Free Nursing Covers

I came across this great deal this morning (you got to love people passing thing along on facebook!)

Head to Udder Covers (nursing covers) and you can purchase a nursing cover for FREE! You just pay shipping of $8.95. Use promo code babykiss at checkout.

When the lights go out

Recently I found myself in a pitch black room. I had my new baby in my arms and Olivia downstairs crying. I called out to her to reassure her that everything would be alright, but she continually called out, Dark! Dark!

I hoped that she would be able to find her way up stairs while I found a flashlight. I keep several flashlights in various places all over the house. Nearly one in each room for an occasion such as this. Once the flashlight was located and a frantic 2 1/2 year old was guided up stairs, we had the fun task of finding other sources of light.

I had a small box of candles, but no holders. The decorative candles in the living room (where we decided to bunker down until the lights came on) were in horrible places. I could see the candle sticks being tipped over by my dog and lighting the carpet on fire. The only place to really set up light was in the kitchen, but that would do us no good in the other room. So what did I use as light? My laptop, with the fear of the battery running out.

I hate when the power goes out and each time it does, I am determined that next time (hopefully it's not too soon) I will be better prepared. I know that I need to have a better sources of light. So here are the solutions that I've come up with.

• Continue to have a flashlight in every (or nearly) room. Probably should put a reminder on Outlook to check batteries a few times each year. When we change the batteries in the smoke detectors would be a great time. With the flashlights, make sure they are assessable. With this power outage, I had to dig through a drawer in the kitchen.
• Find where I put the Hurricane kerosene lamps and purchase oil for them. (Does anyone know where I can purchase the oil and wicks?) They give off much more light than a simple candle, and are sturdier.
• At thrift stores, pick up candle holders. They can be super tacky but must be sturdy.
• Purchase additional candles to fit the tacky holders. Store the candles and holders together in one location. I think in the garage with my other emergency preparedness items would be a good option.
• Keep a lighter or matches with the candles so I don't have to scramble around for one.
• Keep a list of activities that we could do together to pass the time.

What do you do when the lights go out?

Dancing in the Rain

Olivia has an extremely active imagination for a 2 1/2 year old. From the time that she could walk, she has been busy pretending or mimicking of one sort or the other.

Recently Olivia came across her umbrella and decided to play with it. I should tell her that we don't play with umbrellas in the house, but honestly with a new baby and major lack of sleep, I didn't care. She opened it up and headed down to the playroom.

One evening Olivia decided to show us her dance, one she copied from Classical Baby. To the music, Singing in the Rain, Olivia danced, twirled, and did several moves with the umbrella. All, I should say, were done entirely by her.

I look forward to what she will surprise me with next.

Doing What I'm Good at!

As I sat for a small break from children, Lucy down for a nap and Livy watching a movie, I was determined that I would accomplish something. That's the hardest thing with a newborn is the lack of time (or desire some days because you are too tired) is not being able to work on projects.

With our annual family pictures in a few weeks, I wanted for once to have bows for the girls to wear. Too many times, while taking pictures, I find myself wishing that I would have thought about making bows.

I made two burgundy velvet bows to match the girl's Christmas dresses, a white one for Lucy's Blessing, and a princess one for Livy that I've been putting off for months.

A few of the LARGE bows that I have made this year. I have plans for several more!

Lucy with her new bow!

Livy with her new princess bow. (It has Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty on the ribbon.)

More Garage Storage

Organization is an on going process. At times I feel that I will never have my house perfectly organized, but I know it's a matter of time and thought.

When I am needing to organize something that simply isn't working, I will spend days to months thinking about it. I find that is the best way for me to come up with the perfect solution.

Some areas, mainly the garage, are out of my jurisdiction. The garage is Eduardo's space and therefore up to him to organize. He has already come up with some wonderful solutions including our Over-head Tupperware Slidders.

Next it was time to build shelves and get things off the floor.

One side of the garage with the typical pile of who-knows-what.

Eduardo spent several hours taking measurements and drawing up plans for his shelves. One important item he had to take into consideration was the space needed for our emergency water supply.

Once that was figured out, the rest came together quickly. Now I need to go out and organize the shelves.
Eduardo has plans for another set of shelves to go on the back wall. :)

Easier Toy Pick-up

This is our playroom, one end of our family room. A room that I haven't touched since we moved in nearly a year ago and still haven't figured out what I want. (I know that the blue paint must go!)

I would love to say that the playroom always looks this clean and tidy, but it's typically scattered with various toys that my imaginative child has taken out.

Olivia has a VERY active imagination, something that I am proud she has. It's truly a sad thought that many children in today's society cannot entertain themselves without the television. I experienced this many times when I ran a daycare.

One thing that Olivia lacks with her play skills, is to pick up her toys. This past week I worked on a super simple project, one I know has been done before, to help her keep her toys organized

After sorting through and keeping the well loved toys, I took pictures. Olivia thought it was the neatest thing to have pictures taken of her toys.

After all the pictures were taken, I uploaded them into Photoshop and added wording for the objects.

Once the photos were printed, I laminated each one in the hopes of lasting for a while, and applied double-sided sticky Velcro to each picture and container.
So far, our play area has been a little easier to clean up for Olivia and for when we have play dates over.

Lucy's Story

Lucy at one week

Some people like to hear about birth stories. Perhaps it's because I'm a mother, but I like to hear about other people's experiences. So for those who want to know, here is my story about Lucy. (For those who don't, I'll have something more exciting (an organization project) post soon!)

Thursday, October 29^th had seemed to be another regular day for me. I spent the day in my comfy clothes, resting on the couch doing the typical things I had done for the past 7 weeks. Bed rest certainly wasn't fun for me and I was honestly bored out of my mind. Although if I had been able to move about and do things, I probably wouldn't have. I was simply too tired to do anything.

That afternoon I decided that I should probably take a shower and get cleaned up for the day. At roughly 4:30p when I got out of the shower, I realized that my water broke. I felt a little frantic at first. This was a whole new experience for me. With Olivia, they broke my water at the hospital. I knew that I needed to finish packing my bag and get Livy ready to go to her grandparents.

I was honestly in no rush to get to the hospital. Even though my water broke, I was having no contractions. So while I finished packing, Eduardo took Livy out to deliver Halloween goodies to her friends. Before dropping Livy off, Eduardo also made dinner and bathed Olivia.

After dropping Livy off we headed to the hospital. We got there at about 7:40p and got checked in and headed to our Labor & Delivery Room. It took a half hour for our nurse to come in. It was a good thing that I wasn't in true labor yet.

After setting up the monitors, we found that I was having contractions, but they were too small to feel and wasn’t helping me progress. It was then decided by the on call doctor, to start me on a Pitocin drip to help get my labor going. This is something that I really did not want to experience. I wanted to go fully into labor like I did with Livy. I did not want to be started. (Of course at this point, I was grateful that I wasn't going to be induced on a later date and that this was the day my baby was meant to come!)

They started the drip at 10:30pm and it kicked in about 10:45/11:00pm. By 11:30 pm the contraction were sever enough that I decided it was time for my epidural. I progress very quickly once I have hit heavy labor and knew that it was only a matter of time before I would be complete.

It’s odd how calm and relaxed epidurals make me. They make me so relaxed that I want to sleep and rest. Naturally it wasn't a full rest since I was still able to feel the pressure of the contractions but couldn't feel the pain.

Finally at 1 am the nurse comes in to check on me and asks if I could feel the pressure of the baby’s head. Yes, probably for the last half hour or so. She checks and I'm complete.

But it's not time to push. We had to wait for the on-call doctor to arrive and to get set up. I was okay with this because I was still in a complete drug like state from the epidural.

Finally at 2am it was time. We waited for one contraction and in that one contraction I pushed. That's all it took! The nurse commented that I probably could have had her an hour earlier if I hadn’t rested so much. The total labor from start to finish was 3 hours.

I did tear a tiny bit but once the doctor looked at it she decided it was too small for stitches. She told me, like what Olivia's doctor had said 2 years ago, that my body was meant to have babies!

Lucia weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 20.5 inches long!

We both have recovered well and slowly adjusting to our new lives. I look forward to when Lucy knows that night is for sleep and day for play, but that will come soon enough.

Perhaps it's called going crazy!

I love music, I believe, is a statement that nearly every person can honestly say. Of course the type of music that we love is up to the individual. I can say this statement and at the same time say that I dislike music, or at least what it does to me.

I have a small problem when it comes to any kind of music. It doesn't matter what genre, it has the same impact on me. I have come to call this problem my soundtrack.

I know it's perfectly natural to get songs "stuck in our heads" but is it natural to ALWAYS have one stuck there? Oh, the song changes every few days, but it's extremely annoying! I find myself listening to or singing the song in my dreams, I wake up to it in the middle of the night and throughout the day it is my constant companion.

So how does a person who loves music deal with this type of sensitivity? It's not easy! I tend to listen to talk radio and to music without lyrics. But then I will put on a show for Olivia and I have various "princess show" music repeating for days!

Anyone else have a sensitivity to music?

Introducing....

Lucia Alise! Born Friday, October 30 at 2:07am. She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 22 inches long.

We are both home now, healthy and happy after a very fast delivery.

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and prayers. I truly appreciate each one!

Coming Soon.....

This is it! I'm heading to the hospital!