Our First Overnight Trip

We decided to go to London this past Thursday and see how Ethan did with an overnight trip.  I'm happy to say it went well.  He pretty much stayed on schedule.  We went to London to visit Uncle Matt & Aunt Krista and we all had a good time!

Ethan slept in his Pack & Play.  I bought a mattress pad for specifically for the Pack & Play and a cute sheet to go overtop of it (sorry no photos).

Since Ethan always gets a bath and we didn't really have an option to give him a bath, we decided to put him in the sink :)

The next day we went to the Covent Garden Market and fell in love.  It is such an amazing market (at least compared to what we have here!) and we got some good finds.

Ethan also enjoyed the sight seeing!  He enjoyed it so much he pretty much passed out the entire way home!

And on the way home, I bought myself a yummy (aquired taste) Kombocha tea - yummmmm-o!

Our next trip will be to Toronto where we will stay more than one night.  Now that we know he will do fine, we are more confident in the visit - just have to work on the car ride as a simple 1.5 hour trip to London is like hell on fire!  

Nothing new really

There is nothing really new going on.  Ethan stood by himself tonight, not holding onto anything.  I missed it, but dad saw it.

Since I have nothing new to talk about, enjoy some cute photos below :)

Nothing like some yummy pasta to make a DISASTEROUS mess out of :D 

And then.... we topped it off with a nice juicy steak bone.  Your welcome Ethan.  ;0)

Our baby is 8 months old tomorrow!

Every day, Ethan seems to learn something new.  He works on something the day before and then the next day, boom, he's up and doing it.  Forget, crawling, now he is standing and trying to walk along furniture. He is 8 months tomorrow, and within this last month he has learned to crawl, sit from crawling, stand up on things, sit back down from standing up, mimics what we do.  It's amazing.  Absolutely amazing.

I think we are now done with purees.  He is eating pretty much what we eat.  Tonight we had fish and quinoa, so I put some quinoa on his tray with some steamed carrot pieces and he ate it.  He loves the baby puffs...and although not very nutritious, it keeps him busy.  I still make our main focus to be breast milk for another 4 months, but he is doing well with cut up finger foods.

Sleeping is going well.  It has changed from a couple months ago.  He now sleeps until about 8am, and then goes down for an hour and 45 minute nap about 3 hours after he wakes.  Then again in the afternoon.  He has been going to bed around 8:30pm, which is nice because we can take our time with dinner, or when we go out somewhere. He no longer need to be rocked to sleep.  He goes to bed awake.  When he does wake up, he occupies himself for a while.  It's nice.

He is such a happy baby.  Full of life and so fun to be around.  It's such a blessing to have a little guy like him around in our lives.  Makes you really appreciate the simple things in life.  He is still pretty cuddly.  Even though he is very independent and wants to do things on his own, there is always room for a little cuddle here and there.  Or moments to just chill with him outside on my lap, watching nature, or the dogs.

Product Update

I may have mentioned before, but we battle eczema and very dry skin with Ethan.  I have tried numerous products, including Hydrocortisone cream, and nothing works.

I was using Dimpleskins Sweet Cheeks Body Balm, and, although it really helps, its darn expensive!  A little tin for $13 doesn't go a long way, and in my opinion, wasteful.  I use it on his cheeks and the bad spots, but for an all-over moisturizer, it just doesn't float my boat.  Plus it's a bit on the greasy side, so I don't like staining his clothes with it either.

So I was using the Bare Organics Healing Balm for a moisturizer.  Again, a bit greasy, but does soak into the skin within 5 minutes, but we don't always have 5 minutes when the Little Mister is tired and hungry lol.

Well we went states side yesterday at good 'ol Target, and I found the brand Shea Moisture.  She has a line for babies.  It's organic, pure, natural and formulated for Eczema prone skin.  SO we have been using it and I love it.  I have the soap bar and the body butter moisturizer.  It smells wonderful too and has some good essential oils - along with Argan oil.   And not very greasy.  Rubs right into the skin.

During baths, we still do the warm, not hot bath, and I wash him every 2-3 days.  His hands and knees always get a wash now due to the constant crawling.

For his bum, I am still using Bare Organics Baby Balm, but only for night time.  During the day I have added Gro-Via Magic Stick.  It smells soooo good and it's organic and provides a very thin coverage.  He is not left long enough in a wet diaper to even think about getting a rash, but I still like to be on the safe side!

Other than that, I don't use much else on him.  I think the less the better, but due to his Eczema, we need to take a few extra precautions.

What my days are like these days...

Ethan is 7.5 months old.  He is a busy baby!  He is so happy and curious, it's fantastic.  But by 8pm, I am WIPED OUT!  Here is what a typical day of ours looks like:

7:10am - Rise and Shine! I hear little squeals and babble and peak into Ethan's bedroom to find him playing with his soother, toy or toes.  When he sees me he give me a huge grin, then scrambles to find his soother so he can put it in his mouth and look at me.  I'm not sure why he needs to do that, but I let him :0)

7:15am - I feed him and change his diaper, and then we go downstairs to start our day.  He goes in his Exersaucer while I brush my teeth, put my contacts in and grab something quick to eat.

(sorry no photos this month of him in the Exersaucer...sad face) 

7:45am - Floor time.  Ethan crawls around the house while I chase him.  He plays with his Fisher Price Sing Along Stage toy, plus various other toys.

9:00am - Nap Time.  He gets another diaper change, I nurse him, and he goes down for a nap.  These days, he sleeps for a minimum of 1.75 hours.  It's great....really great.

During this time, I clean the house, fix something proper to eat, shower, and go on the computer.

11:45am - Wake Up - Nurse - Diaper Change - Lunch (usually some fruit and a Mum-Mum).  If I have to go out, this is the time we go do errands or visits.  If not, we just play again.

2:30pm - Nap Time.  Same routine as the 9:00am section ;0).

During this break nap, I usually prepare dinner, tidy up a bit more, have a snack, and do some scrapbooking, if I have time.

4:15pm - Wake up - Nurse - Diaper Change.  Play time.  Usually at this time, dad comes home and takes over for a bit so I can head to the gym, or go shopping alone, or whatever.  

6:00pm - Nurse - Dinner.  I always nurse before giving solids since milk is his main source of nutrition. He is now finally eating the foods I made for him - we are over the texture thing.  So he gets a vegetable and sometimes meat (chicken).  

6:30pm - Play time.  We have quiet play time to wind him down before bed.  Ryan cleans the kitchen and I play with Ethan.

7:00pm - Bath Time.

7:20pm - Nurse - Bedtime.  If possible, I try to fit in a book to read, but he is so tired at this point, he just wants milk and his bed.

7:30pm  - I usually do laundry, diapers, clean up the toys, shower, relax.

10:00pm - Pumping.  I have been pumping every night for the last month at 10pm.  I finally have a nice little stock pile of milk in the freezer.  I was really running low, and then wasn't responding to the pump, but finally, it's taken charge and I can pump one feeding every night to store.

11:00pm - Bed

2:30am - Up for a feed.  Thankfully these last a maximum of 7 minutes.  So the extra 3 I use the washroom, get a drink and go back to bed.

5:30am - Sometimes he wakes at this time.  I'm sure I can start working on eliminating this feeding because it doesn't really take much.  It's just the effort that is required to eliminate it :0|.

And 7:30am comes again, and we start all over again.... :0)

So that is my day.  It's very busy, very tiring, and soooo rewarding.  Being a mom is the best gift that I could ever receive and I wouldn't change a single thing about it or Ethan.

xoxo

A Day at the Winery

Today we headed out to Viewpoint Winery.  Ethan is pretty good on the drives out to the county so we decided to go for lunch.  It's a good 40 minute drive, but he got pretty fussy during the last 10 minutes because he was hungry.  He didn't nurse before we left so I was expecting it.  But after he ate, he was happier than a bug in a rug :D

 Always so happy...

 Look at that view!

 Mama & Baby

 Cheers - we found 2 wonderful wines and bought 2 bottles to bring home!

 Ethan now loves water and is learning how to swallow it better every day.  He always has to have what I'm having, but he slobbers in it, so I always tend to bring one of his own glasses to share my drink with :)

Big boy glass.... no he just won't drink out of a sippy cup so the glasses will have to do.

 Gone are the days where he's contented to just sit with us.  Now we have to bounce him, or let him jump and do many things to keep him occupied.

 Our lovely perch lunch

Ethan's exciting Mum-Mum

On the way home, he fell asleep, but only got about a half hour nap, so we sure did have a cranky baby that just wanted to go to sleep at about 6pm.  I managed to keep him up until 7:15 but it was definitely not easy!

That was pretty much our day in a nutshell.  It was fun but it's definitely tiring.

I'll update soon...

But for now, here is a few photos for your viewing pleasure :)