Another new post today! Some of MY milestones

Some things I feel I have accomplished in the past few days:
On Sunday I discovered I can fold laundry with both hands while breastfeeding.
Today I learned I can wash dishes with one hand.
Getting dressed with one hand, and holding the baby with the other.
The other day I actually went to the bathroom while holding him, it was a little difficult when it was time to pull up my underwear and pants, ever try to do that? It's not really easy with one hand, it's like one side goes up, then the other one, and you kinda have to shimmy them up.
Figuring out how the heck that sling works and successfully carrying Simon in it.


And Some new discoveries:
Simon can pee ridiculous amounts! This morning while I was changing him peed while the diaper was off, no big deal, getting pretty used it. So I responded like I normally do: I screamed, frantically looked around for something to block the pee with and then waited a second and got back to cleaning him off, he barely got the onesie with it, not bad. Then he did it again, I screamed again, laughed because he was spraying his onesie and then got his face, once again removed the towel and continued cleaning off the poop. Then he did it again!!! I grabbed the towel, sighed and dried off the dresser. Each time he managed to shoot a completely different direction. Oh, and when I was getting him ready for his bath a little later, I had him all wrapped up in a towel and was carrying him from the bathroom to the kitchen when my shirt suddenly became very warm. Yep... he peed on me.

I have been warned about leaking and spraying boobs when breastfeeding, and until today had only experienced the leaking end of it. But when I was feeding Simon this afternoon he spit my nipple out to take a break and I looked down and the milk was spraying out of me all over the place, so of course I panicked and didn't know what to do so I quickly stuck my boob back into his mouth. That was a fun new one for me! Normally they just leak a lot and I have to hold the spit rag over my boob until he is ready to eat again and in the meantime the whole rag ends up saturated in milk!

Mister Fussy Butt

I'VE CREATED A MONSTER!!
Not really, but sometimes it sure does feel like it. Simon hates to be alone, and he hates not being held. Yesterday I had him propped up on the couch so he could watch me while I was doing stuff, and the second I walked out of the room he started screaming. The past few days he has been extremely fussy. I don't know what his deal is. I am praying that it is just being gassy and that it has been caused by all of the triple ginger snaps I have been eating, and am going to cut out of my diet today to see if it helps. I went and bought a sling a couple of days ago and wore him around in it yesterday. He screamed as I was getting him in it, but as soon as he got settled he fell asleep and stayed that way for a couple hours. I was able to have him in it while I got some things done around the house.
Bedtime last night was particularly bad. I had fed Simon out in the living room and then went into the bedroom to change his diaper and go to bed, Steve was in bed asleep. As soon as we walk into the bedroom he starts screaming, soI took him into the bathroom to soothe him, he calms down, so we go back into the bedroom and I put him on the changing table to change his diaper and he just started screaming and would not be soothed. After what felt like an eternity I got him to calm down a little bit but not entirely, and managed to hold him while I changed into my pjs with just minimal fussing. We hopped into bed and after bouncing him up and down a lot he calmed down but was still wide awake, so I kept him with me and fell asleep.
It is now several hours after I started writing this blog and today has gone by much better and included many naps for Simon which is pretty unusual. I hoping it was a combination of the ginger snaps and maybe he just doesn't sleep enough and that makes him cranky. He usually doesn't sleep very much throughout the day which I think is unusual for newborns, I know his cousin is almost always asleep and rarely awake, and Simon is the opposite. I shouldn't complain too much though, during the night he goes to bed at midnight wakes up around 3 or 4 and again at like 7 or 8, so he sleeps really well at night. I think I am going need to invest in a bouncy seat though, whenever he is fussy the fastest way to calm him down is by bouncing him, so maybe a bouncy seat is the thing I need to be able to get things done during the day.
Anyways, I am very glad to report today has gone better in the fussing department, he has been pretty good, and his fussing is normally about two hours after his last meal so today fussing has just meant "feed me" instead of the stuff from yesterday where he was just unsoothable. Also, yesterday we started a little thing Steve's mom told us to try when he is fussy. If he has eaten, has a clean diaper, and still won't be soothed put him down for 10 minutes, let him cry, and then pick him up and calm down for 2 minutes. Didn't work so well last night, or maybe it did since he has been good today? Who knows, but if anyone has any suggestions on calming a baby down let me know, I am open for advice, and it doesn't mean I have to take it, but there are some times where I think to myself when he is crying that I will try anything!!

My First Day as a Mom- alone!!

So technically I have been a mom for a month and a day, but today feels like my first day because it my first day doing this all on my own! My mom came into town the 5th of November, and stayed with Steve and I until yesterday. She took really good care of us while she was here and I feel quite spoiled by everything she did. So today is my first day as a Stay-At-Home-Mom when all the responsibility falls on me and I can no longer rely on my mom to help me out (Steve is at work and school all day). This morning before Steve left to go study he changed Simon's diaper and played with him a little bit, then gave him back to me and we went back to sleep. When I did get out of bed, at 10 this morning, (my mom would be proud normally I didn't get out of bed until closer to noon when she was here) I changed Simon again and then ventured into the living room picked out a movie and nursed him. The day was pretty uneventful around 2 Simon was napping so I decided to take a shower. I made it through the whole shower until right when I was about to get out anyways I heard Simon start crying, and by crying I mean screaming, so I told him he was okay and that I was coming, dried off, brushed my hair, threw on a robe and went and got him. More uneventfulness, and then a while ago he was being kinda fussy and I hate just putting him down when he is upset, but he wouldn't let me do anything, so I finally put him down for some tummy time, he screamed for about thirty seconds and while I was in the kitchen he stopped. Me being the paranoid mom I am and always a little nervous about SIDS had to go check on him since he was on his stomach laying down... he was asleep, thirty seconds after I layed him down he was sleeping. So cute. So now I am making a cup of noodle soup, catching up on some blogging, and wondering why one of Steve's sisters never brought over baby Zane like she was going to. Zane is Simon's cousin, Simon is ten days older than him and about twice as big! All in all today has been good. In a couple hours I have to get us ready to go to Steve's parents house for FHE, we are decorating their Christmas tree tonight, and then Steve and I are going to buy our Christmas tree and decorate it too!! Speaking of which, I told Cindy I wanted to bring something baked.. Too late now to be adventurous, I think I will just make some brownies from a box!

Thankful for....

I am thankful for being able to nurse openly in my house and at Steve's parents house. I have never realized how nice and convenient it is to be able to just whip a boob out and nurse Simon whenever I want to without having to worry about covering up or anyone seeing me. Not being able to nurse whenever I want really makes me wish that I lived in a place where it was more socially and culturally acceptable to nurse openly in public without needing to cover or hide what I am doing. I wish I lived in South America where it is perfectly normal and acceptable to just whip it out and start nursing whenever you want.
I am also thankful for the "HooterHider" my mom made for me. It makes it so I can still be around people while nursing. Places I have enjoyed the convenience of nursing while still getting things done: Charity dessert social last Sunday, the grocery store, Target, Arby's, Steve's grandparents house. On Thanksgiving I was very grateful for the HooterHider because it made it possible for me to hang out with people and play Risk while still taking care of Simon's eating needs, which was very nice because he wanted to eat all the time on Thanksgiving Day, I don't know what his deal was but it felt like he was wanting to eat every 5 minutes. One downfall to the hider I discovered that day, it's really hot!! or maybe Steve's grandparents house was hot, I don't know but me and Simon were both all sweaty after feeding and it got to a point where I was trying to get him to wait just a little longer to eat because it was so hot under that thing he came out bright red and burning hot everytime he ate.
One last thing I am grateful for: changing rooms and the nursing mother's room at BabiesR'Us. Yesterday while doing some black Friday shopping I was able to just sit in a clothes changing room and nurse Simon for a few minutes, it was very nice and convenient, and much better than trying to figure out how the heck I can do it in a bathroom or get him latched on somewhere and then use the HooterHider. The nursing mother's room at BabiesR'Us is also wonderful. I can time my shopping trips out so I will end up at that store when Simon will be needing to eat next, and then I can go sit in there and relax while he eats, so nice!!

Cloth vs. Disposable

So one of the shower gifts I got that I am really grateful for is diaper service for a week. Yesterday the lady from Poops-A-Daisies came by to drop off the diapers. So far, I am unimpressed by cloth diapers. If Simon pees more than one time in them he will soak through the diaper and the plastic liner and onto his clothes. Yesterday he went through either 3 or 4 outfits. THe diaper lady left us 4 of the waterproof liners, and we went through three of them yesterday and had them out of commission while we waited for them to dry because we had to wash them. The service costs $80 month if you sign up for 6 months, or $100 month if you do a month-to-month contract. Not too bad to have someone drop off diapers at your house and then pick them up. We don't even have to rinse the poop off them or anything, just toss them in the diaper pail and put them out every Thursday night and Monday night. Last night, we put Simon in a disposable diaper while he slept or we probably would have had to get up about 4 times to change him during the night either that or have a very irritated cold baby sleeping in his pee. So as far as cost, it isn't really that expensive, until you add in the cost of having to buy the plastic pants and stuff. I think this is more one of those things where I would rather pay for the convenience of using disposable diapers that lock in the wetness than use the cloth ones. My mom changed Simon half an hour ago and just now had to change him again because he was very fussy, and had peed, and it almost leaked through. So yeah, its more a matter of convenience vs. feeling good because you aren't using disposable diapers that clog up landfills. I personally am fine with filling up the landfills, because it means my baby isn't crying as much and going through a bunch of outfits a day.
* I am very grateful for the diaper service though, because if Steve and I had a washer and dryer at our house, I was going to consider going with the cloth diapers, and now I know what works best for me. And it is kinda cool to be using cloth diapers and being environmentally friendly and all that stuff.
Do any of you use cloth diapers? If so, do you have any little tricks for making them work better? I tried putting a second diaper folded up inside the first one, and the first time Simon peed it soaked right through and half an hour later Steve was changing it.

Leaking

One of the joys of being a mom is being able to breastfeed. It is going really well for me, not too painful for me or anything like that, but it does come with its wonders. The bonding thing is great like everyone says it is. I think since the baby spends so much time attached to his moms boob, its pretty much impossible not to be bonding. But one sucky thing about breastfeeding is the leaking!!! (no pun intended)
My first leaking experience I had just gotten out of the shower and I was drying off and everything and something kept dripping and hitting the bath mat and my foot, so I just assumed water was dripping off of my hair so I put it up in a towel and the dripping continued, thats when I realized it was me, I was leaking and dripping all over the place!
The other day I was feeding Simon on the right side and I realized the left side of my shirt was soaking wet!! I was like what the heck is going on. I soaked through a cotton undershirt, a nursing pad thing to prevent leaks, a bra, and shirt!! My outer shirt had a huge wet patch about 3 inches wide and 9 inches long, I couldn't believe it!! Then I realized my shirt sleeve had another wet patch about 3 inches by 3 inches! Where does it all come from? It took me a minute to realize what it was, but when I figured it out I just couldn't believe I leaked that much.
Then there is the moderate leaking that occurs everytime I get ready to feed him and am trying to get him to ltach on. I swear by the time I get Simon latched on my hand and boob are all slimyand wet and it's really gross, I have to put a cloth under my boob just so it doesn't get all over everything. My boob needs its own burp cloth!!!
Oh, Simon is waking now, gotta go get him fed. The only time he cries really is when he is getting changed and is freezing and naked (but as soon as you snap the onesie shut he is silent again) and when he is hungry and I don't get him on the booby fast enough.

On Being a Mom

Welcome to my new blog!! In this blog I am going to talk about discoveries I make and experiences I have as a new mom. And just a little warning, I'm not really going to censor what I say, so you may or may not want to be an active reader of this page. I will be pretty blunt and open about things I am experiencing.