So we are ECing on the road this week. We are in sunny Florida visiting a good, long-time friend of mine. She is on the road to having a baby around Levi's birthday, so they will be a year apart :) I'm totally excited about this and as I hear her different aches/pains and joys/excitement, I can totally relate. She talks about being hungry and I am reminded that I had this phrase: the beast within is growling! Ben said I shouldn't call our sweet little baby a beast and I told him that he could call it whatever he wanted I just needed some food! Especially Cheez-Its. :)

So we have been playing in the sand and the ocean. I've been trying to be careful about him not getting saltwater splashed in his face so he wouldn't hate it. He seems to absolutely LOVE the sand. When I sat him down in it he looked at it for a minute and then put his hands right in it and held it up to examine it. After doing this a few times he decided it was time for a taste-test. Um, no. I took his hand away from his mouth and said no. A few minutes later he tried it again so I thought, well, maybe if he tastes it he will see how bad it tastes and then not put it in again. Wrong! He loved the way it tasted and the way it chewed. Another mom was there and told me it wouldn't hurt him as long as he only ate a little bit.

After a while he got tired so I was able to just hold him in the shade of the umbrella in a towel and he slept amazingly. It was so peaceful with the breeze and the sound of the waves and in the shade it was the perfect temperature. Best of all, Levi was fast asleep in my arms. Yes, he was covered with sand, but he was sleeping perfectly. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I wish I had a picture I could post of it but I forgot my camera. Sad day.

Well, since we got here Levi has both pooped and peed in Leah's toilet 3 times. He only pooped in his diaper once or twice I think. I was truly amazed at this. He hasn't pooped at home on a toilet in a while and here he decides that he wants to do it. I would think that being on the road would have thrown him off, but it seems he is doing just the opposite.

He has also just been a really good baby in general. He is so good-natured with other people and just loves the social interaction. He was amazing on the plane. He nursed or sucked on a bottle all the way up, slept in the air and then nursed all the way down on both our flights. He pooped in his diaper during our layover. Right before we were supposed to board actually so I just threw all politeness out the window and changed him in the corner of the terminal area. I didn't want to waste my time with going to the bathroom. Glad I didn't have to change him on the plane :) That would have been rough!

Okay, so that's my EC experience. Levi is 8 months as of a few days ago. I'm so thankful for such a sweet little baby.

New post here! You all thought I had quit hadn't you? I decided I would do this blog so that I would have some good accountability and motivation to keep going even through the rough times of EC.

I seriously did think that Levi had no idea what was going on for a while there but then Sunday proved me wrong. We were traveling in the car all day long and in the middle stopped at my brother and sister-in-law's house in Fayetteville. I was nursing him in the back room and knew I needed to change him. I thought, why not? Why not just try to potty him? All I've got to lose is a few moments of walking over there and holding him over the potty. Well, his first full solid poop was on their toilet. I told them they should be proud! Haha! I don't even know what my family really thinks! They smile and laugh so I guess it's okay. For sure it kept him from pooping in his diaper in the car when it would really stink and be so uncomfortable for him. What's more is that when we finally got home that night he pooped on the potty again! I was amazed. So my EC energy is back and I'm working hard on him.

My newest problem is his strength. He likes to stiffen up like a board and refuse to bend his knees when I am trying to put him on the potty. This morning he absolutely refused to I gave in, thinking that he didn't need to go. A few seconds after I did so a little fountain came right out on my leg! I was so mad! What a little goober... I didn't get too mad at him I just told him that was inappropriate and went ahead and made his little sound, but I think he could tell I wasn't happy about WHERE he had peed. I try to be clear in my body language toward him in these times. When talking to kids I always try to communicate like they can understand but then give them the benefit of the doubt if they didn't fully seem to grasp something. I will often talk to children like they are adults using the same vocabulary and articulation. I do talk baby talk with Levi and babies just to be sweet though. But if I am going to communicate about something I want to always be clear, I want to challenge them in their understanding.

Okay, so that's my communication philosophy :) And this concludes this post of my EC experience. Hope you all enjoyed sharing my adventures.

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!