Shaggamuffin

Side note:



My son seriously needs a haircut. AGAIN. It's in his eyes in the front, knotting in the back, and long enough on the sides to push behind his ears. I will not have my son looking like Celine Dion's kid.

All in their own time

I've never "made" Braden do anything. Even things highly recommened by pediatricians, such as "tummy time". He hated it, so I didn't make him do it. And guess what? He's fine and his head is not flat. I've come to the conclusion that most of the advice provided by healthcare professionals is because they have to tell EVERYONE the same thing and a lot of people are stupid. If you don't plan on neglecting your wee baby and will not be leaving him in the crib on his back 24/7 then the advice of "tummy time" really doesn't apply to you. If you get out and play with your baby, they're going to be fine.

Same goes for Braden and sleep training. For a while there I was really concerned that always cuddling him until he fell asleep was going to become a problem for him later on. I talked to my mom and she said not to worry. Basically he just needed to be cuddled and eventually he would feel secure enough to fall asleep on his own without crying. I'd asked her about this because I was seriously considering letting him cry it out to teach him how to sleep on his own but was very worried that he wouldn't just be crying, he'd be totally off his rocker scared and upset. So I just kept rocking him to sleep and then putting him in his crib. He's been sleeping through the night for months, also without any training from me. He has always set his own schedule and it doesn't vary much day to day. And over the last two weeks you know what has happened? He just started going to sleep. By himself. Without any prodding from me whatsoever.

He's a Taurus. Let's face it. I'll never be able to make him do anything. He will always figure things out by himself, in his own time. It makes me very proud of every little thing he figures out because I know he did it all by himself.

You know those moms that don't do anything after 7pm???

I totally get them now.

I used to drag Braden wherever I went and whenever he slept or ate was just fine because he was on his own schedule anyways. However, along with eating solid food came a much more predictable schedule for him. He eats solids 3 times a day and a bottle 4 or 5 times a day and is usually sleeping BY 9. At the end or our day Braden has some quiet time, his last big meal, a little play time in his jammies and then right when he starts to show a bit of crankiness, wham, bottle in the mouth and he's down for the count. And now, because he's made this little routine for himself, straying from it is getting harder and harder.

I went to a restaurant last night for my friend's birthday. She said we'd be going for dinner around 5 so I figured we'd be safely home by bedtime. I drove my friends there since I have the car seat in my truck. We got to the restaurant and it was an hour wait for a table. Now if I would have been smart, I would have driven myself and told me friends to take their own car and I could have left as soon as I heard how long the wait would be. But I am not smart and we had to stay. I stood in line (of course all the seats we taken) waiting for a table, carrying a 21 pound squirming child for 55 MINUTES. My back was just about to splint into 2 when we were finally seated. We didn't get home until 8:30pm and since Braden had fallen asleep in the car he thought it was play time when we got home. Long story short, he didn't go to sleep until almost 11pm. Good news? He didn't get up until 8am. So really it wasn't all that bad besides my broken back from holding the chunky monkey for so long. But the whole time I was stressing about what time it was, and when I was going to feed him and blah blah blah. It's just a lot easier to stay home.

But less fun. It's a deicsion that has to be made on a case by case basis I guess. Can't always sit at home with the baby. I'd be batshit crazy in no time.

My laptop is ancient

I am thinking I will have more time for blogging now since I have moved my laptop into my living room. Which is of course where I spend most of my time watching tv. I mean, watching Braden roll around on the floor. However, this move has come at the cost of aesthetics. My laptop is from before I started university and is therefore incapable of wireless Internet. Therefore I have a 100 foot Ethernet cable running from my basement laundry room, up my stairs, across the counter top of the bar, behind the baby swing, over the couch and into my hunkajunk computer. It's just one more thing to shoo Braden away from. He managed to tie it around his legs somehow while I was washing dishes but it wasn't around his neck, so I figure we're still good. Once he starts crawling I might come up with a way to string it across the ceiling.

Anyhoo, I've decided to have a lazy day today and most likely not even get showered or dressed. I went grocery shopping and to my friends stupid jewelry party with the baby yesterday and I figured that's plenty activity for us.

I probably forgot to mention that my husband is gone. Oh, he'll be back. But not for 22 more days. He's working up North (you Alberta oil and gas people will totally get that) working in a camp doing 24 days on and 4 days off. He had from November 15th to January 5th off to hang out at home so we had a good run. Now I am just trying to get used to single parenting again. It's tough! It's crazy how easy it is to get totally pooped out by just having to wash bottles and give the kidlet a bath. Much easier with 2 people. Even if he worked a regular 9-5 job it would be a helluva lot easier. But for a lot less money. So, everything comes with a cost and I am used to him being gone for long stretches at a time. At least I know when he'll be home which is more than I can usually say.

Braden got to wear his snowsuit when we went out last night. He basically looked like this...

I think it's a combination of confusion and fear on his face.

So having a baby makes you forget about blogging!!!

I just read that my last post was from April 30th, 2009. The pre-labour signs were not crap. I gave birth to a healthy, bright, shiny boy on May 5th, 2009.

He is now 8 months old.

Wow.

He came into the world pretty dopey after I had 2 shots of morphine. Since I didn't want an IV, I was only open to pain medication that wouldn't need one. A shot of morphine in the butt seemed like a good idea at the time, but after he was forced out using 2 failed attempts with the vacuum and then finally dug out with forceps, not breathing, needing narcan and an entire nicu team, I would definitely rethink having any medication whatsoever if there should be another birth in our future. Mind you no one thought I would go from 5cm to 10cm in a mere half an hour. If my labour had progressed as everyone assumed it would (slowly) since it was my first baby, he would have been fine. So, 11 terrifying minutes after he was born I was able to stop my tears and hold my baby in my arms to look up and see my husband just starting to let his tears fall.

The first 2 weeks with a newborn were awful. He was not getting enough to eat and therefore was upset all the time. I had 2 nurses and a doctor all tell me I was breastfeeding perfectly and it was fine if he would only eat for 5 minutes each time her nursed. I knew this was bullshit. I could tell he wasn't getting what he needed. On top of that, day after day I was feeling worse. It was getting harder and harder to get out of bed and I felt beyond weak. I felt unwell and fatigued beyond how I should have felt from the lack of sleep. 4 days postpartum I passed a HUGE blood clot. I went to my doctor the next morning and he proceeded to tell me I looked quite GREEN and perhaps I should lay down while he called the hospital. He called ahead to the emergency room and sent me straight there. I was diagnosed with a severe uterine infection and was immediately put on a boatload of antibiotics which made me unable to breastfeed. I had every side effect possible from the presciptions, including a rash over my lower stomach and upper legs that dyed my clothes pink. We started the baby on formula. I cannot explain to you the way people react to a bottlefed baby. Like OMG why are you not breastfeeding!?!?!?! Because I CAN'T! MEDICALLY, I CANNOT DO SO! I tried to pump and dump while I was on the drugs so I could resume nursing once I had finish the antibiotics but my supply quickly dried up after spending so much time in hospital.

Bottle feeding went well... at first. I could tell his hunger was subsiding and he was becoming a much calmer baby. However shortly after he became what I thought was colicky. When my mom and aunts came to visit a few weeks later they informed me that no, he is not colicky, he's allergic to milk. Duh, why didn't I think of that? I switched him to soy formula and the change was miraculous. I've had a happy and very well growing little guy ever since.

He was the first baby of our prenatal class to be born and he is one of only 2 boys. He's the biggest kid. Tall but lean. Tips the growth charts at 95% for height and 50-70% for weight. No, he's not skinny or underfed. If you saw his dad you'd see what kind of lanky genes he's inherited. Despite being the oldest of all his baby friends, he's always the slowest to catch on to something new. Like I said, he's 8 months and no crawling. All the babies crawl over and steal his toys and he just lays there because he can't chase them and steal them back. But I'm not concerned. I know he does everything in his own time.

He is incredibly cute and gets more attention than one little person could ever want. I almost feel like shooing away all the gawkers and touchers at the mall. I think it must be the hair. My kidlet has a full head of dark brown hair. Has since birth. He's already had 1 haircut and he's about due for another. Sometimes people say he looks like me, but usually only if they've never met his father. But he does have my eyes. Perfect almond shaped, dark brown, shiny eyes. Red crabapple cheeks. Two bottom front pearly whites. Fat little wrists with long tapered fingers.

He's the light of my life and makes everyone he comes in contact with smile.

Braden Paul was born May 4th, 2009 at 3:41pm weighing 7lbs 3oz and 20.5" tall.