No More Messes!

I am so sick of cleaning Gordon off after he eats. Shouldn’t he be over this phase by now? I think he gets 1/4 of the food into his stomach. The rest is smothered all over his hands, his tray, and his bib. Sometimes we feed him oatmeal before bed if he didn’t eat very well that day. He loves to squish the oatmeal in between his hands and put spoonfuls of it into the pocket on his bib. (The pocket that is supposed to catch the food when it falls, yeah right!) So the other night I told him if he made any messes he was not getting any bedtime stories. I could just see his little mind churning, weighing the pros and cons. I was sitting at the table and when I looked over at him, his hand was paused in mid-air just about to catch the spoonful of oatmeal he was going to tip over. As he caught my eye, he got this devilish grin. After working out the dilemma, he decided against it and put the spoon in his mouth. Then again, some oatmeal accidently dripped off the spoon when he put it in his mouth and it landed on his tray. He so desperately wanted to smear it all over but once again I caught his eye just in time. It was so hilarious to see him think it out and consider the consequences. I am proud to say he only slipped up once when I mistakenly went out of the room for one minute. I told him he could have one bedtime story (we usually read him three or four) since he did a pretty good job of making no messes. You can't excpect perfection when I gave him such a hard task. =)

Happy Mother's Day

I have the best mother in the whole world. Being a mother myself has really opened my eyes to how wonderful and selfless my mother really is. Motherhood is more than a full time job it is your whole life. My mom got married at nineteen and had her first baby less than a year later. Eight more kids and thirty years later, she is still being an awesome mother and the best grandmother. It comforts me to know that she went through a lot of the same things I am going through right now. She had two kids while my dad was still in school and working. She went through a lot of difficult times raising a young family while my dad was traveling a lot for work but never once did she regret being a mother. My mom has taught me that being a mother is a wonderful calling in life and that it is something to be treasured not wishing it away or holding on until the kids are grown up and gone. I know my mom feels like she could have been a better mother but I honestly think she is the perfect mother for our family. Being a mother is such a selfless job and I am not very good at it yet but I am lucky that I have such a good example to follow. Whenever I am confronted with a problem concerning raising my family I always try to think what my mom would do. I know I can always count on my mom to be there for me. Thank you for everything mom; I love you!

Help Me...

The other day I spent at least a half an hour (consecutively) on the toilet with Gordon. And nothing...nada...zip...not even a little drip. We read books, played rock, paper, scissors, and made funny faces while pushing. I will admit I was a little disapointed. Okay, maybe more than a little. Gordon has wanted to sit on the potty for a long time and I haven't taken him seriously because I was prego and didn't want to deal with it. Well, I may have missed my chance. He likes to sit on the potty and flush the toilet and lets not forget about using toilet paper, he loves that too. He just hasn't done anything in the toilet yet. I think once he actually does it and gets rewarded he will want to do it again but how do I get him to do it in the first place. I tried getting him to drink lots of fluids but it didn't help. Any suggestions?

Momnesia?

I have been hearing this word a lot lately--momnesia. I first heard it on the Regis and Kelly show and then I saw a commercial for some nightly news program that is doing a special on how having children affects your memory. Click here to read a news article about it. I have to agree to some degree. I know I feel a lot dumber (is that even a word?) when I am not exercising my brain. But I wouldn't go as far as to say that I attended a wedding and then later forgot that it even took place. I just usually can't remember things like what I wore two days ago or to move the wet laundry over to the dryer - I'm guilty of that one several times over. Have any of you experienced severe momnesia?

Who'da Thunk?!

Just a life-saving tip I learned to deal with engorgement: cabbage leaves! The lactation nurse at the hospital told me to put cabbage leaves in my bra for 20 minutes at a time to treat engorged breasts. Sounds crazy but it works. Just be careful not to do it too much because it will dry you up completely. I did it once and it helped a ton. I thought I would pass along this helpful advice for anyone dealing with the joys of nursing.

Edison's Birth Story (really long, sorry)

This is me on Sunday, two days before I had Edison. So for those of you complaining about how "lucky" I am to have my baby three weeks early...you can see how huge and uncomfortable I was! I was getting sick of the "any day now, huh" or "you look like your ready to pop" comments.
I went in for my scheduled doctor's appointment Monday at 11:30 and was surprised to find out that I was dialated to a 4 and 80% effaced but my doctor also reminded me that some people can be that far along for a month. I knew in my gut it was happening that day. Chris didn't take me seriously since I had been telling him everyday that week that "it's going to happen any day now, I can feel it." I soon started having contractions although they weren't very regular so Chris still wouldn't take me seriously. He kept reminding me not to get my hopes up and that I probably still had another week at least. As my contractions got more painful we started getting everything ready to go and four hours later the contractions still weren't regular. Gordon saw us getting the baby car seat ready and wanted to sit in it and be a baby for awhile.
I wanted to go in to the hospital as my contractions were getting pretty painful. My biggest fear was that I would get to the hospital and the nurse would tell me that I was too far progressed to get an epidural. That could not happen! Chris was adamant that the contractions had to be 2-3 minutes apart for an hour before we should go in to the hospital. I finally convinced him to take me to the hospital at around 7:00. We dropped Gordon off at our neighbors house, picked up some Frostys at Wendy's and checked in. It took forever to go through all the procedures and by then I was definitely ready for the epidural. My nurse informed me that the anesthesiologist was in the O.R. and would probably be a half an hour. My doctor came in and broke my water which made my labor progress faster (meaning more frequent and painful contractions). Two hours later, the high and mighty anesthesiologist appeared! I was complaining and making such a fuss that I think the doctor gave me the max dosage and even a little more. Fine with me! I really didn't think I was going to be able to make it until he saved me. For those of you who labor without an epidural--I applaud you. I honestly don't know how you do it. Chris had nail marks in his hands from me gripping him so hard. At least I wasn't yelling and cursing, not yet anyway. Who knows what would have happened if I didn't get that epidural. After I was numb from the waist down, I rested for about two hours and then it was time for the pushing. I was really nervous for this because I didn't have to push at all with Gordon and so I had no experience whatsoever. The nurse informed me that the average pushing time is two to three hours so to expect that. Well, after 45 minutes I had a slippery, slimy baby on my chest.

I cannot express the emotions that rushed over me as I saw my little baby for the first time. I honestly wasn't expecting to feel so much love. I feel bad saying this but, I was not excited to have another baby. But when they gave me my tiny little baby that had been kicking inside of me for 9 months, I had tears of joy. I think because I didn't get to see Gordon until seven hours after his birth and I wasn't actually awake for his birth, I never really experienced that bond that I felt with Edison. It truly was a very special moment for me.

Two Milestones

I am so proud of us! Gordon has passed two huge milestones the last few months; one of them I am a little ashamed to admit—he is finally off the bottle! I know, I know totally embarrassing! I have plenty of excuses but I will spare you all. It was so much easier than I expected. I thought it was going to be painful for all of us since the first time we tried to even get him to drink out of a sippie cup was hard. He did so good and he doesn’t even take anything to bed with him; no milk or water. And he eats so much better during the day. I don’t know why I didn’t make this connection; he never ate very good and it was a constant struggle with us. Now that he is not drinking so much milk he has a much better appetite—it makes sense!

Also, Gordon is now sleeping in a toddler bed. He does so good. The first night he went right to sleep. We bought him a Disney Cars bedspread for Christmas hoping that would make him excited to sleep in a bed. I don’t know if that was what did it for him, but… Anyway, we do put a gate up across his doorway so he can’t get out in the middle of the night or anything, so I’ll bet that helps keep him in his bed—knowing that its there. The one drawback is that he doesn’t take a nap anymore. He didn’t really take a nap in his crib either but at least I could put him in there for awhile. Now we do quiet play time in his room and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. Next big milestone: Potty training. I think we will save that one till the new baby is at least 4 months! And I am not excited.

Nesting and Parental Advice

Oh my goodness am I nesting or what? All I did today was organize and reorganize things. First I went through all of Gordon's toys and took out all the toys that were too basic for him, ones he didn't play with, or ones that are too advanced for him. I am hoping it will cut down on the mess I have to clean up everyday. Probably not. Then I went to his closet and sorted through all the boxes of clothes. Instead of one box of 6-9 month clothes I now have two boxes: 6-9 month winter clothes and 6-9 month summer clothes and so on. I am just getting a little worried because baby coming will be born in the opposite time of year as Gordon and so all the clothes will be the wrong seasons. We were lucky enough to have a lot of people give us clothes for Gordon but I have a feeling since this will be my second, people won't be as excited and so won't be as generous as before. Okay, I am not trying to drop a hint or anything so I will just move on to my next topic.

I really don't know what to do with Gordon. Overall he is a great kid but he is in that stage where he is testing the limits constantly and it is driving me nuts! So my question is: when do I ignore it and when do I get after him. I hate feeling like I am always telling him no or always disciplining him but I know he is doing things just so I will get after him and I just don't know what to do. Like he throws and hits and even after I have warned him: "If you throw your toy against the wall again I will take it away" and then he looks at me and does it again. Openly defiant. Am I just being too strict? I don't know... I should probably just ignore most of it but then I feel like I've given in and he will learn that if he doesn't listen to me for long enough I will give up. By the end of the day I pretty much let him run around and do anything because I am so tired or he spends a lot of time in time out. Please tell me this stage passes quickly! I liked it better when he was excited to do what I aksed and please me.