Jacob's baptism

Picture's from Jake's baptism.
I loved loved his outfit and Nick bought him some pumas as a final touch. I admit, I think they were a little pricey, but they completed the outfit!






My sister Rachel, Jacob's godmother




Nick's cousin Ashley made the cake. It was beautiful and delicious!


Nick's cousin Clinton, Jacob's godfather

I was very lucky that Nick's aunt Penny offered to host the party afterwards. It would of been a tight fit in my apartment. Also, Penny, Nancy and Arleen (my MIL) took care of all the food and decorating.

It was a fabulous day!

Jake's 1st movie

Today, I was feeling a little restless. I remembered it was Wednesday. Why is that important? Because on Wednesday's, the local movie theatre has baby and mommy movies at 1:30. Then, I got excited. I was going to the movies with Jake!

I checked the movie, and it was Alice in Wonderland, I wasn't keen on that. But I did want to see How to Train your dragon. Hmmm..a nine month old at a regular movie? I considered the facts: 1-It's a kids movie. 2-It's Wednesday afternoon at 1:30pm, the kids should be in school. 3- How many people go see a movie on Wednesday afternoon?

Overall, Jake was really good. There were only 5 other people there, a mother with her daughter, a teenage girl and a couple with a young baby. I brought my boppy, sat in a discreet corner and nursed him alot. He did get a little loud, but mostly with babbling and a little screaming (not fussing though, hahaha-screaming). We did end up going to the floor and playing/standing on the steps for a little bit. After about an hour, he fell asleep and just slept on my shoulder for the rest of it.

I had a good time. I thought the movie was very cute! And I really enjoyed it. It was a perfect movie to bring Jake too. If I were to do it again, I would stick to the mommy and baby movies, I read that the sound isn't as loud and there is more light, I think Jake would enjoy it more.

We had to re-sleep train

After a whirlwind week-end of Jake's baptism (pictures to come tomorrow!), we had to resleep train tonight.

We had company, we co-slept, and I did everything to make him happy the night before his baptism and I was too tired the night after to care. So much for consistency.

At least we didn't start from zero, it took 20 minutes for Jake to fall asleep in his crib tonight. Hopefully, he'll stay there without a fight, or else it'll be a long night. The past few nights, he's been up before midnight in hysterics and only settles down when he's in bed with me. Nothing like a new habit to break.

Naps are still hell. A great morning nap, no afternoon nap. I fear we'll never get this down before daycare starts.

Trouble

Update on sleep training

We have been doing the "Ferber" method for the past week with decent success.

I started off buying Solve your child's sleep problems, and reading it. Then I picked a night to start. I purposely picked the first three nights to coincide with night's that Nick was working or at school. It's just easier that way since Nick gets very stressed when Jake cries, and we tend to fight. Don't get me wrong, Nick was totally on board, we both knew that we needed to sleep train and we both agree on the method.

So..the nitty gritty.
Night 1
Was terrible. Absolutely terrible. Jake cried as soon as I laid him in the crib,flipped to his tummy, turned around to face the door, and cried. In total, he cried for 1h15min. It was devastating to listen too. I checked on him as per the intervals suggested in the book (3min, 5min, and then every 10 minutes). He woke up again around 230am, I nursed him, and once again, he screamed when I put him in the crib. He cried for about 35minutes, Nick went in at the same intervals. I'm sure our neighbours hated us that night.

Night 2
Wasn't all that much better. He cried as soon as I put him in the crib once again and didn't settle down for 45 minutes. He woke up just after 5am, and I got up with him and kept him up until his nap time. Though, I strongly feel that I made a mistake and put him to bed a little too early.

Night 3
He cried for 15 minutes and fell asleep pretty quickly.

From then on, he never cried more than a few minutes, or he just fussed for a few minutes, tonight, he went down without a peep!

A few tips that really made a difference for us:

1. We pushed his bedtime from around 7pm to 8pm. Ferber strongly suggested not putting your child to bed until the time he normally falls asleep. Jake wasn't falling asleep until 8ish, so we went from bath time at 630 to bath time at 8pm. It has made a huge difference. Now, we've settled into a bath time around 730. The first few days were a little rough, he was pretty fussy, but I just sat on the floor and played and played until he was really tired.

2. We were consistent. Don't bother starting if you can't go through with it, it's not worth it.

3. Read the book!

4. If he woke up after 5am, we were up for the day. We stopped bringing him into our bed for some extra sleep, we didn't want Jake to re associate sleeping with us. It has made for some interesting mornings, but it does make a difference.

This is all for nigh time sleeping. We are still struggling with naps, but just getting Jake to sleep in his crib at night has made a world of difference in our house. Not to mention, it's nice to share a bed with Nick again!

I'm a senior citizen

I finally, finally gathered the courage to take an aerobics class at the gym. I was super nervous. I checked out the schedule and decided to try out Easy Fit. Seemed like a good idea. As I'm waiting for the class to start, I notice that I'm the youngest...by at least 20 years. I shrug it off, it is morning, maybe it's just that time of day? Right???

Yeah, not so much. On my way out, I read the description of the class (which is not on my schedule) and the words 50+ put everything into perspective. I didn't belong there! In my defense, it also said beginners, which I am, but still, I felt out of place.

Leave it to me to pick a senior's aerobics class for my first time. At least I went, right?

Happy Easter!

We had a fabulous busy Easter this year.

We had lunch at my Aunt Janet's, she went all out and we had a yummy turkey dinner with all the works. My favorite is the stuffing. Jake's favorite was apple crisp, he was begging for more, I'll have to bake some apples for him.



Here's Jake before we left. He would only sit still with a Mum-mum in his hand.

Then, we went to Aunt Penny's for an Easter/Nicole's 17th birthday combo. We had another delicious meal of pork roast with roasted veggies and creamy cauliflower. Delicious. Jake loved the wrapping paper!

Playing outside

We had a busy Saturday today! This morning, I went to the gym, I even brought Jake with me and let Nick sleep in. Nick got to sleep in until 1030, which is a real treat around this house. I even picked up breakfast and coffee at McDonald's for him and surprised him with breakfast in bed. Nick was pleased. It's fun to do surprise someone.

Since it was absolutely GORGEOUS outside today, around 28 degrees, we decided to take advantage and go to Mont-Royal. We definitely weren't the only ones to have that idea since parking was a zoo! We walked around the Smith House, and beaver lake. We found a patch of grass and let Jake explore. It was the first time he sat in grass and he was enthralled, I couldn't even get him to look up. We stayed about an hour and a half, it was fabulous to be outside.








On the spur of the moment, we stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things, then came home and made chicken Caesar salad. Yummy! Jake ate chicken, croutons and peas.

It's time to sleep train. Part 1

I honestly never knew how challenging sleep would be with Jake. I anticipated the sleepless nights, and getting up at night when Jake was a newborn. I also could handle the nighttime nursing sessions as he got older. However, I could not handle this new curve ball that Jake threw at us this month.

He would no longer fall asleep. It was taking hours to put him down, not only for bedtime, but also for naps. When Jake was about 6-7 months old, I stopped being able to nurse or rock him to sleep. He just would not settle. I'm talking pinching, biting, hair pulling,mouth grabbing, back stretching, I will not sleep. Then, I laid him in bed with me and let him fall asleep next to me. That went out the window in the past few weeks since Jake is now mobile. On top of the previous pinching, hair pulling, mouth grabbing, stretching, we had rolling, crawling and bouncing.

Now, lets add a double ear infection and four top teeth. Sleep? Forget about it. We started co-sleeping. Now, Nick and I sleep in a double bed. We barely have enough room for the two of us, much less Jacob. At first, Nick slept on the couch while Jake and I slept in bed. Then, we pulled out the futon in Jake's room and Nick got the bed back. Well, Jake started refusing to sleep in his crib. I mean, even if he was sound asleep in my arms, he would scream as soon as he was put in his crib. After a particular tough night, I went on amazon.ca and bought three sleep books.

It was time to sleep train. My goal is to get Jacob to fall asleep in his crib for bedtime and nap time and stay in his crib. I don't expect him to sleep through the night, but I expect him to sleep in his crib.

Next post? How we "Ferberized" Jake.

All about Jake: Nine months

Wowza. I can't believe Jake is nine months old. Time sure flies by.

Here are some nine month pictures. As you can see, he did not appreciate being put into his crib, not even for pictures.





He tolerated the couch a little better



Then, finally, I got a smile



At nine months:

Jake is just over 16lbs and 27.5 inches.

He eats almost all table foods, he likes feeding himself. No more purees.

He loves to play peek-a-boo.

He's pulling up on the couch and in his crib. We had to lower his crib this week.

He's just about crawling everywhere. He isn't on all fours yet, but he armycrawls all over the place.

He loves his books. And Daddy's DVD player.

He has his two bottom teeth, two top teeth are just out and there's two more looming.

For his nine monthday, we are sleep training. He's not sleeping through the night, but last night, was only up once.

Jacob, I can't believe you've been an outside baby for as long as you were an inside baby. I love you so much.

Happy 9 months!

Pictures to come tomorrow.
I got these books from Amazon today:




I am determined to fix Jake's sleeping habits before we start daycare.

It was just one of those days...

1. I had my assessement appointment at the gym this morning and showed up for my 930 appointment a couple minutes late just to find out my appointment was at 900. Thankfully, I was able to reschedule for Thursday.

2. Jake has a lingering ear infection in his left ear.

3. It rained all day.

4. I wore my shirt inside out and didn't realize it until I was halfway through eating supper at a restaurant. It was noticeable.

But...on the plus side...

1. I did 45 minutes of cardio and 15 minutes of stretching.

2. I got 2 blissful hours of mommy time thanks for Jake's aunt Penny who fed, bathed and played with my cranky baby. But according to sources, Jake was a happy baby for Penny. Yay!

3. Jake is sleeping in his crib!! Woohoo!!

All about teeth

I hate teething. Hate. My poor baby is miserable, all because of these teeth that are trying hard to poke through. Not to mention, when he's teething, he's biting. Considering Jake already has two bottom teeth and two top teeth poking through, biting my nipples off HURTS! A lot!

Now, thanks to google, I found this website which had the following chart:



Jake already has his bottom incisors. He got those at 5 months while we were in Germany. His bottom lateral incisors are there, but not quite ready to pierce.

Now for the top teeth. The wonderful teeth that have made my last week of bedtimes hell. His right central incisor poked through at the end of last week. His right lateral incisor poked through at the beginning of this week. He left central and lateral are trying to poke through now! That's right, two teeth. No wonder he's miserable.

During the day, it's not quite as bad. He chews on anything and everything. A favorite are green apple chuncks. His teethers are in the fridge cooling off. Now, night time is a whole different story. The ante is upped. Last night, it took 3 hours, infant advil, orajel, cuddles and extra nursing before Jake finally fell asleep at 10pm.

Lets all hope this ends soon. Or mommy is going to have to buy a lot of wine.

I'm back

I quit my blog. I figured I was pretty boring and had nothing interesting to say.
Now I'm back because I realized I was blogging for all the wrong reasons. This blog is for me. It's to chronicle my life.
I feel like I've lost my identity to being a mommy. My whole life revolves around Jake. While, Jake is by far the most important element of my life right now, he's not the only part that matters. Nick, my fiance, deserves my attention and love. I deserve time to myself as well.

We've all heard the old saying: "Nine months on, nine months off." Yes, that's the dreaded baby weight. Now, I had quite a bit of extra padding before the baby weight, but I'll concentrate on the baby weight for now. Jake will be nine months in three days. That's 3 days!! Sadly, unless I can lose 34 pounds in three days, I won't be back to my prepregnancy self.

My prepregnancy weight is 240lbs.
I weighed myself for the first time in months this morning. The damage: 274

My first goal: I need to lose 34 pounds.
Timeframe: A healthy weightloss is two pounds per week. That's 17 weeks to lose 34 pounds. However, Jake's 1st birthday is in 15 weeks.
My goal is to lose 34 pounds by June 30th 2010.

How am I going to achieve my goal?
I bit the bullet and joined a gym yesterday. More about that later.

So today, I made the first step.

Will I stumble? Probably.
Is this important? Definitely.
Can I do it? Yes. I have to. I have to be healthy.

What I didn't know about sleep.

1. I was ready to be up at all hours with a newborn, I never looked past the newborn stage.
2. How many ways there are to sleep train.
3. That listening to your child cry himself to sleep is heartwrenching.
4. That nap sleeping is completely different than night sleeping.
5. How much I would love co-sleeping on occasion.

My plans for this week were to nap train. Jacob will absolutely not nap in his crib, yet he needs his naps or else he's mister cranky pants. As much as I love rocking him to sleep, I need his naps to get things done around the house. As much as I love laying him down in our bed, it's just not going to be safe soon.

Well, after one day of nap training, the score is:
Jacob-2
Car-1
Crib-0

Oh, and a lot of tears.
The sleep training books say to let him cry for an hour, then if he doesn't sleep, naptime is over. Well, I didn't make it to an hour. But they don't mention the fact that as soon as you pick them up, he falls asleep with his sweet little head on your shoulder.

I think I'm done nap training for now. We just aren't ready. We shall reevaluate in two weeks or more.

Flashback: Jacob's birthstory (part 2)

Jacob Elliot born June 30th 2009 at 19:01.
7 pounds and 11 ounces
19.25 inches

Flashback: Jacob's birth story (part 1)

Considering I started this blog recently, I've decided to flashback to certain months of Jacob life, more for me than anything else.

Here's a quick recap:

October 26th 2009: BFP (Big fat positive). We are having a baby!
December 8th 2009: First doctor's appointment. Estimated due date is June 18th 2010.
January 28th 2010: 1st ultrasound. It's a BOY! EDD changed to June 23rd 2010.
February 15th 2010: Finally find a great apartment with two bedrooms!
February 2010: I feel my first baby kicks.
March 28th 2010: Moving Day! Thank you to Penny, Paul, Kim, Nicole, Tim, Karine, Rob and Marc for all their help.
April 2010: Daddy feels baby kicks too.
May 2010: I have a foot in my ribs all month!
May 22nd 2010: 2nd ultrasound. Jacob is estimated to be 5 pounds.
May 23rd 2010: Surprise baby shower with work friends.
May 30th 2010: Melissa and Sascha's wedding day.
June 5th 2010: My last day of work! Maternity leave begins.
June 6th 2010: Surprise baby shower on my birthday!
June 2010: Waiting for baby
June 23rd 2010: Due date. No contractions, no progress, high blood pressure, bedrest, induction scheduled.
June 27th 2010: Last date night before baby. Jack Astor's for supper and the movies.
June 30th 2010: INDUCTION DAY!

Pre-game
I woke up very early on my induction day. I was scheduled to be at the hospital around 7:30am, but we decided to leave around 6:30 just in case there was traffic. I was so excited, I could barely eat my breakfast! I took a nice, long shower and finally booted Nick out of bed just before Penny and Paul showed up to drive us to the hospital.
We got to the hospital just after 7am and it was pretty anticlimatic. It was shift change and my room wasn't ready yet, so I waited in lounge and watched tv. Around 9:30, I was given a temporary room to be monitored. It was actually the first time I heard Jacob's heartbeat. We ended up waiting around all morning, watching Love Actualy on the laptop, reading magazines, eating lunch, until the nurse came around 1pm to get the show on the road!

1st period
At 1pm, I got my IVs, started the pitocin and walked around the hallways trying to get Jacob to budge. At this point, I was 3cm dilated. I didn't feel any contractions at all. I even played cards with Penny and Nick. We played rummy and I was definately losing! At 4pm, the OB came to break my water to jump start labor! And boy did it work. Despite feeling no contractions, I was slowly making progress at 4cm.

2nd period
Definately no more playing cards for me, breaking my water brought along the contractions hard and fast and they sure hurt. I lasted almost an hour before asking for the epidural. And I had to wait at least half an hour for the epidural. In the meantime, I tried my best to work through the contractions and spent most of my time staring at the "12" on the clock on the wall. After getting the epidural, I fully expected to feel no more pain and nap. That DID.NOT.HAPPEN. My epidural just didn't work. After half an hour, the nurse came to add another dose, but that one didn't work either. It was 6:30, I was at 6cm, and I had to wait another hour before getting anymore drugs.

3rd period
At 6:30, Nick went to the lounge to eat McDonald's. I stayed in my room with Penny and Karine and SCREAMED through every contraction. Finally, the nurse came to tell me I was scaring the others. She checked me and to everyone's surprise, I was fuly dilated and ready to push. Ashley ran to get Nick, the OB came into the room, the nurses scrambled to get everything ready and it was time to push. What I didn't know at the time, Jake's heartbeat was going down during each contraction. The OB let me push for about ten minutes before she got the vacuum and Jacob was born June 30th 2010 at 7:01 pm. He was 7lbs 11 ounces.

Happy half-birthday Jacob

Two weeks late. Better late than never. Right?


I've been doing monthly pictures with stickers from www.pickysticky.com but of course I lost the 6 month sticker. I know I brought it to Germany. I distinctly remember putting it somewhere safe so I wouldn't lose it or bend it. Well, on December 30th, I could NOT find the sticker anywhere. I finally gave up figuring I would find it when I got home. On the downside, I didn't find it, but I did remember where I packed it. I packed it in the enveloppe with pictures, of course after framing and wrapping the pictures, I threw the enveloppe in the recycling. Grr. At least I'm not looking for it anymore.

Which brings me to my artistic abilities. They are NON EXISTANT. Plus, I don't have markers, crayons or color ink in my printer. So I made one with a black sharpie. It's not pretty, but I figure in 20 years, we'll laugh about it.





Here's an extra of Jake standing holding on to the couch! He even let go for a couple seconds.

What you are doing at 6 months:
You love to sit up by yourself to play with your toys.
We have just started cereal. You don't seem to sure about it yet.
But you love your mum-mums!
You love when mommy sings to you. (No one else likes it!)
You roll back to belly all the time.

I can't believe my little baby is already 6 months old! Happy Half-Birthday Jacob. Love Mamma and Dadda

So much for blogging in Germany!

Well, I've been back from Germany for 10 days now. It's taken me a lot longer to get back into the groove of things than I anticipated.

1. Jetlag last a good five days. Jacob was up and ready to play at 4am, it's a good thing I had to foresight to go to bed early as well.

2. I hate unpacking. Actually, Jacob's stuff is sitll not unpacked.

3. Separation anxiety. Jacob is very clingy and only wants me now. Which at first was endearing, now it's exhausting. I'm slowly working on it considering he's only 6 months old. I say goodbye when I leave the room (basically to pee), then I make a great deal of saying hello when I get back. He shrieks, but as soon as I'm back in sight, he's all giggles and smiles. Makes it really hard to get anything done.

4. He will not nap. I'm lucky to get 40 minutes a day. We are working on that one. I've resorted to picking up Nick at work to give Jake a change to sleep in the car. Not exactly the most frugal way.

Here are some pictures to enjoy


Ok, ok, he will nap. But only on the boppy while nursing. If I get up to even try and move him to his crib, he wakes up.



He's also sitting up on his own to play with his toys. Of course, he managed to bump his head in the tiny corner not covered by a pillow today.

Tomorrow, I'll post his 6 month pictures. I figure 15 days late is better than never!