I’m not actively watching what I eat, though I do get a pretty good view of it when I raise my hand to my mouth! Ha. I think I eat more than Yuri does, though I suppose that’s expected since I’m still growing a baby with my body – which is pretty cool.  Most of our groceries are fruits and vegetables anyway, but somehow I manage to have a little bit of dessert every day.  Just last week, 3 different people gave us carrot cake in a 5 day period!  If I tried, I think the baby weight would come off pretty fast.  At the moment, I’m just trying to get a little more activity into my days and eat balanced meals – dessert and all.  Now that the weather is warmer, working out means strapping on the baby and going for a walk!

So, at the risk of upsetting Oscar’s new nap schedule, Yuri and I decided to take the kids for a walk in Durham Regional Forest this morning.  In the winter, this trail is the perfect place to snowshoe and cross country ski.  In the summer, it’s great for walking and biking!  You can walk for hours in the forest.  Walking for hours in town just isn’t possible when it’s as small as Port Perry.  The sidewalks run out pretty quickly here.

Babywearing.  It’s the new black.

“I love you treeeees!”

Yuri and the Fur Babies

A sleepy munchkin just woke up from his babywearing nap

Since Oscar missed his morning nap, getting him down to sleep at noon was a bit of a fight, but 2 hours later he’s still sleeping!  Thanks to the baby monitor my brother and sister-in-law gave us, this means that I had the time and luxury to work out in the basement!  We don’t use the monitor at night because the light it too bright and we can hear him anyway, but during nap time it means that I can make sure he’s alright even when I’m working up a sweat in the basement to some pretty heavy tunes.

Today’s workout consisted of kettlebell swings, pullups, bicep curls, situps on the exercise ball, and knee raises on the rebounder.  When I was done, climbing the stairs was pretty difficult and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but it’s going to be worth the pain I’m sure!  I try to get in a good workout 2 times a week, and a good babywearing walk every chance I get!

We started sleep training with Oscar 3 days ago.  It has been a life saver!  Oscar goes down for 3 naps each day and I have some free time!  Finally some time to blog about this journey more regularly so that Oscar can re-live his babyhood some day.

The downside is that I feel like I’m in Oscar withdrawal.  I went from spending 18-20 hours a day with him to spending 8-10 hours a day with him.  I know it’s for the best.  Oscar is learning how to put himself to sleep, and that is something that will improve his learning, development and overall happiness for the rest of his life.  This morning I was greeted by a happy, smiling baby for the first time!

The most shocking aspect of the sleep training is that Oscar goes down for his naps with zero protest.  This is day 3 of daytime naps, and so far we’re 7 for 7.  I still can’t believe it.  Night time is a little different.  Night 1 he cried for 20 minutes, night 2 was 13 minutes, but night 3 was less than 2 minutes!

No, we don’t just throw him in his crib and shut the door.  We go in every 5 minutes to calm him down, picking him up if necessary since he’s only 3 months old.  It’s a little stressful but it’s working for us.  When we kept him up later, all he did was cry anyway, so this is definitely less crying!

Staying asleep during the night has been tough.  The first night was the best.  The third night was horrible.  Now that I’ve figured out a better swaddling system I have high hopes for tonight and I can’t wait to try it!  I think he escaped last night early on, causing way too many night awakenings.  I finally figured out the new swaddle at 5:30 am, and he slept until 8am!

A not so happy Oscar waking up from his lunch hour nap.

Oscar’s New Schedule:

Nap 1: 9:30-10:30am

Nap 2: 12:30-2:00pm

Nap 3: 3:30-6:00pm

Bedtime: 7:30pm

This is what it looks like, more or less.  I just wait for the sleepy signs like rubbing his face, glassy eyes, and less overall attention.  I think it’s harder to get him down at night because we let him get a little bit cranky which means he’s a tad over-tired.

I am so glad we didn’t wait any longer to sleep train.  He definitely wasn’t getting enough sleep before, and now that I’m feeding him less at night he’s not waking up with indigestion and gas.  If he cries at night we do the 10 minute wait.  Usually he’s asleep by then, but if he’s not I’ll go in, change his diaper, and give him a feed if it has been longer than 6 hours since his last one.  It’s true that first babies are the trial and error babies!  Baby #2 will be getting more sleep from day 1!

Now we go for walks awake and facing out rather than sleeping on mommy!

I know that Oscar won’t remember the Royal Wedding, so I took a picture of him watching it.  He is proud of his English roots, as you can see

We ventured to the city on Friday for the Baby Times show, a haircut for mom, and 3 separate dinner dates. Yes – 5 separate appointments.

Yuri was extremely happy to drop Oscar and I off at the Baby Show and run the opposite direction. If you enjoy gridlock traffic, being surrounded by hundreds of screaming babies, and being trapped by narcissistic toddlers, men and women behind strollers that should have their license suspended this instant – by all means go to a baby trade show.

I did score some good deals and saw many others from afar. Many missions were aborted due to insanely high levels of stroller backup. Oscar got 2 new ergo swaddling cocoons, 3 organic onesies, 2 pairs of shoes, a wrap, lotion, and a MAM bottle and soother. Little did I know at the time, but the MAM bottle ended up being the thing that made the trip a blazing success. After many bottle battles, Oscar took to the MAM like the boobie – Twice. Hello freedom for mommy!

Tips for surviving any baby show: Be the first person in line and get in and out in under an hour. Strap baby to your chest and bring dad to carry the bags. Sorry dad. You need to take one for the team.

Next stop: Yorkville for a much needed haircut. I refuse to go to any other hairdresser, so this was an important stop. This involved strapping Oscar to Yuri for the first time, grabbing a quick Starbucks, and spending 40 glorious minutes getting pampered. After the haircut, Yuri and I went our separate ways to 2 separate dinners. He to a raw restaurant with a friend and me to meet up with friends and dinner at a Colombian restaurant.

Well, dinner was a complete bust. It was Oscar Dragon fussy time which meant I spent the entire time in a small, packed restaurant trying to calm the little munchkin. Needless to say I left mid-meal and mourned my delicious loss for the rest of the evening. I packed a screaming baby into the car and drove to crash a pre-bachelor-party party. Oscar finally flaked out and mom ordered a Guinness. But guess what happened?  That’s right!  Before mom got to enjoy said Guinness, Oscar decided to get fussy again and it was left behind barely scathed by my needy lips!  I’m starting to think that unpredictable baby behaviour is actually entirely quite predictable

I wish I had some pictures but I was so distracted!  Must start remembering to take pictures!

I love cloth diapers.  I knew I was going to like them, but what I didn’t realize is that I would hate disposables SO much!  I intended on using disposables when we’re out and about, but after researching them I prefer to lug soiled cloth diapers around rather than put that toxic disposable crap on my baby’s bum!  No more dioxins or sodium polyacrylate touching his skin 24/7.

When Oscar was in disposables he got the most horrible rash on his little bum.  No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to go away.  When we switched to cloth diapers the rash disappeared and never came back.  His soft little baby bum is back instead!

The world of cloth diapers is intense.  There are so many different brands and types!  Now that I’ve had Oscar in cloth for a couple of months, I finally feel like I know what I’m doing.  The best part is that they are just so damn cute.  I can’t wait until the weather is nicer and he can run around the yard in his colourful fluff.  Though I doubt he’ll be running around this summer seeing as he’s only 3 months old right now!

Oscar’s New Cloth Diapers: 4 Fuzzibunz and 1 Eli Monster

The only thing I am worried about is what we’ll do when we travel.  We’re planning a trip to London in the summer and then Australia in the new year.  Yuri may think I’m crazy, but I fully intend on bringing a suitcase stuffed with cloth diapers.  As long as there’s a washing machine, there can be fluff!