Operation Baby Schedule: Day 1

I am scheduled to return to work in 16 days. I can't believe how fast my leave has gone by. I have some mixed feelings about returning to work. On one hand, I want to stay home with my baby to watch him grow everyday. On the other hand, I'm eagar to return to work and continue on with my projects and duties. I spoke briefly with one of my co-managers a couple weeks ago and A LOT has changed over the past three months so there will definitely be some catch up required on my end.

In preparation for my return to work, we've started to really focus on getting somewhat on a schedule since he will be going to daycare. What I've been doing is just letting him wake up when he's ready as well as fall asleep for naps whenever he's ready. We started to try and actually put him down for naps at specific times. In addition, we moved him from his bassinet to his crib last night. Now only is he almost too long for the bassinet, but he'll be in a crib at his daycare so we wanted him to get used to sleeping in one.

Don't judge... he'll only sleep on his tummy. We've tried since we brought him home to get him to sleep on his back and he just lays there and screams.





Our day went something like this...

6:40am: Marshall woke up afteer sleeping straight through the night. He had gone to bed the night before around 9:00pm.

6:40-7:00am: Diaper change and feeding. Normally I would have tried to put him back to sleep and get some more sleep myself after he was done but we got up and started moving instead.

7:00-8:00am: We played in the living room and worked on head control.

8:00-8:25am: Spent some time walking around the apartment and looking at stuff.

8:25-10:30am: Put down for morning nap. Marshall actually fell asleep a few minutes after I laid him down.

10:30-11:00am: Diaper change and feeding.

11:00am-12:00pm: Had some quiet time in the swing. Marshall loves to stare at himself in the metallic dome that is above his head on the swing.

12:00-1:00pm: Marshall got tired of sitting in the swing so we walked around the apartment some more looking at stuff. We can't wait for warmer weather and then we'll be able to walk outside to look at lots of stuff.

1:00-1:45pm: Put down for afternoon nap. I would have like him to have slept for at least a full hours but I guess you take what you can get.

1:45 - 2:30pm: Diaper change and feeding.

2:30-3:45pm: Played some more. Marshall is starting to reach for things so we spent some time trying to hold onto some of his teething rings.

3:45-5:30pm: Put down for 2nd afternoon nap.

5:30-6:30pm: Diaper change and feeding.

6:30-7:45pm: Daddy spent some time playing with baby.

7:45pm: We started the process to try and get him down for the night, but he was pretty fussy and didn't fall asleep until almost 10:00pm. I finally had to turn all the lights off in the room and rock/walk him around the room before he fell asleep.

I would say not too bad for the first day. Of course, he woke up this morning as usual around 4:00am and didn't fall back to sleep until almost 6:00am. I had plans to get up myself around 7:00am but ended up sleeping right through the alarm :( His naps have been kind of sporadic today. After a week we'll see we're at.

~AKO

3 Months

My baby is 3 months old today! I can't believe how fast time has flown by. Marshall is developing his personality more and more every day. He is definitely going to be a flirt as he gets older. His next doctor's appointment isn't until March 3 (4 months) so I don't have an official weight, but we're estimating he is around 15lbs now.

Happy 3 Month birthday! It won't be long before you can eat your birthday cupcakes. Daddy took care of this one so it didn't go to waste.





Marshall loves to smile at people and his favorite game is the diaper changing game. He smiles and giggles the entire time we're changing diapers. He has also started to look around and take in his surroundings. He stares at objects very intently and I think is starting to really recognize our faces.





All of his newborn clothes are officially packed away. We've already started to pack away some of his 0 - 3 month clothes.

He's still working on lifting his head and pushing up with his arms while on his tummy but head control is pretty good. Of course, he only tolerates about 5 - 10 minutes of tummy time before he starts to throw a fit.





We're pretty sure he's getting ready to cut some teeth since he won't stop chewing on his hands and has turned into a drool machine.

Finners are yummy!





Marshall also graduated from his bassinet to his crib today. We'll see how it goes tonight.

I've got his comparison photos at Marshall's Firsts.

~AKO

Longing for Warmer Climates

I can't sleep tonight because I'm losing the battle with my sinuses and am pretty sure I'm developing a lovely sinus infection :( I'm sure my "new mom" sleep deprivation isn't helping. And I just heard on the news this morning that we are expecting another snow/ice storm on Wednesday. Now, I'm usually the first to welcome winter because I think snowy winters are pretty, but even I'm getting a little tired of these storms. It makes me long for some warmer climates...





This was taken in Key West last March.

~AKO

Wordless Wednesday

I had lots of little helpers today.

Cleaning the Kitchen...





Feeding the baby...





Cleaning the Living Room...





Changing the baby...





~AKO

-2.4

Turns out when you actually follow the plan it works. I was down 2.4lbs this morning when I stepped on the scale after being very good over the past 7 days to eat right. I modified my goals so that my first weightloss goal is just to lose the first 5lbs. Since I gained last week, I'm actually only down 1.8 with 3.2 to go to hit my first goal.

Now that Marshall is becoming more aware of his surroundings, Freddy sat down with him this evening to play with his My Pal Scout. Its one of the Leap Frog toys and you can customize it to say your child's name as well as choose some of the songs that it plays. You can also upload to your computer what has been done with the toy. I haven't done that yet but once he starts playing with it on his own it will be interesting to see what he specifically chooses to play. Right now Marshall is more interested in the collar that lights up but he definitely pays attention to it when the music is playing.





~AKO

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Holy crap it's cold. Now, as you know I originate from the frozen tundra we call Michigan where it is very common for the temperature to dip into the negative numbers this time of year. However, when your apartment is also an icebox no matter how high the thermostat is turned up it makes it very difficult to stay warm. I've got Marshall sleeping in his fleece sleepsack right now. The only saving grace is that for some reason our bedroom heats up to the temperature of hell overnight so I know that baby will stay warm while he's sleeping.

Today we braved the cold 10 degree temperature for a trip into the city to visit Abuela Olvera who is leaving for Ecuador on Friday for a few months for warmer weather. Luckily we got this cool reindeer suit for Christmas to keep us nice and toasty warm on the trip.





Oh... and the Jets lost the AFC to the Pitsburgh Steelers. As a Michigan native I am conditioned to not side with the Green Bay Packers so I will have to root for the Steelers in two weeks. I'm not sure what our plans are for Super Bowl Sunday but hopefully they involve a nice quiet evening at home.

The countdown has started for my return to work: 25 days.

~AKO

Diaper Changes are Awesome

Over the past month or so, we've gotten into a routine when Marshall wakes up. We usually wait about 5 minutes to make sure he is really awake. Sometimes he just fusses around and then goes back to sleep. When we're confident he's awake, we get him up, he gets a diaper change and then he eats.

When we lay him down for his diaper change, he is usually crying pretty hysterically like the end of the world is coming.




Once he figures out he's getting a diaper change, he is immediately all smiles through the entire process.





His favorite game currently is to push up with his legs on his changing mat which makes it a little challenging to put the new diaper on. I spend most of the time pulling him back down.

Oh... and if you listen to Harley we never feed him. I challenge you to find any ribs sticking out on this one.





~AKO

Baby Food Fail

I found this group of short videos on Babble.com that I thought were cute. I guess this is some of what I have to look forward to... humor at my child's expense :) I have my video camera charged and ready to go for Marshall's first crack a real food.

Baby Food Fail

~AKO

I'm Not Perfect

I know... I know... big surprise! But it just amazes me how much unsolicited "good" advice people feel they need to give me about raising my baby. If I want or need your advice I will ask for it. What really annoys me is when people imply that I'm not doing a good job. Now, I am a first time mom and pretty much flying by the seat of my pants on this one, however, I don't tell you how to raise your kid so don't tell me how to raise mine. I guarantee you're not perfect either.

My baby slept in our bed for the first month, still sleeps in our room in his bassinet, hates tummy time but will only sleep on his stomach, has to be rocked into a deep sleep in order to nap or go down for the night, breastfeeds and eats formula, likes to be rocked vertically, feeds from Playtex Ventair bottles...

In spite of all of that, he's a healthy 14 pound 11 week old.





~AKO

Introducing the Bumbo

Since Marshall's getting decent head control now, we decided it was time to introduce the Bumbo. I only leave him in it for a few minutes at a time right now since he still needs some more head control, but so far so good. I was waiting for him to start screaming since I put him down but he sat pretty good in the Bumbo. I think we can give success another point in the win column with the Bumbo.





So what's for dinner tonight? Since I didn't really plan anything I fell back on one of my old Weight Watcher favorites - Turkey Sloppy Joes. This is a super easy recipe to make and only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.





After warming up a deep skillet, add 1 TBSP of canola oil and coat the bottom of the skillet. Chop 1 onion, 1 green pepper, and 1 red pepper and add to the oil. Also add 1 clove of garlic. You can use fresh garlic if you want, but for the sake of time I normally just use the pre-minced garlic. I include a red pepper to add some color to the mix. Oh, and by the way, one of the most awesome wedding gifts we received was this chopper. It cuts down the time a lot when you have more than 1 vegetable or fruit to chop. This one came with a couple different blades as well so you can cut things a little bigger or smaller if you need to. I always use it when chopping onions :)







After the veggies are cooked, add 1 TSP of chili powder, 1/2 TSP of oregano, and 1/2 TSP of dry mustard. Mix and then add your ground turkey. Once the ground turkey is completely cooked, add 1 CUP of BBQ sauce. I normally use Honey BBQ, but you can use any flavor you would like.





Stir everything together. I let it simmer for a couple minutes and everything will thicken. Server on a whole wheat hamburger roll and add a side like Baked Lays and you've got yourself a meal.





~AKO

Do.Not.Like.

We had to do our least favorite thing ever this morning. Today was the yearly vet visit for C-Lo, Hadley, and Harley. We are still going to our old vet in Queens since she is familiar with Harley's history with his back legs. Plus their staff is awesome and always remembers our kitties. Unfortunately, when we move further into Jersey we're probably going to have to break down and find another vet. Right now the trip is an hour one way which, if you've ever travelled with cats, is not a fun trip. Hadley actually had an accident in his carrier because he was so nervous. You could tell he was embarrassed because he never has accidents and is usually the one who goes behind everyone else and covers up in the litter boxes.

Oh, and if you're wondering what the piece of purple fluff is on the floor. That belong to a purple furry mouse that Hadley beat the crap out of last night while we were sleeping. There was purple fur all over the living room. We still haven't found where he stashed the tail that was torn off.







While at the vet, Miss C-Lo turned into a major Drama Queen. There's nothing wrong with her here. She's just wrapped up in a towel and acting all pathtic. The doctor hadn't even touched her yet. Of course, her true Calico craziness surfaced when they tried to draw blood.







At least we only have to do this once a year.

~AKO

Hello Friends!

I wanted to introduce you to a couple of my new friends.

Meet George! He is going to aid in my goal to cook a few times each week and my weight loss goals. We received this George Foreman grill as a wedding gift over 2 years ago and finally broke it out the other night. This is the model that also comes with a griddle and waffle plate. We made some Omaha steaks that were yummy and only took a few minutes on the grill. And, the plates are dishwasher safe, which makes clean up so easy... if you have a dishwasher :)







This is my very good friend Jimmy! Another gift we received for our wedding and are just now pulling out of its box. We haven't tested it out yet, but I may be making some Valentine's Day margaritas :) I bought some Key Lime margarita mix when we were down in Key West last March that I was super excited to try out. Only to find out little Marshall was on the way so it has been waiting patiently in our cupboard.









And the one I'm doing it all for... well, not the drinking margaritas part...







~AKO

Tuesday Updates

Today would have been my Grandpa Sargent's 83rd birthday. We miss and love you, Grandpa, every day since your pain ended 9 years ago.

Weather Update
It is 9:30pm here in Jersey and it has been snowing for about a half hour now. My area is supposed to get 8 - 12 inches overnight so I'm hoping my hubby doesn't have to drive all the way down to Fort Dix tomorrow, which is a 2 hour drive from our house. He won't know until morning so fingers crossed. But, it does make me wish Marshall was old enough to play in the snow. At least next year he'll be able to appreciate these snow storms and I can start telling him my weather horror stories growing up in Michigan. You know, when I had to walk to school uphill both ways barefoot...

Marshall Update
We are now able to regularly put Marshall to bed every night between 9:00 and 10:00 pm and he'll sleep a solid 5 - 6 hours. Lately he's been waking up around 3:30 am for a change and feeding. Some days he'll go right back to sleep when he's done and other days it will take us a couple hours to get him back down. I'm hoping that by the time I go back to work in 5 weeks that he'll be sleeping straight through until at least 5:00.

Weightloss Update
Today I was down 0.6lbs. I would have liked to be down at least a pound but any loss is a good loss as far as I'm concerned. I received one of my "Workout with Baby" DVD's yesterday so I'm going to definitely start that tomorrow. I'm hoping that once I start exercising again the weight will come off a little faster. In order for me to do my WII, I'll have to start getting up at 6:00 before Marshall does. Then, once I go back to work I would have to get up at 5:00 (ugh!). I wish we had a basement or rec room because then we could have the WII set up there and I wouldn't have to interfere with Freddy's evening television schedule.

Week 1
Goal 1: 0.6/13.8 lbs
Total Lost: 0.6/84 lbs

Happy Tuesday! And for those getting snow right now, be safe!

~AKO

Talent

I guess it's a good thing my cat doesn't have thumbs otherwise he'd be making a break for it.





~AKO

2011 Stephen King Reading Challenge

The second book challenge that I've joined for 2011 is the Stephen King Reading Challenge. I love Stephen King novels but I think the last one that I read was almost 10 years ago. I'm using this challenge to read the books that I haven't read before. I'm also going to try and read the Dark Tower series. Fantasy really isn't my genre so we'll see how that goes. If I can't get into them I'll just choose some others in their place. And can you believe I've never read The Shining???

1. The Shining
2. Under the Dome
3. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
4. The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three
5. The Dark Tower: The Wastelands
6. The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass
7. The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla
8. The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah
9. The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower
10. Full Dark, No Stars
11. The Stand
12. Duma Key

I can't wait to get started!





~AKO

Bouncer Seat - SUCCESS

We had some mixed feelings about the bouncer seat that we received for Marshall. I was beginning to worry that it was going to go the way of wasted money since our initial reaction was this...





The only one interested in using it was Hadley.





But, the bouncer seat redeemed itself last week. I set Marshall in the seat and turned on the music. When the music plays, the white part in the middle also lights up. As soon as the music and lights were turned on I got this reaction...





I didn't even have to do anything. He just sat and smiled at the lights for a good 5 minutes before I got my usual "Mom, really?" look.





I'm hoping this means he'll be interested in his playmat soon.

~AKO

For Real This Time... I Hope

Sunday night I finally packed away my maternity clothes. They've become too convenient to wear. There's a reason we don't wear stretchy pants all the time :)





Notice the nice organized and fancy label :) Anyway... Tuesday was my first official day back on my diet. Stepping on the scale Tuesday morning was not pretty but I guess you have to start somewhere. I signed up for Weight Watchers online to help in the process. I love going to meetings but can't get to any right now with Marshall. I need to lose around 75 - 80lbs in order to get into a healthy weight range. I'm going to try and approach this by targeting some mini goals rather than the final goal. My first mini goal is to lose the first 5% of my weight. My weigh in day is Tuesday so I'll post my progress in my Tuesday posts whenever possible.

Beginning Stats
Goal 1: 0/13.8 lbs
Total Lost: 0/84 lbs

Now about that exercise thing. I tried to do my WII yesterday but my precious little bundle of joy would not stay asleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. So, I've order a couple DVDs that incorporate baby into the workouts. I figure using my 12 lb little boy as a weight should help a little :)

Speaking of my little chunk...





~AKO

2011 Classics Reading Challenge

One of the book challenges that I've joined this year is the Classics Reading Challenge. This challenge interested me purely because I don't read any classic literature! Because I know me, I decided to focus on what are essentially categorized as "Children's Classics". Can you believe I've never read any of these books? I'm not sure what I was doing in school. The following list includes what I plan to read as the minimum number required for the challenge.

1. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
3. A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
5. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
6. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
7. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
8. White Fang by Jack London

I plan to try and post monthly on my progress for this challenge.





~AKO

Wordless Wednesday

Baby smiles are awesome!





~AKO

Book Challenges

You'll notice that a lot of my posts this month will center around how I'm going to start moving toward the goals I've set for myself. One of the goals that I really hope I can accomplish this year is to read 50 books this year. I used to read all the time and over the past few years I've, for some reason, just stopped reading books. I have to take public transportation to work which is prime reading time so I plan to take advantage of that once I return to work. I'm also thinking of finally getting a Kindle, which will make travelling with books a whole lot easier.

In an effort to help with this goal, I've joined a few blog book challenges. I haven't finished my entire list of 50 books yet but I've got about half. I've been making my selections very carefully because I want to make sure it is something that I will actually read. But, like all things, we may need to adjust the list throughout the year. If I'm not digging the book, I won't make myself suffer through it and will just choose another one to take its place.

I'm going to try and post monthly my progress on this goal. You can also see my progress in the 50 Books in 2011 link at the top of the page under my title.

The Challenges that I've joined are:





In the next few days I'm going to post on each of the challenges with the list of books that I've chosen for each. The book I'm currently reading will be displayed in my sidebar.

~AKO