So, my little one has started to consolidate his poos to 1 or 2 a day, which means when he goes he REALLY goes and it's usually a blowout, ughhhh. I'm so thankful it's never happened while we're out and about (YET... *knock on wood*) but has made me start thinking what would be the worst places/situations for a blowout?! This way, when it happens to us, and you know it will, I can think of how bad it could have been...

1) During a wedding ceremony, while little one is sitting on your lap (a double whammy of embarrassment: explosion during quite intimate moment, and your & baby's dress-up attire is ruined)

2) During a huge traffic jam on the highway in a blizzard - no where to escape the stench and can't even go to the side of the road to change him!

3) In a crowded stuck elevator, like being stuck in an elevator isn't bad enough!

4) In a swimming pool. Yikes! Probably get banned for life.

5) While co-sleeping on your lovely expensive non-waterproof bedding & mattress

6) While dining at an Indian restaurant... I don't think you can finish your curry after that!

7) During ascent or descent on an airplane, you know, when you're not allowed to unbuckle for a good 20 minutes. Not that going to the bathroom would do you much good, but you can't even access the diaper bag. (I'm probably jinxing myself with this one - me and Kenzo are flying alone in May!!)

8) During the baby's baptism, in their gorgeous white gown, while the pastor is holding him or her in front of the entire congregation!

I think we can all agree it was pretty hilarious when the toddler on "Meet the Fockers" starts saying "A$$hoooooooole" (click the link for a reminder), but I don't think any of us want our kids to be running around cursing. It's like, they know when something they hear is something they shouldn't say, and then they just start repeating it 100 times a day until they find another bad word to repeat.

So, this mommy needs to clean her potty mouth right quick before Kenzo starts picking up on this stuff! It's not like every word out of my mouth is bad, but they are so instinctual at this point that I don't have much control over them! My sister and her 5 year old son came to visit last month and on several occasions I saved myself very awkwardly mid-swear by changing the last syllable... FU------N!... SHI------P! ugh. Worst auntie ever!

Any suggestions on how to cleanse my palette so to say? I've heard of swear jars, where you put a dollar in every time you say a bad word. That just might work because I am a HUGE cheapskate ^_^ On "Friends", Rachel and Ross altered their swears when Emma was getting close to speaking. Something like, "Brother Tucker". iVillage had some similar advice: “Use a substitute word, words that children hear all the time, so they don't stick out, or even if they repeat it, people would not think twice. Words like "poopie!" (instead of sh*t), "milk!" (instead of f@*k), "lunch!" (when that woman cuts you off in traffic).” And if you slip and your little one repeats the word, simply ignore it. If they're younger than 2, explaining to them that using a bad word is a no-no most likely won't get you anywhere."

The grass is always greener. Hindsight is 20/20. Yada yada yada. I'm a complainer and a yearner and I won't lie about it. I want what I want when I want it, and I might just throw myself a pity part if I can't have it my way. Maybe I'm being a bit hard on myself, I'm really not THAT bad... I mean, my hubby does call me "wagamama" endearingly(?), but that's beside the point.

As a new mama I love my baby more than life itself, but there are definitely things I miss about being pregnant, and also from before being with child. Let's review, shall we?

What I miss about being pregnant:
1) Doing what I want when I want - take a nap, sure! Stay up late and sleep in til noon, why not!
2) Not worrying about birth control or freaking out after an accident or being late
3) On the opposite end, not scientifically "trying" to get pregnant and not being completely destroyed when Aunt Flo comes to visit AGAIN (What is wrong with my body??? Can I not get pregnant???)
4) All the attention! Everyone chatting with you about the baby, oohing over your baby bump, and giving you their seat on the subway. (OK, still get tons of attention with an adorable baby in your lap, but that attention isn't all about YOU anymore).
5) This is what I probably miss the most - not having to suck in your gut! haha!! Thanksgiving at 8 months pregnant was FANTASTIC!!
6) No shower drain hair! This was a pretty great one too ^_^
7) Blaming everything on the pregnancy... I'm hungry/tired/nauseas/bitchy - fill in the blank with any adjective and it can be blamed on the baby or pregnancy hormones! Your excuse for anything: I'm growing a life damnit, gimme a break!

What I miss about before being preggo, while being preggo:
1) Eating and drinking what I wanted without having to think about it effecting a growing baby. Never knew I could be so concerned over a piece of chocolate or cup of coffee or sip of wine. I'm breastfeeding, so the concerns and guilt continue!
2) Being able to put on lace up shoes or boots without sitting down in a chair and lots of huffing and puffing.
3) Sleeping on my back. Man, I got the worst hip pains and had the worst sleep through the pregnancy - I'd sleep on the left side bout an hour til it cramped up, then get up and pee, then sleep on the right side bout an hour til it cramped up, then get up and pee, and repeat all night long...

So, what's on your miss-list??

So, hubby returned from a business trip and I was all excited with my new pumping skills to let him give Kenzo his first bottle. I feel that feeding time is one of the most wonderful bonding times with baby and definitely a highlight of each and every day for me. Sure, the first few weeks were pretty hellish, but now there is zero pain, and we've both got down what to do, and it's just so sweet to see him chugging away, then stop and look up and smile at me, then nestle back in and drink some more. Awwwww it's just so precious!! So, of course I was super psyched to let daddy get in on the action. Saturday morning I pumped and poured the fresh milk into a bottle. We got hubby settled on the couch with a boppy pillow and baby laying on top, and handed dad the bottle. He tipped it over and milk came streaming out of the nipple. We both went "WHAT?!?!" like, is that supposed to happen??? So, I thought maybe the nipple was bad, so I found 2 other bottles/nipples and filled them with water and tipped them over, same thing - stream of water! We both thought nothing should come out until the baby sucked, so we were both a little freaked that he would choke on it, but finally decided to go ahead with it.

Kenzo kinda gnawed at the nipple, and would suck every once in a while. But there was a small leak where the top screwed onto the bottle, and between that and what spilled out of his mouth when gnawing, his top was completely covered in milk. He was not having it with the bottle. And apparently dear hubby wasn't so thrilled either... "My neck hurts"... "This is boring"... "I'd rather watch him on your boob" - LOL!!! After a while, he'd only gotten 1 ounce out of the bottle (but most on his shirt probably). In the end, we decided it's not worth the bother. I'll continue to pump and freeze on occasion, just to have some on hand. And I'll try some other nipples to see if he'll take any of them, because it'd be nice to have bottle feeding as an option just in case, you know, cuz I might wanna go out and get sloshed or something ^_^ Yeah right! I think those days are long behind me now...

With the obesity rates of adults and children on the rise, screen time is a big issue that has come up recently. As a child, I don't remember ever having limits set on screen time, but I do remember equally enjoying running/biking around outside and playing our educational Texas Instruments video games. The PC got invented and internet wasn't really a big thing until, gosh, high school? And cell phones, well, didn't have one of those til college! Suffice it to say the world I was raised in and the one I'm raising Kenzo in are two different ball games!

Go anywhere these days and you'll see toddlers playing games on their mom's cell phone, kids playing video games or glued to the tube, teenagers texting til they get carpel tunnel (seriously, it's a thing!). If it has a screen with entertaining stuff moving about on it, the kids want to watch it! But is it healthy? I guess it can be, to some extent. But there is a time and a place for it. Using the TV as a babysitter, well, it's gotta be done from time to time, but can be a dangerous habit to fall into.

Kenzo is only 3 months and already getting accidental screen time - when he's on the play mat and the TV is on, he'll crank his neck so that he can see the TV, even if it's on mute! If he's sitting on my lap and I'm trying to finish up an e-mail or check Facebook, he's looking at the screen intently. We skype my parents and sister both once a week, and he's pretty captivated with that already, too! Now he's too young to really understand about what he can and can't have or do, but that will develop soon and hubby and I have to sit down and figure out how to handle restricting screen time, sweets, etc etc.

In an ideal world, I'd say no screen time for the 1st 2 years, and after that only 30 minutes a day of educational TV, like sesame street. But who am I kidding?? Internet, TV, movies - these are HUGE in my life, and to limit screen time for my kid also means limiting it for myself. Yikes. Things just got real...

Well, I did it! I pumped!! I didn't feel as bovine as I expected. It was pretty weird, but not uncomfortable and actually very cool and enlightening! When baby is latched on and drinking, you really have no idea what's going on, how much he's getting, at what rate, etc. You get an idea when he pops off and you are squirting all over his face and the sofa, but that's a rare occasion ^_^ With the pump, you can see the whole process! Seeing your nipple in action being "milked" through the gadget, ewwwwww, weirdness! But seeing the milk dripping or spewing out and filling up the container, neat-o!

I just did one side this morning, quickly filling up the 4 ounce container and definitely could have done more but didn't want to bother with hooking up to a new container. Actually seeing how much milk actually comes out has also made me feel better in regard to Kenzo's occasional regurgitation right after feeding. He sometimes spits up what looks to be a whole lot of milk! But now, I'm kinda laughing at myself. Now that I know he's guzzling 5+ ounces per feeding, no wonder he sometimes overflows! Poor guy!

I decided to freeze today's milk, and am planning to do this once or twice a day for a while til we have a good stock pile. Who knows, maybe I'll really go for it and donate? I read breastmilk is only good frozen for about 2 weeks, is that right? I would have expected much longer.

Another result of today's pumping, I finally got to take a sip of my own milk. TOTALLY weirded out by this and have been contemplating doing it for the past 3 months. Never had. I mean, come on, it's my bodily fluids. Gross!! Yes, it is meant for drinking, but still, doesn't seem right. But, I filled up 2 of the storage containers and had a bit left over and it was just sitting there staring at me saying "Come on. You know you want to! Just drink me...." and I took a wee little sip. Probably one of those in your head things, but yuck. Was sweet, but watery. Perhaps if someone gave me a glass and told me it was rice milk or whatever I'd say yum? Maybe I'll try that on hubby! haha!!

Since getting Kenzo on his schedule at around 7 weeks old, he's been sleeping longer and longer at night. Now he's up to 8-9 hours of consecutive sleep, and since I usually put him to bed just 30 minutes or so before I hit the hay myself, I'm ready to start my day when he wakes up to feed. It's soooooo nice to say goodbye to those middle of the night feeds. Let me tell you! Sure, I found ways to make them more bearable - at the beginning I would watch our Friends DVDs, then I switched to reading the "Babywise" sleep training book and "What to Expect the 1st Year" and oh yeah, "50 Shades of Grey" - that really made the time fly by haha! But still, waking up in the middle of the night you really feel like a zombie! And it's not like it's just stick your boob in there and your done. Oh no, it was wake up, pee, un-swaddle the little one, change him, feed him, burp him, swaddle him, bounce him back to sleep - the process took about an hour during the 1st month! As he got older he drank quicker and began holding his business in and didn't need a change, and sometimes didn't need help getting back to sleep. But now, to have that all behind us (hopefully) is really really awesome!!!

As he started sleeping 7+ hours a night, I would wake up to extremely engorged milk monsters (one time they soaked through the nursing pads, bra, shirt, and soaked the sheets! yikes!!). But it seems they've been getting adjusted to the longer nights just as Kenzo has been extending his. This morning I woke up after 8 hours of sleep and he wasn't up yet. So, I waited. I eventually woke him up when he got to 9 and a half hours. This sounds like a dream right? But there are 2 sides to everything... I'm a little nervous as to whether going so long will begin to have a negative impact on my milk supply. The "Babywise" book says not to go longer than 9 hours at this age (3 months) because of the effect on your supply. But what if Kenzo wants to sleep ten, eleven, or TWELVE (please!!!) hours? Perhaps it's time to finally break out the breast pump I got for free from my insurance company. I really didn't want to use it, but, I guess I should just suck it up and give it a whirl. Silver lining, hubby can get a chance to feed Kenzo and experience that special bond that only I've shared with the baby so far!

Our little one has had cradle cap for a while now, at least a month, and while it's not a terrible case it still looks pretty gross if you get up close. It's reptilian looking, very scaly, but at least it's not ooey gooey like I've heard some kids' get it. I googled it and while there seem to be some home remedy things you can do with olive oil or dandruff shampoo, they seem more trouble than they're worth and I haven't bothered yet.

But today, we went to our usual Babies & Books class at the library and he was sitting in my lap for half an hour and I was just staring down at his scaly head DYING to pick at it. I know I know, terrible mother!! Low and behold, the second we got home I went at it. I had a field day - it was similar to when you peel your dead sunburned skin, you know how fun that is! haha!! Unfortunately, a bit of hair came out with the scales, so he's a wee bit balder than before, and I reckon that hair was gonna come out soon anyway cuz it obviously wasn't still rooted inside the scalp, and I got rid of quite a lot of the ickiness. Now we'll just have to see if it comes back or not. If it stays clear, then I'll probably have at the remainder of it ^_^ Fun times in mommyland.

Thankfully he hasn't gotten any kind of diaper rash (yet - knock on wood!!). He does get random red patches of dryness occasionally (especially on his left cheek and across the forehead) - I'm not sure if that's baby eczema, I really hope not but at least we have an expert in the family!! I'm really dreading the teething that is certain to start in the next month or two...