Goodbye WordPress.

I’ve decided to stop blogging on WordPress and start using Blogger. At the end of the day, Blogger is more user friendly and has more to offer me.

Please follow me over to Blogger.

Diary Of A Real Mom can now be found at http://arealmomsdiary.blogspot.com/.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Soaking.

My little guy is no longer a little tiny baby. It seem like overnight he has morphed into an opinionated little person who is into everything. He’s not crawling yet, but if there is someplace he wants to get to he finds away. This morning I was sitting on the floor playing with him and eating a muffin. Within seconds Malone made his way over to me, grabbed a handful of muffin, and shoved it in his mouth.

My little baby moments are fleeting.

I’m trying to soak them all in.

I hope I always remember his sweet milky breath and the rise and fall of his chest as he settles in on my chest for a nap.

I hope I always remember what it was like to change a diaper with ease. These days he’s a floppy fish on the changing table.

I hope I always remember his tug on my breast as he latches on to nurse.

I hope I always remember the beauty of  sunrise during our early morning nursing sessions.

I hope I always remember how I had to buy preemie pants because while he was 7 lbs 11 oz he was so skinny none of his newborn pants fit.

I hope I always remember his little hand clasping my finger as he falls asleep while I wear him.

I hope I always remember. I want to remember it all.

A funny one.

This blog carnival was created byMckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Last week (or maybe it was the week before I can’t remember) I did not call 911 because my smoke detector was going off. The hotties from the fire department which included three ladder trucks and the chief did not come rushing to my aid, storm up the stairs with their axes in hand and their oxygen masks on.

My land lady’s mother who lives several states away did not hear the call while listening to the fire/police internet scanner my town has and she did not call my land lady at work in a hysterical panic. The land lady did not call me leaving a frantic voice mail and when she couldn’t reach me she did not call my husband at work.

The hotties of the fire department and the chief did not arrive to no fire or smoke alarm going off.

The neighbors did not come out to gawk.

The firemen did not tell me that the smoke detector probably went nuts “from cooking your tater tots a little too long.”

I was not secretly a little annoyed that they did not wipe their boots before coming in (axes in hand and oxygen masks on remind you) to save my house from the non emergency that I thought was an emergency enough to dial 911.

I was not mortified by the whole event.

I did not post about it on facebook so all of my friends could laugh at me.

And finally, I was not a little relieved to know that from the time I called 911 to the time the fire department got to my house was less than 3 minutes.

In my defense, the smoke alarm was going nutso. There is no fan above our stove and often times the slightest thing sets it off. Usually, I can get it to stop by waving a towel but this time it wouldn’t shut up. We live in an owner occupied Victorian house with electrical wiring so old that I am sure Ben Franklin wired it himself. I really thought that there was something going on with the first floor space.

Better safe than sorry right?

My Favorites.

As previously  mentioned in last week’s It’s Not Me Monday post, I had a few professional pictures of Malone taken in his “I could be Rainbow Brite’s husband” outfit.

If you like the work, the photographer was Paul of Paul Specht Photography and you can become a fan of his work on Facebook.  He’s also one of my closest friends and one of Malone’s many Uncles.

The photos turned out amazing and there are quite a few that I simply ADORE. So, here they are ( you can click on them if you want to see them on a larger scale).

It’s Not Me Monday- TMI/Gross Edition

This blog carnival was created byMckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It’s only fair to let you all know that this is a TMI/Gross edition of It’s Not Me.

I have not stooped to a new low.

In the middle of the night, when my sweet baby boy who was sleeping on my chest woke up, coughed and then proceeded to either spit up or throw up (not sure because it was dark) all over my shirt and down my nursing bra, I did NOT wipe it up as best I could with a burp rag, then lay said burp rag over the baby spew and encourage my kid to go back to sleep so I could sleep.

I would never do that because I’m SUPERMOM. You know her right? The one who gets up in the middle of the night, gives baby spewed kids baths, changes sheets, throws them in the wash, gets the baby back to sleep, and then comes back to bed looking like she just stepped off of a Covergirl commercial.

I also did not go to the grocery store this morning in my baby spewed pajamas and a crusty hoodie to purchase lady parts products after my best friend, Aunt Flo, returned from her almost 18 month vacation.

Finally, I did not buy a custom made Valentine’s Day outfit for Malone. This outfit does not make him look like he could be Rainbow Brite’s husband. I am not headed out the door to have professional photo’s of Malone taken in this outfit, because it is not one of my most favorite outfits of his EVER.

Gross.

Well, my loyal (all three of you) readers this day seems to be worthy of two posts.

Do you want to know what’s more awesome than cooking your fancy frozen pizza with the cardboard bottom piece still on?

Discovering that in the hour and a half your son has been sleeping he’s thrown up and rested his sweet little head in it.

Malone woke up about 20 minutes ago and before I saw it, I could smell it. We nursed. He wanted to go back to sleep.

A shower, a fresh pair of pj’s and a clean crib sheet later I’ve got a kid who thinks maybe he might go back to sleep. Or, maybe not.

I had grand plans of going to bed early tonight- stealing an extra hour of the bed all to myself. In fact, when Malone woke up I had already brushed my teeth and filled my water bottle.

How does that saying go? – “The best laid plans.”

Project MOM 3/52

During the first weeks and months after my mom passed away, I existed on very little food. When I was hungry the only thing I wanted to eat was either Digiorono Cheese Stufffed Crust pizza or baked goods.

This seriously went on for a really long time.

And then I got so fat I joined weight watchers.

Today, while grocery shopping I picked up one of those cheese stuffed crust pizzas. They are a luxury item in our house now at close to nine dollars a piece.  For that price, I might as well just get a pizza from the place by my house.

I had such grand hopes for this pizza. Michael and I were going to eat it during the big game.

Ah.. that gooey cheesey stuffed crust. I salivate just thinking about it.

But tonight my dear friends there is no pizza.

My mommy brain is FRIED (see the cry it out post below if you’re looking for a reason) and I put the pizza on the pan with the cardboard still on.

There were parts that could have been salvagable.

But I was my mother’s daughter. Instead of cool-ly figuring out a way to scrape the cooked on pizza from the cardboard and rebake the salvaged pieces.

I had a mini temper tantrum and the whole thing was very dramatically thrown  in the garbage.

And I will probably pout about it all night.

Cry it out.

I consider myself to be a member of the attachment parenting camp. During my pregnancy I hoped and prayed that I would be able to successfully breastfed. I am happy to report that Malone and I enjoy a wonderful nursing relationship. And nursing for me has been so convenient.

But, I didn’t set out to be an attachment parent- very early on in Malone’s life he let us know that the AP style was what was going to work for him. There was a stretch of about seven weeks during his earliest days where the only way he could be soothed was if my husband or I wore him in a wrap and bounced on an exercise ball.

At 4 months we started bedsharing because I was tired of getting up 3-7 times a night to feed Malone. I wasn’t in crisis, but I knew that was where I was heading if I couldn’t find a way to get quality sleep and get it fast.

At first, Malone fell asleep in his crib and then came into bed with us at some point during the night. Then, he got to the point where he after he nursed before bed, he would not go to sleep in his crib. He screamed frantically in the crib. We started snuggling and laying with him while he slept. This meant that whomever was sleep duty that night was then stuck in bed with him otherwise he’d wake up and scream.

I felt trapped.

I was resentful.

I was living with a seven month old sleep terrorist.

So we made him cry it out.

We’re now a week into CIO and things are looking up. The first nights were hard. He cried for upwards of 60 minutes (we went in to soothe when we needed to).  Now we’re down to somewhere between 8-10 minutes.

He’s still coming into our bed at some point in the night. But we’re getting at least 4 hours of sleep without him there.

We will be working on naps and the middle of the night wakings soon.

I can’t believe we survived this.

5 Minutes.

* I am setting my stopwatch for 5 minutes to allow myself time to write. Please note that it will not be reviewing, editing, or spell checking this. I simply do not have time.

5.4.3.2.1 AND GO!

Since my last post, life has literally gotten on top of me. Often, in my Motherwoman circle the facilitators use the phrase “there is a reason why when the plane is crashing you are instructed to put on your oxygen mask first.”

In the last however long it has been since I wrote, the following things have happend. Not in this order.

1. Malone got super sick.

2. I got food poisoining that lasted for 4 days. As a bonus jonas, I lost close to 10 lbs.

3. A can of soda exploded in my car leaving specks everywhere.

4. My family and I took a trip to the Statehouse to show our support on a post partum depression bill that is coming up.

5. My part time work at home transcription job has picked up in FULL speed. During the last pay period I worked 29 hours in two weeks. That would be at night and during the weekend folks, as during the day I am a full time stay at home mama who refuses to work while my kid is up. After all, that’s no the point of being a stay at home mom. In the last TWO DAYS my time card shows 10.50 hours worked.

6. We have started Cry it out with Malone. I am living with a sleep terrorist. I need help. I hate it but he needs to learn that world does not revolve around him. He is a member of a family unit and we will all function better with him sleeping.

Man. That was a fast 5 minutes- but I have to go now.

In summery, we’re busy. I don’t have much spare time. And my to do list includes simple self care tasks like flossing and putting on deodorant. Oh, and my socks don’t match but at least my feet are warm.

Baby Steps.

I want Malone to grow up with healthy ideas about food and excercise. I want him to know that it is important to eat local whenever he can- it is tastier and better for the environment because the food doesn’t have to travel as far to get to us.

In order for me to give these ideas to Malone, I need to change.

It is so easy to grab junk- frozen pizza, chinese take out, grinders.

It is so easy to not be active- especially in winter.

These things need to change.

I need to make over my life in small baby steps. Manageable steps mean that I am more likely to keep at this. It’s important to me that I keep at this.

Steps for this week.

1. Drink more water and less diet coke.

2. Get active for 30 minutes everyday. Go for a walk, sneak off to the gym, get on the Wii fit.

3. Buy local eggs, milk, and butter. Dust off my bread maker and make bread. Make granola.

Next week I’ll check in and let you know how it went.