Wednesday, March 31, 2010

week 10

here's the happenings from week 9-10 in ian's life!

ian slept through yet another baby massage class. at least i get to practice on the doll, so some evenings before bedtime i'll give him a massage- he seems to really enjoy it.

saturday we rode with dave's parents to lincoln, to see dave's gma. she's in a nursing home there, and things aren't looking too good. it's really just a matter of time now. i'm really glad that she's gotten to see ian, and he's gotten to see her, even though neither of them probably knows.

eleanor is having some baby aggression (see my post about the dogs), she peed in ian's room once and pooped in it twice. grr.

we bought ian the swaddlepod instead of the woombie. it was half the price. and thank goodness because he wasn't too thrilled about it. he would stretch the material until he could reach his mouth with his hands and he would still try to chew on them. he didn't scratch himself, but he kept waking up between 3-5 realizing he was in there, and he would get very upset. we went back to the sleep sack, and he's stopped waking up.

this week was pretty uneventful... i'm going to put up the pictures and run b\c this next week has started out pretty eventful- ian has been CRANKY all day... good heavens he is so tired and has hardly napped all day- so he's decided to cry instead. just sleep, kid!

now, the pictures...

sweet smiles


bright eyes

snuggles with mommy
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

help- family photos

we are heading to see my parents on thursday, and my dad called saturday to inform me that we are having family photos this saturday. i was a little worried because i was afraid he was going to make us dress cheesily, but he assured me that was not the case. since we are the ones travelling (my brother as well), we were allowed to decide what we're wearing first, and then inform my parents, who will have their entire wardobe at their disposal. luckily, one of my favorite blogs- How Not To Dress Like A Mom wrote this fabulous post just a week ago. it's like she knew my dad was going to call last weekend about family photos...

so today, i put together outfits for myself, husband and baby. i need your opinion on whether this is too matchy-matchy, or whether i hit the nail on the head. so please, my 3 (4?) readers- help!


here's a few options that i've selected for the mcfamily:





i've selected a grey top with a ribbon flower embellishment and dark jeans for me (these are pre-baby jeans, so this may end up being a bad idea). for husband i've selected jeans and a baby blue polo and for baby i've selected a baby blue polo with a navy vest over it, and khakis. i figured baby is small, so he's safe wearing a pattern.


here is the next option. same look as above, except i'd be wearing a navy jacket.


here's the third option. me and baby are wearing the same thing, but husband is in a navy button-down. the button-down is pin-striped, but it is very subtle.


here's an up-close look at our tops. you still can't even see the pin-stripes.

so those are the options for us. did i at least do a good job? is one choice worthy, or should i scrap the whole thing and start over? even more important, what should my parents and brother wear? should we add in another color? i'm going to say that my parents and brother should stay away from navy, at least on top. i was thinking red or black for the 3rd color.
what are your thoughts?
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dogs and babies

"Being the owner of dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot. Some day, if I ever get a chance, I shall write a book, or warning, on the character and temperament of the dachshund and why he can't be trained and shouldn't be. I would rather train a striped zebra to balance an Indian club than induce a dachshund to heed my slightest command. When I address Fred I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes. He even disobeys me when I instruct him in something he wants to do."
e.b. white



when you already have pets, bringing a baby into the mix can be tough. we own 2 dachshunds, mr. famous (who has been with me almost 4 years) and eleanor rigby (who has been with us for almost 2 years). dachshunds are nortorious for being difficult to train, and bad with children. in fact, when i was first trying to adopt mr. f, i was turned down from a couple places because i said i planned on getting married and having children w\in the next 10-15 years...

our little pups have had a rough year- first, dave moved to chicago, and they were stuck w\ me for 6 weeks, then we moved to dave's mom & dad's. a week after arriving, mr. f started acting funny and couldn't walk- we were basically told we were going to have to pay $5,000 for surgery, or put him down. we chose neither, and instead picked a treatment method we found online- 8 weeks of nearly 24-hour crate rest. he wasn't thrilled, but here we are nearly 11 months later, and he is nearly good as new! then, we moved again into our present home, and finally that small crying thing came along...

let me say that my dogs hate me. they were both gifts from my husband because i have always adored dachshunds. they once loved me, but when i got married my husband took over nearly all dog duties, then i was pregnant, so i am pretty much dead to them. i was growled at when returning from the hospital, they won't eat if i try to feed them (they are always hungry), and sometimes, they run from me... ::sigh::

enter baby. both dogs have their own reaction to him- and not what we thought it would be.

mr. famous- mr. f is infamous for his non-stop crying. it's enough to drive you insane. if you aren't petting him or looking at him, he will cry. enter crying baby. when baby cries- mr. f cries. when baby is upstairs asleep- mr. famous is upstairs in his bed. i'm pretty sure he thinks i need his help raising ian. mr. f also has a drinking problem. his cycle is this- drink an entire bowl of water, go to the door to be let out 10 times, repeat. it's annoying, but his going to the door means that there are rarely indoor accidents (those are usually our fault). he loves to play with toys, but if you pet him once, he'll never let you forget it, and he'll get all up in your mix...

eleanor rigby- el is famous for ignoring people and acting like they don't exist (namely, me). that's mostly how she treats baby, except for tonight when she decided to jump onto my lap and then onto ian's face while i was feeding him (he was oblivious). nice one, el. eleanor also hates cold, rain and snow. she's mastered the art of refusing to use the bathroom outside when the temperature is below 50. you can walk her for 30 minutes, and she stubbornly refuses to go. when it snows, she has learned to fake limp, so you bring her back inside... so the second you bring her back into the house, she decides it's warm enough to evacuate her bowels. basically, she thinks our house is her toilet. it's enough to drive you mad. even the "punishment crate" hasn't taught her a lesson... she also thinks she's houdini. shes learned to unzip her crate with her nose and make many escapes. if she escapes and we aren't around- she's going to do something wrong. at christmas she got out, climbed on the coffee table, ate an entire bowl of hershey's kisses, and then left some of her own on our carpet. it took a lot of scrubbing and a steam cleaner to take care of that one... this week, she got into candy that we didn't even know existed, knocked over 2 bathroom trashcans and chewed on the contents, and the real kicker- peed all over ian's playmat.

mommy was not happy. thank the Lord for oxy clean. i don't know what this means as el has never "marked" in ian's room or shown any aggression/jealousy towards him.

a lot of people find it's just easier to get rid of their pets once baby comes. and believe me, we think about this every day. i just don't know if i could ever do it. both dogs were adopted- so i feel like we made a promise to them that we'd care for them until they die, although they have my husband saying we'll never own pets again... with their antics as of late, we find ourselves constantly (half) joking asking our friends if they'd like a dog....

anyone want a dog? no, but seriously...

for now they are here to stay, but they are on warning with their crazy behavior. hopefully mr. f will calm the whining, and eleanor will find spring/summer makes her only want to potty outdoors, and that q-tips aren't snacks. i want to be a good doggie mommy, but i'm first and foremost a baby mommy. i'm just hoping we can all exist peacefully, and hopefully as ian becomes mobile in the coming months we can prove the "dachshunds aren't good for babies/children/anyone" thing wrong. because despite all of our threats, they are good, sweet dogs, and i really do love them.

anyone else have dog (pet)/baby issues?
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Monday, March 29, 2010

nyah, nyah


someone's "found" their tongue!
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

week 9

here is the rundown on the events that happened during week 8-9 in baby's life!

the week started out on st. patty's day. after much searching, i found a really cute outfit for ian, but he had pooped in it before i was able to get pictures. luckily, i wash baby clothes all week long, so we pretended it was st. patty's day again on thursday night! we also had baby massage class that day- and ian decided to sleep through the entire class, so i had to massage a doll instead. he's really missing out!

thursday, the ncaa tourney started. husband and i are in a pool that his friend chris runs every year, and then i am in a separate pool that my brother's friend chase runs. seeing that i picked kansas, i lost my winner on saturday (not good). although dave is in position to easily win the pool we're in together- and although it hurts my pride to lose, i'll take money in any form! hopefully this weekend we'll continue to have wins!

it was pretty warm most of this week, so we were able to take several walks outside. we went 3 times, twice in the stroller, and once in the backpack. ian usually conks out during these walks, plus it's a good workout for lazy mommy...

of course, all this delicious warmness came with a price. saturday was the first day of spring, and you would know that it would snow all day long. we also celebrated the 4th birthday of our nephew, christian. it was also a celebration for ian though- he turned 2 months old on saturday! can you believe it? because i most certainly can't! it's so hard to believe it's already been 2 wonderful, crazy months!

ian has continued to sleep well through the night, and he has improved some with his naps. sometimes he takes a 2 hour nap, and sometimes it's 30 minutes. we're still sort of doing the 4 s's. this was going well until ian decided he didn't want to be swaddled anymore. period. i had been trying to decide how long i wanted to swaddle him, and i figured at least until he was 3 months. he is still wild with his arms, and the swaddle helps control him. he started getting really fussy when we would swaddle him because he couldn't move his arms, so i'd leave one arm out, and he was doing fine. a few days later though, that didn't even satisfy him, so we left both arms out... that didn't work either. we took him out of the swaddle, transferred him to his sleep sack, and boom, he was asleep immediately. so, swaddle time is over, although i think he really needs it, but he's obviously not going to sleep anymore with it on.

monday was ian's 2 month check up. we got him up that morning to notice he had used his face like a cat uses a scratching post. his skin has been dry since he was born, but the dr. didn't seem too concerned. this time it was different- ian has eczema. it went from being dry every now and then to totally patchy- which is probably why he's clawing his face up. we've started a treatment with aquaphor all over his body, and we have him wearing little mittens at night (this is why i think he still needs the swaddle). the mittens have helped with fingernail scratches, but they contribute to another ian habit which is rubbing his eyes when he's tired. instead of just falling asleep ian likes to rub his eyes for 10 or 15 minutes until he can't stand to have them open anymore. this doesn't help when you have mittens on because it's 10-15 minutes of fabric rubbing against his face. he gets so red. we may be looking into the woombie.

ian's check up went very well. he's 10 lbs, 5 oz (25th percentile) and 23 3/4 in (75th-90th percentile)!! if he's going to be tall, he certainly didn't get it from his mom or dad... he also had vaccinations. i didn't think i would cry, but i was wrong. he had 5 total vaccines which were combined into an oral medication and 3 shots. poor baby. he turned 100 shades of red and then let out the most heart-breaking cry ever. afterward, he slept pretty much the rest of the day except for feedings, and was a little fussy, but overall, i'd say things went pretty well.

now, my favorite part... pictures! we took WAY too many pictures this week, and i just can't pick a few. my kid is so darn cute!!



it was school spirit week in our house. perhaps in honor of the tourney. here's an homage to daddy's team- they're actually good enough to make the tournament


best. picture. ever. i will laugh until i cry every time i see this!



wearing mommy's team colors. he's clearly cuter in red!


here's proof of how much he's grown if you compare this to bath pictures from a few weeks ago!


my sweet little boy!


happy st. patrick's day!



walking with mommy!

2 months


2 months... again!


hanging out with my cousin, annie!


here's what happens when i don't have my mittens on!

in bed with my sleep sack and my mittens

snoozing, per usual

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Sunday, March 21, 2010

things i've learned about motherhood #655

even if you hate mornings, and had to force yourself to wake up before noon, you will now be up by 7:30 (or earlier) and you won't even notice (or care) Pin It!

week 8

here are the events from weeks 7-8 for ian...

we started off the week by going to infant massage. it was a lot of fun. ian did really well- letting me massage his legs, feet and stomach before deciding it was time to eat. after that, he dozed off immediately and then slept for a few hours. ahh, what a life. that evening we went to erik's house to watch the blackhawks game. it was the first time the guys had seen ian since he was born!

thursday we went to our group, and afterward we had lunch at panera w\ 2 of the girls and their daughters- wow, mommy has friends in illinois!!

for such a good start it went downhill for me fast- i had been getting sick again, and it hit hard friday. i don't think i left the bed except for changing ian and food. by that evening i had a fever of almost 101! so dave took ian to chris's house so i could just sleep it off. they had a boys night watching the bulls game.

we didn't do much for the rest of the weekend since i was sick. the week ended a little rough as ian didn't want to nap much monday or tuesday- so i'm thinking he hit a little growth spurt.

as far as eating and sleeping- he's doing both very well. eating 6 times a day, and taking naps after just about every feeding. the only exception is bedtime, and he sleeps about 7 hours. according to babywise we are at the end of the "stabilization" stage!

ian also seemed to enjoy his swaddle less this week- i've been going back & forth on how much longer to swaddle him for. by week's end, i was having to keep his left arm out to keep him happy.

here are pictures from this week


passed out on mommy's chest



playing in my gym! i am really into it now!




hanging out with dad. mom is making him watch a few minutes of e's oscar best/worst dressed. she just wants to say that she doesn't care if everyone else hated it, but she loved sjp's chanel couture!



laying in bed with mommy, who's hiding b\c she was sick and looked like she was about to die!

more photos next week- ian is 2 months old today!


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Thursday, March 18, 2010

happy st. patty's day

i bought ian this adorable spd outfit, but he had already pooped on it before i could get pictures...

we'll try again tomorrow for the pictures and just pretend it's still spd. we are irish after all!

it was a nice though. infant massage, lunch with daddy at ihop, naps, corned beef for dinner, and baileys to end the evening (for mommy and daddy that is).

hope you had a wonderful st. patty's day! Pin It!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

elephant parade

i had a hard time deciding what kind of room to do for the baby. i didn't want a cartoon character, i didn't want sports if it was a boy, and i really didn't want a mess of flowers if it was a girl. in the end we (i) decided it would be birds if it was a girl, and elephants for a boy because i had found some bedding i really liked.

why elephants? well, besides being so darn cute, they're known for their intelligence and memory- i just liked the whole theme. maybe we "overdid" it with the room, but this is probably the only time i'll have a major say in the decor in his room. i thought we did a pretty good job with everything.



here is the dresser/changing area. i opted against a changing table because it's just a waste of money if you have a really good dresser. this dresser was mine when i was living on my own in atlanta. dave and i sanded the finish off a bit, then painted it brown. then i went back and painted the knobs to match the wall. i like the way it turned out because the brown isn't perfect. we have the changing pad and diaper station on top and then his humidifier and monitor as well. the lamp is the lighting for the room because there's no light fixture (boo). we have the diaper genie on one side and dirty clothes hamper on the other.




here are some shelves we put up. we got a lot of stuffed animals, etc. we needed a place to put that stuff and something to break up the empty wall. below is our play gym. he is really loving that thing these days.



here is the crib. it's where you really see the theme of the room. perhaps we overdid it? i think not for a baby room. we have the rug since the entire house is wood/tile. the bedding is elephants and circles. i really like the cute wall art and his name above the bed. i'm sure the letters are crooked, but we are the least artsy people around. beside the bed is an adorable hippo chair we received as a gift from pbkids! then there's the rocking and reading corner...



i love this! we got the chair off of craig's list for practically nothing. i hate that it's not the same color wood, but after the adventure of painting the dresser and room, dave wouldn't let me anywhere near that chair with paint. it's right by the windows so the light is wonderful during the day. we have blankets for covering up if it gets chilly over there, and our little table with a cute little elephant lamp.

i think we did a pretty darn good job. now i wanted to do some other kind of elephant something for our 4th wall (the longest, which has nothing on it).

i don't know if i want to do another elephant or something else. Chronicles of a Babywise Mom is doing a great giveaway from Lola Decor. there are so many cute vinyls on here, and they would be perfect for our sad empty wall (also perfect, a bookshelf with tons of kids books, but one step at a time)...

i can't decide what i would even pick if i won. if i had had a little girl and gone with the aforementioned bird theme, there would be lots of choose from, as i couldn't even pick which bird vinyl i liked best. but i have a few things i like for our little guy. (images below from Lola Decor)


i really love that verse. i also like the quote, "let him sleep, for when he wakes he will move mountains."

choices, choices.

anyway, i'm really proud of how the room came together! i think husband and i did a wonderful job on our little man's room! Pin It!

Monday, March 15, 2010

week 7

here are the events from week 6-7

this week started out really really rough... but this didn't last very long. on wednesday, march 3, ian turned 6 weeks old. we were supposed to start infant massage that day, but husband didn't wake us and we overslept. i went to my post partum appointment and then strolled around the mall with ian. there we ran into a girl from massage class who told us the class had been bumped back, and we could've made it on time. grr.

the next day was worse, but was leading up to something amazing... we go to breastfeeding support group on thursdays. while trying to get myself ready ian was screaming his head off, and i couldn't shower or do anything anything with myself. i was at my breaking point. i literally sat on the couch for 30 minutes holding ian and crying. i finally got myself up and drove to support group- there were at least 4 new faces, but it didn't take me long- i totally broke down about all my frustrations of the day: being late, my house is a mess, i can't even shower, etc. everyone rallied around me though and i felt a million times better. then, that night, something magic happened:

ian slept through the night!!!!! so what began in frustration renewed itself in total reward. thank you babywise! also, i know that all my hard work paid off!

other highlights from this week include:

ian has started to grow out of some of his newborn clothes. a few pj's and onesies are no longer fitting, and we have started a bin of "baby clothes." bittersweet. he fits well in his other newborn clothes, and his 0-3 month onesies, but still isn't fitting into 0-3 month pants!

a major blowout. as in, we just had to throw that onesie away...

ian is also eating very well. 6 feedings a day averaging about 30-40 minutes total.

naps are going much better, but i still don't feel like i have it down. i just can't pinpoint what i'm doing wrong.

we also got a bouncer seat this week. ian seems to like it, but the vibrations sometimes give him the hiccups. we also bought some clothes from the same people we got the bouncer from. they're from michigan just like dave, and they had some baby michigan state and detroit red wings gear. needless to say daddy was very happy!

we were terrible with picture taking this week- these are the only photos from the week.


snoozing on daddy

snoozing on mommy

more snoozing on mommy


snoozing in my amby

ok, i know he slept through the night an all, but i promise he didn't sleep all week...

this week has been another exciting one so far, and we're half way through it! look for the next weekly update sometime after wednesday!

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Friday, March 12, 2010

things i've learned about motherhood #21

sick days don't exist.

period.

even when you feel as if you're on your deathbed, you are no longer #1.

but my #1 is worth putting before myself. Pin It!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

post-partum exercise aka things i went and opened my big mouth about

first, let me brag on myself. i was a pregnant fatty (this does not sound like a brag so far) .i gained 45 lbs (when you are 5'1" this is probably not a good idea). so last wednesday i had my post-partum checkup- i had decided i was not going to step on a scale until i entered into that office (ours was broken thank the Lord, or else i would've stepped on it 30x a day), and i stuck to my word.

the verdict at my appointment (here comes aforementioned bragging) i had lost 26 lbs! omg! pretty awesome if you ask me. that means i only need to lose 19 more lbs to get back to my pre-baby weight (i would like to make this number 25). this is the hard part...

sadly, i am lazy when it comes to exercise. this is really sad because i took ballet for about 7 years, and then i did cheerleading for 4 years. ballet keeps you nice and slim, and with cheerleading i ran until i wanted to throw up. ever since i have been out of those i have rarely kept a routine. before i was married my mom & i would walk either at the walking track at our church or take the dogs around the neighborhood. sometimes we would do pilates. when i lived on my own, this stopped. after i got married, i would sometimes do pilates, or sometimes do my jillian michaels dvd. then husband and i started walking the silver comet trail with our dogs, then we moved. then i was pregnant. then i stopped doing anything...

i now have the clear to exercise again, yet i haven't. i'm too busy caring for baby, and when he does sleep, i usually either sleep myself, or i have become a clean freak (more on that later). i really should work out.

enter where i opened my big mouth... my husband bikes. he is of a family of cyclists. my in-laws tandem. they go on 800 tandem trips a year. my father in law bikes to work rain or shine, snow or whatever nearly every day of the year. they are serious. my husband and his dad have been to peru, where the biked up the highest unpaved road in the world (my father in law has been twice). i like to brag about this too- because it's pretty amazing. here they are...


pretty awesome, eh?


so i said this to say that last week i told my husband, "i think i might like to try biking." oh, what have i gotten myself into? ::sigh::

there will be more updates on this later, as i am now a cyclist.

::i need to follow this up to quote my husband: "you haven't even been on the bike yet, you are not a cyclist." we'll see.:

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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

piggies in a blanket

so, it's march 9th, and it's finally starting to get warm enough to go outside here. by "warm enough" i sadly mean 40-50 degrees. i'd love to start taking ian out for strolls around the block once it gets slightly warmer, but i worry about him being cold (we have 4 month old snow on the ground still).

so although this wouldn't really work for him now, i totally see it working this fall perhaps, and definitely this spring. what is it? this adorable baby stroller blanket. it's got a pocket for baby's feet so he/she is all cocooned in. it's like a baby snuggie, but with feet, and for your stroller. this is pretty awesome for anywhere you'd be taking your little one outdoors, especially before summer gets here.

i'd like to win one. you can too. just head to Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. you have up to 7 chances to enter. btw, i love this blog. it's saved me from many a baby meltdown. Pin It!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

week 6

wearing my sweet sweater suit


full of smiles

playing with my cousin, jason

and cousin, christian

meeting great-grandma priscilla for the first time!


Ian just turned 6 weeks old this week! I can't believe it's been 6 weeks already!! So here's what happened from week 5-6!


Ian discovered his hands this week, he keeps putting them in his mouth. We kept smelling this really weird smell that wasn't coming from his diaper- turns out it was Ian's hands- because he keeps putting them in his mouth- they smell like sour milk. Yuck.


I also learned a really awesome trick for getting Ian to nap. i started implementing it on monday, and it works like a charm- he's napping really well now. thanks to Chronicles of a Babywise Mom


Last weekend we took the 4 hour drive to ft. wayne, indiana- where dave's gma and most of his cousins live. so ian got to meet a lot of his family. we also had some newborn photos made- Dave's cousin and his wife have a photography business. he did really really well!


i had my post-partum appointment this week- it went really well. not as bad as i was expecting. i'm healed, and i'm back on the pill. boo, but it's better than being pregnant again so soon!! although Dave & figured out with our insurance debacle (see past posts if you don't know about that disaster) that if i had another baby THIS year, it would be FREE! i still have to go back again in may for my yearly exam, so i dodged that bullet for now. if i haven't said this before- i love my ob. maybe too much. she is pretty much the coolest chick ever, and i want her to be my friend. maybe i'm just lonely for friends up here, but if i were to ever hang out with her, it would be awesome. and possibly awkward.

so many exciting things have happened this week that i have lots to write about for next week! can't wait to share them all!!

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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Letters to my son, part 2

Dear Ian-

projectile poop while i'm changing your diaper? not funny. ok, a little funny, but mostly not- and gross.

love, mommy

ps. thank you for napping! Pin It!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

maternity photos

i had some fabulous maternity photos made the day before my due date- 2 days before Ian was born (nothing like waiting until the last possible second). the photos were made by Allan Millora and we adore them!

also, omg. i thought i was huge before i got pregnant. i am huge in these pictures-almost to the point of not cute. i'm just glad knowing my son was in my belly makes me look at them a little different. but geez- my face is as pregnant as my belly... i think i gained 30 of my 45 lbs there...

so, here are just a couple of the photos. the rest are on facebook. enjoy!



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