Holidays...Phew

I think Blaine will need like 3 weeks to recover from the holiday bustle! Everyone is home from work / school and he has been around family all day everyday! It is so great! But it definitely has messed up his sleep schedule, potty usage, and he just came down with his 2nd cold. Boo!

He is such a good sitter now so that makes mommy very proud. It is so impressive seeing how that has improved dramatically over the last week. He used to be so wobbly and now he rarely tips over.

Video: I CAN SIT!

Blaine is figuring out sitting more and more! Sorry the video is long but just a few seconds can give you an idea. He started with the box, and then we worked on smaller objects. He can sit pretty well these days if he wants to.

Video: Look Mom, I Can Stand! **

**if holding on for dear life to something grippy such as adult's hands, the tub rail, a toy, or a footstool with a blanket on it.

Century Home

I'm running out of time to do this post! And I've been meaning to do it all year long.

I always saw the descriptive words "century home" in real estate ads and never knew what that meant. I thought it was a type of architecture design or something. My mom said "DUH, it means the house is 100 years old!". Ahhh!! Well as of 2010, our home is now a Century Home! Yep, it was built in 1910.

Our house is very unique, very piece-meal, and I just love it to death! The original structure was only 2 rooms and a basement that you had to get to through the "Dorthy and Toto" type trap door. No bathroom, just an outhouse (which I've located by doing some digging while planting marigolds! Found glass bottles galore!). So yeah, bathroom is added on, kitchen added on, and most recently in 1997, the two bedrooms. My grandma claims my house was once a little grocery store, but that is open for debate because the people at the historical society seem to disagree. I'll have to keep asking around!

So, happy 100th birthday house! If only I could transport myself back in time to see what it was like around these parts in 1910, I'd be a happy girl!

5 Months

This really is becoming my favorite age. I swear the kid gets cuter by the minute and his little smiles and laughs are so plentiful he's just a pleasure to be around. I used to look at my baby pictures and say "wow I was a cute baby" but the other day I got them out again and said "oh man I wasn't so cute after all compared to Blaine"; he is stinkin ADORABLE! (I know all mommies say that about their babies though hehe).

Firsts: Rolling tons in both directions. In fact he rolls so much getting diapers put on is a challenge. Grabbing at objects with much accuracy. "Walking" with help is his absolute favorite. Got his first illness, a little cold with runny nose and cough. The only thing in his way of being able to crawl is his budda belly because he's got the arm and leg motions down pat!

Food: No solids yet. Starting very soon! He is so active I think it is time to get some extra calories in the kid. His wakeups have increased from one per night to sometimes 3 per night and he acts hungry at every wake up so it is about time! I've been so lucky that breastfeeding has been a breeze for all 5 months (knock on wood!!!!!).

Naps: Still a struggling point for us. Although lately I've been able to get him to sleep in 10 minutes or less by using music, swaying, and nursing. However, naps are usually only 30 minutes so I guess that means he wakes up after that first sleep cycle. The only way to get a 2 hour nap is to call someone and make plans for a certain time; he'll for sure still be in bed when that time comes! ;)

Potty: Still a potty champ! But his first cold definitley through a loop in the potty use. Sometimes he is too squirmy to even sit on the thing but normally that just means he doesn't have to go!

These 5 months have flown by; I cannot tell you how much I love being a mom and how thankful I am to be off work thus home with the little guy. I wish my hubby didn't travel so much (2 weeks straight right now) but am very fortunate that both his and my families are close and helpful!

It Was a Starry Night

Since I'm in the mood to share fav Christmas songs, this is easily in my top 3. I could listen to it on repeat for hours and I sometimes do! :)

Click here and it will start playing immediately. If I was good at singing I'd want to sing this one at church for the midnight service. Only problem: I stink at singing and I can't stay up that late! (LOL)

Christmas Magic

Christmas is a magical time and I've got some of the cutest pics of Blaine lately. Can't wait to enjoy this first Christmas with him!

In other news: having a baby and all, our church seemed it was a good fit to ask us to light the advent wreath candles on Christmas Eve. The service is 7:30 and Blaine normally goes to bed between 7 and 8. SHOULD BE INTERESTING!

A Baby Changes Everything

Love love love this Christmas song. I heard it for the first time last year when I was pregnant, and still this year, every single time I hear it I get tears in my eyes. This Christmas will be a special one for sure.

Walkin

Someone has discovered that he'd rather walk around the house all day than do just about anything else. It is so cute; he just has the biggest smile / excited look on his face when he's walking. The only problem: he needs adult help!! Now if only my back would cooperate and meet his demands! We finally froze the last of the squash. Cooked, pureed and ready to be eaten by a baby! THIS KID HAD BETTER LIKE SQUASH! WE'VE GOT A TON FROZEN!!

Thanks a lot, Glee

I never watched Glee until this summer when I decided to get the DVDs from the library and catch up to speed. Of course I fell in love with the show because it is so funny / ridiculous and everyone on there is VERY talented. Plus it is set in Ohio (!!) and at a high school (I'm very familiar with both of these locations LOL).

When we picked out the name Blaine, it was because we stumbed upon it in a baby book and both liked it. Yes, we had to resort to going through books from the library because Nick hated all the other names I had on my list and had no suggestions of his own. I wanted something rare; I'd only ever heard of one Blaine before in my whole life, one of my favorite male gymnasts, Blaine Wilson.

Imagine my excitement / shock / HORROR when the newest character on Glee appeared, named Blaine. I know pop culture / TV shows are like the #1 influence on naming trends. Let's hope hundreds of moms-to-be don't like that name or my child won't be the only Blaine at his school afterall.

My Mortal Enemies

I had to google "mortal enemy" to make sure was using it in the right context. "An enemy that wants to kill you". YEP, right context. I've got two mortal enemies in my life right now as a mother:

1) Carseat

2) Breastpump

Yesterday, I figured Blaine was 4 and a half months old, and napping much more predictably, so he could handle a trip 120 miles from home if I timed his naps out right. (The same trip he took at 2 months old and handled like a champion). Well, I was WRONG. Armed with earplugs, some toys for him to play with, and a blanket for him to grab, we took off. Counting drive time to and from, and driving time in the town we went to, I think I endured over 3 hours of high pitched, hysterical, scream-crying. Earplugs can't even save you from that. The only time he didn't cry was when he was out of his carseat (gas station, reststop). Gah. I've had suggestions to play his favorite CD so next time I'll be armed with ELVIRA on repeat (that never fails me). It didn't help that it was dark and rainy the whole way home, when the scream session was in full hystericss.

Now, breastpump issues. I've found the best time to pump is at 3 AM when my boobs are full full full. But what I call "success" is getting 1 oz out so actually my success is actually a big fat FAIL. So when I go away for a couple hours (we are talking 2 to 3 hours away) and feel obligated to leave 4 ounces, that literally is like 6 pumping sessions. Last week I left 4 oz and Blaine only ate 1 oz so I had to throw away 3 oz. THROWING AWAY THAT MUCH LATE NIGHT TIME KILLED ME. Then I realize with his size he needs a bottle that is like 8 oz and I know that is like 2 weeks of pumping. Yes something is enemy like in that situation because I know most girls can pump 5 oz at a sitting. And I know there is easily 5 oz inside of there, I can feel they are still full but nothing is coming out! Gah.

No one said motherhood would be easy!

DIY: Baby Legwarmers

If you haven't noticed by my pictures, Blaine practically lives in baby legwarmers. Drives my dad crazy (he thinks they are girly) but based on internet reading, I can tell they are the "in thing" right now with girls AND boys! I'm not one that normally follows the crowd when it comes to fashion, but THANK GOODNESS I found out about these things! With the ammount of time spent taking diapers off and on and going potty etc, baby legwarmers are totally THE BEST! The first batch I bought I got from babylegs.com and I got a bundle pack (cheaper), but they were still $5 each! WAAAY too much for me and my frugal ways. The next batch I bought were off ebay and were $3 each. Getting better. I kept seeing online tutorials to "make your own" but my sewing skills are limited. I can thread the machine, make a bobbin, and sew a pillowcase but that is about it.

Well I saw knee high socks at Goodwill and figured, HECK I CAN DO THIS! And I did, and they look nice! I'm pretty proud of myself! I still have two more pairs to finish!

Family Tradition: Baby's First

Two years ago, I blogged here about how it is a family tradition to have butcher day twice a year. Once for cows and once for pigs, feeding 3 families for the year.

Blaine's first was yesterday! He had great fun and even napped at my grandma's during the day (remember our napping struggles?!). He is doing much much better!

IN OTHER NEWS: After 5 years of having no bathroom door (just a curtain; freaked out some house-guests), Nick has completed our new super awesome door. It is HEAVY (200 lbs) and will be a slider type door. Pics to come! :)

Turkey Lurkey

Everytime I see his face, hear his breaths, kiss his smooshy cheeks, hug his body, laugh at his giggles, and adore his smile, I realize how thankful I am to be his mommy.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Elimination Communication: NIGHT-TIME

If I have 2 suggestions for night-time EC'n it would be this:

1) Get child out of bed and onto potty within 5 minutes of wakeup; this goes against the "10 minute wait" rule (seeing if they will fall back asleep). Tough rule, so I don't follow this suggestion myself most nights.


2) HAVE ANYONE BUT THE MOTHER DO THE POTTYING. It took a few weekends of me thinking, "wow Blaine doesn't cry at night with Nick" for me to realize this was occuring and why it might be occuring. Here is why:

When I get Blaine out of bed at night and put him on the changing table, he sees me and thinks "FOOD SOURCE! FEED ME NOWWWWW" and cries and cries and WAILS even worse when I take off his diaper and put him on his potty. He rarely will go potty for me. Nick on the other hand, wow what a difference. Blaine will never cry, and he will use the potty pretty much everytime.

Take last night for example: 6:45 pm was bedtime. 8:30 pm he wakes up; weird and way too early so we wait 15 min and Nick gets him and he goes pee on the potty. 11:30 pm wake up; pee on potty for Nick. 6:30 am wake-up, goes poop and pee on the potty for Nick. NO CRYING OR FUSSING ON THE CHANGING TABLE OR POTTY WHAT-SO-EVER.

Now if I can only get Nick to agree to do night baby potty duty during the work week and not only on weekends :)

The End is Near....

11/30/2001 was my first date with Nick and we went to see the very first Harry Potter movie!

So now that part 1 of the series finale is out, I can't help but get a little knot in my stomach and a little depressed. So many memories over the years going to see each and every movie. (We hardly EVER go to the movies). I'm not sure what I'll do when it's done. :(

11/30/2010 sounds like a great "9 year anniversary" to go see the latest release!

4 Months!

4 months old today! And Blaine did WAAAY better with his shots this go-around than last time.

Not any new photos or stories but I will say naps have greatly improved! I think he just had a few challenging weeks there for awhile. The other day he actually took 5 naps and one was 2 hrs long! WOA! Night-time has been good with 7's, 8's, and the occasional 9 hour stretches. Often I hear him wake up and put him self back to sleep within 5 minutes so that is nice to see.

Stats:

Head - 43 cm (70 %)
Weight - 14 lbs 15 oz (55 %)
Height - 25.25 inches (75 %)

So now is when we have to do decide when to start solids! Anytime between month 4 and 6!

What has everybody else done or do you plan to do?

Back to Belly!

After being able to roll belly to back at only two weeks old, the other direction took a lot more time to achieve. Blaine finally did a back to belly roll last week for my mother-in-law! I haven't seen it yet but I do see him get REALLLLLY close everyday where he is on his stomach with his arm still wedged under his body. So funny how kids always do things for grandparents first! Babies love them more! Stinker-buckets!

14 hours 45 minutes

That is how much Blaine slept last night with 3 wake-ups. He must've been TIIIIIIIRED!

Went to bed at 7 pm and got up at 9:45 am. WOW!

So that means he only needs a 15 minute nap today to get his 15 hours in. ;)

yeeeahh right. He was tired and ready for a nap by 11 am. LOL.

Sleep: Counting My Blessings

So there are a few quotes that have made me feel a bit better about the whole sleep thing. But yes, Blaine still stinks majorly at naps.

Leah made the comment to the idea of "do whatever it takes" which got me really thinking. So last week I literally did that. I have found ONE METHOD that never fails me. Take Blaine to the towpath (bike / run trail) and put him in the blue snuggli carrier. Walk him for a mile and he will fall asleep. CAREFULLY place him in stroller and run / walk up to 6 total miles before he wakes up! WOA! We did a TON of stroller naps last week.

Now that worked ONLY because it was sunny and nice out. This week is calling for cold and rain. Not sure what I will do then. ;)

Secondly, I have this an article in American Baby Magazine, October 2010, complete with tips and a chart. It says 3 month olds need 15 hours of sleep per day and average 2-4 naps; 30 min to 2 hours each. Then here is the quote I love: "Some snooze longer at night; others more during the day". Yep I'd say I have a night sleeping baby and not day one. LOL. Last night he slept 3 hrs + 5 hrs + 5 hrs = 13 total hours. And today he took three 30 minute naps and one 10 minute nap. I guess what frustrates me is that he won't nap for long stretches, won't nap in his bed, and won't go to sleep without a total total struggle.

But..

I'm soooo lucky he goes to bed between 7 pm - 8 pm without any fuss what-so-ever and although he does still awaken 3 or so times at night, he always goes right back to sleep with no problems. I read horror stories about kids struggling for hours at bedtime and waking up to play in the middle of the night!

So I'll count my blessings! And keep on trucking through the issues!

Something Cute about a Leaf

Blaine was IN LOVE with this leaf and carried it around waving it for an hour!

He also liked Grandpa's phone. LOL.

Laughs R Us

I know I've posted him laughing before, here and here, but in my opinion there can NEVER be too many baby laughs! Greatest sound on earth!

Cloth Diapers: Blaine's First Day!

As bad as Blaine has been at naps this past week, he's been that GOOD with potty use. I'm talking during the day maybe going once in his diaper since Sunday. (Night is different because I don't think I get to him in time when he wakes up....and I find warm pee...oops).

I've had a HUGE box of Kushies cloth diapers a friend gave me but I've been too scared to use them. Until today. I whipped one on him and he's been in it all day and dry; using the potty for all pees and poops. I think I will still use disposables at night but start using these cloth ones during the day since they were free (!!).

Since I'm a total cloth diaper novice, and I know several of you are experts, help me out:

1) Have you tried Kushies and if so, do you like them?

2) What method do you use to wash them? I've read many conflicting reports on that too.

Thanks in advance for your ideas!

No Place Like Home

Sorry about sounding like such a Debbie Downer in my posts lately about Blaine's napping issues. I really do love that kid and I knew parenting wasn't going to be a breeze. Just going to be one of those things that I will have to have patience for when it doesn't go the way the books say it should! Even when he is DEAD TIRED he smiles and giggles; it makes me melt knowing that I'm frustrated but he still loves me.


To make me smile, thought I'd post some cute pics from yesterday. THE WEATHER WAS GLORIOUS and the ponds so smooth that I got some really cool pictures of my house!

PS I'm still figuring out how to upload pics and drag them bigger w/out them getting blurry. LOL.

Naps (or lack of)

Blaine sleep update: Well nights are still normal as always. Goes to bed with no trouble about 7 pm and sleeps until about 8:30 am with 3 wake-ups. Naps = NIGHTMARES!!! Yes, still. No improvement what-so-ever. This morning he napped in the stroller during my run and that was his only good nap all day. He woke up from the stroller nap at 11 am and from 11 am until 7 pm he only slept 30 minutes. GAH TIRED MOMMY!

Cumulative crying in crib time = 2.5 hrs (broken into two separate sessions)
Cumulative sleeping time = 30 minutes

I'm kind of using cry-it-out / pick-up, put-down / comfort nursing all in one. So I'll let him cry like 15 minutes, go comfort him for 2-3 minutes, let him cry 15 more minutes, go comfort, cry 15 more minutes, try nursing, repeat. It was brutal listening to him WAIL today. BRUTAL. Everytime I thought he was calming down he fired right back up. I've read all the different types of cries babies have during CIO: peak cry, mantra cry, letting-out-steam cry, distressed cry etc.

This quote is what has me wondering: Distressed cries - sounds like peak or letting-out-steam cries, but more intense and hysterical. It lasts longer and is continuous. The child may be screaming non-stop for more than 5/10 mins. If your LO is literally screaming non-stop for the entire 1-3hrs night/nap training session, this suggests that your chosen method is not a good fit to your child. Lengthy continuous distressed cries are mostly seen when using extinction on younger babies and/or babies of a more sensitive temperament. Sometimes seen during nap training (but not so during nights) where the child scream for the entire hour, never calming down.

After 1 hour of hysterical crying obviously I couldn't take it anymore and abandoned mission both times. But does this mean since it happened twice today, that maybe he has too sensitive of a temperament? Last week he was doing fine with this "training" and today just BOOM, DISASTER.

Tomorrow? Still wondering what to do!!

Blaine's New Trick!

WHAT A BIG BOY!!

Not sure why the video is wider than the blog window but it works. Make sure to look at the funny cat! LOL.

Sleep Update :)

I know lots of you have been wondering how the sleep department has been going. Well I got 4 sleep books from the library, most notibly "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley and "Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Richard Ferber. If you don't know about these methods, well they are OPPOSITE AS OPPOSITE CAN BE. Night and day. One was written by a guy. One was written by a girl. One was written by a doctor. One was written by a mom. One seemed cruel. One seemed compassionate.

I still don't know which is right for my child but here's what we've been doing the last 4 days.

Attempt nursing him to sleep. This used to work even though I realized it was wrong. It still does work SOMETIMES and I want to break him of the habit so I don't have a 4 year old who needs my boob to go to sleep. If Blaine is still awake after nursing, which he has been each of the last 3 evenings and many of the last few naps, pat his back, tell him it is time for sleep and lay him in bed.

Day 1: Let him cry 5 minutes, go in for 2-3 minutes to soothe, then cry 10 minutes, then soothe, then 15 minutes subsequently. He never made it all the way through the 15 without being asleep.

Day 2: Let him cry 7 min, go in to soothe, let cry 12 min....never made it. Asleep 1 min into the 12 minute stretch.

And tonight? Asleep in 6 minutes with no going in needed :)

Who knows what the future will bring in this next week but there are DEFINITELY improvements so far!

What to work on next? Keeping him asleep longer for naps! I guess there is a sleep stage transition from 30-45 minutes that he can't get past w/out waking up. We'll work on that!

Blaine's First Snowfall!

Yep, just a dusting but still pretty excited to wake up and see some white this morning! :)

Last week, Blaine got to visit with Thanksgiving dinner right here in our backyard. Ok maybe not our dinner, but definitely our neighbors'! The turkeys came running when I went out to hang laundry and were so cute making their little gobble gobble gobble noises!

Big boy in his Bumbo!

November 5, 2009

Very happy day! Especially because I REALLLLLLY wanted a July baby and the test I had taken Nov 3rd came out negative. I called Nick IMMEDIATELY and he said something to the sort of, "I bet you'll tell your mom tonight!" and I accepted that as a dare not to tell her. Plus I'm bad with secrets so I wanted to prove to him I could keep one! We kept it a secret from family until Christmas!! :)

It is SOOOOO crazy to think about how that little plus has turned into this in one year's time: