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Or didn’t you already know?
Me at 12-13 months
Yes, I am wearing a crocheted shrug in 100 degree weather… I was modeling it and decided to do the baby picture while I was at it. It actually looks cute with that outfit don’t you think?
Oh, you REALLY wanna know how far along I am? Let’s see… um… 23? 24? weeks? Who keeps count?
Now for the best news ever!
EMMA IS WALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, Grandma, She took her first 5 steps today. Food, great motivation for the get-up and go girl. 
Many people warn you the dangers of coupon shopping. Mostly because you actually can end up paying more for your purchases because most coupons are brand names over store prices. For the most part this is true, however for today I will be explaining why I choose Juicy Juice over store brands.
I tend to purchase juice for me and hubby and Emma will occasionaly get some. We have been trying to wean her off dairy so she has been getting more juice than I normally would give her. Gasp, a cup a day! (Baby size cup of course) So in my efforts to be more frugal I would purchase the store brand juice and delude it in some water. However it came to the point where it was actually the same cost to buy Juicy Juice with coupons (End up being .10 - .50 more than store brand a jar) and deluding that in water. It last so much longer because the Juicy Juice has a stronger juice taste. The store has been deluded enough. For normal drinking its fine and better cost but I like to dilude Emma’s in a lot of water. More than half and half. A typical bottle from the grocery store can last up to 1.5 weeks for us as a family. Juicy Juice because we will all delude it (and still have that great taste) last for 2.5-4 weeks.
Another reason I do Juicy Juice is because I have this thing about added sweeteners in my juice. Ok so both hubby and I have this thing. So when you look at the back of the bottles and compare prices and store brands and ingredients it boils down to two choices. Which will you choose?
Debate?
Obviously this is more a post for the ladies than the men but I think men, especially husbands will be able to benefit from this and support and encourage their wives as well.
Here goes;
This will be a hard post to write about. Why? Well for one thing I hate writting about touchy subjects or something so personal as breastfeeding. But with all the greif I have been getting about voicing my opinions on the subject I finally decided to use my freedom of speech right and blog what I have been wanting to say aloud forever. For those of you who know me personally, know that what I usually want to say in my head never comes out right in words. For another reason, I know I am not the only one out there that has felt like a looser because people have mentioned the lengths they went to breastfeed. So what should we do? Pat them on the back, say, Well done. Then move on. They DID do good, but what they did is not necessarily meant for anyone and everyone.
When Euphemia was born I had a horrible time trying to nurse. At first we thought I wasn’t holding her right… but after reviewing many pictures of the first day of life I can see that I was holding her right (maybe not getting her mouth wide enough opened) but that was not the issue.
I have always had breast problems to one degree or another. I can NEVER take cold showers. I need it as hot as I can stand. Usually when I am done the whole air is this thick fog, even in the summer. My hubby, likes hot water too but even he says, “Challice! Ouch!” Swimming has always been one of my favorite “sports”, if you will. But I have a hard time getting in and out. It just hurts!
So when Emma was born I knew that there would probably be some issues. But I was not prepared for the lengths I would go in order to breastfeed. Tears, Sweat (in Oct.) hand expressing, pumping, more tears, and just sheer pain. I have never enjoyed the thought of nursing. And I didn’t really enjoy nursing. But I knew that it was healthy and good for my baby and lets face it, I have to do a lot of things I just don’t like, one more thing won’t kill me.
Finally one side healed up fine. But the other side I spent 5 months pumping. I pumped every 3-4 hours just to be sure the milk supply would stay… although I needn’t have worried, I was pumping about 4-5oz everytime I pumped and Emma was only needing 2-3oz each feeding and that was on the other size. I went back and forth from nursing to bottle feeding (from the pumped milk). I did the nipple shield, I did every nipple cream anyone could recommend, including yogurt (in case it was a yeast infection). I did cloth pads, I did disposable pads. Finally after 5 months it healed enough to nurse her off of. I could do both sides now… but then I found out i was pregnant. I was able to keep the nursing up for about another month then the milk supply was pretty much gone and I had become so tender that I said, “Your done”.
I will not do the lengths I did with Emma with #2 muffin. With 2 children there is no way I will. I will give nursing about 2 months and if everything is running smoothly, WONDERFUL! if not, bottles are just fine. Emma managed to survive just fine and dandy with them. She is one healthy baby.
I am already getting some grief about my decision. I decided to mention it to a few people now because I knew that when I am nursing I could be bullied (for lack of a better word) about my decision and then being so emotionally and physically exhausted who knows what I would do. Let em warm up to the idea. But why am I getting grief? The main point is to get the child fed. We will being doing raw goats milk (next best thing to breastmilk) and I have a younger sister that had to be fed like that and she is the rosiest, brightest little thing you have ever known. Goats milk won’t kill em.
We all show love for our children one way or another. Some by going to extreme and amazing lengths to breastfeed. WAY TA GO ladies. I on the other-hand will not. I would not feel comfortable telling my child,
“Honey, I loved you so much that I would cry just knowing you wanted to nurse. I looked forward to the times I could just hold you. I hated nursing you but I knew it would be so healthy for you. I went through sweat and tears to nurse you. Can’t you feel my love?”
I would so much rather say,
“Honey, you know how much I love you. I knew you needed food so we fed froma bottle. I looked forward to the times I could just cuddle with you as you sucked from the bottle. Sure I had to get up 5 minutes before feeding time during the night so you could have some warm milk but I was then all the more awake to just see you dreamily suck away. It was such a special and wonderful time”.
We all have reasons for what we do. Perhaps I am being selfish in my reasons for bottle over breastfeeding. I know that children really don’t scar that easily… but why should she think that Mommy cries so much over this new baby? Children may not scar easily but they are bright cookies.
So, if you get grief over your decision to bottle feed over breastfeed just remember, the baby needs food. Get it in them. Sure you can research the best way to get it in them (we won’t be doing formula, whole nother topic right there), whether its formula, goats milk, donated breast-milk, whatever. Get the child fed. There are many support groups for the mother’s that go to all lengths to breastfeed. But we also need support. From our husbands, from our family and friends, knowing that we did what we could. We don’t need grief on how we failed. God created each one of us uniquely, where did He the Creator make a mistake? Thank God for your child, thank God for the woman that can breastfeed, feel happy for them, but don’t beat yourself against a brick wall for not being the “greatest mom”. Breastfeeding does not make you upper-class mom.
Happy Tuesday to you. This morning I made some baby food. It was pretty simple and only took maybe 10 minutes at max. I did it between flipping pancakes and Emma gave her taste approval.
I blended 1/4 cup of Strawberry Yogurt and 2 Banana’s up. Easy as pie. I wish I could have done 1/8 cup yogurt and used fresh strawberries but I didn’t have any. That is what I would really recommened. I made about 2 large baby food jars and enough left over for breakfast as well. Mind you, don’t over blend cause it ends up more like a smoothie.
I also made some Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes.
Recipe for GF Pancakes
1 cup of boiling water
1/2 cup of cornmeal
Stir constantly;
Add 3/4 cup of milk (we like fresh goats milk )
Stir until smooth.
Stir in;
1/2 cup cooked pumpkin (or blended and cooked butternut squash)
1 TBSP honey or sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 TBSP oil
mix in:
1 cup of Rice Flour (or whole wheat flour if you are not GF)
2 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Stir until ingrediants are combined. Cook.
Voila, a lovely and easy breakfast. I managed to get this on the table by 7am and I was up at 6:15am
Since I am in the sharing mood, My sister Braelyn took some Family photo’s over the weekend. This was a snapshot of one of them. Isn’t she good? 17 yr old girl. Love her too!
Hubby and I have been looking at the idea of doing vegetarian meals. We have NOTHING against meat and rather enjoy it but think that the more “green” approach is something to look into, health wise. It has been a interesting research study. We also have to stay GF. That is more important. So that leaves us with a lot of rice and potatoes. So I have been trying to expan my horizons. I would like to stay away from Soy as well. I have been given some VERY helpful advice and I am looking into a few things. This will not be a overnight decision and application. It may be more 1 day all vegetarian dishes for 1 week. Then moving to 2. Until we reach the point where we know what we need to eat to get the right calories and protien til where we are satisfied. It would be so much easier if we lived where we could have crops all year long. A greenhouse would be lovely but we have no room for one. Such decisions take massive amounts of planning, researching and putting into practice.
For those that read this blog and are vegetarians, any information is useful and appreciated. Thank you. 
Now to end the day, Emma is learning about tomatoes;
When I first had Emma I realized I wouldnt have as many milk problems as some women have. I have been very blessed. When I was little I thought because I had such a big chest it meant I could have more babies. I know differently now, it is for more milk!
So, with Emma just nursing off the one side and having a bottle in the evening of the pumped milk from the other, I thought, “what am I going to do with all this milk?!” I pumped every 4 hours to keep the milk supply up. Filled bags in the freezer, David would drink some with breakfast, whatever was necessary to make sure the milk (my hard work) didn’t go down the drain. So, I went to pumping every six hours. Less milk, less hassle. We still would fill the freezer with more milk than Emma could possibly drink.
I began to be discouraged. The hospital wouldnt take my milk, what could we do with it? I asked for help on one of the boards I frequented. Someone suggested a milk bank. Well, I looked at what it would take. Um.. a tall stack of paperwork, lots of test, free stuff and a healthy baby. I would love to help a healthy baby but all that is required there is no way I could go through. They want so much information. And I do drink coffee (I know, a no no). But we had to do something with it. Like I previously mentioned, our hospital does not want it. They want blood, and money= bloodmoney.
So, when I finally was ready to send in the proper forms to donate it (not exactly sure where it would have gone) I received a nice email saying, See if some adoptive family could use it. PING! A secretary at dh work just adopted a baby. Then my mind went spining. A nice young man from church had a baby and his girlfriend has been giving forumla so I thought maybe I would just ask to see if it was something they wanted. He said he would prefer to use that. Hooray!
So now I am a nursemaid (matron). I am feeding 3 babies. 2 more or less with forumula as well. I pumped just this morning 8oz. YIKES! Well, one down. Emma is not lacking for food. She is still a healthy girl and enjoys the cuddle moments with her Mama. I am back to pumping every 4 hours again.
It’s thrush, the reason I still cant feed Emma on the other side. It has been diagnosed with Thrush. Thank you Mumsie for the diagnoses… I think? Anyway, we cannot seem to find any recommended creams or tablets to take care of that stuff here in town but hopefully… someday…soon… still browsing websites here.
We all at one time or another recieved a doll (in some form, whether it be an actual doll or a teddy bear) and what did we do with it? It became our child. We nurtured it, feed it (as you can a stuffed being ;)) put it to bed, and all that jazz. Fast forward a decade… A new mother, what is she doing? She is getting up at 2am to feed the baby and rock her to sleep. She is tired but the baby needs food! She nodds off and wakes up to a small infant biting down on her feeding tube (provided by mama dearest) and yelps, waking the baby back up as well. Oh what joy motherhood provides! OK, so that story was more for your entertainment than a complain. (But it DID hurt!) We still get to dress our babies! That is so much fun! We change the diapers as we did our dolls (but this time we plug our noses as well!) we cuddle them and read our favorite childhood stories to them. But can life be all that easy? No way! What about the times that we aren’t enough. We can’t comfort them, they want to stay awake while we sleep. Did dollhood prepare us for that? There is a new doll out I hear that makes crying sounds every three hours. Supposedly it is to train our teenage culture. Hogwash! You can stuff a doll in a closet and forget about it but you will never be able to fully forget your child! You can’t love a doll as you would a child. Too much work and love goes into that being. They grow up, they learn from you. A doll has no brains! Can you prepare a doll for heaven? Can you sing to a doll as a teenager and not feel silly or stupid? This will have to be a 2 part series as I am being interupted to feed my baby.
