Two Monkeys: Nicholas & Joshua Read

On Sunday mornings at 9 am, I've been joining a yoga class that's offered for free at the Lululemon down the street. It's fantastic - each week is a different type of yoga class and they're free. My absence for an hour means that Cam has to watch Nicholas.  When I came home last week, Cam looked as though he had been doing it for 5 hours, which made him realize how much work is really involved in an 8 hour day with the little man. We've been trying to get Nicholas used to the bottle so that I can have some freedom when I need it. For some odd reason, he'll take it from his grandpa Robert, but Cam gets the screaming, wailing cries that don't stop when he tries to feed him. This morning, poor Cam tried for an hour to get Nicholas to drink his milk from a bottle. Little whimpers turned into high pitched cries that forced us to just give him back the breast. During the feeding, I was back from yoga, so it likely was my scent on Cam and being in the room that c

Over the past few weeks, Nicholas has had to deal with baby acne and cradle cap. The acne went away after a week, but the cradle cap was getting quite ugly. It affects a lot of babies as the hormones from my milk cause him to develop a flaky scalp that's yellowy and crusty. I got a great tip from my friend Sabrina, who suggested the Medella foaming shampoo for babies and it's worked wonderfully. No matter how many times I say it, 'Cradle Crap' still comes out of my mouth rather than 'cap'. I think 'crap' is more suiting for what it looks like, so I'm going to stick to it. We've also discovered that Nicholas is a noisy sleeper. My mom was in shock when she heard him snoring while she was pushing his stroller. That's my guy! He's just like mom. Since my pregnancy, I've been snoring a lot more and often will wake myself up. He also makes a lot of grunts while sleeping, which are quite funny to watch. Let's hope that the noise level

Nicholas is now 7 weeks old and almost overnight, he's developed an attention span of longer than 5 min.! Over the weekend, he is now able to amuse himself in his bouncy chair for a record 30 min. I was so shocked to discover this as he's always cried when we put him down for longer than a few min. I moved him to his crib today during the day and he was also able to play around without the need to be picked up. I train them well! He was also able to last the whole yoga class on Sat. morning without crying. I put him on his back for the whole time and he just played by himself. It was fantastic to get some stretching done without any fussing. He's also discovered his little left hand can be used to soothe himself. Rather than using a soother, his hand is the perfect object! It's always there and it's attached to him...hahah.

Just when I thought that I had the diaper duty all figured out, I keep forgetting that one missed step can lead to a big mess! As I was changing Nicholas last week, he kept squirming and wiggling as I took him out of his diaper. I heard a few little farts coming out, so I let him roll around a bit more. A few moments later, projectile poo went flying across his change table, dribbled on his clothes and change pad, and finally landed on the floor. Thank goodness newborn poo is not solid, but watery and odorless, so it wasn't too smelly. It made me laugh as I've never witnessed a poo force of that strength before! I picked him up to take a bath and as I was about to put him into his tub, I felt some dribbles on my feet. I guess he figured that if he did a number 2, he mind as well get it all out!! That really made me laugh. I wish there was someone else there to see it.

This week, we confirmed that all the milk he's been drinking has resulted in Nicholas weighing in at 10 pounds, 2 ounces. I think that he's also grown a few inches as well. That's harder to measure as he's quite squirmy and loves to kick. He also has begun to baby talk - making small babbles when he's happy and lying on his back. It's amazing what a few weeks growth can mean in baby terms. He's also able to lift his head up when we carry him around, and he's often mesmerized by the world around him. The biggest development is his ability to sleep at night with a 12 am, 3 am and 8 am feeding. The feedings aren't too long, so I've been able to catch up on  my sleep. I keep the room dark so that he eats and knocks right out after he finishes rather than being wide awake. We also went for our first walk together alone in the neighborhood. The fresh air was amazing for the little guy. He stayed asleep for most of the walk, waking up only after I

Bayshore has become our new hangout. I make at least 3 trips there each week - it's great because they have 2 elevators and lots of open space for you to walk with your stroller. Maria, Tania and I met up there for the first time since I had Nicholas. I was used to meeting them there before during my pregnant days, but this time, we were 3 mommy divas with our babies. It was quite funny walking into stores and figuring out if we would fit. The beauty of shopping with friends is that they can watch your baby while you try on clothes. I wondered that last week - how the heck am I going to try clothes on with the stroller and the potential for a crying fit at any point. By the end of our shopping trip, we all walked out with some new clothes! I was so glad to find 2 pairs of pants to replace the 4 maternity pants that I've been wearing for the past 5 months.

Nicholas and I went to our first yoga class together on Saturday at Dovercourt. I used to get up a 9 am for my 9:15 class...but now it's a different story. I needed at least an hour to get the both of us ready. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that it would get me out of the house and it was something that I could do with Nicholas, Maria and Liam. I kind of wondered before what it would be like and thought - what happens if he starts to cry or need food during the class? After finishing our first class yesterday, it was definitely an entertaining hour. There were 5 babies in the class - all various ages. The funniest was Owen who was six months and his new trick was rolling and yelling. He's adorable with big brown eyes and filled with giddyness. His mom put him down on the groound and off he went - rolling, rolling, screeching, rolling. We started the class and Nicholas was quite good and then he began fussing. I was doing the downward dog and was trying to con

This week was the first time where I felt the complete exhaustion from lacking sleep with a new baby. It was the first week where Cam was back to work, so I didn't have my morning helper which was what Cam usually did when he was off - changing the morning diaper and lulling Nicholas back to sleep at night so that I could get some zz's. Nicholas had one night of constant feeding and by the time I got to sleep - it was close to 5 am. My body the next day felt as though I was hit by a train. I had flu like symptoms - but it was only due to a lack of sleep. My sinuses seem to be giving me some issues as well - at first, I thought it was a pimple developing on the bridge of my nose, but have since discovered that it's likely a sinus infection. I realized this morning that the lack of sleep with a new baby is worse than the experience I had after I partied all week in Cancun with no sleep, too much sun, lots of drinking and bad food. Mind you, I was 22 at that time. It's

This is my little party animal who could only handle 4 ounces of milk before passing out before midnight. We were hediging bets that he'd need more milk at midnight, but he let me off easy this year! At least he was in good spirits to put his party hat on and toot his own horn.

Here are some links where you can access more pics of Nicholas: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 New Year's 2010 Week 4

Nicholas at Week 1. Nicholas at Week 2 Nicholas at Week 3 Nicholas at 4 weeks. Nicholas at 5 weeks

In my new job as a mother, I am discovering new talents that I never knew I had and reviving old ones. The feeding demands have increased over the past two weeks - Nicholas demands milk that takes anywhere from 20 min. to 5 hour marathon sessions. The long sessions aren't daily, but they do take place every few days. Those are the toughest as all I do is sit on the couch and feed straight through. This is where my new talents come in. Since I'm sitting so much and can't move my arms, I've had to learn how to pick things up with my toes. It really is a challenge to do that. I feel like I'm armless and all I can do is stare at the object I want and concentrate on picking it up with either both my feet or toes from one foot. Since sitting down for hours on end is not appealing, I've also discovered some new squat exercises to do with Nicholas - I know it's dangerous to do them while he's breastfeeding in case he decides to tug hard, but I have managed t