The Mother's Lounge

why pumping stinks

noreply@blogger.com (Krystal) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:46:00 +0000

I'm exclusively pumping right now. my baby is in the NICU, since he was born at 29weeks. He's now 4 weeks old and will probably be in the NICU for another month and 1/2 to 2 months. I starting pumping just a few hours after he was born. The night times are the hardest, it's one thing to get up and latch a baby on, but it's completely different to get up, assemble the parts of the pump, pump, then wash the parts, and store the milk in the freezer.

The other night I got up to pump, hooked the tubes to the pump and the cones and started pumping. a few minutes later, my lap feels wet.

Yeah, I forgot to attach the bottles to the pump. so the milk was just coming out and going nowhere. How embarrassing! At least I wasn't pumping somewhere else, just in my bed.

Sleep deprivation happens after you have a baby, whether or not that baby is home with you!! And that is why pumping stinks. At least with a baby I don't have to assemble them before feeding.

Aveeno Baby Review

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:15:00 +0000

I belong to a word of mouth marketing network called BzzAgent. They do several "campaigns" at a time and invite members to participate by trying out products and then telling people about them...

I'm really excited about my latest campaign "assignment." I got to try out Avenno Baby's Essential Moisturizing Shampoo.

And WOW!

My little guy has cradle cap. Pretty bad. And he has since birth. We've done a lot of things to try and get rid of it... frequent washings, lotion in his hair, adult dandruff shampoo, olive oil on the scalp and a fine-toothed comb, nylon bristle brushes... Nothing has ever kept if from coming back.

We have now been using the Aveeno shampoo for about 6 weeks and his cradle cap is gone. No more itchies, no more flakies... its just gone. I already loved Aveeno Baby products (they're diaper rash cream is really great... and I love the lavander & oatmeal baby cream for the poor kid's dry skin too), but I am sold on this shampoo.

Wanna give it a try? Leave a comment and I'll send along a free sample of the shampoo and the rash cream to you.

Swimming Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:17:00 +0000

Dear Mother's Lounge,

I know this is going to seem completely irrelevant and it sort of is... but I've been looking to find new songs to use for my Mommy and Me swim class and saw that you had some in an older post. I was wondering if you could repost the one's that you know? I'd really appreciate it!

--Anonymous

________________________

Dear Anon,

We love special requests! Just for you, I've reposted the water songs my sister Abra posted back in April last year. I was also a swim instructor, although not for quite as long as Abra. Now that I'm a stay-at-home-mom I sing some of the same songs with my daughter in the pool. I've taken the liberty of adding some of "our" songs to the list as well.

________________________

Here are the ones from Abra:

"The Grand Old Duke of York"

The Grand Old Duke of York
He had Ten Thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill (lift baby up as high as you're comfortable)
And he marched them down again. (Lower baby)
And when they're up, they're up (Lift again)
And when they're down, they're down (lower)
And when they're only halfway up (in the middle)
They're neither up or down.

He marched them to the left
He marched them to the right
He marched them around and around and around (circles)
And he marched them out of sight (Hide your eyes, babies eyes, or if you're brave and in the water, go ahead and put them under. To do this safely with infants under two, count 1-2-3 do a sharp quick breath right in their face. This causes a reflex action in which they inhale and hold their breath. Then it is safe to dunk them (shallow dunk) under the water.)

"Rain" (a great bathtub rhyme)

Rain is falling down (trickle water from sponge or fingers onto baby)
SPLASH! (splash hand in water)
Rain is falling down
SPLASH!
Pitter patter, pitter patter (lightly trickle)
Rain is falling down
SPLASH!

"Ten Little Bubbles"

One little, Two little, Three little bubbles
Four little, Five little, Six little bubbles
Seven little, Eight little, Nine little bubbles
Ten little bubbles go SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! (or pop, pop, pop)

(I use bubbles and a bubble blower for this in the tub, pool, or out! Each time bubble is mentioned, I blow bubbles with the bubble wand. Babies love this! To encourage bubble blowing in the pool, graduate to blowing right in the water - minus the bubble wand and bubbles!)

"If you're Happy and you Know It"
(We all know the song, I'll give you the actions I use in the water)

Splash your hands
Kick your Feet
Put one ear in the water
Put the other ear in the water
Blow some bubbles
Put your face in the water
Shout Hurray!
Wave To Daddy, Mommy, Grandma, Grandpa, whomever

"We're going to Kentucky"

We're going to Kentucky, (start turning a circle)
We're going to the fair (Turn the other way)
To see a Senorita with flowers in her hair
Oh Shake it baby shake it! (Wiggle gently while holding baby if little, or wiggle baby if bigger)
Shake it all you can
Rumba to the bottom (twist down)
Rumba to the top (twist back up)
Oh Rumba to the bottom
Rumba to the top
Rumba to the bottom until I holler STOP! (And cease all movement suddenly (I freeze and my kids would scream "again! again!" And away we'd go))

"The Little Old Man"

A little old man flew up in space (lift child high)
And he got ice cream all over his face! (Look surprised and point to your face or theirs)
So wash him with a washcloth (pretend to wash face, or really do it if in tub)
Roll him in a rug (turn a circle or spin child in tub)
And tuck him in a towel, until he's Snug, Snug, Snug! (Hug tightly or really take them out of tub and wrap in a towel!)

________________________

Here are a few more that I do with Rachel/that I did with my classes back in the day:

"Motorboat, Motorboat"

Motorboat, motorboat go so slow (sing slow while spinning in a slow circle)
Motorboat, motorboat go so fast (sing faster while spinning in a faster circle)
Motorboat, motorboat, step on the gas! (sing/spin as fast as you "can," end by blowing bubbles)

"I'm a little pancake"
(to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little pancake on my back (support child on back)
I'm a little pancake short and flat
I'm a little pancake on my back
Flip me over just like that (flip child over)

"The Wheels on the Bus"

I won't post the lyrics because I think most people know this song, but the actions are a lot of fun to do in the water, making little splashes.

Wheels go round and round
Wipers go swish, swish, swish
People go up and down...etc.

"Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"

Again, I think everyone knows this song. I use the number of kids/tots in my class and either have them jump in the pool or have their mommies help them "jump" in the water by lifting them up and down.

"Fishy in the Basket"

Fishy in the basket! Fishy in the basket!
How are you going to get out? How are you going to get out?

(All the students hold hands, making a basket. One student gets to be the "fishy" in the "basket." While they are in the middle, everyone circles around singing the chant. When the chant is finished, the fish has to try to escape. With younger kids we lift up our arms. With older kids I have them swim under our arms.)

"Ring Around the Rosie"

Again, you should know the words. If not, I pity your childhood. I simply change the last line from "We all fall down!" to "We all blow bubbles!"

"Fun to do!"

Splashing your hands is fun to do!
Fun to do, to do, to do!
Splashing your hands is fun to do!
To do, to do, to do!

Replace "splashing your hands" with other fun actions like those found listed under "If you're happy and you know it."

"Once there was a Snowman"

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall! (reach as high as you can/lift baby up)
In the sun he melted, melted, melted
In the sun he melted, small, small, small (get down as low as you can/lower baby)

"Open them, close them"

Open them (open hands)
Close them (close hands)
Open them (open hands)
Close them (close hands)
Give a little SPLASH! (splash)

Open them, close them, open them, close them
Put them in your lap (put hands under the water)

Creep them, crawl them, creep them, crawl them (slowly move hands up)
Right up to the sky! (reach up for the ceiling)

Now get back in the water!
We're here to swim, not fly!

________________________

Hopefully you found that helpful, Anon! If you need/want more, I'm sure my sister and I can brainstorm about our swim-teaching days of yore and come up with some more. Also, if you do need any further explanation on tunes/lyrics, feel free to ask! Good luck with your Mom and Me class!

Sincerely,

The Mother's Lounge

Nursing Cover giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:01:00 +0000

Seriously girls...I'm not even sure if anyone reads this anymore, but you can enter to win a free nursing cover here. Go for it nursing mommies!

Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Joy) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:21:00 +0000

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be a joke book, autographed picture of myself, handmade bag, or a little invention of my own! I may create you a blog header or paint something for you with my food. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows?
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play! (I totally copied this straight from my sister's blog, but it sounds like fun; don't expect anything much from me, though.)

Want to be able to buy used clothes after Feb 10th?

noreply@blogger.com (Krystal) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:46:00 +0000

This story is copied from my friend's blog. Every mom needs to save money somewhere, and a lot of us choose to purchase second hand items, or sell our used children's items. If this law passes, we will no longer be able to do that. Do you have an etsy story where you sell things you've made? Chances are you'll lose that too. While it's important to protect our children from things that could contain something harmful (like the lead they found in some toys) to pass something so broad is going too far.

Here's one WAHM's story:

“Your outfit is absolutely adorable!” I heard a woman say behind me and my daughter replied with, “Thank you! My Mommy has a clothing business!” and I sighed. Sighing is not my usual reaction when I get a compliment for my work. The woman and her sister were very polite and had no idea that they had just brought to surface so many terrible feelings with their compliments, “You made her outfit? It's amazing! You really have talent and I've never seen anything so adorable.” They didn't have kids but talked about how they almost wished their biological clocks started ticking simply to shop for my line of clothes. I was completely flattered but almost muted because of the recent decision to close up my Immature Couture shop. When they asked where I sold my clothes I didn't have the energy to explain what was going on so I simply said “Online.” thanked them and went back to grocery shopping with the kids.

I want nothing more than to know that the toys my children play with are safe and will not cause them any harm. I understand the urgency to protect the children of this country from high levels of lead and stop the ridiculous recalls. What I do not understand is why these new regulations were passed with such carelessness that it requires testing for products that have virtually NO risk of lead contamination! Products like clothing, blankets, wooden toys and books! The CPSIA is essentially causing many small businesses that make products for children under the age of twelve to close up shop because of their haste in passing regulations that have an insane amount of loopholes. Congress decided that a problem caused by ridiculous and irresponsible mass-market toymakers should be solved with a solution that sucks in various other industries that are completely unrelated to toys!

Later on when the kids and I were checking out the two women approached me and asked for my business card because they wanted to tell their friends about my clothing line. I smiled and tried to explain to them as plainly as possible that as of February 10^th I would be officially closing up shop because of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act . Shockingly they were outraged that they hadn't heard of it. That they felt their rights as consumers were being taken away. That the deadline is so close and there isn't a media outrage over it. That more small businesses are being shut down and allowing the big companies to triumph. We exchanged information, I gave them my card and they said they would be writing whoever they needed to and be in contact with me. They weren't business owners who are effected by this nor were they parents but they were as equally outraged as most of us that have to close our shops.

The apathy that I have seen from the general public and even those that own small businesses and are not effected by the new regulations have saddened me until I spoke with these two women. They were absolutely right! This does not just hurt my business. This hurts everyone no matter if they have children or not. No matter if they have a business selling products to children under twelve or selling something that, thankfully for them, does not have to be burdened with the CPSIA. Why don't more people care?

I loaded up the kids, put my groceries in the trunk and at that moment it finally hit me. Something I started as a side business for extra cash in hand and as a creative outlet was taken from me. Just when my business started to take off it was ripped from my hands, discarded and no real explanation for it. I sell clothes. Not jewelry. Not toys. Not anything that has been manufactured overseas or injected with lead. I design, cut, iron, serge, stitch and package every item of clothing myself. To comply with these regulations each product I made would have to be tested which means each indicidual component of the garment would have to be tested for lead. A 15$ onesie now costs 400$ to make simply because of the testing fees! I put sleepless nights into marketing plans, helping Etsy teams and writing blogs to help the handmade market. There is no reason for so many of us to be swept out of the way because some major corporations wanted to cut their overhead costs and put MY children in danger. I stood there and cried in the parking lot. There is no reason why so many handmade artists look away at the pain so many of us are going through simply because they are not in the same boat.

Do something. The children in this country need to be protected but by regulations that target only the products that can cause potential harm. If you don't do it for yourself and your business, or your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or friend's kids then do it for the sake of what's right and stop being silent and a doormat in our society"

Check out these links to do something to help!

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

Free Baby Products

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie Parks) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:21:00 +0000

I already posted this on my blog so if you read both, sorry:

A lady in our ward (Eva Jean) called me today saying that her daughter is getting rid of some baby things that she has and wanted to know if I wanted any of them. She said everything is in great condition and not hugely used. I claimed the double stroller that she offered - we were going to be buying one soon. But we don't need any of the other things. So here's the list:

A car seat - (I don't know which kind or what the limits are. Talk to Eva Jean about that.) She said it's only slightly used and in great condition.

A play mat thing

A swing.

That's all I can remember. I think that was it. So let me know if you need any of these things, or let Eva Jean know directly. Otherwise they are going to DI. Thanks!

Advent Calendar 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:52:00 +0000

My original plan was to just recycle last year's advent calendar but when I looked at it there were several things that we just couldn't do in Egypt. Things like visiting Temple Square or going Christmas Light Looking. So I made up some new ones, only I forgot to include any "grown-up" Christmas stories. Rachel doesn't really have the attention span for that, though, so I suppose we can read those as we see fit and add more grown-up things as our family grows.

Here's what we'll be doing this year:

Watch "Mr. Krueger's Christmas"
Watch "Nora's Christmas Gift"
Watch "The Story of the Other Wise Man"
Watch "The Nativity"
Watch "Joy to the World"
Reach the Christmas story and act it out
Watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional (Dec. 7)
Choose a favorite Christmas song to sing
Take a donkey ride on Daddy's back
Play a game together
Sing your favorite Christmas hymn
Watch Mommy and Daddy dance to "their" song
Turn on Christmas music and dance around together
Go caroling to a friend or neighbour
Go to the branch Christmas party (Dec. 13)
Share your testimony about the Savior
Tell why you love someone
Send out Christmas letters (Dec. 5)
Call Grandparents to wish them a Merry Christmas (Dec. 24/25)
Share a favorite Christmas memory
Draw a Christmas picture
Make snowflakes
Bake Christmas cookies
Sing Christmas songs around the Christmas tree

The ones with set dates will be reserved; no surprise fun on those days. The others I cut into strips and put them into an empty kleenex box. We'll take turns drawing them out and hopefully it will help us get into the Christmas spirit. Another benefit of putting them in the box is that if we draw out a time-consuming one and Andrew still has too much homework we can put it back in and fish around for a quick one and leave the time-consuming ones until after finals.

Go To Sleep!

noreply@blogger.com (Diana) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:25:00 +0000

When your baby was, lets say about 9 months old--what was his/her bedtime like? Did he/she cry a ton in the crib, while you listened in the other room? Or did you rock them until they were asleep in your arms? Or do you just let them stay up until they just crash? Bedtime rituals? I want to hear it all.

Mostly, I lack the patience to rock him over 15 minutes each night, and sometimes that just doesn't seem like enough, because once I lay him down, Michael just screams. But I can only take so much screaming. But I don't want to take him out, because he only thinks it's play time again.

So I'd love to hear about some of your experiences, and advice...please.

The Potty Diaries

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:47:00 +0000

On Friday Rachel woke up at 7:30 AM and went potty. She went all through church without an accident. Then we stayed after church to be home taught. Then we stayed even later so that Andrew could do his home teaching. Rachel finally went pee (in the potty) while Andrew was home teaching with Girgis and Joseph.

Then Andrew had to home teach the Lewises, so we went over to their house and Rachel stayed dry the whole time. We then had a lunch appointment for a lunch/dinner at the Barton’s and Rachel managed to stay dry until around 3:30…when she peed her pants…but she was standing up when she peed and her rubber pants contained the whole mess. Amazing! I was really happy about that because the Bartons have a very nice home and I would have been forever embarrassed had she peed on their floor.

She napped for 45 minutes once we got home, woke up and went potty. Then she played with her new toys until it was time to go to the Sharp’s for dessert and games. She stayed dry there until around 9:00 PM when she peed in her pants again. She just doesn’t do well at other people’s houses, I guess, but since she should have been in bed I suppose I can’t really blame her for peeing her pants.

We were in the middle of a good game of Settlers (I won, so it must have been a good game) and Rachel just wouldn’t simmer down. She was jumping on the couch, running around the apartment, and “mopping” the floors until 11:00 PM when we left. We tried putting her down, but she was in a screaming mood and we didn’t want her to wake up Finn or Abby, so she stayed up virtually all day long from 7:30 AM until 11:00 PM with only two accidents all day long. Not bad for a 14 month baby, I think…

Today Rachel got up at 7:00 AM, but since she didn’t go to bed until 11:00 last night I just nursed her and put her right back in her crib. She fell back asleep until around 10:00, got up, and wouldn’t go potty. We bummed around the apartment, watching the Presidential Debate on CNN, while we waited for her to be ready to go. Eventually she went and then we left to go explore the Citadel. She stayed dry the entire time we were out, I was a little nervous to have her be in underwear because I was “wearing” her, but I don’t like the idea of putting her back in diapers when she’s doing so well in underwear. She did a wonderful job, though, and went potty when we got home, and then went down for a nap.

When she got up she didn’t want to go potty, so we let her play but continued to pester her about going on the potty about every 10 minutes or so. She ate dinner and still didn’t want to go on the potty, so we let her play again, still pestering her about going.

Finally, around 7:00 PM, she dropped her toys and kind of squatted. Then she stood up straight and ran over to me shaking her little fist like a wild woman. I was so happy!

We’ve been trying to teach her the sign for “potty” for a few months now. You make the letter “T” by holding your hand in a fist with your thumb between your pointer and middle fingers, then your shake it back and forth to mean “toilet.” Rachel hasn’t been able to get her thumb between her fingers yet so she usually just shakes her fist. She’s never done it to let me know that she has to go before, though; she’s only done it when she’s already sitting on the potty and we’re talking about it.

So I ran her to the potty, pulling off her undies as we went. It was a good job I did that, too, because the minute I set her down she let everything go.

We celebrated her communication with high fives all around and a standing ovation and lots of hugs and kisses.

Rachel is doing a wonderful job at going on the potty. I’m so proud of her! And I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I can’t even remember the last time I’ve had to change or wash out a poopy diaper (of Rachel’s). It’s had to have been at least 2 weeks? I’m not sure. Let’s just say that elimination communication is the bomb. With the next one, I think we’ll start a little earlier. With Rachel, we’ll just keep on keeping on. She’s doing so well!

FHE Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:28:00 +0000

Since we've been married, Family Home Evening lessons have always revolved around very grown-up topics and grown-up conversation. We've used big words, no visuals, and lots of scriptures.

We continued with this after Rachel was born. She spent most of her FHEs nursing or sleeping.

She's bigger now, though, and a lot more focused and we've been struggling with what to teach her and how. We lack resources and we lack creativity. Rachel loves to look through her "reverence book" and talk about the things in the pictures--sacrament, temples, prophets, Jesus, etc.--and that's been going alright, but what we really wanted was some sort of direction to go with this. We want to teach her the basic gospel principles in our home so that she can start building her testimony today.

But how do you help a one year old do that?

You use the new nursery manual! I'm so excited that they've redone this! It has awesome little lessons that are still a little too long for Rachel's sake but simple enough that she can sit through about half of one. There are pictures and activities with every lesson. In short, it's awesome.

Andrew taught the first lesson this Monday and Rachel seemed to enjoy it.

Car Seats

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie Parks) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:51:00 +0000

Copied from our blog:

Now that Amy is 1, the time to get her a front facing car seat is coming closer. (We're not quite ready to be done with the carrier that we can just bring in the house without waking her up. I love that. But before long, it will be time to change.) So I was just curious if any of you parents have opinions of what you did/ didn't like in the car seats you've gotten. What kind of features should we look for? Do you have favorite brands or even specific car seats? We have been pleased with graco so far and would be happy to get another graco car seat. I plan to do some research/ price shopping before we get one, but I thought this would be a good way to start the process. Thanks!

I Am a Mother

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie Parks) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:20:00 +0000

I'm going to post this on three of the blogs I post on so more people see it. Sorry for those of you who read all those blogs. I just loved this book!!!

I Am a Mother by Jane Clayson Johnson

It's the story of an LDS woman who chooses to be a stay-at-home mom rather than continue in her successful, high profile career. She refutes myths the world would have women believe about motherhood being inferior somehow.

My sister, Laurel recommended this book to me - no surprise. We talked about it yesterday, and she said that she was surprised how much it touched her because it was already all what she totally believed in. I felt that way, too. Her story was encouraging and inspirational and fun to read. She had great things to say about motherhood. Reading her book is quite similar to reading Elder Ballard's conference talk from last conference in that it makes you just feel good about being a mom and takes off a bit of the ridiculous and unnecessary pressure we moms sometimes put on ourselves. Enjoy!

Lanisinoh made my day

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:07:00 +0000

Rachel went through the diaper bag a few days ago, scattering this and that all over the living room. Forgotten diapers, toys, extra outfits, and other random items found themselves decorating our floor. Among all of Rachel's paraphernalia was an unopened package of breast pads.

I have finally reached the point where I don't leak a gallon of milk every time Rachel whimpers and have been able to go without breast pads for a few weeks now. Before that I used washable cotton pads, not the disposable kind. But I had received a free sample of Lansinoh disposable breast pads and they got placed in the diaper bag for emergencies. They've been in there for about a year. I'd totally forgotten that I had them.

I remembered when I was cleaning up the living room and found them.

On the box was this little message,

"Good for you! Breastfeeding is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Breastmilk not only enhances your baby's growth and development but provides health benefits for you as well. Lanisinoh realizes that it isn't easy to breastfeed in today's hectic environment. You are giving your child the best possible start in life and you have our respect, encouragement and full support."

I just about cried.

I've been really emotional, what with my little baby reaching that year mark and all. I've been going through her pictures and just crying, wondering if I've taught her everything I should have taught her by now, if I sang enough, if I played enough, if I held her enough.... You know, all the am-I-a-good-mother thoughts.

When I found this box of breast pads I again found myself awash in emotion. I remembered how difficult it was for us to start--we didn't really "get" it until she was at least 3 months old! All the pain, and the tears, and the pain, and the pain, and the frustration, and the pain. I remembered how excited I was the first day she latched on by herself without any problems. I remembered all the fun times we've had just sitting, holding each other, getting to know each other, stroking each other's faces. Oh, and then the biting! Ack, the biting!

I love the bond that nursing has helped Rachel and I make. I love that I "have to" spend time with my baby because she "has to" eat--it means that I always get a turn holding her no matter how many people are there to hold her for me!

I'm not quite sure when I'll be weaning Rachel. After our move to Egypt. Maybe around the time she enters nursery. Maybe beyond that. I don't know.

It's nice to be reassured, though, that I made a good choice to breastfeed. I'm not sure why that little blurb on the back of the box moved me to tears. Perhaps I just happened upon it on a day when I needed a little encouragement myself.

Iron Chef

noreply@blogger.com (Diana) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Alright all you aspiring chefs, wives, or anyone who cooks, I need your expertise. I have quite a few ingredients in my house that I haven't really touched, mostly because I don't know what to make with them. I've listed a few of these items below-read through them.

Small White Beans, Black Beans, Red Kidney Beans. All of these beans are dry, by the way.
Mango Chutney (I used this once, but haven't touched it since. Ideas?)
Yellow Corn Meal (Something besides just plain cornbread)
Dry Ranch Dressing Packets

Please share your recipes and ideas with me!

First feeding!! woohoo!!

noreply@blogger.com (Krystal) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:57:00 +0000

I have a few milestones i want to share with you all. About a week ago, Katryn slept through the night!! she fell asleep for good about 9pm, and didn't wake up until 7am!! Needless to say, I was dying. . .I thought I was going to pop! She hasn't done that since though. Probably a fluke :)

On wednesday, she rolled over! From her stomach to her back!! woohoo!! She was scooching forward, trying to get to her toy, and just kicked right over! Matt and I were both cheering and clapping for her, and she just grinned at us like, "I totally did that"

and yesterday, we fed her cereal for the first time! She loved it. Everytime she saw the spoon, she'd open her mouth and just start kicking her feet for it. She stayed pretty clean too, I was impressed. And she didn't want to stop, we finally just stopped feeding her, because I didn't want to clean up puke in the middle of the night!
(and the rumor about babies sleeping longer if you give them cereal before bed. . .total lie, she woke up the same amount she always did--exact same times as well)

anyway, I knew you ladies would all understand my excitement behind all this!

Beware of the monsters

noreply@blogger.com (kimberlee) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:35:00 +0000

Hi all you moms of toddlers out there,

My sweet, almost 2 year old girls have turned into MONSTERS lately. They hit (not only each other, but me and my husband as well - that really pushes my buttons), they bite, they push and shove, and Isabelle has been throwing some royal tantrums lately. Sadly, the nursery leader informed us on Sunday that Eliza bit a classmate. I really don't know how to handle it all. And I don't even know where it is coming from. They can't communicate very well yet (I think their language skills are lagging because of their twinness) and I attribute a lot of their behavior to frustration, but still, where do they learn this from? They don't see mommy and daddy hitting and they don't watch it on TV, so is this instinctual? How have you handled this type of behavior? Ignore it? Time outs? What? I am at a total loss. I put them in time outs, explain to them why I put them in time out, but not five minutes later, they strike again. Seems like the time out is completely ineffective. So, my big question is how do you teach not to hit?

Cloth Diapers

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:15:00 +0000

A number of friends have asked me about cloth diapers recently. We use cloth diapers because they are a lot cheaper than disposables and will be easier to use out in Egypt. We're also doing elimination communication with Rachel and so often catch her just as she's starting to go, remind her to stop, and then go to the potty, so her diaper would only be a little wet. I felt bad putting a used disposable on her, but felt bad throwing it away because it was hardly used. So cloth works out well for us.

We're fairly new to this, but here's our little system.

We buy our diapers from Cotton Babies. The "try-it kit" probably isn't a bad way to start. I wished that I had purchased it instead of just the prefolds when I started out. It comes with prefolds and the expensive kind of covers. We just bought the cheap-o covers. They work fine, but for value, the "try-it kit" is actually pretty good, I think. It's $30 and you get 2 $12 covers, plus the prefolds. Anyway, we've survived without nice diaper covers, but there have been occasions when I wished we didn't have to pull the diaper covers down...

We get Indian prefolds and Dappi covers. We bought our pins at Wal-mart or somewhere, but you can also get them from this website. Folding the prefolds is a little tricky, and counterintuitive, really, since they call it a prefold, yet you fold it. Yeah, that's because the "birdseye" ones are even worse--they are just a flat layer of flanel and you have to fold it in thirds and then wrap it on your baby. The prefolds come ready to just wrap on your baby. I don't know if that made sense.

Anyway, I had to have my mom come and help me learn to fold a diaper. And I looked at a couple of websites. I found this one most helpful, but if you search for "diapering 101" or "how to fold a cloth diaper" or anything like that, a number of helpful sites should pop up for you.

I do the "twist" wrap for Rachel. I find it a little less bulky.

Now for the AIO (all in ones)...there is so much lingo to learn with cloth diapering, it's kind of ridiculous. I have a couple of friends who also use cloth diapers and I polled them about what they use. One of my friend only uses BumGenius. Crystal uses Bummies or something like that (I don't remember). She warned me to stay clear of Kushies, which is the kind they sell at Wal-Mart, so I haven't tried them. I just took her word for it. I would also steer clear of Happy Heiny's and Mommy's Touch. We tried them in our trial pack and they just didn't hold water (get it? They just didn't hold water...ah, ha, ha).

We did like Haute Pockets and Bum Genius, although, the Bum Genius are our favorite. They have a cool little flap thing to help keep the liner inside, which is nice. The Haute Pockets kind doesn't have that, although I think they have more colors to choose from, which is kind of fun but since they're just diapers, who cares, right?

These diapers look and act just like disposable diapers, which means that husbands and babysitters can use them, no problem. Andrew doesn't use pins and babysitters won't touch cloth diapers, so the nicer ones are convenient. They are also less bulky so we like to wear them when we get out of the house so that Rachel doesn't look like she has a huge behind.

They are rather pricey, though, and run upwards of $15 a pop. I think they are worth it, but it is difficult to buy enough all at once. Our initial purchase was 12 prefolds, 4 diaper covers, and 4 pins. That's enough typically to carry us through two days of diapering. We wash every other day so it worked out well. And it only cost us about $25, which is way cheap.

After using just prefolds for a while we felt like we could splurge and get some nicer diapers, so we ordered the trial pack from Nicki's Diapers since we still weren't quite sure which kind to buy. After using those for a week or so (in addition to our prefolds) we decided that we liked BumGenius the best so we ordered six of them from Cotton Babies. Now we have 12 prefolds, 1 HautePocket, and 7 BumGenius diapers that we use and that's fine for us for now. We're thinking about getting a few more BumGenius before we leave for Egypt though.

Anyway, that's pretty much all I know about diapers. Not a whole lot. We're still kind of in the experimental stage.

Surviving Single Motherhood

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:29:00 +0000

I'm sure I'm not not only one who, at some point, will go through single motherhood whether temporary or permanant. In the six weeks I've been single-momming it, here's what I have learned. Hopefully it will help someone else survive. =)

1) Accept any and all help offered. Being a mom is hard even when you have live-in husband-type help... it get exponentially harder and your "To Do List" will grown infinantly longer without the help. Accept any offered help. Let your neighbor watch your kids so you can have some recharge time. Let your friend bring you a meal. Let your husband's friend mow the lawn.

2) Let it go. Doing it on your own, things get crazy, and you'll go crazy if you try to do everything (without help) all the time. Your kids and your sanity are most important. Let thing of lesser importance go.

3) Get out and talk to adults every day. I work, so thats where I got this one in. If you are lucky enough to a full-time, stay home mom make sure you get out every day and get to talk to someone who can form complete, coherant sentences. Take a walk, get to a play group, call a friend and go to the park... anything to get you adult interaction that you need.

4) Make plans. The lonliness can get intense when you're missing your hubby, even when you've for your cute kids around. Plan some fun activites to do with the kids that you can all look forward to. Having plans will help break up monotony and help the time pass more quickly.

5) When necessary, take a break. If you're overwhelmed, if you're upset, if you need a good cry, put your kid(s) somewhere safe and have it out. Theres no shame in putting your baby in the crib, the pack and play, their room and taking a mommy-moment... even if all they do is scream while you take your moment. Also, if you need some time out on your own, call a friend, ask for a babysitting favor and go to the mall, go see a movie, go get a pedicure. Anything that will make you feel better, recharge your batteries and help you get through tomorrow.

Taggies

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:05:00 +0000

We don't actually have any of this brand of thing, but whoever thought of it was a genius. Seriously, Rachel loves tags.

And I know she's not the only one because my friend Autumn's baby likes to chew on them as well.

Basically this mother noticed that her child liked to chew on the tags of his blankets/toys/clothes and so she made a blanket with an assortment of tags on it.

Now really, why didn't I think of that?

Infant Carrier Deal!!

noreply@blogger.com (Krystal) — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:12:00 +0000

I visit shnoop.com pretty much everyday. I got my stroller through them around christmas time for only $100, and I've LOVED it. their items are all new, I think they're just overstock items.

Anyway, today they have this infant water carrier for their deal. Yeah, I bought it. It's only $12.99!! I couldn't pass that up.

Mothers vs. Fathers

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:32:00 +0000

Last week we had FHE at Andrew's parents' place and his sister Emily gave a lesson, a lesson that demonstrated how very little we actually knew about each other.

She gave little quizzes about all of us, asking what our favorite colors are, what kind of food we like, what we do for a living, and so on.

Answering Andrew's questions were easy. I got almost everything right. And so did everyone else. He is a very predictable person.

Answering my questions were harder than hard. I don't really have a lot of "favorites." So much depends on my mood. Mexican or Italian? It depends on the day. Blue or pink? It depends on my mood. I took the longest on my own quiz.

Answering everyone else's quizzes was so-so. I didn't get a lot of the questions right but neither did anyone else.

Anyway, that's not really what this post is about. What it is about is how mothers and fathers differ.

I noticed that for both Karen and myself, everyone wrote down "Mother" as occupation, in addition to secretarial work. Karen works as a secretary, and we both do contract work for Harman Music.

It is true that being a mother is a job, I think. Goodness knows being a mother takes up the majority of my time every day.

But no one wrote down "Father" as a job for Reid or Andrew.

It was interesting for me to see how we view those roles. Mothering, we all seem to believe, is a full-time job. Whether you work full time or stay at home all day, being a mother is a job. Your children always need access to you via phone, via email, via sitting on your lap...you're always a mother.

But fathers are fathers when they come home from work, so isn't that like a job for them, too? Why don't we recognize them as such?

Crazy Multitasking

noreply@blogger.com (Bonnie Parks) — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:50:00 +0000

Copied from my blog to reach a bigger audience:

My friend, Toni was over at my house for a little while today, and we started talking about the crazy things you can do while nursing a baby. I wondered out loud what the craziest thing all of you mothers have done while breastfeeding and decided to ask. Please comment so we can all know how cool you are.

Mine: Chopping onions.

I don't remember why making dinner couldn't wait, but it couldn't. And of course Amy's dinner couldn't wait. I hate chopping onions; I cry a lot. And I was a little nervous about the knife right by Amy, but we managed. She got her meal, and I finished dinner.

OK, your turn. :)

Teething solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Krystal) — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:21:00 +0000

I'm on the hunt for tricks to help Katryn! She's almost 4 months old now, and is in the throes of teething. It's turned my happy little girl into a screaming girl. I just don't know what to do and I need some advice from people who have been there! I'm not expecting her to get any teeth for another few months, but I've heard they move up and down, causing more pain at some times, than at others.

Any body have any tips? She won't really take her paci anymore, and prefers to just chomp on my fingers/knuckles. And boy howdy, do I mean CHOMP. I have some teething rings, but they say not to freeze them, so they don't stay cold very long.

I want my happy girl back!!!

Signing for Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Diana) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:15:00 +0000

Ok, I think that it's time for a new post. Have any of you moms done sign language with your young kids? What are some experiences that you have had-pros and cons of it. When do you recommend starting using Sign Language with them. I really am open to anything that anyone has heard about this.