Slowing down and enjoying my baby

I know that the holidays are a busy time for everyone. But I must say that the past few weekends I have taken time out of our busy schedule for the most important part of my day...naps with JJ. When he starts to get tired, I rock him in his room and watch him drift off. Then I move us to the recliner in our living room for a nap. He takes right around a two hour nap when we snuggle like this vs. a 45 minute nap in his crib.

I know these days are limited and there won't always be time for this, so I don't have one ounce of guilt for taking time to do this.



A friend of mine passed along this poem to me. I think about it when I feel life overwhelming me.

I hope that my child, looking back on today
Will remember a mother who had time to play;
Because children grow up while you're not looking,
There are years ahead for cleaning and cooking.
So, quiet now cobwebs, dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep

Have a great weekend everyone. Take some time to slow down and enjoy your loved ones.

Fun Websites to Share

I could spend hours on these two websites and had to pass them along:

The first is a blog post with Awkward Pregnancy Photos:

Check it out here.

Seriously...a gun and a watermelon SCREAM pregnancy to me. Ok, not really. I had a great pregnancy- never feeling like a watermelon OR like I needed a gun.


The second one is all about Auto-correct on phones while texting...and the stupid things they "correct" peoples' texts to. I sat in front of this website, crying because I was laughing so hard.

Check it out and giggle too!

And lastly, because I am feeling nostalgic here is a link to a blog post written by me about this time last year.

I can truly say we have gotten some similar laughs with JJ. Enjoy your week all!

A time away from blogging

Hello All-

Sorry it has been 1 month since my last post. Things have been wild around here! I was in Vegas for 1 full week for work. It was a lot of work, but worth it. When I got home, I got to hold my little man.

Did I mention he has started to army crawl? And spin 360 degrees on the ground...and get up on his hands and knees and rock?...


Looks like the little man will be crawling in no time.

He also got a helmet to help with his flat spot on his head. We all know JJ is an easy going kid..so he is just taking this in stride.



We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. I will post his 6 month stats next week.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

5 month update

JJ turned 5 months old last week!

His current stats are:
25.5 inches long
18.4 lbs

I wanted to wait until the blog went private to share an update with you all.

We were worried JJ would have to go in for surgery and had a doctor's appointment yesterday to discuss it with a specialist.

He has a flat spot on the back of his head and his pedi was worried that his flat spot near his forehead was so small. There were one of two things causing the flat spot...one would require surgery, the other...a helmet and PT.

We met with the specialist yesterday and he confirmed JJ would need PT (NOT SURGERY) and we would have the option to get a helmet. Jeff and I are still discussing this and I will post an update for you all soon.

Privacy Updates

Hello All,

I will be changing this blog to private this week due to some other projects I am working on. (More details to follow.) If you would like to continue reading this blog, I will need to send you an invitation. I am open to anyone who would like to keep reading, you just need to send me your email address and I will shoot you an invite.

You can include your email in a comment below OR shoot me an email at alibrausen@hotmail.com.

WTF Wednesday...Join in!

Hello All,

Thought I would have fun with today's post and do a "What the F*ck?!" Wednesday. Feel free to post your own WTF moment below...trust me, it makes you feel better!

WTF Bacon on my salad from lunch. Normally, I don't even like bacon...but you were delicious in every way! Makes me crave a BTL for dinner

WTF Teen Mom-You left me with several cliff hangers last night...Will Maci and Ryan get back together, wil Gary grow a pair and do what is right for their daughter?

WTF Wednesday...why can't you be Friday?

Ok- Your turn! Happy Wednesday all.

Rolling over and Not Sleeping...Oh My!

JJ has started to roll over, not all the way, just from his back to his tummy. He is quite pleased with himself for mastering this new skill...until he realizes he is on him tummy. Then he gets a little uncomfortable and upset. We are trying to help him learn to roll from tummy to back, but haven't had luck yet.

Him being upset on his tummy during the day is no big deal...at night, however, things are much different.

First, while I understand the importance of the "Back to Sleep" campaign...I am a bit upset that it has instilled such a deep fear of SIDS in me. To the point where I.CANT.SLEEP when I know JJ has rolled over onto his tummy to sleep in the middle of the night.

Saturday night, I woke up at 5:30am wondering why JJ hadn't had his usual 2 AM wake up (for me to pop his nuk back in and go to sleep.) The woman who hasn't had a full night's sleep in 4 months thought, "We must be over that phase! Woo-hoo!" Then the mother in me thought, "Something must be wrong!" I got up to go check on the little man. And that's when I found him sleeping soundly...on his TUMMY! The only thing I could think of was, back to sleep...he must sleep on his back! I fought my urge to roll him over and walked back into the bedroom to get Jeff's opinion. "Honey, JJ is on his tummy, sleeping and breathing fine. Do you think I should flip him over?"

Jeff muttered his response, "Come back to bed and stop worrying about him sleeping on his tummy. Aren't you more comfortable when you sleep that way?"

Now, this comment send me back to the late days of my pregnancy, where I would have given anything to sleep on my tummy. After this memory, I climbed back into bed and stared at the ceiling.

" I can feel you staring at the ceiling. He is fine." (My hubby knows me so well.) 20 minutes later, JJ woke up for the day.

Last night was a different story however. JJ woke up several times, realizing he was on his tummy and was NOT HAPPY about it. Each time he woke up, I went into his room and would roll him to his back, just to have him roll right back onto his tummy. I was up on and off from 2AM on.

It might be a long week readers...stay tuned for an update. OR offer any advice or similar stories you may have to a VERY tired Mommy.