My Baby SLEPT!

I've decided to join Jenni from the blog and do Y3W (Your 3 Words) every friday! I'm horrible at updating my blog, so at least this way I'll be forced to blog at least once a week.

So my three words for this week? MY BABY SLEPT!

If you remember, we've been having trouble getting Matthew to sleep. Naps were horrible and he was up every 2 hours at night. I went back to a strict nap schedule and would start our naptime routine after he'd been awake for 1 1/2 hours and surprise surprise, naps were much easier, and some of them were even 45 mins or longer! At bedtime, we started the bedtime routine early and he was in bed most nights by 8 pm. Much better than his old 10 or 11! And if he woke up before 4 am, I would just rock him back to sleep instead of feed him. We've been doing this for almost 2 weeks and two nights this week Matthew has slept from 8-6 or 7! A few times he'd murmer in his sleep, but he would go back on his own. Last night he was up twice, but I'll take that any day over 6-8 times! I hope last night was a fluke and he's on the right track with sleeping.

I got a taste of sleep and now it's all I want! Ha! It's funny how you can get so used to no sleep that it doesn't even phase you anymore. But now that I remember what sleep feels like, I WANT MORE! Thanks for the sleep advice, it seems to be working!

MEXICO!

I could tell you how Mexico was, but I'd rather just show you. Mexico in pictures!

Yep, I think that last picture just about sums it up! We had a great time!

8 Months Old!

Mr Man is 8 months old! 8 MONTHS! How did he get so big? If I were going back to work in the usual 1 yr, I'd only have 4 months left! But lucky me gets to take off until September! I'm glad I get more time with my beautiful baby boy.

What's new? We're back on food. He is ok with carrots, but he's not too fond of them. We just tried chicken and he seems to like it, and so far, he seems to be ok with that too (but really, who is allergic to chicken?). I'm getting a lot of flack from those-who-I-shall-not-name about only feeding him one food. My doctor realizes he won't be getting many nutrients, thus the recommendation for extra vitamins. I was starting to question things a bit until I met someone who went through the same thing. Her husband is very allergic to many foods, so they were told to do only one food for 2 weeks. Now she's 9 months old and eating lots of things. So there is hope, and I'm not crazy. I'm not exactly doing 2 weeks. I think that's a bit of overkill, but I'm definitely doing a good long week to make sure he's ok with any foods.

Other than the food struggle, we're struggling with sleep. Between 4 and 6 months he was sleeping through the night from 11-8. Ok, so he was going to bed a bit late, but he was sleeping for 9 hours straight, and I was able to sleep, so I didn't care! Cue 6 month shots, teeth, illness, and solids. Everything went straight in the trash. Naps are hell. He used to go down pretty much awake and talk himself to sleep. He'd even sleep for 45 mins - 1 hr sometimes. Now it's a 30-45 min struggle of rocking and screaming before he'll take a 30 min nap. And sometimes I just can't get him to nap no matter what I do. I don't know if he's overtired, not tired enough, teething, having tummy trouble... I just don't know. I've asked everyone I can think of for advice and most people say the same thing: he needs a consistent naptime/bedtime routine. Well, I've been doing the same routine for naps and bedtime since 3 months....

Getting M to bed is tricky as well. The last few nights we've been lucky and he's been in bed by 9 or shortly after. Much improved over his 10-11 bedtime. But he's fussy and cranky and constantly on and off the boob. Maybe his fussiness is telling us he needs an even earlier bedtime? Maybe my milk supply is dropping? Eventually we get him to bed. But I know it's only for a short time. Like clockwork, every night he's crying by 12 am. Then he's up every 1-2 hours, sometimes 3 hours until 7 when he's usually up for the day. I have no idea why he's waking up that often. I don't know if he's really hungry. He always eats and usually falls right back asleep. Maybe he just doesn't know how to self soothe? But how do I teach him that? He won't take a pacifier unless it's to chew on, but that usually just keeps him awake instead of putting him to sleep. I tried a wet washcloth, which worked once, but didn't keep him from waking up. I really don't want to try the "cry it out" method. He gets really worked up and coughs and chokes and arches his back with tears streaming down his face and it's really hard to get him to calm down. I'm at the end of my rope. I'm really tired, almost more tired than when he was a newborn. In fact, by the time he was 6 weeks old, he was only waking up once or twice. I think this is worse, especially knowing he can sleep through the night.

I don't know what happened. Maybe he's just going through so many developmental changes that he's all mixed up? Maybe he's trying to crawl in his sleep, or he just hasn't learned how to fall back asleep on his own when he wakes up. Maybe he's just really overtired from not napping enough during the day. I have all sorts of ideas of why it's happening, but no idea how to fix it. I'm really rambling and venting here, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!

Enough rambling for the day. Time for a cute picture! His monthly pictures are getting harder. He just won't sit still! He's always leaning forward and grabbing things. He can go from his bum to his belly, but always gets tripped up over his one leg. He'll rock on hands and knees and slides backwards, but he has yet to figure out how to get where he wants to go. He's getting there, and he's very vocal, but nothing that actually sounds like anything. Not sure what "ba ba bwa bwa ba" means, but he says that a lot. I just realized that I haven't blogged about our Mexico trip. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, because that was a lot of fun. For now, his 8 month picture!

Giveaway Crazy

I've gone a little bonkers trying to get traffic to my website, so I've decided to do massive giveaways. Crazy? Maybe. Will it work? I hope so. The first of my 3, yes 3 giveaways is hosted by my good friend on her wonderfully popular blog. If you would like to win a custom designed photo card, hop on over to Our Growing Garden and enter to win.

If you're on Twitter, you can get yet another chance to win simply by following CupOfTeaCards. I will be giving away a custom designed photo card once I reach 150 followers.

The last giveaway is on my Facebook Fan Page. Once I hit 25 fans, I'll be giving away yet another custom designed photo card.

Ok, so maybe I'm crazy. But if it gets people to visit my site, then I'm all for it.

Oh, I might have also forgotten to mention the big Twitter Party tonight for @MySmartHands. I'm donating one of the prizes!

7 Months Old!

Two days late, but meh. Mr. Man is 7 months old! He is getting bigger by the second it seems. He is sitting like a pro and reaching to get toys, even getting on his tummy to get something he really wants. He's been known to get stuck on his tummy, which he doesn't seem to mind much anymore. Crawling is still a long way off I think. He has no interest in getting on hands and knees and he doesn't stand on my lap for long without buckling at the knees. He has finally figured out how to jump in his jolly jumper and it's now one of his favourite activities.

The question everyone seems to be asking is, "how is solids going?" The answer? Not well. We had success at first with bananas and squash, but then something changed. Over

Christmas, Matthew cut 4 teeth, yes 4 TEETH, all at once! AND he got a pretty bad cold that sent us running to emerge at 1 am after a high fever and vomiting. Needless to say, the poor boy didn't feel well. He began to refuse solids, and then he started eating less and less milk. He had trouble nursing because he couldn't breath well. He even started drinking less milk from a bottle and we had to offer him 1/2 oz at a time every 15 minutes, or whenever he made a peep. It was a long and rough Christmas for us, but Matthew got better and was back to his normal self (almost) in short order.

Once he started feeling better, I started offering him solids again. This did not go so well. I would heat up some of my lovely homemade food and what would I get? A closed mouth and turned head and crying. I kept offering, and he kept refusing. I offered him bits of peas and carrots on his tray, Baby Mum Mums, and even resorted to tricking him by letting him chew on a spoon, then shoveling in some food when I saw an open mouthed opportunity. I managed to occasionally shovel in some peaches, or sweet potatoes, or squash, but it was a struggle and neither one of us was happy.

And THEN Matthew got what I thought was a teething rash. It started on his face and progressed to his chest, then his back, arms and legs. Wait a minute, this doesn't sound like just a teething rash. After talking to my sister in law, and watching Matthew rub his face like crazy and cry in pain from the itch, I decided to take him to the nearest walk in clinic. The doctor quickly agreed that it was not a teething rash. He immediately thought it is likely an allergic reaction to something he ate, or something I ate. Since I haven't changed my diet, and he's been breastfed for 7 months, we narrowed it down to something he ate. The doctor prescribed some mild cortisone cream and told me to give him some Benadryl and apply the cream and stop all food until the rash has cleared.

So that's where we are with solids. We've stopped all solids for a while and are diligently applying the cream twice a day. The rash is slowly clearing and Matthew is much happier without the constant itching. We hope to start Matthew on solids soon, from the beginning, and this time I will be keeping a journal of everything he eats, and how he reacts to it. I hope by the time we try again, he is a willing participant in the adventure.

I've read that sometimes kids with allergies refuse solids. Perhaps they instinctively know something. Perhaps this is why Matthew suddenly stopped eating. Or perhaps he stopped eating because his poor mouth hurt so much from cutting 4 teeth at once. We'll probably never know why he refused to eat solid food, but I hope he changes his mind soon. He is a growing boy after all. But you'd never know he is a 7 month old who isn't eating solids from the look of him. I mean LOOK at him! He's a big boy for sure. I love my big boy!

New Year's Resolutions

Matthew and I went to a New Year's Resolutions playdate. We met at Second cup, and the mommies got coffee or hot chocolate, and the babies played with their toys on mommy's lap and looked and laughed at each other. The number 1 resolution? What else: lose weight. My first resolution is similar: stop eating McDonalds! Really, we stoop to McDs way too often. I'm tired, we haven't planned dinner, and on the way home, R will pick something up. It's not healthy, and it's not the way I want to raise my son. Of course, on the way home from the playdate I picked up ... McDonalds. DOH! Eating healthy would require grocery shopping and I haven't done that yet. There's always next week.

Resolution #2. CLEAN THIS HOUSE! Too often I come home and use the kitchen table as a dumping ground. Any purchases, or junk, or mail, or whatever, just get dumped on the nearest table. This means we have to clear it every evening with a big sweep of the arm before we can eat dinner, or better yet, eat dinner out of a bowl on the couch. Not exactly how I want to live my life. So I resolve to put things away as soon as I get home, or shortly thereafter. Perhaps when Mr Man goes down for a nap. It's always a much bigger chore to clean the house when you have to declutter first. Better to clean as you go, or at least that's the theory.

Resolution #3. Put more effort into Cup of Tea Photo Cards and perhaps start making some money! Maybe even get one day (read night) off a week to work on new products and promotion. I've got ideas coming out the ying yang and I'm getting distracted so I never finish one idea before moving on to the next. Currently I'm working on Alphabet cards. I'm making two versions, a regular animal alphabet, and a Canadian one. Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with a Canadian animal that starts with X? My biggest obstacle in resolution #3 is drumming up more business. As luck would have it, one of the moms at the playdate was an internet marketer and she offered her services FREE because she wants to help out other moms. So hopefully I can get a headstart on my most important resolution of the year. I know I'll never be able to replace my income as a teacher, but I would love to have a little extra spending money.

So, here I am, on January 6, and at least I've made resolutions. I know the ladies in my Mom group are going to help me stick to them, and we meet next month to see how we're all doing. I've made my resolutions, have you made yours?

6 Months Old!

Bad blogger, bad. I'm horrible at keeping my blog up to date. I'm just so busy running around, starting projects, shopping and wrapping for Christmas and trying to keep my business running (busy creating new products and projects and having fun doing it). To top it all off, I've been sans laptop for a week!

My big boy is 6 months old! He's finally started to slow down in his growth, but he is still a big boy! His official stats:

28 inches long
18 lbs 4 oz

Christmas is fast approaching and I am going to be a very busy mommy. I'm hoping to update and upgrade my website and continue to work on new products for my business in the new year. My 2011 New Year's resolution is "put more energy into my business". Feel free to hold me to it!