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:

Cry It Out

I never really liked the thought of just leaving a baby in his crib to cry. And cry. AND CRY. I mean hysterically crying. But my baby is being so difficult with naps that it has come to that officially today.

Rocking to sleep? No. He hates rocking chairs. Nursing to sleep? That won't even work anymore. He practically just tears my boob off. Ouch; cant wait until he's got teeth. Carrier? Hates it when tired.

I've been reading sooooooooooooo much about this subject. The biggest thing is to not let the little baby get overly tired. No problem. I know Blaine can only handle 1 hr 20 minutes of awake time so at 1 hour 10 minutes exactly I started the "winding down into nap" time. You know, play soothing music, rub his back, walk him around the room swaying (again don't even think about rocking chair or sitting down, he'd freak). But the minute you put him in his crib? HYSTERICAL CRYING. I mean so hard he coughs. So I pick him up (stops crying INSTANTLY), reassure him, and put him down again. Repeat. FOR 5 STRAIGHT HOURS!

I mean he got up at 8:30 and it is now 1:30 and he has slept 15 minutes all day.

Tired Mommy.

He started crying in his bed at 1:19 and it is 1:38 and he is still hysterical. Will I cave and go in? Probably. I'm at the end of my rope as far as ideas.

Oh and even better? He cries hysterically EVERY TIME WE GO IN THE CAR. 5 minute drive? 40 minute drive? Doesn't matter, hysterical. But the minute you get where you are going and take him out? Stops crying INSTANTLY. This is how I know he is not in pain; his ability to "turn it off" and then "turn it on" so quickly.

Ok it is now 1:41 and he's quiet. Let's pray he's asleep and this nap issue starts fading SOON.

And some good news in a post full of gloom: He went 9 hours between feedings last night!!! YEEHAWWWWWWW!!! 7:30 pm - 4:30 am. With a dry diaper :). Then he peed in the potty. That's my boy! And at night? No troubles putting him in his crib wide awake and him going to sleep without even the littlest fuss. Sooooooo weird.

Before and After...

Last May we went searching for a geocache in the state parks series that we ended up not being able to find. Then Saturday we went for a second try. Much more fun this time and you can probably guess why :).

BEFORE (no making fun of the outfit LOL):

AFTER:

PS Blaine loves hikes and he only cries when we put him in the car to move to a different spot!