More Diapers!

We now have 4 more cloth diapers to add to our collection. They are all OS [one size] pocket dipes. One Katydid and three Sweetdollbaby.

And here they are!

The Katydid is a sage green with snaps. Here’s a pic of it with the inserts out.

And then the Sweetdollbaby. Now these aren’t as quality as the Katydid or the BG that we have. But apparently they’re still decent dipes and for $6 each, I couldn’t say no. Plus, the colors are pretty friggin’ awesome! The orange and yellow are velcro and the apple green is snaps.

Check ‘em out.

30 more days until we close on the house and then once we’re settled, we’ll start using these babies! Until then, I just get to stare at them and count down the days!

Teething + Growth = Exhaustion

A little over a week ago, we figured out that the 6 month growth spurt was kicking in. He was eating longer and suddenly needed to eat in the middle of the night again.

Well, on top of that, teething reared it’s ugly head [though still nothing to show for it]. We had giant puddles of drool, a stuffy nose, and just an all around miserable little man. My normally great napper wouldn’t nap longer than 30 minutes. We were upconstantly at night. Wednesday night was the worst. J ‘slept’ with C on him for 2 hours… there was no actual sleeping for J. Then I ‘slept’ with C on me for over 3 hours. That resulted in some major back soreness. It also led to a wonderful [read that with sarcasm] day of little sleep, sore mommy, miserable C, and mommy in bed by 8:30.

But then! We had shots on Friday! Iwas totally expecting everything to get so much worse. But it didn’t. He handled the shots well and he slept so well that night! The past few nights have been great with a normal amount of sleep [for us we're still up at least twice with one feed in there].

So now my house is a wreck from lack of motivation and ours friends just moved so they passed along piles of boxes that have no home. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to cleaning it. Or maybe I’ll just pack it all up instead.

Here’s hoping those teeth cut through soon, or at least that he’ll be a lot less miserable when they do. [Who am I kidding?]

Mother’s Day

Happy [belated] Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mommies out there!

I haven’t posted in a bit, it’s been a crazy week. I’ll update about that later.

I hope everyone’s Mother’s Day was good. Mine was wonderful. I woke up to a happy baby playing in his crib. He was all smiles and so chatty for me. Then the three of us played for a bit before C went down for a nap. J let me take a bit of a nap while he made me breakfast. Chocolate chip pancakes with bananas foster on top. Mmmm… so good!

Then we got ready for church and headed out the door. We swung by the house to see what’s been done [we have real stairs, cable, phone, a bathtub, the half wall is framed... it's coming together!]. Then headed home for a quick lunch.

We headed back out and went to get some ice cream at this local place that makes the best ice cream. I got my favorite… mint Oreo. There are seriously entire Oreos in the ice cream. Amazing! We ate in the car because C had fallen asleep on the way there, but he woke up while we sat there. So I let him have a tiny lick of my ice cream off of my finger and… oh my goodness… the child loved it!! I have never seen him that excited! It was hilarious! [We joked that he loves it because I ate it so much while I was pregnant ;c)]

Afterwards, we stopped by a pet store. J and I used to go wander pet stores before we had C just for fun. So we thought we’d take him and show him the animals [plus it was chilly, so doing anything outside was off the list]. He wasn’t quite sure, but he was in awe of the birds.

Once we got home, we fed C then took a short nap. Got C ready for bed and then J went to get dinner. I’ve been begging him to order in Greek from this place near us, but he wouldn’t let me. Lo and behold, he’s been waiting for Mother’s Day! Haha! So we had some nice gyros, some Greek salad [that I'll be having for lunch], and some bakalava. So good! We then spent the rest of the evening playing some Lego Batman on our Wii with our new TV.

It was a great day and J spoiled me all day. It was so nice!

Oh, and in the morning, I got a card from C and another from J. Plus, they got me two sets of earrings. I needed real metal earrings because I never change them and the crappy ones I had been wearing kept tarnishing in my ears. So I got two sets of little balls [one sterling and the other 14K]. They’re so nice!

Thanks J for such a wonderful day and thank you C for making me a great mommy!! <3

Beautiful Ad

So seat belt wearing is something that I’m pretty passionate about. I had to do a report on it in high school and it’s been close to my heart ever since.

Well, I’ve been in 3 major car accidents since the age of 17. At least one car was totaled in each accident. The only reason I walked away from all three is because of my seat belt.

My younger brother has a bit of a Superman complex. He’s survived cancer twice. So he was convinced that he didn’t need to wear his seat belt. I always tried to get him to wear it, but nothing worked till recently. Our sister was in a major accident, then my husband and I were. So I laid into him. Told him that he needs to wear it. That it’s stupid of him and I’ll be so pissed if he dies in a car accident because he was dumb enough to not wear it. Then I pointed out that he had a niece or nephew on the way that needed him. That did him in. He started wearing it.

Thank God, because just before I had C, my brother totaled his car.

Now, I’m telling you all this because I want to remind you to wear your seat belt. If my story doesn’t do it… then maybe this ad will. I posted it on Facebook a few weeks ago. Apparently this has gone viral and I hope it continues to do so until every person wears their seat belt every single time they get in the car.

Baby Carriers

I wanted to run some errands this afternoon. But that dream got squished when J called me when he got back to work. He had come home to have lunch with me [the benefit of only working 5 minutes from home] and when he left, he accidentally grabbed his keys and mine! Which meant I was out of a car. Boo urns.

So I changed the game plan. We’d go for a walk. But the stroller is in the car. Right. No keys.

Insert the joy of having my carrier! It’s a Half Buckle Tai from Two Mommas Designs. Now, for those of who that sounds complicated to, I’ll elaborate.

Carrying a baby on you has always been helpful. I mean, we’ve all seen the Baby Bjorn or those framed backpacks. If you’re on a trip, at the zoo, or hiking… having your hands free is a great thing!

Well if you begin to research baby wearing, you’ll find that you can be overwhelmed with the amount of carriers you can use and the different places you can buy them. The Internet holds so much information!

So we tried a stretchy wrap. I registered for it, had heard good things, and wanted to try it. It was great when he was little. I could wrap him up all snuggly-like and take off. I used it a few times, but it was complicated to wrap around yourself for a quick trip. And then he got bigger… and it got less comfortable. He fought it. So I stopped using it. [I want to say thank you to the friend who bought it for us, if you're reading. We loved it!]

But I knew I wanted another carrier. I liked the idea of not using the stroller for some outings or just strapping him to me to go for a walk. But where to begin? I did a bit of Googling, got overwhelmed, and asked the mommas in my Nov 09 birth board on Babycenter for help. I knew that quite a few of them had some expertise in the area.

They recommended a mei tai style carrier. For those of you who have no idea what that means, let me explain. It’s a soft structured carrier. So it has no frame. Mine is made from a heavy cotton material. The mei tai aspect comes from the straps. There are two that go around your waist and two that go around your shoulders. These are just long pieces of fabric that you wrap and tie. Now this might sound simple and you’re probably thinking that I could make it. But remember that it has to carry my baby in it. I’m not going to play around with that. I’ll let someone who makes them for a living do it.

Well, now I needed to know where to buy one from. There are so many sites that sell them and there are manufactured ones or ones made by mom’s who work at home [WAHM]. I went with WAHM. One of the mommas from the boards recommended Two Mommas Designs. They have a style called a Half Buckle Tai. So it had the traditional ties for the shoulder strap [but they're padded] and it had a buckle waist band [also padded]. I checked out their site, I read reviews, I pondered it, and decided to go for it. Now I had to get J on board and I did.

So I ordered one. Picked out my fabric. Added a sleep hood [you can tie it so that it blocks the sun from your baby slash covers them when they're sleeping]. Added a pocked on the front. And then had to wait… patiently… or impatiently. All my friends had to hear about it.

And I love it! It is so comfortable. I’ve used it grocery shopping [it's nice to have two hands to push the cart], around the mall, and for walks. C loves it. It’s so nice and I know I’m going to get lots of use out of it over the next few years. I can’t wait till he’s a little bit bigger and I can put him on my back. It’s going to make our trip to the zoo so much easier this summer.

So, back to my walk that started all this.

We walked to the bank. Chatted with the teller. Got told how cute C is [he really is!]. And walked for over an hour. C, of course, fell asleep about 5 minutes from home. Why he couldn’t have done that earlier, we’ll never know. But such is life with babies. What’s great is that after walking for an hour with him strapped to the front of me, my back didn’t and doesn’t hurt.

Now, go buy yourself one!!

New House!

Let me introduce you to our new house! These photos were taken on Sunday. The reason the photos are all of the upstairs is because it was the first time we were able to go up and see it. There were no stairs for us to do so before.

Here is a view of the upstairs from in front of the front door. The window on the left is the master bedroom and on the right is the master bath.

This is a view into the master bathroom. The shower is straight ahead, sink will be on the left, and toilet on the right.

Now we’ll take a look into the master bedroom. The bathroom is off to the left and the closet is to the right.

This is my wonderful walk-in closet! [Can't wait to take up all the space and leave no room for J's clothes... hehe.]

This is looking out of the master bedroom into the loft area.

This is the main bathroom. Bath/shower in the far left corner, sink in the front left, and toilet in the far right.

Looking into one bedroom, probably C’s. Closet is to the left.

And finally [for now], this is the other bedroom. It will most likely become our spare room.

And that’s it for now!!

Hearing

Update to my earlier post about C’s hearing.

We saw the ENT today… and…. he’s fine!! He said that there is no fluid, there is nothing wrong, and his ear drum is responding how it should be.

Yay for no hearing issues!! I’m so happy.

One less thing to be worried about.

Just a note

I love that my son is learning how to put himself to sleep and is taking longer naps!

That is all.

Busy, busy weekend

It’s been a busy weekend. One where at 9 pm on a Sunday night, I really should be in bed because I’m so tired. But alas, here I am.

Friday night was rather uneventful. J is busy at work right now, so he came home to help feed C, bathe him, and put him to bed. [By the way. Those green beans I made. Didn't go over so well. But we got him hilarious pictures of him tasting them. I know, I'm a bad mommy.] Then we grabbed a quick supper of the last of our homemade chicken soup and he had to go back to work. Pretty sure I did nothing of any importance for the rest of the evening.

Saturday morning was part two of my class I’m taking a church. J and I are becoming members at our church, so we need to take this class that fills us in on the history of the church as a whole, the history of our specific church, and just some details of what our church does and why they do it. It’s really interesting and I’m learning a lot. Plus, everything they tell me is making me love our church more and more and really believe that some amazing this are going on there. While I was there, J had to feed C a bottle. Oh noes! Any breastfeeding mother knows that’s a challenge. [Quick history here. He was great about taking a bottle. No qualms about it. Then, we got lazy. I know... we shouldn't have. I went to a cousin's bridal shower a few weeks ago and he only ate an ounce of pumped milk. Needless to say, he was hungry when I got home.] Well I called halfway through the class and he was eating. Better than last time, almost 2 ounces.

Once the class was over, I rushed home, grabbed J, C, and some stuff and went to visit friends. They have twins who are going to be 3 this year. They are the most adorable, hilarious, little girls. Love ‘em! And they love Baby C too. We ended up staying there later than planned and didn’t get home till midnight. Ick.

Today, our good friends were moving into a new apartment. I stayed home with C in the morning because he was napping. J went to help. Then he came home and we ran off to pick out goodies for our house! Tile, hardwood, carpet, and paint. Fun! After creating a nice pile of samples on the counter, we had our choices. Light tile through the kitchen and bathrooms. Medium colored hardwood. Light-ish carpets. Light gray paint throughout. A blue-gray in the bedrooms. I can’t wait to see it all together!

Then we stopped by the construction site to check on the house. Joy of all joys… there were stairs so we could check out the newly built upstairs! It looks so nice! I’ll put up a few photos tomorrow… I’m too tired to load them up tonight. Plus, the plumbing was in and parts of the duct work is in. Yay for progress!!

We came home, fed C, and headed back out. See what I mean about busy?? We stopped by to help our friends continue moving. I put C down for a nap in their bedroom [he got to sleep in their room before they did] while the guys tried to fit their new couch through a poorly designed hallway that could never fit a couch through it easily. With minimal damage, a little yelling, and a lot of frustration… they did it. We proceeded to help straighten some things up [start building a bookshelf, unpack bathroom items, set up TV, unpack DVDs, etc] until it was time to head home with C for dinner. By this point, he was exhausted from all the running around so he had a quick supper of sweet potatoes [quickly becoming his favorite food] and applesauce before a bath and bed.

He is now sleeping soundly and so, soon, shall I be. I’m going to go grab my book on church history and curl up under the covers! Here to a good night’s sleep!

The Battle of the Swaddle

On one side, we have the concerned parents who have a little one who needs to be swaddled for a good night’s sleep. They have decided that since the little one wakes himself up when he moves his arms that swaddling is the best choice. These parents also would like to eventually have a night where they don’t have to wake up with the little one.

On the other side, we have the little one who is the next Houdini. He can manage to get his arms out of the swaddle in .5 seconds and then proceeds to chew on his hand. Problem being, said chewing wakes him up and he starts talking and playing at crazy hours in the night.

So begins the Battle of the Swaddle.

We knew this day would come. The day when we would need to have C sleep without being swaddled. We dreaded it. We faced it with fear and trepidation. How do you teach a baby who has been cozily wrapped up to sleep with their arms free?

The realization that we could do it came when I was staying with my parents last week. Mom and I went to Target to pick some things up after I put C to bed. He promptly started crying as we walked out the door, but Dad said that he could handle it. Cool. Off we go. A little while later, we get a call from Dad with C crying in the background.

Time to head home.

Of course, we get there and C is passed out. It was bound to happen. But to my surprise, he wasn’t swaddled… and he was SLEEPING! *insert awe here* Dad did it! He did what we were afraid to do. So I had him explain what he did so I could try a repeat performance.

Mind you, the unswaddling only lasted till about 11 that night because he wouldn’t go back to sleep. But we had a starting point.

From then on, we put him down unswaddled and he puts himself to sleep [another shock and awe moment here]! Eventually at some point through the night, we swaddle him again. Usually when he’s so worked up that he won’t go back to sleep without it.

BUT THEN. The parents make a move [well J does, but those are details... ;c)]. We have also discovered this week that he doesn’t need to be eating during the night. So. We have to make an effort to get him to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. So the night before last, J makes that effort to get him back to sleep in the wee hours. But he does it without the swaddle!! So when I went in to get him at 7 yesterday, I was quite surprised to see him unswaddled. But that means…

We did it!!! We beat the swaddle!

We did it again last night. An entire night without swaddling!

Sure, he wakes up a few times through the night. But he did that before. And all we have to do it put the soother in his mouth and roll him back onto his side and he usually goes back to sleep.

SUCCESS!!

[You might note that he is still swaddled for naps. But he doesn't struggle as much against it. Once the nights are going well, then we'll move the battle to the daytime. Until then, he stays swaddled for my sanity.]

Do a little happy dance for us!