W - 16 Month Update

Pretty sure I haven't done one of these since W was a newborn!  It's about time I update the world on my big, little man!

Where to start...well, he's about 24 pounds and although he can fit in 18 month clothes he really shouldn't (the shirts are basically crop tops on him).  He sleeps in his crib from 8 pm to 630 am on weekdays and 730 on weekends - I say he gets woken up by The Sailor while he gets ready for work, The Sailor says that isn't true, either way he wakes up earlier during the week then the weekend!  Then he comes and cuddles in bed with me and nurses for about a half hour before we actually get up!

Things he likes...going to classes at the local Family Resource Center!  This past month we went to Art Explosion, La Leche League, Natural Parenting for Non-Hippies, and My 5 Senses.

Art Explosion

Playing with another toddler at La Leche League

He also loves playing with balloons and balls of all sizes.

One of his favorite "activities" is eating.  A normal breakfast for him is a whole piece of fruit (usually a banana or a pluot - which is a plum apricot hybrid), 2 pieces of turkey sausage, and an egg.  Then he has a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner, and still breastfeeds between 3 and 5 times a day.  He's also started using an actual fork to feed him and even eats corn directly off the cob.

And I swear this boy loves his pets more and more each day!

Things he doesn't like are when I try to carry him to and from the car - he wants to walk there himself, and being told no in general (as in, "No, W, you can't play in that drawer in the kitchen.")

He hasn't shown any signs of parental preference...he just prefers us all to be together.  He gets upset if either The Sailor or I leave.

He's go, go, going non-stop and incredibly independent.  He likes to play on the playground himself, walk places himself, and read to himself regularly.

My favorite thing he does is when he "surprises" me with kisses.  He doesn't like to give me kisses if I ask for them (but he'll give Tomcat, Gabby, or stuffed animals kisses on command) but every once and a while he'll crawl up on my lap and just give me a kiss.  It absolutely melts my heart.

His words are still pretty limited but he regular says Mama, Dada, Meow, and vroom (when playing with cars) and he signs milk, please, more, finished.  He "talks" to me (and everyone else) constantly, I'm just waiting for it to become actual words!

Challenges this month were 1) me trying to keep up with him even though I'm pregnant and lazy and 2) he's transitioned from 2 to 1 nap ::whompwhomp::  He used to take a morning nap at about 930 and an afternoon nap at about 230.  They were each about an hour and a half long.  But he started fighting the second nap and I'd spend 45 minutes trying to get him down only for him to wake up a half hour later.  Now he's going down for a nap between 11 and noon and that nap lasts 2-3 hours.  He has his best naps when we've done something extra active to wear him out in the morning (either going to a class or playing outside) and if he poops before he goes down for a nap.  If we can keep up one nap that lasts about 3 hours long I'm not going to complain!

I guess that's really it this month!

In case you couldn't tell, we did a "golf" photo shoot last week at the driving range on base, haha.

Wear Your Baby Wednesday - Dye Your Own Woven Wrap!

So, I decided I wanted a shortie (AKA a short - size 2 or 3 - wrap that could be used for quick, single-pass carries) and I needed a sturdy wrap to do the job with my 25 pound toddler.  An all cotton wrap wouldn't cut it, so I either wanted to get a linen blend or a hemp blend since those tend to be more supportive than all cotton wraps (I promise I'm going to do a post solely about woven wraps eventually).  Well, linen and hemp tend to be more expensive, and I really didn't feel like spending a small fortune, so I decided to by a less expensive but plain looking wrap and dye it myself.

The wrap I chose is a Colimacon et Cie Biotiful wrap from Risaroo.  For a 6 meter long wrap (which is like, the longest wrap I've ever heard of) I would have more than enough to make a size 3 (3 meters) as well as a long ring sling and the wrap only cost $123 shipped.  If you're looking to spend even less money and are handy with a sewing machine, you could go to your local fabric store and buy a length of either 100% linen fabric or Osnaburg (which would be found with the utility fabrics) and hem the ends of it.  Take into consideration the fact that if you're buying fabric to sew and dye, it will shrink a good bit, so you'll need to buy more than you actually want.  Apart from the wrap, here are the supplies you'll need:

• Professional Textile Detergent
• Soda Ash Fixer
• Fiber Reactive Dyes
• Mask
• Gloves
• Large plastic tub
• Cooling racks
• Ice

It is very important that you use fiber reactive dyes.  I like Dharma Dyes (and they ship very quickly), or you could also use jacquard dyes. You should not use dyes like RiT on baby products.  RiT, although readily available at craft stores and grocery stores alike, just kind of coats the fibers of your fabric with color and bleeds off over time...onto your baby.  Fiber reactive dyes, on the other hand, actually chemically change the fabric, so it isn't going to bleed off onto your baby (and, consequently, the dye job won't really fade unless you leave it sitting in the sun or wash it improperly).

First you need to wash your fabric.  Technically you could use any detergent, but I like to use Dharma's detergent because I know it works well (for before and after dying the fabric).  If the fabric isn't cleaned properly, you could end up with a splotchy or uneven dye job.

Next, you'll want to soak the fabric in a Soda Ash solution (1 cup of soda ash for every gallon of water) for 15 minutes.  Soda ash is what makes a fiber reactive dye permanent.

After that, you'll need to place your racks (I just use cookie cooling racks) in your plastic bin.  These keep your fabric out of the puddle of dye that will accumulate as the ice melts.

Next, you need to put your soda ash-soaked fabric on top of the racks.  You need to wear rubber gloves while handling your fabric after it has come in contact with the soda ash.  You can take the time to accordion-fold the fabric, or do it like me and just scrunch it up.  For more of a tie-dye effect you could twist and tie up your fabric as well.

Then you completely cover your fabric with ice.  Smaller pieces of ice work better than large chunks, or you could even use snow if it's winter time!

Next you sprinkle dye over your ice!  I used Caribbean blue, Jade green, and chartreuse.  Make sure all the ice is covered in dye, but don't overdo it or your colors will get muddled together.  Plus, if you don't use enough, you can always dye again, you can't un-do using too much dye without completely stripping the fabric.

So pretty...

Then, you wait while the ice melts.

And you wait some more...

Even after all the ice has melted you can't just start rinsing.  The longer you let the dye sit, the brighter the colors will be.  You should really wait at least 8 hours after all the ice has melted.  And with blues, it's important to wait even longer, so to help the dye set I actually put the wrap in a trash bag and placed it out in the sun.

 

All my ice was melted by the time I got up in the morning, I waited until noon to put it out in the sun, then waited until 4 to start rinsing.  Instead of just sitting it under running water, I actually put it straight into the washing machine and do two rinse and spin cycles, then a full wash with the textile detergent, then two more rinse and spin cycles.  After all that, the water ran clear so I knew I got all the dye out and I threw the wrap in the dryer (on low heat).

But, I wasn't in love with how it turned out.  There were too many white patches and the chartreuse turned out more of a sunshine yellow.

So, I waited a few days to accept my defeat and started the process all over again.  This time, after soaking it in soda ash once again, I used Caribbean blue and jade green just like I had before, but then instead of chartreuse I used plain turquoise.

The timing was even pretty much the same; the ice was melted by morning, around noon I put it out in the sun, and started washing by 4 pm.  But this time, the results were spectacular...

Oh my goodness, I loved it!  This picture is probably the most true to color:

All that was left to do was to chop it (like I said earlier, I wanted a 3 meter wrap) and hem the chopped edge.  And instead of sewing a tag on for a middle marker (a lot of carries start in the middle of the wrap, having a middle marker makes it easy to start the carry) I embroidered a starfish since the colors were inspired by the ocean.

I really am loving it!  I'm getting much better at a ruck tied under bum (a back carry) and a simple rebozo (a front carry) and it has been great for quick wraps.

 I actually really love this picture of us even though it's a crappy cell phone picture taken in the bathroom mirror...W looks so cute.

And yesterday W even fell asleep while we walked from a restaurant out to the car (as in, within a few minutes) in it!

Have you ever dyed any fabric?  It's actually quite addicting!

New Mommy Mistake Number 1

The title of this post probably really should have been "The First of Many New Mommy Mistakes That I've Made and Already Recognized That I Made It" but that would have been a bit too long, lol.


Newborns sleep a lot.  I don't think I really understood how much newborns slept until I had one.  The Seamonkey did great at night sleeping in his bassinet, and during the day his naps were primarily in the swing.  It seemed like for the longest time my Little Man would wake up, he'd be happy for a little while, I'd change his diaper, he'd be happy for a little while longer, I'd nurse him, and he'd go back to sleep so I'd put him back in his swing.  Lather, rinse, and repeat like 35 billion times a day.

Obviously now, at 3 months old, he's awake a lot more, but for the most part he would still have that same cycle, just with the "be happy" part super elongated.

Well, like a week ago he started randomly getting psycho fussy during the day.  He didn't need a new diaper, he wouldn't nurse, I would try to just hold him and he'd be fussy and trying to stand and just crying.  I hated every second of it.  I checked his temperature probably a hundred times assuming he was sick, but he was fine, he just wasn't happy and it would last for hours.

Turns out, he was just tired.  New-Mommy-Me had assumed if he was tired he would have just gone to sleep.  Hell, that's what he had been doing for the past 12 weeks and that just kinda makes sense!  When you're tired, you sleep!  But no, apparently now for his naps he needs me to go upstairs, change his diaper, nurse him in the rocker, put him in a swaddle, rock him for a bit, and then put him down to sleep (basically a quick version of our nightly routine).

It kinda sucks that it's such a production, but I hope this is a sign that his naps will start to regulate soon.  Up until now they've just been super sporadic and unpredictable and that is sooooooo obnoxious because it makes it impossible to plan your day at all!

In other sleep news, we've transitioned my sweet little baby from the bassinet in our bedroom to his crib in his nursery.  I'm still not sure how I feel about it still (his first night in the nursery was this past Saturday), but I never had plans of him sleeping in bed with us and that bassinet isn't getting any bigger!  I wouldn't have been able to do it without one key thing though...

We got a video monitor!!! 


I always said it seemed silly since his nursery is literally 10 feet down the hall but that was before I actually had a baby to freak out about.  What if he had stopped breathing and I wasn't in there to see it?  I better go check on him... ::baby wakes up as you enter the room because you disturbed him by entering the room:: <--That totally would have been me.  And the first night he was in his nursery I barely slept; instead I just laid there like a crazy stalker mom watching him sleep on a 7 inch screen.

I ended up spending about $120 with shipping on eBay.  I really like having a larger screen so I can actually see him when I wake up in the middle of the night and still have sleepy-eyes.  The set is a no-name but is way nicer than any of the ones I've seen in-stores for a comparable price and it was brand-new-in-box, not used.  If you decide to go the eBay route I definitely recommend purchasing through this store like I did since I couldn't be happier with the product.  (I'm not getting anything from the seller for recommending them, just sharing my personal experience)


Well, it is about time for this Mama to go to bed, until next time...

Flying With an Infant

A few weeks ago The Sailor, The Seamonkey, and I packed up and got ready for a trip across the country! As I may or may not have mentioned before, I'm originally from Massachusetts - aka as far as you can get from Naval Air Station Lemoore without leaving the country!  Since my whole family is in New England and they were all itching to meet the first grandchild in the fam my crazy Mom offered to buy us plane tickets to fly home for a trip as a belated wedding present.

Now, there is an airport in Fresno which is less than an hour from us, but if we flew out of there we would have had to change planes somewhere - something I really didn't want to do with an 11 week old baby.  Instead we opted to drive 3 hours to San Francisco and to not only have a direct flight, but to also get to fly Jet Blue (my favorite airline).  Our flight heading to Boston left San Francisco at 10:18 pm.  Instead of parking at the airport, we saved some moolah by parking at the Radisson hotel which has shuttles to the airport every half hour.  I really wanted to have more than enough time to get there and I wasn't sure if we would hit any traffic or not, so we left our house at 3:30 pm.

Ready to go!

The first 2 hours and 45 minutes of the ride were flawless - no traffic and the baby was sleeping!  The last 15 minutes took almost 45 and the baby started screaming while we were stopped dead in traffic and I couldn't even pull over anywhere to feed him....the last 20 minutes of the trip were HORRIBLE as The Sailor tried to console The Seamonkey to no avail. But once we got to the hotel and I got to feed and change my Little Man he calmed right down.

We chose to carry on both our stroller and the carseat.  We didn't really need our stroller for the trip itself; in all honesty I only really use it if I'm going shopping and want to try on clothes or if I'm walking the dogs.  Other than that I use one of the many carriers that I've accumulated.  But I had to bring the carseat and I would rather gate check it than check it with the rest of the bags because in my mind there's less risk of it getting broken if it's gate checked.  So basically, the stroller was just a means of easily transporting the carseat (and our other carry-ons) through the airport...

Strollers are so handy!

Where was the baby, you ask?  Well, in the airport itself I wore him in a mei tai (more info on what exactly that is when I post about babywearing) since it doesn't have any metal parts meaning I could keep him in the carrier as we went through security.  Speaking of security...the Baby Jogger City Mini does not fit through the x-ray machine in airport security!  We found this out the hard way since it fit through the initial opening and then got stuck in the middle of the machine.  Seriously...who designed that thing?  If it fits in it should also fit out, and yet it did not.  So we spent a half hour holding up the line at security as the TSA agents tried to get it out.  Luckily they didn't break it or else I would have flipped shit.

So, once we got through security we went and grabbed a bite to eat, I nursed The Seamonkey, and we headed down to the gate.  At this point I was really happy I had made the decision to leave so early since we basically had just enough time to re-arrange everything in our carry-ons to make things we would want in-flight easily accessible (we had my Vera Bradley diaper bag, the large digi-camo diaper bag I made, a Planetwise wet-dry bag that was just holding all of our cloth diapers, and my Boppy pillow to carry onto the actual plane with us), go to the bathroom, and change the baby before it would be time to board the plane.

Fun fact - we didn't want to be flying all over the country with dirty cloth diapers so we chose to use 'sposies in transit.  Those things are effing gross!  How do the majority of parents use them!?  They smell funny! {sorry for the rant} The first one I put on The Seamonkey that he pooed in, the poop shot straight up the back of it and onto his clothes.  I was terrified of this happening while we took off and then I would just have to sit there with a poop-covered baby waiting for the stupid fasten seatbelt light to turn off.  So I double-diapered him...I put a 'sposie on him and then put a Best Bottom cover over it.  Since the thought of poop just floating around in the cover grossed me out I ended up putting a disposable insert in the diaper cover so he was legit wearing two diapers at once.

After I had him double-diped and in his jammies we went to sit by the gate...and he turned into a silent terror.  He wasn't crying, but he was being a complete turd.  He spit up on me twice...he rarely spits up.  He was fussing like a madman.  He refused to be put in the ring sling, which I planned on wearing him in on the plane since it is easy to get him in and out of it (more on ring slings when I post about babywearing) and kept straightening his legs so he wasn't securely in.  All I could think was this is going to be the longest night of my life....

We boarded the plane and left the stroller and the carseat at the gate and he continued to be a silent terror.  He could tell things weren't "normal" and he was refusing to go to sleep even though it was past his bedtime (it was almost 10 pm at this point).  Everyone else is boarding and I could feel them all staring at me with hatred as the watched me struggle to settle The Seamonkey as we geared up for a 6 hour red-eye flight.  After everyone boarded and they started going over the safety info I started to nurse the Little Man and he passed right out.  I think the whole plane let out a sigh of relief as I put him into the ring sling and he continued to sleep soundly.

Passed the eff out!

He only woke up twice during the entire flight to eat.  He didn't even poop, so I didn't even need to get up to change his diaper.  In fact, since he was securely strapped to my chest in the ring sling, I actually slept pretty well myself!  Once we had landed and were waiting to get off the plane he let out one loud "waaaaahhhhh" but then went back to being quiet and the people around us actually chuckled at it.  We had arrived in Boston at about 6:30 am local time so we got off the plane, I changed his diaper {into one of his normal cloth diapers}, got him dressed, and while we waited for our baggage I nursed him again.

He really couldn't have been any better during that flight.

The flight back to California was during the day and he slept for the first half and then the second half I just bounced him on my lap.  It wasn't as easy as our first flight, but there weren't any real issues.

Since this post turned out to be way longer than I initially anticipated I'm gonna wait and post later with my personal tips on flying with an infant.  Until next time...

You know you had a bad night...

...when you wake up with a nursing pad stuck to your face.

Person Paint Creation

Yup...that was me Thursday morning.  The Seamonkey was basically in my armpit with his arms out of his swaddle but his lower half still in it.  Gabby was taking up the majority of the bed forcing me to sleep diagonally (The Sailor was at training in San Diego).  Lola was basically sitting on my head since Gabby was stealing the rest of the bed.  One of my boobs was still pulled out of my sleep nursing bra, and my nursing pad was stuck to my face.

More often than not The Seamonkey is a great sleeper!  We get in jam-jams around 7:30 and he falls asleep either on The Sailor's chest or in his swing until we decide to go to bed (around 9:30).  Before I go to bed I bring him upstairs, put him into his triple-stuffed night diaper (yeah...he's a heavy wetter), nurse him, swaddle him, rock in the chair for a bit with him, and then he sleeps in his bassinet right next to me.  Then he'll usually wake up around 3 am to be nursed again, and back in the bassinet he goes.  Then he wakes up again around 6 which is when I just pull him into bed with me (The Sailor is already gone for work), nurse him a bit laying down, and we snuggle until around 730 when we get up and start our day.

But not Wednesday night...oh no.  Little Man did not want to sleep.  I don't know if it was gas, a growth spurt, or general fussiness, but that boy refused to sleep in his bassinet.  So, instead of driving myself crazy I just pulled him into bed with me, especially since The Sailor wasn't there.  I spent the better part of midnight to 7 am nursing him in bed, and that's why I woke up in such a disheveled state.

But, I can't stay angry at that boy for too long...

::Yawn:: I'm sleepy since I kept Mommy up all night!

Especially since, without fail, when I bring him into the nursery to change his diaper in the morning he stares up at the lanterns and starts smiling giggling like crazy (his favorite spot in the house is on his changing table)...

You can kinda tell he's smiling in this picture

And luckily the past two nights have been back to business as usual!

When you have a fussy baby do you pull him into bed with you?  If not, how do you get any sleep on a bad night?  More importantly...have you ever woken up with a nursing pad stuck to your face? haha

Until next time...