Just Our Life...

D's Unassisted Birth Story

2015-01-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

I still haven't posted how my second was born so I thought it was time since in a couple of months I will have a new story to share :)

Just like in Sammy’s pregnancy I started having contractions
on and off again for a couple of weeks before I actually went into labor. A few
days before, I really thought I was in labor but it turned out that I was just
really sick with some stomach bug. Thankfully I got over that in a day and I
actually had the best 3 nights of sleep of my whole pregnancy before I did go
into labor. Every night I would go to bed wondering if this would be the night
I would wake up to contractions and Tuesday night was no exception. My best
friend was home from the Bay Area so I knew I was in the clear then since I
really wanted her to be there. But I wasn’t even 41 weeks yet so I wasn’t
expecting much. Wednesday morning around 6 am my daughter woke up to potty and
nurse. I usually have contractions while nursing so I wasn’t surprised when I
got the first one but I noticed it was a bit different and more intense than
usual. I needed to breathe through it. Then very shortly after, I had another
one that I also had to breathe through. Then came the 3^rd, which was
even more intense that I moaned through it which woke up my husband. He asked
if there was anything he could do and I muttered “no” but what I wanted to say
was get her off me. Toward the end of the contraction I felt goop come out so I
jumped up and ran to the bathroom to find that I had just lost my mucous plug.

The contractions kept coming at the same intensity and
frequency which was about 1-2 minutes apart. Chris and Sammy got up and started
getting the house ready just in case it was in fact labor. I thought it was but
I wanted to be distracted in case it wasn’t and to help time go by faster so I
started working on a Christmas card project. I was supposed to have a midwife
appointment at 10 that morning and we started thinking that I wasn’t going to
be able to make it. At about 7:30 I called one of the midwives to let them know
I was contracting and that I didn’t think I was coming to the appointment. She
told me to think of myself as not in labor yet and distract myself and to
continue to plan on coming in. Maybe we would have a baby that night. So I got
back to work on the project. But I couldn’t get very far. My contractions were
so close together that every time I would start cutting I would have to stop to
breathe through them and then try again. It took me an hour to finish cutting
out one thing! We started to call our “birth team” which was my mom, who was to
watch Sammy, my best friend and photographer, and then another friend that had never
seen a birth.

My contractions got stronger and I realized there is no way
I was going to get in the car to go to the appointment. They were at the point
that I needed Chris to get through each one, so at 9 we called the midwife and
told her we weren’t coming and let her listen to me while having a contraction.
Right about the time we called they kicked up a notch and it was obvious we
were having a baby today! We really wanted to labor alone for as long as
possible so she told me to call immediately when I started feeling pressure.
Right then Brittany walked in and I was very glad to see her face! Chris needed
to work on setting up the birth tub so she started helping me through my
contractions. We moved around and tried different positions to help me through
the contractions. Then I felt like I needed to poop so I labored on the toilet
for a little bit which felt great… until it didn’t. I walked out of the bedroom
and made it to the doorway when I had another contraction that was another
level of intensity. After that contraction I didn’t want to move in between so
I stayed bent over with my hands on my knees. A couple contractions later and I
started feeling pressure on my bum so I told my mom to call the midwives. I
thought to myself how I should probably move off the carpet onto the pads they
laid down in case my water breaks but the thought of moving was not fun.
Shortly after Chris told me to rotate around so that I would be standing on the
pads. At this point I was still leaning over on my knees and sometimes the bed.
The pressure continued and my contractions kept intensifying. Chris told me it
was time to take my pants off and the next contraction I squatted and my water
broke and the pressure became way intense. I reached down to see if I could feel
anything and sure enough I could feel the baby’s head crowning. Then my body
started pushing. This was the most incredible feeling ever! The best I can
think to describe this moment was it was like my body was an incredibly
powerful train that was taking me a long for a ride and I was just there
enjoying it. It was so overwhelming and powerful and not that I wanted to but
there was nothing I could have done to stop it. One big amazing push and at
10:05 am I felt her body slide out of me and onto the ground. My body continued
to push for a couple of seconds and then I picked up my baby and was so
ecstatic that I had just birthed her so easily!! Seriously one of the best
moments and feelings in my entire life!!!! She cried immediately and we were
all so excited! Chris looked and announced, “It’s a Girl!” My mom brought Sammy
in right as she heard the cries and I stood up to sit on the bed while we
waited for the placenta. About 10 minutes after she was born the midwives
walked in and laughed at the sight of me just sitting on the bed with the baby.
A couple of minutes later I delivered the placenta and she nursed immediately.
The midwives helped clean everything up and take out the barely filled birth
tub. And we snuggled into bed together as a family. I only had a small scratch
and it didn’t even feel like I had just given birth! My recovery was so easy;
it was really surreal that I just had a baby! Woke up at six and had a baby by
10! Such an ideal birth!

Should you induce labor naturally

2015-01-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

At the end of my first pregnancy, I developed a rash called PUPPP...and it was miserable. It began when I was almost 40 weeks. I can easily say it was the worst thing to ever physically happen to me. I felt like I was going insane with itchiness. I won't go into great detail since that isn't the purpose of this post but just know that if anyone was ready to have that baby it was me.

Days went on and no labor came. Days turned into a week and it just kept on going. My husband kept reminding me that the baby had to come out at some point, this couldn't last forever. But the farther I went from my due date the less I believed him.

So we were trying to induce labor naturally. We did everything I knew to do; spicy foods, lots of sex, evening primrose oil (not necessarily to induce), walking, hiking, bouncing. I asked my midwife about castor oil and decided against it. (Her reasoning is, if it has a laxative effect on you it could on baby as well which is no good!) But that baby would not come.

About 41 weeks and 5 days my midwife gave the green light and encouragement to try black and blue cohosh tinctures. By 42 weeks my baby was here and the PUPPP was finally over!

What I learned from that, was that babies usually just won't come no matter how much you coax them if they aren't ready.

But as I have read stories and even seen people I know try to induce naturally I am beginning to think it still isn't a good idea.

Doing things that you have been doing your whole pregnancy (at least should be) like walking, sex, hiking, eating good food which in my opinion should include spicy :), aren't really inducing labor. They could help but only in the sense that doing those things are good for your health and getting the baby in position as well as preparing you for labor.

They can be hard on your body if you aren't giving yourself rest but other than that they really shouldn't be the cause of you going into labor when your baby isn't ready.

More of what I am talking about it the more drastic "natural ways" to induce labor, like castor oil, stripping the membranes, trying to break your water, laxatives, really intense foods, extreme pumping etc. These things could actually affect you and your baby.

If you believe in having your baby naturally then you should also be willing to let it come on its own time. I told you my story at the beginning so you would know that I completely understand how miserable you are and how desperate you are to be our own person again. I get the aches and pains and even the extra ones, but it isn't worth giving up a natural birth or worse, the health of your baby for a couple of days or weeks early.

Scientists still aren't fully sure what causes labor to start, although they do know it has to do with when the baby is physically able to breathe on its own. (Except in special circumstances when the body senses a danger either to mom or baby and begins premature labor) We shame the medical community for inducing women too early and babies being born still immature because of it. Yet so many women who want natural birth try to do the same.

These methods may do nothing for you. But sometimes they do cause reactions like very strong contractions that you and your baby aren't ready for. You could stress the baby and cause it to release meconium. You could cause yourself to go into labor before your body is actually ready causing a very long and difficult labor. You could be sacrificing your ideal natural birth.

There are times when trying to induce naturally should be used. If labor needs to start either synthetically or "naturally" it is clearly better to attempt to start it naturally but otherwise, in my opinion, I think it is best to wait.

My Journey to Healing my Diastisis and all the changes that go with it...

2015-01-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

If you happened to read my last post you wold have read how I am learning so much right now about alignment and natural movement and how my mind is being blown right now with new concepts. I have been working hard these last 2 weeks since getting my splint to repair my DR (diastasis recti) and correcting my alignment in my body.

It must be working because 2 weeks ago my DR was a for sure 3 finger widths apart...yesterday when I checked it was 1 at the bottom and not quite 2 in the middle and top!!!! I cannot believe how much it has changed and how quickly.

Now this doesn't mean that I am out of the water yet. I have read that the gap can measure different widths at different times and since I am pregnant I will have increasingly more pressure being placed on my abs as baby gets bigger. But the main thing that excited me is that what I am doing is working.

What am I doing? Well, first off I started wearing a prenancy abdominal splint from thetummyteam.com. I love it! It is very comfortable (for what it is). I was/ am able to wear it 24 hours a day. You can take breaks if you need to but the only reason I did was to feel the baby moving with my hands when it was really active. But you can't just wear a splint and expect to get better. So I have been doing tummy safe whole body workouts (with pregnancy in mind) from www.fit2b.us .

At first I was just wanting to workouts that focused on core work...until I began learning about the real cause of a DR. In my last post I wasn't as learned as I am now about what a DR really is and what causes it. Most people think it can be caused by pregnancy but in reality the problem was there before I got pregnant. The problem was the way I carry my body and move or don't move.

I mentioned last time about how we have trained our bodies to sit all day long. What this has done is shortened certain muscles and possibly tightened others. Our bodies adapted from the time we were children to allow us the endurance to sit all the time because that is what we kept telling our bodies we needed to do. What this has done though is altered our bodies so that when we try to do other movements like standing or walking or any type of exercise, our muscles aren't shaped the way they originally were as children when we could climb up a tree like no one's business or even just run around like banshees all day long without feeling all the aches we do now.

We see the aches and pains as normal but I don't believe they are. Yes our bodies get older and can wear down in certain areas buy why is that people living in traditional cultures can work so hard physically into their old age and before 30 we start moaning when we stand up. Its because we aren't using our bodies!

If you break a leg and have it in a cast for weeks, then you take it off. The muscles in the leg have atrophied. You wouldn't expect yourself to start working on your leg intensely and in fact a lot of people have to go through physical therapy afterwards to gradually build up the ability to use it again. We have cast our whole bodies in a sense by immobilizing ourselves. A lot of our muscles have atrophied and don't function the way they were supposed to.

Whoa..what was the point of this post again? Oh yeah, my DR. Before I get carried away writing about everything I am learning let me get back on point.

So on top of working my body, I have been learning about the proper alignment of our bodies and working to correct things that my body has adapted to doing like have my pelvis tucked out and my ribs thrusted forward. I correct myself every time I notice and I can tell the difference for sure. These little changes are what is actually necessary to heal a DR and prevent it from coming again.

Since I am pregnant and my body is shifting I won't be able to fully correct my alignment right now, well that and I have 20+ years of training my body to do the wrong thing to undo. But working now is going to ensure a healthy pregnancy and birth and will set me up for a quick recovery and starting point to continue to work on alignment after baby is born.

We, meaning Chris and I, are brainstorming ways to make our home more movement friendly (when we actually move into our own home). As if I weren't weird enough, I am really focusing on changing our lifestyle to include tons more movement in our life. I want my children to continue to move naturally and have the abilities they were created to have.

I know I always say this, but not sure how often I will keep posting. But I will try to stay up on our journey, more for me really. I want to document the changes in our life and the healing of my DR, because who knows one day maybe I will be teaching this stuff! I hope so anyways...

So go out today and MOVE! Go walk off the trail and feel your confused body waking up from its slumber.

My newest passion

2014-12-28T23:04:00.001-08:00

Quick update...

We decided not to move after all. Chris was told there would be work through winter but once it started raining work dropped like usual. We could have tried to make it in the new house but it would have been tight. On top of that we are reconsidering moving away at all. After reviewing the numbers we won't be saving any more money by moving and we really have no desire to live in the area away from everyone we know. So instead we decided to move into my mom and stepdad's house for winter and then in a couple of months we'll reconsider moving.

In the meantime I want to talk more about things I'm passionate about especially things I know I'm always telling people about and things I'm learning about. Which leads me to the point of this post.

My last pregnancy my midwife noticed that I had a slight diastasis recti. At the time I had no idea what it was but after some research I wasn't too concerned with the size mine was at the time. Then baby was born and I knew nothing about how it could get worse or how to prevent it from happening.

Before I became pregnant this go around I finally researched what exactly diastasis recti is. It is when your abdominal muscles that make up a six pack are separated creating a gap in between. It can be caused by pregnancy and is actually very common. During pregnancy a lot of pressure is placed on the tendon in between your muscles which causes them to separate. With proper alignment and healthy abs it can be prevented even during pregnancy.

I began working towards repairing the gap and was hoping to be done before getting pregnant. Having multiple pregnancies close together can make it worse or even cause it. But we've been blessed with another kiddo so I became more diligent to repairing the diastasis before baby comes.

When the move started coming up I was set back a bit but mostly because our internet crapped out at the time and I couldn't get good enough signal to watch my workout videos. I should have stayed diligent to at least walk but I chose not to.

Fast forward to after our move to my moms and I realized that the dr (diastasis recti) has gotten bigger. Uh oh...So I ordered a pregnancy splint to help heal and have been working out in hopes of healing my abs before baby comes or at the very least prepare them for birth and to be healed post partum.

But I say all this because in my research I happened across a blog by a bio mechanist who thinks just like Chris and i. Most of the things we believe about life come from a foundational thought of how did the Lord create us to be/live? Whether it be food, lifestyle, family values, or even movement, how did the Lord create us to function? He is the perfect designer and had reasons for why he made us and the world the way he did. So whenever we question an aspect of life we view it through that lense. A lot of things are presented in the word but the not so important to salvation things aren't so we must use critical thinking and common sense.

What does this have to do with having a diastasis recti? Well I don't believe that God created women's abs to be separated after pregnancy and in need of specific workouts or surgery to repair it. So what is the bigger problem that is causing this problem in so many women today?

From childhood we are taught both intentionally and unintentionally to sit whenever possible. And when we aren't sitting we are trying to find a way to sit as soon as possible. With tv, office jobs, chairs literally every where we go, toilets...I mean it doesn't end. And sitting is the antithesis to movement. But did God create us to sit still so much? Did he intends for us to have to work out in order to stay "healthy" or was his design meant for us to be moving most of the day which helps all systems in our body.

My mind is being blown with ideas and concepts that I'm reading from this blog and I'm thinking of ways to raise my children differently and to change our whole family's literally to be more active daily not just occasionally.

My hope is that I inspire you to do the same. Look it up and think about it. :)

Why I never fed my children baby food

2014-12-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

An article came up today about the history of canned baby food and my husband suggested that I write about what we do when it comes to feeding our babies.

Just want to preface with I am not linking any of the research that I have personally done because I did it a while ago and didn't save it. And I don't want to find more just for this post...sorry. So I encourage you that if you don't understand at least the logic behind what we do, which I will explain, then to please research it yourself and really think about it.

Baby food as we know hasn't always been around, duh... in fact in the entire history of mams feeding their babies canned baby food is still a new invention. Even more than that feeding babies BABY food is new.

Think about it, if you were living like you were camping and you had a young baby would you spend time and effort in pureeing your food for your baby. I doubt the thought even came to them.

Reason #1: The nutritional value in canned baby food vs unprocessed real food just doesn't compare. Commercial baby food usually has forms of sugar, salt, food colorings, and preservatives in them. Some are getting better now that people are becoming more aware of what is in their food but they still aren't nearly as good as food made from scratch, whether it be a cooked meal or raw food. The standards that they are guided by, while they are there to protect from certain diseases, they also hinder nutritional quality by use high heat or chemicals during the whole process. Not to mention most baby food isn't organic so your sweet pure baby is being fed food that is laden when pesticides and genetically modified organisms. If you don't think organic is important then you should really spend some time researching it. And you are probably not going to like anything else I have to say in regards to food.

Reason #2: Baby food is bland! It is so tasteless unless it is full of sugar and/or salt. Have you ever tried the food your are trying to shove into your child's mouth? No wonder they spit it out so much. A baby begins learning to taste in utero. A mother's amniotic fluid is flavored by the food she eats and then after the baby is born so if her breastmilk. So babies are being introduced to flavors early on and can even begin developing preferences. So why all of a sudden around 6 months is it normal to stop giving them the flavors they are used to and instead give them something that tastes like cardboard. You try eating baby food for a day and see how you like it. Babies are soaking up everything. They learn at an incredible rate and part of that learning process is eating. Americans wonder why so many children are so picky, I think there is more to it than just this aspect but I do believe this is part of the problem. When you get you baby hooked on processed bland food then when they are "old enough" you try to give them fresh or cooked veggies or cooked meats that taste nothing like they have been having for over a year, it shouldn't be so puzzling that they don't like it and would rather have the puffy star snacks and macaroni. Instead, they should eat what you eat with the same seasonings you eat. If you are worried about salt then you need to learn about salt. Regular white table salt isn't good for your baby OR you! So learn what kind you should be eating, the kind full of nutrients that you need. The kind that has those nutrients naturally and hasn't just been added back in. Then not only will you feel much better when you eat salt (physically and mentally) but you will also not be stressed about it when your child has it.

Reason #3: Baby Food is a lot of work!
You might start learning this about me but I am all for not working harder than I should. Now a lot of what I do requires more work up front for more reward in the end (like EC) but sometimes there is just no point in working harder for something.
There is this idea out there that if we don't feed our babies commercial baby food then we need to make our own healthy baby food. But when I say I don't feed my children baby food I mean I never feed them any kind of baby food. I don't even make my own. I don't make anything that even somewhat resembles baby food. The closest I get to going out of my way for the baby's food is make hard boiled eggs so they can have the incredibly nutritious egg yolk and making liver which is also a super food especially for babies. But other than that...they literally eat what we eat. This is within reason of course. I don't feed my toothless 6 month old hard bacon or chewy steak but if we are eating potatoes or steamed carrots or broccoli then you bet they get to eat it. The thing is until they turn a year eating solids is just for fun for them. It is just a learning experience not a they are going to die without it. You can exclusively breastfeed up to a year and your baby will be totally fine! So if there isn't anything they can eat that we are eating...they just don't eat. I stick a boob in their mouth instead :) As they get teeth and get better and better at eating the get to try more things. And from my personal experience (which isn't much yet) both my girls love to eat and are definitely not picky eaters. My second (who is turning 1 in about a week) has a few more preferences but she still eats a huge variety of foods.

There is a name for this type of feeding and it is called baby led weaning/eating so if you are interested in learning more research that. Here are some of our guidelines for feeding our babes.

1. They are EBF until at least 6 months. Once they are 6 months I don't force food on them but we start holding them in our laps and if they go for something they can eat we go ahead and let them. Both of our girls were really interested in eating at 6 months so they both naturally started then but I have nieces that didn't start until later which is totally normal.

2. We don't feed any type of grains until 18 months or until molars appear. Whichever comes first. There is good evidence pointing to babies don't develop the enzymes to process grains until this time. So we just withhold them until that time. Another benefit to this is that they don't get hooked on bread so early. It can be really easy to just feed them bread at restaurants or crackers when they just need a snack. But these things are like crack to kids! We limit white flour in our diet so when they do begin eating grains they are mostly only eating whole grains.

3. We don't give them any type of sweet or dessert until 1. For their first birthday we take them to PinkBerry which is frozen yogurt made with real yogurt. It is low in sugar so in my opinion is a good first treat. But even after this point we still limit sugar intake. As a family we don't have sugar often Mostly at birthdays or special events. Even this seems a lot to us; my husband and I were just talking about how often those events come up so we will probably start limiting even at special events for ourselves and our children.

4. We don't cut their food into tiny pieces. In fact the bigger the the better usually. Part of learning to eat is to learning to bite off and chew. If their food is always cut up so tiny they don't learn quickly. Another part of this lesson is learning to choke. What I mean by that is one reason for baby food is so that you never have the fear of a baby choking because they are pretty much only eating liquids. But babies have an incredible ability to gag on their food and prevent choking and the more times it happens the less frequent it becomes and the better they are at eating. VS. feeding them real food much later and them learning at an older age when it isn't necessary. Now I will say though, that we do keep very careful watch over them when they are eating. I never leave the room when they are young and eating in the event that they can't get something up so I can be there to help them. But amazingly if you give them bigger pieces that they have to bite off themselves they choke less because they learn how much they can handle. In fact, certain family members just can't stand to see us feeding our children such large bites so they start cutting it up for them which only makes them choke more.

I am pretty sure that is about it. I may have forgotten a thing or two but you should get the gist of it. If you are interested in learning more please research it for yourself. A great book I recommend is Real Food For Mother and Baby by Nina Plank. And while you are at it go ahead and research nutrition for yourself. The finding of Dr. Weston Price is a good place to start. Or the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

What a difficult day...

2014-11-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, so yesterday was a very hard day to say the least.

Nothing new happened from what I said yesterday but I just had a really hard time controlling my heart and having faith. I thought I was fine because I was functioning but anything the girls did that annoyed me in the slightest would make me snap. I was very short tempered with them and was not calm and soft spoken. Instead I became a mom I never want my girls to have. Almost every word I spoke to them was rude and sharp. And nothing they did could make it better. My poor S girl got the brunt of it since she is older. Everytime she repeated herself (which 2 year olds do often) would frustrate me so bad I would yell "Yes its a kitty cat! Stop saying it!!" I obviously was not responding well.

Then throw in my emotions that would take over me like a tidal wave. All of a sudden I would be sobbing as if my husband had died. And if either of them did something when that was going on...ugh I hope I never have to watch that replay. And the worst thing is as I was yelling or giving an awful face I knew I was hurting them and I didn't want to be but I just could not stop myself. (Or I could but I was choosing not to :( )

I eventually went to my room, laid on the bed and sobbed to God begging for help. I was angry at the situation but it went further than that. It is something the Lord has been working on in me for months or maybe even years now. I need to depend on the Lord for everything. It is a lot easier to seem like you depend on God when you are surrounded by other believers. Take that away.. then you can still kind of fake it when you have a very strong mature husband...so take that away. And you are left all alone all day long with two kiddos under 3. And slowly it eats at you...or me in this case.

I was desperate but I have been so distant from the Lord for so long I couldn't even remember what to do. I mean I knew what to do but I didn't know how to do it. Like how do I surrender. Its not like I can actually lay down my physical weapons and hold up a white flag.

So after I cried all my tears and felt empty but somewhat peaceful I voxed my husband to let him know what was going on. Later that evening we got to talk about it and wow I am so thankful that the Lord has been so gracious to be me to bless me with this man. So after a really great healing conversation where he called me out and read scripture and encouraged me. I rally felt like things were starting to make sense and that this really is going to turn out okay.

I am really embarrassed by my behavior yesterday. And since no one was there besides my girls I could just act like it never happened and leave it at that. Its not like anyone reading this would know. To most of my friends I am this great example of what a Godly mother and wife should. And this terrifies me! I know I am doing well if you compare me to non-christian moms and even a lot of christian ones. But compared to Jesus I am lightyears away from good.

A couple of weeks ago, during another session of being tested and repenting of my sin the Lord brought me to a blog of a lady I look up to. And she happened to have posted about a realy hard time in her life when she was just downright nasty and not in a good spot in her life or walk with Jesus. And it amazed me that someone who I thought had it all together and was just the perfect picture of the mom and wife and lover of Christ that I aspire to be, could be so awful to her children and husband and so disobedient to God. She told her story of the bad and of her repentance and the fruit she bore from the whole thing. It made me weep because while I wasn't quite as down as she was at the time it was all about her selfishness and that is exactly what I was doing. It cut deep but was so healing at the same time to read her story. And God totally used it to bring me to repentance.

I say all of that because I don't want others who look up to me to think that I have it all together. That I am doing so well and that I am the perfect picture of a mother and wife and lover of Christ. Because haha I so a not. So instead of leaving my story where I left off from yesterday I want to share with whoever is reading this...even if it is just my mom ;)... that I am not perfect. I am so far from it!!!
And I hope and pray that when you ready this you realize that the hard times you are having and the bad attitude you are working to change is the same thing I am going through right now. Maybe the details are different, but I too and a work in progress.

So mama, whoever you are, Jesus loves you. He died for you even when you were still a sinner and were His enemy. He would have died for even if it had been only you. Your sin is now as far as the East is from the West. If you can't find much else to be thankful for, think on this. (I am speaking to myself and crying as I am typing this) There is nothing more good than God. Here is the scripture my husband shared with me last night. I know it takes more than a second to read but please take the time to meditate on it. Even open up your word and read more :)

Philippians 4:4-14

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

⁵ Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

⁹ Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

¹⁰ But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.

¹¹ Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

¹² I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

¹⁴ Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.

Testing my joyful heart

2014-11-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I posted about needing to have a joyful heart in all circumstances and how I had been tested...little did I know that the harder test would be today.

Last night some one broke into our new home and broke windows, mirrors, and punched holes in the walls. They aren't sure the extent of the damage because the property management hasn't been out to see it yet. All we know is from the police report. But as it is now we aren't allowed to move in this weekend and her initial estimate is in 2 weeks. They think it was some stupid teenagers having fun with a vacant house.

I am royally bummed! Way more so than earlier this week. I am really struggling to be joyful and trust in the Lord. S and I were just voxing with Chris about how excited we are that this is the last night to be away from him...and then 20 minutes later he called with the news. I think it is harder because it is such a huge let down. I mean my house is packed and we are literally ready for the truck to pull up and load it all.

But no...some idiotic person couldn't contain their stupid urge...see what I mean! I am so mad at whoever did this. They have no idea what this means to me and my family. We have to now wait 2+ weeks to actually see my husband everynight again. My kiddos need their Papa and I need my husband. And if it is going to take too long we have to give up on the house all together and find another one because we can't wait another month to move. Which I don't want to even think about not getting this house...it is so pretty and the perfect price!!!

Don't I sound so whiney!!! There are families whose husbands are in Afghanistan and the most contact they get is a video chat occasionally. There are women who have completely lost their husbands through death. And those kiddos don't have a papa to raise them. There are families who don't have a home or food or clothes or a proper roof to keep rain and the cold out. There are women who can't have babies but they yearn so desperately to have at least one of their own.

I am a very blessed woman. I have more than a million things to be thankful for. And everything I have is a total gift. I deserve none of it, not.one.thing! So I am working on putting my big girl pants on and girding my loins. We will make it out of this season. For all I know this is all happening so that I will learn to trust the Lord more and have a joyful heart in even this situation. I want to succeed. I want to do well. My emotions keep taking a hold on me but I am not giving up this fight. I will glorify the Lord whether through obedience the first time or repentence after I fall. I prefer the first but regardless I will glorify God and Praise Him for only He has the power to decide what happens to my soul, which is really all that matters.

I mean who is going to be in heaven complaining that someone broke their window when they were on earth and they couldn't move when they wanted it. Or on a sadder thought, who will be in hell complaining about the same thing. No this is but a very very tiny momentary light affliction.

So thank you God for this trial because this trying of my faith will work my patience (which I need) until I am perfect and whole...wanting NOTHING!!!

James 1:1-4, 12
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
²My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
³Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
⁴But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

¹²Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

I love my jobs!!

2014-11-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

My first job, if you will, is being a mama. It is weird to call it a job though because it feels more like part of who I am. I don't really know how to explain it and maybe all you other mamas out there know exactly what I am talking about. Regardless, being a mama is one of the best things in the world! I love my girlies so much but even more than that I really enjoy who they are. They are so fun to be around and spend my time with!

My second job is I help families create healthy home environments by reducing toxins in their home! And I love doing it! I love to teach people new things, which is one of the reasons I have always had an interest in blogging. (And I think why lots of friends say I should) I love helping people to see things in a new light, a truthful light. It is very eye opening and life changing to learn that what you thought you always knew about something was incorrect. It is similar although not quite as important as learning of the True Gospel for the first time and submitting your life to Christ.

In my job I get to enlighten, if you will, people to the dangers of conventional cleaning methods adn personal products and offer a safe alternative. I work with a company called Norwex as a Independent Sales Consultant. I never ever ever thought I would work for a company like this but when I heard of the products and the mission I immediately thought how I could incorporate my love of teaching with providing an alternative. And thus began my career.

There are more than 80,000 man made chemicals on the market and ONLY 200 have been thoroughly tested and proven safe. Yet thousands are still put into common day products that we spray near our food, lather on our baby's skin, inhale from our clothes, etc. The indoor air quality is actually worse than even the heavily polluted areas! We are constantly exposed to chemicals that are not safe and most don't even know about the dangers of such exposure.

Norwex is working to change this one household at a time. Our products are safe and effective. They still actually clean and usually better than the conventional products. I won't go into the products on this post; I mainly just want to say how excited I am to begin another year doing something I love that can bring change in people's lives one house at a time.

I get to involve my daughters. I get to pick my hours, I am part of a huge team with so many useful resources. I earn a really high commission and I actually get to keep the very vast majority of what I earn without needing to throw it all back into the business. I get to meet new people and spend quality time getting to know them and help them with their needs.

I absolutely love my job...

www.JustineArbaugh.norwex.biz
justine.arbaugh@gmail.com

Getting Ready for the Move :)

2014-11-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

S is pulling off all the clothespins for me

I really love my girls. I don't really have much to say other than that. We just worked on packing today and they are so fun to have around! My big S girl is so helpful even at 2 1/2. I love being able to give her a job and know she will do her best job. She is usually very quick to helping and a lot times sees a need before I ask her! She isn't even 3 yet. Ah the beauty of child training :)

It was pretty cold today so I had the girls nice and bundled up. I think D was still cold because she didn't move around much. That or she just couldn't move with all those layers on. She grabbed my jammie pants on our way out the door and used it as her blanket while we were out. I tried getting a picture of her snuggling my jammies but right before I got the shot she sat up.

Then of course S had to have a picture taken of her too. One of her most common sentences that she says daily is "Can you take a picture of me?" So she rolled around in grass.

On an unrelated note, I have a diastasis recti. Maybe I will go into it more later but one thing to help prevent it from getting worse during pregnancy is to support my belly especially when doing laborious things. But instead of buying an expensive wrap thing I just used my woven wrap. It felt very comfy and it def helped, well at least it felt like it did lol. So here is a little belly shot.

So thankful to be moving! I am working on my goals and plans for getting my business up and running in the new area. Very excited to spread my team out and introduce Norwex to a lot of new people!

Having a Joyful Heart

2014-11-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

"You need to have a joyful heart" is a common phrase in our household.

D's joyful heart :)

Joy isn't the same as happiness, although similar joy is something you can chose to have with the help of the Holy Spirit. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit given to believers. It goes so much deeper than happiness. Joy isn't a feeling based on circumstances.

James 1:2-4
²My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
³Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
⁴But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

I don't know about you but I am not exactly grinning and feeling warm and bubbly when I am facing trails or temptations. It is usually a situation that I don't like. But you can and should be joyful in the midst of it because of the understanding of what the trials and temptations actually mean. It is opportunity to grow and Christ and be more like Him. An opportunity to overcome sin and bring glory to the Lord.

Joy,in my understanding, is more of a contentment, a constant controlling of your soul to submit to the Lord's will with the understanding that all things work together for the good for those called according to His purpose. It doesn't mean it feels good but rather you chose to not be swayed by your circumstance.

I say "where is your joyful heart?" to my daughters frequently. There are a lot of things in life that don't go according to plan and I want to train them young to still their hearts from becoming upset and anxious because they aren't getting what they want or they don't like what is happening. It is amazing to watch a two year old who is clearly upset about something stop in their tracks and change their attitude. It is so beautiful because I know how hard it can be to chose joy when you just wan to be mad and upset.

I too have a hard time having a joyful heart and controlling my attitude and my girls attitudes totally reflect mine. When I am grumpy and upset all day they have sour faces and bad attitudes as well which upsets me and continues the cycle more. Once I realize I apologize and repent. A couple of weeks ago, D pooped on the floor and I was really upset about it (since it was happening contstantly!!) and S said, "Mama you have a bad attitude." I was shocked she recognized it and called me out at such a young age but so humbled. I immediately repented and told her she was right. I love that my daughter can now tell me to have a joyful heart!

Today I think was a big re-test for me. Months ago when we first moved to the property we had to first move into a room with all of our belongings while we waiting for the previous caretaker to move off the land. He originally gave us one date. We bought our RV and scheduled for it to be moved the day after he moved off. I was so excited to get out of the room as it had been about a month at the time and it was a very trying situation to live in. A couple of days before my husband was talking to the man and he mentioned that he would be staying for a couple more weeks to basically stay as long as the owner said was allowed (he wasn't leaving on good terms and was trying to get back at the owner). It was only two more weeks but I was devastated. I had such a bad attitude. It ruined all my plans. I was so upset and let it show for those two extra weeks. I definitely did NOT have a joyful heart.

In the present: we were approved for the new house and were planning on moving this coming weekend. My plan was to pack all this week to get ready and that would put us in the new house before Thanksgiving and well before Christmas. But today we realized when scheduling our appointment to sign the lease that the property management company expects the full months rent upon signing on top of paying for the deposit this month. We will only be there a week of November and we don't have twice the rent right now at the end of the month..well we do but then we have no money to actually move. My husband tried to convince them to let us pay the prorated price now and the full rent next month but they said it is their policy and wouldn't budge. This means moving in 3 weeks instead of this weekend.

One little blessing :)

At first I was devastated. I was so anticipating packing this week and I had it all my head how it would work. I didn't cry but I was very heartbroken. But then I stared praying and asking the Lord to help me with my attitude and I began reflecting on how blessed we are. We are still getting this house. We still get to move and be closet to my husband. He still has his job and is getting amazing hours and we are finally able to start saving! My children are healthy and I am having another baby. We are so blessed and in a couple of month an extra 2 weeks won't seem like much once we are actually there. I wanted to respond well; everything I was feeling was telling me to be depressed and sad but I knew I really had no reason to be. I said to myself, don't be a spoiled brat who throws a fit because I am not getting what I want when I want. I wasn't even being told "no", just "wait".

So I called my husband and told him it was okay, we are still blessed and God is still good. What more could I ask for! He was so glad to hear me say that; he was worried how I would take the news because being away from him has been very hard and I have been struggling to keep a joyful heart. It was such a joyful moment and as I submitted my heart to the Lord He began blessing me with more Joy. I just changed all my plans and made new ones. I was still bummed and even praying that if something could be done that it would but if not I wasn't going to let it rock my boat.

The story could stop here and I would continue working on keeping my joyful heart but then my husband called later in the evening saying he had a surprise. Turns out his mom is going to pay for the first month of rent so we can move in this weekend after all! We will of course be paying her back but what a blessing!! I was very shocked and excited and very very thankful.

I don't think this usually happens where once you submit your heart you end up getting what you wanted in the first place and I was completely not expecting our delay to be changed. Nevertheless, I am very thankful that in this instance He has chosen to provide. I do wonder if he would have if I hadn't had a joyful heart. I truly feel like this time I passed. I was given an opportunity to overcome sin that had taken me out before and I did! Thank you Holy Spirit for your help. Thank you Jesus for your forgiveness of sins. Thank you Father for allowing me to try again!

Just thought of this, D's middle name is Joy. And pretty since she was born Joy has been something the Lord has been working in me! So interesting!!

***From now on posts will be scheduled so that they don't post the actual day I write them. So if things seem off like me talking about an upcoming holiday that has already past, this is why***

My daughter's breath smells like poop!

2014-11-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

So I have to share this story for all you mamas out there that might eventually have this problem and are wondering "What the heck is going on!"

Last weekend my husband came home and kept complaining about smelling poop. I just assumed it D since we had been having the poop everywhere episode that week. But when he would pick up S he would say that he thinks its her breath. I couldn't smell anything on her breath and told him he was crazy. When we were in the car I could smell the poop smell but upon investigating he mouth I got nothing. The weekend ended and he left for work. And sure enough I started smelling it on her breath and it was very unpleasant...I mean like I said in the title, it smelled like poop!

I tried all week to get rid of the smell before my husband came home. I tried brushing her teeth multiple times a day. I tried bathing her more often. But nothing would make it go away.

Then Friday i was voxing (Voxing is the term for using Voxer which is am amazing app that is basically like a walkie talkie on your phone but free!We use is very frequently) my best friend and I noticed Sammy was kind of coughing/blowing out her nose but didn't think much of it until I looked down and she has a disgusted look on her face and her eyes were red and watering. She said, "Ugh, what's that!" and I looked in her hands and she had pulled what looked like at first glance a wad of gum from her nose. I was thoroughly grossed out. I got a tissue and took it from her and it didn't take long to realize it was definitely the source of the smell! Upon further gag inducing investigation I deduced that it was actually paper.

So somehow my daughter managed to show and wad of paper up her nose and kept it there for at least 2 weeks, long enough for it to infect her nose and begin decomposing all the while without it apparently bothering her. Yuck! It was horrific. After looking it up online it is apparently pretty common but is usually discovered after concerned parents take their child in for poop breath only to find out their stinky angel has something rotting up their nose. Thankfully S's came out on it own without a trip to the Dr. And the smell since then has gone away.

So if your child ever starts having breath that makes you want to puke get a light and check up the nostrils for any foreign object. And if that doesn't work take them in before you offend your poor little one because you can't bare the thought of kissing their poop filled mouth :)

On another non-poop note, I completely finished D's doll.

Goodnight!

*** From now on posts will not be posted the day they are written***

Hoping for a home!

2014-11-11T20:32:00.001-08:00

So we went to check out rentals this weekend and good amount we liked within our price range but we weren't able to see the insides. Apparently property management groups are as bad as banks and government offices where they are only open 9-5 during the weekday...when everyone that needs their services is working!!! So we just drove past and crossed off the ones we knew we didn't want. We did get to view the inside to 2 of them but neither were something we ultimately want to live in.

Then yesterday I started to call on the properties that we did like to schedule a viewing for next weekend...but again they refuse to show on the weekends. And one that I really liked could only show that day at 3:30 for the entire week! So I called all the others to make a day out of it and quickly packed up the girls and headed out yet again for an unplanned trip. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get the first place because I left during traffic. Poor girls sat in the car all day on Saturday and were now having to do it again :(

To cut to the point the one that I made the whole trip for ended up being my absolute favorite! It is beautiful and is by far the nicest place we have ever lived (granted any of the properties would have been the nicest). This will probably sound funny but I feel like a grown up if we get this house!! I still see myself as a teenager lol, its weird that I am in my twenties!

Anyways, back to the point. So I made an appointment and met the guy to view the property but apparently this guy was driving by to see it at the same time and had tried to make an appointment at the same time but was told that it was already taken. So he decided to come anyways and try to view it at the same time as me and the guy just let him. This man was so obnoxious and loud. He brought in his family and they walked through so fast then told the guy he wanted to place and asked how he could make sure he gets it! It was so rude! I could barely get any of my own questions in because he was like guarding the guy and kept asking other questions. I did get to hear about their process for deciding a tenant. So they go off first come first serve. They don't compare applicants. So whoever submits their application first and is approved gets the property even if their potentially was a better applicant in line. He said he was going to go into the office today and submit his application. I was so annoyed.

I mean I understand that he wanted it too and has every right to try and get it in before us but he did it so unkindly and he didn't really even care about that place. He liked one aspect of it and he was even trying to haggle for a lesser rent. So I got in the car and immediately called Chris and told I really wanted the place and about the whole competition issue. I still had one property to view then we decided I would rush to the management office and try to see if I could submit mine without Chris' to get on the list first.

Turns out you can't. In order to be first you have to have everything filled out and completed and you have to pay the fee. Problem is you can only pay cash or money order so it would have to be mailed. But the lady started showing us favor and allowed me to pay last night since we knew we were going to get our apps in asap. I guess the guy had come in before me and tried to turn his in as well but it wasn't complete either so now it really was a race.

And we won! The office opened at 9 and our was completely submitted by 10:30. I was so happy and thankful that we were able to work it out so quickly!

This house is so beautiful and it is even under our budget! It is in a great neighborhood. I saw 8 parks while driving through! EIGHT! It is a small town but not anywhere near as small as where we currently live. There is a community and events. There are churches and a library! I am so excited.

We haven't actually been approved yet so we have to wait to say that it is for sure ours but we exceed all their requirements so I see no reason they should deny us. If we do get it we get to move before Thanksgiving! Woot!

Needless to say it is a bit busy around here. Trying to finish up sewing projects. I have two Norwex parties this week and then I'll need to start packing soon. Thankfully their isn't actually too much to pack but we want to move everything in one day so I want to be prepared.

Sneek Peak of the property we are hoping for :)

Dolls...and Poop

2014-11-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

That pretty much sums up my day :)

The girls and I are still sick and had a rough day but I got a lot done on D's birthday gift!

For S's 1st birthday I made my first Waldorf doll! It was so much fun, but a lot of work at the time! I am way faster at sewing and following patterns than I was 2 years ago! So D is almost 1 and I wanted to make her a doll since she is always trying to steal S's . I'll have to get a picture of the first one later...the girlies are in bed at the moment.

Nakey butt time :)

So back to our day. We have been doing well at pottying. We had a fantastic day yesterday (okay maybe not to today just yet); we caught more in the potty than the floor AND we caught a poop. A sweet glorious poop which hasn't happened in a couple of weeks so you can imagine how excited I was. If you have been following since the days of S you know how much I hate poop; actually is a big reason I love ECing in the first place. You don't realize how crappy cleaning up poop is until you don't have to...okay maybe you do know how crappy it is. But that just makes it so much more exciting when you don't have to do it!

Watching the birds!

So this morning I got up the courage to go to pet smart to get dog brushes (I'll explain in a moment) and I ONLY put pants on D. NO DIAPER!! I am pretty sure this is my first time. Well I guess I have done panties only but that was when she was younger and we were gelling a bit better on the potty front. And no accidents! We got home and she peed AND pooped! I was one proud mama...until...

She then pooped on the floor afterwards. And then again. And then again... and then in the potty :) And then on S's floor...and then on her bed. Seriously.So.Much.Poop!!! I don't know how something so tiny can poop that much! And they were all big poops!!! Ugh, it seemed like everytime I finished cleaning up S would yell, "Agh, she pooped again!" So not fun, especially when sick but really never.

I was really close to just calling it a day and putting a diaper on. Well I guess I kind of did actually because we went out to get food...there was no way I was cooking :( And there was a diaper for that trip and I didn't take it off until bedtime which was when I found, go ahead and guess...Yep more poop!

So...about the doll making, which I am sure you are much more interested in reading about :)
I am making my second Waldorf Doll and this time I am doing jointed limbs. Maybe one day I will make a tutorial...hmm one day when I have extra time that doesn't exist!

I got the dog brushes because I was given about 20 fleeces from a neighbor's flock of sheep and it needs to be carded before using in the dolls. I have some leftover wool from S's doll that I used up and used a tiny amount of our new wool that I washed all by myself thank you very much! (Don't be too impressed I only did one fleece! I am still up to my ears in poop covered wool!) Anyways, real carders are expensive and I didn't want to wait to order them anyways. The dog brushes were about $5 a piece and they worked really well. It will take me a while to get through the whole fleece but I plan working on it whenever Chris and I watch a movie.

Here is the wool I carded.

So here are some pictures of the doll making process...

Lopsided Belly

I used a colored pencil to make pink cheeks.

Arm

Leftover wool before stuffing.

This is just the wool I carded. It squishes down a lot!

Close up of the face. The eyes are a bit crooked but oh well :)

In case you were wondering this is my machine!

So hopefully I will have to finished product done tonight other than the hair. I can't decide if I want to order this fantastic yarn I found or use the kind I already bought...Stay tuned!

Looking for a home...

2014-11-04T22:00:00.001-08:00

Well it is time to find a new home. My husband and I are spending lots of time online waiting for the perfect home in our price range to appear. We are hoping to find a 2-3 bedroom home with a garage within our budget and so far it hasn't been easy.

Another issue; the city we have almost decided to move to doesn't have Whole Foods nearby and seemingly doesn't have anything similar. I can't even find a CSA that delivers to the city. I am getting a bit nervous about this because I really don't want to drive 45 minutes to get groceries every week. It just makes me want to homestead even more!

On another note, my whole family has a cold...Boo! Thankfully on Monday I wasn't feeling too bad so I was able to get the house in order from the weekend and then today had no chores to do other than laundry. I just spent time looking for homes and staring at D's butt! Yes, we had a potty day. I have been wanting to do this (at my husband's recomendation) to try to get her and I back on track. So I kept an eye on her nakey butt all day to see when she pottied and to ge her to associate my words and signs to the potty instead of going on the floor. We had 2 maybe 3 pee catches (I forgot to empty the potty one time) and about 5 misses including 1 poo miss. So the floor won for the day but hey that's more than I caught last week!! When she pooped I knew it was coming but I got distracted for 10 seconds and she was out of site hiding from me. Little stinker.

Well, I am sleepy and i don't feel good so off to bed for me. Enjoy our pictures from this weekend :)

I made my first dress!!

2014-10-30T21:16:00.001-07:00

My MIL bought me a sewing machine for my husband's birthday our first year of marriage. :)
That's right she bought it for me on his birthday! The thing was we were poor and clothing is expensive especially for kiddos and we are wanting a lot of children so...sewing seemed like a very practical skill to acquire and my husband agreed. He is a very practical man (and doesn't really care about birthdays) so he asked for a sewing machine for me and since then I have fallen deeply in love with sewing!

That was 3 years ago and I have learned so much! I have made many things for my girlies. (Having girls has been awesome for learning how to sew!!!) But I haven't ever really made anything for myself as far as clothing goes this entire time. It is pretty intimidating to buy all that fabric and potentially mess up! With kids there is usually enough to make another if you mess up. Plus a lot of the clothing I have wanted to try is made with knits. Knits and my sewing machine don't get along.

BUT...last Christmas I got a serger!! (From my MIL and my husband) And it has taken me almost a whole year to finally make something for myself from it!

This weekend we are taking family picture with my mom and stepdad's family and I didn't have the time or the desire to go find something to match. So I found a tutorial for a maxi dress and took a shot at it! Got my fabric for $10.50!! Way cheaper than a maternity maxi dress!!!

You can see my little baby bump :)

So here it is! Pardon the messy house and hair! Sewing takes a lot of time away from normal duties :) I am so happy the way it turned out! I attached it to an old t-shirt that didn't fit well anymore. I can't wait to wear it for pictures so that I can wear it out in public! I should get the professional pics to show it way better since I was taking with my auto timer on my phone.

I also made my girls' dresses for pictures and I LOVE the way they turned out. I was trying to copy a picture of a dress I have always wanted to copy and I think I got it pretty well. D's is just a regular peasant dress :) D is too hard to get a good picture of right now so again hopefully I will get a better one from the family pics.

Well, that's all I have to say for now!

I am making the hair bows right now and would like to finish at a decent hour!!!

More Follow Up

2014-10-28T22:36:00.001-07:00

So I posted really general about our life up to this point to catch up from over a year ago. I figured I could go into a little more detail about D's EC journey.

Although I do want to say really quickly that if I do continue to blog I don't want to just blog about the pottying of my children. The title of this blog is Motherhood and EC is just a tiny aspect to that. But I do want to go into more detail to how D is doing and what mistakes I have made along the way with her in regards to EC.

So S did such a fantastic job at pottying and getting the hang of the whole ordeal I think I started out with D a little over confident. I realized (although possibly incorrectly) that S wasn't trained because I was a pee nazi but more because of the consistent communication throughout her life in regards to pottying. And who knows I might have been right but they way I proceeded with D made that theory impossible to tell. When she was about 3 months old we moved out to the country. We were offered to take care of a piece of property in exchange for free rent. So we jumped on it! There was kind of an icky situation with the previous caretaker so we moved into the lower room in the main house for 6 weeks until we could buy and move our own RV onto the property.

The room we lived in housed ALL of our stuff. Now in comparison to most we don't have a lot but we still had quite a bit and to live with it all in one room for 6 weeks is a bit overwhelming! It was crammed to say the least and incredibly dirty. We had to move in so fast we couldn't clean the room first and the previous inhabitant apparently didn't care about filth. I cleaned as much as I could but it still just wasn't the most pleasurable living experience.

During this time I didn't really pay attention to D's cues. I kept her in cloth without covers for a bit but eventually got in the habit of always having a cover on and just changing her when she was wet. And I didn't even have nigh time to fall back on. S wouldn't nurse until after she had peed but D would hold in her pee until you started nursing which was always frustrating!

By the time we finally moved into our RV I was already tuned out to her cues. I still gave a lot of opportunities but I didn't have the same consistency that I did with S. Fast forward a few months to last month D started getting a ash from ammonia. We live on really hard well ward and they have a really bad build up. I tried stripping them multiple times but with no real success. And then she got a REALLY bad rash with huge blisters that would heal during the day but reform at night after sitting wet for hours.

So I decided she would go diaper free during the day and my generous mom bought her honest company disposables for nightime and outings. We will be moving again soon into the city again so when we do I will re-strip her diapers in water that isn't insanely hard and hopefully we can use them again. But this whole ordeal had really made me analyze what was different with S and D.

With S, pottying her was a part of our routine. But with D we got out of it. I didn't want to potty in public or at night and eventually that mentality seeped into the daytime too. It's not that I dodn't have time to or was too distracted, I just wasn't purposeful about it. With S we had a lot more nakey time especially early on. With D, my husband was home her first few months during winter when he is usually laid off for the season and he hates holding naked babies. So early on she never really was naked and I never really got a good sense of her cues.

Thankfully it isn't too late. She is still only 10 months old so I still have time to make up and I am sure she will be golden at the very latest at 2. Like I said we are doing naked time during the day. It hasn't been too successful yet but it is always harder to retrain than to do it right the first time. I think sitting on the potty is just a chair for her to play on because she pees or poops almost right after getting off. We do catch at least once a day and we all cheer and she claps and gets really excited so I am hoping she gets it soon. We pray every evening that she will get it and start going on the potty :)

And with the next babe I really want to go diaper free the vast majority of the time, even at night and for outings. We wont' live by family anymore so not many people will be holding the baby other than me and I will definitely be wearing a lot more often since I will have more children than hands! Going through the whole diaper fiasco I started wondering what people did before diapers and it hit me DUH! (Seriously, I know I knew this but it like really hit me!) People didn't have diapers. They might have had a cloth under their bums but most countries and cultures EC'd before there was ever a name for it. And they did it without the use if diapers AND laundry machines. So we will still use prefolds to soak up any misses. Even my husband who doesn't like naked babies is on board; I am sure he will always have a felt blanket and a diaper under them!

So that is the update. Not too excited but I know there are people who might be interested.

Oh and S is officially a bedwetter. :( I'm a bit bummed by it just because she was dry for so long at night until D was born and then it was downhill from there. She is dry maybe 2 nights out of the week. After posting on the diaper free fb group I guess it is pretty common so I am not worried but I just really dislike it for obvious reasons. Plus my brother was a bedwetter for a very long time and my room was next to his and I hated the smell. So the smells just bring back memories of that and yuck its not fun. This too shall pass :)

Goodnight!

Crazy hair as usual :)

Can you believe how big she is!

Super silly girl!

They have so much fun together!

Maybe I will pick this back up...

2014-10-27T23:18:00.002-07:00

I stumbled upon my old blog tonight and saw how many pageviews its gotten. Apparently people want to read more about EC and parenting :)

So maybe if I can find time in my busy life I will pick this back up.

A quick update since it is my bedtime...

Sammy is now 2 1/2!! So hard to believe! She is fully potty trained during the day and has been for over a year now. She does wet the bed at night but it started happening when her sister was born.

Which leads me to announcing that Samantha now has a little sister, Dakota who is currently 10 months old! As far as EC is going for Dakota...its good but not going as well as with Sammy for multiple reasons. We have had a few transitions during her younger months like moving. And I wasn't a diligent to potty her as a was with Sammy. My thoughts were that it wasn't necessarily quantity of catches with Sammy as it was quality but that isn't always true. I depended on diapers a lot more with D especially during the move which the whole process took about 2 months. We are working at it but now he cloth diapers have severe amonia build up from the well water so we have been using disposables for night and outings which really hinder us. But she is still on ly 10 months and she knows to go, just need her to cue to me :) I hopefully can post more on this later.

Another transition that hindered D's pottying was my first trimester for our 3rd baby! That's right I am now 14 weeks into my 3rd pregnancy :) Planning on another homebirth. We are in the process of moving yet again a couple of hours away to where my husband has been relocated for work. It is a crazy time right now but we are making the most of it.

This next babe I am planning on keeping it diaper free the vast majority of the time including out and about. Having depended on diapers so much with D it really makes me not want to this time especially after going back and reading how well we did with Sammy from such an early age.

So there is the quick update of it all. We shall see if I can find the time to come back later and add more!!

Dakota 10 months


Sammy being silly- 2 1/2 yrs

10 Months

2013-01-22T18:42:00.003-08:00

Sammy turned 10 months old yesterday.

Only 2 months until she is a whole year old! I can't believe it!

This month she has grown taller and heavier and has gotten even better at standing and walking along furniture! She is so smart! But other than that there isn't much change from the last.

Pottying is about the same. Still having more misses than a while ago but we did better than last month with getting timing down.

Sorry for such a short post but stay tuned for weekly pictures!!

Mamatograhpy 2013

2013-01-21T13:35:00.001-08:00

I decided to partake in Mamatography 2013. Basically I will be attempting to take a picture everyday of something that happened that day. Most will be of Sammy so that at the end of the year I can see how much she has grown! This last week was my first week of photos. Hope you enjoy!

January 14, 2013

Gotta love silly daddy time!

January 15, 2013

After

Before

January 16, 2013

Cute Girl!!!

January 17, 2013

Ignore the fact that she is wearing the same outfit as the day before...Mama was sick and her clothes were still clean! But aren't those leg warmers so stinking cute!

January 18, 2013

Only got one shot on for the day. Grain free cheesecake brownies...YUM!

January 19, 2013

Poor girl scraped her face on a concrete step outside.

Then later she had some delicious avocado!!!

January 20, 2013

First pig tails!

Sammy is 10 months old today!

http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i109/Luschka/?action=view&current=mtbadge2.jpg" target="_blank">http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i109/Luschka/mtbadge2.jpg

" alt="mtbadge2" border="0" />This post is part of the http://www.mommajorje.com/2012/12/mamatography-2013-invitation.html" target="_blank">Mamatography 2013 Project withhttp://www.diaryofafirstchild.com" target="_blank"> Diary of a First Child and http://www.mommajorje.com" target="_blank">Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. 
Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily 
photos!

Here's a list of current participants:

 ***

Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

http://www.diaryofafirstchild.com/category/on-mamas-mind/projects/mamatography/" target="_blank">Diary of a First Child

http://www.earthmamasworld.com" target="_blank">Earth Mamas World

http://bakingmommaoftwo.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Baking Momma of Two

http://emmaslittleworld2.blogspot.com/p/365-photos-2013.html" target="_blank">Emma's Little World

http://quacksandwaddles.com" target="_blank">Quacks and Waddles

http://threecountiesmum.blogspot.co.uk" target="_blank">Three Counties Mum

http://seasidechelle.co.uk/category/a-photo-a-day" target="_blank">Seaside Chelle

http://gentlemum.wordpress.com" target="_blank">gentlemum

http://ben-and-hannah.blogspot.com" target="_blank">The Cutie and The Beauty

http://cfaculjak.blogspot.co.uk" target="_blank">Charming Gardener

http://maydela.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Pineapples & Artichokes

http://jessicascasserole.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Jessica's Casserole

http://life.urbanvox.net" target="_blank">Dad of The Monkeys

http://www.mommajorje.com/search/label/Mamatography" target="_blank">Momma Jorje

http://anaturemom.com/category/photos/mamatography/" target="_blank">A Nature Mom

http://mommyandlittlei.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Mommy and Little I

http://www.urszulasztukiel.blogspot.com" target="_blank">too tired to blog

http://thefamilypatch.com" target="_blank">The Family Patch

http://www.theprincesspoetslifeadventures.com/search/label/Mamatography" target="_blank">The Princess Poet's Life Adventures

http://harleyfamdamily.wordpress.com" target="_blank">harley famdamily

http://mamaunfurling.wordpress.com" target="_blank">Mama Unfurling

http://themommymetamorphosis.blogspot.com/search/label/mamatography" target="_blank">the mommy metamorphosis

http://mothersknowbest-cbe.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Mothers Know Best

http://questforlifespassion.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Quest For Life's Passion

http://frugalbritwitch.tumblr.com" target="_blank">Frugal Brit Witch

http://www.amywilla.com/category/photography/photography-projects/mamatography/" target="_blank">Me, Mothering, and Making it All Work

Its been a while...

2012-12-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

Wow! Our life has been pretty busy the last few months and so much has happened! To catch us up:

Samantha showing her friend how to crawl.

We officially are moved into the intern house and have been for a few months now.

Samantha started crawling two days after we moved in!

She finally got over her diarrhea after having it for 6 long weeks!

So as of today Samantha is 9 months and 6 days old!!! Not only is she crawling but she is also pulling herself up on the furniture. She can bend down to pick something off the floor as long as she is supporting herself and she will sometimes walk along the furniture. She loves following me all around the house and loves to see what I am doing! Having her be mobile has been so awesome so far because the whole crying when I leave the room thing has finally ended since she can just go wherever I go!

Crawling and pulling up has also allowed her to reach many other things she couldn't before and since we also have a much larger house there is even more to get into. But we have been training her as you have probably read and she is very good at understanding what we say (although she doesn't always like it!) She now knows "Don't touch" "Don't eat it" "Let go" "no" and "come here". Eighty percent of the time she obeys right away but occasionally with something she really wants she will give us a little fight, but we always make sure to win so that she doesn't lose.

As I mentioned earlier she finally got over her diarrhea. Pottying was going great for short time there afterwards but as she started getting more efficient at crawling she began cuing to us less. I have heard from other moms who EC that it is pretty common for babies to sort of "pause" when they hit a new major milestone like crawling or walking. Some mom's think that they literally stop caring and others see it from a more logical perspective. They are able to do and see so much more than they used to and just like we will wait until the last minute sometimes to go to the bathroom when we are preoccupied they will as well. The difference is that you and I know our breaking point and can accurately judge so as not to hit the point of no return. But an infant who is learning their body and gaining self control doesn't know that point yet. So I have had to start going off of timing again.

But she was so dang cute sitting like a big girl!

Another issue we have had was what potty I was putting her on. I bought a travel seat that lays inside the adult potty before she was born to use in public. But once she was big enough to use it I liked it so much I started putting her on it at home every time except in the middle of the night when I still use the Baby Bjorn. She was so cute sitting on the big potty like a big girl! And she was good at it too! I became comfortable enough with her on it that I would step away from her to get her diaper together or leave the room for a second which was a big mistake.

One night I sat her on the potty right as we got home from being out. I left her side to take off my boots only a few feet away. I was talking to her and she was turning around to face me when she misjudged her balance and toppled right onto her forehead with her body collapsing on top of her face. She barely hit the floor before I swooped her up into my arms. My heart was racing and she was SCREAMING! It was the second most scary moment of her life! After a couple of minutes she finally calmed down and we assessed the damage. Just a bump on the forehead and broken capillaries on her little nose. She looked like Rudolph for a couple of days! I felt so bad that I ever got comfortable leaving her. I obviously stopped after that.

But I also started noticing that she was pretty consistently not pooping on the big toilet and would instead wait until she was in a diaper (which you can imagine how frustrating that is given how far we have come). She would poop in her little potty but not the big one. Then I had a "duh" moment. Her little feet dangle off the big potty so she has no ground to bear down against when she has to poop. Imaging trying to poop sitting on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. so we started sitting her on the little potty again in the bathroom and voila we've got poop in potty again!!! So maybe her falling off wasn't such a bad thing after all...just kidding!!!!!!

So Chris was laid off in November for the rainy season as expected and money is a little tight, also as expected. And I have been sewing things for Samantha and as gifts and everyone kept telling me I should sell them so I decided to start my own business! I am still working on all the details so currently I only have a facebook page but soon I hope to get my etsy page up and running. It has been so much fun so far deciding the name and creating the design. And I had my first two clients, my mom and a very close friend! But her you got to start somewhere right?! If you are interested please check out my page here and please like it also!

So due to being so busy the last couple of months I failed to take Samantha's 7 and 8 month pictures. But I was sure to take her 9 month ones so at least I will have 1, 3,6, 9 and 12 month shots for her birthday (which I am so excited about!!) Here are other random pictures from the past months and her 9 month shots. Hope you enjoy!!!

A Christmas Eve nap

I found her sleeping in her crib like this today!

Sad to Leave but Happy to Move!

2012-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

I am just so excited to announce that we are moving next week! We have been in living in a studio since we got married...well actually I have been living here since a month before we got married; 17 months! We are moving to the intern house where we were both interns. I am so very excited to be close to lots of people again and especially close to some of our best friends! We have been trying to figure out if and where to move to for such a long time so to finally be at this point is super exciting.

When we first found our studio we were so excited! We were just engaged and didn't have much time to find a place. I looked online everyday for something we could afford and close to our community when one day I found it! For $450 a month we were so shocked and it was within waking distance of the neighborhood where most people in our community lived! We called right away and came to look at it.

The lady from the property management group looked at us like we were crazy for wanting to look at such a tiny place. She talked to us like we were going to laugh at the thought of moving in once we actually got to see it. Then she didn't know how to react when I said I loved it!!! And I did. It was perfect to begin our new life as a new couple and eventually family, although we weren't expecting to start so soon. We were so excited about it we didn't even notice the broken screen door or the kitchen faucet that has the tiniest amount of hot water flowing from it. It had character...sort of. So we moved our stuff in and I moved in the month before the wedding.

First Arbuagh Kiss!

I enjoyed making the space ours and preparing it for Chris once he became my husband. There wasn't too much to prepare but I loved laying in bed at night picturing what my near future would like like after we said "I do". A few weeks later on June 11 we came to OUR little haven and became husband and wife then went out to eat India Oven : ) . We soon left for our honeymoon and returned with an extra person unknowingly hiding in my womb.

BFP!!!

I started feeling different and suspected I might be pregnant. Anxiously I waited to take a test and took a few way too soon! Then finally the first day my period should have started the test was positive! I couldn't believe it! Just 2 weeks into our marriage we found out I was pregnant! We began taking weekly belly photos almost immediately...and then forgot after a while.

First Weekly Pregnancy Picture

I remember the air conditioner broke towards the end of my first trimester. Yuck! It took the a whole week to finally replace it. And a week to a nauseous pregnant woman is a long time! Then winter came and my belly grew. I loved when I could start feeling her move inside of me! I spent so much time sitting on our only chair staring at my belly waiting for her to move. We rearranged our furniture and set up the co-sleeper before I was even 20 weeks! My excuse was so that we could get used to the new layout by the time she came but really I just wanted to daydream about when she would be laying in that bed next to me!

Last Pregnancy Shot at home at about 5 months

Winter began to fade and my pregnancy was coming to an end when I got the worst pregnancy rash called PUPPP. Ugh it was horrific. I was already past my due date and all of a sudden this incredibly itchy rash spread over my entire body and was constantly itchy! Scratching became my drug of choice. During the day we tried everything we could think of to get my labor started and to distract me from the itch but at night I would wake to find myself scratching like a madwoman! Chris would hear me and get me out of bed to throw me into the cold shower. Terrible! We would sit there for so long with the freezing water pouring over my body while I sobbed begging God to make it go away. I think that was just as hard as labor!

Sorry its blurry; first time to inspect my daughter

Finally 2 weeks after my due date labor began! I spent my labor walking around our small home back and forth from the bathroom to the kitchen into the main room and then all over again. I was in the bathtub when I broke down and cried to Chris telling him how hard this was. And after 18 hours of labor my beautiful daughter was born on our bed in our tiny home into the hands of my amazing midwife. I will always remember that corner of my bed right next to the door to the bathroom where I met my daughter for the very first time.

First Potty

This is our first home as a family and where many of my daughter's "firsts" have occurred!
Like her first time to get dressed, first laugh, first cry, first bath, first time to potty in the toilet, first time to roll over, first time to sit up, first time to roll off the bed, first time to have a poop explosion, first time to understand "no", first time to eat a food other than breastmilk. For her first 6 months this has been her home!

First Tantrum

So although I am very excited to be moving and to have much more space for our family there is a part of me that is sad to say goodbye to the first place we called home as the Arbaugh Family. I will cherish every single memory that I have of this tiny studio; the good and the bad. And now I am looking forward to our next home and all the memories it will bring.

6 months!

2012-09-25T22:41:00.001-07:00

She is half a year old! I can't believe it!

It looks like my posts have turned into monthly posts...and I am just fine with that. Now that Samantha is getting older I am finding that I don't have as much free time to blog. And like I said when I started, I would rather be spending my time living my life than writing about it. So if I can only do a post once a month that will have to do.

She has grown so much this month mentally and physically.It is such a neat experience to see her mind trying to understand something and then a couple of days later it clicks!

She is trying to crawl. I thought she might be crawling by now but not quite. She is getting up on all fours and doing some push up type motions. (It actually kind of looks like she is humping the ground : ) ) She tries reaching her very hardest to get something out of reach but usually ends up pushing her self backwards. However she is getting very efficient at rolling. She can roll in any direction and get where she wants to go. Since we don't have too much room in our house I try to give her time each day outside to practice her rolling/crawling.

Two days ago she started getting on her belly from sitting position! We were in church when she did it (we go to a house church) and it was in the middle of someone talking so I couldn't say anything but I almost jumped out of my seat I was so excited!! And she has done it a couple more times since then.

She is really talking now! She especially loves to yell as loud as she can when we are in public bathrooms, and she can be so loud! A few times I have come out and Chris told me he could hear her over the busy restaurant or mall! I think she likes the sound of her voice when in echoes. So cute!

She is still to obey to the word "no". She definitely knows what it means but sometimes she just really doesn't want to let go of some things she really likes. We have had a lot more opportunities this last month to work on training her to obey. We like the saying house proof your child don't childproof your house. So we are teaching her to not touch certain things like cords. But they look so enticing! It is so funny to watch her process the decision to play with them. She will see them within her reach and stare at them. Sometimes she will just look away and find something else to play with. Sometimes she will look and start to reach for them and remember what happens and then pull her hands away without us even saying anything. But sometimes she just wants to touch so bad and she will just go for it. Then we switch and tell her no. She cried for a few seconds then looks at them again before finding something else to play with. She is such a smart girl! Hopefully we will have moved by the time she starts crawling so that I don't have to retrain her on what she can touch and what she can't.

My poor baby got diarrhea this month. And she still has it. It has been almost 4 weeks now! When she first got it she had a low fever and just didn't seem to be feeling well. I started researching what it could be and the 2 things it could sound like are parasites or Rotavirus. We did a parasite cleanse for a couple of weeks but nothing seemed to happen. If it is Rotavirus there isn't anything we can do since it is a virus. We have been watching her to make she she doesn't become dehydrated and she has been perfectly fine so far. They say that diarrhea from Rotavirus could last up to 6 weeks!! Poor thing! She actually doesn't seem to be affected by it at all. Other than the first week she hasn't been uncomfortable or fussy so as long as everything is going well I don't see any reason to go to the doctor.

I did read that taking probiotics can help it to go away faster by healing up the intestines when the virus is gone. So I started giving her yogurt last week. And she loves it! She especially loves her spoon! It has been very fun giving her her first foods! Since then we have given her a tiny bite of tomato, chicken, and broccoli. And then this last weekend we went to Apple Hill and I had a pickle. Once she saw it she immediately wanted to chew on it so I let her waiting for the much awaited reaction to a pickle...and I got nothing! She LOVED it! I had a hard time getting any bites in for myself! I am not sure how much of it she consumed herself but she sucked on it until it started making her eyes water and I was at the bottom of it! She went nuts over it like it was a drug! Funny kid! Loves her pickles just like her mom!

Due to her having diarrhea, EC hasn't been going to great as far as catching goes. It is almost like she has reverted to when she was only a newborn and would have poop farts all the time. Almost every diaper has a smidge of poop on it because she just can't hold it in. It's a bummer but practicing EC has helped her during this process. It has been helping to keep her out of her icky poop diapers. She hates sitting in a soiled diaper especially poopy so she isn't in them for very long preventing a nasty diaper rash. At first she did get a rash but I can only imagine how much worse it would be if she had to sit in it. I think we are on the tail end of the runs because the color is going back to the traditional breastfed yellow. I will be very happy to be back to normal!

This month's photo session shows the difference between the 5 month old Sam and the 6 month old Sam who wants to go go go and figure everything out. She just would not sit still and give me her million dollar smile so I just decided to go with it and take pictures of what she was doing!!

Unless I find some downtime, be back next month!

My baby is 5 months old!

2012-08-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

5 days old

Wow! I cannot believe how fast time has gone. She was just a tiny puddle laying on my chest just yesterday and now she is so big sitting up on her own and interested in everything around her! This is the fastest she will ever grow in her life and it makes me sad. It is so hard to remember every detail because one day she is looking and acting completely different!

5 months old!

So this month has been great! It has gone by the fastest! Like I said she is sitting up on her own now. She can grab things that she wants, she found her feet and loves to play with them, and she found her voice again. She was really talkative a while back and then went through a pretty quiet phase. But the past 2 weeks she likes to talk to anyone and everyone. She is very curious about EVERYTHING. She always has her eyes on what Chris and I are doing. It is so fun to watch her learning things. I still think she is teething which means she probably isn't lol. I dont know... sometimes I think I can feel them and then other days I don't anymore. She likes to chew on frozen things anyways so I keep letting her. Today I froze my orange peels and she really loved gnawing on those!

We have been going through sleep training this month. She will be so tired but will fight taking naps or going to bed so we started putting her to bed or nap after nursing and singing to her and then letting her cry until she falls asleep. It has been so hard on me! It is really hard to hear your baby crying like that especially when they start crying harder and harder. But we have to be consistent. The only thing with that is that she isn't consistent. Usually she falls asleep while nursing and all i have to do is lay her down and we are good so I don't have very many opportunities to let her cry it out and learn that she needs to go to sleep. So she is still crying almost every time it happens. This past week however she has been fighting sleep more and more. So we have been having a crying session at least once a day and they are getting shorter each time. Like tonight she cried 5 minutes then fell asleep : )

Another icky part of the napping situation is that we live in a studio so it is hard to keep a quiet house while she is falling asleep which can make it harder since she can hear us talking or moving around. But hopefully we will be moving soon and that will be changing. Part of me wants to make it silent for her but then I think about people before us or the millions now who live in one room homes do it. There is no way they were silent for hours everyday just to let the baby sleep. The baby would just get used to sleeping with noise. And so will Sammy. She can sleep through noise pretty well already; its just the falling asleep when she wants to be involved that's not settling well with her at the moment.

ECing is still going great. I am not sure if I have said this before but it is just part of our life. I don't think about it any more than I think of any of her other needs and we don't spend gobs of time doing it. I think about the same way other parents think about changing their babes. She loves being dry and I love her being dry and so that is what we aim for but sometimes we have misses and we clean her up give her a new diaper and move on. Easy Peasy!

Actually I have noticed this past month that we are getting better at our catch rate. We only have a 1 or 2 misses on an average day and have been dry most nights since coming back from kids camp! I am at the point where I need to wash our diapers because they can't sit that long without being washed not because I am running out. This last time our stash of diapers lasted us 2 and 1/2 weeks and we had a couple extra misses due to traveling mishaps. Those diapers really needed to be washed at that point!!!

I really want to become more dependent on training pants instead of diapers but i only have 4 and for some reason Sammy really likes to pee in them. It may just be coincidence but she pees in them pretty quickly after I put them on and since i have 4 I usually do diapers after that. So I am hoping to find some time to make some homemade ones so that she can get used to them. They are so stinking cute in her little bum!!!

Chris' new job required us to go to the bay area last week which was awesome!!! Our first mini trip as a family. We stayed in a hotel within walking distance to the ocean! Woo hoo! Saw a beautiful sunset and got to find some neat geocaches.

Oh and not sure if I ever followed up with my back wrapping issue but we finally figured it out. Just needed a good wrap! A very kind lady from the Sacramento Baby Wearers group is letting me borrow one of hers until I can buy one of my own and once I had that I got it down. We have been LOVING the back wrap since!

Here are the 5 month shots...so cute!

Baby Training

2012-08-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

This can be a pretty controversial topic but I am now a firm believer in training our children from infancy. We started Ecing our daughter from birth. Whenever I noticed her peeing or pooping I would say "psst" to get her to associate the word with the action. At 5 days old we started placing her on her potty and saying "psst" to tell her to go potty and she went for the very first time at our command. At the time it could have just been timing or coincidence but as time went on she learned the association of "psst" and time to go potty. Now it is very evident that it isn't just about timing and it definitely isn't coincidence but rather we have trained her to go potty at our command. Obviously if you have ever read my blog before we don't catch everything yet but she is still trained according to many. (There is a debate among some circles about what potty trained actually means, ex. one is trained when they have zero accidents anymore or when one has an understanding of when and where to potty and occasionally may have accidents. I tend to lean more toward the allowance for accidents since most pregnant women have had an accident before and no one would say they are no longer potty trained) Now some people still find my family very odd for "potty training" my daughter so early. And there sure are a lot of critics of EC out there, but let me assure you my daughter is trained to a pretty far extent.

Now if you understand that she is potty trained-ish, then you should understand that any baby can be trained for other things as well. One of my favorite parenting websites/ministry is No greater Joy. Please visit their website or even better read their books To Train up a child and No Greater Joy Volumes 1,2,&3 for more information on what I am talking about in a broader sense. But for now, this is what has been going on with training my daughter.

I really dislike getting my hair pulled as I am sure most would agree. And little baby hands are notorious for hair pulling or getting at your jewelry or eyeglasses. And I just really don't want to have to always wear my hair up, never wear jewelry, or be forced to start wearing contacts again. So I wanted to train my daughter to not touch those things on me or anyone else. I started maybe around 2 months or so. She was able to hold her head up and her arms were starting to squirm around much more and would grab anything they came in contact with including hair. Developmentally she didn't know what she was grabbing and I don't think was able to distinguish between hair or anything else she would grab so I didn't want to just say "no" to her grabbing and prevent her from grabbing at everything. So at first we began teaching her to let go. When she would grab hair or any other undesirable thing we would say "let go" two times while tapping her hand and then I would flick her hands until she let go. When she did I would smile and say "good girl!!!" which is also what I usually say when she potties in the toilet.

There weren't too many opportunities at first to train her but as she has gotten older more and more have arisen. Especially this last month. Her motor skills have improved drastically. At first she started reaching in the general direction for something she wanted to touch hoping to be able to grab it. Now she is getting pretty skilled at grabbing exactly what she wants. This whole time I have been training her to let go and this last couple of weeks she has shown HUGE improvement. She understands me now. It usually takes me 2 times saying "let go" and tapping her hand for her to let go. Occasionally I have to still flick her hand but she is definitely understanding what I am telling her. It is so neat to watch her little mind growing!

So now that she is able to grab at what she wants, we are starting to train her to not touch specific things. And now we are using the word "no". I usually give a flick the first time she touches anything because I want to quickly associate the word no with that object and then after she understands "no" I will just tell her once and if she continues to touch or touches again I will flick her hand until she stops touching. Since she already understands to let go when getting flicked it doesn't take her long to let go of something but if she still wants it she will keep grabbing at it a few more times. But has eventually always stopped. Its amazing! Once we can get her to understand the meaning of "no" our life will become much easier with an older baby! So stay tuned to hear more results!!!

In regards to getting back on track with EC...

So big! She is starting to sit on her potty on her own!

Yesterday went GREAT! I caught every pee overnight which is the very first time!!! Very exciting!!! Part of it was me waking up obviously but another was she was holding longer waiting for me to wake up because I knew I was getting up right away. And then during the day we only had 2 very small misses. One was in the morning after she woke up. She usually has a couple of small pees after she wakes up and it can be hard to catch them all when they are close together. I missed while I was taking a shower. The other one was when I was out shopping. She fell asleep in my wrap and then we went to my mom's house where I didn't pee her right away and since it had been a while she just couldn't hold it. But only 2 misses all day and night is an awesome record!!!!

Last night wasn't too great... we only missed 2 but I like not missing any : ) And this morning has been all catches except for one when she was playing on her belly.

Daddy is home!!!

2012-07-30T12:12:00.002-07:00

Our Family bed is complete again. He was so sleepy!

I woke up Tuesday morning and had a quick thought wondering if Chris would ever just come home one day and surprise me. Nothing made me think that; I just did. Then later that afternoon he text me saying that he was busy right then but would call me later. I was planning on going to a community group that night at 6 so I was hoping we wouldn't call then so I asked him when. He said he probably wasn't going to work that night and would prob call around 8-9. I thought that was a little odd since he had worked 2 weeks straight with no time off but then again maybe they were giving him time to rest or something. But because I had the thought of him coming him everything he said made me suspicious! So then I asked him what he was doing and he said he was driving. They were sending him all over the place for Union stuff. I reasoned in my mind that that could be true because he had been having some issues with the union earlier that week where he did in fact have to drive all over. But my heart was still hoping. I went to community group and was hanging out with everyone when he asked me when the group would be over. It hadn't even really started yet. Then he sent me a picture of inside our house with a glass of wine and our white lights lit. I immediately knew he was home and I announced to everyone that I had to leave because my husband was home. They were all excited for me and helped me get all Sammy's stuff in the car to rush home to my beloved husband who was waiting for me with M&M's!

She nestled into his armpit and fell asleep. She missed her Daddy!

Needless to say I was very excited and we both cried a lot that night! So I have my Baby Love home with me at last!

Since he has been home EC has not been going so great haha! I have been a little preoccupied with spending time with Chris that we have just not been paying attention to the potty cues. Oops...sorry Baby Girl! So we ran out of cloth diapers really fast this last week which means yesterday and today she has been in disposables : ( Which by the way are horrible for trying to catch! They have made our catch ratio plummet! We are probably catching about 20% these last couple of days!! But today is laundry day and I think our family is back on course so this week should get better.

I do have a funny story to tell about parenting. We saw a little boy this week that a family member was baby sitting who was 10 months old. He crawled into the bathroom and when he was pulled out he cried. Not a long cry which he dried up pretty quickly when he saw there were people he didn't know in the room. A comment was made and everyone started "aww" ing to him and he started crying again which was even funnier to everyone else not realizing they were why he was crying. But not because he had been offended; he couldn't even understand what was said. He was crying because he was getting attention for doing so. So after he stopped and was happy again I said, "Watch this" and for absolutely no reason I looked at him and began saying with a sympathetic face, "Aw, poor baby. That is so sad poor baby..." and immediately he started bawling again right on cue. Sometimes I don't think people realize how much children's emotions aren't true emotions but just a reaction to the emotion that is being given to them. Like a hurt child for instance will scream uncontrollably when people are around and especially if they are focusing on their "pain". But when no one is there or even just paying attention, they usually might cry for a second then keep playing. Unless they know someone is nearby who will give them the show they want. Just an interesting observation. Try it at home... for fun of course. Wouldn't want to make it a habit ; )

On another note... I finally made Sammy's 4 month onesie and took pictures today! It a little over a week overdue but better now than never! She is currently 29 inches long and 16.8 pounds! Thanks to Granny for the adorable new flower headbands and tutu!!! Enjoy!