Go Away Sunshine

Oh dear readers of mine. 

Have you ever waken up on the wrong side of bed and known it? 

Something in you almost doesn't want to be in a good mood. The sun is out, as if to make you in an even worse mood because for some reason even he seems happier than you. And no matter how friendly or helpful everyone around you is being, you just are bummed out for no apparent reason. You just can't help yourself.

That's how I feel today. There might be an underlying cause but I haven't found it yet. Maybe it is because the sun is out today. Like every single day. 

TOMS

I am all about 'going green.' Helping the planet. Feeding starving people, everywhere.
When I hear about a good cause, I try to let anybody and everybody know so that we can spread the word to do something about this world we live in. [WWJD, right?]

TOMS makes shoes. They sell shoes. Cute shoes.
When you buy a pair, they donate [a new pair] to a child who would normally go barefoot.
Barefoot. It doesn't sound too bad, right? I mean, I love going barefoot. But none of us would stay barefoot all day, every day.
On April 5th, in just a matter of weeks, we are going a day without shoes. Get people's attention. Raise awareness. Go without shoes.

You can visit OneDayWithoutShoes.com to read more. Also visit Toms.com to help out.

Attention All Mothers

Attention all mothers!
I need your help!

Amazingly enough, my son now sleeps all night. Every night. Joaquin hits the sack around nine or nine-thirty and doesn't wake up until six-thirty or seven. Sometimes it's even seven-thirty. At first this made me so so so so excited. Now I just need your help so I can stay that way, without being in pain.
How can any breast feeding mother be 100% excited about this? For ten hours my little guy isn't eating which makes it hard, literally. I was getting up in the middle of the night to pump. But what's the fun of having a baby who sleeps all night when you can't?! I don't want to have to get up in the middle of the night. This also means that my boobs become rock hard. Not cool.
How do women do it who don't have a breast pump? Like my mother for instance. She didn't have one. And she didn't wake us in the middle of the night for feedings once we slept all night. What do I do? Is there a way to "train" my body into only making milk during the day? Weird I know, I'm just so clueless!
Please tell me there's a solution!

So to all you mothers who have even the littlest thing to say, advice or what have you, comment here. Please! [I'm begging you!] If you don't have kids, you can still write to me here! Any advice or stories are welcome! Thanks ladies!

He's Teaching Me

I have been learning. Discovering new little things about my son.

He loves the color red.

And yellow. Just not as much.

He loves the sound of rain just as much as I do. 

It might be the sound of any running water, even the sound of my husband peeing in the next room. I just like to think that it's the rain. (Unfortunately we haven't had actual rain, we just have a swing with a sound machine on it that plays 'rain.')

He loves his blanket.

Especially the blue one and the one with little chicks all over it. [As in the animal. He is not in to girls yet.]

He's picky about his swing.

He has to be facing the way he wants to in his swing. It all depends on his mood. (We have the swing  made by 'Bright Stars' which pivots to face to the left, right and to the front. Thankfully.)

He has his favorite things to look at.

The tree in the corner of the living room. The curtains in our bedroom. And most of all, CEILING FANS.

He loves books. A lot.

Every night before bed we read one or two and some times three of them. 

We have piles of books!

At the baby shower that my friends back home threw me, each lady brought a book. So you can just imagine how many I have from just that. For Marcos' birthday last year I bought him some books to read to the baby (which at that time was in my belly). And I also managed to save a few from when I was little. 

Yes. Many, many, many books.

Here's his favorite ones [and the ones I would recommend reading to your baby]:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss 

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
Mr Bump by Roger Hargreaves
Mr Tickle by Roger Hargreaves
Baby Farm Animals [A 'Little Golden Book']
Scuffy the Tugboat [A 'Little Golden Book']
The First Forest by John Gile & Tom Heflin
The Bossy Gallito retold by Lucia M. Gonzales (This book is bilingual).

Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire

I wonder what I'll discover next?

New Energy

The first month of being a new mom is by far the hardest. 

Getting used to baby. Getting up at all hours and thus the lack of sleep.

Realizing that unlike most mothers you, or should I say I, don't have breasts of steel.

And many many other things.

But once that first month is behind you, life for some reason starts to smooth out.

You start to smell more like you again instead of spit up breast milk.

Cooking and cleaning are no longer the hubby's responsibilities.

We are now into our third month. 

Little Joaquin turned two months this past Sunday.

I certainly don't feel as if the time as flown by. 

Me giving birth seems forever ago.

But I know this feeling won't last long and I'll soon be wondering where all the time went.

One thing I do know is that I have more energy. I am awake earlier. Showered. 

I started to take risks in the kitchen with new breakfast recipes. [One of my goals!] So far my husband is loving it [I think]. I know he has missed me at least attempting to be an awesome wife. 

Things are finally getting easier. I feel more on top of things. 

Yay!

With this new feel I have toward life [or should I say, I have it back] I have this desire for change. Not big change. Walking through my life in my head, I have this desire to be so much more than I have ever been in the past. Setting the goal of being a better wife is a total must for me right now. Other than the few meals I have prepared lately, I haven't been the sweetest wife. I know I cut him off when he's talking and flip out on him when he does things around the house and with baby that are totally different than how I would do them. Putting my face on in the morning and getting out my sweat pants is suddenly important again. [Which makes us both feel good].

One of my most dear friends recently got married and asked me just weeks ago if the problems she was having already in her marriage were normal. The newness of marriage is hard and yes, it does get easier. Getting used to living someone takes times and effort. I have noticed that it happens all over again once a baby is born into the family. It creates a whole new set of trials that you need to go at together even though you want to [and feel like you must] do everything yourself. As you can see I still have my little problems which are mostly because of the crazy hormones but still. [Hey! I can SO blame my hormones for my actions right now! *wink*] With that said, I am going to try to do all I can in order to make my husband super-de-duper proud!

For starters I stumbled upon some new blogs and websites that have inspired me so much that it has him wondering where I suddenly have all of this energy from. And well, let's just say that I am going to set out a jar to throw our loose change in so I can fund all of these crazy ideas floating around in my head. 

We are really, really going to need to move.

I am going to need room for these little projects of mine. I will soon run out of room in this cute but small apartment of ours.

Here's to a new energy and outlook on life!

I hope you all stick around to see [and read] how I do on this journey.

Thanks for your ideas and encouragement.

Cheers!

Poop

A baby's first poop is crazy! It's black and it's the stickiest thing you've ever seen. As soon as he or she poops it out, you had better change that diaper. Otherwise you're going to have a hell of a time cleaning that tiny little seat. Oh, and any part of your body that happens to get poop all over it. You won't believe how covered you can get.

Thankfully the tar-like mess doesn't last long. It will soon turn into this yellowish seedy poop that tends to easily fill and leak out of the diaper, no matter what size diaper you buy. 

Not only does the type of poop change but how often it happens as well. At the beginning it will seem like you're changing poopy diapers left and right. And then all of a sudden maybe a few times a week! 

I was worried, as I imagine other mothers would be, at this lack of poop. Well, I found out for sure today that it's totally normal. [That's a relief!]

Anyways. During those first six weeks when my son was filling his diaper multiple times on a daily basis it was so loud. It sounded like a rocket going off in his pants! And no little make-it-yourself model. I'm talking about a huge NASA rocket. So each time he pooped I couldn't help but laugh. I laughed. My husband laughed. My sister and parents. We all were cracking up. It was just so hilarious. 

After laughing for a week or so, I realized that each time my son were to poop in the future he himself would laugh. But I just kept on laughing when the rocket went off.

Soon after that I had a poopy diaper dream. My son was just old enough to walk and run. In this dream he stuck his hands in his diaper, pulled them out and ran down the hall. As he ran he smeared the poop, almost finger painting it on the walls as he ran. Laughing the whole time. 

Just the other day my son had one of his few poops of the week. He started to squeal but as soon as I realized he had just pooped, we both started laughing. I said, "You pooped!" My voice was overly excited and he picked up on that right away. While I changed him, he laughed and laughed and then with this mischievous grin stuck both of his hands in the poop filled mess. Laughing and squealing he pulled them out as if to show me what he had done! And if that wasn't enough, he then pulled up his legs and plopped both feet in it. It's amazing how covered he got in just those few seconds. With him being as cute as he is, all I could do was laugh. 

For some odd reason, I think my dream will come true.Uh-oh!

Moo!

Just a few weeks ago my husband was talking to my brother-in-law about our kids. My brother-in-law and his wife had a baby two months before us. It's kind of cute hearing them on the phone to each other; they try giving each other advice on being dads. 

In one of their talks we were told that his son is lactose intolerant. I thought this was weird because his baby wasn't even three months yet. They [doctors and other genius minds] say that you can start to take notice of what, if anything, your baby is allergic to. 

So if you're breast feeding and your baby starts showing signs of a tummy ache or excessive fussiness, you might want to lay off the dairy for a while to see if it gets better. Did y'all know that unless you ingest dairy your breast milk is lactose free? 

I was very happy to learn all this because I am lactose intolerant. Hopefully my little boy doesn't inherit it. I want him to enjoy my lasagna, to be able to eat pizza and to be able to enjoy an ice cream cone! It did make me sad though to learn that he could have an allergic reaction to the foods I'm eating, for his sake and mine. If you remember, I was able to eat dairy during my pregnancy [and I still can!]. Prayerfully we'll both be able to continue eating from this tasty little section of the food pyramid! 

Most people would think that they could just drink soy milk instead of cows milk. An easy fix. But because of the estrogen properties in soy milk, it's not exactly good or safe for little boys to be drinking [directly or indirectly]. 

Last week a friend told me that she and her son are both lactose intolerant. This friend started telling me what they drink and I had no idea. Coconut milk and almond milk. I had no idea that people drank it straight like that. I've used it in cooking, but never just to drink. Ever since then I've seen both products in the chilled section at the grocery store and countless commercials for both. I think it's pretty crazy how I had never heard of it and then, boom. Everywhere. Now I know what to do just in case I have to make the switch from cow to plant based milk. 

Today on one of the blogs I love, the author posted a recipe for yet another type of plant based milk that I had never heard of. Cashew Oat Milk. 

When I lived in Mexico I learned how to make Agua de Avena [Oatmeal Water]. It's pretty amazing. So I can only imagine that adding nuts would make another tasty beverage.

If any of you ladies are wondering about this allergy and how you get those nutrients you and your little one need, go try the almond or coconut milk. It's right in with the soy and cow's milk in the refrigerated section. If you have the time, go to this lovely lady's blog and try out her recipe. 

Even if you don't have the allergy... or a baby, go try some of this stuff. 

Routine

I think it's pretty safe to say that my son has a routine. 

He eats, naps, and goes to bed at the same times each day.

I am so thankful! So many ladies have told me how long it took for them to create a routine or even just for their son or daughter to sleep through the night.

At the beginning when my doctor told me to try and get him into a routine I thought she was nuts. It wasn't just the fact that he was so tiny (why would someone so small need a routine, couldn't we just play it by ear?) it was also the insane thought of me having to create one for him. I mean, it's hard enough to get myself into a routine and now I was going to be trying to urge this small little person to. With that in mind, I pretty much ignored the advice. Maybe I wouldn't have if she would have given me a few good pointers on how to go about this. [Mind you, this came from the nurse practitioner at my doctor, not my son's]. Now, I say good pointers because the thing she told me to do didn't sound like it would work, and it didn't. She told me that when getting up with my son in the middle of the night, I needed to keep all the lights off and I had to make sure I didn't say anything to him. Ok, no offense lady but in the middle of the night people can't really see. And who doesn't sing or make noise to soothe their child? Especially when the baby is only two weeks old. (That's how old he was when she was telling me this). I know you think I'm probably blowing this out of proportion but you should have seen the face on this woman when she was telling me. Not friendly, at all. Plus, she had just made other rude comments right before this, but we won't go there.

Anywho!  Routine. 

Our nighttime routine starts with him chilling out on the floor of our room [which for some reason is his favorite place in the house]. If you were to walk in on him, you wouldn't be able to stop laughing. He just lays there talking to himself. I put him there and after fifteen minutes or a half hour I start reading books to him. It's amazing how much he loves books. The Mr. Men & Little Miss books, the Very Hungry Caterpillar and so many more. He laughs, coos and squeals looking from one page to the next. I had no idea that he would like being read to so early on. After story time he'll either fall right asleep or eat and then sleep. Some nights we start in the swing and I transfer him to his crib afterwards but we're always sleeping by ten. It's amazing!

Don't freak yourself out if it doesn't go smoothly for you and your little one right away or if you can't seem to get the hang of it. He (or she) will come around. Just try to stay happy and they will start to mold to what you do. At least that's how I'm perceiving it...

Facebook & Breakfast

Today, we the blog, started up our Facebook page. It took a little while but I finally hit the submit button after feeding the baby a time or two. So feel free to go and "Like" us. As disappointing as it is, I don't have any rewards or prizes for you if you do like other awesome blogs out there. Maybe in the future though. Just maybe.

Mommyhood, as I like to call it, is getting much easier. I am more inspired and seem to have more energy these last of couple days. [Let's just pray that it continues]. The number of showers per week are increasing. I'm way better at decoding my son's cries and pretty much know what he needs before the boo boo lip makes its appearance. [Which sadly, is one of the cutest things EVER]. Breakfast is actually taking place at normal hours instead of five or eleven. Things are just starting to flow.

Speaking of breakfast! I have been thinking that I need to make it a goal to make breakfast awesome! No more cereal every morning with an occasional pancake special. Breakfast and lunch are the two meals we can have as a family, since my husband works nights. In most homes, dinner is the big important meal where most families have the major, more fulfilling bonding moments. For us it's going to be breakfast. I want to master different crepes and other home made goodness to make it as delicious [and fun, once my son can eat with us] as possible. And then I'll just eat cereal as my midnight snack. Sounds like a plan!

So, what do you enjoy for breakfast? 

[Please forgive me if I just dissed your cereal].