from me all day he makes up for it at night. I have to admit until a few days ago this thought never occured to me becuase Eirik eats while I am at work! A lot of babies who reverse cycle don't take milk in the day hence hte all night nursing sessions. Eirik however will easily guzzle down 12oz while I am gone for about 9oz! (for a breastfed baby thats a lot). Then this week I started connecting the dots and after a few trial and error things this weekend I realized that yes... it was reverse cycling.

We were getting pretty good wtih sleep... around when I went back to work Eirik had started sleeping the occasional 5 - 6 hour stretch. I honestly thought we were going to be sleeping through the night! Then slowly things started getting worse... and worse... and worse. The epic nighttime battles of trying to get him to sleep and down for naps. Thankfully we seem to have gotten a nap and sleep schedule figured out but the one thing that I haven't been able to stop is constant night waking. Between 6 and 10pm he's up every 30 - 60 minutes and after that its about every 2 - 3 hours. I can almost set my clock by his wakings. Every efw weeks he throws me a bone and has a great night of sleep however these nights are few and far between.

If my husband tries to rock him or put him back to sleep its 30 minutes of all out screaming... then he is given to me and within seconds he's back to sleep or just about there.

My research on google has told me that there is no fix to reverse cycling... It seems this is just one of those things that I'm going to have to learn to live with. The best advice I have found is to make sure to do lots of extra breastfeeding at night before bed to "tank them up" so that is my new plan. Fingers crossed this helps at least a little!

More Food Progress!!

2010-12-08T20:37:00.000-05:00

So for a while there I really felt stuck with food... I wasn't sure what to feed Eirik because he hasn't really developed a good pincher grip. I also felt that even though I was offering food he wasn't really eating it most of the time! Being paranoid I started to become worried he wasn't eating enough! The downside to doing the baby led solids approach is you have no measure of how much they are actually consuming! Then I came across information that made me realize I was completely over thinking this whole solids thing. Hes still getting most of his nutrition from milk so its not a huge deal if some days he hardly touches his food!

Suddenly this week however I've gone all in about feeding him. Almost nothing is off limits!! I've also been really making sure my husband gives him something to eat for lunch. Dinner we always do but lunch has been hit or miss. Last night Eirik had pasta and a little sauce for dinner and he really enjoyed it! I was surprised! I'm not sure he ate much of the pasta but he did suck the sauce off his fingers. Tonight we did potato, brussel sprouts, chicken, and broccoli. He tasted a little of each but honestly didn't think much of any of it. I have to admit its really nice just plonking food that I am eating down in front of him and watching him eat! So far i've been really surprised by what he seems to like. The other night we had spinach and he really seemed to enjoy it!

Eirik is also getting better with actually picking up food and eating it. At first of course he played with it more but now hes realized that when I put food in front of him its for eating. Some foods are easier to pick up then others... but he is doing really well. I've also started to learn what his "i'm done" ques are.

Who knew food could be so much fun??

Do As I Say, Not As I Do!

2010-12-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

I've discovered that the older Eirik gets the more it is actually encouraging me to change my lifestyle as well in a positive way!

When I was a kid we ate dinner in the kitchen at the table... no TV. I can only remember about 3 occasions where the TV was on during dinner, and that was when I was a teenager! Of course once college hit I began to eat more and more meals in front of the TV and by the time I had gotten married I was quite used to balancing my plate on my lap while I ate. My husband and I would typically watch something while we ate dinner. Usually a movie or an episode of a TV show. I always knew however that once Eirik was old enough to eat at the table with us my days of eating in the living room would be over. Sure enough once we started Eirik on solids and had him actually eating with us back to the table meals went. Now every night we sit down to dinner at the table!

I've also been a lot more careful about what foods I am buying and preparing. I am by no means only feeding him organic and natural foods... honestly I don't have that kind of money. But since we are doing baby led solids and he eats off our plates I am trying harder to prepare meals with fresh foods and to make sure things are healthy. Of course some nights are better then others... Saturday for example my husband and I had pizza while Eirik had broccoli.

It'll be interesting to see what other changes I make as he gets older!

More Mommy Guilt

2010-12-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

Even though at my job the holidays are not specifically a busy time of year it always ends up that something occurs to make the month of December busy. Every year it seems that this time of year requires long hours and late nights and this year is no exception. We are a very small company therefore when something comes up everyone is needed so its hard to pull the baby excuse... especially when I know other people have infants and young children too.

For example, yesterday was our company christmas party as well as company wide update meeting. Typically I leave work at 4pm so I can get home for my husband to teach. This is not normally an issue however yesterday I was needed at work later. As we had no babysitter our solution was that Eirik actually came to work with me for about an hour and a half between the company meeting and the Christmas party so that my husband didn't have to cancel his lesson. While it was great for me to see Eirik for that hour and a half (otherwise I really wouldn't have seen him at all yesterday) it was another reminder of just how stressful being a working mom is.

Next week i will be staying late at work for 3 days... late enough that by the time i get home some of those nights Eirik may already be in bed as we start his bed routine about 6 or 6:30. Its so sad for me when I come home late and find him already asleep. An entire day without giggles and smiles and laughter and playing. It really makes me realize where my priorities in life are and dedicates me to getting myself in a situation where I don't have to sacrifice entire days at work and hardly see my son. While right now I know things can not change my hope is that next year they can.

Because honestly, who wants to be away from this face any more then they have to?

8 Months!

2010-11-29T19:25:00.000-05:00

Thats right, somehow Eirik is now 8 months old!

In the past month hes mastered crawling and standing. He now pulls up on EVERYTHING and wants to play with everything he's not supposed to! He's even started to take a few tentative steps while holding on to things. The other big thing I have really noticed is now when I say his name he instantly turns his head! Before it was hit or miss, but now the second I say "Eirik" he turns and looks at me and usually gives me a large grin. I also have obviously been taking too many pictures of him because the second he sees the camera come out and aim at him he gets a huge cheesy smile.

He has 2 teeth now officially. I can't get a good picture of them because the little stinker loves to stick his tongue out at me! Foodwise we are still trying new things and reoffering old ones that he didn't take to at first. He still hasn't quite mastered the pincher grip so our food offerings are still a bit limited to things he can grab. I did buy some of those puffs and while he couldn't pick them up himself he quite enjoyed me feeding them to him!

I have to say here I think we are also doing better with sleep! Some nights are better then others, but we haven't had the night time battles like before in a LONG time. I think it helps that we are more focused on getting his naps in the day. He does still get up about every 2 - 3 hours at night... but honestly it seems like thats sort of normal for a breastfed baby of his age. I'm going to do another formal sleep log in a week or so... it'll be interesting to compare it to the last one! We have tried to attach him to a lovey but he has shown absolutely no interest in that what soever. I'm still trying though!

And just because no day is complete without baby laughter, here is a short video. Why he finds this toy so funny I still don't understand!

Technology Today

2010-11-27T14:52:00.000-05:00

Close your eyes, relax, and think back to a time... a time when you yourself were a child. Computers? Few and far between. Cell phones? Who had those?! Cable TV didn't have millions of channels with still nothing on and the closet you could get to reality TV was an episode of Cops! Video games were a new thing and hardly anyone had them. Phone calls weren't cheap and and all correspondence was done by old fashioned mail.

Today I have found myself thinking about just how much has changed since I was a child. In Elementary school I remember how special our school was to have a computer lab! There weren't enough for each of us to use a computer so we had to share. I still remember our teachers telling us over and over "do not stick your finger in the hold of the floppy!" My dad had a laptop computer with a black and white screen because his job had something to do with computers (to this day I still couldn't tell you what he did). I remember watching him one night installing a new version of windows... sticking disk after disk into the computer. There were no cell phones. The internet? Well, I'd heard of it, but we didn't have it. It was expensive to get connected! We had a Nintendo, but not a ton of games for it. I remember talking to my relatives in England only on birthdays or Christmas because it was so expensive to make a call. I remember having a boom box with a cassette player and thinking how cool it was. Sometimes my dad would take me to the record shop with him... yes, the store sold vinyl!

Just how much things have changed!

I realized today Eirik will never know a world where computers are a luxury item. I'm embarrassed to confess here my household currently has 5 computers.. My husband and I each have a desktop and a laptop and my husband has an additional music computer built especially for that purpose. He will never know life without being connected. At the age of 8 months old he already has a pretty impressive digital "footprint". By the time he is a teenager I can't even begin to imagine the sort of technology that will be available to him. In just 10 years look how far cell phones have come! What was once a device used to make calls can now surf the web, post facebook updates, make calls, and even tell you how to get from point A to point B!

When I was a child photographs took a week to develop and were picked up at the grocery store. You could get copies and mail those to your relatives. Now I can instantly take a photograph of Eirik, put it on the computer, and e-mail it to my parents. Video? I still vividly remember the big bulky video camera my friends dad owned. Today my cell phone can record videos and upload them directly to a webpage.

Today however I got to experience one of the best aspects of all of this new technology. This afternoon I sat in my living room and had a video chat with my entire family in England. What was impossible to do when I was a child is now commonplace. I could see the look of happiness and joy on my relatives face as they sat watching Eirik playing with his toys on the floor. No longer do they have to wait to see updated pictures and hear about what he is doing. No, now they can watch. I smiled because even though today he doesn't understand who the people on the screen are, I know as he grows up we can continue to have these video chats. It will give him a relationship with his grandparents and great grandparents that I never had.

I can't begin to imagine what sort of technology will be coming out in 10 years time. Really, its amazing how far we've come.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2010-11-25T21:32:00.000-05:00

So it seems like the theme this Thanksgiving is sickness. I can think of 4 families who are all sick at the moment, and that's just off the top of my head! There is something nasty going around at the moment I guess! I was feeling worse this morning instead of better. Thankfully Eirik decided to sleep in a little so I got some much needed extra sleep. As the day went on however I slowly began to feel better. It gives me hope that maybe by Saturday i'll be good as new!

Eirik enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!

He even ate some thanksgiving food!

Despite the look on his face he did really enjoy the turkey! The carrots not so much and I don't think he even touched the brussel sprouts. Unfortunately he woke up early from his second nap which meant by the time we all sat down to eat dinner he was starting to get a little tired and fussy. I've noticed the more tired he is the less interested he is in eating.

He even did okay with my father in law! For some reason Eirik always cries when my father in law comes over. We have no clue as to why... it must just be one of those weird baby quirks. It started when he was about 3 months old and has only gotten worse instead of better. Of course as soon as my father in law came over he started to get upset and unsure, but by the end of the evening he had crawled over to him and sat on his lap!

So I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now I am off to get some much needed sleep!

Lots of Sickness

2010-11-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

My appologies for my lack of updates recently but it seems everyone in the house has been or is sick! First my husband got sick last weekend and then last Sunday night Eirik woke up at 2am with a fever. Thankfully he doesn't seem too worse for the wear now.. but sunday night and monday were rough and then, go figure, I got the cold so now I am sick! I can't win! I really miss my awesome immune system. Before having Eirik I hardly ever had a major cold yet in the past 4 months I think I have had 3! Its going to be a long winter if this keeps up!

Here are a few photos to tide you over. Between being sick and preping for Thanksgiving tomorrow I'm beat!

I'm one of those women...

2010-11-21T19:42:00.000-05:00

I wanted to post this last weekend but one thing led to another and an entire week has gone by.

Last weekend I became one of those women. Those women who you hear about on the news who breastfeed anywhere. Thankfully unlike the people on the news no one said anything to me. I find this funny in a way because I am a very modest person and a very non confrontational person. I tend to go with the flow, keep the peace, and not do anything extra to draw attention to myself. Before having Eirik my friend and I had an in depth conversation about breastfeeding in public and I always said "oh, i'd probably find somewhere quiet to go".

I know I posted about the first time I nursed in public. A terrifying experience! But with my parents visiting and us being on the go so much I quickly got used to it. However even so I still always tried to find a quiet area to feed him. If there was a nursing room I would use it or sometimes I would simply wait until I got to the car. Eirik has never been one for the covers and honestly neither have I. I have one sitting on a shelf that has never been used... not once.

Then last weekend I was in Barns and Noble with my husband. I was walking around with Eirik and he was fussing... I knew he was hungry but honestly there is no where in Barns and Nobel thats out of the way. They used to have big chairs in quiet places but since people used the bookstore as a library they centralized all the chairs... right next to a window and the checkout area.

I thought about it for about 5 minutes. Do I go back to the car or do I simply sit down and feed him in the big comfy chairs? I went back and forth in my head before finally realizing I was being stupid and sat down and fed him. And nothing happened. No one flinched. I don't think most people even realized what I was doing in all honesty. They probably thought I was just cuddling with my child.

I am always paranoid when I feed Eirik in public that people can see what I am doing and I'm flashing people left and right. But as this picture shows thats not the case.

And to think, all this time i've been nervous and paranoid for nothing!

The Payoff

2010-11-17T20:34:00.000-05:00

I am frequently asked when I go out with Eirik if he's my first. My response is yes which is quickly followed by some sort of comment about "is it harder then you imagined?" People are always shocked when I respond No. I had no grand illusions of parenthood being easy. I never dreamed that it would be a walk in the park. I anticipated sleepless nights, uncontrollable crying, and moments of sheer frustration. When I decided I wanted to have a baby I knew all of these things would occur. They happen to every parent no matter how wonderful their child is. You can have the baby that sleeps through the night from day one and is an "easy baby" and still have days where you want to pull your hair out. I never had any sort of romanticized visions about having a baby.

But while there are moments of sheer frustration they are followed by moments that make it all worth while. Nothing can compare with the first real smile... when they look at you and give you a huge grin with those wide innocent eyes. When you hold them as they sleep and they nuzzle their head in closer to you. Their tiny hands gripping yours so tightly. The uncontrollable laughter as you blow raspberries on their stomach. These are the moments that make you forget all the frustrations of the day.

Tonight I had one of those moments. I came home from work and walked in the door to find Eirik sitting on the floor. As soon as I came in, as usual, he got a huge grin on his face. Today however he crawled as fast as he could over towards me, grabbed my pants, and pulled himself up to a standing position waiting for me to pick him up.

That is the payoff that makes it all worth while.

Food Updates!

2010-11-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

So we're still sticking with the baby led solids and I have to say I am sort of getting in a rut! I've been scouring other baby led solid websites for ideas on new foods to give Eirik. He still doesn't have the pincher grasp and gets easily frustrated when he can't get his food! It doesn't help we do dinner when he's already a little grumpy. Starting tomorrow we are going to start giving him lunch and dinner!

In new food adventures we've tried cauliflower, tofu, and chicken. The tofu he ate a bit of both times, but quickly decided against it. Not that I can blame him too much... i'm not a huge fan of tofu either! The cauliflower fell apart in his hands and he got frustrated with it... so we'll have to try that one again. Chicken was a hit, but i didn't cook it soft enough so he sucked on it more then he actually ate it! Oh, he also tried some butternut squash mash! That he enjoyed. He even fed himself using a spoon! Well ... mostly. He did get excited and started to wave his spoon around and globs of squash went flying around as well. The dangers of baby led solids!!

From 0 to 60!

2010-11-14T20:31:00.000-05:00

Holy crap babies master this crawling thing quick! Just days ago I could put Eirik down and he would stay there... now the second he hits the floor he's all over the place! Needless to say this weekend has been spent rushing around moving objects out of his way and doing a serious round of baby proofing. Things I didn't think he could reach I suddenly found myself pushing out of his grasp! Its not just the crawling, its the standing too! He wants to pull up and stand on EVERYTHING. Of course this standing means he can reach things that I assumed he couldn't!

For example... he can now play the piano!

Other then that we've actually had a very busy weekend! Yesterday we went to Ikea where I saw tons of items I wanted to purchase but didn't need. I often forget how much I love Ikea until I go there! Sometimes I wish I could get my house remade into an Ikea house... organization and all! The models are so amazingly organized... i want my house like that! Today Eirik and I went shopping. I had lots of coupons and we have an outlet mall near us so off we went. Of course silly me didn't check the opening time and I showed up almost an hour early! Eirik and I power walked around the mall twice (its a mile around) and then got some starbucks while waiting for the stores to open. I got some much needed winter clothing (none of my pre pregnancy shirts fit still thanks to my larger chest size) and Eirik got an adorable hat.

I've rambled on enough for today. Tomorrow I have a food update! But i'll leave you with an amusing story, pictures included. This afternoon I was playing with Eirik and brushing his hair. He decided he wanted to hold the brush AKA eat it:

When he realized it wasn't tasty he decided to try adn play with it. The face he made whenever he touched the bristles was hysterical!

I was laughing so hard at him he ended up laughing too.

Not me singing...

2010-11-11T20:24:00.000-05:00

but a video none the less! Enjoy! =)

No video yet...

2010-11-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

But here are some cute photos! Due to some technical issues... aka, i can't get the video to shink to a decent size and keep the sound intact, the much requested video of me singing twinkle twinkle little star will be delayed. So, until then, enjoy these cute photos!

First up, Eirik and Daddy

Next we have him generally being cute

and lastly I was trying to get a nicer posed picture for a christmas card so i dressed him up in a nice sweater and put him on the couch against a black backdrop only to realize that now it looked like he had no legs! We'll have to have a redo session...

I promise the video of me singing will appear!

My Favorite Things at 7 months!

2010-11-07T15:41:00.000-05:00

So I haven't done one of these in a few months now... and while Eirik still loves some of the same things there are some new additions!

1. Fisher Price Bat and Wobble Penguin - this is STILL a favorite! He LOVES it. In fact he loves it so much sometimes I get the annoying little musical ditty stuck in my head. Now hes big enough that he tries to body slam it to the floor... its quite amusing to watch!

2. Fisher Price Baby's First Blocks - I picked these up at Target about a month ago because they were on sale and Eirik didn't have many older toys. They were an INSANT hit! At first all he did was take the lid off and play with it... then he started to dump the blocks, and now he enjoys taking each block out one by one! They mostly get gnawed on at this point, but it keeps him entertained for a LONG time!

3. The cats. He LOVES the cats. Thankfully they seem to like him too!

4. Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two books are his favorite!!

5. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - whenever i sing it he gets the biggest grin. If you're lucky maybe i'll post the video of me singing to him later. =)

6. Drinking from my water glass. We're still working on sippy's and straw cups but he still absolutely LOVES drinking water from a glass.

7. Broccoli. This is a hands down favorite food. He also at the moment enjoys banana, baby mum mum, toast with hummus, and squash.

I think my child is a borg...

2010-11-06T16:27:00.000-04:00

Okay, I am aware that the title to this post is odd and many of you may not even get the reference. To start with I am a sci fi/fantasy geek and when I was younger I watched a LOT of star trek. I wouldn't say I was a Trekkie by any means, but I know more then the average person. Anyway... there are a species called the borg and what makes them hard to defeat is that they can adapt so that they are immune to your weapons. How does this relate to Eirik? He can adapt to whatever sleep technique and then ignore it!

So I have to say we haven't been too great about the whole sleeping schedule simply because hes had a cold and its hard to start something like that when he's sick. But whenever we find some trick that seems to help him get to sleep for naps and night time it seems that the method works for 2, maybe 3 days before it doesn't work anymore. Its as if Eirik knows we're trying to put him to sleep and goes "AH HA! NO!".

First rocking him worked. I would hold him on my chest upright and pat his back and rock him. Then that stopped working so I would hold him in the cradle hold and rock him. Then THAT stopped working so we're now bouncing and swaying while I stand. This is only in the past two weeks... the list of other things that used to help him fall asleep but don't is long... for a while I could lay down with him and he'd fall asleep. That didn't last long... then we went back to swaddling. That worked the longest out of them all but before too long that as well stopped working. I tried just sitting still and patting his back and doing rhythmic sushing... yea.... that doesn't work either anymore. I've tried the whole "put them in the crib drowsy" thing and that has NEVER worked. Even when he was 2 months old the second I put him down he would be wide eyed and trying to play.

I told him I was going to trade him in for one of those babies that sleeps. He smiled at me. He's lucky he's so darn cute sometimes...

Crawling and Pulling Up!

2010-11-04T21:27:00.000-04:00

As I said in my 7 month post, Eirik was on the verge of crawling and pulling up. Well, he has now accomplished both!

For so long now hes been doing this sit scott crawl... and while it was mobility it wasn't really what I would call crawling. Well, this evening he actually crawled... arms and legs were moving! He still sits a lot but I have to admit he is fully mobile now. let the babyproofing begin!

He also finally figured out how to pull up on the furniture! Not only that he took a tentative step which means cruising is going to be starting soon!!

I'm not ready for him to grow up!!

Another Favorite Food!

2010-11-03T13:31:00.000-04:00

So we have discovered a new favorite food... Hummus!! I was inspired by other baby led solid blogs and thought "hummus on toast, why not?". I have to add here I LOVE hummus. I could eat it with a spoon! My husband however HATES hummus with a passion. After I eat it he always makes a comment of some sort! While I know hummus is easy to make I typically buy mine because I don't have a good food processor to make it with. The hummus in the house at the moment is trader joes. I actually looked through all their various flavors (they have a LOT of hummus!) to find the one with the least extra stuff in it. Well, it was a hit!

We've done it twice more... and now he just licks the hummus off the toast as opposed to eating the toast! Its really amusing to watch. My husband of course just rolled his eyes when I said I was giving him hummus. The fact he enjoys hummus has also motivated me to make foods with seasoning and give it to him!

In other food news I think we have hit sort of a wall with solids. he likes food, but dinner is rough because he's tired and grumpy and gets frustrated with his food. I think I am going to start having my husband offer him food for lunch as well. I know he doesn't need the food right now for nutrition (I actually saw a chart somewhere on how much nutrition babies need from solids before 1 year... its not a lot!) but I want him to get more used to eating food. So, next week we're going to do lunch and dinner every day! Right now he only gets lunch and dinner on the weekends.

Eirik and the cats

2010-11-01T20:42:00.000-04:00

About half way through my pregnancy I started to freak out about having cats. I LOVE my cats... they are more then just pets to me. My husband always makes comments about how Caligula is my baby (he was my first cat!) and how I spoil the cats.

Freakout number one was sleeping arrangements. I've always had the cats in my room and yet here I was reading about how cats and babies shouldn't sleep in the same room together. How was this going to work? I ordered a tent to go over the cosleeper... but that didn't last because I kept freaking out it was going to collapse (can we say new mommy nerves??) so instead the cats were kicked out of the bedroom. I spent 2 nights listening to them paw at the door before one night my husband put them in the basement. I cried and told him to let them out and we'd just see what happened. (new mommy hormones + no sleep caused this reaction!). Imagine my delight to find the cats... ignored Eirik! They didn't go anywhere near the cosleeper. No, they were quite content to sleep at the foot of the bed. They did however think the cosleeper was their new bed when Eirik wasn't in it. I got in the habbit of tossing a pillow in to prevent cats from sleeping there. In fact his sheets got changed more because of cat fluff then because he made them dirty.

In fact at first the cats stayed as far away from Eirik as possible. Slowly most of them came around (Sebastian is still not sure of him) and while they didn't want to be with him they simply watched him from afar and ignored him. This worked great at first but now Eirik has reached the more mobile stage... bring on fear number two. Claws.

Yes, all my cats have their claws. I have by no means encouraged biting or scratching but... they're cats! If they get wound up or upset then they are going to react. I've always been super careful about Eirik's interaction with the cats.. making sure that he doesn't tug on their fur or pull their tails. However I have to say I am very surprised about how gentle my cats are with him! Even on the few occasions where Eirik has gotten a fistful of fur they haven't scratched or bitten. In fact my one cat loves to come and rub up against Eirik while I nurse him at night.

I have to say I am very releaved that so far the cats have been accepting of him. My one cat Caligula has actually mellowed out a LOT since Eirik was born. He is no where near as nippy as he used to be and is much more cuddly and wanting to be held and hugged.

Cats and babies can get along!

Note: No cats or babies were harmed in the taking of the photos. One cat did end up with drool on it and Eirik ingested some cat fluff.

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T19:08:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!!

First we have Eirik in his "its halloween" outfit.

And here he is dressed up in his costume!

The costume part only stayed on for about 5 minutes. He is having a rough day thanks to his cold/teething combo!

A Change Of Plans...

2010-10-30T14:38:00.000-04:00

I had a fun filled fall weekend planed for today and tomorrow! Today my husband and I were going to get up early so we could go pick apples and get a pumpkin then today I was also going to carve said pumpkin. Tomorrow I was planning on taking Eirik to a trick or treating at a church with my friend. I was so excited for Eirik to have his first halloween! Sure, he isn't really going to apprechiate the pumpkin or the trick or treating this year... but still!

Then yesterday Eirik woke up with a runny nose which by bedtime had progressed to full out snuffles and a baby who couldn't breath... which meant last night the only place he would sleep was on me. And guess who woke up congested and stuffy this morning? If you guessed me you'd be right! Needless to say all plans have been canceled and instead I am trying my best to stay hydrated and keep this cold on the mild side... if you remember I had the cold from hell about a month and a half ago which TOTALLY knocked me out.

So tomorrow will be a low key first halloween for Eirik. I am going to get a pumpkin from a stand down the road and carve it... and then we'll take pictures of Eirik with said pumpkin... and if I am feeling up for it we'll possibly head to the mall... but in all likelyhood i'll be going to bed early instead!

But, as promised, a few recent pictures of the little man!

I'm cute and I know it!

Acorn Squash is YUMMY!

I'm not too sure about toast however...

7 Months!!

2010-10-29T19:19:00.000-04:00

Holy Cow... 7 months?! I blinked and the past month went by! Honestly it seems like just yesterday I was saying how he was 6 months old. That first birthday is just getting sooner and sooner! But, i'm not going to think about that!

It seems like right now we are on the cusp of a bunch of new skills... he's just not quite there yet. Hes mastered sitting up from his stomach and currently that's his preferred method of moving around the floor. However I think we are VERY close to crawling and pulling up and cruising! He LOVES to stand and hold on to things and is trying to cruise when he does... but he's just not quite there yet. I am thankful for this however because it means I can still put him down on the floor and know he's not going to move! This phase is sadly almost over however... my future holds babygates and door locks!

The older he gets the more his little personality comes through. Its just so interesting to watch him grow in this aspect! He really is a happy little guy... he smiles and laughs and honestly is not that fussy! He goes with the flow most of the time. He's VERY inquisitive... if he hears a noise or sees something he has to find out what it is. He is also really eager to do things and gets frustrated when he wants to do something but can't yet (IE stand!). While he's a happy baby he's not super friendly at first... he's very leery of new people, especially men. There are of course exceptions to this rule... he absolutely loves my friends cousin!

As I said in an earlier post we officially have tooth number one and I think tooth number two isn't far behind. We've had major drooling going on again and I can feel it RIGHT there!

Food is going okay... its very hit or miss. He'll taste things but if its too difficult to get to his mouth he just gives up on it. I try and offer him solids at least once a day and on the weekend I usually offer it 3 times. Currently broccoli is his all time favorite food... tonight he devoured 2 large pieces! We are also making progress with sippy cups and straw cups. He does better with the straw cup but hes starting to get the idea behind the sippy. He still loves my glass though!

Sadly this post will not contain new pictures because my husband borrowed my camera tonight ... however I promise tomorrow new pictures will come! And then Sunday we will debut his new halloween costume! I know you're all dying to see that. =)

Operation Get More Sleep!!

2010-10-24T22:07:00.000-04:00

This week begins operation get more sleep! As I mentioned before we are going to try the no cry sleep solution. I know a lot of people are big fans of the cry it out methods (or variations of it) but it is something that I just can't do. So after reading the book and logging Eirik's sleep i've determined a few things that are going to change.

1. Consistent routine naps. He needs 3 naps a day. He actually has fallen into a routine... a 9am, a 12pm, and a 3:30pm. Of course all these times are +/- about 30 minutes. So, the plan is that we're going to make sure he goes down for naps at these times every day ... when possible.

2. Create a more calming bedtime routine. I have started to incorporate reading one book to him at night... I think i may up that to maybe 2 or 3 just to give him some "quite" time between bath and nursing.

3. Do something to separate nights from naps. My idea here is to play soothing music at night for him. We have a baby sleep cd which is on my Ipod so I'm going to start playing that softly on a loop at night... he will hopefully associate the music with night and sleep. Thats the plan......

4. Get him a lovey. I tried this already a bit with his favorite dog blanket but unfortunately it rattles and that just wakes him up makes him want to play. So I have ordered 2 identical lovey blankets for him (best advice given to me was to get two and rotate them so if one gets lost you have a backup!). Fingers crossed he takes to the blanket!

5. Work on getting him to not associate nursing with sleep. This is hard... I've noticed that a lot of times when he wakes up the only thing that will get him back to sleep is me... and it really only takes a second. I can pop him on and within a minute hes out again. The book goes into detail about how to do this but the general concept is to remove him before he's fully asleep and then put him back on when he starts to wake up too much and ultimately he'll learn to fall asleep without it.

6. Get a better sleeping arrangement. Still no clue on what we're doing with that... I'm really starting to lean towards moving his crib into our room... but every time i say thats what i'm going to do I change my mind!

So this is our initial plan of attack! Will it help at all? well, in 3 weeks or so we'll log his sleep again and see if something has changed!

We Have A Tooth!

2010-10-23T18:44:00.000-04:00

FINALLY! That's all I can say. I knew they were close... I could feel them right along his gums and I have just been waiting and waiting for one of them to pop through! I have to admit here however I have no idea which tooth it is! Why? He REFUSES to let me in his mouth! How do I know there is a tooth you ask? Well, tonight when I was letting him drink out of my water glass I heard that noise that only a tooth on glass makes... that tap tap tap! He let me in his mouth briefly and i'm 99% sure its a bottom one... I guess when it becomes more visible i'll know for sure which tooth it is!

More Fun With Food... and other random updates!

2010-10-22T21:19:00.000-04:00

So I have a confession to make here... while I was posting about how awesome baby led solids were I was mentally freaking out. Eirik wasn't really showing ANY interest in eating! I would put food on his plate and he'd pick it up and put it in his mouth a bit, but generally he just gave me a look like "you want me to do what?". I had read however that this was perfectly normal to start with and that it may take time for your child to start eating. It seemed like day after day I would offer him food and he'd just simply show NO interest in picking it up and trying it. That is until about 2 days ago. Yes, I put the food down on his tray and instantly he went for it and shoved it in his mouth. It was a pear... and he actually ATE some! I saw food being chewed! last night we had an amazing repeat with the broccoli. He LOVED it. He was sucking and gnawing on that piece for about 5 minutes! And tonight we did banana. First I tried cutting the banana in halves and giving it to him that way but it was just too slippery for him to hold so then i just used the peel of the banana and let him gnaw on the top... and we had more actual eating occur!! He wasn't OVERLY thrilled with banana so I gave him a piece of my broccoli which again was devoured. I think we officially have a favorite food... broccoli!

A picture of him eating his banana... note you can actually see food in his mouth!!

In other news we are going to have to lower Eirik's crib mattress this weekend because his new favorite thing to do is this...

Yes now the second I put him in his crib awake thats what he does. This afternoon I tried to put him down for a nap and I left him in his crib awake. Well, it was really quiet so I thought he had gone to sleep. No, he was standing!

So that is whats going on with my little man! Oh they grow up so quickly...

Tomorrow I am going to make my sleep plan for the next 3 weeks so i'll update on that tomorrow!

Sleep Log Night 3

2010-10-21T06:40:00.000-04:00

Last night was a really good night of sleep for us! His day naps were a bit screwy as my husband had to take him an hour away to visit his dad so he really only got short catnaps in the car. He did get an awesome 2 hour nap yesterday afternoon however!

6:30 - bath
6:45 - 7:30, read, nursed, rocked, patted back, fell asleep
8 - 8:05 - woke up, rocked back to sleep
11:25 - 11:30 - woke, nursed back to sleep
2 - 2:05 - woke, nursed back to sleep
3:35 - 3:40 - woke, nursed back to sleep
5:45 - 6:00 - nursed
Not sure quite when he went back to sleep as I got up and gave him to my husband... probably about 6:15.

So that means lat night was only 5 wake ups with his longest stretch being 3 1/2 hours! =) Yes, thats a GREAT night for us.

Now we get to the fun part of trying to change things to help him sleep better... Fingers crossed we find something that works fairly quickly!

A relaxing afternoon

2010-10-20T20:52:00.000-04:00

Today I got to spend the afternoon with my little man. This morning my friend who babysits Eirik in the afternoon told me her son was sick with a fever. As we really had no one else to watch him I decided that instead of having my husband cancel his lessons I would just leave work a little early to get home. It was a lighter day for me today thankfully. So instead of having to make a long trek to pick up my exhausted baby the plan was to spend the afternoon playing with him! Well, instead he took a 2 hour nap! He definitely needed the nap and I got some much needed down time as well. He woke up refreshed and happy just in time for some dinner. Even bedtime tonight didn't seem quite as bad. Sure it still took about 45 minutes but compared to the 2 hour marathon we've had some nights it wasn't so bad.

And now a few random pictures. Here is he standing holding on to the coffee table. He can't pull himself up yet but he wants to stand so badly. He LOVES to stand and hold on to things. Note my feet in the picture as I am sitting right behind him. While he loves standing he hasn't quite figured out that when he lets go he falls!

He also had a ton of fun playing with blocks! He is more interested in the container then the blocks most of the time though.

Of course my cat thinks its a great new toy for him!

Guess they'll have to learn how to share!

Sleep Log Night 2

2010-10-20T06:49:00.000-04:00

Just to show you guys sometimes I DO get some sleep here is last nights sleep log!

6:30 - bath
6:45 - nurse
7:00 - sleep
7:30 - 7:35 - woke up, husband rocked him back to sleeo
8:25 - 8:30 - woke up, husband rocked hm back to sleep
9:40 - 9:45 - woke up, husband rocked hm back to sleep
10:40 - 10:45 - woke up, nursed
12:20 - 12:30 - woke up, nursed
3:30 - 3:50 - WIDE awake, long nursing sesson
6:50 - I can hear him awake... I THINK hes been awake for about 10 m inutes... so we'll say up for the day about 6:45.

Now I am 99% sure there was a wake up between 12:30 and 3:30... i just forgot to write it down... but I think it was somewhere around 2 he woke up. I THINK. So it was either 6 or 7 wake ups, most of which ocured in the first chunk of sleep.

I was off baby duty last night... i crawled into bed early and was passed out at 9. Of course when he cried I woke up, but since my husband put him back to sleep all I had to do was roll over. Still tired today, but MUCH more refreshed!

Sleep Log... Night 1...

2010-10-19T06:45:00.000-04:00

So in preparation to make some gentle sleep changes (as the book says) we are supposed to log Eirik's sleep for 3 nights. This is so we get an idea of where we are now and so after trying some different methods to get him to sleep better we can evaluate where we are in about 2 weeks. So here ladies and gentleman is a typical day and night in our house...

6am - wake up
9:15 - 9:40 morning nap
12:15 - 2:20 - afternoon nap
5:10 - 5:40 - evening nap
6:20 - bath time
6:40 - 8:15 - Nurse, rock, cuddle, pat back, place in crib awake, wait 5 minutes till he starts fussing, go in, pat back, rock, gentle shushing, put in crib awake... repeat until he falls asleep.
9:50 - 10 - first wake up. nursed back to sleep
12:05 - 12:10 - second wake up, nursed back to sleep
1:05 - 1:10 - third wake up, nursed back to sleep
2:00 - 2:05 - fourth wake up, nursed back to sleep
2:45 - 2:50 - fifth wake up, nursed back to sleep
3:15 - 3:20 - sixth wake up, nursed back to sleep
4:20 - 4:30 - seventh wake up. nursed back to sleep
5:50 - 5:55 - eighth wake up, nursed back to sleep

he has possibly been awake since about 6:15 unless my husband got him back to sleep... not sure yet...

So, in other words, he is waking up 8 times a night and the longest stretch of sleep was 2 hours. I have to add here I went to bed after the 9:50 feeding.

So, there you have it! That's actually pretty typical... sometimes we probably do a few less... but i'd say that this has been his pattern for quite a while now. I have been trying other methods to get him back to sleep but nothing works... he gets absolutely hysterical if i don't nurse him. And I don't grab him the second he makes a noise... no, i give him a few moments to fall back asleep because sometimes I know he's just getting comfortable. No, these wake ups are actual "I'm really awake" wake ups. Two more days of logging sleep and then we make some changes. I'm really hoping something works soon because this sleep deprivation is really starting to wear on me!

Why I Chose Baby Led Solids!

2010-10-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

So Lara asked an excellent question yesterday... why the heck am I doing baby led solids! While I talked about how cool it was I never talked about why I decided to do it!

Let me rewind a bit. As long as I have known I wanted to have kids I knew I would make babyfood. While I don't remember my mom making my baby food I do remember her making my brothers. I specifically remember I would love helping her feed him simply because he was such a picky eater I ended up getting most of his food! As a teenager I actually tried babyfood a few times and thought it tasted well... disgusting. I remember playing this game "guess the babyfood". Its kind of sad when you can't figure out what the food is!

Fast forward to a few months ago. I started to hear people talk about "baby led solids" or "baby led weaning" or something saying they were "just doing table food". I thought they were INSANE. I mean, giving your 6 month old a whole chunk of avocado?? Wouldn't they choke? How could they eat that without teeth?!

And then I consulted google. Ahh google... as a side tangent here did you notice how over time browsing the web has become simply to google? So many times i'll say to someone "oh, i'll google it". Anyway... back on track here. First thing I discovered was baby led solids was not easy to track down... I had a hard time finding websites that were dedicated to it! But finally I did come across quite a few blogs people had done showing their kids eating food! I found these to be more informative then the websites that just contained basic information and Dos and Don'ts. I could actually see pictures and videos of these infants eating REAL table food!

The more I thought about it and the more I looked the more I realized "I want to try this!" It made sense to me. No special preparation of the food for starters... no boiling and steaming and mushing and purees. No special dinners for the baby. No, he would eat what we ate... or at least something from our plates. It also made sense to me that this way a baby self feeds and learns how to regulate how much they eat. When you have a puree and spoon feed your baby you are controlling how much they eat and what the eat. With this method the baby controls what they eat. The last thing that totally made sense was texture... most "first" foods are such a thin watery consistency which is NOTHING like real food. This gets babies used to eating real food... with texture!

I was sold! I have to say it is a little nerve wrecking to watch your infant shove an entire hunk of avocado in their mouth and then start gagging as a chunk goes a bit to far backwards. But this is NORMAL. Gagging is good and just means that their reflexes are working correctly. But at the same times its such a delight to see Eirik shove something in his mouth and go "this has a taste!" and then shove it back in again. It also makes dinners more interactive and fun. Instead of us trying to spoon feed him we are eating ourselves and watching him eat... or attempt to!

Just be prepared for a mess!

More Food Fun!

2010-10-16T18:33:00.000-04:00

So, as promised, another food fun picture!

Sadly the photo with avocado all over his face didn't turn out! boo!! =( I'm sure i'll have tons of messy face photos before too long!

Today Eirik enjoyed oatmeal! I made myself a bowl and he insisted on having some too. He kept opening his mouth for me to put more in! My husband was laughing at us. This evening I made sweet potato fries and gave him a few. I think he enjoyed them! Of course he kept eying up my plate and wanting what I was eating... even though it was the exact same thing he had!

I also am trying to get him to use a straw cup instead of a sippy cup. He really doesn't seem at all interested in a sippy cup. To say it was a huge success would be an overstatement... but he did however drink a little water! I know because he made a face afterward as if to say "whats this!?"

My little man is growing up way too quickly!

A Day To Remember...

2010-10-15T05:36:00.001-04:00

Today, October 15th, is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day.

It is estimated that 15 - 20% of all pregnancies will end in a loss. This means that we all know someone who has been affected by this... even if we ourselves are not aware of it because that person may be suffering in silence.

Miscariage, stillbirth, and infant death are a very taboo topic today in society. It isn't usually until after one experiences one of these first hand that they hear others with a similar story. Every women has her own reason for not sharing her experiences... some find it to difficult to explain, some find themselves to grief stricken, and others may find that they are embarrassed... some probably don't talk about it because of the reactions and responses they receive.

Today I still grieve for the loss I suffered on March 18th, 2009. Today I will look at the photograph of that positive pregnancy test that still lingers on my hard drive and wonder just what that baby would have looked like. Would it have been a girl? Would she have blue eyes like me? Today I am hugging Eirik just a little tighter knowing what a miracle he truly is. Today I am reminded just how delicate and fragile life is.

Kitty!

2010-10-14T11:24:00.000-04:00

Or something that sounds a lot like it. Yes, if I didn't know better I would SWEAR thats what Eirik says when he sees a cat. I know, hes to young to know what he's saying and understand... he says dadadadada all the time! But this one, kitty, is one he ONLY makes at the cats. I keep trying to reinforce things by saying "yes, thats the kitty cat" to him. It'll be interesting to see if his first real word is kitty or dada. My first word was meow so maybe it runs in the family!

In other Eirik news solids are going okay. We tried avacado. the first night he had no interest in it but he also had issues grasping it. The second night I left the skin on and he gnawed some avacado off the skin... last night was a similar event. The big issue however is we don't have a high chair so I am feeding him in his bumbo... and he HATES being in the bumbo with the tray attached. We are getting a high chair this weekend so I have a feeling solids will start going more smoothly then. I have great pictures of him with avacado over his face that need to be uploaded from the camera.

We're also working on a sippy cup. He still just wants to gnaw at the top part. What he does however LOVE is drinking from my glass! I'll hold it for him and let him lap at the water a bit. He does it and gets a HUGE grin on his face. Maybe we'll just skip the whole sippy cup thing and go straight to a straw and a regular cup!

I need a caffeine IV STAT!

2010-10-13T10:25:00.000-04:00

Coffee... when I was younger I hated the taste of it... in college and my early 20s I only drank things like mochas where the flavoring added to the coffee made it so you could hardly taste the coffee at all! Slowly I began to drink plain old coffee but it was sporadic. Now? I get in to work and head to the lunch room to get myself a nice large mug of coffee... extra caffeine please!

Daytimes with Eirik are wonderful! Hes happy and so much fun! He has such a mellow go with the flow temperament... he's quite happy to just play with his feet! Even naps are pretty good now! Sometimes he'll fight them a bit but typically he goes down and stays down for about 1 - 2 hours. Nights however are a nightmare!

I stupidly and naively thought a few months ago I would be posting about how Eirik was sleeping through the night. He had started to do long stretches of 6 hours of sleep! PROGRESS! I saw myself sleeping again. Oh how the joke was on me. The hour long nighttime battles to get him to sleep followed by waking up every 2 hours or so... different strategies have been tried and none have worked. I have come to realize I am a human pacifier.

Yes, even though he has a pacifier at night nothing but me will do. I've relented and accepted that the best way to get him to fall asleep is for me to nurse him... even if this takes 30 minutes of me sitting switching from side to side. When he wakes at night I will try and give him the pacifier but no... he wants me.

I broke down this morning and purchased a copy of the no cry sleep solution... I just can't do cry it out. I know, some people swear by this method, but its to heartbreaking for me and I just can't let him cry like that. I'll let you guys know how it works...

So until we figure out this sleeping thing keep the coffee coming!!!

International Babywearing Week!

2010-10-11T21:22:00.000-04:00

I meant to post this earlier last week but... well... one thing after another happened and before I realized it the week was over! October 6th - 12th is International Babywearing Week! I personally think babywearing is AWESOME! Eirik loves it, and so do I! When Eirik was smaller I carried him around in a Mei Tai styled carrier and now hes bigger (and heavier!) I have been using my Ergo. They are both so compact and I can put them on just as quickly as one can put together a stroller! I find it a lot easier to wear him when I am out because I can move through isles and stores where sometimes a big stroller would get stuck! I also use it around the house if I need to do something and Eirik wants me to hold him. Its come in very useful at night when I have a grumpy and overtired baby!

Some Benefits Of Babywearing!

A lot of people were turned off on babywearing earlier this year due to the massive recall of bag slings. Like any other baby item, if not done correctly and safely could be dangerous! There are however MANY wonderful resources online! Babywearing International is a great resource! Here is a link to their safety page!

babywearing safety!

Interested in babywearing but not sure what you like or where to begin? Look online for a babywearing group! There are lots of meet up type groups that may even let you borrow carriers for short periods of time, just like a library! Also look for small businesses in the area that offer classes on babywearing. There is a woman locally to me in Baltimore who offers babywearing classes!

Not all babies like all types of carriers. Personally Eirik is very fond of upright and soft structured carriers like a mei tai and an ergo. I put him in a moby wrap a few times as an infant and he was not really happy. I also have a regular sling which I have used and again, not really happy. Thats why going out with your baby and trying different slings and carriers is such an awesome thing to do! So many people give up on wearing their baby because the baby hates the first type of carrier they try.

So, that is my little speech on babywearing. =) I LOVE it and so does my baby!

A Weekend of Firsts!

2010-10-10T18:38:00.000-04:00

They say babies have weeks where all of a sudden things connect and they do EVERYTHING at once. This so far seems to have been one of those weeks!

I said Eirik had started going from sitting to stomach... well, now he does it all the time... and he goes back from stomach to sitting!! Its his version of crawling... he goes to his stomach, moves around, sits back up... repeat. I have a video clip of him doing it I have to upload. Then this evening when I put him in his crib while I got the bath stuff ready. I came back in to find him standing! Yes, he pulled himself up from sitting to standing! Yipes!! Time to lower the crib mattress!

We also started solids this weekend! We are doing baby led solids instead of the traditional path of puree. The big difference is you give them real table food right away instead of mushing everything up and spoon feeding them. If you want to find out more about baby led solids here are a few great websites and blogs!:

http://www.tribalbaby.org/babyLedEating.html
http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzzPTRUWMHI

Anywhoo... so yesterday I was eating oatmeal and Eirik was just eying it up. I shrugged and figured "What the heck, its just oatmeal!" so I put a little on my spoon and offered it to him. Wouldn't you know he opened his mouth wide and tried to get the spoon into his mouth! He gave me a look afterwards as if to say "this is what you people eat?!" but he still took a few more little tastes. Tonight however I gave him some brocoolli. Needless to say I think he got more on the table then in his mouth... but he was amused none the less. I don't think he actually ate much, but I know some got in there because he would make faces. Not a "eeww" face exactly more of a "this is new" face.

We also went and got some 6 month professional photos done today... but thats a long story so i'll save that update for tomorrow!

Baby Vs Cat... round 1!

2010-10-09T21:59:00.000-04:00

Today we officially had round 1 of "baby vs cat". I think it was a draw. ;)

Caligula was begging for attention so he plonked himself down right in front of me... thus also putting him right in front of Eirik. Eirik wasted NO time in reaching forward and grabbing two large fistfuls of fur while I of course grabbed a photograph. I did however quickly remove Eirik's hands from the cat before he tugged too hard this causing said cat to get more feisty. He's pretty good about not using his claws or biting but he doesn't understand that Eirik doesn't understand no tugging on the fur... sooo..... yea. We are going to have to work on getting Eirik to understand gentle with the cats. Caligula almost got his tail chewed on as well, but I didn't have my camera ready for that moment. Eirik grabbed it and was trying to get it into his mouth. I of course was laughing at this... I don't think the cat found it very funny!

Thank You

2010-10-07T13:45:00.000-04:00

I have to say, I was surprised by how many of you responded to my previous post with similar stories! It makes me sad that so many others have been tormented by bullies but also made me realize how many other people may have been bullied that I never knew about!

I just wanted to make a few little clarifications:

I did have a few close real life friends... but sadly we didn't go to school together in high school and in middle school we all got picked on together.

I don't exactly forgive all of the people who bullied me... some of them were worse than others. There are some who did things which I will never forgive no matter what.

Someone made a comment about parents... and that is an excellent point. I agree that parents do need to be actively involved in whatever the punishment is. I bet a lot of parents don't even realize what their kids are doing or just push it off as "kids being kids".

Later tonight we will be back to our regularly scheduled Eirik updates. =)

A Step Away From Babies...

2010-10-05T21:57:00.000-04:00

Since this is my blog and I can talk about whatever I want I am going to take a step away from my normal routine of Eirik updates today. No thoughts on being a new mom or adorable pictures. Today I want to focus on a serious topic and one that is very near and dear to my heart.

The media recently has picked up quite a few stories about bullying... and most of these stories sadly end in tragedy. Young lives lost because of taunts and tormenting by fellow classmates and peers. These teens are now being put behind bars and charged with crimes that at best will leave them with a criminal record and at worst will send them to jail for an amount of time. The line seems to be drawn in the sand... many say "good! Those people need to be taught a lesson" while others go "They are kids! They were headed to ivy league colleges!". There is no middle ground in this debate, like many others. Of course the media is calling this an epidemic (The media LOVES this word) and that this new cyber bullying is making things worse for kids today.

I would like for a moment to tell you the story of a girl... a shy, quite girl who was socially awkward. She preferred to sit and read her book rather then talk. She wasn't thin and pretty like the other girls... she didn't wear the most popular clothing instead opting for jeans and tee shirts to hide her figure. No matter what she did it seemed nothing could help the zits that kept appearing on her face. Makeup? what was makeup? She never worse makeup. No... she was plain and ordinary and quiet. She grew up and lived in the same area and went to elementary, middle, and high school with the same group of kids. It started in elementary school when kids reached that age where clicks begin to form and someone becomes the cool group and another becomes the dorks and losers. Middle and High school weren't much better. New friends were impossible to make and her days were spent trying to keep out of the way. She tried to hide away. In high school she sat by herself at lunch every day, reading her book, counting down the minutes until she could head home again.

It wasn't just girls mean comments and looks... it was boys. Boys who chased her home with rocks and taunted her with names... boys who physically punched her by her locker at times just to see if she would cry. She never did... she never let them see her cry. But cry she did... she cried and cried and cried. Girls were never mean directly to her, they had other methods of making her feel bad about herself. What made matters worse was the schools were aware of issues with certain girls... and they did nothing. They had documented instances of rocks being thrown, words being said, hair being pulled... from elementary to middle school this was documented and nothing was done. The papers were filed away never to be seen again. And these people who tormented her so were not all "punks" who were cool. No... it was the popular kids who took honors classes and had aspirations of a bright future.

The only thing that kept this girl going were friends who were all over the country. Yes, the internet became her one place that she could be herself and could become friends with people who wouldn't judge her because she didn't wear the right clothes or say the right things. These friends talked to her late into the night. She never let them know about how hard it was for her in school for when she talked to these people she could leave those worries behind her and pretend they didn't exist. Most of them probably never realized just how important they were to her. On some days they were the only thing that kept her going.

Yes... that was me.

As an adult some of those people from my high school days have actually tried to befriend me on facebook. If I've run in to people in the stores they have been friendly and very mature to me. To say they were just being teenagers sounds cliche... but its true. These people have matured into adults who now hopefully look back on the way they tormented people in high school and feel embarrassed. I can't get inside their heads and say this is how they feel... but I would hope that they would. I would never wish that these people would have criminal records today because of what they did to me. Did it hurt like hell? Yes... and it still does. The wounds of 12 years of being bullied and tormented and picked on does not disappear. But they were young and foolish then... and don't we all act stupid when we are young?

There have always been bullies and there always will be. Making a tough stand against them doesn't do anything if no one is aware of what is happening... and I can tell you now I told no one about the events that went on. I did not run to the principal after being punched by my locker or cry to my parents when I was chased home with rocks. No... I suffered in silence because I was to embarrassed of what may happen and to afraid of how much worse those bullies would become. I don't think that bullies today are any worse then they were when I was a teenager in middle and high school... they just have new methods for unleashing their torment. Yes, it does bring up new issues... but I don't feel that bullying is anymore an epidemic today then it was when I was in school. I think the difference is that today it is more visible thanks to facebook, twitter, and youtube. All of this technology makes it harder for bullies to hide... now when they torment someone the world can see.

As for what an appropriate punishment should be for bullies I am at a loss. But charging them with criminal charges is not it. After all, they are still kids.

Of all the things I miss...

2010-10-05T08:23:00.000-04:00

I miss sleep the most. If I could pick one thing about my pre-mommy days that I honestly miss it would be sleep! I love Eirik and I wouldn't change a thing about our life... but after a really rough night I sit and remember how wonderful it was to sleep for 8 hours straight... Needless to say last night was a rough one... we were up every hour and a half or so alllllll night long thanks to teething and then for some reason at 4:30 Eirik decided it was playtime. Its a coffee morning! Ahhh the joys of motherhood!

Scars

2010-10-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

Today I awoke to that tingling pain that I still get every few weeks. I looked down at the still bright red scar on my lower stomach and felt myself inwardly cringe. Would I forever get these periods of pain? When will the numbness completely go away? When will I be able to stop questioning what I did wrong even though I know I did nothing wrong? These thoughts and more quickly rolled through my mind as I got myself ready for work. I couldn't help but smile as walked in and out of the bedroom, looking at my husband and child fast asleep in bed together. I quietly snapped a few photographs, hoping neither of them would wake up. As soon as I put the camera down Eirik awoke with his usual happy morning smile which instantly melted my heart and made me push the thoughts from just moments before to the back of my mind. But as I kissed Eirik and my husband goodbye and sat in my car the thoughts pushed themselves to the front of my mind again. The one thing I thought over and over was "when will I be normal again?"

Physically I am my normal self... I have the same energy level as I did before. I can move and bend and do everything I could before and aside from the occasional burning twinges it is easy to forget. But then I look down and see that bright red scar and it comes back and the guilt comes back with it. Even though I know I did nothing wrong I still question myself... and the worst part of all is that nagging fear of doing it again. I want to be pregnant again and have more children... the thought of being pregnant and having another baby is one that excites me. The thought of going into labor again and the physical act of birth scares the living daylights out of me.

I tell myself that I have Eirik and that is what matters... he is healthy and happy. Eirik is a truly wonderful baby. He is mellow and relaxed and happy... he smiles all the time and even when he cries its not that full out scream that other babies do. I honestly couldn't ask for a happier child. I tell myself that next time will be different... that I know more now then I did before... that every pregnancy and birth is different. But telling myself these things doesn't seem to help alleviate the mental duress that I experience when I think about everything that happened.

I've discovered, that like infertility, this negative birth experience brings about comments that are supposed to help but simply hurt. I get told "but you have a healthy baby, that's what matters!" or "next time you can try for a natural birth again". While these comments are meant to be helpful all they do is make me feel more frustrated and then I begin to question my own feelings. Is it wrong for me to feel angry and upset over how my birth went? Shouldn't I just be happy that I have a healthy child?

Every day my scar gets a little lighter and I know that soon it will fade and become almost invisible but the emotional scars still linger. Sometimes its the scars we can't see that take the longest to heal.

On The Move

2010-10-03T13:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't really wanted to admit it to myself... but Eirik is on the move. He's not crawling in the traditional sense, but he can get himself across the room now quite easily AND can go from sitting to his stomach... which means if I sit him on the floor he can get himself to his stomach and again, across the room! He can however only scoot backwards which means he doesn't eye an up object and go to it... its more of an accidental movement and then "oo, look at that!" It also means I need to seriously babyproof the downstairs of my house! Oh the joys... its on my list of things to do next weekend.

6 Month Stats!

2010-09-30T21:20:00.000-04:00

So we were all wrong! Apparently what they say about breastfed babies slowing down growth around 6 months is true! My little man is actually FINALLY on the charts for his height and weight! I have to admit I was shocked when my husband told me how much the doctors said he weighed and what his length was.

Weight: 19lbs 7oz - 50 - 75%
Length: 27in - 50 - 75%

Yep, that's right. he's still under 20lbs. SHOCKER! But I am happy because it means we can continue to use our cosleeper a little longer! It has a max weight of 23lbs! However he is now trying to crawl out of it... so I think its probably going to be taken down sooner rather then later!

6 Months!

2010-09-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

Today my little man is 6 months old! I thought my pregnancy went by quickly! Here he is giving me the "i'm exhausted, can we go to bed now?" look.

So, what is new in the life of Eirik? He is MAJORLY working on the crawling thing! In the process he is doing baby yoga...

He does that when we place him on his stomach. Also when he sits now he is trying to go forward. He's not quite brave enough to go from sitting to his stomach yet, but he's VERY close to doing it. He does it when he bats a toy too far out of his reach or when one of the cats is JUST out of touching range.

He is very vocal and talkative at the moment! We have tons of dadada, bababa, mamama, and nanana... he has his happy noises and his angry one's. Both are cute and highly amusing... sometimes its hard not to laugh at him when he's frustrated!

We still haven't started solids yet... part of this is because honestly he is quite happy with breastmilk! The other part is because I still don't have a diaper sprayer for my cloth diapers! Breastmilk is water soluble so at the moment when the diaper is dirty I can just toss it right in the wet bag. However once he starts solids its another story! Hopefully solids will start in a week or two. Have no fear, there will be pictures a plenty when that happens!

Bedtime is a bit of a nightmare still but I have finding a correlation between how difficult bedtime is to how much time I spend with him in the evening. On days where I pick him up at my friends and he doesn't get good quality "mommy time" before bed he tends to take longer to put to sleep. We're slowly getting better. He's still not sleeping through the night either... currently thanks to teething we are up about every 3 hours. Needless to say he's been sleeping in bed with us and I am mastering the art of nursing laying down in bed.

I'll leave you with a bath picture. He still loves his baths. We got him a rubber ducky and he has finally mastered grabbing it out of the water and getting it into his mouth! Yummy. ;)

Doctors appointment tomorrow so we get the official weight and length! I'm guessing 23lbs. Anyone else want to take a stab?

A Few Of My Favorite Things...

2010-09-27T18:56:00.000-04:00

Or Eirik's favorite things I should say! =) These are things that I know he enjoys and when he starts getting fussy I can pull out and typically distract him with... for about 5 minutes.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - He LOVES this book. I've read him others, but this one always gets a huge grin.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - This song always gets smiles. I've sung the ABC's which is the same tune but it doesn't get the same reaction.

The Rocking Penguin - He loves this penguin! Its inflatable and bounces when he hits it... it can easily amuse him for 10 - 15 minutes!

Jumparoo - Still a favorite. He'd stay in there for hours if we'd let him!

The cats - yes, nothing stops fussing and whining like a cat walking by.

RaZ-berry teethers - since he is having major teething pains these things are a lifesaver! This evening he happily gnawed on one for about 5 minutes! Find them here on amazon!

Me gnawing on his feet - He finds this hysterical. I pretend to gnaw on his feet and make loud "arrg" noises.

The outdoors - if all else fails sitting on my front porch always works! So many new sights and smells!

A Gloomy Sunday...

2010-09-26T14:46:00.000-04:00

Today is a gloomy overcast day... the kind of day where you want to pull the covers over your head and spend the entire day on the couch watching a movie. At least that's what I would have done before having Eirik! Now however my days are spent laying on the floor watching in amazement as he suddenly discovers how to do something that only days ago he couldn't figure out. In all honesty while I miss the movie watching he is just as amusing.

Last night my husband and I had a date, and while it wasn't the romantic evening I had originally planned it was still thoroughly enjoyable. Originally the plan was to go to PF Changs, however on the way there we passed a 5 guys and my husband suddenly goes "would you mind eating there instead?" Even though it was romantic it was just what the doctor ordered! We got our food and sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather. It was relaxing and low key, which was perfect! Afterward we visited the local Barns and Noble for some coffee and book browsing... something we used to do all the time but haven't done as much recently. It was really a perfect evening! And having never eaten a 5 guys burger before I have to say I was extremely impressed! The burger was delicious... I know where I am going from now on for a burger!

And lastly a picture of my little man. I realized that I probably take WAY to many photographs of him... but he seems to change almost every day! I'm not even going to admit here how many photographs I have saved on my hard drive!

Who Needs Toys??

2010-09-25T14:35:00.000-04:00

Eirik is absolutely SMITTEN with the cats now. Yes, he's always been interested in them but now whenever they walk in the room he looks at nothing else and gets a huge smile on his face. Sometimes I feel like if he had no toys and could only play with the cats he'd be a perfectly happy little guy. This afternoon he spent about 15 minutes on his stomach attempting to crawl towards the cat with the biggest grin on his face as he did it. Not even me trying to interact with him can tear his attention from the cats! These cats better be careful once he starts to move!

His cold is FINALLY starting to get better but the teething is just as bad. Some days are worse then others but he is constantly rubbing something against his gums. We got these raspberry teether pacifiers and they are amazing! He'll happily gnaw on one for a good 10 minutes!

Tonight my husband and I are having a date! We haven't been out alone together since our anniversary in June! We were going to go a few weeks ago but then I came down with my killer cold and this is the first weekend since then that nothing has been going on! I'm excited. =)

Update On Operation Loose Babyweight!

2010-09-24T14:26:00.000-04:00

I just realized I hadn't updated in a while on how my "operation loose babyweight" was going. I am please to announce that as of this morning i was 173... thats 7lbs BELOW prebaby weight!! Honestly the only thing I can attribute this continuous weight loss to is breastfeeding. I'm not on any sort of strict diet or doing any exercise aside from carrying Eirik around... which considering he's probably a good 22lbs is no small feat! ;) That means another 10lbs and i'll be just about where I want to and almost at my college weight!

Now while the weight loss is going great I REALLY need to exercise and work on toning. Finding time to do so is another story completely. I have a feeling exercise will be on the back burner till next year after I finish my classes. I guess until then my exercise will be carrying Eirik around and probably chasing him around the house once he starts crawling!

Random Thoughts On Motherhood...

2010-09-23T21:26:00.000-04:00

Some random thoughts tonight... I'm still not entirely sure what direction this post will take. Eirik is still sick with his cold and I don't have any new cute pictures uploaded yet (note yet!).

Why is it that mothers always seem to judge each other and instead of supporting they seem to want to criticize or point out flaws? I have to admit up until this point I have been very lucky in the fact that I haven't had anyone close to me directly do this... but it always seems like there is this competition between mothers. The whole "oh, you don't do this? You should!" It doesn't matter what the topic is but instead of being supported you are made to feel bad for your choices. I started thinking about this after reading a post on facebook... someone had posted about a hotline you can now call to get information about breastfeeding and medicine. They asked the question "would you trust the information given". I skimmed through the comments and about a dozen people had said "I just refuse to take anything while breastfeeding.". Well, that's fine and dandy for you... but you don't need to say that. You could simply not say anything at all... not all of us feel that way and no one wants to feel guilty for taking something they REALLY needed.

It seems like so many mothers are so blinded by their own views they refuse to see anyone else. The two big hot topics that always seem to set people off are formula over breastfeeding and planned c-sections... you get people started on either of those topics and its disturbing how quickly two people can get nasty and be reduced to name calling. Personally unless you are physically or emotionally abusing your child I have no place to tell you what to do! You are doing what is best for you and your family and your situation... and thats great! But so many people make it their personal mission to almost harass people in to seeing their point of view. I guess maybe I'm weird in the fact I'd rather just agree to disagree and move on.

Maybe this is why I don't have many "mommy" friends. Most of my friends that are close don't have kids or have older kids... I really don't know anyone close by who has a child in the same age range as Eirik. I haven't really had any opportunities to meet people either. When I was home on maternity leave I looked up mom groups in the area and was disappointed to find that they were all for stay at home moms. What about us who have to work? I have no choice. I really feel sometimes like working moms get a bad rep... we're selfish for working still and not wanting to be at home. Well, news flash, some of us are the primary breadwinners! Some of us really do have no choice but to work, especially considering the economy the way it is today. I would love nothing more then to stay home with Eirik but sadly that is not in the cards for me right now. Maybe someday... but not now and not in the near future.

Just to clarify here, none of my blog readers fall into any of these categories... well, unless you're a reader I don't know about or who never comments then I can't say. I just really wish women would support each other more and spend less time being judgmental and negative. There's no reason to debate parenting styles... just like every person is different every parent is different... and every baby is different! I wish sometimes I could yell "Can't we all just get along?!"

Photo Update!

2010-09-20T19:56:00.000-04:00

Today is just a photo update as I am very behind on my homework and other household chores. =)

In other news I really need to move... that is on the top of the priority list of "things to accomplish by next summer".

The Joys Of Pumping In Public...

2010-09-19T12:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was AWESOME. It was a relaxing fun filled day of lots of great music and conversation! There was a radio station in Maryland called WHFS that played alternative and rock music and every year they would have a HUGE concert called the HFStival. I grew up listening to the station... my parents played it in the car and then as a teenager and adult I listened to it. I never attended an HFStival but every year I wished I could... it seemed like there was always one reason or another I couldn't go. Then one afternoon in 2005 as I was driving home from work my beloved station was playing... spanish music. I thought this was some sort of prank at first but no, my station was gone. They attempted to bring it back on nights and weekends on another station but it never really went anywhere. Now you can apparently listen to it on HD radio... but I don't have that. But, I digress... this year they decided to do another HFStival! It was like reliving the 90s... the lineup was all those alternative rock bands I loved listening to! Fuel, Lit, and Everclear to name a few.... and Billy Idol. Yes folks, I saw Billy Idol in concert last night... and I must say that he looks pretty darn good! In true rock concert fashion I witness people in various stages of drunkenness, the really old guy who looked completely out of it, and a fight. No concert is complete without a fight!

My day itself started early. I went to breakfast with my one friend who was coming to the concert with me and another of our friends. We decided to stuff ourselves silly as concert food is horribly overpriced (a think of fries was 7 dollars and a soda was 4 dollars!). After eating a huge unhealthy breakfast we went to the concert and met up with my friends friend who was coming with us. The concert itself was fairly tame comparted to HFStivals of years past. I actually saw a lot of people with small children which was rather shocking to me. Considering the line up I expected a lot of people between the ages of 15 and 30 but I was very surprised to see quite a few people who were in their 40s and 50s there... as well as people who came with the family! I saw a lot of teenagers with parents! Of course as the day wound down and the level of intoxication increased the families slowly left. The weather was perfect for the event... the three of us found ourselves a little spot in the shade under a tree where we could see one of the large screens and spent most of the day listening to music and talking. My friends friend has a 14 month old so we spent some time talking about kids and how quickly they change. It was nice!

The biggest blah part of my day was pumping. I pumped in the car before entering the concert but I knew I would have to pump at least once at the concert. I had a little manual pump and I decided, after much deliberation and trying to find a quiet spot, to pump in the bathroom. UGH! To say it was disgusting was an understatement. Thankfully the venue had a lot of real bathrooms and honestly I've used bathrooms that were more disgusting... but still it was not pleasant. I pumped just enough to take the pressure off and then the second I got home I pumped again.

While I missed my little man it was good for me to get out for the day and do something for me and have me time. I haven't really done that in a long time. Typically I schedule my girl outings around Eirik's eating and sleeping so I am only gone for 3 - 4 hours. I am however enjoying spending the entire day today with my little man who despite a very clogged up noise is his typical smiling/happy self.

More Sickness....

2010-09-18T08:19:00.000-04:00

But this time its Eirik! =( Poor baby... I wondered why he was up so often last night and this morning it was obvious he has a cold. Hes congested and sneezing... but still a happy little man! I on the other hand am exhausted... he was up about every 1 1/2 - 2 hours and even when he did sleep it wasn't very well... so needless to say I didn't sleep well either. To make things even more interesting I am having my first official girl day without Eirik! I am going to an all day festival rock concert... i'm going to be going from about 9am till 11pm! Not only will I be exhausted by the time I get home I'm now going to be worried about him. =( I'm really hoping he didn't get the killer cold I had!

Grabbing The Spotlight...

2010-09-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

A short video for you today! Note the cat trying to steal the attention half way through... =)

No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk...

2010-09-16T19:48:00.000-04:00

Whoever said that was NOT a mother who pumps. Up until now I have had none of those "oops" moments when pumping... almost 3 sucessful months of remembering everything in the morning and getting it all home safely at night. In true fashion of everything happening in 3's... this week has been my "Everything going wrong" week when it comes to pumping.

It started Monday when I got to work and realized I had left all the connecting pieces for my pump at home. I had the pump, the bottles, the lids, the cooler... but not the breast shields or the connectors. At this point it was either drive all the way home to pick up the parts, which would mean 30 minutes home plus 30 minutes back to work, or run in to Target and hope they have the parts. Thankfully Target saved the day. Now I have an extra set of parts to keep at work... so, a win situation in a way. At least I know I'll never have that happen again!

Today however was the day I sat and wanted to cry. Today I managed to spill an ENTIRE bottle of milk down myself. Yes, that's right, not only did I loose about 4oz of my precious milk it went ALL over my pants... at work... at 9:20 in the morning. Apparently the bottle wasn't screwed in all the way and after pumping I moved everything and the bottle just dropped off of the connectors. I sat stunned staring at the bottle on the floor not knowing what to do... do I cry? Do I scream? Do I start laughing because honestly what else can you do at that point? Now the worst part of this situation was that it was so early in the day I had to walk around with pants that smelled like breastmilk. Now at first this wasn't a huge deal but by about lunchtime it smelled horrible. I tried to keep my distance from people and hoped no one wondered what that interesting smell was. The only lifesaver was my pants were black so thankfully no one could tell but me.

But as I said, these things happen in 3s! Yesterday when I arrived home I noticed a 4oz storage bottle of milk was missing from the fridge. I assumed that my husband had given Eirik extra yesterday for some reason and moved on. Eirik goes to my friend's house on Wednesday and she hadn't fed him a bottle so I took that bottle out of the diaper bag and put it back in my fridge. This evening I was looking for Eirik's teething tablets and what do you think I discovered in another pocket of the diaper bag? Yes... the other 4oz bottle of milk that was missing.

Yes folks, my heart broke as I dumped that 4oz bottle down the drain. Today a grand total of 8oz of my milk was lost... due to my own carelessness. On a good day I pump a total of about 20oz so you can see why the 8oz loss hurts so much.

Instead of crying over my spilled milk however I have been indulging in ice cream... a much tastier option!

Thank You =)

2010-09-14T20:42:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all of you out there who commented on my post yesterday. It made me feel so wonderful to know that even when things are stressing me out I can come and vent here and have support. I don't know why the subject of my dad was bothering me yesterday.... 90% of the time I can just shrug it off but yesterday for some reason I just couldn't. It may be because my dads birthday was a week ago and I sent him an e-mail (I have yet to get his new address..... ) and I haven't heard anything in response.

But, we're not going to dwell on that topic any more today.

Today we are going to focus on the adorableness that is Eirik! I wanted to get a new signature made for my ivillage profile for Halloween so yet again I shoved Eirik in his halloween costume to take a few photos. I have to say that while it still fits now I can tell that in another month and a half it will be too small. At least I can tell myself i've gotten 3 good photo sessions in! I think the cuteness factor of all of his photos justifies the 2.50 I spent on the costume!

All together now... "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"

Dear Dad...

2010-09-13T20:12:00.000-04:00

Dear Dad...

I know that our relationship hasn't always been perfect. We hit that rough patch when I was in middle school and you and mommy officially began the divorce proceedings. Things were never quite the same after you officially moved out of the house and in with your new family. Even though you tell me otherwise I'm quite aware that for most of my life I've come second... never quite as important as I once was. At first this really hurt ... it hurt a lot. When you missed my college graduation I shrugged it off telling myself that it was just a graduation and really no big deal. But when you missed my wedding, canceling only 24 hours before hand, my heart broke in two. And then shortly after this I came to the conclusion I just had to stop caring and stop expecting things from you. And that's how its been ever since.

I accepted that you lived far away... that the reason you never came to visit me unless you happened to have work in the area is due to your vast traveling. I understand you are away for weeks at a time off in Europe, Asia, and Africa doing whatever it is you do. But you moved... you live only 45 minutes away now. And while I am aware that you may not physically be there all the time I would like to think sometime in the last 5 1/2 months you have been there... and for more then 24 hours. And I wonder why in the past 5 1/2 months you haven't found the time to drive 45 minutes to visit your grandson. During those first few weeks of his life I thought maybe things would be different... you kept promising you would come visit after your next trip. But as weeks turned into months I realized yet again I was being told empty promises... yet again you said you would be there and you weren't. Each time I contacted you I would get the same response... I'm getting ready to leave the country, I'll call you when I get back in town.

I shouldn't be surprised... But I am. I shouldn't let myself get upset... But I am. Why did I think things would be different now... different just because you live closer and I have a child. I want you to know that the door is always open here... you are more then welcome to come visit at any time. Do I think you will take me up on the offer? I don't know. But I do know that it is your loss... your loss that you have missed out on meeting this amazing little man.

I like to think that someday soon you'll finally make the trip to visit him... I like to think that you'll finally meet him before he turns 1... but i'm not holding my breath.

Normal

2010-09-12T21:11:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend I suddenly realized that my life has settled in to the new normal. I'm not quite sure when this occurred... but somehow now things just seem... normal.

The first 3 months after Eirik was born were spent adjusting to life with a baby. Having very little baby experience before it was a huge learning curve! I remember that first month and those sleepless nights... Eirik being awake until midnight refusing to sleep. I thought I would never sleep again! We would try everything to get him to sleep... the swing, rocking, swaddling, feeding... and then the moment he would be put down he would be awake again. Slowly over time however things got better. He slowly moved his bedtime up till he was regularly going to bed about 8 or 9pm and I was become more and more skilled at figuring out what he wanted. By the time he was 3 months old I could read his sleepy ques and know when nap time was eminent.

Of course this is when I had to return to work which just threw a wrench in the plans. I had spent 3 months figuring Eirik out and getting used to one schedule and now I was going to have to learn a completely new one. Me getting up 5 days a week for work, picking him up from my friend after work, getting him to bed so I could get stuff done. To say it was rough at first would be an understatement... with Eirik still waking up very regularly at night and not going to sleep easily I was up till all hours of hte night trying to get everything accomplished. It didn't help that it was summer so it was difficult to keep Eirik in any sort of night routine... we tried as best we could be those scorching summer nights just made everyone miserable.

But today I realized that for the past week or so we've had a good little routine down... one that seems to work for everyone. As I put him down for his afternoon nap I realized I am a pro at knowing when he needs to sleep and can now get him down for a nap fairly quickly... well, most of the time. He's not on any sort of schedule per say... but typically he gets up at the same time, naps at the same time, and every night we do bedtime at the same time. The past few weeks my husband and I have actually spent time together talking or watching a movie... something we haven't done together since before Eirik was born. I have been knitting... and I don't feel completely overwhelmed. We have found normal!Well... at least until Eirik changes it again. ;)

But Mom... there's people around!

2010-09-11T17:07:00.000-04:00

At the grocery store today I witnessed a very touching moment... it made me smile to myself thinking someday that would be me. I walked by a mother with her son who was probably between the ages of 8 and 10... that age where having your mother kiss you or hug you is "totally uncool". The woman reached out, grabbed her son, and hugged him randomly, kissing the top of his head afterward. His quick response was "Mom... there are people around! People!!" and she matter of factually stated "I don't care". I thought it was sweet and touching to see this mother still reaching out to be affectionate with her son, even though he thinks its "totally uncool".

That moment made me reflect on all the things as a child I never fully appreciated but as an adult do. There is a moment that to this day still stands out in my mind. I always was one of those kids that had lunch from home... buying lunch was a privilege and I only did it maybe once a month. I of course always wanted to buy lunch like my friends because they got things like pizza and chicken nuggets and I got soup and tuna fish sandwiches. However bringing my lunch from home had one advantage that buying lunch didn't... love notes. My mom would randomly pack little love notes in my lunch for me. One day she made me a sandwich and created a heart in the middle of the bread. I still remember to this day feeling special seeing that sandwich. And these lunches didn't end in elementry school... no, even in high school i had a few little love notes stuck in to my lunch. These little notes and moments were my moms way of saying "I Love You" and reminding me of just how special I was.

I know today that little boy in the grocery store thinks his mom is embarrassing him, but in 10 years he'll look back and smile thinking about how much is mom loved him. If there is one thing in life I want to do, I want to make sure that Eirik knows just how loved he is no matter what. I want him to look back as an adult and go "my mom loved me". And even if it means I have to put up with the "mom, you're embarrassing me!" or "There are people looking!!" I am going to be that mother who tells her son she loves him every day, kisses him every night, and hugs him in public. I know that one day he'll grow up to be an adult who will cherish all those moments.

Rocking My Baby...

2010-09-09T19:15:00.000-04:00

I had another post planned out for today. In my mind it was all ready and set to go... and then this evening it changed. Does that happen a lot to other people out there? They are all ready to go blog about one thing and end up blogging about another?

Up until last weekend the bedtime routine for Eirik was to lay with him in our bed and feed him, put him in his cosleeper, and let him fall asleep there. As he is quickly approaching the weight limit for the cosleeper we have been doing night time in his room. This means now after his bath we sit in the rocking chair while he eats and then if he's still awake (which most of the time he isn't!) i'll swaddle him up in his crib. We also have been using the sleep sheep which I think help relaxes him. Typically the second he's asleep or swaddled I rush off to accomplish my tasks for the evening... homework, cleaning, getting things ready for work... you get the picture.

Tonight however after he went to sleep I felt the overwhelming desire to sit and rock him gently as he slept. I found myself staring at his face as he slept... he looked so peaceful and innocent... and I realized just how quickly time is going by. Just a few months ago he was a fraction of this size freshly home from the hospital... and now here he is developing his own little personality and trying to grow up before my eyes. While I am enjoying watching every milestone he hits I also want to tell him to slow down. I sat there gently rocking him imaginging what he'll be like next year... as a toddler. I then realized before I knew it he would be too old for cuddling and rocking.

The thought made me sad... sad to realize just how busy I have been recently and how I haven't had as many oppertunities to just sit and hold him while he slept. I came to the decision tonight that every night I am going to spend a little time just holding and rocking him... enjoying watching him as he sleeps. He is more important then the homework that needs to be completed or the lunch that needs to be made or the laundry that needs to be folded. Those things can wait until tomorrow... but Eirik growing up is happening before my eyes. I never understood that poem called rocking my baby until now...

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Clear Eyes

2010-09-08T18:59:00.000-04:00

Eirik's tearducts have finally unclogged!! WAHOO!! No more gunky disgusting eyes for him!! I swear I felt like a bad parent... every time I went out his eyes looked so gunky and disgusting! People always said "oh, hes got a little gunk..." and then when his eyes got really bad they turned all red and sore looking. Of course he never complained about this... it was all me worrying! Of course I had all these fears they wouldn't unclog themselves and he'd have to go through surgery to correct it. Thankfully however my massaging of his tearducts worked! He now has nice clean eyes! I'm sure Eirik is happy that now we don't have to constantly try and rub under his eyes anymore!

A Hop!

2010-09-07T19:41:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know I am going to sound like such a first time parent right now... sorry! But tonight Eirik moved himself forward... with intent!! He's been getting on his hands and knees and rocking and tonight he actually managed to lunge himself forward... once! I know this in no way means he's going to be crawling around the house tomorrow... but as he moved himself forward I quickly saw all the lovely safety hazards in my house. I guess I know what i'm going to be on the hunt for on sale... baby gates! My cats better beware... there's gonna be a baby on the move soon!

Sleep Success!

2010-09-06T16:33:00.000-04:00

This weekend has been a very successful one for sleeping! Well, for Eirik at least. I still am not sleeping well thanks to this lovely cough... but that's a whole other story! Eirik's crib up until now has been filled with junk... well, not junk per say... but things that don't belong in a crib. Since it was so hot this summer he hasn't slept in it once... he's slept in his cosleeper in our bedroom and his pack and play downstairs but never the crib. I decided that since this weekend was going to be a LOT cooler we were going to try... the crib. We also decided to try some of those aids to help with soothing babies to sleep.

They always say "put the baby down drowsy". Yea... not Eirik. He just plays... and plays.... and plays. Even swaddled up I still have to constantly go reswaddle and usually end up laying next to him doing rhythmic sushing to finally sooth him off to sleep. Thanks to lovely discount deal sites and other sales we purchased a soundsleep cd and a sleep sheep. I had honestly been eyeing up the sleep sheep for a while but had convinced myself I didn't need it. Well, when you can't do rhythmic sushing because you keep coughing the sleep sheep becomes more and more appealing!

First the soundsleep cd was tried... because it came in the mail first. I have to say while the music was nice and soothing it did NOTHING for Eirik. It was nice relaxing background noise... but he seemed to just play through it and it didn't make him drowsy at ALL. I still ended up having to cuddle with him and attempt to do some shushing.

Next came the sleep sheep. Since the soundsleep cd was such a failure I excepted the sheep would be the same. If nothing else its absolutely adorable so it would be a great stuffed toy. Eirik loved it and wouldn't stop staring at it and trying to play with it when I took it out of the box! When nap time came around we placed him swaddled up in his crib and turned the sheep on. I decided to leave it on the ocean noise because that sounds the most like the shushing noise he likes. I left and came back 5 minutes later and just reswaddled him as he had kicked himself out and was playing. I went back again 5 minutes later because I noticed he was quiet and... he was FAST asleep. Yes folks, fast asleep!

The sleep sheep is officially my new best friend. We have used it all weekends and naps and nighttime have been AWESOME. If he wakes up from his nap early and is obviously in need of more sleep I turn the noise back on (it goes off after 45 minutes), give him his pacifier again, and he is back to sleep in moments. Where as before it would take about 30 minutes of reswaddling and laying with him and shushing now I am doing that in about 10 - 15.

So not only did he nap in his crib... he went down easily for naps AND slept longer! Oh, and he put himself back to sleep last night! He woke up about 3ish to eat, and i fed him and put him back down asleep. Well, he woke himself up, played for about 15 minutes, and then went back to sleep again. I lay there watching him in the dark, figuring since he wasn't crying or being overly loud i'd see what he did. I was so happy!

My next sleep obstacle is what to do now he's almost outgrown the cosleeper... i'm not ready to sleep apart from him all night but I'm not quite ready to have him in bed all night either... i'm thinking crib until his first feeding and then in bed with us after that? Or maybe pack and play in the bedroom?Ahh choices choices!

Other Uses For Infant Carseats...

2010-09-04T21:49:00.000-04:00

Is your baby growing up to fast? Have they already outgrown that infant carseat you spent a ton of money on? Do you feel guilty retiring it to your basement to collect dust? Well, worry no more... I have the solution! You can reuse that infant car seat. Oh yes! How can I do that you may ask. Well, the answer is simple! You can reuse that car seat as.... A CAT BED!

Yes folks, thats right... your cats will LOVE their new sleeping place! And its so easy... just set the carseat on the ground and before long that cat will be curled up fast asleep! No need for fancy cat beds!

Reflections of Motherhood

2010-09-03T19:59:00.000-04:00

I found this video today online and I decided I wanted to pass it along. Mothers were asked what they would tell their pre-mother selves. There were times in the video where I chuckled a bit at the advice and times where I already could go "yep, so true!" Other statements for some reason made me want to cry... such as the one that says "you will miss your mom". That one really hit home with me.

So without further ado... Enjoy!

New Respect For Exclusive Pumpers!

2010-09-02T19:14:00.000-04:00

I have always been in awe of those that exclusively pump. I have to be honest here, I HATE pumping. Even now after being back at work for 2 months I still hate it. I have a hands free pumping bra, i bring a magazine to read, I play on my phone... but I still find it tedious. The thing is Eirik is such an efficient nurser he eats in a fraction of the time it takes me to pump! So while at home I nurse him every few hours for about 5 - 10 minutes at work its 15 minutes... plus the added set up and clean up. Plus, while pumping doesn't hurt, its not exactly the most comfortable feeling in the entire world.

Yesterday I worked an 11 hour day. It sucked. I went in prepared for the long day however. Unfortunately since I had to go to the doctors yesterday morning I still left my house at about 7:30am so its not like I got to skip a pumping session at work. That means at work yesterday I had 4 pumping sessions. Then i got home and Eirik was already fast asleep which meant another pumping session before bed. He's recently been only waking up once a night so if I didn't pump I would wake up VERY uncomfortable a few hours later. All that pumping yesterday really made me respect those who exclusively pump even more! I cant imagine having to do that all day every day. So, to those of you who do exclusively pump, GO YOU!

On a side note I waned to just make a little comment about Eirik's eye. I've gotten a few questions asked recently about what happened to his eye. I realized in some of the recent photos it looks really nasty and red. He still has his clogged tear duct in one eye and every now and then he gets flair up infections from it. It stinks but sadly I can't really do much about it right now. We're massaging under his eye to help clear the tear duct and I'm optimistic it will work because it worked for the other eye. So, that's whats up with his eye!

Sickness...

2010-08-31T20:44:00.000-04:00

All last week my husband was sick and stupidly I thought "I'm not going to get that". I didn't get my friends horrible cold... Eirik didn't get it either. I thought I was safe. I thought wrong. I've had colds... but nothing like this in ages. This my friends was one of those colds that knocks you off your feet and in to bed... literally! Sunday was spent mainly in bed reading a book while Eirik played with Daddy. I had a fever of 101 on and off all day. Thankfully by yesterday the fever broke and I had some sort of energy but now I am left with a cough... one of those dry hacking coughs that hurts your chest and kills your throat. At this point I have almost no voice. I must sound pretty amusing! At work today I said someones name and it came out more like "dad" then "dan". I am keeping everything crossed that the little man doesn't get this horrible illness!

Speaking of the little man he went for his 5 month shots today. They didn't weigh him, but I weighed him at home over the weekend and he clocked in at 21lbs! Not shocking considering at his 4 month appointment he was 18.9lbs. I'm gonna have some nice biceps from carrying him around the house!

So now I am off to bed. Here's hoping that a good nights sleep will be had by all...

More Cloth Diaper Fun!

2010-08-30T16:18:00.000-04:00

As promised, more cloth diaper reviews!!

Fist off we have DreamEze All In One:

These actually have been discontinued since I purchased them. The biggest thing I like about these diapers is the fact that they are trim as you can see! They fit him REALLY well. Also its an all in one diaper... no stuffing! That being said they are not one of my favorite diapers for two reasons. First is the side snaps... which I find a pain in the butt. Secondly is the way the insert is. You can't see it from the picture, but if you go here you can see what they look like inside. Its kinda a pain to put on sometimes. They are pretty absorbant however and we've never had leaks, even overnight! My husband HATES these diapers, but i am just so so on them. Overall I give them a 7 out of 10!

Next is the Gro Baby Diaper.

Technically these were discontinued as well, but in reality the name just changed to GroVia. Its pretty much the exact same thing, different name. Confusing huh? Anyway, these are a system very similar to the flip with an insert that snaps in and pulls out so that you don't have to change the shell every time! The idea is you buy a few shells and lots of inserts. Overall I like these a LOT better then the flip! The insert snaps into place so not as much shifting goes on! I also love the adorable patterns that the diapers come in. Its so hard to find cute patterns! Another bonus is the hook and loop closing (AKA Velcro) is pretty neat. It doesn't seem to have a lot of the issues my other diapers have with wear and tear! So far i'm impressed! My biggest complaint with these diapers is that, like the flip, sometimes the poop doesn't stay on the insert... so in my experience you end up changing the shell when you change the insert. Maybe this will change as he gets older? We'll see. Overall an 8 out of 10!

And lastly we have the BumGenius 4.0!

I LOVE my BumGenius 3.0's! They are one of my favorite overnight diapers! When the 4.0's came out I allowed myself to buy 2 because I had a credit with the woman who I buy my diapers from. I have to say I was NOT disappointed! I went for snaps because honestly the hook and loop closings just don't last as long. The diaper itself seems to fit better then the 3.0's did. I LOVE the snaps too. They are a lot like the flip. Another thing that has changed is the back section stays down! With the 3.0s I noticed that sometimes the little back flap of fabric had a tendancy to fold outwards however I have not had that problem with the 4.0's! Overall I LOVE these diapers! =) I give them a 9.5 out of 10! Only reason its just a 9.5 is stuffability. They are easy to stuff, but not as easy as other diapers.

And finally, a detergent review! I've been having some smell issues for a while now and thought it was my washing method. Nope, it was my detergent! We've been using rockin green hard rock and its amazing. I highly recommend it to those using cloth diapers! My diapers smell clean when they come out of the wash now and don't stink horribly when they are dirty!

Stay tuned because in another month or two I'll have some more diapers to review! I have some large sized all in ones that he will fit into shortly. I swear I don't have a cloth diaper addiction... honestly!

5 months!

2010-08-29T09:48:00.000-04:00

My little man just keeps getting bigger! It never ceases to amaze me how much they change so quickly... sometimes literally overnight! Right now he is at this stage where I can see him trying to figure out how to do so many different things! I can tell that sometime soon he's going to have one of those weeks where he learns how to do a bunch of stuff at once!

The biggest thing he can do now is sit on his own with no problem. I don't really fear him topping over anymore. I do put pillows down around him, but the reason he falls over now is because he wants to get something and can't reach it. He looks for toys when he drops them and attempts to reach and grab them. I don't quite know when he started doing this... it was one of those things I just suddenly noticed! He is also really good at standing! He hasn't pulled himself up yet, but now when he stands he just clings to my hands instead of having me support him! Yesterday he was trying to be sneaky and only hold on to one of my hands! I think he thinks he has better balance then he does! Also he's making some serious moves towards crawling soon. He can scoot himself backwards pretty well, but he wants to go forwards. He can get himself on all fours for a few seconds now and does this little wiggle worm thing where he puts his butt up, then drops it, then puts his hands forward. I can see him trying to figure it out!

The other really neat thing is in the past month his sense of humor has started to develop! Before he would laugh if I ticked him, but now he laughs at other things. Its the best noise in the world! He'll play peek a boo and finds it hysterical when we pant like a dog at him. Its fun trying to find new ways to make him squeal with laughter! He is still overall a pretty relaxed baby unless he's tired or really hungry. The teething is making him a bit grumpier at times... but nothing too horrible.

Speaking of teething, no teeth yet! i feel like there should be based on all the drooling, fussing, and gnawing... but nope, nothing! Teething tablets have been a lifesaver I have to say!

We are getting better with sleeping, which is great for me. Its still hit or miss... but some days he'll sleep 6 - 8 hour stretches! Other nights however he's still up every 3 or 4 hours. He's also doing a lot better with naps. We cut out the swing so for a while his naps were short and getting him down was a huge fight! Well, yesterday he took a 2 1/2 hour nap upstairs in his cosleeper! It was awesome!

I realized I haven't talked much about breastfeeding recently because honestly its going really smoothly at the moment! I'm still pumping at work and am making more then enough for him... i end up freezing about 20oz a week. My freezer is quickly becoming filled! Hes starting to go longer stretches between feedings which is nice for me. I honestly don't keep track of when I feed him at night or on the weekends. I probably should... but I have always been horrible about keeping track of that stuff! And he's growing, so thats what matters right?

Speaking of growing this weekend we moved him up to 18month clothes! Yes, you read that correctly people! His 12 month clothes were starting to get snug, especially when it came to one piece things. Pants he can still do 12 months because they are super long. I'm not sure what his weight is, but he is going in on Tuesday for shots so we'll find out then.

And finally, pictures of him from this morning playing with a sippy cup! He is really starting to show an interest in food so I decided I'd get him a sippy cup and just let him fool around with it and see what he thought. I know it looks like he's drinking out of it, but in reality he is just gnawing on the spout.

May I Have Your Attention Please...

2010-08-27T08:39:00.000-04:00

Ahem...

I am at pre-pregnancy weight!! This morning on the scale I was 179.6! Not only am I at pre-pregnancy weight I can also fit into 3 pairs of my pre-pregnancy pants!! No longer do I have to wear maternity pants!! I'm SO excited!!

While I am at pre-pregnancy weight and my pants fit, I still have about 20lbs to go thanks to trying to conceive stress eating... but this is a great start! So HA to all those studies that say "you only need to gain 35lbs because you'll have a hard time loosing the weight afterwords"! My body knew what it was doing gaining 55lbs! I will say however that my body is not where I want it to be... I really need to exercise and tone up a lot. While my dieting is going great I now need to focus on exercise so starting next week I am going to be good about exercising at LEAST 3 days a week. This will mean weekends and at least one day in the week after work.

In other news my hair is falling out left and right. I know after you have a baby your hair falls out, but this is getting crazy! I have always had fine thick hair... but now my hair is falling out its making it look rather limp and blah! I have a nice natural wave to my hair but sadly now my hair just looks like i've tried to add wave but failed. It also doesn't help that Eirik pulls chunks out left and right! I'm thinking its time for a new haircut! Something to help hide the fact my hair is falling out and thin and disgusting. We'll see... I need to find someone I trust to cut my hair rather then just going somewhere random. Oh, to all my pregnant friends and those who recently gave birth the hair thing didn't start until about a month and a half ago... and now every morning i am pulling chunks out left and right in the shower!

So that is my update on me! Eirik will be 5 months old this weekend so I'll do a big 5 month recap for him later this weekend!

The Good, The Bad, and The Meh - Round 2!

2010-08-26T21:27:00.001-04:00

Yes folks, another round of the good, the bad, and the meh! Its been a few months and there are some things that have been wonderful, some things that have been awful, and some things that are just so so or its to soon to tell!

The good:

The jumparoo - he LOVES this. If we would let him I think he would spend hours in there! Sometimes I don't even fully get him in before he's jumping away! A lifesaver for those moments when you have to do something!

Toys that crinkle - if it crinkles, he likes it. He has a block that crinkles which is currently his favorite toy! He enjoys rattles too... but crinkles win over rattles any day of the week!

Pack and Play - At first I never thought i'd use this but now we use it EVERY day. Its way to hot upstairs for Eirik to nap in his crib so he takes his naps downstairs in the pack and play! Its awesome! And then when I go somewhere and need to have somewhere for him to nap... pack and play it is!

Rockin Green Laundry Detergent - we've been having some smell issues and leak issues with my cloth diapers... it was driving me batty! Rockin Green has helped with both! Smells are gone, leaks are gone! Its AMAZING!

Ergo - I LOVE my ergo. I got it for a great price from a daily steal site... and it was worth every penny I paid! I can walk for ages in it with Eirik and it doesn't hurt my back! Eirik loves it too. He falls asleep in there all the time!

Bumbo - he really enjoys the bumbo right now!! I really wish it had a tray so his toys would stay in front of him though! However at this point he's going to grow out of it soon so I'll just have to live without the tray.

The Bad:

Huggies wipes... got them on sale one week and will NEVER buy them again! They stuck to each other and then were like using a paper towel and left little bits of wipe over Eirik... not good!

The Meh:

Thirsties Duo Diapers - Okay... i LOVE these diapers... but i hate their velcro! I have had them less time then my BumGenius 3.0 and already the velcro on the thirsties is going! Its so frustrating!! The diapers fit well, they have the awesome insert... but this velcro thing is just blah! I'm going to have to look into a replacement velcro kit for them soon!

Pacifiers - So I put this under the meh category. Eirik is only ho hum about pacifiers... they are more a lifesaver for me. He is one of those "i need to suck on something to sleep" babies so its either a pacifier or him attached to my boob to sleep. Honestly he only takes his pacifiers for sleeping... sometimes it'll help calm him down but he tends to projectile spit them across the room or pull them out of his mouth and gnaw on them!

Crib - yes folks, thats right, Eirik has yet to actually use his crib. Its currently being used as storage for all the crap that needs to get organized in his room. My goal this weekend is to clean out said crib and his room so he can start trying to nap up there once it cools off a bit... we'll see what happens...

So... not much bad at the moment! Nothing we've gotten or used except for those wipes has been horrible or not used at all! A large part of this is because I am borrowing a lot of stuff from my friend!

Stay tuned because this weekend we're doing another cloth diaper review !

Being Stalked

2010-08-25T22:08:00.000-04:00

The older Eirik gets the more interested the cats are in him. They still mostly keep their distance, but they are starting to realize that he moves and does things and is alive rather than just a sleeping bundle all the time. Its rather amusing because now when I play on the floor with him one or two cats keeps a close eye on what is happening... at a safe distance of course.

Note the cat in the background.

These cats better watch out though... this little man is going mobile and soon he'll be chasing them! While he still isn't crawling per say... hes scooting. Yes, he can push himself backwards along the floor! Its quite amusing to watch because he is reaching out in front of him for a toy but in the process of trying to crawl forwards he pushes himself backwards. He quite likes being able to move around on the floor and get to new places. I put him on his stomach on a blanket and he got angry because he couldn't get anywhere. But on the hardwood he can move and he loves it! And boy is he working hard at figuring out crawling! If he could get everything timed perfectly he'd have it down. But, for now, I'm glad all he can do is slowly push himself backwards across the floor.

For the moment its Cats - 1 Baby - 0 ... we'll see how much longer that lasts!

Laughter

2010-08-24T21:34:00.000-04:00

Nothing makes a bad day great again like the laughter... and the laughter of your own child can turn the worst day into the best! Eirik is just full of smiles and grins for me whenever I get home from work. I don't think he misses me when I am gone at this point, but he is certainly glad to see me when I come home! Every day I am greeted by a huge welcoming grin and sometimes if I'm really lucky that's followed by laughter. No matter how stressful the day was or how horrible the commute home was this seems to make everything better again.

Below is a video of the little man playing peek a boo with me over the weekend. Its insanely long, don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing! I hope that if you are having a bad day this can bring a smile to your face. =)

Matching Teething Pain

2010-08-22T15:46:00.000-04:00

Eirik and I are having matching teething pain at the moment. He is being extra grumpy today, and I know its teeth related. He keeps gnawing on my fingers, his tongue, his hands, his feet... pretty much whatever he can get in there! We've been giving him teething tablets which is definitely helping, but it still makes for a grumpy baby. To make things more fun my wisdom teeth have decided to act up. Yes, that's right, I still have my wisdom teeth! They are actually trying to come through which is what is causing all the pain. I've got a feeling they are going to have to come out... we'll see what the dentist says. I'm starting to wonder about taking his teething tablets to see if they help me too!!

Even though he's been a little grumpy I still got some adorable happy baby pictures this weekend.

Now I have to go finish my finals for my classes! I am looking forward to my 2 week break before fall classes start. I have some serious knitting to get done!

Similac Sensitive Anyone?

2010-08-21T12:34:00.000-04:00

Do any of my blog readers use Similac Sensitive? The reason I ask is the formula company must have gotten my name and they sent me a free sample can! I would love to give it to someone who I know before offering it up for free on my local craigslist! Any takers??

In other news the swaddling trick is working wonders. Today I got him down for his second nap with no problem! I swaddled him up, lay him in the pack and play, and 10 minutes later he was out! And he's been asleep for about an hour now. So much easier then the rocking and bouncing I was doing to get him to take a nap!

Now I'm off to get myself ready to go out. When he wakes up we're going to Target!

Back To Basics

2010-08-19T21:26:00.000-04:00

When you have a baby you get advice everywhere. Parents, friends, coworkers, the internet, strange people you've never met before... EVERYWHERE. One of the things that a ton of people swear by when you have a newborn is swaddling, sushing and sucking... the 3 S's. I think there may be a 4th one but I can't remember it off the top of my head. For the first few weeks of Eirik's life he was swaddled up every night... then this weird early summer hit and the swaddling went RIGHT out the window. However we never really had any issues putting him to sleep so I didn't worry to much.

Fast forward to now. Bedtime is becoming a nightmare. I always could nurse him to sleep. We'd go upstairs, he'd nurse for a good 20 minutes, and slowly drift off. If that didn't do the trick a few minutes of cuddling while he sucked on his pacifier did the trick. Now however it seems like every night I am doing an elaborate routine just to get him asleep. We've rocked, we've sushed, we've done the pacifier, we've done the hand on their backs... you name it i've tried it. Tonight however I was tired and so not in the mood for a 30 minute fight on sleep. So I pulled out... the blanket.

I was worried he would freak out the second I got him wrapped up. Instead he stared at me and started to blink as if he was drowsy. Was this actually working?? I gently laid him down in his cosleeper and lay on the bed next to him, my hand on his stomach. The blinking got longer and within 10 minutes he was out cold. Yes folks, 10 minutes and not ONE cry of protest. He just slowly nodded off. After he was out cold I gently removed the blanket (its STILL way to hot for that all night) and he is still passed out happy as a clam!

I now have a secret weapon to help get him to sleep! We'll see if this works again of if it was just a one off thing.