Twenty-one weeks ago I began a weekly tradition. Every Monday, Baby S and I would pack up some toys for him, a lunch for me and head to the New Mom's Group run by the hospital that I delivered at. The group is run by a fabulous woman that can only be described as a "postpartum goddess". She is a postpartum doula, postpartum doula trainer, postnatal educator, lactation specialist, and maybe most importantly, a mom.
If you have never been to a New Mom's Group, the purpose essentially is to provide a venue for new mom's to ask questions related to their new baby, socialize with other new moms, and provide much needed support through the trying first few months of being a new parent. Our postpartum goddess ran our group like this: each week we would sit in a circle on the floor playing with (and/or nursing/feeding) our babies while taking turns updating each other on that prior week's developments, asking any questions we may have, and if we happened to shed a tear or two (or 5 million) someone was there to hand you a tissue and tell you that you are in fact going to live through all this. Every so often we had a presenter that would share with us a variety of baby related things. We had visitors from Baby Boot Camp, Gymboree, a local naturopath, and a lawyer come and talk to us about wills and trusts...something all new parents need to think about. Whether we had a presenter or not, I left every week feeling like I learned something new.
In fact, I really can't even imagine what the last several months would have been like had I not joined this group. Sure, I could have called the pediatrician's office with my questions, but they never would have made me feel completely normal about using a breast shield like these women did, many of them telling me that they had to use one too and that they struggled with it as much as I had, nor could the ped's office commiserate with me when nursing was a struggle and my supply was diminishing. They certainly couldn't have helped me through balancing my roles as mother and housewife or learning how to appreciate all the things I do accomplish in a day (even when it feels like I accomplished nothing). Nor would they have been able to give me the details about Mommy Matinee or story time at the local library or where to get the best baby gear.
But sadly, today I had to graduate. Why? you ask. Well the group is for moms with babies up to 6 months old and when your baby reaches that 6 month mark (or you have to go back to work), you graduate. I don't like the term graduate because it doesn't really adequately explain what is happening...which is simply that you don't get to come back. It isn't like I have some how mastered the art of parenting in the last 6 months or that I don't have any more questions left to ask...I just have a baby too old to go any more.
Thankfully one of the long lasting benefits of this group is that our postpartum goddess helps us form our first playgroup. I now have a wonderful group of women, that have had babies between October and February, that will continue on this journey with me and for that I am extremely grateful.
TTFN,
Mommy C
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Operation Deswaddle Update
If you missed the back story on this, you will want to read my last post here.
Tuesday night (bedtime):
Wednesday naps:
I could keep going with the rest of the week, but the gist of it all is that he has been sleeping fantastically! He goes down relatively easily (sometimes there are tears, but not for very long) and seems to sleep better than he ever has. He rolls to his belly almost as soon as I put him into the crib. He also likes to sleep with his hands under his face which is just about the cutest thing ever.
I am so glad that we deswaddled when we did. He was old enough to roll to get comfy and to self soothe (I think that is the biggest thing) and yet he wasn't so old that he was frustrated that we changed the system on him. I would like to believe that it was my mommy instinct that knew that this was the right time to do it...or that S some how communicated to me that this was the right time....or maybe I just got lucky.
TTFN
Mommy C
Tuesday night (bedtime):
- Put S down on his back, awake at around 8:30ish. Within 20 minutes he was asleep. Yes, the first 5 were cooing, but the next 15 were him crying. We persevered and it was worth it!
- He slept till about 3am and then woke up for his usual feeding. Then, instead of protesting when it was time to go back to bed, he went straight to sleep!!!!
- He then slept till I woke him up in the morning.
Wednesday naps:
- Each nap started with some tears, but he would settle down fairly quickly (read: roll over onto his tummy and fall asleep).
- He seems to be sleeping better during his naps than he used to...less stirring and cooing mid-nap.
- We have an expert sleeper (and roller) on our hands. He went down to sleep easily and went right back down to sleep after nursing during the night.
I could keep going with the rest of the week, but the gist of it all is that he has been sleeping fantastically! He goes down relatively easily (sometimes there are tears, but not for very long) and seems to sleep better than he ever has. He rolls to his belly almost as soon as I put him into the crib. He also likes to sleep with his hands under his face which is just about the cutest thing ever.
I am so glad that we deswaddled when we did. He was old enough to roll to get comfy and to self soothe (I think that is the biggest thing) and yet he wasn't so old that he was frustrated that we changed the system on him. I would like to believe that it was my mommy instinct that knew that this was the right time to do it...or that S some how communicated to me that this was the right time....or maybe I just got lucky.
TTFN
Mommy C
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Operation Deswaddle!
S is a great sleeper and I am grateful for this. He goes down easily, wakes only briefly to eat, and typically in the morning, I have to wake him up so we can get going with our day. I have it good. (Please don't hate me.) Unfortunately, I am shaking things up right now and attempting to "deswaddle" our boy.
Why? He grew out of the only swaddle that he couldn't break out of...the HALO SleepSack Swaddle. I could have ordered the small, but that would only fit for another month or so and I knew we were going to have to do it sooner anyway (I will get to that part in a minute).
So for the last 2 weeks he has been sleeping in a woombie that is a bit too big for him (I bought it on sale long before I realized that he wouldn't be swaddled at 20 pounds). But being the problem solver that I am, I tied a hair band at the bottom to make it shorter. However, the fact that it is too big for him has been great. It has allowed him to move his hands up to his mouth and learn to do some self soothing without the pacifier. Ahh the pacifier...that has also been given to him less and less (but that is another story for another day). He also doesn't seem to be as startled by his hands suddenly coming up to his face in his sleep.
So, S has been wiggling around in his woombie for 2 weeks and fairly early on I began to realize that he was attempting to roll from back to front. This got me worried. He wasn't an expert roller and I wasn't sure he could roll back to his back if he wanted to, but I had been hearing stories in my mom's group about other babies that had to be immediately unswaddled in the middle of the night because they kept rolling to their bellies. What if S rolled over in the middle of the night and we had to unswaddle him right then and there? Would he be okay? Would he scream his head off for hours? Could I avoid this? Well the simple answers were that he would be fine, he might scream his head off for hours, and yes, I did think I could avoid this. I was going to slowly "deswaddle him".
Trixie and I had talked a lot when she was "deswaddling" her youngest and I knew that I needed a plan (and that there might be tears-both his and mine) and that there wasn't much "real help" out there for moms (just a lot of other moms telling their story). It seems like there are two main schools of thought: one arm out first OR cold turkey. Since we had transitioned to the woombie and I don't have one of the uber cool new convertible woombies (they don't come out till July), doing the whole one arm out thing wasn't going to happen. However, back when Sam was about 4 months old we had transitioned him to the one arm out with the HALO, but ended up going back to the full swaddle when he stared teething. While he had the one arm out (prior to the teething), he did really well. So cold turkey it was going to be.
So here is what my plan was going to be:
June 21st:
Afternoon nap:
Nap #1 (put him into the crib at 11:40am)
Will he make it the whole night without a swaddle??? I will report tomorrow how he does!
TTFN
Mommy C
Why? He grew out of the only swaddle that he couldn't break out of...the HALO SleepSack Swaddle. I could have ordered the small, but that would only fit for another month or so and I knew we were going to have to do it sooner anyway (I will get to that part in a minute).
So for the last 2 weeks he has been sleeping in a woombie that is a bit too big for him (I bought it on sale long before I realized that he wouldn't be swaddled at 20 pounds). But being the problem solver that I am, I tied a hair band at the bottom to make it shorter. However, the fact that it is too big for him has been great. It has allowed him to move his hands up to his mouth and learn to do some self soothing without the pacifier. Ahh the pacifier...that has also been given to him less and less (but that is another story for another day). He also doesn't seem to be as startled by his hands suddenly coming up to his face in his sleep.
So, S has been wiggling around in his woombie for 2 weeks and fairly early on I began to realize that he was attempting to roll from back to front. This got me worried. He wasn't an expert roller and I wasn't sure he could roll back to his back if he wanted to, but I had been hearing stories in my mom's group about other babies that had to be immediately unswaddled in the middle of the night because they kept rolling to their bellies. What if S rolled over in the middle of the night and we had to unswaddle him right then and there? Would he be okay? Would he scream his head off for hours? Could I avoid this? Well the simple answers were that he would be fine, he might scream his head off for hours, and yes, I did think I could avoid this. I was going to slowly "deswaddle him".
Trixie and I had talked a lot when she was "deswaddling" her youngest and I knew that I needed a plan (and that there might be tears-both his and mine) and that there wasn't much "real help" out there for moms (just a lot of other moms telling their story). It seems like there are two main schools of thought: one arm out first OR cold turkey. Since we had transitioned to the woombie and I don't have one of the uber cool new convertible woombies (they don't come out till July), doing the whole one arm out thing wasn't going to happen. However, back when Sam was about 4 months old we had transitioned him to the one arm out with the HALO, but ended up going back to the full swaddle when he stared teething. While he had the one arm out (prior to the teething), he did really well. So cold turkey it was going to be.
So here is what my plan was going to be:
- Cold turkey
- Start at the afternoon nap
- Start Monday, June 21st
- If he cried? We were going to go into the room to sooth in intervals (5, 7, 10 minutes)
- If all else failed and he was just miserable? We would give up on that night and try again the next sleep opportunity.
June 21st:
Afternoon nap:
- He cooed for most of it- I think he was silent for all of about 10 minutes of the hour. At the end of the hour he was awake and smiley so we ended the nap.
- He wasn't as thrilled this time (8ish). I went into sooth at 5 minutes, then when he cried I went in after 7 minutes, and then when he cried again I waited another 7 minutes (I couldn't bring myself to wait any longer). Then...he fell asleep! Actually, I realized that he wanted to be on his side so I helped him get on his side and he immediately fell asleep!
- He woke up at about 11:30pm and decided he was hungry. I had decided that I didn't want to impact hubby with this because he needs to go to work in the morning so sending him in to sooth wasn't an option (although he would tell you that it was). I fed him and when I went to put him back into the crib he began to protest. I tried soothing in the crib, tried walking around the room with him, frankly I tried all my tricks (even changed the diaper) and he was just not happy. So I decided enough was enough for one night, I put him in the woombie and we called it a night.
Nap #1 (put him into the crib at 11:40am)
- He cooed for about 25 minutes and then fell asleep for an hour and a half. I finally woke him up because I didn't want to disrupt our sleep schedule. (This is a nap schedule that he created naps typically start with me nursing him at 11 and 3 give or take 15-20 minutes.)
- This one started with tears. Lots and lots of tears. But they were the protest type tears that would get loud and then he'd calm down and then he'd get loud again. After a little less than 20 minutes he was silent (thankfully because I was beginning to get tears in my eyes at this point). I didn't follow my interval thing that I said I was going to in my plan mostly because it was this protest crying. I knew he was fed, clean, and not in pain. Had there been any question or if the cry was different, I would have checked on him sooner.
- It is now 4:45 and he is still sleeping. If he is asleep at 5:15, I will probably wake him up.
Will he make it the whole night without a swaddle??? I will report tomorrow how he does!
TTFN
Mommy C
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Today is my wedding anniversary!
Way back on May 19th I told you my engagement story via a vlog. So it seems only natural to tell my wedding story as well...but this time, I am going to do it with pictures and audio (ok, and some words too). The only problem is that YouTube is not cooperating due to the music that I used. So, you will need to go to my Facebook page to view it. You will find the link at the bottom of this post to see the video.
My husband and I got married on June 17, 2006 at a winery in Amador County, California. The whole wedding was very personalized to us and we included our family and friends as much as possible. One of my cousins married us, one of my best friends and hubby's uncle did readings, two other friends opened the giant doors that I came out of and some of my other cousins sang "The Song of Ruth". Hubby and I each have one sibling so they were our maid of honor and best man. I tend to like a little bit of whimsy so the isle was blue and covered with daisies. We are pretty simplistic people as well so rather than doing extravagant center pieces for the tables we just used those multi-color flower pots that you can find out in front of most grocery stores in the summer. All of these things were true to who we were and it was fabulous.
All this being said, if I step away from the specialness of the day, and look superficially at various aspects, there is one thing that I more pleased about than others and that is the music I walked down the isle to. The Princess Bride is by far my most favorite movies of all times and a friend mentioned that they used the theme for their wedding. I got to playing around with the music and determined that we could get the huge doors that we were going to walk out of to open just as the music picked up. It took some coordination, but from my perspective (and several guest's perspectives) it was amazing. I tried to incorporate it into the slide show (link below) so that you can get the same feeling. You will have to tell me if it worked. :)
There was also one thing that I would definitely change if I could do it again and that was the bustle on my dress. We had a dance all choreographed, but we had to ditch much of it because I had to hold onto my dress the whole time. I included of those pictures so you can see what I mean.
Well the baby is waking up so I need to hit post and run to be mommy. Wish I could talk more about how much this day means to me, but that will have to be another post. Enjoy!
Click here for the slide show from my wedding.
TTFN
Mommy C
My husband and I got married on June 17, 2006 at a winery in Amador County, California. The whole wedding was very personalized to us and we included our family and friends as much as possible. One of my cousins married us, one of my best friends and hubby's uncle did readings, two other friends opened the giant doors that I came out of and some of my other cousins sang "The Song of Ruth". Hubby and I each have one sibling so they were our maid of honor and best man. I tend to like a little bit of whimsy so the isle was blue and covered with daisies. We are pretty simplistic people as well so rather than doing extravagant center pieces for the tables we just used those multi-color flower pots that you can find out in front of most grocery stores in the summer. All of these things were true to who we were and it was fabulous.
All this being said, if I step away from the specialness of the day, and look superficially at various aspects, there is one thing that I more pleased about than others and that is the music I walked down the isle to. The Princess Bride is by far my most favorite movies of all times and a friend mentioned that they used the theme for their wedding. I got to playing around with the music and determined that we could get the huge doors that we were going to walk out of to open just as the music picked up. It took some coordination, but from my perspective (and several guest's perspectives) it was amazing. I tried to incorporate it into the slide show (link below) so that you can get the same feeling. You will have to tell me if it worked. :)
There was also one thing that I would definitely change if I could do it again and that was the bustle on my dress. We had a dance all choreographed, but we had to ditch much of it because I had to hold onto my dress the whole time. I included of those pictures so you can see what I mean.
Well the baby is waking up so I need to hit post and run to be mommy. Wish I could talk more about how much this day means to me, but that will have to be another post. Enjoy!
Click here for the slide show from my wedding.
TTFN
Mommy C
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