No where to go but up

UUUUGH! So much stuff I want to happen right now but all we can do is just sit, wait and hope that God hears my prayers. There is so much stuff we have planned, but they can only happen if God hears my prayers. I am one of the most impatient people out there, I absolutely hate waiting with a passion, but I will wait as long as I have too. They say that once you hit rock bottom, there is no where to go but up; I think we are finally beginning our journey upwards from hitting that rock bottom.

Craziness of the past two months

Finally got my wisdom teeth out this past  May. They had been giving me trouble and mega pain for over a year and finally (after one got really infected) decided to go ahead and have the two worst ones out. Recovery went way better then I had expected. Hardly had any pain, probably due the the fact that I never missed a dose of my pain killers. That same day Matt's grandpa passed away. Although he was not my grandpa by blood, I am honored to call him Grandpa and to have had the chance to meet him and be part of his family. A week later, Matt's mother was taken to the ER for horrible pains, she was admitted and had to have her gallbladder removed. Recovery for her went great also. A week after that, my dad had to have his hip replaced. Recovery was going good, but not even a week home and he had to be rushed to the Er in the middle of the night for dizzines and sweating. He was admitted to the hospital for tests, (they were thinking a heart attack, but tests showed no signs). In the end they found that he had gotton a staph infection from a tooth that had lost a crown. He is now back home and on IV antibiotics for the next few weeks. Paisley and I help watch him a few days a week while my sister and mom are at work. Its not a hard task, but having to put up with my parents 4 dogs and Paisley, (she wants to get into EVERYTHING, and refuses to take naps) would make anyone go crazy. I am now hoping that all this craziness is over, I dont know how much more our family can handle.

"Rock in Green" cloth diaper detergent review

We have been cloth diapering our 11 month old daughter for 9 months now.  I would wash in Arm & Hammer with no problems up until now. We have been dealing with rashes and burns for the last month. I figured it had to be the detergent we were using because while in disposables, she showed no signs of rash. I also thought that it could be the fact that we have hard water. I had heard that hard water has a lot of minerals in it, namely calcium and magnesium, which meant getting my diapers clean due to build up was an issue. The build up  mixed with her pee was what was causing her rashes. I was about to totally give up on cloth diapering until I decided to try Rock In Green cloth diaper detergent. I hadn't purchased it before because of the price,($16), with us having hard water I needed to buy the hard water formula which cost little more than the classic formula.



Rock In Green, Hard Rock

I followed the directions on the bag, soaking clean diapers over night in 3tbsp of the detergent



Diaper inserts soaking in bathtub



BG pockets and Flip covers soaking in the washing machine

 The following morning I did a normal wash with a second rinse.

The Rock In Green detergent rinses very easily, I do a second rinse just to make sure nothing is left over. Usually with the other detergents I was using, I would have to do multiple, sometimes up to 8 extra rinses,  and there would still be some suds left over.

It has been 2 weeks now since we have been using Rock In Green, and I am glad to report, that all our rash and burn issues have been resolved. Looks like we will be staying in cloth diapers after all!!!

New wash routine:

I wash every 3 days

Cold short wash, with out detergent, to rinse out all the left over waste

Long hot wash with 3 tbsp of Rock In Green Hard Rock detergent

Let it wash for a few minutes and then I stop the washer to let it soak for either the entire day or over night

Start the washer and continue the wash

Extra rinse just to make sure

After drying, the diapers come out smelling clean and fresh

I highly recommend Rock In Green, Hard Rock cloth diaper detergent if you have hard water issues causing build up and or funk  in your diapers!!!

"Baby-led" Schedule

I found this to be a very interesting topic on one of the baby pages I follow on Face Book. It was a post asking if your child is on a "baby-led" schedule or a "parent-led" schedule. My first reaction to this post was, "why would anyone let their child set their own schedule?" I had no idea what these terms meant so I decided to do some research.

 "Baby-led schedules tend to be very loose routines. You follow your baby's lead, meaning you'll look for her cues to decide what she needs next rather than imposing a timetable for feedings, rest, or play. After the first few weeks, most babies form their own fairly regular patterns of sleeping, playing, and eating. But your baby's schedule may vary from day to day depending on the signals she's giving you " -taken from babycenter.com"

"As the name implies, parent-led scheduling means that you set the daily agenda — typically a very specific timetable for when your baby eats, plays, and sleeps. Parents who operate on this kind of schedule rarely deviate it from it. Many say that timing things (sometimes down to the minute) and being extremely consistent allows their baby to regulate his internal clock and gives him the structure he needs to thrive."-babycenter.com

After doing the research on it, I've come to the conclusion that Paisley is mostly on the baby-led schedule with a few tweaks from me.Which in all reality, makes sense. The best advice I got when she was born was not to put her on a schedule, (feeding every two hours), but to let her tell me what she wants and when she wants it. She is on a schedule, but a schedule she has set for herself, I just step in and make sure she takes her naps and doesn't starve herself. Her schedule is usually pretty consistent day to day, although the exact timing as to when she eats and sleeps may not always be the same. She wakes up in the morning, she plays and she lets me know when she is ready for breakfast. I can tell she's ready to eat when she gets a bit cranky and does her hungry whine. Breakfast is usually sometime around 8:30am. Some morning she wont eat breakfast till almost 10am, but of course she doesn't wake up till almost 9am on those mornings either. Lunch time for her is either before or after her nap, usually somewhere between 12-3. When its time for her nap, usually around 1-2pm, she starts yawning and will rub her eyes, and I take her cues and put her down for her nap. She has weaned herself off of taking two naps a day to only taking one nap a day. Which in my opinion, has really helped her to sleep through the night, she only wakes up once now, usually about 9 hours into her sleeping, she eats, and sleeps for 3-4 more hours. Some nights she will sleep for 12-13 hours straight with out any wakings. Dinner is anywhere between 6pm and 7pm. "Baba's", as we call her bottles, are anytime through out the day, and a full (4oz) bottle before nap and bedtime.  Bedtime is usually 8-8:30pm, which means we usually get her ready for bed around 7:30pm each night (this would be a parent-led situation, as everyday at this time she gets ready for bed). She is usually a pretty happy and content baby, unless she is teething or doesn't feel good. We let her set her own schedule, we just make sure she eats and sleeps at decent times so shes not fussy. Being a stay at home mom, there really is no reason to put her on a strict parent led schedule. Now when she starts going to school, we will most likely give her  a strict bed time, but until then, our days go pretty smoothly :) As she gets older, she's likely to change her schedule and could go back to taking two naps a day. As she gets weaned off her formula and baby food, and starts eating table food, her eating schedule is likely to change as well, we just have to follow her leads as too when she is ready for change.

Sleeping

This has been quite an ordeal for us. Getting Miss Paisley to sleep through the night. Nine months old and still waking up multiple times during the night to eat. We put her to sleep, both naps and bed time, while rocking and feeding her then lay her down in bed while still awake, that way she can put herself to sleep. At her Nine month check up her pediatrician told me not to feed her anymore during the night and just let her cry, and that she could cry so hard that she vomits.... seriously??? No way was I going to let her cry so hard that she vomits. I started letting her cry it out. I would feed her, lay her down and she would cry for about 5 minutes before I went back in there to feed her, she would go right to sleep then. I also started to only feed her once in the middle of the night, usually around 1:30am is when she would wake up. Any other times she would wake up I just let her cry (its more like whining).

The cry it out method is very controversial with parents and doctors both. I don't mind letting her cry as long as shes not crying so hard that she vomits. When her pediatrician told me to stop feeding her at night, just do it cold turkey, and let her cry till she vomits, my first thoughts were, "are you serious??? what kind of doctor are you?" The pediatrician doesn't have any kids, so I'm sitting here thinking, "you have no kids, you don't have that kind of bond with something so tiny, you've never felt the pulling at your heart when your child crys... you've never loved something so much that it hurts, you've never sat there and felt the pain of your child crying". Shes read books and went to classes, but she has never had the experience of actually being a mother and having the feelings that come with it. I was so worried about Paisley's bond with me being broken and her feeling unloved, I made my self cry cause I was so worried about it, but her bond with me is stronger than ever and I know she doesn't feel unloved.

anyways.... Paisley went from waking up 3-4 times a night to 0-1 times a night, and I did it my way, I did let her cry, but not like the pediatrician said. Rock and feed, bed, whining sleep... up at 1:30 for feeding, whining back to sleep then up at 8am!! Since I have started this new way of getting her to sleep, she has only been waking up once a night, some nights she evens sleeps through the entire night! I believe in crying it out, but to a certain extent.

Diaper Rashes

The majority of the time we use cloth diapers. The only reason we use disposables is because Paisley gets really bad diaper rashes(caused by her poop) and needs diaper cream to clear it up. I hate the thought of wasting money on disposables and the fact that they will end up in a landfill for hundreds of years. But what is a mom to do when her child has a rash so bad that her lil tushy bleeds? Paisley's diaper rashes are what I call a "poop rash", she will have a bowl movement and wont let me know, sometimes it doesnt even smell, so she will just sit in it until I check her diaper. By that time its too late, the damage has been done. These arent normal rashes, they are deep and cause bleeding, and from what I can see in my daughters face, painful. I try to check her diaper as often as I can, but sometimes im just too late. She also has eczema on her tush and also front diaper area, which we have a steriod cream we have to put on 2x a day. For those diaper changes, I usually will put a diaper liner, either cloth or disposable, in her diaper so the cream wont get on her diapers.
To help clear up these pesky diaper rashes I simply wash her lil tush with aveeno baby wash, or let her soak in an oatmeal bath, ( I grind oatmeal into a powder and dump in tub of warm water, the oatmeal helps sooth her rash). I dry her with my hair dryer using the cold button, I dont want to burn her with the heat of the dryer. For the cream I use on her, I use a mixture of A&D ointment and Desatin max(A&D helps seal the rash and prevents liquid from getting in and desatin helps to heal the rash)and spread it over the infected area at every diaper change. It usually takes about a week to heal up, by that time im soo ready to get her back into cloth diapers.
I know there are biodegradable inserts out there for cloth diaper such as Gdiaper and Flip diaper inserts, but they are more expensive than disposables, and when money is tight, you often opt for the cheaper solution. As for cloth diaper creams, I use California Baby on a daily basis for her, but when she gets her "poop rash", she needs something stronger.
Any ideas on how to avoid these types of rashes or inexpensive cloth diaper safe creams to help treat them?

We're not playing dolls anymore...

I have always wanted to be a  mom. I can remember playing with dolls even in my early teen years. I was always carrying a doll around, my friends didn't know I still played with dolls, I thought they would think less of me if they knew. My belief was that I was put on this earth to be a mother and a mother I was going to be.

Now that I am a mother, I still believe that my reason for being is to be a mom, although its alot tougher than I thought. Maybe its just me, but I think every mom feels like she isn't doing as good of a job as she wants or thought she would. Even though Paisley seems to be a little more advanced for her age, (at least in my mind she is), I feel as if there is  something more I should be doing to help her develop more.

She spends most of her day playing with toys and dragging things all over the house. I feel like when she is playing with her toys and watching her baby TV that I should be doing more, I already try to explain things to her like what shes holding, whats on the TV (the TV she watches is an educational baby channel that teaches all sorts of things, its very educational) but I feel as though its not enough. I am trying to teach her sign language, she is almost 10 months old and I've read that the best time to start learning sign language is between 9 and 10 months. Sign language can help a child be more patient and less demanding, which, if she is anything like me will come in handy. I am also trying to teach her how to read,  (crazy! I know right) but she got volume 1 of  "Your Baby Can Read" for Christmas. I'm a bit skeptical about it, but  we are going to try it and see if it really works. Fingers crossed. The hardest part of the Your Baby Can Read, is trying to get Paisley to sit down and actually watch the DVD. She will sit and do the flash card part, but only for a short period of time before she wants to eat the cards :) She loves playing with books and turning the pages, hopefully she will one day have a great love for reading those books! I don't want to push Paisley, I just want her to have a good life. School was always difficult for me, I always got low grades, and couldn't focus. Even community college was hard for me, so, I just stopped going. I don't want Paisley to follow in her parents foot steps, I want her to have a love for learning, I want her to love going to school, I want her to go to college and make something of herself.  I want her to become someone.

  I always said that I want two kids. Two because I don't want any of my children to think that they are left out or not loved. I am the middle child, and I always felt like I was being left out or that my parents didn't love me as much since I wasn't the first born, nor was I the baby of the family, I don't want my kids to grow up feeling the way I did.  We plan on having another baby in a few years. We aren't, (what I would call us), financially stable at the moment to bring another human being into this world. When I thought about having kids I thought that there would be no money worries and that we could get everything our kids would ever need. With the grateful help of our parents, Paisley does have everything she needs and she will never be without. I don't want to always have to rely on our parents when it comes to raising our child. I want to be financially sound before adding to our family. Our kids deserve nothing but the best.