EASY my ass!

Alright... I have vowed that I am going to start getting into a routine with E... it seems I have been all over the map with him in the last 7 weeks, every day is different and unpredictable, and I really think that as he is approaching two months we should start to establish a routine that will encourage more lengthy sleep periods.

I may be dreaming, but I really want E to start sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time, hopefully through the night at some point (wishful thinking perhaps), and I am willing to try any methods or listen to any words of wisdom to achieve this goal.

A few people have recommended the Baby Whisperer to me, Tracey Hogg. I have heard she has a few strategies for sleep and understanding your baby's needs, etc. so I purchased one of her books from Chapter's online and was delighted when it arrived earlier this week.

She speaks to a routine she calls EASY.

E at
A ctivity
S leep
Y ou

The first three letters of EASY refer to the baby and last letter means time for YOU or me in this case!

I was all for trying her methods... one of which she calls tanking up, meaning feeding the baby in shorter intervals in the early evening and then one final good feed later in the evening which allows the baby to TANK UP with enough food to hold him over til the morning.

Yesterday, was my first full day, committed to the EASY routine. We did the Eat, Activity, Sleep thing through the morning and afternoon, and then I feed E at 6pm, then again at 8pm, and at 10:30pm I gave him the dreeeeeeeeeeeam feed (as she calls it). For the dream feed at 10:30 I gave him a bottle of formula, as in the book she indicates that its easier to achieve the dream feed with a bottle rather than with the breast (but you can do it with the breast, I just chose not to for the first night).

All was going smooth on the EASY routine... I gave E the bottle around 10:30pm, he finished around 10:55pm ... and at 11:03pm, while we were rocking in the chair this happened:


EASY... yup it was damn EASY for E to launch his formula plus some all. over. me.

I think he obviously was over fed, he has never really gotten sick quite like that ... I mean we were swimming in the formula - all over him, all over me, dripping off him, my sweater and jeans just like pea soup.

And what was even more EASY about the whole ordeal is that once we got ourselves cleaned up, guess who was hungry again?

It was sooooo EASY to clean up the mess, put in a load of laundry at midnight, feed him again, and finally put him down around 2am.

I love the EASY routine... (but I am not giving up!)

Is it really only a month away...?

We are nearing the month count down to Xmas... and I think I have fallen into complete shock mode.

I mean ... there are a few things going through my mind these days:

1. Christmas already? At the beginning of the year when I thought about Christmas, I thought to myself, I will have a baby by Christmas time - and Christmas, at that time, seemed like a decade or two away. Now that we are 30 some odd days away from the blessed event, and I have a BABY at home, I think this is where the shock/astonishment factor sets in.

2. Christmas ... means buying gifts for others and receiving a few myself, which also means having to decide what is that I need want from Santa. I am no ready to decide just yet.. and I am not ready to figure out just what to get others this Christmas. With only a month and a bit to go, the pressure is on - and I need to get crackin or else E's first Christmas will spent visiting his Mommy at some institution for crazy ladies!

3. WE HAVE A BABY (still in shock)... WE HAVE A BABY, a 7 week old baby, and it will be his very first Christmas, and I want it to be special, but at the same time, in 20 years he is not going to remember a thing about his first Christmas, so where do you draw the line? Do we play Santa Claus this year or do we pass on it, and be slapped with our first naughty parent-of-the-year award for not getting him anything? I mean, he was just born in October, he doesn't need much ANYTHING since we were blessed with so many great shower gifts.. AND since his birth his closet is jammed full of clothes thanks to the generous welcome gifts he received from so many friends and family. But, I don't want to not get him anything... so what do we get him?

Oh... the joys of Christmas. Even if little E wasn't in our lives, I know I will still be having the giving and receiving dilemma, but I am glad we have the extra layer of complicated in our lives this year - as it makes Christmas so much more exciting!

What about you... are you all pumped up for the festive season? Do you have your Christmas shopping started/done? What did you give your children on their first Christmas?

The rings go back on...

You may remember this post from back in July... the one where I was pretty disappointed that my rings did not fit my finger anymore, and I had to take them off due to pregnancy.

I am happy to report that today... THE RINGS ARE BACK ON!

Yes... that's right, I FINALLY got my wedding band to slide back over my knuckle and for the first time today, I have worn my wedding rings as a set for the entire day.

It's a great day to be alive... isn't it!!

You might laugh but trying on my wedding rings was one of the first things I did when I got out of the hospital after E was born. They didn't fit, they didn't even come close to fitting. I gave it a few days... but after being home for week, I would try them on every. single. day after getting out of the shower. For the first couple of weeks I couldn't budge the little buggers over my knuckle... not even close. Then slowly a week or so later my engagement ring did fit over my knuckle but the wedding band was still way too snug (as its half a size smaller for some reason).

Then finally... last week, the wedding band did go over my knuckle but when I would put the engagement band on in front of it, my finger would swell and it felt like I was losing circulation in my entire hand - so I just wore the engagement ring out and left the wedding band on the dresser.

BUT, today... today was a magnificent day here at the Coleman household, the wedding ring SET slid on my finger with ease, and circulation was not an issue at all.

Just as you, my faithful readers predicted - they would go back on, and they did, and they are...

SING IT:

the rings are back on, the rings are back on - do a little dance, make a little love NEVER MIND! That's a whole other blog... but who cares THE RINGS ARE BACK ON!

Phantom Crying

Since I have been home with E, I have become a victim of phantom crying.

I can't seem to put E down for a nap and walk up or downstairs without thinking that as soon as I am out of earshot - he is crying for me.

This easily happens to me at least 20 times a day.

It goes from one extreme to the other ... I hear the phantom crying, so I rush to E's bedside only to see that he looks so still that I wonder if he's actually breathing. To this end, I have to hold my finger under his nose until I feel the hot air on it to convince myself that he is in fact only sleeping.

I am not sure if its my guilty conscious thinking that I shouldn't be doing anything else in a day but tending to him, or if its just plain old new mother paranoia... but its becoming fairly annoying.

I swear if I lived in a glass house... my neighbours would think I am a crazy woman as I am constantly dashing up the stairs at lightning speed and then once I see he is still sleeping, I am casually walking back down the stairs as if nothing happened.

The same goes for when I am in the shower... sometimes I think I hear him screaming, so I shut the water off in the shower, but when the water stops... I don't hear a thing.

Does this happen to anyone else or just me?

How long does this phantom crying phase last... I am hoping that I settle in soon - but in the meantime its the start of a great weight loss program, climbing the stairs all. the. time!

Every Moment Matters

Its not too often that I come across a great find, but recently, I discovered an entrepreneur offering a service that I absolutely LOVE, and so I thought I would share it with you.

Every Moment Matters is a website that I stumbled upon a few weeks ago when I was searching for some modern birth announcements for Little E. Previous to my online search, I had been to Walmart, Shopper's Drugmart, and even Shutterfly, etc... but I hadn't found anything that I really liked.

What I found frustrating was that you couldn't design your own birth announcement at these places, you had to use their tacky templates, and while I did find one or two designs that I would settle for, I couldn't change the size of the font, or it would limit me to 2 or 3 lines of text.

This was frustrating because even though I wasn't satisfied with the product, I was going to have to pay almost a dollar an announcement for something I didn't like.

This is when I started the search online... and found Jill at Every Moment Matters. If you visit her site you will see that she does CUSTOM photo baby announcements. I was intrigued from the opening page of her website, and when I clicked on the photo announcement gallery, I fell in love. Her designs were exactly what I was looking for. Classy, yet modern... and flexible designs that could be alter to my liking. I was even more enthused when I saw that she was CANADIAN, as her business is run out of St. Albert, Alberta.

When I read the details of what Every Moment Matters offers to each customer, I was ecstatic to find out that the final product would arrive within 48 hours of me okaying the final design. This was quicker than what the other places had offered, and although Jill's prices were a bit more expensive per card, I was definitely willing to pay extra to have an announcement that was tailored to my personal style. The best part was she offers packages with different sizes of announcements for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends.

When I saw the packaged deals, I was sold: Every Moment Matters was the company for me. I immediately placed my order, entering all of E's birth details on an easy to fill out template...and while I was a bit leery of having to pay upfront for the service through PayPal (or by money order), I can definitely say now that no one should be worried about this - Jill does excellent work and provided me my first set of proofs with in 24 hours (she guarantees proofs for your review within 48 hours of receiving payment).

The first set of proofs were AMAZING. I had asked her to do a design similar to one in her gallery (the Noah design), which she promptly delivered, but she also provided me 3 other designs similar in colour scheme, photo options, font, etc.

I was very torn after seeing the first set of proofs, as they were all great and really captured my personal style. What impressed me so much about Jill's service is that when she emailed me the proofs, she really encouraged me to look at all of the proofs and choose elements from each them that I liked or remove elements that I didn't like. She seemed very willing to redo her work until I was completely comfortable with one final design.

I ended up going with one of her other designs that she created for me and the not the original one I had thought I wanted. I worked with Jill to incorporate some elements of the original design I had asked for.... along with some her ideas. After our discussions over email, she sent me back a second set of proofs, and this was the final one I went with:

Don't you just love it? I mean could the polka dots scream ME anymore than they already do! They completely match E's nursery too!

Once I okayed the final design, Jill sent me an email to confirm the shipping, and they arrived by ExpressPost, 2 days later!

When I opened the package, I was not disappointed either... the prints were just as nice in person as the online proofs, and all of the announcements came with their own envelopes. Jill even wrapped everything up in some nice ribbon (complimentary to my colours: green & brown) with her business card.

I have been busy these past two weeks finding time to write thank yous to everyone who dropped off or sent E a birthday gift... and I have already received so many nice compliments about the cards. I am so enthused with this company that I know Jill and I will have a long relationship - I am already planning to get my Christmas cards done by her, and probably so much more in the future as E grows up (she actually did the Halloween photo card I posted on Oct. 31st).

Thanks so much to Jill and Every Moment Matters for helping us introduce E to the world, in proper style!

Things I have learned in a month....

Yesterday marked Little E's one month birthday. Hard to believe a month has passed already... it seems like yesterday that we were only bringing him home from the hospital.

In a month's time I become educated in a few areas.... let's recap a few things I've learned:

*Taking a 20 minute shower is a gift... if you get to do it more than twice a month, you should feel blessed! I have always enjoyed a long shower... but with E he only seems to want to let me shower for 5 minutes before I hear him crying in his crib. I don't mind letting him cry for a bit, but he gets into this 'somebody help me or I am going to die' octave that I just can't stand to hear, so I immediately rush to his defence which means cutting my shower down to the bare minimum - soap, shampoo, condition, rinse, DONE.

*Making toast or any sort of breakfast with two hands is simply 'too easy'! If you get to make breakfast or any meal for that matter with two hands, you can consider yourself having a VERY good day! E seems to know exactly when I want to make something to eat, I seem to get a bagel in the toaster, but can't seem to put the cream cheese on it without him in my arms!

*The same goes for eating supper. PC and I are VERY lucky if we can get through a whole meal, just the two of us. If E is down for a nap, he senses exactly when we have just fixed our plates and are ready to eat! Then its a coin toss to see who is going to eat supper cold that night.

*Sleeping in a lazy boy recliner is COMFY. E is starting to adjust to day and night, but every other day he seems to have his days and nights confused. So if I feed him around midnight he is wide awake, but I am not, so we rock away in his room, and then finally I just throw up the recliner part and fall asleep, only to wake up three hours later to my boy smacking his lips on my chest! But the point is I have slept, even if it is in a chair (my chiropractor will probably have a field day on me the next time I get in to see him).

*I have actually surprised myself when I am low on sleep, I am not that bad of a person after all! There are some mornings I really don't want to get out of bed, so I take E in bed with me, but he ultimately rules to roost, so often times I am out of bed far earlier than I want to be, but I like to think I am rather pleasant on those days! I think I have learned how to function when I am only getting my sleep in small shifts and this is something I never thought I would be able to do.

*I don't know the words to as many songs as I thought I did. E likes to rock and so to pass the time I like to sing to him, but its surprising how many tunes I just don't know all the words too. I start out (sounding lovely), and then I get to a part that I can't remember so I hum, and then finally I just tell him 'let's sing a different one, Mommy forgot the words, AGAIN'!

*Who knew that going through the Tim Horton's drive thru would be the highlight of my day! SERIOUSLY... my Tim Horton's large decaf double double is my world (besides E). I look forward to that one cup of coffee everyday... and if I don't get it I am in fact miserable! That is our standard outing most days, I get E all dressed up to go through the drive thru at Timmy's, and he absolutely loves it, or maybe I love it enough for both of us!

*AND, having a half hour or even 15 minutes (gawd, I would take 15 minutes) to check email or blog is also a blessing. Typing with one hand completely sucks... I started this post three days ago, but didn't get it up until today. I have had free moments but I seem to be scrambling around the house to do the little things: put in a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, vacuum, etc. Every time E goes down for a nap I feel like I am on the Amazing Race... completing as many tasks as I possibly can before he wakes for his next feeding.

Speaking of which... he's a calling!

Happy 1 month birthday E, Mommy loves you!