Posts filed under ‘baby’
A Quick Update to A Previous Post
I want to thank all of you who provided comments on my previous post about my son’s inability to sleep through the night. My husband and I decided that we were definitely responding to his whimpers a bit too quickly.
I still rock and nurse him to sleep, but I make sure he’s ever so slightly awake when I put him in his crib at night. The first night it took him less than 10 minutes to fall asleep. He moaned a bit but no tears were shed. I couldn’t believe he fell asleep so easily and I now think that trying to rub his back and ‘shh’ him to sleep were actually making it more difficult rather than easier for him.
We also changed our habits once he falls asleep. Rather than running up the steps at the very first sound he makes we let him move around and even moan if necessary.
As crazy as it now seems he never even cries. Instead he loudly whimpers, moves from side to side, flips from back to belly and back again, finds a comfy position and puts himself right back to sleep.
I don’t want to jinx myself, but now he’s falling asleep on his own and staying asleep for eight to nine hours a night. He still has a knack for waking at 5 o’clock in the morning, but he tends to breastfeed and then go right back to sleep. Then he’ll typically sleep for another two hours.
Thank you all for the advice! I think it’s so funny that I was afraid to let him ‘cry it out’ and he never even cried!
Free or Nearly Free Customizable Tote Bags
Since our son arrived gift giving for grandparents has gotten a whole lot easier. I’ve been making customized tote bags and using them as gift bags for a variety of items. I like to provide consumable gifts whenever possible so I filled one tote bag full of movie related items like gourmet popcorn and decadent candy and filled another with items for an Italian dinner complete with bread, sauce, dipping oil and pasta. The recipients can eat all of the products and keep the bags to tote their groceries.
Here are two new deals for free/inexpensive tote bags:
- Buy a Custom Grocery Tote from York Photo for $1.00 and receive 40 free prints just for registering. Use code YORKTOTEAD.
- Order 6 Products free from Vistaprint. Choose from business cards, stamps, t-shirts, sticky notes, flip books and tote bags. The products are FREE, just pay for shipping and processing. Design a flipbook of all of your photos to keep your memories close at hand and/or create a customized tote bag.
In Need of Some Serious Sleep
Thankfully my eight month old son is an even tempered baby. He’s been happy and relaxed since the day of his birth. When I take him out with me he smiles and coos and even strangers remark on his calm and easy going personality. I feel unbelievably blessed to have him in my life.
With such an easy and thankfully healthy baby I know I shouldn’t complain, but at eight months his sleeping patterns seem worse than ever. Some nights he wakes only once or twice, but lately he’s been waking anywhere from three to six times and then waking tired between 5:00 and 5:30 am.
He’s NEVER been a good sleeper, but after eight months of sleeping for only a few hours at a time I am feeling quite exhausted. I recently got a cold and took nearly a week and a half to recover. I know sleeping only two to three hours at a time isn’t good for the body and I’m ready for longer stretches of sleep on a consistent basis.
My son is off the charts in terms of mobile activity and development. By seven months he could crawl (including up steps), pull himself to a standing position, give kisses, eat finger foods by himself and cruise. Most babies initially learn to stand by pulling up on furniture, but our little one can use anything to stand including walls and doors and if you hold his hands he can now take quite a few steps without tiring or falling.
Some people tell me babies don’t sleep well when they are learning new skills. I’d love to blame the problem on that, but I’m afraid our son just can’t seem to fall asleep on his own. I bought used copies of four leading baby books and tried nearly all the techniques, (other than cry it out), without any success. Most nights a 10 second pat puts him back to sleep, but that still means I need to wake up. walk over to the crib and pat him two or three times a night, plus wake once to feed him.
I’m considering buying a sleep package from one of these baby sites that promises to teach your child to sleep better. You email them the specific sleep patterns of your child and they create a customized plan. It seems crazy that I’m even considering this, but I’m feeling desperate to come up with a solution to this problem!
Creating Photo Albums and Capturing Memories
Last week my beautiful baby boy reached the eight month mark. I can’t believe how fast time has flown since his arrival. I have taken thousands and thousands of pictures since his birth. In the first few weeks I snapped shots every day. As the weeks went on I started pulling out the camera at least three times and more recently I pared down my photography sessions to roughly two times a week.
Luckily my husband and I are super organized folks. Every few days my husband edits the photographs I take. He searches through hundreds of photos and pares down to only the best shots. While we start with roughly one to two hundred we ultimately end up with the best fifteen to thirty for that day.
He categorizes them by date and event and stores backups so we won’t ever lose them. We post the photos online so friends and family can see them, but I wanted to further pare down the photos and create an album of the first eight months of our little guy’s life.
Even with all of our organization it still took me a couple of days to search out and select the very best shots. I narrowed it down to roughly 149 photos in the first four months and 279 for months 5 through 8.
There are nearly twice as many photos in the second four months because I never picked up a camera before my son was born and in the past eight months my shot selection has greatly improved. Plus, as my son becomes more active the photographs have become interesting. In those first couple of months most of the photos are taken with my son laying down.
I had two Groupons to Photobook America that were set to expire on the day my son turned eight months, so I decided to separate out the photos into two albums. The first months 1 – 4 the second months 5 – 8.
It made me so happy to look through all of the photographs and remember each of those precious moments with him. Unfortunately, I realized that I didn’t include all of the photos I intended to in the first book. I copied the images over to a directory and it seems they were moved to a sub-directory without my realizing. After looking at so many pictures I simply didn’t realize they were missing until it was too late.
That’s a bummer because some of the early images in the hospital won’t be included in the book. Along with a particularly adorable set of photos that were taken just before Christmas time.
I learned two valuable lessons in all of this. First, if I intend to make another album, (which I do), then I need to select favorites every month. It took days to select all of the pictures I wanted and it will be much faster to complete this process as soon as my husband edits them rather than trying to take on this task all at once.
Second I should not wait until the last minute to take on a task like this. I literally waited until the very day my Groupon was set to expire to complete the album. This was due in part to the fact that I was sick a week up to the expiration date, but in my rushed state I missed photographs I wanted to include. Had I provided more time for myself I could’ve created the album then taken a day or two to review it and make certain that it was just the way I wanted it to be.
Of course, we have those photographs in other places, but it’s a bummer to work so hard on something and then feel it’s slightly less than I wanted it to be.
I can’t wait for the photo albums to arrive. I purchased them from Photobook America and the vouchers cost only $35 for $115 worth of photo keepsake books.
I don’t want to plug Photobook America until I see the results, but I will say that I was very impressed with their software. I was able to perform a lot of cropping and editing within the layout screens.
I’ll provide an update once the photo albums arrive. After all this work I sure hope they look amazing!
If you’re interested in purchasing a Groupon to Photobook America click the image below, sign up and search for deals in Cincinatti. There are only a few hours left to purchase, so if you’re interested you should hurry. I just purchased another Groupon so I can create one last photo album, (months 9 – 12), of my son’s first year!
Selling One Thing to Buy Another
I celebrated my first mother’s day this weekend. My husband, son and I went out for a long walk around the lake, attempted to make handprints and planted a beautiful tree in our front yard. Just spending time with the family was the greatest gift, but it turns out my little man had a gift all his own to give me. While playing on the couch between my husband and I my six month old son pulled himself into a standing position.
I looked at my husband and my husband looked at me. We were both in disbelief and plopped him back down into sitting position to see if he could do it again. Sure enough he raised himself onto his feet three times in a row!
He started the earliest form of a crawl a week or so ago, but I had no idea how quickly he would go from just rolling back and forth to making his way from one side of the room to the other. He’s unbelievably active right now and if I place him on the floor he’s off to the races in no time.
So it’s time to start baby-proofing the house. That means putting up baby gates, bumpers on tables and covering all of the electrical sockets. I actually got down on the floor of our living room and sun room so I can see the world from his perspective.
As I was pulling on drawers to the TV cabinet I found a bunch of stuff to sell including unused game consoles. I bundled them back into their original packaging and sold them on eBay. Unfortunately, the buyers won’t pay up and now I have to go through the awful process of trying to collect my money. Such a pain.
The good news is that the game consoles will pay for the double wide baby gate I purchased to prevent my little tike from leaving the living room. I’m hoping to baby proof the room well enough that I can leave him in there rather than placing him in the playpen. He’s a big kid. In the 95th percentile already and that little space seems so tiny for him.
Ideas for My First Mother’s Day
Last week I asked my readers for suggestions on how to spend my first mother’s day. I was so happy and inspired by the comments that I thought I’d provide a summary here. I can’t thank my readers enough for all of their wonderful ideas!
Without further ado here are a few of my reader’s suggestions:
- Plant a tree with your child. You can watch it grow over the years and take photographs every year of your child in front of it. (I LOVE this idea and plan to pick one that flowers on Sunday.)
- Mother/Baby photo shoot. (I’ve asked my husband to take some photos of my son and I on Sunday too.)
- Sometimes having a little one can be a bit overwhelming. If it feels difficult to take them out then make the most out of spending time with your family at home. Two suggestions: Enjoy dinner at home or have a picnic right in your own backyard. (Oh yeah we’ll definitely be spending time together at home. I think we’ll eat dinner on the back patio. It’s almost a picnic
) - Make handprints together with your little one. (I’m going to try to sneak some time in for this too on Sunday.)
- Ask your husband to bring you breakfast in bed. (I’d alter this one slightly to have breakfast for the whole family in bed. The little one can snuggle with daddy while you munch on chocolate chip pancakes or whatever breakfast food you love.)
This post won’t do justice to the comments so I suggest going back to my original post to read them. I’m grateful to all those who provided ideas. I have taken your stories and words to heart and can’t wait to celebrate this weekend!
It’s Definitely Meant to Be
If you read this blog you know that I struggled with the decision to stay-at-home with my son or return to work as a software developer. After months of weighing my options I decided I wasn’t ready to return to the working world quite yet.
My journey to become a stay-at-home mom is an interesting one. After working in the same department for over 11 years I decided to interview for a new job that was closer to home. I wasn’t ready to leave my company, but I wanted to look for a new opportunity that would cut my commute in half.
I interviewed for that position on Valentine’s Day. That day I also saw two bright pink lines on my home pregnancy test. From the moment I found out I was pregnant I wondered how I would ever return to work. While part of me wanted to remain a working parent the other half of me didn’t know how I would ever return to work after my child arrived.
Ninety days after starting in my new position I was informed that my entire team was being eliminated. Strangely enough I was told that management knew this was going to happen before I even interviewed for the job. I was cut along with more than 200 other employees.
If you believe in God you have to wonder if this was a sign. All of the other layoffs were instantaneous. An employee was told their position was eliminated and they were escorted from the building. This wasn’t the case for me. I was told my position would remain in good standing until November. My baby was due in late October!
What are the odds that I would be laid off and that the layoff would not occur until just after my baby was due to be born? I would receive six weeks of short term disability if the baby arrived before my termination date along with six months of severance!
Not certain that I wanted to remain out of work indefinitely I interviewed for other jobs outside of the company and landed one that included better pay than my previous one. I accepted the position, but after much thought and contemplation I decided that I was not ready to return to work quite yet. I just wasn’t ready to place my son in daycare to go to a job I know I won’t love. So a few weeks ago I contacted my employer and let them know I would not be starting.
That new job was supposed to begin today. And wouldn’t you know it, but today my son crawled for the very first time. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, not a week from now. Nope. TODAY. If I had gone to work this morning I would’ve missed it. While that’s not the end of the world and many mothers go to work each day and miss these first moments, I know that I didn’t want to miss this one.
You can believe in fate, you can believe in God, you can believe in many things, but I now believe more than ever that I’ve made the right decision to stay home with my son. Whenever I’m in doubt it seems the stars keep aligning to show me the way!
First Mother’s Day
Did you do anything special to celebrate your first mother’s day? My little one was born last October and this holiday has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning for me. I don’t want to spend a lot of money or buy anything unnecessary, but I would like to find a special way to celebrate this day.
For the time being I am a stay-at-home mom so I guess you could say every day is mother’s day for me. I could not be more thankful or grateful to spend time with my beautiful baby boy.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has ideas on how I should celebrate this momentous occasion. I already started a blog for my son and began writing letters to him, so I’m looking for something else I can do to commemorate this day.
Over seven years ago I left the hospital with a blood clot in my lung and absolutely no idea of what was going on in my body. For weeks after that incident I walked around my neighborhood trying to heal. I remember one day in particular I prayed to God that I would get better and that whatever was wrong with me would not prevent me from having children.
While my main goal was to lead a healthy, happy life I also knew in my heart of hearts that I wanted a child. I cannot believe that I am now the mother of a happy, healthy, beautiful baby boy. I pray for him every day and thank God for bringing him into my world.
Is It Worthwhile to Purchase Children’s Clothing in Advance?
My little guy is five months old. So far he’s on the big and tall spectrum of the height and weight scale and is already wearing clothes in nine and twelve month sizes. In the first few months he’s barely had time to wear the same outfit more than two or three times before he outgrows them. Luckily I received a bunch of outfits as gifts and hand-me-downs. I also bought a few adorable onesies using gift cards I received from my baby shower.
Now that he’s getting bigger I’ll need to buy a greater share of his clothes. I’ve considered taking advantage of end of season sales on everything from winter coats to snow boots, but of course I have no idea if he’ll continue to grow at this rate or not. While I could purchase items for nearly 90% off the retail value I fear that I’ll choose the wrong size and that they ultimately won’t fit.
A bargain is no bargain if he doesn’t end up wearing anything I buy. So now I’m wondering if I should try to estimate what size he’ll be wearing and search around for seasonal sales or if I should keep my money in my pocket since I really have no idea what size he’ll wear next season.
Any thoughts from my readers? Do you take advantage of end of season sales and have you found that most of the items actually fit when the next year rolls around?
Does a Six Figure Salary Make My Decision to Stay Home Harder?
My mom always knew she wanted a family. It was her one hope and dream growing up as a child. When my brother was born she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would stay home to raise him. When I came along she continued the trend and stayed home for a total of twelve years. She returned to work when I turned nine.
My mom was never particularly good in school and had quite low self-esteem, which made it difficult to find a high paying job after graduating from high school. Throughout her working career she never made much money.
When I asked her about the decision to stay home with my brother and I she said it was a no-brainer. In essence, she and my father knew her salary would barely cover the cost of day care.
They carried health insurance and other benefits through my dad’s job and my mom didn’t particularly enjoy her work, so there was really no benefit in her dropping us off at daycare.
When I told her that I was considering staying at home she asked if my six figure salary made it a tougher decision. Interestingly enough I never considered the weight of my salary on my decision until she asked me.
The decision to stay-at-home is almost entirely emotional for me. An extremely low salary may make the decision easy, but above a certain threshold I’m not certain what difference a higher paying salary really makes.
If I made $50,000 would it be easier to stay home than if I made $100,000? I’m going to have to think about this for awhile, but off the top of my head I’m going to say no. It’s more a question of desire and affordability.
If we can’t pay the bills with my husband’s income then I’m not sure if it makes a difference if I earn $50,000 or $100,000. At the end of the day I would need to go to work to pay the bills. Similarly if I loved my job it might not matter how much I made either. The fulfillment of work might be all that I wanted regardless of salary.
Still I thought it was an interesting question and one I wouldn’t have thought about if my mom hadn’t asked me about it.
