Good morning daylight savings time. Ugh. Everyone who is so excited for the "extra" hour can stick it you know where... just kidding. But seriously, for some reason today my baby decided to get up an hour earlier then regular time (7) meaning he got up at 6 - but because it was daylight savings he really got up at 5. Sweet. I am kind of surprised that I didn't anticipate this change sooner... maybe I would have a game plan? Well, since I didn't prepare.. I suppose we are just going to go with it.
Many other changes have recently happened ! The baby is now 8 months old! He started sitting on his own at 6 months, crawling at 6.5 months and pulling himself up at 7.5 months! Now he is literally cruising in his crib and letting go for a few seconds only to fall and try again. Oh boy oh boy. This little guy is CRAZY!Yes and he is now saying mama and dada. I thought it was kind of strange that he started saying mama first... but its super cute and dada was just around the corner. We got two teeth too!!! I am pretty sure more are on the way because the baby is literally soo darn cranky and having all the typical teething symptoms... fingers crossed these teeth will break through soon! only to be followed shortly after with others i am sure...
In light of the title of the blog post lets talk about change. 1 year ago I was pregnant and couldn't even imagine how much my life was about to change with this new baby. Now I surprise myself all the time with how I am so much less selfish (I have no idea how to word that). I spend all my time with this little guy and I miss him when I am not with him. I still have plenty of wants but 99% of everything I do is for the baby and I love it! I can't really say that I am surprised by this because I have wanted to be a mother for so long and was so excited to begin motherhood, but there honestly is no way to prepare. What a gift.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
What Is A Good Mother?
Ok ok - I am not very good at this keeping up with the blog thing. I will try to do better.
I was just reading an interesting article on the amount of judgement and criticism many mothers face in our western culture. Some of the criticism I hear has alot to do with sleeping, vaccinations, and breastfeeding. Luckily I am able to trust my instincts as a mother and let go of the rest. But I am not going to lie, sometimes I find myself being the critical one more often then I would like to admit.
I like to think that I am a good mother. I have heard a few times from family and friends that I am a good mother and you know what I believe them! The problem I tend to have is that I can be quick to judge other moms who perhaps don't parent the way that I think parenting should be done. While I may still really like the mother as a person I can have a difficult time differentiating that from our different parenting styles.
I take being a mother very seriously. I try to educate myself as much as I can on certain topics and take steps to be proactive in the sense of aiding my child in development the best I can. I have a hard time when I see mothers doing the opposite of all the things I read that is good and healthy for a child. Today I am going to challange myself to try to look past the differences and embrace the similarties. Something to remember is that I am not their shoes. I dont know what a paticular family is going through, maybe they can't afford organic or they don't understand about the amount of chemicals in many of the baby products and toys on the marke. One thing that I can rest assure is that no matter what the most important thing is to continue to do the best for my child and I know that for me to work on being less judgemental and more open minded is best for my child. Teaching compassion and understanding is vital in this dog eat dog world and I plan on starting today!
I was just reading an interesting article on the amount of judgement and criticism many mothers face in our western culture. Some of the criticism I hear has alot to do with sleeping, vaccinations, and breastfeeding. Luckily I am able to trust my instincts as a mother and let go of the rest. But I am not going to lie, sometimes I find myself being the critical one more often then I would like to admit.
I like to think that I am a good mother. I have heard a few times from family and friends that I am a good mother and you know what I believe them! The problem I tend to have is that I can be quick to judge other moms who perhaps don't parent the way that I think parenting should be done. While I may still really like the mother as a person I can have a difficult time differentiating that from our different parenting styles.
I take being a mother very seriously. I try to educate myself as much as I can on certain topics and take steps to be proactive in the sense of aiding my child in development the best I can. I have a hard time when I see mothers doing the opposite of all the things I read that is good and healthy for a child. Today I am going to challange myself to try to look past the differences and embrace the similarties. Something to remember is that I am not their shoes. I dont know what a paticular family is going through, maybe they can't afford organic or they don't understand about the amount of chemicals in many of the baby products and toys on the marke. One thing that I can rest assure is that no matter what the most important thing is to continue to do the best for my child and I know that for me to work on being less judgemental and more open minded is best for my child. Teaching compassion and understanding is vital in this dog eat dog world and I plan on starting today!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
My Birth Story
I am so excited to share the story of the birth of my son Mason Grant Wozniak. I love telling the story so much and in great detail that I figured I should write it all down so I won't forget it (as if that would be possible).
On March 12 at about 8AM Zack was leaving to go to an all day shoot in Long Island. This was the first shoot he had to go to with this particular show he was working on. We said our good byes and not 5 minutes after he left did I go to the bathroom and low and behold I think I just passed my mucous plug AHH. I called Zack right away and told him - but the doctor said that passing the plug doesn't necessarily mean labor is imminent it could be 2 weeks before baby! So I told him not to worry and that I would take it easy that day. Funny part of this is that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this whole scenario until Zack reminded me a couple weeks ago. This had happened so early in a day that was FILLED with excitement that I literally forgot.
I called my mom around 11:00 and said that I would join her for lunch. We went to lunch and I was SOOO tired that we left early. When my mom was driving me home she offered to take me to get a pedicure and I said no! That has to be a sign of something happening because I never turn down getting my nails done.
My mom dropped me off at home and I was SOOO tired but I had been obsessing about seeing Alice in Wonderland 3D. I knew if I didn't see it now then i would never see it because of the baby. I called my sister and she agreed to go with me - we went to the showing at 1:45. I was so exhausted I literally fell asleep TWICE during the movie. I am so stubborn I HAD to see it. haha. After the movie my sister and I went and ate at FATBURGER. Fatburger is a total greaseball burger place which I figured was good for me since the previous 2 weeks I had been trying to eat spicy and random things to get me into labor.
My sister dropped me off at home around 5:00. AHH my house to myself I was so excited! Luckily for me it was a Friday night and there was soo many good movies on TV. I lit a candle and was enjoying myself until about 8PM contractions started!!! I knew it was time. I texted Zack who would be on set until about 2AM that the labor had started but I knew that it would be some time still. I basically just relaxed and enjoyed myself until the contactions got to be about 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. I called my mom and sister and told them to come over and keep me company before we went to the hospital. This was about 10:00. We all hung out while I continued to labor ! I took a shower and packed my bags and we headed to the hospital!! I was soo excited :) we got to the hospital around 12:00 and the nurses checked me and I was 2CM dilated. They told me to hang out some more and they would check me in about 2 hours. Somewhere during this time Zack had made it to the hospital. Poor guy he was SOO tired from a super long day at work but excited at the thought of our baby coming! Well at about 4AM the nurse said labor wasn't progressing and they said we could stay there or go home, I opted to go home I knew labor would go faster and I would sleep better at home. SO we got everything together and went back home. I certainly was disappointed but I knew deep down that this was not false labor.
Zack and I went to bed and woke up around 10AM. I had been having contractions while I was sleeping contiously but they were not too bad. When we woke up I was in FULL BLOWN LABOR. Wow I could certainly tell the difference between last nights contractions and the ones I was having now. They were soo painful I could not even move or talk during them. They were coming so fast and hard I hardly made it through my shower, but stubborn old me HAD to shower. Zack and I packed our bags again and headed back to the hospital I was all set up their at 12:30!
My mom and Zack were allowed to stay with me in the labor room. Zack and I had worked with a Doula, she taught us all of these great techniques to use during labor. Well, none of it mattered because by this point I was in so much pain that I couldn't even stand when Zack or my mom LOOKED at me. I had to literally focus on one point and breathe. I had decided to get an epidural so when that finally arrived it was about 4:00 and I was only 3-4 CM dilated. The epidural was FANTASTIC ! I loved it. I am so grateful though that I had gotten to labor for as long as I did because it was an AMAZING experience and I truly enjoyed every moment of it. Once I had the epidural I was hanging out reading magazines and talking! Such a difference. The doctor came in at 6PM and checked me and I was ready to start pushing! The epidural had helped me relax so the labor was able to progress much faster.
We started pushing around 6:00. My contractions had slowed down a bit so they gave me pitocin so they would come faster which would give me more opportunities to push. We pushed and pushed for 2 hours and the baby's head was stuck. I was feeling great and so excited for my baby to come but the doctor said that he wanted to do a C section because I had already pushed for 2 hours and it's not best for baby to continue pushing especially because he believed the baby was stuck. Zack said that he could see the babies head and his dark hair but he just couldn't get past that point. I agreed to do the C-section because I was worried about my baby potentially losing oxygen. One good thing is that the baby had NO signs of any distress at all! Thank God right!
One bad thing is that when you start pushing they stop your epidural so that you can push harder. So by this time it is 8:30ish and I am starting to get really uncomfortable. Ughh. Also this happens to be the terrential rain storm so it takes the doctor extra long to get to the hospital because roads are literally CLOSED! Finally they take me into the OR and set me up to get the C-section. By this time I am exhausted and feeling pretty sick from all the medications. Zack is their next to me and it only takes 8 minutes to get the baby out. I heard his little cry and I knew that was really good. Zack gets to go see the baby and he wraps him up and shows me is face but I could hardly even open my eyes. They take the baby to get all checked out and I have to go sit in a recovery room for an hour. I was shaking like crazy from the drugs and the surgery, no fun. I was counting down the minutes on the clock until I got to see the baby. Zack came back in to check on me and tell me all was good with the little guy. 5lbs 15oz and 17 inches long! He showed me the card with his footprints on it and his one foot only had 4 toe prints and Zack said that he only has four toes on his one foot. I was like Ok - but luckilly he was only kidding around the toe just didn't get ink on it or something. I told Zack that he HAD to tell my mom to move my car, because I knew that were it was parked gets flooded out bad. I was obsessing about my car because I wanted to just enjoy the hospital time with my baby and not have to worry about a flooded out car.
Finally I was brought back up to the room where Zack met me and the baby was shortly behind him. It is kind of hard to express meeting my son for the first time but it was wonderful. Definitely not the way I pictured it but great none-the-less. We spent some time alone with the baby and then we allowed our parents to come in and meet the baby for a little bit. I was really tired and most concerned about breastfeeding so I didn't want them to stay to long. Poor baby was so hungry! He kept opening his mouth to nurse and I just wanted to feed him so bad!
I will end the labor story here! The whole experience was absolutely amazing! I loved every second of it. The recovery is a different story altogether.
On March 12 at about 8AM Zack was leaving to go to an all day shoot in Long Island. This was the first shoot he had to go to with this particular show he was working on. We said our good byes and not 5 minutes after he left did I go to the bathroom and low and behold I think I just passed my mucous plug AHH. I called Zack right away and told him - but the doctor said that passing the plug doesn't necessarily mean labor is imminent it could be 2 weeks before baby! So I told him not to worry and that I would take it easy that day. Funny part of this is that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this whole scenario until Zack reminded me a couple weeks ago. This had happened so early in a day that was FILLED with excitement that I literally forgot.
I called my mom around 11:00 and said that I would join her for lunch. We went to lunch and I was SOOO tired that we left early. When my mom was driving me home she offered to take me to get a pedicure and I said no! That has to be a sign of something happening because I never turn down getting my nails done.
My mom dropped me off at home and I was SOOO tired but I had been obsessing about seeing Alice in Wonderland 3D. I knew if I didn't see it now then i would never see it because of the baby. I called my sister and she agreed to go with me - we went to the showing at 1:45. I was so exhausted I literally fell asleep TWICE during the movie. I am so stubborn I HAD to see it. haha. After the movie my sister and I went and ate at FATBURGER. Fatburger is a total greaseball burger place which I figured was good for me since the previous 2 weeks I had been trying to eat spicy and random things to get me into labor.
My sister dropped me off at home around 5:00. AHH my house to myself I was so excited! Luckily for me it was a Friday night and there was soo many good movies on TV. I lit a candle and was enjoying myself until about 8PM contractions started!!! I knew it was time. I texted Zack who would be on set until about 2AM that the labor had started but I knew that it would be some time still. I basically just relaxed and enjoyed myself until the contactions got to be about 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. I called my mom and sister and told them to come over and keep me company before we went to the hospital. This was about 10:00. We all hung out while I continued to labor ! I took a shower and packed my bags and we headed to the hospital!! I was soo excited :) we got to the hospital around 12:00 and the nurses checked me and I was 2CM dilated. They told me to hang out some more and they would check me in about 2 hours. Somewhere during this time Zack had made it to the hospital. Poor guy he was SOO tired from a super long day at work but excited at the thought of our baby coming! Well at about 4AM the nurse said labor wasn't progressing and they said we could stay there or go home, I opted to go home I knew labor would go faster and I would sleep better at home. SO we got everything together and went back home. I certainly was disappointed but I knew deep down that this was not false labor.
Zack and I went to bed and woke up around 10AM. I had been having contractions while I was sleeping contiously but they were not too bad. When we woke up I was in FULL BLOWN LABOR. Wow I could certainly tell the difference between last nights contractions and the ones I was having now. They were soo painful I could not even move or talk during them. They were coming so fast and hard I hardly made it through my shower, but stubborn old me HAD to shower. Zack and I packed our bags again and headed back to the hospital I was all set up their at 12:30!
My mom and Zack were allowed to stay with me in the labor room. Zack and I had worked with a Doula, she taught us all of these great techniques to use during labor. Well, none of it mattered because by this point I was in so much pain that I couldn't even stand when Zack or my mom LOOKED at me. I had to literally focus on one point and breathe. I had decided to get an epidural so when that finally arrived it was about 4:00 and I was only 3-4 CM dilated. The epidural was FANTASTIC ! I loved it. I am so grateful though that I had gotten to labor for as long as I did because it was an AMAZING experience and I truly enjoyed every moment of it. Once I had the epidural I was hanging out reading magazines and talking! Such a difference. The doctor came in at 6PM and checked me and I was ready to start pushing! The epidural had helped me relax so the labor was able to progress much faster.
We started pushing around 6:00. My contractions had slowed down a bit so they gave me pitocin so they would come faster which would give me more opportunities to push. We pushed and pushed for 2 hours and the baby's head was stuck. I was feeling great and so excited for my baby to come but the doctor said that he wanted to do a C section because I had already pushed for 2 hours and it's not best for baby to continue pushing especially because he believed the baby was stuck. Zack said that he could see the babies head and his dark hair but he just couldn't get past that point. I agreed to do the C-section because I was worried about my baby potentially losing oxygen. One good thing is that the baby had NO signs of any distress at all! Thank God right!
One bad thing is that when you start pushing they stop your epidural so that you can push harder. So by this time it is 8:30ish and I am starting to get really uncomfortable. Ughh. Also this happens to be the terrential rain storm so it takes the doctor extra long to get to the hospital because roads are literally CLOSED! Finally they take me into the OR and set me up to get the C-section. By this time I am exhausted and feeling pretty sick from all the medications. Zack is their next to me and it only takes 8 minutes to get the baby out. I heard his little cry and I knew that was really good. Zack gets to go see the baby and he wraps him up and shows me is face but I could hardly even open my eyes. They take the baby to get all checked out and I have to go sit in a recovery room for an hour. I was shaking like crazy from the drugs and the surgery, no fun. I was counting down the minutes on the clock until I got to see the baby. Zack came back in to check on me and tell me all was good with the little guy. 5lbs 15oz and 17 inches long! He showed me the card with his footprints on it and his one foot only had 4 toe prints and Zack said that he only has four toes on his one foot. I was like Ok - but luckilly he was only kidding around the toe just didn't get ink on it or something. I told Zack that he HAD to tell my mom to move my car, because I knew that were it was parked gets flooded out bad. I was obsessing about my car because I wanted to just enjoy the hospital time with my baby and not have to worry about a flooded out car.
Finally I was brought back up to the room where Zack met me and the baby was shortly behind him. It is kind of hard to express meeting my son for the first time but it was wonderful. Definitely not the way I pictured it but great none-the-less. We spent some time alone with the baby and then we allowed our parents to come in and meet the baby for a little bit. I was really tired and most concerned about breastfeeding so I didn't want them to stay to long. Poor baby was so hungry! He kept opening his mouth to nurse and I just wanted to feed him so bad!
I will end the labor story here! The whole experience was absolutely amazing! I loved every second of it. The recovery is a different story altogether.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Let's be honest...
Let's be honest... I have been obsessing about my baby's "schedule" for a couple weeks now.
As of right now I have been following what is known as the "baby-led" scheduling. Basically what this means is I follow my babies cues and respond to him accordingly (hungry, sleepy, cranky, bored...) thus the baby is leading the schedule. This is great because I am home with him so I am able to dedicate 100% of my time to him. I have to make a note here: I find it really funny that I "follow" the baby-led method. Honestly, I have done this the entire time my son has been alive and it is the only because it feels so natural. No offense to heavy schedulers.. but it just doesn't feel right to me to put my baby down at a specific time or say this time of day he sits in his bouncer... I just go with it...
Don't get me wrong though, we do have "routines" and naturally Mason has developed patterns that I am actually quite strict about following... however we do not have close to a schedule. Sometimes I get all out of whack and start thinking a schedule is what he needs - really a schedule is what I need. A schedule would certainly be more convenient for me, but I have to wonder, how convenient is it for my child?
I am going to wait and see what develops as the bug gets older. I am thinking that we will naturally develop and progress more into a schedule. I will certainly welcome a schedule but for now I am following my little guy's needs.
As of right now I have been following what is known as the "baby-led" scheduling. Basically what this means is I follow my babies cues and respond to him accordingly (hungry, sleepy, cranky, bored...) thus the baby is leading the schedule. This is great because I am home with him so I am able to dedicate 100% of my time to him. I have to make a note here: I find it really funny that I "follow" the baby-led method. Honestly, I have done this the entire time my son has been alive and it is the only because it feels so natural. No offense to heavy schedulers.. but it just doesn't feel right to me to put my baby down at a specific time or say this time of day he sits in his bouncer... I just go with it...
Don't get me wrong though, we do have "routines" and naturally Mason has developed patterns that I am actually quite strict about following... however we do not have close to a schedule. Sometimes I get all out of whack and start thinking a schedule is what he needs - really a schedule is what I need. A schedule would certainly be more convenient for me, but I have to wonder, how convenient is it for my child?
I am going to wait and see what develops as the bug gets older. I am thinking that we will naturally develop and progress more into a schedule. I will certainly welcome a schedule but for now I am following my little guy's needs.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
20 Weeks Old!
I am going to address the "weekly" postings to my little guy... in hopes that someday he will want to read these...
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| This pic is an old one... you are about 1 month here. I am still figuring out this blog thing. will put more recent pics up when I download them... |
You are Five months old today... OMG (this stands for Oh My God)(in case the initials OMG don't mean anything when you look back at this post...). Anyway, big things have happened this week for you. YOu have started eating cereal twice a day... which is good because you LOOVE it! bad because you are a little backed up- sorry if you are reading this with a girlfriend. You have been reaching out for everything lately. Lots of reaching, reaching for toys reaching for me and daddy, it's so cute. You are also getting very good at grabbing toys and mommy's hair. YOu are getting alot of tummy time in with daddy. Daddy makes you do your push ups everyday he even does them with you! you think it is soo funny. Oh yes and you are laughing alot more now too. We get good giggly times like early in the AM and when we do your nekkied (naked) time in the evening (again sorry if you are reading this with a girlfriend). Daddy and I are totally obsessed with your laughs that we will literally do ANYTHING to keep them going, I am sure you find this amusing. Anyway, you are just about the sweetest baby in the world and we looove watching you grow up and can't wait to see what happens next.
Friday, July 30, 2010
losing that baby weight!
Ughh. I am so tired of thinking of this. I have remarkably lost ALL of the weight I gained while pregnant. Which is great because I am breastfeeding so I lost all the weight WITHOUT dieting! YAY. I used to walk quite a bit but that was before the summer in NJ got to be totally brutal. I recently began going back to the gym which is all good. The only problem is my stupid fiance! He doesn't get it at all. I swear he is like the one man that didn't get the training on NEVER EVER (EVER) talk about a women's weight. Just don't do it. HE thinks he is being helpful when he suggests that I go to the gym. Trust me men, it is not helpful. He honestly thinks he is motivating me; Listen honey, my ass is jiggly I don't need YOU to motivate me! I can handle that part. So I will loose those extra pounds that I set out to loose in my own damn time so just DEAL with it! haha (BTW I have total Zack bashing permission - you all should try it).
In other news: The crib transition has been going super well. Baby goes down like a champ. Wakes only 2 times to feed, first time around 1-2 AM baby feeds then and I can tell he is hungry, when he is done he goes right back down in the crib. The second waking is around 4-5AM I feed him then but I think he just needs comfort at this time. I put him back down until he wakes around 6ish and then I bring him into our bed and we all sleep together :) the ONLY thing that isn't working out in this transition is still the DAMN cat! She is literally beside herself with this transition. Poor kitty. Zack and I wake up around 3-4 with her every night to calm her down. Can't wait until she gets over herself and joins us in the bed!! good times.
In other news: The crib transition has been going super well. Baby goes down like a champ. Wakes only 2 times to feed, first time around 1-2 AM baby feeds then and I can tell he is hungry, when he is done he goes right back down in the crib. The second waking is around 4-5AM I feed him then but I think he just needs comfort at this time. I put him back down until he wakes around 6ish and then I bring him into our bed and we all sleep together :) the ONLY thing that isn't working out in this transition is still the DAMN cat! She is literally beside herself with this transition. Poor kitty. Zack and I wake up around 3-4 with her every night to calm her down. Can't wait until she gets over herself and joins us in the bed!! good times.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Transitions
Last night was a big night in our household. We have begun to transition the little guy from sleeping in our room into sleeping in his own room. This is how it went: We had to order a new monitor because the one we had was total crap. So, Finally yesterday the new monitor came in! of course the monitor came in around bedtime so we didn't really have much time to play with it before it was in full swing. I did our normal nightly routine except insead of going into our bed to nurse I went int the nursery to use the nursing chair. I then placed him in the crib when he was still awake - and left the room! phew! that went well! I pretty much clutched the monitor until I went to bed.
we actually didn't end up going to bed until 12:30 because our cat was really upset, she didn't know where the baby was. She was crying in our room and we had to keep comforting her! not at all what I expected to happen with the change.
Finally we fall asleep and the little dude wakes up!!! he really only sleeps for 5-6 hours then wakes up and wants to nurse. I say during that first wake it is almost like he breaks his seal becuase afte that wake he wakes every 1-2 hours. He stayed in his crib until about 2:30 then I put him back in our room. I am guessing this transition is not going to happen overnight (pun intended?).
My plan is, once I get him to stay in his room all night I will start to limit the nightly feedings to encourage him to sleep for a longer span of time. I feel that he is getting older now and we are about to start solid foods so it is a good time to try to eliminate the nightly feedings. But I will be careful to follow his cues, because I am aware that some babies are hungry and they do need to eat at night. I will certainly feed my baby if he is hungry and will not withhold nursing just to sleep! I hope that the solid foods will help decrease the nursing because we still nurse about 9-10 times a day!!! doctor said we could be down to 6!!!
Anyway I will keep posted about our progress (fingers crossed).
we actually didn't end up going to bed until 12:30 because our cat was really upset, she didn't know where the baby was. She was crying in our room and we had to keep comforting her! not at all what I expected to happen with the change.
Finally we fall asleep and the little dude wakes up!!! he really only sleeps for 5-6 hours then wakes up and wants to nurse. I say during that first wake it is almost like he breaks his seal becuase afte that wake he wakes every 1-2 hours. He stayed in his crib until about 2:30 then I put him back in our room. I am guessing this transition is not going to happen overnight (pun intended?).
My plan is, once I get him to stay in his room all night I will start to limit the nightly feedings to encourage him to sleep for a longer span of time. I feel that he is getting older now and we are about to start solid foods so it is a good time to try to eliminate the nightly feedings. But I will be careful to follow his cues, because I am aware that some babies are hungry and they do need to eat at night. I will certainly feed my baby if he is hungry and will not withhold nursing just to sleep! I hope that the solid foods will help decrease the nursing because we still nurse about 9-10 times a day!!! doctor said we could be down to 6!!!
Anyway I will keep posted about our progress (fingers crossed).
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