Where’s the manual?

So while having one of my daily mommy conversations with a girlfriend we joked around about wanting a manual for our little ones. So, I ask you…. Where is the manual??? LOL

I have so many questions to ask this manual! Why does he wake up screaming? Is he getting enough solids? Is he getting enough sleep? What is he saying when he hollers a statement to me, lol. This manual would be a great help right now!

Ok, so there are books upon books that you can read on parenting, however none of them have really helped a lot with my little man. Now we have gotten some great tips and ideas from them, but of course babies can’t be ‘by the book’. And of course one book contradicts the other. How are you supposed to keep sane and make choices when even the experts contradict each other?

So, instead of reading all the books out there, we’ll tune out the advice and the books and create our own manual for our little man as we go. Stay tuned for our manual in the making.

Why do I still have cravings?! It’s been 6 months…

So yes, I confess…. I love sweets, but you guys already knew that. What’s killing me is that I still have cravings and it’s been 6 months since I had our little man?! I didn’t really have cravings during my pregnancy until the nutritionist my OB sent me to informed me that I had gestational diabetes. She looked at me and said, “so what have you been doing differently since you were diagnosed with GD?” I looked at her in shock and said, “Umm, no one told me I had GD, so I haven’t done anything?!” So she went over everything with me, apparently I was borderline, but had to start tracking my blood sugars and tracking what I ate and come back in a week. I was in denial for a day thinking oh, I’m borderline, so everything will be normal… um, not even close. I couldn’t have sweets at all! I couldn’t even have a glass of orange juice for breakfast. Ugg…

And so the cravings began, but I went cold turkey on the sweets… even at my baby showers! Couldn’t have the awesome cupcakes my mother-in-law got for me nor the beautiful cake my awesome aunts made for me. But, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It was actually easy to resist the sweets since I knew I couldn’t have them.

The problem came after I gave birth… The first time I went to the grocery store alone I was just there to pick up a few things. However, I left with much much more. It was so bad I actually texted my hubby to warn him that I may have gone a little overboard. He met me at the door to help me with the bags and gave me an oh my gosh look! He laughed and said, “I guess you bought a little more.” I looked at the goods as we unpacked at them and couldn’t believe how much crap I bought. I laughed and said “It’s like they let a sweet addict loose in a candy store!” Hahaha

It’s 6 months later and man oh man, nothing has changed…. I had it under control for a few weeks, but its back! Why oh why am I still having cravings and when will I get it under control?!?!

My first confession…

So, my first confession… I need sleep!

When you start sharing the exciting news with your family and friends that you are expecting you hear the same thing over and over again. “Get as much sleep as you can now….” The one thing that no one ever tells you is that you need to get the sleep before you even decide to try and get pregnant! Once your pregnant there is no sleeping anymore. And if you do sleep you have to follow the pregnancy sleep rules that you didn’t know existed! Only sleep on your left side, with a pillow on a 45 degree angle facing SSE… ok I slightly exaggerate, but not by much. Don’t get me wrong the lack of sleep while pregnant is nothing like what you face once the baby arrives. I would love for some pregnancy sleep right now.

People also don’t tell you that once your baby arrives, you will do just about anything to get your baby to sleep in their crib. Rock, walk, talk, sing, white noise machine, humidifier, dream feed, warmer room, cooler room… I think we have tried just about everything with no luck so far. No one tells you that you will have no idea what to do or why your baby isn’t sleeping. And everyone has a suggestion or a reason why the baby won’t sleep. Your baby’s teething, overtired, sick, nose is stuffed up… the list goes on and on. You can read every book that’s out there to try and shed some light, but there is always something different that your baby is doing that they don’t cover. So, you’re left on your own and are so overwhelmed with suggestions and information you feel just as lost as you did before you started looking for help.

And finally, no one tells you that with one little smile from your babe you forget how tired you are and how little sleep you got the night before. It all goes washing away and you enjoy every precious second you have with them because they do grow way to fast.