William's Birth Story (baby #3)

Apparently I started writing this birth story one week after Will's birth and only got up to the part where the first contractions started. Then I stopped writing it. My guess is, either the baby had woken up, another kid needed something, or I decided to catch some z's. Either way, I've verbally shared the story with enough people (or texted it out to curious friends), that I think we'll be able to fill in the gaps! 

Here's the no-holds bar story of Will's birth:

September 9 with pretty much ZILCH activity to speak of

My estimated due date was September 9, 2015. Based on my other two children’s arrival times, I anticipated having this baby anywhere from the end of August up through the due date, but definitely not after!! However, I should have known babies have their own plans. :) 

The weekend leading up to his birth was not necessarily ideal. Gabe, age 3 at the time, unfortunately came down with a really tight case of croup, which wouldn’t let up after a couple of nights. On Saturday, we took him to Urgent Care to be assessed and it was determined he needed some breathing treatments and some steroids (not our favorite, but it was bad enough to merit some medical help for croup for the first time ever). The steroids made him a little crazy, and he ended up not even taking a nap that day. That Saturday night, Greg and I had a chat about some last-minute fears related to welcoming another baby into our family (like, will it mess up the good flow we have already with our 6 and 3 year olds? was this a big, colossal mistake?!) and kind of just reviewed where we were at. I know sometimes babies don't come if they sense momma's not in a good mental spot.

We took a very HOT walk around the neighborhood
 Friday afternoon to try and get things going &
get Gabe some Vitamin D

A little while later after that chat, Gabe woke up in an all-out (what I believe, drug-induced) tantrum. It took nearly an hour to calm him down. He was completely out of his mind and not in control at all. Trying to calm him down only made my belly tighten up, and was very emotionally draining, so Greg finally got him back into his bed and lay down with him. I decided by that point (well past 1am) to lay down and try to sleep...finally Greg returned and he laid down too. A few minutes later, around 2:30am, I started sensing real contractions, after I had probably been asleep about 30 minutes. Greg was finally asleep too, and I didn’t want to wake him up yet, because it had already been such a short night of sleep. With my other two labors, I was blessed to have gone into labor after having had a better night’s sleep, and I had been really hoping for that this time around as well, but when the baby is overdue, and you’re READY to give birth, what are you going to do? I digress…

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt...

I was somewhat in denial these contractions were real but laying down was not making them go away, and they only proceeded to get more uncomfortable. I got up and started swaying my hips around, and woke Greg up around 3am. Bless my mom -- she had come down to stay with us, almost two weeks beforehand because I was just sure this baby was going to come earlier like Mia & Gabe had, and no, the baby decided to stay in longer -- but Greg knocked on her door to let her know what was going on as we were about to leave the house. Greg and I gathered what we could for the hospital bag (that was mostly already packed), while I stopped every few minutes to slow down and breathe through a contraction. Greg called our backup doula, and we got in the car around 4:15am. Right before we got in the car, I grabbed a towel, a big bowl, a cup of ice water, and I ate a banana and a granola bar. I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have before actual delivery, and I wanted some energy since it was the middle of the night and I hadn’t eaten in hours, and I grabbed the bowl and towel because I have a history of puking mid-labor and especially while driving! :(

Our hospital for delivery is about 30 minutes away, but in the middle of the night, when you get to cruise on the expressway, we were able to get there super quick! We spotted a couple of deer as we exited our neighborhood and while we drove down the interstate and I remember wondering if/what that meant and how that was kind of cool to see... Right before I began throwing up that banana I had just eaten and the water I just chugged. Greg was a very good sport to not start throwing up himself. That only happened a couple of more times and I very adeptly dumped the waste at a stoplight about 2 blocks away from the hospital. Woohoo!

When we pulled up to the hospital (around 4:45am), which has valet for pregnant women going into labor & delivery, the valet was SOUND asleep. Like, out. Greg slammed the doors on our car a couple of times to get his attention, and he finally stumbled awake and sprung into action like “Oh hey! I’m here, ready to go! Was totally not sleeping!” Except he was. We were wheeled up to L&D where we met our backup doula, Holli, for the very first time. I had talked to her on the phone the Wednesday night prior and she had my birth plan printed out and was ready to go immediately attending to me, even while I was sitting uncomfortably in the wheelchair in triage working through a contraction.

one word: LABOR

It's gettin' REAL

We were wheeled into our triage room, I changed into even a less attractive hospital gown than I wore with Gabe, if that’s possible, and kept working through contractions. I believe they were at least every 4 minutes at this point, if not even faster. We were waiting for a midwife to come check me before we moved me to a room, but the midwife from my practice was in the middle of a delivery. So, instead, I just hung out in the triage room, either on the bed, or on the side of the bed, going through different laboring positions while they did some quick monitoring of the baby too. Holli, our doula, was giving suggestions for different ways to sit, stand or move, and reminding me to breathe baby down and relax my face. I didn’t know it at the time either, but she was snapping some pictures on her camera as well, which I really appreciated after the fact (I think birth photography is awesome!). After probably 45 minutes of hard labor and waiting for a midwife, one of the nurses came back in and said, “She’s still stuck in a delivery; I’ll just go ahead and check you.” She checked and said I was complete with a bulging bag of waters! I’ll never forget the surprise, shock, and delight I feel when I hear the words, “You’re complete.” Knowing it’s go-time is exhilarating and butterfly-inducing all at once. They asked me if I had the urge to push and I said, “Not yet,” but after the next contraction I immediately felt that sensation. They put my saline lock in and were ready to move me to my labor and delivery room. It was around 5:45 or 5:50am at this point.

It's GO time

Because my midwife was still in a delivery, the nurses were trying to figure out who would be able to help me deliver. There was another midwife from another practice available at the hospital that night so they decided to wheel me into one of her rooms. I literally met her for the first time as they wheeled me in and I was about to have another contraction. Her name was Sandy and she asked me how I wanted to push. I had a moment of complete indecision as I had pushed on my back with my legs up with the other kids but I had been basically on all fours this time around, smushing my face into the pillow on the bed. My doula asked if I wanted to squat for pushing, but since I was in a position I couldn’t imagine physically switching myself from, we stayed on all fours and my NEW-to-me midwife told me to push my butt into her hands. For a first meeting, that was a pretty brazen request! She told me to do it again, as I had been a little apprehensive, but after about half a contraction of pushing that way, I finally pushed past the awkward, and started pushing intuitively and aggressively, in my mental zone. It all happened pretty quickly at this point, but after I started really pushing, the baby descended, then in the next contraction, my water broke (which has never happened without intervention/assistance in the past!), which kind of freaked me out!, and then in the next contraction the baby’s head emerged, and finally during the next contraction, the baby was born!!! If you read that fast, just imagine it happening in your body that quickly, because that’s about how it felt. There was such a flurry of activity around me, but I basically had my eyes closed the entire time as I gripped the pillow on my bed for dear life and was utilizing all my other senses to figure out what was going on. Because I was on all fours, I didn’t visually take in my baby until I heard the midwife ask Greg to announce the sex, and Greg checked and said, “It’s a boy!” all excitedly and cheerfully, and they helped me flipped over and gave me the baby immediately. I was still in shock, but so so so relieved and so happy he was here and looked healthy and good :). The time was 6:04am.

Three Words: Newborn Baby Bliss

Our own kids wouldn’t have even been up for the day yet, and we had just had another baby.

They cut the cord after a little while of letting it pulse, and he was on my chest doing skin-to-skin immediately. Because it all happened so quickly, I felt like I was in a whirlwind and my body had a little bit of a hard time calming down. All the hormones rushing through my body gave me the chills/shakes, so the nurses were bringing tons of warm blankets to wrap around me, which felt wonderful as I snuggled our newest little one, who was yet to be officially named.

#WorthIt

After about an hour and a half, they weighed him and he was 6lbs, 12oz, and 19 inches long. He’s our biggest baby and stayed in the longest too: 40 weeks and 4 days. Once he was weighed, I was good to go for a transfer to our postpartum recovery room, and take a nice little morning nap. Mia was born on a Sunday too, like this kid, and it was nice to rest and have some peace and quiet while the rest of the world was waking up or readying themselves for church activities!

The history behind the name

We discussed his name options on and off throughout the morning--despite having announced his birth and healthy arrival to family and friends--he didn’t have a name yet! “William” had been on our list throughout the pregnancy as a potential boy name, but had also been taken off the list once or twice just due to how popular a name it is. However, it’s a classic name, and a family name (it’s interwoven multiple times on both sides of the family), and most directly, is my dad’s middle name and my brother’s middle name, so, William it was! And Thomas was chosen as a biblical name after one of Jesus’ apostles who believed in the resurrected Christ after having been able to examine Jesus’ resurrected body and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Additionally, Thomas is also a family name as well, after Greg’s deceased grandfather. So, Will’s name is rich with family and biblical history and we announced his name to family and friends in the early afternoon. Thankfully, no one balked at it ;)

A couple of interesting notes about the delivery…

This was my 3rd birth, and my 2nd hospital birth. It went so quickly and even though I didn't have much windup time in terms of labor, I was really thankful for the supportive people involved: Greg, my doula, who handed out copies of my birth plan, my stand-in midwife and my group's midwife who came in later to congratulate me (she had a delivery with a retained placenta)! They all helped things flow quite smoothly.

The doula also used some essential oils during labor to help me not be too nauseated as I had thrown up on the way to the hospital in the car, and she used peppermint on Greg when he got a little light-headed right before I began pushing. He said he recognized the sounds I was making from the other 2 labors and knew pushing and birth were imminent and it was gettin' REAL and he had to go lay down! (Yes, on the floor of the delivery room.) Thankfully the nurses were on it right away and pointed a fan at him, gave him some juice, my doula popped open the peppermint oil and some honey sticks, and he was able to not totally pass out and miss the birth! His favorite part was getting to announce the sex since it had been a surprise. We both got to do skin to skin as well afterward, which is not something he'd done before but we knew we wanted to incorporate. The hospital honored ALL of our wishes and is considered "baby-friendly," and never tried to take away, bathe the baby or push any interventions or procedures we didn't want. In fact, when they wheeled us to our postpartum room I was happy to hear that they only expected baby to feed 4-6x in the first 24 hours and that he'd likely be sleepy (yes, mom and baby both)!! We were able to be discharged after 36 hours, which was also my fastest turn around time too!

Despite the “waiting” for Will, he was worth the wait and be it due to this being our third time around doing this newborn thing, or his nature in general, has been a very easy-going baby! We are so blessed by him and the older kids began loving on him immediately. My mom was able to stay a few more days to help things be in good order before heading back home, and Gabe eventually got over his sad, pitiful croupy cough and life began as a family of five.

Photo by Aubree Clark Photography

Where in the world are our Chiquita Bambinos?

I miss blogging, I really do. The world is changing so quickly these days, that the things I totally took for granted when Mia & Gabe were tiny are now already totally different. Do people blog? Do people even read blogs? I do not know. But I still kind of miss it.

One of the reasons I haven't been on here that much simply is just our lives have changed. Adding in a new person (hello, Will, who never got a formal introduction here on the blog!) at the beginning of the school year meant we just got sucked into the vortex of school and newborn parenting all at once.
Additionally, between the school runs, and homeschooling (we continue to partner with a school that's half-homeschool, half-"regular" school), my consistent nap times for the other kids were not as consistent, and nap times were often when I'd get any blogging done in the past, if I wasn't trying to sneak in a nap myself. By the end of the day, the last thing I'd want to do is get on my computer, as I was all "what series can I finish in one night on Netflix?", and so, here we are, just a year since my last blog update, with a 9 month old and what feels like a lifetime of stories to catch up on.

Speaking of naps, that's what our "little" 9 month old is doing. Whilst holding a child-proofed bottle of teething tablets. "Wear your supplements," they said, and thus he is, clutching them in his hand! That's just where we're at right now. Will is 9 months old, has 3 teeth on the bottom and the top two are breaking in. He had his 9 month check-up the other day and is 19lbs, 9 oz, and 28" long. Blessed be my brain, but I can't remember the stats for Mia & Gabe at this age, but, he's pretty big for our kids for a 9 month old baby. I think Mia weighed 19lbs by one year. Everyone remarks on how big and solid he is. He's definitely a little haus...as one can clearly tell by this solid picture. :-|

Naps have been a source of much discussion around here lately. Are we getting one today, or not? Because Will is the third baby, he hasn't had the luxury of our staying at home most of the time to ensure he can stay on his nap schedule. Life is so much different now than it was when Mia was three and Gabe was a tiny tot. This past school year two days of the week, either myself or Greg was running out the door at 2:30 to pick up Mia from school. On Wednesday afternoons, we had violin lessons for Mia and gymnastics for both Mia & Gabe. Those were long afternoons. If Will was asleep and it seemed like he might take a good nap, sometimes I left him home (with Greg who works from home) for those runs out the door. If he wasn't asleep, he had to come with me, and we just let him sleep on the go, or he'd stay up and we'd just roll with it. Trust me, he's a special kind of baby to just be "rolling with it."

Now that it's summer, though, we've been able to rearrange our schedule a tad and also cancel some activities (bye bye, gymnastics!), so I'm really working on getting into a better nap groove a) for his own benefit and b) for my sanity. I may be random, but I do crave some structure too. After all these years, Spontaneity and Structure can be good friends, I've determined :P

Our goal is to get him on a pretty regular rhythm or routine so that we can plan the rest of our activities in step with his nap needs. This has required some nap-training, which sometimes sounds like a horrible code-word for "crying it out." I don't enjoy crying it out (I mean, who does?), but what I mean by nap-training is laying him down, and patting his butt, and playing special music he likes that is a cue for sleep, and continuing to do this (and sometimes leaving his room to let him know it's not play time) until he falls asleep. We are at like a 60% success rate right now. He knows the cues, so it's a matter of continuing to reinforce it until it becomes solid. Sometimes we have to do this at night as well, if he doesn't fall asleep while nursing. The transfer after bedtime nursing is like 98% more successful than the transfer after naptime nursing.

So, I just spent a good portion of this blog talking about nap times. Cuz that's where I'm at!

Next blog, I'll back up and introduce who Will actually is and his birth story, cuz I'm all about a good birth story. Until then, adios! Master William is awake from his merry morning slumber. Adieu.

Can't stop won't stop

It's gonna be another fun summer with these kids...

Looking at this rusty old blog space makes me a tad nostalgic. It was maintained so well during my children's younger years (which, for the record, they are still young), but with life amping up as we entered school for my oldest, and just life amping up in general, it has quite obviously taken a sad backseat. I know they say time flies and cherish those younger years with your kids because they're over before you know it, and it's sort of really true. I downloaded the app TimeHop a couple of months ago, because, why not? And it stuns me when pictures from 6 years ago show up and it's a little baby Mia in her bouncy seat...it doesn't even seem fathomable that she was a baby 6 years ago. Where has the time gone?

I feel for moms who are in the thick of it with a toddler and a baby--it is really a nonstop work. And not that my situation isn't nonstop either, it really, seems to get busier and busier, but the mental fortitude and attention that is required starts to shift. They don't need my constant attention. Sure, they want it, but it's not always required.

What's going to change though? Baby #3.

As I announced on my other blog a couple of months ago (which, sadly, has gone on hiatus as well!) is that we are expecting baby number three at the end of the summer (late August or early September, likely)! I'm already 28 weeks so that means I've hit the unbelievable point of my 3rd trimester, which is alarming, exciting, and mind-blowing.

Some of our fav things to do at HHI, SC

My oldest child graduated kindergarten this year, and the week after school let out, we went on a family vacation to Hilton Head Island, SC, with some good friends of ours. I looked at that trip as the "dawning" of summer for our family, and I figured it might be one of the only excursions/trips we take this summer, because I figured we'd be busy getting ready for the reality of a baby coming at the end of summer, but I gotta say...
The summer's flying by faster than I expected. Just like last year, it's filled with tons of good things like seeing family, going to the pool, participating in Stroller Strides, Mia's doing developmental swim team (where she works with a coach and other kids to learn strokes; it's not competitive!), and just finding time to chill as a family, it's amazing to me how blazingly fast it's all going by. Before I know it, it will be July, and then August, and if I don't have a baby by the end of that month, I for sure will be having one in the next month (Lord Willing)!

It'll be interesting to return to babyland. Mia will be in 1st grade, and Gabe will be 3, almost 4, when the baby's born, so while they are two and a half years apart, there's obviously been a bit of a lag between these kids and this next one. I'm thankful to have two older helpers (right?!) but it'll be another mind-shift for me as a mom. We've gotten really used to, and have enjoyed, being on the go a lot and doing fun things and going with the flow, and I just have a feeling that while this baby might have to go with the flow as well, we may also be slowing down. And that's okay. There's a time for everything. So I'm just going to enjoy the time we have left as a family of four and hopefully in doing so, allow my mind and body to mentally and spiritually prepare for becoming a family of five! It won't really be real to me, until it's real.  So, here we go :)

25 weeks in HHI with a little sidekick who wanted in on the action

Kindergarten graduate, whaaat!!

Have you added a kid to the crew when your other kids were already a bit bigger? I know they look small in these pictures but they seem big to me! How was your transition/experience? What did you love; what were you not prepared for?

Where can you find me?

Naturally In Progress blog

It's been busy around here, what with back-to-school and all. But lately, even more than just back-to-school has kept me busy. Soon after the start of the school year, I started a new protocol to work on an autoimmune condition that I have. I've been sharing my experience at another blog I started called Naturally In Progress.  This has been a long time coming, but in actuality, this was probably the best time for me to do it. God just knows :)

I'd love if you followed me over there too while I document what I'm doing, and how I'm doing. I can't believe I'm through the first 6 weeks and am happy to report I've done so with little incident. It's working!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world and Happy October. I officially declare that fall decor can come out.

What I'm going to miss most about summer...

My inner Minnesotan child wouldn't believe it, but our family officially went back to school earlier this week. Up north, it was not uncommon to start school the day after Labor Day. I was in shock when I went to college and I had to report down to school mid-August!  We didn't get out of high school until the first week of June, so where went my summer??

Well, getting out early May in college won me over -- summer started early! And now that Mia's on a August-May schedule, I'm down with the program.



But our summer has now come and gone, and here are the things I will miss:

1. Nearly weekly pool visits.  Once our swimming lessons went into effect, we started taking the kids to the pool nearly every week, and sometimes more than once a week.  Splash pad, waterslide, jumping in with floaties on -- we had a great time and tried to make the most of our local community pool! The kids even got in some sunbathing too, as you can tell...

2. Doing what we wanted, when we wanted. Kids needed a haircut? Alright, let's go! Why not grab an iced latte while I wait? Wanna go see the matinee of Planes: Fire & Rescue? Yes, please! Not having to work around a school schedule was liberating.

seeing family in TN

cousins playing in early morning in NC

packing for the beach was so easy -
pastels & white all the way! #type1

Southern Outer Banks, NC, we loved you!

3. Packing for and taking our trips to the beach in North Carolina in June and seeing family & friends in AL, MO, and TN in July. Our kids got to experience new places -- the Busch stadium in STL, the Atlantic Ocean in NC, and spend time with family we don't get to see very often, not to mention celebrate a great-grandmother's 100th birthday! I was so glad to also see some of my friends in different states--it was so good to reconnect and spend time together--really, truly good for the soul! Also, wouldn't you know that a perk of learning my type also allowed me to pack better? Everything just "matched"!

It's almost hard for my mom-brain to believe this,
but sometimes we went on two dates a week!
What were we thinking!? :P

4. Going on dates! Since we didn't have deadlines or super tight schedules, Greg & I were able to take advantage of our college-aged babysitter who was "off" for the the summer and schedule lots of on-the-spot dates. I do not take that time for granted!

5.  Lots of Stroller Strides -- even in the humid Florida heat.  Our Summer get fit challenge really challenged me by getting out of bed in time to get there...but it wasn't too early that I still couldn't "sleep in" a bit. ;)

6.  And for as on-the-go as we were, also having downtime to do stuff like this:
Watch the World Cup or a Rays game, or even possibly go overboard on reruns of House Hunters. Hey, I'm just sayin'!


Now that we'll be back to a bit of a more normal schedule, I can feel myself gradually getting back into the groove.  And I won't lie, it felt good to pull up to that school Tuesday morning, not just for my child, but also for me.  It'll still be a while before it really feel like fall in Florida, so I'll continue to hold onto the last remnants of summer while finding my new pace this school year. That splash pad is still calling my name!

Delicious & Easy Pulled Pork

Having been married to a Tennessee boy for almost 7 years (next Monday!), learning how to make a good pulled pork has been essential.  I'm not gonna lie -- I enjoy it too!  I recently learned that I have an "allergy" to beef (this has flabbergasted me!), so I've been pulling together all my non-beef recipes I have to make sure good protein recipes are in the rotation.  This is definitely one of our favorites and I give ALL credit for the delicious dry rub mixture from Kevin & Amanda's Perfect Pulled Pork recipe.

Delicious & Easy Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

4-7lb Boston Butt OR Pork Shoulder Roast (with OR without bones is fine)

1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 cup brown sugar (optional)

Mix the dry rub all together in a small bowl, rub it generously all over the pork shoulder/boston butt, even into the creases. Any dry rub that is left over can be used to season the pork after it's cooked.

After you massage in the dry rub, refrigerate the pork for 4 hours up to overnight.  (Sometimes when I am in a hurry I skip this! Still turns out fine!)

Then, toss pork with the layer of fat on TOP in the slow-cooker on high for 8 hours.  After 8 hours, shred with two forks, and if necessary, add more of the remaining dry rub to season.  Used reserved juices to moisten the meat.  

Enjoy!

Summer, blessed summer!

I have been in the Sunny Sunshine State for almost 13 years now...and have spent most of my summers since 2001 down here, trying to duck the late afternoon thunderstorms that are so characteristic of Florida.  When I was in college & grad school, summer didn't mean much to me here because it was just hot, hot, hot and I was either working or in classes in the cool A/C.  When we got married, I was unemployed for a time and so summer meant sort of sitting on my bum watching ridiculous videos on YouTube, scanning website for meal planning ideas, and trying to figure out how to make an errand to the grocery store seem exciting (time for a new spice, alright!! this pyrex glass container is on clearance? score!)

Once we had kids, though, summers in Florida were somewhat like torture.  All things in good time, I know, and Florida has the benefit of having extremely mild winters and I live for the days between November and April. They are mostly pure bliss, whereas I know the rest of the country is bunkering up for the umpteenth snow storm (been there, done that -- did I mention I grew up in Minnesota? I get it, and I survived, and I thought no different of myself until I started living down here).

Why were summers in FL torture? When your friends anywhere north of the Florida-Georgia line (with windows down and cruisin', no doubt) think of summer they think of being outside all day, running through the sprinklers, playing in the kiddie pool, running inside for Kool-Aid and then running back outside to play some more.  That is just not quite as...easy here.  It's hot. It's HUMID. And it might be raining.  And I don't have a backyard pool (which is totally okay).  So instead we try to find fun "indoor" activities that don't involve 17 episodes of Angelina Ballerina on repeat.  I, again, try to find the fun in running errands to the dry cleaners or Target (ooh, I wonder what's marked down on clearance this time...will it be burt's bees chapstick or 77 packages of applesauce?! Excitement pours out of my skin like delicate ladylike perspiration).  It's a season, and this too passes.

Summers back then were for shopping, learning electric guitar, extra trips to the library for impending early childhood literacy, and staying cool at the splash pad at Busch Gardens at all costs. (Photos courtesy of summer 2011).

However, this year, we've hit a milestone.  A major milestone. For one, both my children are mobile. Obviously this has been the norm for Mia for quite some time, and Gabe was mobile last summer too, but this year he's really mobile and more self-sufficient and not every outing requires a huge diaper bag and major ensemble this year.  I am actually using a cross-body bag/purse for most outings instead of a backpack or weighed-down shoulder bag, and I am loving this freedom.

pool, jump, repeat

Secondly, both of my kids took swimming lessons this spring for 6 weeks, and Mia is doing pretty well, and Gabe has gotten way more comfortable with getting in the water (he's an "earth" boy--I think he'll be happy around trees & mountains someday as opposed to the water), and he's good with having a puddle jumper on.

Thirdly, thanks to Stroller Strides, we have now found a little community within our community of mamas & friends who have access to our very wonderful neighborhood pool & splash pad, so we have pool parties like once a week.  Guests can come too, and we often invite non-residents, even though they have to pay a tiny fee to get in with us.  (We're talking like $5.)

And since my kids are more comfortable in the pool, not to the point where I'm not keeping an eye on them, but to the point that I can actually look at another person in the eye besides my own child, these outings to the pool are actually fun instead of stress-inducing!  It's taken 5 summers to get to this point but sometimes you have to know where you've been to fully appreciate where you are!

So I am going to enjoy my summer to the fullest and oh, wait, mail's here, hold on a second...

Lands' End, what have you done?!  Are you trying to murder my joy? My summer sunshine? It is not time to hit the books, my friends.  Yes, we are trying to retain some of Mia's PreK knowledge but no, no, no, it is not time for backpacks.  It's not time for freshly sharpened pencils, as perfect and delicious as they are. It's time for summer. Last time I checked July 4 was three days ago, when we were covering our ears from the sonic booms of our neighborhood fireworks and eating watermelon and smelling like mango because somehow my organic sunscreen is scented as such (from the essence of pure organic mangos, no doubt).  IT'S SUMMER.

Give me a few more weeks of my freedom. Sure, go on, do what you need to do to "survive as a business," and send thousands of moms into a frenzy that their child will not have the perfect monogrammed backpack this year, but please, please, let me have my July.  IT'S JULY.  Summer officially started 'bout 2 weeks ago.  You can call me August 1. I won't answer. So you can leave a message with full details about what I need to buy, and then I will. Probably from Target.  Which I hear has already proclaimed their back-to-school madness as well. Angry tears.  Minneapolis, you're getting a call from me.  Regardless.  I will enjoy my family and this time, in the words of Olaf, in SUMMERRRRRRRR!!!!!

I'll be a happy [mom] in SUMMERRRRRR!!
photo credit: http://bit.ly/1oC1NqV

PS: You know I love Lands' End. I practically grew up in about half their catalogue. I'm surprised my mom isn't somehow on the board of directors. She might be indirectly responsible for their success. So this playful tongue-in-cheek diatribe really hopefully doesn't come as a slight to them, because I heart what they do, just...not yet.  Said in love lest some Lands' End social media person thinks I'm trying to take them down, because, I'm not.

PPS: Now go on and enjoy your summer like you should!!

Milestones

Yesterday Mia turned 5. Half a decade we've experienced with that little girl and I can't imagine what the next 5 years will feel like. Birthdays are awesome and this week has been a big week for our kids as they've moved into the same room and are now bunking up (!) and the cherry on top was Mia's super fun pool party with her little girlfriends and family :D

bunk beds!! *exact arrangement TBD*

In honor of Mia's 5th birthday, I wanted to share 5 funny Mia videos:

5.
Mia the performer, Gabe the DJ from Megan Ciampa on Vimeo.

4.
Mia eats fries from Megan Ciampa on Vimeo.

3.
Mia & the Bible from Megan Ciampa on Vimeo.
(She sounds just like Becky Cawthon, who was her bible class teacher at the time!)

2.
Mia & Braden drive from Megan Ciampa on Vimeo.

1. Might want to get the tissues ready...

Mia's First Year from Megan Ciampa on Vimeo.

The Great Purge

Fun and messy may be two of my tag words, but I'm slowly working on eradicating "messy" from my life...

Maybe I should be realistic and realize it's not my strong suit, but hey, we are having a good time today in the pursuit of the PURGE and I'm getting excited about getting rid of STUFF.  Too much stuff = too much brain clutter = not good times for anyone.

The hard part is the emotional attachment to some of these items. Not my clothes, really, at all, but things related to my children? Absolutely. I remember from whom the toys or gifts were received, or why I bought that for them, or what purpose I believed it would be used...and now we don't want it anymore? How could that be? Well, I am allowing myself to believe that they have served their purposes in our home, and now they can be a blessing in someone else's, perhaps!

The hardest gut-wrenching one is listing my Petunia Pickle Bottom boxy backpack...it's been a great bag to have, but the truth is, it's been collecting dust on my bedroom floor for the last several months! I've been jutting around with just my favorite BIG purses the last couple of months now that Gabe is definitely out of baby-land, and I want to sell my PPB before it's truly past its prime.  

Grandparents and loyal friends may be wondering...WILL YOU EVER NEED ANOTHER DIAPER BAG? I'm not ruling it out! But I'm also giving myself the opportunity to get a new one, if I need one! Shopping's half the fun of a new kid, right?  

If you are interested in shopping my closet, here's the link to my Facebook sale!

Megan's Closet Sale

And here's my Petunia Pickle Bottom boxy backpack...you know you want it!

$60 or best offer and she could be yours!!

Oh, hi there!

Oh, hi!

It feels like it's been ages, because in a way, it has. Have I fallen out of love with blogging?  Not necessarily -- the wheels still are turning up in this brain.  I think, however, as the kids get older, I'm feeling more a sense of security & privacy, and not necessarily wanting to blast "everything" (not that I blasted all information before, but it was certainly more forthcoming).  

And I know like some other bloggers out there, the shift is focusing away from blogging and more to a social media presence. Well, I have my Instagram community and I'm happy with that, and occasionally I share things on Facebook or Twitter, but it's not like it was before.  I do miss the practice of blogging though ... what about you??

Energy Profiling

In other news, my new latest obsession is called Energy Profiling, also known as a program called "Dressing Your Truth." At first I was a bit skeptical of the title -- what does dressing my truth mean? As it turns out, it means dressing in a way that best supports your natural energy. You probably know everyone around you carries a different energy or mood. Some are more laid-back, some are high-energy, some are very constant and still, and some are intense, maybe even pushy.  Sometimes these energies can get a bad rap, because from our particular vantage point, they do not make sense to us. And vice versa. Our natural energy can be misunderstood by those around us because they may not share in it themselves, or because culturally there's a "best, better, good" sort of assumption about how a good person should act!  

Well, energy profiling has taken all those assumptions, labels, and energies, and found a nice way to categorize and help people identify their type.  After much video-watching on their website and blog, I've determined I'm a type 1.  Bright, animated, buoyant, random, light, airy, social, likes to have fun. And not so much serious.  (And finally, that's not a bad thing!!)  I think my secondary may be type 3, or type 2, and my last is type 4.  Coincidentally, my BFF is a type 4, and what do they say? Opposites attract? We certainly balance each other out :) In the end, when you know type energy profile/"truth," you can dress in a way that harmonizes with who you really are, so how you look on the outside is just a natural reflection of who you are on the inside.  It all gels.   

Are you interested?  It really piqued my interest, but I have always been interested in human nature and how people interact with one another and how best to incorporate these personalities -- probably why I majored in psychology and wanted a job where I worked with others.  Even more so now that I have two different personalities in my children!  I can share more about that in a future post, as well as my opinion on Greg's energy profile too.  

Any ideas your energy profile? Have you ever investigated this?

Happy 2014!

We're back from the holidays and still getting resettled into some sort of normalcy.  We had a great time while we were away and came back ready to get back into the swing of things, although I confess it's taking a bit longer to find a rhythm and routine than I anticipated. Here's some quick peeks at our holidays:

Hope your new year is off to a good start!

5 Tips to Save Your Sanity

Who hasn't felt the insanity during the holidays? Even the most planned and prepared can have their hairy moments!

I'm guest posting over at Modern Alternative Mama today with 5 Tips to Save Your Sanity this holiday season... go check it out!

And remember to stock up on your Baltic Amber or Hazelwood necklaces or bracelets over at InspiredByFinn.com and save 25% using discount code MEGAN25, good through December 23, 2013!  

Why Amber? Read more here or here:
Why Gabe sports a surfer dude necklace
Everything's going my way (scroll to bottom of post)

"everything's going my waaaaaay...."

There was a song sang at the weeklong summer camp I attended every year from 3rd - 12th grade.  It was a camp joke that the early rising senior counselors and staff would go around the campground singing the chorus of the opening song from the musical, Oklahoma:

Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,I've got a wonderful feeling, Everything's going my way.


And then because campers were witty, and, well, it was a bible camp, someone would then quote Proverbs 27:14: "Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing."

I haven't blogged much this fall because not much has felt like it was falling into place.  It is easy to blog when things are going well and I can easily report on the successes: so and so is doing this, and we're doing that, and man I can't wait for this!  But this fall, with its new experiences and journey into schooling, has left me a bit more deer-in-headlights and hashtagging "mommyfail" more often than I'd like to admit.  (Let's also just mention for a minute that instagramming is much easier than blogging, at the moment, and requires very little involvement or commitment!  But I miss the art of writing and blogging.  FWIW, you can find me on instagram.com/meganesota.)

I knew there would be a learning curve for having a preschooler who attends school twice a week and then has lesson plans we complete at home two other days a week.  I knew I wouldn't find my groove immediately.  I knew, from listening to other moms, there'd be days where I'd be thinking, why am I doing this?  Totally bad idea, "epic fail."  But there have also been some days where the sun was shining, the lesson plans were complete, my kids fed, and there was a plan for dinner.  Can we get a high-five for those days?? Let's be honest, they don't usually occur on Mondays. 

Look at the whole country.
Look how it's purple, gray, and blue.
Then there's us in all shiny and yellow and orange,
burning up.
Welcome to Florida.
Image via @jonacuff on Instagram  

Mondays, I dread.  Every Monday feels like a case of the Mondays.  Until today.  Sometimes I dislike notifications on my phone because before 12pm you can get 487 notifications from various people and apps about things that aren't particularly important, but today I received a reminder there was a playdate at 10am at a nearby park with friends I don't see very often, and I decided to scrap the morning plans (which usually involve homeschool) and go to the play date.  It was hosted by our local consignment sale planners for Jumping Jeans and the kids were able to do a christmas craft. Anything that says craft (Mia) and park (Gabe) is a win-win for my kids. We headed over there and although the weather is unseasonably warm for us Floridians, it bodes pretty well for park play dates.  The kids had a great time playing with their friends and it didn't hurt that Mia's best gal pals were in attendance.  Being outside this time of year and getting some vitamin D has its therapeutic benefits as well, so we all left happy, dirty and ready for phase II of the day.  Which, as of 4pm this afternoon, I can't believe is already over: lunch, naptime, school for Mia, followed by a short quiet time.  We're on to phase III already (dinner prep, dinner, followed closely by bedtime).  This Monday has flown.  But instead of wallowing in the rapidity of the day, I'm thankful we've staved off the grouchies that sometimes plague our Mondays and we just rolled with it.  *Sigh.*  I'm tired.

Gabe sporting some raw amber.

In other news, get a Baltic Amber necklace if you haven't already! These things are great. I've been wearing an amber bracelet the last month to help with wrist/joint pain and it's helped me tremendously.  I can really tell a difference when I take it off.  So, these puppies aren't just helpful for teething babies, they are helpful for adults too.  And for the next two weeks, InspiredByFinn.com has a coupon code "Megan25," that you can use at checkout to save 25%!  This is a great time to buy as a gift for someone this holiday season, or for yourself.  How might it help you?  According to their website: 

It contains analgesic properties and helps take the edge off of the discomfort and symptoms associated with:  dental issues (such as the emergence of new teeth, orthodontic brace adjustments, TMJ), growing pains, allergies, sensory disorders associated with autism, headaches and migraines, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, neck and shoulder discomfort, tendonitis, menstrual cramping, restless leg syndrome, back and knee discomfort, joint pain from chemotherapy, and many more.  In order to be effective Baltic amber must usually be close to the site of the discomfort.  For example, a necklace would not necessarily/likely be effective for growing pains in the legs.  For this we would recommend an ankle bracelet. 

Also worth trying? Beaked hazel wood. 

Beaked hazel wood can relieve acid-related ailments such as acid reflux, ulcers, heartburn, and other acid-related ailments. Our necklaces are a great remedy to take the edge off of heartburn and morning sickness during pregnancy.
Hazel wood also helps relieve skin problems such as (psoriasis, eczema, acne, and diaper rash) constipation, headaches, migraines, canker sores, and the occurrence of dental cavities when these ailments are related to excessive acid in the body (and sometimes they are not).

Order one for yourself or a friend (or both!) today!  Code Megan25 expires December 23, 2013.  

I Love Target

If you're a Minnesotan, or a Target lover like myself, then you might appreciate this story.

Photo Credit: RetailbyRyan95

I was at Target today by myself because both Gabe & Greg were at home not feeling well & Mia was at school, and so I had a lot of time to peruse and fill up my cart on groceries. Target has an app called Cartwheel (maybe you've used it?) and I was double-checking my items against what was in my "Cartwheel" for coupons, and my phone suddenly died by the butter. Agony of agonies! It wasn't even under 20% battery power. It.just.died. Noooooo!!! The point of Cartwheel is to be able to save and the barcode is on your phone, and I had all these eligible items and it wouldn't work without my phone being on! So I did what any normal person would do, and I walked over to Electronics and I asked the guy behind the counter a "random question": would there be any way he had an iPhone 5 plug that would allow me to plug in my phone to juice up for a few minutes so I could actually use my Target coupons?? He immediately found an iPhone cable (and opened it up, I'm afraid, it was brand new!) and plugged my phone in and stored it in a little cabinet while I finished up my shopping. It amped up to 41% and I was able to checkout and use my cartwheel coupons saving dolla bills, y'all. Another win for Target! It always makes me so happy to flip a package around at Target and see it's from Minneapolis, MN. Yep, it's the little things.

Strange September

A few years ago Greg and I created alliterations for the fall months...not in order to become a self-fulfilling prophecy but because we thought we noticed a trend. After summer was over, it sometimes just felt like things got harder (usually the back-to-school schedule in graduate school added some challenges).

Anyway, there was "Sucky September" (offensive, sorry!), "Odd October," and thankfully a reprieve, "Nice November."  Since I have young ones now I try not to use the word "suck," so I'm swapping it out for Strange September.  And this September has been slightly strange only in that it's been a very different September than any other!

stitches + a sunburn around his eyes = hot mess

Mainly because we are homeschooling two days a week and Mia goes to school two days a week and our weeks feel busy and full and...different.   And I have a little man who likes to throw wrenches into our homeschool days by falling off a chair the very first day of homeschool, cutting his chin, and requiring 6 stitches (hello, trauma!)  I won't lie, that was a really hard day for this mom as well.  Like, immediate crying in the doctor's office when he told me he would require stitches.  I think it's the mama-bear protection instinct when you just ache inside for your little one.

The other wrench a little man threw into our advent into homeschooling/schooling was when he came down with a stomach bug the day before we were to have our family pictures taken with my girl Laura Hinely before she MOVED indefinitely to NYC 2 days later (speaking of, anyone needing some photos in the Big Apple should check her out!). That meant scheduling was priority and we wouldn't have many options or really ANY option to reschedule.  As a mom, of course I wanted my little man to feel better just for his own sake, but I also was hopeful he'd feel better for the pictures' sake as I didn't want this opportunity to pass by!

Well, as I was simultaneously trying to get things ready for our photo shoot and take care of Gabe, I came across the brilliance that is activated charcoal.  I read about activated charcoal on Wellness Mama's blog and how she used it for teeth whitening, and I'll be honest, my pearly whites were more like pearly off-whites.  They needed some love.  Yet I wasn't keen on the Crest White Strips as I tried them before we got married and they made my gums sensitive and felt really chemical-ly.  So I was excited to see that for less than $8, you could buy some 90 capsules to try activated charcoal in order to whiten your teeth! It looks like you have oreos on your teeth at first but it really works.  It's gradual, but it works.
I assumed activated charcoal had other uses and lo and behold, it can be used for stomach bugs (Gabe's very issue)!  So fascinated about it, I wrote this guest post for Modern Alternative Mama about activated charcoal.  You can read it here:
http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/2013/09/21/activated-charcoal-new-must-have-in-my-natural-health-arsenal/

And oh yeah, Gabe recovered in 24 hours and we were thankfully able to get those family pictures made.  Can't wait to see the actual files soon! (These are just screenshots from Laura's computer from her iPhone.)

PS: School has been great for the chiquita!  She's a champ.