Time for a new backpack

The last time I bought a new backpack I bet I was in school, I think I had a couple rotating during the college days.  But now that I don't need one for heavy books, I can invest in a cute one that won't get as abused. With a baby I am carrying more stuff these days and not just for him, but for me too. I usually need a change of clothes also (hello, spit up) so one of these cute packs would come in handy.

Backpacks from Fjallraven, Need Supply and Mod Cloth.

Riddle me this

How do I read Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child to learn how to make Jonas nap if my child never naps and there is no time to read?!?!

3 Months

Month three has been busy! Lots of new changes and milestones happening over here.

Diapering: We started Jonas on cloth diapers! We use Fuzzi Bunz and things are going great. They seem so much more comfortable on him and we rarely have leaks, and of course, we are not sending a ton of diapers to a landfill. Win, win. We use Charlie's Soap or Rockin' Green for the detergent and I can't wait for warmer weather so I can line dry them outside.

Developmental Milestones: He went from holding things in the bath to overnight grabbing at things and clutching blankets up to his face. It's so cute. And my prediction is that he is a leftie. He just seems to use that hand much more than the right. So, hopefully he will play baseball. ;)

Christmas morning. Could not resist. Sorry Jonas. I am so not into the outfits like "baby's first (fill-in-the-holiday) but this is on borrow from a friend and it was just too cute not to.

Poor guy didn't get the memo that this was the "silly pose" photo.

Sleep: He has been such a solid nighttime sleeper, been sleeping through the night since 7/8 weeks so I was worried about moving him into the crib. I am happy to report it has gone well. The first night he woke up 3 times, the second night he woke up once and now he almost makes it through the night, with one wake up around 5am and then back to bed till 7am. Naps during the day, however, are another story...

What's New: My days are spent trying to come up with new ways to make him laugh (flipping my ponytail back and forth is a good one), spending time with my mom's group, and trying to cherish the little moments-like when he started smiling at me while nursing! And we just started baby sign language, only three signs for now. (Milk, More and All Done) I jot down things everywhere, notepads, in my phone, because new things are happening everyday! It's impossible to remember it all.

merry merry!

Merry Christmas to all my readers and here's to a colic-less New Year!!

1-3 Month Faves

Here are some of our favorite things over the past few months, Jonas approved.

Exercise ball-I got one to use during labor which was great for working through contractions but we are getting WAY more use out of it now. Jonas loves to be bounced, all day and night if he had his way. Even if I am just sitting still on the ball, he prefers it to me sitting with him on the couch (go figure). Either way, this is the most used item on this list.

Dr. Brown's bottles-We registered for these because we prefer to use glass instead of plastic. Thankfully Jonas took to them like a charm, but I do know you may have to shop around before finding a bottle your baby will love. We have used other bottles (he will take any brand/kind) and the Dr. Browns have never leaked....more than I can say about Avent.

Bob Stroller-I was lucky enough to be able to use my sister-in-law's strollers. This one is my fave! I cannot believe how smooth the ride is. Sometimes I think Jonas needs it a little bumpier even to fall asleep. ;) It is so easy to push one handed while you drink your coffee or talk on the phone. It is also super easy to flatten and pop back up. It takes up a good portion of your trunk, though.

Ubbi Steel Diaper Pail-You can use your own trash bags and no smell, no smell, no smell! I know Jonas' breast milk poops aren't anything to complain about in comparison to babies on solid food, but I have a feeling this will stand up to those. You can use with disposables or cloth.

Travel Sleep Sheep-This was amazing in the first month or so. We used it non-stop. 4 soothing sounds of white noise, although we never really got into the whale sound. It was even very soothing for Jon and I to fall asleep to. Small enough to go wherever you want. A must for any baby registry.

Rockabye Baby! Music-These are just awesome. Songs we know and love made into instrumental lullabies. I was dragging my feet uploading them from the CD to my ipod when a mom in my mom's group said she swears by them for making her daughter fall asleep. I popped one in my car later that day and it didn't take more than one block for Jonas to fall asleep! We love the Bob Marley, Coldplay, Green Day, Beach Boys and No Doubt ones.

Seventh Generation diapers (and wipes)-These are what we will use until Jonas fits into his Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers. They are awesome and don't leak like the Huggies and Honest Co. ones did. Bonus for no chlorine or added fragrances. It is so weird, we use these primarily but I used a few non SG ones and noticed the others have a "baby powder" type smell! Very weird and unnecessary.

Pampers Swaddlers-Newborn-With that said, these were our favorite for when we used the Newborn size. This is what the hospital had and for good reason. We tried a few other brands and I don't know what it was, but these were the only ones that didn't leak. When a newborn goes through 10 diapers (or more) a day, you pick up pretty quick which are the best ones.

SkipHop owl-Ok, this is Jonas' favorite toy ever. We have it hanging by the changing table and whenever we lay him down there he looks up and sees Mr. Owl and smiles so big like "Hello, old friend!!" He will gaze at him and give him familiar smiles, it is the cutest. We actually don't move him from the changing table because we don't want him to get tired of it. So far, he is still obsessed after almost 3 months.

Senor Squeaks

This was Jonas' first time playing peek-a-boo, which he is still a little young for, so this reaction was surprising. Normally he talks to us and coos on the changing table, laying on his blanket and looking in the mirror and then little random ones throughout the day. This is the longest "chat", with the most enthusiasm and they were all new sounds to us. He gets a little over stimulated around 34 seconds, but the beginning just kills me. Cutest noises ever.

Catch-up, Photodump, Hi, remember me?

Well the colic hasn't broke, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (As I write this, he is screaming his head off with Jon in the other room...) I had always wanted to take photos for our Christmas card this year but was worried about his colic and being able to get the shots we needed. Above is the money shot. That's what we paid for, basically. 7 weeks old and looking oh-so-cute. Because in between every decent shot he was screaming and we were bouncing him or blasting a radio or trying to show him toys in hopes of getting one or two good shots. It was a hectic and a kinda stressful afternoon, but I'm glad we did it.

Thanksgiving. Hey, at least his sweater is cute.

 We started him on probiotics (BioGaia) and I really have seen some improvements since day 3 of starting them. He is actually happy in the morning after he wakes up and we have been playing. I even heard his first laugh the other day! So much fun. And now he smiles all the time and we can get him to smile for us, before it was sort of random. Nothing better than seeing his smiling face.

As tempting as it was to get a cheap tree from Costco...babies first Christmas, blah blah blah. We bought an overpriced one from the tree farm. He slept the whole time in the Ergo. Family of 3, yo!

Holding his head up like a big boy. We are playing catch up on tummy time, since he wasn't a fan in the early months. He wasn't a fan of anything, actually. So in his few happy moments we weren't going to ruin it by putting him on his stomach. Trying to squeeze lots of TT in now.

We are loving baby clothes from American Apparel and Old Navy! Don't let his face fool you.

I miss this space. I miss all of you! I hope to not let so much time pass before another post. 

Living with a colicky baby (A blog break)

{a rare moment}

Before I had Jonas I think I thought "colic" simply meant a baby was gassy. I didn't know or pay much attention to the word. Colic can be defined as a condition of a healthy baby in which it shows periods of intense, unexplained fussing/crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks.

If Jonas is awake, he is crying. Not light fussing, but crying, screaming, scratching his face, throwing his head around, CRYING. And this has been the case since he was born. We didn't know it was colic right out the gate since he was so young it was hard to tell. Even though around 2 weeks old one day he cried violently for 13 hours straight (minus nursing). I didn't want to believe it, because there is no cure. I wanted to think it was something in my diet making my breast milk hard for him to digest or maybe acid reflux, but now at almost 7 weeks, its clear that this baby has colic. And it is not so clear how I have not yet jumped off a bridge. 

Thankfully the first two weeks are long gone and I no longer have to deal with my body healing from the physical stuff that happened during labor and the intense roller coaster of emotions that were dumped on me afterwards, because dealing with that and the colic? Well that was a pretty dark time. Now my body is healed and my head is clear and it still feels like the hardest thing I've ever dealt with. 

So it's amazing I made it through the very beginning.

Other than the obvious little things like its hard to find time in the day to shower, go to the bathroom or make myself something to eat, its extremely isolating. I feel trapped in my house. I did join a mom's group and have gone a few times and I know they don't mind him screaming, but I do. Its exhausting enough dealing with him at home (with all my "tricks" nearby) but in a park with a bunch of people I've just met? A little more challenging. 

On the rare occasion he takes a long day time nap, I usually nap too. Or eat my one meal of the day before Jon can come home and relieve me. I am not about to go hit the social scene when I am so exhausted. There isn't energy left for me. And speaking of that, he is only eating breast milk, so I am solely up with him around the clock feeding him in the middle of the night and every other time. Jon would love to help with feedings but I honestly have no time to pump. And when I do have a free 30 minutes? It's usually not at the top of my list. 

Which I guess is my own fault. 

Where is this post going? I don't know. I just wanted to explain my absence a bit. Basically, for the past 7 weeks I've had a baby screaming his ass off in my face whenever his big blue eyes are open.

I hope to be back sooner than later.

Lately

How about a good catch-all catch-up post? Since that is all I can handle these days!

-As you can see above we sent out Jonas' birth announcements. I had a livingsocial deal for Paper Culture, I think they turned out pretty cute. We didn't order a ton since I figured we would send out more Christmas cards than usual with his mug on those too.

-Despite the colic and possible reflux, things do seem to be evening out over here. By that, I mean when he is awake he is still almost always crying, but those moments where he isn't? He is smiling, borderline cooing, staring deeply at his "art" or just being a pure joy. We live for those moments.

-I feel I have a running to-do list in my head broken down by how long each task is. I find if Jon has Jonas for 20 minutes, I can pump and paint my nails. If he has him for 5 minutes, I can pee and update the Netflix queue. These little things stack up in my brain. We take turns dealing with fussypants and then when I have free arms, I whisk around the house like a little tornado.

-Jonas sure was born during an exciting year with the Year of the Dragon, Olympics, Giants sweeping the World Series and the election. I sure won't ever forget what 2012 felt like.

-Nursing at Jon's office? Check, Check. Nursing at a party? Check, Check. Nursing out in public? Check, Check. Gotta feed my baby!

-Finally ordered my Ergo baby carrier. Cannot wait for it to arrive! Jonas is not loving the Moby wrap for as long as he used to. I have heard so many great things about the Ergo it seemed like a no-brainer.

Halloween

After a tough mom + baby day I wasn't really too excited for a night of Halloween festivities but I am glad I bucked up because it was Jonas' first Halloween, after all. Here are some snaps from the night.

My cousin and his family have a great neighborhood for trick or treating, it even gets blocked off with cones so cars can't drive through. All night long trick or treaters were constantly flowing up to the door while we enjoyed chili and cornbread inside since we are a year off from bringing Jonas door to door.

I love a good classic Jack-o-lantern.

The welcoming porch and front door-left open all night. We need a porch swing!

Mama, daddy and grandpa with our little sweet pea (green bean?)

Happy Halloween sweet baby J!