Just like dad

My son worships his dad. Sure, he loves his mom, but daddy is his “best friend.”

Daddy is a firefighter. I think pretty much all three-year-olds love firefighters, so Littleman certainly isn’t unique in that sense. But not all three-year-olds get to visit the fire station and sit in their dad’s truck. Lucky boy!

And then there’s the farm. My husband is very handy and is always busy with projects around the farm. Littleman always wants to help.

One of his favourite pieces of farm “equipment” is the John Deere gator.
So, imagine his surprise when we arrived at the farm last night and daddy gave him this:

He jumped right on there and is driving like a pro already. I have a feeling I know how he will be spending his time this summer!

I’m glad my little man is so happy to spend time with his dad. Their relationship is special and they really enjoy each other’s company. I love watching the two of them together. As Littleman gets older, I look forward to watching their relationship grow and seeing him become just like dad.

Pulling my hair out

I’m pulling my hair out these days.  No, not in the “I’m so frustrated” sense.  More like literally pulling out handfuls of hair every time I touch my head.

I’ve always shed a lot of hair, even prior to becoming pregnant for the first time.  My husband always complained about the piles of long, blond hair that would gather on our dark hardwood floors, especially after drying my hair.  When I got pregnant with Littleman, all of that stopped!  It was miraculous!  All of my hair stayed on my head (or so it seemed) for my entire pregnancy.  It was my favourite pregnancy symptom, by far.

Of course, after Littleman was born, I went right back to my old, hair-shedding ways.  Nothing worse, mind you, just your average, run-of-the-mill shedding.

With Bo’s pregnancy, my hair continued to fall out as usual.  I kept waiting to stop shedding, but it never happened.  What a disappointment.

After Bo was born, though, things got worse.  When I wash my hair, I pull out huge clumps.  When I dry my hair, my bed (and clothes) end up covered in it.  I find hairballs everywhere.  It’s gross.

I’m sure it doesn’t help that I haven’t had my hair cut since January.  Luckily, I’ve lined up my mom to watch the little guy so I can go to the salon on Wednesday.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a good haircut will help a bit.  If not, it is entirely possible that I will be bald by the end of the summer.

Ahhh hormones… gotta love ’em.

Why the cry?

This morning I realized how lucky I’ve been these past few months.

I know I’ve said more than a few times that Bo is a really happy, easy baby.  But seriously, this kid is extremely easy-going.  He truly never cries.  Barely makes a squawk.  He smiles a ton and whimpers a tiny bit if he’s uncomfortable.  There isn’t much that bothers him.  If he’s hungry, he smacks his lips and turns his head to the side.  If he’s tired, he generally just yawns and goes to sleep wherever he is.

That’s why I felt so bad for him this morning.  He put my mommy skills to the test for the first time when he cried for over an hour for no apparent reason.  He started fussing when I was talking on the phone to my mom.  Then he had a major diaper blowout.  I assumed that was what was bugging him.  After I cleaned him all up, I figured he would be fine.  Nope.  Still fussing.  I tried to nurse him but he wanted nothing to do with the breast.  In fact,  he got downright pissed off and started screaming.  I tried burping him, thinking maybe he had gas.  I gave him some gripe water.  I walked around with him.  Tried feeding him again.  Tried putting him down for a nap.  Tried singing.  Tried rocking.  Changed his diaper again.  Nothing helped and the poor kid was so upset.

Finally, finally, he let out a tiny little burp.  Nothing major and I don’t know if that was all that was making him upset, but it seemed to be enough to allow him to settle down and eat.  He nursed for about 4 minutes before passing out from sheer exhaustion.

I guess I’d kind of forgotten what it’s like to have a baby that cries.  I tried to stay calm but I’m not gonna lie.  It gave me the sweats.

I know I probably sound totally obnoxious to anyone who has a baby right now.  If this is a normal occurrence for you, you probably think I’m totally nuts.  And I know it’s normal for a lot of people.  It was for me with my first son.

Anyway, I hope the little guy wakes up from his nap feeling better.  Not just for my sake, but for his.  I hate seeing my happy little man so worked up and not knowing what to do to fix it.  It breaks my heart.

To sleep or not to sleep?

That is the question.  Or, at least, it seems to be the question my 15-week-old asks himself each night.  He still hasn’t decided whether he intends to be a good sleeper or not.

It’s funny how sleep is the first thing people ask you about when they know you have a young baby.  “Getting any sleep?” is probably the phrase I hear the most these days.

On Sunday night, Bo slept for 8 hours, uninterrupted.  Aside from some mild discomfort in my breasts (i.e. they were about to explode!) it was dreamy.  The next few nights….the longest stretch he’s gone is four hours, followed by 1.5 or 2 hour stints.  I wish there was something I could do to get him to sleep longer again (even 5 or 6 hours would be nice!) but I know I just have to wait it out.

When it comes to night time, we’re doing things a bit differently this time around.  Bo is still sleeping in our room in his bassinet.  With Littleman, I would scoop him out of his bassinet when he awoke, carry him to his room, change his diaper and then feed him in the glider.  The problem with that?  I think it caused him to wake up more than was necessary.  I often had a hard time getting him back to sleep, usually having to rock him or even walk around with him until he was out cold. With Bo, if he wakes up, I scoop him up and into bed with me to feed.  It remains dark and we barely have to move.  When I’m done feeding him (he’s a pretty fast eater – usually less than 10 mins), I burp him gently and then I set him back down in his bassinet.

I know that we’re going to have to move Bo into his own room soon.  He’s growing so quickly and will soon outgrow his bassinet.  I’m not looking forward to having to trek down the hall for the nighttime feeds.  I’ll miss snuggling in bed with him in the middle of the night.  I don’t find the glider as comfortable for feeding, since I’ve been using a different position for nursing this time around.

But maybe moving him into his crib in his own room will help him sleep longer.  Maybe we’re inadvertently waking him up during the night.  We both get up to pee once or twice in the night and perhaps we bug him.

Or maybe moving him will cause him to wake up even more often.  Maybe his crib will feel to big and open for him and he’ll wonder where we are.

Regardless of what happens, at least I feel like I’m getting a bit better at managing my own sleeping.  Last night, I actually went to bed before Bo!  He just didn’t seem interested in falling asleep, so he hung out with D while I went to bed. And, I think I just generally cope better with sleep deprivation than I did the first time around. (Perhaps because I forget what it’s like not to be sleep deprived?)

I know this whole sleep business will eventually sort itself out (or we will eventually decide to do some sort of sleep training) but for now I’ll take what I can get.

Pause

Do you ever wish you could slow down the clock a bit?

I feel like I’ve lived much of my life wishing the time away.  I used to always live my life looking forward to the next exciting thing: weekends, Christmas, vacations, nights out, babies being born…

But now, it feels like time is moving too quickly and I wish there was a way to slow it down!  I feel like I’m in a good place right now and it would be amazing if I could hit a “pause” button so that we could have some more time to just enjoy it.

Since I can’t do that, I’m just trying my best to take everything in and enjoy every moment.  The problem with that?  There are a lot of little tasks that don’t get done.  For example, my house is a disaster.  As I type this, I’m looking at the dust that is covering just about everything.  There are crumbs on the counter and, as always, a huge pile of laundry to fold.  But, since the summer is so short, I’d rather go for a walk with my baby than do housework.  So, the dirt will remain for now.

I also have lots of things I’ve been wanting to write about.  Bo is growing and developing so much and I feel like I need to write it all down so I don’t forget.  We actually got an eight-hour stretch of sleep the other night (yep, eight hours!!) and he’s working so hard at rolling from his back to his front.  He is happy and smiley and so good-natured.  He demands so little attention (which means his older brother doesn’t have to give up being the centre of attention, which he has grown so used to!) and I truly enjoy spending time with him.

Father’s Day has come and gone.  I didn’t even get a chance to acknowledge my husband here.  He’s such a great dad.  Littleman worships him and is such a daddy’s boy.  I love watching how much the boys love their daddy.

I apologize for the scattered thoughts today but my mind is running in a million directions and I feel like I’ve been away from the computer for too long.  I’m still reading blogs everyday but writing posts from my phone during Bo’s feeds is getting harder as he gets bigger.  He eats so quickly and is ready to move on to another activity before I’m done so I find I end up with a bunch of partial posts that never get finished.

So, before this becomes another unfinished post, I will push the “play” button and keep moving.

The death of the photo album

I have cute kids.  I know, I know, we all think our kids are cute.  But mine are really, really cute 🙂

Seriously though, I’m sure I’m not the only parent who takes a gazillion pictures to capture all that cuteness.  I got my first iPhone right before Littleman was born and it allowed me to take some pretty great photos anywhere and anytime.  For my 36th birthday – three days before Bo was born – I got an iPhone 5S and have been taking even more great shots of my boys.

The problem?  If I want to show anyone or even look through them, I have to do so on my phone or pull out my laptop.  I’ve realized that there’s something to be said for the good, old-fashioned photo album.

Remember when we used to take pictures that we couldn’t see right away?  And when we were much more selective about what we chose to photograph?  Remember dropping off a roll of film to be developed?  I remember how exciting it was to pick up my photos and go through them to see how they turned out.  We used to get “doubles” so we could share the extra copies with our friends. Then, we’d spend hours sorting them and putting them into albums. I have piles of photo albums from my childhood and teen years.

I love that digital cameras and smart phones allow us to take a ton of photos and then delete the crappy ones.  I love that I have my phone with me all the time so that I can capture any cute moment that pops up, without having to go looking for a camera.  But, I hate that I end up with thousands of digital images to sort through and deal with.

The worst part?  We don’t even have one picture of Bo in our house.  I’ve easily taken over 1000 pictures since he was born and haven’t printed one of them.

When Littleman was a baby, my solution was to make photo books.  I spent hours diligently sorting photos on the computer and uploading them to a site for making and printing books.  To keep it manageable, I did it in three-month chunks, so his first year was captured in four books.  They turned out great and my plan was to do yearly books after the first year.  That plan failed miserably and I haven’t made one since.

So, today I started again and uploaded a bunch of photos from Bo’s first three months.  When I get time (ha!) I’ll go back to make the books to capture Littleman’s second and third years.  But for now, I’m focusing on family books going forward.  My goal is to do the three-month books for this year and then go back to yearly books after that.

Does anyone else struggle with managing their family photos?  I love having great pictures of my boys but it seems like such a waste to keep them hidden on our devices.

3 months

My baby boy is three months old today! In some ways, it feels like he’s been here even longer (perhaps because it was freezing and snowy when he arrived. Now it’s hot and sunny!)

Bo is such a good baby. Let me rephrase that. I don’t believe there are good or bad babies – just easy and more difficult babies. Bo still falls into the easy category.

He’s awake a lot more during the day now and he smiles for a lot of that time. He enjoys playing on his activity mat and will reach for and grab the little animals that hang down. He can roll from his front to his back (mainly to get off his tummy, which he isn’t a fan of!). He can get partway from his back to front, but one arm always gets stuck beneath him, keeping him from rolling completely.

Breastfeeding, thankfully, is going very well now. After a difficult start, we’re now in the groove. Bo’s a very fast eater and only takes one side per feed, for the most part.

We kind of got away from the whole “trying a bottle” thing, which I began to kick myself for. So, last week I pulled out the old pump and gave it another try. What do you know? Bo, in his happy-go-lucky way, took the bottle. I’ve tried a couple more times since then and it seems to be a non-issue with him. He certainly isn’t perfect at drinking from a bottle (lots of drippage and it takes a lot longer) but at least he’ll do it. Means I can actually go to my dentist appointment next week (sarcastic yahoo!)

Sleeping is still all over the place. We’ve had some good nights (which I define as only waking to feed once, maybe twice). If he does one longish stretch of sleep, 5-6 hours, then I am very pleased. Unfortunately, there are still nights where his “long stretch” is only 3 hours. Oh well. We’ll get there.

Bo’s reflux is definitely improving, which is a nice change. He still spits up a lot, but at least he can lie on his back now. He’s finally sleeping in his bassinet, rather than his chair. And, I no longer have to hold him for very long in the night before I can put him back down.

He’s growing like crazy, so it’s handy to have all of Littleman’s baby clothes already. It’s fun to see some of those cute outfits again, although I’m sad to have to pack away the tiny stuff.

Anyway, my 3-month old is sweet little guy and I’m really enjoying my time with him these days.

Holy crap (literally!)

My sister has been dealing with diaper blowouts for a couple of months now. Her daughter is two weeks older than Bo. Every time she complained about it, I felt relieved that Bo didn’t seem like the blowout type of kid. He had the odd poo leakage every once in a while, but nothing major. Littleman, on the other hand, used to have some pretty major ass-plosions, resulting in poo all the way up to his neck!

Well, it appears my luck has changed. While D was working this weekend and I was alone with the two boys, Bo decided to treat me to three diaper blowouts, two of which requires emergency baths.

Remember the other day when I was all savouring my middle-of-the-night awake time with Bo? Well, there’s nothing quite like poo up your baby’s back at 4am to test your resolve.

There’s also nothing quite like having to change your own pants and underwear because your baby shat right through them too!

Anyway, luckily it’s been nice and sunny so I can use my favourite trick for getting baby poo stains off of clothes. If you haven’t tried this before, it’s amazing: just rinse and put it in the sun. If you can still see some staining after it’s dry, just wet it again and put it back in the sun. Once the stain is gone, wash it as usual. I swear, after wrecking so many clothes in the early days with Littleman, I was so happy to figure this out!

Hopefully this is just a short phase and I won’t be dealing with it much longer. Because, well, gross.