One Year Update!

Wow I can't believe it's been a year. Yes yes I know that's very cliche but there's a reason so many people react this way to their baby's first birthday. This past year has gone SO fast and Maddox is getting SO big! This boy is 19 lbs already. Still on the little side but big for him.

Birthday Party Shot. 

Maddox has been eating solids really well. He literally eats anything that we put in front of him so far. He loves pasta with any kind of sauce. He's not a huge fan of chicken or veggies. He does not eat much for raw vegetables yet. He loves eggs, toast, and pancakes but is not a huge fan of bacon (more for me!). He so far does not really like beef (roast specifically) and hasn't had much pork yet as I don't cook pork (except bacon yum!). In the past week Maddox has learned how to eat off of a plate, drink from a cup while holding it himself and drink from a straw. Go go little man!

For his birthday we did the obligatory cake smash. I made a banana cake (and cupcakes) with this amazing whipped cream cheese frosting. They were soo tasty! Thank you to my mom for taking pictures for us!

Maddox's mini cake.

First Taste

Cake smashing is hard work

Breast Feeding

This boy is weaning himself (cry). My primary goal was to go to 1 year and we made it that far. My secondary goal was 2 years. Health Canada recommends giving babies breast milk until  they are 2 years old so I was to follow his lead but set a cut off age of 2 years. Well about 2 months ago he started to wean on his own. We used to nurse after every nap and first thing in the morning as well as before bed. Over about 2 weeks Maddox stopped nursing during the day. He was just not interested so I eventually stopped offering. He held onto the morning nursing session until recently. I think about 3 weeks ago we stopped that one he just wasn't interested anymore. And just last week he started to not want to nurse before bed. In the past 5 days he's nursed before bed once. He does still nurse once overnight which I am totally ok with because we don't get much for cuddles these days. Boy is busy!

EDIT: As I'm proof reading this and procrastinating on finishing and posting it Maddox is pretty much completely weaned. Last night he woke and I offered the boob but he only sucked like 3 times on each side. He got practically nothing. I think we may be done. :( Boo yay!


Sleeping

Sleeping is going really really well! He still has 2 naps a day. The first nap is usually from 11-1ish and his second nap is from 3:30 or 4 until about 5. He's been going down really easy for this week. Just put him down and walk away. Bedtime is still at 7 and he's usually up for the day between 8 and 9.

Bedtime is usually a bit different. If he had a really messy supper we give him a bath. Usually at about 6;30. After his bath we brush his teeth, put on his jammies and sleep sack, read him a story and then snuggle for as long as he'll let us. It's usually less than a minute but I'll take what I can get. Then we put him down with his soother and walk away. He puts himself to sleep really well. He will generally wake up between midnight and 3 to nurse and then sleeps right through.



Favorite things

Right now Maddox's favorite things include his bunny and his penguin (and still his blanky of course). He also loves to talk while he's eating including having yelling matches with Mommy or Daddy.

He likes to do things randomly if he hears a word he knows in the conversation. For example if we are talking about someone jumping when he hears the word "jumping" he will like half squat and kind of jump back up. He can't jump off the ground yet but he sure tries. Other words he responds to are bye bye, he will wave bye; kisses, he will give you a very messy, all tongue kiss; bonk, he will bonk his forehead into yours.

He has also started to "shake his booty" courtesy of one of the girls I take care of. lol If you tell him to shake it he will stick his bum out and kind of pop back up. So funny.


Scary things

The only thing that scares him consistently is the sound of ripping a piece of duct tape off of the roll. Otherwise he's a pretty happy boy.

Well that's about all we have had going on since the last update. Thanks for reading my random ramblings.

Later all.

Update time!

Oh wow it has been a while since I updated on here! So much to share! Maddox update first.

Maddox is almost a year old! Crazy! He started walking this week and in a matter of days he has gone from just taking a couple steps to walking EVERYWHERE. He walks more than he crawls now. It's crazy!

He's still not talking a while lot. The only word he says that I think he actually knows what it means is Mama. That being said if I say Daddy is home he gets super excited and starts hollering for him so he has started to understand words.

Right now his favorite thing is to dig through the cardboard recycling bin pulling out all kinds of treasures and then walking around with one in each hand. When Mommy forgets to block it he gets into the bottle bin...so far I've only caught him sucking on 1 bottle of wine.

The cutest things Maddox does right now are:

Yelling when Daddy is home and getting very excited.
If you tell while Maddox is eating he will yell back at you.
When he's on his changing pad getting his bum changed he plays with his feet just like when he was tiny and first discovered them.
When you pick him up he makes the most amazing happy squeal and grabs you.
He 'shakes' everything. He grabs something with both hands and shakes. If the item is stationary HE shakes, if not the item shakes.
If you tell him to 'Bonk' he will bonk his forehead into yours.
He gives kisses. Messy, open mouthed, all tongue, baby kisses.
He also gives high fives and waves bye bye.
He has discovered his boy bits...

Nursing is going really well still. He is starting to drop one of his daytime nursing sessions. Usually the one after his first nap is the one he's suddenly to busy for. So he nurses when he wakes up, once or twice during the day, bedtime and once usually at night.

He has 8 teeth now and eats EVERYTHING we put in front of him. I think since he started eating solids he's only spit something out once and it was just the other day. (Macaroni salad)

Sleeping wise he seems to have suddenly figured it out. He goes down at 7 and sleeps until 8 or 8:30 with 1 or 2 wake ups to nurse. He wakes between 3 and 5 and sometimes before midnight. Last night he only woke up once and just wanted his soother back. I must say I am a very happy Momma these days only being woken up once at night. It's wonderful!

Ok me update. In the last blog I mentioned that I was going to start running again. Well it went really good! I completed the couch to 5k program at the end of August and have taken a couple week break. I will start the couch to 10k program tomorrow with the goal of finishing that by new years. I guess I will update on that one when the time comes.

This post is getting out of control long so I'm going to go ahead and end it here. Further updates to come in a later blog post.

Crawling, Standing, Climbing Oh My!

Wow Maddox has been a busy boy lately. He's crawling like crazy and getting into EVERYTHING! He is so much fun right now. He's even started to beeline for something if he thinks you are going to go get him. He tries to get there before he's caught. It's so cute!

He is also standing like crazy. He pulls up on everything and stands there babbling and bobbing around. He's starting to cruise around a bit and has even practised standing unsupported. He's gone as long as 10 seconds standing unassisted!

Sleep wise he's been MUCH better these days. He goes to bed around 8 and will often sleep until 1 or 2 before he wants a feed. If he does wake it's usually just to give him his soother back. He has had a bit of a cold the past week which I think is the main reason he's waking at night aside from a feed. The poor boy. It's been over a week since his cough started so it's time to take him in to get looked at. Our doctors office does walk-ins in the afternoon so we will try to get down for that today.

His naps have been going very well too. Now that the novelty of crawling and standing has worn off a bit and he has learned to lay down from standing he has gotten back into putting himself to sleep for naps for the most part. I can put him down wide awake and walk away and about half the time he will be asleep before I even think to check on him. The other half of the time he will holler for me, I'll go cuddle him for a bit, put him down sleepy and he will do the rest.

In non-Maddox related news I have finally gotten the itch to begin running again and started last week. This time around I am really enjoying it and I think my body was finally ready. The last time I started running after I had Maddox (6 months pp I think? Can't really remember lol) I could feel that I wasn't ready yet. I can't really describe it but my body just really felt off during and after a run. Like my pelvis was loose or something. It was really strange and uncomfortable so I took a few more months and did quite a bit of walking in the mean time. This time around the running is going VERY well. I feel back to my old self albeit very out of shape. My cardio is terrible but my muscles seem to have held up fairly well.

I have also figured out that if I tell too many people I'm back running or try to blog about it I end up feeling like it is a chore and tend to not go. This time around this is about all I'll be speaking of it unless something exciting happens during a run. I'm going to just kind of do it in the background for a little bit. Do it just for me and not be accountable to anyone but myself. I'm going to be casual about it and not stress when I miss a run.

Ah Blessed Sleep How I Have Missed Thee.

As you can probably tell from the title this mom has gotten some sleep the past couple nights! Not a lot mind you but probably twice what I was getting during Maddox's week of let's grow ALL OF THE THINGS AT ONCE.

Right now when Maddox goes to bed at 7 he is usually asleep by 7:30 and sleeps right until 11 (once he slept until 1) before wanting food. He's usually up between 3 and 4 for food again and then up for the day around 7. Those wake times are not all that much different from the rough week. The main difference is that after I feed him this week he has been going right back to sleep instead of being awake for 1-2 hours before falling back asleep. Woot woot!

Also this week he is so conflicted between sitting up and sleeping that often he spends the beginning of his naps sitting up and trying to fall asleep with his head down in front of him. He has yet to succeed but I think one day he may just.

There must be SOME way for me to sit and sleep at the same time.

Close enough. ZZZZZzzzzzz

Wow another update so quick!

So in the past 24 hours Maddox has gotten another tooth and learned how to crawl!! Go boy! 6 teeth and crawling before 8 months old!!!

Update: Within 2 days of this post's first draft I think Maddox got another tooth! He won't really let me feel around much but I think I felt a new on in there! Crazy boy!

He has also gained a whole pound in the past 2 weeks. Crazy! No wonder he's not sleeping as good at night these days. Growing teeth, learning how to crawl and pull up on things and just plain growing!

Long Over Due Update

Wow. What has happened in the past month. Or rather what HASN'T happened. Maddox has decided that he would like to crawl and he is doing his absolute best to learn how to. As of today he can get onto all fours from sitting and rocks back and forth. He can get into a sitting position from laying down now too! Growing so fast. He is also able to pull himself up to standing from a sitting position. This little man is going to be unstoppable soon.

Thankfully we have started to baby proof the living room. We bought a wall unit for extra storage because the pointy daggery tables are now in the basement (along with the potentially baby killing 100+lb tv). While we were buying the wall unit we got a really nice tv stand for the downstairs tv for really cheap as well as a bench for by the front door, also really cheap. For all 3 pieces of furnature we probably spend around $1200. Not bad considering the original wall unit I wanted was $1200 from IKEA. The one we got was half the price and twice the quality from The Brick. Here's a picture of it all built:

It's still pretty bare as we don't have much for decoration as of yet. We are planning to wall mount the tv eventually so it will look more like it fits the space instead of looking to tiny. Yeah we probably just need a larger tv but hey this one was free, and if it falls on the boy it won't kill him like the big one we had.

Back to the Maddox updates. This boy now has 5 teeth!! And 3 that are on their way. He's a teething fiend these days. I'm going to go ahead and say that the teething is the reason his sleeping has been absolute crap these days. 2 days this week he has gone to bed just to wake up an hour later and need cuddles. I tried for over 2 hours the first night to put him back to sleep and over an hour the second night before I managed. The second night I eventually just let him whine it out. He would be fine in his crib as long as I was in the room with him but as soon as I would leave he would start to whine and cry. I'd go check on him and he'd be fine again which said to me that he didn't really need anything and had just figured out I would come back when he would whine. So I sat at my desk and let him whine until he actually got upset and then went to check on him. Gave him his soother and he started to actually try to go to sleep instead of whining at me. Took him a little while to actually fall asleep but once he did he was out for about 3 hours which is one of the longest stretches we've gotten out of him in the past week. He was up twice for food and then up for the day around 8.

Sitting Up and Belly Sleep!

My oh my this boy just keeps on growing! He can stop any time. Seriously. He's growing way to fast for my liking.

A couple weeks ago he figured out how to sit up all by himself and now he can do it so well he only gets a crash pillow behind him if I need to step out of arms reach for something. Just today he turned all the way around while sitting to play with said pillow. One moment he was sitting where I put him all happy as can be. I folded a sheet and the next time I looked over he was 180 turned and nom-ing on the pillow. That boy! I tell ya.

For a while now Maddox has been rolling onto his belly in his crib. It usually went something like this. I would put him down for a nap. He would immediately try to roll onto his tummy like it was his only goal in life. He would make it and then holler for me like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. Well last night it was no different except for the hollering part. He rolled over and went right to sleep on his tummy. Slept a solid 2 hours before he even rustled and then he woke up to feed. I must say, babies asleep on their tummies are so adorable!!

The night time wakings are getting to be fewer these days. He was still waking up around 1 and 4:30 for feedings until recently. About a week ago I stopped feeding him at the 4:30  wake up because he was falling asleep half way through the first side. That went really well. There was only one night where he was resistant to going back to sleep but he got some good Mommy cuddles and didnt' stand a chance. The past few nights he's just taken his soother back and gone right back to sleep at that time though he was still waking and insisting on food around 1. Last night he fed at 11:30 and then slept right through the 1 am feed. He woke 4:30, took his soother and went right back to sleep! It was the most sleep I've gotten in months! What a wonderful night that was.

Here's a monitor picture of him sleeping on his tummy last night. Too cute!

Baby Eating and 6 Month Shots.

So the food has been going well! Today Maddox had buttered toast and seemed to really enjoy it. I just gave him a strip of mine that I had prepared for breakfast to play with and he seemed to really enjoy it! I don't know how much he ate, or how much our dog Tuli ate but he had fun so that's all that mattered.

For dinner he had another go at the sweet potato and oh boy he seemed to really enjoy that. Opened up big and wide for it. I prepared an ounce for him and he ate it all! I gave him only half an ounce of peas yesterday (which were a hit too) so I figured lets see how much he can eat? Tomorrow I'll do 1.25 oz and keep upping it until he no longer eats it all.

His 6 month shots went really well. He cried of course but recovered pretty quick. He's 15.5 pounds already! Woah! When did that happen? He's in the 50th percentile for height and head circumference, the 10-15 percentile for weight and the 30th ish percentile for height to weight ratio. So he's in the middle for height but slimer than most his age. Although he is in the bottom for his weight he's been gaining right on track so nothing to worry about. As for any adverse reactions to the vaccination so far nothing but a bit of a sore leg. He's had some tylenol so hopefully he won't be too uncomfortable to sleep tonight.

His sleeping since we have gotten home has not changed. He is usually in bed by 7 still and will wake once or twice to feed before midnight and then again around 3 or 4 and then is up for the day around 7 or 8. 

Speaking of...it's 10pm right now and he is starting to squeak for food so I must stop blogging and attend to the boy.

Here's a quick carrot face shot for you. Quite the face on that boy.

No More Soother?

So our big little man may have decided he no longer needs his soother. He's started playing a lets throw our soother behind the crib game. Fun right? Except I have to pull the crib out to get it back for him each time. After like the 10th time over the day of naps I decided to NOT retrieve it just to see what he would do. I was totally prepared to go in and get it if he got upset. He rolled over and went to sleep after only a few minutes! Slept a solid half hour which is about right for him.

For bedtime I gave him his soother as per usual and the first time he threw it I didn't go get it just to see what he would do. He turned onto his side and went to sleep! What a boy! So the next thing I was wondering about is would he be able to get himself back to sleep when he woke without it. Short answer is yes! He woke up briefly, rolled over and went back to sleep! What a grown up boy!

6 Months!!

Holy crap where does the time go? It seems like yesterday that he was born and he's already 6 months old! Over all he is the HAPPIEST baby I have ever seen. Always smiling and giggles pretty easily. Be warned this is going to be a LONG update!

Maddox is starting to be a bit of a mover. He is able to sit all by himself for a little bit at a time. If he turns his head he will fall over though so we need to sit with our legs around him still. He's starting to be able to stand holding onto things if we put him in the position which is super cute. If he's laying down on the floor on a blanket he's able to skootch down it so much so that he has almost gotten right off of the blanket more than once now. When he's doing tummy time he is starting to try to get his knees under him and can now reach for toys with both hands instead of having to prop himself up with one and reach with the other.

Maddox's favorite things right now are his dog toy and his horse toy. He loves sitting up in his high chair and absolutely loves being held standing up so he can bounce. This past week I have been at my mom's place and she has a jolly jumper. That is the best thing ever! He didn't really know what to do with it the first couple times but today he was trying to bounce and was spinning circles. I'll have to remember to take a video of it soon.

He has started eating solids! So far he's had carrot, sweet potato, apple and banana. Oh and some udon soup broth from our favorite sushi place in my mom's town. (He LOVED that broth) His favorite of the fruits and veggies was the banana. I gave that to him as a large chunk to play with and he seemed to really enjoy it. The rest I pureed up and of them he ate the most of the apple. Yesterday for the first time he actually opened his mouth up good for the spoon. Good eater in the making.

So far the only things he dislikes are Mommy walking away and staying awake too long.

As for napping he still naps like a champ! Here at mom's hes been napping in the playpen. The first couple days/nights we were here I figured out the hard way that he doesn't like the playpen with the infant insert. It raises up the mattress to about half way up like a crib on the highest setting making it easy to put him in and out of it. The downside is that it isn't flat or stationary. Just the way that it's set up there's a low point in the middle and it sways when he moves. He didn't like being effectively stuck in the middle and was so grumpy sleeping in it that the last night before I figured out the problem he flat out refused to sleep in it. I adjusted it to the bottom, where the mattress is nice and supported by the frame work of the playpen and he slept like a damn! He still go down as soon as he starts to grump and I can still put him down and walk away and he puts himself to sleep.

Night time sleeping has been pretty good as well. He goes down between 6 and 7 these days and will wake up around 10 for food and then around 3 or 4 for more food. He's up for the day around 8. He takes 3 to 4 naps a day of at least half an hour to an hour. One of them is almost always a 2 hour nap. Usually in the early afternoon. I LOVE those 2 hour naps!! I would like to say I get lots done around the house during those ones but that would be a lie. I get a lot of WildStar time in during those long ones. Haha

I'll leave you all with a 6 month picture. Proper monthly picture to come when I get home in a few days.

Such a handsome boy!

Maddox update!

Wow what a week we've had! Maddox is still sleeping in his own room. He goes to bed at 7 now which is wonderful! He usually will wake up once before midnight to feed and then again around 3 or 4 for another feed. The last few nights he's woken up but not been demanding food so last night I tried to just put him back to sleep just to see if he was actually hungry or just unable to get back to sleep. Well after some cuddle time he went right back to sleep! Here's hoping we cut out that early morning feed soon. :D

Now that he's almost 6 months old we have been trying some foods. Oh my goodness too funny! He's had carrots and sweet potato. He seemed to like the sweet potato and the carrots got some funny looks. The funny boy likes to feed himself! We can load the spoon and give it to him and he puts it right into his mouth and chews on it. He eats the food that's on it even! Eats better this way than if we feed him. :D Love that boy!

He has learned how to sleep on his side and it is the cutest thing ever! Here's a picture from the monitor:

Yes he's a creeper and sleeps with his eyes kind of open and yes he's cuddling a blanket. lol

The Boy Sleeps Like a Rock!

So today is my husbands birthday party. Maddox was down for a nap at the time that people showed up. He slept right through people arriving. Had a good 2 hour nap! Woke up and was happy awake for 2 hours then went to bed. Fell asleep easily in a very loud house and stayed asleep for about an hour. Fed him and he went back to bed. By this time the house was insanely loud with all the drunk people...he went right back to sleep no problem and is sleeping through what is basically a frat party happening in our living room. I can't believe he is sleeping through this! So cute! Monitor shot.

Crib Sleeping Update!

Oh my goodness my little man is growing up so fast! He officially sleeps in his own room. How did that even happen? Last night he went to bed around 8:30, woke around 10:30 to feed and then again at 2:30 to feed and that was it! Slept until 8:30! Woot!!

So far tonight he's been asleep since 7:45, woke briefly to feed at 8:30 and has been asleep since! What a good little dude! I love that when I figure out what is bothering him he is a happy contented baby once again. No more fighting to go to bed. No more cuddling him to sleep, just to have him wake up and scream as soon as I put him down. No more having to cuddle him to sleep in the middle of the night for what felt like forever! Back to being an easy little dude again. :D This is one happy mama!

Crib Sleep!! Failure and Success!

After my last post I got thinking about Maddox's bedtime issue and I really do think he is just done in the bassinet. I've put him down in his crib for a couple bedtimes this week and he went down just like he used to. Played/babbled for a bit then out. I did bring him into the bassinet when he woke up around 10 for a feed because I just wasn't ready to have him that far away yet and the rest of the night was so so. Woke up every 2-3 hours for food in all his screaming glory. Fed him and he went right back to sleep.

Sunday night we tried to just leave him in his crib for the night. I put him down, in his sleep sack and he went to sleep pretty quickly. I thought yay! I'm in luck! Maybe this is the ticket! Well it was not to be... Between 10:30 and midnight he had me up 5 times! I was silly and tried to go to bed early that day, which was my first mistake. Had I been awake I wouldn't have cared that he had me going to him so often but as it was I was exhausted. Just as I would fall asleep he would wake me up. I think that's almost the worst sleepy feeling ever.

After the 2 hours of high maintenance baby I gave up and brought him back to the bassinet. Well what a night we had. He was up every 2 hours! And woke with the most pissed off screaming/shrieking. It was awful. Longest night we have had in a while. He wouldn't go back to sleep very well. I had to cuddle him to sleep each time before I could put him back into the bassinet.

The next night I was determined. He made it VERY clear that he did not want to sleep in the bassinet so I put him down in his crib and lo and behold he slept pretty good! He was still up fairly often but was easy to put back to sleep and didn't wake up pissed off. Just woke up and babbled until he cried and I went in to feed him. 

Last night I put him down in the crib again and wow! He went down at 7:15 and didn't wake until 10:30. I fed him and he went back to sleep and slept until 4:30!! Fed him again and he slept until 7:30. What a difference. He woke up happy and smiling. Went back to sleep super easy both times that he woke. No more angry baby. Mommy was only woken up once and it was the most wonderful feeling ever! Maddox has graduated to sleeping in his own room!

Sleep Regression Sucks.

Poor Maddox...he's up on average every 2 to 3 hours at night these days. Poor Mom, I'm not getting hardly any sleep.

He goes down anywhere from 7-9...basically after his dinnertime nap he's up for about an hour then it's bedtime. He then wakes up at 9, 11, 1, and at least once between 2 and 6. All for feeding. All screaming like a mad man. I am TIRED these days. Haha He doesn't wake up happy any more either and no wonder, he's up half the night. He must be tired too.

His napping is still really good. Still taking 3-4 naps about an hour for most of them with one being usually 2 hours. He still goes down really good for naps too which is a blessing because he does not go to bed easy any more. He fights it with everything he's got. We've had to cuddle him to sleep more than once this week because if we just laid him down in his bassinet he would freak right out. /sigh

I'm beginning to think he is ready to be done with the bassinet. Will be testing this theory with trying to put him down in the crib and seeing how long into the night he lasts before I pull him back to the bassinet.

In fun news my mom is coming to visit next week!! yay!! Gramma time!

Cinnamon Buns!

Oh man oh man oh man!! I made bread and cinnamon buns this week!!! /gobble

As you can tell from the picture they were a hit. John and I ate half the pan the first day!

Mmm bread! 

For the bread I used my mom's recipe which can be found here. This is the bread we grew up on. I think we may have eaten this bread more often than store bought but I could just be selectively remembering that. Haha

Maddox news....sleep regression sucks! The boy is up twice at night to feed. And very adamant that I feed him and not just give him his soother back. Luckily it's just a quick feed and maybe a bum change  but it's still tiring when you're not used to it. I hope this is a growth spurt and will be over soon. I'd love to sleep through the night again. 

Other than the waking up at night things are going really well for Maddox. He's a super happy little dude still. Nursing is still going really well. He's not teething as far as I can tell. Just overall a good baby.

Running, Running, Running

It's been a good week for weather. Above zero everyday so far and absolutely beautiful. So I've been out running!

I took Tuli to the dogpark on Sunday and decided to do a quick run while I was there. The path that goes through is about 1 km out and back so I figured it was about perfect for where I'm at right now.
In total, including walking to the park, Tuli and I did 3 km. Not bad for just starting back at it. My average pace for the running portion was 10 min/km. Nice and easy.

My Asics running program had me scheduled for a run yesterday so we (Tuli and I) went out quick to do that after John got home from work. For that one it was just over 2 km. I stuck pretty close to the program. 1/2 km warm up and cool down and then the 1 km run. That one was pretty good. Not too difficult but enough to get my heart rate up. I use Runkeeper to track my runs and for some reason the app lost my run. I saved it like I always do and then when I went to log in in My Asics it was gone. /sigh So it's just a best guess at this point.

Maddox wise there is nothing new to report. He is 100% rash free and it hasn't returned. There has been an ugly spot on his arm that just wasn't healing and it's finally about 90% healed. He's not teething this week so he's been SUPER happy. Very smiley boy. The only downside is that he is no longer sleeping through the night. He wakes up once between 1 am and 4 am for food. I think he's going through a growth spurt because he's been eating 2-3 more sessions than normal and at times he will nurse long enough for 2 or more let downs. Hopefully when this spurt is done he will go back to sleeping right through the night again.

Shots Aftermath

Woah this last round of vaccinations were no joke. All day yesterday Maddox had a fever of about 38C. Poor guy. He spent the day cuddling with me while I watched movies.

His legs stayed ouchy all day yesterday but today they seem to be fine again. He does have some bruising but not too bad at all. Small price to pay to protect him against some scary diseases.

He has also decided that he only sleeps 6 hours at night now. I know that's still more than a lot of babies his age but he was sleeping 8-10 hours at night before and I miss that! He does still go down wonderfully for his naps. I lay him down, put the blanket over him and walk away. He puts himself to sleep in minutes.

Speaking of sleep...he randomly woke up and screamed last night. Scared the bajesus out of me. It wasn't a night terror or anything as he went right back to sleep when I gave him his soother back but it was still impressive. I have to wonder if he had been whining prior to that and I slept through it or if he went right from asleep to BAM yelling. Guess I'll never know. He definitely got my attention so I guess it was effective.

Otherwise nothing new to report on the boy. He's still a sweet happy boy and we are still getting a break from teething, thank goodness.

4 Month Shots :(

So Maddox had his 4 month shots tonight. Good stuff first. He weighs 13 lbs 9 oz and is in the roughly 25% for height and weight. He's gaining right on track which is surprising because when he's teething bad he sometimes will skip a feed entirely.

For the shots themselves...the poor guy! He got 3 today, 2 in his left thigh and 1 in his right and both of the left ones made him bleed. Like all over, so much blood. :( The poor guy! He didn't cry for long thankfully and as soon as we got to the truck he crashed hard. He even stayed asleep through me bringing him inside, taking his jacket off and laying him in his crib. That was 2 hours ago!

I keep wondering if he's going to wake for his 10/11 pm feed. He may get to spend the night in his crib as I won't wake him just to move him to the bassinet.

In other news...I went on a baking spree lately. I had a whole crap load of frozen bananas to use up and yesterday and today I baked them up. I got 2 loaves, 12 regular sized muffins and 2 full trays of mini muffins. Holy banana goodness batman! So tasty!

How Do I Crib?

So I went in to pick up Maddox after his dinner time nap and this is how I found him...What a silly boy. Haha

I am happy to report that Maddox's rash is still gone. :D His skin is still super scaly and very dry now because of it so today I tested HIS lotion to see if it was ok. I put a small amount on his chest and waited 5 minutes. All clear. I then did one leg...thinking maybe the chest was a fluke. I fed him and checked and it was still ok! This was a wonderful thing because the dry skin is hella itchy and he's scratching the crap out of himself. At least I can gob him up to relieve some of it. This also means John doesn't have to give up lotion, he can use Maddox's. :D 

No yoga today, will update on that tomorrow. No run either...too darn cold out there. BRR!

Uneventful

Well today was boring. Maddox was not teething or sore with a rash so he was a happy boy all day. Napped really good. Nursed really good. No meltdowns at all. Nothing to report there. His rash is all gone and now his skin just needs to refresh itself (needs to shed, he's all dry and scaly from it now). And in the amount of time it took me to type this short update Maddox has put himself to sleep. He was a GREAT napper today. Put him down and walk away. So awesome!

I didn't run today (too cold) and I didn't do yoga (was feeling meh today so played Wildstar instead).

Overall a good day but kind of boring. haha

Last night was an exciting night in my gaming world. I earned a raid spot in my guild! :D Woop woop!

Random

So Maddox likes to grab my boob when he is feeding. Not like a gentle loving grab that you imagine with the mother gazing down at a happy baby but more like a double fisted, grunting, squirmy,  grab that is followed by a whole body boob dive and a GET IN MAH MOUTH squeal.  Stay classy Maddox.

Yoga Day 7, Rashes and Feet!

Well what a mess this morning turned out to be. Maddox had a pretty good night, only waking up once around 4 am to feed (unusual for him but hey....it was only once so I'll take it!). He woke up super happy and all giggles. Daddy took him to change his bum and within 5 minutes he erupted in this awful rash!

Poor Maddox appears to be reacting to John's lotion! He had JUST put lotion on himself prior to changing Maddox so that's the culprit for sure. I'm so sad Maddox had to get all rashed up yet again (we've been battling this rash for weeks) but at least now we know what's been causing it and can eliminate the problem. I gave him a bath immediately to wash the lotion off and it seemed to stop it from getting worse.

The rash understandably made him very uncomfortable and he spent most of the day sleeping, on me and in his crib. When he woke up around dinner time the rash was much better and he was in much better spirits. 

Despite the way the morning went he had a milestone today! He found his feet!! 

What the heck are these?! Now if I could only grab one...

Got it! 

Haha babies right? So cute. 

As for yoga, day 7 was pretty easy. It was 30 minutes and the only part I found challenging was the side plank...that's no joke! Here's the one I did today: 

Zucchini Bread!

So zucchini bread is amazing! Like wow...I was so enthralled that I didn't even get any pictures of it but you are just going to have to take my word for it and go make this recipe. Like right now. Drop everything and go. Working? Leave early, go home and make this bread. At a friends? Leave. Leave right this second. Go home and make this bread. Already at home? Good. Now go make this bread right freaking now. I found it on all recipes.com and here it is. Seriously...drop EVERYTHING and make this bread.

Mom's Zucchini Bread

Rated: Submitted By: v monte Photo By: sarah Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour Ready In: 1 Hour 40 Minutes Servings: 24

"A moist and delicious zucchini bread flavored with walnuts and cinnamon. Easy to bake and freeze, this recipe makes two loaves."

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil 2 1/4 cups white sugar 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups grated zucchini 1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.	Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3.	Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4.	Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2015 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 2/27/2015

Yoga Day 6: Ow

Well...It's probably a good thing I took the day off yesterday because today was still ow. My stomach muscles were still sore and what did Adriene have me doing? Ab workout. Ouch! This is the practice I did this morning:

Hating you a little bit today lady but also thankful because it did loosen up my core nicely and I'm not as sore any more. It also showed me that my core did indeed suffer from being pregnant which is to be expected.

On the Maddox front last night was actually pretty good. I went to bed at 10:30 because I was still wiped from the night before. Maddox had been asleep since about 9 or 9:30 and he woke up around 12:30 to feed. He was still having pain so I gave him some more tylenol and we just sat and cuddled while it took hold. During this time we tried off and on to nurse but he was just too sore to suck hard enough to make the milk come so was getting frustrated. After about an hour and a half he eventually managed to make the let down happen, fed happily, had a MASSIVE poop and then went back to sleep. He slept through to 8am. :D

Today so far he hasn't had any tylenol or any soreness that I can tell. We will see what tonight brings. 

Teething Hell

So from about 8 pm last night to 2 am M slept maybe an hour total. The poor guy! That second tooth has cut almost all the way through the gums as of this morning but is still very tender! When he did finally fall asleep, off of me, in his bassinet, he slept for maybe an hour and then was up again. I tried to nurse him and he was hurting too much to feed so I took him into his room and gave him some tylenol. We came back to the bedroom and had some good cuddle time. Once the Tylenol kicked in he fell fast asleep and I was able to put him down. He slept from 5-8 am and then woke hungry. I fed him, pulled him into bed with me and we took a 2 hour nap. That was the BEST 2 hours of sleep I had all night.

Luckily today he seems to be in good spirits. Still tender but Tylenol is taking care of it so far.

I had a run scheduled yesterday but with the -20 temperatures I decided it was too damn cold to be out there running. I did the run today instead. It was the same as my last run, 1 km at a 9.47 min/km pace. I think I did the run at an average pace of 8.54 min/km so a little bit faster then I should have. Not going to lie...it was cold so I was hustling a bit to get it done and over with. I had to keep slowing myself down to do it at the pace I was supposed to. A whopping 10 minutes, no warm up, no cool down, just out and back and done. Freaking cold! A part of me is shocked that I can still run that long without a walk break. It has been over 2 years since I was running regularly and I thought for sure after being pregnant last year and getting no exercise that I would be in much worse shape. So far so good!

As for yoga...my stomach and arm muscles are sore so I'm taking a rest day from that. Will pick up day 6 tomorrow. :D

That's all I have for now. Uneventful and yet still exhausting day. Here's hoping for more than 3 hours of sleep tonight.

Laters all.

Second tooth!

Why hello there second tooth! Thank you for finally making your appearance. All you other teeth back off and give my little man a break. #kkthnxbai

Bread and Yoga Day 5

Well that was nice and easy. Super simple day today. Lots of stretching, not much for exertion which is good because I'm still sore from my run on Monday.

So up until recently I figured I was a complete failure at making any kind of yeast dough. It was always just too dry and would not rise properly. After years of failures I figured out that my flour was ancient and I was using too much of it.

Today I tried again, this time with just simple bread. I found a recipe online that was done in the stand mixer and figured great! I can do this!. Well....what a complete disaster....I'm sure the recipe called for easily twice as much flour as it needed...I put in 3/4 of what it called for knowing that I have a tendency to put in too much and it was so much that the dough wouldn't even come together. Just formed in to hard dry turds of yeasty crap. /sigh

Not to be beaten by something as supposedly easy as making bread I trashed the crap I had just made and found a different recipe to try. The one I found called for half the flour of the first one and I decide to forget about the mixer and make it by hand. Oh my goodness we have DOUGH people! Like real, supple, springy, bready bread doughl! Look! It even rose up proper like!!

Holy moly it's working! Dough in the pan pre-rise. It rose up to the top of the pan before I put it in the oven.

WOW IT TASTES EDIBLE! So good! Nothing beats home made bread! John is going to be in for a real treat when he gets home from work tonight!

And I have to include a picture of my sous chef! Go M! His face is all red because he was chewing on a frozen teething ring thinger. You can see it on the edge of the picture. Teething is not fun...fyi.

Yoga Day 4

It has taken me over a week but here it is! I did day 4 tonight! Oh man, you really don't notice how stiff you are until you work on loosening you joints up! I'm incredibly stiff in my hips (understandable after having a baby) as well as my upper back and my left shoulder...just the left one for some strange reason. Haha I also have a curvature in my upper back and tonight I feel like I got some relief from it for the first time in years.

Today's practice focused on all fours which meant lots of table pose and downward facing dog. I did it in my bedroom so I could be close to the little dude if he woke up (he didn't :D) and learned a valuable lesson. If you are going to do yoga on carpet...you still need to use your yoga mat. My palms are on fire with a little bit of rug burn as I type. Oops!

Overall it was a really day 4. Lots of focus on loosening up the back which I really needed. My back is all warm and fuzzy feeling now. :D It feels pretty darn good.

Day 5 tomorrow and Day 2 running tomorrow too. It's another 1 km and this time I will slow down and actually do my target pace properly. haha

Laters,
Ryslan

...darn...

So I was looking at my page stats just now and was like wow! people are actually viewing this and then realized it was tracking my own page views...despite me clicking to NOT track my page views. A quick Google search later and apparently this is a known problem with Blogger? Really? /sigh #hopesdashed #notpopularafterall

Mapo Tofu Take 2!

So the last time I tried to make mapo tofu it was pretty much a disaster. We still ate it, because it was there...but it was nothing like the restaurant version. Tonight I am trying it again. We were going to make it while John's family was here because his mom knows how to make it but we just ran out of time. They will need to come back sometime soon so we can have his mom's version. I made is loosely based on this recipe. I mostly winged it and went by taste as I was making it.

It turned out pretty good! This is roughly what I ended up doing for mine. I hope the measurements are close as I free poured everything. Lol

1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 to 1 tablespoon chili oil (adjust to spice level)
4 cloves finely minced garlic
1 inch chunk of finely minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons black bean paste
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 lb regular or soft (not silken) tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
3 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion

Saute the garlic and ginger in the oils until they were fragrant. A few minutes then add the black bean paste and cooked it for a few more minutes. Add the chicken broth and bring it to a boil. Mix the cornstarch with the soy sauce and add that to the pan. Bring it to a simmer, stirring constantly until it thickens. Once the sauce is thickened up some add the tofu and the yellow pepper. Cook at a low simmer, stirring very carefully so as not to break up the tofu. Once the pepper is cooked and the tofu is hot put in the green onions and turn off the heat. Serve over plain rice.

I must say...it turned out pretty good!! Sadly I did not get a picture. I totally didn't even think of it. Oh well...next time. I will be a better blogger I promise! In the mean time...here's a stock photo of what it looked like. 

In other news...the faster pace I ran yesterday has caught up with me today. My stomach muscles are sore as well as my thighs. Tomorrows run I promise to be good and only run the pace I'm actually supposed to run. #runnerproblems

Laters,
Ryslan

First Official Run

So as I may have mentioned my in-law's visited us this past weekend. The visit went really well. Maddox was a doll. Didn't teethe at all and was just a sweet guy the whole time.

Nothing new to report on the Maddox front really except for last nights shenanigans. He went to bed around 8 like normal, slept well until 4 when he woke up to poop. I got up, changed him, and put him back to bed. He, of course, had troubles falling back asleep so I brought him into bed with us hoping he would sleep better (maybe he was cold?). No dice. He snuggles\d right up, smelled milk, and was instantly hungry. So we fed, put him back in his bed and 5 minutes later he pooped again. I got up, changed him and put him back to bed and within 10 minutes he pooped AGAIN! Like how much poop can a 4 month old possibly hold right? Luckily after I changed that one he went right to sleep without an issue but the whole process took almost 2 hours from first wake up to back asleep. Silly baby right?

While the in laws were here my sister in law showed me this training app she uses. It's My Asics and it's pretty neat so far. You put in things like your current fitness level, current distance you can run and you goals and it sets out a running plan for you. I started using it today and I must say I love it so far! My goal was to run 10 km's. Nothing spectacular, just finish the distance. I put that I was basically a non runner because I've been off for 2 years. The app has me running 3 days a week and the program is split into different phases. The current phase is just  conditioning. So basically I go out Mon/Wed/Fri for just a 1 km jog. This is supposed to get my muscles slowly used to working again.

I did the first run today. I was supposed to go 1 km at about a 15:45 min/mile pace which is a slow jog. Not difficult at all. My goal heading out for today's run was to just run the whole 1 km and I managed to! I did mess up my pace though as my running app tells me my average pace which included my walk warm up (oops). So when it told me my pace I thought I was way behind and stepped it up...I ended up running 13:33 min/mile instead. Whoops! Good news is that I was able to maintain that pace fairly easily, bad news is that my stomach muscles are feeling it a bit already. Going to feel that tomorrow...

Now that the family is gone I will be back on track with my yoga starting tomorrow with Day 4. Maddox and I have practically no plans for the next 3 weeks so I hope to get it all done! I sure do feel like I need the yoga these days. As I sit her typing the left side of my upper back that is tingling so I am out of alignment somewhere. Yoga will hopefully set me back straight so I stop pinching nerves and such.

Anyhoo that's all I have for an update this time.

Laters for now
Ryslan

Busy busy.

It has been such a family packed month so far. February 2-9 Maddox and I went up to visit my mom. The visit was great. Maddox teethed off and on the whole week, poor guy. We met my new little cousin and oh man what a sweetie he is!

Last weekend my brother in law and his girlfriend came down for the weekend. It was also a nice visit. We mostly played board games and chatted. They went shopping both days which was great because John had to work on Saturday and it gave us some downtime as a family. 

This weekend coming up my sister in law and mother in law are coming down. It's chinese new year weekend and my mother in law's birthday on the 20th so we figured it would be great to have them down. 

This week so far Maddox is working on his second tooth so he's had a couple rough hours yesterday and today. I can see his gums changing so I'm hopeful that it's going to come soon. It would suck if he were teething this weekend on top of having company over. 

Overall he's not a bad teether compared to others I've heard about. When he's hurting he screams off and on until the tylenol kicks in and during that time I usually manage to get him  back to sleep (cuddle naps!). When he wakes up he's usually happy and as long as I keep dosing him every 4 hours until bedtime afterwards he stays comfortable for the rest of the day. It amounts to him napping on me for hours in the afternoon. 

It was bittersweet when Maddox began sleeping in his crib, I missed the cuddle naps. As long as he's teething though I think I will get my fix. :D 

Anyway that's all I had for an update right now. 

Laters,

Ryslan

30 Days of Yoga Challenge and Crazy Maddox Update

So I figured I should explain the Yoga Challenge I'm doing. Basically I'm so out of shape from spending a year sick and pregnant that I can't get back to running or doing anything overly strenuous yet (when I try my joints protest loudly and quickly!). I found this beginner yoga program to try. 3 days in so far and I'm loving it! I didn't get to do it yesterday but I rode Lily instead so I'm ok with missing that day. Overall I'm not finding it difficult, which is why I decided to go with her's over others I saw. I need to really ease back into exercise and this is perfect so far. I'm already noticing a difference in some of the poses so it must be doing something. Haha

My hope is that the yoga will realign and strengthen my joints to get me to a point where I can start running again. My goal is to be able to run 10k by Maddox's first birthday. I am going to spend a month doing yoga and then start the couch to 10k running program. By then we should have enough daylight in the evenings that I can start my running training after dinner while John is home to watch Maddox. Little man is too small to go in the jogging stroller still. 2 more months to go until he can come with me. 

Enough about exercise, on to the baby news! As I mentioned in the last update Maddox naps off of me really well now and today he went one step better and napped in his crib for the first time in over a month! Basically since we failed at getting him to nap in there the last time. We have John's brother and his girlfriend in town this weekend and while they were here I put Maddox up in his crib with a fluffy blanket for his nap so we wouldn't disturb him. Well wouldn't you know it he fell right asleep without any fuss what so ever and then slept for an hour and a half!! WOW! Like really?! I'm sooo proud of my little man! 

He's currently down for another nap, in the crib again, and fell asleep like a champ. This one was a record for falling asleep on his own. It took him a whopping 6 minutes to go from awake to asleep. All on his own too. I laid him down awake and checked on him when the jabbering stopped and he was asleep. That was half an hour ago. Wow!! Such a proud momma! *Chest swell*

Anyhoo that's all I have, off to do Day 4 of Yoga. :D 

Wow Life Update

So...I had a baby. Yup. I'm a mom. BEST DECISION EVER!!!

Maddox Kai was born on October 14, 2014 at the hefty weight of 8lb 4oz and 18 inches long. The labour and delivery story will come at a later date. :D

Maddox so far has been pretty strong. He had pretty good head control right from the get go and by a month old had almost full control. He giggles, yells, babbles, screeches and cooes. Very talkative little boy we have here. He sleeps through the night most nights anywhere from 8-12 hours and has been since about 3 or 4 weeks old (I think, can't quite remember but it was early). Naps like a champ (this week has been insane for napping!) and is just over all a really easy baby. Could not have asked for a better little guy.

Now that he's almost 4 months old I figured I should pick the blogging back up. Mostly to keep track of milestones for myself. So milestones this week include his first tooth!! and sitting up on his own!!! The tooth came in yesterday (the 11th) and he first sat up tripod style yesterday as well. Long enough that I was able to go to the next room to get my phone to take a picture of him. I'm impressed! He's only 4 months old for crying out loud! Neither of those things generally happen at this age. Way to go Maddox!

Another milestone this week is that Maddox and I have figured out what it takes for him to nap off of me! Woo hoo! I am no longer a baby pillow and can actually get things accomplished while he naps. Today he napped for 2 hours in the morning, a 30 min cat nap in the early afternoon and then another 2 hours in the evening. I can't believe how good he slept. Apparently the trick for him is to cozy him up in a large blanket such that he can bury his face in it. Silly boy makes me nervous sleeping like that but he sleeps like a damn with that face buried. I just stay close by and make sure he's still alive from time to time. I will uncover his face if I notice it's completely covered too but when I look back a few mins later he's got it covered all over again. Silly baby. Whatever gets you napping off of Mommy I'm ok with!

At night he still sleeps in the bassinet in our room. The weight limit on it is 15 lbs and the last time I weighed him at home he was 12.5 so we are getting close! We have a doctors appointment tomorrow so we'll see how much he is now. We are likely going to move his crib into our bedroom even though he's sleeping through the night as I am just not ready to have him that far away yet. Haha

As far as I am concerned, I have not ran in over 2 years. Last year due to a difficult pregnancy (I was very ill for the first half and fairly ill still for the second half) and hte year before due to old injuries constantly cropping up. This year I am determined to run! To help with the old injuries and hopefully keep them at bay I have decided to do a 30 day yoga challenge that I found on YouTube. I've done 3 days so far and I have to say I really like the lady doing it. She's very relaxed about it and stresses to take it easy as we ease into yoga. I really have high hopes for this strengthening my post post-partum body!

Speaking of post-partum! I am 6.5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight! Woot! I also am able to wear all my pre-pregnancy clothing! Yay!! The belly is alright, nothing to be shy of that's for sure. Slightly looser skin than before I was preggers and 2 little stretch marks. I can't complain really. If you didn't know me you wouldn't know I had a baby. I feel VERY blessed that my body bounced back so quickly. I lost all the weight within 5 or 6 weeks of giving birth. :D

But anyhoo, that's all I've got for now the typing is threatening to wake Maddox. I'm sure I will think of much more to say in later blogs.

Bye for now.
Ryslan