Embarrassing Mommy Moment - Pardon Me

The other day, while looking at crown moulding at Home Depot, Rowan let out a HUGE, rumbling fart! In fact, it was probably a shart. Those are pretty much the norm.

Anyway, since Ro was all hidden away in his car seat, in the cart, there was no getting out of the blame for this one. Luckily, there was only one other person in the aisle. But he wasn't exactly shy about staring.

I wish I had a picture of that guys face as the shart roared on!



Prepare for more Embarrassing Mommy Moments!

- Sarah

Image credit: irrorcracked.wordpress.com

It DOES Get Easier

There was a while there that I didn't think I would be able to stand breast feeding Rowan much longer.  I was frustrated with his inefficient latch, the pain, and the constant question of whether or not he was getting enough.

I know...everything you read says that you will provide enough for them, so not to worry about it, but trust me, if you're breast feeding, you'll wonder.

I really struggled with the amount of time that breast feeding takes, and the awkward position that I have to sit in made it seem even longer!

I was actually ready to give up, even though I wouldn't yet.  And I didn't really believe all the women who said it would get better.  I mean, it's not that I thought they were lying, but I've encountered more momnesia over the last year than real, honest truth. 

But here's the deal...it DOES get easier!  Just like everyone said! The pinching, soreness, and awkwardness all subside. And really, thank goodness for momnesia.  It doesn't take long to forget the hard parts.

Now, I'm so happy that I've stuck with it.  It's still not the AMAZING experience for me that it is for some, but it makes me feel good to be able to give [what I feel is] the best.  And I know I won't be able to give the best of everything for the cute little fella, so I better take it where I can!

Our Growing Boy!

Little Wonders

Rowan, 4 wks

Sorry, it's been a while since an update.  I've kinda had my hands full ;) and it's been hard to sneek away for enough time to get anything done, let alone to blog!

I really wanted to post at Rowan's one month mark, which was last Wednesday, but that didn't happen, and to be honest....there wasn't much to say.  Other than it being a whirlwind of a month since his due date, he wasn't very exciting.  I think the 2nd two weeks of his first month were harder than the first two. 

He was crying and fussing more. Sleeping less.  Eating more. Needing more. 



Rowan & Dad, 4.5  wks



I don't know if things were actually harder, or if we just ran on adrenaline during the first two weeks and wore out by the end of the month. Couple that with Rogér's return to work, the end of 4 weeks was incredibly trying.

To top it off, I had read on BabyCenter that at 4 weeks you might start to hear your baby making coos and see him start tracking objects with his eyes. The article encouraged parents to play with their babies, introducing toys.  I know better than to judge Rowan's development against a generalization, but I couldn't help but get really excited by what I "might expect" at this point, and ended up pretty disappointed when all my baby did at 4 weeks was cry even louder, harder, longer.

Anyway,  now that he's almost 5 weeks, he's getting cuter by the second! He started his first coos, which are so fun to listen too.  He's awake more of the day, but in a good way.  Not like last week. 



On my playmat, 4.5 wks



He's aware and seems happy a lot of the time. He still cries (of course), but it's countered by a lot of really special momentsHard to believe that a half a week can make all the difference!  But it totally does! I think over the next few days, we're going to see a lot of new adorable things coming from our little man. 

We can't wait for him to smile!

~ Sarah

p.s. this post took me 2.5 hours to write, with a sleeping baby on my arm.  I have a feeling this is how it's gonna be for a while :)

Eff You, Blue Paint!

OH, I am SOOOO frustrated with the paint we are picking for our kitchen/dining areas.

First of all, it took me a long time to decide what colors I liked on the swatch.  Then, it took me a long time to get some real samples to try out. Then, it took me a long time to acutally take the plunge with the real deal.

I chose a dark grey/blue color for the kitchen, behind the oven and fridge.  I started painting away, and fell in LOVE with the color!  Wow.  I was so proud of myself for taking a chance and getting it right!

I did three coats on the whole area and it looked fantastic.  A few hours later, I went to go do some touch-ups.  To my shock and horror, the touch-ups turned out a totally lighter color! WTF!! I must not have mixed the dang paint well enough.  Okay, this might seem like an easy fix, just go get a new can of paint and mix it well, right? WRONG! Because I like the DARK color!  I don't like the color as much if it's all the way mixed.

 Crap. 

Trying to match a mystery wall color doesn't work very well.  We bought a butt-load of new "add a touch of this" samples but none of them are right. 

Today, Rogér mixed two of the sample colors together, and it's surprisingly close.  I think we're going to have to live with it.

Moral of the story:  Mix your paint THOROUGHLY!  Even if you hate the fully mixed color, at least you don't fall in love with a color you can't match.

-Sarah

Finding Childcare

Oh, Man!  I am not even ready to think about this.  I would really love to find a way to stay home with Rowan. There was a point where I actually thought this might be possible.  Well, okay, it is possible. But it's probably not reasonable, considering we have some rather large expenses already, AND we just decided to get new windows for the house, AND there's some plumbing issues left unresolved.

I think career vs. family is a difficult struggle for a lot of women.  In fact, my friend, Jen, just posted on this topic HERE. Often, it boils down to not having a choice, but if you do have a choice, it's a pretty stressful one.  My salary isn't a small portion of the family income so it really would not be easy to cut it out.

So that means I have about two months to find a place where I feel comfortable leaving my tiny three month old child during my working hours.  Not many of our friends have been through this yet, so they can't really provide much info into daycares.  And most of the people we know who do have kids, are fortuneate enough to either stay at home, or work where daycare is provided by the company, or happened upon a great daycare/nanny that is not within our reach. 

How do I find a good daycare?  I've been scouring Yelp, but there don't seem to be that many options.  And let me tell you, this is totally freaking me out!

I've decided to call a few of the ones I found on Yelp as soon as the weekend is over.  I guess then I have to go check them out.  I still need to look up what questions to ask too.  I don't know these things, ya know. And I'm not all on top of this like the ONE other girl I know who is going through the same thing.

For those that have been there, do you have any suggestions for how to determine a good daycare/nanny? 

AND, if you gave up your paying job to be a SAHM, how did you adjust to the change in both finances and job description?

-Sarah


Image credit: www.bedstuyblog.com

First Family Road Trip

Whew!  We survived our first trip away from home for longer than 2 hours.  Not without some consequences though.

We were going down to Castro Valley for a friend's baby shower, and since that's just a little north of Carmel Valley, we also planned to visit Rogér's dad, Rowan's "Opa".  And since that's close to Rogér's best friend's parents house, we decided to pay them a visit too, and since this was all close to Carmel by the Sea, we thought we stop by some other friends' house in between the shower and dinner.  But instead of doing it in a reasonable order, we went into Carmel Valley to visit the family friends, then back to Castro Valley for the shower, then back to Carmel Valley, to visit Rogér's dad.  And we never even made it to the fourth destination.  Oooph, a LOT of driving. Rogér drove though, so I can't complain about that and it really wouldn't have worked any other way. 

We were supposed to leave our house at 9:30am, of course that didn't work out.  We hit the road around 10:15am.  We were late for every

I packed the diaper bag the night before, and since I really didn't know what we would need so I packed everything.  7 cloth diapers, 7 disposable diapers, 2 travel pack wipes, 1 big tub of wipes, a nursing cloak, 4 extra outfits for Rowan, 1 extra shirt for myself (in case of spit-up or let down), 2 changing pads, 2 bottles, 2 milk containers, 2 extra swaddle blankets, 4 nursing pads, and the stroller.  Can you imagine?!  I looked like a bag lady with all that crap!

Here's what I used: 6 cloth diapers (one was used for sticking under his bum during changes), 1 travel pack of wipes plus a couple wipes from the big container, probably about 6-8 wipes total, the breast pump, 1 bottle, and both the milk containers. 

Here's what we forgot: a plastic bag to keep the used cloth diapers.

I only actually breastfed once during the whole trip.  I got by by pumping during the drives! Oh, and we really bundled Rowan up considering that the coast is usually pretty chilly, but of course, it was a beautiful day and we had to strip him down so he didn't burn up!

I guess it was better to be prepared and now we have a better idea of what we need for a day away.

All in all, it was a fun trip.  We really haven't been down that way very much in a long time, so it was great to see everyone.  We also hit up Rogér's favorite bagel shop, The Bagel Bakery, on the way, for a Cooperman's Delight sandwich, yumminess for under $3!

And we scored some MORE precious photos of Rowan. Love it.

We are EXHAUSTED today though.  I think Rowan was a little overstimulated. He's a cranky-pants today. Tomorrow, we're headed down to Salinas for an overnighter!  But we're going to lay much lower during the next trip.  No running around all over the place.


WHOOPS! Did I say Castro Valley? I meant Castroville....well, the lack of sleep is definitely starting to catch up with me.

Baby vs. The Circus - Introducing Our Newborn to the "Pets"

We have some interesting pets.  I mean, they're not exotic, more like psychotic. 

Domino, the catahoula leopard dog (okay, that sounds exotic), is has a bit of a reputation throughout the neighborhood for his Houdini escape tricks, and his, shall we say, prominent, bark. Oh yes, and let's not forget his, um, adventures with the local mailman.  He's not a bad dog.  He's just...misunderstood.  I'm pretty sure more people know him than know us, and, they're either terrified of him, or endeared towards him, surprisingly, more of the latter, I think. 

Buddy, oh Buddy.  The Meyers Parrot. He's quite a Divo.  He's sure he's in charge of this household.  Generally, he's not prone to jealousy, but he does require that His Majesty be doted on as he sees fit.  If it's not enough, he might get loud....ear piercingly loud.

Ronin, the Thorougbred horse, is a sweetie-pie.  He's a big goober klutz.  Accident prone, and awkward.  He does have a little secret though.  He's a Left-Brained Introvert, by Parelli's categorization of horse personalities.  Which boils down to being dominant in a rebelious kind of way and a lot of work on our part to remind him to respect us.  Who would have thought?  (Well the crazy ranch lady who follows Parelli pegged him right away, but it took us a while to agree).

How did we end up with all these dominant personalities?  I don't even know.  It gets a little crazy at times, trying to keep on top of the pack.  My coworkers LOVE the stories that come of it though.

Not surprisingly, people had concerns about us introducing a baby into the mix.  Many expected us to give up one or more of the animals.  Um, that's not how we operate.  Our pets are pretty much our family.  It would take a LOT for us to let one go.  We'd have to be very ,very desperate, or forced by law.

Anyway, we didn't really know how the animals would react to the baby.  We read a little bit about how to introduce a dog to the idea.  That's a common topic.  Here's what we heard/read:

1) Bring a blanket or piece of clothing home first, for the dog to smell
2) Show the dog that you're protective of the baby, i.e. require that the dog keep a safe distance for little while.
3) Always make sure the baby enters the house before the dog, and stays ahead of the dog on walks.

2&3 are things that the owners are supposed to do as well.

We followed all those "rules" with Domino.  I can't say whether or not they, specifically, worked.  But Domino took really well to the baby.  We didn't expect any different.  Catahoulas are known for loving children, and Domino was very gentle with me while I was pregnant.  The only concern, which we still have, is that his rowdy nature may lead to some accidental mishaps.

There's not really a lot to introducing a child to a horse.  The biggest issue is how to find time for both.

Ronin, got his first sniff of the baby last Friday.  We had to check on him for a health concern and, since we can't leave the baby at home alone, we had to take him.  And, since we can't leave the baby in the car, he had to be in my arms as we evaluated Ronin's condition.  I'm pretty sure Ronin is going to be perfectly fine with the kid.  He didn't like me much while I was preggo though.  I think this is my fault for sending him bad vibes.  I couldn't help but be a little more timid of potentially dangerous situations (and animals) while I was pregnant.  I think he read that I was uneasy and it made him feel the same way.

The bird has actually been the slowest to acclimate to the baby. 

Buddy is surprisingly jealous, and louder than ever, and getting increasingly obnoxious.  A couple times, he's also refused to come on to my hand, like I'm contaminated with Baby.  Dealing with Buddy is a little trickier.  Parrots aren't as common and there's not as much advice out there.  We're probably going to have to troubleshoot our way through this one.  So far, we're putting him on "time outs" when he's being bad and trying to reward him with attention when he's being good.  I hope eventually, he gets over it.

We're pretty happy with how it's panned out so far.  It's about as manageable as we could have hoped for, with our peanut gallery of pets.

How did you deal with, or plan on dealing with, introducing a baby to your pets?

-Sarah

My Favorite Part About Being a Mommy...Right Now

Okay, so I bitched about breastfeeding, and now I'm going to share the part about taking care of little Rowan that I enjoy the most.

This might sound kind of weird, but I absolutely LOVE burping him!  I get the biggest kick out of it.  He's always so alert during burping.  He sits up, lifts his little head as high as he can, and wrinkles his forehead.  It's so cute!  And then, his burps are so fun to hear, and I'm so proud of him and myself when we get one!  Ya know, he doesn't really do that much right now, so this is really exciting for us.

The best, best part though, is when he lifts his head, and his so-soft-there's-no-good-comparison cheek brushes against my cheek!  Oh my gosh, it's the BEST!

-Sarah

I LOVE my My New Mixer

My mixer looks super-cute in Meringue!

For Christmas, Rogér got me a KitchenAid Professional 600!  Yay, I've been wanting one for a looooooooong time.  Well, I probably didn't need the Professional 600, but, hey, I'm not going to complain.  And, Since we finally have all the countertops in ( I'll post on that as soon as we clear them off enough for a nice photo), I have a place to put it where it will be functional!  I was really itching to try it out, so I whipped up some zucchini bread with the giantasaur zucchini we had in our fridge that our neighbor gave us.

I don't have a fantastic zucchini bread recipe of my own, so I used this one.  It turned out pretty dang good.  Probably because I think it's hard to go too wrong with zucchini bread.  We gave some of it away, and I've been eating the rest!  So much for getting rid of pregancy lbs!

Now that my mixer and I survived our maiden voyage, I want to try making more things. 

Do any of you have any recipes they would be willing to share?

-Sarah

Image credit: http://www.cutepotpuri.com/

The Breastfeeding Blues

We're three weeks into this parenting deal, and I'm really feeling like a slave to my baby's need for food.  Feedings can take up to an hour, with all the burping and diaper explosion changes included, and he has to eat every one to three hours!  Typically, it's around the three hour mark, Thank GOD! Sometimes I even catch a break and he waits a little longer.  But still, that leaves two hours in between to carry on with normal life....uh, well, normal except for everything has to be done with one arm because the other is occupied.  And, there are diaper changes and coddling to be done during these two hours of "freedom" as well. 

I thought the delivery was going to be the worst part.  Good Lord, I had no idea what I was in for! 

Unlike some, I haven't found breastfeeding to be super rewarding child-parent bonding time either.  Maybe that comes later?  And it IS painful.  That part's getting better though.  The pain really isn't that big of a deal to me.  But I do find feeding to be incredibly tedious and it gets in the way of other things I want to be doing.  I know that's disgustingly selfish.  I'm just saying it like it is...for me.

Pre-Baby, I admittedly could not understand why moms would choose (and I do mean those who have a choice) to feed with formula over providing their little ones with the health benefits of breastmilk, plus, burning an extra 500 calories a day.  Now, I TOTALLY GET IT.  Let's face it, you could burn those 500 calories easy in the amount of time it takes to breastfeed your baby.

How much easier would life be right now if I could just grab the bottle of formula over fighting Rowan for the "latch" at 3am?  I try not to think about it too much because I still want to stick it out as long as I can.  I do think it's best for my baby.  It's definitely trying my patience (Me? Patience? Those words don't mix).  Luckily my stubborness might counter the lack of patience.  At least it could buy us some time.

Man, I can't wait 'til he eats solids! 


-Sarah

This Is My Poopy Face..

"Whoa! What just happened in my pants?"

Rowan doesn't really complain when he has a poopy dipe.  A wet one will bring on a string of wails, but not a poopy one.  His only tell is this cute little pucker-face.  It kind of looks like he's trying to give you a kiss, but it undoubtedly means that he's let loose into his diaper.  This is the only event massive enough to warrant the wide eyes and kissie lips. 

-Sarah

Yummy Yums

Yesterday evening, our friends, Lauren and Ralph, brought over dinner deliciousness!  Lauren made chicken enchiladas, a summer squash, quinoa side dish (the best quinoa dish I've ever had....okay, I haven't had that may quinoa dishes, but this is the best so far! And, if you want to challenge this statement, please feel free to make your  favorite for me so I judge fairly) , and some amazing raspberry dessert bars.  Mmmmmmmmmm.  It was all sooooo good, and, to top it off, it was all gluten free! 

Maybe if we're lucky, Lauren will share her recipes on her new blog, Where's My Bread? (hint, hint).  I'm certain she's going to post some incredibly scrumptious eats.

Daddy & Me

Rogér is great at diaper duty, but that's not the only quality time he and Rowan get. 

He's taking advantage of his paternity leave, and catching up on some lost z's, by sleeping in a little in the mornings with the bean sprout, (I may be slightly jealous of the sleep he's getting!)

He color coordinates their outfits,

And they play with Domino.

Oh, and how could I forget, the time spent playing Dad's favorite new video game, Golden Eye.  Yup, starting him early.  No picture of that one, sorry.

Pure Daddy Love! 

Love it!

We've Hit Two Weeks!

Oh my gosh! I forgot to tell you all that Rowan lost is cord!  It was actually this last Sunday that I was changing his stinky diaper and realized that his umbilical cord had fallen off, and was nowhere to be found.  I dug around in his clothes to find it.  Then, I promptly threw it away, before Rogér had the chance to fanagle a way to save it.  YUCK. (Sorry if that's your thing, but I'm not into it.)

I wasn't nearly as grossed out by the whole umbilical cord thing after Rowan was born as I was before so.  It really creeped me out when I realized , via one of the Kaiser newborn classes, that it stuck around for a couple weeks and you had to work around it. eeeeeeeeeeeew.  I guess when you've got a little bundle of cuteness in your hands, you can overlook those sorts of things.

Since the cord fell off, we got to give Rowan his first bath!  Yay!  He screemed bloody murder through the whole thing, and then peed all over himself as soon as we were done!

Rowan's First Bath

I think we've been lucky so far because Little Ro sleeps for at least a solid three hour stretch each night, with a few little naps in between.  And, he doesn't fuss during the day hardly at all.  In fact, it's kinda hard to tell when he's got a dirty dipe 'cause he doesn't make a big deal about it.  We just have to check every now and then.

Some days he's more awake than others.  And of course, we take tons of photos of him either way, but it's really fun to look at his little grey eyes and wonder what color they'll turn out to be.

Cloth Diapers - So Far, So Good (with a little help)

We've had a pretty good run with cloth diapers so far.  Right now, we only have one diaper cover (the x-small Thirsties) that's small enough for our little, tiny man.  I'm not sure whether I should buy another one, or wait, since he won't be this small for long :(

The Thirsties cover has been great!  The only snaffoo we had was that the soaked up the wetness from a pee pee diaper, and it spread out from there.  I read about that on Amazon, so it's not surprising.  The Amazon user said the easy solution is to cut out the tag, but she pointed out that then you lose the washing/drying information.  We'll have to find a place to save the tag, that we'll remember.

The only other thing is that the prefolded cloth diapers from Gerber seem a little big.  I feel like it squishes him all up and doesn't allow air in.  Probably could've avoided this from buying less generic diapers and getting a smaller size from a place like this.  Also, possibly related to the bulky size, I think that his little bum isn't getting aired out enough with the cloth diapers.  Disposables are better at wicking away moisture.

One more thing, right now, we're folding the diapers in thirds (long ways), and then fanning out the back, like the Flying Angel Wing, shown here.

As we fumble through figuring out the diaper thing, it's been great to have a few disposables on hand, especially since we only have one cover. If you're totally against this, an option might be biodegradable disposables. 

-Sarah

Photo Shoot with Lisa G

Rowan, Photography by Lisa Gonzales

Last week, our friend Lisa, from Photos by Lisa G, snapped some shots of our Top Male Model in the making. Actually, it was on Christmas day...when Rowan was just 3 days old!  Lisa's such a trooper!

Baby portraits are fun, at least to watch, because they're just so darn cute.  We've already taken about a bazillion of our own pics of the little man, but I can't wait to see Lisa's work.  I know for us, it's pretty much pure luck to get a good photo between the "I've got gas" face and the "sleep with one eye open" face, not to mention the "Oh yeah? You think you have a Kodak moment?, Well, let me put my fingers in front of my face real fast" move.

Mr. Cutie-Pants is going to have to get used to a camera in his face!

Lisa also did our pregnancy portraits.  Originally, I didn't really want pregnancy portraits, cuz I'm awkward in front of the camera.  But Lisa held our hands through the whole thing and now I'm excited to see how they turned out.

You can get a little sneak peek on Lisa's blog, here.