I remember watching my mom rinse out my little sister's cloth diaper in the toilet and thinking that she was crazy. Now I'm crazy and rinsing poopy diapers in toilets...

Levi is scooting across the room now. It's not crawling because he hasn't gotten his little belly up off the ground yet, but he's for sure doing a modified army crawl to get from point A to point B, he's obviously not concerned with form. :)

Levi LOVES his bouncy chair. It has changed my life as well. Today I was making dinner and thought, "what am I going to do with him?" And the Johnny jumper was perfect! It's great exercise for him and it's so entertaining for him AND me! He is great entertainment between his scooting and jumping, I could watch him and play with him all day.

Okay, so this is an EC blog right? That means I have to put something on here about potties and such.
Yesterday I caught another poop... sort of. He was on the floor and I was watching him and I just knew he was pooping. So I made his little cue and he just looked at me. I thought, "well, maybe I can get his diaper off and get him on his potty." So I took it off and he had gone just a little bit. He was kind of upset about pooping, (which makes me think he's a bit constipated) but he went the rest of the way on the potty. For some reason I find solid poops grosser than newborn breastfed poops, I don't know. So later that day I fed him to peach juice and he pooped again that day. I don't know what his deal is.

I'm feeding him more solids but trying to keep my milk supply up by nursing him often and pumping when I skip a feeding, I'm hoping to be able to keep it up for a year... only five more months until then. :)

I keep meaning to blog and thinking about it and then I get distracted or my computer refuses to work, or Levi cries or... So I'm gonna just do it.

I have to be honest once again, Levi has not been pooping on the potty the way I would like him to, but then again, he hasn't been pooping with any regularity at all what so ever. My sister in law said she started giving her daughter 4 oz of watered down apple juice ever afternoon and she has been pooping with rockstar regularity. :) I made up the rockstar part, she didn't actually say that, but she hasn't had any problems with constipation. So I have been giving Levi some diluted apple juice (half water) when I remember to. The only problem is that I get busy or forget, or get impatient, or he has just nursed so he has no interest in it. But the other day we were going to a baseball game and we needed to leave as soon as he woke up from his nap, so I threw some apple juice and water in a bottle (probably more like 6 or 7 oz... whoops) and sat in the back and gave it to him. He drank it all up in the 20 mins it took. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot I had this feeling that he was just going to unload in his diaper, and of course, he gets this looks and just goes! Luckily I was able to make his little noise. Then I had to change him on the backseat of the Camry, which is slightly tilted so he kept sliding to the side and his head was rubbing funny on the carseat... Anyways, that was the last time he pooped. It's always runny poop too, so I don't think it's constipation. I don't know what it is. It's for sure stinkier and bigger than it was when he was exclusively breast fed.

The other bad thing about this pooping less often thing is that I have a tendency to change him less. When I know he's not sitting in a poopy diaper I tend to think, "oh well, his diaper is almost always wet anyways, he'll be fine." And then I end up forgetting and then he ends up with eczema. Not cool.

Oh yeah, here's something I have decided, for all you new moms out there... Pampers makes the best wipes. Don't get Huggies, don't get the cheapo store brand, they are for sure not worth it. You will use fewer Pampers, even though they are like 4 cents a wipe as opposed to 3.5 cents for a Huggies, they are just better. So, there you go, sometimes I have to learn the hard way just to pay more for something that you will actually use as opposed to something that is cheapo and you don't want to use.

I'm wanting to start making my own laundry detergent. And I want to get back into making my own wipes... only I want to do it right this time.

I hope you all have a wonderful time with your kids in these coming summer days. Stay cool!

I have found that as soon as I think that I'm really good at something, as soon as I'm on top of my game, as soon as I think I have something "in the bag" that God decides He needs to humble me. Conversely, I am beginning to think that as soon as I am about to give up hope, success happens upon me. This has especially been my experience with EC. I will explain after I give you a list of what has been going on lately.

-Went to the Dr and she prescribed some amazing steroid cream for Levi's ongoing stubborn rash. It was completely cleared up by the next day. Why did I not do this sooner??

-Caught two pees in the past two days.

-Went to a baby shower, gave her a toilet. Of course I did. She registered for it though, so you can't really blame me :)

-Picked up my Diaper Free Baby book to read again. We have been getting off track and it's time to get back on.

-Worked in the church nursery yesterday, but it was with the crawlers so Levi was next door. I knew he was in good hands, so I was okay with that. I'm excited for when he will start to crawl.

Okay, so here is my story of my blessing... haha! Just as a warning, if you don't like poop stories I would encourage you to stop reading now. However, just by the fact that you are reading this blog, that probably isn't the case :) I know, what an intro right?
Well, Levi has been pooping two to three times a week since Memorial day. He pooped last Sunday, then Wednesday and then pooped again yesterday. I have been introducing solids, but not super-regularly, maybe every other day, maybe twice a day. It's kind of erratic. I pump when I feed him solids so my supply doesn't go down. I just have one kid, I have time for this type of thing. Anyways, he had peas and cheerios on Saturday morning. Cheerios are amazing because he just sits there in his chair and tries to pick them up and when he gets frustrated I just put one in his mouth and he gums it and swallows. This keeps him occupied while I do things like make Ben's lunch or clean the kitchen, and sort of even feeds him at the same time! Amazing!
Sorry, I will get to the story.
This morning I wanted to give him more diaper free time. So I nursed him without his diaper on, just held a prefold under him, then tried to potty him and he didn't do anything. So I brought him out to the living room while Ben and I read our Bibles. He was on his belly, still without a diaper. We happened to be looking at him and all of the sudden Ben was like, "Jody, he's pooping." And then I saw it. Luckily, it was solid and just starting to poke out. (TMI, I know) I wasn't sure what to do since I didn't have a prefold there or anything, I just stuck his cloth diaper under him and ran for his toilet back in his room. I was worried that if I picked him up during it he would freak out. He did cry and seem upset as I put him on his toilet but we sang a song and cued him and let him chew on his toy and he pushed the rest of it out! Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm talking about this... But I was so excited!! It was my first solid poop I had ever caught, sort of caught... I mean, at least it didn't get on the carpet.

Yeah, so that was my little "blessing" today :) haha! I'm hoping this will continue. Just trying to stay humble.

stay at home mommy-ing

Okay, so here's my confession: Levi hasn't pooped in his potty since I don't know when. Maybe since Memorial Day. He hasn't pooped much in general, but each time it was a total surprise and I didn't have time to put him on his potty or he had just woken up from a nap and didn't tell me, etc. He hasn't had many pees either. That I can remember, I think I've caught maybe one or two in the past two days.
I was thinking about this as I was changing him today, thinking, well, I'm gonna have to tell everyone that I haven't been doing very well. But the real truth is that he has been sick, which always throws everything off, and he still has eczema on pretty bad. It's red and bumpy from about his belly button all the way down to his hips. He tries to scratch it and tends to be pretty fussy when it flairs up. Since his blood test showed up negative for allergies I didn't know what to do. So today I thought, "Why have I not been detective and determined about this thing to figure out why he still has this rash?" I guess I just thought it would eventually go away. He's not allergic to anything, therefore, he'll be fine. Levi is not fine. He doesn't look fine, life is no fun right now because of this stupid, itchy rash. So I called the Dr.'s office and talked to a nurse and I described the situation and she said we just needed to come in. So we are going to the Dr. tomorrow morning. I'm praying we get things figured out.

On another note, just a note about motherhood and this new place in life that I have found myself in. How often I compare myself to others. How often I question my abilities, I question my mothering especially... so many times I feel like I am just frittering my day away, it's just minutes ticking by and I don't like the silence so I listen to podcasts or watch a few webisodes (I love watching the Duggars, so inspirational for being a good mommy) ... but then I come to the end of the day and realize I haven't had any real conversations with anyone. I realize I have been listening to people talk all day. I have been checking my face book or my blog or my email to see if I can have contact with the outside world. Maybe someone would text me or call me. Sometimes I feel like I'm desperate for human contact and then other times I want to avoid it because I am tired and don't want to have to actually formulate words and conversation. I know that sounds weird.

I'm beginning to think that isolation is a definite struggle for the stay at home mom. How do we keep ourselves from being isolated? Especially when our little one takes two to three naps a day and we want them to be good, solid naps so they won't be fussy and cranky? I want to have meaningful relationships, but sometimes I feel like I'm trying too hard or I want it too badly.

I wish I lived in community better.

I always get motivated to post when I read other people's blogs. I love reading about their real lives and the encouragement of what they are doing.

I think in my life I have often struggled with thinking negatively. No, I'm not talking about the "positive thinking" about yourself that Oprah talks about. I think it's more of a selfish negativity. Things don't work out the way I want them to work out, they didn't go my way, Levi didn't take a nap when it was convenient for me, I am tired of fixing dinner and doing the laundry... This kind of negative thinking has a tendency to permeate my being and turn me sour. I think this kind of thinking is also culturally acceptable. "Think positively about yourself, love yourself, blah blah blah..." When really we should be loving others and serving others, this is what we are called to do.

I'm learning to serve my son. Learning to serve my husband, and honestly, it's the most fulfilling thing I have ever done.

EC has been put on the back burner with Levi's cold. Also, he has gone from pooping 5 times a day to once every other day. Right now I'm just waiting for him to have a blow-out and it to get everywhere. That's what happened on Sunday at least, and now it's Tuesday and he still hasn't pooped. I know y'all really wanted to know that.
Also, his allergy-induced rash hasn't gone away. The Dr said he wasn't allergic to anything, then what is he reacting to?? I've been putting him in different diapers, we have different wipes, what is the deal?!

Happy Tuesday to all of you!

Thoughts about babies ... especially my sweet baby

I am so blessed to have the sweet little boy that I have. I thought that when he was first born that he would be this high-strung child and I would have a long trek ahead of me. I was so prepared for dealing with lots of crying and difficult times, but I was soon mistaken. It's as though he's gotten better each month. He's more relaxed, better able to play by himself (I am a HUGE believer in teaching your child to play by themselves quietly.) He's better at signaling when he wants to eat and sometimes I can figure out when he wants to poop or pee, though this is a bit more difficult. I'm sure we will continue to learn on that one.

Sometimes I wonder if it was because I had to have a breech c-section (yes, I'm gonna go for a VBAC) and getting pulled out of the womb by his thighs made him more high-strung. Maybe it was the fact that he was born in the winter and Ben and I don't like spending a lot of money on heat, maybe it was our latch issues or the fact that he was two weeks early... I don't know. Whatever it is, I have found that he is so focused and is easy-going and not high-strung at all. I am so thankful for this wonderful little boy.

I have been reading and hearing a lot lately that Doctors do not recommend exposing your child to a television screen for the first two years of their life. Apparently it causes the fast brain to work and can actually hurt them developmentally as far as their attention skills verbal skills. I was listening to this NPR show that was talking about how Baby Einstein is a hoax and they were talking about it. I'm thankful that we don't have a TV and so we don't have to worry about it, but sometimes I have to watch when we go to someone else's house and we want to watch a movie or something like that. I can just feel like it would be so HARD not to allow that for your child. I have to watch that if I'm going to watch a show off the internet on my computer that it's during Levi's nap time or that he is in a position where he won't see the screen. Whew, this makes me so tired to think about.

What do y'all think? Has anyone else heard this or have any thoughts about it?

Thank y'all for reading!

Update

Well, I'm sitting on the floor with my precious Levi and I just thought I would update to let everyone know how things are going with us. I keep thinking of things throughout the day to write about, but it seems like I can never quite get to my computer or navigate to this page. ... That's my problem, it's nothing wrong with my computer or internet just so y'all know.

I've been keeping up with EC'ing and other mommy things with a few of my dear friends through facebook messaging and it has been so wonderful. I just want to encourage any of y'all who are not connected with other mommies, get connected. Do it. If you have to join a mops group or go to a La Lech League meeting or join a cheesy mom group at church, it will benefit so much. I often feel chained to my house with as much as Levi naps and how I don't want him to get overtired and not get a good nap, so this makes my phone AMAZING. This makes the internet amazing as well, as long as I use it for the right reasons, to stay connected with others and encourage others. I find myself often using the internet to just piddle around and get depressed about my life. I want to be intentional about this tool, and not just use it half-thinking, half not. I don't know if that makes sense.

Okay, so I'm sure y'all on are on the edge of your seats with my latest poop story. First, the follow-up from the doctor: Levi is allergic to NOTHING. According to the blood tests he's not even allergic to cats and dogs, not milk, not peanuts, not chocolate, ... I'm thinking it might be his Pampers since he had it really badly when we took him to church and again when we took him to the doctor. So, no more Pampers. The Luv's haven't had a negative effect on him and he wore them all weekend, so I think that's what we will go with from now on.

I gave Levi pureed peas yesterday. This morning I found it in his diaper looking just like it did when it came in. ... There you go. I'm not sure how this solid poop thing is going to work with EC'ing. I hope I can have some sort of premonition of when he's about to go.

One good thing that happened this week: on Monday we were returning home from St Louis and it was about 7 hours in the car. Levi was so good during the whole thing and only had a few crying spells. He hardly pooped all day and I offered him a toilet once at Wendy's. As soon as we got him home I took his diaper off and put him on the potty. He pooped so much! It was amazing. I'm guessing he didn't want to sit in it :)

Okay, so there's my update!