What's the Right Equation?

I'm rethinking formula once again.

Pumping seems to be a constant catch up game. Last night, I pumped anticipating needing a bottle for a lengthy trip to Vermont (which isn't happening thanks to lots of snow) and within a minute of taking off my pump he woke up hungry. So with only 2.5 oz frozen, I had to give him what I had just pumped.

And with a few outings planned this week I'm already worried about leaving enough milk for grandma to bottle feed.

So I'm back to considering formula. But I have no idea of where to start.

Organic? Cows milk? Powdered?

So you're input is now appreciated more than ever. What do you use?

The Doctor is In

This past week seems to have been a whirlwind.

One sick kid. One 4-month checkup. Lots of learning and even more gray hairs.

While I would like to start enjoying my Sunday night (now that I've wrapped up on 2 Sweetspot articles) I didn't want to leave some of you hanging on discoveries that I think are worth sharing.

1. Bye Bye Binky helped us stopped the pacifier addiction but only at the first step. Once I cut an actual hole in the tip, I had a hysterical guy on my hands. But by putting 7 needle size holes in the tip he uses a pacifier to soothe himself to sleep but immediately spits it out and therefore isn't completely dependent on it.

2. We need to wait until 6 months to attempt Ferber. According to our pediatrician, 4-5 months is a time of learning about trust and mistrust and by leaving a baby to cry you are having an impression on their personality (thank goodness we gave up after 1 night)

3. Solids are now only to be started at 6 months of age. We started Hannah on rice cereal at 5 months but our pediatrician said the rules have changed to a strict 6 month start date.

4. Almost 3 year old meltdowns are not fun. Won't get into the details of this one but hoping it can all be blamed on a cold that developed the next day.

That's my update for now. Be back in a little while with more of this whirlwind life of a working mom in a new home with two kids and a dog!

Bye Bye Binky

This morning I attempted round 2 of the Bye Bye Binky method and trust me when I say that I have never seen a pacifier be spit across a room with so much force!

So looks like our mission was accomplished.

Except in the process, it failed to dawn on me that without a pacifier to suck on he wouldn't be able to fall asleep on his own.

After being asleep for almost 2 hours he woke up hysterical at 8:45pm with no comfort from the now-cut pacifier.

So while we didn't want to attempt Ferber after the weekend's tears, we now have to find a way to put him to sleep without creating a new crutch like nursing or rocking to sleep.

Fun. Hadn't really planned on this being in the cards for tonight's itinerary!

My Old Friend Ferber

The last time I blogged about sleep it was an issue of Alex not drinking enough to get him through the night.

Well I've since realized my supply is keeping his tummy full, we have taken a few courses of action, none of which have provided the end result we were hoping for.

What is that end result you may ask? I'm not looking for 8pm-8am sleeps here. Just the 5 hour blocks we were getting prior to the 3-month mark.

Our first attempt involved taking the pacifier out of Alex's mouth every time he fell asleep. So we'd let him suck to soothe and then remove it so he wasn't sucking in his sleep.

That didn't work.

Or maybe we just didn't give it enough time.

Then we tried the Ferber method. Night one was rough. Hearing him cry was heartbreaking. He made himself so hysterical that there was no way to soothe him: no cuddling, no rocking, no singing. The only thing that would work was putting the pacifier in for a second to get him back to composure and then remove it so he could try to fall asleep on his own, a bit more relaxed.

He was up about 4 times with crying spells lasting 30 minutes.

Night two. He cried for 45 painful minutes and fell asleep until about 3 am. And then after 30 minutes of crying and me surfing the net paranoid, came across a conversation about the Ferber method causing brain damage, so I quickly got up and put the pacifier in his mouth and officially gave up on Ferber.

The newest tactic deals not so much with sleep training but with slowly removing the pacifier as a crutch. I came across Bye Bye Binky, a method that supposedly has seen a ton of success. The concept? Make the sensation of sucking an unpleasant one. How do you do that? Well, the first step is to put 7 pin size holes in the head of the pacifier so more air is inside.

In two days, I will cut a small tip off of the nipple, then a bit more, and finally a vertical slit down the centre of the nipple.

Hmmm...after writing that I'm thinking that all this technique might accomplish is some profit accumulation for the pacifier industry. But at this point there's no harm in trying. But then again, if he refuses the pacifier he'll have to find another way to self soothe and that eventually might lead to the same kind of tears that Ferber created.

Oh the joys of sleep!

Double Trouble

Hannah stayed home sick yesterday. Actually it was more like playing hookie.

She had a runny nose and watery eyes and just didn't want to go. And knowing that the rest of my week was very busy I figured it would be the day for her to stay home.

My biggest challenge of having the two of them at home? Walking the dog. I actually didn't end up walking him at all. Instead we piled into the car and picked up Daddy and stopped at the dog run near his office at lunch. Problem solved.

But, it would have been a lot simpler to just pile them into the double stroller and zoom around the block. Maybe I would have even gotten naps out of it.

But...what double stroller?

We've been toying with the idea ever since Alex was born and the answer always was that I wouldn't have both kids out much in the winter and come spring time we would reconsider seeing how much Hannah liked to walk and how big Alex got to fit into the Becko.

But with this mild winter I'm starting to reconsider.

And I continue to lust over the Baby Jogger City Select.

Front and back, not side by side, to fit down any aisle. And while I think we're past the point of needing a bassinet, the car seat adapter would certainly come in handy.

I'm trying to seek out a deal in the US where the strollers are a good few hundred dollars cheaper or even buy one slightly used like we did with our current Bugaboo Frog.

No luck though.

No, I'll continue to lust knowing that every day that goes by without it is one fewer that we would have been getting a return on our investment. Sigh.

Jump Kids World

These days Twitter has been an invaluable source of information.

My newest online discovery? The good folks at Joe Fresh have just recently a children's home decor line called Jump Kids World.

When I read the tweet I literally jumped for joy.

Two reasons:

1. I love Joe Fresh - for myself, Hannah and Alex

2. Montreal is totally lacking cute, modern kids' decor at reasonable prices.

And then I got in touch with the Joe PR rep. I was thrilled to see a slew of photos featuring amazing products like these.

Available at Maxi store throughout Quebec, I was told that the Jean Talon store had the largest assortment for the collection. So, I headed out, hoping to find a new play mat for our basement.

After previewing the super cute spring fashions in-store I sought out the decor items. After a bit of hunting, I found all 3 shelves of them. Yep, big time disappointment.

The items on hand were cute but (as I should have suspected) were not merchandised anything like I had imagined from the PR photos. And the assortment can only be called slim pickings. Here is what they had on hand.

Maybe more is coming in. I hope. Because knowing what Joe Fresh has done for fashion I can't wait to see how they start to revolutionize our homes.

Welcome to Canada Zulily!

If you were planning on heading out this weekend to shop like me (we have officially graduated to a size 3) you may as well stay cozy at home and shop online.

Cause one of my favorite discount sites now ships to Canada!

Zulily is bringing its cute kidswear, fashionable maternity wear and chic home decor north of the border.

Not a member yet? Go ahead and sign up here!