Surviving Colic

Ok so I first I wasn't going to finish this post (started at 8 weeks) because what do I really know? I am far from being an expert on this topic. Then I thought this might have helped if someone could look at all the different things people told me to try in one spot.

Was Jackson colicky? Yes, no, maybe... I contribute all of the fussiness to his allergy which could fall in the definition of colic. Seriously when he was dairy free for two weeks, it was like a switch was flipped- angel baby. I remember calling Jamie and saying he hasn't cried today! It was right at this time that I got a ton of awesome advice to help him which it turned out we didn't need it. Going through 8 weeks of fussiness is rough on everyone! No one wants to hear a baby cry and trust me we tried everything- feeding, burping, changing his diaper, etc. Here are some things that saved us!

1. White noise.
2. Rock n play
3. Baby K'tan
4. Swing
5. Exercise ball
6. Alcohol jk!
7. Stroller
8. Country music
9. Side ways, pacifer, SHHH

1. White noise: really helped soothe him to sleep wherever we would put him.
2. Rock N Play: I think I have written 1000000 posts about this.
3. Baby  K'tan: a way to carry your baby and get things done around the house! Jackson loved snuggling up in this thing.
4. Swing: The rocking motion and white noise would help him calm down and sleep.
5. Exercise ball: I remember every night about five bouncing on the ball with him and singing country music- it worked!
6. Alcohol: you may need a glass of wine after all the crying :)
7. Stroller: Go on walks! Jackson was never fussy on a walk
8. Country music: I still sing songs to him when he gets fussy and country music is the only one I know all the words too.
9. This worked 99% of the time- hold baby sideways across your belly (belly to belly), put pacifier in mouth (baby's mouth), bounce, sway, and gently say "shhh" near his ear. This is somewhat stolen from Happiest Baby on the Block but I never read the book so who knows.

Just remember just because your baby is fussy now (and NONE of your friends' babies are..ya right) it doesn't last forever. And now Jackson is such an angel baby it's hard to remember! In fact Jamie said today all I remember is Jackson sleeping on your chest all the time and how difficult breastfeeding was. Funny how the men forget?!

24 Weeks

Happy Valentine's Day!

24 Weeks

Weight:  17.10 pounds

Sleep: GREAT! TA DA! It's a miracle! He goes down at 8:30 and he will usually cry around 2,3, OR 4 but then he puts himself back to sleep. He's up at 5...I would love for this to be 6 but I'll take it. He is taking 3 naps all in the crib at least an hour long.

Clothes: 6-9 months

Visitors:  Last week he had his grandmother, grandfather, Lorraine, and Uncle Dustin in town for his baptism! This week it is Grandpa Holmes and Lisa plus his Uncle Loch and Auntie Teagan. What a little popular boy :)

Out and About: He went to his first race! He got to see mommy and daddy run their first half marathon together. He even had his Team Holmes onesie on.

Baby Gear Love:  

Sassy Letters: I have had these forever but now he is obsessed with them. They are great for chew toys, batting at them, hanging them from everything, and you can go over the letters/sounds of the alphabet.

Crying:  When he had his first cold, he was really fussy :( Really he only cries when he sees his bottle or if he gets bored and wants to be held.

Milestones:  
Sitting up by himself for brief periods 10-30 seconds!! Blowing more raspberries and making more sounds. Learning to jump with two feet in the jumperoo. Now he wants to stand and jump all the time. First full day of cloth diapering!

Medical: Ugh. First cold which was just so sad. Same issues as before. We see the GI in a couple weeks. Fingers crossed! 

Postpartum: 1 stinkin pound but I'm wearing all my old clothes! Ran my first race since Jackson! I was really under trained but we made it the whole way running! And it felt great. I think running with the jogger stroller must really equal twice the distance. Now I'm looking forward to some much needed toning.

Resolutions

Happy New Year! Ooops it's February. I was going to skip a bunch of posts- Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc but after making my pregnancy book, I realized how much I appreciated all the posts! I'll post my pregnancy book after I print it. It's awesome! I hope Jackson will appreciate it one day. If not I'm sure his wife will :)

1. Keep updating the blog so I can make Jackson's 1st year book
2. Loose all of my pregnancy weight (only 1 pound left) and loose 3 more pounds.
3. Make mommy friends. When I got pregnant I assumed most people didn't want to hang out with a pregnant lady- I can't drink wine or coffee or shop at normal stores.. and I go to bed at 8:30. So now I am ready to be social! My goal was to join My Gym. Check!
4. Make it to happy hour with my nonmommy friends. I didn't make it for FOUR months after I had Jackson but January I did and it was so much fun!
5. Learn how to cook fish. Start cooking/baking again. I have made fish twice and it went pretty well. I have been cooking a lot more. I hope to post some recipes soon.
6. Be a better wife. For the first 3 months of Jackson's life it was really hard- I was struggling to talk about anything other than Jackson and my patience for Jamie was zero. I felt really bad! Plus I wasn't cooking- not that he really minded. Actually he never said anything but I know it was a big change. In December I made a big effort to attend all the things Jamie wanted to go to even though that meant leaving Jackson behind. It was HARD but worth it. We need time to ourselves too.
7. Do something for myself besides work. I am trying to read more books that are fun. The problem is I get a glass of wine, start reading, and two pages in I'm asleep.
8. Quit comparing! This should be number one. When I was pregnant the comparisons were weight but I was pretty comfortable about how much I gained. And then you go to labor and delivery, etc. Things just didn't go how I planned. Everything was much harder than I imagined. Breastfeeding/Pumping, sleeping, Jackson crying 24/7 due to being hungry and allergic to dairy/soy.. I felt like I wasn't being the mom I pictured. I was comparing myself to everyone else and I just wasn't measuring up. I found two pieces of advice helpful 1. A happy mommy is a happy baby. 2. The comparisons start at pregnancy and continue their entire lives. Oh he is walking at 5 months, he made the varsity team, got into XYZ college. That is insane! When I read that I just stopped. I knew I was doing the best job possible and NO ONE  can tell me how to feel. NO ONE is in my shoes. So I know people are judging but I am completely happy with me, Jackson, Jamie. Honestly the second I stopped worrying about everyone else it got easier. Jackson is the happiest baby! I am now exactly how I pictured myself being as a mom. I love my life! Now of course I brag about Jackson because he is the cutest, happiest, smartest baby alive but I'm not comparing him to other babies.  Soap box :) I just had to share because I wish I would have known this before hand instead of 8 weeks in when I was about to loose my mind due to stress of not doing what was "right".

This year I am actually doing my resolutions who am I?! hahha

Cloth Diapers

Yep, I did it. I switched to cloth diapers. Say what?! Ok I have a few reasons 1. Jackson was wetting through his diapers at night (because he is sleeping through the night :) ) the thought of paying more money for night time diapers seemed stupid 2. He constantly has a diaper rash which is most likely due to food allergies but hey his skin is so sensitive it could be the diapers....let's eliminate one more possible allergy 3. I started calculating the cost of diapers and about fell out of my chair. We are struggling (as in they said NO) with our insurance covering prescription formula and it is $88 a can. I even researched "relactation" (which apparently is possible but tough and then who knows if I could eliminate enough foods for it to be helpful to Jackson or produce enough for entire day) my thought was if we could at least cut down on diaper costs that would help with formula. 4. It is GREAT for him! Which is originally why I wanted to cloth diaper but I was scared.

So I did my research. Ok not really. On a whim I bought one diaper to try at night. Which doesn't really work because then how do you clean one diaper? So then I did some research. Here is my advice:

1. Buy cloth diapers at least 6 but you will need a lot more if you stick with it. I got ours Here

2. Buy a wet bag this is to place the diapers in after they are used. Wet Bags

3. Buy a sprayer to hook up to your toilet and pay a plumber to install it and you may end up spending $$ on a broken pipe that floods your guest bedroom, leaves you without water, and causing your house to smell from the wet carpet during a party you are throwing. I'm not saying that happened to us... No actually they are easy to install our pipes are just old. Sprayer

4. Figure out how to wash them with your washer. I have a front loader which is not ideal for cloth diapers. I just googled and read a bunch of blogs and so far so good.

5. Buy soap. I'm still using baby ganics.

6. Buy a drying rack. I got mine from target.

Random things I have learned:

1. AIO means all in one diapers. This is great if you don't want to get dirty (you don't have to take the liners out to wash) but it makes the diapers really bulky. I am using these for night time diapers. I think these would be a good idea to leave with your nanny because then you don't have to worry about finding which diapers still have the inserts in them- I would never make our nanny do the dirty work! 

2. Pocket diapers have inserts or what I call liners. These you should remove before washing which is a little gross. I am still figuring out when we should use which liner- thick vs. thin.

3. Snaps vs. velcro- the snaps take a little getting used too but it's not that bad- I mean you snap their onesies all the time same thing. I just ordered some velcro ones to try out. Velcro ones are probably better for daddy who leaves half of his onesies unbuttoned... and always leaves Jackson's pants off. Getting Jackson in pants is like wrestling a bucking bronco, he kicks his feet as fast as he can... you can't catch me!

Realistically cloth diapering is "gross" -er than disposables but I don't mind it- I mean babies are gross anyways at this point to you even flinch when you see poo, spit up, snot? It does take a little more time but I've got a pretty good system going. They are so cute! And you feel great every time you put a little chemical free diaper on your little one's booty! 

Week One of part time cloth diapering: His diaper rash is almost nonexistent! I can't wait to see what full time cloth diapering will bring. I haven't gagged once :) The sprayer is actually pretty cool and easy to use. The laundry I didn't even think twice about. The drying time is nothing. Maybe it's because I have a front loader but it's a half day at the most. I have started putting them in the sun to help with drying and with the "wet" smell. We have terrible water in Florida that makes everything smell which does concern me long term.. but I have noticed the diapers smell a little like you left your towels in the washer too long. I had one little stain but it's gone- this is because I didn't prep the diapers correctly. 

Now I'm waiting on my big order. I need to teach Jamie and the nanny how to cloth diaper- obviously I'm not going to make them spray anything. And we need to try it when we are out and about. Pictures on him in them to come!

Getting Baby to SLEEP!

Right after Christmas it was my goal to get Jackson to sleep in his crib. I knew I had a few weeks off of work so it was a perfect time to get no sleep. He did really well for 1-2 weeks. The one problem we had was if the pacifier fell out he would be hysterical.

Then someone told us about the Ferber Method. The Ferber Method teaches the baby how to put themselves to sleep on their own and bonus they don't have to cry it out. The baby does have to cry some but you get to go in and soothe them every so often- there is a whole chart in the book. It's a gradual approach. I immediately started reading the book and realized we had to get rid of the pacifier which actually wasn't that bad. We had Jackson sleeping in his crib all night for a couple days when he got sick :( but we were still struggling with naps.

After about a week of us letting him sleep in his favorite spots- swing, bouncer, being held, I decided to quite cold turkey and start the Ferber Method again. I made a few changes.
1. I made a set time schedule. I figured out that our night time sleep was going so well because it was the same time every night but naps were all over the place due to a stupid book I read when he was a newborn..
2. I had to be consistent. If he missed a nap because he cried the whole time then he was NOT allowed to sleep in the swing. If he fell asleep on his own fine.
3. I had to carry this plan out for the full two weeks to see if it would work.

Day One: We started with naps and I'm pretty sure he didn't sleep at all. Jamie and I spent the whole day walking around with him because he was so cranky. Thank goodness Jamie was home to help!
Night One: That night he slept ALL night without waking up once.

Day Two: Naps were between 30-45 minutes
Night Two: He slept through the night.

Day Three: Naps were between 60-90 minutes
Night Three: He woke up 1-2 times but we were able to get him back to sleep.

Day Four:  Naps 60-90 minutes
Night Four: He woke up 1 time that we had to go soothe him and the other time he went right back to sleep.

Day Five:  Woke up during his first nap, played a little, I soothed him a little and he went back to sleep. Nap time 2 hours!
Night Five: He woke up at midnight for an hour which was really weird. Finally I put some soothing stuff on his gums and he passed out. He was up again at 5 and I did the same thing and he went right back down.

We are officially teething now...

Day Six: Nap 1 was 2 and half hours! Nap two was in the car and nap three was 45 minutes. The last one I like to keep short so that he will sleep at night
Night Six: Went down in less than 4 minutes. Woke up 1x at 5:00 ( I think the baby tylenol had worn off) and got up at 5:45

Day Seven: It's Saturday so our schedule is off but the first nap he went right down. Second nap- nope. Last nap 45 minutes after teething pads and tylenol
Night Seven: Went right down no crying! He woke up at five but by the time I made it to his room he had fallen back asleep. When he woke up he played/talked in his crib until I got him up.

Day Eight: First two naps he went right now and slept 60 minutes or more. His last nap didn't happen due to sleeping in the jogger stroller.
Night Eight: Went right to sleep and slept through the night. Jamie actually checked on him to make sure he was still breathing :) which is so cute because I always wake up around 2/3 to check but the fact he did it on his own is just so sweet!

Day Nine: First nap- Went right to sleep no crying!...

Now I can't remember the rest because it pretty much goes- All naps in the crib 45-3 hours, sleeping through the night.

I would say we are officially sleep TRAINED! Whoohoo! I know it's not perfect but I'll take it!

5 months!

Jackson,

        I really think this month was my favorite! You are much more interactive with us and love playing. You are now grabbing at everything- food, drinks, toys, etc. You continue to be the happiest, smiliest baby we have ever seen. This month you and daddy have bonded more than ever. You give him great big smiles and laughs when you see him. I still think you are a mama's boy :)

       This month has been a big month for milestones:

• Rolling both directions
• Sleeping in your crib all the time
• Popping lips and today raspberries
• Tripod sitting and today at baby gym you sat indep. for 30 seconds
• Standing supported by yourself for brief periods of time
• Going to baby gym! 
• Jumping/Standing in the jumperoo
• You are noticing the kitty cats and you love them. Every time they walk by you smile and laugh.

      Unfortunately, you are now on prescription formula and we are waiting to see a GI for your tummy issues. You continue to have issues with eczema and diaper rashes even though we change you all the time and use diaper cream. We just tried cloth diapers at night and it went really well! I have ordered some more to start trying. You also aren't allowed to have any baby food yet but in the next month you will. I will have to homemake your baby food to ensure that there is no dairy or soy in it. 

       Jackson love watching you discover and meet new milestones everyday! We can't wait to see what next month brings!

The Remedy Basket

I'll be honest (ok I'm always a little too honest but..) I bought a bunch of "musts" for the first aid basket before Jackson arrived and I had no clue what they were for, except the obvious of course. I really thought I would never use any of it, well I was wrong! Here is the run down of everything we have used so far.

1. Gauze Pads/ Vaseline- If you have a baby boy you will need these! 
2. Aveno Baby Eczema Lotion- that's self explanatory but it works the best
3. Aveno Baby Oatmeal Bath- this really helped with the itching of eczema
4. Little Remedies Gas Drops- I actually haven't used this yet but I would think it would be helpful
5. Aquaphor- for any dry patches
6. Rectal Thermometer- this is the best thermometer for taking temperatures and it's really easy too do. We have an ear one too but they aren't accurate until they are older
7. Teething Pods Babyganics- Life saver! They work like a charm every time. And:

• NO Parabens, Phthalates,Toxins, Mineral Oil, Artificial Color or Flavor
• Dye Free and Alcohol Free
• Formulated with Natural Clove Oil & Stevia
• Provides soothing gum relief

8. Ibuprofen- I'm pretty sure I got this was a gift THANK YOU! Jackson has had 1 low grade fever associated with teething and it helped immediately and it tasted yummy. I was so glad we had this at the house because I about had a heart attack when I found out he had a fever.

9. Grip Water- Poor Jackson lived on this stuff when we were figuring out all the food allergies. Seriously miracle stuff and all it is is ginger. It's not medicine but something that soothes their tummies.

10. Nasal Saline- I put this in his nose 1. It loosens the boogies for that awful nasal thingy 2. Usually all I have to do is wipe his nose and he's all clear.

11. Nasal Spray- This has also helped with his first cold.. he hates it but it works better than the saline. 

Now I'm sure your baby will be perfect but just in case you might want to stock up!