I Opened An Etsy Shop

I opened an Etsy shop! I'm so excited to have an online shop up and running. You can click the button on my sidebar to get there from here!  As of right now I only have five items listed, but I have more to come. I have big dreams for this shop. Help me get the word out there if you can. Know anyone who is looking for a handmade/crocheted baby blanket? Send them my way! These blanket make the perfect gift as well! ShopOfDreamz offers beautiful, breathable, one-of-a-kind blankets for your precious bundle of joy!

26 Weeks

How far along? 26 Weeks 

Total weight gain: 8lbs

Maternity clothes? Nope 

Stretch marks? No new ones!

Sleep: Sleep.....what is that? I can not get comfortable. I can't stay asleep. Not doing so good in this area right now. 

Best moment this week: My sciatica adjustment follow up....being cracked never felt so wonderful. Happy to report that my horrible sciatica has disappeared for the most part! I've been seeing this wonderful doctor who has changed my quality of life in this area....it seems she has helped my shoulder as well. I never knew how important stretching was! Daily stretching is key. 

Miss anything? Sleep!!

Movement:Yes, yes, yes. Lots of movement. Kicks are getting stronger.

Food cravings: Fruits and vegetables,lemons,tomatoes,nachos,chocolate chip cookies, salt, this chickpea concoction that Andrew whipped up one day for lunch, Brussels sprouts lot and lot of brussels sprouts, caramelized onions, Mangos,Watermelon, cucumber and avocado rolls...

Anything making you queasy or sick: Pretty much over this part of the journey.I hope.

Gender: We will not be finding out the gender until the day the baby arrives. I have been watching the DVD of the ultrasound, and I have a suspicion that we are having a boy. I am in no way trained in gender determination of ultrasounds, so I am extremely uncertain. We still will be picking out a boy name and a girl name. 

Symptoms: Heartburn, back ache, loss of memory, concentration and the worst part of all my exhaustion is back!!!! NOT GOOD! Speaking of, is it nap time yet???

Belly button in or out? In.

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Happy or moody most of the time: Still getting some mood swings on and off. If I get hungry...watch out.

Looking forward to: My next appointment with my midwife...I love hearing this little baby's heart beat! 

Lately

Lately I haven't felt like doing much blogging. I've been trying to make time for it but I just haven't been successful. I usually end up taking a nap, playing with my little lady, cleaning, but mostly taking a nap. I'm sure I will get back on track soon. I really like looking back on my previous posts to see what the pictures look like and to see where I was in life at that time. I really am going to give much more effort then I have been. I know I am capable of doing it...just have to push myself now. Here is what we've been up to lately....Oh BTW I've taught myself how to shoot in manual mode....YES!!!!! I am so excited and proud. I have my first official photo shoot this week or next. Now, I just have to get some post-production software....eeeekkk! :)

 (Practicing some mock photo shoots with a very uncooperative two-year-old)

(Found this on the ground while playing at the park....how ironic!)

Lets Talk About Cloth Diapers

*this is not a sponsored post**

Lets talk about cloth diapers. As part of a green living family cloth diapering only makes sense. I didn't discover cloth diapers until Amar'e was 10 months or so old (when baby A arrives,  in October, will be starting off strong with cloth). I started to use them and I loved it. Although I did have a few hiccups that I'm pretty sure I've worked out. At first I think that I was using too much soap to wash them in and it wouldn't wash out properly during the rinse and she would get an awful rash. To combat that problem, I did a really good pre-soak and went light on the soap during the wash.  I also made the horrible mistake to treat that rash with Desitin (I no longer use products like this on my family see the calendula salve post to find out why). That is a total no-no in for cloth diapers. Some of them still have some build up residue that didn't strip out when I tried to stripped them. I am still unsure what to do if you little has a rash and you are using cloth. I did use a tiny amount of the calendula salve I make with the cloth diapers, and didn't seem to ruin the diaper, and it washed out pretty well too. Any cloth diapering mother out there, feel free to hand over some advice! The other hiccup I had was not being able to get her through the night in a cloth diaper, for some reason she would always wet through. Once again, cloth diapers mothers....HELP! I have to switch her over to a disposable for nighttime and I also would only use disposables when we were away from the house for more then an hour. I am hoping I can be more confident with cloth diapering baby A because I will be doing it from the beginning. (Currently, Amar'e is working on potty training and is making great progress. In the mean time we are using disposables on her.)

So, Andrew and I are ready to give cloth diapering another shot. We have our supply ready and waiting for the newest member to arrive. I decided to go with gDiapers to start off with. I found a great deal on a newborn package and couldn't pass it up. When little baby A is grown out of the ones we have we will either stay with gDiapers and purchase the next size up, or switch over to another brand. The brands that we used for Amar'e were Charlie Banana, and Simply Baby. I would probably go with one of those brands and obviously use the one that Amar'e is not fully grown out of as well.

I am just hoping I will be able to handle a newborn, a demanding and adjusting two year old, and an 11 year-old who probably will be very sick of being asked to help out along with the extra laundry demands of the cloth diapers. Laundry is not my strong point. I still have a pile of clean laundry covering the entire couch waiting to be folded since our return from Florida. We did get the compostable, biodegradable, flushable liners to use for a while we all adjust to baby A. I have enough for about two weeks of use.

I am open to all and any advice. Please tell me a little bit about your experience with cloth diapering.  Feel free to leave a comment below!

P.S.- I came across this article on cloth diapering that was extremely helpful to me. Check it out!

Officially Weaned

As of mid-April, Amar'e has completely weaned. To my surprise, this went remarkably smooth. She hadn't been nursing a whole lot so the transition was natural and pretty easy. It involved very little tears or an upset toddler, which was ideal because I wanted the wean to be as easy on her as possible. I truly never had a set idea of how long I was going to nurse her, I just let it happen. I wrote about the thought of weaning and a little bit about my breastfeeding experience here.  I am not sure what caused her to give it up in the end. I am assuming it was a mix between the taste of my milk getting salty because of the hormonal changes my pregnant body is going through, and me suggesting another activity when she would ask for her bubba. She was always willing to give the other activity suggestion a try and forgot all about wanting to nurse. One day I realized that she hadn't nursed in over a week. At this time I do believe I gave into a request of hers to nurse, I guess to just give it a try after a week of not doing it, and it was extremely uncomfortable for me. That must of been my turning point of physically not being able to nurse her anymore. Probably due to the hormonal changes once again, and the thought of tandem nursing is frankly overwhelming to me.  I give those mother who nurse a baby and a toddler credit because I don't think I would be able to handle doing that. How would I get anything done? Other than nursing children? Although, if Amar'e were still nursing when the baby arrived, I'm pretty sure I would be a tandem nursing mother, most likely, not getting anything done (besides feeding children) and that would be OK.

Anyway, I could not be more happy that the wean was done smoothly and without any problems. I also could not be more proud of myself for nursing my lovely little baby for over two years. Nursing doesn't come instinctively for every mother, but it did for me (don't get me wrong, it wasn't overly easy to learn). I am very happy that I never was met with any negativity about our choice of extended-breatfeeding(I guess it's the official name for nursing a child after the age of one). Maybe it isn't viewed as harshly as I thought it was viewed. I'm pretty sure seeing that Time magazine that featured an article on extended nursing set my mind on the course of thinking that is was thought of as negative. Or maybe it is, and I  never found myself in a situation where I noticed negativity about nursing a toddler. Either way, when it comes to what's best for my family, I let my feelings guide me and not the opinions of others. Now I have four more months until I start the next chapter of nursing another child.

This is the outcome of an exclusively breastfeed vegan child:

Results: Perfection!!!!

I want to hear your story...did you breast or bottle feed. Were you happy with your decision? Any regrets?

23 Weeks

How far along? 23 Weeks

Total weight gain: 7lbs

Maternity clothes? Nope 

Stretch marks? No new ones!

Sleep: A few days after returning from Florida I started sleeping horribly. This makes for a very grumpy,groggy,tired Desiree

Best moment this week: Amar'e insisting on me feeling her belly because she is convinced there is a baby in there. Seriously.....too.....cute!!!

Miss anything? Being able to sit, stand, bend over normally. Sciatica is horrible! It is getting really really bad!

Movement:Yes, yes, yes. Lots of movement. Kicks are getting stronger.

Food cravings: Fruits and vegetables,lemons,tomatoes,nachos,chocolate chip cookies, salt, this chickpea concoction that Andrew whipped up one day for lunch, Brussels sprouts, caramelized onions, Mangos,Watermelon...

Anything making you queasy or sick: Pretty much over this part of the journey.I hope.

Gender: We will not be finding out the gender until the day the baby arrives. I have been watching the DVD of the ultrasound, and I have a suspicion that we are having a boy. I am in no way trained in gender determination of ultrasounds, so I am extremely uncertain. We still will be picking out a boy name and a girl name. 

Symptoms: Heartburn has become a huge problem. Its usually sets in during the evening and it makes me miserable!!

Belly button in or out? In.

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Happy or moody most of the time: Still getting some mood swings on and off. If I get hungry...watch out.

Looking forward to: My sciatica adjustment on 7/9, but sad I might have to reshedule due to Andrew's schedule.