eat, sleep, poop, repeat

In order to get a feel for what Tachi's routine, I've tried a few different ways of logging his feedings, diaper changes, and sleeping patterns. At first I was using these printable logs from thebump.com, but printing them out for each day got to be a hassle and pretty wasteful. However, they are very useful should you choose to try them. I am still using the sleep tracker, which doesn't need to be re-printed much because it charts at least 2 weeks. The emergency info print-out is nice too and I have it posted by the phone.

Sleep Tracker Print-out
Bottle Feeding (input/output) tracker print-out
Breastfeeding Tracker print-out
Emergency Info Print-out

As far as keeping track of dirty diapers, I've come up with my own very simple system. All you need is an envelope, yellow and brown paper, and two paper clips. After that, you can re-use it over and over again. Here is what mine looks like:
Just cut out about 12 squares of yellow and 8 squares of brown. Of course, yellow represents one wet diaper and brown represents a BM. Paperclip them to your envelope. Each time you change a diaper, simply put a square in the envelope accordingly. At the end of the day, count the squares and record the number of wet diapers and BMs. Then paperclip the squares back to the outside of your envelope and they are ready for tomorrow.

settling into motherhood

It has been exactly 9 days since I gave birth to my first - a beautiful baby boy named Tachi. I wasn't sure how well my instincts would kick in after labor, but to my delight I have taken to this whole motherhood thing extremely well. Actually, I've discovered I have quite a knack for mothering and all the things that come with the keeping and organization of home. Before I had my son, my life as a housewife really didn't require me to do much of anything. I am actually very much enjoying all the new chaos and hustle of my new lifestyle. I know that the urge to nest is normal, but having this new purpose in my life has been so motivating. All of my time has been spent, of course, taking care of Tachi - but also a great deal of organizing, planning/preparing, adapting and settling into my own mommy system (which is constantly evolving as I experiment and perfect it) in order to continue being productive in the most effective, efficient, and practical way. As I've been establishing this new system of my own while also searching the best resources for moms like myself (and generally anyone who is looking to conveniently organize their life) I've noticed that there really isn't much in the ways of good resources available in one place. Hence, I thought it would be nice to blog all of the useful tools and ideas that I've come up with, as well as the best resources I find on the internet. I hope that this blog will be helpful to my readers so that we can all better the quality of life for ourselves and for our families. So, please do continue to visit this blog as it grows and fills with tons of information and resources (such as downloads, print-outs, and other tools for moms and dads alike).