Another Day

Allan is checking the Logan Report from work all the time now. It's good that he sees what I'm going through and I think he feels more connected to Logan too. I didn't think he'd be that into it but last night when Logan woke up for a bottle Allan went downstairs to the computer and updated the site -at 2:30 am. Al has even made both Google and the Logan Report open up every time we open up our browser at home. Oh, Logan's Blog even made it onto the Trixe Tracker 'buzz' page LOL

The book of today is the No Cry Sleep Solution. It is highly recommended by Ben Stiller so it has to be great, right?

Pretty much there everything they are saying in this one we are already doing or have read in the Baby Whisper (!!). I think I might come back to this one after Logan reaches 5 months and/or 15 pounds as that is when they can sleep through the night.

What the book says:

• swaddle (we're using this, which is okay -he can 'escape' from it if he wants to)


• dark room, low light when night feeding (we've got pull down blinds and a dimmer switch)


• white noise (got it!)


• simple routine (we're working on it)


• little stimulation at night feeding (very little talking, slow movements)


• at 3 months put down in crib when drowsy (we've been following the BW advice and doing this from the start)
  

So there. Now you don't have to read the book if you have a newborn.

On a sidenote, I thought this was a bit freaky: Newborn to four months -naps, night time sleeps and total sleep time = unpredictable and varies widely. Great. :P

Here is a picture of Logan demonstrating the 'Eairh' sound -which he followed up with a fart and poo. LOL The Dunstan Baby Language thingy seems to be accurate!

After this I changed his diaper and he was ready for bed.

In other news -our house is delayed until the end of August. They called today and said it is because of the weather...I guess the coldness and snow slowed them down. Or maybe it's just an excuse? I also found out that our street number is '9'. Nine turns out to be a very interesting number too -We're going to go with the Chinese on this one as they say it's lucky.

Logan's New Chair

Here is Logan in his new chair, it's a Fisher Price Infant to Toddler chair. I got it on sale at Walmart -Thanks to the wonderful people at CCO for the gift card!



Not surprisingly, I researched the different options...I wanted something I could easily move to upstairs and also have downstairs i.e. baby in one arm and chair in the other. That cut out all the swings. I read a lot of reviews on chairs and this one seemed to get the top marks. It has toys which you can detach, it rocks or stays still, it reclines and when he's older it can go upright, it's washable and it has a vibrating option.



Having something to rock Logan in has been very helpful and fits into what it said in the Happiest Baby on the Block book/DVD. I would recommend the DVD to our friends who are newly parents. The author isn't really saying anything new (AKA the Baby Whisper says it too!)but to see him apply the techniques is very useful. It's something you really have to see, as reading about it really doesn't do it justice...



Basically it's the five S's:

Swaddling (We did this for the first three weeks, now I'm going back to doing it for nighttime sleeps)

Side or Stomach position (I don't use this often, I only hold him like this if he's really freaking out)

Shushing ('Big up' to cousin Christine's recommendation; since birth I turn on the noise machine for night time sleeps)

Swinging (His new chair!)

and Sucking (Logan has a favorite pacifier but often he doesn't want it).



Okay, one more picture just because he's soo cute!

Mom's New Project

From the start Allan and I have been tracking Logan's diapers and feedings. This is especially important when breastfeeding because you measure if they are taking in enough food by their diapers. And now that we're giving breast milk in a bottle, I'm now also tracking pumping.

I've tried to take things up a notch in the last few days and try and track his sleep too. I thought there might be a pattern developing and wanted to track improvements in overnight sleeps. I started creating the world's most complicated excel spreadsheet, until thanks to the lovely ladies over at Rookie Mom I came across the Trixie Tracker.

Now I'm sure this tracker is not for everyone as it's a bit obsessive maybe. However those that know me well will likely roll their eyes because it's 'sooo me'. I'm in love with it. It even can calculate the probability of Logan being asleep at any hour. Brilliant! Now I will be able to better guess if it's a good idea to take that long uninterrupted shower or bath I've been wanting. It even let's you share some of the information online for others to view. Now dad and grandparents you can check out how our day is going...what is doesn't show is a sleep deprived mommy serializing and getting bottles ready at 4am but you get the idea. Doesn't this make you want to have kids, Auntie Vinita?!?

Baby Say What?

Logan has been a bit of a handful the last two days. Yesterday I was reduced to tears because he would not stop crying or go to sleep long enough for me to shower. Before he hardly cried and was what the baby whisperer would call a Angel or Textbook Baby. WTF??!! He is far from being a colic baby but I've found these last two days rather hard.

While I'm good at spotting and naming Ikea furniture, my other 'talents' include researching and analyzing. Therefore this weeks posts will be a record of my efforts to become 'Super Mom' and hopefully will be useful to our friends who are pregnant or newly parents.

What is baby saying?

*I know I've bigged it up a few time already but bless my cousin Christine for telling me about the Baby Whisperer. I read it while pregnant and now look up stuff in the index all the time. I had never changed a diaper or bathed a baby before Logan and this book covered it all and gave me confidence in my mommy skills. It also has a great table that covers the cries and physical movements of the baby and 'decodes' it for you.

*Here's a video on Dunstan baby language...Learn the 5 different cries:



Neh = Hungry
Owh = Sleepy
Heh = Discomfort
Eairh = Lower Gas
Eh = Burp

Justin's Birthday

Today we went to Justin's Birthday party...it's hard to believe that he is 18 already! Being the awesome Aunt that I am, I made cupcakes.

Here is Logan holding his own bottle...with Auntie Mix's help

Snuggling with Auntie Bev

Chillin' with Birthday Boy Justin and Cousin Jessie

Here's a little video of us trying to get a group shot of all the kids together

-not an easy thing to do!

First Sleepover

Logan and I went home with my mom and dad on Wednesday and stayed in New Hamburg until Friday afternoon -so two nights away from home. Things went very well....

We took him to visit his great grandmother.

We decorated Easter Eggs and hung out with the grandparents.

And we enjoyed March Madness with Tito Matt.

Domesticated

My parents have been visiting for the last two days, which has freed up some of my time to do really important things -like sleep and bake cupcakes.


Every morning when I feed Logan in his baby-carrier and have one hand free, I check my regular websites. Yes, Justin, one of them is the Superficial....and I also check a cupcake blog everyday. LOL Seems strange, until you look at the pictures of their most perfect cupcakes.

My father once told me that 'imitation is the highest form of flattery'... so I attempted to make some cupcakes for Lee's birthday...





And inspired by STARAHAN I made another record bowl for Allan.

Last night we took my parents to a Chaku, a Korean BBQ place. They've never had Korean BBQ before and my Dad is rather hopeless with chop-sticks so it was great fun!

I'm One Month Old!

Length: 52 cm


Weight: 9 pounds, 1 ounce


Head: 36.8 cm

Logan's First Party!

My cousin, Kiyan, had his 6th birthday party this weekend.

There was even a puppet show!

All the excitement tired me out!

But I was awake for the after-party to see the Manny Pacquiao fight -which he won! Woot!

Wash Day

Since Logan has been sick and throwing up, he had a bit more wash than normal this week...


1 bath blanket
1 change pad
1 fleece blanket
1 pair of mittens
2 burb pads
2 shirts
3 pairs of socks
3 pairs of pants
5 receiving blankets
8 onesies
11 outfits and pjs
15 bibs
26 baby wash cloths

Feeling Much Better!

Logan and I are almost fully recovered...Logan is just sneezing and coughing a bit.

:P

I guess I was being a bit optimistic in my last post....Logan is still sick. Coughing, sneezing, throwing up and making a unbelievable amount of laundry for me to do. As for me; I'm trying to find the time to recover...

:P

UPDATE:
I drove myself to the emergency room this morning around 2am and left Allan at home with Logan.
Blood tests and CAT scan confirmed that I have a kidney stone and somethings up with my pancreas. :(
Luckily Logan doesn't seem as sick anymore...
Being the Super Mom that I am, I've got the situation on lock-down and no back-up is necessary...

Oh boy...

So Logan is now officially sick.

Since this afternoon he has been coughing, sneezing, spitting up and has a seemingly endless supply of snot and baby boogies. He's not full out crying (thank goodness!) but he's very fussy, needs extra cuddling and has been awake for way longer periods than normal.

And just to spice things up a bit -I think I might have another kidney stone. I am legendary for my kidney stone timing...The first one hit me while writing a university exam -so painful that my vision went blurry. The second one hit just as we crossed the boarder into the states on vacation with Allan's parents. Normally the incredible pain in the lower back is soon followed up with throwing up and all around miserableness. So far it's just the pain and miserableness. Luckily I have a bottle of pain medication that they gave me after delivering Logan that I didn't bother taking. They say that the three most painful things are gun shot wound, kidney stones and giving birth -I'm pretty sure it's in that order.

Allan called in sick on Friday, so having him stay home isn't really an option yet. Depending on how tonight and tomorrow goes I might have to call in the backup -Logan's grandparents...

Visiting the Grandparents

This Sunday we made the trip to Kitchener-Waterloo to visit Logan's Grandparents and to meet his Great Grandparents.

Still sick...

When I went to feed Logan this morning around 3:30am he was sneezing out baby-boogies and a was a bit warm. We set up the humidifier in his room but he hasn't really shown any other signs of being sick. Allan on the other hand is still pretty sick and has spent most of the afternoon sleeping. As for me -just a cough now.


When Logan is all chilled out and happy he makes his Zoolander face...Future male model?

Or maybe he just takes after his parents??

Sick Day

Today Allan and I are of massively sick with killer colds -hot, achy, coughing and sneezing. I thought that Logan would be sick too. Last night he was breathing differently...then he sneezed out a the world's largest baby boogie and now seems fine.

Logan's centerfold picture

How I got my name...

Many, many years ago after having our pictures merged into our future child at Dave and Busters we named our son Murlan. Very fob, I know.

Muriah + Allan = Murlan.

For years we would refer to our future child as Murlan. Then after the ultrasound when we found out we were now really going to have a son, we started to rethink this name....not so cool.

However, this was the name to beat. After Allan went though all the possible basketball names (Shaq, Jordon, Kobe) he moved on to superhero names. Apparently Logan is the real name of Wolverine.

I liked the name Logan as I had seen the movie called Logan's Run and it was one of the old science fiction books that I inherited from my grandfather. Also the name is Gaelic/Welsh, which is my grandfathers background.

Here is a picture from the movie. Oh so sexy!

I'm Two weeks Old!

Logan had his two week doctor appointment today...

Height: 51 cm

Weight: 7.6 lbs

Head: 35 cm

To celebrate Logan's two week mark, we went out for All-You-Can-Eat Sushi as a family. Finally I could eat all the sashimi and sushi I wanted that was banned when I was pregnant.

New Friends!

Auntie Sarah and her adorable sister, Amani, stopped by to meet Logan. Amani's picture of Logan looked remarkably like Logan and she also made a bracelet for him.


Later that night friends and family stopped by to see Logan and watch the UFC fight. Here is Tita Julie, cousin Xyris and Auntie Vicki hanging out.
Here is Tita Julie giving Tito Phil a lesson on baby carrying -they've got to practice as their little one will be here in a few months!