Blog Name Change!

Changes, changes, changes! The focus of the blog will be generally the same, but I wanted to change the blog name and URL to go along with my Facebook page of the same name & the business I'm starting. I'd like to keep both blog and page updated, but in the event that I'm suddenly overcome by a busy life as a mommy-celebrity, I hope to be able to keep at least 1 out of the 2 regularly updated. 

Wish me luck! Haha. 

I will be posting again very soon (hopefully tonight but no promises) with an update on Baby G and myself. Lots has happened since the last post! 

Ttys! Peace, love, & happiness!

Gentle Discipline Woes & Triumphs, Tantrums, and Sleepiness

Man, Baby G and I are having a crazy difficult time with outlets. He's so stubborn that no matter what tactic I take, if he can see it he goes for it, and he's so dang smart that he can take out the socket covers. When I get paid, I'm going to invest in the heavy duty ones that are more difficult to remove. In the meantime, it's driving me insane. I try to create a yes-zone for him, which is so easy at home and so hard when we're at NaNa and Granddad's. And of course we're house sitting for them this weekend. Hooray. -_-

Otherwise, gentle discipline has been working very well for us! I struggle with not yelling, as that's how I was raised and what I know. I also know how it feels to be on the receiving end though, & that is my motivation to find and excel at alternative ways of getting my point across. The most simple method is just communicating. So far so good on everything except sockets!

Also, since we're kind of on the subject; Baby G is well into the age where tantrums rear their head. Thankfully, I researched ahead of time & was/am prepared. At this age, tantrums are more often due to the fact that baby can understand more than they can communicate to us. The communication block leads to frustration, which leads to a meltdown. (Also, they can be upset that you take away something they want or you tell them no and they justplain don't   like it. Same results.) There's nothing wrong with them being frustrated. They're just little people, and they have emotions just like us. They experience what I like to call "big feelings" and they literally have to have that meltdown to get work through and dissipate those big, ucky feelings. All the thrashing actually helps them get past it. (There's a wonderful article on that, but its late and for the life of me I do not remember where I found it. I'll post it when I find it!) Back to tantrums, it helps to acknowledge their feelings, aka empathize with them. I tell Baby G, "I can see that you're so mad. I understand that you have big feelings. It's okay to get those big feelings out. I will be right here when you're ready to come to me." And I wait, and he comes to me after he calms down--or for help calming down-- to nurse. Ah breastfeeding. It's definitely my go to for everything. My duct tape! Hehe. Anyway, since I've been consistently using that response, I've noticed a large decrease in the amount of tantrums that he has. I guess that means I'm doing something right!

Alright, I simply must go to bed. I'm exhausted from our long, busy day out it the scorching sun. Before I go, here's a wonderful article that says a lot of what I said here about tantrums in a much more eloquent way: http://www.ahaparenting.com/ask-the-doctor-1/11-month-old-tantrums

Goodnight! 

Much love, much peace, much happiness,

Momma E & Baby G!

Ps, Bugaboo will be 1 on Wednesday. Where has the time gone? ::sigh::

He's an expert walker now. Next up: running! 

Random AP Musings

I learned about attachment parenting after bugaboo was born. I was already on the right track, but the spending 24/7 together made me kind of nervous. "Won't I need a break? What about my friends? Do I just take him with me?" Everything I read said if I wasn't already comfortable being with him all the time, I would be sooner or later. "Suuuure, we'll see." 

Thinking back on that now, it's hilarious that I was worried about that. Now nothing makes me happier than being with him. I take him everywhere with me that I possibly can (and some places that I probably can't). When he takes a nap or goes to bed, I miss him. Can't wait to crawl into bed at night with him. Forget going out, I honestly don't even want to. 

Now that is an AP success if I've ever heard one. ;)

Much love, peace, & happiness,

Momma E & Baby G

Breastfeeding Update

Baby G and I have successfully made it 10 months so far!

I remember when I was pregnant, and I was so very excited to breastfeed. I read every breastfeeding article I could find, I watched videos of the perfect latch, & I imagined what it would be like once he was finally in my arms, and I could nurse him for real. When I first got to hold him in the recovery room, I was beyond excited (and terrified). "What if he couldn't latch? What if he couldn't get the milk out? What if they gave him a bottle and sabotaged my efforts?" I held him for about 10 seconds before I excitedly asked the nurse if we could do skin to skin (because "that's a great way to start off the breastfeeding relationship!"), and soon I was helping him latch for the first time. Perfectly.

I originally wanted to breastfeed until age 2, but before we even hit our 6 month mark, I had decided I was cool with letting him self wean. Now, at 10 months, that's still my resolve. I love our breastfeeding bond!

That's the end of my little update then. :)

Peace, Love. & Happiness

Momma E & Baby G

Once again...*sigh*

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

I have been the absolute worst at keeping up this blog. Luckily I don't have many followers yet, but I hate to disappoint anyone who does take the time to check for new updates every once in a while.

So here's a quick update:

Baby G is 10 months old! He has 7 teeth, stands on his own, dances (a little bit), and understands a LOT. He's such a big boy, it's crazy! I can't believe he will be 1 in less than 2 months. Where has the time gone? :( 

So on the subject of his birthday, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for it. My dad suggested we go out to California for his birthday weekend, since he's working out there. I think that's a fun idea. And for the AZ friends/family, I'm thinking of either renting out the club house here at our apartment complex, OR maybe having it at my mom and dads. I'm leaning towards my mom and dads place because its bigger and there is a pool. And it's free. Lol! Today I went to set up Baby G's birthday wish list on Amazon. I put some higher priced toys in there that I plan to buy for him, and a lot of lower priced toys for family and friends to pick from or use as examples or whatever they choose to do.

I forgot to post about Mommycon too! We went in April, and it was a so much fun! Unfortunately I had a migraine thy day, but it was nice to see so many other attached parents! I even made a few friends and got some numbers for play dates. I definitely recommend that anyone who's even a little interested in a crunchy/ap type lifestyle check it out! :)

Anywho, I'll be posting again today or tomorrow. I've got some other updates to share! :)

Peace, love, and happiness

Momma E and Baby G

<3

Baby G's Sleep Schedule

Sheesh! Sorry I disappeared again. I'm going to get better at this, I promise! Funny story, I actually started a blog post about 2 weeks ago, but it was on my phone. I accidentally closed the app and *poof* it was gone.

If you weren't already aware, Baby G and I both co-sleep and bed-share. (Co-sleeping literally means sleeping in the same area/room.) His crib is in my room, and for the first part of the night he sleeps in it. This is mainly because:

a) he goes to sleep between 7:30-8:30 pm and I'm a night owl.
b) his crib has bars so he can't crawl around if he happens to wake up briefly while I'm in the living room doing homework (or procrastinating on doing homework).

So when I crawl into bed at 12:00 am, I don't have to worry about disturbing him. Sometime between 1-5 am, he wakes up to nurse, and it's just easiest for the both of us if I bring him into bed with me. He spends the rest of the night cuddling with mommy with easy nursing access, and I still get a good amount of sleep! I think that's a win-win. He wakes up anywhere between 7-8 am. Not bad at all!

BG set his own sleep schedule at about 3.5 months old. At that point, he was taking naps every hour and a half for about 30 minutes at a time, and sleeping from 8-1, nursing/bed-switch, and then to about 8-9am. As he's gotten older, he's advanced to his current schedule. His naps are now every 2-2.5 hours and for 30 minutes at a time (his second nap is usually about an hour long though).

I have not--and will not-- used the cry it out method with him. If you've used it and it worked, cool. No judgement. For me personally, it just goes against my parenting instincts.

Anywho, this post has mostly been for reference. Sorry if it was kind of dry! The following posts will be better.

I'll leave you with a photo of BG falling asleep for a nap while holding my hand.

As always; peace, love, and happiness

Momma E & Baby G

Off (On?) Topic

I've got this whole list of topics I want to cover on this blog. And I do intend to cover them all! However, it is 10:52 am and Baby G has just gone down for his nap. He fought his sleepiness; spitting out his pacifier and crying for me to replace it, smiling, laughing, reaching out for me to stay after I soothed him.

At first I wanted to go sit in the living room and chat on my computer while he fell asleep, but his little fingers--outstretched in my direction, grasping my own (much larger) fingers as I picked up his discarded pacifier-- guided me back to my main focus: him. He touched my face; I stroked his cheek and rubbed his back. He played with the bandaid on my finger, I gently patted his bottom until he fell asleep. And now that he's asleep, I can't bring myself to get up and leave. So I'm laying here, typing out this blog post on my phone as I listen to him breathing and occasionally sucking on his pacifier. I feel content and yet so full of love that it hurts.

I know it's hard in this day and age to really focus (and I mean REALLY focus) on our kids when we have Facebook and Netflix and iPhones and Xbox's. For Baby G's sake though, I am working hard to decrease my dependence on all the distractions in life. It can be hard some days not to get sucked into the world of technology. BUT he is the most important person in my life, and he deserves as much love and attention as I can possibly give him (and more). So we will continue to work on it, for as long as it takes!

Kind of a random post, but it was on my mind and so I thought I would share.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sleeping baby to marvel over.

PLH
(Peace, love, happiness)

Momma E and Baby G
<3

My (somewhat) birth story!

So I typed out my entire birth story last night. It was completely heartfelt and everything. And when I was finished, I went to add a photo and the evil app glitched and erased the entire post.

So now I will do just the facts:

1. July 23, 2012 I went in on my due date to get a non stress test and a biophysical profile done. He failed the biophysical profile.
2. They kept me and gave me cervadil overnight. I got 2 hours of sleep before contractions were bad enough to keep me up.
3. I got through 6 hours of contractions and finally had to get an epidural. That took 45 min because I am small and he couldn't find a spot. I literally passed out for a few seconds. The anesthesiologist was great though! I really liked him.
4. Gabriel wasn't tolerating labor and I was on oxygen for hours to no avail. After 2 hours post-epidural my doctor and I came to the conclusion that it was time for a csection. I cried out of fear and excitement.
5. Gabriel was born on July 24th, 2012 at 5:10pm. My mom got to show him to me. There's a video of the first time we met and photos too :) I fell asleep while they took him to the nursery and stitched me up.
6. In the room, I nursed him for the first time after marveling over him for 10 minutes. My mom, dad, and Granny were all there :)
7. I loved most of my nurses. One made me feel like the best mom already. She said I was a natural.
8. After 3 days we got to go home. Granny took us and my parents and brother came and stayed for about 3 days to help me adjust.

Gabriel is now 5 months and 20 days and he is still the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, and more beautiful than I ever could have imagined when I was pregnant. When we go out, it's like hanging out with a celebrity. People flock to him and I love seeing how happy he makes everyone.

So in the 5 months and 20 days that I've been a mom, I've become pretty darn crunchy. I've decided that this blog will be about-- along with everyday mommy life-- my foray into the "crunchy mama" world. My beliefs and my research. I want this page to be educational as well as fun and feel good! :)

So strap in and enjoy the ride!

Love from Momma E and Baby G!

(The photo is Baby G at 5 months and 13 days. It was done by Jenifer Howard of Jenifer Howard Photography. If you are interested in great photos at great prices, you can contact her here: http://jeniferhowardphotography.blogspot.com/?m=1 )