Sunday, January 27, 2013

See Ya Soon


I'm heading off for my surgery in the morning, not too sure when I'll be back but hopefully soon.

This Week In Pics

Spent a couple of days up at my parents so thought I would share that with you, it was a wonderful little get away and wish we could have stayed up longer. Looking forward to going back soon.

The new sling I made, trying out a back carry

Arriving at my parents and everything was ready for Owen, so great

The very adorable hat Mom made

Hanging out in his own tent

Oops, wine slushy anyone?

An incredibly relaxing soak with my wine slushy

Having fun at lunch

Making new friends, may have been love as there was kissing and hair pulling involved

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

My Next Adventure

Lounging in bed, something that I'll be doing a lot of soon

I have been struggling to write this post, this blog is a way for me to record as well as share things that are going on in my life so it's only right that I write about my next big adventure.
In 2009 one day suddenly ringing started in my ears and did not stop, the ringing you get after going to a great concert, needless to say it was terribly annoying so I went to see my doctor. She said that I have tinnitus and there is nothing I could do about it but get used to it, not happy with that I had requested a second opinion from an ENT specialist. He told me the same thing but since I was there that he would do some tests. After a series of different tests and MRI's it was found that I have a benign tumor called an Acoustic Neuroma located behind my right ear and pressing up against my brain. In the interest of keeping this post not too long the link provided does a pretty good explanation of what it is and all that jazz.
I was referred to a neurotologist who's main focus is this kind of tumor, upon meeting him we decided the watch and wait approach was the best for now. It was small and is normally slow growing plus I had no other symptoms so regular MRI's were scheduled.
Last MRI which was in August 2012 showed some significant growth and that it was beginning to press up against my brain stem. Two options are available, first is Gamma Knife radiation and second is micro surgery. Given my age (young for this type of tumor), size of tumor (now bigger) among other factors surgery is the route we are going. Consulting with my neurosurgeon (I had to say it just cuz it sounds so cool) the approach that will be taken to remove the tumor is the Translabyrinthine approach
Well, next week I am going in for surgery.
I have put in a request for a memory upgrade while they are in there, let's hope for the best!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

This Week In Pics


Helping Dad put together the new bike

Figuring out that crawling can be faster than walking

Browsing the cookbooks for dinner inspiration

Next lesson is how to clean up

Bath time fun

"What do you mean I can't play in the potted plants"

Playing with Daddy's toys

Whaaaaat!!

Multitasking with Dad's laptop and work phone

I think I may have been napping with my eyes open in this one

Good Morning bright eyes

Friday, January 18, 2013

Nine Months

One of the rare moments he is stationary

It's amazing how much changes in one week let alone nine months! Owen had never been big on belly time and therefor not one for crawling. Well, in less than seven days he went from crying when on his hands and knees to scooting around the house with ease. In the same week his confidence and ability to walk/cruise along the furniture have improved immensely making him a very mobile little guy.


With all my focus on sleep training the past couple of weeks I missed two more teeth popping through, making the grand total of six teeth. Four on top, two on the bottom. This may have been some of the crying we were dealing with, not just refusal to sleep. 
Part of the sleep training involved weaning off the night time feeds that were around three to five a night. It ended up being more cold turkey than weaning which worked out wonderfully for me, so now he just breast feeds four times a day with three meals of solids/baby food. In the two weeks we have been doing this feeding routine his appetite for solids has steadily increased. I have been doing a combination of jarred baby food, hand held pieces of food and purees that I make myself. I have been experimenting with different brands of jarred foods from Presidents Choice Organics, Baby Gourmet, Nativa (Shoppers Drug Mart organic brand) and Earths Best. This is worthy of a separate post so stay tuned. 

Really loving the avocado ice cream I made him

Owen is getting to be quite heavy for me to carry but I love having him close to me and he still likes to be carried around so I have been using a sling to help. I was given a pouch sling which has been very handy but my only complaint was that it was not adjustable so today I made up a ring sling with materials I had purchased before he was born as you can see in the blurry pic below. Normally when I put him in he is quite content and usually just snuggles up to me, I took this pic just before nap time so he was a bit crazy.


We sure do love our little guy.

Monday, January 14, 2013

This Week In Pics

Oooh, Dad's tool box

Lately he's been kissing his reflection whenever the chance

Looks like we will have to rearrange the cupboards soon

Helping unpack a new toy

Thanks Oma, he's figuring out how to make the buttons work = lots of noise

"Can I have some more cider please?"

The shoe pile is always entertaining

Walking all the way to the elevator, with some help from Dad

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sleep Training Day 9 & 10

Having a nap in his jumper, seriously!

The progress in ten days has been phenomenal so when it doesn't go to plan it seems even worse! Owen has been going down for both his naps and night time with out any fuss and is asleep in under 10 min.
Well on day nine his naps were 1.5 hrs and 1 hr which was exciting as they had only been 30 min up until now, followed by him sleeping straight through until his usual 5:30 am wake up.
Day 10 started off amazing with a 2 hr 20 min nap! Wow. Rob and I decided that a trip to the market would be great for the three of us to get out on such a beautiful day. Then I made the rookie mistake of rushing him into the second nap as soon as we go in the door which was followed by an hour of solid crying, so into the stroller he went and off for a walk. Asleep within minutes. Night time was an easy put down but he was awake every couple of hours crying so I finally got him out of bed at 5:30 am again.
Not big issues by any means and I realized the mistake I made in rushing into a nap, I just need to be patient,  follow the routine and get him nice and relaxed.
Today's naps were 2 hrs each so I think he's getting it.
Overall it was the right decision to get help in teaching Owen how to sleep and guiding us in how to do it. It really is simple enough but trust me, in the heat of the moment, when no one has slept properly in months and the baby just wont stop crying, making a decision and sticking to it was really difficult. With a very clear set of guidelines to follow it was so much easier to do.
You can visit Janey's web site WeeSleep, as well, I have a link on the side so if you know of someone who is looking for some help, I would highly recommend giving her a call. She was wonderful to work with.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Sleep Training Day 8

This pic has nothing to do with today's post but hey, it's a cute one so why not!

There seems to have been a bit of a breakthrough, yesterdays naps, yes both of them, were pretty good resulting is a happy, chatty little guy for the day. His first one was over an hour and the second was one hour, both times he put up very little fuss at all. This is such great progress, I know it won't always work out this way but it's a great beginning.
Night time was just as good with him going to bed at 6:00 pm and not hearing anything from him until 4:30 am, just a little fuss then back to sleep. He was up at 5:40 am for good this time but we have been told that this will improve over time and he will not be waking up so early.
Now if only Rob and I would go to bed earlier we wouldn't be so exhausted!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Slow Down



In less than a week Owen has gone from no crawling at all and standing and taking some steps to zipping along the furniture and quickly crawling if there is nothing to grab onto. I shot this video this morning, it's 10 minutes of activity compressed into 30 seconds.
When he sees something there is no stopping this guy!
This changes everything.


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Sleep Training Day 6 & 7


Every day there seems to be some sort of progress some more than others but still in a forward motion. That being said, I still find this quite difficult and for some reason I feel even more tired than normal.
The past two nights have been pretty good with minimal fuss going down and just a couple times of waking in the night. He is waking up between 4:30 and 5:30 am, cried for a bit and gone back down (sort of) for an hour. At this point I have gotten up and got our day started around 6:30. Over all pretty good for seven days of a new routine.
Naps. Now this is another beast all together. He is at the point where there is minimal crying when put down but is still only sleeping for half an hour. At this age he should be an hour at the least, more like an hour and a half. I know he can do it as he has done it before but right now, not a chance.
With such short naps he is not his happy self so I am hoping that he soon understands the joys of long daytime naps.
Until then I will continue to enjoy my afternoon espresso and occasional canoli.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Sleep Training Day 5



I knew easy street had to come to an end, today was challenging for sure. Owen refused to go down for his first nap at 9:30 so we endured over an hour of crying to try and get him to sleep. With no success he was removed from his crib and had a bit of quiet play time with me for half an hour to settle him down and try again. 30 more minutes of crying and it was obvious that sleep was not going to happen so stroller it was.
We went for a nice long walk and Owen was asleep in under ten minutes.
Second nap of the day was not any better, in fact it didn't happen so we just hung out together, him being sad and clingy so some play time together helped the mood.
Bed time was an hour earlier than usual due to no naps and a very tired little guy, it took 20 minutes of crying but he did get to sleep.
His night wakings were only a couple of times but come 4:30 he was standing up giving us a good cry. I have been awake since then and working through a second day of nap refusals.
On the up side, we were forewarned that days five and six are usually difficult but it will get better. That is probably why there was a phone consultation scheduled for today, thank goodness.
Here's hoping we get through tonight ;)

Monday, January 7, 2013

Sleep Training Days 3 & 4

Days three and four have been pretty good overall. The daytime naps are usually just over one hour in the morning but only half an hour or so in the afternoon but that will improve with time.
Now for the past two evenings it has taken less than 10 minutes of crying and then he's asleep, wow! I know this is just luck and it wont always be like this but man it feels good. He is still waking five or six times during the night and most of the time is able to fall asleep again in just a few minutes, the past two nights he has at least once fussed and cried longer than usual and I think I heard him sucking his finger or thumb. I believe that he is trying to figure out how to sooth himself back asleep so it may be a bumpy road ahead while he figures it out.

This Week In Pics

Owen was kind enough to open up the Champagne on New Years

His first ride in the grocery cart was very exciting for both of us

The only way I could keep him entertained for the entire excursion

Thank goodness he's a good eater

I find this pic kinda funny as he looks like a kid not a baby anymore


Saturday, January 5, 2013

Sleep Training Day 2


Day two went pretty well for us, again I was not expecting it so was pleasantly surprised. First nap of the day was up to Rob to deal with as I was at an appointment all morning. Naps are to be dealt with differently then night time, we are to just put him in his crib and leave him, checking back every 10 min where as night time we stay with him until he is asleep.
Nap one was half an hour of crying until he fell asleep but nap two was about five min of crying until he was asleep. I am going to guess that is was because he was so exhausted.
Bed time was just 25 min of crying and all of his wake ups during the night (five of them) he was able to put himself back to sleep in under 10 min.
I know it's only day two but already see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Please remind me of that when the sleep regression kicks in :)

Friday, January 4, 2013

Sleep Training Day 1

Well, it went surprisingly better than I was expecting. He cried for just over an hour when we put him in his crib, I stayed the whole time in the room with him and occasionally layed him back down as he kept standing up. He fell to sitting so I layed him down and he was asleep!
Owen woke four times during the night which is less than he has been doing. The first time was almost an entire hour of crying but after that it was just some fussing and a wee bit of crying.
This was the most sleep I have had in a very long time!
So far we are off to a promising start, thank goodness. I am prepared for nights and naps down the road to be complete disasters but it gives me confidence that Owen is learning to fall asleep without any external assistance.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Sleep...Where Are You?

I have briefly mentioned in previous posts that sleep is difficult to come by around here lately, say the past two months or so. Owen has been waking up every two to three hours, even more frequently as of late, and is only able to fall asleep by my nursing him and in our bed, not his. Very bad habits that I started and now need to fix asap.
Starting tonight we are doing a 10 day sleep program to get Owen to learn to fall asleep on his own, learn to fall back asleep and sleep in his own bed.
There will be lots of crying involved but we have to remain strong and not cave to the sad boy, its going to suck but will be better for everyone in the long run.
Check back, I will keep you updated as to our progress and sanity!