Now that I have gotten that small rant off of my chest, I feel like doing a 360 and telling you all about the absolutely wonderful and amazing day I had with Jack!
So it started off like pretty much any other day: we woke up, ate breakfast together, played for a little while, watched some Backyardigans (his FAVORITE show), took nice two hour nap together, ate lunch together, splashed around in the pool for a little bit, talked (and babbled) with some people on Skype, watched more Backyardigans, and then the REAL wonderful part of my day began!
I brought one of my pots and a wooden spoon into the living room for Jack to play with, along with a tupperware container and a big plastic cup. I showed him how to bang on the pot with the spoon and once he got it down, he just sat there... banging away! Then he played with just the spoon for a bit and went back to the pot. Well, instead of hitting the pot, he accidentally cracked himself on top of the head with the spoon... twice. He looked at me with a confused look and made a little "ehhh?" sound. Almost as if he was asking me, "Am I hurt?" I asked him if he was okay and he crawled over to me, climbed up into my lap, leaned against me, put his head on my shoulder and within five minutes of me enveloping him in a hug, he was fast asleep.
It was so sweet!!! I felt bad that he'd cracked himself on the head with the spoon, but I LOVED the fact that he climbed into my lap and placed his head on my shoulder like he did! I went and stuck him in his crib and he took a good hour long nap.
We kept playing for a little bit once he woke up and ate dinner too and before I knew it, it was bedtime. So we did our usual little routine, only there was one thing different about it. After he finished his bottle, he turned around in my lap, and once again placed his darling little head on my shoulder. It was the most amazing feeling in the whole world to just sit there cuddling with my little boy in our rocking chair. He truly is the greatest thing to have ever happened to me!
There is no way I can possibly explain to you how wonderful it is to REALLY feel affection from your child. Just knowing that all he wanted was to sit there and snuggle with his mommy. Once I realized that he was really showing me what he wanted for the first time, I couldn't help but get teary eyed. He might not be able to say "I love you" verbally, but man... I sure knew it when he laid that little head on my shoulder. I can't even put into words the overwhelming surge of joy I experienced in that moment. It is something no one can ever understand until they have a child of their own and experience it for themselves.
It was the highlight of my day, and definitely something I will remember for the rest of my life! As for now, I'm going to go get some sleep. It's pretty late, and 9AM comes fast! Good night!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
some parents...
Okay... so today's post is mostly going to be a vent, just a few things I need to get off my chest! There are two "types" of parents that I'm going to cover. I AM NOT in any way saying that I think my parenting style is the best or anything like that. I know I make mistakes and I do things that probably make other parents cringe, but that's okay. As long as I know I am doing the best job I possibly can with raising my child.
So, what sparked this little burst of outrage was being on one of the parenting chat forums I like to visit every once in awhile (it's nice to read from other moms that you're not the only one experiencing "xyz"). Anyway, there was a mom on there who was "lurking" (on a forum that did not include her child's age) and decided to throw in her two cents about a few different topic. If you are a parent, you should know by now that EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT! And that goes for everything! From eating, to teething, to sleeping, to pooping, to playing, to milestones... EVERYTHING.
There was one person who was really annoying the CRAP out of me on one of the chat boards I go to. She was on the 9-12 month board, even though she has a 2 year old. We call those people "lurkers." And lurk she did. Which I normally have NO problem with. The times that I do have a problem with lurking, it's because that specific person is being a "know-it-all" parent. So, this is to her:
Dear Lurker,
Just because you have a toddler who is older than our babies and you've already been through this age group, DOES NOT mean you know everything about every baby in this age group! I'm really sorry that YOUR child wakes up at the crack of dawn every morning. But just because he does, doesn't mean all of our children will too once they become toddlers. Try adding a little structure to his day and maybe try buying a copy of The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight. There is actually a section on "Early Risers" in the chapter for one and a half to two and a half year olds... imagine that!
And in case no one filled you in on this, every child is not only different with sleep habits, but they all handle teething differently as well! I'm sorry that your son screams and wakes up frequently at night when cutting teeth. That has to suck. I have a friend who's son is almost two and the only thing he does when he is cutting teeth is become clingy. He might whine and cry a little bit, but that's about as bad as it gets. My son, however, gets clingy and fussy during the day, but actually sleeps better when he is cutting teeth. Notice how each one is different??
If you don't buy that book, I will have to send you a copy. And if it doesn't work, then I suggest you adjust YOUR schedule to fit your child's needs! Go to bed earlier so you are rested enough to wake up at the crack of dawn with him!
Thanks.
-C
So, what sparked this little burst of outrage was being on one of the parenting chat forums I like to visit every once in awhile (it's nice to read from other moms that you're not the only one experiencing "xyz"). Anyway, there was a mom on there who was "lurking" (on a forum that did not include her child's age) and decided to throw in her two cents about a few different topic. If you are a parent, you should know by now that EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT! And that goes for everything! From eating, to teething, to sleeping, to pooping, to playing, to milestones... EVERYTHING.
There was one person who was really annoying the CRAP out of me on one of the chat boards I go to. She was on the 9-12 month board, even though she has a 2 year old. We call those people "lurkers." And lurk she did. Which I normally have NO problem with. The times that I do have a problem with lurking, it's because that specific person is being a "know-it-all" parent. So, this is to her:
Dear Lurker,
Just because you have a toddler who is older than our babies and you've already been through this age group, DOES NOT mean you know everything about every baby in this age group! I'm really sorry that YOUR child wakes up at the crack of dawn every morning. But just because he does, doesn't mean all of our children will too once they become toddlers. Try adding a little structure to his day and maybe try buying a copy of The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight. There is actually a section on "Early Risers" in the chapter for one and a half to two and a half year olds... imagine that!
And in case no one filled you in on this, every child is not only different with sleep habits, but they all handle teething differently as well! I'm sorry that your son screams and wakes up frequently at night when cutting teeth. That has to suck. I have a friend who's son is almost two and the only thing he does when he is cutting teeth is become clingy. He might whine and cry a little bit, but that's about as bad as it gets. My son, however, gets clingy and fussy during the day, but actually sleeps better when he is cutting teeth. Notice how each one is different??
If you don't buy that book, I will have to send you a copy. And if it doesn't work, then I suggest you adjust YOUR schedule to fit your child's needs! Go to bed earlier so you are rested enough to wake up at the crack of dawn with him!
Thanks.
-C
Saturday, May 28, 2011
it seems this aways happens...
In between my (extremely spread out) posts, it seems that something big ALWAYS changes! This time it has to do with work. I'm not working at the coffee shop anymore and have pretty much decided to just not work for awhile! It was getting pretty stressful trying to keep up with the house, Jack, and working at night. I think right now my major focus will just continue to be Jack! And I'm pretty sure I'm going to go back to school this fall and start working towards being an IBCLC. I'm so excited!
So that's pretty much it on the "me" front. Jack, on the other hand... well, that's a whole different story! He has changed SO MUCH!
Since putting him on formula, the little guy has gained a whole pound in a month! I'm so glad he's finally putting on some weight and not looking so skinny! He also grew about an inch and a half! He's been crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on EVERYTIHNG! The couch, baby gate, toys, Jump-a-roo, my legs, the sliding glass door at Ainsley's house... you name it. He also recently started walking around while holding onto the furniture. He goes all over the place! From the couch to the baby gate, down the length of the baby gate, back up to the couch, along the couch, back over to the gate, crawl over to a toy, pull up on it, walk around it... you get the point.
Jack has also discovered how to take the lid off of things now! I bought him the generic version of the Gerber lil' munchies (like cheetos) or whatever and left them in the living room with him (lid on) to go to the bathroom. Well, I hear "clang! .......... clang! ..... clang! ... CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!" and come out to see what on earth is going on, only to find Jack with the container in his hand, banging it on my end table, with NO lid on it. Needless to say, there were little cheeto things ALL OVER the floor! Haha... guess you could say I learned my lesson!
So I'm also in the midst of planning a first birthday party for my little man. OMG! I can't believe he's about to be ONE! Since his birthday falls on a Wednesday this year, we're going to have it the weekend before. BUT I still plan on doing something (just the 3 of us) on his ACTUAL birthday. I am so excited!
Also, I bought a new computer a little bit ago, so hopefully it helps me keep up with my blogging a little better than I have been (I know, I say that all the time!)... Sorry! Anyway, that's about all the excitement I can handle for right now... it's pretty late and I've got to get some sleep. Oh! One last thing! The past few nights, Jack has slept from 9:30 PM until 9:30 (or later!!!) AM! THANK GOODNESS! I finally have a baby that sleeps through the night again! So, I had better catch some zZzZs while I can! :) Good night!
Also, I bought a new computer a little bit ago, so hopefully it helps me keep up with my blogging a little better than I have been (I know, I say that all the time!)... Sorry! Anyway, that's about all the excitement I can handle for right now... it's pretty late and I've got to get some sleep. Oh! One last thing! The past few nights, Jack has slept from 9:30 PM until 9:30 (or later!!!) AM! THANK GOODNESS! I finally have a baby that sleeps through the night again! So, I had better catch some zZzZs while I can! :) Good night!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
gah!!!
I am SO sorry that I pretty much skipped the entire month of April on here! Let's just say I've had a lot on my hands here lately. I am going to configure my account so that I can write posts from my e-mail and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it a little bit better that way! Anyway, I'm just going to go ahead and jump right into all of the updates for around here!
For starters, Jack is about to be 9 months old! 9 FREAKING MONTHS!!! In 6 days! I really underestimated just how fast time goes by when you have a baby. But the thing is, the older they get, the faster it goes by (although I'm sure by the time he's a teen I'll think otherwise). So let's see if I can cover EVERYTHING that has happened in the past month that I was absent from here...
Jack now has a grand total of 4 teeth! Two on the bottom and two on the top! His favorite food is broccoli. He no longer eats ANY jarred food or cereal. He doesn't like being spoon fed unless it's yogurt, cream of wheat, or grits. Haha. He has perfected his Army-style low crawl, can pull himself into a standing position while holding onto things now, can walk while holding our fingers, claps when we say "Yay!" or he is proud of himself, and he waves "Hi" and "Bye" to EVERYONE!
Also, he is still breastfed, although not as often. He gets a couple of bottles of formula every day now. If you look at his "growing up..." chart, you can see that his weight for months 6, 7, and 8 are all VERY close. His doctor and I weren't sure if it was related to his reflux or what, but I started to notice before he turned 8 months that he was spending less time nursing because he was so easily distracted! The less time a baby spends nursing, the less nutrients they receive. This means he was pretty much getting the foremilk (the more watery part of the milk) and less hindmilk (the fattier, nutrient rich part of the milk). This can in turn damage your supply.
So once I noticed that, I decided to go ahead and switch him to mostly formula when he turned 8 months old. Since we started doing that, he is sleeping better at night, less fussy, and seems much more alert, aware, and talkative. You might be wondering, "why not just pump?" Well, I have been. My supply has been pretty damaged from how he was nursing over the past few months and although I could get it back up, I just don't have enough time to chase after him all day long, keep up with the house, work (more about that in a bit), and pump. I have only been getting about 0.5-2oz each time I pump, where I would normally get 3-4oz. I'm extremely proud of myself for exclusively breastfeeding him for 8 months, but pretty sad that I wasn't able to continue that until a year old. So yeah... a pretty bittersweet situation!
And yes... I mentioned work in the paragraph above. That's right, I have a job! Granted, it's only part time and it's at night, but I LOVE it! I'm working downtown at a place called Rude Awakening Coffee House. Yes, I have worked there in the past. It's my home away from home! I love it there! Also, Zach got a job too! He now works for a landscaping company in a town about 45 minutes away from our house. He's been loving it. Although we certainly don't get to see each other as frequently now! But we're working on that.
Anyway, I had better get off here! It's pretty late and I have a good bit of cleaning and laundry to do before I can actually go to bed... oh joy! Haha. Good night!!!
For starters, Jack is about to be 9 months old! 9 FREAKING MONTHS!!! In 6 days! I really underestimated just how fast time goes by when you have a baby. But the thing is, the older they get, the faster it goes by (although I'm sure by the time he's a teen I'll think otherwise). So let's see if I can cover EVERYTHING that has happened in the past month that I was absent from here...
Jack now has a grand total of 4 teeth! Two on the bottom and two on the top! His favorite food is broccoli. He no longer eats ANY jarred food or cereal. He doesn't like being spoon fed unless it's yogurt, cream of wheat, or grits. Haha. He has perfected his Army-style low crawl, can pull himself into a standing position while holding onto things now, can walk while holding our fingers, claps when we say "Yay!" or he is proud of himself, and he waves "Hi" and "Bye" to EVERYONE!
Also, he is still breastfed, although not as often. He gets a couple of bottles of formula every day now. If you look at his "growing up..." chart, you can see that his weight for months 6, 7, and 8 are all VERY close. His doctor and I weren't sure if it was related to his reflux or what, but I started to notice before he turned 8 months that he was spending less time nursing because he was so easily distracted! The less time a baby spends nursing, the less nutrients they receive. This means he was pretty much getting the foremilk (the more watery part of the milk) and less hindmilk (the fattier, nutrient rich part of the milk). This can in turn damage your supply.
So once I noticed that, I decided to go ahead and switch him to mostly formula when he turned 8 months old. Since we started doing that, he is sleeping better at night, less fussy, and seems much more alert, aware, and talkative. You might be wondering, "why not just pump?" Well, I have been. My supply has been pretty damaged from how he was nursing over the past few months and although I could get it back up, I just don't have enough time to chase after him all day long, keep up with the house, work (more about that in a bit), and pump. I have only been getting about 0.5-2oz each time I pump, where I would normally get 3-4oz. I'm extremely proud of myself for exclusively breastfeeding him for 8 months, but pretty sad that I wasn't able to continue that until a year old. So yeah... a pretty bittersweet situation!
And yes... I mentioned work in the paragraph above. That's right, I have a job! Granted, it's only part time and it's at night, but I LOVE it! I'm working downtown at a place called Rude Awakening Coffee House. Yes, I have worked there in the past. It's my home away from home! I love it there! Also, Zach got a job too! He now works for a landscaping company in a town about 45 minutes away from our house. He's been loving it. Although we certainly don't get to see each other as frequently now! But we're working on that.
Anyway, I had better get off here! It's pretty late and I have a good bit of cleaning and laundry to do before I can actually go to bed... oh joy! Haha. Good night!!!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
i know, i know...
It's been forever since I've been on here! Man, I'm really slacking! Haha. But I have a pretty good excuse this time. Jack and I took a nice 8 day trip to Georgia and Florida to go visit some family. It was his first time getting to meet my mom's side of the family and I'm SO glad we got to go for as long as we did! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we had an amazing time. He had so many new things happen in that time frame too! His first long car ride (he did pretty well!), first trip to the beach, he finally got his pincer grasp down pretty well and has been enjoying feeding himself, he tried a bunch of new foods, and learned how to pull himself up into a standing position! I have lots of amazing pictures from the beach that I need to upload, so hopefully I'll be able to get that done soon.
So the weather in Florida was absolutely gorgeous! Sunny and hot... perfect beach weather. Then we get into North Carolina and there's a high of 52 and it's RAINY! The high was 44 today! Ugh... needless to say, I want to go back! I'm so ready for it to be warm and sunny all the time! I am in desperate need of a tan... haha!
Other than all of that, not a whole lot is new in my life! I've just been enjoying life as a mom! I skipped my workouts at the gym the past two weeks... unfortunately! I was out of town the past week, so I obviously couldn't have gone. Then the week before that I was super frantic trying to get us ready for our trip! But that's okay because I pick right back up on it tomorrow and meet up with my trainer on Thursday! I'm also going to really start cutting/counting calories this week too. Not too much though because I still breastfeed, so I have to have a minimum daily amount.
Anyway, time for me to go! Jack is up from his nap and I'm going to lose control of my keyboard soon if I keep sitting here!
So the weather in Florida was absolutely gorgeous! Sunny and hot... perfect beach weather. Then we get into North Carolina and there's a high of 52 and it's RAINY! The high was 44 today! Ugh... needless to say, I want to go back! I'm so ready for it to be warm and sunny all the time! I am in desperate need of a tan... haha!
Other than all of that, not a whole lot is new in my life! I've just been enjoying life as a mom! I skipped my workouts at the gym the past two weeks... unfortunately! I was out of town the past week, so I obviously couldn't have gone. Then the week before that I was super frantic trying to get us ready for our trip! But that's okay because I pick right back up on it tomorrow and meet up with my trainer on Thursday! I'm also going to really start cutting/counting calories this week too. Not too much though because I still breastfeed, so I have to have a minimum daily amount.
Anyway, time for me to go! Jack is up from his nap and I'm going to lose control of my keyboard soon if I keep sitting here!
Friday, March 4, 2011
i'm going to go crazy...
If I don't start posting more often! Haha. I feel so terrible for not keeping up with this thing as much as I want to, but I guess that's one of the many perks of being a mom! Not enough time in the day!!! Plus, Zach always has the computer for school work.
Anyway, not too much has changed around here recently! Jack is about to be 7 months old in a few days. I can't believe that 7 months have gone by already! People always told me time was going to fly by after he was born, but now I know just how true that is! I have loved every single second of being a mom. It's the best thing there is. Watching your baby grow and change every day is the most rewarding thing ever because you know that you're the reason they know all that they do! I absolutely LOVE watching him discover new things!
Jack's bottom teeth are REALLY coming in now! You can see them when he smiles and babbles... it's adorable! Until he bites me that is! Those suckers HURT! I'm pretty sure he's going to get some more in pretty soon, although I'm not sure which ones it will be yet. Guess we'll find out soon enough!
Everything has been going really well! I started working out with a personal trainer a few weeks ago and it has been kicking my butt! My arms hurt like crazy right now, but it's nice to know I'm doing something. My goal is to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by summer, but I'm hoping it happens before then! I don't have too much left to go, so I'm hoping it goes fast!
Anwayyy... I think I had better go get some sleep! I have to be up bright and early once again! :) Hopefully I can post again sooner than a week though! Good night!
Anyway, not too much has changed around here recently! Jack is about to be 7 months old in a few days. I can't believe that 7 months have gone by already! People always told me time was going to fly by after he was born, but now I know just how true that is! I have loved every single second of being a mom. It's the best thing there is. Watching your baby grow and change every day is the most rewarding thing ever because you know that you're the reason they know all that they do! I absolutely LOVE watching him discover new things!
Jack's bottom teeth are REALLY coming in now! You can see them when he smiles and babbles... it's adorable! Until he bites me that is! Those suckers HURT! I'm pretty sure he's going to get some more in pretty soon, although I'm not sure which ones it will be yet. Guess we'll find out soon enough!
Everything has been going really well! I started working out with a personal trainer a few weeks ago and it has been kicking my butt! My arms hurt like crazy right now, but it's nice to know I'm doing something. My goal is to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by summer, but I'm hoping it happens before then! I don't have too much left to go, so I'm hoping it goes fast!
Anwayyy... I think I had better go get some sleep! I have to be up bright and early once again! :) Hopefully I can post again sooner than a week though! Good night!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
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