I Wanna Be A Crawler

We have liftoff! A lot of firsts happening over the weekend, but biggest and maybe best was that Nolan crawled for the very first time! He is just simply getting SO big!

Also, the stars aligned and I got a good picture of the two of us. Check out how good looking we are:

Other firsts this weekend were:

• Getting those top two teeth
• Standing on his own for like 5 seconds before falling over blowing his previous record of less than a second out of the water.
• Chomping on an apple (maybe a little too early as a piece broke off and it resulted in a scare for a moment there)

Using those chompers for the first time!

Seeing as how my baby is basically an adult now, I've decided it's time to start getting him used to the outside world! This morning I was inspired to find swim classes for him and sure enough there are classes that are coming up! A session coming up in March and then again in June. Due to the nature of my job, I don't think the March ones would fit with my schedule, so I'm going to take him swimming in JUNE! The swimming lessons are 30 minutes, twice a week. Perfect for my little guy!

Now I get to buy cloth swim diapers and swim trunks for him! 

Judging by Nolan's love of splashing in the bath, I think that swimming in a big pool will be a hit. 

Expect the Unexpected

Looks like Nolan doesn't mind eating Spinach and Carrots.

Oh, and we have more teeth! His top teeth have officially popped through the gums. Still in some pain, but he's in good spirits otherwise.

Teether Sutherland

Prediction: By this time next week, my baby boy will have cut his two front teeth on top. 

Teething has to be about the most painful thing for a baby. Luckily, I don't remember that pain beyond losing a baby tooth and having a new tooth grow in. But my poor lil guy is in a really crummy mood because those teeth are just about to cut through. I can see the whites underneath the pink gums. 

So I do what I can. I give him the cold teethers. He looks at me like I'm crazy for giving him anything lower than room temperature, but then again he doesn't discriminate and he starts biting away. I'm not sure that helps his pain though.

I think the best thing on the planet for us so far has been baby tylenol. 

I'm trying not to go overboard but the poor little guy deserves pain relief! 

Nolan is adapting. He's found that his binky works well as a teether in a pinch. 

Hands AND binky! A delightful combination.

Trying to reach for my camera

Yeah, just the top of the binky. No need for that rubber bit.

My 7 Month Old

Happy Valentines Day! Here's some baby rumpus.

TUSHI!

Taking a break from standing

Mom's taking pictures? Why?!

Selected this picture because I don't see anything that would warrant a visit from CPS or the FBI.

His least favorite part of bath time is getting his head wet. 

Mattress Watch: 2014

Thank you to everyone who read my blog last week about Nolan's new mattress and made comments! In fact, thank you to anyone who leaves me comments - they really make my day!

It has now been officially one week since we purchased the new mattress that I mentioned in this post. Since buying the new mattress, Nolan has experienced a complete 180 in regards to sleep. I regret not having purchased this new mattress initially when Nolan was first born because it clearly is the golden ticket to a good night's sleep.

With every move Nolan made in the middle of the night, his bed cracked and sounded hollow and plastic. I remember putting him in his crib and he would shake his head back and forth and I would hear the sound of the sheet rubbing against the material of the mattress. He would get so unsettled in his crib! It seemed like co-sleeping was the only way either of us would ever sleep again so we brought him into our guest room and he would sleep soundly. I initially thought it was because he could feel us nearby, our body heat would keep him warm and our smell would make him feel secure.

Scoff. Hurumph. Exasperated sigh.

No, I firmly believe that it was the mattress.

After months and months of waking up multiple times a night, Nolan slept like Lionel Richie... ALL NIGHT LONG. Yes, I stole this joke from an episode of HIMYM. No, I don't feel bad about it.

Here's the mattress I bought... http://www.target.com/p/simmons-kids-beautyrest-black-cozy-dreams-mattress-white/-/A-14543616#prodSlot=medium_1_16&term=simmons

Good reviews are coming their way!

In related news Nolan got his first baby book in the mail this week!

11x14 book, 110 pages

The book is awesome, but I think I may have gone overboard with very similar pictures on each page. But I wouldn't change a thing now (obviously because they're expensive). There is one page in particular where there are like 20 pictures of him just asleep, from the same nap. Not like different times he's slept and it's a theme page, but just the pictures I took I just threw them in there.

My basic theory is that I didn't want to throw any pictures away, no picture "wasn't good enough" to include. Now my revised theory is quality over quantity. I'd rather that there are a few of the best pictures on each page and that there are a lot more variety in each book. I'm working on the book slowly as I get pictures in (and if I have down time!) I'm already really liking the 2nd book a lot!!!

I definitely recommend shutterfly for picture books, they have really great customer service too. I can't wait til I have a whole mess of books to look through :) And I just purchased a "this life" subscription so that I have full resolution images of my pictures accessible online. It's not cheap but I think it's important that I have a place that I can save my images to without worrying about my computer crapping out. Plus, this way I get to look up pictures that I recently took and uploaded from home and then I can add them when I blog *ahem* not at home.

It's Getting Real

Nolan is, like, days away from crawling. I am in trouble!

But seriously, when he hits new milestones it is genuinely the most exciting thing for me. Just yesterday we were shopping at Target and I set him down in the Target display crib because I needed to get my phone out of my coat that I took off to put in the cart while shopping... too much detail. When he was in the crib he started to pull himself up from sitting to standing. I about shrieked with delight!

I have been slowly baby proofing the house, which is no easy task, but I feel like a freaking badass with my power tools! Yes, I, a WOMAN, am doing home improvement projects to baby proof the house. This girl don't need no man to do her heavy liftin' (sorry Brian - but this is an "I am woman hear me roar type post")

Here's what I've done so far:

• The cabinets under the sink - I used something like this which required some drilling to get the screws in.
• The oven - Just a super strong sticker to install this
• The blind cords - No need to use power tools, these screws go easily into drywall
• Table corners - this one is so easy a caveman could do it (more stickers)
• Door stopper for Nolan's room (no pinched fingers... or slammed doors when he gets older and gets an attitude!) - Absolutely no work for this other than placing on door
• Door knob covers - Only trick here is latching the things back together when they've been split in two
• The TV - Just in case he thinks it's fun to climb on our entertainment center and pull down our flat screen! Super duper adhesive involved here. 
• Most importantly, the furniture straps. You'll understand exactly why if you know the blog post I'm thinking of in regards to why this is important. I can't find the link, but if you have the link, please share in the comments. I used my drill for this into both the furniture and the wall (and I needed a stud finder).

I've been doing things slowly but surely because I know the time is coming where our little immobile boy is going to be getting into EV.ER.Y.THING. I'm not sure how many readers followed me from my previous blog but if you have a little one and you're thinking you can't do baby proofing stuff because power tools are scary or whatever... you absolutely can do it! And it's an adrenaline rush when you get a project done that you've been wanting to do forever.

What would you doOOoo for a night of sleep?

I'm going to finish this extremely productive blog week with a bang! 

Yesterday, I posed the question to my husband, "What would you pay for Nolan to sleep through the night (STTN) consistently?" 

Confused, he replied, "what do you mean?"

Playing it off I tried to nonchalantly ask, "would you pay one hundred dollars?"

"YES" he replied. A firm yes. 

Well good, I thought to myself as I tried to hide a smile. Because I definitely already did spend $100 in the hopes that Nolan would STTN. 

It was an AHA moment! I was googling "how to get my 7 month old to STTN" just clinging to the fact that somewhere out there the answer existed. As I read the same lines of advice for the billionth time (put him down when he's tired but not asleep, are you kidding me? That's when he'll scream!!) I just thought... what if it's his mattress?

Admittedly, I bought a rather stupid mattress online. I didn't feel it, I just bought it. Based on the reviews it was decent and more importantly it was cheap. Some part of me decided to skimp on the mattress when I literally spent nearly $800 on cloth diapers. Don't worry honey, we're going to actually be saving money in the long run!

What was I thinking? That has to be it. Nolan is sleeping on this crunchy, noisy sponge and certainly not a mattress-mattress.

So when I picked up Nolan from daycare on Wednesday - I was bound and determined to feel a sample mattress of someone else. Someone who's baby is sleeping relatively well. Jamie (new daycare provider & old long time friend) let me feel her daughters mattress.

It was honestly a life changing moment. I felt that mattress and knew it felt NOTHING like what Nolan's felt like. It was 100% different. 

Jamie showed me the brand, a Sealy, and I thought to myself... I don't think my effing mattress even has a brand. It just is a square box with a crunchy waterproof exterior *goes to look it up on amazon* 

THIS IS THE MATTRESS... *makes angry face just thinking about it*

Actual angry face made
Definitely going to write a negative review online...

... 

I honestly need a minute to recover from that memory.

So anyways, Jamie tells me a little more about the mattress mentioning that it wasn't even the most expensive mattress at the store. 

"Where did you buy it," I ask, "Did you get it online somewhere?"

"No, I think we got it at Target."

"Thank GAAAAAHHHHD, I can get one tonight."

And immediately I made a beeline to the nearest Target. My heart pounding. So excited, so nervous!

I get to the baby section and they only have the cheap as f*ck mattresses and one lonely most expensive mattress in the store. 

Expensive it is. I plopped it on top of the cart and carried Nolan to the checkout. The fastest Target trip of my life. I left quickly for two major reasons:

1. I needed to get this put on the bed before Brian saw... because I had a feeling he'd be annoyed at my purchase without talking it over with him first.
2. I was fairly certain that people would think I kidnapped Nolan. Seriously, who is just now getting around to buying a baby mattress when they have a 6.5 month old in tow?

I got home and got the bed set up. And my husband was none-the-wiser to my subterfuge.

The first night (Wednesday night) Nolan had the wettest of diapers that soaked through his PJ's and he woke up at 11:00pm. A very legit reason to wake up and need the help from your parents. Good on you Nolan, I support your cries.

The second night (Thursday night... last night)... he slept LIKE A BABY (finally?!) from 8pm-4am. And the best part was that I did hear him wake up and cry/coo for about a minute or two but he settled himself down. He fell back to sleep on his own. 

OMFG.

I sincerely hope as I type this I haven't just jinxed myself but I think I found the answer... 

You want your baby to sleep? 

BUY A NEW MATTRESS YOU CHEAP MOTHER*!

*See what I did there, I used mother in the pejorative sense, but also I AM a mother so it's a pun kind of...

I came clean to Brian about my mattress purchase this morning. He rolled his eyes and shook his head and said "whatever." Clearly he didn't fully understand my journey to get to this point.

EL-OH-EL!

So I just got an email (it's Tuesday as I write this, I'm a little distracted today) that lists, "13 signs you're ready for another baby."

I'm just going to nip any questions in the bud right now and say that Nolan need not worry about his Only-Child status for a while.

As much as I love Nolan, he is a handful. An awesome handful. But yeah.

I would never...

... co-sleep.

This post brought to you by the Things Elizabeth Would Never Do before she had a baby.

A few weeks ago, I posted about how I was going to have to start CIO with Nolan. We, well I made this decision before a family xmas get together last month. I knew that I couldn't allow CIO in a strange place when my baby would need to be quiet for the sake of the nearby listening/sleeping family. So CIO wasn't in the cards for that weekend.

Nolan was really extra fussy. Like he was bringing on the fussy. I don't know why he was so bad at sleeping, but let's just say he refused to not be cuddled.

At a breaking point, I brought Nolan into bed with me and Brian. When he was held by either of us, he was instantly relaxed and asleep. For whatever reason, sleeping in his pack in play wasn't in the cards so in effort to get sleep, we coslept. We, three people (2 adults and a baby) coslept in a double sized bed. Oh the humanity!

But it wasn't bad.

Even in a small bed it wasn't awful.

Maybe it was my sleep deprived mind, but co sleeping turned out to be the best decision for us. Our baby didn't cry and we actually got some sleep.

Some other things I would never do (but since have) were:

• Cry it out... while I didn't do it (yet) I entertained the thought which I never thought I would do.
• Let my baby eat ice cream (or popsicles, or other food off the table) until he was much older... in fact maybe Nolan tried a tiny bit of my blizzard at 2 months and he loved it (no worries, there was no candy in that bite)
• Buy clothes that are brand new (instead of consigned) to save money
• And probably a lot more... *sigh*

What have you done as a parent that you never thought you would do?

Some People - WWYD?

This weekend went by too fast (and it's Tuesday already?) but we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, I finally cashed in on the facial gift certificate Brian got me for my birthday. There's just something relaxing about someone extracting gunk from my pores. I'm really weird. Yes, it's true.

The rest of the day I spent with Nolan while Brian went to the men's basketball game.

Sunday was great too! We went to Des Moines to hang with some friends while watching the super bowl. Nolan got to play with his baby friends and he was the big kid as the other two were 4 and 5 months old. I was proud that our little guy was sitting up and it was great to see how far he's come looking at the other babies reaching those milestones that Nolan reached the month before. (not trying to sound sanctimonious here, just saying that he's a month older and can do new things now)

It just reminds me that time goes so fast and he's growing up so quickly!

I do have one comment from the weekend though. I don't understand some people. We were at Brian's aunt's home and we were chatting while Nolan played on the floor and some douche canoe (who I will call this to his face so please feel free to share) named GEORGE decides that he will bring up the fact that NO babies are cute. He knew Brian's Grandma... so Salton family, feel free to nut punch this George guy on my behalf. While in the presence of me and MY BABY, while looking at MY BABY, he thinks it is somehow appropriate to say that he's NEVER seen a cute baby. Not "Oh I never have seen a cute baby until today" or whatever. But no, he's just straight up saying my baby isn't cute.

I beg to effing differ.

I didn't say anything at the time because, you know, I don't want to be rude... but this ass monkey decides that it's just perfectly acceptable conversation to bring up that babies aren't cute. Ok, you may say that he's generalizing... whatever. I wish I had said something though!

This is the same generation that says that "kids these days" don't respect their elders and stuff.

I wish I could turn back time and really give this guy a piece of my mind but I stayed quiet, you know, because I'm not disrespectful.

My baby is a freakin' model.

What would you do?