Oh Sleep How I Missed You

I almost don't dare speak of it.  I don't want to jinx the whole thing. On the other hand, even if it is over, it was so good while it lasted!

The baby, my baby (who is really a toddler now) slept through the night - the entire night - for the past two nights!  What?! Yes. My son.  The one who less than a month ago was waking every hour or two to nurse is now sleeping through the night!  What a fantastic feeling it is to get some real sleep.  I am not entirely sure what the magic potion is.  Perhaps he is just settling into his own routine now.  His teeth have taken a break from busting through his gums and he is able to sleep comfortably.  He is not nursing so he has no huge motivation to get up during the night.  He is awesome!

A month ago I really didn't have much faith that I would be able to stop nursing.  I fully expected to be nursing Logan before bed for at least another four months.  I had zero faith that we would get a full night's sleep and yet here we are.  Wow.  I need to believe in myself, my baby, and the universe more.

My son used to sleep for quite a few hours when he was really little.  I remember needing to get up and pump because my boobs hurt so bad.  Those were also the days when I would randomly wake and feel the need to check on the little guy just to make sure he is still there and breathing!  How wonderful it feels to have the confidence that the baby is fine.  It also feels pretty great to be able to sleep on my stomach again without having it effect my boobs.  Maybe I'm weird but I used to get clogged milk ducts and such whenever I slept on my stomach.  Ouch.  It feels wonderful to sleep soundly through the night with no desire to get up in the middle of the night (except to pee maybe).  So for you moms that are losing your mind, wondering if you will ever sleep again, I am here to tell you that it is possible.  It does get better!

Yep Its Monday

Well, today has flown by and we never got around to a monday fun day activity.  Oh well.  I guess we will have to have some tuesday fun! I am having one of those days where I have so much to do, and yet it seems nothing is getting done.  I have been working (except for that nap I took), but there is so much left to do. Back to work I go.  In the mean time, here are some gems for your viewing.

 Wish this one was in focus.  It captures Logan's personality so well!

My Gym Birthday Fun

Today we attended a birthday party at My Gym.

It was so much fun!  The little guy had a blast playing the entire time!  He was exhausted by the end of the party!






There was a lot of climbing and sliding....

The ever so fun ball pit....

Birthday balloon fun....

Silly face climbing....

Toys....

Relaxing with a new bud on the swing....

And the grand finale zip line!

So much fun!  I will definitely consider My Gym birthdays in the future.  They have energetic staff to assist in the party structure in terms of moving things along.  It was a lovely afternoon.  I was just thinking about signing Logan up at My Gym and now I think I have to!  Now that he has visited there is no turning back!

The Dog Is Getting Fat

You know, I am starting to take offense.  I mean, I take the time to make my son nice, balanced, delicious meals and I swear more of his plate ends up in the dogs belly than his! I am so proud of Logan for being able to use a spoon and fork.  I love that he eats most everything that I make.  I am happy that he is a growing, healthy boy.  Really though, must he throw his food on the floor during every single meal?

I've tried several tactics to prevent this occurrence that include limiting the amount of food he is given (one bite at a time), feeding him myself, even giving him different food.  Nothing stops the food bombs! The dog stands right next to the highchair during all meals and scarfs down all the food that the baby dishes out.  At least once a day the dog gets food dropped on his head or back.  Goodness.  Eventually the baby eats most of his food (that is left over).  He is lucky to have parents that are patient enough to wait for him to finish.  This process can take an hour.   Who could get upset with the little guy though?  He is so darn cute.

(I was going to insert a photo here but the camera battery just died and therefore I can't import my photos.  I don't have the energy to change it right now.  Forgive me.)

My Boobs Are Shrinking

Oh how I loved my post baby boobs!  For the first time ever, I had real cleavage!  I had the opportunity to buy bigger bras when I day weaned that weren't nursing bras but regular bras!  Now that we have completed weaning, I notice my boobs are shrinking.   Well, it was fun while it lasted!  I'd be lying if I said I weren't going to miss them!

You read correctly, we are done with the weaning process.  Sunday night I decided to try to put the baby to sleep without nursing him.  He didn't beg for my boob and I didn't offer.  He went to sleep in his swing as he does every night and then I transferred him to his crib.  This is night three of no nursing and the baby doesn't even seem to miss it.  I think I miss it more than he does.

Once we get a house I will move forward with more sleep training, meaning I will work on getting the baby to go to sleep in his crib on his own without any swinging beforehand.  The past few weeks have been a positive experience overall, however there have been several nights when the baby has woken every three or so hours.  Last night was one of those.  I think his teeth have been bothering him lately and he is not good at soothing himself back to sleep when he wakes.  For now, I don't mind assisting, but eventually he will need to learn to soothe himself.  There was one night where I was lying awake in bed and I secretly thought to myself "it would be nice to hold my baby in the rocker right now".  Does that make me crazy?  Of course that was a night when he slept all night, for it is the nights when I really want to sleep that he seems to be awake!  No worries.  I have learned how to relax when the baby naps.  I don't always sleep, but I take time to relax.  I give myself that gift and it make for a more happy mama! Here's hoping for a good night's rest!

Monday Fun Day ~ Float A Boat

A rainy day needs some rainy day activities! We weren't able to attend stroller strides this morning due to the rain, so we stayed in our jammies and started our day with our 'Float A Boat' activity!  I had a cardboard container that was left over from grocery shopping (I think tomatoes came in it).  We covered the boat with packaging tape to seal the cardboard in.  That was it!  Sometimes simple is best!  We could have decorated the cardboard first, but we were more interested in seeing if our boat was going to float and how much it could hold!  

Logan helped place the tape on the boat

Logan placing pegs in the boat

 Once we had our boat it was time to set sail!  This activity would work well in the bathtub, but I didn't want to have the babe get in the bath this morning and leaning over the water in the tub is a recipe for disaster.  Logan gets really excited and three times I have had to catch him so he didn't take a dive into the water.  So we got a small tub and filled it with water on the kitchen floor.  We placed the boat in the water.  It floats!  Excellent! I know in the picture it looks like the boat is touching the edge of the tub but it wasn't.  Next we placed items in the boat to see how much it could hold.  We used a few bath toys, some light weight toys from the toy box and then we used some pegs.  We kept piling pegs in the boat and it was able to hold them all!  We even got a little water in the boat and it still floated!

This activity was a lot of fun and Logan really enjoys his boat.  He has been carrying it around since we made it!  Clean up is super simple too!  I did have to wipe water off the floor that the boy splashed out of the bucket, but hey, he had fun and that's the whole point of doing these activities! We may have to try other cardboard containers that we obtain.  It would be interesting to see what shapes will float and which will not etc.

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More Gems

Gosh I love this kid.  Here are last week's gems! Even with the icky sickness in our home we managed to capture a few!

A Downtown Disney Kind Of Day

This is a trash can!

Thank goodness the baby is feeling better today. What a lovely day we had. The husband had to go to Anaheim to meet with some folks this morning and we decided to go along for the ride. It was raining when I woke up so I figured why not.  We didn't have much else we were going to do. When he was finished we went to Downtown Disney for lunch. The weather in Anaheim was beautiful, aside from being windy, but compared to the rainy gloom in Los Angeles it was great! We decided to eat at a mexican restaurant. The food hit the spot and we all had fun! While there, my husband suggested we go on a vacation to someplace "like Hawaii." It has been a while. Guess I have some planning to do!

Look at the blue sky!

Silly boy!

Torturous Teething

I keep telling myself it could be worse. I took the longest shower today.

The baby is teething again and he seems to be in a lot of pain. A lot. I have heard that some kids get through teething rather easily. This is clearly not the case with my son. I feel so bad for him. He just looks at me with teary eyes that say "why do I hurt so much", "Mama, make it stop", "It hurts Mama." Breaks my heart to see him like this. I had to give him Tylenol last night and today. For one stretch he was up from 2am to 4am, as was I, and needless to say we are a bit tired today. Being tired on top of all the crying makes me want to break into tears myself. Poor baby.

My hubby came home and I totally took advantage by taking a long, much deserved, glorious shower. Now at least I don't smell! I am anticipating another night of little sleep but am really hoping to make tomorrow a better day. Trying to stay positive.

Trying To Conceive Is Tough

As you know, I really would like to have another baby.  I have to say though, this trying to conceive stuff it tough.

First, you have to decide whether to stop breastfeeding or not.  Yes, you can get pregnant while breastfeeding, but it is much more difficult. So do you wait and try child led weaning or gently encourage the end.  I obviously chose to start weaning- not only because I want a sibling for the boy, but I also wanted more sleep and it was time to start taking my body back.  There are such conflicting opinions on the topic.  You have mothers saying that the docs strongly encouraged them to stop nursing for the benefit of the unborn child and other mothers saying that they happily nursed all the way through their pregnancy and then some.  Well, I have cut down on all feedings except for the before bed feeding so I think I am in good shape their.  Eventually that too will end and I won't have nursing to worry about.

Then there's the menstrual cycle crap.  When I finally got my cycle back, yes it took forever, it was strongly irregular.  That's when I decided to purchase some ovulation strips.  The first month I lost all hope.  I had come to terms with the fact that I was not going to ovulate.  Then I finally got that LH surge on day 31 of my cycle.  Gee Whiz!  So you do the deed and then you have that dreaded two week wait.  I hate that period of time.  I get a little obsessive and I hate it.  I become hyper sensitive about what is going on with my body and every little 'could be' symptom I have stuck in my head until the day when I get my period.  PMS again.  Damn.  I bought pregnancy test strips (because they are so darn cheap online) and I test several times a month only to find no double line.  So frustrating.

I know I have plenty of time.  At least I think I do.  I turn that age this year where I will be closer to 40 than 30 and it is always in the back of my head.  Why is age 35 that magic number that the doctors focus on? I keep telling myself that it will happen when it is supposed to happen.  That when my body is ready it will happen.  That doesn't mean that its not disappointing though.  Luckily, I have a beautiful little boy to keep me occupied and his smile makes me forget all the disappointment!

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Monday Fun Day ~ MLK Coloring Pages

I wanted to make today's monday fun day activity educational given the holiday, but I didn't come up with any fantastic ideas unfortunately.  I searched online and while there are some great crafts out there, toddler crafts for the holiday were hard to find.  There was one activity that was age appropriate, but it was a little weird.  Basically it was a Martin Luther King, Jr. statue made out of a toilet paper roll.  We stuck with coloring pages.  This way I could at least get the point across that the page is more beautiful when there are lots of colors on it vs. just one etc.

We will get in to more creative activities next week.  I owe you a good one!

Banner Play

I made a banner today.  I am not sure if I like it but I needed something.  I am in the top 200 blogs on Top Mommy Blogs now and randomly blogs are chosen to be featured on their home page.  I couldn't take the chance that my blog be chosen and not have any banner! So we will call this a temporary fix until I have time to be a little more creative.  It's not a bad start!

Positively Disasterous

Not feeling so hot today.  I am really needing to focus on positives to find them.  I always struggle a bit (emotionally) when my better half is out of town, so this week is probably going to be tough.  On top of that though, I am feeling physically crappy which makes it so much worse.  Let's just recap the disasters of the past week.

The worst thing that happened:  The baby fell and banged his head on the coffee table.  Now, I had those corner protector goodies on the table when I childproofed the home and the baby quickly pulled them off.  All I was left with was sticky goo on the table which was not fun to remove.  So I decided we would just have to be careful.  Well, the inevitable happened.  Logan was sitting in his chair that he got for christmas.  I walked into the kitchen and it was at that moment (of course) that he fell into the table which made his head bleed.  This was the first bleeding incident for us so you can only imagine how I felt.  I wasn't sure what to do, whether we needed to go to the ER or put ice on or what.  My husband assured me that the boy was fine and since he stopped crying after a minute, I supposed he was.  We washed the wound, applied pressure and put a band-aid on.  At least I was smart enough to buy cool band-aids for the kid in anticipation of some learning to walk mishaps.  I felt awful but am happy to say that his head is just fine.

The next day I stupidly put the dog's water bowl on top of the washer and then started laundry.  Once the spin cycle hit the bowl fell onto the kitchen floor and broke (its a plastic bowl and it broke) spilling water over then entire kitchen.  Ok, so that wasn't too bad, but I do need to buy a new water bowl and it was annoying to clean up.

Then there was the following day when I stopped at In-N-Out on my way home.  I learned my lesson a few months back that I need to put the food in a bag, not a box, when bringing it home.  I always liked to get it in a box so that everything was placed nicely and such.  One day however, that changed.  You see, its hard to carry the baby and your burger and drink etc. and when I picked up my box with my half free hand, I managed to dump the whole thing on the ground.  Well, some of the french fries landed on the floor of the car, but most of it was on the ground.  I was so disappointed and never since have I gotten my food to go in a box!  I have a whole system (sad, I know) where I place my drink in the diaper bag and carry the kid and my bag o' food in my hands / arms.  This day however, I also splurged by getting a vanilla shake.  I carefully placed the shake in the diaper bag as well and we successfully made it into the house!  I went to place the baby in his christmas chair and place the diaper bag on an end table next to it.  That's when it happened.  The shake dumped over in his chair.  Not just a little, the whole damn thing.  The cover came off and the shake gushed out.  I couldn't believe it.  I rushed to clean it up before the melted ice cream seeped into all the crevasses of the chair and by the time I got it all taken care of my food was cold.  Whatever. It could have been worse.  I could have spilled it on the fabric couch or on the wool rug.

Alright.  Enough with my disaster recap.  I must say though, getting it out made me feel better.  I am able to laugh about it now.  Not the baby's cut, but the rest! Here are a couple reminders of the good times this past week!

For those of you that have followed us for a while, you may recall that my little darling broke the two and a half gallon fish bowl a while back.  Since then the fish has lived in a small bowl that seemed cruel to keep him in given his previous home.  Finally, this past week, I went out and got a new home for him!  I am loving it and so is he!  He is making bubbles again!

There were plenty of good times outside playing in the dirt!  I love that our climate it generally warm, sunny and dry!  It doesn't get better than that for me!

My silly boy thinks that all the dog's toys and goodies are his too.  Every time I turn around he is putting the dog bones, dog food, and dog toys in his mouth.  Yuck!

New Week New Interests

Logan has a few new favorite activities this week.  His most beloved activity is playing outside with his dump truck.  He has a shovel and rake that we use to gather up dirt and leaves mostly, sometimes a rock or small stick, and he piles everything up in the truck then dumps it over and over again!  The boy would stay outside playing all day if I let him.  I make a point to let him play outside twice each day.  We bring his scooter bike outside and he enjoys riding that around too.  I can't believe I have not captured a photo of this, but in the coming week will make a point to.  It is so nice to finally be able to play outside.  Just a few months ago I would bring Logan outside but he wouldn't do much other than sit around.  Now he is extremely active and alert, wanting to learn about everything.  He is constantly picking up pine cones, acorns, etc. and wants to know what they are.  The dog enjoys our outdoor play time as well.  Sometimes the baby will throw a ball for the dog to chase or tease the dog with a stick.  So cute!  Murphy prefers to spend his time basking in the sun though.  

The dog crate has become a second home for Logan.  He loves hanging out in there and especially enjoys when I peek in to 'find' him! He brings toys in and opens and closes the door over and over before finally getting out for a few minutes, then before I know it he is back in the cage! Silly boy!  The dog doesn't think it is as cute as I do, but he's a good sport about it.

He seems to have taken a renewed interest in playing with his xylophone since we moved its location from the floor to a table.  

Now that the babe is becoming a stronger walker, he enjoys wandering through the house with Papa's shoes on.  He loves unlacing these chukkas and tries really hard to lace them up, but hasn't quite mastered that skill yet!

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Night Weaning ~ Finding Treasure

OK, so I know I said the last night weaning post would probably be the last, but I felt that I should share some of what's happened during our first week. Tonight is night seven of night weaning.  Given that it has only been a week, I am extremely pleased with how everything is going.  We are down to one feeding a day (the before bed feeding).  Here are a few treasures we have found along the way (in addition to my boobs not hurting at all).

The baby likes to be rocked now.  He never liked to be rocked before this.  I tried more than a few times in the past to get the baby to rock with me and he was never content.  Now, however he will rock with me if he wakes in the night and falls back to sleep.  Awesome! One night he nursed and then when I went to put him in his crib he fussed.  I picked him up and walked back to the living room and he pointed to the rocking chair!  He pointed at the chair! I was so excited! We rocked and he went right to sleep.

The baby sleeps better now.  Twice now he has 'slept through the night'.  By this I mean, once he slept from 9pm - 530am.  Last night he slept from 11pm - 7am, and I am pretty sure he would have slept longer except my husband's alarm is so damn loud.  So, we have had two nights of complete rest in a week.  How amazing that felt! Most other nights he has slept for for an hour or two, wakes up, goes back to sleep for about five hours, wakes up and then sleeps again for another couple hours at which point we get up.  Five hours is more sleep than I have gotten in months so I'm taking it!  One or two nights were pretty rough where the baby was up a lot and/or didn't easily go back to sleep.

The baby sleeps in his crib now.   For several months it became the norm for the baby to sleep in our bed with us.  I fully believe each family needs to decide what sleeping arrangement works best for them, but co-sleeping was not the best option for us.  I was too nervous to co-sleep in the beginning months because I felt the baby was too little.  Once the baby was a bit more robust, I became more comfortable with the idea and would allow him to get into bed with us as a treat.  Then it got to the point where I let the baby sleep with us out of convenience.  It was easier to get him back to sleep in my bed than to transfer him to his crib.  Recently I started to feel a bit trapped as the little guy would sometimes not go to sleep unless he was in my bed.  I am happy to say that since we started our night weaning, he has slept in crib every night!  I think everyone sleeps a little better now.  My husband and I don't have to worry about the little one in the bed and he gets to move around all night long without having us in the way.

He still loves me!  I think it is important to note that although I am nursing less, the baby is just as happy, loving and sweet as he was prior to this process.  Yes, he can become fussy, but that happened before too.  Breastfeeding allowed for a very special bonding time between my son and I and while I will miss it and loved it while it lasted, I feel it is for the best that we move on.  We still get in plenty of cuddle time each day!

The Electronic Pacifier

“There’s another one” my husband said as we walked by the restaurant window. “Another what?” I asked. “Another kid watching a movie while his parents eat dinner.”

It appears parents today have become quite reliant on what we like to call the ‘electronic pacifier’.  I remember the days when video screens began to show up in the back seats of vehicles; when portable dvd players moved to the necessity list of items to take on your trips. I also remember the days when playing the alphabet game and singing songs while on road trips was the thing to do. The age of the electronic pacifier is ever evolving as now we have iPhones and iPads to add to the mix. Is it a good idea to allow your child to use these devices? Is there a time and place for the use? And when is the right time? Is it at the dinner table?

I admit, my son is almost obsessed with tech goodies. His favorite non-toy toys include my husband’s iPad, my iPhone, the computers and remote control. We even gave my son, who is 13 months, my old iPhone when I purchased a new one. My husband put apps on it that are kid appropriate such as an alphabet game and a piano. Recently my son developed a liking for pretending to use the telephone. He thinks it’s the coolest thing ever and everything he picks up becomes a phone. My husband, being the genius that he is, created a Skype account for my son and now we can call each other on our phones. He loves it.

My son has absolutely no interest in watching television. I suppose this is a good thing as it is recommended that children under two years not watch any television. Every now and then I will put on a kid movie to see if he will be captured and have not found that anything captures his interest. So, even if I wanted to use watching tv as a pacifier while we are out in public, I’m afraid I am out of luck. I am not sure that I would though. I think it is important for a child to learn how to have dinner, how to engage with others at a dinner table and how to be respectful, meaning able to hold it together for the hour we are there to eat. This being said, I bring an arsenal of items to keep my son occupied at the dinner table. Everything from teething biscuits to small trucks or stacking cups are found at our dining table. So is this really any different than the electronic pacifier?

Several moms have told me that being able to have their kid watch a program while they visit with friends or get a few things done is convenient. I have often thought that it would be a lot easier to get chores complete if my son would watch a movie. Is it really hurting anyone? I don’t know. My son is still young and I am not going to say that I will never resort to sitting him in front of the tv, because there very well could come a point when I feel like it is a good idea. I still am not a fan of the dinner table movie. Road trips, though, I completely understand letting your kid watch a movie if you are on a plane or in the car for hours. Perhaps not the entire time, but those trips can become very long with a cranky little one! I am not above putting a movie on his phone for him to view. Thank goodness I don’t have to carry around a case full of dvd’s in addition to the player. I like to minimize the ‘stuff ‘ when traveling.

 I will say, I have on occasion given my phone to the baby when he wakes early in the morning so that I have a few minutes to wake up. He mostly just swipes his finger across the screen to turn the pages on my phone. He is pretty good at deleting apps too! While I let the baby play with the iPhone, I try not to use the iPhone. Does that make sense? I don’t rely on the electronic pacifier, but I let my son use electronics. I optimize the time I have while the baby naps and engage him in activities I am doing while he is awake. It turns out he actually likes to do laundry, dishes, and loves sweeping the floors. I sometimes look at him and can’t believe that he is my kid!  I imaging in a few years his love of cleaning will dwindle as he develops other interests.  Maybe not! One can hope!

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