Our Favorite Things - 2 months

Fisher Price Soothe and Glow Seahorse

Love this! It was a gift from my sister in law as recommended by a friend of hers and has been a Godsend. It has become part of our bedtime routine, and works pretty much every time.

It's belly lights up with a soft yellow glow (helpful for finding lost pacifiers before he falls asleep, too) and plays 5 minutes of different sleepy lullabies. They go slower and slower and the light fades away.

I can honestly say that it has become a cue for him that it's bed time (we don't use it during naps) and it helps him chill. There have been only a few times that I've had to play it more than once.

WubbaNub

I have seen babies with these in the past and thought it was the stupidest thing ever.  Boy, was I wrong. 

Best. Invention.  I could kiss whoever thought of this.

Basically, it's purpose has nothing to do with being cute (although they are cute).  It helps to keep the pacifier in the baby's mouth so they don't lose it every 2 point 5 seconds and start crying.  I refer to a previous post about how it is very frustrating to have to stand right next to the baby as he's about to fall asleep and continue to pop the pacifier back in his mouth for fear of a screaming, angry, crying baby.

Ashley and my thoughtful cousin Heather pointed these out to me.  It is pricey at 9.99 (I know for 1 pacifier, a little outrageous) but worth it in the end.  I'm already thinking of buying another one for the babysitter's house.

Crib Mobile

I couldn't understand why people spent so much money on a crib mobile - they even have those ones that run on batteries and cost a whopping 50 bucks.  I just didn't get it.

I take it back. 

How can anyone live without a crib mobile?!

I found one on clearance (not the one in the picture) and Ezra is mesmerized by it every time he sees it.  He could watch those animals go round and round endlessly.  He kicks his little feet to the tune.  It gives me a chance to put away baby clothes, stuff diapers, or even run to the bathroom.

I'm considering saving up for an expensive one - that I don't have to crank every 42 seconds.  And might have a variety of tunes, because, lets face it, how many times can you listen to the same 15 second song without pulling out your hair?

Ezra's Favorite Thing: Himself!!

He would look at himself in this mirror all day if I let him.  He's so vain...

I also have a mirror in his crib and there have been times he's fallen asleep just looking at himself.  It can get him to attempt to roll over too and makes tummy time a little more fun for everyone.

I like this mirror because I can prop it on a table or on the floor next to him and I don't have to mess with velcro.  Also, it doesn't distort his face like a lot of the mirrors on his toys do.  I'm not sure if he likes looking at himself all wonky - but I figure its best for him to get sense of what he actually looks like.

Traumatic Shopping Trip

I don't know if it was more traumatic for me, for Ezra, or for those shopping around us.  If you were one of them, I apologize.

Due to a "situation" on Christmas Eve involving bail money - we needed to return most of the gifts that Mike and I bought for each other.  Anyone who's been to any mall or shopping area the week after Christmas knows that everyone and their brother's mother are doing the very same thing.

I needed to go to Kohls, Target, Crate & Barrel, Macy's and Benny's.  I had the entire trip planned out, and even planned for a stop for Ezra to eat and be changed.  Of course at Kohl's there was a line for returns and Ezra slept right through it, thank goodness.  Then I decided to look around for some work clothes and baby clothes because I had some gift certificates.

Ezra was not happy.  He screamed and screamed and screamed.  If you've met him, you know what I'm talking about.  He doesn't have a cute newborn cry, he has a pissed-at-the-world scream.  So we went into a fitting room and I changed his diaper. Of course he was happy as a clam looking at himself in the mirror.

He hates that car seat.  I think I'm going to have to break out the Jeep stroller and try that out because he HATES being in that seat.  The instant I put him back in he started up again.  I tried pushing him around, swaying the stroller, shoving a pacifier in his mouth.  Nothing worked.  And of course I left my handy Ergo at home.

Target was much of the same.  I thought he was better and I started to look for some things that I was going to exchange, and once I got to the back corner of the store - more screaming.  You'd think I was carrying him around by his baby toe or something.

Lots of dirty looks while I raced to the front door and he screamed all the way out of the parking lot.  I contemplated not taking him to the next stop, about 15 minutes away, but he was calm by the time we exited the parking lot and I figured he'd be fine once I fed him.

I should've skipped the next stop.  We went to the Providence Place Mall.  It was packed.  It took me 30 minutes to find a parking space.  Then we spent 45 minutes in the Nordstrom lounge eating and changing diapers.  Of course the returns couldn't have gone easily.

Then I almost passed out because I was so hungry but the food court was absolutely packed as well.  By the time I got my food, ate, and finished my returns it had been 2 1/2 hours.  I wanted to go home.  But I forgot to pay before I went out to the car, so I had to return and pay for parking.

Then when I attempted to back out of the parking spot, the cars all stopped moving.  For about 45 minutes.  As soon as we got into the car, Ezra started screaming bloody murder.  Like gagging, coughing, red faced, screaming crying.  I was stuck in a parking garage, in a car, with a screaming newborn.

I contemplated getting out and going back in the mall, but it was getting close to rush hour time and I didn't want to be stuck in the parking lot and then stuck in traffic on the highway.  Plus, I wasn't sure that I could make Ezra happy by going back into the mall.  He needed to be calmed by the moving car - but that wasn't happening.  I called my mom in tears.  My claustrophobia kicked in.  I was on the verge of ramming cars and driving the wrong way down the entrance to get out.  I figured we couldn't afford to bail me out of jail and fix the jeep, so I tried my hardest to stay calm.

Fortunately, I didn't reach my complete breaking point, and Ezra had a few 5 minute breaks between screaming sessions.  I felt like a terrible mother.  Who lets their baby scream like that??  I had to choose between stopping, getting out and possibly calming him for 5 minutes until we had to get back in the car, or trying to get out of there as fast as I could so he could sleep in the moving car.

The mall parking garage actually made the 6 o'clock news last night too.  Apparently some people were stuck for up to 3 hours.  I'm glad that I didn't stop, or I might still be stuck in that garage.

I drove straight home, frazzled, frustrated, and tired.  Ezra ate and then was the best baby ever.  He slept for a little bit and Mike came home and let me just lay on the couch and watch my favorite bad reality TV for a little bit.

Hopefully next time I can wait to do my returns until the season dies down a bit - and maybe I'll get a babysitter.

Ezra's first Christmas

Besides for a big snafu on Christmas Eve (I won't get into it), the day was perfect!  Ezra wasn't too cranky, slept long enough for mom to eat her Christmas dinner, and socialized with his family.

He watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with his mom on Christmas Eve.  I'm hoping to make this a mandatory tradition.  We all know I'm a Peanuts fan.

He got lots of great toys for when he gets a little bigger from family and lots of clothes!  The bigger sizes are great because he's already in 6 months clothes - I feel like we'll cruise right through 6 months and be in 9 months before the winter is over.

My cousin who lives far away even made him the cutest elf hat!!  She's been doing a lot of great baby hats - frogs, giraffes, sports teams - but this is the cutest in my opinion!  Let me know if you'd be interested in one - I can get you in touch.

He loved that Santa put together his Excersaucer for him to play with Christmas morning. (and Santa had a hard time, he told me.  Those things are almost impossible to put together without losing a finger!)  He also enjoyed crinkling wrapping paper.

It looks like he's paying attention to his present, but really he's just staring at those darn pandas.

"These Pandas won't stop staring at me!"

Baby torture- but it must be done..

I think he even made a new friend:

Wordless Thursday: Final Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

2 Months Old!!

Before we start, I just want to point out a new feature to the right.  There is a subscription box.  I'm only going to post the important posts on facebook - or something particularly cute - so if you'd like to keep up with my rants on a more regular basis, just put in your email in the box and you'll get an email every time I update.

Ezra did amazing at his 2 month visit.  He smiled and coo'ed at the doctor, showed off his excellent head control, and even survived his shots (better than I did.  I almost cried when I saw his angry red face.  Broke my heart).

So here's the stats:
Weight:14 pounds 12 ounces
Height: 23 1/2 inches
Head Circumference: 16 inches


Eats: He's pretty consistently eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, except at night.  Since his 6 week growth spurt my milk supply has gone down quite a bit, and I'm not getting quite as much milk when I pump.  This worries me for when I go back to work in 2 weeks, I'm sure I'll have more to say about that in 2 weeks.  When we give him a bottle he usually eats between 5 and 6 oz.

Sleeps: (Danielle, you might not want to read this section, I apologize in advance, and send you sleepy baby vibes)He's a great sleeper. Honestly, God has sent me the perfect baby in this department.  We can usually get between 6 and 8 hours at night.  I attribute this to his chubbiness.  I guess it's like hibernation.  Our night time routine is: eat (between 7 and 9), bath, jammies, a little play time, diaper change, sometimes a story, swaddle/pacifier/seahorse in the crib (I'll tell you about the seahorse in 2 months favorite things).  This usually works - but Ezra is not a boy that likes to follow the schedule.

We are having napping issues, however.  He isn't really napping for more than a half and hour to an hour at a time, which would be fine if he didn't wake up with cranky pants on.  He gets the most angry/frustrated when he's tired.  His little eye lids get red and he just can't always get himself to sleep or to stay asleep no matter all the rocking, bouncing, swinging we do.  I imagine that will get better the more of a schedule he can get himself on.

He's still in our room right now, but I'm having a hard time with the transition this month.  I've been putting him in the pack n play for naps, too, so when I do try to put him to sleep in his crib he's not happy. I will probably fight this battle the week after Christmas, before I go to work.  (I'm going to repeat this to myself all week so that I follow through)


Likes: He loves to flirt and look at people.  He's such a smiler now and he's even cooing and blowing bubbles.  It's the cutest thing. Ever.

He loves the mobile we bought for his crib.  I swear he could watch it all day and never get bored.  He kicks his little feet to the music and cries when it stops.

He also likes looking in mirrors.  Whether its checking out the reflections from the lights or looking at himself (he's so vain), he always finds the mirrors in the room.  When we do tummy time, it really helps to put a mirror in front of him to get him to lift his head.

Dislikes: He does not like being tired.  Usually when he's cranky he's tired.  But he also doesn't like falling asleep.  I know, it doesn't make sense and I've tried explaining that to him.  It's like he's afraid he'll miss something or he just can't get comfortable.  Also, the same thing never seems to work twice.  Walking, swinging, rocking, swaddling - it's different every time. 

Milestones: The smiles are amazing.  Big, gummy smiles.  Love them.  He smiles at just about everyone, even the dogs sometimes.

He has made an attempt to roll over a few times but gets stuck on his side.  He's definitely better going from back to tummy.

He's discovered his hands, but he's not really using them.  He does grab things that touch his hands (like my hair, nose, or lips - fun).  And he's started sucking on them when I'm not fast enough with the pacifier.  A few times I've caught him sucking his thumb.  Totally adorable - hopefully he can kick the habit sooner than I did. ;)

Here are some 2 month photos for your viewing pleasure:

Look at him lift his head!

almost over

Look at that belly!

Monkey see, monkey do

Perfect smile :)

Ezra's first Santa visit

Mike had to go to a Dr's appointment on Friday, so he took the opportunity to take the day off so we could take Ezra to see Santa together minus the crazy crowds.  We only had to dodge other moms with strollers - sometimes they can be a little crazy - but we got through it all unscathed.

It was nice to spend the day together as a family and Bass Pro Shops does a great job with their Santa's workshop set up.  We even got to go to Red Robin for lunch.  Yummmm!

Here's the cutie:

And Daddy took the opportunity to try and get Ezra on a 4-wheeler before we left.  Could he look any happier??

Hopefully Daddy will wait a few years before buying one of these for him. (Although, I think Mike would really be buying it so he could ride it, too)

I love the holidays!!

Breastfeeding... in public

Since this is the Christmas season, it was absolutely necessary for me to take little Ezra on a shopping trip this week.  And no matter how much I planned ahead, I ended up spending more time than I'd planned, which meant Ezra got hungry... at the mall.

I won't mention the name of the mall but for those of you familiar with the area that I'm in, it is a mall that is very close to my house and bears the name of a certain gemstone.

With a screaming baby, I calmly walked to the main desk at the mall and asked if there was a mother's room or a place in the mall that would work for breastfeeding.  The young man at the desk said "No, but JC Penney's bathrooms are fairly clean."

Ummmm, would you eat your lunch there????

Can you just picture me, sitting on the toilet in the bathroom feeding a baby.  Very sanitary.

I was surprised that he couldn't point me in the direction of one of those bathrooms with a lounge area like you might find in a Nordstrom, and I wasn't aware of one that wasn't actually inside the bathroom.  So this means I'm going to breastfeed in public.

I found a lonely bench outside of Sears, covered up, and started feeding the baby.  What surprised me the most, was how obviously uncomfortable I made many of the other shoppers.  Many would look at me and then quickly look away, I even got a few dirty looks.

Anyone who knows me, knows that in situations like these - I tend to speak my mind.  I almost whipped the cover off and started feeding him out in the open, but nudity isn't my thing, even if it's incidental.  Plus, I don't want to make a scene and I still had a lot of shopping to do so getting kicked out wasn't really an option either. 

I'm surprised, in these days, where you can watch a TV program that shows scenes that are basically soft-core pornography at 9 pm on a weeknight - people were throwing me dirty looks for feeding my kid with my boob in public. Yeesh.

I'm also surprised that in all my years of frequenting said mall, even four years of working there, that I've seldom seen a mom breastfeeding her baby.  I've since been told that one of the stores might have one of those lounge areas, I will be checking that out another day.  You can be sure I'm going to write the mall a letter in the meantime!

So, I'm curious.  What are your thoughts on breastfeeding in public? Never? maybe? covered? uncovered? only in certain places? 

FYI, if you want to leave a comment and you don't use google whatever, you can leave it anonymously and just put your name, or not.  :)

Cloth Diapers 101

Recently CBS news did a segment about cloth diapers that was not entirely favorable (see it here).  The cloth diapering community was up in arms about it so one of the anchors of the show decided to take on a 30 day cloth diaper challenge.  She blogged about it here and has actually admitted to be "converted."

Here's the video:
CBS News: Pros and Cons of Cloth Diapers

It goes through all the different types of cloth diapers, from basic prefolds to all-in-ones, and discusses cleaning as well.  (please ignore the gift giving segment at the end, lol).  But if you're new to cloth diapering, this can give you a basic overview of the types.  And trust me, there are very few moms who cloth diaper that never use disposables, so don't let them guilt you.

If you're considering trying it, I can answer any of your questions.  And I can promise you, it's not as scary (or messy) as it seems. :)

Worst Mom Ever Moment

I just almost clipped off the tip of my kid's finger while clipping his nails.  There was a little blood and a lot of screaming and tears (from both of us).  I feel terrible!!  I always hate clipping his nails and now I'm petrified to keep going with the remaining 4 fingers.

Hopefully he won't have an irrational fear of fingernail clippers and turn out to be a weird long fingernailed man.  Please tell me I haven't damaged him for life!!

Worst.Mom.Ever. :(

P.S. This is my 100th post!!! Wow!!  (I probably should've had a better post for 100, and made this one 101, oh well)

Things someone should invent...

Just a few things that are necessity from my experience - although I'm not sure any of them can really be invented. :)

A pacifier holder - to keep it in the baby's mouth.  To be honest, in moments of frustration, I've thought about putting a rubber band around the kids head for .4 seconds, but I do realize that would not be safe at all.  (don't worry, you don't need to call Child Protective Services)  There is nothing more frustrating than having to pee sooooo bad, and having a baby that is almost asleep but starts to cry every time the pacifier falls out.  You know if you go to the bathroom, you'll have a screaming baby and be back to square one (where you were an hour ago, with a tired baby who won't go to sleep).

A What the Heck is Wrong with Me? Monitor - it sits near the baby and picks up "vibes" so we parents know what the heck is wrong with the baby.  Some options could be gas, reflux, boredom, wet/dirty diaper, I'm mad at you for something, tiredness, etc.

This should also have an "Yes I'm done pooping" alert as well.  No one likes to be pooped on (just ask my mom, my brother pooped in her hair one time, don't ask my why her hair was anywhere near his naked butt) and no one likes to have to change a diaper three times in 10 minutes because you thought your kid was done pooping.  It's not so bad with cloth because at least you know you're not just throwing away money, you can wash and reuse.  If possible, an "I'm about to pee" alert would help, too, because I already took a shower today, thank you.

A car seat with a vibration feature - this one comes from Mike.  All I can say is the vibration feature on any of our baby equipment is fabulous, it's basically a Quiet button.  For whatever reason, Ezra looooves to be shaken up.  We have been in restaurants and stores with the baby in the car seat and he starts to fuss and you know he won't remember what the pacifier is until he's screaming bloody murder at which point people start staring and talking.  Taking him out of the seat makes it worse because you have to bend his arms and apparently he doesn't like that - all we'd need is a quiet button.

A handle for the bouncy seat - because no matter how many times I do it, I always pick it up by the toy bar which promptly comes detached so the bouncy seat falls on the floor - baby not included, obviously.  Those things are nearly impossible to carry one handed, while carrying a baby (and possibly some laundry).

A spit-up measurer - every time we go to the doctor they ask me how much spit up he has, and all I can think is I have no freaking clue, I didn't have time to grab the measuring cups to catch his spit up in.  If I was in a cranky mood, I'd probably say "enough to run about 6 inches down my shirt" or something to that effect.  They usually throw out something like "a shot glass? a table spoon? a mouthful?" and I just pick one because, really, I have no freaking clue.

6 weeks old today

Wow, time flies when you're changing diapers, feeding a baby, and losing sleep.  Just kidding... it feels much longer than 6 weeks.  ;)  I kid, I kid.  It really does go by fast - and I apologize for sounding like every mother you've ever met.

The little guy is going through his 6 week growth spurt, I think, and is super cranky and hungry.  He's cluster feeding which means he's eating less at each feeding but eating more often.  It's exhausting.  You really can't get anything done when you're breastfeeding.

And I feel like a crazy person, as usual, trying to cram a pacifier in his mouth, bounce him around, or whatever to keep him calm.  Right now he's sleeping in my Ergo carrier while I type this. 

So as far as development goes, everything seems on target.  6 weeks is supposed to be the crankiest time of all, I'm hoping.  Word of advice to those of you that are not yet moms, don't sign up for weekly emails to let you know what you're baby is supposed to be doing at each week.  They're fun when you're pregnant and you can't actually see if they are developing eyelashes or fingernails on time.  When you can actually see that your baby has not yet done whatever thing they are saying he should be doing, it's just asking for trouble (i.e. frantic phone call to your pediatrician/mom/friend).

I'm noticing that he's much more alert when he's awake and looking around.  He notices his hands a lot, which is cute, but he's not really using them to grab things or touch things from what I can tell.  It still seems like he's whacking his toys by accident or involuntary jerk.  He's smiling at people more which is definitely awesome.  I love to see a smile, it makes all the crying worth it!

Here he's smiling at his Memere (grandmother for those of you who are not French Canadian) on Thanksgiving.

He's also almost grown out of his 3 months clothes, I'm about ready to break out the 6 months clothes and just deal with them being a little big.  His feet stretch out the end of his feety pajamas.  It's cute!

Here's some more Ezra photos for your enjoyment:

How cute is his Thanksgiving outfit??

Dad's birthday

A smile for Mommy

How cute is this outfit for church??

This is my favorite picture (taken a few weeks ago, doesn't he look different already?)