Soundzania Giveaway!

Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing is giving away a free copy of Soundzania! Soundzania is a children's album that was created by three dads and is designed to create a love of music in your child!

You can head right on over to Adventures in Babywearing to enter for your chance to win this great CD. Stephanie also has links up for you to listen to samples from the CD itself. What are you waiting for? GO! :o)

Soundzania Giveaway!

Unassisted Childbirth

Lately there have been a few items in the news about Unassisted Childbirth, where the parents choose to deliver their baby at home without any birth attendants. Sometimes the mother chooses to be completely alone, even without the husband.

People who choose to have an Unassisted Childbirth (UC) generally believe that birth is a completely natural and private experience and that the presence of birth attendants can be invading and unnecessary.

A lot of time women who choose to have an UC experience are criticized as putting their child in danger. However, I think that what most people realize is that these women are not going into this unprepared. Most people who choose this route have a back up plan in case something goes wrong. They usually also research childbirth itself and work hard to prepare themselves for the birth. They are not going into this experience blind.

As for myself, I find the presence of a midwife comforting. I like having someone there that has a lot of experience with childbirth and that can support me and help me in a way that my husband could not, simply because he is a man. With this in mind, I completely respect and even admire a woman who chooses to have a UC experience, as long as she takes the time to educate herself and prepare herself in case anything goes wrong (which rarely happens).

You can read some articles that have been in the news lately concerning UC here, here, and here. You can also find out more about Unassisted Childbirth by visiting Bornfree, a website that is dedicated to informing women about UC.

Whether you choose homebirth, hospital birth, or a Unassisted Childbirth, the best thing you can do to prepare is to educate yourself. Take nothing at face value. If your doctor or midwife says one thing, confirm it with your own research. Your baby will thank you later.

Unassisted Childbirth

Love It

I was perusing the news and I found this great article about cloth diapers. From the article:

In the recent past, only the most eco-minded or penny-pinching parents chose to diaper their babies in cloth. But within the past couple of years, design innovations have led to a renewal of interest in cloth. On parenting message boards, the same moms who buy thousand-dollar strollers get giddy about “fluffy
mail”—slang for mail-ordered cloth diapers. The market for used cloth diapers is lively. In fact, some highly coveted “designer” brands actually appreciate in value. Depending on the maker, fabric, and design, new cloth diapers can fetch
as much as $40 each, although the ones I sold—Kissluvs—were originally purchased for only $12.

I used to have a huge addiction to buying cloth diapers, and now I just have a huge addiction to sewing them myself. :o)

Love It

8 Month Old Letter

My Dearest Guppy,

It took me a couple of days to muster up the courage to write this letter. For me, writing this letter meant one thing: I had to come out of denial and admit that you are no longer a newborn infant.

In a mere four months you will be a toddling one year old. While I enjoy with all my heart watching you develop and grow, the fact that soon you will no longer be a baby is a little scary for me.

You now have at least two teeth with more coming in. This month was a challenge for us, as your teething led you to be extremely cranky and clingy. However I am proud to say that I really did not get annoyed or frustrated. You never yelled or screamed, just fussed enough to let me know that you were hurting and wanted to be held. During the worst moments, all it took for me to comfort you was to toss you up on my back in the Mai Tei and go for a walk.

You are definitely getting taller, and thinning out a little. You love to play with your feet while you are nursing and you love to hold onto my hair. You never pull my hair, just simply grasp it in your hand as if it were a treasure. In fact, whenever I am holding you, you are not completely happy unless you have some of my hair in your tiny fist.

This month you attended your first graduation ceremony and your first wedding. I am so glad that I can be confident enough to take you anywhere and have people remark on how you are such a calm and happy baby. It makes me feel good knowing that you are at ease in any situation, confident that I will be there to care for your needs.You haven't started crawling yet and you don't seem to have an interest in it. You hate laying on your back or tummy now, so you don't roll over either. You also don't sit up from a laying position on your own. But I know that when the urge comes, you will be perfectly capable of becoming more mobile when you are ready. I am going to try to encourage more tummy time though, just while we are playing fun games on the floor.

Finally, you are becoming increasingly attached to your father and your sister. You girls get along so well I feel like I am dreaming. And when your father gets home you wiggle your body with excitement and utter happy sounds while you wait to pick him up. It's getting to the point where I think that if we did not have our nursing sessions, in which I cuddle with you and play with your adorable feet and hands and smother you with kisses, I would start to feel left out.

Dear Guppy, we are so blessed to have you in our lives. You make us laugh and giggle, and you work to remind us that it is the small moments that make life worth living for. I can't wait to see what this coming month brings. We love you.

8 Month Old Letter

Holiday Weekend

Although this weekend was a long holiday weekend, we didn't get that much time to relax.

Friday and Saturday night I worked. Saturday morning we did our grocery shopping and a little bit of yard sale hunting.

Sunday was the busy day. My lovely and talented sister graduated from college with a BA in biology. The ceremony was looonngg. And for the most part, I was by myself. With two kids. Trying to keep them quiet and still for three hours. You can guess how that was.

My Lovely Sister

The Guppy with her Grandma

I actually didn't stay for the whole ceremony, I ended up leaving after they called my sister's name. The best part was the parking was a half hour away from the location of the ceremony. On the way there I had my mom with me, so it wasn't so bad. She pushed the Mermaid in the stroller with all the bags while I hoofed it with the Guppy on my back and carrying my purse and the sun umbrella. The way back was a different story, since my mom had to leave before I did. So I had to make the walk back pushing the stroller with the Mermaid and the heavy bags and carry the Guppy on my back, and the first fifteen minutes of walking were all uphill and I was wearing heels. It took me an hour to get back to the car.

Our next stop was meeting up with the Knight at his cousin's wedding. I, of course, got lost on the way so we were even later than planned. The wedding was a blast however, his cousin looked absolutely beautiful and so did her sister, the bridesmaids. The Mermaid had a lot of fun dancing and running around in general, she is so outgoing now with other kids.

The Mermaid playing with her Grampa

The Mermaid dancing

The Guppy and her I-just-woke-up Mohawk

The beautiful bride and the Knight

The Guppy dancing with the Knight.

We ended up getting home around 11pm, totally exhausted. Of course I had to work Monday so we didn't do much that day. In fact I am working every single day this week because I offered to pick up some hours for people. It doesn't leave too much time for blogging, but I'll get a nice paycheck in the end.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Holiday Weekend

Sweet Sisterhood

My Dearest Mermaid,

I didn't plan on writing this letter, but I think that you deserve written recognition for something that I have observed since the Guppy's birth:

You are a wonderful older sister.

From day one you have been so attentive and patient with your baby sister. You get so concerned when she cries. You love to make her laugh. You are so gentle with her, taking extra care to not be too rough when playing with her. She is the only one that you willingly share your toys with, and you get angry whenever someone is too loud while she is sleeping.

I really think that one reason you are so wonderful towards your sister is because you were there for her birth. Your father and I didn't disappear for three days and come back with a new baby; you were with us all along, through the entire labor and birth. This means you were present during the critical bonding time that occurs shortly after birth. My favorite image of the Guppy's birth is when you, your father, me, and your newborn sister were alone in the bedroom while the wonderful midwives cleaned up. All three of us sat around, looking at the new baby in wonder.

Today your baby sister was napping and when she woke up you heard her crying before I did. You immediately told me that she was crying and ran ahead of me into the bedroom, where you gave her kisses and made silly faces until she laughed. As I watched the both of you, my mind flashed forward a few years; you're both playing outside, you on your training wheels and her on her tricycle, laughing and racing around the yard. Maybe you let her win sometimes, or maybe you don't; either way to help to teach her about friendly competition.

My mind races forward a few more years and you are both eating popcorn and watching a movie, giggling while talking about some boy you both know, enjoying each other's company. Maybe you get upset at her because she always borrows your clothes and always wants to tag along, or maybe you see those things as compliments to your style and friends. Either way, you are paving the way for her through the teen years, using your experiences to help her when it's her time to go down that bumpy road.

Again my mind races forward and I see the both of you at the table on Thanksgiving, home from college break. You are both discussing your classes and teachers, and you are giving her advice on how to cope during Freshmen year. I can see how you are both blossoming into beautiful, smart, and caring women, and my mind flashes forward again.

This time I see the both of you oohing and aahing over a newborn baby. Whose baby it is, I never find out, because your giggles brings me back to the present. You are tickling your baby sister's feet and showing me how you can make her smile. The image of the future fades away, and that's okay. Because it is these moments in the present, these precious, all too fleeting moments, that make life grand.

Thank you for being so wonderful with your sister. Thank you for understanding that babies need a lot of time and attention, and never giving me grief over it. Thank you for understanding that although I may spend most of the day nursing a teething and fussy Guppy and holding her, there will always be our special time at night after she is asleep. And most of all....Thank you for being you.

Love,

Mommy.

Sweet Sisterhood

Fantastic Friday: Keeping Up The Pace..

This week I pretty much kept up the pace from last week but didn't really get ahead in any of the areas. However, I like to think it's better than falling behind.

Weight: Other Future MILF's will be happy to hear that this week I did not gain. I maintained. However, I have to lose weight soon. My mother and I started a bet to see who could lose the most weight in a month. If I win, I get a new ipod. If I lose, I have to make her coffee every morning and feed her dogs every night. Not fun. So wish me luck!

House: The house is still clean, just not as much as it used to be. I did manage to reach my goal this week and do three days of FlyLady missions, and I hope to do more this coming week.

Finances: Moving right along in this area. So far in Step 2 of the Total Money Makeover we have paid of a considerable amount of debt. By the end of the month we should have another credit card paid off, which just leaves us with a small car loan, a small personal loan, and then the three big debts (one large credit card and two student loans). Slowly but surely, we're getting closer to financial peace.

Environment: This week we made the switch over to cloth paper towels. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, and I must say that the cloth ones do pick up more than the paper ones! Goal for this month: make the switch over to cloth napkins.

And that's it for this week. One step at a time, I'm slowly improving myself.

Fantastic Friday: Keeping Up The Pace..