Toggle Along Tuesday: Advice for Mommies-to-be

So you know the deal, it's Tuesday and I'm linking up with Mama G at Growing Up Geeky. 


Well, I have a list of things I learned from having a child and "advice" that people gave that was never followed so here goes:

• If your mother-in-law keeps telling you about all her labors and it sounds like a horror story (like Chris's mom did to me... she had 5 kids and she's a chicken with pain)... tell her to shut up. Block it from your mind. Every labor is different. My mom managed to have me and my brother without drugs, Chris's mom was drugged every time. Me? I was given a freaking epidural (which I wanted) but they didn't bother to see how dilated I was first... yea. 8cm. Tristan was born before the crap even affected me. That reminds me... nurses pull that crap on you and you end up having a really bad labor (Tristan's shoulder got stuck leading me to get cut and involved nurses pushing down on my stomach while I pushed to get him out... not fun)? yell at them. I'd say shoot them but that's apparently against the law. 
• Pre-natal vitamins... yea NOT every pregnant chicks favorite thing esp. when you have killer morning sickness. My OB told me to take children's vitamins and then I took whatever extra stuff wasn't in them in separate pills. Saved me from puking every time I took them.
• When your boyfriend/ fiance/ husband tells you NOT to move that huge, pre-historic aged computer from 1 of the bedrooms to the closet when you're like 3 months pregnant... you should listen.
• If you're worried about being overwhelmed at the hospital with people visiting, tell everyone to stay away til you go home.
• Breastfeeding: ok if you're having problems with it at the hospital, ignore the nurses and ask to speak with a lactation consultant. They understand better what's going on with you. Don't stress out. Some babies take a little while to get the hang of it (Tristan took 23hrs). 
• Your baby doesn't HAVE to nurse every 2-3hrs at night. If it's been 3hrs since their last feeding and they're still fast asleep, let them sleep. They're not gonna starve. They'll wake up when they're hungry trust me. 
• I know it's scary to think about moving your baby to their own room when they get bigger BUT trust me it is so nice. Tristan could sleep with noise but with a dad who was playing WoW next to his bassinet and had loud people talking through the computer and a loud dad... he slept much better in his own room. 
• If you end up not being able to nurse, don't feel bad. You're not any less of a woman or mom for it. My mom formula fed me and my brother because she didn't make enough for us. I had to stop nursing Tristan at 2 months. I had a sinus infection and the meds they gave me wouldn't let me nurse for 5 days. After those 5 days of pumping and dumping milk and giving him formula, when we tried nursing again when it was safe, I tried for a week but he didn't want to work for it anymore. He latched and slightly sucked but not enough to get anything. Also that 12 total days of only pumping really... really decreased my supply.
• You don't HAVE to wait til your child is 6 months old to start solids. I went with my mom on this one. Tristan was a piggy. We were going through so much formula so at 4 months he was on cereal which he LOVED. He's 2yrs old now... and perfectly normal (they even say his height and weight now is average and in the 50 percentile which is hard to believe since this kid is about the height of the 3yr olds I see lol). Follow your child's cues. 
• You are not a bad mom if you're feeding your child jarred baby food instead of homemade. I did both. Sometimes you are just too busy to make it yourself esp. when you're out and about. 
• You are not a bad mom if you use disposable diapers instead of cloth. It needs to fit your lifestyle and you. I was told by Chris's mom that cloth diapering was so nice and they have a service that cleans them for you all that stuff... those prices weren't worth it. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of cloth diapering and plan to try it next time around since I really didn't do my research til after Tristan was born and by then, it was hard to get the extra money for them. Also, I read an article (actually searched all over to find the magazine so I could mention it) in New Parent magazine that explains the debate between cloth and disposable diapers. It made me feel a little better though I'd be super happy if Tristan was in underwear hahaha. Click here to go to the article online (yep, totally looked it up). 
• Your life is not over once you give birth. It might be put on hold for those 6 weeks or so of feeling like your gonna die from blood loss. Which let me tell you there's a whole difference between those 6 weeks and actually having a period that long. Trust me, it could be worse. But you can still have a social life. I took Tristan everywhere with me. His first long car ride was when he was 6 months old, first plane ride was 7 months. Taking your child with when they're young will start showing them how to socialize with others. Tristan was a flirt by 4 months... yep he's grandpa's boy. He was always watching people and smiling. 
• Ignore baby clothes sizes when it comes to weight. Go by your child. Tristan was 8lbs 14oz at birth and fit in premie clothes. Umm huh? Yep. Now he fits in 3t with a size 24 months/ 2t waist. Go figure. 

And I wanted to add a special part to prepare you for toddlerhood because yea... things can get crazy: 

• Tantrums: It is ok to stick your child in their room when they won't stop screaming and hide in the bathroom for 5 min to calm down. If their not hurt, they'll be ok for 5 min and you'll be glad you did it because it'll keep you from going nuts, like crazy house nuts. 
• If you're toddler still isn't talking when they should be, it's ok. All kids are different. 
• No your child does not need a million different toys. Get a few types that you know he/she likes. For example: Tristan is anything with wheels (cars, trains, etc) and blocks. Those are what he has tons of. 
• Don't freak out if you really don't want to have a big party for your kid or if you want to avoid it all together. Unless you have a lot of family/ friends that would be coming, it's hard to all that work when no one will be there. Tristan had 2 1st birthday parties. 1 for family and only 3 people showed up and 1 for friends and more people showed but I think we should have just done a dinner with family and hang out with my best friend and her kids during the day. For his 2nd birthday, he opened his gift from us and my grandma here and then went to Chris's dad and stepmom's house and ate dinner, ate cake, hung out, and Tristan opened his gift from them. 

So in conclusion, don't sweat the small stuff, tell your mother-in-law and sometimes your mom to shut up, don't kill the nurses, every child is different, enjoy the moments worth enjoying, take a nice long bath when your baby is sleeping, relax, the world isn't ending, it's all going to be ok in the end. 

52 weeks of us: our week 2

So we're linking up again with Summer from Crosbie Crew for 52 weeks of us (or 50 weeks of us for me lol). 

Ignore the bruised eye... he tried pushing his high chair into the living room and slipped and hit himself on it *sigh*

Wordless Wednesday: Tristan's favorite hat

Toggle Along Tuesday: My must-have item

So I'm linking up with Mama G over at Growing Up Geeky for Toggle Along Tuesday. The topic is your must-have item for either you or your baby/ toddler. It took me awhile to think of something. When he was a baby I would say the drop-in nurser bottles since he had issues with gas but now that he's a toddler my must-have item is a baby gate...

Here's why: 

• time-out- we put him in his room with the gate up when he's having tantrums. there's no toys so it works. 
• so I can shower or do dishes or clean without worrying about him getting into something without me knowing.

We got a gate before he was even walking haha. It was a huge need for us. 

52 weeks of us: Our 1st week

So I'm going to be participating in Summer from the Crosbie Crew's "52 weeks of us". Though for me, it'll be 50 weeks of us since I missed the first 2 weeks and we have no "us" pictures for those 2 weeks. So here you go: 

Cowboy take me away...

SO, for the last few weeks I have felt depressed  out of touch. I ignored the never ending dishes, I kept putting off finishing the living room, everything. I've been stuck in this apartment every. single. day. I haven't gotten to see friends. It's always just me and Tristan, Chris works all day and then comes home at almost 7pm, eats dinner, and then either goes to a friends or plays his computer game until he goes to bed. I have felt lonely, tired, upset, etc. Well yesterday Chris's sister Steph came to visit their dad for the day and night so last night we dropped Tristan off with his grandparents and took Steph and we went to their friend and Tristan's godfather's house where we all hung out for hours. We went home after, slept, got up at 7:30am to pick Tristan up from his grandparents, Chris bought me a Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino with French Vanilla Creamer- it was heaven, and we went home. Then after Chris went to work and Tristan was napping, I got some country music playing on Pandora.com and cleaned. I picked up all the toys and put them away, cleaned up the floor, vacuumed, washed dishes, cleaned up the kitchen a little, put stuff in trash bags, and I felt great. Everything was suddenly ok.


I learned that I really need to start being able to see my friends more. I need to have time to myself. And I need to RELAX. 

Yummy goodness!

P.S. This is where I gotta go nuts... New England Patriots are going to the Super Bowl!!!! Yep, huge fan right here. That's what happens when you grow up in Massachusetts :).

Joys of being a mom to a boy :)

I love this!

And this!

Wordless Wednesday: Smiles :)

Wordless Wednesday: The search for the right toy...

Toggle Along Tuesday: Tristan's toy area

Linking up with Mama G @ Growing Up Geeky.

So originally Tristan's toys were in boxes and containers in the bedroom BUT it was getting in the way of everything else and stuff was going missing SO we moved it all into the living room, removed the stuff he doesn't use, and organized it. So here you go:

1. Orange tote: Cars laptop, doodle pad, books, pirate turtle, music player, shape sorter

2. Crates: barn house, Cars racetrack (on top), Mega Blocks dump truck, Webbles treehouse (on top)

3. 3 drawer organizer: top drawer- mega blocks and duplo blocks, middle drawer- cars, trains, construction vehicles, trucks, etc, bottom drawer- balls, small stuffed animals, toy camera, toy phones, and other misc. things.

4. Leftover stuff: shopping cart with stuffed puppy and push ball popper on the sides

As you can see we actually have clean floor space for him to play now! (Be glad you don't see the other side of the living room lol)

I got tagged :)

I'm sure you all know the rules by now:
Announce you've been tagged and who tagged you.
Give 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the questions.
Ask new questions...
Tag 11 people to answer


I was tagged by Sonya Marie @ Shutter. Mama

11 random facts about me:

1. 2 of my toes on each foot are connected from the middle down. They have separate bones, just connected by skin.

2. I own the Ninja Turtles movies, not because of Chris or Tristan... it's because of me. I love the movies! (just be glad I didn't go buying Power Rangers- the original ones...)

3. I watch the Vampire Diaries tv show. I'm addicted. Ian Somerhalder makes me melt :)

Yep... I melted. :)

4. I was the one who wanted a boy when I found out I was pregnant, Chris wanted a girl.

5. When Tristan's napping and Chris is at work, I play 90's pop on Pandora.com. It makes me feel like a teen again and cheers me up. 

6. I play country and sometimes rock music when I'm cleaning.

7. I read... a LOT! My New Year's goal to read 50 new books this year will probably be done by summer since I have free access to Chris's dad and step-mom's downstairs library :). 

yep... that's me in high school

8. I had my first kiss when I was 19. It was Chris. Guess my mom got lucky and didn't have to worry about that haha.

19yrs old. first kiss. first everything <3

9. My best friend Kristina and I have been friends since 8th grade. We started talking when she stood up for me because her friends were making fun of me. We've gone through so much together. Also, everything I learned about "the birds and the bees" came from her.

2007. Me, her little sister, and Kristina

10. One time when we were in high school, Kristina's mom and aunt went into a porn shop and left us in the car and brought us back penis candy and erasers. *epic momma failure* We still laugh at her mom for that.

11. People called me a prude during high school because I didn't wear revealing clothes in school (I sometimes wore skirts, shorts, and bikinis when hanging out with Kristina though), I didn't kiss or sleep with anyone (not even the 2 I dated during high school). Kristina and I joked once about me being a nun. 

Questions I have been asked:

1. If you could live anywhere, where would you choose to live? Hawaii 
2. Something you often forget to do and kick yourself for it every time? return books...
3. Favorite actor and actress? Johnny Depp and don't really have a favorite actress
4. Favorite Disney movie? umm... crap. I have 3: Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and Peter Pan
5. Flats or heels? Why? Flats... trust me you don't want to see me in heels. I'm surprised I survived prom and graduation. 
6. Weird habits? I sometimes wash my hair twice because I forget I washed it already. I also re-wash dishes if I don't think someone washed them like I wanted. 
7. Embarrassing high school memory? avoiding actual high school memories, when I was in high school and at my friend's house, her and my brother were tickling me on the trampoline and wouldn't let me up and I peed my pants *epic fail*
8. One thing you said your kids would never do, but they do it anyways? pick his nose... I try to stop him but he does it. Ew. 
9. Do you prefer to swim in a lake or the ocean? I prefer seeing, smelling, walking on the sand, and sticking my feet in the ocean but I fear sharks (and to think I'm a Massachusetts born and raised, up to middle of 7th grade, girl). So I feel safer in a lake. 
10. When you're around the house do you prefer socks or barefoot? barefoot. If I could, I'd walk around everywhere barefoot, I'm a total beach bum. 
11. Favorite color nail polish? clear. I never paint my nails except a clear coat.

11 questions to ask others: 

1. Which do you prefer movie wise, action or romance?

2. Article of clothing you canNOT live without? 

3. Toy you wish your child didn't like so much?

4. Favorite childhood (counts all the way up to high school graduation) memory?

5. What was your dream job as a kid?

6. Favorite vacation?

7. Favorite animal?

8. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?

9. Favorite tv show or movie (I know some people don't watch tv)?

10. What is your number one food weakness?

11. What was your biggest fear about being a mom?

11 people to tag (well I did 10): 

Sonya Marie- Shutter. Mama

Mama G- Growing Up Geeky

Sarah- Nurse Loves Farmer

Jess- Here comes the Sun

Tottums- Froggy and the Mouse

Libby- ELF family blog

Ashley- The Stauffer Shenanigans

Miranda- Aimless Translation

Katie- Pickles & Paisleys

Mandy- A sorta Fairytale

Potty Training... here goes

Tristan's new potty seat for the bathroom!!

So... today we are doing a diaper free session (from 3:30pm til bed time). It's been a mixture of nakedness and underwear and so far we've had 2 accidents. We have his small potty in the living room and his toilet seat for the adult potty. Tristan and I are typically home almost all day, every day (except days I babysit and even then we're in a house with 3 different potty seats the whole time) so I'm hoping this works. I've had people tell me "it's too soon" before but I learned that in most countries, children are potty trained a lot sooner than children in the US. We bought Tristan's first potty seat a couple months after he turned 1 and sat him on it before/ after meals, before/ after bed/ nap, and so on. He was doing pretty good with it too and then a few months later, we moved. So that plus many other new changes and he stopped so we stopped. Lately though when he's getting a bath/ shower he makes movements to show he has to go so I figured once the New Year started, we'd start again. So here's day 1 of our potty training: 

he'd rather stand on his potty

excited

Does anyone who has potty trained boys before have any tips I could use? Rewards are a no-go since he don't do candy and he doesn't care about stickers. Also since it's usually just me and him, he hasn't gotten the idea of peeing standing up in the potty (and can't do cheerios since he will just try and take them out of the potty). We also used pull-ups last time we did this so I'm not sure if we should just go with underwear and naked time or try pull-ups again? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Wordless Wednesday: Spill free drinking!!

New Year's Goals

So I made a list of 4 New Year's goals to be done throughout the year, instead of resolutions. 2 are more for fun and 2 are something to really work on. Here you go...


1. Lose 30lbs
2. Potty train Tristan
3. Watch 100 new movies
4. Read 50 new books




So what New Year's goals/ resolutions have you all made?

2 year check-up

So today was the worst doctor visit for Tristan EVER! I mean we've had ear infections, hives, Plagiocephaly, and Torticollis aside from the regular visits and typical shots. Anyway, his check-up went good at first. They checked his weight, height, asked about his milestones, and how he was doing. Then came the finger prick and shots. He freaked during the shots and then they came back and told me his lead level was high and they were sending us to the hospital lab to get blood work done to see why his level was high (though it could just be because we live in an old house). So not only was Tristan upset about the 2 shots he had just gotten but I had to help hold him down for them to draw blood. He was crying so bad. By the time it was done (2 Bugs Bunny band-aids and 1 Garfield band-aid later), Chris's dad and I calmed him down with animal crackers and went home. 


On the plus side, he is 34in tall and weighs 32lbs. His ears are fine, his motor skills are great, his speech is getting better. So he's doing great other than the high level of lead. 


Here's some pictures from today...

And a cute video of Tristan's new thing to say... (sorry for the bad lighting, there are no lights in his room)