Dear Sloan: Five Months

Wow Sloan, time is flying WAY too fast! It is so hard to believe that 5 months have gone by already. It seems like you just got here, but at the same time it feels like you have been here forever because it's hard to remember life without you!

This month you found your toes and you LOVE to suck on them! For some reason you have stinky feet a lot so I try to remind you of this when you are about to stick them in your mouth, but you don't seem to mind! It is so cute to see you reach out and then have this look of amazement when you make the connection with your foot and then pull it to your mouth!

You have become a lot more talkative this month and love to be mimicked. I swear you have even said Mama a couple of times and you of course ramble on with a sound that suspiciously sounds like Dadadadadaaaaaaaada! I'm going to work on "training" you so that you actually say Mama first and mean it!

You celebrated your very first Easter at the beginning of the month, and I made my very first turkey! I hope that one day I'll be able to help you make a turkey, but I still need a lot of help myself, so we'll see! The Easter Bunny was good to you - bringing you a basket with books, a puppet, some hairclips and a stuffie from Nanny Murphy! You looked absolutely adorable in your Easter dress!

This month you helped out at the MS Walk - we volunteered on the committe like last year when you were just a little bean! We also walked this year and you won the prize (a giant stuffed monkey!) for the youngest walker...even though you didn't acutally walk! You also made the online local newspaper with the below picture.

Mama tried to go out for a girls night this month, but it didn't go so well! You have stayed home with Daddy during the day and do just fine, but nighttime was a whole other story! Apparently you woke up just about as soon as I stepped off the deck to get into the car and as much as Daddy tried, he couldn't get you back to sleep. Of course by the time I got home he had you calmed down and happy as a clam!

You're still not a huge fan of the bottle, but you will take it now and then and of course try to hold it like a big girl!

There are some nights that I sit upstairs browsing facebook or reading blogs and I can hear you squirm and stir on the baby monitor. I usually hope that you settle yourself so you can drift back into dreamland, but there are also many times that my heart aches and I want to run to you right away just so I can hold you. I love to hold you, especially when you are in that sleepy state and you snuggle right into me and I'm sure you can feel how much I truly love you. So, with the slightest little squeek I do run to you. Yes, there have been a few nights that I have let you stir a little longer, but it breaks my heart to hear you in there and not run to you. I want you to know I am there for you (forever).

You had some crazy sleeping patterns this month that tested this running to you, but I think it was just a little phase you were going through. For almost two weeks you would go down to bed so well and then wake up almost exactly (like to the minute!) one hour later and then the fussing would start. Even through you had just nursed an hour ago, you wanted more (so you got it), and then you wanted to be rocked and then you wanted to be held, then finally, almost an hour later you were back in bed...only to wake a couple hours later, and then all night you were up and down and woke almost every time I tried to sneak out of your room. But now you seem to back in the swing of things and you are sleeping better and usually for 3-4 hour stretches again.

I think you are starting to form a bit of attachement to your duckie-lovie (that your Auntie Randi mailed to you), which has helped in the sleeping I think. When you are nursing you love to wave your arm around and grasp at anything you can get your hands on. When you are just nursing to eat I let you do this, but at nap time and bed time I give you duckie-lovie and your little hand lands on his head and you massage it like a little stress-ball, so cute! Now when you wake in the night and I run in to you I can sometimes just put duckie-lovie's head back into your hands and you will massage him until you are back to sleep. I wonder if this will become your "thing" and if it will continue for many years to come.

The "flailing arm":

Well, for your five-month birthday you celebrated with a two hour nap! You also had an additional one hour nap (with me!) and last night you even slept a full 6 hours straight! Maybe you have matured into a little sleeper!

Mama and Daddy love you more than anything little Noodle!

xo Mama

Note to self:

A cute mohawk before bed....
leads to crazy hair in the morning!

xo JBM

Morning Chat

Normally when Matt gets up for work I get up with him and pack his lunch and Sloan stays in bed and then I go back to bed, but the odd time she will want to get up too - today was one of those odd times. Now she doesn't want to go back to bed! 5:30 is waaaay too early for a little Noodle to get up though, so we will be going to at least lay in bed soon! I guess she just has way too much to say this morning to sleep!

xo JBM

Wordless Wednesday: Toe&Thumb Sucker

Make-It Monday

On top of Wordless Wednesday's (which I should try harder to keep up with), I'm going to start a new weekly addition of Make-It Monday's. Every Monday I'll do a post about something I have made - whether it be a craft, food....etc. Should be interesting!

When we were in Waterloo this past weekend I picked up some supplies to make some pacifier lanyards. I am planning on making a bunch of things to set up a table at the local market in the park this summer to make some extra dough. I have grand dreams that it will take off and I can start selling online and never have to work again....but in reality I'm not that great of a seamstress so we'll see how it goes!

So, here is the first one! I will make them with only one fabric, but for Sloan's I couldn't decide which fabric I liked best so I thought I would just use both of my fav's! I was in FabricLand for a loooong time (especially long considering Matt was waiting in the car with a napping Noodle), but it was SO hard to decide on which fabrics I liked best! I got 5 different patterns so stay tuned to see the rest!

I need to make it a little more narrow to let it fit better on the clip and through the soother handle part.

So, what do you think? What would you pay for such a thing?

xo JBM

Anti-Venom

It couldn't have been more perfect timing - this blog post came up in my reader today and is the perfect anti-venom to my feelings of guilt! http://pacingthepanicroom.blogspot.com/2010/04/anti-venom.html

Summer nights, only children and fake boobs...

I put Sloan down to bed just now and noticed how light it was outside still - summer is on its way! In fact, it is 8:30 and it is still light out! Snuggling her in the twilight, listening to the birds sing their night-time song reminded me of snuggling with my own Mummy before bed and it brings back so many warm fuzzy feelings. I remember going to bed in the summer in just an undershirt and undies and being so tired from being outside playing all day, but still being upset that I could hear the older kids in the neighbourhood still playing - it wasn't fair! Matt and I are soaking up this time with the little Noodle - she is changing so much so quickly and I want her to stay little and snugly forever, but we are both also really looking forward to all the fun things to come - I can't wait to have that snuggle time before bed and hearing all about her day and tucking her summer-blackened feet under the covers that have been checked for monsters!

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I think I now know why some people choose to have only one child...it's the guilt. It's not the sleepless nights and napless days, it's not the endless laundry, poop and spit-up, it's not the crying with no explanation or sleepless nights (oh, I mentioned that already...well it's worth mentioning again!). It's not even the fact that it is now 11 and I have written a paragraph and a half and Sloan has woken up 3 times already (since 8), and once it was for a full hour of wanting more boob! It is however the guilt I would have to assume. It's no secret that Matt and I want a big family, but I have second guessed that a few times lately when the guilt creeps in. The guilt I have that Sloan won't have my undivided attention. I even feel guilty for thinking about having more babes in the future when looking at her at times. I feel like she is looking back at me saying 'am I not enough'. I feel guilty for wanting to take away the fact that she is the only, and sole focus, that she will have to share our attention, and then I feel guilty for future babes that won't get to have that only-child time - they will never get to have that time when they are the only's. I feel like no matter how well Sloan gets along with her siblings, she will always resent me for taking away that time that we shared, just us. But then I remind myself that this time can't be taken away, and also that I had a little brother and loved it (most of the time). I always hear people say that you don't have to divvy up the love you have for your child when another one joins the family, rather that the love just multiplies...so I guess I'll just have to hope for that...and for the guilt to go away!

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Sloan got a set of fake boobs recently!

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Okay, not real-fake boobs! But fake-boob bottles! And she loves them! I don't really like the idea of leaving Sloan for any amount of time that would require her eating without me (see above re. guilt!), but it is nice to get out for more than just bread and milk at the grocery store! Nana is keen to babysit, but Sloan wasn't so keen to take a bottle. It seemed like the majority of the bottles we tried didn't allow Sloan to latch properly and the milk (that I had spent precious alone time pumping!) was just dribbling down her tiny little chin! And then came the Adiri Natural Nurser...Sloan's fake boobs! It feels like a boob and is smooshy like a boob so she is able to latch onto it...yep...like a boob! Matt has been able to feed her a couple times with the new boob, but we have only left her once with Nana and the boob, but it was for a delicious dinner at Tramonto with fabulous friends and I only called once to check in on the Noodle! It's nice to know that we now can go out to see a movie or something without having to worry about our daughter starving to death! Only problem is...since finding the miracle boobs I have heard that Adiri has closed up shop! So now, I am going to have to be like Elaine in Seinfeld with the sponges and buy a case of fake-boobs!

A picture of Sloan's fake-boobs:

I'm off to bed now...wish me luck that Sloan stays asleep for a while!

xo JBM