Elimination Communication

I really hadn't even heard of elimination communication before reading one well written blog post and a few websites I googled afterwards in curiousity. But I was thinking it sounded like a good idea; but there was no way I'd go "diaper free" or anything like the book Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene apparently says (again, I didn't read it) but I'd give it a try here and there. Anything to speed up the potty training process! Nick was potty trained by 10 monthes and me by 15 monthes, so Blaine has big shoes (or toilets) to fill. LOL.

I googled Baby Bjorn and bought the potty for $12. It has been SOOOOOO FUN trying to "catch" Blaine's pees and poos. Blaine has peed seven times in the potty and pooped once; or I guess you could say I "caught" them. I'm pretty convinced that infants have more control over their excretions than people give them credit for. I have been sitting him on it everytime I go in for a diaper change while saying "Pee in the potty; PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS". You try to make them associate a sound with peeing and a different sound for pooping. Yesterday he went three times and he already went this morning once!

Thank goodness my mom witnessed one pee because I'm pretty sure she was thinking I was making this all up! :)

3 Weeks Old

3 Weeks old today and weighing in at 10 lbs 0.5 oz.

He's the master of funny faces!

Blaine has rolled over 11 times total in his life (not that I'm counting), peed in the baby potty 3 times and pooped once (that post is to come so stay tuned!).

I think I'll keep him :).

Baby Carrier

Right now thanks to Heather I am using this carrier:

Blaine love love love LOVES it and so do I. A quick search online for info tells me that baby can face in or out and it is to be used for infants 7-26 lbs. But the baby will always be in front.

I think I'm going to look for one that can be used as a backpack and I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BABY CARRIERS WHAT-SO-EVER! From reading blogs, I have seen that people like the Mei Tei and Moby Wrap and they can be used in front or in back. This is a cool place to see pictures of a bunch of different carriers and wraps: click here I'm looking for cheap but safe. I definitely do not want to spend over $100.

That is where you come in: Do you have any suggestions for me? :)

First Night Away

Nick spent his first night out-of-state since Blaine was born and everything went soooo well! It was a quick trip (there and back in 2 days....Ohio to North Carolina by car; can you believe that!?). I'm lucky most of Nick's trips are quick like that. I'm also lucky to have pretty much my whole family AND Nick's whole family within 10 miles of here in case something would go wrong.


Blaine forgot how to roll over for 3 days and then did it again yesterday three times! And better than Sunday! YAY! It was my grandma's birthday so she was pretty excited to get to witness the event :).


I always said I wouldn't let this become a Mom Blog. OOPS!! Babe is pretty much my life now and I love it; he is the only topic I can think to write about! I'll throw in a sunset pic from last week for variety!!

Breastfeeding

This post is to all "moms to be".

(and I hope / pray / cross my fingers that I don't jinx myself by writing this! EEK!)

I'm still coming across posts in other blogs that talk about how hard breastfeeding is to adjust to, how much it hurts, etc etc etc. I actually thought it would be "very hard at first" and definitely "painful" for a few weeks based on everybody that I've read posts from and talked to in real life. I think those posts scare future-bf-ers. They scared me!! Then I read books and took a class. All the experts say "if you are doing it right, it won't hurt". I was thinking maybe they were wrong? But I'd have to wait and see myself.

I know every baby is different, and every girl is different, so I'm only speading about MY experience and MY baby:

Breastfeeding came naturally and was not painful at all.

Yes some girls have difficulty (even some of my close friends) and can never even do it at all due to medical issues, baby issues, etc, but IT IS POSSIBLE that there can be no pain and it works perfect!

Then I read about "all the gear" people buy to nurse. I bought a whole box of those breastpads for leaking but have used NONE of them. Nothing leaks. I don't even really use that cream very often. I refused to buy nursing shirts and nursing bras. I'm picky about clothes what can I say?!

So let's recap with some pieces of advice:

1) Use icepacks ALL the time the first week. "Preventative icing" I call it!! I learned being a runner that if you ice when things don't hurt, it prevents hurting. Your milk will be coming in and things will be sore, so just keep an icepack in there! Sore isn't pain.

2) Watch a video of a baby latching right. The video at class is what made it all click for me. You have to know timing of the baby opening his / her mouth and what to do when. Sometimes you just have to sit there and wait for the baby to move his / her arms out of the way AND open up wide enough! PATIENCE is key :)

3) Pray you have a good nurse in the hospital to help you get started. My friend swears it was her "bad nurse" that ruined bf'ing for her and she gave it up 3 weeks in because it was so miserable for her. Who knows? I LOVED JONI THOUGH :)

Sleep (venting)

I was 110% prepared for being a sleep deprived zombie woman for the first 6 monthes or so of this baby's life. I'm doing remarkably well!!!! Not a zombie at all and surviving on one short nap a day for the most part. I've actually only cried twice since this kid was born and it was other people being in bad moods that pushed me over the edge to tears.

So, the other day I said "I need a nap" or something to that affect and my grandma said "Why are you tired??". She was dead serious.


WHY

AM

I

TIRED?!!

That actually made me have two feelings; first, failure. I felt she was saying I was failing because I was tired.

Second, anger. Why SHOULDN'T I BE TIRED!!?? I have a husband who returned to work and refuses to help with any overnight baby care unless it is an absolute emergency meltdown. In fact, he doesn't even sleep in the same room as me and the baby. He's headed out of state tomorrow and Thursday. So I have to feed, change, and re-put to sleep by myself. Here is a sample of my feeding log. The times are when feedings start:

8:30 pm
10:30 pm
12:15 am
1:45 am
4:15 am
5:15 am
6:30 am
9:30 am

Now, most nights aren't that crazy, but that sort of crazy can happen. And Blaine can want "pillow bounced" for an hour and a half at a time while refusing to go to sleep after eating resulting in the next feeding arriving without getting to sleep at all. People wonder why I try to keep that kid awake during the day. LOL. If I can successfully keep him awake a lot of daytime hours, I am lucky sometimes to get a 4 hour stretch at night between feedings!! YAY!

BUT I TOTALLY EXPECTED THIS!! I was prepared for this. I was actually prepared for worse than this. He is a better baby than I ever had imagined.

In summary: I don't appreciate people acting like tiredness is a weakness. I am not "frontier woman" like all the rest of the women in my family.

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Now that that is off my chest, I wanted to report in that I dug potatoes with the baby in the carrier today (quite a challenge) and I jogged "a tad" during my walk with the running stroller (don't tell the doctor!).

2 weeks and 2 days postpartum: 10 lbs still to lose and old pants no where close to fitting!!

2 Weeks Old

Today Blaine went to church for the first time! But the day only got more exciting from there.


HE ROLLED OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We had him on his tummy for tummytime and suprising to everyone, he flipped to his back. I wouldn't have believed it myself but my parents both witnessed it and he did it 6 times total before getting so tired he had to take a nap :). The first time it took awhile but each time he got better and faster at the whole flipping process.

YAY! We looked in my baby book and I rolled over at 3 weeks old so he's already beating me in development. I just think he has a really strong neck / back. I noticed it when we were still in the hospital, so we've just really done a lot of tummytime since then. In summary: this was soooo exciting but hopefully he beats both Nick and I in the potty-training timeline (and we are tough to beat!). haha.

PS his umbilical chord fell off today too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!