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Doctor's Orders*

Anna went to the doctor and the doctor said....

She's allowed to play with Cows.

She's allowed to dress like a Cow.

She's allowed to be surrounded by Cows while dressed like a Cow.

She's even allowed to wear nothing but a Cow hat.

But she's not allowed to have Cow's milk.
And neither is her Mama.

Why?  Well, it appears Miss Anna's allergic or at least sensitive to the protein in Cow's milk.  Granted, she's not drinking it yet but I am so she is getting the protein via me.  So yesterday, after well over 2 weeks of congestion and no other symptoms, I took her to the doctor.  Yes, I took a perfectly healthy 12 week old to the doctor to sit in the waiting room with all those flu cases.  After checking her lungs, her ears, her mouth, etc... we realized her lungs were clear, no earaches, no signs of incoming teeth, so everything checked out fine except for the snot.  All the snot.  So that and a few other symptoms point to a food allergy.  Cow's milk is the most common in infants...good news though most outgrow it by 3 (fingers crossed).

I cut out the basic dairy items last week but I'm still having trouble staying away from all the hidden milk products.  Milk is everywhere... I've spent some extra time reading labels and I have it figured out. Mostly.  When I don't read a label and assume something is clean, I get into trouble.  Like the Tootsie Pop I had yesterday in the car.  Or the mini animal crackers my parents brought us. Or the croutons I added to my salad.  Or the ice cream I so badly want...just kidding I know ice cream isn't clean.

Since Anna is growing well (she weighed in at 11lbs 8oz yesterday), sleeping well (usually 4-5 hour chunks at night), and happy 99% of the time (all babies are fussy now and then), the doctor isn't too worried about it.  Cutting out dairy may decrease her congestion so I'm giving it a go.

Good bye ice cream...I love you, really love you...but I love my daughter more, way more.

*Not really orders, but suggestions. :)

ketchup pictures

ok.. I mean Catch Up Pictures

Remember when I said we were going to the library for Baby & Me?  Well we didn't make it because this is the baby that arrived at the library.  This is the baby that not only slept the whole way to the library, but through the three errands I ran instead of taking a sleeping baby to the book program.  Maybe this week...

Here's Anna rockin' Baby Leg and a Mohawk before her bath yesterday morning.

You go girl, not many people could pull both of those styles off!

DWD#3

So I've been using my own cloth diapers for a week. In that week I've done wash three times, we've started using cloth wipes, and we traveled over the weekend. So here’s my thoughts and some pictures from the past weekend visit with the G-parents.

Pop, Nona, Anna, Gram, and Granddaddy

Take me out to the ball game...

Wash - What was I worried about? 

It's super easy to wash diapers. I try to wash about 24 at a time so I don't overload the machine. I throw them (along with the wipes) into the washer and run a cold cycle with no detergent to get rid of all the messy stuff. If needed, I then soak the diapers in some OxiClean Baby for as long as time allows. One day I soaked the really messy ones overnight, and this morning I soaked all of them for about an hour. When it comes time for the real wash cycle, I add detergent and run a hot wash with an extra rinse. I still want the diapers to quilt up some so I'm drying them in the dryer on hot for 60-90 minutes until they are dry. It's a good thing I don't want to use the sun because I usually have my timing off and wash at night OR it is too cloudy to hang them outside.

It's hard to get two kids to smile and stay still at the same time!



Doesn't that look like it's going to be a great laugh? I can't wait to hear it.



Cloth wipes - really?

So originally I thought cloth wipes were gross. I have NO idea why I thought washing wipes was gross when I was signed up to wash diapers. As we used cloth diapers while we were away from home, I realized I never had a place to put the disposable wipe. I could very easily tuck the dirty diaper in the wet bag but then I was stuck holding a dirty wipe until I could find a trashcan. By using cloth wipes, everything can go into the wetbag after a diaper change. Using cloth wipes at home is a little bit of extra work. We wet a dry wipe (basically a washcloth) with some soapy water from a spray bottle before we use it instead of just grabbing one out of the pack. The only extra thing for the diaper bag is a little spray bottle. Best part is that on wash day, I don’t even know I’m washing wipes!

My sister, My mom, and I

What's wrong with this picture?

Use cloth, will travel.

We haven’t traveled long enough to have to do wash on the road, so it’s just like traveling with ‘sposies. Well, clean cloth diapers do take up a bit more room than disposables when you are packing up the car, and they come home with you of course. And traveling means the need for a wetbag of sorts. We have a fancy one that is a wet/dry bag so we can keep dry clean diapers on one side and wet dirty diapers on the other. This works great for the diaper bag. As we found this past weekend, a trash bag works for a couple of days as a diaper pail. My nephew watched me change Anna’s diaper and wanted to know, “Why don’t you use the diapers you throw out like everyone else?” I kept my answer simple for him, “I can save lots of money this way and we have to take the trash out a lot less.” To which he responded, “But it’s gross, and you have to do lots of wash.” This was my chance to slip a life lesson into our everyday conversation… “Well, if you believe in something the extra work is always worth it.”



After 2 attempts of getting her hair to lay flat, I gave up!



Our nephew playing ball.

Interview with Anna

How old are you today? 11 weeks and 5 days or 82 days

Nicknames: Too many to list…Mama just called me Peanut, and Daddy just called me BabyGirl.

Favorite food? Mama’s milk…is there anything else?

Favorite thing to do? I LOVE to be naked on my changing table. I wish I could be naked all the time but Mama says I have to wear a diaper sometimes.

Favorite people? Daddy and Mama

What’s your favorite toy? That’s tough… Jack (a Pirate Octopus, AKA Captain Calamari), Tigger, or Puppy (an Anna sized stuffed animal rattle)

Shower or the bath? Shower because I get cold in the bath.

Are you a morning bird or a night owl? I’m a Morning Bird because I’m very happy in the morning and sometimes at night I’m sad and cry a lot.

Cloth or Disposable? CLOTH!

Favorite color? I wear a lot of pink but I really like purple.

Favorite song? “Wrapped up in You” by Garth Brooks but sung by my Daddy

Right or Left? I'm not sure yet.

Plane or Car? Plane, because I don’t have to be all alone in my carseat

Favorite place to sleep? In my swing or on anyone who will hold me close

Any bad habits?  Umm, I like to pull on my ear, poke at my eye, or play with my hair when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Favorite saying? Do you mean for me to say or to hear? To say - Ah-goo. To hear – I love you, Anna.

Favorite number? 2

Photographer or Subject? Subject. I could have my picture taken all day everyday, it’s so much fun!

Paci or Fingers?  Well, if I can find my fingers, I do like them but the paci works too.

Favorite animal? Elephant. I have lots of elephants in my room and on my clothes. I even have one named Blue who is very soft and plays music for me.

Favorite season? Winter – I Love Snow! That reminds me of another nickname… SnowBaby.

Hugs or Kisses? That’s easy….both.

Do you take naps? Catnaps, of course!

Least favorite thing? Red lights and stopsigns. I hate when the car is stopped, I like to go, go, go!

Did you really answer all these questions by yourself? Yes.

Cross your heart? Well, ok maybe my Mama helped me. But the answers are all true. I promise!




Caught in the act...



First Baseball Game

This is how Anna spent her first baseball game....snuggled up with her Daddy.

Or her Mama.

Or various other people. 

She was way more into snuggling than baseball. 

A Test

Every relationship is at some point tested to see just how strong it is.

Every relationship including mine.

My relationship with cloth diapers.

That test was this morning.  After 9 weeks of using cloth 99% of the time, we had our first mess.  To all those people I bragged about the lack of blowouts in cloth, this is for you.

To be fair, every relationship is a two way street.  There is give and take. Enough blame to go all around when something goes awry.  What I'm saying is that I can't blame only the diaper for the mess.  Let me set the stage - We went to bed around 11:00 last night, I nursed Anna around 2 and again at 6.   Diapers changes at 2 and 6 of course.  Well that diaper change at 6 caused all the problems....  So how could I blame it all on the cloth when I was half asleep while changing her? :)

So our relationship lives on.  As strong as yesterday.  However, wiser and perhaps more in touch with reality.

No pictures of the mess, the bath, afterwards, or the happy sleeping baby I have at the moment, can you blame me?  Who want's poop on your camera??

Here's a picture from that boatload I took the other day...

Enough for now - It's DWD (diaper wash day) but before that fun we are off to the Library for Baby & Me.

Cloth 101

Before I start – I just want to say that yesterday I had an absolute blast with Anna taking all these pictures. I’m thrilled to be her Mama and to be privilege to be able to take her pictures day in and day out! I took 186 pictures in exactly 50 minutes. The diapers had just finished up in the dryer and therefore were still warm. She was such a happy kid snuggled up in the freshly washed diapers. I figured the diapers will never be that clean again so I should take full advantage and get lots of cute baby pics.

Cloth 101:

After numerous months of researching, six weeks of using the diaper service, and bugging friends for their opinions, I still felt totally overwhelmed by all the cloth options out there. So I just dove in head first and bought some diapers. As previously mentioned, we’ve had fantastic luck using prefolds. There is a little less laundry this way and it is much cheaper. So we stuck with prefolds. I paid just over a hundred dollars on three dozen diapers. To get three dozen all in one diapers or pocket diapers, I could have easily spent 4x that. Maybe even 5 or 6x that. Anyway, I decided to get organic cotton prefolds that are 4x8x4 ply. Organic because they are softer and let’s be real folks, the combo of our sensitive skins can only leave Anna with super sensitive skin, so the absence of all the chemicals is a bonus. Going organic did bump the cost up a little but still very inexpensive in the end. We bought the medium size which is 14-29 lbs from Green Mountain Diapers. From what I found, GMD had 4x8x4 where most other diapers were 3x6x3. The price difference was nominal for the extra layer. It is quite possible these diapers will get us to potty training. They will probably be a little bit big for now but big means extra absorbency and without getting too graphic we need all the absorbency we can get! :) I’m currently researching doublers but that’s for a whole other post.

Prefolds require the use of a waterproof cover. On the recommendation from a friend, I registered for Thristies. We have 6 that we use on a rotating basis. With each diaper change, the diaper goes in the pail, and the cover gets reused. That’s the beauty of prefolds, we can reuse the covers a couple of times before it has to be washed. Actually, we typically rinse the covers after two or three uses and then throw it back in the rotation for another round before it goes in the wash. Of course, if there is an exceptionally dirty or wet diaper, we immediately change the cover and soak the dirty one before it goes in the wash. The cover is the fun part of cloth diapering, in other words the colored part! We have covers in a few different colors – including orange and purple! Sometimes the color shows through Anna’s clothes but it’s just a color and not the cartoon character from the disposable which you can also see through clothes! So if you add the cost of the covers to my total investment we are up to roughly $180 for the next two years on diapers… pretty good if you ask me!



 

Our cloth diapers arrived on Monday and I’ve been washing them since to prep them. Cotton has natural oils that keep the fabric from absorbing liquid, so I’ve got to get rid of the oils. 4 or 5 washings in hot hot water should do the trick. I’ve also been drying them on high heat to shrink them up a bit. Prefolds are flat when brand new and they quilt up with use. I should have taken a picture of before but I didn’t, surprised right? These pictures are of afterwards – see the quilting? Notice the red stitching on the edge? The company I bought from uses a different color for each different size. So if you have more than one child in diapers you can quickly tell which diaper fits which kid. Maybe that will come in handy some day…who knows? To test if the diapers are ready, I poured some water on them. The diaper soaked up the water instantly – perfection!

As for washing, I did buy a special detergent but it’s not a requirement. Most mainstream detergents coat our clothes with “stuff” to make them look brighter and stay fresh. This “stuff” would eventually build up enough on the diapers that they wouldn’t soak up liquid like they should. Right now since Anna is exclusively breastfed, I don’t have to do anything special with her diapers before wash day. Breastfed poop dissolves in water! Neat, huh? When we introduce solid food in a couple of months (already?!?), we will have to rinse the diapers and flush the poop down the toilet before they are tossed in the diaper pail. This isn’t that much different than what should happen with all diapers including disposables since it’s illegal to throw poop away and not flush it down the toilet. I was surprised to read this on the outside of one of the disposable diaper packs we bought when we first brought Anna home. It makes sense because it needs to be treated properly in the sewer but who knew? Anyway, there are diaper sprayers you can hook to the back of your toilet or you can just dunk them in the toilet a few times. I’m not sure exactly how we’ll do all of this since it is still a few months off. (Future blog topic I’m sure.) Back to the diapers at hand, since I prepped the diapers without detergent, I ran the diapers through the wash one last time when the detergent got here, and now we are ready to diaper!

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Like we thought, the diapers are a good bit bigger than what we had.  The diapers we had from the service were about to be too small anyway.  Anna (like her Mama) seems to be in between sizes so it was too small or too big and we opted for too big.  She’s a nursing machine so she’ll fill them out soon enough!  It took me a try or two to get the diaper on because I wasn’t sure what to do with the extra.  Once I got it figured out the next few diaper changes were routine.  Yes, she’s had a couple of diaper changes since I started this post.  She nurses almost every two hours during the day and gets her diaper changed that many times and more.  See, why I’m all about the cloth? Saving money one diaper change at a time! 

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Ok so we’ve been through five diaper changes in our diapers and all is well, as expected. I really like how soft they are compared to those of the service. Allen changed a diaper when he got home and it took him a try or two as well to figure out what to do with the bigger diaper as well. He actually had a really good idea so now I’m copying his style! :) Nothing else to report yet.  My first wash day will be Friday – so expect more diaper chat then.

Speaking of wash day, I’m going to track my electricity and water bills to see what impact cloth diapering (CD) has on them. Pray for sun because I’m going to use it to help dry diapers as well as remove stains. **Edit** Allen doesn’t think we will really be able to tell a difference in our bills because I’m at home now throughout the day using more electricty than when I was at work. Now that I think about it, I might not be able to tell a difference in the water bill either. Since Anna was born we do so much more laundry without even counting the diaper loads, so we’ll see.



Can I take a nap now, Mama?



So future blog posts include –

~Snappies & Doublers

~Cloth Wipes – I can’t believe I’m using them.

~Diaper Wash Day – AKA: Every other day.

~CD and the growing baby

~CD and utility bills

~The Traveling CD baby

~More pictures from the 186 I took yesterday - there are some goodies!

Stuck

You know the saying, stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Well, I'm stuck between wonderful and fantastic! 

Sounds great, right? So why do I use the word stuck? 

Let me explain...

Each and every day, we are greeted by a smiley baby.She is full of life and love.  Her face lights up when when sees us.  She snuggles with us.  She wraps her arm around my side when shes nursing and rests it on my back.  She talks with us. Oh, can this girl talk?! She needs our all but in giving it all we receive it back ten fold. I can't get enough of the wonderful now.

But there's the future, the fantastic future!  We have many things planned in the next few months for this little one. First, there's her baptism at the beginning of March.  Lots of people will be in town to celebrate with us. My grandparents are even flying down for their first visit to our home here.  My parents, in-laws, and sister are all driving in as well.  Then in April, there's a vacation with Allen's family to Gatlinburg.  If all goes as planned, we will be there with his grandmother, his parents, and his aunt and uncle's family as well! In May, I have one cousin getting married AND one cousin expecting a baby girl. So of course we will be traveling home for all that fun! In June, we have a trip to Williamsburg with my family. Never been and excited to go! In July, we have a beach week planned with my cousins.  Just like when we were kids - oh yeah!  See what I mean about the fantastic future?

So that's why I'm stuck.  I want to live in the moment and cherish every second with Anna (and Allen) but I'm looking forward to so many things, I'm almost wishing away the very moments I want to cherish. 

Here's the deal - We can't stop time. And that's good and bad.  Maybe I'll touch on the bad side another day.  But the good side of that is that all those plans I just listed are eventually going to be the now moments to cherish.  So, if I just enjoy now now, I'll eventually enjoy it all without missing a thing!

Sounds easy. 

I think.

Happy Heart Day!

Yesterday's breakfast. 

I thought I was being sneaky and I was going to surprise Allen with these pancakes but he watched me do the whole thing....  He acted surprised though.  I only realized my plan hadn't worked when I told him I was proud of myself for surprising him and he responded with, "Oh, I knew."  :)

First ever cheesecake. 

This was a long time in the making.  First, I got a cookbook for my birthday last year from a friend.  Second, I got springform pans from my sister for Christmas.  Third, I got brave and bought the ingredients for yesterday's dessert.  Beside the obvious Grand Canyon of Cheesecakes, it turned out pretty good.  Looks don't matter, right?  It's what's on the inside that counts!

After the excitement of a Valentine's Day breakfast with friends,

Anna's asleep in her swing. 

Happy first Valentine's Day sweetheart!

Look - but don't judge!

She's sitting alone!

Ok, in a bumbo chair, but she's sitting alone!

Ok, she's on the bar, in a bumbo chair, but she's sitting alone!

Ok, Ok, I know - she shouldn't be on the bar in a bumbo chair sitting alone but I was right there.

Promise.

So look at my sweet ten week old sitting alone, but please don't judge!

S*A*H*M

Are you familiar with the acronym SAHM? We are. At least now we are.

A few weeks ago, I made a decision that was both one of the easiest and hardest of my life. I decided to not go back to my job and stay home with Anna. I became a SAHM. A Stay At Home Mom.

I could not be happier. As any parent knows, babies aren’t babies long. I can’t believe how much Anna has grown and developed already, and I’m thrilled to be able to take it all in.

I think that I am more surprised than most at my final decision. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be one of them. But now that I am, it makes total sense.

Like I said, it was the easiest and hardest decision I’ve made thus far. Easy because who wouldn’t want to stay at home with your precious baby all day? Easy because once Anna was here, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Easy because my husband supported me in the decision. Completely. Hard because I had to turn in my notice and stop working with some great friends. However, now they are just friends and not coworker friends! Sounds better, doesn’t it? Hard because it seemed silly (almost stupid) to lose an income right when our family started growing. But that’s why we’ve saved all these years (almost 7) that we’ve been married. If you didn’t know, I’m a cheap. My mom would say frugal. But really, I’m cheap. Thankfully I love to save money. Most days I’d rather save than spend. Ha – Allen knows that’s true but teases me after shopping sprees anyway. So with a few more coupons and being a bit more cheap frugal, we’ll be just fine.

So here we are starting on a new adventure together. Mama and Anna. Bring on story time at the Library, swimming at the Y, volunteering with Church, and anything else you can think of.

Bring it all on. 

The tears.

 The smiles. Most definitely bring those on. 

I want it all.

Pictures!

As promised - here are some pictures from our trip up North!



Bonus Feature - Pictures from Aunt Abby's last visit!

T-I-Double G - er

Anna's been in our room and we are starting to make the transition to her crib in her room.  It's going to be a very slow and sleepless process.  Slow because she isn't always keen on the idea and sleepless because we can't stop peaking at her. 

Sunday we decided to take a nap and thought it was the perfect opportunity to test out her crib.  Anna loves warmth and since her room faces south it was nice and toasty.  We laid her down in her crib and she was wide awake and kicking like crazy. I don't remember who got Tigger out but one of us put him down next to her and she zeroed in on him so we snuck out. 

Since she's been in our room, we really haven't used the monitor yet so we thought this nap would be a good trial run.  So we turned it on and laid down.  Both of us were quite for a minute or two and then we just couldn't help but comment on how happy she sounded through the monitor.  We could hear the rattle in Tigger which meant she was playing with him, we could hear her talking to Tigger, and we could her her legs kicking.  (Side note - sometimes it looks like she is trying to run in place because her legs are moving so fast.) I couldn't believe it, we were using up precious nap time talking about how sweet she sounds.  We quieted down again but no sooner had that happened when Allen jumped up and said, "I gotta see this!"  Well if he was going to peak, I wasn't going to be the one caught napping!

There we were - two grown adults sneaking out of our room and peaking into the next room to see just what our girl was up to.  She was just as happy as could be.  Allen started mimicking her sounds which just got her talking more.  I'm not sure if she thought it was Tigger talking or what.  She loves to talk back to us.  Now that I typed that out, I think we may have a problem on our hands as she gets older!  But for now, we make all the sounds she makes back at her and it keeps her going and going.  It's so much fun.  She gets excited and smiles as she coos, gargles, shrieks, laughs, clicks, raspberries, etc. 

Once we had satisfied our curiosity, we crawled (did I mention we were crawling to stay low and out of her sight?) back to our room and laid down again.   Laying down lasted less time than the first time!  We were up again going to peak because it sounded like so much fun in there!  She was right where we had left her doing the same thing we had just witnessed but we couldn't help ourselves.  She's just so fun!  It makes my heart swell to watch her.  The smiles and the sounds are pure joy at its finest.  Well, you can guess what happened next - I couldn't resist, I had to get the camera.  Capturing my daughter's pure joy sounded like the type of challenge I'd skip a nap for. 

So like I said - it's going to be a slow and sleepless process!

Taken from our hiding place in the hall.



I gave up on hiding.  This picture was taken in plain sight!

The end of the story is funny - it has nothing to do with Anna but everything at the same time.  We never did get a nap.  When we laid down the third time the happy baby in the next room only lasted a few minutes.  She started fussing and quickly worked her way up into a full scream.  Allen went to get her calmed down and turned the monitor off when he went in there.  I was being lazy and didn't get up to turn the part in our room off.  As I laid there trying to at least get a few minutes of rest, I heard the receiver making weird feedback sounds. It sounded just like a bird.  The kind of bird people have as a pet.  I thought it was funny and when Allen came into our room with Anna I said, "Listen, that sounds like a bird."  We listened to it fora  few minutes and then all of the sudden we heard a bird, a baby, and an adult!!  We were picking up someone else's transmitter!!  I jumped up and turned it off, I felt guilty eavesdropping even it wasn't my fault! We made a note to change the channel next time we use the monitor.  I wonder if anyone heard Anna and Tigger talking?

banANNA pudding

out little banANNA.

I made banANNA pudding for the first time this weekend.  It's probably my least favorite dessert, ever.  But I know it's a favorite of many including my husband.  I called his parents and got the recipe so I could make it just like his Mom makes it. Turns out it's a recipe from his Great-Grandmother, that his Grandmother made as well as his Mom.  Pretty neat!  I was writing down the ingredients while I was talking to my MIL on the phone and I kept waiting for the box of pudding ingredient.  Silly me - this is the real deal.  Homemade all the way.  Nothing from a box in this pudding.  OK - the Nilla wafers are from a box but I'll let them slide because they are the one good thing about this dessert.  However, the key to this dessert is making sure the Nilla wafers are good and soggy, so scratch that.  I mixed up all the ingredients and brought it to a boil on the stove while we layered bananas and wafers.  As Allen poured the homemade custard into the bowl, I tried not to cry while I watched all those wonderful cookies get ruined and he had to wipe the drool off his face.   The pudding was our contribution at the Super Bowl party last night. It was a hit, and we brought less than a serving home. Allen said more than once, "Really good, babe. Really good."  Mission accomplished.

Bath Time.

Thanks to the following people for making this such a success:

Nona for holding the slippery baby,

Daddy and Pop for documenting the event,

Mama for the actual bath,

and a special thanks to Mr. Teapot for coming

out of retirement to help with Anna's bath.