So it's been a while since my last blog post and for good reason. I've taken an interesting path in the way of things and will give a brief recap. Things were up and down at home, I left and spent a week in a homeless shelter and now for the past week have been staying with my mum. At this very moment I am eagerly awaiting a phone call regarding the apartment DBF and I are finally getting together. Since I'm at my mum's for the moment, I have a chance to finally sit down and catch up a bit on my blog. Things will be busy for the next week or two but I promise I will be back to normal soon!
So last week was the Frog's four month appointment. He's a whopping 16lbs and 26.75 inches. Poor guy got his shots and was not a happy camper the next day. At the appointment though the doc heard Froggie's hips crackling so tomorrow he has an ultrasound to give us more info. I'm hoping there's nothing going on and that we avoid having him in a brace.
The highlight of the week is that we went ahead and started some solids. Squash, aka squish, was a big hit. The Frog thought this was a great improvement over his milkies. After squash came smash, aka bananas. We're still deciding whether we like bananas or not. I'm having fun with this solids thing. I honestly didn't plan on starting solids until the new year but with my mood being much better and lighter since moving out of the house I was in, I was quite open to trying something new and deviating from my plans.
I'm looking forward to the directions things are going in. Very soon DBF and I will be in our own apartment with the Frog. Our own family. I'm so excited. And I'll have my cat back! In all this mess, I've missed him terribly. I'll leave out all the nitty gritty details since this is a public blog and instead leave it as this vague recap explaining why I've been gone. Stay tuned for your regularly scheduled humor. ;)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Holiday Season
It's that time of year when the stores are buzzing and everyone is out to find a good deal. It's also a time for family, old and new. I've always loved the holidays, but now with the Frog in my life I'm even more excited. This is my chance to pass along and create new traditions for my new little family. I was thinking the other day how sentimental and attached I am to my Christmas stocking, which was knit for me by my Nana and I've had it for as long as I can remember. I wanted the Frog to have something nice like that too that he could have over the years and not just something cheap. I'm no knitter so I was looking around into ordering one when I stopped for a moment and thought. Then I whipped out my phone and shot a text off to my mum. She had been talking about wanting to get the Frog something for Christmas and this was perfect. It might not be practical like a jumperoo or bumbo or something, but maybe one day he would cherish a nice stocking with his name given to him for his first Christmas from HIS Nana. The thought alone makes me teary.
Coming up on Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the buzz word right now. I work in a jewelry kiosk in the mall and I am HYPED. I love Black Friday. It's not often I have a lot of money to power shop so I usually just bounce around and people watch and pick up some little things for Christmas. Since I won't be able to powershop this year, I requested to be able to be one of the ones to open at work and I'm so excited. It's going to be insane! Once I'm out of work I plan to do a little shopping. What makes this year fun is now I can plan a Christmas for my own son ((and spend some of DBF's paycheck, heehee!)). I don't have a lot on my list just yet, but I do know before I run off to work at 4 am, I'm taking advantage of Rockin Green's sale and ordering some diaper detergent!
Anyone else love Black Friday? Care to share some great deals you've heard about? Leave a shout and Thursday afternoon while I'm digesting I will compile a blog post with all kinds of great Black Friday deals for diapers, carriers, or anything just plain awesome to help some people out. :)
Coming up on Thanksgiving, Black Friday is the buzz word right now. I work in a jewelry kiosk in the mall and I am HYPED. I love Black Friday. It's not often I have a lot of money to power shop so I usually just bounce around and people watch and pick up some little things for Christmas. Since I won't be able to powershop this year, I requested to be able to be one of the ones to open at work and I'm so excited. It's going to be insane! Once I'm out of work I plan to do a little shopping. What makes this year fun is now I can plan a Christmas for my own son ((and spend some of DBF's paycheck, heehee!)). I don't have a lot on my list just yet, but I do know before I run off to work at 4 am, I'm taking advantage of Rockin Green's sale and ordering some diaper detergent!
Anyone else love Black Friday? Care to share some great deals you've heard about? Leave a shout and Thursday afternoon while I'm digesting I will compile a blog post with all kinds of great Black Friday deals for diapers, carriers, or anything just plain awesome to help some people out. :)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Not going down without a fight...
Once again I find myself brooding over the topic of breastfeeding. It's looking like I will be having to throw in the towel sooner than I would like.
Breastfeeding has been an uphill battle for me from day one. I've been so envious of those mamas who have more milk than they know what to do with. I'd even be happy being one of those who just makes enough to feed her child on breastmilk alone. I've tried everything I could think of. I've spoken with lactation consultants, sought advice from local LLL meetings, breast compression/manual expression, using a hand pump, using a hospital grade double electric pump, nursing on demand, blessed thistle, fenugreek ((oh boy was it interesting smelling like maple syrup!)) and I was even taking domperidone. Nothing worked. I did see an improvement in my output on the domperidone, but I really can't afford to keep buying it. I've at least gotten over the feeling like a bad mom for formula feeding, but I'm not happy knowing my nursing days are numbered. Let me take a moment to add that I don't necessarily believe that formula-feeding moms are bad moms in general. It's more of a personal thing. I wanted so badly to EBF that the formula feels like a failure to me personally.
I'm still producing milk, but gone are the mornings of waking up with big wet spots and I don't remember the last time I felt full. Honestly it makes me said. It doesn't help when I come home from work some nights and find the Frog down for the night. I can't pump it off because pumping has just never worked for me. It seems like every day is a little less. It's even gotten to where when the Frog fusses for something to eat, he refuses the breast altogether until he has a bottle to fill up his tummy and then he might nurse himself into a nap. I know at this rate I will dry up soon, but I'm going to milk it for all it's worth, no pun intended.
When I have my moments of being depressed about being in the twilight of my nursing period, I have recently been trying to divert my attention to looking forward to making my own organic baby foods. In fact, just tonight I told DBF that for Christmas I would like a food processor or something so that I can make baby food. I'm in no rush to get him on solids, but I think he might be ready before I am! So that'll be my new project to add in with my babywearing and cloth diapering endeavors... making my own babyfood. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy every single time I get to sit down with the Frog and nurse as I finally accept that it's nearly time to bid a fond farewell.
Breastfeeding has been an uphill battle for me from day one. I've been so envious of those mamas who have more milk than they know what to do with. I'd even be happy being one of those who just makes enough to feed her child on breastmilk alone. I've tried everything I could think of. I've spoken with lactation consultants, sought advice from local LLL meetings, breast compression/manual expression, using a hand pump, using a hospital grade double electric pump, nursing on demand, blessed thistle, fenugreek ((oh boy was it interesting smelling like maple syrup!)) and I was even taking domperidone. Nothing worked. I did see an improvement in my output on the domperidone, but I really can't afford to keep buying it. I've at least gotten over the feeling like a bad mom for formula feeding, but I'm not happy knowing my nursing days are numbered. Let me take a moment to add that I don't necessarily believe that formula-feeding moms are bad moms in general. It's more of a personal thing. I wanted so badly to EBF that the formula feels like a failure to me personally.
I'm still producing milk, but gone are the mornings of waking up with big wet spots and I don't remember the last time I felt full. Honestly it makes me said. It doesn't help when I come home from work some nights and find the Frog down for the night. I can't pump it off because pumping has just never worked for me. It seems like every day is a little less. It's even gotten to where when the Frog fusses for something to eat, he refuses the breast altogether until he has a bottle to fill up his tummy and then he might nurse himself into a nap. I know at this rate I will dry up soon, but I'm going to milk it for all it's worth, no pun intended.
When I have my moments of being depressed about being in the twilight of my nursing period, I have recently been trying to divert my attention to looking forward to making my own organic baby foods. In fact, just tonight I told DBF that for Christmas I would like a food processor or something so that I can make baby food. I'm in no rush to get him on solids, but I think he might be ready before I am! So that'll be my new project to add in with my babywearing and cloth diapering endeavors... making my own babyfood. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy every single time I get to sit down with the Frog and nurse as I finally accept that it's nearly time to bid a fond farewell.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Addiction
They say the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Well I have a-- wait! No I don't. These are essentials... right? Right??? Cloth diapers, baby carriers, pringles.. once you have one, you ave to have more. Now this may or may not be an issue with your pocket book. I can try to justify my habit by convincing myself that the Frog needs diapers. Though DBF will just come right back and say that our prefolds and covers are working just fine and pockets or other "fancy" diapers aren't really a necessity. Well poo on him. I try to ignore him sometimes because his answers just aren't fun. He is right... to an extent. Our prefolds do do just fine for us. However I am preferring to put the Frog in a pocket overnight because he's sleeping longer periods and he feels much dryer in a pocket diaper than prefolds. On this measure, I am very excited to be picking up two Kawaiis from a friend and eagerly awaiting my first ever fluffy mail which is three Happy Heinys from Cloth Diaper Outlet's 5th anniversary giveaway!
While you can go back and forth on the necessity of diapers, I think it's a lot harder to justify new carriers to a spouse who doesn't quite understand how wonderful baby wearing truly is. Plus we are on a tight budget. This carrier additction started with my Sleepy Wrap. I hated it for about the first 20 minutes. And then I fell in love. And loved it even more every single time I wore it. And then the idea of a ring sling seeded itself in my head. They were so pretty and the mamas who had them seemed to love them. I wanted to be one of those RS loving mamas too! And then I managed to get a great deal on one on Craigslist. And almost as soon as I had my paws on the RS to start trying, I found myself wanting a mei tai when I had never really considered one before. But this idea grew like a weed into an obsession. Fortunately I was allotted a small amount of money to spend on the Frog which I intended to use at our local consignment sale. I did happen to get the play gym I set out to find... but what else did I find?! Actually, the very first thing I found was a mei tai! $10 and it was ours! And quite honestly, I love this thing. But what am I facing now? The grueling decision to be made between acquiring a Boba 2G or a Beco Butterfly II! Ok, ok... I think I do have a problem.
I look back at where this whole addiction started and I totally blame cute pictures. I saw pictures of adorable smiling babies in gorgeous fluff and it seemed like the "cool" thing to do and hey! I wanted to be cool too! And a lot of these fluff-obsessed mamas seemed to wear their babies too! Well I would have to do that too then! I obsessed over these ideas for my whole pregnancy. And then the Frog arrived and I was so far gone... What started out as a silly notion to copy "the cool kids" grew into hours of research and self-educating and I was hooked. I absolutely love cloth diapering. Even the laundry part. And my favourite thing in the world right now is going out and enjoying the beginnings of a Florida autumn with my sweet little Frog snuggled into one of our carriers. I never thought I would cloth diaper a child. I thought that was what Nana did for her kids but nowadays kids wore Huggies. Psh. DBF doesn't know it yet, but the stash of sposies that seems to keep replenishing itself ((stop buying sposies MIL! I don't want them!)) is about to be HIDDEN. Not joking. I hate the smell and the chemicals and... ugh. I am childishly refusing to remove the pile of used, rolled up sposies from the room because I didn't want them on the child in the first place and he can let it stink up the room til he cant stand it anymore. I wash my diapers and the fluff don't stank! But I'm so tired of coming home from work and finding the Frog in horrid smelling sposies that I'm about to get every last disposable and hide them in my van. And every time more show up, I will hide them too. I am more than happy to provide pre-stuffed pockets while I'm away and DBF is more than capable of using a prefold and snappi with a cover. Let them laugh at me trooping around with my child snuggled close in a carrier. At least we're a couple of happy campers!
So who is with me in the throes of addiction? Who can't stop collecting pretty fluff or is obsessed with the idea of trying one of practically every carrier out there? I know I'm not alone!
While you can go back and forth on the necessity of diapers, I think it's a lot harder to justify new carriers to a spouse who doesn't quite understand how wonderful baby wearing truly is. Plus we are on a tight budget. This carrier additction started with my Sleepy Wrap. I hated it for about the first 20 minutes. And then I fell in love. And loved it even more every single time I wore it. And then the idea of a ring sling seeded itself in my head. They were so pretty and the mamas who had them seemed to love them. I wanted to be one of those RS loving mamas too! And then I managed to get a great deal on one on Craigslist. And almost as soon as I had my paws on the RS to start trying, I found myself wanting a mei tai when I had never really considered one before. But this idea grew like a weed into an obsession. Fortunately I was allotted a small amount of money to spend on the Frog which I intended to use at our local consignment sale. I did happen to get the play gym I set out to find... but what else did I find?! Actually, the very first thing I found was a mei tai! $10 and it was ours! And quite honestly, I love this thing. But what am I facing now? The grueling decision to be made between acquiring a Boba 2G or a Beco Butterfly II! Ok, ok... I think I do have a problem.
I look back at where this whole addiction started and I totally blame cute pictures. I saw pictures of adorable smiling babies in gorgeous fluff and it seemed like the "cool" thing to do and hey! I wanted to be cool too! And a lot of these fluff-obsessed mamas seemed to wear their babies too! Well I would have to do that too then! I obsessed over these ideas for my whole pregnancy. And then the Frog arrived and I was so far gone... What started out as a silly notion to copy "the cool kids" grew into hours of research and self-educating and I was hooked. I absolutely love cloth diapering. Even the laundry part. And my favourite thing in the world right now is going out and enjoying the beginnings of a Florida autumn with my sweet little Frog snuggled into one of our carriers. I never thought I would cloth diaper a child. I thought that was what Nana did for her kids but nowadays kids wore Huggies. Psh. DBF doesn't know it yet, but the stash of sposies that seems to keep replenishing itself ((stop buying sposies MIL! I don't want them!)) is about to be HIDDEN. Not joking. I hate the smell and the chemicals and... ugh. I am childishly refusing to remove the pile of used, rolled up sposies from the room because I didn't want them on the child in the first place and he can let it stink up the room til he cant stand it anymore. I wash my diapers and the fluff don't stank! But I'm so tired of coming home from work and finding the Frog in horrid smelling sposies that I'm about to get every last disposable and hide them in my van. And every time more show up, I will hide them too. I am more than happy to provide pre-stuffed pockets while I'm away and DBF is more than capable of using a prefold and snappi with a cover. Let them laugh at me trooping around with my child snuggled close in a carrier. At least we're a couple of happy campers!
So who is with me in the throes of addiction? Who can't stop collecting pretty fluff or is obsessed with the idea of trying one of practically every carrier out there? I know I'm not alone!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Separation Anxiety
Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear those words are a dog frantically pacing and gazing out the window waiting for "mommy" to come home. Those sorts of dogs annoy me. I never put up with that and our dogs always waited patiently, or quietly at least, until the absent person returned. What really annoys me is me driving away from the house and my mind is picturing me as that frantic dog. Now why would I think of myself as a frantic upset dog? Because I'm missing my baby.
Tonight will be night number four that I have to leave the house and my baby because I'm returning back to work. I want to work.... actually I want that paycheck but unfortunately they don't just hand those out, so I've got to leave for hours and do my time and then I get the paycheck. Returning to work is much easier said than done. Part of me thought at first I'd be missing being able to stay home all day and just care for myself and the Frog, but as I drive away I actually find myself starting to freak out a bit. I didn't realize how often I glance over my shoulder to the carseat to see the top of his head and that mop of fine fluffy hair. The first time I glanced and didn't see it, my stomach lurched and my eyes got huge until a second later and I realized he was safe at home with DBF. I've got it easier than some moms too. I work part time nights and weekends. I work when DBF isn't and can take care of the Frog while I'm gone. But all I can think about is getting home to my boy. I found myself quite frustrated on Sunday when someone brought their two month old girl in to have her ears pierced and after all was said and done, I looked at her contentedly sucking on her bottle and ended up in tears because I missed the Frog that much all of a sudden. Hormones got the best of me and my sympathetic manager was shoving chocolates at me ((which, by the way, the Whitman's Double Chocolate Mousse individually packaged chocolates with the Weight Watchers logo are amazing... do yourself a favor and go buy some now!)). I was annoyed that I did not voluntarily start tearing up and it wasn't stopping either! Surely it gets easier from here!
The Frog apparently doesn't mind the absence of boob too much. Either way I give him ample opprtunity to nurse right before I leave and as soon as I get home. DBF is patient and answers my many repetitive texts. "How's the Frog?" "What's he doing now?" "Is he being good or is he fussy?" I suppose I'll have to cut those annoying dogs some slack because right n ow I'm not much better!
Tonight will be night number four that I have to leave the house and my baby because I'm returning back to work. I want to work.... actually I want that paycheck but unfortunately they don't just hand those out, so I've got to leave for hours and do my time and then I get the paycheck. Returning to work is much easier said than done. Part of me thought at first I'd be missing being able to stay home all day and just care for myself and the Frog, but as I drive away I actually find myself starting to freak out a bit. I didn't realize how often I glance over my shoulder to the carseat to see the top of his head and that mop of fine fluffy hair. The first time I glanced and didn't see it, my stomach lurched and my eyes got huge until a second later and I realized he was safe at home with DBF. I've got it easier than some moms too. I work part time nights and weekends. I work when DBF isn't and can take care of the Frog while I'm gone. But all I can think about is getting home to my boy. I found myself quite frustrated on Sunday when someone brought their two month old girl in to have her ears pierced and after all was said and done, I looked at her contentedly sucking on her bottle and ended up in tears because I missed the Frog that much all of a sudden. Hormones got the best of me and my sympathetic manager was shoving chocolates at me ((which, by the way, the Whitman's Double Chocolate Mousse individually packaged chocolates with the Weight Watchers logo are amazing... do yourself a favor and go buy some now!)). I was annoyed that I did not voluntarily start tearing up and it wasn't stopping either! Surely it gets easier from here!
The Frog apparently doesn't mind the absence of boob too much. Either way I give him ample opprtunity to nurse right before I leave and as soon as I get home. DBF is patient and answers my many repetitive texts. "How's the Frog?" "What's he doing now?" "Is he being good or is he fussy?" I suppose I'll have to cut those annoying dogs some slack because right n ow I'm not much better!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Ragababe Giveaway!
Go check out this giveaway that I'm totally hyped about! Life Plus Baby has reviewed the Ragababe Easy AIO and now she's giving one away! After reading her review I'm even more excited to try one out on the Frog. Head on over to her blog, enter for yourself and tell her Kris Word sent you!
