Erin Akin Carroll

truth-telling Fridays

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Feb252011

I’m back to tell it the way it is around here.

There is too much going on for my liking. We have plans tonight and I don’t have a great attitude about it. But not because it won’t be fun. Just because I’d rather stay home and watch Dateline.
My wonderful husband turns 31 tomorrow. Why does 31 sound so much older than 30 did? No offense to TC or to anyone else who is 31. I don’t think 31 is old, I just think it sounds a lot older than 31.
I love my new iPhone. I knew I would, but those first few times took some getting used to. I do miss some things about my Blackberry.
But I especially love the Wheels on the Bus app for toddlers. And so does Hudson! It saved us from a few airplane tantrums.

The pregnancy-caused pain is almost unbearable at night. I have gotten sore so much earlier this time than I did last time. My legs, my pelvis, my back. Ouchy wow wow. And every night I go to bed and am so thankful I can be off my feet. Thank goodness I’m in the third trimester because my countdown to delivery day has begun.
To celebrate, TC’s birthday tomorrow, we’re going to see Taken 2, also known as Unknown. Yay!
And for his birthday dinner, he requested Bow Tie Fiesta and Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding. He could have had any home-made meal or restaurant meal he wanted and that’s what he chose? I love that he’s easy to please.
Perhaps the above should have been one of TC’s “confessions.”
Someone told me yesterday that I look “plump.” I love her dearly and I know without a doubt that she didn’t mean any harm by it. I just laughed and thanked her.
I also heard from a few people that I look like I’m about to pop. That doesn’t hurt my feelings either except I wonder what they’ll say to me in another 10 weeks and I really am about to pop!
I haven’t gotten my orange push ups yet, but I’m heading out today to pick them up when I pick up a few other things for the Oscar party.
I did, however, eat Kellogg’s Corn Pops for about three non-breakfast meals this week. Then I kept saying, “Gotta have my Pops.” TC not only found this to be completely unfunny, but I’m pretty sure it drove him crazy.
I have considered putting myself on bed rest in a couple of weeks, but I’m confident I won’t be able to find anyone to come take care of my daily duties and love on Hudson for free. Unless KK is ready to move in with us right now!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Oscar Party Preview

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Feb252011

I absolutely love themed parties! That is why I was so excited when I was asked to throw an Oscar viewing party sponsored by Orville Redenbacher’s and their new Pop Up Bowls.

I am spending a lot of my weekend preparing for Sunday’s party and have been doing a little digging around online looking for Oscar party inspiration. I had some old posts saved in my Google Reader and this one from Bakerella is one of my favorites. These Oscar cookies are absolutely adorable and the way she has them standing is just so festive!

Cookies by Bakerella

Bakerella’s movie marquis sugar cookies are absolutely adorable, too, and can be done with the movie posters from the awards shows from year to year.

For my menu, I am going the more “themey” route and having a meal based around the movie titles of the Best Picture nominees. This is what I have on my menu:

Shrimp and True Grits- traditional shrimp and grits

Winter’s Ham Bone and Collards- collard greens and ham

Blackened Swan Wings- swan errr chicken wings

The Cupcakes Are All Right- black and white tuxedo cupcakes

Mark Zuckerburgers- sliders

and

Tea Cookies for The King’s Speech- butter cookies

My friends and I will be having dinner, playing Oscar Bingo, filling out our Oscar ballots, and critiquing the stars as they make their way down the red carpet. Will you be watching the Academy Awards on February 27?

a light at the end of the potty-training tunnel

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Feb242011

I have decided to wait until Hudson is 22 months old to begin potty-training. This way he will be all settled in his big boy room, but can still be working on potty-training before his little brother comes along.

When I was in Dallas last week, I was shopping for Christmas decorations (a post for another day) and had to use the restroom while I was in the store.

I saw the most genius thing in the women’s restroom. A bathroom stall that was the answer to my “potty-training a boy prayers.”

If I had ever seen this before I definitely didn’t remember it. Too bad all public restrooms don’t have these!

babies and sleeping

Filed Under: Baby

Feb232011

I want to preface this post by saying that I am not an expert by any means. I did what worked best for my child and for me and this is how we did it. I’m not writing this post to ruffle any feathers– I’m just answering the questions that I’ve been asked over the last 2 years. Writing this was good for me, too, as I prepare to go through it all again.

In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten a few emails and requests to send our feeding chart that we used for Hudson. It was a simple feeding chart that we printed off every day. I had an Itzbeen and didn’t love using it. I know there are iPhone apps you can use. But I am a pen and paper kind of person when it comes to keeping track of things like feedings, nap times, and diaper changes.

We followed the Baby Wise plan of “Eat, Wake, Sleep.” It was important that Hudson not fall asleep while eating so that he was able to get enough to eat, get full, and then fall asleep on his own after he had some time to burp and play… or just stay awake for a little while. We wanted him to fall asleep on his own and become a confident sleeper.

Hudson was on a schedule from the day he was born. The hospital nursery staff helped us get him on a feeding schedule of every 3 hours. They showed us how to keep up with feedings and diaper changes. He was breast feeding at the time, so we timed how many minutes he nursed on each side and wrote that down.

We stuck to the “every 3 hours” plan. If he woke up 10 minutes before he was due to eat, he waited 10 minutes to eat. If he was screaming, we found ways to calm him to hold him off until it was time to eat again.

I have included the chart that we used. The text in red is to tell you what to put in each blank. The text in purple is an example of how the chart might be filled out.

If you hopped over here from Pinterest, just click here to get a printable version of this chart!

In the beginning, he was going 5 hour stretches during the night and we reached 12 hours by the time he was four months old. We were super happy with 8 hours, but Hudson kept sleeping longer and longer!

When we came home from the hospital, he slept in his crib. We did this for three reasons: 1.) TC wasn’t able to take any time off work and I didn’t want him to be up all night when I was up feeding Hudson, 2.) Our bedroom is upstairs and Hudson’s is downstairs. Post-delivery, I wasn’t able to climb stairs anyway, so I slept in the guest room and Hudson slept in his room on the first floor, 3.) I didn’t want to create a habit that I’d have to try to break later (him sleeping in the bassinet in our room), so we started out with him in his own room on the first day.

We have a video monitor. Without the video monitor, I’m not sure I could have survived having him in his own room. But I can see him whenever I want to through the monitor and it was a big help in those first few weeks.

I did rock Hudson in the beginning because he was my baby and I wanted to rock him. But around the time he was 4 weeks old, we stopped rocking him to sleep and would just put him down in his crib, swaddled, and pat him a few times and walk away.

A word about the schedule…

I would say that it was a flexible schedule. If we got off schedule, it wasn’t the end of the world. But I built my life around Hudson’s schedule in those first 6-8 weeks. Having a great sleeper was the most important thing to me at the time. So we didn’t go meet friends for lunch or run a bunch of errands during the day. I avoided having him nap in the car because I wanted him to know his routine and get it down before we started shaking things up.

I know everyone doesn’t feel this way, but it was just what worked for us.

Resources and books…

We got on schedule with the help of Baby Wise. We mastered sleeping with the help of The Baby Whisperer. And we mastered soothing Hudson when he was upset with the help of The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD.

Click on any of the links to order the books or DVD.

I am disabling comments on this post because I don’t want it to turn into a debate about the best sleep methods. But feel free to email me if you do have any questions.

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