If this were my job I would be fired...

So I am officially the worst blogger ever. I really have good reason though. I have had a hectic couple of weeks! Baby Eliza is just getting over her very first cold! Most moms, I am sure, would handle a fever with grace and ease. I on the other hand freaked out. Now, I have NEVER had a fever. Ok, I am lying. I had a low grade fever after I gave birth. But I really never run a fever when I am sick. So, when little E had a 100.8 I freaked only to find out that my doc. doesn’t consider it a fever until it is 101.0 Anyway, it never went higher than 100.8 but my little girl was still not herself. She is still recovering and has a bit if a cough. Now, to add to all this DH comes home of Friday looking like he is suffering from the plague or maybe the flu! So now I have to quarantine him to our bedroom and keep baby away from the germs which she has probably already been exposed to when he was breathing in her face the night before-in our bed! Oh yea, did I mention she is boycotting her crib. Although she slept from week 10 to week 16 without a middle of the night peep-she was just getting us ready for when she would say Surprise!!!- I am no longer STTN! So now I have no bed for her to sleep in because it is housing my sick husband. So I get out my super comfy-NOT- sleeping bag and literally camp out next to her crib hoping to lull her back to sleep when she stirs. Luckily, she had a pretty good night. By that I mean she didn’t fuss for hours in the evening and went down to bed pretty easy at around 9. She woke up to eat around 11:30 and went right back down. So far so good.-right? Now cut to about 3:00 in the morning when she no longer wants to sleep in her crib. At this point my bony hips feel likes they are bruised from the rock hard rugs that came with my cheaply constructed condo. I ask myself- what baby would rather sleep on the hard A@# floor rather than in the crib that her mother painstakingly put on an incline to help her cough less. I already knew the answer to this question and there we slept cozily “Sacajawea style” until about 7 in the morning. Luckily, my husband recovered the next day and the quarantine ended. However, the crib strike did not and so we are still left with sleep issues!!!!

Tilt, Tuck, & oh who am I kidding?

So I have been MIA for a few days. Eliza had a really rough week + some- and stopped sleeping through the night for a few days. Hopefully, she is back on track. Plus, I switched her form BM to formula and she has been super gassy. This just makes me feel even guiltier about not breastfeeding-but there is nothing I can do now. We have her four month doctor appointment tomorrow. I can’t believe how the time has passed so quickly.

I am still working on getting motivated to exercise. I can manage what I eat just fine. It is that darn exercise I hate. Not to mention, every talk show this week is focused on getting in shape for the New Year. Bob green is everywhere! Somehow watching shows about getting in shape just makes me sit in front of the TV more. Sure I do some modified push-ups during commercials; Maybe a couple of crunches here and there. I checked out that best Life stuff and I do pretty much everything but exercise which is supposed to be step number one. It is just really hard with the baby. I really want that Hip Hop Abs DVD step-but I am cheap and don’t want to spend the $$. Seriously though, how many times can I watch Shaun T’s segment of the workout from the Ellen show on my DVR. I do squeeze my stomach muscle on long drives! In my mind the car version of Tilt, Tuck, & Tighten helps too!

Anyhoo, gotta run and do some more girly push-ups.

a bit of this and a bit of that

ok...so after sleeping through the night since 10 weeks old my baby girl was up at 1:30 a.m. last night. Maybe she had gas or didn't feel well. Maybe it is a growth spurt. Whatever it is, I hope it is a passing trend. I was starting to enjoy sleeping a little too much to stop now.

Yesterday I received my new swaddle blankest from adenandanais.com and I love, love, love them. I washed them right away so we could start using them immediately. They are an excellent size, even bigger than my blanket by swaddle designs. Plus, after you wash the blankets they get all soft and waffly.

The heat wave we are experiencing inspired me to go out with the stroller for a nice long walk yesterday. The last time I took this very same walk was on Halloween. During my walk I realized that I am very out of shape. Now, I only walk around one block- but it is one very long block. I think it is about 2 miles- oh and very hilly too. I made this same walk numerous times during my pregnancy. About half way around I would have a desperate urge to pee. Yet, I never learned my lesson and made the walk just about every day. This time around I felt like I was running a marathon and not just taking a casual stroll. My legs were burning and itching. My lungs felt like they were about to explode; and this was just after getting the stroller out of the car. At the half way point I didn’t have to pee, but I thought I might need the medi-vac to come take me home. I started texting on my phone so if people saw me stopped they wouldn’t know I was catching my breath. I was also wishing I had put more thought into my outfit which consisted of a heavy sweater and skinny jeans. I actually think my legs were swelling at one point and my jeans were getting tighter and tighter. I always get sausage fingers when I walk, but I have never before experienced sausage legs. I now have realized I really need to start exercising. If I am going to lose that last 10 lbs I had better step up my game. No more just watching the Biggest Loser and hoping to lose weight by osmosis.

Poop Stress

I didn’t know about poop stress until I became a mom. If you are a mom you know what I am talking about. I have become obsessed with bowel movements. Poop stress also includes fretting over color, smell and consistency; don’t forget concerns over the gas that accompanies said bowels. I had a recent bout of poop stress over the past few days. It all started when I noticed a few dark flakes or specks of a dark color in Eliza’s diapers over the weekend. Was it green? Was it black? Was it red or blood!!! I had to make closer inspection to be sure! Yes I know this is extremely gross. No one said poop stress was going to be pretty. I sure would like to see that guy from Dirty Jobs come to my house and do this job! If you had told me one year ago I would be examining poop with the seriousness of a CSI I would have laughed at you. Well, now I have become the Grisham of poop. Maybe I will star in a spin off entitled CSI: The Diaper. Anyhoo, I smear it with a wipe and it appears to be green. Just to be sure I save the diaper to share with my DH. I know this is just what he wants to see after a satisfying round of golf. We both agree it is green and call the pediatrician. The doc of course gives the answer that has become the answer I received to all pregnancy and mommy questions. “That is normal.” Apparently every problem I had while pregnant was normal. Now every issue my daughter has is normal as well. We are just boring I guess. Of course I went to the doctor of Google and inquired further only to come up empty. Yesterday was filled with painful gas for Eliza. I felt terrible but what could I really do but wait it out. I pumped those little legs and hope to give her some sweet relief. Really, the only thing I could do was hold my breath for more evidence. Luckily, today I was granted a diaper that even made this CSI proud!

Babywearing cont'd

While I was pregnant I had started looking into slings and found one I really liked. It was the Retro Blues Reversible Peanut Shell. However, it was backordered for an eternity and I didn’t want to wait an eternity to wear my baby. So I tried out the Infantino Slingrider which was horrible!!! I returned it right away. It was way too big for my 5’2 frame. I was carrying the baby down by my *&%$#. I also recently found out it was recalled because the strap can break and out comes baby! My hunt continued and I then picked up The Ultimate Baby Wrap (UBW) which I have used on occasion. It takes a little while to get the hang of wrapping and sometimes I feel like it is more work than it is worth. Once you learn the wrap you can hold baby in five different positions. IMO the back carry looks a little dangerous. It does distribute the baby’s weight evenly which I do like. The UBW is very soft but it is too stretchy. You have to wrap yourself very tight or else the baby will come loose and you will be wearing her/him down near your nether regions. In the baby wearing community this wrap has a bad rap (haha) and many opt instead for a Moby Wrap. I am looking into getting one of these soon. When the baby was in the outward facing position my neighbor described it is a torture device but I think Eliza likes it. I put her outward facing so she can look at herself in the mirror- her new fav. thing. Anyhoo I hear the babe awake from her nap- more on my baby wearing adventures tomorrow… here are some pics of the UBW * I now realize I look a little scary in these photos. Make mental note to do my hair next time.

I am back- and wearing my baby

The holiday season was crazy but I think things are finally winding down. I have started pumping less and pretty soon Eliza will be getting formula. The time is passing quickly and my munchkin is growing before my eyes. Anyway, my new favorite topic is baby wearing. I have always been interested in baby wearing but I have really been getting into it over the past few weeks. Since Eliza was born I have sampled about five carriers and I look forward to getting more. My first carrier was the Bjorn- which from what I have read is not that popular among baby wearers. However, when you are first starting out it is one of the few carriers they carry at Babies R Us. I registered for it thinking my husband would also use it because it is 1) Adjustable and 2) not that feminine. However, even though I beg and plead my DH does not seem to be into wearing Eliza. I hope to persuade him to try it over the next few weeks. I like but do not love the Bjorn. It is not great for wearing around the house – it just feels silly. I always feel like I should be going on a hike when I am wearing that contraption. I haven’t tried it with the baby facing out yet. I also read that it isn’t wise to wear the baby facing outward because they cannot turn away from stimulation- which makes sense to me. I did use it at Barnes and Noble the other day and Eliza was still fussy. I will try to post pics of me using the Bjorn- but I think the only ones I have are pretty lousy.