T is FIVE

My sweet little guy is 5.  Wait, is that right?  No, he can't be five already!  That is not a little guy!  I'm really having a hard time with this birthday.  I'm not ready for him to grow up.  I'm not ready for this stage of life.  I like the freedom and flexibility we have to do school whenever we want, assuming we want to do it.  But at 5, kids start kindergarten at 5.  Yeah yeah yeah, we don't have to worry about that until next school year, but the fact remains that my kid is old enough to be in kindergarten.  He's just so BIG now.

We had a fun birthday party for him over the weekend.  He wanted a pumpkin patch theme and wanted it at our church.  So we bought pumpkins and set up his little patch.  We brought old tee shirts and painting supplies so the kids could paint their pumpkins.  I expected this to last a while.  It didn't!  But they were very happy to run around like little crazy people.  We had lots of balloons and a few games set up.  We didn't play many of the organized games I planned, though.  They were too crazy.  We were able to play 3 legged race, though.  It was fun.  T and his buddy B (who my sister used to nanny for, so we know him well) won both times.  I was honestly impressed with their strategy and team work!  The first round, they ran to the finish line like it was no big deal!  The second time, they fell down, but it didn't stop them from missing a beat.  They both crawled.  Ha ha!  The piñata was also a big hit.  I bought way too much candy!  Sorry other moms!

I don't think I have T's birth story written down anywhere, so I'm going to take this opportunity to share it :)

At 37 weeks, I was 3 1/2 cm dilated.  Doctor said he didn't expect me to be back next week!  Yeah!  Baby time!  Next week, I was still 3 1/2 cm.  Sigh.  Again, I left thinking I wouldn't make it to my next appointment.  Half way through the week, I have one contraction which pushed me up to 4, closer to 4 1/2 cm dilated, but still no baby.  For a month, I walked two laps around the mall every morning (it's a huge mall!) and then J and I walked laps around our apartment complex...over and over and over.  Still, no baby.  I was scheduled to be induced the day after my due date.  But finally, at 39 weeks and 5 days, I went into labor.  I called J as soon as I realized I was in labor (around 11) and asked him to come home.  It was a long drive and I was worried about being alone.  By the time he got home, I was having good, strong contractions and hopped in the shower until we ran out of hot water.  After that, we decided to head to my in-
laws house because they have a big Jacuzzi tub.  That was WONDERFUL.  The contractions hurt so much less when I was under the water.  But about 3 1/2 hours after the first contraction, we decided to head to the hospital.  J called to let them know and they told him I didn't sound like I was ready but I could be checked at their office if I felt like I needed to go.  I told him we were going straight to the hospital, not the doctors office.  I was 6 1/2 cm when we got there and so discouraged.  Soon after that, I was asking for an epidural.  Then my water broke.  That's about the time J suggested I wait to be checked again before getting the epi, because he knew how important it was to me to go med free.  9 1/2 cm!  Almost there!  Then labor stalled, I cried, almost threw up with every contraction, held onto J's arm, cried some more, then felt like I had to push.  Yay!  Baby time!  After a while of pushing, the nurse realized baby was sunny side up, which was making it hard to come out.  The doctor said he was too far down the birth canal to try to move him and he would have to be delivered that way.  YIKES.  But the nurse knew some tricks to encourage him to turn himself.  I pushed on my hands and knees for a long time and he eventually turned.  2 1/2 hours later, he was born.  After a total of 7 hours, my 8lb 8oz baby boy was born.  He left me with a 4th degree tear, but was otherwise the best baby.  Nursed ok, slept well, happy as can be.

Here is his yearly quiz :)
Favorite food- corn dogs
Least favorite- spaghetti
Favorite toy- the lazer tag and the remote control truck, both he got for his birthday
Favorite game- tag
Favorite tv show- spiderman
Best friend- little girl who used to live across the street, but moved to the single family area in our community (L)
Favorite place- Chick Fil A
Favorite color- blue
Favorite book- Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
Favorite song- Oh no, never let go
Future Career- Stay home to help Mommy with the children.  Ha ha.  He's such a sweet kid.  But this mommy is done having children!  ;-)

Little L is 3!

My sweet little guy is now a 3 year old!  I can't believe how fast these kids are growing.  Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of pictures from his party (forgot my camera), but we celebrated at my community's lake.  It was fun but he got overwhelmed by the end.  He told his grandmother, "I don't want to be the birthday boy anymore."  Lol!  Poor kid!  I try to ask the kids some questions on their birthday.  I don't know what I did with last year's answers, but here is how my L answered this year:

Favorite Food: Snacks
Least Favorite: Carrots
Favorite Toy: Nemo (He just got this for his birthday.  He's played with it twice)
Favorite Game: wrestling
Favorite TV show: JoJo's Circus (this changes weekly)
Best Friend: Daddy and T
Favorite Place to Go: Chick Fil A
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Book: Cars
Favorite Song: Veggie Tales
Future Career: Fly Helicopter     


The following day was Princess' half birthday.  At 6 months old, C can sit up by herself (she's even pushed herself into a sitting position twice!).  She has started scooting across the floor, gets on all fours and rocks, and has had a taste of banana and a baby mum mum.  She loves both and so badly wants to eat more!  Poor girl has to wait until we get back from our vacation, though.  This momma doesn't want to deal with those types of dirty diapers while we are gone (breast fed poo washes out, but once babies start solids, you have to dump and get it off first).  She also loves hair, her thumb, and people.  She is not a fan of diaper changes and being away from her Mommy.

We are in the process of planning for school (something else that has to wait until we get home from the beach).  This year, I've decided against a curriculum.  Well, actually I did buy a reading curriculum, but we didn't buy math, language, or anything else.  I came to the realization that one of the main reasons we chose to homeschool is because I don't want these boys sitting at a table doing papers all day long, so why would I do that at home?  Plus, we feel convicted to pay off our car and not buying curriculum will save us money.  That makes extra work for me, but I've had fun putting together games and projects to do in place of paperwork.  I will try to keep this blog posted on our fun stuff.  But you know me and blogging ;-)

Reflux

I know it's Monday and I said I would be posting my menu on Mondays.  This week, I'm not going to.  Instead, I thought I'd share a little bit of our reflux story and give some advice to those going through something similar.  I recently talked with a friend about it and felt it would be good to write it all out here too. 

Our Story:
We started noticing something was off with Sweet T when he was just a couple months old.  He spit up an average amount, slept GREAT, wasn't fussy, and was a big baby.  Nothing indicated reflux at all, until he started have episodes where he looked like he was choking.  I took him to the doctor, who at first didn't think it was anything major.  Maybe a little cold or something.  Then it started getting worse where he wouldn't breathe for a second, so I called again, and they said it was most likely silent reflux.  We started on some over the counter meds immediately, and this momma freaked!  My baby would literally stop breathing.  Can you imagine trying to sleep when your child did something like that?  It was scary.  And it got worse.  Those meds worked for about a month and a half, but by 3 1/2 months, we needed something stronger.  So we switched to Zantac.  It works for some kids, but not for T.  It didn't work AT ALL!  In fact, two weeks later we were back in his doctors office to figure something else out.  By this point, it was BAD.  REALLY BAD!  He would stop breathing for extended periods of time.  His pedi told us to switch to Prevacid.  After leaving the doctor's office, we had a scary 10 minute drive to meet my parents at a local restaurant.  T stopped breathing several times.  I remember thinking, "what if he doesn't start breathing again?"  At the restaurant, he had another episode.  This time, he turned blue and fainted.  Several times.  You can imagine what that did to his daddy and me!  HEART ATTACK!!!  We rushed him to the ER (which was thankfully really close by), where they put us in the cardiac room.  They said since he stopped breathing, turned blue, and fainted, he needed that room.  They ran tons of tests, pricked him several times, couldn't get that stupid IV in! and ran some X-rays.  It was every mother's nightmare and I remember it vividly.  After several hours, the ER doctor dismissed us and said to see our pedi the next day.  There was nothing else wrong with him.  His blue and fainting episode was simply reflux.  Turns out with some babies, they are able to close their throats to keep the acid down, because the acid burns so badly.  That's what T was doing.  We did not sleep well after that.  T was in our room for months because of it.  We were afraid to leave him with baby sitters, refused to put him in the nursery at church, and even when we started to a while later, I made sure to explain very carefully how to turn him upside down and smack his back if he stopped breathing.  I always made sure to throw in the "he turned blue and fainted" part just to make sure they watched him close enough.  And then I shook the entire service wondering if they would catch it if it happened.  Even with the prevacid, he would occasionally stop breathing.  It was nowhere near as bad, but still happened regularly.  My grandma is scarred from seeing it happen once.  She seriously cries even now when she talks about it.  As you can imagine, I've done tons of research and have lots of experience with reflux.  In fact, Little L had reflux too.  His was the more traditional type.  He didn't sleep, was SUPER fussy, spit up all over the place, you know, that type of fun.  They are both awful.  One is scary, one is frustrating (who likes to be up all hours of the night every night because your child is in too much pain to sleep?).  As if I don't have enough info in my brain, I've discussed this with a friend of mine who also has two reflux babies.  Her first was like L, her second is like T.  Together, we could teach classes.  Or... write a blog post about it :-D

Tips on how to help a reflux baby:
-Eating Right- Many babies have a hard time digesting dairy and you will probably find that cutting dairy out of your diet makes a world of difference (I'm assuming you're breast feeding, because Breast is Best).  Cutting spicy foods, tomato products, and caffeine will help too.  L's biggest issue was wheat.  When I cut gluten out of my diet, his milk allergy cleared up, and so did his reflux.  He was able to stop his meds months before T did!
-Speaking of feedings, small, frequent meals are best.  If you're anything like me, this one is HARD.  I'm not really a big fan of breast feeding.  I do it because I honestly believe it's best for them and would be selfish if I didn't.  I may not be the best momma ever, but I try really, really hard to put their needs above my wants.  Anyway, back to the topic :-).  You might feel like you feed baby, change a diaper, get a half hour nap, then have to feed baby again.  It's exhausting, but really does help!  And how's your let down?  Strong?  I'm sure it is.  That could be part of the problem too.  If you have a really strong and fast let down, let the milk spray in to a burp cloth or wash cloth until it stops spraying, then let baby re-latch and finish the meal.  My friend said her daughter does best being upright while nursing.  If you bottle feed, you want your baby upright too.
-In fact, that leads us to the next point.  Baby should be upright as much as possible.  Both of my boys slept in their car seats for a while.  L was in there for what seemed like forever!  He needed to be sitting up like that, though.  Laying down flat makes it so much worse.  Do you have a moby wrap?  If not, it might be worth buying one so you can have baby upright in there while you go about your day.  Hands free AND helpful! Alright!
-Burp baby often.  Feed for 5 or 10 minutes and then burp.  And burp the correct way.  Don't just put baby against your shoulder.  It doesn't do much.  You need to put a little bit of pressure on baby's tummy.  If you insist on burping over your shoulder, put baby's tummy on your shoulder with his hands down your back.  I always felt like my babies were going to fall, so I didn't use this method.  I preferred to have my boys sit on my lap with their heads supported between my thumb and first finger.  Here's a picture of J burping L like this (but L was trying so hard to lift his head, so it's not the best example ever)

With them leaning forward like that, pat their backs nice and hard (not too hard, but enough to get that air out).  Some people find it helpful to put baby on their lap and bounce.  This didn't work well for us, but it might work better for you.
-Tummy time is important for reflux babies, but not right after a meal.  Wait AT LEAST a half hour!
-Some people find Hazel wood necklaces helpful.  I honestly didn't even try them and my friend said it did absolutely nothing for her kiddos.  They are expensive, but if you feel so inclined, give it a try.  I wouldn't have high hopes, though.
-Another thing I just recently learned (thanks to my friend!) is that Papaya is supposed to help a lot.  Don't like the taste?  I think they have vitamins or pills.

So, there ya go!  I might add to this if I think of anything, or if my super informed friend has anything to add.  If I have any readers with suggestions or comments, please feel free to let me know!  Reflux is an awful, awful thing and it would be wonderful for you to share!

Things I love: baby clothing and such

I know it's been a while since I posted.  Swimming lessons really messed up our whole schedule, but they were a blast!  T loved them!  To get back into the swing of things, I thought I'd do another one of these posts :)  Things I love!

First and Foremost, cloth diapers!  Yup!  I LOVE them!  I have two favorite brands of cloth, Happy Heiny and Tiny Tush.  The reason I love these brands is because they are made for bigger babies.  Have you seen L's chunky thighs?  They're nice and big.  These diapers fit him well.  If you have skinny little ones, you would probably prefer a different brand, but for us, these are wonderful :)  (The picture above is L in his Happy Heiny cow print, it's my current favorite!  Love the cow print)

Because cloth diapers make bottoms so big, I love these one piece outfits.  It's really hard to find shorts that fit my sweet guy, but these are perfect!  Another reason why I love these types of outfits is because they are SO EASY to get on and off.  Both my kids hate (hated) diaper changes and (would) fight them like crazy.  It's nearly impossible to get shorts or pants pulled up!  But in these babies, I can snap the snaps between his legs while he's on the move.  It's so easy and SO cute!  T wore a lot of shorts and pants when he was L's age, but L almost never wears them. 

Now that I wrote about my favorite type of outfit, I'll tell you that my favorite brand is Carters.  Just like with the diapers, I like Carters because they fit my chunky boys better than most brands.  They are excellent quality too.  They often have sales and they are not too terrible expensive.  The things we bought for T still look great on L. 

My newest favorite place to buy baby/toddler clothes is actually thrift stores!  I used to shop at consignment sales all the time, but even those places seemed overpriced.  Babies especially don't wear things very long so I find things that look brand new...sometimes I even get things with tags still on them :)  It's a little harder to find nice things for T, because toddler boys are hard on their clothes, but every once in a while I find something amazing.

I think this is all I'm going to write for now.  I'm hoping to blog every day this week!  I really want to get back to my weekly schedule, but we'll see :)  I'm excited for Thursday so I can share all of the progress we've made in cleaning/organizing/decorating!  Have a wonderful Sunday!

Mixing it up a bit!

Today is Thursday, it should be about my cleaning journey.  But in all honesty, the house is a mess!  With VBS, J working late every night, and the indoor rain shower that has happened twice (and is destroying my ceiling), I've been too tired, stressed, and BUSY to worry about it.  So instead, I'm going to write about all the baby related things I love :)  I have a friend who was telling me about another baby blog where the writer does this, and I though it was a great idea!  I have things that I'm in love with and want to tell everyone about, so why not do a post about it?  Whoopie!  (Yes, Stace, I did just say Whoopie!)  Here we GO:

Car Seat:
I love the Britax Marathon that Little L has.  T has a different brand and I am far from impressed, but this Britax one is wonderful!  I feel really good about L in there.  It was easy to install, looks safe and comfy, and has excellent ratings.  I wish I had just spent the money and bought one for T.

Next up is my Ergo.  I could NOT handle two boys this young without my Ergo.  It is so much more comfortable than the Bjorn or any similar brand.  I have walked around DC with Sweet T in it...he was 32 lbs and I was completely fine.  My back, shoulders, everything felt great!  Little L likes to be held and sometimes I just don't have the hands to do it all while holding him, so in the Ergo he goes.  I use it every time I go shopping, especially grocery shopping.  I use it around the house.  I use it to take both boys to the park when J isn't with me.  This is definitely a must have for moms!  (I have also heard great things about the Beco, but I haven't tried it)

Feeding:
For breastfeeding, I found nipple shields to be very helpful in the beginning.  Now, L hated these.  I think it was the rubbery feel of things that bothered him because he also hated bottles and pacis.  With T, on the other hand, these were a life savor!!!  Seriously, they taught him how to latch on easily and they minimized the pain tremendously!

I also enjoyed making their baby food when it was time for them to start eating.  Here is the website I used to teach me what to do.  A few other things I loved (or my kids loved) were:

For sleeping arrangements, my babies were in my room until the were 6 and 7 months old.  I used a pack n play for them to sleep in.  The one I loved most had the bassinet attachment and a co sleeper attachment.  It also had a higher weight limit, which was a HUGE plus for us since my babies tend to be big.  The brand is Baby Trend and I have a sports themed one

Both my boys loved their swing.  It goes both ways (side to side, and forward to back)  It looked super comfy too.  It's the Fisher Price Papasan Swing.  See above

I have a lot more that my kids loved, but this blog entry is getting long and the boys are awake now, so I'll save it for another day.  Happy Thursday, all!