Catching Up

Thanks for keeping up with my blog despite my absence! The aches, pains and fatigue that hit towards the end of 3rd trimester have definitely gotten me and having a very active and curious little boy makes it nearly impossible for me to rest. As soon as he falls asleep, I fall asleep and blogging during the day when he's awake...Thanks for the laugh!

Here are some updates:

Schedule

The schedule is kind of working. We went to North Carolina for the weekend and V's nap and bed time were both REALLY altered. He is still waking up consistently every 2 hours and seems hungry (like wanting food instead of just to nurse) in the middle of the night. During the day he is so busy that he will take a few bites or nurse for a few minutes and then twist his little body and reach for the ground until I put him down to play. At night, the hunger catches up with him and he wakes up annoyed that he's hungry. Any suggestions on this?

Cloth Diapering

Cloth diapering at night is getting harder and harder for some reason! The Fuzzi Bunz reek horribly of urine after 2 hours, the g-diapers are damp on the outside after 1 hour (but the g-cloth isn't soaked???), changing his pre-folds and rubber pants in the middle of the night takes a little more coordination and patience than either of us have and right now I only have one bum genius. Hannah left a comment suggesting the one size bum genius with 2 inserts (Thanks Hannah!!) and we plan to buy 7 or 8 of those this week so hopefully this will solve the night problem. Fuzzi Bunz and pre-folds were my favorite cloth diapers until the Fuzzi Bunz started the ammonia problem, now pre-folds and the one BG we have are. Any tips for eliminating the smell in the Fuzzi Bunz? I've done cold rinse, then hot/cold wash with 1/4 cup of Dreft and they smell fine when they come out of the dryer, it's just when he uses the restroom in them. Do you have a problem with the cloth part of the g-diapers being wet but the g-cloth not being even close to soaked?

Child Birth

My ideal birth was all natural but that did not happen. I was really hoping for a natural birth this time but am getting increasingly doubtful about that now. I go to the doctor tomorrow so hopefully I will get some more insight from a professional instead of my anxious mind, but I just have a feeling this will end up as a c-section as well. I'm not sure if I should credit myself with having actual knowledge or if I am just trying to protect myself from feeling even more like a failure. Hannah (once again, THANKS!) came to the rescue and gave me some really kind and thoughtful advice. As a mother, you have to do what is right for your children and if having a c-section is what is best for this little one too then that is what I will have to do. Luckily, my due date is earlier in the summer so (unlike last year, when my husband had to go back to work a week after our son was born) I will have 24/7 help for about a month before everyone gets back to their busy schedules. I'm going to continue walking and eating right and hope that if my body goes into labor on its on I will have a safe one. If my body does not go into labor, I am starting to be okay with the fact that it has given me 2 healthy children and it doesn't matter how they got here, just matters that they are here and bringing so much joy to my life. If I start complaining about a c-section again, just redirect me to this post.

Other

I have got to get to sleep now but I have a lot of thoughts on V's 1st birthday, making a registry for a second child, having a baby shower (so soon) for a second child and hopefully we will get our one size Bum Genius diapers so I can tell you my thoughts on them! Thanks again for staying tuned!

May 6, 2010

Thank goodness it's Thursday!

This second tooth is giving V a lot more trouble than the first one. Last night he slept from 11:00 PM - 3:00 AM and I was so excited until I realized he was burning up! He had a fever of 99.6 and I can't give him Tylenol because of the recall. I'm calling the doctor in the morning because he just is not himself! He woke up for good at 10:00 AM and pretty much slept all day. After I attempted to give him breakfast (I failed, he only wanted to nurse) and washed him up, he went to sleep until 2:00 PM. The only reason he woke up at 2 was because I got him up to go to town for my hair appointment. Luckily Warner came home early so that he could walk V around the mall while I was getting my hair done. He was okay in the mall but fell asleep there too!! After that, we went to my parents' house. He played with the LeapFrog table he loves and helped my mom water stuff in the yard. (He sprayed the window right before I took the pic so that's what those spots are.)

I'm going to rent the Medela Symphony Pump and get fitted for a nursing bra at the hospital this weekend. My mom agreed to come with me but today she didn't seem too enthusiastic. V's pediatrician insists that he can eat 4 oz but since he has never eaten that much, I do not produce that much anymore. The pump is supposed to increase supply and I am supposed to feed V 4 oz 6 times a day (so like the 12 hours he's awake) and then not for 12 hrs during the night. He definitely knows how to stop me when he's full (turns his head, closes his mouth, pushes the feeding utensil away, spits it out, etc.) but I'm afraid I will just be stuffing him all day and he'll be uncomfortably full at night. It will be nice to sleep for more than we have been though. Anyway, I said all of that because my mom asked why I was getting a pump so late in the game. I planned on breastfeeding for at least a year, not up to. I know that after a year, he will be getting most of his nutrition from "big boy" food but I still think warm milk before bed or when he wakes up is okay. Plus, I'm having another baby so even if I'm not nursing V, #2 will be. I secretly enjoyed not pumping (I do own a small manual Lansinoh one) because it gave me an excuse when people kept asking why I hadn't left V with anyone yet. I do have to admit, if I have some milk on reserve it would make an emergency situation where I'd have to leave my babies a little easier.

Of course I've been thinking/worrying since we had the conversation, so I did a very quick, non-thorough search on the length of breastfeeding. I found this article. I will update later if I find any that are more helpful. In the meantime, what do you think? How long did you/are you going to breastfeed?

Well I normally say "goodnight" at this time but I know I will be up staring at my baby, making sure he's okay so I'll say:

May 3, 2010

As cliche as it sounds, Monday was definitely manic. I had to drop off my car at the dealership, make tons of phone calls, clean up, and best of all, soothe a teething 9 month old. I was concerned because he got his 1st tooth a few days before he turned 9 months old and it seemed like everyone else his age had 5 or 6 teeth, but God knew what he was doing! I don't know how I would have dealt with colic AND teething. I would have been hopeless!

Despite the teething, V followed the schedule very well and during his nap, I was able to look for coupons. Hopefully we will save some money when we go grocery shopping tomorrow! We are breaking our mommy-made meals to take advantage of teacher appreciation and then going shopping for the month. I did this in October and it worked out very well. Hopefully it will work for this month, I want to use the money we save to buy some covers for V's prefolds. I have fuzzi bunz, g-diapers w/ cloth and prefolds w/ rubber pants and I have to say, the prefolds are my favorite! (Weird I know). Do you have any suggestions on prefold covers and/or fasteners? Right now I use regular ole safety pins and clearish whitish rubber pants which is kind of boring. I've heard of Whisper Wraps and think that's what I will try first. I look forward to hearing your suggestions and sharing my opinion with you!

Well it has been a long day and an even longer night/early morning so I'm heading to bed. I hope these teething tablets work for more than 45 minutes!

May 2, 2010

Boy do I feel good!

We had a great sermon at church, I cleaned out one of my kitchen cabinets and I scrubbed/mopped the kitchen floor. I also made a pretty good dinner if I do say so myself.

So yesterday I spoke too soon. Remember how I said Warner's car is newer but seems to need more work than mine? Well it was already 80 degrees before church this morning so we decided to take my car because it cools down very quickly. I still sit in the back with the baby because I have somehow convinced myself that if something were to happen, I'd be able to save him if I'm back there. (I know, I know but it helps ease my anxiety) We were burning up so I asked Warner if he could please turn it on the coldest setting for just a bit until I cooled down. That was 20 minutes into the ride and it was then that he told me it was blowing out hot air up there. Why he waited 20 minutes in a million degree car with a black suit on to tell me the air was broken, I'll never know. After church we went straight to Jiffy Lube. They tried to tell me that the motor that runs my air needed to be recharged...HUH?? Needless to say, I'm calling the Saab dealership first thing Monday morning.

It was sooooooooo tempting to stop and get some food but we came home and I got started on my mission. I took everything out of the main food cabinet, wrote down what we had and reorganized it. Here's all the junk:

and the final result is (drum roll please)...



I was wearing V, singing and dancing while doing this (a hilarious sight, I know) so he eventually fell asleep. I got the kitchen spotless and cooked dinner before he woke up. The rest of the day was pretty simple, we had dinner, played and then BBBB. I fell asleep with V which is why I am writing at 3AM. (I told myself I was not going to write any later than 12AM but obviously that didn't work out too well.)

Tomorrow I will try to get the pictures of the cloth diapers I use and my thoughts about them but they probably won't be modeled by V because he can't stay still long enough! I'll also be looking for good coupons so that I can restock the cabinets so stay tuned for those.

You know I always have questions, so here goes:

I am trying to make sure that V stays stimulated and I'm afraid I'm limiting him.

What do you do with your 9 month olds?

Here's kind of a rough layout of our scheduled outings (aside from the afternoon walk or playground trips).

Sunday: Church

Monday: PM walk/playground

Tuesday: Farmer's Market

Wednesday: Playgroup 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Thursday: PM walk/playground

Friday: Playgroup 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Saturday: Shopping, Charlottesville, Richmond, etc.

Well I'm going to sleep.

Be on the lookout for my menu, cloth diapering post and coupons tomorrow!!!

May 1, 2010

Today was a long but overall good day!

A few times this week, we noticed Warner's (husband) car making a weird noise when he reversed, so he woke up early this morning to take it to Meineke. We bought this brand new Honda Civic in June 2007 but it seems like it has more problems than my 2001 Saab 9-3.

The baby grunted all night (gas? teething? just a grunter?) so I didn't go to sleep until 5:00 AM this morning. V woke up around 6:30AM and of course when Warner left around 7:30 AM, it was right after V had fallen asleep...without grunting. I got him back to sleep and we woke up for good around 10:00 AM. Despite the restless night, V was in a great mood and I got things done! I've set up a cleaning schedule for my house so that I can get it back to the way it was before V became mobil and my chores for today were:

-wash sheets, V's clothes, diapers and towels

-clean bathrooms

-sweep downstairs and clean kitchen (these 2 are every day tasks)

I tried out the playmat and it worked well... for about 10 minutes. V will not sit in his exersaucer anymore (I don't think he likes being confined) so I took the top off and placed it on the mats. Here he is:

Even though he got up late, V still took a nap from 12PM - 2PM without me even prompting it (yay!!!!!). When he woke up, I washed him up and we went to the wedding that I didn't know would be outdoors. That was not such a good experience, V was sweating so badly and his cheeks were bright red. He held on during the entire ceremony, but afterwards during the cocktail hour (outside as well), he started screaming and crying and could not relax. After trying the normal things that soothe him (singing, walking, holding him close) I figured he was just too hot so we sat in the car with the air on for a bit and then I held some ice for him to suck on. Other than that, the wedding was nice and V did a great job. He fell asleep on the way home which was pretty close to bed time so he took a bath at 8:45 PM instead of 8:00 PM. I don't know if he was just tired from last night or is finally getting the hang of the schedule, but he went right to sleep after his BBB (bath, book, boob)! I gave him some Mylicon after nursing him to see if it will help with his night grunting.

Tomorrow I will begin my cloth diapering posts and let you know if Mylicon solved the grunting problem!

April 30, 2010

Whew! Today was a long but great day. Playgroup was held at the main playground so we walked there...a nice change from getting him in and out of the carseat! Of course at the playground he wanted to swing or get on the ground. I wasn't so sure about putting my 9 month old in the sandbox...he explores the world through his mouth so we swung, and swung...and swung. I had good conversations with the other moms and the anxiety and fear I have about how my son will feel with the new baby around have subsided (at least for now)

We did not follow any of the meals from Gerber website. He only wanted to nurse today. After nap, Warner (my husband) was home and we went to Wal-Mart (I somehow lost V's pacifier between our house and the playground) and Lowe's. We got A-Z playmats, have you tried them? Our floors downstairs are hardwood so I hope I can put those down and he will stay on them while I'm cleaning the kitchen, cooking, sweeping our bedroom, etc.

Now we're at my parents' house! Warner had choir practice at 7PM and then went out to dinner with a few of the guys and the pastor. I miss having Friday evening with him, but V got to spend some time with my parents and little sister and of course they loved it. No pics to share today, but he did a lot of standing on his own (he sat down when I tried to take pictures).

My sister and I made Neiman Marcus bars. They spilled over in the oven but are still delicious...on top. They didn't cook all the way through!

Sorry there's not much to report. We used disposable diapers today instead of cloth. I wasn't sure how to change a cloth diaper at the playground if we had a messy one and then we went straight from Lowe's/Wal-Mart to my parents' house so I used the diapers they have at their house. Tomorrow we are going to our first wedding with V so I should have some interesting stories then!

April 29, 2010

On V's (that's what we'll call my son) 9 month birthday we started strictly implementing a schedule. I am a stay-at-home mom and almost 31 weeks pregnant, so for a while, we kind of just went with the flow. From the beginning, I did a baby-led schedule. I had an old composition notebook leftover from college and I wrote down his every move. When he nursed, which side, for how long, when he used the bathroom, when he slept, when he woke up, when he spit up, E V E R Y T H I N G. I actually kept this up for a while, noted the patterns and made a loose schedule based on his natural one. This worked out fine until the pregnancy fatigue stepped up and the new mommy adrenaline piped down. Once that happened, I napped when he napped and wasn't too concerned about it being at the same time each day. Anyway, the new schedule evolved from his 9 month check-up. The doctor told me V should be sleeping 12 straight hours a night. He eats about 2 ounces, every 2 hours so I thought (er..still think) going from every 2 hours to 12 hours was (is) impossible. He is eating more than just my milk now so I went to www.gerber.com and used their handy menu tool. (It's pretty simple so if you need some meal suggestions, I suggest visiting the site!) I divided the meals into times and devised a schedule from that. Here it is:

9:00 AM Wake up, wash up, change diaper, etc.

9:30 AM Breakfast

Play time (playgroup, his room, or somewhere where he can crawl around)

11:30 AM Morning Snack

12:00 PM - 2:00 PM Nap

2:00 PM Lunch

Play time (walk, playground, his room or an outting)

4:00 PM Afternoon Snack

Play time with daddy

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Nap

6:00 PM Dinner

Play time (visit my parents, go for a walk, play with daddy some more, whatever gets the energy out!)

8:00 PM BBBB (Bath, Book, Breastfeed, Bed)

9:00 PM SLEEP

He seems to be adapting well and goes right to sleep for the 12 PM - 2:00 PM nap. We had to add in the 5PM nap because if we don't, he whines until about 7PM and then wakes up at 9PM ready to play. This happened the other day and he didn't go to sleep until 1:00 AM. Today he ate our meal for dinner and loved it. He's been asleep now for 2 hours and 35 minutes!!!!

Each day I plan to write about the schedule, how V did with it and any new developments and appreciate your input.

Now, I have a few questions for you all!

Do any of you all have set schedules? If so, what do they look like? How long did it take your little one to adapt (or is it baby-led)? How do they react if there's a change?