Sleep pattern changes

Not debating,  and definitely  not pushing sleep 'training,'  but I had to share. We tried something new recently for Mycah. I love nursing and I love cosleeping (most of the time.) It's not a one sided thing either,  Michael feels better with Mycah in our bed,  happy and snuggling with us. It was important to me that he and I still had our space and he wasn't feeling negative about babies in the bed. But he has a very sweet bond with his son and loves waking up close to him. Cosleeping is just easy.

Once upon a time, two years ago I was nursing an almost two year old all night, every night. Which is how it had been since he was 5 months old. He never slept deeply,  and I never slept at all. My quality of life sucked and I was depressed and sickly. Sleep deprivation gets real with me. I 'tried' to try out this article from Dr. Jay Gordon but had zero help or cooperation from my child's father, and the mess was keeping my 4 year old awake. And so I gave up until a little while later, when it ended up being a non gentle cold turkey thing.  I promised myself I wouldn't let it get to that point with any future babies. Flash forward and here I am now with an almost 11 month old.. and adding pregnancy on top of that, I was feeling miserable again. Not to mention,  pretty much dry nursing all night hurts like hell.  So I tried this article again. I felt more prepared and confident with a small side of PTSD. It also helps that you have a great helpful and supportive partner. Which I have now. The first few nights were supposed to be the hardest. You pick a time block that you decide to not nurse. I decided to do things a little more gentle and still let him nurse,  but only for a minute each time he wakes,  and then roll him over and tell him 'all done,  nigh night.' It was rough. Mycah threw a major tantrum when I unlatched him and told him 'no more.' He thrashed around and hit us and flailed and kicked and screamed,  but I didn't give up. Michael sat on the other side of the bed the whole time and helped me calm and reassure him. After that hour tantrum, he fell asleep without milkies. That was over a week ago. We never had another bad night. Now,  he sleeps solid chunks without waking to nurse. When he does,  it's only for maybe a minute or less and then unlatches, rolls over and goes back to sleep. ON. HIS. OWN. Even nap time is better. He wakes up happy now instead of grumpy and crying. I'm sure since every baby is different for some people it could take maybe even weeks,  but I really feel like we did the right thing with letting him figure out how to self soothe with our reassurance. My sanity and overall feeling towards nursing have gotten better. Here is the article. I hope someone else has success like we did and moves on from being a Mombie.

http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

New home!

It has been awhile since I updated. We found a condo to rent while we start the home buying process. It's close to family, and we really enjoy the views of the mountain! All the boys are doing well. Mycah is happy to pull up on anything he can get his hands on, but doesn't seem interested in moving his feet to actually walk. I don't think we will have another 9 month old walker. Hayden and Nixon are eager to start home school on the 18th of August. Im trying to hold them off for a couple more weeks! Big news for us...we are having another baby! After getting over the initial shock..we are excited. So far this is a strangely easy pregnancy, which is great since I have three other kids to chase around! I'm just taking it one day at a time. I'm super thankful that so far, Mycah is still nursing well with no issues. A lot of people lose their milk supply pretty fast. We have our first midwife appointment this Saturday with a tour of the birth center. I'm hoping everything goes well so we can gbo through with our plans of a natural water birth out of hospital.

Our home made light table

Here is a more elaborate post on the light table I made the boys. I found instructions on Pinterest and modified them. This is the box we got. A Sterilite 50 Quart/47L. I filled it with three strands of clear Christmas lights I found in the party section at Walmart. We burned a hole in the side to slip the strand of lights out to plug in. Notice our pretty job of melting a hole haha! These are some ideas for things to go on top. We have Wonder Tubes, blocks, and empty chunky plastic test tubes which I filled with random things. Dry lavender flowers, glitter, water and one tiny pump of hand soap so it doesn't get yucky. One of the hem is filled with clear quartz rocks, one had oil (I used sweet almond) and 10 drops of food coloring, one has tinyour plastic colored balls that are usually used to decorate and texture your nails (dollar tree) they getc super staticky and stick to the sides  of the tube. Another has water, chunky pieces of glitter and small glow in the dark stars, and the last one has pretty see through plastic jewels, and no water.

The test tubes, clear square building blocks, Wonder Tubes and marble maze were all purchased at Lakeshore Learning. We also have clear plastic links and bracelets that we got at the Dollar Tree. I also found colored plastic dividers used for school folders and cut them into shapes.

All three boys love it, and I will admit, it's kind of relaxing sitting in the quiet, watching them play!

Being the bad guy

I have had a few older people tell me that they wouldn't ever want to raise children in this day and age. I have to agree with them to some point. It's scary. I feel like when my parents were raising us as little kids, they didn't have to question as much, or think as much as I feel like we do today. I'm not saying it was easier. No. But now..thanks to technology, there is so much information for the general public to get their hands on. Previous generations, they sent their kids to school. Sometimes just debating on public or private. Not wondering about homeschooling, charter, part time or unschooling. They went to the store, bought food, and fed their family. Most people didn't tediously read all the labels, looking for hidden additives, dyes, preservatives or processed particles. They took their kids to the doctor and listened to everything they said and didnt qurstion anythjng. They bought them toys and didn't think twice about any lead, chemicals or cancer causing agents lurking amoung the BPA ridden plastic. They got their child a drink of water from the sink and didn't think about what their city adds to the water and what the percentages were. Well I do. I know I sound crazy to some, but I'm not the only one either. There are many other parents out there just like me. I'm not saying we are better, we are informed, more curious and more selective about what we let on, in and around our children's bodies, and most of the time..our own. To me, things are a lot worse. If you do research, things will start to add up. When your parents and grandparents said "oh you ate that when you were a child, and you turned out fine." No. Cancer of all types is at an all time high. So is Autism and and other spectrum disorders. Women have horribly imbalanced hormones. So many people cannot get pregnant, have miscarriages or their babies have genetic abnormalities. Mental illness rates are insane. Diabetes is rampant. You may be fine now, but who says you wont have somethihg like that 5 or 10 years from now. Most ailments such as food allergies, asthma, arthritis, chronic ear infections and stomach issues are being cured or healed with diet changes. That tells me something about the things we are putting in our bodies. You don't have to break it down anymore for me. Call it a belief if you will, but I will do everything in my power to not let my children fall victim to disease without at least trying to keep as many toxins from their life while they are still in my care. Once they leave the nest..they make their own food decisions. I hope they bring a little bit of what they grew up with.

Tonight I felt mean when I wouldn't let the boys have red white and blue cupcakes that a neighbor brought over. 'It is a special occasion!'I thought, but I have been using that excuse way too much. I compromised and gave them an organic gluten free oatmeal cookie. I hope they understans one day that not everything is created equal. Especially food. So for now, I will just be the bad guy from time to time...

Getting ready for school!

Well, we received the news today that we didn't get the home. So the search continues. On a happier note, I have been gathering things for the boys curriculum for preschool and first grade. Nixon will be going to a montessori preschool twice a week, and Hayden will be full time homeschooled with some social activities thrown in. Here is a picture so far. We made a light table last week which I will post our tutorial for later. So here we have blocks, shapes, letter beads etc for the light table, half the books hayden needs, Theraputty, games, Alphabots, a magnetic spelling board, tweezing color sorting balls, Washi Tape, wooden pattern blocks, and some wooden tree chips for sorting and counting. I may burn letters on them with a wood burner. I also bought clear large plastic test tubes to make sensory tubes, which are pictured below. I still need to get a book of mazes, more reading books, some phonics and handwriting, another math book, and cuisenaire rods. I'm also in love with a set of nature blocks made out of trees that Lakeshore has. Ahhhhh.

Living local

This morning we ventured out to our first farmers market visit in utah. It was glorious. So many yummy food trucks and booths. Lots of local artists and vendors. I loved that the some of the people selling their produce, had signs that said you could buy their stuff at the local Harmons and Whole Foods grocery stores. How great that the state recognizes how important it is to support local small businesses! We picked up a pint of local raw honey, an heirloom tomato almost as big as Moo Pant's head, some edible flowers and salad greens, some loose leaf tea, and some spreads. Hummus and Garlic dip from some awesome guys who donated some of their proceeds to Marriage Equality campaigns. We celebrated Hayden's birthday today as well, so I allowed a very rare treat of Shaved ice with extra food die (blehh.) They ran around the playground there and we all feasted on fancy flavored lemonades and tamales. It was a pretty good time. I think we will need to make it a weekly family date!

House hunting

We are hoping to get a place we looked at last week. It's 4 bedrooms, 2000 square feet and has a little yard. Best of all...it is in a nice neighborhood with other kids. I'm sending a million positive thoughts out to the universe, that ol they will look beyond our poor credit and let us rent there! I will be updating as we continue on our journey to find the perfect place for our family!

Moo pants 7 months photos

Here are some pictures of Mycah I took today. I meant to do a six month photo shoot with him, but i couldn't find the time in the chaos of moving. I'm hoping to find a way to post videos soon! 

We had a fun filled weekend! We had ice cream at Ikea on Friday, visited the Gateway children's museum on Saturday and went out to lunch. Today we hung out at home and then had a picnic dinner at the park. 

Nana comes to visit!

Nana Ann came to visit and the boys and I  got to meet her in person for the first time. We are so excited to spend time with her! Here are a couple of pictures of the boys playing beads and reading with her!

We heart Utah

I cannot say it enough. I LOVE Utah. LOVE!! I miss all my family and friends in California and Yuma and I wish I could just scoop everyone up and bring them here. We have had so much fun already though. We have visited Liberty Park, which is a gigantic park with tons of things to do. The boys went on little paddle boats with Michael and ran around this awesome musical playground. There is a Fun zone, gardens and an aviary there that I want to visit eventually. We also visited Wheeler Farms, wandering around the grounds, visiting the animals, throwing rocks in the pond and playing on the playground. It's one of my favorite places out here so far. We have been spending most of our days playing on the trampoline until sundown (which is about 9:15 here,) collecting snails, planting a garden and exploring the area. Mycah has been going through a very fussy stage and is super clingy. I can't put him down for more than a few seconds at a time. Michael has had a ton of homework and school has been very time consuming so we haven't  had a ton of extra time to sit on our phones (which is a good thing for our family.)  I will hopefully catch up on texts and phone calls soon. We have been staying with Grandpa and Mia until we are able to find our own place. We are hoping to be out of their hair by July 1st.  It had been super nice being around family though. The boys have had so much fun playing with Gabby everyday. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks! 

Oh yeah! Mycah turned 7 months yesterday, and he started full on regular crawling while we were at a family BBQ!