27 going on 65

Yep. Today's my birthday. Yay!

27 is a weird age. I'll pause while you gasp and say "She's only 27?!".

Yes, yes I know... I swear I'm an old lady in a young-ish body. I'm far from the days of being fresh-faced and barely in my 20's. I've been out of high school & college long enough to forget the names and faces of people I saw everyday for many years. And then I can see the big 3-0 in the not-so-distant future and that is something I am not too excited about... but I'll conquer it when I get there. It's 3 years off.. That's enough time for me to wrap my head around that number. Although, not like it matters since I have to stop & seriously think about how old I am now. Wait... I'm.... (counting on fingers.... toes...), oh yeah. 27.

So last night, getting ready to go to bed and Hubby asks if I want my present. How can I say no!? But it cracks me up how both him & Sonny cannot wait until the day of whatever gift giving occasion to give us ladies our gifts. Here's the loot I made out with:

That's right folks. I'm going canning! I love scrap-booking, sewing, painting, cooking, and now I'm sure I'm about to add canning to that list. I also got a membership to AARP & two tennis balls. I'm not quite ready to put the tennis balls on my walker, but I can preserve (pun intended. Har dee har har!) them for a few years...

Hubby got me a case of the normal pint-sized jars, but then picked up these little guys because they are cuter. I love that man. He knows me so well. Of course I'd pick up both the practical and cute things!

The pièce de résistance - Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff. We went to bed around 11pm, and didn't go to sleep until around 1am because I was flipping through this gorgeous book thinking of all the awesome stuff I can make & the recipes I can tweak. I am seriously the oldest 27 year old I know... ha! Getting excited and reading into the wee hours of the morning about canning preserves and making jam. Hey, it's what floats my boat, and it's my birthday. I will can if I want to.

Have you preserved anything? Got any tricks for the beginning canner? Maybe I'll do the Can-Can while I can.

Friday Faves: World Cup!, Books, & Sales!

World Cup is here! Hubby turned it on first thing this morning and Will is enjoying it. It is a welcome break from Playhouse Disney and iCarly, that's for sure! USA! USA!


On Hubby & I's date night last weekend, we were wandering around after our movie (Iron Man 2 - So SO Good!) and wandered right into Borders. I always peruse book stores' bargain bins for some fun cardboard books for Will. They double as a colorful teething toy, so I'd rather not pay full price if I can help it. We found two big ones, one about first words like Mom, Dad, House, Bath, etc. and another about counting. Then there was a smaller, but thicker and squishier one of zoo animals. Considering Will barks at the TV whenever the Twilight-Eclipse preview comes on, I think animals are right up his alley...

Old Navy is always a good source of a good sale! Tomorrow only, they have $2 tank tops for women & girls! You can check out all the details here. What a great way to stock up on some easy to wear tops for summer! They also have some really cute t-shirts for the boys.

Friday Faves: Choco Milk, Date Night, Toddlers!

I stopped at Henry's on my way home yesterday to pick up some fruit and a few other things. We go through fruit like nobody's business in our house. I think I go twice a week to pick stuff up. Oy. Anyways...I always look and see if they have the most glorious chocolate milk there, and yesterday, I was in luck! Broguiere's chocolate milk is to die for! It's super rich, and creamy, and chocolatey! YUM! It also comes in great old fashioned glass milk bottles. Also, Huell Howser made a stop there on his California's Gold show. Good times!

I am SO excited for Hubby & I's date night tomorrow. WOOHOO! Will sleeps over at Poppa & Grandma's house and we get a night out on the town. It usually entails a dinner, a movie, and in bed by 10pm, because we are that exciting. Hubby is actually going to be able to get off work a little early tomorrow so we can catch an early movie and then dinner and maybe even drinks afterwards, like grown ups! I'm going to have to do some laundry today so I have something to wear!

I'm slowly reading Happiest Toddler on the Block. So far I really like it. It's a quick read, which I like, it's just a matter of finding time to read! Calling my kid a caveman is, sadly, the perfect explanation. Yesterday, I finally cleaned out all of the little drawers of stuff in the living room because I was tired of picking it up. It's just coasters and remote controls, but my caveman child likes to take bites out of the coasters and spit the pieces on the floor. I go in another room for 2 seconds and come back to coaster confetti. Not my favorite thing in the world. Last night, I went in the kitchen to start dinner, since Will was happily playing with his toys on the floor. I peek my head around the corner 2 minutes later and he's jumping on the sofa. He's just figured out how to climb up on the sofa in the last week, and now it's a breeze to him. Oy. Will is what Dr. Harvey Karp would call a "spirited" child. LOL!

One of my favorite things so far in his book is that he has a couple columns of different behaviors/scenarios to help you determine if your child is shy, easy, or spirited. A quick way to determine this is to take him to a not so crowded mall and let him go. Turn your back for a few seconds but keep an eye on him out of your periphery. If he runs without looking back, he's spirited...to say the least! I laughed out loud at this little scenario because that is exactly what Will would do, and does. He definitely wouldn't cling to my leg, like a shy child, that's for sure. He is my little spirited caveman. No wonder I pass out the second my head hits the pillow at night!

A Happy Friday to one and all! Will slept in till 7:30am this morning! Yes, he woke up at 12:30am and was up for 20 minutes, but sleeping in until 7am is a gift from the Friday Gods. Many Thanks!

Flat Belly Weigh In

It's been a smidge over a week since I started the Flat Belly Diet. I have to report that I'm off to an excellent start! I'm down 3 lbs and have loads more energy! I am still reluctant to get up at my 5:15am screaming wake up call, but by around 7am, I'm rearing to go. I'm up, making coffee and breakfast and we're off to a good start. Here's some proof of a noticeable difference in my energy level. This is a list of all the stuff I got done on Friday:
- dishes
- sweep kitchen floor
- mop kitchen floor
- sweep & mop bathroom floors
- clean both bathrooms - sinks, mirrors, toilets, showers, even scrubbed the walls & baseboards!
- vacuumed
- 4 loads of laundry
Plus Will and I went to the park for almost 2 hours and ran around. It was a busy and productive day. Sadly, you probably wouldn't even notice how clean our house was now...

I'm sure I'd be dropping more weight if I was drinking more water. Having a toddler who toddles all over the place makes it hard to keep a glass of water within arm's reach all the time, so I forget to drink it. If I leave it on the coffee table or end table, it will be in a puddle on the floor in 2.5 seconds. I have been taking a bottle with me when we are out and about, so that helps.

The other great thing that happened...

I haven't been able to wear my wedding band since I was about 7 months pregnant with Will. It's been a year and a half since I've been able to squeeze this beauty on my finger! AND NOW IT FITS! At night it can be a little snug and a bit of a struggle to take off, hence I need to drink more water, but IT FITS!!! I'm so excited! My finger is so much more sparkly now. The balance has been restored.

I've got 2.5 weeks until my birthday. We'll see how much I lose by then. It would be nice to be back to my pre-preggo weight by then, but even being under 150lbs is reason enough to celebrate.

Tonight I'm trying a fish recipe from the Flat Belly Family Cookbook. I bought some tilapia on sale, so I'm excited to give a new recipe a try. So far everything we've tried has been tasty and super easy.

Recipe: Flat Belly Diet Berry Good Peanut Butter Scones

These scones were the first recipe I tried out of the Belly Flat Diet! Family Cookbook and they're awesome! I made them kind of on a whim and a little later than anticipated because Will still insists on waking up at 5:30am (you can read more about that here) so Hubby and I have been trying to take turns getting up with him. By getting up, I mean we lay on the couch and try to hold him while he watches Mickey, drinks his milk, and we try to nod off for a few minutes. It's awful...but what can you do? So anyways, my "getting up" took a little longer and I was lacking the motivation to move, let alone bake. Once I did, I was quite surprised how easy and tasty these were!

Hubby snagged on for the road since he got a chance to sleep a little longer and took it. When he got home, he said "That scone was amazing! All I could think about all day was getting another one!" Yay! Job well done. :)

Berry Good Peanut Butter Scones

8 servings

429 calories

Mufa (monounsaturated fat): Peanut Butter

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup natural unsalted creamy peanut butter

1 package (5 oz) mixed dried berries (about 1 cup)

3/4 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt

1 large egg

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in food processor. Pulse to combine. My Side Note: I don't have a food processor but tried the blender. It didn't work so I just used the hand mixer in a big bowl.

3. Add the peanut butter by spoonfuls to the flour mixture. Pulse until the mixture is combined and looks like sand. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the berries. My Side Note: Someone ate my stash of dried berries in the pantry, so I used a mixture of dried cranberries and dried apricots.

4. Stir the yogurt and egg together in a small bowl and add to the flour mixture. Stir with a spoon until combined. Use your hands, if necessary, to ensure that all of the flour is incorporated. My Side Note: I don't know how you'd be able to combine everything without using your hands. It's pretty much a must. Also, I used plain Yoplait yogurt instead of Greek yogurt.

5. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a circle about 1" thick. Cut the dough into 8 equal wedges. Arrange the wedges on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool slightly and serve warm.

I'm going to try some other variations of this recipe, like dark chocolate chips (which is also a Mufa) instead of the peanut butter. Yum!

Flat Belly Diet!

First off, a big shout out and thanks to My Favorite Everything! I love her! Call me a blog-stalker, I don't care. She always has fun new stuff to share and if I've already heard of it or have it, she usually adds a new spin to it that I didn't think of. She posted this last week about her battle with the belly bulge. She's had three kids back to back to back, and is having trouble losing the baby/belly weight. Really, they're one in the same. She picked up the Flat Belly Diet Family Cookbook to help in her quest. After reading her post, I was sold! I am in my own battle of the belly bulge and don't have the energy with one kid to workout, let alone two (like Lani) or three kids (like her) to chase after and still find time to workout. Most nights I pass out the second my head hits the pillow... Plus, I'm not a big "workout" kind of girl. I'd much rather get my exercise having fun outdoors with Hubby and my little monster. Diet and exercise-in-disguise is the key for me. Even better if I can eat foods that taste great and that I can make for our whole family to enjoy. It's a win-win!

Lo and behold what arrived at my stoop today:

It makes me feel like a mom when I am SO excited about getting books. The things I used to roll my eyes at when I received as a gift when I was a kid. Even more mom-ish that they are about cooking and raising kids (The Happiest Toddler on the Block). My how times have changed... I'll tell you more about the toddler issues when I crack that book open.

The Golden Rules for the diet are:
1. Eat a MUFA (monounsaturated fats - aka nuts and seeds, oils, olives, avocados, or dark chocolate) at every meal.
2. Stick to 400 calories per meal. It's based on a 1,600 calorie day.
3. Never go more than 4 hours without eating. Yay for a diet that doesn't make you starve!

There is also a 4 Day Anti-Bloat Jumpstart program. You can find it here, here, or here. It's not suitable for kids and maybe some adults, so it's not included in my Family cookbook, which makes sense. As part of the program, they recommend drinking 8 glasses of Sassy Water a day (yes...it's SASSY! Hubby laughed at the name too...but we have changed the name to Sexy Water instead.), which will help keep you hydrated and calm your digestive tract. I made it and it's tasty! It reminds me of the water you drink at the spa. I find myself drinking more water because it just tastes good. So here you go!

Sassy Water
2 liters of water (approx 8.5 cups)
1 teaspoon grated ginger (use fresh)
1 medium cucumber (peeled and thinly sliced)
1 medium lemon (thinly sliced)
12 small spearmint or mint leaves

So cheers to maybe losing 15 lbs in 32 days like some of their subjects did. My birthday is June 21st. I'm at 152 lbs right now, so I'll weigh in on my birthday and we'll see how it's working. I made my meal plan for the week last night. It took a while because it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack all planned out. Plus I made my grocery list and gathered coupons too. Honestly, making three square meals and a snack didn't make my list any longer than usual. It's still a lot of fresh produce like we were doing, just some tweeks on portions. I'm excited to try some new recipes. I'll, of course, share my favorites as we try them. So far, today's breakfast was easy and good:
1 whole wheat piece of toast with 1 tbsp peanut butter and 1 tbsp strawberry preserves
1 banana
Coffee - of course
A good tip is to try and eat your meal a little slower. Enjoy your food, as difficult as it may be with kids getting antsy and running around. It helps your brain get the message from your belly that "Hey, I'm full". And sit down. That will help your body register that it's meal time. When you're running around, taking a bite here and there, again, your brain doesn't register that it's meal time. You're more likely to be hungry earlier.

Let's drop some L-B's together! I've got a drawer full of cute, skinny, summer clothes waiting for me!

Kitchen Tips & Short cuts!

While making dinner this morning (yep, this morning...), I was looking at all of the handy short cuts that I've started to do to save myself time, energy, and money. I felt compelled to share. As a new mom, I find myself in the kitchen now more than I have ever been. Once upon a time I relied on Hubby to make dinner 90% of the time, and if he didn't feel like cooking, we went out to eat. Well, hello child and budget and we just don't have that luxury as much anymore. Of course there are still times we go out because I don't feel like cooking, but it's not like it was back in our newlywed days. So here you go:

1. Garlic in a jar - HELLO genius that decided to sell me this! Hubby bought this stuff when he was working at his old job and they would do outdoor BBQs all the time. He would buy and marinate meat in our fridge for the next day's event. We went through so much garlic that this was waaaaaaaay easier. So now, I never buy fresh whole garlic. I stick a teaspoon in and scoop some into whatever I'm cooking. It stays fresh for a long time, and if you like garlic and put it in just about everything, like me, you will use it. I have had this same jar for probably almost a year and I still have about 1/3 of it left. It doesn't expire till Sept 2010! Mine is from here, but I've tried a couple brands now and they're all pretty good. You can usually find it in the produce section on one of the shelves by the whole garlic. It saves so much time since I don't have to peel, chop, or press the garlic. Plus! My hands don't get all stinky either!

2. SLOW COOKER! - Yes, I made dinner this morning. I chop, peel, and throw it all in while Will takes his morning nap. This leaves the rest of his nap time for me to clean up the dishes and whatever else I need to do. This totally saves my sanity. Will can hang out and entertain himself pretty well, but it's just soooooo much easier not to have to scramble starting at 5pm to get food ready. It's on a timer and is done by 6pm. Most of the time, I have leftovers which double as lunches for the days to come. Again, time and money saver. I got the $7 a Meal Slow Cooker Cookbook and Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Cookbook for Christmas and LOVE THEM! I've made lasagna, chili, beef for chimichangas, you name it! All of it is good! And $7 for a meal for 4-6 people! SAVINGS!

3. Flexible Cutting Mat - I use this on top of my wood cutting board. Personally, I don't like the sound it makes just cutting with the mat directly on the counter top, so putting it on top of the wood board fixes that. This is super handy while I'm chopping because I can take the mat easily over to whatever bowl or pot I'm putting it in and brush all of my chopped goodies into it. Then bring the mat back to my board and continue. It is also handy if you have to switch from chopping fruits or veggies to raw meat. This morning I chopped the veggies for my chili on the mat and then could chop my raw pork up into chunks. My cutting mat is smaller than my cutting board so any juice from the raw meat gets onto my wood cutting board and not the counter top. This makes clean up much easier. Again, saving TIME!

4. Slow Cooker Liners - Easy clean up! These are inexpensive and make cleaning up the crusties on the inside of my slow cooker easy peasy! I still wash the inside of the slow cooker after each usage, but this eliminates the soaking I usually have to do when dinner is over. For $3, it's worth it!

5. Plan Ahead - I know, I know, this is easier said than done. It really pays off to spend an hour at most after the kids have gone to bed, or when Hubby is home to watch Will while I make my menu for the week. I write a grocery list, and can get all of my coupons together in peace. Then when Will gets up from his nap, we can head out to the grocery store. No scrambling, less stress, and I have more control over the whole situation (Ah...I like control!). It's a little less of a chore to go to the grocery store with Will in tow when I have all of my stuff together and am not trying to look at all my coupons to compare prices. It also helps to have a list (I put mine on the fridge) of dinners I've picked out for the week. It eliminates that "What's for dinner?" question and trying to decide based on what I have on hand. Plus, that hour is nice quiet time for me to do my own thing, even if it is planning for a grocery store trip...

6. Chicken/Beef Broth - If a recipe calls for water, use chicken or beef broth instead. It will add flavor instead of just blah water. Most of the recipes I've made lately don't call for a full 15 oz can of broth, so I take the extra and store it in a little 4 oz container (Gladware or Ziploc containers are what I have depending on what I have a coupon for...). The 4 oz containers make it easy to add a little as I need it for the days to come. These usually go on sale often, so I always cruise by to see and snatch up extra to keep on hand.

7. 4 oz containers - These are so handy! I store everything in these little guys. Hubby is always asking me "What's this?" as he looks in the fridge because I've put whatever little extra I had into one of these little 4 oz-ers and saved it. This makes my $1's go that much further because I'm not wasting my ingredients. They were also the perfect size to store Will's purees I would make him. I'd throw 7 in the freezer and have 2-3 on hand in the fridge ready to go. Then you just replenish the stash in the fridge as you need them.

8. Deal or No Deal? - Back in the day when I was first learning about money, I would go grocery shopping with my dad (aka The Coupon King). He'd quiz me on what was the better deal for whatever the item was. He'd have a coupon for one item, but another brand had the same item on sale. What's the better deal? I constantly play this game with myself, in my head (I try not to talk to myself out loud in public...) while grocery shopping. Sometimes I end up buying a larger can of tomato sauce than what I wrote on my list, for example, because it was the better deal. Then I take the extra and put it in a container for my next recipe. It also helps to have stuff stocked up in your freezer when it goes on sale. Bacon is one of those things I always cruise by to see if it's on sale. If it is, I snatch up 2 and throw them in the freezer. I can cut off a little here and there for flavor additives or use a few whole slices for BLTs.

Some of these might be no-brainers to you seasoned moms out there, they're things I never thought about until I was the one in charge of all this stuff. 8 isn't exactly a round tip giving number like 5 or 10, but that's all I've got so far. :) Hopefully they'll make your life a little easier, too!

Friday Fave: Annabel Karmel

I recently posted one of Annabel Karmel's recipes here, but I just have to post her as my friday fave because her books and recipes are truly amazing. I made 3 things from the one cookbook I have of hers(Baby and Toddler Diary) this week, and Hunter ate every single thing off of his plate. Last night he even cried for more! Amazing!! She has a great website with lots of recipes for children 4 months to 10 years old, and I recently saw that she is a contributor to Parent and Child magazine. I'm going to purchase her other book that I borrowed from the library once because it has a fabulous collection of baby purees AND a whole section on picky eaters, but if you look on her website she has tons and tons and tons of different books that I may very well get addicted to buying. The recipies are simple to make, many ingredients you have on hand, and the tips are truly useful. Some of the meals, like the tuna melt quesadilla, are so simple and you may have thought of to make. Most of the meals are so family friendly too, that I just double it and feed it to Sonny and he is none the wiser. He thinks it's a normal, not-meant-to-get-baby-to-eat-veggies meal. It's great! I don't know what I'd do if I didn't find Annabel.

Hide your veggies!

When Hunter first started eating foods I discovered this book by Author Annabel Karmel called First Meals Food Diary. It had alot of great first purees and tons of tips and tricks on how to get your baby to enjoy foods, which are suitable for freezing and how to do so, and when you should be giving your baby what foods. The best part about the book is that it grows with your child. It has first purees, fingers and spoons, toddler food, and then 3 years and beyond. Alot of the recipies she has are totally adult friendly, too. I've made large batches and fed the meal to Sonny and he's totally dug them too.

Last night I made Hidden Vegetable Bolognaise (with a few little tweaks...only cuz I didn't have certain things on hand or what not) and it was delicious!! Hunter is getting to that very-picky-with-veggies stage and this was the perfect meal to make to hide all those wonderful nutrients in a sauce. My only problem is that he doesn't like pasta (what the?). I mean...he sees a noodle, shell, macaroni, anything pasta like coming at him and turns his head in disgust. I made this with spaghetti...and he wasn't having it...but I wanted to see if he liked the sauce so then I just scooped a little into a bowl (it's nice and hearty) and he gobbled it all up. So I spread it on a whole wheat toast and he ate it like a sloppy joe.

Best part about this meal....it provides protein, iron, zinc, beta-carotene, folate, vits B2, B3, & C, and prebiotics (I only know this because the author lists all the nutrients for each meal in her recipies...wonderful!) Hope you all enjoy this! It's good for you, too, and you'd never know it!!

Shredding and chopping the veggies (with a little apple on the side for momma's snacking)

HIDDEN VEGETABLE BOLOGNAISE

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion

1 small leek, thinly sliced (I didn't have this on hand...so I just left it out)

1/2 stalk celery, diced

1/4 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced (I used 1/2 a green....again...it's just what i had on hand)

1 small carrot, peeled and grated

1/2 sweet apple, peeled and grated

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 14oz can crushed tomatoes (i used diced...it gets ground up anyway)

1 lb ground beef

1/4 cup tomato paste

2 tbsp ketchup

1 cup beef stock

1/4 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper (I went pretty light on this...just little pinches)

Heat oil in a large pan and saute the veggies, apple, and garlic until soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor, add the tomatoes, then blen until smooth

Add ground beef to the pan and cook over medium-high heat, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned and crumbly. If your child likes a finer texture or is not ready for to chunky a food, you can transfer the browned beef to a food processor; pulse the machine on and off until the beef is well-chopped.

Add the tomato and veggie sauce to the beef and stir in the tomato paste, ketchup, stock, and oregano. Bring up to a simmer and cook until the sauce has thickened, about 40-45 minutes. Season (a little) with salt and pepper.

Thank you Dr. Ferber!

As you know, WEB has had some sleeping issues the last month or so. He was doing so well up until 5.5 months of age or so. Then we got hit with teething (his bottom two teeth at the same time!) and his first cold. Since then, it was almost as bad as when he was a newborn. He would go to bed at around 8pm usually without a problem, then he was up at midnight, 2am-ish, 3am-ish, 4:30am-ish, 6am, 7am, and finally up for the morning around 8am. That was definitely no way for Hubby and I to live, walking around like a hideous pair of zombies.

In a desperate attempt to fix this issue, I picked up The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program book, which helped me understand why his body is waking up at these 90 minute intervals, or multiples of 90 minutes. This book really helped me get his nap schedule on track and pay attention more to his tired cues. On the same trip, I picked up Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Ferber. I read the cliffs notes version of his method in my Baby Bible - aka Baby 411 book. We tried this method when WEB was 3.5 months or so, but I guess we weren't desperate enough to listen to him cry for a little bit. Now we were desperate so we'd try anything...

We started the process Saturday night. Hubby has Sunday and Monday off from work, so I figured he at least had a couple of days to nap during the day to recover from this process. WEB went down without a fight at around 9pm. Dr. Ferber suggests bumping WEB's bedtime back an hour or so to make sure that they're especially tired, in hopes of making the crying process a little less wrenching. When he woke up we waited 5 minutes before we went in. The rule is you don't pick him up when you go in to check on him. You're just there to reassure him that you're there, re-adjust him if he needs to be, and rub his back. Only spend a minute or two in there, and then it's time to leave and close the door. Closing the door was key for us. I don't think we could've handled his cries unless they were muffled by the door.

Then you wait 7 minutes and repeat the process. Then up it to 10 minutes. The thing that was better explained in Dr. Ferber's book than anywhere else that I read the cliffs notes was the intervals. He tells you to do what you're comfortable with. If you can't stand hearing your baby cry for more than 3 minutes, then you start with that and just add 2 or 3 minutes to your first time to get each interval. Then example he had in the book was 5, 7, 10, and that was perfect for us. So your final increment is 10 minutes. If you have to go in every 10 minutes for the next hour, so be it. Fortunately, WEB was a pro. We went 5, 7, 10, 10, 10 minutes and then he was out. He woke up at around 2am and we were all in bed and asleep by 3am. He woke up again around 5am, but it was short lived. He was back to sleep in no time and was up for the morning around 7am.

The 2nd night was better. Again, we bumped his bedtime closer to 9pm. He went down without too much of a fight again. When he woke up at around 2am, we started the count at 7 minutes and only had to check on him twice at the 7 and 10 minute intervals. He woke up again around 5am, but when I started the clock to go in after 7 minutes, he was back to sleep before then. I didn't even have to get out of bed.

Last night, the 3rd night, was awesome. He went to bed at 8pm without a fight. When he woke up and got fussy in the middle of the night, I started the clock to go in after 10 minutes but he was back to sleep closer to 5 or 7 minutes later. I never had to get out of bed last night. Better yet, this morning Hubby went in to get him up for the morning at 6am when he usually is up, but by the time Hubby got into WEB's room he was back to sleep. Hubby went to chill on the sofa, thinking WEB would wake up any minute, but they both fell asleep until 8am! WEB slept for 12 hours! Yay!

Dr. Ferber says you can try this method when they're 3 or 4 months old. We attempted it somewhere between there, but I guess we weren't desperate enough to really stick to our guns to let it work, and WEB was doing pretty well on his own. I'm thinking that part of the reason it was relatively easy now is that he's now 6.5 months old. He just needed a little bit of a push in the right direction.

Now hopefully these good habits continue. I'm sure we will have to revisit a quick version of this sleep training if teething or a cold disrupts WEB's self soothing abilities down the road, but at least now we have yet another tool in our bag of tricks to use that will get us all back on track.

Book Rec: The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program

I had the extreme luxury of getting a pedicure on Saturday, thanks to my kind Dad who volunteered to watch WEB while my Mom, Sister, and I went and got our nails done. They were a tad short handed, so I got to finish my book, The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program by Polly Moore, Ph.D, while Mom and Sis finished their appointments. This book has been an extreme wealth of information. I picked it up before WEB got sick, but during the time his first two bottom teeth were coming in. His nighttime sleep habits have been less than stellar since this teething started, and now that he's sick, forget about it. This book has helped me wrap my head around what is going on with him, and why. It has helped me plan my day a little bit better, now realizing how important it is for him to have good naps during the day to set the scene for good sleep at night.

In essence, Dr. Polly Moore, suggests using the N.A.P.S. plan, which is:
N: Note the time of your baby's last waking
A: Add 90 minutes
P: Play and pursue other activities with your baby
S: Soothe your baby to sleep.

This doesn't seem like rocket science, but sometimes you/I need to be hit on the head with something until I go "OH! I get it!" This book explains what signs to look for in your baby that might signal he's tired, and they aren't necessarily what you would have thought - such as tugging on his ears. Often times, we are looking for the more typical signs that, we as adults give, but babies don't always know these signs right away. I was sometimes missing the signals WEB was throwing my way, and therefore he would get a little fussy. By the time I realized tiredness was his problem, it was too late and a meltdown was already in progress.

One of my favorite quotes from her book is "Sleep is like breathing. Your baby can't breathe too much today and not need to breathe tonight. The same goes for sleep." She also talks about all of the books you read as a new soon-to-be parent. You take classes, read tons of books and magazines to prepare yourself for any and all possibilities. Hubby and I were well versed in how often and how much our baby should eat, which was our main concern per all of the experts. They neglect to mention that when a baby cries, it could be that he's hungry, wet, sick, or in pain, but he could also be crying because he's TIRED. They aren't born with the ability to just fall asleep when they're tired. It's a learned thing. Duh! Half the time our couple month old baby was crying and we shoved a bottle or boob in his face, he would eat for a minute but get fussy again. Now I know that it was probably because he was tired!

She also talks about breaking your baby of associating food with sleep. Often times, like I just mentioned above, we were misreading his cues. So he was tired but we were feeding him. Then he would eat till he fell asleep. This is fine when your baby is a newborn and up till a couple months because they eat every 2 hours. When they are 3 months and older, they will continue to wake up in those intervals, even at night, because both mom, dad, and baby are trained that these are feeding times. That would explain why we were up every 3 or 4 hours at night feeding WEB. Once we nixed the night time feedings, he was sleeping much longer intervals at night (Well, before he got sick anyways.).

I can't recommend this book enough! I will probably read it again because there is so much information in this little thing. Maybe I'm weird, but I found it extremely interesting. Every time I was reading and went "Huh" or "Wow! Cool!", I'd read the excerpt to Hubby and he didn't seem quite as enthused as I was...so I guess I am weird... I wish I would've read this book right before WEB was born, but I probably would've read it again when he was a month or two old, and again around now. I think it would've made the first 6 months a little easier, and we might've slept a little more. There haven't been too many books that I've found to be half as helpful as this book has been. As soon as WEB is over his cold, we will be re-implementing some sleep training, and hopefully get back into some kind of routine. I really hope that means more sleep for me and Hubby. Lord knows we need it!

Not in the face!

The last week (or maybe more because the days seem to run together due to lack of sleep...) has been rough. WEB hasn't really slept more than 3 hours at a time at night. He's almost 6 months old! Yes, I know he's teething but that's unacceptable to me. I'm done nursing him, so there is no need for him to wake up every couple of hours to eat at night, especially when he was doing so good. We would get at least 6 hours at a time.

In my desperation, I busted out the books this weekend. Baby 411 basically told me that I'm doing everything wrong.
*No binky - Well, he likes his binky and woobie (aka Rupert) to fall asleep.
*No eating till he falls asleep - How am I supposed to deny my hungry baby food? Even it it's right before he falls asleep?
*Don't pick him up when he starts screaming. Let him soothe himself. - Sorry. When my baby cries and it sounds like he's in pain, I am going to pick him up and hold him.
*There wasn't any real advice when it comes to sleep and teething, other than yes, it will disrupt his schedule. Tell me something I didn't already know!

Hubby and I can't possibly have done bad thus far. We have a happy and healthy baby. He naps pretty well, he eats very well, and is a very happy kid. I would think that if we were doing a horrible job, he'd be screaming and just generally pissed all the time. It's got to be that he's in pain from teething. He already has his bottom two teeth that have broken through the gums. Maybe the top ones are coming in...?

I also picked up 2 books on babies and sleep this weekend: The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program by Polly Moore, PhD and Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber, MD. Baby 411 goes over all of the most popular sleep methods by different doctors and basically gives you the cliffs notes version of it. It does talk about Dr. Ferber's method, but I figured I'd pick up his book to read more about it. Maybe he has some other tips in his book that will help, especially when it comes to special circumstances like teething. I began reading The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program , and I am intrigued. I'll tell you more about this in a post later this week when I finish the book. I'm half way there. :)

Well, this morning, after yet another sleepless night, I had Hubby call the pediatrician. WEB has been tugging at his ears. My books (aka "They") say that could be a sign of sleepiness, but it could also be him telling us he has an ear infection. He's been doing it for a few days now, but doesn't have a fever, so I figured if nothing else, it was something we could rule out. Lo and behold, he does not have an ear infection... He has a sore throat. Throat and ears are fairly close, so he's probably tugging on his ears because his throat hurts. There's no antibiotics or anything, but the Nurse Practitioner said to give him some Tylenol at night to just help with the pain of teething and now sore throat. Hopefully it will make him sleep better at night. The funny thing she said was that he could get it from a number of ways, including someone at the grocery store coming up and giving him the "Oh, what a cute baby!". Well, that broad just coughed a virus into my child's face. Thanks a lot, Lady! Why don't you cough malaria all over him too, while you're at it?!

Needless to say, we will be washing our hands more and try to stay out of his face as much as possible. Please, OH PLEASE, let this all help. I could really use a good night's sleep. I've already given Hubby fair warning that I'm PMSing and haven't had any sleep (just like him), so I might be snappy today. I'm trying extra hard to think about what I say before I say it. I've already caught a few snotty things before they flew out of my mouth...Let's hope I can do that for the remainder of the day and we can actually get some sleep tonight!

Panic Attacks & Feeding a Baby

Having a newborn is stressful. Period. You're at the hospital and are both cursing the nurses for waking you up every 30 minutes to check on you or your baby, but loving them when they help bathe your little one or usher your pain-stricken body to the restroom. Everything is new, scary, and exciting. The second night in the hospital (if it's anything like ours) is torture. The baby is screaming non-stop. He won't sleep or eat. He has a clean diaper, so that's not the problem. He wants to be held, then doesn't. You and your Hubby are at your wits end when you call the nurse to find out at what time she was planning to take your baby away to do the heel prick test, and if it takes an hour or two, you're totally ok with that. Sleep is already a distant memory.

Once you're home you're trying to figure out how all of this works and are scared straight. The few minutes you do sleep are interrupted by a screaming baby, or worse, a sleeping baby who isn't making any noise... Is he breathing? Did he roll onto his tummy? Are you sure he's breathing?

Then comes the feeding. Thankfully, WEB latched onto nursing like a pro. However, we still had our list of issues. Naturally, he lost a bit of his birth weight before we left the hospital because he was just getting my colostrum (what comes out before your milk comes in). Well, he had lost a little more weight than the pediatrician was comfortable with so she suggested we visit her two days later so she could see his progress, hoping my milk will have come in by then. At his first visit to the pediatrician, he was still smaller than she wanted. She suggested we supplement with some formula until my milk came in. I was crushed. I felt like a failure. I failed as the main food supply for my baby. I was worried about nipple confusion (using a bottle nipple vs. my nipple vs. a pacifier could cause him to get used to one and not latch onto me as well), the antibodies and other benefits he wasn't getting from me and my breast milk that I had hoped to pass on to him, among a million other things.

Finally, a full 5 days after birth, my milk came in. Now he was getting plenty to eat and we didn't need to supplement at all. We took him back to the pediatrician for another weigh in and follow up to find out that he was back up to his birth weight and then some! We were all very excited and thankful we were doing well.

Then comes spit up. My little WEB would eat and eat and eat. However he was a stubborn burper. He projectile vomited an entire feeding worth of breast milk probably half a dozen times. This was nerve wrecking. Thank goodness we bought the Baby 411 book (Side note: If you buy any baby book, let it be this one. It is easy to use and easy to flip through to find quick answers to your never ending list of questions. This was Hubby's right hand for the first several weeks. It helped put us both at ease many many times. Ok...let's get back on track.). Logically, if there is an air bubble in your baby's tummy and then he downs an entire feeding, when he finally burps, up comes the entire feeding. Their stomachs are only the size of a ping pong ball at most when they're newborns, so there's not much room for anything if air gets caught in there. Needless to say we were never ever lazy when it came to burping him again.

I thought this was a good story to tell because I hope it's encouraging. I got a text from my friend today and it made me think back to those first couple of weeks when I needed a big Lani hug and an even bigger cry. Anyways, my friend has a 2 week old little boy. She has been through more than enough issues from her pregnancy, delivery, and after, and now they're having problems getting their little guy to gain some poundage. I remember how much of an emotional wreck I was when my poor baby wasn't gaining the weight he needed to and wasn't getting as much food as he needed from me. I just felt so helpless - I know it doesn't help that your hormones are ridiculously out of control either. I can only offer lots of love, support, and encouragement to her and hope that they all get the hang of things soon. Before you know it, our boys will be chasing and beating each other up on the playground and this will all be a distant memory...