First Shots

So today was the day I was somewhat dreading.  Ethan had his first shots today.  Surprisingly he did well.  Of course, he screamed, but quickly settled down as I held him very close and tight to me.  I gave him some Advil (infant) to take the pain away and keep the fever down.  He is running a low grade fever, but nothing to be concerned about.

He slept for most of the day today and was in pretty good spirits considering the situation.  We had lots of smiles and cooing/laughs.  (Not really laughs, but they kinda sound like it lol).  

We went and visited a friend today. He slept the entire time we were there, but we still stared at him!  She has an Anatoulin Shepherd, and she is such a docile and beautiful dog.  I can't wait until Ethan can sit on her so we can take pictures :D

Afterwards, we went for a walk.  He slept again.  I figured the cool (warm lol) air would be good for him and for his fever.

I have discovered that he LOVES when we talk about his day.  He listens so intently, almost like he understands!  I read Grama's email to him as well and he just loved that too.  SO I guess it's time to finally whip out the books!  I am so excited to do that :)

I just love being a mom.  It's the greatest, rewarding feeling in the world.  He melts my heart.

One for Every Two

It seems we have one bad day with Ethan and then two really good days.  He is dealing with his crabbiness a bit better now though - we can get a few good smile sessions out of him.

Today was a crabby day.  Nona had him for the majority of the day.  I picked him up at 4:30pm and he was pretty crabby ever since.  (Except bath time and baby massage time of course).  He slept on me for a bit.  He went down at 9:30pm tonight though....this is progress.  He is making a lot of noise in his crib, but no crying (yet - it's 10:45pm).  I went to check on him and the poor guy was laying in a pool of puke :(  I cleaned him up and moved him over and he fell right back to sleep.  I think something is up with his stomach.


(I wanted to insert a picture here but stupid BlackBerry doesn't want to email it to me.....it's a cute one too)

I am hoping the dairy is almost out of my system.  For the most part, I have been avoiding all dairy, but I did have a little nibble of something with cheese in it (probably a total of 1 tbsp of cheese in it).  It's not really that hard but still kinda sucks.  I have been enjoying Daiya cheese though and it agrees well with me.

Ethan goes for his first set of vaccinations tomorrow.  I think he will do okay but I am still nervous for him.  Paco had his shots tonight and he is doing fine, a little bummed out, but he did well - no crying :) He is nice and quiet and calm, which is really nice for us lol.

I'll give an update tomorrow on the little guy and how he did at the doctor's office.  Cross your fingers he did well :)

3 Years...

For three years, Ryan and I have been married.  I remember our day like it was yesterday - married at Wynn in Las Vegas and reception at Lawry's Prime Rib Restaurant.  It was almost the best day of my life (next to Ethan's birth of course), and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Happy Anniversary Ryan - I love you.

Eight Weeks Ago....

I was snuggling our newborn, welcoming him into this big world with the promise that I was going to take care of him for his lifetime.

Ethan is 8 weeks old today.  He has entered his third month of life.....it amazing me how far he has come since we first brought him home.  He has changed so much, but I only know through photo documentation.  He still feels the same to me and looks the same and smells the same (oh so yummy!).

We are working on daytime naps...it's not going so well.  He will sleep EXACTLY 30 minutes if he is alone, and two hours plus if he is on a person.  Really, I don't mind if he sleeps on me, but sometimes I have stuff to do - like use the bathroom, eat or pump!  When he does go down for those 30 minutes, I rush to get everything done because I know he is going to wake up.  Sometimes I wonder if he senses my anticipation of him waking.

The funny thing is, when he is at my mom's or mother in laws, he will sleep for two hours or more - in a crib.  It baffles me.  I must be REALLY exciting to be around :)

I found this article on the internet regarding baby sleep patterns and how they differ from ours.  I found it helpful in understanding how our little ones sleep.

He seems to have bedtime down pat though.  Last night was the first night we had an issue in over a month.  He woke up at 11pm and cried for about 5 minutes, then I put him back to sleep.  I want to start getting him down earlier because I know he needs the extra sleep, but I am going to wait until Ryan is on afternoons (1 week), that way I can spend time up in the nursery with him and not feel bad for being away for so long  The pups can hang out with us too :)

Happy (2 Month) Birthday Little Man!  Mommy LOVES you :)

Oh to Dream...

Last night we had a successful "Dream Feed".  I woke up at 3:30am to pump.  When I finished, Ethan was fussing a bit.  I knew he was starting to wake up so I warmed a bottle and brought it up to his room.  I picked him up and nestled him close to me and gently eased his lips.  He opened, I fed him, and he was just barely conscious as I fed him.  When he was finished, I placed him back in his crib and he slept until 8:45am.   I am hoping to accomplish this again tonight.

He was such a happy baby today.  He hardly cried unless he needed to be fed.  I think his cheeks hurt from smiling s much!!!  Lets hope for another blissful day tomorrow!

Cuddles

I don't think our little guy was feeling well yesterday.  It was a pretty stressful day for the both of us.  Non-stop crying, always wanted to be held and wouldn't go to sleep.....these take a toll on mom as well.  We finally got him to bed at 10:30pm and he slept pretty good until 4:30am.  He took 3/4 of a bottle and is now restless in his crib.

I cleared his nose with the Hydrasense nasal spray for infants.  He hates it but it works wonders.  There was so many little boogies that came out of his nose, poor guy.  The humidifier is on as well.  Sometimes don't you just wish babies could talk...just to tell you what's wrong so you can fix their problems...I do!

I am always on a site called CafeMom.  There are different "rooms" where people post different topics about different things about babies, and I can ask questions as well.

I came across a post where someone asked about items that were a waste of money.  I am amazed at some of the things people didn't find useful.  Some things like a crib (yes, really), a change table (ok give or take on that one), a car seat (come on), and a glider are four things that I could not live without.

I have to admit, I went through my registry with a fine toothed comb and made sure I only registered for things that we really needed or things I knew would be useful.

There are a few things I could live without, if needed.  For example:

Infant shoes:  They are super cute, and make good pictures, but really, they are not practical.  He is a newborn and wears sleepers.  Sidenote: we did receive a pair of Adidas shoes as a gift from a friend, and I'm absolutely in love with them :) I can't wait until he can wear them so I can take photographs of him in them!!

Mamaroo:  He absolutely hates this thing.  I don't see what's so bad about it.  It looks so comfy and cozy! It's currently a storage spot for his toys.

Swing:  Again, hates it.  Sometimes we can get him in there, but mostly he screams.  Thankfully this was a borrowed item.  We keep trying and find it's better if it's in front of the television (lol).  It's fine if he doesn't like these items but sometimes we just have to get something done and it's really hard to do things one handed!  Today he decided to take a half hour nap, but as you can see he isn't strapped in, so I have to be right in front of him the entire time.  He knows how to shimy himself down.

Baby Grooming Set:  Really, just buy a thermometer.  That's all you need.  I used the baby brush as well to brush the scales off his head from his cradle cap.

Some items that are a "luxury" but I use daily would be:

A Wipes Warmer.  In reality, no, I do not need one.  He is perfectly fine with a cool cloth on his bottom.  But it gives me peace of mind that it's warm, especially if he needs a change at night.  The main reason why I wanted the wipes warmer was for when we start our cloth diapering and we use the cloth wipes.  It keeps the solution warm and the cloth warm - I think that would be a bit cold on a little tushie!

Crib Set.  No, I didn't 'need this', but it was the setting for the theme of our room, and super cute.  It came with a Bumper Pad, and I do not use that, but we found a place for it below the mattress and it looks great in my opinion.  The comforter as well was something that is not recommended, but it's large enough to cuddle him as we glide in the glider.

Monitor:  Our house is small enough that we don't need the monitor.  It will probably come in handy during the summer months however, when we are outside and baby is sleeping inside. But for now, we can literally hear him breathing in our room without the monitor.  (Rooms are next to each other). And I can hear him downstairs if the tv isn't too loud.  I don't have one of those fancy ones that has the video monitoring and the movement monitoring.  I think it would drive me nuts to always know that he stopped moving for 2 seconds.....because he is SLEEPING!

A couple items that I could not live without:

Swaddlers:  These are our saving grace when Ethan is having a cranky pants day.  They also keeps him asleep at night and during naps.  It calms him when he is screaming at us.  It helps with breastfeeding.  It's really a life saver.  I plan to stop using them soon however, because I don't want to risk him rolling over while they are on him.  So we will see how that goes....

Pacifier:  Again, it keeps us sane.  He took some time getting used to it, but now he always uses it.  I know, people have a love it or hate it approach to it, and I have always said I wouldn't give my child a pacifier, but really..... when your baby is screaming, and this little contraption soothes the heck out of him, I'm going to let it go and give him one.  Hopefully we can wean him off of it at four months, but if not, then he can sooth himself with it and we will just keep trying.

Breast Pump:  This is one of the most important items I have.  Without it, my baby wouldn't get the most nutritious thing I could provide for him - breast milk.  If this broke down on me, I would have no choice but to run out and buy one as soon as possible.

Moby Wrap:  It comforts him and I am able to get stuff done.  He will fall asleep in 15 seconds when put in this wrap. Enough said.

Breast Milk Storage Bags:  I make a lot of milk, and I need somewhere to store this milk.  They are expensive, and I'm trying to figure out a different system to store the milk, but for now these bags will have to do.  They are sterile and perfect for storage.  Again, just expensive.

Things I think I"m going to love, but haven't gotten to the point of using yet:

Baby Brezza: it steams and purees food for baby - meat, grains and produce.  I plan to make all my baby's food so I think this will be a hit in my books.

Jolly Jumper:  He already likes to jump when we have him in our arms so I could only imagine (and hope) that he will like the Jolly Jumper!

Other people may have other views on this topic, and that's awesome and perfectly fine.  I don't judge.  This is just my personal list and my personal preferences and hopefully it will help some moms to be decide on what they should register for and what they should disregard

Mommy Monday

I am assigning my mondays as "Mommy Monday".  This is the day where I am going to make my appointments, clean the house, attend Weight Watchers, go to the gym, shower AND wash my hair/straighten my hair, and hopefully meet with a friend for lunch or coffee.

I drop Ethan off at my mom's house between 8:30 - 9:00am, and go about my day.  Do I miss him?  Of course - as soon as I turn around and walk away I want to go right back in and grab him and bring him with me.... but I know he is in safe hands, and I know I need this time to myself.  Plus I think it's good for him, for socialization and for assurance that he can be without me for a bit only to find out I will be right back there to bring him home at the end of the day.

It's funny though, because on my Mommy Monday, I find that there is not enough time for me to do everything!  Today was pretty busy.  I had two appointments (OB and Eye).  My OB appointment was fine - I was cleared of good health, and according to their records, I have officially lost the baby weight.... now I just have to work on the extra 20 pounds I put on before I had the baby!  At my eye appointment, it was confirmed that my eyes changed - not so much in sight but in size....I know, weird.   I was having a problem seeing - it seemed as though I couldn't see as well, but it was due to my eye size changing and my contacts being too small.  Since my contact brand is discontinued, and I can't seem to find a pair that feels good on my eyes (I've always had a problem with other contact lens brands), I found THESE super cute Juicy Couture Eyeglasses (In Deep Plum) .  At Weight Watchers, I lost another 2 pounds, so a total of 5 pounds in 2 weeks :D

As for Ethan, I (we) saw a huge change in him today.  He was a HAPPY baby today.  He only cried when he was hungry or tired.  The smiles were constant and he was 'talking' a lot.  In his bath (favorite place to be these days), he saw Daddy and got a huge grin.  It's such a wonderful feeling.

I exchanged the baby monitor tonight.  We had the Safety 1st Digital 1st Monitor and it was a piece of crap.  We couldn't take the constant static it produced.  So I got the Graco Secure Digital Monitor.  I have to charge it  for 16 hours before I can even turn it on, but my mother in law has this one and it's great.   I think the best one is the one my mom has.  It's a really old one and it's crystal clear.  It's great.  If I could take that one I would!  But we will try this one out. We really don't use it much.  Just when we are downstairs while he goes down at 10pm and I turn it on when I pump in the middle of the night.  If he decides to nap in his crib during the day I use it as well.... but we are still working on those naps.  Regardless, it's nice to not have to hear static for those hours that it's on.

Now it's time for an episode of Dexter, a nice warm tea, and pretty soon a nice, cool & crisp bed :)  Let's home for another 10 hours of sleep tonight - yes you read that right....he has been sleeping for 10 hours nightly (with one feed)....before the feed, he sleeps a good 7 - 7.5 hours.  After the feed, he gets another good 3 - 3.5 hours.  I almost thing I got too much sleep because I had the "I slept too much I feel hung over" feeling.... or wait, maybe it's just the fact that I wasn't sleeping much and I'm just not used to it ;)

Our day...

Today we had a fun day at Nonna's and Grandpa's house. (My dad doesn't want to be called Nonno because he's not Italian lol).  Ethan did pretty good there - had a nap, was happy when people held him.  Then he got cranky because he was tired and everybody was cooing at him.  So we packed up and went home.

He slept in his car seat for 4 hours...strapped in.  I felt bad because I figured he would only sleep for about 20 minutes.....then 20 minutes passed and I thought maybe an hour......well 4 hours later he woke up.  He was fine. I checked on him every 20 minutes and felt his body - he was not sweaty or hot.... cool as a cucumber!

During this time, I pumped and then had a nice relaxing glass of wine!  (Yes it's okay - I had plenty of time in between for the alcohol to leave my body.)

We had fun with the bath.  He really, really enjoys his baths at night.  I almost think he looks forward to them :)

 He did not like getting out of the tub however..... even when he was wrapped up in his 3Sprouts Monkey Towel.  It's super fluffy and cozy and absorbs the water so fast.  It's my favourite towel of his.

We went upstairs, he got his little massage...he liked that but was in no mood to play.  So I dressed him, swaddled him, sprayed his bedding with Saje Fairy Mist and brought him downstairs for his top up feeding.

I put him down at 9:30pm tonight.  He fussed by himself, let out a few little cries. When I went upstairs to check on him, he soothed himself back to sleep.  So I went downstairs.  He did it again 10 minutes later, so again, I ran upstairs, and peeked in his room, and he put himself back to sleep.  I think this is a little milestone - at least in my books it is!

Now I'm just hanging out with the pups and waiting to pump before I head to bed.....only to get up in 4 hours so I can pump again regardless if Ethan wakes or not.  This happened last night - I got up before he was up to pump and it worked out perfectly.  I went back to sleep and woke up a half hour later when he was hungry....fed him quickly and went right back to bed.

Lets hope tonight is an easy night as well.  He didn't eat too much today (I mean, he ate enough and more than he was eating before, but I'm not sure if he "tanked up" before bed).  In the Baby Whisperer, she mentions a dream feed, but the bugger goes down so late that I'm not going to wait until 1am to "dream feed him".... (this is done when the baby is still sleeping and in a very groggy sleep).  She also mentions to cluster feed 4 hours before bedtime.  So for example, he goes to bed at 10, so I would feed him a bottle at 5pm and 7pm, then do the dream feed at 11pm.  That doesn't work well so he gets fed at 6pm and 8pm, and then he tops up after his bath.  Works well so we're sticking to it!

I slacked in the photo department today.  I didn't take any at my moms and I didn't want to wake him in the carrier, so you only get bath photos tonight :)  They're cute so it's okay!!

Good night (in a half hour or so for me!)

7 Weeks....

I can't believe my little man is 7 weeks old today..... I mean really, where did the time go?  I still remember like it was yesterday when we brought him home from the hospital.  The funny thing is, I can't remember really, how small he was.  But I do know he is much bigger now.  Three pounds makes a difference lol!! Too bad it doesn't make a difference when I LOSE three pounds ;)

I think he is going through a growth spurt.  He has been eating every 2 hours on the dot, and 3 ounces each time.  Last night he slept for 7.5 hours straight - not waking up.  That was nice!  All of his sleepers are getting short on him - I may have to start cutting the feet off of them!  He spends most of his days in just a diaper shirt though because he is swaddled for his naps.  It's a good excuse to put some cute pants and hoodies on him though when he's out of the swaddler!  He's so darn cute! (The sleeper is from Auntie Kortney, and no, what it says is not true!)

We had a pizza night tonight.  It was good.  I cut out dairy from my diet because I shouldn't be eating it anyway and I want to see if it helps with Ethan's gassy stomach.  I made mine with Daiya "cheese" and it was great - you would never know it wasn't cheese.  Didn't melt too great but it was still gooey when you pulled the pizza apart.  Anyway, Ethan wasn't going down for a nap so he made the pizza with me while he was in the Moby!

Mmmm..... pizza.... they didn't have 'mozzarella', so I had to go with 'cheddar'

Poor guy has a huge scratch on his face from his sharp little nails, and he broke out in a rash that gets even more irritated when he is screaming his head off.  (That seemed to be the norm today).  It must be painful when you grow :(  He was not interested in sleeping in his crib either today.... he would go down for a maximum of 30 minutes.  So he had a nap with dad and the dogs.

Anyway that's all that's really going on here.  I'm trying to update daily now, so if you are an avid reader, then check back often, because there will probably be pictures and posts up :)

Date Night

Ryan and I are making it a ritual to go out every Friday night for date night.  We wait until Ethan wakes up, has a feed, gets changed and play with him for a bit.  We strap him up in his car seat and bring him to one of our sets of parents house.  From there we go for dinner and sometimes meet up with friends after dinner for drinks (pop and water for me of course).


I'm not going to say it's easy to leave the little munchkin, but it's definitely a nice feeling to know he is in safe hands while my husband and I can spend some quality alone time together.... I mean, we pretty much talk about him but it's still nice to get out of the house and just be alone for a few hours.  It is also really nice when we can meet up with friends and have adult conversations!  (Again, we talk about Ethan, but at least I don't have to talk in a high pitched baby talk voice!).

I have to say though, I really can't wait until I can come get him and cuddle him in my arms, give him a little bit of milk while he nestles close to my chest and send him off to dreamland.  I love hearing his little breaths and quivers as he falls deeper into his sleep.  Then I put him in his crib, which he looks so little, but so comfy in, slowly close his door and give one last peek before I head back downstairs.

When I head back upstairs to bed, I peek again, just to look at him, listen to his breaths, and drift off to dreamland myself......which is exactly what I'm going to do right now :)

Good night

Random Thoughts...

I'm sitting here, it's 10:30pm and I'm not tired.  Ethan and Ryan are both passed out in their beds and I'm here thinking of what to do!  (Plus I have to wait about an hour before I need to pump again before I join Ryan in bed so I figured I'd blog some random thoughts from the past few days).

I seem to constantly come up with excuses as to why Ethan is fussy, crying, etc.  So my latest one is that he had some sort of stomach bug.  I had one a couple days ago, so automatically, I assume he did too.  Here is why:

       - he has not been eating much (maybe 1.5 oz per feeding).  NOW he is eating like a a fein. He downs  
         3 oz like nothing ( but no more - that's is number).

       - yesterday he just wanted to be cuddled.  He took a nap in the Moby Wrap for 3 hours.  I honestly
         don't mind, and i do feel bad that he is constantly napping in his crib, but in reality, walking around
         with 11 extra pounds strapped to my front is a bit heavy.  Plus he sleeps better when in his crib.

        - he has had massive explosive poops....and I mean huge.  To the point we had to strip him down and    
          wash him under the bathtub faucet.  Today he is back to normal.

        - he would cringe in pain out of nowhere and then let out a huge scream.  Now he is just dealing with
           it.

         - he would constantly cry, or whimper and just look at me with sad eyes.  Now he just screams at me
           lol.

Maybe he didn't and if he did, I'm sure it could have been much worse.  He was also sweaty, and I thought he had a fever, but I tested and he didn't.  He is just a hot, sweaty baby! (like his dad).

I have decided to eliminate dairy out of my diet....I mean everything - milk, cheese, yogurt, anything hidden in foods.  I have an advantage because (a) I'm allergic to milk protein so I shouldn't be eating it anyway, and (b) Since I was a vegan for a year, I know most of the hidden dairy in most of the foods we eat.  We eat pretty healthy and pretty wholesome so there isn't too much that can hide in our foods. I'm hoping this helps with the gassiness for Ethan.  And if not, then it's just a bonus for me because I will feel better too!

We have a great night routine going on.  It goes something like this.

He wakes up from his afternoon nap and hangs out with Dad.  He gets changed, fed and played with.

After his bath (8:00pm), we go upstairs, and he gets his massage with the Dimpleskins Sweet Cheeks Body Balm in Vanilla & Lavender.  We play for a bit on his change table and we have this new thing.....it's kind of odd, but he loves it.  We play with his tongue.  Yep.  I run my finger along his lips, and he sticks his tongue out and licks my finger.  I know, again, sounds weird, but whatever makes my boy happy!

When we are finished the tongue game, he gets wrapped in his swaddler and we hang out for a while.  I give him his last bottle, and he drinks what he can.  I still try to put him down at 9pm, but clearly it's not going to happen.  So we go downstairs and hang out with dad and AS SOON as 10pm hits, he is out like a light.... I mean turns into a limp noodle. So up in his crib he goes and we are good until about 4am.

SIDE NOTE:  It's great when I have friends working midnights at work because I can just call them up and I'll always have someone to talk to :)  I think I miss work a bit, but I am still happy to have a year off (possibly a bit more if I decide to go back next January).

When I put him down, I do my last pumping until he wakes up.  Since breast milk can stay out for 6-8 hours, it works out perfectly.  I bring that milk upstairs with me, and when he has his wake up at 4, I quickly warm it up under the tap to get it to room temperature, and he has his quick feed.  Since he doesn't take much, I am thinking his wake up is becoming a habit, but he is too young to assume that just yet.  I will give it 6 more weeks, and then try to wean him off the early morning feeding.

After I feed him, I go downstairs, pump and go back to bed until the morning...usually 7 or 8 a.m.  Then our day starts.  It's pretty boring since we are "sleep training" right now.  He sleeps a lot right now, and I put him down as soon as he starts to yawn.  I love when I can get him to nap downstairs, but there is too much stimulation and he doesn't get a proper nap.  So usually he is in his crib.  He does two cat naps (about 1 hour long) and then he does a nice long 3 hour nap.  And that brings us to the evening where it all starts again.

I have been going to the gym quite a bit.  Ryan is good for getting me out of the house.  I started back at yoga, and I love it.  I feel as though it will get my body toned back up and my insides to heal.  It is amazing that almost 7 weeks post partum, I am still sore.  My stomach feels raw inside and my back aches, but yoga stretched all that out and I feel so great. (I'm a little sore, but that's to be expected)  I'm hoping to make it to a class tomorrow, but if not then Saturday for sure.  I'm still constantly losing weight.  I am down another half pound since Monday. It feels good to know that I can lose the weight.  I would still like to lose 20 pounds after I lose the baby weight (4.5 pounds to go!), but I plan to take a few months to do that.

Our little guy is going to be 7 weeks in 2 days.  It's crazy how fast time flies.  The "books" say a baby reaches their peak for crying at 6 weeks, and I totally agree.  We reached that peak, and I'm looking forward to the downward slope.  Ethan is quite gassy and it seems as though now he is dealing with his gassiness.  He doesn't cry when he gets the gurgles.  I notice now he squirms less too.  I thought that maybe he was colic, but now I'm thinking not since we can console him very quickly.

He grows so much every day and his face changes week to week.  My little boy is growing so quickly and as sad as it is that pretty soon, he will no longer be a newborn, it's so exciting that we are going to be able to celebrate so many milestones in his future.

I love you baby!!!!

Routine & Napping

Not much has been going on this week in terms of baby news.  We are still working on the E.A.S.Y. routine and it seems to be going well.  I am reading another book, "The Happiest Baby on the Block".  Her focus is the 5 S's, which work well with the E.A.S.Y. routine.  What ever happened to putting your baby to bed lol.  There's all these terms and acronyms now, and in reality, it's probably what our parent's did for us when we were babies.

The 5 S's are:

Suckling
Swinging
Sushing
Side/Stomach
Swaddling

We have been following these and I swear, he is calm and quiet almost instantly.  He now sleeps during the day (mid afternoon) for 3 hours, and before and after, about 1 hour here and there.  He is still sleeping well during the night (an average of 8 hours, with a feeding in between).

I have also been recording his Sleeping and Eating times and information so I can see what his patterns are like.  I have a feeling he is not eating enough during the day, but I want to make sure since he feeds a little bit each feed.  For all I know, they add up to a full day's feeding.

Ethan had his second outing to restaurant.  We went with a friend for lunch, and we went to Taloola.  It's an eclectic little place that serves mostly vegetarian, sustainable food - my kind of place.  They have an array of teas and awesome sandwiches, amazing soups, and a new menu item - small plates.  We shared three of them, and had three hours worth of conversation.  Ethan did not have one meltdown.  He was so "zen" lol.  He chilled to the music (very yoga inspired) and people watched, but he mostly slept.

We started to bring him to Nonna's house on Monday's so I can get some much needed alone time.  I joined Weight Watchers, so my morning starts out with getting Ethan ready and heading to my mom's to drop him off.  After Weight Watchers, I head to the gym.  Then I met with a friend for coffee and headed home to clean the house.  I felt good and comfortable leaving him, but at the same time, I missed him terribly by the end of the day.  I couldn't wait to get there to see him.  I walked in to Ethan propped up on a pillow watching television....really, how cute is that!  I captured him making a silly face, but he was very content.

And even on the ride home, we didn't hear a peep!

He had a fun and tiring day at Nonna's because when we came home, he hung out with dad for a bit and fell asleep in his swing.... he has been in his swing for over 3 hours now downstairs. We swaddled him up in his Summer Infant Swaddle Me, and thought we'd get maybe half an hour of sleep time.  Whoops!  So someone (me) might be sleeping on the couch tonight until he wakes up.  The logical thing would be to bring him up to his room, but I'd hate to wake him when he's so snug and comfy in there.  I know he has no problem with his crib so I'm not too worried or concerned.

A little update on me:

I am losing the weight pretty rapidly.  I have 5 more pounds to go before I reach my pre-pregnancy weight.  However, my body is totally different now.  I really don't think 5 pounds is going to get rid of my middle thickness.  It did feel good to go to the gym today, so once I get the okay from the doctor, I'm going to look into spinning to get my middle toned up again. For this week, I'd like to get there again and do some more treadmill walking.  I did 30 minutes of moderate intensity and it wasn't too bad.  I didn't want to overdo it and felt it was enough for the day (plus I cleaned the house at home), so maybe I can increase 5 minutes each time I go.

Breastfeeding is still hit and miss.  I think we do it now for leisure.  It's fine, but I don't want him to get into the habit of "snacking".  If I still feel he is hungry after a bottle, I'll put him to breast and he can take whatever top up he needs.  Like I said though, he hasn't really been eating much lately, not sure if he finished a growth spurt or what, so it's mostly just bottle he's been getting.

Milk supply is in abundance.  I have about 40 or so bags of milk in our freezer.  I was having a problem with high lipase in the milk, which made it have a rancid taste.  I discarded my old milk, because I couldn't face feeding him something that tastes like that, but noticed that my newer milk is much better.  It still tastes "off" but not in a bad way.  I plan to start thawing the frozen milk and freezing my fresh milk from now on.  Taste tests still need to be done weekly. I have to say, it's not my favorite thing to do, but if it's in the best interest of my baby, I'll do anything I need.

Emotionally, I'd say I am back to where I was before pregnancy.  I am still pretty calm and not too stressed.  I mean, when Ethan is screaming for 3 hours straight because he is over tired and is fighting sleep ( very rare but does happen), I find it to be a bit stressful.  It's not a normal thing we deal with so it throws a loop in my day or night.

That's all I have to say really.  Things have been pretty good around here.  Getting used to life with a baby is interesting and fun at the same time.  I love our life and wouldn't change a thing about it!