Goal Update

Remember how I made a post about the goals I have made? I just thought I'd do a quick update on how I'm doing on those goals.

Clean house up and out - I have started with this. I went through my clothes as I put my summer and maternity clothes away and as I got a new dresser. I also went through the shelves above our closet when we got the new dresser. My brother is living with us for a few months as he is in post-mission limbo. That should motivate me to go through the junk upstairs so that he has an actual place to stay rather than just on the couch in the living room. I started to go through the stuff upstairs last week.

Craft/Decorate - I made two curtains out of 5 for the front room. I haven't gotten anywhere on the couch cushions. I found our family picture (Dave's family), but discovered that the frame I had set aside for it was too small. I still need to hang my yearly calendars up. I did a lot of stamping and card making about a month ago, but haven't picked it up since. It's a start.

Develop schedule - If you count sleeping in every day a schedule, then I'm set. Joshua pretty much sets my schedule, yet I have a little control over his. I follow the Eat Activity Sleep pattern more or less. I have started doing laundry every Friday, which corresponds with my TV shows being on hulu, so I can watch them while I fold the clean laundry.

Save money - I guess I've done some of this. We're working on getting the heater fixed so we don't spend as much on gas every month. We discovered a gaping hole in the main duct coming from the heater, so we're heating two rooms in the basement that don't need heating rather than our house.

Get in shape - I've been trying to eat better and make healthier foods for Dave. This includes some Indian dishes I've been trying out. We've also been having better breakfasts to start our day. I literally just made an exercising group on facebook to hopefully get some moral support in getting in shape. Also I was introduced to this website by a friend, although I'm a bit intimidated by it when I get out of breath walking a few blocks these days. I bought a stroller last week, which should also help motivate me to get out and exercising.

Read lots - Check. I've been reading the book group books as well as a few from my own shelves including Hunger Games, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and...uh...that's it.

Hopefully by this time next month, I will have more to report.

Stroller!

Ok, so I check my email, facebook, and blogs that I follow almost daily, and I usually click the "new post" button about as often, but for some reason I never get around to actually posting.

I'm biting the bullet and posting about SOMETHING to hopefully get myself back into the groove.

Today I bought a stroller. I am very excited for it to come so I can go out on walks and *gasp* even runs. I'm a little nervous about getting back into shape since I'm the least in shape I've been since ever, literally. So far this year if I walk anywhere, I do so slowly, since I'm usually carrying Joshua, either in my arms or in my baby bjoern, and I don't want to jostle him too much.

I was super excited for my new stroller to come on Thursday so I could test it out. Turns out I forgot to click the final "place order" button on amazon until about an hour ago, so it won't be arriving until Friday. At least the shipping is still free!

So, here's the link to the stroller that I purchased. (Thank you Grammy and Papa, who never read this!...yes I will write them a thank you note, too.)

And here's a picture, if you don't feel like clicking on the link.

Giveaway

Ok, I know everyone loves reading posts about giveaways, but I'm really hoping to win this one. (I never win any!) I get an extra entry if I blog about it. Here's the giveaway:

http://windhula.blogspot.com/2011/02/novica-giveaway.html

Go check it out!

6 Weeks

Dear Tuesday,

I thought that you would be the day that my life started to look normal again. Isn’t life supposed to get easier after 6 weeks? Well you are the exact day after the 6 week mark. I guess my hopes were too high, yet not unfounded:

Sunday and Monday night, Joshua slept 6 hours at a time, followed by a 3 hour nap and helped me notice that morning is that foggy time frame that happens between when the sun comes up and noon. I actually got up, out of bed, showered, and breakfasted before 11am! I felt great. It was sunny even.

Joshua ate at 11pm last night, went to sleep at midnight, and didn’t wake up until 6am. (Silly me didn’t go to bed until 1am though…I have to work on that.) I’m really hoping that Joshua sticks to this schedule so my body gets used to not producing milk at night. I woke up completely full and soaked; it was fun. That’s the main reason I got up and showered, so maybe it’s a good thing that I get drenched.

The morning and early afternoon progressed well with Joshua sticking to a nice schedule of eating, burping, pooping, being changed, playing for a little while, fussing a tiny bit to signal nap time, being swaddled, and falling asleep on his own in his bassinet and sleeping for an hour or so.

*menacing music*

Then the actual afternoon came. He started into his “grouchy” or “gassy” routine which involves falling asleep on me, scream crying when he woke, eating some, farting some, burping after a long time, scream crying some more, eventually calming down enough to fall asleep on me again (don’t. move. a. muscle. or. he. might. wake. up.), rinse, repeat, sigh, throw something, punch the pillow, cry a little, eat chocolate, mope.

My only thing to hope for, as Joshua is still asleep on me, is that he will wake up soon, eat, poop (this is crucial to the following), and go to sleep for a good 6 hours. I was also hoping to get some cleaning done as our house looks more and more like a disaster zone. It doesn’t help that Monkey’s favorite toy is a rope that she tears to pieces all over everywhere.

Ok, so maybe I just needed to vent a little. Sorry. I’m posting it anyway. (No, Carrie, I don’t think I’m one to reserve blogging/journaling for good moods.)

Sincerely,

Post-Partum Me

1 Month Old

Joshua turned 1 month old last week. I figured I'd do an update on how things are going.

Stats: I don't have any official stats this month, but I should have some next month, since he has a doctor's appointment. I did weigh him by weighing myself and then weighing myself while holding him, and according to our scale, he's 9.5 lbs! I know our scale isn't completely accurate, but even so, I knkow he's more than 8 lbs, which is about where he was at 2 weeks, so at least he's growing. I put him on my cloth cutting mat to measure him, and according to that, and my unprofessional opinion, he's 23 inches long, which is only 1/4 inch longer than at 2 weeks, so a) he isn't growing length-wise (yeah, right!), b) the doctor's office wasn't very accurate, or c) my measurements weren't very accurate.

Sleep: He's always been a pretty good sleeper (for a newborn). He seems to have his night and day figured out. He doesn't sleep as long, often, or deeply during the day--usually only an hour or so, tops. During the night he will sleep 3 to 5 hours straight, wake up to eat, poop, be changed, and then will go right back to sleep, unless I haven't gotten all the bubbles out. He's getting pretty good at falling asleep on his own. He'll toss and turn and grunt for a few minutes, but will eventually fall asleep if left alone.

Eat: He definitely has the hang of nursing. He never eats longer than 10 minutes. I think that has to do with how my milk supply comes. If he stops eating at all during that first 5 minutes, he gets sprayed all over his face. It's actually really funny. After he's done eating, it takes anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes to get the burps out. If he falls asleep while being burped, it usually takes longer, which means he's more unhappy about it by the time they surface.

Poop: Ok, I'll be brief about this one. He's been gassy lately, which means more fussiness, and more blowouts. I'm trying to avoid dairy products this week to see if that helps him digest better. It's going to be a long week. I'm hoping it's related to some caffeinated beverages I had last week, and not the dairy.

Other: When he's awake, he's awake. There is no in between stage for him. When he's awake during the day, I try to make sure he's mentally stimulated. I've been putting him in his cow chair. It has a vibrator on it, and when he's in it with the vibrator on, he blows lots of bubbles.

He had his first official tummy time today. He gets plenty of "tummy time" because he takes so long to burp, so he has already been developing his neck muscles. Today was his first flat-on-the-floor tummy time, proceeded by some time with the boppy pillow. We only did a few minutes of tummy time today, but here are some videos if you really want to watch them: