Dear Michael, A Birthday Letter

September 12th, 2009

Dear Michael:

You turned 2 years old, today. You LOVED singing “Happy Birthday” to yourself and clapped along with the rest of us. You are my bright firecracker, blessed child that enjoys singing and clapping. Ever since you could clap, you have clapped. You clap at the end of every song on the c.d. and if you ever hear anyone else in the room clapping, you clap along with them.

You are totally a truck and car guy. For your birthday, you got a big ‘ol wagon and remote controlled fire truck from Cici and you have been running around playing with these. Your favorite gift was the “lil coupe”. It’s a little red car with a yellow roof that you can either move with your feet, or sister can push. Of course, sister Megan enjoys pushing you all over the place in your new car. It has cup holders in the back of it, and today, I caught you with your little snack cup of cashews. You had them in the back of the car in the cup holder and you were grabbing a little snack “to go” as you sat in your new coupe.

You still call Mackenzie, “Megan”. You call all the dogs “peachy”. You call Max, “mahhk”. You have lots of cute phrases you use a lot. If you really want something, you always add “please” on the end....which makes me wants to give it to you. You always like to say: “come on, mom! come on, Dad!”, ALRIIIGHT! Let’s go!! Come on! What’s the matter? What’s happening? Here we go! Yay!! I’ll think of some more as soon as I finish this letter. It’s super cute.

You are a big guy. Your shoe size is almost as big as Max’s. Right now, you wear a 9.5. So far, your feet are the biggest the fastest (out of all the kids). You eat the most and eat just about anything put in front of you. You like all kinds of food, but if you get some bread....it’s hard to get you eating something else. You REALLY like bread. If you like something, you announce it. MMMmm, good!, you’ll say. And you have been the most complimentary of my cooking, thus far.

I love you. You have been a little piece of sunshine in my life. You surprised me by being a boy. You surprised me with your blonde hair. And you keep surprising me every day with your fun, challenging, exciting, personality. You were the clingiest and huggiest the longest. I was shocked when you stopped breastfeeding. You loved being close to mom and really enjoyed breastfeeding. I thought you would want to nurse forever....but all good things come to an end. And now, you are a big boy. You are two years old. And I am the most blessed mom in the whole world, for you are my son, and you give me great pleasure and joy.

love, Mommy

The IUD Test Drive, Part 2

All day after having the IUD put in, I had mild cramping and some spotting. Last night, cramping seemed more severe...I was having second thoughts. When I woke up, there was nothing today. No cramps and no spotting. I HAD heard horror stories about the IUD and when I asked Lois about it, she said the old version IUD was really bad. So, I guess the newer ones are not related to the old. So far so good.

Birth Control-My New IUD-and other Various Forms of Birth Control

There just HAS to be a blog on birth control. Otherwise, it would not be a good blog, right?In the last few months of my pregnancy, I could not stop thinking about the I.U.D. (intrauterine device), and many times, when something keeps coming to me, I check it out. It could be a God "Breeze". I was thinking we needed a form of birth control that was more permanent than what I used last time, and the IUD kept coming up in my thoughts. I researched them, I found a couple of people who have them inserted and have had great experiences, I had the baby, I called, made an appointment, I went today and I had it put in. So easy. God helps make my life so simple...I love it!

About mid-pregnancy, I started thinking about the IUD (intra-uterine device), and began researching it. There are two different ones. ParaGard has a copper wire wound around it. It lasts for twelve years. Mirena releases progestin and lasts for five years. The Mirena IUD is hormonal and the ParaGard IUD simply sits in your uterus and the copper kills sperm, so when the sperm hits the copper wire, it dies. No hormones....fairly natural. I am opposed to anything foreign in my body, but this seems more natural than my diaphragm, fingers, and spermicide every night...right? The following is my story on the insertion of the IUD:

Miley ate twice last night, so I took a chance on her not needing to eat for awhile. I drove to Lone Star ObGyn (midwives who practice in the hospital), and parked. It took me a good 15 minutes to fill out all the forms. One hour after my initial appointment time, I got to go weigh (oh, fun), and then got my blood pressure taken. I finally got my own room and waited a little longer for the midwife. (I LOVE Lois Stauffer...favorite chick on staff, there). Lois comes in, chats for a minute, shows me a photo of the uterus with the IUD inserted, talks about side effects-possible heavier cycle, and then give me a cloth wrap. It takes me all of two seconds to don the wrap, I wait 5 or 10 MORE minutes. She comes in, I get on the table, and two minutes later, she's done. Honestly, it was nothing of a procedure. I would say it felt the same as a pap. Basically, she stuck what looked like a soda straw to the back of the uterus, then took a little something else and pushed the IUD down the straw. It popped out and into my uterus in no time flat and that was that!

Lois' tips: first of all, the IUD has a string that hangs out of the cervix. This is the string they pull to get it out when you want it taken out. She said she likes to leave a little length so as not to "lose" it. She said if it's too short, it can get pushed up into the cervix and get a little lost. Apparently, your uterus is either straight, tilts forward, or tilts back. Women with extremely "tilted" uterus' (?) or extra heavy periods, are not great candidates for this birth control. Everyone else, it sounds like, can do it. The OPTIMAL time to have it inserted is around 8 weeks after the birth. She prefers for you to be breastfeeding, have just had a baby, and not to have a cycle for a month or two while your uterus gets "used" to it being in there. One can have it inserted at any time, but the easiest best way is post-partum. My insurance paid for it in full, I just had a co-pay. So, for forty bucks, I have a twelve year "pass" for free sex without babies. (should I write that out loud?)

I cannot promise you the same experience. Your doctor may be mister big hands and it hurts horribly or something, but for me, this was one of the easiest, smoothest transitions of my life. I'm not big on getting parts "tied". God forbid something would happen to me, or my husband, but we do things in life so that we may be prepared. We have our wills ready and we have our tubes free from snips.....just in case.

Lois said that a lady comes in every year for her pap and that woman has had hers in for six years without one issue. She said the lady's doctor cut the strings too short, so she does a sonogram every year to make sure it's still there.

It sounds as if once your uterus gets "used" to it being in there. There's not an issue. I went on a jog tonight and wondered if jogging might push it out. I know they can expel themselves, but don't know how common this is? If mine falls out, you will be the first to know. This is my third birth control trial. The first was the diaphragm...great place to start, by the way, and I liked that, but DH thought he could feel it. Then I went to the cervical cap. A nice neat little "hat" for your cervix made in England. LOVED this one. So easy and comfortable, I would forget about it was the only bad thing. One must use spermicide with both of these and I found that American spermicide irritated me. So, I found a yahoo group that uses caps and diaphragms and I joined the group. That group gave me a link to a natural spermicide (called FemProtect) made of vitamin C that you could order from Europe. It's $25 per tube and is fabulous. If you are frequently using your cap or diaphragm, this stuff is worth the cost. It's totally non-irritating. The email to order FemProtect is as follows: enquiries@naturalgynae.com

Simply email Elke Sedlmeier and she will hook you up. You pay with paypal. I really really like the midwives at the Baptist Hospital for this. They are very well informed on all of the birth control methods and seem to be pro's at doing what they do in this area. I hope this blog helps someone. I will blog again if I have any problems with this method or issues along the way. Birth Control is a big subject with lots of ways to go. Hormones and tube ties are just not for me....any other suggestions, shoot 'em my way.

"Back into Shape" part 2-my MIRACLE Diet

Miley on one of her first walks...

O.K. Part one was a little pep talk on not getting down on yourself or hitting it too hard too fast. This is a little pep talk on how to lose the weight and lose it fast. I gave myself lots of time on the first three kids. On the fourth baby, I thought it was our last, so I was HOT to get into shape and quick. I think I waited at least 3 months, and then I blasted into working out and actively "dieting". Surprisingly, my milk supply went UP, not down. Number four was my strongest nurser, to the point of drawing blood (did not know that was POSSIBLE, but it is), so keeping milk up was a big deal with him. It may have been 6 months before I did this (it all gets a bit hazy), but anyway, when I started the exercise and diet plan, Mark and I had a competition and whoever lost the highest percentage of weight for the week got a massage from the other person. We lost on average 1-3 lbs. a week.

the DIET: was an easy one. And diet is really 80 percent of weight loss, so you can exercise til the dogs come home, but if you don't change your diet, it may take a while. The diet that we did was recommended to us by a trainer and it worked AWESOME! We ate protein only NO CARBS (rice, brown rice, potatoes, sweets, fruit....) unless we had just worked out, and then we could have carbs for about thirty minutes after the workout. No sugar, though. Just a sandwich or rice with dinner...that kind of thing. When I would get hungry I would eat sliced turkey with a slice of cheese, boiled eggs with yummy garlic salt, sardines with mustard, (lost you there, didn't I?), scrambled eggs with hot sauce, protein shake with kefir, jay robb protein powder, stevia, raw eggs, and ice (crushed into a smoothie-NO FRUIT), cheese dipped in hot sauce without chips, hummus by the spoonful, lots of beans, meat on the grill, hamburger wrapped in lettuce....you get my drift. Once a week was cheat day. We ate anything and everything we wanted. Usually, I would bake something special on this day. This quickly turned into "cheat weekend" where we would start cheating Friday night and end Sunday night. Monday morning, we would weigh and then start all over again. Every week, we lost weight. Some weeks it was as much as three or four pounds. Some weeks, only one pound. But we lost every week and quickly got down to our goal weight.

Exercise: for everyone is going to be different. I personally don't like to spend a LONG time exercising. 20 minutes is my favorite amount of time. I would rather work out 20 minutes twice a day, then do an hour long workout. I just won't work out an hour at a time. But I really push it for the 20 or 30 minutes that I'm working out. Personally, I like to swim (lost most of the crowd on that one, too). I like to jog, too, love taking the kids along, but noticed the best weight loss results on the weeks that I swam. A nice walk with the baby while kids are napping is my way of enjoying life. I like to wear an ipod and jog a block, walk a block, until my body can jog the whole way. My VERY VERY best stomach shaper is Swiss Ball Abs, by Adam Ford. It's an ab workout on dvd, three different workouts, that gets SUPER results in the minimum amount of time. I won't work out for an hour if possible and just hate sit-ups. The ball is so much more fun.

So, that's it. That's my super diet in a box and it works really really well. I like to weigh once a week and record it...it keeps me accountable. If I can't walk or run or swim, then I do my ab video. I rarely do two things in one day unless it just works out that way. And, as I said in the first blog, the baby is 7 weeks old and I average one to two workouts a week right now. Sleep is paramount, so if I don't sleep, then exercise is not an option for the day.

One last note on milk production. I really up my protein intake and water intake when I exercise. I think that's why my milk production goes up, not down. If I have a rough day and my milk DOES go down, I take fenugreek in capsule form or as an herbal tincture under the tongue. Goat's Rue increases milk as well. Wishgardenherbs.com has a milk "enrichment" herbal mixture as well as straight Goat's Rue. These are nice to have on hand and to take occasionally.

enjoy!

Getting Back into "Shape"

This is a tiny iphone pic of Miley. Looks like we're in the car. Those iphone camera's are really impressive-eh? I got a question on getting back into shape post pregnancy, and so, this is my reply. Basically, you are surviving after a baby is born. You have good days and so-so days and not so good days. Depending on the number of child it is and how good you feel, exercise is mom's treat when she's had plenty of sleep. I usually give myself 9 months to even think about exercising. I like to do it sooner, because I like exercise. I like to sweat, I need the endorphins, but if my eyes look like a drunken sailor from lack of sleep....then exercise goes to the bottom of the list no matter how much I would like to do it. The other way to look at it is this: the faster you get into shape, the higher the potential for the next pregnancy....if you get my drift.

I've probably exercised once a week and the baby is 7 weeks old. But the last time I went for a jog, I got mastitis when I got home and it was probably related to a bunch of things, but certainly, exercising may have contributed. Miley sleeps awesome. She sleeps 6-7 hours at a time at night and only wakes up once for a feeding. BUT, I have four others waiting for me in the morning, plus a husband who's a night owl. And, I have an overly responsible personality when it comes to the family, so, I have to watch burning the candle at both ends. Miley will start sleeping through the whole night in about 5 weeks or so, and that will help tremendously....at which point I will give my new view on exercise. For now, I'm enjoying being a size 10 and wearing lots of elastic waistband clothes and giving myself pep talks. After all, you DO have the rest of your life to get in shape, the baby, however, will only be a baby for a few more days.

Mastitis, the Mom's Speeding Ticket from hell

Weelll, I got the 'ol mastitis yesterday and it is NOT FUN. Basically, mastitis is speeding ticket. You are going too fast, pushing too hard, not trusting and resting....and boom...here comes mastitis. I was taking all of my potions and lotions but continued on making dinner and taking care of kids and sure enough, here comes the fever, headache, spinning room and I had to jump in bed.

So I put on my sweats, wool socks, and turned on the heating pad and started praying for forgiveness. I know when I'm pushing it and really, you can push it physically, but if mentally you are stressing over too much, I think that's when mastitis can set in. If you nip in the bud immediately, you won't get the full blown deal, but if you stay up and stay going...very quickly the fever and the symptoms will set in that send you straight to bed.

I think the whole thing that brought it on was this curtain I'm making for the nursery. Usually, I don't decorate the nursery til after the birth. The baby sleeps in my room anyway for 3 months or so, so I will find out the sex after the birth, and then set things in motion. This time, I am completely converting the nursery from boy to girl, and I'm really into it. Usually, I just throw up a few unisex items from pottery barn and I'm happy with that. This time, I bought at least 15 yards of fabric for various items and sewing my way there. Plus, had the room painted a gorgeous blue....anyway, so I have been working for hours on this curtain-it's only one curtain for one window, but I think I picked the hardest curtain in the book and it really has stressed me out. I had to repent for how stressed out I got over the thing. Tonight, I'm going to work on it again, but setting my timer so I don't work til midnight...maybe it will get finished, but I'm ok if it doesn't. The following is what I do for mastitis:

Mastitis Recipe for Success:

IMMEDIATELY get in bed with the baby and have the baby nurse on the affected side

IMMEDIATELY start drinking tons of water and taking vitamin C, vitamin B, rutin, and zinc (if you have it)

A nice tincture is the "mastitis" tincture from wishgarden herbs (Whole Foods carries wishgarden herbs now....call first to make sure it's in stock)

HOT HOT shower and massage or HOT heating pad on that breast help break up the clogged ducts

Email me with any other tips you know of....this is all I could think of for now

Homeschool and Getting Ready-6 weeks mark

...this is a closet organizer with clothes rack in the middle from Sam's (one year ago) to the left is a shoe organizer....I put a roll of butcher paper on the clothes rack as well as a teacher's pocket organizer...to the right are art supplies
our butterfly classroom.....

This is the cute rack I found to hang the backpacks-Container Store

Miley will be six weeks old tomorrow. Hurrah! I love the six weeks point since mine truly start sleeping through the night, my hormones get more level, and I start feeling more normal at this point.

Today, it came to my mind that having another child is very much like juggling. When one learns to juggle, one ball seems easy pretty quickly, but every ball one adds, takes a little practice and adjusting to get it going smoothly.

My plan is to start homeschooling next week on Monday. I went to one day of a teacher's seminar for "Spell to Write and Read", by Wanda Sanseri. This is my favorite language arts program, and I would highly recommend it to anyone breathing who is first teaching their child to write, read, and spell, or has a child with spelling "issues". Rhonda Bedee was my teacher this year and she spoke on "collections" and we practiced "collecting" words that fit different spelling rules. Every time she talked about "collections", we waved a butterfly net around and it was actually quite fun.

After the class, I was so inspired by the "collections" idea, that I decided to make it the theme of the year for our classroom. I found butterflies at the Learning Store for $5 a pack of 36 and stuck them on the walls and ceiling and hung up some butterfly nets to further the effect. I am very blessed to have a playhouse in the backyard. It's about ten foot by ten foot and has now become the official schoolhouse for us. I love the concept because we physically walk out of the house and to the schoolhouse to "do school". It has taken me about two years to get comfortable with homeschooling and with how I was going to do it...after seeing the results from this past year, and having grown in confidence on the subjects at hand, I can say I now really enjoy it.

I will say, homeschooling for me was foreign for the first year and a half or so. It just took awhile to get used to the idea, plus my child did not like that I was her teacher, plus, I did not want to BE her teacher, plus, my husband was not totally on board, plus plus plus. I knew I wanted the reading program that I was raised on (private Christian school in the seventies), and could not find a private school locally that employed the program....well, there is ONE school that teaches the Spalding method and it's $13,000 for kindergarten, plus it is an all boys' school.

Last year, I found another school that used Spell to Write and Read, but it's a good forty minute drive from our house, plus, Mackenzie turns five after September 1st, (a strict rule this particular school keeps), plus, I was sort of ready to homeschool by this point.

And this year, I'm ready to BURST out of my cocoon and teach! I am secretly counting down the days til school and in my spare time, brushing up on the subjects at hand. Spell to Write and Read is our language arts' program (www.bhibooks.net), Tapestry of Grace (www.tapestryofgrace.com) is our history/geography program, Right Start Math (www.alabacus.com) is our math program. Art is taught by Art Starz (www.artstarz.com) at an after school program locally. Piano...Rozalia Ravitsky-she teaches out of her home, Cornerstone Church, and the local Jewish Community Center. She teaches piano by color, a unique program in which very young children can learn the piano....first by color, then by number, and finally the notes and theory. Mackenzie started this program at three years old and is quite good now. Megan, I started at four, but just now is flourishing at five....should have started her later.

I started school with piano only. This seemed to REALLY prepare both girls for reading and math. Plus, I didn't have to teach it. (can you tell how much I resisted this process?????) God has his ways.

Year two, we JUST did English and Math. Then, Natalie, my student helper offered to teach the History and Geography portion in the afternoon while the other three kids were sleeping. So, Mackenzie and Natalie are together from 1PM to 2PM working on Tapestry of Grace. This is when I get a nap or exercise and it works nicely for everyone involved. While I am on the subject of "helpers" and making this blog as long as possible, I will throw in the "helper" speech I give everyone. Helpers do not have to be at your house from 8AM to 5PM. I have found all of my current helpers by going to www.utsa.edu/careerservices If you have a college that is close to your home, and you need help for one hour a day, there is a student who wants to work one hour a day. Hire them for $6 or $8 an hour to help with baby or to help with other kids while you homeschool or to help clean dishes after dinner. This is better than a massage or even clothes. Shop at goodwill, but get a little tiny bit of help and you will feel like a new woman. People always wonder how I can do all that I do and much of what I do is fueled by God's strength and by students that help me.

I know for sure I could not homeschool effectively with all of my tiny children, if I did not have someone in the morning caring for the two toddlers and the baby while I schooled the other two older children. This has been a huge blessing and it blessed the student who WANTS experience while they are getting their teacher certification or whatever the case may be.

O.K. I think I have stuffed all of my homeschool information into this one blog. Now, it's time for some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's