This one I'm new to myself, but it's a good one! Visit The Sneaky Chef for some great ideas to "sneak" healthy foods into your kids meals. I made her lasagna this past week (with all the sneaky foods included) and my kids ate it; they didn't love it, but they ate it. I think next time I'll make it like regular lasagna.
Right now I'm using her free recipes found on her website; I plan on checking one of her books out from the library when it's available (it's out right now) and request the others to be ordered.
I found "The Sneaky Chef" through a blog I enjoy- http://www.multiplesandmore.blogspot.com/, she was featured under the "Expert Interview".
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Websites I Enjoy as a Mom
Visit SafeMama at http://safemama.com/. This website really helps with quick finds including but not limited to recalls, skin care, and bottle/sippy cup choices. I really enjoy this website!
(This is my go to website and really helped me when I was having a post pregnancy melt-down about the girls bottles; I finally chose Evenflo glass bottles with sleeves to help prevent breakage. Plus, with these bottles, you can pump directly into them using the Medela Pump In Style...no transferring!!)
Also, if you go to the SafeMama website right now you can leave a comment (and do other things) to win their giveaway - a stainless steel ice pop mold from The Tickle Trunk! I did!
(This is my go to website and really helped me when I was having a post pregnancy melt-down about the girls bottles; I finally chose Evenflo glass bottles with sleeves to help prevent breakage. Plus, with these bottles, you can pump directly into them using the Medela Pump In Style...no transferring!!)
Also, if you go to the SafeMama website right now you can leave a comment (and do other things) to win their giveaway - a stainless steel ice pop mold from The Tickle Trunk! I did!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Websites I Enjoy as a Mom
Once a week, till I run out of the websites I use, I'll post links I find useful as "Websites I Enjoy as a Mom".
The first one is www.wholesomebabyfood.com, this website helped me a lot when the girls were first enjoying solid foods. With the exception of pureed prunes and travel food, I made ALL of my girls first foods-homemade. It's fun, satisfying, and easy.
With my son (first child) I bought only name brand foods from the baby/toddler section....that gets expensive, plus it's not very creative for the kids. I still use the site for fun foods for the kids to enjoy.
The first one is www.wholesomebabyfood.com, this website helped me a lot when the girls were first enjoying solid foods. With the exception of pureed prunes and travel food, I made ALL of my girls first foods-homemade. It's fun, satisfying, and easy.
With my son (first child) I bought only name brand foods from the baby/toddler section....that gets expensive, plus it's not very creative for the kids. I still use the site for fun foods for the kids to enjoy.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Diaper Review Time
I've got 5 different dipes to review, some I've already made mention of and have kind of reviewed them; but, I'll go into more detail now. In no certain order
1) The ones I've made- pocket Velcro (not my conversion diapers)
Price- around $1.80 per diaper
Flannel Outer
Flannel Lining
Birdseye Inner-sewn in pocket (had already)
I like them and think they are cute. They are not waterproof so you need a cover. I wouldn't put them on the girls for going in public or night time wear... I haven't tried a wool cover with them yet so the night time view may change.
2) Blissful Booty AIO-Velcro
Price-$7.83 per diaper
PUL Outer
Microfleece Lining
Inner- Microfiber Terrycloth in 3 layers
One of the diapers didn't have elastic in the gusset so they sent me another one size Large free of charge.
I bought X-Large, they fit the girls (@ 32 lbs) fine but the Large fits better. The X-Large does fit my son well- he's 50 pounds. I like these for church with the girls (the Velcro-hook n loop- is easier for their nursery class)and for use at night with my son. I know he had prefer something that resembles a pull-up or underwear. So, I may still look for something else for him to wear at night. They are bulky; therefore, do not fit well under jeans, but fit great under skirts and dresses. They also take a long time to dry.
3) Green & Comfy AIO-snap
price-$6.00 per diaper
PUL outer
Suede Cloth Lining
Micro Terry Inner
These dry fast and if changed in a timely manner do not leak. The snaps are reinforced. This diaper does it's job.
4) Green & Comfy One Size pocket-snap
price-$6.00 per diaper
PUL outer
Suede Cloth Lining
Dry really fast, not a bad diaper just needs an insert and you're good to go. The snaps are reinforced and the diaper seems well made.
5) KaWaii One Size Pocket- snap
price-$6.30 per diaper
TPU outer
Suede Cloth Lining
I'm unsure as to the quality of this diaper. The snaps are reinforced with material that started fraying after two washes and the snaps on the rise are not reinforced at all. The diaper is really small although they claim to fit One Size from 8-36 pounds. My girls at thirty-two pounds are on the last snaps, I really don't see them fitting up to 36 pounds. Hopefully my girls will be potty trained by then, they are really close.
With that being said, as of right now these are my "go to" diapers. Daytime, in public, and at night. I really like them, they come with 2 inserts each made of 3 layers of Microfiber. (I haven't had them long enough to say whether or not the Microfiber holds smell.) No Leaking. The dipes are really trim and fit well under everything. They also dry in lightening fast time. In my opinion, they're just good diapers and I've ended my search for diapers. If I ever need more and the prices are approximately the same I'll just buy these.
1) The ones I've made- pocket Velcro (not my conversion diapers)
Price- around $1.80 per diaper
Flannel Outer
Flannel Lining
Birdseye Inner-sewn in pocket (had already)
I like them and think they are cute. They are not waterproof so you need a cover. I wouldn't put them on the girls for going in public or night time wear... I haven't tried a wool cover with them yet so the night time view may change.
2) Blissful Booty AIO-Velcro
Price-$7.83 per diaper
PUL Outer
Microfleece Lining
Inner- Microfiber Terrycloth in 3 layers
One of the diapers didn't have elastic in the gusset so they sent me another one size Large free of charge.
I bought X-Large, they fit the girls (@ 32 lbs) fine but the Large fits better. The X-Large does fit my son well- he's 50 pounds. I like these for church with the girls (the Velcro-hook n loop- is easier for their nursery class)and for use at night with my son. I know he had prefer something that resembles a pull-up or underwear. So, I may still look for something else for him to wear at night. They are bulky; therefore, do not fit well under jeans, but fit great under skirts and dresses. They also take a long time to dry.
3) Green & Comfy AIO-snap
price-$6.00 per diaper
PUL outer
Suede Cloth Lining
Micro Terry Inner
These dry fast and if changed in a timely manner do not leak. The snaps are reinforced. This diaper does it's job.
4) Green & Comfy One Size pocket-snap
price-$6.00 per diaper
PUL outer
Suede Cloth Lining
Dry really fast, not a bad diaper just needs an insert and you're good to go. The snaps are reinforced and the diaper seems well made.
5) KaWaii One Size Pocket- snap
price-$6.30 per diaper
TPU outer
Suede Cloth Lining
I'm unsure as to the quality of this diaper. The snaps are reinforced with material that started fraying after two washes and the snaps on the rise are not reinforced at all. The diaper is really small although they claim to fit One Size from 8-36 pounds. My girls at thirty-two pounds are on the last snaps, I really don't see them fitting up to 36 pounds. Hopefully my girls will be potty trained by then, they are really close.
With that being said, as of right now these are my "go to" diapers. Daytime, in public, and at night. I really like them, they come with 2 inserts each made of 3 layers of Microfiber. (I haven't had them long enough to say whether or not the Microfiber holds smell.) No Leaking. The dipes are really trim and fit well under everything. They also dry in lightening fast time. In my opinion, they're just good diapers and I've ended my search for diapers. If I ever need more and the prices are approximately the same I'll just buy these.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Twins Story Part 2
I had planned to keep nursing and pumping for Bo but then I started cramping pretty bad while nursing/pumping and just decided to stop cold turkey. It scared me to have the cramps. So, Bo finished out the frozen supply (about 2 weeks worth) and started formula.
Our 8 week appointment comes, we're waiting (Bo is with his Nannie and NeNe)we get in and start the ultrasound......... This is our 3rd ultrasound mind you... and several people have said "watch you'll have twins" to which my response was "I've already had two ultrasounds... there's just one in there".
Back to the 3rd ultrasound...I'm thinking "Wow, we really got the due date wrong.. this baby's big... wait a minute, that's two heads!"
Then Dr. L says "Look what you two have been up to"
About that time my hubby is standing over me saying "I gotta sit down".
I start shaking. Dr. L has to tell me to try and not shake so she can get some good pictures. WOW, and off we go back to all our friends and family (who live close anyways) to show them our ultrasound....A....B, we just let them ask why there's an A and a B in the picture and then figure it out for themselves!
So many questions, so many fears... fears of all kind creep in from babies coming too early to finances to daycare.... daycare alone would be $1380 per month because don't forget our oldest is in the infant I room and would only be in the Infant II room when the twins arrived. Will I have to have a C-section? Turns out Dr. L is in the only practice in my town who are willing to allow a "V" delivery with twins as long as you're already in the operating room with an epidural and baby A is head down.
My pregnancy was filled with braxton hicks contractions from May on *stress* , none of which made cervix change thank goodness. I was absolutely certain I was having twin boys... the 17 week ultrasound showed girls! Too excited!!!!! At 30 weeks I practically begged Dr. L to take me off work, she agreed. 34 weeks non-stress test showed I was having real contractions not braxton hicks, but still with no cervix change. A shot of terbutaline stopped the contractions. 34 weeks also showed baby B (Audrey) feet first. 36 weeks came, Audrey decides to go head down... I thought I was going to die the night she did this... to all who do not realize it's unusual for a baby to have the room to do this so far into a twin pregnancy.
Then 37 weeks came... and passed..... 38.... then at 38 weeks 2 days we were induced Thursday, November 29,2007. Over the course of this pregnancy my waist had grown from 29 to almost 49 inches.
They started pitocin around 5:30am then stopped it by 5:45am. The nurses had their reasons I'm sure, but only told us the babies didn't seem to like it. Dr. L came in at 8:20am and broke my water then had the pitocin started again. No problems. I honestly thought the girls would arrive by 11:00am (I based my timeline off of my first delivery with Bo), I was over an hour off. Brady arrived at 12:29pm via 1 and a half pushes weighing in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and Audrey took her time arriving 30 minutes later 12:59pm with just one push weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz. Easy Peasy and Perfect babies, Thank you God!
Nursing the girls was not so Easy Peasy, very hard for me... probably the hardest thing I've done in motherhood so far. Especially with a 16 month old whacking their poor heads when I nursed. So, most of the time during the day instead of nursing I pumped and then nursed at night. I did this till the girls turned one year. Looking back now, I wish I had nursed and pumped longer but at the time I was very ready to stop.
I'll find pictures and post them some time next week.
Our 8 week appointment comes, we're waiting (Bo is with his Nannie and NeNe)we get in and start the ultrasound......... This is our 3rd ultrasound mind you... and several people have said "watch you'll have twins" to which my response was "I've already had two ultrasounds... there's just one in there".
Back to the 3rd ultrasound...I'm thinking "Wow, we really got the due date wrong.. this baby's big... wait a minute, that's two heads!"
Then Dr. L says "Look what you two have been up to"
About that time my hubby is standing over me saying "I gotta sit down".
I start shaking. Dr. L has to tell me to try and not shake so she can get some good pictures. WOW, and off we go back to all our friends and family (who live close anyways) to show them our ultrasound....A....B, we just let them ask why there's an A and a B in the picture and then figure it out for themselves!
So many questions, so many fears... fears of all kind creep in from babies coming too early to finances to daycare.... daycare alone would be $1380 per month because don't forget our oldest is in the infant I room and would only be in the Infant II room when the twins arrived. Will I have to have a C-section? Turns out Dr. L is in the only practice in my town who are willing to allow a "V" delivery with twins as long as you're already in the operating room with an epidural and baby A is head down.
My pregnancy was filled with braxton hicks contractions from May on *stress* , none of which made cervix change thank goodness. I was absolutely certain I was having twin boys... the 17 week ultrasound showed girls! Too excited!!!!! At 30 weeks I practically begged Dr. L to take me off work, she agreed. 34 weeks non-stress test showed I was having real contractions not braxton hicks, but still with no cervix change. A shot of terbutaline stopped the contractions. 34 weeks also showed baby B (Audrey) feet first. 36 weeks came, Audrey decides to go head down... I thought I was going to die the night she did this... to all who do not realize it's unusual for a baby to have the room to do this so far into a twin pregnancy.
Then 37 weeks came... and passed..... 38.... then at 38 weeks 2 days we were induced Thursday, November 29,2007. Over the course of this pregnancy my waist had grown from 29 to almost 49 inches.
They started pitocin around 5:30am then stopped it by 5:45am. The nurses had their reasons I'm sure, but only told us the babies didn't seem to like it. Dr. L came in at 8:20am and broke my water then had the pitocin started again. No problems. I honestly thought the girls would arrive by 11:00am (I based my timeline off of my first delivery with Bo), I was over an hour off. Brady arrived at 12:29pm via 1 and a half pushes weighing in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and Audrey took her time arriving 30 minutes later 12:59pm with just one push weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz. Easy Peasy and Perfect babies, Thank you God!
Nursing the girls was not so Easy Peasy, very hard for me... probably the hardest thing I've done in motherhood so far. Especially with a 16 month old whacking their poor heads when I nursed. So, most of the time during the day instead of nursing I pumped and then nursed at night. I did this till the girls turned one year. Looking back now, I wish I had nursed and pumped longer but at the time I was very ready to stop.
I'll find pictures and post them some time next week.
My Twins Story
Ok, reading about babies and pregnancy has made me want to write about my own twin experience; plus, I haven't even started my girls baby book so I can cut and paste this into a digital scrapbook for them (bad I know). So, this will be split into 2 or 3 posts; here it goes.
Our son Bo turned 8 months old the end of March and I had suspected that I was pregnant so took a pregnancy test....negative. Ok, sad I was but it was ok, after all I had an 8 month old.
The feeling that I was pregnant never left me, so here comes Monday, April 9, 2007 and I'm at the pediatrician's office with Bo whose had a hard cough since November on and off and nothing was working to get rid of it so they go to x-ray him and I just couldn't let myself go in there with him; I just had that gut feeling I was prego. We left there and went straight to get Bo's medicine and a prego test for me. It barely got to the line and it was turning positive. Bo and I told Daddy by writing him a card out "from Bo" saying he was going to be a big brother.
That Tuesday I called the doctor and they got me in right away because I had no idea how far along I could possibly be 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks no idea (hadn't gotten my "flo" back b/c of nursing). I had been having to pump more often for Bo (pumping and nursing for Bo) just to get enough for him and take Fenugreek to increase my supply so that made me think I was further along in my pregnancy. Anyways we get in there, yes I'm pregnant, but the ultrasound shows 4 weeks and a few days... we see a sac and that's it, no heartbeat..no pole. they prepared me for the possibility of a miscarriage since I had thought I was a lot further along than that and took my blood, the paperwork I left there with said "threatened spontaneous abortion" cruel I thought to have on my sheet for me to see. My HCG was 5400 or 5463 somewhere along in there, I'll have to go back and look at my scribbling's and my progesterone was low so I took a little pink round pill for the first trimester.
My hubby, Bo, and I went straight to get a t-shirt made that said in big blue letters "BIG BROTHER" and just went around to every ones houses we knew and took his sweater off to reveal the t-shirt and just waited for responses (it was fun).
That Thursday went back for another blood check, we wanted the numbers to double. They didn't double... they only went up 61%. The numbers at the least need to go up 60% to ensure viable pregnancy. Wait and see..... 6 week appointment, we go in we see the fetal pole and a heartbeat, yea!!! The doctor did make the comment "yep, there's just one in there" as though we had been suspecting two... no. (I had no idea my "numbers" were actually high) We are scheduled for a regular 8 week prenatal appointment, all is good.....
Our son Bo turned 8 months old the end of March and I had suspected that I was pregnant so took a pregnancy test....negative. Ok, sad I was but it was ok, after all I had an 8 month old.
The feeling that I was pregnant never left me, so here comes Monday, April 9, 2007 and I'm at the pediatrician's office with Bo whose had a hard cough since November on and off and nothing was working to get rid of it so they go to x-ray him and I just couldn't let myself go in there with him; I just had that gut feeling I was prego. We left there and went straight to get Bo's medicine and a prego test for me. It barely got to the line and it was turning positive. Bo and I told Daddy by writing him a card out "from Bo" saying he was going to be a big brother.
That Tuesday I called the doctor and they got me in right away because I had no idea how far along I could possibly be 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks no idea (hadn't gotten my "flo" back b/c of nursing). I had been having to pump more often for Bo (pumping and nursing for Bo) just to get enough for him and take Fenugreek to increase my supply so that made me think I was further along in my pregnancy. Anyways we get in there, yes I'm pregnant, but the ultrasound shows 4 weeks and a few days... we see a sac and that's it, no heartbeat..no pole. they prepared me for the possibility of a miscarriage since I had thought I was a lot further along than that and took my blood, the paperwork I left there with said "threatened spontaneous abortion" cruel I thought to have on my sheet for me to see. My HCG was 5400 or 5463 somewhere along in there, I'll have to go back and look at my scribbling's and my progesterone was low so I took a little pink round pill for the first trimester.
My hubby, Bo, and I went straight to get a t-shirt made that said in big blue letters "BIG BROTHER" and just went around to every ones houses we knew and took his sweater off to reveal the t-shirt and just waited for responses (it was fun).
That Thursday went back for another blood check, we wanted the numbers to double. They didn't double... they only went up 61%. The numbers at the least need to go up 60% to ensure viable pregnancy. Wait and see..... 6 week appointment, we go in we see the fetal pole and a heartbeat, yea!!! The doctor did make the comment "yep, there's just one in there" as though we had been suspecting two... no. (I had no idea my "numbers" were actually high) We are scheduled for a regular 8 week prenatal appointment, all is good.....
Monday, March 1, 2010
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