first cold...

I thought babies who were breast feeding were not likely to get sick...not true.  Maggie was hit with her first cold.  Yuck!  It wasn't a really bad one, so there wasn't any coughing (thank goodness), but her nose was running like crazy.  She would sneeze a ton and her nose constantly ran.  I had to use the nose suction thing 5 or 6 times a day.  Poor thing...I'm sure she is going to have nightmares about nose suctions and then flash backs when she sees a turkey baster. :)  My sister did tell me about a product called Little Noses.  It is a simple saline solution that you add to their nose to help loosen everything up (Target also sells a generic brand).  It also makes it easier to suction everything out.  I actually use the saline every night (even when she is not sick) after her bath.  That way her nose is nice and clear while sleeping and a sneeze won't wake her in the middle of the night.  Maybe Maggie's cold would have been worse if I wasn't nursing, but it still did last about 6 days.  It also screwed up her sleeping schedule and she went from sleeping through the night to waking up at 3 in the morning.  It took almost 3 weeks to get back on track.  Who knew it would be this hard...only every other mother out there! :)

Your Baby Can Read - Month 2

Maggie is on month two of Your Baby Can Read.Not much difference since last month.  She still likes the videos and does some overall good squealing, but she is not reading any Dickens yet.  The videos are actually pretty amateur/dated, so they get old (for me) very fast.  We had a friend give us some Baby Einstein videos and they are done much better.  There is a whole series of Baby Einstein:  Monet, Da Vinci, Galileo, etc.  I enjoy them much more, although I don't think Maggie cares that much.  She just likes the pictures, colors and songs.  Your Baby Can Read does focus much more on the words and does show them on the screen and repeats them twice.  It then shows a picture of whatever the word is.  It is everything from animals to motions.  It does say to show the video twice a day and that never happens.  I don't even show it everyday.  I think at 5 months, there isn't too much to worry about and I think that if I followed what the instructions say it would be a bit much.  There are also flash cards that have words on them too.  You are supposed to show the flash card and repeat the word.  We are not very diligent about that, but at 5 months it feels a bit like overkill.  I will continue to use it and we'll see how it goes.  I do have to say that she loves books.  She loves to hold them and she will look at the pictures as I turn the pages.  It's amazing that at 5 months it seems as if she is listening to me read the story.  It really shows how important it is to read to your child!  So, no Oliver Twist, but she loves Belly Button Book! by Sandra Boynton.  Happy Reading!

Smoke Detectors!!

I found out that my baby can sleep...through just about anything!  In our house the smoke detectors are all hard wired and have batteries as back up in case the power were to go out.  I don't know what went wrong, but the other night every single smoke detector in the house went off at once.  We were all asleep and we were jolted up (it was only 11pm...definitely considered the middle of the night in our house now) by the screeching sound of smoke alarms.  There was no fire, but there must have been a short in the wires or something.  Anyways, Kaleb had to throw on clothes and run outside to flip the breaker in the electrical box to turn them off.  After I figured out what was going on I ran into Maggie's room to make sure she was ok and she was sound asleep.  She was on her back with her arms up over her head sleeping like, well, a baby. There is even a smoke detector in her room...holy cow.  Now I'm thinking I don't need to whisper every time she goes down for a nap!

The Lay Down

I mentioned in a past blog that I used to rock Maggie to sleep...every time she went down.  I have finally broken that habit and am so much happier...plus my arms are getting the rest they deserve.  It is tough work rocking a 17 pound baby and having to walk laps around the house (because she did not like it when I rocked sitting down).  Man, was I spoiling her rotten!  Well, Kaleb was not having this marathon rocking session and he would put her in her crib to sleep and would let her cry.  I did not like this...at first.  It made me anxious and I really just wanted to pick her up.  We tried it a few times and I said I would wait 10 minutes and if she hadn't stopped then I would pick her up.  It really has never even taken 10 minutes and now that she is used to laying down she doesn't really cry at all.  She gets situated and will almost always go to sleep without a cry.  I know Maggie's schedule and can tell when she is tired, so it is easy to lay her down for a nap.  I feel like she falls asleep much quicker (I think the rocking was actually keeping her awake longer) and it is less frustration for me.  I think it would have been one thing to have this calm rocking chair experience with your sleepy baby, but mine was a constant shaking/rocking and like I said I would have to do laps around the house.  So, here is what I do.  When I can tell Maggie is getting sleepy I will lay her down with her WubbaNub (see previous post) and close the door.  Sometimes she will cry for a few minutes and other times she will just kind coo herself to sleep.  I will let her cry for about 10 minutes (if I even need to) and then go in and soothe her by rubbing her back and putting the pacifier back in (the pacifier is slowly becoming a thing of the past.  I usually start with that when I lay her down to find that she has spit it out and gone for her fingers). I try not to wait until she is too tired because this seems to be more difficult and she tends to try and fight the sleep.  I've also put her down for a nap thinking she was tired only to go in and check on her 10/15 minutes later to see that she is sucking on her big toe.  Probably not tired...or that is her new pacifier!  Now that I have a routine and will just lay Maggie down for a nap - life has gotten much easier.  I finally think I have a handle on this whole motherhood thing...but I hear that can change real quick!

Breaking Routine...just when I had it down

I'm all about the routine.  Most mornings Maggie takes a good 3 hour nap.  This is a great time for me to get a lot of work done.  When she doesn't do the 3 hour nap she tends to get cranky and the entire day is more difficult.  So, being at home where it is easy to follow the routine is best, but then you feel like you never leave the house.  Sometimes I feel like I've been stuck in my house for 4 months straight, but at home I feel more rested.  When I get cabin fever and decide to head up to the cabin (that's ironic) or even visit friends, or go shopping the routine is out of wack.  Maggie never sleeps the same somewhere else, so this leaves her more tired and then she actually wakes up earlier or even in the middle of the night.  When this happens I am also tired that is usually when I wish I was just at home.  My mom thinks it is a better idea to take her out as much as possible, so that she gets used to sleeping other places.  She thinks I will appreciate this more in the long run.  Basically I take all this time to get this routine figured out just to find out that maybe being dependent on a routine is the problem.  I know I'm fairly selfish in saying that my own sleep is very precious and I get much more of it at home.  Maggie always does well travelling in the car or plane, but it's her sleeping patterns when we get there that seems to be the problem.  Maybe my sleep is the sacrifice to having a vacation, but I'm not sure how enjoyable I am to be around.  Who knows what the answer is, but if anyone has and idea I would love to hear it!

Routine!

I have never really lived my life based on routine.  My job changes constantly (which is why I like it so much) and I've never been at a desk from 9 to 5.  My personal life was all about travelling or nights out with friends or nights in with my hubby....that is until I had a baby!  Wow, now I realize that routine is the name of the game.  It has taken me a while to get on that band wagon, but I do think it works the best for baby and for mom.  Knowing when Maggie is going to be sleeping or eating or playing, allows me to plan my day for work and for rest.  Routine is hard when the baby is first born, but even then a schedule falls into place (I tried fairly successfully to follow the Baby Wise plan).  What I recently found working is a nighttime routine.  I had made a fairly bad habit of always rocking Maggie to sleep.  The first few months she would fall asleep pretty easy if I rocked her.  I would do a few laps around the house and she would be out (she only liked it if I was walking and rocking not sitting and rocking).  This last month or so I realized that it was taking longer and longer to rock her to sleep.  My husband was getting sick of walking around the house for 20 minutes (or more) every time we put her down.  He started putting her down and letting her cry for a little bit.  This was making me a bit crazy and I constantly had the urge to go and pick her up.  It wasn't until we went out to brunch with some friends that I realized it was ok to let her cry for a bit.  I basically adopted their nighttime ritual.  Their baby is about 5 months old (a month older than Maggie).  Around 6:30pm they will feed their baby rice cereal.  After that it is bath time.  After bath time baby is ready for the bottle feeding (or last nurse feeding for the night).  They then put their baby down for the night at around 7:30pm.  They do this every night.  So, I adopted this schedule and also put Maggie down without rocking her (more about that later).  By following this routine, Maggie is now sleeping about an hour longer in the morning.  Her tummy is nice and full and she is very relaxed from the bath.  Even if you don't give the full scrub down or hair wash every night the warm water and repetition gears them up for bed.  I also slather Maggie up with the lavender baby lotion too.  When I put her down she is out and sleeps through the night.  So, all in all the routine is fantastic....that is until you break it....watch out!

Sleep...or lack there of

I have a girlfriend who had her baby two weeks ago.  I spoke with her yesterday and boy was she exhausted.  It is sort of funny that I already forget how hard those first couple weeks are.  She was even more tired than I was because she is nursing her baby every two hours.  The doctor and lactation consultant both told her to nurse every two hours and to wake the baby if he is sleeping (and the two hours is from when you start feeding - not when you finish).  That means you literally have 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours in between feedings.  That also means you only get to sleep in 1 hour increments.  Pretty crazy.  I did not follow this routine.  I fed Maggie every 3 hours and if she was sleeping I didn't wake her up.  She didn't sleep much longer than 3 hours because she got hungry and woke up on her own.  Every once in a while I would get to sleep 4 hours straight and I thought life was great.  My poor friend is so tired and she is also stressed because nursing isn't easy to begin with.  It takes practice and patience and who has patience when you are that tired.  She is almost feeling like giving up on breast feeding because it is so hard.  I am not a doctor and I suppose you should follow your doctor's advice, but I also think you should go with your gut feeling.  If you are stressed and exhausted what is the harm of feeding every three or four hours?  Your baby will not starve.  I also feel like if the baby is hungry before the three hours then why not feed her?  I think the doctors say to feed every 2 hours because they want the baby to get used to nursing and it also helps stimulate more milk production.  All I know is that sleep does wonders and so does the breast pump!  If you are feeling stressed and frustrated try and get some rest.  A little sleep goes a long way and when you wake up you probably won't feel so overwhelmed!