We’ve been walking in the forest a lot lately – one of the benefits of moving out of the city!  The trail we took on the weekend was just off Coates Road interestingly enough.  The trail starts on top of a hill which means that you can actually see all the way across Lake Ontario!  You can also see Toronto and get an idea of how far we live from it: not too close, and not too far away.

View of Lake Ontario

View of Toronto

Munchkin Oscar in his pink ERGO

I just got my ERGO carrier last week from babysteals!  It’s organic and super soft. I’ve been using a Moby wrap up until now, but I wanted another more structured carrier that I could put on my back.  I can put the ERGO on quickly. I don’t have to worry about the fabric stretching during the walk and Oscar gets a better view of his surroundings.

At some point I will attempt the back carry position but haven’t gotten around to it yet.  In the instructions you apparently just toss the kid on your back with one arm like it’s no big deal.  I tried to try that once and it didn’t go so well!  Next time I will try a different approach to get him on my back: it will involve a couch and some Matrix-style moves to complete, but I think it will work.

The Three Musketeers

The best part about getting out early is that we can let the dogs run loose.  When we went for this 2.5 hour walk we only ran into a few people right at the end.  It means they get to run around a lot more.  They like to stick close to Yuri though.

Yuri borrowed my scarf

I was hot. He was cold. Balance.

This is what happens when you pass a baby to his dad, over a dog.  Poor Laila.  All I could do was LAUGH!

r has been making leaps and bounds with his hands over the past couple of weeks.  I can now give him a toy and he’ll push it straight into his mouth.  I love watching him cup his little paws around his Sophie the Giraffe.

Talk about oral fixation.  There’s always something in this kid’s mouth.  It’s either Sophie, his hands, my hands, my sweater, his arms, a boob, something.  And if there’s nothing in his mouth, it’s because he’s trying to get something into his mouth!

His poor little hands are so chapped and eczema-like since they’re always wet with slobber.  He’s even starting to get a rash on his chin because he keeps it perma-slobbered.  And I don’t even think he’s teething yet!  What is going to happen when he starts teething?!  I am a little scared to imagine it.

To prepare for teething, Oscar has been wearing an amber necklace since he was one month old.  He was having some intestinal issues and his skin was always inflamed, so I put the necklace on him as soon as I opened the package.  Now, I don’t know if the necklace helped with those issues or if he just out-grew them, but I’m hoping the necklace thwarts off some of the unpleasant side effects of teething.  We really don’t want Oscar Dragon to rear his ugly head again.  I would be quite happy if the Dragon never returned.

Just the other day I was thinking “How will I know when to end the swaddle?” Well, Oscar let me know the answer on Saturday night in a fit of infantile rage.

I put him to bed at 7:00pm and he went straight to sleep.  Twenty minutes later he was tearing my heart out with his screams.  Five minutes went by and Daddy went in to settle him.  No sooner had he entered the door when I heard Oscar WAIL.  The dreaded “I want Mommy” cry was born.  So I went in 5 minutes later when he was still wailing and picked him up.  He instantly stopped, I held him for a few moments, and put him back down.

When I closed the door, the crying started again.  After a couple of minutes I went back in and unwrapped his arms.  I was rewarded with instant peace and quiet.  I wrapped up his body once again, closed the door, and that was that.

I think it all depends on his level of sleepiness.  When he’s the right amount of tired, he’s quite happy to flake out.  But if he’s under-tired he wants to suck on his hands, and when he’s over-tired he’s so busy freaking out that he doesn’t even know what he wants!

Nap Time

Most of the time he loves his swaddle.  He tosses and turns a bit, wiggles his arms, and stares straight into the camera as if he knows Big Brother is watching.  It’s super cute, yet a little unsettling since the monitor turns his eyes pure black like something right out of the X-files.  Yesterday he was content to chew on his hands at nap time until he started crying 45 minutes later.  I went in and wrapped him up in his burrito so he could get to sleep. Hopefully I’m not setting him up for sleep problems since I’m not being consistent, but I’m content with how things are going so far.  We’re not even a week into sleep training after all!

I’m left with a game time decision to make at nap time and night time.  Arms in or out?  I’m getting better at reading his cues, and starting to feel like I’ve pretty much got my act together as the nap Nazi, but there’s always that element of surprise that you get with dealing with a baby.  They keep life interesting.  I think he’ll let me know when to end the swaddle once and for all.

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!