Amazon had an amazing deal on Ergo Baby Carriers last week, and Hubster and I decided to snag one. I’ve been eyeing these up for months. My sister-in-law loves hers! I know I’ll be using a carrier a lot so that I have my hands free to take care of C. I’m just hoping that Baby Deuce enjoys carriers more than C did!
*sniffle*
C has given up his bottle.
We decided not to wean him off of his nighttime bottle at 12 months, because of all the transition we’ve had in the past two months. That bottle always seemed to comfort him before bed and I didn’t want to take that comfort away. He’s 14 months old now and I was planning on weaning him in the next couple weeks after he adjusted to our new home. I know that it was time and am relieved not to go through a weaning process, but I still find myself grieving the fact that my son isn’t a little baby anymore.
That time just went too quickly! I miss those moments of holding him in the darkness, breathing in his freshly-bathed scent while he drank his bottle just before bed. I used those moments to gaze at his sweet features and just soak him in. It’s sad those moments are now over.
My Sweet Baby C is Now a Toddler
Since we all know that not all aspects of life with a baby are filled with sunshine, rainbows and glitter…
Let’s talk about the tasks we can’t stand, but have no choice in doing. I can handle poop. It’s smelly, it’s messy, but in the end it’s just human waste and we all produce it. I can deal with urine. I’ve been peed on several times by my son. Whatever – urine is sterile. Baby vomit has an extremely unpleasant smell and although makes my own stomach turn, cleaning it up is still not what I consider the worst task in baby care.
What do I hate the most? Cutting nails. C hates being contained while I trim his nails. He cries, screams and thrashes when I [try to] cut his fingernails.
fast-growing by stetted on flickr
And the toenails? Even worse. *sigh* C has super wiggly toes attached to legs that kick wildly whenever you touch his feet. He also inherited Hubster’s thick toenails. It’s like the perfect storm.
Untitled by snickclunk on flickr
So we’ve discovered that we need to tag team the nail cutting endeavors. It isn’t pretty, but it has to be done.
Which baby care task do you hate the most?
After being very pleased with the Motherlove Nipple Cream while breastfeeding, the kind folks at Motherlove sent me their Diaper Rash & Thrush salve to try. I’m so glad that they did! 
C typically does not have any diaper rash; however, he’s had quite a bit of redness since he started teething. We avoid changing C’s diaper during the night because it causes him to wake up too much. By the morning, his little butt is red. We started applying Motherlove Diaper Rash & Thrush salve before bed and also when he wakes up. The redness has significantly diminished in the past two weeks. In fact, on most days C does not have any diaper rash. We apply the salve even when his bootie isn’t red for preventative measures.
The consistency of the salve is a lot different than the typical white paste that you slather onto your baby’s bottom! It’s almost the consistency of a lip balm. It goes on clear and doesn’t leave any residue behind (heh, behind! I crack myself up! Oh, the puns just keep on coming…). The salve seems to moisturize the skin in addition to healing the diaper rash.
As a mother, I like to use as many natural ingredients as possible for my son. Motherlove Diaper Rash & Thrush salve is made with 96% certified organic ingredients. It’s an all-natural herbal treatment. If your baby struggles with diaper rash, I would highly recommend this product!
Enjoy!
After C woke up for a night feeding, I just sat there adoring him instead of putting him back to bed right away. I was just sitting there staring at his little face and holding his soft little hands, thinking about how awesome he is. Here are some of my thoughts on what I love most about my little C…
What are some of the things your little one does that makes your heart smile?
I heard via the wonderful world of Facebook yesterday that my friend was in the hospital to have her baby! Maybe having C made me a softie, but now whenever a friend of mine announces a pregnancy or has a child, I get teary-eyed. It’s a mixture of happiness, nostalgia from a flash of fun memories and excitement because I know the joy she’s about to experience.
So here’s to you, dear! When I saw your Facebook statuses, I had a rush of memories from Bible studies, late night walks, and “rawhide.” 
I’m so excited for you and your hubby and, despite the distance, I hope to meet her someday. Love you!
Being Silly on a Fun Night Nearly Five Years Ago!
I feel like C’s at a stage where I’m buying a bunch of stuff for him again. Today, I had to buy a snowsuit (which I got a great deal on – thanks TJ Maxx!) and several 9- and 12-month pajamas (it’s only a matter of time before he’s too tall for those 6-month ones!), ordered a food processor/steamer on Amazon for making his baby food, and purchased a Halloween costume. Okay, so I didn’t NEED to purchase a Halloween costume for him, but he’s going to be so cute in that bumble bee outfit! :)
I’ll need to find a hat and mittens for him, as well as some shoes that I can slip on him when it’s cold out. His feet are already too big for my favorite little shoes that I had bought him at Old Navy before he was born. Any tips on great places to buy infant hats/mittens?
C’s growing so quickly! The past couple of days he’s been laughing and babbling in his car seat when we’re out on errands. We have no idea what he’s laughing about in the backseat. He loves to squeal and laugh. I think he enjoys hearing his voice. It’s pretty hilarious. The older he gets, the more fun he is!
I’m nervous about leaving C with a babysitter. In the beginning when C had colic, I didn’t want to subject someone else to his incessant cries. I was also concerned about how someone else would be able to handle it. As C gets a little older, I’m concerned about someone being able to handle his intensity and constant need for interaction. I’ll admit, C is very difficult to handle sometimes. He screams when he wants something and will continue to do so until his need is met. He needs to switch activities VERY often. C’s high needs. The way I see it, if I - his own mother - have a hard time dealing with it sometimes, then how would someone else handle it? It scares me.
On the other hand, I don’t want to end up never having alone time with my husband. I’d LOVE to go on a date night. It would be awesome to go see a movie or go to dinner. If we never leave C with anyone else, I’m sure he’ll have a lot of separation anxiety later (I already anticipate he will, considering I’m a SAHM and he’s with me every day).
There are definitely people that I would be more comfortable leaving C with than others. For example, I would never consider trusting him with people who say things like, “What does he eat?” or “Does he poop?” I’d consider those answers to be fundamental things to know about a baby.
So, Mamas, how did you do it? When did you first leave your baby with a babysitter, for how long, and how did you deal? I look forward to your comments!
Earlier this week, I posted about how C has been growing like a weed. I really thought I could still get two more weeks out of the bigger sleepers and onesies. No such luck!
I reluctantly packed away all of C’s 3-month onesies and sleepers, along with his newborn and 0-3 month clothes. It’s so sad to look at those adorable little outfits and fold them up one last time before putting them in a storage bin. My little boy is getting big!
Hubster and I measured him tonight. Who knows if they’ll take the time to stretch out his legs at the doctor’s office next week, but by our measurements C is 26 inches long! That’s the limit of his infant carseat! I’m glad that I brought back our convertible carseat when I visited my parents this month (they kindly store things for us when we don’t have space!).
On another note, the 6-month sleepers are SO wide on C. It looks kind of funny. He is such a skinny baby. In fact, we noticed today that C has rock hard abs from all of his kicking and squirming. I’ve never seen a baby that doesn’t have a soft, pudgy belly! Silly kid. 
It was one year ago today that I woke up at 6am and decided to take a pregnancy test. I was about to join a boot camp fitness team with three other grad students. I hadn’t been feeling quite right and my period was late (although with PCOS, the latter part was not abnormal), so I thought I would make sure that I wasn’t pregnant before I spent $75 on boot camp.
Our Family of Three
Taking the test was more of a formality for me. I really didn’t expect to be pregnant. A month before, I had been diagnosed with PCOS and was told that it would be difficult for me to conceive.
I remember getting impatient waiting for the results. It was pretty early and I really wanted to go back to bed. Then that second pink line started to appear. Uh-oh. It was very faint. What does this mean?! I frantically looked at the instructions, only to find what I already suspected. ANY second line, faint or not, means you’re pregnant, honey. OH. MY. DEAR. LORD.
I bounded out of the bathroom yelling Hubster’s name. He was still asleep, so my frantic yells for him were a bit startling. ”WHAT?!”
“Look at this. There’s two lines. I just took the pregnancy test and there’s two lines. What does that mean?!”
Hubster walked into the bathroom to look at the test. ”Well, it says here that if there’s two lines then you’re pregnant.” I met his words with a look of shock and horror. Much to my dismay, Hubster walked back to bed and was about to go back to sleep.
Me: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
Hubster: “Well, you’re pregnant. I might as well get some sleep.”
Me: “WHAT??!?!” Seeing that he really intended to go back to sleep even though I just discovered that I was PREGNANT, I got a bit upset. ”We’re not going to talk about this?”
Hubster: “What’s there to talk about? You’re pregnant.”
Me: “Ummm…YEAH??!”
—-
Even though Hubster was very nonchalant at first, we both had to make huge emotional adjustments over the next few months as we came to terms with how our lives were about to change in a way that we didn’t anticipate happening for several years. We were both 23 and had just moved to a new state, where Hubster was starting a live-in graduate assistantship. We had both just finished our first week of graduate school, where we were in the same program and classes. I wasn’t thrilled about my graduate assistantship and was hesitant about starting graduate school, but I was super excited about us graduating with our Master’s degrees together. It was such a fun thought that filled me with pride and excitement. We were planning on starting a family after we both worked in our professional positions for a couple of years. This was not at all in the plan.
I would venture to say that I had a much more difficult adjustment than Hubster did. Between weeks 5-14, I had the most terrible morning sickness that ended up being diagnosed as hyperemesis. I only vomited once, but I dry heaved so much that I spent the majority of my day hovering over the toilet or a bucket. It was nearly impossible to eat or drink anything. I was forced to drop a class that was heavily attendance-based. Unable to pick up another class, I had to withdraw from school. That also ended my graduate assistantship. Within six weeks, I went from starting a new job and grad school to being constantly ill and not having any school or work. That was really rough. It wasn’t until week 14 of my pregnancy that the doctor found something to help me, Zofran. I really wish I had found it sooner!
—-
Regardless of how difficult our journey has been this past year, I am now blessed with this beautiful, complex, wonderful child that fills me with joy (and despair at times!). I’m a stay-at-home mom a few years earlier than I thought I would be. But C is here now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
—-
This journey started with two lines:
And now I get to look at this sweet little face every day:
Today, C is only happy while being held in a standing-up position. You’d think he’d be happy standing in his exersaucer. Nope. You’d think he’d be happy playing in his gym (his absolute favorite toy). Nope. Is he hungry? No, recently ate. Does he need a diaper change? No, recently pooped. Is he tired? No, he just took a two hour nap while being held because he would NOT stop crying in his pack n play.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to take care of the overflowing basket of dirty laundry, the ominous stack of dirty pots and pans, and the fact that I must get some work done today.
Every time I tried to put C down so that I could get something – anything! – done, he started to cry. Ya can’t even reason with this kid! :-p So then I started crying.
There we sat, looking at each other in despair, tears rolling down our cheeks. That’s when I knew I had to text Hubster with a plea for help.
Thankfully, C is now running errands with Hubster. I need to pop some ibuprofen, turn on some trashy television, put my feet up, get some work done on my laptop and eat a few Oreos with absolutely no regard to how it’s messing with my Weight Watchers points.
I think I’m in for a bad day.
C woke up at 10:30, 1, 3, 3:30, 4, 4:15, 4:30… At 5:20, he decided that he was awake for the day. At 5:30, he had a huge blowout and got poop everywhere.
Oy.