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Yesterday I went to my 6 week post-baby follow up doctor’s appointment. Everything has healed nicely and I’m almost back at my pre-pregnancy weight! In fact, a woman in the parking lot asked me if my baby came from my tummy. I said yes with a slight smile and she just said ‘nice job!’ What a compliment! 🙂 So it’s been 6 and a half weeks and I have been itching to get back to running to get things firmed back up. The doc gave me the green light yesterday and this morning I was lacing up my running shoes and getting the Bob stroller ready for my debut jog! I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did. I thought for sure I would be sucking gas the minute I left the gates! Kayden did well in her big girl Bob stroller and slept the whole time. I am one jog closer to getting things back to normal.

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These are just some pics from her photo shoot with me yesterday. Oh the things you do when you are left at home with a baby all day!

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Okay so the training has been successful one day and completely unsuccessful the next . First, it should be noted that we aren’t completely in the ‘training’ phase because 1. Kayden isn’t 9 pounds (one of the three requirements), and 2. She isn’t eating 24 ounces during the day (another requirement). We are trying our best to calorie push, but when she’s done eating there is no convincing her to eat one more ounce for “training” purposes! So right now we have her sleeping in her crib and are avoiding changing the diaper unless it’s a BM. The swaddle is her friend one night and her arch enemy the next. She needs the swaddle to constrict her arms and avoid self-abuse, but she loves to sleep with her arms up by her head and thus she is constantly working to bust out of the swaddle! So it’s difficult to decide to swaddle or not to swaddle. One night at a time I guess!

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Last night we decided to start the training process of getting Kayden to sleep 12 hours in 12 weeks. Let me just say, it went horribly wrong! The book is very regimented and has all of these guidelines that you must implement right from the start. For example, the baby must be in her crib in her own room. No more sleeping with mom and dad, which was hard on both of us! Also, you are not supposed to pick up the baby to console her until she has cried for 3-5 minutes and she clearly has lost it enough that she cannot soothe herself. The idea is to get her to be able to sustain herself in her crib whether she is awake or sleeping, thus allowing mom and dad to sleep. Let me tell you, Kayden can’t self-soothe and therefore mom did not sleep last night. We started the training process at 7:00 pm. When Scotty left for work at 5:30 am I had slept two and a half hours in three stints. My first mistake- not swaddling the baby. The book says she is old enough now that she should have the freedom to ‘get comfortable’. Smacking herself in the head frequently woke princess from her slumber. Second mistake- not changing her diaper. The book says to only change the diaper if there is a poopy. Changing diapers wakes the baby up and disturbs them, well so does poop. I smelled her diaper several times and never smelled poop. By morning time her diaper was heavily soiled and judging by her rash, I’d say it was there for a while! Way to go mommy! So these key elements made baby unhappy, which resulted in mommy not sleeping. Tonight Kayden is swaddled and I will be finger-checking her diaper at each feeding. Wish me luck!

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Scotty and I have been enjoying long walks along the harbor and the board walk on Saturday and Sunday morning. In the mornings the marine layer is still socked in and it isn’t too hot. In the past week the weather has warmed up quite a bit, but we have made a point of going out early so as not to over heat the baby, ourselves, or heaven forbid the pugs! Today we knew we had some errands to run so we thought our walk would be abbreviated. About 1.5 miles into it I realized we were in it for the long haul. Kooper was okay with it. Kayden was okay with it. And Scotty was just excited to test the Bob stroller! About 2 miles into our walk we could both see that Jinx was sucking gas. She was walking a little slower, trying to drink the water from the gutter, and her overall grunt was louder than we are both comfortable with. Scotty said to just pull over and put her under the stroller (an area that is about big enough for a box of a dozen doughnuts- which sounded o-so-good at 2+ miles into our walk.. but that’s not the point!). Anyway, I noticed that the front of the stroller had an open area that Jinx just might fit in. In fact, I knew it would be better than the undercarriage of the stroller because I know Jinx doesn’t like to be constricted! Scotty picked her up, sat her in the front crevice of the stroller, and we were on our way!! She sat there for the last 2 miles home- yes our walk was only a total of 4 miles! We are convinced that now that she knows she fits on the front of the stroller that she will immediately assume the position when she see the stroller sitting in the driveway! Gotta love the dramatic pug! Anyone who has a pug knows exactly what I am talking about!!

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So I mentioned that at 6 weeks we would be ready for training Kayden to sleep 12 hours in 12 weeks. Kayden is 6 weeks old today and we decided a few days back that it was time to prime the pump, so to speak, and start the training process early. We have been working hard on making her eat big at each feeding and to stretch the time between feedings to the maximum amount of time. Yesterday she was a model child eating 4 ounces at each feeding and waiting 3 to 4 hours between each feeding. Well, when we consulted the book we saw that Kayden was practically the valedictorian because she ate 4 ounces at each feeding and simply stirred between feedings to let us know she was perhaps a little hungry- this is the end goal of the entire book! In fact, she ate her second dinner at 9 pm and didn’t eat again until 3:30 am! Me, being neurotic mommy, woke her up at 1:30 am to feed and again at 3:30 am to feed- thus thoroughly pissing her off! At 1:30 am she didn’t even open her eyes so I returned her to bed undisturbed. At 3:30 am I frantically woke Scotty to see if I should wake her because I felt that if I didn’t she might in fact starve to death. He told me to leave her and then he quickly rolled over. I thought better of it and decided to take her to the nursery to feed anyway. Again, nothing- Scotty was right (shh.. I’d never tell!). I returned Kayden to her bed and then went downstairs to pump because it had been about 6 hours since I had “expressed” milk and as any mother can attest, when it’s time to express, it’s time to express *OUCH! So I pumped and went back to bed. Around 6:30 am Kayden was ready to face the day, and as Scotty had promised the night before, he took second shift. I rolled over with a slight smile on my face to tell him it was his turn, and then went back to bed for an hour of undisturbed sleep. I’m telling anyone who will listen, having a supportive husband is the only way this infant sleeping craze will work! Kayden got up early and had a little breakfast and daddy time. By the time I woke up she was ready for our morning stroll on the beach! Sunday Funday has a whole new meaning!

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