I get to be her mama

Baby has her first cold and she is cuddly. I don't mind one bit aside from the not being able to put her down so I can pee part. She is napping, her small body curled against mine. Her impossibly tiny hand, one of my favorite things about her, holding on to mine. The perfect curve of her stuffy little nose, her small lips parted showing off those precious toothless gums that I love. Her lashes, longer and lighter in color now, her soft, downy hair. The little eyebrows that give away every expression on her face. She is perfect. She is not the baby she was a mere months ago,...oh they said the newborn stage is fleeting, but I swear I just blinked. I am sad she is growing so fast, but I also eagerly look forward to the day that those little lips will form the word mama, the day when her downy hair turns into pigtails or when she asks me to braid her hair. She won't be little forever, but she will always be my baby. Thank you, God. Thank You for choosing me to be her mama. I am so blessed.

Oh, poo!

If I were to write a Dr. Seuss book, it would go something like this:

Looky here, looky there,
Baby poop is everywhere.

On baby's back, and up her neck
How can so much poopy spread?

On mommy's pants, on mommy's shirt,
If you don't pay attention you'll get a squirt.

She poops so much she never tires,
A new outfit it requires.

Looky here, looky there,
Baby poop is everywhere.



P.S. that just happened.
P.P.S. I'm not exaggerating.
P.P.P.S. how can one baby human poop so much?

Halfway there

To my three loyal readers (hi mom!), don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you!! Life's just been busy, that's all.
We're halfway done with our paleo-ish diet!! I can't believe we've stuck with it for two weeks already!! It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be until a couple of days ago, right before the half-way mark. But, only two more weeks to go! I  can do this. The hardest thing in the beginning was figuring out what to eat. Now I don't even meal plan anymore. I stick some sort of vegetable with a meat, and we have a meal. Not much to it when you can't use half the ingredients in the pantry. I haven't missed bread or rice or potatoes as much as I thought I would, which is interesting considering I lived off that stuff.
The most surprising aspect of this has been the hunger. That was one of my main concerns in the beginning because I've always associated it as diet = hunger.
But I can eat one small meal a day along with breakfast and a snack and be totally fine! Full, even.
There have been some recipes I've tried that have worked, others were mediocre, and one was so terrible that I could barely get through it. (paleo-leans or whatever you call yourselves, you've royally screwed up "meatza")
I have lost some weight, although for me this journey has been more about cutting out processed foods than weight loss, and Husband wants to wait the full month before weighing himself.
All in all, what I learned is that it's super easy to "cut the crap" so to say, and I will continue to cook like this even after our diet is over.
Will I ever eat a grain again?
Please, if you know me at all, you know I can't stay away from a warm baked potato topped with melty butter and sour cream.
But I saw a quote the other day that struck me:

 

"It's not what you do some of the time, it's what you do most of the time."

If I apply that to food, I'll have a good base for healthy eating without having to torture myself watching other people eat cake.

Caution, bottle may explode

In my quest to be greener, I came across the many benefits and uses of coconut oil (in food and cosmetics). The information is available for you on many sites and blogs, but I won't list anything I personally haven't tried myself.
One of the uses is shaving cream, so I decided to try it out.
However, first I took a look at my store-bought shaving cream and the bottle said:

"Pure and Natural"

 

"Dye and Fragrance Free"

 

"Moisturizing Eucalyptus Oil"

That doesn't sound so bad, right?

 "Caution, bottle may explode"

Wait, what?

 I decided to investigate the ingredients list a little further which you'll find at the end of this post.

Now on to the good stuff. I took some coconut oil into the shower, mixed it with water and slathered it on my legs. And then... ouch! This was like dry shaving. I sucked it up and shaved the rest of my leg, and by the time I started on my other leg, it went much smoother.
That is because coconut oil turns into a liquid at warm temperatures, so I just had to let it sit a little longer.
My legs were silky smooth when I got out and didn't have an "oily" feeling. Normally, they are so dry and itchy, but now they are baby skin smooth!  Coconut oil is also a moisturizer).
The only negative is that it really plugged up my razor and will probably make it dull quicker. But, that's a small price to pay in exchange for getting all of those toxins off my body (and the ridiculous cost of shaving cream).
I'm a coconut oil novice, but I can't wait to see what else it can do for me.


Here is the ingredient list along with what I found the effects on your body are (for the particular brand I have at home). Feel free to use the info, but please link back to me if you do.


Palmitic acid - alters central nervous system, disrupts the hormone insulin.

Triethanolamine - slight irritant, was shown to increase liver cancer in mice

Stearic acid - a fatty acid with many uses. Long exposure to large amounts increases risk of cancer.

Isopentane - Highly flammablae and volatile. Passes through skin. Can cause headache, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, irritate throat and lungs, drying and cracking of skin, may affect liver, heart, central nervous system.

PTFE - also used in non-stick cookware. Linked with cancer and thyroid disease.

PEG-90M and PEG-23M - little info available. Moderate organ system toxicity.

hydroxyethylcellulose - mild skin reaction.

Sorbitol - Ingesting causes multiple problems, couldn't find info for topical effects.

Isobutane - "generally recognized as safe"

Lavandula and Eucalyptus oil - lavender and eucalyptus oil .. I'm guessing not in their natural form.


And I've been putting this on my skin. Scary.

Why Nursing School prepared me for Motherhood

Nurses. You can't teach empathy or care or smart, so we all know that nurses go to nursing school to learn how to hold their bladder during a 12 hour shift.
During clinicals, we were all scared of the instructor and eager to please that we wouldn't dare ask to use the bathroom until lunch. Then there's our first job, a fresh, new nurse who doesn't want to miss anything, and follows her trainer eagerly all day long. We only pee when our trainer pees, and she's a seasoned nurse so she doesn't. After all that...bladder of steel, my friends.
But, never did I think that nursing school would prepare me for motherhood.

Here is my day today:

(6a.m. Baby gets up, husband up with baby..I'm slightly awake and aware I have to pee, but don't dare get up from my peaceful hour of sleep I'm about to get)

7 a.m. - feels like 6:05. Husband brings screaming, starving child in. Attach, doze off.

8 a.m. - husband leaves for work. Get up, brush teeth, make coffee, PEE.

9 a.m. - feeling like I need to pee but baby is hungry so I will feed her first. Feed baby. Baby falls asleep.

10:30 - Baby wakes up. Change diaper, make mental note to go pee. Set baby down. Baby ignores 38493 toys on floor and goes for (insert unsafe item here). Wrangle baby.

11:00 - Baby is being cute, giggling, squealing. We play.

12 p.m. - Put baby in bouncer so I can pee. Remember that I forgot to eat. Make food.

12:15 - Take one bite. Baby is crying, feed baby.

12:45 - Set fussy baby down. Inhale cold food in Olympic record time. Pick fussy baby up. Make mental note to go pee once sheis calmed down.

1:15 - Baby falls asleep.

2:30 - Aww, she must have been really tired, she'll get up soon so I can pee.

3:41 - Holy shit, how is this kid still sleeping?

3:43 - Occupy self with blogging so I don't have to think about peeing. Look forward to baby waking up and my bladder throwing a party. Remember that I will have to feed and change her first when she wakes up. Throw away all dreams of ever peeing again.

Thank you nursing school.

Resolutions

Well it's a new year, and as always I make a resolution to eat healthier and exercise. As always, this falls to the wayside by January 2nd. Exercising has never been my thing, no matter what I try. Doing videos at home alone is a bore, and gym memberships are too expensive. Even when I lived in an apartment and we had a free gym available to us 20 feet from our complex, I'd always make excuses as to why I couldn't make it down there... "it's too cold to walk there, it's dumb to drive around the corner, it's too hot to walk there, my show is on,...etc..."
As you know, my eating habits haven't been the best, and my goal was to incorporate one healthy meal a week to start out. But since it's the new year I figured what the heck, we'll (by we I mean I'm dragging my husband into this kicking and screaming) just do a 30 healthy eating challenge. I keep hearing all of these great things about the Paleo diet so we're going to try that out. ..kind of ... we're doing the 30 day Paleo-ish diet. I'll cut out all grains  (rice, bread, taco shells, etc....pretty much my entire pantry), as well as potatoes. OH, potatoes!! If nutritionally possible, I would live off of potatoes alone. I don't know how my poor potato eating soul is going to survive this, but that's the point of a challenge, right?
The reason I added the "ish" at the end is because we are not cutting out dairy, and we will be limiting sugar rather than eliminating it.
I just finished our meal planning for the month, and am excited to embark on this challenge starting Sunday. Wish me luck!! I'll blog about our progress.
Did you make any New Year's resolutions?