Looks like a natural, doesn't he? I have a feeling our house is going to be very loud for the next 16-1/2 years or so!
Friday, March 31, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
About Dogs
I got an email a few days ago that I just had to share with the rest of you. This is probably my favorite doggy email of all time. It so describes our house ... I was laughing so hard by the time I got to the end of this. Enjoy ...
IF I DIDN'T HAVE ANIMALS …
I could walk around the yard barefoot in safety.
My house could be carpeted instead of tiled and laminated.
All flat surfaces, clothing, furniture, and cars would be free of hair.
When the doorbell rings, it wouldn't sound like the kennels.
When the doorbell rings, I could get to the door without wading through fuzzy bodies who beat me there.
I could sit on the couch the way I wanted, without taking into consideration how much space several fur bodies would need to get comfortable.
I would not have strange presents under my Christmas tree -- dog bones, stuffed animals, smelly stuff, nor would I have to answer to people as to why I wrap them.
I would not be on a first-name basis with three veterinarians and the emergency room.
The most used words in my vocabulary would not be: NO! STOP! out, sit, OFF!, down, come, NO, OFF!!!, stay, leave him/her/it ALONE, NO!!, and OFF!!!!
My house would not be cordoned off into zones with baby gates or barriers.
My pockets would not contain things like poop bags, smelly treats and a clicker.
I would no longer have to spell the words B-A-L-L-, F-R-I-S-B-E-E, or W-A-L-K.
I would not have as many leaves INSIDE my house as outside.
I would not look strangely at people who think having ONE dog ties them down too much.
I would no longer have to sweep out my bed every night to remove the 2 pounds of sand.
I'd look forward to spring and the sweet smell of rain, instead of dreading mud season.
I would not have to answer the question "Why do you have so many dogs/animals?" from people who will never have the joy in their lives of knowing they are loved unconditionally by something as close to an angel as they will ever get.
How empty my life would be!
IF I DIDN'T HAVE ANIMALS …
I could walk around the yard barefoot in safety.
My house could be carpeted instead of tiled and laminated.
All flat surfaces, clothing, furniture, and cars would be free of hair.
When the doorbell rings, it wouldn't sound like the kennels.
When the doorbell rings, I could get to the door without wading through fuzzy bodies who beat me there.
I could sit on the couch the way I wanted, without taking into consideration how much space several fur bodies would need to get comfortable.
I would not have strange presents under my Christmas tree -- dog bones, stuffed animals, smelly stuff, nor would I have to answer to people as to why I wrap them.
I would not be on a first-name basis with three veterinarians and the emergency room.
The most used words in my vocabulary would not be: NO! STOP! out, sit, OFF!, down, come, NO, OFF!!!, stay, leave him/her/it ALONE, NO!!, and OFF!!!!
My house would not be cordoned off into zones with baby gates or barriers.
My pockets would not contain things like poop bags, smelly treats and a clicker.
I would no longer have to spell the words B-A-L-L-, F-R-I-S-B-E-E, or W-A-L-K.
I would not have as many leaves INSIDE my house as outside.
I would not look strangely at people who think having ONE dog ties them down too much.
I would no longer have to sweep out my bed every night to remove the 2 pounds of sand.
I'd look forward to spring and the sweet smell of rain, instead of dreading mud season.
I would not have to answer the question "Why do you have so many dogs/animals?" from people who will never have the joy in their lives of knowing they are loved unconditionally by something as close to an angel as they will ever get.
How empty my life would be!
Houston got a haircut
I finally did it. Nineteen months to the day and he finally has enough hair to need a haircut. I only cut the part that was hanging over his eyes. The back is curling up so I want to let it go for a while and see what happens. I waited for him to fall asleep tonight (which didn't take long because he skipped his nap today) and then I put some tape on the hair I was going to cut (so I can save it in his baby book) and then I did it. I almost cried ... don't really know why. Why is it that all those little "firsts" make me so emotional? Maybe because they are all a sign of him growing up and not being a baby anymore. He is going to have another first this friday night. Brett and I have a Theta Tau alumni banquet to go to in Gainesville and Houston is going to spend the night with his Papa and Miss Nancy. I'm almost ready to cry just thinking about it. I wonder what he'll think when he wakes up in the morning and i'm not there?
Monday, March 27, 2006
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Blurry Pics
Apparently I have fixed the fuzzy picture problem by deleting the pics and then reposting them. Enjoy!
It's Late
I have now stayed up way too late but I managed to add a hit counter and a guestbook to this blog. Houston doesn't like it when mama pays attention to the computer and not to him so things like these must be done after he goes to bed. We watched (slept through, actually) the Gator basketball team beat Georgetown (did I spell that right?). I woke up around 1 am to find Brett and Houston asleep on the recliner and I had a thought .... ice cream and the computer! So here I sit at 3:30 am (well rested from my nap) with a pint of Cherry Garcia, looking for cool things to add to my blog. And even though I was out gardening a couple days ago in a tank top and shorts, I just had to turn the heater on ... it's really cold out!
Several of you have emailed me about Houston's ability to fall asleep anywhere ... on the couch, on a dog, on the couch with a dog (or two), on the kitchen floor with a dog, etc... and i've realized how lucky I am that he does such a thing. Being an "attachment parenting" (those of you who don't know what this is .. Google it) kind of mom, I have had to hear plenty of comments from the child raising peanut gallery about my choices. Yes we co-slept. Yes he breastfed until he was 16 months old and it would have been until he was two or so had we not decided to have another baby. Breastmilk usually dries up around your 20th week of pregnacy ... we made it to week 18 and there was just nothing left. I've heard lots of concern about Houston not sleeping "on his own" meaning that I let him nurse to sleep and sleep with us so he could latch on in the middle of the night while I continued to sleep. People seem to think that teaches a baby to keep waking up at night and that he would never sleep away from us or sleep through the night. I always felt that I was doing things in a way that felt natural to me and that eventually it would pay off and everyone would see that I wasn't really crazy. After a long phone conversation with a friend of mine yesterday it hit me ... I did it! He falls asleep when he is tired. He has now been sleeping in a big bed (not a crib) in his room on the other side of the house for close to three months. Most nights he falls asleep between 8 and 9, usually on the couch, and I put him in his bed. He hears dad moving around in the morning getting ready for work around 7:30 or so and he comes and crawls into bed with me. We usually snuggle for close to an hour and then we get up and start our daily routine. Now that seems pretty well adjusted to me. The way I see it, my attachment parenting has given him the confidence he needs to be independent enough to do this. I think it is the natural progression of things. Milk dries up in pregnancy for many reasons i'm sure, but I think a big one is so that the previous child falls into a routine that makes way for the new baby. (like the natural spacing of babies due to lactation amenhoria .. or however you spell it) I worried about it a little at the beginning of my pregnancy but then I decided to stop being a worry wart and just be a "natural mama" and believe that things would work out. Now there is room in our bed for the new baby (along with us and the three or four dogs that sleep in our bed). As I just typed that dog comment I realized that some of you may freak out thinking the dogs would smother the baby. Just so everyone can breathe easily, the dogs all have their own spots on the bed that they always sleep in ... and none of them sleep between Brett and I where the baby will be.
I realize the circles this post is going in but it's almost 4am now and I have a Cherry Garcia sugar buzz going ... so bear with me!
One more comment about the breastfeeding thing. I got lots of questions as Houston neared his first birthday about when I was going to wean him. Most people would ask if I was going to wean him at 12 months. I would usually just "smile and nod", depending on who I was talking to because most of the time it's just not worth getting into. Then as he was 13, 14, 15 months old people really started to question me. I got comments like "he's never going to give that up now that you let him nurse for so long". And to be honest, I didn't know how it was going to go either. Turns out I had a harder time letting go than he did. I had to wean him cold turkey after about a week of him sucking like a wild banchee to get whatever was left in there. I just couldn't take the pain anymore. Well the first three days were rough at night ... took about an hour of fussing and tossing around to get him to fall asleep ... but the next night was like magic. He crawled up into my arms and just fell asleep ... and so it has been ever since. Now when we are with our breastfeeding friends I sometimes feel a little left out as all the other 18-or-so months olds are still nursing. Houston will even try to get under my shirt on occasion after he has seen his friends nursing. He gives up pretty quickly though ... almost as if he's saying "well it was worth a try anyway". I'm very curious to see what he does when he sees the new baby nursing all the time ... that will be interesting. Houston has definitely always loved his "milkies" and I just don't know what he's going to think about having to share them with a little brother (or sister)!
Okay, now that I have rambled on about all that ... I think I will try to get some sleep. One more note before I do, I noticed that some of the pics I have posted are very blury ... not sure why but if you click on one of them they will open on a page all by themself and they are not blury ... just so you know. Also, i'm not sure where this blog gets its timestamps because they are way off of the time I actually post them ... and not by an even amount of hours either as if they were using a different time zone than I am in. Interesting ... I posted something at 4:08 and the blog said I posted it as 12:30. Not that it matters ... just something I noticed.
Several of you have emailed me about Houston's ability to fall asleep anywhere ... on the couch, on a dog, on the couch with a dog (or two), on the kitchen floor with a dog, etc... and i've realized how lucky I am that he does such a thing. Being an "attachment parenting" (those of you who don't know what this is .. Google it) kind of mom, I have had to hear plenty of comments from the child raising peanut gallery about my choices. Yes we co-slept. Yes he breastfed until he was 16 months old and it would have been until he was two or so had we not decided to have another baby. Breastmilk usually dries up around your 20th week of pregnacy ... we made it to week 18 and there was just nothing left. I've heard lots of concern about Houston not sleeping "on his own" meaning that I let him nurse to sleep and sleep with us so he could latch on in the middle of the night while I continued to sleep. People seem to think that teaches a baby to keep waking up at night and that he would never sleep away from us or sleep through the night. I always felt that I was doing things in a way that felt natural to me and that eventually it would pay off and everyone would see that I wasn't really crazy. After a long phone conversation with a friend of mine yesterday it hit me ... I did it! He falls asleep when he is tired. He has now been sleeping in a big bed (not a crib) in his room on the other side of the house for close to three months. Most nights he falls asleep between 8 and 9, usually on the couch, and I put him in his bed. He hears dad moving around in the morning getting ready for work around 7:30 or so and he comes and crawls into bed with me. We usually snuggle for close to an hour and then we get up and start our daily routine. Now that seems pretty well adjusted to me. The way I see it, my attachment parenting has given him the confidence he needs to be independent enough to do this. I think it is the natural progression of things. Milk dries up in pregnancy for many reasons i'm sure, but I think a big one is so that the previous child falls into a routine that makes way for the new baby. (like the natural spacing of babies due to lactation amenhoria .. or however you spell it) I worried about it a little at the beginning of my pregnancy but then I decided to stop being a worry wart and just be a "natural mama" and believe that things would work out. Now there is room in our bed for the new baby (along with us and the three or four dogs that sleep in our bed). As I just typed that dog comment I realized that some of you may freak out thinking the dogs would smother the baby. Just so everyone can breathe easily, the dogs all have their own spots on the bed that they always sleep in ... and none of them sleep between Brett and I where the baby will be.
I realize the circles this post is going in but it's almost 4am now and I have a Cherry Garcia sugar buzz going ... so bear with me!
One more comment about the breastfeeding thing. I got lots of questions as Houston neared his first birthday about when I was going to wean him. Most people would ask if I was going to wean him at 12 months. I would usually just "smile and nod", depending on who I was talking to because most of the time it's just not worth getting into. Then as he was 13, 14, 15 months old people really started to question me. I got comments like "he's never going to give that up now that you let him nurse for so long". And to be honest, I didn't know how it was going to go either. Turns out I had a harder time letting go than he did. I had to wean him cold turkey after about a week of him sucking like a wild banchee to get whatever was left in there. I just couldn't take the pain anymore. Well the first three days were rough at night ... took about an hour of fussing and tossing around to get him to fall asleep ... but the next night was like magic. He crawled up into my arms and just fell asleep ... and so it has been ever since. Now when we are with our breastfeeding friends I sometimes feel a little left out as all the other 18-or-so months olds are still nursing. Houston will even try to get under my shirt on occasion after he has seen his friends nursing. He gives up pretty quickly though ... almost as if he's saying "well it was worth a try anyway". I'm very curious to see what he does when he sees the new baby nursing all the time ... that will be interesting. Houston has definitely always loved his "milkies" and I just don't know what he's going to think about having to share them with a little brother (or sister)!
Okay, now that I have rambled on about all that ... I think I will try to get some sleep. One more note before I do, I noticed that some of the pics I have posted are very blury ... not sure why but if you click on one of them they will open on a page all by themself and they are not blury ... just so you know. Also, i'm not sure where this blog gets its timestamps because they are way off of the time I actually post them ... and not by an even amount of hours either as if they were using a different time zone than I am in. Interesting ... I posted something at 4:08 and the blog said I posted it as 12:30. Not that it matters ... just something I noticed.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Thanks!
Just wanted to say thanks for all the positive feedback I got yesterday after I started this blog. I'm glad so many of you are excited about it as well.
Well I had a checkup with my midwife today. I'm 30-1/2 weeks pregnant and everything is still sailing along smoothly. I'm trying to spend more time practicing hypnobirthing techniques but it's not going all that well so far. It's hard to find time to practice relaxation and visualization techniques with Houston running around. He's going through a new phase lately of being very attached to me and wanting me to carry him around the house ... which is getting a little bit difficult with my belly the size that it is already. I usually find time at night after Houston has gone to bed but then since i'm so tired it turns into me practicing my sleeping technique rather than relaxation! I've read amazing accounts of women not feeling any pain during labor by using hypnobirthing. While i'm not completely convinced that it is possible to not feel pain while having a child naturally, i'm definitely interested in whatever relief it can give. I remember thinking, after having Houston, that childbirth was way more painful than I thought it was going to be. (Probably due to denial on my part.) I thought I would be nervous this time because I know what i'm in for ... but the truth is that i'm actually looking forward to it in some really strange way. Crazy, huh!?!? I'm definitely looking forward to having a home birth. The thing I remember most about going into active labor with Houston is that I did not want to leave the house. Brett pretty much had to carry me to the car because I refused to get off the couch! And intense labor contractions in a car for 45 minutes on the way to Gainesville was not fun at all. (although i'm pretty sure Brett turned the 45 minute drive into a much shorter drive that night) This time I can be comfortable in my own home while my midwife makes the drive from Gainesville to Lake City!
One more thing ... for those of you expecting or expecting to be expecting ... i've created something really cool. I made a belly butter out of 100% natural cocoa butter and organic extra virgin olive oil .... and it smells like chocolate! Let me know if anyone is interested. I would love to be able to sell it somewhere. I'll have to work on that one. It might just turn into a gift I give all the pregnant women I know ... along with all the onsies and tote bags i've been tie-dying. I'm starting to run out of room to store all the stuff!
~C
Well I had a checkup with my midwife today. I'm 30-1/2 weeks pregnant and everything is still sailing along smoothly. I'm trying to spend more time practicing hypnobirthing techniques but it's not going all that well so far. It's hard to find time to practice relaxation and visualization techniques with Houston running around. He's going through a new phase lately of being very attached to me and wanting me to carry him around the house ... which is getting a little bit difficult with my belly the size that it is already. I usually find time at night after Houston has gone to bed but then since i'm so tired it turns into me practicing my sleeping technique rather than relaxation! I've read amazing accounts of women not feeling any pain during labor by using hypnobirthing. While i'm not completely convinced that it is possible to not feel pain while having a child naturally, i'm definitely interested in whatever relief it can give. I remember thinking, after having Houston, that childbirth was way more painful than I thought it was going to be. (Probably due to denial on my part.) I thought I would be nervous this time because I know what i'm in for ... but the truth is that i'm actually looking forward to it in some really strange way. Crazy, huh!?!? I'm definitely looking forward to having a home birth. The thing I remember most about going into active labor with Houston is that I did not want to leave the house. Brett pretty much had to carry me to the car because I refused to get off the couch! And intense labor contractions in a car for 45 minutes on the way to Gainesville was not fun at all. (although i'm pretty sure Brett turned the 45 minute drive into a much shorter drive that night) This time I can be comfortable in my own home while my midwife makes the drive from Gainesville to Lake City!
One more thing ... for those of you expecting or expecting to be expecting ... i've created something really cool. I made a belly butter out of 100% natural cocoa butter and organic extra virgin olive oil .... and it smells like chocolate! Let me know if anyone is interested. I would love to be able to sell it somewhere. I'll have to work on that one. It might just turn into a gift I give all the pregnant women I know ... along with all the onsies and tote bags i've been tie-dying. I'm starting to run out of room to store all the stuff!
~C
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
My Blog Thoughts
I sometimes find that I have things I really want to talk about that my 18 month old son really does not care about ... imagine that! I started this blog with the thought that I could write about whatever was on my mind at the time ... which could be anything. So for now i'll leave you with a list ... sort of a brainstorm if you will, of what I may be writing about in the future.
The pros and cons of being a stay-at-home mom
Attachment Parenting
Natural Child Birth
Cloth diapering and Breastfeeding
Yoga
Crafts ... tie-dye, batik, crochet, sewing .. whatever i'm into at the time
Dogs ... natural healing, hip dysplasia, good nutrition
The trials and tribulations of the space program
That's where my brain ends today ... got some tie-dye soaking that I need to attend to. Blog you later!
The pros and cons of being a stay-at-home mom
Attachment Parenting
Natural Child Birth
Cloth diapering and Breastfeeding
Yoga
Crafts ... tie-dye, batik, crochet, sewing .. whatever i'm into at the time
Dogs ... natural healing, hip dysplasia, good nutrition
The trials and tribulations of the space program
That's where my brain ends today ... got some tie-dye soaking that I need to attend to. Blog you later!
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