Thursday, March 18, 2010

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010


Mason is doing great. The spitting up and fussies are so much better. However, I am still not getting as much sleep as I need. They always tell you, "sleep when the baby sleeps". Take daytime naps to get the sleep in. Well, I'm not a robot that can turn sleep on and off in the matter of minutes and I have never been a napper. I suck at getting sleep during the daytime. Besides I'll be going to work soon and then there won't be daytime opportunities so what do I do then?

Well, Mike and I are trying something new. We did it for the first time last night. We sat on the couch while watching American Idol with his work schedule and we made ourselves sleep schedules. He works retail so sometimes he opens and sometimes he closes. So we made two sleeping scenarios, one for each.

Mike closes at work today so he didn't have to leave for work until after 9am. Last night I went to bed at 11pm after watching Castle. Mike stayed up until around 1am with Mason, fed him and then went to bed also. The first time Mason woke up wanting to eat was my shift. This was around 5am. I changed his diaper, fed him, and down to bed I went. Mike then woke up for work and took the next two feedings. When he was leaving I woke up for the day.


It worked SOOOO well. This works so much better than passing conversations of I'll get the next one. Knowing what my responsibility was and trusting him to do his part I was able to sleep more sound. We haven't tried our scenario for when he has the opening shift at work, but I'll keep you posted.
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Babies can dance! A new thing that Mason and I are doing everyday is dancing. I leave the radio on in the nursery and after every diaper change I hold Mason in my arms and we dance. I noticed that he loves "beats". He loves, loves, loves the Black Eyed Peas. His favorite song is Boom Boom Pow (video above). He smiles and moves his arms and really looks like he's having fun. When he's cranky it chills him out. I wondered if he was really enjoying this or if Momma was just really enjoying it. Well, I read an article about it and it turns out that babies are born to dance.

The article says "Babies may be born to dance. They respond more to the rhythm and tempo of music than they do to ordinary speech, according to a study of 120 infants younger than 2."

His liking of "beats" was also explained. They pick up more on the beat than anything else, even better than speech.

Again the article quoted "Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants," said Marcel Zentner, researcher and University of York psychologist in England, according to LiveScience. "We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music, the more they smiled."

I love to dance, not well...for fun. I love music as well. So I would play tunes for Mason while I was pregnant. I would put my blackberry on my belly. I even noticed that the spa relaxing tune I love, he loves. I would play it for him because I read that they would recognize a song if you played it alot while you were pregnant. Now I can play it and I can tell he is listening and he gets really clam.

I think this whole baby connection with music is pretty neat. Just wanted to share. I think everyone should dance with their baby. It will really lift up your spirits. Great bonding time! :)


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/03/16/2010-03-16_babies_are_born_to_move_to_the_beat_research_shows.html#ixzz0iS6jA86f

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010


Mason Made the Newspaper in my Hometown!
Here's a link to his birth announcement...
The Examiner - Independence, MO - The Examiner
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Sunday, March 14, 2010

So Mason is now 3 weeks and 3 days. I cannot believe how much his looks have changed. I love his chubby lil cheeks. He is doing so much better with the fussies and spit-ups. Thank you so much for your advice. Changes I have made this past week have been life altering.

I bought more bottles so I can make batches and have them ready to rock in the fridge. So much easier!


Mason is a bit of a guzzler and he was getting too much too fast. So I changed the bottle nipples to preemie flow. He doesn't get choked up at all anymore. That was such a great change. He feels better and I know I do seeing him eating without getting all choked up. I also picked up a new mixer thing for mixing the formula. It mixes without shaking, suppose to put less air into the formula. He still spits-up from time to time but a normal amount instead of the exorcist spit-ups of before.

Another change we made was putting gas drops in his bottles. Wow, you guys were 100% right, these things are amazing! He does get fussy with gas still but the length of time and how often has definitely decreased by leaps and bounds. In those times I must say Jewel is my hero. Seriously, he LOVES his swing (thanks Eric and Steph) and his Jewel Lullaby CD (thank you Maria). I highly recommend it. :)

We are starting to get a schedule down. We have tummy-time and coffee after his first morning feeding. This lets him know that we are officially UP for the day. He knows the swing is fun and he does that during the day. The weather has unfortunately put a damper on our daily walk we were taking. I hear next weeks forecast calls for less rain...something I am really looking forward to. When daddy gets home we hang out with him and get ready for bedtime. He knows that dim lights and listening to Coldplay equals night time. When he gets all swaddled up in his bassinet he's out. I'm sure he doesn't really "know" all that stuff but we are going to stick with it. I think schedules are good for everyone and it's really more for me than him right now.
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Friday, March 12, 2010

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

It is very clear that our lil Monkey has us enrolled in his private class of Baby Training Camp 101. Whoooo.... I'm tellin' ya, we are exhausted. However, I have to say that I am amazed at how well we are doing. Just when I think I'm going break down and get worried that I can't be all he needs...I get a second, third, or a tenth wind even and off we go. It's like a job that you won't allow yourself to suck at cuz the cutest most precious little guy is depending on you to figure it out. I'm finding simple ways to get it back together. Today a Facebook friend mentioned she was going to listen to some 311 today. I thought to myself, man I love that "Amber" song. So I looked it up on our Verizon Rhapsody and let the tunes melt the stress away. I listened as I sipped my coffee and coached myself. I was mentally telling myself, you are strong and already doing more than you ever thought you could. You can do more. You got this! ...And bam, I'm in a much better headspace and ready to tackle this day - good or bad, calm or fussy...I can do this! So thanks to my friend's FB status, a good song, and some strong coffee I'm back on track for today. Trying to be the best Mommy I can be...I've got work to do so I can graduate to Baby Training Camp 102 but with the wonderful support I'm getting from all of you Mommies out there I know I can do it. Keep the advice coming! You guys are life savers!
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010


My friend shared this on Facebook and I think it is great site to boost the self-image of mothers everywhere. Nobody comes out of pregnancy without some body changes. Here is a site where bold women share images of their post-baby bodies so that all mommies know they are not alone. http://theshapeofamother.com/
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Yesterday was a great day. Mike was off work and we tackled alot of chores and financial things we needed to work on in enough time to enjoy an afternoon stroll through the neighborhood with Mr. Mason.

Mason has some gas and colic issues and he seems to have a period in the afternoon during which there is nothing you can do to calm him. He's fussy from around 11:30am to around 5pm. He wasn't really like this at first when we were trying to breastfeed. Its a new thing with switching him to formula. We have put him on Gentlease which is supposed to be easier on his tummy. Other changes I made are preemie nipples. Since he's such a good sucker, he was getting too much too fast and getting choked up and sucking in air. They seem to have helped ALOT. I've also been trying the gas drops. I'll let you know how these changes are working out.

Anyways, back to the point. This was the first afternoon Mike has been around to experience this lovely time of day with Mason. He was feeling a bit overwhelmed. It's hard to see them cry and not be able to fix it. So, we went for a family walk. Good news, it worked and Mike felt like a super awesome Dad for coming up with the idea. It turned out to be a great day...and night actually.

Last night our friends Curt and Lauren drove up from there little farm house (sidenote: I'm so jealous of their place. I've only seen pictures, but I totally want their home/land/pond/barn.) and brought us a home cooked meal of lasagna and cute little cupcakes with Mason's name on them. How freaking sweet are they! I feel so blessed to have such supportive friends. Times like these you really see people step-up and show you just how much they care about you. It's so heart-warming. Shout out to Curt and Lauren - We love you guys! Thank you!

After dinner, one of my BFF's Becca and her husband Chris sprung me loose from the house to have my first margarita in over 9 months. What a treat! Mike stayed home with Ma (my nickname for him...pronounced "May") and visited longer with Curt and Lauren while I snuck out for a little adult conversation and beverage. It tasted Fan-Tastic! I was cut off after drinking half of it. I didn't think drunken night time feedings and diaper changing sounded like a great idea. lol All and all, this was a great day and a great night...thanks to my wonderful hubby and big-hearted friends! :)
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Saturday, March 06, 2010



So I admit it...I'm exhausted. Since Mike went back to work I have no idea how much sleep I've gotten. There is no such thing as night and day. There is definitely no such thing as "night time". There is only the time between his feedings and not all of them allow for sleep. Mothers I'm not telling you anything new. You are probably laughing right now. Well, I'm a new Mommy and not ready to laugh yet. I found myself warming a bottle last night while crying into the sink. So, my mother-in-law offered to pick him up this afternoon and then keep him for a sleep-over tonight. My first reaction was, YES! PLEASE!...now I'm sorta thinking that I am not going to know what to do without him close. It's weird. I am exhausted but I don't really want him to go. Ready or not...I'm going with it. I really need the rest and it will be nice to have a little QT with my hubby. The whole reason we moved to Kentucky was to be near family. We wanted our kids to grow up with grandparents around. So here we go...Mason's first sleep-over with Gran and Grandpa Lee. I'll let you know how it goes and how Mike and I hold up without our lil' monkey around.
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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Mason William Lee
Born February 18th, 2010
7 pounds 13 ounces
21.5 inches long

So my lil monkey Mason has finally arrived. His due date was originally Feb. 27th but he decided to come early. I was watching Shaun White's amazing halfpipe runs and maybe the excitement was just too much. My water broke and off we went to the hospital. Unfortunately I would come to find out after 19 hours of contractions a natural birth was just not going to happen. Though my water broke and the contractions came, active labor did not. So...I had a C-Section. Definitely not as scary as I thought...that whole being opened up while awake thing. Didn 't feel a thing! We are just so happy that he's here!
Update:
Mason is now 13 days old. Mike has been such a huge help, but he had to go back to work and I am trying to make new routines being home alone. Things are going good. Mason has sort of a spitting up thing going on. We started breastfeeding and my milk never really came in so now we are doing formula. It's been kind of a rough adjustment for him. I think even though we have low flow bottles the bottle is just a little fast for him. We have to take feeding really slow with lots of burp breaks to try to prevent him for spitting up like the exorcist. Other than that he is doing wonderful! Happy little guy!
As for me, I think I'm recovering well. Last Friday, 8 days after giving birth, I did venture out with Mike and Mason to a fish fry at the church. It was nice to be around people in public again. I think a visit to the Mexican restaurant is in order soon for a little Mommy time with a friend and a very large margarita. Since I'm not breastfeeding, I can do that! LOL :) Well, that's enough for now. I'll keep ya posted on life with baby...
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