Wordless Wednesday: 1st Christmas

Can't get comfy?

Need a new bed? I know we sure do, the one we have was one we got through FreeCycles when we first moved back from Nebraska and it has broken springs and, its just utterly uncomfortable. Our current bed is so uncomfortable that my hubby cannot sleep in it on nights that he works, and right now thats 6 nights a week, if he sleeps in there he can barley move when he wakes up and with his job he needs to be able to move and lift very heavy pieces of metal. Mommy Mandy and Sealy are having a giveaway for a Sealy Posturepedix Innerspring Signature 11 Series bed. How neat would this be to win? I would love to win this to help my husband out and get to spend every night with him not just one a week, it gets lonely without him.
Click here to enter.

Cloth Diaper Giveaways part 4

Ornament Exchange

I participated in an ornament exchange at Moma Lovebug's blog. It was fun to exchange ornaments with someone in a different state! We got a little guy in a Texas jacket jumping over a cactus. Hubby laughed when he saw it, it fits perfectly because he's from Texas(grew up back in forth in Houston and Austin between parents). Its now hanging on our tree! Thanks Brie!

About me

I'm Justine, a young mommy and wife to Kenneth. We live up in North Idaho, and love it here. My family moved here in 1993 from SoCal when my mom and step-dad got married(dad moved to Nebraska w/ my step-mom a year later). I've spent most of the last 16 years up here, hubby and I tried a trial move to Texas(where he is from) in 2005/2006 and we lived in Nebraska for 7months in 2007/2008 but Idaho kept calling us. We love the mountains, lakes rivers and getting all 4 seasons.

I met my husband in late 2004 at work when I was 17(him 20), we started dating a couple days after I turned 18 in March 2005. We were engaged in August 2005 and ended up pregnant with my first, my son, in October 2005. My son was born in July 2006, he had a hard first couple of years but now is a rambunctious, wild 3.5yr old. Kenneth and I were married September 1st, 2006. In May of 2008 we decided it was time to expand our family, but it wasn't as easy as we though(well we knew, even though my son was a surprise, we still had "help" getting him), my body didn't want to work and after a visit to a doctor in August 2008 I was told that we wouldn't be able to have another baby without help again, and I was given a prescription for progesterone. Lo-and-behold I found out we were pregnant on August 17th, 2008. My daughter was born via c-section in April 2009, due to being breech. She is so much different then her brother, no delays like he had, the only issues we've had with her is her poor weight gain in the beginning and slow weight gain now.

I am a Breastfeeding mommy. I breastfed my son till he was 12.5mo, at that point we'd spent 2 weeks trying to get him to keep nursing, and through the tears and fighting I finally gave in and realized he was done. I've been nursing my daughter since the day she was born and now at 8months old she is still primarily breastfed, she's refusing solids, we try every couple days but she still would rather have breast milk. I recently started cloth diapering, I wanted to with my first but we couldn't because we only had coin-op laundry at that time and its too spendy to do. I wanted to start cloth diapering my daughter from the beginning but my husband wouldn't have it, he thought it was gross, then his hours took a horrid turn this summer and we couldn't afford to buy disposables as quick as, my then, 3.5month old daughter was going through them. We started cloth diapering in August 2009 just before my daughter turned 4months old and have never looked back, we love it, hubby surprisingly came around pretty fast. Another newer thing that I started doing is baby wearing. I tried to wear my son but back in 2006 the only things I knew about were slings and front carriers. We couldn't use slings with him because he had bad Torticollis and he would scream from the neck pain, and front carriers hurt my messed up shoulder so carrying him was nixed. In the last few years I've learned about wraps, so I thought I'd give it a try with my daughter, I made my own similar to a Moby wrap and we love it and even hubby uses it.

So all in all, I'm a Breastfeeding, Cloth Diapering, semi baby wearing, semi Crunchy mommy.

P.R. Friendly!

I'd really love doing reviews(and giveaways) on items that are family friendly, for example; cloth diapers, clothing, baby carriers, toys, food and more!

For doing a Product Review & Giveaway
I only require a sample of the product to be reviewed, in order to do a proper review of said product. I will have the review and giveaway posted within 4weeks of receiving the product. This is a great way to get your products noticed by readers of Silent Storm!

To contact me please email me at

knjmcd at gmail dot com

Cloth Diaper Giveaways part 3

This week's Fluff Friday's at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer is for 1 GoodMama OS diaper (special Kelly's Closet print), 1 Kiwi Pie OS diaper, and 1 Thirsties Duo Cover (ends 12/10)


@ The Cloth Diaper blog this week

Christmas pictures....with an almost 8 month old

So I decided to try to take some Christmas pictures of Kieran today...some turned out pretty well(well I think so :-p) others not so great, she wasn't in the mood to sit still.




The fairly good ones

"I can't"

Where in the world did he learn this from. Everything I ask him to do I hear "I can't mom." Going potty, eating, sitting down, getting the remote off the floor, putting his shoes on, anything and its getting old real fast! I don't know how to get him to stop saying it, I tell him he can but he just says, "No I CAN'T!." Grrrrr

Wordless Wednesday

Sitting for 1minute at a time now!

Awesome Cloth Diaper Giveaways #2

Huge one from The Cloth Diaper Whisperer;
1-Flip Stay-Dry Day Pack
1-bumGenius one size diaper sample Pak
1-Flip Video Camcorder! (model to be posted soon)
Ends 11/26


Really cool one (I want it bad lol) from Natural Mommie Entire Custom Set {Cloth Diaper, Top and Wool Longies/Pants!} from Luvabum (ends 11/25)



Feed your stash Friday

Wordless Wednesday: 7 months ago

My little Kierbear is almost 7.5months old, it makes me sad :(

Rest in Peace little Gracie

I've been part of an online message board for over 4yrs now. When I was pregnant with Seamus I met alot of ladies on that board that were also due in July with me. One of these ladies was a gal not too far from me but up in B.C. Canada, we never got to meet but we talked often. Her little Grace Ellen Breanne was born on July 4th, 2006, just 14days before Seamus was. Gracie got H1N1. (Gracie's Page) and had been in and out of the hospital a few times. Poor Gracie was hospitalized 17days ago for the H1N1 being in her lungs. Gracie fought a couragous battle, but sadly her little body couldn't take it any more.
Rest in Peace Grace!
July 4th, 2006 ~ November 16th, 2009

Seamus update

I posted here about Kieran's Early Headstart FC noticing an issue with Seamus' eye(she was his old FC also, but he aged out at 3yrs). Well we had his eye appointment today (11/16). The verdict is...its not a lazy eye, but he does need glasses. He is very far sighted, which explains why he can see things me and hubby can't (we are very very nearsighted, me a -5.5 in R eye and -5 in L, hubby -4.75 and -4.5 respectively), but because of that he has a very hard time seeing up close, things that are easy for hubby and I to see. The eye doc was telling me thats why it seems he crosses his eyes or seems to have a lazy eye, because he is focusing too hard on the object that is close up. His left eye is worse then the right, the one we thought was lazy, so he has a stronger prescription in that eye. The eye doc has us coming back in January to test him again, she's hoping that with the glasses his eye sight will improve if not then he will need eye exercises. She didn't say what eye exercises are but I'm assuming that means patching one eye for a while then the other?
His glasses are blue and in a rectangle shape, he picked them out, it was cute, after trying on about 6 pairs we got to the ones he chose and he said "I like these." My only issue is that hes supposed to have them on all day, which isn't going to be possible, during his quiet time I will have to take them away because he will play with them and break them. I'm just not sure how to go about getting him to keep them on, he sees me with my glasses every day, but hes also wild and crazy (I still love him lol) and I'm scared he will break them and not wear them.

Totally Awesome Giveaway coming up

Jolly Mom is having a giveaway for a HP TouchSmart 600 Computer, starting on November 23rd. This computer comes with Windows 7.
Quick tid bit from Jolly Mom

Microsoft and HP collaborated to create best-in-class touch technology that melds the power of Windows 7 with HP’s revolutionary TouchSmart PCs. The HP TouchSmart 600 showcases this technology within its sleek design, HD widescreen, BluRay, adjustable webcam and more. It offers limitless potential for enhancing life at home.

This computer retails for $1,497!!!





Head over to Jolly Mom now for a chance at extra entries when the giveaway starts!

Wordless Wednesday: Sitting

Almost Wordless...She turned 7mo old on the 8th and she can now sit with something behind her its not really supporting her but she wont sit without it. She still my little pip squeek at 15lbs 14oz(2weeks ago so 16lbs now) and around 25.5" (tiny compared to her brother who at 7mo was over 18lbs and 28") Still 95% breastfed shes had solids a few times but doesn't really care to eat them yet.

Cloth Diaper Giveaways this week!

Fluff Friday #54 at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer {ends 11/13}

thinkPink is having a WildChild for Babies Giveaway of an instock item {ends 11/21}

My Life with Three Ladies and a Gentleman is having a Dagny's Promise prefold giveaway {ends 11/22}

Diapers and Dimples Birthday Bash #6 a SET of longies and a tee from Brooke van Gory {ends 11/21}

Babee Love 2 SweetDollBaby OS pocket diapers {ends 11/20}

Thirsties Fab fitted and Cover at Organic Girl {ends 11/30}

SoftBums giveaway at Big City! Baby {ends 11/29}

Kieran needs Votes!

I entered Kieran in Diaper Lab's Strut Your Fluff photo contest and Kieran was selected as a finalist. She needs your vote! She is the one in the wings :D

Click here to vote!!

Aloha Friday #2

Aloha Friday at Island Life

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

The weather here has been crazy the last few years, in 2007-2008 there was over 120" of snow in total for the winter, in 2008-2009 we had just over 160" and 37.5" of that fell within 37hours(everything shut down it was a MESS!). This year they are saying its going to be super rainy...I dont think I believe it, I know El Nino is here this year but something tells me we are in for another snow dump. We've already had snow luckily it didn't stick, but its been anywhere from 30-50 for the high and 17-40's for the lows.

How has your weather been lately?

Gettin Creative

I won a 100% wool sweater from a giveaway, so tonight(well Wed.) I decided to use my mom's semi working sewing machine that I'm borrowing(I have no clue what I did cause its not working right all the sudden) and made Kieran a pair of longies and a soaker! The longies....well lets say they will work but may not be the prettiest thing in the world, and I already knew how to do the soaker I just used the pattern I use to make fleece ones.I'm thinking I may need to sew in an extra soaker in the wet zone if its possible after I've already sewn it all together?

Halloween!

I hope you all had a good Halloween! We sure did. Seamus was a little Rock Star, and Kieran was a leopard. We couldn't find any costumes we liked for Seamus, since hes too big for most 3t stuff an ok in 4t's we were limited because the 4-5 stuff mostly had masks which he wont do, and the 3-4t he didn't like, so we made one up. Little Kieran fit just comfy in her 3-6mo outfit with a long-sleeve onesie, baby legs, socks and a cloth diaper under...shes tiny lol.

We first went to the mall with my brother and his wife and my nephew(who is 4days older then Kieran but he was due after her). Then afterwords we went home(had some really bad feminine issues that needed fixed) and took Seamus(and Kieran) around our neighborhood, then a friend of mine asked to come over to her house and take Seamus around there to get her out of the house. My friend has a 5mo old little boy and she dressed him as a monkey though everyone thought he was a bear. Seamus had a kick out of my friends 17yr old brother who dressed up to go along and took Seamus up to the doors with us. It was fun...then I fell...I'm a big klutz so it was to be expected but I normally trip, I don't normally get a huge rock under the arch of my foot and fall...now I have either a sprained or strained ankle...Anyway we stayed out way too late till around 10pm and Seamus knoked out when we got home, Kieran didn't she decided it was play time the booger.


Getting ready to go



Rocker Seamus


Ky and Kieran

Halloween Morning

Just a quick snapshot of the kiddos a few minutes ago, Seamus is in his jammies still (10am)



Little girly Kieran is 6.5mo and Seamus is 3ys.

Halloween Past

A look back at Seamus' Halloween's

2006
This was Halloween Day


This was Halloween night


2007


2008
Very blurry but its all I can find. I think the rest went to computer heaven with my old computer when it died last year :(



2009's to come, its going to be fun. Seamus' first year trick or treating if there isnt' snow, and Kieran's gonna be along for the ride :-P

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Cloth Diaper Giveaways

Here some diaper giveaways going on :D

The Young Single Moms Journey Thirsties Duo cover and Fab Fitted {10/28}

Diaper Discussions Pimp Your Stash #11, a Whammies Pail liner

Nicki's Dipers Weekly Giveaway, New bumGenius Flip Daiper, Take a look at the Flip here

Dirty Diaper Laundry Baby Beehinds Minkee Magic-All Giveaway {11/9)

Newly Wed Newly Bred and weehuggers are giving away a weehuggers AIO {11/4}

Me and My Boys and Kissaluvs are giving away a Kissaluvs Organic Diaper {10/27}

Mommy 2 Gavin and Gage GAD baby giveaway! {11/6}

EconoBusters and Sweet Little Blessings 3 Pack of bumGenius diapers! {10/28}

Mama Notes Fall Baby Contest

I entered Seamus into Mama Notes Fall baby Contest

He's #13!! If you think his cute, shy, face hiding, pumpkin hugging picture is adorable(I know I do :-P) then pretty pretty please vote for him!!
Fall Baby Contest, click here

Want to Cloth Diaper?

Are you like I was and want to cloth diaper but not sure where to start or what to get? Well stop by Diaper Shops, they have 4 stores that are wonderful. Full of information and products it will help you start your journey into cloth diapering.

Favorite Giveaways this Week!

Moma Love Bug and Boobtique are having a giveaway on Moma Love Bug's blog, 2 winners one will win a nursing cover and another reader will receive a lovie blanket

Moma Love Bugand Sleepy Wrap 1 person will win an Organic Sleepy Wrap

Moma Love Bug and Chicks n Chickens 1 person will win a copy of the Lullaby Exercises

Little E's Mama is having a giveaway for a cool Orglamix Sherbert Rainbow collection eye shadow! {Ends 11/1}(Orglamix)

$40 visa gift card from The Bragging Mommy and This Mama Rocks {ends 11/12}

Happily Domestic 2 FuzziBunz OS diapers! {ends 11/3}

Happily Domestic a SposoEasy AIO diaper {ends 11/3}

thinkPINK and East Coast cloth win a Rumparooz G2 {ends 10/31}



Awesome Giveaway at the Cloth Diaper Blog, 3, yes folks 3 Smartipants OS diapers, boy o boy would these be nice!

Aloha Friday #1

My first Aloha Friday!


All it is, is that I post a question and answer it then you answer the question and you can tell me if you have one on your blog and I'll go to it too! (Click the Image to head over to a big list of them! And to Island Life who started Aloha Friday.)

Q: Have you or any of your household members gotten sick yet this fall?

A: Yep we've had all kinds of sickies around here already. Starting in September with Seamus and we didn't even know he was sick till the rash of the Roseola popped out. A couple weeks later Kieran got Roseola too. Now just last weekend (10/17) Seamus came down with Influenza Type A, Swine Flu. We've tried to take precautions with it, keeping the kids separate(as requested by the ER doc and Pedi.) and we bought a bunch of Lysol wipes, spray and some hand sanitizer. It looks like all our precautions may not have worked, or its something else, hubby is getting sick now and I feel like I've smoked a ton of cigarettes(mind you I haven't been a smoker since 2005/2006, so uggg lets just hope its a small cold. Thankfully so far it seems Kieran is just fine, hopefully shes getting good antibodies from me.

Now its your turn :D

Piggy Paint; Fight Breast Cancer

A Latte in the Morning is having a giveaway sponsored by Piggy Paint. Its for 2 (2 winners) Fight Breast Cancer packs. You can also buy this pack that comes with two polishes for $19.99 from Piggy Paint and a portion of the procedes go to Susgan G. Komen for the Cure. So check it out and enter HERE

Wordful Wednesday: Motherhood

I love this picture. Its a rare moment for me to actually be in the shot with my kids since I'm usually the one behind the camera. We were up in Pend Orielle, Idaho and they had a giant swing. I got up on the swing with Kieran and Seamus climbed up there to sit with us and look at the trees blowing in the wind and at the lake.

Eco Week at The Mommy Homemaker

October 10th through the 25th is Eco week at The Mommy Homemaker. She is having awesome reviews and giveaways durring the event. Stop by and say "Hi," read some awesome reviews and enter some cool giveaways!
One of the awesome giveaways is for a Kolcraft Jeep Stroller!

Cloth Diaper Giveaways part 2

Some more Cloth Diaper giveaways

A Kindred Spirit's Thoughs WoollyBums OS Diaper Giveaway (ends 10/31)

The First Time Around has a few going on;
Softbums: win a microfiber SoftBums basic pack from TFTA and Softbums (ends 10/30)

Bummis Package: win 6 Bummis Organic Prefolds, 1 Superbrite cover, and 1 Whisper Wrap cover from TFTA and Cuddle Wuddle (ends 10/26)

Kushies Infant Trial Pack: from TFTA and Kushies the pack includes; 2 10-22 lb diapers, 2 washable diaper liners, 2 washclothes, and 10 biodegradable diaper liners (ends 10/19)


The Cloth Diaper Whisperer Fluff Friday #51, this week you can win a Bummis Organic Cotton Diapering Kit (ends 10/23)

Happily Domestic is haivng a Cloth Diaper week:
Itty Bitty Bunz Win a Thirsties Duo-Wrap or gift certificate of equal value (ends 10/25)

Nubunz win a Nubunz OS Diaper in your choice of color (ends 10/26)

Nifty Nappy win a Nifty Nappy OS Diaper in their choice of fabric, a Woolie Wrap and a 1/4 lb of lanolin to care for your wool! $45.00 value! (ends 10/29)

Prairie Tales win 2 pocket diapers (ends 11/1)

Knickernappies win Knicker Nappies OS Diaper (ends 11/2)

Diaper Discussions Pimp Your Stash #10, you can win TWO Tweedle Bugs OneSize Diapers (ends 10/23)

Cloth Diaper Blog Feed Your Stash Friday you can win 1Kissaluvs V2 Fitted Diaper, 1 Kissaluvs One Size Contour Diaper, and 1 Kissaluvs Marvels Diaper (ends 10/23)

Newly Wed, Newly Bred has a couple going on:
Wild Child 2 winners, the first winner will win: any item of their choice from the in stock goodies, the second will win: any in stock item of their choice up to $10 (ends 10/27)

2 Diapers read an awesome review and enter for your chance to win 2 diapes one of each from Nubunz andSweet Doll Baby (ends 10/23)

H1N1~Swine Flu has hit......home

I thought we could pass this up, I didn't think it would actually hit our house. I mean the kids stay home with me, I don't belong to any play groups(don't know of any in the area that don't cost), hubby is the only one that goes out every day and that's to work. Yes hubby can get exposed at work and that's one of the things we are thinking. Seamus woke up yesterday(Friday) morning and threw up all over my bed, then showed me that he had done the same earlier on his bed, afterwords he seemed fine through out the day just not quite as wild as normal, except for the poos(3-4 and normal is 1 for him). Then this morning we woke up and he seemed groggy still, we went and picked up my 15yr old brother to watch Seamus while hubby, Kieran and I went to a consignment sale. By this point Seamus hadn't ate yet, so I got him some yogurt and he didn't want it which was odd, but I guess he ate it after we left. We get back and bring McDonalds(As a thank you to my brother) and Seamus didn't want to eat it or drink his chocolate milk, both were very odd for him he usually loves it. He just sat there watching tv like a zombie...also not normal hes normally all over the place. I asked Scott if he was like this when we were gone and he said ya he just sat there....again not normal, Scott is Seamus' favorite person in the world and hes usually climbing all over him. I looked closer at him and he was super pale and his eyes looked sunk in, I asked Scott if he'd drank anything...nope he didn't, which means he hadn't had anything to drink since around 8pm Friday night, and this was after 12pm today. Ken gets our only thermometer which is a mouth/rectal one. He puts a cover on it to get a mouth temp, he could only keep it in for about 20 seconds and it jumped right to 101.4, its a 60sec thermometer so we knew that it was probably a little higher. I called his ped's office and got an appt for 2:15. We take my brother home and take Seamus to the ped's. WOW I've never seen that place so packed before, sick kids and teens everywhere. We get back into the room finally and his temp is 104.6! My poor baby! The doc said his lungs were clear which was good, but she did a Flu culture on him and did the rapid flu test on it....POSITIVE for Influenza Type A, which they are calling Swine Flue(H1N1). As of right now we are to give him Motrin then 3hrs later Tylenol, repeat, and pump him with fluids. Hes not wanting to drink but he will take Popsicles. We also have to watch his breathing if it gets bad go to the ER.

Now we have to watch hubby and I, I've been told that we are at the prime age that its hitting. And Kieran too, we were going to get her the flu shot but after this we decided to get it for her even though it doesn't cover the H1N1 stran.

Hopefully the rest of us don't get it and I hope Seamus can get past it without the lung infection part.

Another thing to be worried about

Seamus has had lots of issues in his short 3yrs 3mo of living. He had major developmental delays that we never found the answer too, pretty pad Torticollis, Plagiocephally and Macrocephally. He's improved and done better each month and finally is almost all caught up developmentally with his age group. But his behavior is worse then any 3yr old that I've seen, he has very odd quirks too. One of the quirks is, when we are talking to him or tell him to look at our eyes it always seems he's looking past us, we always thought it was a possible mild case of autism(with his other quirks it seems highly likely). But the other day when Kieran's Early Headstart FC was here, Seamus went up to her and crossed his eyes. She kind of freaked a little and asked how long hes been doing it, (now she was his FC from 1.5yrs till 3 when he aged out) and I told her for probably around a year and he thinks its funny. She said she didn't' think he was doing it on purpose all the time. She just go trained in doing quick eye exams so she took out her little light and check him for a couple minutes, sure enough hes not doing it on purpose all the time. His left eye would cross or not move as fast, really similar to a lazy eye. Now we've always been concerned about one of the kids getting this as hubby's dad has one, but we didn't know if it was hereditary or not. Our FC put in a referal to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist and Seamus is going on the 27th of October to get it checked. I'm thinking a patch will probably be what she does, but the other night we were at my moms and I told her about it, she was watching him and said ya she notices it too but they'd most likely do glasses. Either way glasses or a patch will be hard for him but hopefully we can get it fixed now.

Wordless Wednesday: A look back, 6months ago

Blog Award!

I got my first blog award today! It kept me smiling all day today. It was from Robin at Lolidots Blog, go have a look around her blog too, its great!



The Best Blog Award rules are:

To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who gave it to you and his/her link. Pass it on to 15 other blogs you have recently discovered and think are great! Remember to contact the blogs you choose!

1. Night Owl Notions
2. Mama Kenz Studio
3. Dotcomkari
4. Moma Lovebug
5. Seven Smith Blog
6. This Mama Rocks
7. The Cloth Diaper Report
8. Monkey Toes Reviews & Giveaways
9. Take Time to Smell the Rose
10. The 1st Time Around
11. The Mommy Homemaker
12. The Cloth Diaper Experiment
13. Minnesota Mamas Must Haves
14. Our Life Upstate
15. Two Blues and a Pink


These are all amazing blogs! Please check them all out!

Pumpkin Pickin' and where did Fall go?

This past weekend we started a family tradition. Pumpkin Picking! There's quite a few farms over in Washington so we took the drive out there to one that seemed fun. The one we went to was Siemers Farm, they have a corn maze with a castle in the middle, a little train called "Tiny Toot" and a larger train called "Big Toot", an inflatable slide, and lots of different vendors. We bought a couple tickets for Seamus to go on the slide and he loved it, though it was a work out for him having to climb up to the top. We also did a family ride on the big train that took us around the pumpkin patch, it was neat looking around that part of the farm. We bought a good sized orange pumpkin and an albino one, also we got a mini one for Seamus to color and a gord(or maybe a squash?) all for just over $5, that's a steal!

Here's some pictures from our day;


Hubby and Seamus going to the slide


Kieran and I waiting while Seamus is going on the slide


On Big Toot



Getting a Pumpkin


Little Miss Kieran after we got back to the car




And while I'm on the subject of Pumpkins which are a fall "thing". Where the heck did Fall go?! We went from 90 degrees one week the next was in the 60's then all the sudden the highs were in the low 50's and lows were anywhere from 17-30. We completely skipped over normal fall weather, the trees are in shock I think because normally by now they've started to change and loose their leaves, I'm not seeing too many right now doing either. While we are lucky that we havne't gotten the snow the midwest has, this super cold weather is sucking. And now I'm scared we will have another nasty snow fall like last year, I wont mind the snow so much as long as it doesn't all come in one day like the 37.5" in 37 hours we got last year.

Awesome Cloth Diaper Giveaways

Heres some cloth diaper giveaways that are going on right now!



Bubele Bums New AIO Diaper Giveaway! This is a big one, and very very very cute! The giveaway is for 3 Minky AIO's, 1 Wetbag, 3 Snap in liners and 3 Snappies

the {upcycled & recycled} Giveaway! this is for 8 XS bumGenius: 2.0 AIO’s, 5 Small bumGenius 2.0 AIO’s and 1 Medium GADBaby pocket snap diaper in Black with hemp insert. Used but still useable!

The Eco Friendly Family this giveaway is for 3 BumGenius One-Size pocket diapers and a quart of Allens Naturally detergent, all in a, too cute, reusable shopping bag. How awesome is that?!

Diaper Style Soft Bums Giveaway!

Big City! Baby and FuzziBunz. This Giveaway is for 3 FuzziBunz. I want to try these diapers so badly!

Monkey Toes Reviews & Giveaways Cute Pumpkin Butt Soaker from Enchanted Dandelions

Loving Touch Wet Bags For a very cute wetbag!

Babee Love for 3 Little Bear Bums diapers. I have some of these diapers already but got a size too large so Kieran can't wear them yet :( Very cute diapers!

Kindered Spirit Reviews WoollyBums OS Bamboo Fitted, they look so cute and squishie!!

Lamaze Motion Gym Giveaway

When I saw this real fast I thought, "Oh a cute play gym Kieran would like." Then I watched the video review that 3 Kids and Us did and this is an awesome gym. It moves! The arms on it move back and forth and there are 2 different songs that play. Now I'm thinking "Kieran will deffently like this" You can enter to win one HERE and while your at it check out Learning Curve

My Tiny girl

Kieran had her 6month appointment yesterday(10.9.2009) and she weighed in at a whopping 15lbs 2oz, which is great after her weight issues right after birth. Her weight puts her at the 40th percentile for her age. Shes only 25inches though, very short, her height is only in the 25th percentile. Compared to how big Seamus was at 6mo shes a tiny doll to me still! Shes so short and compacted she's got little thigh rolls but she still fits into lots of her 0-3mo jammies/sleepers. Shes so tiny and cute its hard for me to look at her and in my mind make the connection that shes 6months old, especially compared to my nephew who is only 4days older and was a "preemie". Ky (Kyrian) was due April 26th, and born April 4th, because he was a day shy of 37weeks they classify him as a preemie, but Ky is huge compared to Kieran, though born weighing less(he was 6lbs 8oz but he didn't' loose weight like she did), he's around 17lbs now and probably 27inches, hes into 3-6 and 6-9month sleepers. Its so funny how differently babies grow!

Construction Zone

I'm tearing apart my blog and designing my own. Thanks to my friend Kelly for an awesome site that will help refresh html coding in my head. It may look alittle crazy for a couple days

6 Months old! And a Milestone

Kieran is 6months old today, October 8th. I can't believe 6months ago I was going in for major surgery to have her here with us today. My little miracle. A year ago I was dealing with a Subchorionic Hematoma, and the fear that we would loose her scared me to death, then the Gestational Diabetes on top of that, then between my 34week Ultrasound and 35week one she decided to flip into the breech position and stay that way. We opted not to do a version, to many risks for us, and the fact that if it was by chance successful(after having an epidural to do it) they'd send me home only for me to come back a week later to get induced for GD. Kieran was born on April 8th, 2009 at 7:51am via c-section and she was footling breech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breech_birth), when they went to pull her out, and from somethings I've read that position is even harder to do a version with anyway. She was born at 6lbs 13oz at 38weeks 3days, and was 19.5" long (would have been around the same size as Seamus if she would have been born a week later, he was 7lbs 9oz and 21"). We got to nurse as soon as I went into recovery and she did well, nursed for 20 minutes, though with a shield, I was doomed from the get go again, another baby that could not latch on my breasts without a shield(very large, large areolas and very small inverted nipples makes it hard, even lactation said its hard with breasts like mine). The trouble started when we got home, she was screaming after nursing for 1-2hrs and I couldn't figure out why, and she was always wanting to nurse. We went to lactation on April 13th to figure it out, and I told lactation that I was crying every day because of this, and after almost 3hrs the lactation specialist said "I can see why you want to cry because I do too right now", We couldn't get her to latch right at all, we went with a smaller shield and it semi worked, but I was given a cup and a Medela Harmony pump and told to pump and cup feed her till we could get her tongue issue fixed (she withdrew her tongue too far back and wouldnt' bring it down or forward). At her 2week appt we got the bad news. She lost alot of weight, I knew it already before going in, I had gotten on the scale with her at home and weighed her and me and then just me and my mom said it was around a 4.5lb difference....at her 2week appt she was only 5lbs 9oz she'd lost at least 1.5lbs from her birth weight most likely more because the few days before her 2week appt she had started nursing well. There were 2 issues that caused her to loose weight, #1 was her latching issues, #2 she started sleeping through the night, at least 8hrs, at 5days old. We were told to start forcing her to wake (boy was that fun) and to supplement her, the pedi we saw at her 2week check wasn't our normal one and this one said right off the bat to supplement with formula. I lost it when we got home, I did not want my baby to have formula no matter what. We tried it a couple times and it never worked(I refused to let her have a bottle of it and would only cup feed it to her), in total she got maybe 1.5oz of formula before I said no, she would just spit it all out. A couple ladies on a mommy site I go to told me to supplement with my own milk and thats what I started doing and it worked so much better. By 1month old she had gotten back to her birth weight which was the goal. Between 1-2months I felt safe letting her sleep through the night again and we stopped supplementing too.
We had to take her in to the After Hours Clinic 2 weeks back for a fever, and she weighed in at a whopping 14lbs 14oz! Now this may seem small for a normal 5½month old but I felt great because she was still gaining good on 100% mommy milk (all from the boobies, she refuses a bottle). Shes alot smaller then Seamus was at this age so its kind of funny to me the difference, he was a tank at just over 18lbs at 5½months old(he was also BF, but not 100% at this age, he had solids too)

Our fun milestone is that I've been able to, after all these issues, successfully breastfeed her for 6 straight months with no solids and only that tiny 1.5oz of formula. And we are planning to keep going, Hubby and I dont think shes quite ready for solids yet and since shes gaining well on BM alone I dont thing she needs them. Wonder what our pedi will say tomorrow at her 6mo check, I think she'll be pretty supportive but we'll see.


First Day at Home


Looking through the last 6months