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!