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!