Cry It Out

For the last 2 weeks we have been doing cry it out at night. Let me just say I am not a big fan of cry it out. We tried it when Noah was younger and it was a huge disaster! 30 minutes of not stop screaming that ended in a snotty red swollen faced baby. But as it always is with parenting all things change!
About 2 weeks ago Noah decided to start weaning from BF. I was not a fan (but that's a whole other post) so at bedtime my ace in the whole was gone. This left me with a tired baby who refused to go to bed. Every time I put him in bed he would scream and its exhausting to spend over an hour getting him to bed. So I decided to try crying it out again and miracle of miracles it worked! Every night since within 5 to 10 minutes he is sleeping soundly in his bed. Now it still breaks my heart to put him in his bed and walk away as he screams its so worth it for him to go to bed and get more sleep and me to get an hour back in my day!
Here is hoping this continues to work for bedtime. Nap time is whole other can of worms..........

New Years resolution keep up with my blog!

You know its sad when over christmas dinner your grandpa tells you that you havent updated your blog in forever! BUSTED. I have been terrible about blogging I know. I guess keeping up with a 1 year old and work has gotten the best of me but I am determined to stay on top of it this year!
Since I last posted we have been busy. Noah turned one in November. We had a busy holiday season (which isnt over yet). Work is very busy and going great!
I plan to start the new year focusing on getting back in shape and balancing my schedule better.
There is much more to come but for now this a quick sample. Merry Christmas all!

update

wow its been a while since i have blogged. all is well in baby land. noah is now a little over 5 months and has started solids. so far cereal and we just started bananas last night. he seems to really like it. he is cutting a few teeth on top but they are not thru yet. we took him swimming for the first time last week. he seemed to enjoy it!
on my end things are about the same. work is SUPER BUSY which is great! we are having record months!! i am feeling good and starting to be less tired. I am still stuck with the last of the baby weight. it just stopped coming off. i have heard you dont loose the last till you stop nursing. we will see. i have been trying to exercise more now that its nice outside and he is more able to be taken out and about.
Mothers day is coming up and we are looking forward to it. going to the inlaws to cook out and my mom is coming too. should be fun as long as someone is good in the car!
Thats about all for now. Noah is swinging and starting to get the grumpys, meaning he wants busted out. LOL.

Here and there

Noah is now 4 months old! I cant believe how time flies. We have decided to wait on solids till 6 months. It definitely wont hurt to wait so we are gonna try to make it.
On another note, we put a bid on a house close to work that way i could come home for lunch and not lose almost an hour a day in drive time, plus we wanted a fenced yard for the dogs.........but we were outbid =( we have to sign a new lease for this house soon so i think we will have to wait another year.
not much else is happening. work is going great. noah is growing. we are happy for spring to come. Other than that same old same old.

solids

I am really debating when to start Noah on Solids. Everyone says 4 months for cereal but all the current research says 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. I am not sure what to think. Part of me wants to wait as long as possible to let him develop his digestive system completely, the other part says he is showing signs. Stares when I eat, lots of drooling, chewing on hands ect. I dont really know what to think.
I am open to any input!

sweet baby sleep

Noah is doing soooo great sleeping at night for the last week or so. He has started getting into the routine of going to bed around 8:30 and he has been sleeping till 6:30 or 7. For a 3 month old baby that is great! This morning I had to wake him at 6:30 so that I could nurse him before work and he was not crazy about being awakened!
I am so proud of him for sleeping so well. And I have even been putting him to bed not all the way asleep. Tonight he was still pretty awake, I laid him down and sang to him and rubbed his belly but even before he was asleep i snuck away and got ready for bed myself and he didnt even cry and laid and looked at the animals on his wall drifted off on his own. What a good little man!

sling DUH!

We are so silly. I have been having a really rough time getting Noah to nap. he is sleeping very well at night. sleeps almost 12 hours and gets up only once or twice but refuses to nap. then he gets cranky, I mean very CRANKY. so cranky i cant do anything. he wants held or he screams. so you are stuck holding him all afternoon and evening. Now I love holding my baby but I also need to get stuff done around the house. then today hubby said try the sling. DUH. Why didnt i think of that. we had used it a few times when he was little but it made me so nervous bc he was so small and fragile so I hadnt used it lately. but i thought why not give it a try so I did. and he has been sleeping in it for 2 hours now!!!! Its great he gets the nap he needs and i can get work done! granted its heavy on my shoulder and back but its totally worth it. why didnt i do this months ago!
Now I know this is not a permanent solution. we need to get him to nap in his bed but its a temporary one at least. I am reading a great book called becoming babywise (thanks Lea) and its is very good. we are working on a night schedule and putting him to sleep drowsy but not asleep. that is working pretty well. but for some reason day is another story. maybe once the night routine is solid we can incorporate a day one in slowly too! Here is crossing my fingers but for the meantime sling it is!

busy busy bee

Life has been so busy lately! I feel like I dont have a single second to myself. Dont get me wrong I like my job and I adore my baby but its exhausting to leave work and come home and take care of N till I go back to work. Once he starts sleeping better it will really help. Last night was great. N slept from 9 till 2:15 then went in his swing from 3 till 8:30. I actually got up before him! I could use about a months worth of nights like that!
In other news last weekend I took N home and we took a 5 generation picture on my mom's side. It was really cool to get everyone together! I am so blessed to have so much family only a few hours away!! Nothing exciting planned for the entire month of February. Just work and spend time with my boys =) N's first shots are in a week and I am dreading it. Then both mom's have march birthdays. For now I am just planning to relax and wait for spring!

Babies on the brain

It is baby time right now!
First of all Noah is 2 months old today! He is changing so much. He stays awake most of the day now, with only one afternoon nap and a few catnaps while nursing but other than that awake all day. We are enjoying him being up and alert more, but he is grumpy in the evenings now. The last 2 nights have been terrible trying to get him to go to bed. He fusses unless he is nursing. Both times I had to lay down in bed with him and nurse him till he fell asleep then move him to his bassinet. Also on the sleeping front we are going to move his crib into our room and start him sleeping in it. I want to start using his breathing monitor which can only be used in the crib but I am not ready for him to be in a separate room so he is moving in with us for now. I plan on starting the crib probably this week so we will see how that goes.
On a more exciting note he is showing so much more personality. He is smiling all the time and has laughed a few times and even rolled over once! My little boy is getting so big.
In other baby news I threw my friend a baby shower this weekend and it was a lot of fun. We did an ice cream sunday bar. It was yummy. She had several other showers so I wanted to do something a little different. A couple of her friends and I worked together to get everything ready. I was very thankful for their help. A good time was had by all.
Two of my other friends are due this week with their babies!!!! One is having a girl, the other is a surprise! I cant wait to hear that they are in labor and to find out the sex of baby N!! Like I said its babypalooza right now.
I am so glad to have so many friends starting families at the same time as us. Its great to have people to share these experiences with!

I did it!!!!!!!!!!

I finally broke down and breastfed in public!
Paul's mom and brother came to visit today and I was determined not to go upstairs to nurse every time so I just covered myself with a blanket and nursed and it was fine. I knew his mom didn't care but I didn't want his brother to be uncomfortable but I also didn't want to be annexed to a room upstairs for 40 minutes. So we nursed right down stairs with everyone else and it was FINE!
Breastfeed in front of a male relative............check
so then we went to dinner at Bob Evans. I fed him right before we left but of course once we get there and order and I eat my salad he starts crying that cry. The one that tells me its time to eat. So I had to feed him right there in Bob Evans. Out came the blanket and we did it!
Breastfeed in a public place.................check check!
I am glad we got these things over with because I was nervous about both of them and it really wasn't even bad. No one at the restaurant seemed to even notice and I was covered fairly well. It wasn't even embarrassing like I thought it would be.
I am very relieved that we jumped these 2 hurdles. Now the last one will be in front of my dad......eek. That's still on hold for a while.

breastfeeding in public

First of all breastfeeding is going so much better. Granted I still curl my toes when he latches on and get sore after a while but all in all its much better. Anyway the point of this entry is to tell my first breastfeeding in public story. so here goes.....
Friday we went to red robin to eat a late lunch and took the baby on his first restaurant outing. I purposely did not take a bottle of expressed milk. I knew I had to get over the fear of breastfeeding while out so I planned on just jumping into it. Well he slept the whole time at the restaurant, but no sooner did we leave then he started screaming. So we pull over at the polaris mall. There we are at 3 pm sitting in Macy's parking lot and I am nursing. We parked WAY out so no one was around but I never thought I would be sitting in a parking lot with my breast out. LOL.

the holidays

Well we survived overnight travel with a 5 week old baby! All in all it went pretty well but it was hard on Noah. We left my aunts christmas night and got in the car for the 40 minute drive back to paul's parents and he just started screaming......and would not stop. finally 20 minutes later we pulled over at a gas station so i could nurse him. ahhhh. That settled him down enough that we could get home. Also since we got back home he has wanted held non stop. He got used to grandma R holding him all the time.
We really did have a nice time. Both grandmas are gaga over him =) and it was nice to see family again.
New years was very low key at our house. We were in bed by 10:30. I could have gone for a cocktail but thats off the list since I am nursing so sleep it was!
I cant believe its 2010 already. We are looking forward to a wonderful year with our little man. Watching him grow and learn. It will be so much fun.