Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sunday Randoms

• This week I am going to stop letting Little Miss Lucy sleep in her swing for all her naps and start taking all of them in her crib.  She has LOVED sleeping in her swing and I have LOVED that she sleeps.



The picture above is when she was MUCH smaller. It is safe to say that her head is at the top and her feet hang over the edge now. She hasn't been napping as well in the swing which I'm taking as her sign to me to cut the cord, bite the bullet and get her to start taking her naps in the crib.

It's gonna be a FUN week at our house :)


On to a much more fun topic.

 • Spring baby girl clothes.

 I wasn't that excited about fall and winter clothes for her for some reason but there is something about all the spring clothes that is just beyond adorable. Proof.


And don't EVEN get me started on baby swim suits.




I am a very practical woman. I'm not a shopaholic by any means and I can be a tad bit "thrifty" at times. But Carter's and Gymboree OWN me.

• I want to make a growth chart. Julia from My Life In Transition has an awesome one based on a really large ruler. While I think her's turned out really great I don't think I want to go with wood since we will have to move again. At least once. Probably more then once more and I feel like a cloth growth chart would be easier in this case. My mom had a "grow worm" cloth growth chart for us that I'm pretty sure is still hanging in the coat closet. I'm trying to brain storm the game plan right now and have to reign myself in from just throwing something together. When I get an idea I like to go into it 100% and then sometimes wish I had taken more time to really plot things out first.

Side note but one of JB3's biggest pet peeves is when people say "I gave it 110%" or any number beyond 100%. He's very analytical like that. His point being why stop at 110%, why not 150% or 200%. It has now become one of my pet peeves when I hear someone say that. In general most sports cliches I find kind of annoying so this just gets thrown on the pile.



Anyone else adopt one of their husband/wife/friend's pet peeves?

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Letting It Go

Little Miss Lucy doesn’t like to sleep. She has to be encouraged to sleep every time. She never “just” falls asleep somewhere. Like playing with her toys or being held. We use all the sleep gimmicks. White noise. Sleep Sheep. Swaddle. Magic Sleep Suit (our current straight jacket method). That is a lot of S’s but still not a lot of the most important s-word, sleep. We moved her into her crib recently and it went ok. She actually is pretty good at being able to self soothe. Yet another s-word, apparently today’s post is sponsored by the letter S. I think she likes her crib, heck she must love it which is why she can’t stand the idea to close her eyes for too long when she is in it, she might miss out on seeing that awesome crib for a moment.


So little, so sleepy.

I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read about sleep. I’ve read the book The No Cry Sleep Solution because it breaks this momma’s heart when she starts crying THAT cry. Mom’s know what I mean. I can handle the fussing cry for a bit but when she busts out the deep-take-a-breathe-cause-I’m-soooo-upset-cry I just can’t handle it. I’ve read countless articles about sleep and every theory out there. I’ve looked at things upside down and side ways. I think the day that I can say that she is officially a good sleeper it will be with more pride then the day I graduated from college. We just aren't at that day yet.



I take frequent pictures of her sleeping to remind myself it does in fact happen.


I’m a fixer by nature and I’m really notorious for having to look up and research things to death. JB3 (hubby) thinks that I’m obsessing but really it is just how I am. I once read that the motto for my astrological sign Sagittarius is “I need to understand” and man does that fit me. In all my research I have found tons of suggestions about routines and schedules and ways to help your baby to sleep. But no magic bullet. They say that all babies are different. And while I haven’t been able to find the miracle tip that will send us all into magical (and mythical in our house) deep sleeps I have learned, and am really still learning, one really valuable tip.

Let it go already.

Babies are unpredictable. That is about the most predictable thing about them. They don’t read all those books and articles that tell you how babies are or should be at each weekly growth point. They aren’t machines, they aren’t expected to act perfectly.  Even once we get sleep on track it is going to back slide at some point. That is life with a baby. It isn’t a check list of things that you get accomplished and then you get to move on without ever having to go back to that item again. The only thing I can control is how I respond to each one of these challenges. I can either try and swim upstream and fight the fact that “she’s not sleeping once again I can’t believe it” or I can go with the flow and accept that this is our place right now. It will be different from where we are a month from now, 3 months from now and a year from now. This too shall pass. Some people get caught up in making sure that the baby is reaching all the milestones at the right time. I have to admit that for the most part I don’t get caught up in that. Lucy is smart. She is strong, really strong. Takes 3 nurses to hold her down so the doctor can check her ears kind of strong. I don’t worry about the fact that she doesn’t want to roll over from back to belly. She will, she just hasn’t gotten to that point yet. Give her time, I know she can do it. That's my Lucy, she's a spirited little girl.

But yet when it comes to sleep I tend to forget this free attitude and get caught up in comparing. Comparison is the thief of joy and can really steal your moments away. I’ve given up reading sleep articles and I’m taking on an attitude of acceptance. I’ve stopped timing her sleeps and watching the video monitor like a hawk. Most nights at least. I have faith in Lucy.

Give her time, I know she can do it.



Why sleep in a crib when you have a perfectly comfortable mommy to sleep on?


I think it all can be summed up in this quote that I found some where. I tried to source it but hey I’m sleep deprived and I’m glad that I don’t find the car keys in the fridge most days. You see that is the one benefit of no sleep, you have a built in excuse for when you don’t get things right or forget something. 

Wise words from a very wise mom:

“When you are not sleeping, each day feels like an eternity and you begin to wonder if you’re going to be able to live another day with a little life-sucker attached to your chest. And you look at every mom you know with wonder and amazement and ask, “How on earth did you survive this?”

Because moms are amazing, that’s how.”

Amen to that.


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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Random Mommy Musings

This is a stream of consciousness post. A.K.A I'm trying to get my blogging mojo back so let's go the easy way and do a "random" post. Dipping the toes back in the blogging pool.....

 About 5 months postpartum now and I've been lucky that I'm doing really well and am pretty much back to the way my body was before baby. Except one thing. The hair loss. Good grief I knew you lost your luscious pregnancy locks but I didn't know that I would be shedding like a retriever day after day. I threaten to go all Britney Spears and shave it all off at least once a day.



I got sick twice within a two week span right around Christmas. The second time it was right after we got home from the holidays. Then JB3 (nickname for the hubby, cute huh Washington Redskin fans? ) got the flu. Then Miss Lucy got some sniffles and a cough. Then I got sick, AGAIN. The plague had hit our house. Basically our household for the first week of the year was all the worst parts of the Bible.  I got a flu shot. JB3 did not. Let this be a PSA for all you people like the husband who have not gotten your shot and STOP READING THIS SILLY BLOG AND GO DO IT NOW! Seriously. Mommy's don't get sick days, this is one of the things that they would exclude when going over the job description. 

I want to know why when you are socializing with people after you have had a baby the first question they ask is "So is she sleeping through the night yet?" I have to imagine that if your baby was in fact doing this magical and amazing thing called sleeping that you wouldn't need to have people ask you. You would be telling everyone that you meet. Randoms. The cashier at the grocery store. Anyone with ears. I know I would cause yea, obviously my baby is not in fact sleeping through the night. I've been tempted on occasion when asked this GLORIOUS question to respond with "No, but she eats and poops like a truck driver, that gal has one healthy tummy!" We excel in both of those areas but no love for that.

I always heard people say not to declare that you won't do something when you have kids before you have kids. Basically don't think you know anything about having babies until you actually HAVE one. That is a true story. Before Miss Lucy I really was kinda skeeved out about breastfeeding. I knew it was "best" but so wasn't looking forward to that. I totally planned on pumping and then bottle feeding her and it just seemed like the PERFECT plan. 

I planned. Then I had baby. Plan out the window. 

I abhor pumping. And I LOVE breastfeeding my baby. I could write love poems about how awesome it is to breastfeed my baby while stroking her little head (and sometimes picking at it like a baboon) and how awesome that whole experience has been.  Never in a million years would I have thought I would feel that way.  We are getting ready to start into solids soon and I'm not looking forward to it at all.  Not one bit. I love being all that she needs. I also love breastfed poopy diapers because they are pretty non-offensive, as far as diapers go. Solids mean teeth are probably in the near future too. I've tried telling Lucy that teeth are overrated and there is always Jello. 

And because I'm not going to publish a post with only a picture of shaved head Britney Spears out into the world, another mostly bald head girl but soooo much cuter. And SO that innocent (did you catch that lyric quote?)


Love and wet baby kisses,

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Let's Still Be Friends, Mmmkay?


So hey I have a BLOG. One that has totally been put on the back burner lately because my little lady is growing and changing and I'm trying my darnedest to keep up.  I was really trying to stay on top of the monthly updates but little Miss Lucy is about to be 5 months old so obviously that has also taken a back seat. So let's just call this a late January resolution of sorts and I am going to make more of an effort to keep this old blog from getting all dusty and forgotten.

And now I will post pics of my baby girl in an effort to kiss and make up. Still friends?









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