Where Have I Been?

We need a nap

I am incredibly bad at self care.  I manage to feed and water myself.  I remember to go to the bathroom and usually leave the house in shoes and not slippers. But things like taking a little time for myself... I'm just bad at it.  I have wanted to take a bath for weeks, but all I can manage is a mostly regular shower.  I have had a myriad of posts on my mind and haven't written a one.  I desperately want a foot message and yet somehow I forget to ask for one.  I am just bad at doing things for myself.

Jellybean's new 'cosleeper'

I am also incredibly sleep deprived.  My little adventurer has decided that I am her pacifier and that she needs her passi in her mouth. All. Night. Long.  So I nurse her all night long.  This is a new thing that started shortly after she started crawling.  Hopefully self soothing will come soon and she can happily go back to sleeping in her cosleeper (which is actually now her full sized crib next to the bed with the side rail dropped).  She is getting so big.

In other news I have an Instagram account and can be found there regularly: Growing_Mama

Sleepy Six Months

I look at Jellybean and am amazed that in six short months she has become such a little person. She is fully awake to the world around her; she laughs, she reaches and grabs, moving around she enjoys and explores her surroundings.

But when she is a sleep and her face becomes soft and quiet, I put her cheek up to mine and smell her sweet milky breath, and for a moment she is that newborn baby.

Who in the dark of the hospital room at
midnight I clung to as if she was a little dolly.  Scared and excited, healing from the wounds of her birth. It's the peaceful little face that I stared at as the sun came up the next morning.

Jellybean, ready to join the world, was that tiny little newborn for only a handful of hours.  But when she sleeps I am reminded of that long, precious, quite first night.

Double Cross Carry Tutorial

This was supposed to happen last week as part of International Babywearing Week, for Teach Me Tuesday.  But I couldn't get a hand for the video until tonight.  So I present to you my first attempt at a video and using YouTube.

This is my favorite Carry right now.  I keeps baby secure and close, allows her to look around, nurse or sleep.  And it put the least amount of stress on my lower half while I was still sore and healing from a cesarean birth.  I do a variant on the Double Cross Carry.

Well I had a number of babywearing posts lined up for this week.  But a you can see they didn't happen.  Sometimes you just have to roll with it, and this week we rolled with a bad head cold for me and a runny nose and diaper rash for Jellybean.  There was a lot of cuddling in bed.  Then Turi brought home soup and changed diapers and entertained the baby while I got a nap.

But really how could you be sick and miserable for too long with that happy face looking back at you?


I'm thinking of making it Babywearing Month around here.

MommyCon and a Giveaway

Well everything is running a little bit behind this week because I spent Monday recovering from Sunday.  But it was more than worth it.

MommyCon was AMAZING. It was wonderful to be in the same place as all of those other wonderful breastfeeding, babywearing, crunchy mamas. And we helped set a new babywearing world record. I was inspired by many of the people who I spoke too and at one point was even in tears listening to Jessica Martin-Webber from theleakyboob.com (but that's another post).

Besides the great speakers, wonderful other attendees, and the generous gift bags and giveaways; the team behind MommyCon really went that extra mile.  They had water in every lector space and the vender room, they had a nursing and a napping lounge, places to change diapers, a training potty in every bathroom, and even a place to charge my phone.  The staff was wonderful too.  My only suggestion would be to offer a snack concession or put a granola bar in the gift bags.  I didn't have an issue because I packed a lunch but I heard a few people having trouble trying to figure out where to go to eat or not wanting to walk the long way to the nearest restaurant.

I will defiantly be going back to MommyCon.  And hopefully with a VIP ticket, a friend and an extra bag for all the stuff.

So the giveaway: I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a second gift bag at MommyCon, and I'm going to share it with you.  To enter you need to leave a comment with what you would like to read about on my blog and share my blog on either Facebook or Twitter (leave your handle or a link to it in the comments).  One entry per person please.

 Entry will close on Tuesday October 14, 2014 at 11:59pm and I will draw the winner Wednesday.

Hello from MommyCon

Just saying "hi" from MommyCon (well the original post the mobil blogger ate did).  We are socializing, learning and baby wearing today.  Happy first day of International Babywearing Week.  Much more to come later.

Taking It Easy

In the US you basically get six weeks of Maternity leave for a normal birth and eight weeks for a Cesarean birth.   And the world expects you to be bouncing around, back to work and exactly the way you were before becoming pregnant on that very day.

 It's wholly unrealistic.

 It's okay to need more time.  It's okay to need help, or for the transition back to work to take longer.  Even if you don't work out side the home it's okay for you to need more time before you can run up and down stairs with a full laundry basket.

I right this for myself as much as I do anyone reading it.  Everyone is different, every labor and delivery is different, and every body heals differently.

Be kind to yourself.

Simple Beginings

At many times my life could have gone many different ways, and most of those times it was my own choice that shaped things. But in my early years my parents made a series of choices, and though I can't say whether one was better than the other, I do know that my life could have been very different.

I was born my parents lived in a small pre-war house settled on a long narrow strip of land. It had a lawn to play on, flower beds to hide in, berry patches, vegetable beds and a few fruit trees. My mother made most of my baby clothes, including bibs and bedding, and cooked most of our meals from scratch. She worked part-time and I was cared for by my grandparents or in someone's home with a hand full of other young children. It was the start of the 80's and my parents had a budget to live by and a whole lot of energy for a good life.

I remember playing outside, or in the lower cupboard where the pots and pans were stored, and going to the library. We didn't watch a lot of television and what I do remember watching was on PBS. And my baby sister was my favorite playmate. We never wanted for things, and most of the things we owned were of quality, not quantity. Bedroom furniture was bought from a good store, in a classic style and piece by piece. We still have the high chair, cradle, head boards, dressers and desk that my sister and I shared. What was gifts and what was saved for, I don't know, but it was all saved.

This life, though seen through nostalgic, blurred eyes, is the kind of life that I aim for, for today. Though I loved the later years of living on a child filled cul-du-sac, in a new house, with cable and pretty much anything I wanted. Part of me wonders how my life right now would be different if working at the simpler things had ingrained on me as habit and not just memories.

Our Little Cabbage Patch

There are amazing things happening in my life and I have a ton to say and share.

Me: I am a failed blogger, used to be poet, and new mother.  I am trying to have a simple conscious being, filled with life.  I love loud music, cool weather and skirts.  And of course, I love my family.

Turi: My loving, tolerant, big bear of a husband.  He's the muscle, builder, and repurposer of our team.  He is also my reality check and constant encourager.  His nickname mean 'bear' in Gaelic.


Jellybean: Our sweet little baby girl, she is an even tempered sweet baby.  Who at four months was a nine month cloths wearing, rolling around, sitting up two baby teeth bearing amazement.  She is named for the sugary treat associated with the day she was due.

Fozzy Bear: Our fuzzy little mascot.  He thinks he's a biped and the center of the family. I adopted him before all of this started, he earned his name the moment I met him, with the best Fozzie the Bear impression I ever saw.

This blog is a little bit of everything; recipes, mama musings, reviews, information and advice. I am not perfect and I'm learning as I go, but I want to share what I've learned with all of you.

Please join me as I grow as a Mama and hopefully manage to grow something in my garden too.