5 months old

Mason has hit the 5 month mark and boy did that ever feel like a long time. I love being a mommy but it is funny that when you are flat out exhausted a lot of people's response is "enjoy them while you can because time flies."

Time has not flown by and I don't think I will ever enjoy a lack of sleep. 

What I do enjoy is how alert and active our little man is! He can smile and laugh at us, coo and hold our hands (or hair if you are mom), and he is discovering how to sit up and roll onto his tummy lots!

We can take him more places because he doesn't need to nap every hour and he can actually somewhat participate in things now. We just returned from a trip to California to visit my parents and I was super excited to introduce him to lots of my high school and college friends. Mason was able to meet many of his adopted "aunties" and I was able to get in some much needed friend time. 

Now we are back home and gearing up for winter, the nice warm sunny days of summer are slowly disappearing and now 55 and windy seems to be the norm, I am in no rush for winter but Pumpkin Spice Lattes and scarves make me one happy girl. I am super excited for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and CHRISTMAS! Let's be real here, I have already listened to a few Christmas songs. Don't judge. I love the season and feel like summer just doesn't have enough holidays. 

(Side note- I am pretty sure my posts are all out of order so he really is 5 months old on October 16th, not sure why they rearranged themselves. My computer skills rival that of a chipmunk) 

With so many family events coming up we are going to have to juggle our holiday schedule and Masons nap schedule - which honestly makes me a bit nervous but hopefully things will go smoothly! 

Never having to set an alarm - except for nap time

Now that I am thoroughly behind on these and Mason is almost 3 months old (!!!) I figure I better update everyone on being a new mommy.

As I re-read many of my previous posts it feels like forever ago that we were having so many new struggles and I was so so stressed out. I would start crying at the drop of a hat because of the hormonal changes and also because I knew that if Mason was not crying now he would be crying later. I realize that I had a constant sense of foreboding that lurked in my days and prevented me from actually enjoying my son.

Now I know that we are both so much happier and all of my hard work with sleep training paid off in a big way. Mason will still fuss before some naps but for the most part - I lay him down in his crib with his nook, he wiggles to get comfortable and shuts his eyes and goes to sleep. It. Is. Awesome.
AND bedtime and nights are so predictable! Jake and I have a bedtime routine - we wash Masons face, read to him from his bedtime prayer book, I sing a song to him, and off to dreamland he goes. He sleeps all night, usually only waking up once to eat and even if I put him back to bed wide awake he will close his little eyes and go back to sleep (sometimes he chats with himself for a minute, it's pretty cute).

I feel so much more rested and we are on such a good schedule that I never need to set an alarm anymore, Mason just knows when to wake up.

I still take a nap with Mason in the morning, and try to get as much done as possible during his other naps but I feel like I can relax and not worry about the impending possibility of a crying baby. If he cries we can work through it. Usually with a swaddle, a nook, and some sensory deprivation. Basically you wrap him up sung, give him something to suck on and cover his eyes and bam he is out, but I do have to rock him during this time - which I usually don't mind doing. This happens about once a week - otherwise his naps have been like clockwork.

In other news, Mason smiles and giggles! His little laugh is so adorable and sometimes he smiles so big that his little eyes basically close. Super heart melting.

He has a favorite toy that he smiles at and is slowly learning to hold things in his hands. Mostly because mommy opens his hand and puts them there, he has not quite mastered picking things up on his own yet.

He can roll over from his stomach to his back and we are working on getting him to roll the other way, because if by chance he rolls over during nap time he finds it hard to fall back asleep and mom has to come in and flip him back over (this rarely happens, knock on wood!).

Our little guy is growing fast and is almost 13 pounds! We have had to retire quite a few little outfits but it is always fun to pull out a new one - although it is a rare occasion when an outfit goes more than a few hours without being christened by spit up. or other substances. Still, new things are fun and we are in for a whole lot of new things in the next few months and years to come!

Mama Mia out!

1 Month Old

Mason is a month old! Everyone told me time would fly but honestly I felt like the chaos of having a newborn slowed things down a bit. A lot of it is still a sleep deprived blur but it does not feel like we brought home home from the hospital yesterday. Especially since I feel like I have not been more than 20 feet away from him since he was born - and if we are being real for the past ten months we have been attached. True that.

My first trip without Mason was to CVS, so exciting! But for real. Jake was giving Mason a bottle (woop woop!) and I was able to leave the house for the first time in a month without the baby in tow. It. Was. Awesome. and it was also 20 minutes. Granted the trip was short but it was still thrilling, I love Mason but every once in a while it was nice not to have to pack diapers, extra outfits, nooks, his rocker, and his car seat up.

In other news, Mason has started to sleep through the night more! Our schedule has paid off and naps and bed time are becoming more predictable - although he still has his little episodes of crying. I think I got a full 6 hours of sleep last night - I felt so rested today. We have also started to establish a bedtime routine - we read three bedtime prayer poems, sing a few songs, swaddle the little man and off to bed he goes! This will hopefully help him to understand that after this pattern happens it is time for sleeping (and not playing or crying), so far we have only done it twice so I do not think he is used to it quite yet, but it only takes a few days to establish a routine right? Good thing we have plenty of time.

And that is what I need to keep reminding myself. I have time and tomorrow is a new day. This is a constant struggle that I have been having - the feeling of being rushed, mostly with Mason. I have to keep reminding myself that I do not need to hurry or try to speed things up, he will only be this little for a very short time and while I am looking forward to him being able to sit up on his own, laugh with mommy and daddy, and eat solid foods, I do not want to forget the little faces he makes while sleeping or his first smile or the first time he took a bottle. All of the memories that I will store up from this stage will be just as precious as the memories I will store up from his next stage which is why there is no need to rush things.

Mama Mia out.

The Nap Cycle

Mason has been crying less and less during nap time and that is an amazing feeling because listening to my little man cry is not fun. But he still has his moments of tears, and so does mommy. So sometimes I just need to mow the lawn. 

It is not really mowing the lawn that calms me down but the distraction from a crying baby that helps. Jake stays inside to make sure Mason is okay and I head out to the back yard and just listen to music and the incredibly loud mower. Or I take a shower, which is good because realistically some new mommies do not get a chance to shower everyday. Or I run the not quite half full dishwasher and it is just loud enough to distract me and keep my kitchen clean at the same time. 

In the previous few days I have kept myself distracted by cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming the house (which actually put Mason to sleep), mowing part of our yard, and finding anything else that makes a good amount of noise. Feel free to make more suggestions! 

Mason is learning that nap time means sleep, and he needs his sleep. It is a vicious cycle if he doesn't get a good nap in - first he starts to fall asleep while eating and he doesn't get a full feeding in, next he gets crabby because he is tired, then we put him down for a nap and he wakes up early because he didn't get enough food he gets even more fussy but is so tired he falls asleep while eating. So if we get in a good feeding and a good nap that leads to another good feeding and an even better nap! But consistency is key as we have had a bit of trouble being consistent so far, we will be working on that over the next few days!

My next goal, besides getting Mason not to cry during nap time, is to find a way to fit some form of working out into my day. Mostly I am thinking I will try relearning all of the line dancing and two stepping I have forgotten and just distract myself with the music. It has to be something that I can do while in the house because Jake goes back to work tomorrow. Not cool. And let's be honest bringing a baby to the gym sounds like a bad stressful idea - No one wants to sit on an elliptical next to a crying mom and a crying baby. Especially the crying mom part, crying babies are more socially acceptable. 

Everyone says it only gets better and by week 6 we will be in more of a rhythm. For now we will trusting God, crying a bit, and praying every chance we get! 

Mama Mia out. 

The Human Vending Machine

Breastfeeding. Woah, I went there. For those of you who are not comfortable with this topic feel free to skip it!

Most moms I know are willing to talk about it, listen to me talk about it, AND talk with me while I am doing it - they even sit in the same room as me. Woohoo!

But as far as I can tell, these feelings are not shared with the rest of the population. So every three hours if we are out of our own home I end up in an upstairs room, isolated from everyone for about 35 minutes. It's super fun. Not. 

Truthfully, I am not going to feed my child in the middle of church or a restaurant, I am not exactly comfortable pulling out the girls in public, but even if I do end up in a back room somewhere - it is nice to have company. My husband has been great about coming upstairs and keeping me somewhat entertained but I can tell that he gets bored pretty quickly. Especially when he knows he is missing out on the conversation about the next camping trip or someone's new putter (it's a golf thing, so I do not partake in those conversations). 

This is why I am super excited for two things in the future. Number 1: I have a few mommy friends who are also breastfeeding so when we get together we can sit and feed our little ones together! No awkward questions like "where are you going" or "why are you taking the baby away?" Just some mommies feeding their little ones chatting about onesies, spit up, and babies. 

And number 2: when I finally build up a good milk supply, we can introduce Mason to a bottle! I am currently trying to pump about twice a day to store up milk for the future which makes me feel like a human vending machine. Once I have a bit stored up not only will mommy be able to stay in the same room as everyone else but daddy, grandma, or basically anyone else can feed him instead of me. Super pumped about that. Pun intended.  

But until those days arrive I will just be sitting here. Feeding Mason. All by myself. And of course my iPhone, which I write basically all of these posts on. 

Mama Mia out. 

When Mom cries it out.

Having a baby is hard. It really is the most difficult thing I have ever done in my entire life. Seriously. Labor was a tea party compared to the first few weeks of sleepless frustrating messy unpredictable days and nights. And while it is slowly getting better, I feel like relief is never going to arrive. 

Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to have a child. I often find myself wondering what his first words will be, who will be his first crush (not until he is 40), what sports or instruments he will play, and where he will go to college. BUT those moments seem like eternity away and way to close all at the same time. 

For now we are still working on getting Mason to fall asleep on his own and let me tell you. Ugh. I never knew one baby had that much of an ability to cry. And that I had the ability to cry this much either. I am seriously surprised we have not flooded the house yet, or at least the nursery. 

Baby-Wise is the system that we are following and so far it has been great to get Mason on a feeding schedule, that way I can tell when he is hungry or if he is crying for another reason. Now we are onto establishing a good sleep routine and teaching the little guy to be able to fall asleep on his own, very important if mommy and daddy ever want to get a good night sleep again. The downside is listening to him cry. And cry. And cry. 

We check on him about every ten minutes to make sure he is not too hot or cold, is still in a clean diaper, and to make sure he is not hungry (he gets hungrier when going through a growth spurt). Basically he calms down when we walk in the room and as soon as we leave he cries like there is no tomorrow. And then I cry like there is no tomorrow. And Jake sits with me until I am no longer in tears. 

This is supposedly only supposed to last a few days until he grasps the habit of falling asleep on his own but a few days?! This mommy is not sure she can handle that. Thank goodness for my husband who reassures me about every 4 minutes that I am not a bad mother and crying just for the sake of crying is not harming our little one. 

I have found that one amazing side affect of this stage of life is that my prayer life has improved immensely. I find myself unable to plan or control 98% of the things going on - which I am fairly used to doing - but now I have to rely on not only my husband more but we together have to rely on God. I probably pray about 20 times a day just asking for the ability to just make it through the day. 

My favorite part is that at the end of the day, the last thing Jake and I do is pray over our son. We crawl into bed, after putting Mason to sleep at 10 (a time which he does not cry, hooray), and we hold hands and pray for our little boy. It has been one of the most encouraging parts of my day and I would not give that up for the world. 

With all of our friends, our family, and God, Jake and I know we have an amazing support system in raising Mason to be a young man of God. But - it is always nice to have a few extra prayers thrown our way so keep us in your thoughts (keep all new parents in your thoughts), we would really appreciate any help we can get - especially the prayer kind! 

Mama Mia out.

The Triple Threat

I am no stranger to changing diapers, working at a daycare in college and babysitting prepared me to be able to change a diaper in about 20 seconds flat. My husband on the other hand is pretty new at this skill but he has stepped up to the plate and has changed just as many diapers as I have. I'm so proud.

 

One thing that he was not expecting though was the triple threat. Mason had recently eaten and needed to be changed so he was passed off to Jake in order to be burped and receive a new diaper. While Jake was mid diaper change Mason started to spit up, then he started to pee, and to top it all off he apparently was not quite done filling his diaper as Jake discovered. 

Jake let out a frantic little "hunny!" and I could not stop laughing. I made my way into Masons room to find my two boys in a bit of a flurry so I grabbed a new diaper, wiped the baby down and tried not to laugh to much. 

Now whenever Jake hears Mason fill his diaper he waits a few minutes to make sure that there will be no surprises mid-nude-baby. We have still both been peed on and being covered in spit up is no rare occasion but I am happy to report that no more poo has made its way out of the diaper and onto either of us. Lets hope it stays that way for a while. Or forever, I'm not picky. 

Mason Daniel

On Thursday, May 16th at 10:22 in the morning Jake and I welcomed our little Mason Daniel into the world.

He weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces, was 20 inches long, and received 9 and 9 on his APGAR scores. We were so proud.
 
Although it has only been a week, the little guy has already stolen our sleep and our sanity - but mostly our hearts. We are so in love with the little Mason and cannot wait to see the plans God has for him in the future, but for now we are just trying to stay sane - especially this brand new mommy.

I was warned about the sleepless nights, the demands of an infant and the crazy hormones, but the combination of all of these is way way more overwhelming than I ever imagined. Thank goodness for my husband and our family. Jake seems to have a better grasp on his sanity, but his hormones are not on a wild roller coaster ride. Either way, I feel so blessed that he can be home for another two weeks so we can adjust to having a new family member and mommy can feel a little bit more like herself before he returns to work. 

As far as our son goes, Mason is a wonderful baby boy! He is healthy and doing what all babies do in the first few weeks. Sleep. Eat. Poop. Fuss when getting a diaper change. Be adorable. And sleep some more. You would think with all that sleeping mommy and daddy would be sleeping too. Not so much. I think that is why God made babies so cute, because realistically if he acted this way and was not so gosh darn smile inducing there may have been a problem. 

We are working our way towards some semblance of a schedule by following 'On Becoming Baby Wise' - well mostly following it. This book was recommended to us by multiple parents and although we have not seen the results in our own little one we have seen how happy, healthy, and well rested the other families and little ones are and I am super pumped to put it into practice in our home.

I was super skeptical about Baby Wise at first. Once I actually took the time to read the book (and not just the anti-baby wise content on google) I realized that it made a lot of sense and would not only help to provide stability for me and Jake but also for our little Mason. Who will hopefully be sleeping through the night by the time he is 8 weeks old. Finger crossed.

I will keep updating and posting on how our journey into parenthood is going! Hopefully I will be better at posting because once a month is not enough. Maybe this will become my distraction to keep me awake during those 1am feedings - at least that is what I am hoping for. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Mama Mia out. 

3 Weeks to D-Day!

We are so so close to our due date that we may be meeting Little E any day now! My doctor says he has "dropped" (basically he is getting ready for the big event) which means it could be this afternoon or it could still be a few weeks.

Jake and I were able to get in to a couple classes about newborn care and the whole birth process during these last few weeks and I highly recommend taking a class! They were very informative and it was pretty funny watching all the dads in the class learning how to swaddle and diaper a baby - well worth sitting through a few videos that leave nothing to the imagination. One of the best parts of the class was that the teacher shared massage and relaxation techniques with the dads that they can use for the new mamas during labor, I approve. I thought that the classes might scare me a little bit because in movies - lets be real here - giving birth looks like basically the most pain anyone could possibly be in ever. After watching some of the videos however, I was pleasantly surprised, having a baby looks like no walk in the park but they are not exactly how the movies show them. Thank goodness.

The house is basically baby ready, even if mommy and daddy may not be, we have even stocked up on diapers, wipes, installed our car seat and packed for the hospital. I am hoping that I packed all of the right things but I have never had a baby before so I went on Pinterest and looked at about 12 lists and packed the common things. I am pretty sure I over packed - but I would rather have a few too many tubes of toothpaste rather than walk around with morning breath. After we get back from the hospital I will post the things I actually used, and what was completely unnecessary, like maybe that second tube of toothpaste.

Due Date: May 11th 2013
Baby Boy Names: Mason, Cole, or Charlie
Pregnancy Symptoms: Heartburn - constant heartburn no matter what I eat, sleepless nights, and pelvis discomfort - this ones real fun. I bought a workout ball to sit on and that helps to ease the pressure on my hips. And it is pretty fun to bounce on.
Cravings: Everything gives me heartburn so Tums are on the cravings list. Just not the green ones. Eww.
Weight Gain: If I am being honest I have no idea, mostly because I cannot see the scale anymore - but my doctor says I am still on track so that's good.

7 weeks away!

My wonderful husband bought me plane tickets out to California for my birthday so now I am happily sitting in sunny LA on my Baby-cation. Kind of like a vacation but you can't leave the kids with Grandma this time. I am super excited to see all of my friends because the last time I saw half of them was over a year ago and I wasn't even married yet! Now I am mere months away from becoming a mommy and I am super pumped that they can be a part of it.

We are 7 weeks away from our due date (yikes) and that means we could be meeting our little man very soon!! Especially if he is an early bird like his mommy… or he could take after his daddy and be late for almost everything. Maybe he will get the best of both worlds and be right on time, wishful thinking maybe?

We finally got a crib and a dresser and a rocking chair and I am stressing a lot less these days! It is so nice to feel prepared, even if we really have no idea what we are in for. I have even made some fun little pictures for the wall in our little boys room, and I am going to start working on a crib mobile for the little guy to look at while he drifts peacefully off to sleep. Of course, in true Maria fashion, most of my ideas came from Pinterest.

On to the pregnancy -

One of the results of being so close to my due date is the heartburn, yay, Tums have been my best friend lately. Jake, being the lovable hubby that he is, started laughing at me when I told him we were out of Tums - we weren't really out, I had just picked through and eaten all the flavors I liked. The only ones left were lime and cherry. Gross. So I resorted to eating some almonds and an apple (which also helps ease heartburn) until I can go to the store and pick up some acceptable flavors.

On the upside - my cousins threw a baby shower for me this past weekend and it was so so fun! We played some really funny games and I was overwhelmingly blessed by the advice and gifts I received for my little man. I am so lucky to have so many people who love Little E already, he is one spoiled kid!

Due Date: May 11th 2013
Baby Boy Names: Mason, Cole or Charlie with the middle name of Daniel.
Pregnancy Symptoms: Heartburn, swollen feet (yuck) and constant kicks and punches.
Cravings: Anything that won't give me heartburn.
Weight Gain: weight gain has slowed down a bit but our little guy weighs almost 5 pounds now!

Trimester Three!

I am officially in my third trimester and we are counting down the days until we meet our little man! And all of these unwelcome pregnancy symptoms go away!

I am starting to feel like a bit of a giant blob of slightly under solidified jello - great picture right? I know that I will only be getting more and more like a beached whale over the next three months but still - carrying around this extra weight is proving to be a unique new hurdle every day. I find that the easiest way to get dressed every morning looks a lot like the truffle shuffle.

Not to mention the heartburn - and as someone who has never had heartburn before in my life this is a whole new world of fun. Tums have become a permanent addition to my nightly routine, at least they taste good! So for now I will be watching what I eat and packing in the tums and water!

Due Date: May 11th 2013
Baby Boy Names: Mason, Cole or Charlie
Pregnancy Symptoms: Heartburn and a lot of kicks in the ribs
Cravings: Banana bars and cottage cheese
Weight Gain: up to 140! Right on track and the little man is the size of a cauliflower.

Hospital visits and contractions

So this past weekend Jake and I had the pleasure of going to a wedding in Michigan for the now Mr and Mrs Kiel, I think it was my first time to Michigan and it was nice to get away from the cold in Minnesota (I think when I woke up this morning it was 2' degrees outside). Brandon has been a good friend of Jake's for years and he was honored to be a groomsman in Brandon's wedding, so we made a drive out to Michigan for the weekend! 

The wedding was fabulous and so fun - but when we returned I discovered that I had developed a urinary tract infection (UTI), not fun. Apparently UTI's are a bit more common in pregnancy, maybe because of the crazy hormone imbalance but who knows. Basically the infection led me to be super sick, and I thought that I was done losing my cookies during this pregnancy, and I ended up in the hospital. 

Poor Jake had to drive me to a doctors appointment and take off work and then after work he had to take me into the Labor and Delivery department so they could drug me up. We were there for about five hours and they pumped me full of two bags of fluids, 1 bag of some drug for the infection AND a muscle relaxer for the contractions - Yep, contractions. 

Since I am medically challenged I am going to explain this like my doctor did - the uterus is a muscle and basically during any time of my pregnancy it can contract, which is not a bad thing. For the most part most women do not feel these contractions because they are not labor contractions but just the muscle being a muscle. So my contractions were not me going into labor but just my lovely muscle freaking out about the pain I was in (caused by the dehydration), so fun. 

Long story short I am much better and on horse pill antibiotics and I am no longer in pain! Yay! The doctor also said that the little man is blissfully unaware of how much pain his mommy is in, as far as he is concerned his little cozy home is still a great place to hang out and practice his somersaults and punches. 

Due Date: May 11th, 2013 - take a guess if he will be early or late!

Baby Boy names: Mason Daniel Eklund or Cole Daniel Eklund (I also like Charlie, I think it is adorable)

Losing my cookies/pregnancy symptoms: barfed a couple of times and the little mans kicks and jabs are still quite an odd sensation to get used to. 

Cravings: I got my donuts from last week! and I am back to cottage cheese and potato salad

Weight Gain: still on track for the 3-4 pounds a month, gaining the weight is not hard but carrying it around is beginning to take its toll on my back. 

Halfway Done

We get to meet our little man in about 15 weeks and I am getting so excited - and frantic! We have slowly been working on getting the house ready for our new little one and so far all we have is stroller. Yikes. i feel like we are missing a few essentials - like maybe a crib, and clothing. Maybe a few more things as well.

In the next few weeks I am hoping to find a cute dresser and some decorations for Little E's room! For a room theme I have chosen hardware and tools, I thought it was a cute idea for a little boy. Although it may not work, I am hoping to find a blue tool chest and use it as a dresser and a changing table, and when the little man is grown up he can actually use it for tools and not diapers!

Due Date: May 11th, 2013 - it will be interesting to see if he is early or late!
Baby Boys name options: Right now we are thinking Mason or Cole with a middle name of Daniel
Losing my cookies/pregnancy side effects: no getting sick but the little man kicks so much that sometimes he kicks me in the bladder or the ribs - not so comfortable.
Cravings: Donuts. Old Fashioned Donuts.
Weight Gain: The holidays kicked me into high gear and I am now right on track for weight gain!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Pregnancy

It is officially a BOY!

On December 26th I was able to go in for an ultrasound with my mother in tow. We watched the little man wiggle around for about 25 minutes while the Doctor took measurements and lots of pictures so we have great images of his little features.

Jacob did not come with me because he wanted to be surprised, so after the appointment I went out and bought a little Minnesota Vikings jersey and Vikings socks and gave them to him in a gift later that day. He was pretty excited to show off his new gift to all of his friends and family but he had to wait a little while since we had not told anyone else yet.

Since my family Christmas had not happened yet I decided to bake some cupcakes and fill them with blue frosting and see who catches on. It took a while for some people in my family to figure out what the blue meant but it was still fun.

Our next step is to start finding baby supplies for the little mans room, our plan right now is to build our own round crib - this may not happen but I have my fingers crossed! for a room theme I have chosen tools and hardware, Pinterest has been an excellent source of ideas even though some are quite unrealistic (I can dream right?)



Due Date: May 11th, 2013
Baby's Gender: Little Boy
Losing my cookies: Not lately!
Cravings: Eggnog and holiday cookies, but that may just be the holidays.
Weight Gain: Catching up in the weight gain, baby boy weighs about a pound (imagine four sticks of butter) and I look very pregnant now!