Saturday, January 31, 2009

Losing the baby weight!

Today marked my first meeting with Weight Watchers. I am very excited and desperate to start! Ever since I was like 14 I've been on some type of diet or other. When Shawn and I met I had finally reached a semi-comfortable place with my body and then love makes you comfortable and then baby and here I am today. But this time I determined to reach my goal weight (the number which will be no business of yours) I'm using this weekend to get all my "pigging out" out of my system because Monday morning (which is the day I always like to start new things on) it's point counting and Pilate's for the next however long it takes to get there. But I better be ready come warm weather season!!!!!



Daddy had Phoenix today while I was at my WW meeting and when I left he had on Pj's..... this is what he had on when I came home......Shawn said he liked his Polo jacket and so he wanted him to wear it.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Coming out of my shell

So Phoenix and I had our first Meet Up from meetup.com. We met two very nice moms and their babies at Barnes and Noble. It was just an introductory meeting to make sure that I wasn't some crazy middle aged man trolling for moms on the internet...obviously I'm not so I get my acceptance today for the full calendar. They must be pretty popular playgroups because just about all of them in February (in our age group) are full and we had to be wait listed :-(
But hopefully some will open up soon. I also signed up for two other groups but until I attend one event I don't get the full calendar and it seems like the next few outing may be for older babies and kids. But nonetheless/nevertheless we had fun and it wasn't as nerve racking as I thought it would be. I never used to be so socially challenged but something happened and now I get all freaked out. I kept telling Shawn last night that I wasn't going and he made me go. He said if I didn't go then I need to find another place to live because he didn't want to live with a hermit crab anymore...KIDDING he did NOT say that...See bad joke...I told you I was socially challenged!




Ah!! My baby will be six months old on Sunday WAAAAAAA where did the time go :-(

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Social interaction

Today brought more snow to our part of the world. I was actually pretty excited to see it. I really, really hate snow. I lived in Virginia Beach/Norfolk area until I was 17 and although it snowed, it hardly ever stuck around and melted like 2 hours after it would fall. But when we moved here to Maryland the first winter we lived here there was huge snowstorms like everyday. I remember one of the first ones my Dad told me that we needed to be prepared to be stuck in the house for a few days. I was pissed! What do you mean we have to stay in the house? Plus it was right after Christmas and I had all these gift cards I wanted to use but I had a Honda Civic at the time and he wouldn't let me drive to the mall. I think ever since then I've just had a love hate relationship with wintry weather.....

But for some reason today it was so pretty just to watch it. I took one picture and then work started calling, so I think it may snow again tomorrow so I'll take more pictures.

Today I decided to join meetup.com. It's a website for people to meet other's interested in the same things and hang out and stuff. I looked for a few mom groups and I found some. I haven't really had any close friends since I left Virginia and I have this huge part of me that would like some friends. Sometime I talk a big game about not wanting friends. But honestly I think it's because I'm hurt. Every friend I have had has burned me in some way or other in the past. It sucks and because of that I just keep to myself, but it gets lonely. I love my husband don't get me wrong, but sometimes you need a girlfriend to hang out with. So I joined meetup.com to join some playgroups. I'm not going to have super high expectations even if it's just for social interaction for Phoenix then that will be good enough! Don't want him to be a recluse like his mom!!!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Peek a boo!!!


This picture was taken today at his YaYa's house...notice his little feet crossed at the bottom :-)

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Presidential Love

This was emailed me to me today and I thought it was just the sweetest picture. I hope they get a chance to see it so they can frame it





Saturday, January 24, 2009

Semi Sleep Success

For the past 3 months we have been struggling getting Phoenix to not just sleep through the night, but sleep period! When he was first born he was up every 2-2 1.5 hours to eat and sometimes would sleep six hours straight. Then at about 2 1.5 months he was sleeping through the night. A month later that all stopped and we would be getting up with him every hour some nights. It got to a point where we would just bring him in bed with us because it was much easier. I read The Baby Whisperer book on sleeping, tried her tactics and nothing worked. We started being more consistent with solid foods hoping that would help and NOTHING. Finally about 3 weeks ago he had a sleep over at his Yaya and Papouli's house and he slept all night. We figured out the problem was he just needed to be really really really full at night. So we started a new night time routine with eating almost every hour before bedtime and we Ferberized him.
After about 2 nights it worked. He would wake up once a night and cry for about 5 minutes and would go back to sleep. Sleep was now something I knew.

Then this week Shawn and I got sick, and Phoenix got sick and he started rolling over to his stomach. So of course when he would wake up he was annoyed because he couldn't get back on his back and he sounded so sad and congested we would just let him get back in bed with us. Bad idea. I've learned if you teach a baby a new habit the one time you break it, they break. So this past week we have been doing the same thing getting up every hour with him. But last night was semi-success. He went down at 9 P.M. and woke up almost every hour. Finally after we finished watching Lost (hello how amazing was it?!) at 11:45 I went to him and I put him back down and attempted to Ferberize him again. I laid him down, left out, came back in after 5 minutes talked to him, left out after about a minute, came back in after 10 minutes talked to him and then 2 minutes after I left out he fell back asleep and slept until 8 A.M.!

Tonight we are going to try and put him down a wake. Phoenix needs props to sleep. So when it's time to go down we swaddle, rock, put a blanket half over him like we're nursing him. But we can't put him down until he's been asleep for over an hour or else we'll wake him up. We also want to try and stop swaddling him because he moves around at night to much. It's quite elaborate.

I'm hoping that tonight he will take well to going down without being fully asleep. It is very hard having to hear him cry, but I really believe that he has needs to do it so he can learn how to self-soothe.

Also as an aside my little sister and her husband are expecting! I am so excited! The baby is due at the end of September!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Mommy Intuition


Like I mentioned in a previous post Phoenix had issue's gaining weight the first few weeks. We had a very dense and questionable pediatrician (I recommend to all mommy-to-be's to interview the pediatrician before the baby arrives. That was our big mistake). He kept telling us that we needed to supplement with formula and we did on and off for about a week. At his two week appointment Phoenix was still weighing in at 7.5. Our pedi recommended that we supplement with formula and come back in 3 days. When we left we went to Babies R Us and picked up a baby scale so that we could track Phoenix's progress on our own. We got home and weighed him and Phoenix was weighing 7.15 which was weird because just a few hours before he was 6 ounces less. So we decided to check the scale. We weighed various items, a bag of shrimp, bottle of oil and flour. All of these things we weighed matched the true weight on their labels...Confusing?? It didn't make sense to me that after 2 ounces of formula he had gained 10 ounces! So for the next days we tracked and tracked and tracked. Saturday arrives and we go back to our pedi. He was not in that day so a nurse weighed him and he weighed back at 7.0. How in the hell in 3 days does he go from gaining 10 ounces to losing 15 I screamed at Shawn...Well not at him, it was more of a venting to him. Puzzled we smiled at the nurse and made our appointment for Monday. All weekend long I told everyone who would listen our problem and that I felt very calm about the whole thing. I wasn't worried because I knew nothing was wrong. I could feel the gallons upon gallons of milk in my breast! There was no way this baby wasn't getting anything! Finally Monday we weigh him before going to our appointment and he was at about 8.2. Good! We get to the pedi and what do you know a new nurse weighs him at 8.1..ok...one ounce we can deal with that. Then our pedi comes to weigh him and guess what? 7.5. I look at Shawn and shake my head "Are you F-ing kidding me!?" I'm thinking no ?&*!&%$ way! Our pediatrician explains to us that maybe because of the diaper it allowed it to weigh differently because you know an empty diaper weighs THREE OUNCES! ok Doc. The whole time we are trying to explain to the doctor that since coming to him we have had so many different weight checks, we explained our own experiment at home and he still had no answer for why this was happening. He finally declares that there was nothing we could. I had to formula feed. Tears, denial, more tears, anger at myself followed. But like I said in my previous post we did conquer it. Phoenix is still a slow weight gainer. He's only 13 lbs but looks to be about half my height. After hearing tons of stories that day I had to decide to listen to my heart. I knew that my baby was fine and healthy and that we may have to do a little extra (we do 2 bottles a day) but he was fine and would be fine.

Being a new mommy you are constantly bombarded with advice and judgements from everywhere and everyone. You are constantly second guessing your decisions and not trusting you instincts. Doctor says to vaccinate, but this article says don't. Sleep expert says crying it out is child abuse, this expert says it's a teaching tool. Mommy A says clothes diapers is the only way to go, and oh yeah so is co-sleeping. Mommy B buys Pampers in Bulk and has put Little Bundle of Joy in their own room from the first hour home. In the beginning I constantly felt inadequate. A bad mommy. And of course because I am so young people automatically expect you to mess up and forget to put a hat on the baby or leave them in the car. Learning to trust my own mommy instincts is something I'm doing everyday. Some days it's harder then others and others I look at this smiling, loud, happy, {almost} rolly polly baby and I think "I can do this! I really can!"

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of little details in that story, it was a long and emotional month. But three things I want you to take from it




1. Interview your choice of pediatrician before committing to that practice

2. Listen to the advice of the doctor and midwifes and Yaya's and Mimi's, but also remember you are this baby's parent. You've been given to him and him to you. And you may just know best.

and most importantly

3. And empty diaper, straight from the diaper box weighs three ounces!
Sorry this post is sooooo long. It's shopping season here in my house. Meaning Shawn has been working like crazy in his studio to get new music ready so I'm bored and after Fin's down I have a lot of free time!!!!!



"Close but no cigar"

So yesterday was supposed to be our first day on our new schedule and of course who didn't wake up at 6 A.M.? My genius sleep deprived self set the alarm for 6 P.M. I rolled over at 7:30 and realized I had messed up Day One and rolled right back over and closed my eyes. Phoenix woke up at about 7:45 and for the rest of the morning we kind of did stay on schedule. The only thing was he ended up sleeping 2 1/2 hours for his morning nap and only 30 minutes for his afternoon nap. Although it was not a complete success yesterday I still felt like I had accomplished a lot. So today was to be Day Two...BUT (oh that BUT) Phoenix woke up several, several, SEVERAL times last night resulting in only about 3 hours of sleep for me. So this morning I just decided to cancel schedule day and we'll start on Monday.

This is the very reason I rejected the idea of starting a schedule because every time I think I can start one and really follow it Phoenix decides to do something totally different then what he normally does or I mess it up somehow by having a million plus errands to do or tada...sleeping late.

So I think we will try next week and see how that goes and if doesn't work then, at least I tried right? A for effort?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Schedule attempt number 5,789

For the past 2 and 1/2 months I have gone back and forth with getting Phoenix on a structured schedule. I even attempted sort of for a week when I read The Secrets of The Baby Whisperer, but Phoenix and I failed miserably! Part of me wanted to get him on a schedule because I knew it would be good for him and very helpful for me. But every time I would think "This is the day!" Something would come up and everything would be thrown off. For the most part Phoenix has a "natural" schedule but it's still touch and go with him. So today after wanting to cry as I looked around at the 4 laundry baskets that needed to be put away, the pile of dishes and the tons of emails that needed to be answered I figured I had to do something. My only real resolution this year was to just get more organized. I used to be very organized. But Phoenix arrived and things changed! So here is a schedule I just came up with. I tried to stick to pretty much what we already do with a few tweakings. I've also never been a morning person and now even more then ever I hate to wake up. If Phoenix has a good night and sleeps until 8:30, I sleep until 8:30 (like this morning) but then I kick myself all day because I can never seem to catch back up. Just like with the schedule thing every night I say to Shawn "I have to start getting up at 6" and what do you know? That night was a baaaad night. So along with a new schedule for Fin (one of his many many many nicknames by the way) Mommy is going to start waking up at 6 AM! Wish us luck!!



6:00 A.M. Good Morning Mommy!!!

7/7:30 A.M. Good Morning Phoenix!!

7:30/8 A.M.-Breakfast (Nurse) for Phoenix


8:15 A.M.-Dress Phoenix

8:30 A.M. Breakfast (Oatmeal & Fruit)


8:45 A.M. Playtime!

9:30 A.M. Nurse

9:45/10 A.M. Nap time

11/11:30 A.M. Wake up!


11:30 A.M. Nurse

12 P.M. Playtime!


1:30 P.M. Nurse

2/2:30 P.M. Nap time


3:30/4 P.M. Wake up!

4 P.M. Nurse or Bottle


4:15 P.M. Playtime

6 P.M. Dinner (Oatmeal & Veggie)


6:30 P.M. Catnap

7:00 P.M. Wind down/Bath


7:45 P.M. Nurse & Bottle

8:15 P.M. Wind down for bed

9:30 P.M. Bedtime

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Day
















At the last minute I decided to take pictures of Phoenix near the TV during the oath. I wanted him to be able to see these pictures years from now and just let it reaffirm how lucky we are to live in this country. I've been watching the coverage all morning and kept having to fight back tears (the tears ended up winning). Watching this just makes me very proud of my country. Being able to say that I watched history being made. To finally see all of these peoples dreams coming true. I am sad to see George W go. I've always liked him and thought he did the best job he could. Even watching him get in the helicopter made me tear up because despite his flaws he has served our country well and he's kept us safe for 8 years and for that I am grateful.
However, with that said I am very excited to see the changes that are coming to America. I just pray that God gives wisdom to our leaders and that President Obama allows himself to be used by God and keeps his ears open to what God is speaking.
Ok Phoenix is showing off gotta go!

My emotions runneth over

When Phoenix was born we found out he was jaundiced. He was born at 8 lbs 1.4 ounces, but by the time we left the hospital he was 7.5. In two days when we went to his pediatrician to check his bilirubin levels he had dropped down to 7.2 and for the next two weeks we went back and forth to the doctor for weight checks. We started formula, we stopped formula, we started formula, and we stopped. Back and forth we went for two weeks. Finally at his two week appointment our doctor told us that I was unable to breastfeed. He said because of my breast reduction surgery 5 years before I wasn’t able to produce enough milk to satisfy my little Fin. When he told me, I tried everything I could to not break down in his office but I couldn’t help it. I felt like a failure. I felt selfish and ill-prepared. I cried and cried and cried. Shawn did his best to make me feel better but I knew this wasn’t something he could understand. But I picked myself up I called my mom’s mid-wife (smile) and I took a vitamin store worth of herbs, and I (sort a kind of) conquered it. More on this in another post.

Last Thursday I was watching Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice and both were about dying little boys. I was holding Phoenix trying to put him to sleep and I cried and cried as I watched TV and praying “God please don’t let anything happen to him. I couldn’t bare it.”
In the months that this 13 pound little dictator arrived I’ve found myself feeling much more than I’ve ever felt before. I’m more sensitive to everything, I cry when I think about him going to kindergarten and even him drinking from a sippy cup (yes that started the water works the other night). Now don’t get me wrong. I’m excited to see all of these new things, but with every new thing brings him closer to the day he’ll be standing up front at the altar promising forever to someone. Kind of makes me sad, kind of makes me want to have another baby soon too (not too soon though). I think being a mother has brought all of my feeling right to the surface and constantly spilling over at any moment. Being a mother brings on weird paranoia. Could the cradle cap infection leakage (yes, gross!) be a brain fluid? Could he have Benjamin Button’s syndrome? Will teaching him baby sign language delay his speech? But then being a mother brings on all of those wonderful dreams and goals you want to set for your baby…but we’ll leave that for another post.

I hope I'm not the only crazy mom who feels like, but if so...crazy is a title I guess I'll just have to take :-)

Baby's First Snow!

It's 7:50 AM here and I've been up since 3 AM! Phoenix slept most of the night and I struggled with going to sleep so at 4 decided to get up and get some work done that I didn't do yesterday. Me & The Husband are sick and decided to take a nap yesterday for a few hours and I hardly did any work. Phoenix has a slight cold as well and I feel so bad for him! His little voice sounds all raspy. Anywho I decided to get up at 4 and then Phoenix decided he wanted to snuggle and woke up and nursed and has been napping with me on the couch since 4 AM.


Yesterday we FINALLY got some real snow. Phoenix was at his Yaya's house during the day so I missed getting him pictures while it was falling so here is our lame attempt at trying to catch pictures with him and the snow.

Notice his totally uninterested face. He does this face a lot in pictures...hmm....

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Introduction

Since baby has arrived I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like. But lately it's been pulling on me to really start writing in my blog again. I used to have one, but decided to start a different one since being a new mommy and wife is vastly different than my life 3 years ago.

So who am I and why am I wasting your time? I'm Alex new mommy to Phoenix Alexander Troy (yeah we're those weird name people). He's 5 1/2 months old, the light of my life, the cause of my sleepless nights, rumbly baby body, and perma-smile. Phoenix is the cutest baby (my blog, so I get to be totally biased) I've ever seen.

I'm married to Shawn Campbell, who's a music producer for major labels. Records of note: Missy Elliott-Ching a ling and Karina Pasian-First Love & Cry. Recently we just found out he was nominated for a Gramy for Karina Pasian. And we are extremely excited about what that could turn in to be. We've been together going on 3 years now and married a little over a month. I really love him :-)

I stay home with Phoenix AND work from home doing short sales for a real estate company. Working from home is much more challenging then working outside of the house. There are admittedly a lot of days where I don't get to shower until 2 because work is calling and Phoenix is screaming for breakfast. But I do love it because it allows me to be able to feel like a "grown up" and allows me to be able to be with Phoenix everyday all day. But thankfully his Yaya lives only a few minutes away and is a lifesaver when the emails and calls are piling up.

I hope to be able to spend a few minutes blogging before the baby wakes (hehehe) but lets face it when you have an infant who sometimes sleeps in 30 minute intervals and you have to figure out how to fold laundry, cook dinner, pee and try and look some what presentable before hubby arrives home blogging may not be a top priority. So I apologizes now if a lot of what I say is a rambling of words that don't make sense or are even spelled correctly...forgive me...I'm trying

Until my next 10 minutes!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Phoenix Tested. Mom Approved



Nap Time Reading



Tutorials




Party Bags

Break The Bank


Blogs I Stalk


Stalk Me

Stalk me on those other social networking sites













About Me

My name is Alexandria, Ally for short or Alex. Whichever doesn't matter much to me.
I'm 22 years old and the mother of one. A one year old as of August 1. His name is Phoenix Alexander Troy.

He is truly the light of my life, love of my heart, and the music I love to listen to. Sappy sounding? Maybe. But it is certainly true.

I'm a stay-at-home/work from home (doing short sales)/aspiring designer/aspiring singer/aspiring writer/ mommy.

I'm the wife to Grammy nominated (<---love saying this) music producer and aspiring music mogul Shawn Campbell. We've been married 11months and together 3 years. We've had a bumpy rocky first few years, but he's my best friend, lover and sometimes the subject of frustrating blogs. He's constantly on the phone or emailing or blasting loud music. This is where the inspiration for my blog title came. I can't tell you how many times I've had to walk down to his studio and ask him to turn the music down before he wakes Phoenix up. Even with headphones, it's insanely loud!

My blog is a short (ok sometimes long), simple, random and often grammatical incorrect look into all things mommy, wife, and woman.

If you have any questions or tips for the blog or anything please feel free to contact me anytime!




Contact Me

I'm always looking to meet new people, start new local playgroups (you're probably some crazy internet stalker, so never mind...)

Do you have any mommy or baby finds to tell me about? New blogs or websites you stumbled on I might like?

Any suggestions for things you would want to see on the blog? Any mommy, baby, marriage, or random questions you want to pose to the readers?

Do you think my blog and I suck and want to tell me?

Are you Oprah? People Magazine? Barbara Walters? And want to interview me?

Interested in advertising on BTBW? As of now I am trying to build up my readership and I thought of doing a button swap with other blogging mommies (don't have to be a mommy though). It's free, but it might not be for long so email me!

Want an awesome custom made blog makeover?

Well then shoot me an email! I promise I'll get back to you as soon as I can!






The following are the bloggers I've featured on my blog.
   Check out their blog and leave them so BTBW love!


Rebekah at Outnumbered (original publish date 10/17/09)
Amy at Everyday Mama Drama & Moving on From the Drama (original publish date 10/24/09)
Naomi at Organic Motherhood with Cool Whip (original publish date 11/28/09)




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