Crunchy Moms

There comes a point in ones life when you have realizations…

Like when you’re nearly topless from a marathon cluster feeding session holding your baby that is currently dressed in a fitted cloth diaper and baby legs, inhaling the top of your baby’s head because it smells like coconut oil and lavender oil while looking at webpages for amber necklaces and woven wraps for babywearing that were linked in your homebirth discussion group…

Its moments like these that you realize, yep. I’m one of THOSE moms.

Crunchy mom power!!!!

Cloth Diapers

Soooo I love my diapers. I have all sorts…prefolds, pockets, fitteds, AIO. You know what else I love? Diaper affiliate programs. I can earn gift certificates when people buy using my link. I LOVE my Diaper Safari pockets even more then the Fuzzibunz and Bum Genius 4.0s. Frankly, they keep her drier, are SUPER soft, and the microfiber insert holds a LOT. Love the choice of colors, too. The cross-over snaps make them fit skinnier babes and the overall dipe is just soft and not stiff (BG feel so bulky in comparison). Oh, and did I mention that they are very inexpensive? $13.95/diaper is standard, but they have sales OFTEN. Prices get marked down to $8.95 or BOGO…and ALWAYS free shipping! What? Oh thats right 😀

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love all my dipes, but I wanted to let you know WHY I like my Diaper Safari ones before shamelessly putting a link up here. So, without further ado…

Better late then never

Pics from the birth! None during since it went so fast 🙂 Here’s one taken a few days before she was born.

Huge! And then…we got to meet our little girl!

 

Check out the moudling on that noggin! 

She was a hefty girl. No wonder it felt like I was carrying a bowling ball in my pelvis those last  few days.

Big brother got to help our midwife with the newborn exam. He was totally in awe of his baby sister…

Giving his sister her first “bath”. Soo much vernix in her hair!

Loving on the girl.

Hello world. Introducing Emma Rose.

Not much to report

Baby Emma is doing awesome. Her umbilical stump fell off this evening and she had a checkup with the pediatrician. All is perfect, she is gaining back weight at a little over an ounce per day! The power of breastmilk 😀 Also, only 6lbs left until my pre-preg weight. Whoohoo.

And so it begins

1:55am-Woke up feeling “weird”. Frustrated because apparently my day of massive mucous expulsion had increased. Debated going to the bathroom and started to roll over on my back…only to feel a big gush of fluid. Nudged my husband

“I think my water just broke”

“HUH? Why do you think that”

He then proceeds to sleepily feel around the waistband of my undies where it is dry. I proceed to sit up and scoot to the edge of the bed and he can see that I am sitting in a puddle. Thank god we followed the directions of the midwife and had a vinyl sheet under our fitted sheet.

Hubs started changing the linens while I waddled to the bathroom to clean up in the shower. Midwife was called and I was instructed to get more sleep if I could. I guess I should also be thankful I bought the Depends like she said to.

Here we go 🙂

Strawberry Season!

Florida is amazing for strawberries, but just oranges. Last month we picked up a flat of strawberries for $15…which promptly became jam. Mama Jam to be precise 🙂

Look at those beauties. All sliced up and ready for some lovin’!

Then, we mash! Good way to take out all your frustration…get it nice and smooth…

TADA! Now we let it cook down with some pectin to make it pretty and clear. Scoop of any foamy bits and you get this:

Ladle it into sterilized mason jars and use a water bath to seal them

Or just eat it!

Yum yum yum. Not going to lie, we use this on everything. Sandwiches, bread, crackers, pretzels, pancakes. I had to explain to the kiddo that he couldn’t just take a spoon and eat it straight from the jar.

The recipe I used is from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook:

Ingredients

2 qt fresh strawberries

1  1 3/4 package of powdered pectin

1/2 tsp butter or margarine

7c sugar

Directions

1.Crush 1 cup of berries in an 8-quart pot. Continue adding berries and crushing until you have 5 cups crushed berries. Stir in pectin and margarine. Heat on high, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Add sugar all at once. Return to boiling; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim off foam.

2.Ladle at once into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims; adjust lids. Process in a boiling-water canner 5 minutes. Remove jars; cool.

Non-baby stuff

Ok so for some reason, caring about the food you eat means you’re some crazy hippy health nut. Not really. I’m a big fat fatty that loves food…I would just prefer to not eat random chemicals that have no nutritional value. That and *gasp* I actually like cooking and doing home-maker type stuff. I know, I know. Psycho stuff, right?

We garden. We compost. We buy local as much as possible. I’ve cut back our processed food consumption by…well…a lot. I serve homemade meals instead. I’ve even taken the extra step and have learned how to can. I’ve been using a water bath to seal my jars, but in hopes of preserving more of our home harvest (and taking advantage of farmer’s market deals), hubby ordered me a pressure canner today and I’M SO EXCITED. That’s what gets me all worked up, folks.

And you know, nothing feels quite as awesome as your kindergartener bragging to his classmates that he has a “mama jam” sandwich on homemade bread. The other kids were in awe…they didn’t even know you could make that. He puffed up his chest and told him that his mommy can and does. Oh yes. We have mama jam, mama sauce, mama bread, etc. He has tried to throw away store bought when he realizes that I’ve made some instead. That right there makes me feel like super woman.

Speaking of the kiddo…he was a picky kid. Operative word being was. Like most kids, he would turn his nose up at anything green or fell under the guise of vegetable. Now that he has been able to see his food grow from a seed, I think he has more appreciation for it. I’m still coping with the fact that he happily asks how many handfuls of spinach he can have or sings songs about having squash for dinner…while still eating breakfast.

I think I might need to start posting some of those things because really, it isn’t that hard. Find a good recipe or reliable instructions and you’re good to go. Its not really crazy time consuming, which is the most common complaint. “Oh, I wish I had time”. Its really not that bad. I made a batch of pickles tonight and it took a whopping 15 minutes. Minimal effort is the name of the game, folks. It is so worth it when you have a pantry and freezer full of tasty, chemical free foods for your family.

what I want

My birth story with #1 is far from a lot of horror stories I hear, so I consider myself lucky. I’ve done a ton of research about what other choices there are out there since then and I am making sure that I have options and am not ignored this time!

First off, I decided to go with a midwife practice instead of an OBGYN. I also knew I wanted a birth center instead of delivering at a hospital. It was important that the midwife treat me as competent and be there for guidance. NOT someone that uses their title as an almighty power stick or something. I want to be kept informed of every single aspect and make decisions with the help of a midwife, not feel forced into “options”. I also wanted to birth in a home-like, comfortable environment.

I found the perfect birth center and a great group of midwives. They don’t believe in medicating the moms and keep it all natural. They have an acupuncturist and massage therapist on staff, in addition to tubs with jets, patios to walk on and birthing balls. They serve you breakfast after you have the baby and just take care of you every step of the way. The midwife is kind of on the hippie side, but I don’t mind…in fact, I think it is preferred at this point. They also have mandatory birth classes where husband and I will learn all sorts of techniques to manage the pain and remain calm during the labor and delivery. I’m so grateful because really, husband was such a deer in the headlights the first time and I really want to have this experience with him helping me through it. And you know, mandatory classes means that he has to learn! He wants the same sort of experience and felt so out of control/helpless the first time. His biggest fear is seeing me in so much pain and not being able to help, but I have full confidence that he will be able to pull through!

The best part is that if there are ANY emergency complications, there is a hospital immediately across the street! My midwife will go over and make sure that the hospital staff keep things as close to what I want as possible. Also, if I start labor and have a complete panic and want to just go to the hospital and get an epidural (for some god forsaken reason), I have that option and they will help me with that, too. They are just there to make sure that baby and I are happy and healthy through the whole process. I couldn’t ask for much more.