Great Giveaway!

A fellow mommy blogger is having a fantastic giveaway going on, check it out and enter to win!!!

Raising a Green Bean in a Material World - Clicky here!!!!


I am always looking for blogs that review eco-friendly items. As someone who usually buys not very earth friendly products, I love reading about more friendly alternatives! We can all make a change! (especially with cleaning products!)

Not the mama!

I chose this title because I wanted other moms to know that they are "not the mama!" of my child!

Okay so maybe a little bit more information before I completely go off track. I am a constant fixture on the message board on thebump.com and love to post photos of my little baby, attention whore myself and my fantastic post-baby bod, and reply to people's questions about their babies. We have fun, there is constant drama, but for the most part it is a nice community of ladies who are just trying to figure things out like me.

To go back a tad further, I decided to take out the Jumperoo and allow Kirsten to use it. I am an educated young woman and fully understand that toys such as these are not exactly meant for babies of 7 weeks, however, she has shown that she has some awesome head control, I inspected the toy beforehand and saw that the back was really high for her little head, and really, moms are always just looking for something new to stick their kid inside! Why else are there soooo many carriers and wraps for babies???

Anyway... I put it together and loved it from the moment I saw the finished product. This thing is huge but wow is it cute and fun!! I was beyond excited for Kirsten to wake up so I could put her inside and watch her little face light up (or at least I was hoping for this outcome). She eventually woke up, I fed her, and then it was show time! We placed her gently inside and she at first had no idea what to do with herself. I placed a pillow under her feet so she could bounce it on her own, and made sure she was fit snugly inside. All was clear!

I helped her bounce around and moved some of the toys. Her eyes darted from side to side and she took in her new space. This was an obvious success. After 5 minutes she was over the toy, as most children are, and I took her out.

I was so proud of my accomplishment and was pumped to show off my little girl to my favorite message board of mothers. I posted a photo and told them about how well she did, how supported she was, and that she enjoyed it for only a few minutes. Well, let the flaming begin! I really had no idea that people would get so angry about me putting my baby inside the Jumperoo!! Honestly, they were attacking me and making it out as though I placed her inside a 450 degree oven, hoping she would obtain the perfect beach tan! I was honestly shocked and surprised by the reaction I had received. Granted, a few mothers stood up for me, and I greatly appreciated it, but my feeling were already hurt and I felt like I had done something majorly wrong.


I suppose the point to me writing about this is that I was upset not because they flamed me for using a toy that is not exactly meant for a 7 week old baby, but in the way that they did it. Mothers tend to be extremely defensive about their parenting choices, and they want the world to know that THEY discovered the Holy Grail of parenting, and everything the rest of us does is just flat out wrong. I discovered this while pregnant, and how everyone had an opinion about my pregnancy, from what to eat to how much rest I should be getting or how I was carrying the baby meant it would be a certain gender.
We are constantly bombarded with images and information anymore about what is safe for a baby and certain styles of parenting. I think it has caused mothers to become these parenting Nazis. They think that going by the book is the only way, or following rules completely is the best way to go. Sure, it is for the most part the best way to go, but how on earth will a child ever have any fun if we just go through life following the rules?

This all reminded me of the time I was babysitting and took the little girl to the mall to play. The mall is such a hub for mothers it is amazing. We were all sitting along the edges of the play area watching the kids play when one mother's child came over and said she sneezed in her hands. The mother reached in her bag and got out a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Makes sense right? I was impressed that the girl didn't just wipe her hands on her pants! Well, another mother came dashing over and snatched the bottle out of her hand and screamed, "THAT HAS ALCOHOL IN IT! IT ISN'T MEANT FOR CHILDREN!" I nearly died! What in the would was this mother thinking making a scene like that? It made me so angry that she felt the need to make such a big show over something so small. The mother of the girl knew what she was doing. She wasn't allowing the girl to chug the entire bottle, she simply wanted her to have clean hands!

My point is, like in my previous post, trust your instincts. If you think your baby will be okay inside a Jumperoo for 5 minutes, go for it! Only you know what is best for your baby, not even another mother can tell you what to do.

Sleeping though the night?????

My kid is sleeping through the night??? Get outta town!

So from the start I read so many books and websites on how to get your kid to sleep through the night. I heard so many things and tried them all. I was determined to have "that kid." The one that all mommies hate because THEIR kid is waking up every 2 hours screaming. I was on a mission.

The first few weeks that you bring home baby are called "survival mode," and boy is that true. You just do what you have to do to get through the day/night. You are so sleep deprived that you have no idea what day or time it is, ever. You just keep going like a robot. Making bottles, rocking baby, changing diapers, obsessing over every sound, staring blankly at the tv and repeat 500 times. But once you hit about week three a pattern begins to develop. Baby starts to show signs of developing a schedule and you begin to follow their lead. Sleep during the night starts out with them waking every 2 hours. Then there is a fluke night where baby sleeps for 3 hours straight! You wake up startled and wonder if the baby is dead (OMG SIDS!) and see a peaceful little babe sleeping happily in their crib. There is hope!!!!

Okay so one of the ways that they say to get a baby to sleep through the night is to swaddle. I have to say "to heck with you" to swaddling. We did it for the first two weeks and I personally found it really obnoxious and annoying to do. Plus, how the heck could people see her cute outfits when she is wrapped up in a blanket? Swaddling was not for me, and I decided it was not for Kirsten either. She did show signs of disliking it anyway. She constantly found her way out of my tight swaddle, and wanted her little hands up by her face when she slept. So I gave in, very easily. Swaddling was done.

Around 4 weeks Kirsten started to only wake 1 or 2 times in the middle of the night. Usually around 2am and 4am. She would go to sleep around 10pm, wake two times, then be awake for the day around 7am. This was a great pattern and I got used to it. Also around this time she would stop needing the 2am feeding and went straight to 4am. There was hope! I see that light at the end of the tunnel! By the end of week 5 she was only waking at 4am, and again I fell into the pattern that she established.

But then came the day... the best day of my life. The day that Kirsten slept through the night! It happened during week 6 and she went from 11pm - 5am! I was so excited! I figured it a was a fluke and waited anxiously for the next evening. She went back to her old pattern of waking one time, but the third night she slept through the night again!

We are currently on week 7 and she is consistently sleeping from at least 11pm to 6am! Success!

I've had people ask how we did this, and I just keep saying "follow the baby's lead." It is so funny to say, but it is so true. A baby will naturally fall into a pattern, and as the parent it is our duty to simply follow the schedule they are working on establishing. I read on so many message boards about sleep training, and I think it is all a load of crap. I find it cruel to force a schedule upon a child who really doesn't know any better. They want to do what they want to do. Eat when they want, sleep when they want, poop when they want (and where they want). It is our job to simply read their signals and go with the flow. I think parents just get to anxious and worked up about doing the "right thing" that they forget that the baby is THEIRS! No one will know your baby quite as well as you do. It's called an instinct for a reason!

So now I have a happy baby who sleeps through the night... by week 7. I will now go drink a cup of coffee (only a cup, now that I am rested I can cut down from 5 cups to one) and pat myself on the back.

FREE FREE FREE

Okay so who doesn't love FREE stuff????

Brainy Baby dvds

I was told about these dvds and decided to check out their website. Well it turns out they run a promo where you can order a FREE dvd of your choice! They have 4 selections of varying age levels.

I ordered Kirsten a dvd and cannot wait to check them out!


Free Brainy Baby dvd