Mama's Freedom: Thanks Tommee Tippee!

Ethan and I are going on 9+ weeks strong of exclusively breastfeeding and it's going really well. I started pumping a couple of weeks in, just kind of whenever I wanted to, or especially when he was starting to sleep in longer stretches to relieve engorgement. I've already got a bigger stash than I had with Braden so I was really excited to try the Tommee Tippee bottles with Ethan to see if he would take a bottle!

Tommee Tippee sent me one of each of their 5 oz and an 9 oz Closer to Nature bottles. The product features are:

• Nipple mimics natural feel, flex and movement of breastfeeding
• Allows for easy transition between breast and bottle
• Wide neck nipple for easier latch on
• Anti-colic, anti-gas, advanced easi-vent™ valve
• BPA free and phthalate compliant
• Graduations in mls and ounces
• Hygiene cap seals the nipple for travel

I waited until he turned 6 weeks exactly as I really wanted to establish good breastfeeding first. He had taken a pacifier the week before, so I was really hopeful that he would take a bottle. Jay was really busy that week and I wanted him to have a bottle during the day, so I gave it to him myself. I wasn't sure if he would take "fake" food from the person who provides him with the "goods"...but...

Ta da! Maybe it's because Big Brother was feeding him he didn't notice me that much? I highly recommend these bottles! The thing I love most about them...the nipple actually looks like a breast. A silicone breast...but a breast! The "neck" of the nipple is wide like a breast and not short and stubby like other brands. When he eats from his bottles it looks like he's actually breastfeeding with a good latch and he uses the same sucking motions and he's not just "nipple" feeding like I imagine it might be with how some other brand's nipples look.

These bottles are really easy to take apart and clean and we'll definitely not be needing to try any other brand! Ethan has moved beautifully from the breast to the bottle and back again! Mama's very happy to have some freedom whenever I need it! It's really nice for Daddy to participate in the odd feedings too!

Connect with Tommee Tippee 

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I received these products free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not compensated in any other way, all opinions on this blog are my own.

Ethan is 2 Months Old!

What?! And Christmas is only 9 days away. Okay time..."whatever".
Hooray! Look who doesn't mind to sit up now! I cannot comprehend how fast these littles grow in the first year! HOW!!


Weight: 11 lbs 14 oz
Length: 22.5"
Head: 38.5 cm

He gained another pound in 3 weeks! I have a feeling he'll be plateauing from now on!

Clothing

• The newborn stuff has officially been retired as of 7 weeks
• He outgrew his newborn diapers and fits the smallest setting of our small FuzziBunz well!
• I've started putting the millions of Robeez crib shoes I own on him, especially because they help keep socks on him!
• Mostly he wears jammies. Why not? We're home most often and he spits so much it's just easier to change
• He's in 3 month Carter's, Old Navy, and Pekkle...but he won't be in the sleepers much longer!

Eating/Breastfeeding

• Very well still. I don't keep track of how often, during the day it's every 3ish hours I'd say  
• He eats very efficiently and still cluster feeds about once per week, and that's usually when he has a monster stretch of sleep!
• My mastitis has cleared up and I have a few days of antibiotics left! Please God, don't let that ever happen again!
• He is still very spitty. Probably spittier than Braden ever was. But? He's not bothered by it in the least and he's (clearly) gaining enough weight! Some days he'll hardly spit at all, then others he'll seem to spit up everything I fed him the whole day and night...but obviously he doesn't. I keep praying he won't be bothered by it and that he'll outgrow this sooner than later

Sleeping 

• Still in his cradle, though it seems smaller every day and has gotten his arm between the slats and he doesn't like that very much! As soon as the crib bedding arrives, we'll put up the crib for him
• He's up, unfortunately, at 5-5:30 every morning without failure. I need to figure out how to reset his alarm much later! I suppose it will come!
• He's up anywhere from 2-3 hours and then he's down for a nap. We have been stuck in the 45 minute nap, but sometimes he'll surprise me and nap for 2+ hours
• The rest of the day is eating/sleeping as per usual baby routine
• Bedtime is 6:30-7:30 and I can't believe he has settled into this early bedtime routine already! Braden at this age (because I had to check) was going to bed around 10! I didn't have anything to do with it. A couple of weeks ago he started having long evening "naps" of 3-4 hours...so I figured he was telling me that was indeed bedtime and not one final nap!
• He has a long stretch of anywhere from 4 hours to his longest of 8.5+ hours. He's done 8+ hour stretches twice and they're oooooooooh so nice!
• Then it takes me about 1/2 hour to change, feed, & settle him and it's almost like clock work that he'll sleep 2.5 hours. The odd time he'll sleep 3-4 hours, but it's usually the 2.5 hour stretch which often brings us to the 5:00 wake time.
• Technically I'm only getting up with him once per night...but since we get up so early it feels like twice!
• I reeeeeeeeeeally hope he starts sleeping past 5! I'm very gracious for the long stretch of sleep, but the early wake up calls are just killer. I don't function well before 7AM

 Milestones

• Smiles! Started at 6 weeks to the day and he hasn't stopped
• Cooing! Just started last week and I don't think giggles are too far behind
• Slept 8 hours 40 minutes. Technically this is "sleeping through the night" but it doesn't feel like it when he slept from 6:30 - 3ish!  
• Taking a bottle of Mommy's milk very well for the first time! (FREEEEEEDOMMMM!!!)
• Babysat for the first time by Poppy. Mommy & Daddy went to the dinner theatre for the matinee show and left you for almost 5 hours! You took your bottle and slept for 2.5 hours!

Ethan is still the gruntiest baby you've ever met. I think he's even embarrassed Grandma in church with his loud grunts! ;) He likes his car seat still and sleeps everywhere we go, which makes trips with the two of them so much less stressful for me! He love, love, loves his play mat and happily kicks away listening to his music for up to an hour, it's lovely!

This last month we also asked our friends Samantha & Vince to be Ethan's Godparents and they said yes! It's very special to me that they said yes, especially because Samantha has known Ethan since the minute he was born, literally. She took all the lovely L&D pics for us! We'll have Ethan dedicated sometime in the spring when the weather is (usually) predictably nicer for my family that has to travel.

 
Ethan, you fit into this family absolutely perfectly and are such a blessing to us! I just love this baby so so so much. He is the happiest little baby...and will guaranteed be a goof just like the rest of us!

The Curse of the 45 Minute Nap

It's baaaaa-aaack. Already? The 45 minute nap reared it's ugly face so soon into our lives again. Ethan is just 8 weeks old this week....and it's back already. Sigh. I don't recall the 45 minute nap finding Braden so fast, but this is the main cause of my lack of blogging lately. Ethan used to have a blissful 2-3 hour swing nap every morning while Braden ate his breakfast and did his usual morning things while mommy sipped her coffee and blogged. Not.any.more. About every other day Ethan has 45 minute naps all day. It is a big waste of my day. Yup, I said it and I know my mommy friends know exactly what I mean.

I spend about 30 minutes getting Ethan fed and rocking him until he's asleep to lay him down. So by the time that happens he's been sleeping for at least 5-10 minutes (depending on how tired he is) and if he pulls a 45 minute nap? Then that only gives me about 35ish minutes to myself to get stuff done around the house.

On a 45 minute nap day? I want to pull out all my hair. Braden senses this and becomes extra naughty. I'm trying to put Baby Brother to sleep in his room in the glider and Big Brother comes bounding in like a baby elephant, hides in Ethan's closet and starts kicking the door. He knows I can't yell at him because I have a trying-to-get-to-sleep baby in my arms, and if I have to rinse-lather-repeat this scenario all day...I'm just fried by the end of it.

But, luckily there is a silver lining to this. Yesterday was a 45 minute nap day, for the most part, and it's like he saves his sleep for night time and slept over 8 hours last night. So that? I will happily take it. He already has wake periods of up to 4 hours if he is having an I-don't-want-to-nap-day...but then he happily goes to bed at night for a long stretch.           

So why the 45 minute nap? I did read Baby Wise when I was pregnant with Braden and decided it wouldn't work for my family, but they coined the term "45 minute intruder" nap and it is SO true. We have sleep cycles of light-deep-light and that 2nd "light" phase comes in at 45 minutes. Eventually they are supposed to outgrow it, and Braden did when we sleep trained him.        

I know there's nothing I can do, Ethan is way too young to sleep train, so I guess I'll just have to suck it up on the 45 minute nap days and pray that he keeps having good nighttime sleeps.

Has your family fallen victim to the 45 minute nap? And now, I leave you with cute baby pictures that could have been cuter if I didn't take them so late in the day when my natural light was disappearing....but you get the point!

                   

Two Hospital Visits: My Broken Boob & Yellowy Baby

My breastfeeding journey with Braden was flawless. Truly - picture perfect. He latched well from minute 1, we both weaned together, I never had cracks, infections, the only little blurp was that I had discomfort for 1/2 a day when we finally weaned and stopped.

This time? He's had some latch "issues" that end up not bothering me or affect his feeding or weight gain (obviously!), but that I believe contribute to his spitting up issues. I had a tiny crack and a bit of bleeding for a day or two that cleared up easily.

Then this Tuesday I woke up with a really sore left breast. I was texting my SIL Laura (cuz what else would I do with any kind of baby or nursing issue?) and she figured if I had mastitis I would feel like I got hit by a truck. Well, literally after that nursing session and when we were done texting, I got chills, could not warm up had a very very low grade fever and extreme fatigue. Sure enough, upon further inspection I felt heat and saw redness on the inside of my left boob.

Laura told me to keep nursing, pump, pump, pump, and to do hot, warm compresses. Luckily, nursing didn't hurt at all and even with deep massage and palpation, that was bearable too. Luckily my sweet friend Jac was around to give me similar advice too and I was hopeful that I wouldn't have to go on meds. I felt much better that afternoon, but then got the chills again in the evening.

I woke up feeling better again and really wanted to do anything I could to avoid going on antibiotics, because I don't like the overuse of antibiotics in our society as it is, plus I do NOT like the side effects that I get from the antibiotic I knew I would be prescribed.

But...I wasn't diligent enough...or maybe my body just didn't want to heal on its own. I just couldn't commit to pumping every hour or two, my breast always felt pretty empty as it was and was never hard or engorged. I just couldn't do it. Not with a toddler and a baby to take care of.

Sigh.

I know I'm not...but I feel like a little bit of a failure. I've had these minor problems with breastfeeding this time, and it hasn't gotten me down with the actual breastfeeding at all, I just wonder why it was smooth sailing with Braden and I've had these few problems with Ethan?

Anyway, we hosted our 3rd annual friends holiday dinner party on Thursday night and I was feeling on the mend. I still had the redness and soreness but I systemically felt much better...until I put Ethan down. I took off my sweater to nurse him to sleep and by the time I was done, I was FROZEN. Checked my temperature and it was 37.6 (99.7, Americans ;). Not even considered a low grade fever, but hot enough for my body to react. I put on 2 sweaters to warm up, mingled for a bit longer with our guests and then headed to bed at 9 with my boob more red than it had been.

I threw in the proverbial white towel and headed to the doc in the morning. I was diagnosed with "classic" mastitis, likely streptococcus vs. staphylococcus and was put on Keflex for 10 days. I hate Keflex. But, this time I'm taking acidophilus with it, and that's all I'll say about that.

I'm 3, almost 4, doses in...and the redness is down drastically and it's not as sore to touch. I can feel a hard spot now which I will keep trying to get rid of manually and with the pump. Ethan is nursing well, but I can tell he doesn't 'like' that side as much, Laura said it can taste salty to them...so I don't blame the poor guy!

So...pray for my boob, will you? If it's not a lot better by tomorrow, I need to go in for IV which I do not want to do. I am thinking with the healing I've seen thus far this won't happen, but you never know.

Have you ever had mastitis? How did you deal?

And now, the yellow baby. At Ethan's 6 week appointment I mentioned to our doc that I thought he still looked a tinge yellow, even in his eyes. My nursing colleagues that had seen Ethan prior had also agreed with me. He recommended doing bloodwork just to make sure. So my poor little guy had a heel poke to check things out on Tuesday, and we haven't heard anything so I'm going with the "no news is good news" theory. I guess it's just a phenomenon and it's not affecting his health whatsoever.

Just as a nurse and a mom, I had to get it checked out to clear my mind. I'll keep you posted if we hear anything.

No more hospital visits...okay!

The Paper Mama's Holiday Photo Challenge

You might remember last year when we entered The Paper Mama's Holiday Photo Challenge when we came in 9th! This year I couldn't resist but to enter again showcasing this gorgeous little Santa Baby of mine!

If we make it into the voting round...I'm going to need your help again!

Ethan's 6 Week Update

Chunky monkey! A smiley chunky monkey! Our little man, is still little by newborn standards, but he has grown SO MUCH! I love that he still looks little and can snuggle into the nook of my shoulder on my chest so nicely...but, you guys....

ETHAN HAS GAINED ALMOST 5 POUNDS!!!

Here's what Ethan's growth looks like so far:

Birth: 6 lbs 5 oz
Discharge: 5 lbs 15 oz
2 weeks: 7 lbs 15 oz
1 month: 9 lbs 3 oz
6 weeks: 10 lbs 13 oz

The only thing I was concerned about at his 6 week appointment is that he's still jaundice. Sometimes I doubt myself....but clearly in these pictures he's still a tinge yellow. His color is slowly improving, but our doc is sending Ethan for blood work just to check things out (boo!) so I'm hoping that it's all well and that it will just clear up on it's own. He certainly doesn't act like a jaundice baby!

So from our discharge from the hospital at his lowest weight, he's gained almost 5 pounds in 6 weeks! Just unbelievable! This 100% makes me not worry about him being so spitty. I talked to my sweet friend Jac about Ethan's spitting, as her son was also very spitty too. We tried some of her tricks and they work! It's not 100%, but it helps and it varies day to day. Some days (or nights) it seems like he spits up everything...(but obviously he doesn't!), and other days he just has a quarter-sized spit. Mostly undigested milk just dribbles out the side of his mouth. I can live with having (another) healthy, spitty baby. It truly is just a laundry problem. (And also I hold my breath and pray that he won't throw up all over whoever is holding him!)

Back to the smiley part! This week, right when he turned 6 weeks on Tuesday he started smiling on purpose. My mother-in-law always says to Ethan "are you going to give Mommy some smiles now? She deserves it you know!" and he listened! Oh he's just so so sweet and him smiling on purpose is just the icing on the cake. He's also trying to coo....but he grunts SO much (as you have heard on Twitter if you follow me, surely!) that it's hard to distinguish anything other than a grunt!

He had his 6 week growth spurt right on time and I was up from 4:30 AM one day until 2:30 AM the next. Eat, eat, eat! No wonder why he's gaining so much weight! He also took a bottle for the first time yesterday, just a breeze! Guzzled 3 oz and then nursed on one side after. Can I get a "FREEEEEDOMMMMMM!!!!" and a "hallelujah!!" please!? Actually, Jay and I are planning a matinee date to celebrate Ethan's bottle-taking abilities! I'm not ready to sacrifice my sleep at night yet until he starts sleeping longer, so we'll go out in the afternoon.

Speaking of sleep, all is still fairly well in that department. He sleeps anywhere from 4-6 hours the first stretch, eats, and then sleeps another 2-3 hours. But since he turned 6 weeks this week, he had a growth spurt and it's thrown him off a bit, as he thinks it's cool to party in the middle of the high again, which I hate! It makes me feel like SUCH a mombie (that's zombie + mommy).

He naps really well too, but I can tell he's getting out of the "I'm-a-newborn-and-will-sleep-anywhere-anytime-through-anything" phase! Sometimes he will sleep while being passed around (when I want him to be awake, of course!) but other times he's up for hours because there's too much going on around him.

Breastfeeding is going really, really well. I love this instant bond that I've had with both of my babies because of this. My supply is abundant and as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, he goes though phases throughout the day of being really spitty and then not so much. Just praying that he outgrows this sooner than later! I think his latch could still be better, but it doesn't bug me and it doesn't bug him, other than potentially being spitty.

I'm starting to have to take a little more time to get him down for a nap too. He falls asleep nursing, but with his insane grunting (seriously, this baby is the loudest, gruntiest thing!) I have to rock him into a deep sleep or he'll be unsettled with his grunts and eventually spit himself awake. If I'm impatient (like I often am in the middle of the night), and try to lay him down too fast then he spits and I have to start over. It doesn't take long, and I'm soaking up all the snuggles I can!

He's become very very active this week. Well...for a 6 week old! He loves his play mat and has really found his kicks! He also does this in the bath and Braden loves to have a bath "to-gey-er" with Ethan, so we do that a few times a week now.

Have I mentioned how much I still love my camera, tripod, and remote? Love that I have been able to take all of his photos, they mean all the much more to me! Phew! That was a long post, hey!?

Busy, Busy Weekend

And the boys did great! I'll start off by saying that. We went on Ethan's first road trip, our first trip as a family of four, to go to my mom's for the weekend. We celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday and it was wonderful to see all of the family!

Braden and Jay sang happy birthday to GG and she looked so beautiful! She had all three of her great-grandbabies there!

It was really special to see GG meet Ethan for the first time, he was wide awake at the party!

And that little Abby is such a ham!

Not only is my little Abbykins a ham...she is such a little beauty and a daddy's girl at 7 months!
 

I love seeing my brother as a dad. He's such a wonderful daddy to Abigail and an amazing uncle to my boys!

 Uncle Steve even got in on some Ethan snuggling action!

And Auntie Jess got some Ethan lovin' too! She's been dying to meet him and I'm so glad we finally all got together and that the weather cooperated!

Speaking of Auntie Jess, she threw us a "Meet Ethan" party on Sunday! In Canada, at least where I'm from, we don't typically have baby showers for every baby, only our first...but I really wanted my Edmonton friends to be able to meet Ethan, so it was really nice to have a "shower" for him - thanks again, so much, Jess!

It was so great to see my girlfriends and all their babies! That's one of my forever besties Natalie and her little boy Reid. He's only 6.5 weeks older than Ethan! That's the part that is the hardest for me living at the farm - the most bittersweet part of my life - is being away from my girlfriends and their babies, and Ben & Jess too, especially since they've had Abigail. Sure, I've made friends here and they have kids my kid's age...but it's just not the same. I wouldn't trade my life on the farm for anything, it's just very bittersweet sometimes!

The spread was amazing! And just check out these adorable whale cookies!! They were so cute I didn't want to eat them...but then I got over it and did!


Thank you again, my beautiful girls, for this awesome party! And Ben too...he did a lot and I know that! And just a few more pictures from the festivities...


None of my candid pictures from the party worked at all - but thank you Natalie, Keri, Katie, Marjorie, Mom, & Mrs. N for coming as well! I loved seeing all the babies together (Abby was the only girl) and missed everyone who couldn't make it!

And, for my friends who love Friends...a little humor featuring Reid & Ethan!