Being a mom keeps me busy!

Shaley has got past the sleep regression (I hope!). It lasted maybe a week or two, and I'm thankful that she's sleeping well again, although not as well as she was before. Perhaps now I can work on getting her sleeping through the night. Our new routine is to wake up at 11, 2, and 5. This is similar to before but with the added 11pm time. I'm hoping it won't be hard to take out as it's only 2-3 hours after her last feeding before bed. Of course that is easier said than done. She refuses to take a pacifier from me, but will with little resistant from anyone else. She's quite a doll, but she can be a booger too.

Lately I've been kept busy by Shaley, who seems to be getting more clingy. She is getting more irritated when I'm not around and when her father is watching her. The eight hours a day I used to work felt so long, as did the early days when I was at home. Now the time flies by even though we've done little to nothing during the day. Since it is the Christmas season, Shaley and I have been making cookies at home! I've been making some every day this week and I will surprise the family with them in their stockings on Christmas morning. Of course I've also ate my fair share before putting them in the freezer!

Since I've still not started my new (very part time) job money is always tight and I've taken to couponed and homemade gifts for almost every gift that we will be giving. My dear husband likes to spend a dollar amount per person, but as I would like to see it, it is the thought that counts. I love the fact that me being money savvy has allowed us to buy presents for our children this year. It's almost a welcome change that our budget is so small because it has challenged me to be more resourceful than I ever would have before. We no longer fight over finances and I get to see my child grow more each day.

On a side note, I do believe she's growing hair and will not be bald/balding like her parents!

4 Month Sleep Regression

There are many things that I'm learning about this child that no one has ever told me, or found it worth while to explain! Other mom's may know what I'm talking about when it comes to this (engorgement anyone?!), especially the 4 month sleep regression. Perhaps it is just me that did not know these things?! Shaley was a good sleeper for 2 months of her still short life. The first 3 weeks were horrible in the sleep 'department'. Then we had a wonderful stretch of sleeping from 8 pm to 1 or 2 am, and then down till 5 am!!! That was an incredible time. Since then we've hit the 3 month growth spurt which caused us to wake up every 1-2 hours and sometimes multiple times in the same hour. Ugh. Just after getting through that stage things returned to normal...for a week. Her 3 month growth spurt lasted 3 weeks (her sleeping patterns didn't return to normal for that long). Now we've reached what I was surprised to learn, the 4 month sleep regression stage.

Why didn't I hear of this earlier?! Everyone I've talked to has said it gets easier after the 3 month growth spurt. Things aren't the same with every child. I know I should know this and expect that ever child is different, but sometimes you just follow with hopes that it rings true. Some days I would like to believe that there is a conspiracy out there to block such unpleasant events in the early stages of a child's life, just so women continue to have children. Granted, these thoughts only occur on nights where I've had little sleep!

One thing that hasn't changed is that I'm very thankful for that little girl, and I'm still thankful for her sleep patterns because I know it could be worse. We don't wake up every 2 hours most nights, and I know there are mom's out there that do those short bursts of sleep every night. One common bit of advice that does, however, stick with me is that even the worst days and nights will go away with time. Children grow up, and even though us mom's don't always think so, it's a good thing that they do. We want them to grow up and have the best life possible, even though we want them to stay babies forever! What the contradiction.

Balancing Time

I think the hardest part of being a new parent is balancing time between your husband and your child, or children. It seems I have slowly lost my husband in the mix. Between me being a full time mom, a job in itself, and my husband trying to make up the difference, we've spent little time with each other. Because I don't have any monetary income I would feel guilty spending money on getting a babysitter for one night. I cannot justify that expense until I start having some sort of income. Because of this guilt our relationship seems to have been where the impact of this has happened. We spend our days going through the motions, and although things aren't bad (we've definitely gone through more ups and downs while I was working) things are just kind of blah.

Being a mom has been great, but future mom's beware, it comes with it's own set of difficulties. Most people may not get into the downside of having children, but sometimes we need to hear that we're not alone in this! More work needs to be put into a relationship once there are children present, at least that's what I have found. Perhaps this is not true for all relationships, but I can only share what personal experience has taught me. There are more ups and downs that just in a wife/husband relationship, but that's another post! Children can bring much joy to your life, there is no doubt from what I have found. I was a skeptic on this before I had Shaley.  But now I can easily get lost in her loving personality and her cute little toes and put the relationship I had with my husband in the background.

This is wrote as a reminder to myself and possibly an insight to think of for a future mom. Sometimes the relationships we already have need to be worked on and not left stagnant.

Simply Baby Diapers

So I recently purchased a new cloth diaper from Just Simply Baby. They had a clearance sale for Halloween, so I felt I could sneak this purchase past my dear husband! It's of course orange and a pocket type diaper. I'm not a huge fan of a pocket diaper, but nonetheless, I did try it out. I was pleasantly surprised with the trimness of it. It was not big and bulky like my minky Kawaii diaper is. It has a decent construction and I think it will last us a while. It has cross over tabs for newborn babies which would work well. The inside covering is very soft and comfortable for Shaley, and I didn't see any complaints from her!

I like the feature of the elastic bunch on the back side to help with blow out protection. I haven't had any blow out issues in this diaper yet, but I have had one leaking incident. It seems to fit well though so I will monitor that for any future leaks. I was overall pleasantly surprised and feel confident purchasing another in the future, especially for the price. The only issue I potentially see from this diaper is that the lower snaps near the hips make the fabric fold over and then you see the liner, this is shown a little in the picture above. This may be just my little girl, and may fit better on others.

I would purchase from Just Simply Baby again. The shipping was fast as well.

Also, if you're curious, I also bought baby legs from their sale and they were of quality construction and look good on my little girl. They are quite long though so they will fit for quite some time, which makes my money well worth it.

Night Time Sleep Patterns

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post, but we've been going through a rough patch with Shaley, and we've had a lot of company!

It seems that a lot of my fellow August mom's have become frustrated with their little one's lately! We're hitting the last big growth spurt for a while and that may mean less sleep for both us and our cute little babies! Shaley finally slept good for two nights in a row so I'm getting fairly confident that we're going to keep with it. It feels so good to sleep again! She had a hard time going to bed at night and would wake up every hour (sometimes twice an hour!) to every couple hours. I've had to break out my pump again to relieve my poor breasts. The good news with that means that I will have milk in the fridgerator for when I take my driving test.

Driving test? Yes, I understand that this is a Stay at Home Mom blog, but even I need to get out of the house occasionally. I will be working VERY part time for the post office in town. That means every two weeks I will work one Saturday. This comes at a great time for us since the holidays are coming up and that means more spending! More toys, more trips to the parents, and more baking!!

Prioritizing

Some days I wonder how I got anything done. No, I guess I meant to say most days. My husband comes home from work and he asks about my day. That is the moment when I look back and decide that, yes, I actually got something done. Behind the chaos of my day I do usually get laundry washed and dishes done. Not everyday may have them neatly folded and put in place, but at least they are clean and ready to be used again. This is how I prioritize my housework. With a new baby in the house some things just come first! With that being said, I am personally the farthest down on my list until the man comes home. Usually I'm still stuck in my pajamas and unbrushed teeth with my hair pulled back in some strange, messy way. Although this may be a horrible sight to envision, my fellow mom's know what I'm talking about!

So, even though I may not look great, at least we have clean clothes (if I choose to get dressed that day) and clean dishes to eat from. I may not have dinner made all the time, but we still have a happy baby and that's all that really matters.

Then, when my husband comes home, I finally have time to brush my teeth and maybe even go to the gym! As soon as this happens it's off to bed for the baby and time to do it all over again tomorrow. Priorities are so important to my every day!

Failed Attempt at Candy *Updated*

I tried to make honey candy the other day. Let me just say it was a complete disaster. I'm only glad the only harm done was loosing a piece of wax paper. I felt like we may loose a pan or two from the incident also, but they cleaned up nicely. I guess we learn from our mistakes and I may attempt at making some again today, wish me luck! The recipe I followed was not the greatest but I'll include it below so you do not make the mistake I did!

2 C sugar
1/2 C water
1/2 C honey
1/4 C butter

The directions for this recipe are very vague. They state that you should cook in a heavy pan over heat till it reaches a "hard crack" stage. First, the recipe does not tell you what the "hard crack" stage is. I was still fairly confident on what this meant though, because growing up around my mother meant lots f different recipes and cooking techniques. Secondly, they do not tell you wether or not to add the butter to the pan, or just to the baking pan you add the mixture to later. So I decided to just add the butter to the baking pan and not to the honey mixture. I'm still not sure if that was my downfall or not. The problem I ran into was with it sticking to the baking pan and still being too hot to handle. I found this recipe on cooks.com if anyone is interested.

As I have a surplus of honey at my home (due to my parents owning bees) I may try this again with a few changes. I'm going to try to dump the honey into the buttered baking pan and letting it sit till cool and just breaking it into chunks. The other option would be to get candy molds which I don't have the finances or the location to buy them at. Perhaps at a later time.

My ultimate goal is to make this with rosemary into a Honey Rosemary candy to sell. Don't steal my idea, it's not nice! Wish me luck!



* I made this recipe again and it turned out pretty good! With some tweaking it will make a great candy!

To pump, or not to pump?

I find myself wondering if I should still pump now that I'm not working anymore. The answer I mostly find myself leading to is yes. I still wake up at about 2 am with an uncomfortably full feeling. Sure, she could sleep longer, but my chest says no more. So as a compromise I decide to dream feed her and pump afterwards. It won't hurt, as I don't have as large of a freezer supply as others I know.

I don't know about other's significant others, but mine seems to complain about the need to warm up such food for their child. I find this funny, as he has the least amount of work between the two of us. I could go on further and complain but I won't. I do love the man and his silly, but sometimes nasty, habits. Men should be thankful for those of us who do decide to continue to breastfeed! It's not only good for the child, but they have less work to do. Isn't that every man's goal, to have less work to do? Or women's for that matter, but we always like to take the hard way it seems. Perhaps this is my own findings and not true for others.

Kawaii Diapers

I'm really loving the one Kawaii diaper I have. The husband put it on tonight and I got reminded of how thick and absorbant it feels. Now I need to purchase a regular Kawaii diaper to see if they work just as well (we have an overnight/heavy wetter version). They seem even more durable than the Happy Heinies we own. It seems funny since the Kawaii is a cheaper, China made diaper. I would go as far as to compare it in quality to that of the Best Bottoms cover. Best Bottoms have a whole other world of issues I can discuss later. Now I'm looking at purchasing more Kawaii diapers in fun colors. Minky seems to be the way to go. Who would want to go with a sposie when you can have the softness of a minky diaper on their bum instead?! The difference is incredible, those of you in doubt of cloth diapers should try it.

My main goal in writing about cloth diapers in this blog is to convert all of you questioning their simplicity! Talk to me, and I will do my best to convert you. I'm sure I can win you over. If my dear husband can do it, you can too!

Baby Proof Baking

I found the easiest recipe that I could make in about 2 minutes the other day. While Shaley was content in the swing, I made Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. It's simply:

2 C baking mix
3 medium bananas
1/3 C sugar
1 egg
3 T vegetable oil
1/3 C chocolate chips

I might add in a teaspoon of vanilla just to be special, and always more chocolate chips than it calls for! Basically, you smash the bananas and add all the other ingrediants and bake at 400 degrees till they're just golden on top (about 15 min).

Everyone loved them, and I even had time to make a second batch for the husband to take to work. I love baking! I'm so glad I'm starting to have more time to do it again.

To give credit where it's due, I found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website if you want to check it out.

Breakfast

My dear husband made me breakfast the other day. He didn't even warn me (his cooking is interesting to say the least!). He called his item a Breakfast Muffin, which consisted of bread, eggs, cheese, and ham. He proceeded to smash pieces of bread into each spot of the muffin pan. Then, after mixing together the eggs, milk, cheese, and ham, he poured it into the breaded muffin pan. He then baked it for a while (he'd be lost if I didn't help him with this part!) and had me come check to see if it was done. He is so sweet sometimes! It turned out pretty good, I was almost impressed with his cooking ability. The best part of breakfast that morning was eating the eggs that didn't fit into the muffin pan, which he added rosemary to and scrambled. So, although his Breakfast Muffin was edible, his leftovers were even better. I love you dear!

Breastfeeding Updates

Breastfeeding is going well, although it was extremely painful to start out with. No one ever tells you that it will hurt, they say it shouldn't hurt, but for some women that isn't the case. For me it was toe curling pain every time that little girl would get hungry. The latch was determined good by my lactation consultant, so there was nothing to do but sit through the pain till the girls toughened up. We're finally at the point where it's comfortable. Now if she would space out her feedings to every 3 hours I would be extremely thankful. I'm always willing to help other FTM's (first time mom's) with what I've learned. Honestly, if I wasn't such a frugal person I probably wouldn't have continued breastfeeding due to the pain I experienced. Now that we've got through the hard part, the first 6-8 weeks, things are going better. My advice to others trying to BF, keep going through the pain and do not supplement like we did! The pain will end, and supplementing will not help even though it may seem like it does. Kellymom.com is a life saver.

Cloth Updates

Shaley is 2 months and 5 days old today. Cloth diapering has went well so far. We mainly use Flips which seem to work well. She does get a few blow outs occasionally, but nothing that has got out of the cover. I went with the AI2 hybrid systems because it may mean less laundry and less work. They don't come in the cute girly prints, but they get the job done. When you're on a budget things such as designs get left in the dust. The covers seem to be well constructed and stretch just enough for a good fit for my little one. I also like using the covers with a prefold instead of the stay dry insert that comes with them for extra blow out protection! The newest color we purchased was Ribbit. I mainly went for gender neutral colors that weren't so bright, but this color looks really nice. I like it more than I thought I would.