Egg Hunts Galore

hBetween Bubba Love's preschool hunt, a family friend's Easter party and our own celebration, the kids had WAY to many egg hunts.  Luckily, they got mostly little toys and stickers and the candy is being slowly traded in for other things.  So here it goes... a massive amount of Easter pictures!

Preschool Easter Party /  Hunt

Friends Party / Hunt

Easter @ Yammie & Baba's



Preparing for Natural Childbirth

I am a big natural childbirth advocate and feel the best way to achieve a natural birth, is to be prepared mentally, physically and emotionally for the journey ahead.  I think first time moms need to prepare the most since they have little to go off of, but "experienced" moms should prepare as well because every birth is different.

~Mentally~

The mental part is the most powerful and influential aspect of birth.  If you are confident and informed, you will feel prepared and positive about labor.  If you are fearful and clueless, you will look at birth as something you will suffer through.

There are many ways to prepare yourself mentally, these are a few of my suggestions:

Take a child preparation class, here are some options available:

Hospital Classes

   Bradley Classes   

Hypnobirthing

Lamaze

Birthing From Within

Read a book, these are my favorite:

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Gentle Birth Choices

The Birth Book

Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth

Husband Coached Childbirth

Childbirth Without Fear

Join a few Facebook pages, they have great articles and birth stories:

Loving Labor Doula (mine)

Birth Without Fear

Birth Faith

Stand and Deliver

~Physically~

Preparing yourself physically is extremely important.  Childbirth will be one of the hardest things you will ever go through, and you will need to have stamina and power.  If you are already exercising, great... keep going :)  If you aren't, these are some awesome low impact ways to keep fit and prepare your body.

Prenatal Yoga

Swimming

Walking

~Emotionally~

Having emotional support during labor is key to having a successful natural birth.  I high suggest that you choose wisely who you are bringing into your birth room, and prepare them as well.

The Birth Partner is an awesome book for anyone that will be present during your labor and delivery.

Investing in a doula is a great way to help insure a natural birth.  Statistics show that having a doula present at your birth will lower your chances of intervention and use of medication, and help produce a greater satisfaction of your labor and delivery.

Daffodil Hill

This past weekend we took a picnic and headed up to the mountains. There is this amazing piece of property that the home owners open up every spring for the public to come see.  They have over 300,000 daffodils planted!!! 

We went late in the season so the daffodils were definitely on there way out, but it was still amazingly beautiful and we had such a great time.

Baby C isn't in the pictures, because he was asleep in the Ergo on Yammie...

Between the million potty breaks and kids being kids, I didn't get hardly any pictures of the daffodils, this is the only one!

Daddy and Bubba Love looking into the original house from the mid 1800's.

The kiddos with Yammie, Baba and their Auntie.



Us again!

We left in the mid afternoon, and the kids went with their Grandparents back to our house while me and the hubs went wine tasting for a couple hours.  That was lot of fun too!

Wordless Wednesday, Lunch Time???

Ummm, yes pleases!!!  Yummy.

Natural Parenting Blog Party

I am excited to participate in this Natural Parenting Blog Party!  I am looking forward to connecting with more like-minded mamas, learning and sharing.

 

1. How many children do you have, and how old are they?

3 kiddos... 4, 2 & 4 months

2.  Do you have a partner, or are you a single parent?

I am married to the man of my dreams:)

3.  What are your “hot button” parenting issues?

I personally think that everyone has a choice to raise their kids how they want to.  So no, I don't judge or get "hot" about much of what others do.

4.  Have you made any parenting choices that you didn’t think you would make before you were a parent, i.e. cloth diapering a child when you had previously thought it was disgusting?

Not really, I was always pretty set on what I wanted to do... But I have found myself saying things that I never thought I would, like "don't bite the couch"

5.  Is there one book or person in particular that’s heavily influenced your parenting choices?

All of Dr. Sears books during the early days.  Now I go with my gut and what I feel is right.

6.  If you had to describe each of your children using only one word, what word would you use?

Bubby Love ~ Passionate,  Buddy Boy ~ Determined,  Baby C ~ Awesome

7.Is there one parenting decision that you regret more than others and wish you could change?

Raising my voice & showing anger.

8.  Is there an area of your parenting you wish you were better at?

Having more patience!

9.  Now for the fun questions – is there one particular food or type of food that you could eat every day?

Sushi

10.  Vanilla ice cream or chocolate?

Neither... both are too plain :)

11.  What’s your guilty pleasure?

Reality TV!!  Teen Mom, Jersey Shore... Haha!  Don't Judge:)

12.If you could be part of any television show, which show would it be?

I would never be on TV.

7 Things...Unnessesary C-Section

That will significantly increase your odds of an unnessesary C-Section.

1. Don't prepare or have any knowledgable labor support

2. Consent to an induction for no real medical reason

3. Go to the hospital during early labor

4. Allow the use of pitocin to speed up labor

5. Have your waters broken

6. Request an epideral

7.Lay down and stay there

Wordless Wednesday

Can you tell we have been playing outside a lot lately??

Ahhh, I heart spring & summer!!

My Sick Buddy Boy

Buddy Boy has always been our "sick" child.  From the day moment he was born he had issues breathing, and to this day I believe the antibiotics they prematurely put him on has made him susceptible to illness. 

First off, Buddy Boy has had chronic ear infections since 4 months old.  To date he has had over 20 ear infections in his short 30 months of life.  12 of those were before the age of 16 months.  We never put him on antibiotics (we used herbal remedies) in hopes that he would build up an immunity, but the infections just kept coming and the poor kid was ALWAYS sick.  

So last March, we met with a Ear Nose and Throat specialist who told us that Buddy Boy has stagnant fluid in his ear at all times, making him prone to infection.  Apparently it is genetic issue with males... makes sense since Daddy has chronic ear infections also!  We made the decision then, that we would have tubes put in his ears.  Surgery was scheduled, and the procedure was super fast and easy. 

During the next nine months, Buddy Boy had no ear infections... Yay!  In January, we routinely had his ears checked and discovered that both of the tubes had fallen out.  No more then a week later he had a massive ear infection and has had three more since...Ugh!  So off the Ear, Nose and Throat again!  Yesterday was our appointment and the doctor decided it would be best to put new tubes in and take his adenoids out, in hope that will elevate some pressure.  I am waiting on a phone call for the surgery date/time, but most likely it will be by the end of April.  I am hoping for healthy ears again!!

Second, Buddy Boy has "cold induced" asthma.  Which basically means whenever he gets sick in the simplest to the most extreme way, he has an asthma episode along with it.  Sounds great right???  Not only is his sick, but then he can't breath on top of that! 

He has had this since 6 months old.  It was never too bad, we would give him his nebulizer treatment and then he would be fine... but lately they have been week long episodes!  In January (around the ear infection time) he ended up in the ER and was admitted into the pediatrics at our local hospital.  After a two day stay, he was back to normal and sent home.  I learned a lot about asthma while we were at the hospital and have tried to help prevent it by replacing pillows, dusting and vacuuming more often and while Buddy Boy is gone, and we have taken him completely off dairy.  

I thought this was all working until yesterday.  I noticed him coughing (which is the first since of an episode), I gave him his inhaler and he seemed ok.  Until last night... the poor boy was wheezing, coughing and gasping all night.  The nebulizer seemed to take the edge off, but not too much.  I was worried we were headed to the hospital again, luckily this morning it is subsiding.  

I have heard from many people that the type of asthma his has, most kids grow out of by the age 5.  I sure hope so!  I would hate for him to have life long issues.  For now I am going to keep doing what I am doing and pray for the best outcome.

I love this boy more then life itself.  He is the sweetest little thing, with lots of spunk and determination!  It makes me sad when he is sick, but he is so brave and strong!

   

This Weekend Happenings

Since Daddy was home yesterday, we started our weekend "chores" early. Since we have 10 acres to maintain, things can get put on the back burner for a while... as is the case with my garden boxes. This is what we accomplished yesterday...

Can you even tell there are garden boxes in there??

This is after Daddy mowed and used the weed eater... you can actually tell we have a garden! Ahhh, what a difference just that made!

While pulling weeds, we found this little (huge) guy. We let the kids check him out, and then through him back into our pond.

The boxes were weeded and tilled in preparation for the compost.

While me and the kids worked in the garden, Daddy got on the tractor to cut down the pastures. He came upon these pretty flowers, pulled them up and gave them to me to plant in our flower beds.

Speaking of flower beds. Check out my tulips:) Oh and the weeds all around them... I will get to those today!

Rowdy Girl! She is so sweet and finally beginning to calm down and move out of the puppy stage!

7 Things...

That made yesterday AMAZING!!!

1. I woke up and got showered before the kids got up!

2. Spent the morning with my midwife, doing prenatals with the clients I will be assisting with this summer!

3. Quiet drive to and from my midwife's house!

4. Coming home to a baby boy that couldn't decide if he wanted to eat or smile at me because he missed me so much:)

5. All the kids took a nap at the same time for 2.5hrs!

6. Homemade bread pudding after dinner.

7. Snuggle time with Buddy Boy and Daddy after bedtime.

Children's Shampoo Review

As promised, I wanted to let you know how my homemade shampoo worked on the kids...

The first time we used the shampoo, I got the kids in the tub and just stared at the shampoo. It had thickened up and looked really flaky. I had my doubts. I shook the bottle and everything seemed to come back together, much better! Bubba Love was first up, I knew that if it didn't work for her then there was no point in making it anymore.

I ended up having to use twice as much of this homemade shampoo that I would have if I was using the store bought stuff, but it lathered great and didn't seem to bother her eyes. After both kids were washed up I got them out and ready to have their hair brushed.

Typically I would have to use some type of detangler for Bubba Love because she has really fine hair, but I decided to try without. Her hair looked like a big messy ball and I thought for sure it would be impossible to get brushed out, but amazingly it brushed right through. I fell in love!

I definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for an alternative to regular shampoo. It is simple, clean and affordable!